Good Heart

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. We're glad that you're with us today. We have a pretty full studio, which is nice.

We're missing Andy and Grant and Jim. I think everybody else is here. Yeah, you're shaking your heads. Yeah, I can't hear that.

Well, you, I can, Danny. Yes, yeah. You hear the rattling of the marbles? I do. Yeah.

We're definitely missing Andy, Jim. In Grant, Grant.

Well, thank you for the confirmation. I appreciate that. I feel better now, Robby. You got something. I don't think Grant's here.

Well, Grant may be gone. You took it for granted. He was here. I did. Yeah, that happens.

Yeah, yeah. Anyway, we are going to talk about a topic today that I'm not sure how it will be received. Honestly, because the first time I heard this topic that we're going to talk about, it went against a lot of the things I'd been taught growing up. You know, and it's it's hard because, you, all the Bible is God's word and is true, right? But there seems to be contradictions sometimes in the Bible.

Right, and so we're going to talk about one of those right now. And Darren, the passage that is most often quoted when they're talking about someone's heart is from Jeremiah seventeen nine, is the passage in the Old Testament. One of the passages in the Old Testament, but it it kind of articulates it in a nutshell that the heart is deceitfully wicked above all things. Who can understand it? And so.

We've determined that that is true, and it is. But then there are more scriptures that that talk about taking away that heart that is deceitfully wicked above all things, and giving you a new heart. And Jesus Himself—I mean, I like Jeremiah; he's a good guy. He was tough. I mean, I think he could take any of us.

But Jesus Himself says that. Out of the good heart or the noble heart, a lot of good treasures come out. And so, Jeremiah and Jesus got a problem. I mean, and and we're going to try to work it out tonight. Absolutely, yeah.

The passage you're talking about with a good heart is in Ezekiel, right? It's Ezekiel twenty or thirty six twenty six, and it says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I'll remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." And flesh is one of those words that it's all over the place, right? I'm sure there's a bunch of different Hebrew words for flesh, just like it is a lot of other things. But when you think about He's putting a new spirit in you, right?

The Holy Spirit is coming in you.

So, when I've always read that, and after I'd heard this talk at a boot camp, I went back and studied it a lot. And for me, it was it seemed like when I became a Christian, when I accepted Jesus as my Savior, is where a lot of that transformation occurs, right? Because you are a new creation in Christ.

Well, how good is it to be a new creation with an old heart? Yeah, and and there's a lot of evidence. To that effect, for a new Christian, right? I mean, you become a new Christian. You you read these things.

I'm a new creation in Christ Jesus. That you know, I've I've got a good and noble heart. If I'm the guy in the parable of the sower, the parable of the seeds, or maybe it should be called the parable of the soils. Ultimately, so the guy that has a good and noble heart, good things grow from there. And and a multitude of good things far more than he could produce on his own, and as a baby Christian who still struggles with sin, you you kind of go well.

Wait, I I thought I was a new creation. Maybe I'm still the still the deceitfully wicked guy, and maybe it didn't take. Yeah. Yeah, you have that, but I tend to think that Paul was a pretty good Christian. You know, they locked him up.

Yeah, they did lock him up a few times for it. But you know, he's the one that writes about "I do the things I don't want to do, I don't do the things I do want to do" kind of thing. And and it's as we're growing as Christians, yes, we have to move past that old flesh, the way we've handled things in the future. Yes, you are a new creation. You just got to learn how to live as that new creation, and it doesn't happen over.

Night, it takes the rest of your life to do that. Yeah, I mean, Paul talks about picking up your cross and crucifying the flesh daily, right? And so that's a practice, right? Salvation is a once in time thing, one time for all time. the The hypox sacrifice.

But it's also a process that leads us to sanctification, and so that process is where we get hung up. We believe—I mean, most Christians believe that if if I've trusted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, and and I've I've truly put my faith in Him over and above anything else that I could possibly put my faith in, then I I am what he says I am, but then t here is all of this evidence to the contrary that's still you know crowding in my life that I've got to deal with. Yeah, and we'll talk more about that. But Danny, we want to get to your clip, and it's about a a pastor of all things that's kind of struggling with this concept, isn't it?

Sounds like me. Yeah, it's about Darren. It is no the clips from the Waltons. And we're we're just pointing at Danny, making him nervous, so we don't know what we're doing.

