This is the Truth Network. The heart of every man craves a great adventure, but life doesn't usually feel that way. Jesus speaks of narrow gates and wide roads, but the masculine journey is filled with many twists and turns.
So, how do we keep from losing heart while trying to find the good way when life feels more like a losing battle than something worth dying for? Grab your gear and come on a quest with your band of brothers who will serve as the guides in what we call the masculine journey. The masculine journey starts here now. Welcome to Masco and Journey. We are glad that you're with us this week.
Welcome to December. Wow, that just came up quickly. I mean, I know there's so many weeks in a year, 52 typically, right? Every year. And so, you know, all of a sudden, December's here, but I think it's because Thanksgiving was so late this year.
You know, I know it's always the fourth Thursday. I know how that works too, but sometimes it's late in the month by fourth Thursday. By the time you get to that. Yeah, you guys are a tough crowd, man. I'm just looking at it.
You guys are shaking your head. That doesn't work on radio. I thought you'd know that by now. That was for you. Oh, well, that's fine.
I'll just keep making up stuff as I'm going. No, thank you for listening. We are in December, and we are going to take a break for a few weeks from our Foundation series. Uh we're going to be doing some topics at somewhat or around Christmas. Uh they may have something to do with Christmas, a couple of our clips.
Uh one of our clips is or a couple of our clips are from Christmas shows tonight, and our our bump is a Christmas song. But uh the topic is not necessarily About Christmas as you traditionally think it is. And so we have our friend Danny. And if you guys have been following the show, Danny hasn't been able to be with us in person for a while because he's been recovering from a pretty extensive surgery that he's talked about on the air. He's going through some recovery from a cancer surgery that he had.
And so he had to go back to the hospital last week, and then he was so excited when he was on his way home, he said, I'm coming home. And that really made me start thinking about how excited are we when we come home to Jesus. Because we're all prodigal sons and daughters, if you're not a male, right? But we're all prodigal children of the King. And we go away from Him at times in our life.
Right, and so what's it mean to live at home with Jesus now? And what's it mean to be at home with him eventually in eternity? Right, and that's kind of what I threw out to the group and just let them ponder on it this week. And before we get going, you guys are all shaking your head. Are there any thoughts that you have or anything you'd like to say?
Yeah. To me, coming home. is Somebody's there, somebody's waiting on you.
Somebody's called you, and they're waiting on you to come home. Going home. is somewhere I want to be.
So I'm I'm wanting to go there versus Where somebody's calling me, so I'm coming there.
So, what if you want to go someplace where they're calling you? You're coming and going. Yes. And he doesn't know which it is, whether he's coming or going. I am arriving.
Yeah, you're arriving. That would be arriving over. You're arriving. Yeah, no. I think that there's a difference there, but I'm going to.
Play a clip, but no, I'm not before we get to the clip. I want to ask you guys: what's it mean for you to be at home? with Jesus right now in your ev everyday life. In general, I would say that it is when I am at my best. Mindfulness, the most present.
The most calm. Um the most Unconcerned. And I don't mean that in a non-considerate way, but You know, life can, life is full of concerns. I mean, that's the parable of the sower. You know, that's one of the things that Satan uses to.
take you out. It's not that life is without concerns.
However, when I am at home, with Jesus and I'm Letting Myself experience him being at home in me, because I think that kind of goes hand in hand. Mm. Jesus is the way back to the Father. And There is an idea that the father is at home with you. And so To be at home with Jesus to me is to just be.
Well, Robby's in Israel this week, but I think he would say it's when he's sitting in Jesus' lap in the morning. Because, I mean, that's a very real experience for Robby. It's a very real experience for me. Um early in the mornings when nobody else is awake and I'm the only one in the house that's awake anyway. And I'm just talking to God or reading.
I am reminded on a regular basis of this process of. Hey. It's good that you want God's attention, and it's good that He wants yours in the way I'm reminded of it. Art will appreciate this, is that inevitably one of my three dogs wants my attention. And will you know jump up on the couch next to me or wherever and start pawing me to say, Hey, hey, dude, I'm here.
