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. This is Sam Main, and I sit at the desk once in a while when we talk, but this will be one of the shows that you'd wish somebody else was here, I'm pretty certain.
Well, that just made everybody want to listen. Really interesting. I was trying to get their attention. Do you think that worked? We lost all three listeners, right?
Yeah, we did. I was just trying to get their attention because they're used to, hey, we're glad you're here with us this week. And I thought, well, I'll throw them a curveball. Yeah.
Okay. Our listener will be very upset. Yeah, no, no. We are glad you're with us this week. And so we are going to be doing a topic that we thought was original.
Apparently, it wasn't because when Danny went to create our folder online where we share all of our clips and stuff, it already had one named that.
So apparently, it was a good idea a couple of times to do this show. And so we're doing a show on God's greatest hits. And what that is, it's a personal introspective to where you look and just say, okay, God, what are the things that I'm really most grateful for in our relationship? relationship in my life. You know, there's some things that you would say are always commonalities for Christians, you know, salvation.
You know, we just kind of take that one for granted. You know, but there's other ones that some people would have opposite sides of the equation. We're talking before the show, that for some people, family may be the next one that they're most grateful for. For other people, they're like, ah, it's not really near the top of my list anywhere at all. Right?
I may be coming up from the bottom, you know, kind of thing. And so it just looks and says, okay, where's God been doing the work in your life? And so that's what we're doing. And so, this is apparently our second show on this. But, Robby, you had a great point.
Before this, when we said, okay, we're doing a second show about greatest hits. Do you remember that? You could have me like you're lost. I'll help you there, Papa. I don't know.
Harold's not here. I got to pick on that. I like that. I like that. I totally slipped the old mind.
Are you thinking that, you know, like the Eagles was me saying? He's not the one with the bad memory. It's me. It's you. Oh, okay.
Sorry, Robby. He said the Eagles, and I said there was more than one Eagle. God hell. Oh, I'm so sorry, Robby. You're right.
I'm the one that has memory issues. Yeah.
Well, I am a grandfather, so I guess that does work. Had more than one album. I guess if we had callers, we would ask them right now: so, what group had the most greatest hits album ever in the history of the world? Yeah, like volume three, four, five? Yeah, I mean.
Yeah.
The Doobie brothers. They had a few. Yeah.
Yeah, anyway, we're on our topic. And so Danny's back with us in the studio. It's been a while since we've seen you in the studio, Danny. It's great to have you here. Yeah, good to be here.
Yeah.
Yeah, you always look so different when you come in. You know, we haven't seen you in so long. You have to introduce yourself. And so. Yeah, there's always less of me when I show you that.
That's what I'm saying. Yeah, we don't recognize you when you come in. Yeah, dude. But you're looking good. It looks like everything's going well.
Everything's going pretty well.
So, yeah. The uh Still losing a little bit of weight, but the just Been so hot, they'd wanted to eat and that kind of thing, and taste buds, and all that crazy stuff that goes on with all that stuff. Yeah, but Still here, still kicking. Ice cream's still good? Ice cream's always good.
Well, there you go.
So you do have that to look forward to. Yeah, we have a rule in my house: you don't bring non-fat ice cream in the house. There's no such thing. It's not ice cream. What's the point?
Skim milk. Yeah, that, yeah, that's that's that's it's it's ice water, is what it is. It's hypocrisy, is what it is. It's white ice water, it's cloudy water. Sherbert.
Yeah.
Well, now that we've gone around all the ice cream topics, we'll move on to the first clip. And, Danny, you have the first clip of this particular show. Yeah, I've used this one before. It's from the Andy Griffith show, and I know that shocks a lot of people. But I do love that show and uh but it's it's from an episode called Opium the Bully.
and to set it up well that, um OP's got a a bully in his life and He doesn't know how to deal with it and he you know, he finally kinda in a in a roundabout way talks to his dad. Talk to Andy about it. And Andy kind of gives him some good advice without letting him know he knows what's going on and everything. he ultimately tells him, you know, th that standing up's not a bad idea and, you know, and I think so So what you're going to hear is the confrontation between opium a bully. And Obi decides, you know what?
