This is the Truth Network. Coming to you from an entrenched barricade deep in the heart of central North Carolina, Masculine Journey After Hours, a time to go deeper and be more transparent on the topic covered on this week's broadcast.
So sit back and join us on this adventure. The Masculine Journey After Hours starts here now. Welcome to Masculine Journey After Hours. We are talking about a topic today that's foundational to all Christians. That's what we believe, and that's kind of what the Bible says, or at least Paul does, right, Jim?
Paul did believe that. And we're looking at. The end of 1 Corinthians 13. where we hear that faith Love, I'm gonna get it wrong, faith, hope, and love, these three. The greatest of these is love.
Is foundational for how we exist as Christians. Jesus said it as. in the greatest two commandments, love God, love others. And George, a friend of mine. Said it as: Faith looks up to God, hope looks ahead to God's promises.
and love looks outward to God and others. Hmm. Not bad for AI. How'd you know it was George?
Well, you said it was George. Oh, that would be how you know it. It wasn't hard. It was a pretty easy case to crack. Curious George.
Columbo, I'm not. He is actually quite curious, too. That's what I should call him and see if he understands the reference. He probably wouldn't.
So this has nothing to do with it, but yesterday we asked the A lady that's with Amazon on the little devices, well, I could say it Alexa, what the weather is going to be. And she's like, it's slightly raining right now. And we're like. No, it's actually really downpouring. And she says, Oh, yeah, you're right.
It's downpouring. I'm like, How do you do that? How does AI know to switch? You know, it's like much different than our weather forecasters.
Well, that's true. But it's like she didn't skip a beat. Oh, yes, you're right. It is downpouring right now. I'm like, okay.
My bad, I had to come out of my basement. Exactly. I believe you rather than what I'm learning on the internet. Yeah, so back to the topic. Jim, you have the clip, the first clip from the show.
And this clip is. For me, a very wonderful representation of love. It is. Samoise and Frodo, and it is a the time when Frodo realizes what he has to do. And he's thinking about what he was told by Gandalf earlier.
And then he decides to run off and do this on his own. Um Sam is not going to have any part of that. And this That's really more than I need to say about it. Yeah, it's pretty. Other than the visual part of the title.
Yeah, the visual, you're listening to Sam Drown as he's trying to. Run after Frodo who's leaving in a boat. I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.
So do all. Who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All you have to decide. It's what to do. The time that is given to him.
Not alone! Frodo Mr. Broto! No, Sam. Go back, Step.
I'm going to Moldor alone. Of course you are. And I'm coming with you! You can't swim! Yeah.
Oh. Yeah. Stop! SAG! I made a promise, Mr.
Brono. A promise. Don't you leave him Samwise Gamji And I don't mean to. I don't mean to. Oh, Sam.
Love can often put us in opposition with someone who loves us, and that's what's happening here. And one of the reasons this kind of hit home, because Sam is leaving because he cares very deeply. Excuse me. Frodo is leaving because he cares very deeply about Sam. And Sam is not going to be left behind because he cares so much about Frodo.
And that sort of Love is sacrificial. It is. You know, what your need is is greater than what my need is. And that ultimately Yeah, I went through all the puppy love and stuff that I referred to earlier and all of that was very powerful emotionally. But Real love is making a decision to put God before yourself.
That's how we love God. And he Puts it kind of bluntly: if you love me, you. You are obedient. You follow my commandments. You follow my voice.
And Loving others is What you need is more important than what I need. And there are times when you have to fill your own needs, but there are a lot more times where your needs are going to be filled if you're working on the needs of others. Absolutely. As you were talking about that, I was reminded of a story I haven't thought of, or part of my life I hadn't thought of in years. When I lived in California, I had two daughters.
Their mom had left us, but she still had partial custody. and I had primary custody and I wanted to move back to Indiana, but I had to get her okay, which she wasn't gonna do and I was stuck there and I needed to get back to Indiana to have help from family and you know have a support system there that I didn't have in California. And I felt really stuck and then and then all of a sudden I don't know, she just said, Okay, I'll do it. And she signed it and we could go back. And where it really came in is when I went to my mom's church with her one of the first weeks we got back.