Come on, give me some love. And so. I think God laughs at that because he's kinda saying, hey, It would be really cool if you treated me that way all the time? Because my dog does treat me that way all the time. Um and and and I find myself sometimes laughing at that.
Sometimes I'm frustrated with you know the puppy, but most of the time I just look at him and smile and laugh and say, Okay, God, yeah, it's it is good. It is good to be here wanting your attention this morning. I'm going to ask the rest of you here in just a little bit what it means for you. to be home with Jesus currently. Not eternity, but currently where we're at.
But before I get there, I want to play a clip. that that kind of helps us outline what keeps us from going there. Does any of you guys doubt that the the the father wants us home? No. No.
Right? Scripture is pretty clear that the Father did everything to reconcile with us, including sending his Son, that we may be reconciled to him. He gave everything that he had to bring us back home to him.
So it's not him. That's in the way, but our own. Uh ways of thinking. Our history a lot of times keeps us in the way. And I'm going to play a clip from the movie The Grinch with Jim Carrey.
And at this point in the movie, he's been invited back to Whoville to be the grand Christmas person, whatever it is. I just watched it two days ago. I can't remember. Grand Poo Paul. Yeah, it's like that, the head of the Christmas celebration.
And he initially says, no, I'm not going, because there was a lot of hurt there for him. It reminds me of a lot of wounded areas and he doesn't want to go do it. And then he starts to think, well, what would it feel like to come home? And then he starts having this thought process as we'll listen to. How about those hoots?
Inviting me down there. on such short notice. Even if I wanted to go, my schedule wouldn't allow it.
Okay. Order clock. Swallow in self-pity? Walter D? Stare into the abyss.
Five o'clock, solve world hunger. Tell no one. 5.30, jazzize. 6.30, dinner with me. I can't cancel that again.
7 o'clock, wrestle with myself, loathing. I'm booked. Of course, if I want the loathing to nine, I could still be done in time to lay in bed, stare at the ceiling, and slip slowly into madness. But what would I wear? Just a little 40-second clip there.
But what gets in our way of coming home are the things that the enemies told us. The disqualifications. That he said, Well, you know, you're not able to go home because you did this, or you're really like this, or reminds us that tries to make our sin our identity. you know, and somehow that keeps us from going home. And so you have Jim Carrey here with all sorts of excuses.
He has to jazzer size and all those kinds of things. But what other things, guys, that do people use as excuses to not or the enemy uses actually to disqualify us to keep from going home. This is where you guys are talking. If God knew the things I did, He would never accept me. Yeah, that's one, right?
But He does, He knows, and He still wants you. Absolutely. Yeah. Th what about um the uh the the ways I've handled other people's hearts. You know, why would God really want me when I when I've stomped all over the other people?
Right, what what's he used for you? What's the enemy used for you to keep you from wanting to be home? For me it's probably shame more than anything else. because of the wounds that I grew up with. Um And that sort of thing, and living with that feeling of shame for so long before I finally figured out.
you know That was a sin against me more than anything else. And But it still carries some shame and so that Is probably the biggest when I feel like, ah, you know, I didn't handle that person well. I didn't, or, man, I've been really. Preoccupied with this thing. It doesn't even have to be a sinful thing.
But Just I'm preoccupied with that and not directing my attention towards something else. The enemy can use that old feeling of shame pretty quick. The other thing is just sheer busyness. Absolutely. Harold?
Yeah. Well, one of the things that gets in my way is uh my cynicism. Uh when I see how this time of year gets treated. Uh, it it it I get angry. I'll just be blunt about it.
when when people are more concerned about the wrap in paper. than they are about the fact that Jesus came to this earth for a reason. Um I I get bent out of shape, so I it's a season that's difficult for me. And You know. Anybody got an anti-cynicism pill, send it my way.
Yeah. For me, I think a lot of times It's just, I remember when I used to not want to pray for God's will in my life because I was afraid He would send me to Africa to be a. You know, to be a missionary, right? It's this feeling that I have control. Right?
