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're having a really fun show. Hectic for me, but fun, still the same.
I thought it would be a fun idea to play our favorite clips, just short versions of them, that God uses to. prompt us to bring us back to reality on something, to bring us back to Him. I often hear lots of things through that. Or just quotes that we find funny. Andy, you were saying before how we used one from mister Mom before we went on the air.
Do you want to tell us again what that was? Yes. Mr. Mom, he's gotten laid off. Uh his wife has had to start working her her boss comes over and and he's got to have an appearance that he it's not a failure, that he's got it together and he's sitting there doing home repairs with the chainsaw kind of thing.
You know, it's like and he's just totally posing. But Uh Ron asked him, uh that's his wife's boss, said uh, what kind of electricity are you putting in, um 220? And he was like, Yeah, 220, 221, whatever it takes. You know, and so that's one that comes up. If you're of a certain age, of course.
Right. But yeah, going back to one that one of our listeners sent in, there is the quote at the end of it. And what's happening, if you haven't seen Christmas Vacation, it's been around forever. You know, it's played every Christmastime, obviously. But if it's not your cup of tea, it does have some funny quotes in it.
And so on this one, Clark Griswold, who's the dad, has his Santa hat on. He's got a chainsaw in his hand upstairs. No idea why he has a chainsaw upstairs. But he's walking along and he hits the edge of the new post. And it's loose, and we're gonna hear you don't see that, but that's what happens.
And he has a way to fix that.
So here we go. Fix the new post. And that came from Adam up in Ohio. He's a good friend of ours. And he talked about how his family loves to watch this movie every year.
And he said, as you know, the holidays can be always stressful and chaotic. And he said when he'll start to work on something and he feels that he's at that very kind of point of it's getting to him, he'll just come out and say, I fixed the new post and everybody will start laughing. It brings everything back down again. Said that there's lots of quotes that they use from that movie, but it's always just something that grounds him, again, into a place of peace. And so it's kind of neat how God, like I said on the other show, decides that something's going to stick with you along the way, that there's something that you just can't seem to get out of your mind.
And so we're going to go to a clip from yours, Darren. If you wanted to. If you wanted to uh talk about it at all? Or do you want me to play it?
Well, this comes from Gladiator, and uh it the the reason this clip sticks with me is this when when a man finally Most men are walking around saying, What's my purpose in life? In one way, form, or another, they're doing that. And when they finally figure it out, and usually it comes from God in the form of a name, kind of like a nickname or something like that. But this clip. Kind of.
goes directly at that, and it's not a nickname at all. It's it's remembering who I am. Do you have a name? My name is Gladiator. How dare you show your back to me?
Slave. Remove your helmet and tell me your name. My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius. Commander of the armies of the north. General of the Felix Legions.
Loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son? Husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance. In this life or the next.
So, the reality there is that. God did create us. In a very specific way for a very specific time and place and mission. And, you know, Maximus has forgotten what he was created to do. He's taken on a new name.
That name is slave. And so that's what he's been living as. And this is when he can't live that way any longer. And it's not even him that's trying to pull himself out of it. It's literally the enemy that's goading him.
until he finally has to step up and say, no, this is who I am. And that I call that today. I mean, every day, just about, every morning, just about, I have to go back through and say, no, this is who I am. This is who God made me to be. Um this this is this is me.
This you know, da da da da da, and and go through that to some extent or another. And that clip always sticks with me. The beauty, I don't know how many times I've heard that clip, used it in many a talk. But I just now picked out something Like, oh my gosh, listen to that. You know, we, Darren, Andy, and I are listening to the survival school, maybe Sam as well.
There's this idea of integration. of yourself. Right? And he. Names?
some of his parts right there, he's a And think about how broken those parts are completely different. Like He was this General, and that was one of his roles, right? But clearly, being a father to a murdered son is a different thing altogether. Being the husband to a murdered wife is a different thing altogether. And like Jesus has This, and again, this was brought out by Morgan recently in those survival school videos.
Jesus is the way, the truth, the life. He's a loaf of bread. He's a living water. You know, he has a multitude of things that make this diamond. A priest and a sacrifice.
Right. Right. And Lamb. You got it?
So you see this diamond and it has all these facets. Right. And what Max Mess does there is say, look, A lot of my Facets. are bitterly wounded at this point in time, and he's looking for integration. Um And it's really a cool thing that, from my standpoint, I'm now discovering how Jesus wants to work in each of those particular wounded areas of our lives to integrate us at different points in our life that they were wounded.
But it's. It's a fantastic s study and You know, healing that Jesus has brought to me lately of my broken heart.
