Memories and Agreements Replaced by Truth

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Welcome to Masculine Journey. We're glad that you're with us this week. And I know that there's some of you out there that think that we don't have a plan for a topic. That we just kind of come in here and wing it, although it'd be hard to do that with Eclipse.

But we do actually try to prepare for these ahead of time. And last week we were sitting around after the show and saying, okay, we really don't have a topic for this next week. And a couple different topics came out and we said, oh, that covers us the next couple weeks. And the more we thought about it, it actually became one topic.

But Andy, I want to go ahead and open it up to you. What was the idea you had for a topic that we kicked around about doing for this week? Yeah, so after we finished up talking about celebration, we were just talking about how God will give us something and we forget it. And we don't always journal well. We don't remember those things. And then we got to talking about, well, the positive things God does in our life, the deliverance, or the healing that he gives, or the restoration, or the time you just spent in close intimacy with him. You know, those things mean a lot.

They mean a lot in a human relationship. Why wouldn't they in our relationship with God? So as I got to thinking about it while we were talking is like you think about the examples in the Old Testament. Whenever they crossed over the Jordan River, they made an altar, a monument. Whenever Joshua went to the Mount Ebal, he made an altar, a monument. And then in the New Testament, well, even in the Old Testament still, they spent 40 years wandering around in the desert. Well, they had the Feast of Tabernacles to help them remember that, where they came from.

And obviously in the New Testament, you've got communion. Jesus said, do this in remembrance of me. So I just thought it would be cool because a lot of times we struggle with remembering bad things. What about the positive things? God's constantly telling us to remember these things. Negative of sin or things that have affected us negatively, but also the positive things because that's what our new relationship in him is built on.

Thank you, Andy. And Danny, you had an idea for a topic as well if you want to go ahead and share that. Yeah, we were talking, I was thinking about, we talk about agreements a lot. And most of the time we say that in a negative, negative terms, I guess. And there's also positive agreements. And we kind of steered that toward what God says about you and making those agreements, but replacing the old agreements with the new agreements. And that was kind of the idea.

Yeah, it was a great, great idea on both sides. And we thought about it. We kind of walked away and said, okay, well, that gives us the next couple of weeks topic.

And as I started processing it, called these guys and talked to some of them about it. And so they, you know, at the end of the day, we kind of come down to the same situation with both of these. What we choose to remember are the old agreements, the things that the enemy has told us it's true about us. Right? And what we fail to hold on to and replace with is good agreements that Jesus gives us.

Right? And so that needs to be our new go-to memory instead of the old memories of what the enemy has been telling us all our life. And Darren, there is a scriptural reference to this, right, in the New Testament.

Yeah, a lot. I mean, Luke 11 is one that immediately came to mind to me when you called me and we started talking about it was, you know, Jesus talks about when you clean a house of evil, you clean evil spirits out of a house, you kick it out. That that evil spirit roams around for a while and says, well, you know what, I don't find any good place to live here. I'm going back to my house.

And if you go look at Luke 11, that's what the spirit says. He thinks your house is his house. He thinks your heart is his house. And so he decides he's coming back.

And if he comes back and he finds that heart empty, that place empty, he goes and finds seven friends that are even more evil than him and come back. And Jesus says the latter state is much worse for the man than the first state. And so the principle is when Jesus comes and helps us break an agreement that we felt like was very real about ourselves, and you said, you know, we remember the old agreements, we remember the negative agreements, the lies about ourselves. And the reason those are so easy to hold on to is because they feel so true for such a long time. They feel like they're a part of us to the point where when Jesus comes and usually gives us a truth in preparation to break that agreement, that truth feels like a lie.

You know, it's an oxymoron. When Jesus comes and says, you know, you're a fervent man of prayer. You're a righteous man. It may feel like, no, that's not true of me. And I push that off. And I accept something that's not true in its place.

Yeah, sorry about that. It was cracking up a little bit there. But yeah, you do accept something that's not true in the place of what Jesus has told you. You know, and the thing about the enemy's lies, there's usually a little bit of truth to them.