Everybody that my mom had told about that would come up to me and say, I'm so excited, we've been praying for you. I'm so excited. We've been praying that this would work out somehow. And it's not one of those where you just felt like, hey, I've been praying for you. You know, like, that's what they're supposed to say.
I knew they'd been praying for me. And that was a time I really felt the love of others that didn't even know me. They're praying for me because they love my mom and sh and they know that she loved me. Right. But I have no doubt that that's a big part of why all that kind of cleared up and I could come back to Indiana at that time.
I've seen a lot of videos on YouTube lately about Medal of Honor winners. That's a theme that runs through practically every one of them that I've seen. is that they're they're giving themselves for the sake of their brothers. Mm-hmm. Absolutely.
Absolutely. Well, Darren, you have the last clip, and then we'll figure out what to talk about after that.
Well, you know, we're talking about faith, hope, and love, and And one of the things that uh Uh This clip kind of sets up is the fact that That's what we were made for. You know, we we talk about this at boot camp. I've I've used this in In Talks in the larger story. I've used it in talks in warfare. I've used it in talks, talking about our new name.
The fact that one of If you want to know why you're here.
Okay, and that's almost every man I know is asking that question: what's my purpose? Why am I here?
Well, there's there's some specific ones that pertain to you necessarily. But there are also some much larger ones that are very, very general in nature, and they're true of every man. And that is, Satan was in the presence of God and chose not To worship him, chose not to put his faith in him, not to hope. for what God told him was his. Um And he was cast out of heaven.
And we were created, and we were put on this earth, and we've not been to heaven. We've not seen. God in the full representation that Satan has. We've not experienced all of those things. And yet, God.
Uses us when you put Revelation together and some of Paul's writings together and different things. God. says in Ephesians ultimately that Eventually Yeah. Satan um is going to have All of us. Those who have been saved, those who have put their faith in the blood of the Lamb and not backed off of the word of their testimony, we are going to be a parade in front of him.
And he's going to see Ultimately I had the opportunity. to be Looked at with the same fondness that God is looking at them right now because they walked by faith, because they put their hope in Jesus, because they loved one another and loved me. And he's not going to have that. And so one of the purposes that we have here is to be a part of that great procession that God will some day run before Satan and in essence put Satan in his place. He's had his time.
He's had a lot of victories, if you will. Still is having some victories today. He is defeated, but he's not dead. He's not gone. And so this clip comes from the movie Miracle, which is just the story of the 1980 Olympic hockey team, who weren't supposed to be the team to beat in the Olympics.
They weren't even really a footnote. But here they are, final game, gold medal match against Russia. And Herb Brooks is talking to the team beforehand. And so just listen to how he Speaks to them about what they're here for. The only other thing I would add to that clip is relevant.
The Soviets had beat him badly just a few days before that in another match. Yeah, and every other time we had ever played him. Right. And so he's having this concept when they're only thinking is, you know, I've been beat down here. Great moments.
are born from great opportunity. And that's what you have here. Tonight, boys. That's what you've earned here tonight. One game.
If we played them ten times, they might win nine. But not this game. Not tonight. Tonight We skate with them. Tonight.
We stay with them. And we shut them down because we can. Tonight We are the greatest hockey team. in the world. You were born to be hockey players.
Every one of you. And you were meant to be here. Tonight. This is your time. Their time?
is done. It's over. I'm sick and tired of hearing about what a great hockey team the Soviets have. This is your time. So we have that.
Herb Brooks is saying, This is your time, and ultimately, that's Jesus. Mm-mm. the Father, the Holy Spirit saying to us every day, This is your time. If you're breathing. This is your time.
If if you know God at all, This is your time. And even if you don't know God. It's still your time. It's time to get to know God.
so that you can help fulfill this mission. Of beating back the enemy. And so. That's our mission. We were born.
for this mission of faith, hope, and love. And and so obviously the faith is Faith in God. The hope is hope in what God has told me is true, right? I have to believe Him and hope that it's true. And then the love.