This is it, and I gotta say, and the following is what Opie learns out of it, and then we can talk about it afterwards. Hmm. Come on, Opie, hand it over. We're gonna be late for school. Are you ain't you?
I hope he was telling me the truth, Paul. Opie! Opie, son, you all right? Yeah, Paul. Ain't it a beautiful?
It sure is. Tell the truth now, Barney, did you ever see a prettier one in all your born days? No, Andy, I ain't never seen a prettier one in all my born days. And you were right. I didn't even feel it.
You didn't. Nope, and you know what else, Bernie? What? I laughed. Did you?
Yeah, just like you, Paul. I laughed and sailed into him like a windmill and a tornado. It's not like he ain't stopped blowing either. Yeah.
And here's your nickel, Barney. Oh, thanks, son. And here's yours, Paul.
Well, thank you, son. You're welcome. I'm not sure if I can do it. A silent true taste better with milk. What you can't see, obviously, because radio is OP comes in with a black eye.
And he's proud of that black eye. But his dad had told him, you know, when he got one. He didn't even feel his. And, you know, so OP Opi in essence, you know, his dad has told him all this stuff, and so he goes to put what his father has told him been to practice. And he finds out it was truth.
And you know, he gets some freedom and he confronts a bully and he gets his milk money back and everybody else is back. A sandwich does taste better with milk. And but you know I thought about that and I thought you know what we we all have the bullies in our life. You know, you're bullied by something, a bad diagnosis, you know, or family or whatever it is. And that's Ultimately what we End up being as Christians, I think, is that you know, we're studying and we're reading God's Word, and that's supposed to be truth.
And some people disagree with that, but What you ultimately do when you step out in faith is say, Exactly what OP says if you're a country like me. Sure hope you're telling me the truth, Paul. Because You know, there's so many things in my life that I've had that situation and just. go to step out in faith. And I was thinking about when we, you know, transitioned to ministry in Asheboro and we We're doing a transitional house.
for guys coming out of addictions and prisons and stuff like that. And we stepped out in faith in a big way. And And there were many times when we had to take a step of faith. And didn't know where money was coming from, didn't know where the support was coming from, didn't know where anything was coming from. And probably truth be known in my spirit, I was going, Sure hope you are telling me the truth, Pa.
And ultimately God showed up bigger and larger than anything I've ever seen. And there are so many things from childhood to now that, you know, I mean, even in in current situation with this cancer diagnosis. There have been times when, you know, I know what he told me in the beginning, and I've held on to it. I've got you and I've got this. But there's still that seed of doubt that the enemy likes to throw around.
After this, Paul, sometimes go. Sure, hope you were telling me the truth, Paul. And, you know, so that's that's kind of the whole thing is that. But God does always tell us the truth. It's my doubts, it's my fears.
It's not his incompetence, see, because you know just like pilot you know when jesus was being you know taken to the cross You know, Pilate wasn't a follower of Jesus. But ultimately what he comes in is that I find no fault in him. And you're ultimately what we do when we test our faith and when we step out in faith and we we want to know what you know, is God going to show up with his greatest hits? Osmo find no fault in him. Absolutely.
How would you label your greatest hit if you had to put a a title to it? No, I don't know. Yeah, me either. That's what I was asking. Doobie Brothers 12.
Well, I guess. See here's great that his hit was a hit. Yeah.
You know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Got a shotgun, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I think that Danny's hit is a hit.
It is. It is. I think he's been hit. I think he's been hit. So yeah, we'll have to think of a title between that.
But you can hear him laughing.
Now he's healed. No, yeah.
Well, you know, we we talked about playing Hit Me With Your Best Shot last week. Oh, you could have, yeah. Yeah.
