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. I will say that we have the most interesting conversations during the break. I was just thinking that.
Yeah, yeah. If we're not on live today, exactly, which is a good, which is a good thing, or we wouldn't have had some of that conversation.
So we had freedom. Yeah, we had freedom to talk about some of the stuff we did. But you know, all of a sudden the music starts playing. I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
So anyway, it was nothing negative. It was just something interesting about all of our medical issues. Yeah, we're old. We're old men falling apart.
So yeah, yeah. It's I won't tell the funny story about that. But anyway, we are tired. It might be useful for some people. Too much tonight.
Too hard to explain.
Well, no, not that one. I had another story. Yeah, yeah. I don't mind telling that one. But still, yeah.
No, it's it's.
Well, save it. Anyway, Jim, remind us of what the topic is we're talking about today. Is freedom and how we. See the freedom that we have in Christ. I I've been thinking about that since you laid it out there a couple days ago, and I'm still not.
I don't have one solid answer to that because I just there's so many aspects of it that speak to my heart. The clip that I have is from Amistad as well. And if you're not familiar with the movie, there were some people coming over.
Some slaves are coming over on a ship.
Some of them were off boarded, were thrown overboard and killed. Basically, approximately 50 of them, I think it was, which caused the rest of them to rebel, right, and kill some of the people their captors. And then they got to America and they were put in court for murder, right, and so. We're hearing that, and so a lot of these people were free. All of them were free in their home country, and got captured.
Now, in this other country, being held prisoner for killing somebody, for kidnapping him, basically, and killing the you know and killing their family members and friends. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. But in the scene, and the and so they don't speak English typically. But one of the people has learned enough English. To start to express how he feels, and so as we first pick up this courtroom scene, you have I believe it's the defense attorney talking to one of the people that were on the on the ship.
About the ledgers that they had, and you can kind of hear some of the flippant attitude of in regards to what they considered cargo, which was really people, right? And then you hear some other voices later, which will be the criminal prosecutor, and then also the judge. And so it'll kind of make sense when you hear those voices coming from different places. But as they're talking about it, the one prisoner starts making a statement, and he refuses to step back. And quit making it, since we're going to listen to it and talk about it.
I do see that the cargo weight changed. They reduced the poundage. I'd say that is a hope. It's simple, ghastly arithmetic.
Well, for you, perhaps. I may need a quill and parchment and a better imagination. And what poundage do you imagine the entry may refer to, sir? A mast and sails, perhaps. This us free.
Give us free. Give us free. Give us free. Your Honor, please instruct the defendant that he cannot disrupt these proceedings with such out. Give us us free.
If we are to have any semblance of order in this courtyard, give us us free. Keep crying out, give us free, or anything else. Give us. I am trying to question this witness. Give us us free.
As the scene goes on, the the crowd, the courtroom is just quiet. You know that he's he's finally been heard. Right, and the reason I pick that was absolutely we are we have freedom in Christ because Christ chose to set us free from what He did on the cross. Right, He freed us from sin, from our past sins. He He freed us from living out the eternal damnation for those.
Right, He He set us free in that, but we have to continue to fight for that freedom. Right, I can know that I'm free in my head. And not live like it in my heart, right? Or I could subscribe to things of the flesh instead of things of the spirit, like we're talking about, and we'll talk more about in a little bit. But you know, I can put myself back in bondage very easily.
You know, I think that's part of why, and I've never been like addicted to any type of painkillers or alcohol or anything. But I think that's part of why, and that. Way they do it is they they always identify as that. It's to remind them I could be again. I don't necessarily subscribe to it.
I don't say that's because you are a different person down the road. But I think it initially it was meant to be good, just to remind them. It's only by grace that I'm not still in this all the time. And so for me, it's just holding on to that freedom. Yeah.
What I'd say, freedom for me, the most of, is freedom of fear. Because when I let my mind wander, when I let anxiety build, it's always on things the enemy's throwing at me to try to get me afraid. And we've talked about that on other shows. But when I hold on to the truth and I hold on to walking with the Spirit, those don't have impact on me. It's when I start to slide in one direction or another, and we're very absent-minded human beings.