That's why you buy into it, but then a whole lot of lie behind it. And so I want to kind of start, we talk about this topic of agreements a lot, but I think it's sometimes, unless you've been around it, it's hard to really understand what that means. And Robby, do you want to play your clip first before you talk about an agreement, or do you want to talk about the agreement part first?

Well, it's pretty one and the same, you know. If you listen to the clip, it's from the movie The Grinch, and you may have heard him, he's actually made an agreement here that it's better to be alone than be in a community that you'll hear right off the bat. But then he's going to start talking to himself, and he's going to hear that he's an idiot, you know. And lately, you know, I hedge trimmed my finger.

You might be aware of that, of people that listened last week or know me a little bit. And, you know, as my wife was running me to the emergency room, you know, I kept saying it over and over, you're an idiot, you're an idiot, you know, because there was a lot riding on this little finger that I thought, you know, it was absolutely necessary in my life. And I just kept repeating it. But the thing I want you to hear as you listen to the clip is when you hear this, you're an idiot. Do you hear I'm an idiot, or you're an idiot?

And of course, Grinch gets to hear it both ways. I'll tell you, Max, I don't know why I ever leave this place. I've got all the company I need right here. Hello! Hello! How are you?

How are you? I asked you first. I asked you first. Oh, that's really mature, saying exactly what I do.

Exactly what I do. I'm an idiot! You're an idiot! All right, fine. I'm not talking to you anymore. In fact, I'm going to whisper so that by the time my voice reverberates off the walls and gets back to me, I won't be able to hear it.

You're an idiot! So maybe you've heard that, you know, when you've done some sort of stupid human trick like I recently did and have certainly paid the price. And interestingly, I've had a week for infections set in and all sorts of other, you know, bad things that, you know, Satan would really like me to buy into the fact that I'm an idiot. But it's fascinating to me that God has been working on me with different words every morning as I go to him and begin to pray. And we worked on healing last week, but as the infection had set in and really some things that got kind of scary the last couple days, this morning he sent me, why don't you look up sick and see what the word sick means or what it looks like in Hebrew.

And you know me, that's how I look. Well, fascinatingly, very fascinatingly, and this is really going to help me break this agreement, that when you look at the word sick, it's actually the same way you spell mankind. So you might be aware that the first man's name was Adam, and that has to do with the letters that make up that, which is an Aleph and a Dalit and a Mem. Well, if you take the Mem, which means Jesus, out of the word Adama, out of Adam, if you take the Jesus out, you get the word sick, which is Adash, which a lot of times in the Bible, this is significant, a lot of times in the Bible, when they refer to mankind, they're saying Adash, which is the same word as sick. Well, of course we are.

Well, of course we are. Right? You take Jesus out of the equation at any given moment in your life and you're sick. And so the neat thing is you just add water and stir. A Mem is water, so by the way- Living water. Yeah, living water.

You just add living water and stir. And it's really a beautiful thing that like, oh my goodness, it has everything to do with health, but it also has to do with why I'm an idiot. And so you might remember Jesus said it this way, apart from me, you can do nothing.

Right? And so it's really kind of a cool thing for me as I'm working through what God's teaching me on this whole I'm an idiot thing, that I can really see that, oh my goodness, yeah, with him, I am far from an idiot. I think you took the vine and branches part two literal.

You took off part of your finger. I wanted to start with this particular agreement because as we went around the room before the show and there's ten of us here tonight, or nine of us here tonight, every one of us said this is something that we hear. When we make a mistake in one way or another, right, whether it's around other people, whether it's by ourself, the enemy has a universal agreement he gets us to try to buy into is that we're an idiot. That's what I hear when I make a financial mistake or I make a decision that isn't good.

You know, that's the first thing that comes at me. And I'm sure that if you're out there listening, you can know that feeling. And Robby said it right. How many times, listen next time you hear it, are you hearing I'm an idiot or you're an idiot?