Well, I mean, it. To me, the most healing that I got. I mean, the the biggest jumps that I've taken in life is when God has given me a new name. when God told me you're dangerous. That At first, it felt like a wound, and then it began to feel, you know, like, okay, that's what God wants me to be.
But then later on in life, other names come along. You know, that God is, you know, that's for a season, this is for a season. And you never really let go of any of those things, as Maximus did not let go of any of those things, right? I never understood it as integration, but I am understanding it more and more as integration. But one of the things that I love, too, about that clip that I have to remind myself of.
Cause there are a few things in life where I wouldn't mind having a little bit of vengeance. But he says, I will have my vengeance. in this life or the next.
Well, I'm probably not going to have my vengeance in this life. But Jesus literally says that part of the reason he came was to reveal the day of God's vengeance.
Well, that doesn't mean that all the people that I want to have pay. are necessarily going to get it. it means that the one who's going to decide Is Jesus and God, not me. And they know whether or not. They will get grace.
Mercy. or whether they will choose vengeance, and you're going to get what you choose. whether that's grace, mercy, or vengeance. And so to be able to let go of that and say, Yep, that's God's got that. I don't have to worry about it in this life or the next, honestly.
Yeah, when you guys were talking, reminded me of, and I've shared it at boot camp, I don't think I've shared it on the air, of my first name that God gave me. that I didn't understand for 20 plus years what he was saying. You know, because I was at my first boot camp and I went out and I'm like, oh, okay, everybody's getting these cool names, Maximus and all that. I'm like, God, what name do you have for me? Teacher.
Really? I asked for something to give me a vocation. And I would actually joke about that at camp when I do that talk on the new name. And then one time I'd done it, and I heard Jesus say, you know that's what they called me. And boom, it finally sunk in.
I never joked about it again. In 20 years, it took me just to even understand what he had said. I'm sure his timing was perfect, but anyway, it was a hard realization. Better late than never. It is, it is, and I'm very grateful for that.
But, Andy, you have the next clip, and it's from Braveheart. It is. Braveheart's one of my favorite quotable movies. There's just so much packed into it. Most of it pretty serious stuff, but They just do a good job of articulating in the movie.
the the main themes. Um And it's all based on a true story, and you just have to. I don't know that William Wallace really said this, but. But it's whenever he's rallying the troops, I believe it's for the Battle of Sterling. And he's just calling out the identity.
And then he's casting a vision for freedom for his soldiers who most of them want to run and hide and give up. Because it does. It looks like an unwinnable battle that they're getting ready to enter into. And we'll listen to that clip, but you just listen to how he calls out their identity, casts that vision. And uh we'll talk about it.
You've come to fight as free men. And free men you are. What will you do with that freedom?
So That last part, what will you do? I heard it for years. What will you do without freedom? Even though he just said that they were free. I just was like He was, I thought he was casting a vision that they, you know, you don't have freedom and you need it.
But Robby pointed out, and I went back and listened to it: it's what will you do with that freedom? And the question for all of us is.
Now that we are free, that you've been set free in boot camps, what are you going to do with that? Are you going to just stick it in your pocket, or are you going to do everything you can to share that freedom and fight? for the kingdom, for God's people to step into that.
Well, obviously we we struggle with that because I think as Peter said, it's for freedom that God set us free, right? Paraphrased a little bit. But yeah. And because we forget. The enemy's so good at enslaving us or getting us to step back into things that we forget that we were free and we are free.
We just got to claim it and live in it. Right. Yep. I was talking earlier about the movie Caddyshack, and so I do have a clip from Caddyshack. And what this is, you have Ted Knight's character, Judge Smales.
He's the gruff guy in the whole movie. And there's not a lot of redeeming qualities in Caddyshack. But this is one that God has helped me see a few times. And what's happening is they're playing around the golf. He's got his grandson Spalding with him.
And they're walking up to the refreshment center. And Spalding's talking, and we'll just pick it up from there. I want a hamburger. No, a cheeseburger. I want a hot dog.
I want a milkshake. I want potatoes. You'll get nothing and like it. And so when I find myself feeling entitled that I'm do something, you know, I will hear this. You'll get nothing I'd like it.
And it just makes me laugh. I want a hamburger. I want a cheeseburger. I want a hot dog. And I can get whiny like that.
You know, I I think we have a tendency of humans to be that way, and each generation gets worse and worse because it's more ingrained in our society. And so that's one that I I often laugh at when God kind of raises it to my attention. I'm like, okay, I'm acting entitled, I'm acting like I'm do something that I'm not really do. Yeah, when I first saw the movie, I was amazed because I thought that mom was the only one that said that. And I'm guessing your kids probably, until they saw the movie, Sam, were thinking dad's the only one that says that.