Is multifaceted and goes out in every direction. It's not just love towards God, it's love towards each other. It's the same thing Jesus says in John 13:34 that As I have loved you, I command you to love one another. Looking beyond How messed up we are, how broken we are, how much we've hurt our friend, or our friend has hurt us. It is Love that Jesus says, if you overcome that, Believing?
having faith, hope. And then loving one another, this is how the world will know you are my disciples. That you're following me, that you're on mission with me. Um that's And so That's kind of the context of that clip in my heart was, you know, You know, God is saying that to us every single day. When you wake up in the morning, he's saying, yeah.
Today's your day, Andy. Today's your day, Harold. Today's your day. Sam. Yep, you might have been beaten by the enemy.
the last four hundred days in a row. But today's your day. And You know, you see the t-shirts out there, not today, Satan.
Well, I don't really care about the t-shirts, but I do care about praying that, not today, Satan. Um not that I have a ton of strength outside of Jesus. I have zero. but bringing his kingdom to bear, Um And having, in this case, Coach Jesus, you know, leading us out onto the ice, we've got a victory to take hold of. Yeah, it um The enemy is so good about trying to intercede and remind you of all the defeats.
Right, because it gets back to something you talked about, Andy, and Darren, you tied that in well, is that the The enemy wants to remind us of failures. to keep us from moving forward in hope. Right, to keep us from having the faith of what God's told us to be true. God's aware of the failures. God knows what you're made for, He doesn't doubt it.
The only person that doubts it is you. Right? The enemy doesn't doubt it or he wouldn't be attacking you. Right. God doesn't doubt it because you know how he made you.
You know, and so just saying, okay, that stuff doesn't matter, it doesn't hold me down, it's not who I am or who I was made to be. It's what God told me, as you said, Darren, that I want to move forward in this knowing that God's got me. Even if I get defeated today, there's tomorrow. Right? And if I keep pushing forward, it's going to work out.
We were going to talk about these and As they come and go to some extent, but. Two things have brought this up to my mind that have been said in both shows, so we're going to. ramble about it a little bit. Uh Not a long time ago. There's someone who It'd be faithful and A wonderful person.
all their lives. But recognize they'd lived a selfish life and bought the enemy's lie that. You're not even saved. And you have no hope. And that was accepted.
But the person still had love for others. And it was a long journey getting back to the faith and hope, But the love held that in place long enough to recover Yeah.
now attending church again and and enjoying it rather than feeling like a hypocrite. I mean and there's still a ways to go, but that's true for all of us. We're going to have times where we've Lost Hope Lost our faith. Not recognize that God loves us the way He does. And those are intertwined, but I definitely agree with Paul in that love is the greatest.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Andy, you got something you wanted to add? No, I was listening to G.
Okay.
Well, you looked like you had a perplexed look on your face, so I wasn't sure. I do that to a lot of people. Yeah, that's frequent. I think one of the things that we should always keep in mind is that We can lose a battle. But we can't lose the war.
The war itself has already been won. But Satan is allowed, apparently, to win occasional battles. But not the war. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, Sheila and I were watching a show a while back.
I mean, we're, you know, empty nesters. All we like is boring TV. And We were watching a show, uh it was one of these I Was Prey or you know something like that. and a guy was talking about He and his family had been out on a trail. Um They saw a Rattlesnake He was a science teacher, knew you know rattlesnakes, blah blah blah.
He knows other people are coming down the trail. He takes something. And decimates, you know, the body of the snake and literally separates the head from the body. But because he's a science teacher, he also wants to teach his kids a lesson, and so he reaches down. to grab the head of the snake, And Without a body, just you know, an inch or two behind the head, the snake.
is still there. and he bites him and the guy almost dies.
So they were like, you know, three hours down a trail before they could get rescued and all of that. And the point of that is this. Satan is horribly wounded and he knows it. And the enemy who is close to being defeated, but yet has not been defeated, is the most dangerous. enemy you will ever have.
And so we have to be very careful. How we deal with the enemy. I mean, we're not out there trying to pick fights, and so please don't hear that. But no matter what day it is, We still have the Spirit of God in us. We've got The blood of Jesus Christ that's covering us and Forgiving us of all of our sins as He's faithful to forgive if we're faithful to confess that.
And through all of that, Yeah, I mean I was having a great you know. time today in my car listening to a couple of podcasts and and worshiping and then I hit traffic. And I hit idiots in traffic. I'm sorry, Lord. Maybe they weren't idiots.