Are we don't remember a lot, and so I think that's why God has always encouraged people, you know, to remember things. That's why the Israelites put up statues and monuments to remember things that happened. You know, we have things that happen in our life, and we forget all about them. You know, three weeks later, and then God has to remind us again. And so for me, it's just holding.
On to that, that I got to have the tenacity that this person that was enslaved did. The question I asked that both of you struggled with, and. I did too, but it really—you touched on it there, Sam. For me, it the freedom is from fear. It's a we worry about the stuff of this world that's gonna pass.
I mean, there is no question. And sometimes we are so wrapped up in that we forget to look at the eternal things.
So part of that, the freedom that we have, is to try to set others free. I wasn't going to mention this, but I guess I will. I was. Considering our bump as being Jimi Hendrix, and the name of the song is Freedom, and it's free to live. But he's he's doing it from a perspective that is really about love, and and that was in the '60s, and free love was a big theme then.
But our freedom does come. From love, from the ultimate love, and we are free to love others. And if we're doing that, we are doing what Jesus commanded us to do. When I was in religion. And for the, I'm not using that as a dirty word, but I've got lots of religious training in my latter years, and in talking to folks that were falling back into the law, which we all have a tendency to do because the law is easy.
You can do this. You can't do that. That's Removes the responsibility of the freedom that we can have, but I would end many of conversation when I was losing to legalists that well I would prefer to err on the side of grace than on the law, and I think. Jesus actually appreciates that, because we can be gracious even if it's a mistake. It's still a good thing.
When we become legalistic, that can become judgment and error, and even being a tool of the devil.
Well, Paul in Galatians five, verse one starts this, and I. If you're listening, go read the whole chapter, chapter five. I mean, you you could start at Genesis if you wanted, and wait till you got to the end of chapter five. But if you know, if you can only read something a little bit, then then go read Galatians five on this topic, because Paul says literally this. He says it was for freedom.
It was for freedom that Christ has set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm. Sam's clip, and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. And I played a clip in the in the first show also from Amistad. And the question that I had to ask myself as I was looking through this because I.
I I'll be honest. I mean. There was a lot of my life when I I would read about freedom in Christ, and I would go, yeah. If I'm so free, why am I still struggling with this? Why am I still struggling with pornography?
Why am I still struggling with anger? Why am I still struggling with, you know, control, wanting to control everything, or struggling to give control away? You know, what do you want for dinner? I don't care. You pick.
I mean, you know, ultimately. It go that the street runs both ways for all of us in some way or shape or form, but Paul is he's using a a phrase in the Greek. Our English Bibles don't do well to really explain this, but he's using a legal term. And he's basically saying that the type of freedom that you have been given is when someone who is stronger, more authoritative, comes along, and Sam is a slave to Jim, and I come along, and I'm the ultimate authority, and I say, "Nope, Sam is free. He's free to go.
He's free to be free." What that meant to Paul and his brothers in Jewish tradition, as well as the Greeks in Roman times, when you were set free with that type of freedom, it literally was saying this person can no longer ever be a slave to anyone.
Now. All right, I'll take that. But to Sam's point, um, we could put ourselves back in slavery.
Well, no, it's against the law. You can't. You know, I mean, I'm using a term, against the law. You can't go back into slavery, but you can act like one. You you can play the role.
You might not be a doctor, but you slept at a Holiday Inn last night. That is exactly what we do sometimes. Is well, I know I'm not a slave to sin, but well, today I'm going to act like I am, and. And that's where my battle for a long time, a lot of my life, honestly, I I would think, okay, well, I'm holding the line. I'm holding the line.
I'm doing good. I'm doing good. I'm doing good. And then. When enough anger or enough temptation or whatever came along, I usually didn't sin a little bit.
I I don't hardly ever do anything in a little bit. I mean, seriously, I'm pretty much all in, you know. And it's like, well, if I'm gonna do it, and if it's if it's wrong, well, I'm gonna do it all the way then. And that is as twisted and backward as anything that. That has ever happened in this creation, but Paul is coming along and saying, "Well, Jesus has set you free from that," and he even says, "Almost, it's almost as if you know it's it's mom or dad." Well, why?
