What is Truth

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You can reach out, but we'd love to hear back from you. Danny, we're going to talk a little bit about this week's show. This was your idea, and you're actually here, so that's an achievement. Normally, the person who picks a topic ends up bailing and doesn't come, so thank you for coming. Also, tell us a little bit about the topic.

Well, I've got to go. Well, the topic is what is truth? It just kind of comes out of some of my spiritual journey, I guess, with discerning modern-day events and things going on in life and that kind of thing. Thinking about the process in which to try to discern truth and how to act and not be irrational, because I've been down those roads many, many, many times, and kind of what that looks like. The scripture that came to mind was where Pilate asked Jesus, what is truth?

That's kind of the question. What is truth, and how do we navigate through life discerning truth and weeding out what's not? We're not going to get the full truth all the time, but what does that process look like in my life and guarding my heart against untruths? There's not a shortage of things out there to say, where's the truth lie in it? Just look at 2020.

You've got the election and all the events of everything after that, leading up to it and after that. Where's the truth in that situation? It may depend on which channel you watch on TV, and neither one of them may give you the truth. Where's the truth in COVID? Because this expert says that, that expert says this, and they seem to contradict, and so you're like, where's the truth there? Where's the truth with social issues? You hear everybody's side, but where's the truth lie in it? And then you get into the personal part of it. Where's the truth in relationships? I can feel something. I can sense something. That doesn't mean that it's true. And so where do I find the truth in the midst of that? It's a hard thing to try to find out there. Agreed.

Agreed. So we're hoping to find some solutions as we talk through it today. Andy, you have the first clip here.

Do you want to set it up at all? Sure. So this clip is from Meet the Parents, and as the title says, Greg, who's meeting the father-in-law, or potential father-in-law, he's actually engaged to the man's daughter. Well, the father-in-law works for the CIA.

He's well versed in interrogation, and he gives him a polygraph just to find out how truthful this potential son-in-law would be. And I'll talk a little bit more about it after you play the clip. Here we go. Don't worry.

You'll enjoy this. All right. Looks complicated. Now, these aren't 100% accurate, right? They're... Well, you'd be surprised how accurate they are.

They can tell fairly easily if someone's lying enough. Now I'm going to ask you some questions, and all you have to do is answer yes or no. Okay. All right.

Let's give it a whirl. Did you fly on an airplane today? Yes, I did.

No peeking. Did we eat pot roast for dinner tonight? Yes. Was it undercooked? No, it was rare.

It was a little rare for my taste, but I... I'm just kidding. I'm just... Relax. Relax.

The needles are jumping. Have you ever watched pornographic videos? No. I mean, well, I don't... Yes or no?

The funniest part about that is the needles jumping back and forth. But Andy, do you want to add more to that? Yeah, just the fact that, you know, we're talking about truth probably in the larger, you know, what's happening in today's events and media and stuff. But it really gets down to individuals and what we consider to be truth. And a lot of times we have no problem telling the truth if it serves our purpose or if it makes us look good or it doesn't really put us under a bind. But when we're really pushed to a difficult question, we start hedging.

Whether it's, you know, how rare was the pot roast or then, you know, his situation with pornography. You know, he just doesn't take those things directly on and we don't. And sometimes the version of the truth that we exhibit is what's comfortable for us. Well, I have to think that even when people are telling things that aren't true or maybe true to them but aren't really true, that I think it all has to do with us kind of putting on the fig leaf and hiding behind what we think is right or true or what the world wants us... what we want the world to see of us, whether it be our ideas or whether it's our character or whatever. I think it's just a matter of whether how honest we are going to be with ourselves and what we see. Yeah, and I think people fall into the trap of sharing partial truths.

Everything they say is technically true. It's just not the whole story. Right, and somewhat deceptive as you pointed out many times whenever we're hiding or whatever. If you're doing it, sometimes you don't tell the full story but if you're doing it to deceive, you know, you're not really being truthful. Yeah, I was asked about my word of integrity tonight and this is where it's been hitting me the hardest this year. This word has messed with me more than any of my previous words for the year. But I was thinking of an example right as you said that.

I can tell you things that are factually accurate and give an entirely different perspective of what the truth is. One that came to mind immediately was my wife. I used to play games half the night, sometimes all night long. My wife had asked me, what time did you come to bed last night? I was after midnight.

Well, it was five in the morning but that is after midnight and I did that almost without even thinking about it, just to cover up being stupid. Yeah, it's easy to fall into that trap where, you know, I'm not going to actually lie here but by not giving the full truth, it creates a lie. Let's not forget about the father of faith, Abraham, claiming Sarah was his sister. Well, yeah, half-sister. But more importantly, his wife. That's a really cool thing about the word truth in Hebrew, which is immense.

It really is. If you look at the Hebrew alphabet, the beginning of it is an aleph, right? The first letter. And the word truth starts with the first, well, the very middle letter is a mem and that's the middle letter of truth. And then the last letter in truth is the last letter. And there's a sense of the beginning, the middle, and the end of the story. But also, when Jesus said, I am the truth, I'm the alpha and the omega, he's actually saying, I'm the aleph and I'm the tav. He would probably actually say, I'm the aleph, the mem and the tav because he is the truth. You see, the whole thing comes together in this picture of the whole story is in the word of God, right? And if you, as Jim was saying earlier, 20 verses before, 20 verses after, that's good.

