Who's At War

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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 The Masculine Journey. We are very glad that you're with us today and we're only just a couple of weeks away from bootcamp, right? Like 13 eves, 12 eves, 11 eves.

Yeah. On the eve scale, we're not that far away. I think it's around 11. Yeah, I think it's 11 eves away from bootcamp. And so if you haven't registered, what are you waiting on?

Go to masculinejourney.org. We'll try to get the dates right. We've been all over the place. It's actually April 28th through May 2nd. No, 29th. 29th, April 29th.

I'm still all over the place. April 29th. So like I said, we'll get it right.

Rodney got it right. Thank you. But we will be there on the 28th if you happen to show up. Yeah, but you should come on the 29th. The 29th.

Unless you want to help set up. That's true. Through May 2nd. Which is, you know, a week obviously from Thursday night is when it starts. And it goes Friday, Saturday, and Sunday till noon.

Yep. So we get a lot done during that period and we've been going over the last few weeks on topics that we talk about at bootcamp. And obviously on the show we can only get so deep on them. You know, we get much deeper at the camps. A lot of quiet time with God, which takes it incredibly deeper into where it needs to go. But we've been doing those topics now for what, three or four weeks?

So how many, who can tell me what topics we've covered so far? I know Robby started us off, so what did you start off with, Robby? Core Desires.

Core Desires. Right. Then we did the Poser. Which was Jim. That was Jim.

He was really good at it. That's right. That's all coming back to me.

He's doing the talk too. And then we did the Wound. Andy.

And then we did a new name. And so here we are. And we are at your week, Rodney. It's your week, Rodney. What are we talking about this week? I've got nothing, Sam. That would be Spiritual Warfare, Sam.

Ding, ding, ding. So with a big name like Spiritual Warfare, before we kind of get into some of the eclipse and stuff, what do you really mean by that topic? Because it could mean a lot of different things to different people. Yes, and this is something that, depending on how you came to Christ, what church you grew up in as a kid, and how you've lived your life in various different forms, everybody seems to have a different context for what Spiritual Warfare actually is. And what we want to make sure that people understand about Spiritual Warfare is that there is something bigger than whatever you're seeing in front of you that's in your life that is a bigger battle going on between God and Satan. And this battle that is raging on in the spiritual realm is something that we are definitely a part of. Satan is the ruler of the earth, and he basically rules things here on earth and basically leads things in a way that is very ungodly and wants to take you down many paths. But it seems to be something that we end up agreeing to, which is the lie, because he was a liar from the start, instead of believing what God says about us. So we've got this contrast that we live in constantly of, no, we're not good enough. It comes from Satan.

Lord loves you, you're the son of God, that you're a child of God. Yeah, but, you know, we don't want to believe those. So it's that constant warfare that's in our lives. We get caught up in many battles. But it's this Spiritual Warfare that's going on that you just have to understand truth from lies.

Thank you. Robby, this clip is yours. You want to go ahead and tell us a little bit about it? Well, for those of us who grew up in the 60s and 70s, we can remember Laugh-In, and so our introduction to Satan was this person usually dressed in red. And, of course, the preacher was a lot like Flip Wilson, if you knew Flip Wilson, who was the rev in the church What's Happening Now on Laugh-In. And in this particular scene, Bobby Darin is playing the devil, and the devil has come to visit the rev church at What's Happening Now. And so they're going to get a little idea of what this is about.

So Bobby Darin starts off. Hi, hi. I'm your friendly devil. Don't listen to him.

Don't listen to him. Now, friends, and you are all my friends. Uh-oh, stealing my line. Don't steal my line.

Wait your turn, Reverend. I want to speak to you about the good things in life, the fun things in life. Now, can I get a cheer for the fun things? Boo! Boo!

Boo! I love that. I love that, because I like booze.

Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging. Uh, you ain't got none on you right now. Got a little taste in the car, huh? Good. I love it.

I love it. Now I'm here to say enjoy yourselves. Enjoy yourselves. There ain't nothing wrong with cigarettes.

There ain't nothing wrong with whiskey, and there ain't nothing wrong with fun-loving women. Listen to that. Listen. Watch it, devil. Watch it. Watch it, devil. Back off, devil.

Watch it. It's time to get to your friends. Cigarettes, whiskey, and fun-loving women. Watch out, devil. I say to you brothers and sisters, give up cigarettes and whiskey.

What about fun-loving women? So, Robby, what was it about that clip that spoke to you? Well, what speaks to me is that was that picture of what we think Satan is, is this obvious character that's coming in there who's going to try to, you know, convince you to do drugs. Or, you know, all sorts of things that actually we kind of do battle with, but the more subtle ones are the ones that, you know, happened on my discussion with, you know, myself on my way to work.