Okay. Yeah, we were. It's from the Waltons. From the Waltons, and it's John Ritter playing. Uh, he's a minister, fresh out of college, and he's gonna be preaching this all-day service.

Must be in Baptist or Pentecostal or something. Sure. But anyway, was back in the time without TV. But he's hanging out the Waltons, and and him and Grandpa end up over at the Baldwin ladies, who two ladies who are very sweet ladies, kind hearts, but they make their Daddy's recipe, and recipe is moonshot, but so he falls into the spirits, so to speak, and so he's crushed. He's you know he's he's messed up and that kind of thing.

So he has, as we were talking about, the you know his heart has deceived him, and he knows how wicked he is and everything.

So he's beating himself up, and what you're going to hear in this clip is kind of John and Job Boy kind of tried to restore his faith in the good heart that he does have. All right, here we go. The road runs on. Ah, I'd like to get my things, and I'd be obliged for a lift to the nearest bus stop. What about the all-day service?

I recognize how hollow. And righteous, all my words were. Both of you were quicker to realize that than I was. What are you going to do? I guess my call to the ministry was faulty.

I'll I'll try to be worthy of whatever else the Lord wants me to do with my life. You're quitting. I don't see as I have any choice. A man cannot ask other men to lead their lives better than he is capable of himself. Morning, Miss Prism.

Sorry to interrupt. Why have you brought that man here? I brought along the preach we all came to hear. I'd like to hear myself. If he speaks, I shall leave.

Miss Prism, Matt Fordwick here is a trained preacher. He's trained to preach the word of the Lord. That's worth hearing for my money, little of it as there is. It is not worth listening to a drunkard and a public sinner. That's true, John.

Well, I read the Bible too, you know, and seems to me there's a story in there about another public sinner. And it says something about let him who is without sin cast the first stone. I am a sinner. I guess I don't need to tell you that, but I need to admit it. Yeah, so you know they're trying to restore you know his heart, and and so often as I was raised.

You know, in a in a Baptist culture or whatever, if you will, but from what I heard was now I don't know I heard correctly or not, was that you had to be good enough to be a Christian, and to me that's an exercise in futility because I never was good enough, and the enemy loves to play that that tune, and so you know from this perspective of. You know, a good heart. When I heard that, you know, there is a good heart in me, because if I'm a new creation, I love what you said. You know, what's good? What's the good of a good creation with an old heart?

You know, and and so you know, Jesus talks a lot about you know living out of your heart. And I was looking for it in the Old Testament because it tells you to guard your heart. Yeah, it's a wellspring of life. Yeah, I'm sitting there thinking, okay. If it's deceitfully wicked, and that's that's the end game, then why would you guard something that's deceitfully wicked?

Well, you want to stay wicked.

Well, yeah, I mean, and I guarded it that way for a long time, especially in private. I mean, you you you can't be a public center, but you can be a private center.

Well, I've been both. I've been both. I was probably more of a sergeant, working my way towards colonel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had some stars on the thing.

You know what I mean? That was good, Sam. I like that. There's going to be several people that are about ten minutes later are going to get that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'll get it in a minute. But yeah, you you realize that you know I have realized that that there is a good heart in me that God gave me, and that's the one that He speaks to. That's the one that that He wants me to live out of. Yeah, there's this flesh that we've talked about that that's always present and everything. But the more I feed the goodness in me.

With his word and with his presence, and I think the stronger that becomes, I think, and that that way we can live that way, and it's not so much about performance as it is about relationship. Robby, yeah, I've been trying to figure out when to chime this in, but I guess it's time. Ding ding ding. There's a lot of discussion. Like you said, flesh is all over the place.

So when you look at the word "flesh" in Hebrew, which is when Ezekiel says, "I'm going to give you a heart of flesh," the word's bizarre. Interestingly, it'd almost be how you pronounce it. But that is the exact same word that, when in Isaiah 61, where it says, "You know, I'm going to set the captives free." Feel the brokenhearted. Yeah. Right.

And he said, "And preach good news." That word, "good news." Same word. Wow. Bizarre, right? And the idea of the good heart and that idea of it being good news are very connected. Obviously, into the idea of the whole word gospel, and even you know, blessed are the feet of the one who brings good news.

Same word.

Okay. Now we move to the New Testament. And we begin to use that word flesh, and this has to do with an evil inclination. In Hebrew, it's completely different word, different concept, different idea.