And I'll promise you most of the time you're hearing you're an idiot. Right. And so that's coming from outside of you.

That's somebody influencing you, trying to get you to buy in. Now, do I think it was a good idea that Robby didn't hold on to the thing with both hands? No, that was there's a little bit of truth right in the statement. That's what makes it feel true.

But it's a whole rest of it that comes after it that's not true. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I, I feel sorry for Robby, because I know he was he's very artistic. And he was, you know, probably sculpting the bushes with one hand and, you know, feeling and then running the clippers over him with the other. And, you know, his artistic nature just got in the way. And, you know, I hate it for him. I do really. It, you know, when he sent us the text and said, Oh, we were like, Robby, I mean, because it's a constant thing. It's not even hunting season.

Robby's the only guy we know that goes through his entire, you know, health care deductible by the month of January every year. But, yeah, when we come back, we're going to continue to talk about this topic of agreements, but also moving past that into positive agreements and how God's come after our hearts. And some of the old agreements we made and give us new agreements to hold on to. And then how do we plan on holding on to them? That's the key.

So when the enemy comes up at you and says, you're an idiot, you're this, you're that, you can say, no, I'm what God told me I am. Go to masculinejourney.org now. Robby Dilmore here. Your mattress getting a little thin on top? Well, check out the new mattress topper from MyPillow. I sleep hot and my wife sleeps cold, which make its face change material invaluable to us. It comes with a 10 year warranty. It's washable and drivable, and it's made in the USA backed by Mike Lindell. Sixty day warranty and best news ever.

Go to my pillow dot com. Save 30 percent. Use promo code car guy or call 800-943-7096. Remember that promo code car guy. Hi, I'm Carson Kuhn. I'm Darren Kuhn's grandson on the Masculine Journey radio. Mike's boot camp experience was like mine. One of the things that I realized this week was that I need to take time to listen to God. I felt like the Lord had spoken to me and he said, Mike, how are you going to listen if you're always busy?

So this weekend, what I've done is I've taken some time just to go on walks and to be alone and to think. Join us young guys at the next boot camp coming November 12th to the 15th, masculinejourneyradio.org. As the oldest guy on the Masculine Journey radio team, I love what this old guy said at the last boot camp. God is for all of us, no matter what age we are. You're never too old. It doesn't mean it's what's in your heart. As you know, as I do as men who grow up, they never grow up. They're always boys.

The age part is only in your mind. Join us old guys at the next boot camp. Register now at masculinejourneyradio.org.

Coming November the 12th through the 15th. Through the sunset's free, who is free indeed? I'm a child of God, yes I am. Thank you, Danny, for that bump in. That's Hillsong, is that right? Yeah.

Okay, and why did you pick that bump? Well, there's kind of a story behind it that our pastor preached a sermon where we used to go to church one time, being a friend of God. I almost went with that because I spent years of my life in addiction. You spent years in a 12-step program. One of the things that I came to say was, I'm Danny and I'm an alcoholic. There's a connotation behind that, that is true.

If you're careful, you take on a persona. When he started talking about being a friend, the revelation came to me that if I say I'm Robby's friend, that's one thing. But when Robby says, Danny's my friend. God is saying, I'm saying, you're my friend. That was kind of an agreement that was broken in my life that I was no longer. I was a friend of God, which is going further. I'm a son, I'm a child. I'm his son and I struggle with that sometimes because just tradition, I guess. But the enemy wants you to live in that old agreement.

Yes. He wants you to believe that's the truest thing about you. But then God comes in and says, no, there's something much more true and there always has been about you. So how do you hold onto that every day? What type of monument do you have in your life that you say, okay, I'm going to live as this to be truth because the enemy's not going to give up.

He's going to keep coming at you and trying to get you to buy into that old agreement. So what do you do to hold onto it? I have the song Friend of God on my playlist.