It's somehow that God's going to ask me to give over control, which He does, but I don't want to let go of it. You know, and I think that it's my own stubbornness. It's my my own self-desire. Your addiction. My addiction to surrender control.
Yeah, it is. And and I get in my own way, and then the enemy just feeds off that. That's where the guilt, the condemnation, all that kinda comes on the the back side of it. Man, that sounds really familiar. Yeah, yeah.
It it may be a slightly different story for you, but I bet it's similar.
Well, in that I'm sitting here, I've had Uh Jimmy Stewart. Uh Do a prequel here, A Wonderful Life. I had great I had wonderful grandparents, wonderful parents. And home was It felt like home, and I loved it, and now that home isn't. There.
That home is in our true home, So I've been trying to think what's keeping me, and you hit the only thing I can think of. It's basically, I want to be in control. rather than surrendering it. But I surrender it pretty easily because I'm a pushover. Yeah, no agreements in that.
That's a topic for you. Yeah, we'll talk about that another day. Uh so What is keeping you from coming home to Jesus this Christmas in a much deeper way? Maybe you are a Christian and you walk with Him, but there's always more to be had, there's always deeper intimacy. What keeps you from taking that next step?
Is it something that the enemy causes you to believe? Or is it something that you just try to hold on to that you shouldn't? We'll talk more about it after the break. What we have at our boot camp is something that makes you stronger and gives you the strength to go on your regular walk with God. It's something that will make you be bigger than you were when you got there.
What brings you here this weekend?
So I met Robby and he invited me to come to the boot camp and there were just so many doors that were closed before I was able to come here, but God allowed these things to happen. And I said, you know, God, I'm going to ultimately acknowledge what's going on for all these doors to be open for me to come to this camp. I just want to seek you.
So throughout that time since I've been here, you know, just the illumination of God speaking to me through my heart, through my mind, and through my soul was just. It's gone to a whole nother level since I've been here at the boot camp. The covenant of silence after the talks and being able to go out and just submit myself to being able to hear from God and what we've been working on, and it's just been transparent in my life. The level of the sanctification process, the discipleship process, and coming here, I feel like this is exactly where I'm supposed to be. Register today at masculinejourney.org.
Yeah. Come on for Christmas. Please come home for Christmas. Not for Christmas Mall yeah. It was mine.
Help me no more sorrow. No grief and pain, and I'll be happy, happy once again. Welcome back to Masculine Journey. That's the Eagles. Please come home for Christmas.
And as I was thinking about this topic, I was actually putting up some Christmas decorations on Saturday, and that song came on and made me think more about. Your God just sitting there saying, Hey, just come home, son. Just come home. I want you to come home and be more intimate with me, to be closer to me. I desire this closeness and I desire these things in your heart.
You know, at the end of that, you know, our heart calls out for no more grief, no more sorrow, no more pain. That's not the reality of where we live right now. That is the eventual reality. of being home with God. And that's what our heart calls for, but that's not the reality of what we face today because we live in a fallen world.
Right, and there's going to be more grief and sorrow and pain, but the key is being in those things with Jesus. We were talking about before the break, what it means to be in Jesus, and for me, There's a piece. that comes You know, when I'm not walking closely to him, I have a lot of anxiety. I told you guys before when I was going to boot camp, I'd been praying a lot because this last year I got just hammered with anxiety. And I've not really been an anxious person.
over the years, I mean, I think about stuff, I do worry a bit, but there there's a difference between just a little worry and then anxiety. I can't handle this. Yeah, it yeah, just uh too much, I can't sleep, you know, it's overwhelming, you know, that kind of thing. And I I You know, went to the doctor, got some medication, didn't really seem to help. You know, and so I'm talking to God.
On the way there, I've I've got a long drive down to At Royston, you know, and so I'm driving down and my God, you know, I'd really like to work on this whole fear thing, you know, I've been praying about. I'd like to know more about it. And all he said was, Well, how much time do you spend with me? And I just started laughing. Because that was the key.
