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 Masculine Journey. We are glad that you're with us this week, and we are returning to something we abandoned a little while back.
You know, we started really hot and heavy on these foundation series. And then we got sidetracked. Of course, with God, do you really get sidetracked? I mean, if he takes you on another run. Do you kind of go where he takes you?
We might have gotten sidetracked. We might have. Or we might have followed the Holy Spirit. Let's go with that one. Yeah, that's a wild goose chase.
Well, we were on a wild goose chase. That's right, absolutely. I thought you were going to be speaking to the fact that we have a company of eight instead of the usual three of four like lately. But you aren't here, so you wouldn't know there were only three or four, right? No, no.
Everybody came back when I came back. I'm just saying. That's right. Sam is the glue. They know they need his help.
He's like the. you know the Cream filling between the two Oreos. Yeah, I'm Sergeant Hulk of the big toe. Anyway, as we digress, we are back on our foundation series and we are talking about a foundational thing, not just in our group, but in humanity. And so when we threw out what's the topic for this week, Darren's the first one spoke up and said, How about this?
And so, what is this, Darren?
Well, this is one of the foundations of this community. and this ministry Is community.
So we've always said that. We've not always walked that line as well as others. Or other times, I mean, sometimes we've done really, really well with that. Other times we've kind of Um been the walking wounded in in the community and and we may have been the ones to wound each other. And we've talked about that a lot.
And if you've not heard that, go back and listen to the podcast and stuff. Historically. Because we have talked about that a good bit and it's worth hearing. But God obviously thought community was pretty important. He is a community.
The Trinity is a community. And Basically, I threw out the topic: what church was always supposed to be. And that comes from a line, actually, out of We Were Soldiers. once. Um Hal Moore used that line Talking about men going into battle in Vietnam, and he basically says.
You know. We're not leaving home, we're going to what home was always supposed to be, which is a group of men fighting together side by side. No racial components, just we've got each other's backs, love for one another, and that's it. And so. That was kind of the thought process that I had: you know, without community.
Doesn't matter what your foundation is. You're just one brick. And so you need a bunch of other bricks.
Well, and it could be for a period of time your community is you and God. Mm-hmm. Right? I mean, we all have desert times that we're called just to spend in one-on-one relationship with God and not part of a bigger community. You know, and so but it's always a community of at least of two.
Well, and with God, it'd be four. Yeah. Yeah. By default, you have a community. And seldom does God keep you in the wilderness your entire life.
And obviously, we do walk with a lot of guys, or we meet a lot of guys, who will say things like, well, you know, I'm spiritual, but I You know, it's just me and God. And or, you know, I don't really do the church thing and and I totally under I I get it. Church churches hurt people and hurt people hurt churches and all of those different things. We could go, you know, years on that subject. But The reality is, if you're not walking with God and a community of people that God is using to knock the rough edges off?
um then you're you're you're missing on something. Absolutely. And we've always talked about, you know, the the ministry has to come out of community, not community out of ministry. Yeah. Right.
That it it the best shows that we have ever done is not something where we said, hey, let's be creative and talk about that. It's when we're talking about what God's doing in our life. What's God doing within the midst of the community?
Well, and that that foundational thing kind of got skewed in the very beginning with you and I because We I went after it. Hey, Sam, I know this guy named Sam. I met him, you know, on online. And you've got a ministry. It was not match.com.
It wasn't match.com. It wasn't even eHarmony. But it was wildatheart.com, actually. But the or ransomtart.com at that time. But, you know, you, me, Jim, Mark, others had we had be we had met and and we kind of began to share a kinship or a friendship.
and a little bit of community. In the idea that we wanted to possibly do boot camps. We possibly wanted to do this ministry. But where we started was there were four of us, and we got away for the weekend first and just. met each other really for the first time in in reality.
And we got to hear each other's stories, and we got real with each other. Um and that's you know was the baseline. And then we moved up from there. The first clip is a short one. It's from the movie Sea Biscuit, and it's at the very end of the movie.
If you haven't seen it, it's like 30 years old, so get over it. But it's a great summarization of what has happened over the last couple hours. It looks like a whole bunch of different Things that aren't related, and then the jockey played by, I can't remember his name. Batman or something. Yeah, yeah.
Uh Toby McGuire. Yeah, that guy. Um, played by him, kind of re comes to realization of what's been going on the whole time. And so we're going to listen to that and come back and talk about it. You know everybody thinks we found this broken down horse and fixed him.