I play that frequently. It's kind of a monument to that kind of occasion and just a little different stuff. I like mementos carrying your pocket or something like that. It just reminds me. Pull your change out and you've got a coin or something in there and you go, hey, I'm a friend of God. Yeah, it's just those things that you hold personal that God can remind you of what the truth really is. Now, I want to play another clip here pretty quick because the enemy will use truths at you. He'll come at you with truth. Right.

And he'll try to get you to buy into that's the deepest truth about you. And in this clip, it's a little creepy. It's from Lord of the Rings, but you have a character and it's really the same person.

If you have never seen the movie, it's in the two towers. It's the same person. It's Gollum and Smeagol.

Right. And Gollum is the evil version of this person that lives out the evil persona and Smeagol is the one that was innocent long ago. It starts getting his heart back, but the enemy doesn't leave him there. And so the enemy comes at him with what he thinks is his own voice attacking him.

So in this clip, if you're watching it visually, you'd see the same person arguing back and forth. But I want you to hear the interchange because what he tells him, everything that the enemy says in this clip, the majority of it has some truth to it. But that doesn't mean it's the deepest truth.

And that's what you got to hold on to is the deepest truth in life. I know that's a short clip, but in Smeagol's past, he committed something where he did murder somebody. And what the enemy is doing at all costs is trying to say, no, I see this person getting their heart back. He has with him, Frodo is treating his heart well and loving him well. And he's starting to have some life and he's seeing Christ through another person.

Right. And he's starting to get hope and the enemy doesn't leave him there. That's the thing about our enemy.

He's relentless and he's not going to leave us there. He's going to keep reminding us of those old things, even though they have some truth to them, to try to suck us back in to that old way of thinking. Because you live out of the way you believe that you are. Right. If I believe I'm this way, that's how I'm going to live.

You know, and it's at that heart level that the enemy attacks. And so, Andy, I want to ask you, what's an agreement that God's kind of come after you to break and replaced with a positive agreement? I mean, I'm going to touch on one, you know, that just has a little bit more history to it. You guys have heard me talk a lot about just, you know, the feeling of having God as my Father. A lot of people can talk about Heavenly Father and have Jesus a lot, you know, for a lot of their Christian experience. But a lot of people, I heard a testimony of a guy over the weekend that said, you know, we really don't see God as that Father.

And, you know, I didn't really consciously understand it as much as then. But God is, you know, instead of being an orphan, which we feel like we have, there's some things in my past that made me feel that way. I really got in touch with God as my Father. But continuing on, that's some of the most deep, deep foundation stuff. And I really just praise God that I came to that point.

But it enables so much more than that. So I was telling the guys something a little bit more current was this weekend I went up to pray at the prayer march and the return. Probably have heard that. I think God did a tremendous amount in the heavenlies. His people were there praying. But, you know, even though I felt God called me up there, I still felt like a little intimidated. And I stayed in contact with him when I was praying. But there was just this feeling of, you know what, you never have been known for a prayer warrior. You're not, I pray a lot, but I mean, it's not like, I mean, these people look like they're serious about this stuff and all. And it was like, you know, it was probably the enemy.

I know it was the enemy. But, you know, God brought something to my heart that said the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Now, I took some heat for saying that because it sounds a little arrogant.

But God, that is a scripture for the Bible about all of us, you know, about those who choose to be that way. And I was there. And I was willing. I was a willing vessel. And, you know, it's just something that he did currently that really meant a lot to me and really saw me through to fulfill my role to be up there praying.

So let me get this. God called you to another state on a weekend that you probably had nothing else you could be doing. You went up there with no agenda other than just spend time with him and end prayer. And you're surprised that he called you that, right?

I mean, out of all nine people that were here, you're the only one that went, right? And he thought he took heat because it was an arrogant statement. He didn't take heat because of that.

He took heat because he didn't believe it. You know, I mean, we were trying to say, look, dude, I mean, when God says you have fervently prayed as a righteous man, you're only arguing with him if you don't believe it. And I love what both Darren and you said about it earlier, and I don't want the audience to miss it, was that, you know, we're talking about monuments.