So when you say the flesh is pulling me, that's not the flesh, the the heart that they're talking about in Ezekiel, nor is it the flesh that Jesus is going to set free. English is so limited in comparison. It is. Go to Masculine Journey dot org. We will have a spring boot camp coming up.

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 the good father comes. Through for you when you need him, and you just feel less alone.

Register today at MasculinJourney. dot org. Welcome back. That's Glenn Campbell, you know, and I—I hate to admit this, but I enjoy watching some things on TikTok, right? And I finally had the algorithm down to where it's things that I enjoy seeing.

And one of the things that they play is a lot of Glenn Campbell's guitar. He was amazing, amazing guitarist, you know, and and how he worked with Eddie Van Halen and just other people along the way. But you know, just hearing that song, you know, just lets you understand that we're going to show Jesus's love, and that's how people are going to be impacted, right? It's kind of hard to show love if you got a wicked heart. It's kind of hard to show love if you're deceitful.

Right to actually have genuine love, and when you are a new creation, there is a lot coming at you, right? Because in your mind, you know, and it's great you are a new creation. But I remember the first time I said, "Well, I'm never going to do that again," and then did it like a day later. You know, I mean, and you just think, "Well, I failed." I'm like John Ritter's character. I'm out.

You know, I guess. Yep. Yeah. It didn't take. It didn't take.

The calling didn't. Had a bad calling here, but you know, we talked about. Times unholy trinity that's against you. Yeah. Right.

You have the devil. Right. You have the world. Right. And they're pulling away from God.

Right. And then you have your flesh. But I would say that that that encompasses a lot of different things. Yeah. I mean, Robby brought up the point that that word flesh is is there's a lot of differences in there that we it's kind of like we translate the word love.

Yeah. It. You know. It's four or five different words with very Very different ideas in Scripture, and yet we all call it love. I mean, you know, and and so, and you can get that same love, you know, on any reprobate television show, right?

And so, when we when we say you've got a good heart and you do not have this wicked, deceitfully wicked heart anymore, we're not saying. Honestly, that you won't still struggle with some things that an evil-hearted person might struggle with, but what we are saying is, don't buy into that lie wholeheartedly. It was true, but if you've become a Christian, you've gotten a new heart. Right? It's been, it's been re.

Created, David says it in Psalm fifty-one. Creating me a clean heart, and the the word that he's using there for create is there's nothing to start with, and so God, this is all on you. You've got to start with something, and I don't have it, and so but God is saying, I'm going to give you that. I'm going to give you that heart, and so for me, um. It's pretty easy to buy into the lie, and in this next clip, there's a character.

His name is Gru, and it's, um, it's it's a great movie from the Minions, and um, I love all of the Minions. Movies and just because they're funny, they're silly, they're you know just enjoyable. But there's some deep truths in there too. And so, Gru, you meet this guy, and he's a guy that's bought into all the negative things that he believed about himself, or that his mother told him about himself. Is she's really the worst, you know, offender in his life?

But he finally figures out. Even though he thinks he wants to be evil, he thinks he wants to do all these evil things. That there is something deeper to him, and in this clip, it's towards the end of the first movie where he begins to discover that these three little girls that he calls kittens have been brought into his life, and they're they're asking for a bedtime story.

So he's going to write them a new book.

Now originally he had brought them from the orphanage. Yep. Right with evil intent. Yeah. Right, and then they impacted him.

Yeah. Way. Right. Yeah. True.

Hi. Oh, I guess I got to start that over. Talk for a minute.

Well, like all of us, we were in an evil orphanage at one point in time called. The kingdom of darkness, and Jesus has translated us into the kingdom of light. That wasn't Gru's intention, but it is where he ended up.

Well, hopefully, we've got him reset. Yeah. Okay, Gordo, time for bed. Oh, come on, you want a story? Gru's sleeping kit.

Oh no, sorry, that that book was accidentally destroyed maliciously. Tonight, we are going to read a new book. This one is called. One big unicorn. By who wrote this?

Oh, me! I wrote it. Oh, look! It's a puppet book. Here, watch this.

That's the horn. This is gonna be the best book ever. Not to pat myself on the back, but yes, it probably will be. Here we go. One big unicorn, strong and free, thought he was happy as he could be.

Then three little kittens came around and turned his whole life upside down. Hey, that one looks like me. No, what are you talking about? These are kittens. Any relation to persons living or dead is completely coincidental.

They made him laugh. Oh, they made him cry. He never should have said goodbye, and now he knows he could never part from those three little kittens. They changed his heart. And so the point there is that God uses other people in our lives unsuspectingly.

