Who Am I?

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 Mascone Journey. We're glad you're with us this week, and we are missing a couple people from the show tonight.

We have a few back. We have a few that's gone. And so we we do miss Andy and Darren both having some little things going on. We hope that they'll be back with us soon. And so they are going to be missed.

And Danny, you're back you were here a couple of weeks ago, right? And so but it'd been a while since you'd been here.

So it's good to have you back more consistently. Good to be back. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, talking to the mic. Yeah, you don't remember, you got to talk to the mic.

That's how that works. I was I called in last week, so I had the mic on my head. That's true, you did. That's true you did.

So the topic for this week, i I was thinking about this and I don't know what made me think about the song from Casting Crowns, but Who am I? You know, and it asks the question. That and I thought, wow, that's just a great topic just to kind of talk about because who are we really? And so we're going to see where God took it this week, and that's where it came from. And that'll be part of our bump coming back in will be from that song.

Amazing song, if you haven't heard it, it's way old. It's been here not like Harold Old, but it's old, old. You know, I guess it's in context, you know, you have to say, but it's probably 20 years old by now. And so it's such a great song. But Jim, you have the first clip of the night.

And it is also a song, Who Am I? Which, when I saw the. What we were speaking on tonight hit me immediately. And it's pretty close. I mean, I think Harold was a teenager when this one came out.

Wow. It was. Sixties, it was a group called Country Joe and the Fish. whose big hit was feel like I'm fixing to die rag. And if you're not 70 or older, you probably are clueless as to what I'm talking about.

This song represented me well, When I was a and I use the word morose sad depressed and depressing teenager. who wasn't sure who I was. And from my earliest memories, I always believed in God. But I didn't know where I stood with him. And this is kind of the way I felt when I was a young teen.

And uh The name of this song is also Who Am I? Ready? Here we go. Hello. Who am I?

There were some things that I loved one time. But the dreams are gone. I thought one mine and the hidden. Yes. And once it falls now burn in Side at the thought of all Years of waste.

The years of crime. Passion. Of the heart so blind think that But even still as I stand exposed, the feelings have felt and I cry Into Yako Of my loneliness to stand and wonder to wait while the wheels of fate slowly grind my life away who am I It sort of amazes me I felt this way as a Young teenager. And this was late 60s and I had uh one hippie sister and another one that was a wannabe hippie sister, but she was too straight. And They had Country Join the Fish album, and I listened to a lot of their albums a lot of times.

And this really registered with me as a Yeah, we're just all gonna be. Squashed by lost love and crushed by the wheels of fate, And I don't know why I identified with it then. I've got far more reason to identify with it now. But I don't. And the real issue is coming to.

A relationship with God. And I'll go ahead and just shoot my whole wad here real quick. But I was looking at our Bible study this morning. and I'm going to pull out the phone. and not read it to you just so I can give you the address.

'Cause right now all I can think of is First Colossians. But excuse me, not Colossians. First Chronicles. And David basically asked God that question. You know, who am I?

And uh I decided, well, that rings familiar. Other biblical folks have asked God who they are. And God never answers the question except pointing. them to the relationship they have with him. He tells David that, you know, you are the.

Shepherd who I made king. And David had already started this conversation by praising God.

So he was already knew that he was God's and he later repeats that and says I You know everything about me. You know who I am. And others asked the same question, Moses. Who am I to save the people?

Okay. And again, he God says, Doesn't matter who you are, I'm with you. That is a repeated thing, and the only one I found that was a little different, and I, this wasn't an exhaustive study, but I. There were five examples And all of them pointed to the relationship with God. But in Job's case he actually said Uh This is who I am.

not who you are. And he It's the end of Job where he describes all of the things he did and where were you when I did all this.

So once we get that part straight, the relationship with God. We know we are his beloved children. And until we get that, uh there's no real reason to be happy with your life.

Well, thank you. You want to add something, Grant? Yes. This is m in my shirt what doesn't We didn't plan this, but In 2 Corinthians Five seventeen Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, The new creation has come. The old is gone.

And the new is here. Yeah, absolutely. And I clear my voice. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, new creation in Christ, that's part of our identity, correct? Um Jim, I I I was couldn't figure out why I knew that song. I'm like, when you hadn't played it, had the clip cut, I was like, I know this song. And then, as you were talking, I remember my brothers playing it. They were nine and ten years older than me.