Could have done that this week. It would have been a good bump, absolutely. That's right. We did. That's exactly right.
I'm the only one here that has a memory. Apparently. Yeah.
About what? Nothing important, Grant. Nothing important is the answer. Yeah.
Obviously, I don't have one. I know lots of stupid things that no one should know, but. Nothing really important. Other than You know, Jesus. Hey Grant, go ahead.
It's gonna say Memory about what? There you go.
So Grant, what would you say is God's thing he's done in your life that you're most grateful for? Made me love the family and And love Love other than the world.
Okay. Okay. That even more than your recovery from your medical stuff? Same thing.
Okay, okay. Yeah, I knew I'd have to be close. Right. Yeah.
And also teach me. That my time It's a lot different than his Absolutely. Things happen in his time frame. Right? Which is never my time frame.
So I think. Yeah.
If I remember. Maybe disagree. Is your. Oh. All right.
Two? I I was looking at everybody's looking at me, so I just thought maybe you had something to say, so I'm staring at you. You're like in the hose chair. What are we supposed to look at?
Well, I told you, you know, you would have wished someone else is. You are the center of attention. I mean, that's the only thing that makes sense. It is the only thing that makes sense. I have a whole litany of things that I was, as I was thinking about this topic, and I hope that's the right word.
If Jim was here, he'd tell me if I used the right word, but he won't hear this for another three or four weeks when he's back from wherever he's traveling to. It's a very unique topic. It is a very unique topic. And Jim's a very unique person. That'll get his attention.
It will. It'll. He'll do it. It always does. When I was thinking about this topic, I was like, how do I limit it?
How do I take it down to just one thing? And I don't think you can. And I think that that changes over time. When I was talking about we did this show before. I think it's where you're at in that moment.
You know, you're always grateful for lots of things. He's done in life, restored relationships, whatever it may look like, health, all these things you're grateful for. But what am I most grateful for right now? Where's God got me? At this moment.
And then there may be an overall arching thing that you would say with it, but I think that it's something that's good to ask yourself lots of times along the way: what am I most grateful for right now, God, that you've done or are doing in my life? Go to masconjourney.org. We do have a boot camp coming up. It's coming up in November, the week before Thanksgiving. It is an advanced camp, so you'd have to been to another one before that.
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. I listened to Morgan Snyder's book, Driving to Work last year, and that was a very profound experience.
So this kind of culminated into it. I'd have been invited to it several times and just it never worked out and God really had it set up that I came last time.
So coming into this one, I knew this one went deeper and I really wanted it. It's a break for me to get outside of things I've got going on and I just needed a break from it and needed to reconnect and it's been absolutely bad, this process. The covenant of silence, silent prayer, those are some of my favorite parts. This is real connection with the Lord. You hear him speak, you can get direction, guidance, anything you're missing is there.
You always learn something new. It's fun experiencing it with other men. It's fun standing for them and what they're going through. We're all different than Unique, but we're all going through the same struggles, and when you hear somebody else went through it too, it kind of gives you an encouragement that hey, you can make it through this, and God's got you, and He's going to hold you up through it, and He's going to carry you to the next level. Register today at masculinejourney.org.
Oh Overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God. Oh, it chases me down flights delighted. I'm found leaves the 99. I couldn't earn it, and I don't deserve it. Welcome back to Masculine Journey.
That is Bethel Music, is the way that they have that listed of who put it out there, but obviously there's a gentleman singing it. But it's when I first heard that song, I'm like, reckless love of God, really? And then when you really listen to the song and you really think. about how God's pursued you, how You know, he has come at you without any abandon. I mean, he's just coming right at you, you know, trying to get his kids back.
Yeah.
That's uh Honestly, that was one of the the thoughts that I had when I heard the bump was I remember Kind of the first. person that said something like that, that God was the riskiest being in the history of the world. um in the history of all worlds. In that he gave us choice. Um which again is a theological argument for another day.