And the Word of God itself, as you've stored up in your heart, when he's able to flip it into your mind at times like that is a phenomenal monument. Like, you know that that is true. You don't have to wonder. I wonder if that's true. No, that's true. Okay, it's just bone true.

And the fact that that got flipped in your mind gave you something that obviously he wanted in that relationship, and I think it's just phenomenal. So, Andy, what are you going to do to hold on to that? Because you know the enemy's not going to leave it there. We're going to say some nice things, and we're going to mean it, and we're going to try to get you to believe it, but at the end of the day, you have to hold on to it.

Yeah, absolutely. When I wake up tomorrow, will I choose to do other things or pray? This isn't anything religious.

I have to do a certain thing. It's not performance-based, but it does encourage me that I am a man of prayer. We can all sit here and compare ourselves to everybody else all day. That does nobody any good, and that's not what God calls us to do. It inspires my heart to pray more, and I guess it's just going to keep that continuous focus.

I mean, when I go to boot camp and it's time to pray for the fellas, am I going to listen to that or choose the word I got in Washington? Okay, so give me a monument. You're not giving me a monument. Well, it is.

It's the Washington Monument, we'll call it. Okay, yeah. No, because I know the reason I'm giving you a hard time is I love you as my brother, and the enemy's going to come try to steal it. And write it down. Do something that the enemy – you can at least look back and go, wait, I feel really bad today. I feel like I'm getting beat up.

It's here. Well, that is how we started this and how we got on that topic. We were both talking about writing stuff down last week, so that's true. Journaling is important, and it says, make the vision plain. Write it down. I think it is in Proverbs.

Darren, what about you? Is there an agreement? I mean, my monument will not compare to Andy's because he has the Washington Monument. Exactly, yeah. Well, I mean, the agreement – the longstanding agreement that I struggle with on a regular basis is I don't get what I want. Other people get what they want, either by force or by blessing. Doesn't really matter to me how they get it, but that I don't get what I want.

I have to settle for what's left type of thing. And I know that's not true. I mean, God has helped me break that agreement over time, but I've still wrestled with it at other times. And so the monuments for me are literally, you know, I do keep a journal.

I have gone back to that journal over times and looked at the things that I prayed for, that God gave me. You know, I'm in a gigantic monument right now. I'm building a house, scared to death, you know, to do this thing.

I'm happy to work on other people's houses, remodel their house, all that stuff, but taking on the whole thing of building my own house and doing all of that and all of the land development and everything else that goes with it just seems overwhelming at times. And I'm getting closer and closer and closer to being finished with that. And so I think for quite some time in my life every day when I wake up in that house, it will be, did you get what you wanted? Yes. Yes, I did.

Thank you. And so I, you know, when I look at, you know, some of the relationships that I have, it's did you get what you wanted? Yeah.

Yeah, I believe I have. And some of those things. So I don't have pictures hanging on the wall right now or other things because everything I have is in storage. But when we get into the house, you know, there's a few things that I've got stowed away that I will put on the wall.

And I'll hang a few things in my barn and stuff like that that will remind me of where God has brought me. Thank you. We talked about a universal agreement, but there is a universal truth that we all share that we're all new creations in Christ. Right. So as we get ready to wrap up this particular segment before we go to after hours, what's something that they can hold on to as a new creation in Christ? Right. For me, I guess I would say you don't have to live today like you lived yesterday.

Right. Yesterday's come and gone. I am a new creation today and I can't control the decisions I made yesterday. I can't even control the decisions made an hour ago.

What I can control is from this point forward. And know that there's always a fresh start. There's always a new start. And you're learning to be that new creation. You don't wake up with all the answers.

Right. You learn them along the way and you're going to make mistakes. But hold on to the truth against that lie. Yeah, I may do idiotic things sometimes, but at the end of the day, I'm a new creation in Christ and that's the truest thing about me. And I just got to learn to walk in it. We'll see you next week. We'll talk to you next week. And we'll love you all the way.