You know, the more time I spend in closeness with him, The less the worries of the world impact me. I don't know how it's going to come out. I don't know how it's going to turn out. Yeah, there's going to be financial pressures. There's going to be these things.
There's going to be people I love getting sick, people I love dying, those types of things. That's life. But in the midst of him there is peace that can be had. And since I've been back, I've been really focusing on spending time with him, and lo and behold, the anxiety's been not there. Imagine that.
Right. You know, and so anyway, that's a little bit of my story of just wanting to be. In him closer and more intimate, because it brings a peace in my heart that it cannot be given anyway else. One of the things this reminded me of is, and like I said, I've been going back to my childhood, we would go visit my grandparents almost every Sunday. and Dad and my grandfather would sit in the den together and reading the paper, occasionally talk.
And then on the way home mom would almost invariably give Dad a lecture. How come you guys don't talk together? Why? And Dad said something that meant a lot to me then, said we were together. Just being in each other's presence is enough.
And That's sort of where I feel like I am with God. Yeah, when I After I take stuff that's sent out to him all the time, and I get plenty of that. But It's it is more of a always knowing he's there. and relying on him for things. And so that piece is with me and most of the Stuff, I was going to say, is this after hours and I stand up there?
Most of the stuff that. Used to bother me a lot, just doesn't anymore. And that includes bad drivers, believe it or not. I'm not the correct quite there yet. Andy, you actually have the next clip.
Are you awake enough to talk about it? I'm working on it.
Okay. For everybody, I got a dessert, a big dessert for dinner. The big is an understatement.
So I may or may not be going through a sugar crash. Yeah, I've seen you nod your head about four times. That's about as much as I've done for you. We've heard the breathing. Uh-huh.
Anyway, so yeah, just before I get into the clip a little bit, I'm just thinking about, you know, where I'm at. and being home. And I was talking to the guys, you know, I've been home In the future. a literal sense to my childhood home like four or five times this year. Which is several states away.
It's not like just driving down the street. No, it's not around the corner for sure. And when I went, you know, there's. Each time I'd go do something, be around a different family member, whatever, Even this last one I went to, I went to my aunt's funeral and brought back some childhood memories of the house that she had growing up, rolling down the hills, stuff like that. And I just think about this idea of coming home: even if you didn't know Jesus as a kid, which I did like at nine.
There was a comfort and an innocence. And if your family was somewhat, had some, I mean, unless it was totally dysfunctional, you had fond memories of that. And I think that's what a little bit of Eden, a touch of it's heaven's Eden, you know. I mean, uh, Garden of Eden, kind of thing, is that there's a place of comfort, innocence. Um just um Just a feeling of well-being, and that's what God.
Once that with us And he truly is. You know, there's things that he wants us to do, and there's things that he's calling us to allow us. Allow him to heal our wounds or whatever, but he's got a mission for us and all those things. But it all is in that abiding. You know, Jesus said, you can't do anything unless you're with me.
You know, we we forget that. And and it's hard to settle yourselves in this busy world. to have that time. I struggle with it constantly and I'll talk all the time about My father, and I'm just sitting here thinking, though, but God doesn't want to hound us into coming and spending time with us. He's an inviter like he invited you.
And I think that's the thing is we gotta remember if you wi if if my daughter is not seeing me, I mean, I don't want to have to I just want her to come. And I know she's busy, and I know, but I want her to come on her, you know, the times when I get her, you know. Hey Dad, what's up? You know, is a great blessing. Yeah, I think that's just what God desires from us, us to choose him.
Simply that. But this clip is from It's a Wonderful Life and you know, you have George Bailey, who's He's never happy. He's always discontent. He's always looking. He's always wishing his life away for what he could go do.
He got stuck running the family business. Which is a savings and loan, and his uncle actually handed like $8,000 to their competition, who's going to. you know, put him in jail and all this and his life has fallen apart. And he's talking to this thing. Here's the angel.