So that would have been in my brother's sophomore, junior. time and I remember that song Playing at Our House. One of the few times I ever heard my father angry enough to yell. was at my sister when they played Country Joe and the Fish, and it had some uh words in there we're not gonna repeat on them. We could not use them here, yeah.

And uh it it really shocked me because that was actually a song I liked a lot too. And it was a against the Vietnam War.

Now I think that was part of the you know, doom that I felt oppressed by in my youth. No, Harold Deer's would have been what, like the War of 1812 or Revolutionary. No, Revolutionary War.

Well, we were all struggling to try to figure out what Jim was saying. Like, it's not totally unheard of, but when you use big words, because we're not a big word kind of group that much, but Jim uses morose, right? And we're trying to struggle to find what it is. And Harold had the perfect answer for that. Harold, what did you tell us that that meant?

What was a good example of that? Eeyore. Yeah, Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. That's a perfect example of what Jim was telling us. And so it just locked in for me that this is exactly what that meant.

So it made it come alive.

So thank you, Harold. That was really good. And Robby jumped on a three-letter word there. Which, with his love of Hebrew, three-letter words are the most common. But he said, sad.

And yeah, I was sad and at a very early age I was drinking to try to drown that? Sadness, but as life continued, I started. figuring out a few things and God had me all the time, but I didn't feel like it for a significant part of my life. Yeah, it's one of those things that we I don't think we're very surprised when you hear of a teenager. Asking that question because they're trying to think: okay, where am I going with my future?

What school am I going to go to? Am I going to go to school? all those kinds of things, but it's a question that comes up pretty frequently. I think for people at different points in their life. Right.

You know, when you be first become a father, Okay, it changes who you are. It fundamentally changes a lot about you. Whenever you become a grandparent, it changes you in a different way. Right? And so there's plenty of opportunities to say, okay, who am I?

Now. You know, yes, I have this other part of me that's been coming along, but now it's changing and going in a different direction. And you think about, you know, Jared McGuire, a famous scene where he says, Am I just another shark in a soup? Right. And often we're disrupted.

Mm-hmm. Right. And we have to look at, oh my gosh, who have I become? another shark in a suit kind of thing. And You know, that's another wake-up call to who you are, may not be.

very attractive to you when you get a good smell of that cesspool. That's a pleasant thought before we go to that. Let's take a break, run to the kitchen, get some tea. Yeah. Yeah, wow.

Okay. Yeah. Anyway, I don't even know what to say. It's actually a C.S. Lewis quote.

He said: you know, many of us would get a lot better grip on reality if we got a better smell of our intercess pool. Oh, okay. Yeah. Because we we who we think we are, it was the case of Jerry McGuire. He thought he was a big time agent, you know, making all kinds of money.

But when the little boy showed him what his values actually were, then clearly he'd been disrupted and he got a smell of his inner cesspool. Absolutely. Oh, thoughts to ponder. That's a good one. Anyway, when we come back, Harold's got a poem for us.

I'm looking forward to hearing Harold's poem that he wrote a few years ago, you know, in our lifetime. Just drop in the bucket for some. For some of us, it was later in life, at others, it was early. But yeah, no, looking forward to hearing his poem again. But I want you to ask yourself.

Who are you right now? No, what the roles you play, yes. You know, I'm a parent. I'm a daughter, I'm a son, whoever that is, right? Whatever you are.

But who are you in God's eyes? When we come back, we're gonna talk a little bit more about that. But that's the question that really matters the most, because when you get that one correct, All the others seem to line up under it.

So I want you to think about that as we go away. We will talk with you and we get back and we would talk to you then.

Okay, got nothing else. 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 think sometimes as men, we feel like we're on our own and we've got to do everything ourselves, and the weight of the world is on our shoulders, and it's our job to fix everything and make everything right and have all the answers. And I think when you come here, you just get really honed back in and reminded that God really is for us, that a good father helps you, and a good father makes sure you have all the tools you need, and a good father comes through for you when you need him and you just feel less alone.

Register today at masculinejourney.org. I am. A flower quickly fading. Here today and gone tomorrow. A wave tossed in the ocean.

Fading in the winds to you. Hear me when I'm calling. Lord, you catch me when I'm falling. And you've told me who I am. I am yours.