Yeah, yeah, you get nothing like it. They never understood it for a long time. That was my favorite payoffs with them, is when I'd say something for years, then I'd actually watch a movie with them when they got older. And then it would really understand. Yeah.
Yeah, there's lots of things like that. But, Darren, I wanted to come back to you from one from Open Range.
Okay. And so, you want to talk anything about it, or do you want me to play it? Uh,. Yeah, I mean it's just it's It's uh In the movie where the town has gone to pot and uh it's being you know run roughshod by a couple of bullies and Everybody's complaining about it, and this has stuck with me because I was a lead pastor for many years, of different churches, and oftentimes people would come to me and they would say, You know, it's a shame what this church has come to, or you know, something along that line. And, you know, I mean, oftentimes people would say things like, well, you know, why don't you just go plant another church?
Why don't we just split off? And And God gave me the wisdom or gave me the advice from a mentor at some point in time to say, look, if you don't have what it takes to step up here and change things, you're not going to have what it takes to step up there and change things.
So be careful what you ask for. And so this comes from kind of that idea. You're a gun hand named Butler with it. That's what they say.
So bad about your friend. Is she alright? He's dead. Too bad. Seemed like a nice young feller.
Shame what this town's come to. Could do something about it. One. We're freighters. Ralph Husa.
Shopkeeper. You're men, ain't you? I didn't raise my boys just to see him killed.
Well, you may not know this, but there's things that gnaw out a man worse than dying. That's fact. And there are things that gnaw out a man worse than dying. And that's the part of the clip. that um now Some men will take that and go okay, yeah.
There is something that's worse than dying. Therefore I'm going to make a change. Therefore, I'm going to fight this battle. Whether that's a battle with addiction, whether it's a battle with anger, whether it's a battle with, you know. a situation that you have no control over.
Um or whatever that situation is. Either you can realize there are things that will gnaw at you, and they will keep gnawing at you. And they're worse than dying. Because dying, you're at least free from that. Um if you don't rise up and be the man that God created you to be.
you're gonna have some things gnaw at you for the rest of your life. Yeah, i you live in the I should have, I could have, I wished I would have. Yeah. Because there are things that are worse than for me, some of the things that are worse are the things I didn't do that I felt like I should have. Right, that God called me to step up and I didn't.
And I was worried about the ramifications of that. But the consequences of not doing it and carrying that is so much worse worse than what it would have been. That's like the dude that buried the talents. You know, you just didn't go and invest. And how I heard a phenomenal lesson about that passage from my friend, and you guys have met him, whether you remember him or not, Steve Bufkin.
uh was preaching uh for us uh the weekend before last. And He talked about that and he said, You know what, guys? I think all three of these guys made their decisions in isolation. They didn't know what the other one was doing. And what the power Of that isolation is, or the power of brotherhood would be if they were working together.
And so that The the point That you were making, that's the power of brotherhood. That You let Oh man, I should have done something, or I know I need to, but I'm fearful that.
Well, when you're walking with a bunch of Not a bunch. When you're walking with a few, Really, deeply intimate friends who know what God has called you to be, and knows what you would be. And what you would look like if you allowed God to have His way with you. Then they can remind you of that and they can say, I've got your back. I'm with you, heart and soul, like Jonathan did to David, or Jonathan's armor bearer did to Jonathan.
You know, if you want to go fight the Philistines, I've got you, heart and soul. Do what's in your heart. And If you're walking solo, If you're not walking with a band of brothers, you're toast. Yeah. Because you're going to make decisions you shouldn't have done.
you're going to not make decisions you should have done. And nobody's going to be there to tell you differently. Yeah. Or or you sometimes you just fall to the enemy saying you really don't have what it takes. He gets you with that old thing that's been around forever.
You just don't have what it takes to do that. You know, and that's a tough one. Andy, I wanted you to um Talk about the butterfly circus a little bit if you want to do that. Uh so the butterfly circus is a A movie that we use at boot camp quite a bit. Maybe not something that you've heard, but it really is about a guy, Will, who has.
Basically, limited arms and legs, and he's trying to find his place in the world, and he kind of gets invited into this circus where it's other broken people that. God has taken and made something great out of their lives. And you've got this um I don't know, the maybe the ring master, yeah, that that kind of is speaking into him to try to get him to see beyond his limitations of his, you know, and physical impairment and to and to really step in the way God sees him. And that's basically it. There's other examples you'll hear earlier in the clip before you get to the meat of the clip, is where.
It's given examples of these people that God has done a great thing in their lives.
So you'll hear that in the background. they'll be able to see it, but uh The only thing I would add to that at the beginning was Oh. What the ringmaster does to him and he says something to Will echoes what he's heard his whole life. Yeah, right. And he's learned to believe it.