Your inner herald came out. And so my inner herald jumped out all over me. And, you know, I mean, and I three or four times I had to go ah, ah, ah, you know, and back away from that. And I'm not making light of that at all. Your failure, I mean, maybe it's maybe it's addiction.
Um maybe it's anger, maybe it's you know something horribly hurtful to your family. And maybe you've failed every day up until now.
Well According to Paul, this faith that we have in Jesus has to carry us through. Um that even if Things are horrible. Even if I continue to fail, even if the enemy continues to attack, we can still have hope. That Jesus will have the ultimate. Victory, and that we can too have the ultimate victory that He has because we have put on Christ.
And on our worst day, our friend John Lynch Um says it Best, and I remember this almost daily: on my worst day, I am still. Darren Kuhn. With Jesus and me. And Darren Kuhn is sometimes really, really a struggle for the rest of humanity. But Jesus in me uh gets to break through and and shine through sometimes.
Absolutely. So I just r remembered that this morning my One of my scriptures I read was from Acts 27 and it was the ship. uh that Paul was on and he was going towards Rome And it got grounded. And I guess they stayed out there for a good while, and their lives were at risk, and they thought they were going to die. And he just counseled them through it.
Paul did, and had a positive thing and say, if you do this. You know, you're going to be okay and not one of you are going to lose a hair on your head. I mean, he was very positive. I mean, he came. Yeah, right.
Well, he was bald, too, right?
So they say. But anyway, it was, it's just an example. He lived. He lived. That was a documented evidence of faith, hope, and love in action right there.
Paul lived what he talked about because it was a bad situation. I mean, and this is a thing where. You know, God had told him before they started, Yeah, you're going to see Caesar.
Well, then this comes along. I will be like, What's up? You're going to kill me before I get there, God? You know, that's why some sometimes our reaction would be. But he actually saw it through and he actually was able not only to preserve his own life, but the others around him.
So what advice would you guys have for any listeners out there on these topics of faith, hope, and love? Anything come to mind?
Well, according to Paul, again, faith comes from hearing and hearing the word of God. And so there is no way. to have faith. unless you are hearing reading Bathing in the Word of God.
Now, maybe you can't read. That's okay. There's audio Bibles. There's all. But a good friend, a grandma, a mom.
um a sister, a brother. If you cannot have faith without the Word of God, I don't care how you're getting the Word of God. But if it's the Word of God, we're also told it will not come back void.
So if the Word of God gets in and is planted in your heart, the seed that is produced His faith. And so once I have faith, then I can grow in hope. and I can grow in love and Paul, you know, makes the the ultimate you know statement that the greatest of these is love.
Well, why?
Well, Because I can have faith in God and I can even have hope, as Harold talked about. But if I'm not loving my brother or my sister or God.
Well, that's not going to do much for anybody. Yeah. But if I've got all three of them Um It does start with you have to be In the Word, some way, somehow, whether that's in church. Whether that's at home, but hopefully it's all of the above: that you're surrounding yourself with good people and good message, meaning the word of God. Yeah, I've always been a firm believer that people want to follow when they see that you have actions within you.
Right, that yeah, you can talk about your faith all day. You can say, Hey, this is what I believe in, and people will listen, they'll be courteous a lot of times. You can talk about hope and all those kinds of things, but they're a lot more willing when you've shown them love, right? And that's the people that you look at and go, Why are you so calm in the midst of all this? Right, and then you start asking those probing questions.
And that's where it really leads to it, that love is the the opener. to help people if they don't have their own faith and hope. to get him there. If you don't have love, don't bother talking to others until you can love them. Otherwise, it's useless, as the 1 Corinthian passage says.
Yeah, it says we're like a bunch of noisy instruments, basically making a lot of noise and spiritual activity, but no, there's no. Essence in it of love. And there are enough people out there doing that.
So don't. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And we're not judging them. Yes, we are.
Anyway, go to masculinejourney.org to register for the upcoming boot camp. It is an advanced camp. If you're not certain about any of the things we talk about, please reach out to us on Facebook, reach out to us on YouTube. You know, you can put comments there, or just go to any one of our names at masculinejourney.org. Yeah.