But we didn't. He fixed us. Every one of us. And I guess in a way We kind of fixed each other too. And that happened to be my clip.
And the reason I chose that is it really came to mind as soon as you brought up this topic. God could choose to heal us any way he wants to. Right, and when he wants to, and obviously he does, but often he chooses to heal us in the midst of community. You know, Robby's talked about, you know, I talked about something that happened to me in counseling that God gave him breakthrough. Right.
When I was talking about going back and you know, addressing little Sam, the wounded little boy inside me. God chose that to use to create a a place for Robby to get healed. And we've all done that with each other on different things, that as we hear what God's doing, God uses that experience in our life to help us or to speak truth to one another when we can't really see it. You know, sometimes we're blinded by the the situation we're in. We're blinded by the hurt, the anger, whatever it is, and it's that still calm voice of a friend.
That can come in and help speak truth to you, you know, that God chooses to use that as part of the equation. you know, at the end of the last boot camp. That clip was just, you know, and I'm familiar with the clip, and it just kept rolling over in my mind. That I felt So much help. In getting fixed about struggles that I was having as I came into that camp.
And I think a lot of people may sit on the outside and think, well, you guys are the, you know, you're leading it and you're the ones talking and you have your act together. No. No. Some less than others. Yeah, well, believe me, you know, in my case, I can assure you that they're gigantic.
benefits Yeah. Uh Being vulnerable and being in that community where people love you as messed up as you are, and that's the gigantic part of it. Is that everybody in that movie? had severe You know problems. severe problems and and so do we if we're honest.
And you you gotta be around people that will love you in spite of. Yeah, go God chose to take them on a shared mission. In order to heal them. And, Darren, when you talk about our original desire to do boot camps, God let us do that. To where we had a shared mission.
Yeah, he did because he was enticing us into something because he knew you were strong enough. To knock the rough edges off of me, and Jim was, you know, a good enough counselor to keep us from killing each other, and you know, and Mark was good at making us look better than we were, and you know, just all of those different things. And God entices us into those relationships. The same way he does a man and a woman. Obviously, he entices us with beauty, but beauty comes in a lot of different forms.
It comes in the form of a shared ministry or a shared mission or a shared adventure sometimes. I mean, those are the. Those are the times that we want to talk about the most, honestly, or the adventures that we had, good, bad, or indifferent, right? I mean. We laugh as much about our own stupid human tricks with each other as we do about almost anything else.
And we joke about it. We remind each other every now and then, hey, that's not you anymore, or those sorts of things. And that is the the reality is that if if God hadn't allowed us to do that together, Probably none of us would be sitting in this room together right now. Yeah, I can't. Imagine where my life would be.
without having had this group. of friends over the last gosh, since 2009. you know, in my life. You know, I just I I'm scared of where I might have been. You know, because I would have been in a much different place and I am I would have had a lot less healing.
'Cause there are times I just wanted to give up. As life kind of hammers you, you just go, Okay, I'm out, you know, and the friends pull you back in and say, No. You know, they they pull you back where you need to be to help you find a footing where God can work on you again. One of the things that hits me about the first meeting in the park with the three of us Mark wasn't there, but he was part of it from the beginning. Yeah, he was on the phone.
Oh, okay. I forgot that. I forget a lot. One thing I have not forgotten is how powerfully I felt God's presence at that very first meeting and knew that. Wow, God's going to let me be part of this.
And It's been quite a ride. Mm-hmm. I was just thinking just a horse rememberance, but just on the healing aspect and the insight that you get from being in community and hearing other people's story, their wounds. and that kind of thing. You know, we go to a lot of times agreements.
And I can remember. Same so many times. Pointing out you made an agreement.
Well, you know. Over time, Probably in the last six months, I haven't heard that that much. And I think you hear that enough from somebody, you become more self-aware of it, and you don't enter into that stuff as much. And that's the kind of thing that community does: it makes you better.
Well, we'll talk to you after break. Stay tuned. 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. The first one, I had no clue what I was walking into, and then realizing that other people are in the same boat and how open everybody was to share their struggle is a great group, and a lot of compacting was to be done.
It is a tight bond of men. Everybody's the same. And each and every time that I've come to boot camp, I've learned something different. And not one man that's ever been there neglects not to take time out to talk or to share. It's serious business, and you need to come one time to break break with the men and fellowship, feel the atmosphere, hear the people pray, and get down to earth about what's going on in life and get real.