But He does give you the dignity of causation, the dignity of making things happen. And to what Danny was talking about earlier, sometimes that ends up in addiction or brokenness or all sorts of different things, broken families, marriages. companies, all of those different things. Um countries, I mean But the fact that God chooses to be reckless. In that way, right?
He's, and it's not just on the negative sense, it's more so to the positive sense, that he's coming. after you with reckless abandon. He's not going to let anything get in his way to keep coming for you. And uh and and honestly, when we started talking about the the topic, that was the thing that hit me was, well, Today is God's greatest hit for me. Because if if I were God...
And I knew about my sin. And knew all the things that I've done, I wouldn't be here today. And if you were God and knew all the things that I've done, Send uh And done and said, and blah, blah, blah, and thought all of those things, I probably wouldn't be here today, but he's got. And he chooses mercy every single day when I get up. that's another day of mercy.
And so to me, very much Um today is the day of God's Greatest Hits. often in my life. You reminded me, Darren, of riding to work this morning. And we were in Ohio a few years ago in September. And My heart just got wrecked over a song.
that I thought I knew and they played it. I didn't know it, but I know it now really well. And but one of the phrases in that song is The one who knows me best is the one who loves me most. And I was listening to that song this morning on the way to work. all the way up to Winston.
And uh 'cause I work from home most of the time, so the uh my commute I don't have time to listen to music my commute to the living room to the office and uh at home but uh I was listening to that and it that that phrase hit me and I was thinking about exactly what you were talking about is that God knows everything about me. everything, the good, the bad, the ugly, everything about me. But yet he's the one who loves me most.
So that makes his greatest hits even greater because he. You somebody say, How do you know he loves you that much? Because he died for me. You know, that's that's the reality of it, is that In spite of everything we've done, and you just take this room or this building or this city, whatever that thing. Just the mess ups involved in that.
And God still decided to look past all that and go, you know what? I've got a solution. That is the greatest hit there is.
Well, I guess the rest of us don't need to go. See you. Come back next. Come back for us. We're going to have some time.
God's next greatest hit. No, Danny, that's awesome, the way you said that, and Darren. When I was thinking about the reckless love of God as He pursues us. The thing that gets in the way most often is me. Yeah.
Right? The the lies of the enemy that I've believed. The things that I don't feel like I'm worthy of, because we're not, we're not worthy of any of it, only because he tells us we are, right? It's through His grace that we are. Not because we deserve it or earned it.
And that's what I really loved about that song, it gives me the perspective of the way. God sees me in the fact that He's not going to let anything get in His way. Even me, to come after me, and most of the time he's had to get my attention. That's probably the biggest part of. Yeah.
Eldridge's messages early on as I listen to them. and John Lynch's, both of those guys, very common in that There has been a long and sustained assault upon your heart by the one who knows what you could be and fears you becoming that, which is Satan but there's also been a long and sustained relentless Pursuit of your heart by the one who knows you best had To Danny's point. And Knows what he created you to be and knows you can still be that. He's not given up. I mean, that's.
Mercy every day and grace. But still, if we want. Clearly.
Well, we still have to do our part. The the thing is, you know, we let the enemy continue to tell us how we're disqualified.
Something we've done, something we thought. Whatever. You know, it's that constant disqualification. Anyway, back onto the topic of, we were talking about great estates a little bit there and how it kind of goes around, but Robby, you have the next clip in the there. You go.
And interestingly. It's about recklessness. And a hit. Yeah, it is. Yeah, so I'm like, so this is just front in the mind.
And how God's worked in my life that way.
So this is from the movie Yours, mine, and ours. And ours. Yeah.
Which is a remake of a movie from the 60s with Henry Fonda. That's about a naval officer who has 10 kids, who meets this lady that has 10 kids, and then they put these families together that's a lot bigger than the Brady Bunch. It's a lot bigger. And then the remake of this movie has got a little different pl plot line. But these children are so upset about what their parents have done that they come up with a plan.