And everybody can find that clip on YouTube. Yeah. They can go watch the whole movie. It's a great movie. 20 minutes.
20 minutes long, yeah. Awesome movie. Splendid. Yeah. The way they morph them.
Full of strength. Colour and grace. They're standing. But you Girls from birth. Amen.
If you can call him that. Who God Himself turned His back upon. Stop it. Why would you say that? Because you.
Good thing I'm not. But if you could only see. The beauty that can come from ashes. I say They let you go.
Sorry. Good luck out there. It's your problem now. You're no good to me, so get out! Good enough for me, Darklace.
Here you go. But they're different from me. Yes. You do have an advantage. The greater this track.
The more glorious the triumph. Yeah, the greater the struggle, the more glorious the triumph. And you that you know, that's I believe consistent with Scripture. I mean it.
So many of God's people were put in difficult situations, and it didn't look like they had any hope. I mean, you just look at.
Somebody like David with Goliath, you know. But look at the glorious part of that triumph. I mean, as. is Nobody, nobody in Israel had a chance against that guy, and he dared to believe. And so it made the victory that much greater.
Look at all the faith that how Israel rose up. And they began to believe in God again because they knew he didn't do it. Yeah, that clip, we have to give our friend Mark Varner credit for that. He brought it to boot camp, and we started playing it. I'm like, really?
Really, Mark? This is just another Heath Ledger, whatever that movie is. The night, whatever. Nights Tale. Nights Tale.
But it was really good. It was quite good. The name Butterfly Circus at a men's boot camp is kind of like watching the notebook at a men's boot camp, which, you know, we've threatened guys with that before. But yeah, when he said, oh, there's this great movie, Butterfly Circus, we're all going. Yeah, sure, Mark.
Yeah, that sounds really good. Yeah, you kind of sound like Robby when he did Camp Rock and he did the Barbie movie.
Well, the whole butterfly thing, too, is The Mermaid Princess. Oh, that was what it was. Yeah, okay, it was Mermaid Princess. Yeah. He played season five of Once Upon a Time.
Sorry, these are all jokes for us inside, but yeah. Andy, you were saying something. I interrupted you. The whole idea behind the butterfly, I guess most people would get it, but you've got the caterpillar. He's just coming in to become a flourishing butterfly, and everybody in the circus there does that.
Yeah, and there's a butterfly that flies throughout the clip in different spots. I just figured it out. Yeah, that's a circus. I have a clip that I've not heard at a boot camp. But I saw it at work yesterday And I went and I looked it up because I really liked the way the clip read.
And then it really hit a chord with me that I know it's gonna ring in my head. moving forward but it's from Back to the Future 3. And what's happened is they've done something and they've changed what's going to happen in the future. Right? Because you always, if you've seen the first one, if they don't change things, Marty will disappear, his family will disappear.
There's always something that has to get corrected. Right. And so Marty and his wife come back in three and they're talking to Doc Brown and she's holding up something. She said, but it's gone. It's not here.
What does that mean? Whatever they were trying to fix is no longer there. And this is his response. Ah! Dr.
Brown? I brought the snow pack from the future and Now it's a rape! Of course it's a race! But what does that mean? It means your future hasn't been written yet.
No one's had. Your future is whatever you make it. To make it a good one. And for me, the reason it hit a chord is I am a warrior. I find myself worrying.
I've done a lot better with it. I've given a lot more of that to God, but I used to wake up. Early in the morning, I've never had a problem falling asleep. I can do that in about 30 seconds, that's not an issue. But staying asleep has been the problem, and I'd wake up around 3 o'clock and just be worried.
About stuff. And when I read this quote, it reminded me that the only truth is what God is telling you. You don't know what the future holds. God may promise you things and things like that, like He did David. He may give you glimpses of things in the future.
But short of those that you can definitely depend on, nothing's written yet. Right, and so why stress about it? Let God have it and let Him lead it. Oh, it's cool when you think about the whole premise of Back to the Future. They're going back to heal wounds from Marty's dad, think of how he.
progresses based on healing old wounds. Right. But in the future. It's a different story. You're pushing into that, right?
Absolutely. Absolutely. Go to masculinejourney.org. We do have an advanced boot camp coming up in November 19th through 22nd. You do have to have gone to a boot camp somewhere, one of ours, or someone else's, or one of our entrenchments.
If you haven't done that, then you'll probably have to wait till spring when we have a spring boot camp that's going to be a basic. Or go to one of our allies boot camps. You can reach that on our website. Anyway, it's been great talking to you this week and think about the clips God brings to your mind and ask Him why. We'll talk to you next week.