Who is not a top-class angel in his second class? Second class, exactly. But he's talking to this angel and he wishes, you know, that he said he's better deader than alive. You'll hear that. And you'll hear, you know, that he wished he had never been born.
And just I'm not going to tell you the whole clip, but that sets it up. And then you'll see the second part after he goes through some disruption that God takes him through, and then he finally gets back to where he is. He's beginning to see home. And it puts him in the right place. And I'll talk about more about what I, you know, from the clip when we get done.
Yeah. I had to work quickly. That's why I jumped in. I knew if I were drowning, you'd try to save me, and you see you did. And that's how I saved you.
Uh uh very funny. Your lips bleeding, George. Yeah. I got a bust in the jaw in answer to a prayer a little bit ago. Oh, no, no, no, Georgia.
I'm the answer to your prayer. That's why I was sent down here. How'd you know my name? Oh, I know all about you. I've watched you grow off from a little boy.
Oh, you're a mind-reader or something?
Well, who are you then? Clams out, buddy. Odd bunny. What's with you? What what what would you say just a minute ago?
Why do you want to save me? That's what I was sent down for. I'm your guardian angel. I wouldn't be a bit surprised. Ridiculous of you to think of killing yourself for money.
$8,000. Yeah, now just things like that. How do you know that? I told you I'm your guardian angel. I know everything about you.
Well, you look about like the kind of an angel I'd get.
Sort of a fallen angel, aren't you? What happened to your wings? I haven't worn my wings yet. That's why I'm an angel second class. I'm worth more dead than a lie.
Now look, you mustn't talk like that. I won't get my wings with that attitude. You just don't know all that you've done. If it hadn't been for you. Yeah, if it hadn't been for me, everybody would be a lot better off.
My wife and my kids and my friends. Look, little fellow, go off and haunt somebody else, will you? No, now you don't understand. I've got my job. Oh, shut up, will you?
Okay. I suppose it'd been better if I'd never been born at all. What'd you say? I said, I wish I'd never been born. Come in, Clarence!
Get me back! Get me back! I don't care what happens to me! Get me back to my wife and kids. I want to live again.
I want to live again. Please, God. Let me live again.
So in between that I wish I'd never been born and I want to live again. God just totally disrupts him and shows him what his life would be like. if he had never been born, and how his impact to other people uh made a difference Really, this is kind of about purpose and realizing that we are here for a reason, but But he came back home eventually. He had had an appreciation for his family before they lost the money and all that. And he just felt like he was gonna he had lost all of it.
We don't appreciate things a lot of times until we they're gone. But he got a w in that disruption He really began to have a desire to go home. I want to live again. That to me was going back home. That was his God calling him to say, No, you really do have a place on this earth.
go do s you know, come back to it. And, um, I don't know. I just You know, at this time of year, you can get so busy doing so many different things. I tell you, my job has really been a challenge this year, much more than it ever has. and some combined for some other things.
And it's so easy to get out of that place, that you get into that place of anxiety that you were talking about. You think you're sailing along good, everything's wonderful, but You have to, um You have to keep wanting to come back home, that rest place, and God and You know, I know I'm kind of rambling here, but it's just real life stuff. You can come home, but you have to keep coming home, I think, a lot of times. Keep returning to what the source of truth is. and and the love of the Father.
That's another effect of sugar. Rambling. Once I wake up, I can't stop.
Well Do yourself a favor and give yourself a present this year. Right, we've got about a minute left, we can talk a bit more, but your heart was made for home. And all these things that you look for life in, that doesn't come, it doesn't give you the feeling you need to have, it's because you're not looking in the right place. And the reason I can say that is I've done that so many times. We're called to be home.
Our heart was made for union with God. And so take steps to be in a deeper place with him this year. Even if you walk really closely with him, it's always more. There's always more available. And God's calling you to do that.
And take some time and spend with him this week. As you think about others, let him just love on you. We'll talk with you next week. Shalom, y'all. Mm-hmm.