And so you listen to the clip, and you'll hear. You know, the the kids make this plan, but then when it starts to actually work for them. They pull up alongside their dad's boat and tell them, oh, we've made a bad mistake. And the reason I'm telling you that is because when he says, well, it's too late, what you can't see is this lighthouse begins to spin, and this beautiful light's coming across the ocean. And he remembers that his wife, he had called her his beautiful lighthouse.
you know, attendant or whatever he called her. And and It's the moment that everything clicks into place that really every all these things were working together. What looked like a complete catastrophe was exactly kind of what God had in mind to fix the situation. Here we go. Admiral Frank Beardsley runs a tight ship.
Let's go, let's go, let's go! What? Roses again.
Sort takes a more relaxed approach. Homes are for free expression, not for good impressions. They're total opposites. It was so romantic. And a perfect match.
So, I asked her to marry me. And I said yes. What? Bellen, this is my crew. Looks like the Jay Crew's had a lot of family life.
Frank, these are my kids. Total freak show. These are your schedules with latrine times. Cultures are clashing. I have to get ready for school.
Nothing says time to get out of the bathroom, like. And the only thing that can bring them together is a plan. None of us likes this situation, but if we want out, we gotta stop fighting and get them to start. To break their parents apart. What are you doing here?
Stopping you. Dad, We have a confession. We were behind everything. All the fights. We tried to break you and mom up so we could go back to the way things were.
We made a huge mistake and we realized that we should all be a family. Come on, we're happy, Jack! Come on! I'm sorry, guys. It's already too late.
Your mom is Really Uh My beautiful lighthouse keeper. I'm sorry. I am too. This is where I belong. Yeah, yeah.
And I think my kids agree. Yeah, your kids. Our kids. Yeah, so The idea of our kids you know, for me Uh You know, family just is one of those things that I came into this year. Um really praying hard that somehow or another my family and I'm talking about my children, which include grandchildren at this point in time, lots of them, and all that would would be closer than they have been.
Even though we all live in the same city, we weren't You know, all kinds of shenanigans had caused us to drift apart and not spend much time together and those kind of things. And um So As many of you know, this In the march beginning April, you know, was this horrible auto accident. Which Again, all things work together for good for those who love God. And what looked like an absolute disaster actually brought our family like, you know. Last weekend was the 4th of July, my youngest daughter's birthday, and we were together and as I was sitting around the table watching everybody's so close together realizing that the What happened, what looked like a complete catastrophe, God knew this would be the thing that would.
Cementis in a new season, you know, that they were in. And, you know, as I listened to that song. I'll never forget when it came out. My youngest daughter, Mariah. Dad.
You got to hear this song. This is the most amazing song, you know, and I can remember the joy. that that brought my heart When you watch your kids in a beautiful relationship with Jesus and things like that, that, like Danny says, that wreck you, that make you pull over the side of the road and And you know, try to get a grip on life. And I can relate to God from a standpoint of, you know, unfortunately, often I'm that. Prodigal.
I'm the kid that hasn't come back And had dinner with him in a long time. And often, you You know, um I get mad or I get Whatever I get, you know, offended, or whatever happens that. You know, we check out. But man, The things he will not stop. It is reckless and he might take a big hit.
But it sure comes on strong. Yeah.
Well, all things work, like you said. Yeah.
Yeah.
Go to masconjourney.org. We do have an upcoming boot camp. It is the weekend before Thanksgiving. That's the 19th through 22nd, I believe, is when our boot camp is. It is an advanced camp, so that means you have to have gone to either one of our entrenchments or to a boot camp somewhere, ours or somebody else's, to qualify for going because we're going to be talking about different topics that you need that background for.
Again, that's masconjourney.org. Spend some time with God this week talking about your greatest hits that He's done in your life.