Like, and I really need to talk to that, but, you know, that wouldn't go well. And I start making agreements with things that are not even the case, and just little subtle things that make a huge difference. And that's the thing I love about the boot camp was it gave me tremendous insights, because I've heard a lot about spiritual warfare and prayer warriors, you know, we're going to get in there and this is where we're going to really do battle. But the practical aspect of where we really discover things at boot camp of what Satan's strategy is in our lives on an everyday basis, especially, you know, as men, as our families. You know, we can begin to see agreements that are in our families' lives and we begin to pray actually with something more specific. Yeah.

For me, how I do on withstanding, making agreements, definitely makes a difference on how my family's life goes. Right? Right. Because if I start to believe these things you're talking about, Rodney, about myself, that the enemy wants me to believe, then I'll start living out of that.

Right? I'll start, if I believe it and I accept it, I say, this is who I am, you know, and it makes me in a bad place. And then I respond out of a bad place.

Yeah. If you're going through life, basically trying to help somebody, right? I mean, we all want to be that person that can come in and try to help somebody. But if all you ever say to yourself, man, I can't step in here. I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm defeated before I even start.

You're never going to help someone. And that's one of the things that I remember early on, somebody always said, well, if you really want to get somebody, you know, on your side, it's like, well, just ask how you can help. Well, so many of us get defeated, we feel like we're just emasculated all the time and we just don't want to go fight the right battles or we seem to be jumping into all the wrong battles. It's about being able to determine which one you get into and which one you don't.

Yeah. And what's an example of an agreement? How would it come to you?

You know, for example, the enemy, how would he play his hand to try to get you to buy into what he's saying? For me, it's been, I'm just not worth anything. I have no worth, so therefore don't go fight. So I've grown up with basically trying to be on my own. I don't ask people for help.

I don't tell people my story. And that's one of the things of being a part of this team and this brotherhood is being able to hear everybody share stories and actually being able to start sharing mine. And the more I can talk about where I'm at with my walk with you brothers, some other brothers and things of that nature, it helps so much.

And then we can do it with family. And then you start to find more people that can be, you know how to tell your story, you know how to also listen and see other people's stories and help them walk through theirs as well. Because when you have somebody to help you, you figure out ways to help others. Yeah. This is where you can really see how these talks kind of build on another. You know, a few weeks ago when we did Woundedness, right? The enemy knows your story, right? He may not have caused your original wounding, but he was there with a message right behind it, right? You know, when the sibling, when the whatever tears you down, you know, the enemy's right behind to say, yeah, this is what's really what you're like.

You know, my sister, shut up, motor mouth, the enemy, you have nothing to say, right? And once you make that agreement, it can take years or decades to break if you don't get it early, right? If it really gets ingrained in who you are. Now, a guy can break it immediately, but it's something you have to break continually. Yes.

And there's many to break. Yeah. And that starts to become the story in which you want to live in, which you have to step out of. So what John really speak, John Eldridge speaks to on this, you know, it's so clear Psalm 51, you know, he, he quotes where, you know, God desires truth in the most, in the Hebrew, it's actually locked parts that you've got down in there. And you've, you've, you've bought these agreements that you're talking about, like shut up, motor mouth, or, you know, I don't, you know, my famous one, I don't need anybody else. I can do this alone, you know, and, and he desires truth in the, in most parts, but it takes some work to unlock those parts. And, and the, these talks, these ideas give you time and the framework in order to begin, we'll do that hard work in your own life. Yeah.

There's, there's a generalized warfare out there, but the enemy makes a specific plan for every one of you individually for each one of us. Right. It's tailored to our story.

It's tailored to where he knows he can get his hooks in us, but he might try and Andy may not work on me. Right. Cause it's not my story, but the things that work on me work really pretty well sometimes.

Yeah. That's the one thing that I had to come to grips with is really going back and understanding my story. So where is my woundedness? Where are things in my life? Cause it was hard to find where that was in my life. And then until you actually spend time with the covenant of silence and actually that's where you kind of get the breakthroughs is when you're talking to God and you finally figure out, okay, these are the things that have been in my life.

What does that mean? Why, why was, why is this important? Why is, you know, something your father did or didn't do or your mother did or didn't do that ends up affecting you. And you have stories with friends, stories that, you know, where they've hurt you or you've hurt someone else that starts to come out in your life. And that where it's, where it just starts to be something that is real for you. And you have to internalize that.

Yeah. If there's something that we're talking about that's interesting you of, man, I just feel beat up all the time. I feel like life's just hammering at me all the time, which is most people's story that I know. You know, there's something behind that, the enemy, and he's attacking you individually. If you want to know more about that, go to masculinejourney.org, register for the upcoming bootcamp coming up April 29th through May 2nd.