Register today at masculinejourney.org. I'm to be there. When you are lost, lost will be there.
Nowhere to turn, I will be there. Don't be afraid, don't I will be there? Don't be afraid, I will be there when everyone that will be there still lets you down. I will be there. Welcome back to Masculine Journey.
That was a bump that I had picked from Eric Clapton. And it was the last uh album he made before he officially retired. But the reason I really like that song is it reminded me of Community. There are so many times that the enemy is after to make you feel like you're alone. You're the only one that struggles with this sin.
You're the only one that's found yourself here yet again. You know, whatever the flavor of that, to try to separate you first and foremost from God, but the people that help you get to God. Right, because he knows if he can start to break down those allies in your mind that you separate yourself from them, you're just gonna be easy chow. He's going to just chew you up and spit you back out. And so, this was a reminder for me as I've listened to it of the good friends I've had.
Over the years that I just knew we're there. Right, w when I didn't know where to turn, I could at least turn to them. And I've learned over the time the times that I least want to come to the radio show, because there's some days of like, I just don't feel like going, or usually the times I most have to be there. Right, because God's wanting me to to see something when we are there. Yes.
Shake your head, guys. Thank you. Appreciate all the support.
Well, nods don't mean much on the radio. Yeah, it is. It's affirmative for me. I appreciate that. Thank you.
Well, I'll go ahead and jump in since nobody's saying anything. I'll take this opportunity to say something. That's what church is: it's not a place where you just go here preaching. It's a place where you get community. It's a place where your kids can go learn.
It's a place where you go set up baking parties. We've got a church at Ponda that I go to where we. Go out into the community and we chop wood and clear out brushes and things like that. We also have workout routines. We have places to where we go out to eat.
So it's a community thing. And also, sometimes we just go to different uh events together. Say, hey, there's uh this uh event that I thought you might like.
So Church is a place to where Did you get equipped? And you You share, you have fellowship. The the fellowship I have at Pondale I wouldn't really replace that with anything else because I know if I'm going through something like you said, Danny.
sometimes I didn't want to go, but when I go I've been so lifted up. And who would you want to trust with your most inner workings? Who would you want to trust with what's going on and how you get lifted up other than church? It's not just a pastor-focused. kind of environment.
It's the people there. And that's what the church is. That's what the Bible says the church is. It's the people. The community is not one person.
You might have one people that shine or get more recognition in certain roles, but it's all still a community here. Look at how this country works. Yeah, we have a president, but he can't be everywhere every single time.
So we have to be a community to where. We lift one another up. I guarantee you, that garbage man that picks up the trash, if he quits tomorrow, we're going to notice that. Kathy Massey. And Captain Massey, I'm pretty sure Captain Massey is important somewhere.
But the trash guy, the guy that's worked at the power plant, the teacher, we all need one another.
So church is where I can think of the best examples where you're going to get the best kind of form of community. I think you're absolutely right. That's what church is meant to be. But I think sometimes, and some people do have that special church that's like that. Often I run into people that are afraid to be themselves.
At church, because some churches it's also a place where you get judged. Right. Yes, that's what church is meant to be. Just because you walk in the doors of someplace doesn't mean that's where you're meant to be. Right, you are meant for community.
And most often that'll be in a church, but sometimes it may be outside of a church. I love the church I go to. This is my deepest community by far. Right, th this group of guys I have here. Right?
And so God is calling to your community. Just be open to where he's calling you. I've had the experience of leaving a church and God led me out of it. And people kept saying, Where are you going to go to church? Where are you going to go to church?
One of the groups is this one. This is church, it's a community of believers. I got a Thursday. Afternoon Bible study group. That's church.
In fact, I told them, this is my church right now, but it's not. the building. It is the people, and we forget that sometimes. And it's not the budget and all the things that go with the administration of the bigger churches. And a very small congregation now, and that is my church as well.
So I'm blessed with at least three of them on a regular basis. This is good. I I wasn't sure what the topic was today.
So I ask Christ, give me a hand to Look what look it up. and give me the idea of look up relating. Oh no, really. Yeah. Many verses in the Bible.
It's a quick listen, slow to speak. And so to become angry. Yeah. I've done almost one of those. I'm batting no good there.
Not me, not me, not me. Absolutely. Yeah, Robby, you have the next clip. We were talking about when you had your headphones on. You didn't realize we were talking about it.