But, you know, try all the way back to Genesis 1 and go into Revelation. And if you're going to encompass truth, I mean, there you go. And so it's fascinating how you guys went to that. I'm not telling the whole story. Well, you can see it's immense. It's the whole truth. Thank you, Robby.

I know we give you a hard time about Hebrew, but I do learn a lot. And that was very good. I enjoyed that quite a bit. Danny, we do have time to get your clip in. If you want to go ahead and set it up quickly, we've got about 30 seconds to spare. And then we can come back and talk about it.

OK. The clip is from the Andy Griffith Show and it's seen where Barney is in a hearing where he has embellished the truth with a young lady who deceived him and who she was. And now Andy's kind of on trial and Barney's having to backtrack some of his statements. So 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. Thank you.

Sure, I said all them things. But the truth is, sometimes I get carried away with myself. When I was talking with a young lady there, 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. Why, Andy'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 got to understand, this is a small town. The 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 you'd have a riot. You asked me if Andy runs a taut ship, Mr. Melton. 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 law man 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. That's all I got to say.

So, Danny, that kind of illustrates the point of, you know, we can take things out of context, right? And we're going to come back and talk about that. Go to MaskandJourney.org to reach out to us now. Now what do we do? Just be yourselves.

Where are you going? I'm going to pick a fight. If it feels like every day is picking a fight, then you might want to come listen to The Masculine Journey and find out why we use clips like these to illustrate the story God is telling in the lives of men today. The truth is God designed you to pick a fight. But which fights do we pick?

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Box 550, Kernersville, North Carolina, 27285. Welcome back to The Masculine Journey. We're talking about the topic of truth. And the truth is I'm learning how to use the clock. So I didn't give Andy, or Andy, Danny is his name, enough time to really talk about the clip we just played from Barney. But, you know, in that, you know, Barney has done this interview, right?

And he's giving an account. And then they've kind of taken some of it out of context, haven't they? Yes, they have a, Barney has talked about the way the sheriff's department has run to this young looker, reporter.

And he's piled on lots of stuff. And now they've brought charges against Andy. And Barney is, well, being Barney, he's about to freak out.

I did not know they were going to do this. And I'm bragging a little bit is what he said. And so he, they took what he said and made kind of a case of lies against Andy. And Barney kind of backtracks and goes, the truth is, here's what I meant. And, you know, he talks about Andy delivering groceries to Emma Watson. And the reason he used the cop car out of, and so often, I've been like Barney so often in my life. Is one of the main things, you know, I think the book talks about being a poser.

And I know that chapter well. I think I could have wrote it. To make things look better than they actually are. And to, and for so often times in relationships, to have a misconception of what I think somebody is thinking about me.

I don't know if you all do that or not. But I had a man tell me a long time ago, he said that, he said, it's really nobody, it's not your business what somebody thinks of you. And because it plays into the truth of who you are. And it piles on so many agreements, so much stuff that if you don't discern the truth of who you truly are. And what, you know, somebody has said it well before the show was, let God navigate you. I don't know why that word keeps ringing in me. But to navigate, okay, Lord, here's my perception.

Here's what I think to be true. Help me navigate through this. And get to the semblance of truth in who you've made me to be and who you want me to be. So, you know, we, how do we get to the truth though, right? I mean, that's part of the thing.

What's the process we use in getting there? That's the tough part, right? I think we could continue to talk for hours and hours about the problem. And we've got more clips that really help identify the problem, which we'll place some of those in the after hour and talk more about it.

And talk more about the resolution. But, you know, the way we have the listeners here on the radio show, you know, what's some answers to the problem that you have is how do you get to the truth? When this topic first came up, I immediately remembered something I heard 30 something years ago from Henry Blackaby. And it blew me out of the water when I heard it, and it still drives my looking at the truth. And he said, the truth is not a concept, it's not a proposition, it's a person. And until Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit or God have spoken into a situation, you don't know the truth.

And you can go through life, you know, not trusting anybody, but that's not really the point. If you are looking at the situation, other people are doing the best they can, but they're not going to know the truth most of the time. The example he used was a great one. It was on the Sea of Galilee in the storm. He said, you know, these fishermen who knew storms and they knew they were perishing, and the truth was asleep in the back of the boat. The truth wasn't that they were dying.

When they woke him up, the water was calm. And the truth really comes from the relationship, not from the data that you collect. That's really well said. And I spent a lot of time in the book of Job here in the last week or so. And I was looking very specifically at Job 41, which talks about Leviathan, which gives you a real good picture of the enemy, if you want the truth about the enemy.

And you want to see some of his tactics and what he does and what he is. And his anatomy is really just amazing to me, I guess is a better word for it. But anyway, he's got these armor plates that are on him that are called scales.