Hey, you got it right. What if one weekend wasn't up to you that you could go and God would orchestrate it all? Masculine Journey Bootcamp, basic training designed to give men permission to be how God made them. Passionate warriors for the kingdom based on John Eldridge's wild at heart. Experience four days purpose for God to come after and perhaps reawaken dreams and desires he uniquely placed in your masculine heart. Masculine Journey Spring Bootcamp coming up April 29th through May 2nd. Go to masculinejourney.org and register today. Hi, this is Sam with Masculine Journey.

I'm here with my son Eli. We're going to talk about ways that you can help support the ministry. One way you can go to smile.amazon.com, go to smile.amazon.com. There's information on our website there on how to do that. You can go to facebook.com and click the donate button, or you can go to masculinejourney.org and find the donate button. Masculinejourney.org.

Or if you want to mail something in, mail it to PO Box 550, Kernersville, North Carolina, 27285. What you do will decide your own faith. So Rodney, that's got to be a first. I have a feeling for the Truth Network that's a first that Twisted Sister has been a bump. I'm just thinking. I am going to go out on a limb and agree with you there Sam. I know better than to agree with you, but I'm going to agree with you on this one.

Yeah, I'm thinking it's probably a pretty safe bet. But tell us a little bit more about that song, you know, and about the lead singer. Yeah, the name of the song is Burn in Hell, and you're talking about spiritual warfare. I think I read the Sunday Bulletin. I think that was what it was. Yeah, that was the message, right?

It was a sermon? So you've got this song that I grew up with as a head-banging little kid teenager, and I always thought Twisted Sister's words were really great. I love their lyrics. I could understand what Dee Snider said in every song that they came out with, and normally I'm all over the place.

I have no idea what the words are. If I'm trying to sing along, I can't understand them. And I always had a different feeling about that group. I'm like, yeah, you watch the hair and makeup and all that kind of stuff that they wore and they rocked, and you're like, you don't think much about it.

But there's always an edge to them. I'm like, there's something different about them. So I finally went and looked up Dee Snider this week to find out. I was like, is this guy actually a Christian?

And I actually found out that he was. So some abortion rights activists used We're Not Gonna Take It to protest some restrictions in Texas at one time, and Dee Snider tweeted out that he is pro-choice and that he did not believe that Christians and pro-choice were mutually exclusive. He was pro-life. Yeah, you said pro-choice. Yeah. Right.

Did not believe that being a Christian and pro-choice were mutually exclusive. Yeah. So I was kind of surprised. But it's just one of those things that... So if you've never seen Rodney, you probably haven't since his radio show. He actually looks like Dee Snider, but not even. That's a joke.

Well, if you look at him now, he's a bald old man. Aren't we all working our way there? But the lyrics are like, there, you've got to come out and you're going to basically make your own choice as to where you go. So this warfare thing, a couple questions. Why do I even have to bother dealing with it? Right? I mean, at the end of the day, life's hard enough.

Why do I need to take on more? That's one question. Yeah. There's a lot to take on in this world. And the thing that Satan's always trying to do with us is get us to take on the wrong thing so he's got us focused in the wrong direction and away from where God wants us to be.

And it's easy to get taken out. You see it all the time. You can watch people, men especially. We're not stepping up in the church and leading. That's why you've got a lot of other people stepping up to fill that void.

And it's like, well, that's one of the reasons why I'm sitting here today. Because that's one of the things I realized is that I wasn't stepping up and I have to do more of a role. I need to figure out what I need to do in this world to be the man that I'm supposed to be. In my case, there was times in my younger Christian life where I really tried to step up and did. But in my experience, I ended up crashing and burning a lot of times.

I really didn't walk things out. I didn't really know how to do spiritual warfare. And I'm like, Robby, you saw it as these great prayer warriors and that was spiritual warfare that you went to battle. That's an aspect of it and I believe it's an important aspect of it. But I think really, when you talk about spiritual warfare, it gets down to a battle of what you believe. Do you believe the things that the enemy is saying about you, about your brother, about God?

And how are you going to act upon those? And that's where we get into the agreements. But it really gets down to what you believe. That's why we talk about following in the faith. You look at the battle armor in Ephesians 6.

You've got the helmet of salvation. What do you believe as far as truth? The belt of truth is important. And then the word of God.

I mean, you've got to believe that word of God to use it offensively. So I think there's a practical aspect of that. I used to pray through the spiritual armor regularly and sometimes I was like, is this stuff really working? And I think I was exercising a lot of it. But I didn't have a practical aspect of, okay, yeah, it's important. Whenever I'm hit with a lie from the enemy, am I actually taking that on? And even though I was praying those things out, I wasn't necessarily believing what I said or I wasn't really seeing the enemy for what he was doing in those occurrences.

Yeah, and you notice that we are made in that Ephesians. Everything's a frontal attack. There's no back plate of righteousness. It's a breast plate.