Often they might not know that He's using them. You might not know that He's using them, but He does, and. You had a guy that was bought into "I'm evil, I'm bad," and so I need to do evil things. But it's got to be really good evil things, like big evil things, right? And and so that's monumental.

Monumental, yes, yeah. Monumental. We're talking steal the moon here. Yeah, he's going to steal the moon. Yeah, because he.

Yeah. Anyway, I get told on a regular basis by. A few people who love me unconditionally, obviously, that I am a good man.

Now Sheila says it differently than everybody else, but Sheila will look at me often and say, "You're a good man, Mister Coon. You're a good man." And I got to tell you, you know, we've been married almost twenty years, and. It's probably only been in the last five that I actually went.

Okay, I'll take it. I mean, it was hard for me to hear that because she is such a good person, and she's too good for you. She's way too good for me. Always said that. Everyone has always said that, especially her family.

But and my family. I mean, so. But the point there is that she sees it right. And she sees what God is doing, not what I was. And I've said that to her one time.

We've we've had this discussion a lot. You say I'm a good man, and and yeah, I suppose the man you see is a fairly good man. But you don't know the man I was before you met me, and she's like, "Yeah," and I don't need to because I know who you are now, and and that's the point. We have to buy into not what our wife or our husband or our children or anybody else says about us, although it might not be a bad thing. But Jesus Himself says that if you will cultivate your heart.

I will make it a good and noble heart, and it will bear much fruit. We gotta trust Him when you are when you are a new Christian. You know, a lot of what's going against you too is you react the way that you've always reacted, because just because you are a new Christian doesn't mean you are healed. Right, and so part of that cultivation is letting God inviting God in to find those broken places and to work through those with Him to get to the point of healing.

So you don't want to react the way that you always did. You know, as we talk about when when something comes up and it feels like something that happened to you before. Right. This feels like that. Yeah.

You know, those things tend to go away. Right, and so I can react differently because it's not pushing on a really rough place or. Salty wound, right? And and that's the thing is, people push on our old wounds. They don't know they're there.

They don't know it's an old wound, but they push on it accidentally. And I mean, just in the last few weeks, I mean, I called you one night and said, "Look, you got to talk me off this cliff." And and you said, "Yeah, I remember a guy that said, you know, this feels like that." And which was exactly what was going through my mind, and it's why I called you to say, "Okay, tell me this feels like that. That this is not that, but it feels like that." Help me understand. Provide this healing for you, Robby was monumental. Robby was monumental.

We're using monumental. We're we're both providing it for each other. But no, I mean that that. And and it really wasn't about Robby. It it was about the way I was processing information, and so to to have people around you, a community of men, a community of family around you, an awesome church community that gets this stuff to say, no, no, no, no, no, wait, yeah, you were wounded that way once.

But that's not what's happening now. You're just feeling the tenderness of that old wound, and so don't react out of that. Don't treat people badly out of that. But let God come in and redeem that, and that's that's the beauty there. And the other angle to that that I think is critical.

Is during that discussion, which was the other half of that discussion, I had to trust. Darren's got a good heart. Not only do I have a good heart, which I know I had a good heart to Darren all the way through the discussion, but also I had to know that. Wait a minute, you know I don't know what's going on here, but Darren's got a good heart, and and that's a critical part, right, of of the good heart. Process the Good Heart Ministry, which is really the Father Ministry.

What we do, absolutely, yeah. When I went to boot camp and advanced boot camp, two thousand four, and God just this talk went through, and it just it rocked my world. You know, because I just always saw myself as I'll do okay for a little while. Then I'm just wicked, wicked, wicked. Then I'll do okay.

You know, and and not understanding that it was sanctification that was happening, right? And it takes time. Time to get there, and you're not going to get there immediately. You know, could God do that? Absolutely.

Does He choose to do that? Not typically, right? It's a walk with Him. It's a relationship with Him that leads you to that point of where you can react out of the good heart, and it changes the way you see others. When I see somebody react the way I wouldn't like them to react, I can still trust that they have a good heart.

It's just pushing on an old wound or something. Yeah, yeah. Well, anyways, good talking with this week. This week, I'd like for you to just focus on this topic and just go look up scripture. Anything that has to do with a good heart, just keep looking that up and see how many times in scripture Jesus refers to it.

Other people refer to it. It's obviously there. We'll talk to you next week.