Welcome back to Masculine Journey. And that kind of sums up what we're talking about today, who we are. We're going to talk more about that. But as I did that well-polished exit going into break, I was trying to think about what we were to talk about next going into this session. And I'm really looking forward to Harold your poem.

If you would share that with the people that's listening, we heard it a little bit before the show, but if you'd share that again.

Okay, this is one that I wrote. back on December twenty sixth, twenty twelve, I was obviously in a very introspective mood at the time. But this is a very important question. to me at the end and even now. And having it as our topic tonight, I think.

we'll emphasize to our listeners The value of trying to discover, you know, who we really are.

So here's the poem. Do I really know who I am? Is the mirror image really me? or is my persona only a sham? what do others look and see?

My aim is much higher than my reach. my failures so much easier to find. If I could truly grasp what Scriptures teach, what a difference would come to my mind. I love the Lord and need forgiveness. my pride and selfishness so often in the way.

How can He continue to bless and bless? when my steps stray so far, day by day. That's how I know about his great love. His desire to save me is why I am still here. When my earth time is over, I'll be above because I can trust him without fear.

That's good. Amen. That's really good, Harold. Thank you so much for sharing that. I was thinking about boot camp, you know, and one of the things we talk about.

As we're talking about being authentic. One of the questions that they say, you know, go ask the people in your life. really who they see you Who are you? How do they see you? This can be a really scary question.

I mean when I think back at different times, as you wrote there, Harold, you know, I see myself as one type of parent. you know, was angry a lot. You know, I remember the things I didn't do well. But when you talk to my kids, they don't remember it that way. It's weird how God protects them sometimes from some of that, but also how the enemy comes up and points to your failures over and over again to try to hold you down and keep you away from what God's trying to tell you is the truest thing about you.

which is you are his. And so thanks, Harold. That was awesome. Um Danny, you have the uh next clip. Yeah, uh mine is not from Billy Bob Rake and uh pitchforks, but uh whatever that is.

Yeah, the turtles or whatever, but uh It's from the Andy Griffith Show, and it's an episode where Andy confronts this guy, this publisher, and summons him back to a Mayberry first beating ticket for 15 bucks. And this guy is big time. And it rubs him the wrong way, of course.

So he goes after him with this reporter who Barney just spills the beans on all kinds of stuff. Barney elaborates on all that stuff and They make this a news article and it comes out and the state attorney investigates Andy.

So he's on, it's a hearing that that you're going to hear. And there's been a as they go into the hearing, well, we've got a star witness. you know, that'll bring some things to light. And Barney's sitting over there going, I can't wait to see who this witness is.

Well, it's Barney. and they put him on the stand, And they go through a series of questions and that kind of thing, but Barney is very upset that now he knows that he's the cause of what's. where he has a big role in what's going on. But, you know, what we're going to hear is Barney's explaining and confessing some stuff. And you know, he's going to use a couple words.

that and that, you know, he he's talking about Andy being his friend and being the town's friend. And that's kind of why I chose the tip the clip, and I'll explain it afterwards. But you can play it. Is it Andorf? Was that the name?

Andorf, yeah.

Okay, here we go. You may step down. Andy? I said you may step down. You can say that all you want to, but I ain't stepping down.

This is a hearing, ain't it?

Well, it seems to me you ought to hear everything, not just a bunch of yeses. Very well, you may speak if you wish to. Yeah. Thank you. Sure, I said all in things.

But the truth is sometimes I get carried away with myself. I was talking with a young lady there.

Okay. Well I got to bragging a little bit. I guess that's one of my faults. But I sure didn't think it was going to backfire and be used against Andy.

Well, and he's the best friend I got in the whole world. And as far as I'm concerned, he's the best sheriff, too. All them things I said. For example, his using the squad car for personal reasons. Sure, he was delivering groceries to Emma Watson because she was too sick to get down to the market.

And that's just one example of the things Andy's done for the folks in this town. I could give you a lot more. You've got to understand, this is a small town. A sheriff is more than just a sheriff. He's a friend.

And the people in this town, they ain't got a better friend than Andy Taylor. As far as Andy knowing his job, I'd just like for you to take a look in the record book, Mr. Jackson. You know there ain't been a major crime committed in this town thanks to Sheriff Taylor. The only ruckus you'd ever have in Mayberry is if you tried to remove him from office.