I've been set free for what? Because I said so. I mean, that's literally almost what God is saying in Galatians five, and and then Paul does the ultimate authority. He can say that he can. And then later on, you know, he goes down and he starts talking about this battle between the flesh and the spirit, right?
And he and he goes on to say, you know, we know what the results of living by the flesh are: the sexual immorality, and anger, and malice, and all of these different things. And then in the very next section, the end of the chapter, he says, "But living by the Spirit, here's the fruit of the Spirit: love and peace and joy and kindness and goodness and all of these different things." And so he says, basically, you know what you're doing by what you're doing. Ultimately, the fruit. Of the flesh is one thing; the fruit of the spirit is another. And I think a lot of people get really, really stuck because they see both in their life.
One of the things Paul says in verse two or three of Galatians five is, "We are awaiting the hope." Of a of a deeper, greater freedom is ultimately what he's talking about, and so he's saying, "Look, I know you're not there." I mean, Paul is literally saying, "You've been set free for freedom's sake." I know, I know, I know. Your life doesn't look like that all the way, and we are awaiting the hope of the Spirit, which is. Living out the fruit of the spirit, right? And so he goes on to talk about that. And the only reason I am so passionate about that is because I see so many people basically saying, "I just can't pull it off.
I just can't pull it off," and so they give up. Yeah, yeah. I think that you know, sin does a lot of horrible things to our life, but the one thing that it does, it gives the enemy a foothold, right? It gives him a way to logically attack you, you know, and to remind you that you haven't done anything to earn this. You know, you've been exactly you've earned you've earned slavery by your actions, right?
And so he uses logic against us to really get us into that place of fear. Right, one of the things that I love that we used to talk about a long time ago in this ministry was, you know, if you're not sure what to do, test the fruit. What's the fruit of that going to be? Right, right. If it's not going to be love and joy and things of the spirit, yeah, it's probably something you don't want to do.
Right, you know, if I'm gonna. Gesture at somebody in traffic, you know, in an unfriendly manner. You know, there's going to be ramifications for that. It's not going to lead to love, joy, yeah, right, peace, right. It's not going to be the fruit, right?
Or to get angry and speak ill to somebody. What's the fruit of that going to be? You know, we get we get tucked into that or locked onto.
Well, they deserve it, right? In our own mind, they should know better. They should know better, and those types of things. And what the enemy is just looking for there is again another way to get a foothold. Yeah.
In your life, yeah, and I, you know, Jim is a much more patient, kind driver than any of the rest of us. He he's the only guy that passes me every time when we leave the restaurant to come to the station. It doesn't matter where he starts out; he's at the station first. Yeah, he passes everybody. It's because everybody just goes, "Hey, it's Jim," and they just let him go by.
But I think he does it with, you know, just kind of like, all right. I'm just, you know, I I don't see Jim like losing his mind, getting angry about it. For me, it's the ultimate game, and I'm a game player from way back. And can I? Time it so I get that green light.
Oh, I hit every green light on the way here today, and that's kind of a goal. Yeah, and that reminds me of a conversation with my dad, which I'm going to share. We were driving down Independence Boulevard in Charlotte many, many, many years ago, when there were lots and lots of traffic lights.
Now it's just one. Big zip through town, but I noticed Dad caught all the. Light's green," said Dad. "How do you time those lights?" "Oh, I I don't time them. I pray about them." And I said, "God, isn't that a really little thing to take to God?" And his response was what I'll never forget.
He said, "Isn't everything a little thing to God?" And I said, "Well, you know, when you put it that way, yeah, yeah, it's no big deal." He could. Do what we needed to need him to do, and one of those is give us the strength to express our freedom in a godly way. And I don't love every driver I encounter every moment, but I try to after I get around them, which I invariably do. Try not to think of him as okay. That.
Poor person never learned to drive. I need negative stuff. I need to get back to where I'm loving on him instead of wanting to cuss him. Is it wrong that I'm sitting here? I know it's wrong.
I'm sitting here thinking about what's the fruit if I just block Jim so he can't meet the red, meet the green light? You know, you, me, Andy, Robby, we just boxy good. Yeah, we just boxy man all the way. Kind of like it's an NASCAR thing. I will not tailgate.