Well good. Yeah. So the my clip is from Uh The movie The 300. which has to do with the Spartans. It's a scene where there's a sort of a hunchback deformed character who wants to be a soldier.
And he goes to the king saying that he wants to kill Persians and not cats, but actual Persians. The the king uses some wisdom and We'll talk about that when it w you know, on on the other side of the clip. Here we go. I will kill many Persians. Where is your shield?
Sire. Raise your shield as high as you can. Your father should have told you how a phalanx works. We fight. as a single Impenetrable unit.
That is the source. of our strength. Each Spartan. Protects the man to his left. From thigh to neck.
With the shield sloping. A single weak spot. And the phalanx shatters. From thigh. The neck.
Effiatis. Yeah. I am sorry, my friend. But not all of us were made to be soldiers.
So what he is referring to is a phallix. And in the in the day of the Spartans... Um their mothers would tell them that um you either come home with your shield or on it. And the point of that is that that that shield was to protect the guy next to you. And That shield when it comes to community in in in the body of Christ According to Ephesians six is faith.
But it's not just faith. in God, which clearly is instrumental in the community, but it's faith in the guy standing next to you. And It's A key component in grace, if you look at the word, you break it down in Hebrew, you'll see that one of the most important aspects of it is to believe. Like when somebody favors you, which is the idea of grace, they obviously believe in you. And so As you're believing in that guy to your left, you're believing, you're lifting that shield.
And like Andy talked about, saying, I know. What it is that you are meant to be, and you're calling out the glory of the person in order to get them to walk into. all that God designed them to be. And of course, we got some beautiful clips along those lines later on. I won't steal the thunder of, but nonetheless, it's an amazing thing, and I think.
That Unfortunately, in most of the communities I was in before I got here, They didn't really know me. 'Cause I played somebody I really wasn't. Mhm.
So that nobody would judge me.
So nobody would Um really And because I did that, nobody was actually able to help me lift my shield because I didn't have enough faith in myself to drop the mask. Mm-hmm. And so the beautiful thing about boot camp And is that You know, as you enter into it, you will see the poser talk. And you'll begin to see some things in yourself. But the cool thing is you're doing that in a community of people who also are walking in that same message with you at the same time.
Um Um You know, the other aspects of that clip I don't want to leave unsaid is he he He says everybody wasn't designed to be a soldier. But If you come to boot camp, you're going to find out one of the core desires of a man's heart is a battle to fight. Everybody, I believe, was designed to be a warrior. A warrior is not a soldier necessarily. A soldier Is somebody that's in a particular place on the battlefield trained to do a particular operation.
But There's a lot of ways to fight. Yeah. And there's a lot of ways to sustain the battle. And actually, even the guy in the movie, you know, he was given another role. He just didn't happen to be one of those guys who got to carry a shield.
because he wasn't in a position to defend his neighbor. And all of us Aren't necessarily designed for the same roles in the body of Christ. And that's why we have feet and we have hands and we have heads, et cetera, et cetera. And so it's an amazing thing for me to have walked in this because I can really attest to the fact. that I desperately needed.
some shields at times. When I completely showed my rear end. We've seen it. Yeah, we've seen it. Yeah.
I haven't. You won't let me in the cabin with you because you're snoring. There was one point I wanted to go back to, though, Robby. You know, you talked about in those other groups, they didn't really know you. And it reminds me of the John Lynch thing when he talks about wearing the mask.
You realize they love the mask. They don't have what's under it. And that's a totally different feeling, isn't it, when you know people love you for who you are. Every preacher, pastor, that I've ever known had that massive pull. to hide.
all the ones that I know that have fallen from grace. never overcame it. The ones like John Lynch that have spoken out and said, nope, this is me, this is me, this is who I am, love me, or, you know. Accept me or don't, but this is who I am, and this is what I've done, and this is what's happened to me, and this is the way I reacted to that, and all of those different things. If you can't do that as a pastor, Your church is never gonna get there either.
Brown. Yeah, it goes to any type of leadership, really. We follow those leaders that we... sensor authenticity. All right, go to masconjourney.org.
We do have a boot camp coming up in the fall. It is an advanced camp, so if you haven't been to a boot camp somewhere, you won't be able to come to that. But please keep in mind in the spring we'll have another regular camp. But this week, I want you to just ask God: God, what is the community you're calling me to? Am I in it now?
How should I be acting in this community? Should I be more clear with others? Should I accept more with others? Or should I be in another community? We'll talk to you next week.