But when you will look at the word scales in Hebrew, again, you know, just to go there for a minute, it is the same word as shield. And so I began to process that he is so well shielded, he's like a crocodile, you can't get air underneath his skin. And unfortunately, as we put on the pose that we're talking about, we get our alibi so airtight. You can't get to it in order to get to the truth, right?

And so we literally have started thinking about it. Well, I've got to take off this armor that I've put on myself, these shields to protect myself. So when you look at the word shield, it has to do with Christ. Christ is your shield. He is the truth and it is your shield. But if you begin to put on your own shield, you're putting on scales like Satan wears.

Okay? And it's really an amazing picture as I think about all the ways I tried to protect myself through my personality, through, you know, poses, through all sorts of things that I do so that nobody can really get at the truth, right? However, if I really put on Christ, then all of a sudden, and I go to that place of delighting in the fear of the Lord, he totally is my shield that I don't need to put on the shields. And as I do that, God walks with me and he shares his truth once he can get down to the authentic Robby.

But my problem is that guy's down underneath all those airtight alibis I've been perfecting. I was reminded of in our pre-show talking that someone brought up the example of how you identify counterfeit money. It's by knowing the real thing. You don't have to try to learn all the things that could be different and wrong.

You know the one that's right. I think the first thing for me in identifying truth is how does it square with the Word of God? So I've got to know the Word of God. I've got to be familiar with it, like with the real money. You've got to know the real truth of the Word.

And that's the first place to go. And then another thing that I do, if somebody's trying to tell me something, I ask the question, what's in it for him? Because if you can identify that somebody's in it for the wrong reason and they're trying to lead you down the primrose path, it's usually to pad their wallet, not yours.

Yeah, or to take from your wallet. Robby, I wanted to go back and ask you something because I think it's easy for our listeners that listen to us all the time, say, wait a minute. Last week you said, guard your heart. And now you're saying, don't put up shields. Well, how can I guard my heart and not put up shields? But that's not the same thing.

That's not what we're talking about. Can you kind of help us clarify that I can guard my heart and still be authentic? Yeah, it's a beautiful thing is if you look at the full armor of God, Ephesians 6, it says, above all else, put on the shield of faith. Well, there's a real shield. I mean, this thing is like the authentic, you know, like the golden shields that David made. This is Christ.

And he is absolutely all powerful. And if I really do trust what he says in the end of the story, so to speak, if I trust the Word of God and I know the end of the story, then actually I'm really, really guarding my heart in the best possible way because I'm asking God to do it because in all reality I can't take on all that stuff without him. I know that for me in finding truth, one thing, when I look at relationships, God's really helped me over time to say, you know, what I think I see is not usually truth, right? I see what's on the surface. I don't know what's going on underneath.

I don't know if they've had horrible news. Someone yells at me on the job site, right? Just snaps back at me is a really horrible thing. If I take that at face value as being the truth, I'm going to react in a way that's not going to be great, more than likely. And so I've learned to say, okay, there's probably something broken under there, God. Help me to help find the truth.

Help me to have patience. Help me to understand. I may not ever know their story but realize what I'm seeing is not necessarily the truth of who that person is, how their behavior is. There's more to it than that. And entering into like closer relationships, you know, you get into a fight. You know, with a friend or whatever to say, okay, I know there's a deeper truth there than what I'm seeing.

I'm seeing these surface things that feel like truth but that doesn't make them true just because they feel that way. You know, and having God help you try to find that truth in the midst of it within your own heart and hopefully within their heart. That made me think about it in counseling when I'm talking to a couple. I remind them, okay, do you love your spouse? And both of them almost invariably will say yes.

And it'll be, well, not like I used to sometimes but the love was there. I said, well, you know, you need to always assume that when you're having a conversation that they're not out to hurt you because they love you. And we do. We take things more often than not in the worst possible way. And then we defend ourselves with those fields you're talking about that are really of the devil. I remember one time, I think it was my father told me, said, you know, you don't need to defend yourself. Would you rather defend yourself or have God defend you? Okay, God's going to do a better job every time. But guarding our heart is one thing but guarding ourselves from hurt is usually going to bring more hurt.

Yeah, and I think what you were saying, Robby, as far as guarding your heart, walking with God is guarding your heart, right? Thinking about a relationship that I can't always trust what I hear because you have an enemy that's putting a spin on it, right? He's the one that's chattering behind you saying this is what you really heard. This is what they really meant.

This is their real character. All those things that you can't really know that you're hearing at the time but it's going on. And to walk with God in the midst of it and say, God, what's really going on? I can't trust fully what I'm hearing. I can only trust you to help me interpret what I'm hearing.

And to walk with Him in the midst of it. We don't need to hit the tip of the iceberg. There's so much more. We're going to talk about it in the after hours and you can get that by going to masculinejourney.org. You can go to Spotify, Pandora, any of your podcast outlets.

We're on all of those. You can get it from there. Masculine Journey After Hours.

Please go do that. And while you're listening, listen to The Joyride. It's an awesome thing put on by Keith, our producer. It's an amazing topic. It's an amazing little 30-second thing each time.

But it's joyful. I love listening to those. MasculineJourney.org. We'll talk to you next week. MasculineJourney.org. We'll talk to you next week.