So there's nothing in the back there. But we have a clip that if you find yourself feeling like you couldn't really rise up to it, we've got a clip that kind of addresses that. So this clip is from Open Range and it's Charlie Waite. He goes into a bar and he's talking with these townspeople. And he's there as a hired gun to help out this guy that's a free-grazer. And the free-grazers are coming up against this landowner.

And this landowner is dominating the whole area, including the town. And all these men are scared of taking that on because they don't want to lose their life. And you'll hear that in the clip.

But I think what you have to watch, this is what I felt like. I had made agreements, like a lot of these guys did, that basically were like, well, you know, it's really not my battle to fight. Ready? Yep. Too bad.

Seemed like a nice young feller. It's a shame what this town's come to. You could do something about it. What? We're freighters.

Ralph here's a shopkeeper. You're men, ain't you? I didn't raise my boys just to see them killed. Well, you may not know this, but there's things that gnaw at a man worse than dying. It's probably one of the best snippets in movies.

Probably the top ten in my mind is that there's things that gnaw at a man worse than dying. And you hear guys in that clip, don't you Rodney, that have just made agreements. I'm just a shopkeeper. I don't have what it takes to step up and fight this fight. Yes, and that's where I know I've lived my life there because I didn't want to ever step up into a fight.

I just would love to stay in the background and just hide out and just say yes to whatever the situation was. Just go with the flow and just make it easy on everybody, right? And that's where you find yourself in some very bad situations at times because you just, you won't step up and fight when you need to. Yeah.

Go ahead. And the things that we're talking about, things that gnaw at a man, you can put that to the side. Like I said, I tried to step up and I had failed. So you just back out.

I was like the guy, I was like the shopkeepers or whatever, the freighters. But, you know, at some point in time, going back to Robby's first topic, core desires, he put in me the desire to fight. And when I'm not fighting, I know I'm not fighting and I know that desire not being fulfilled in me, I'm going to be discontent.

I'm going to not feel like I'm a man. I don't feel like I'm taking my place in the story like I'm supposed to. Well, you feel the same way when you fight the wrong battles. Yeah, that's true too.

Right? When my life revolves around fighting the utility bill people, you know, or whatever that is. Yes, you may have to have a discussion there, but if that's the biggest battle that I face in a given day or the road rage that I feel when I'm driving, you know, it's much bigger than that. That battle that God put in your heart was to fight against evil. And that's the point I was going to go after, but it really is a matter of, you know, what gets under your skin? What gets you angry enough to fight? And is it with your wife or for your wife?

Is it, as you said, against the utility guy or is it for somebody that's being cheated? And that Jesus was quite the fighter when it was something important like his father's house, but we've been lied to by the church to a large extent because we're supposed to be meek and mild like Jesus. I prefer being the Jesus that will confront evil even to his own detriment. Yeah, and if you've ever watched the Passion of the Christ, you know, movie, just the scenes of what Jesus went through to fight for what he knew was right, you know, that's what broke me. And that movie was just watching the things that he went through just to fight for our hearts, right, you know, in the bigger context. It was, that movie hit me in a very different way than most. The terrible things he went through physically bothered me, but the time I broke down was when he was teaching in the midst of all that that was going on and telling people, you know, love your neighbor as yourself, love God. And that's what really reached my heart in that movie more than the rough time of being crucified. That's a horrible way to die, but the reason he came to die is much more moving and is something to fight for.

Yeah. Now, Rodney, we're going to be wrapping up this segment here pretty quickly, you know, going into the after hours, but what's some other things you'd like for people to kind of know about this topic before we go into the after hours? I think just you have to stop and really be intentional about reflecting on your own situation. If you're out there and you're fighting things and you find yourself getting angry at things that you know you shouldn't and you end up regretting those, or you find yourself, you know, not entering in to the battle that you knew you really should have entered into afterwards, you have a lot of regrets basically, you need to really start looking into what is it that I'm agreeing to and is it my true self? We talked about getting your new name and who you really are in God, these other things, these wounds that have happened in the past. Look at how things fit together, putting the pieces together. And that's one of the things that I loved about listening to your guys' message and John's message and going to the boot camp and understanding a little deeper that it's a puzzle that God's going to help you put together if you work with him on this. If you don't think you have agreements, just listen to how you talk to yourself when you make a mistake and I promise you that's your first tip going into the agreement that needs to be broken. What you call yourself is what you live under. And I've just done that today, yes? Yeah, that's the identity you start to claim and so that's just a small little step but it gives you the indicator that they're there and there is so much more to this topic. Go to masculinejourney.org, register for the upcoming boot camp, I think I'll get the dates right, April 29th through May 2nd.

Right, April 29th through May 2nd, masculinejourney.org. Reach out, we'd love to hear from you. Send us a message. Talk to you next week. This is the Truth Network.