Jim, that is a lie. You've tailgated me before. Not for long, until you zip around. Yeah, it's just to get by you. Absolutely, I don't sit behind people.
Yeah, close. I back off when I get blocked.
So, guys, as we continue to talk about this topic, yeah, I think for me, freedom is a practice. That I have to continually focus on, right? Because everything in this world is against us, right? We're not of this world, you know. We're in this world, and and if we look to anything in the world to give us our answers, it's probably not going to lead us in the right direction.
Yeah, and it that concept of everything in the world is going to Basically, say you're not free, right? I mean, there's plenty of evidence to that, right? I mean, Jesus says I am free, and I am free, you know, for freedom's sake. And there's a lot of evidence in the world that would point to me and go, "No, you're not." And so that's when, again, to Jim's point earlier, you've got a choice to make, and that choice is: am I going to believe God, or am I going to trust in this evidence? One's going to cause you to move in one direction, closer towards the spirit, awaiting the hope of righteousness that Paul talks about.
The other is going to cause you to just give up. Makes sense, and Paul's a great example of making choices that the world would say, "Boy, that was really dumb," because he got beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, shipwrecked, put in jail, bitten by a snake. Yeah, that one was kind of cool. They're watching him to die, and he doesn't do it. This guy must be a god.
Well, he's just following God. And Paul in Romans seven talks about this battle between you know shadow and light, if you will, an old Bruce Carroll song. The this idea that man, I mean, some days I feel like I am walking in the light, and in other days I feel like I am walking in the shadows. Right, and Paul calls himself that, and he says, "What I, what I want to do, I don't pull it off. What I don't want to do, I find myself doing." And so, if you are in that same position, guess what?
You're no different than Paul. You're no different than the greatest writer in the New Testament. You and he have a lot in common. You're both very intense and sinful. Oh, whichever direction you go.
When he was in, he was all in. Yeah. For sure.
Well, we do have Danny's clip. If anyone wants to talk about Danny's clip, if it's something that rings to you, we could we could play it quickly. Yeah, sure. I mean, it it is a great clip. We've played it at pretty much every boot camp we've ever done, as far as our basic boot camps, anyway.
Towards the end of of Gladiator, when um basically Maximus has given his life. To free some people, and you know, you'll hear the he was a soldier of Rome. Honor him and all of that, but the the the best part of the whole clip is the last few words that his best friend ultimately ends up saying. His fellow slave, yes, his fellow slave, who's no longer slave. Here we go.
Is Rome worth one good man's life? We believed it once. Make us believe it again. He was a soldier of Rome. Honor him.
Who will help me carry him?
Now we are free. I will see you again, but not yet. Not yet. My my whole issue with that clip, I think it's an amazing clip, but she has a deeper voice than I do, and that bothers me.
Soldiers of Rome. It's not. I can't match that. I can't match that. It's hilarious.
Something you can't see on the radio, and is kind of significant. And I'm pretty sure this was one of his gods that he buried in the. Sand. Oh yeah, and covered up, and walked off into his freedom. Freedom, and you know, we're a lot of us are enslaved to gods with the little G, and if we're slaves of God with the big G, that's where the freedom is.
But we're all going to serve something, and sadly, if we're Many, if not all of us, at some level, it's ourselves. But serving others is a is a joy.
So, any last words that we could help people with before we close up this topic? Anything that comes to mind? Give us free. Yeah, give us free. That's a good one.
I I would say where you find yourself now, if you're finding yourself in the fruit that is negative, right? Trace it back until you find where that freedom was taken from you. Amen. Because ultimately, that's going to be there at some point. And you made the choice in the wrong direction.
Not to feel shame in it, but to know that you have the power to not make that choice again. Yeah. Moving forward, and just learn and grow from that. And that's what I try to do. Is I stumble through this life and make mistakes, is try my best not to repeat it the next time because I don't want the fruit it's going to produce in my life.
Yeah, it is very defeating when you do keep redoing it. But you have to remember, Paul said the basically the exact same thing. Yep. Go to maskownjourney dot org. We will be posting a spring boot camp probably in the next month or so.
We'll talk with you next week.