Then he'd have a riot. You asked me if Andy runs a taut ship, Mr. Milton. Oh, no, he don't. But that's because of something that he's been trying to teach me.

ever since I started working for him. And that is that when you're a lawman and you're dealing with people, You do a whole lot better if you go not so much by the book. But by the heart. I guess maybe that's... Kind of hard for some of you to understand.

I don't know. Uh Yeah. That's all I got to say. Yeah, Barney, you know, he explains it well, and you know, he's. Jerry says he he's bragging a little bit and You got yourself into trouble and But yeah, he talks about the friendship.

Between him and Andy and And Andy in the town and And it reminded me of when you sent the topic out, Sam, you know, who am I? I was reminded there's another song that that you know, called Friend of God. And our pastor today sermon on it one time being a friend of God. And he uses scripture as Exodus 33, 11 says, So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face. as a man speaks to his friend.

And you know, he talked about Moses being a friend of God.

Well, a few years before that, you know, God had spoken to me and said, you know, That as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I've got that on a in a placard somewhere that somebody made for me. And But what I didn't realize up until this this point in my life is that I struggled with who I was most of my life. you know, and It was simply because I was asking that question to the wrong people or to the wrong places. Because you know, we talk a lot at boot camp about taking your questions to God first.

And you know, I think I know I do. I get in a lot of trouble when I don't take my questions. to God first. You know, nothing wrong with asking folks around me, who am I? But I need some clarification from the one who knows who I am.

And you know, when he did that and they play that song. You know, I had been going to AA meetings. You know, I'm Danny, and I'm an alcoholic. But after that, I would start saying, I'm Danny and I'm a friend of God. Because I realized that I can say I'm anybody's friend on this planet.

I can tell you I'm Donald Trump's friend or, you know, whoever. That doesn't really mean anything. I'm just telling you. But now, when they turn around and they say, Danny's my friend. And that means something.

I remember going into a former employee's Uh establishment. I'd worked for him for several years. and I walked in there and he's standing there talking to another guy. And He stops and I walk in and he introduces me. And this man could have introduced me in several different ways.

This is a former employee of mine. This is It used to work for me. But what he said to that man was Was This is my friend Danny Marsh. And it meant the world to me because that man had every right to never even talk to me again. Yeah, 'cause I will I'll quit during the heart of some of my addictions and that kind of thing.

but him saying that I was his friend. And to think that the CEO of the universe The one who created everything about me and everything about you and everything else. looks down and says, Danny, you're my friend. is incredible to me. And you know, and since that time, you know, there's been layers and layers and layers of that.

And the last thing I'll share is that, you know, it's because of God's sacrifice in Christ Jesus. That he can call me friend. That I'm able to I know I'm more than his friend, I'm his son. I am his beloved. I have favor with him.

That's who I am. There are days I don't feel like it. There are days I don't feel much like anything. But the reality of it is is that because God says so, That's all that matters. Absolutely.

Sam, in the first part of this show you asked after the break for or during the break for people to look at. And think about what other people would say about them. And I didn't just do it for me. And I have actually asked People and usually I just feel like they're being nice to be kind to me, but. Um My self-evaluation is Invariably lower than my valuation I get from others.

And I think that's probably true of everybody in this room. Because People can see when God is in you, even when you're not feeling very godly, as you pointed out. And I'd I've never heard anybody say anything about Danny that wasn't extremely posit positive. But are you ready to accept that from From humans as well as from God? Yeah.

Yeah, I'll do it. Yeah. Yeah, well I was thinking about Yeah, my grandpa for me Growing up, he was the the most godliest man I knew. my dad's dad, and I didn't know him well. but he was also really probably one of the most humble.

Man, I ever met, and I couldn't figure out why for the longest reason. But as you grow as a Christian, you realize how far you really are away. from being godlike. Yes, you're becoming more and more, but you realize How great that distance is, and how God just sweeps in and loves on you, regardless of where you are along the way. Because as you said, Danny, you are the beloved child.

of the king. And so remember that this week as you head out and ask God some questions. Who am I to you, God? How do you see me? And if you start to hear some condemnation, that's not from God.

You may hear conviction, there's a big difference, but when they attack you, attack your character, that's from the enemy. Block that voice and just keep with it. Say, God. Who really am I in your eyes? And let him answer it.

We will talk with you next week. Enjoy your week and love somebody well.