Word of the Year-Mid Year

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A 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. Well, how fun we get to make fun of Sam because welcome to the Masculine Journey and if you're a regular listener, you would know that usually Sam would open the show. However, we're doing the word of the year and not surprisingly.

No, it's not, is it? Somehow or another, he had another obligation. Can you imagine that, Andy? Where's he at, man? He bails again.

Did you notice he didn't even offer to call in? I'm just saying. I'm just saying. So wherever you are, Sam, we love you, we miss you, but this topic is clearly one of my favorite, near and dear to my heart. And it's especially cool for me to watch other guys pick up on the concept, begin to go into that journey with Jesus. And so the word of the year will take one of our newer guys.

Rodney's only been with us about three years. And so what does the word of the year mean to you? It means doing what Robby tells you to do. Oh, wow.

That's a huge one. We're following you, Robby, because you're the one that got us into this. Robby or Rabbi?

Rabbi Robby. So Robby got us into this several years ago when he started following Wild at Heart, and they're using the word of the year to kind of use a word that you just kind of sit down at the end of the year and really think about, well, what's coming next year, Lord, praying about it, wondering what do you have in store for me for a whole entire year? And kind of as a theme that you can use to go deeper with him and walk with him for a full year. And as Robby introduced it and we saw the joy that he received in doing that, we all, to our own extents, have went into the word of the year, some deeper, some less as deep. And at different times we fall in and out of the word. We're not as faithful as Mr. Faithful is sometime with his word, but we absolutely have found that it's amazing how often God just brings back events throughout the year that are touching and hitting on that word throughout the year.

And it's just a great opportunity for you to just kind of bathe in something and sit and stew with the Lord over the year. So it's so cool. So big Jim. In my Dane Brahmage state, it occurred to me the correct name for you is Rob Breakbony. Rob Breakbony. So anyway, Andy, you didn't get your word right at the beginning of the year, which I think is really cool.

Like, there's no need to force this or anything else. You're just listening to find out what it is. And so share your story there. Yeah, I was a late bloomer. But, you know, I was excited when I got my word because I had, I'd been reading through the word and I'd run into Prosper in the Book of Jeremiah 29.11. And it was kind of on my heart.

Last year had been abundance. And, you know, I'm not trying to do all this of looking at just trying to, you know, when we think prosper, we think prosperity. And there's so much more to the gospel about prospering and abundance of where our mind goes in this culture that we have that's not really what it's intended to. It's an overall well-being and, you know, financial success is in that.

But there's so many other things that you, you know, really need to succeed to obtain life. And so I'd had that word from Jeremiah 29.11 and then our pastor spoke and he just threw out Proverbs 16.3, commit your works to the Lord and your thoughts will be established. But the way he read it, he said, you would actually, you know, your plans would prosper. And that was a unique way.

I'd never heard it that way. And I was like, okay, that's it. And God confirmed it. But this year's, you know, there's a lot of things that I could say that I could be more prosperous or fruitful, as Robby was saying. But there's a lot that I've actually succeeded in. And those things are the things that I acknowledge that God are bringing those successes. So the clip that I've got here, a little bit of a laugh track, but it's from Forrest Gump, which if you watch the movie, he's really the definition of prosper. He does pretty well in everything he does. He is fruitful in everything and he puts his hand to. And, you know, I think that we have that ability.

God put it in the scripture quite often and all the way back in Deuteronomy about how you would be successful and prosper. And so this clip basically is in boot camp and you get an exchange with a sergeant and Gump is obedient and he prospers from that. But then you get Bubba explaining, you know, Gump's friend, Bubba, he's explaining, you know, this shrimp business that he's into and how successful it could be. And I don't think you can miss that. Wow.

Who prospers Forrest Gump in the whole deal? Yep. Right. Yeah, absolutely.

It's its favor. It's not really hard. You just make your bed real neat. Remember to stand up straight and always answer every question with, yes, drill sergeant.

Isn't that clear? Yes, drill sergeant! What you do is you just drag your nets along the buck. On a good day, you can catch over 100 pounds of shrimp.

Everything goes all right. Two men, shrimp in 10 hours, less what you spend on gas. Done drill sergeant? Go! Why did you put that weapon together so quickly, Gump? You told me to, drill sergeant.

This is a new company record. If it wouldn't be a waste of such a finely listed man, I'd recommend you for OCS, Private Gump. You are going to be a general or something, Gump. Now, disassemble your weapon and continue. Anyway, like I was saying, shrimp is the fruit of the sea.

You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it, daze on it, shrimp kabobs, shrimp creole. There you go. We've all used that line somewhere when there's an abundance of any kind of food or anything. I really like that.

The more I hear it, I was really struggling to find something, and the more I hear it, it nailed what I wanted to say. Gump was truly blessed, but he had a very contrite heart. He had success because he was obedient, he was faithful, and that's the essence of it. And I think God, there's a conditional access to prosperity, and it's obedience to his word and love for him.

And I think we can reap the benefits of that. It's the fruit of a relationship with him. Wow, and it just pours right into Wayne, who, interestingly, they were kind of companions in their clips. So Wayne, you heard his word was, you know, live long and prosper, nandir nandir.

Yours was? The word that I got was obedience through faith, and at first it kind of confused me, because you would think of it the other way around, right? Faith leads to obedience. And so I was asking Father, you know, what is this?

What are you trying to show me? And it goes with the last year of my life and the things he's had me to do. And Andy kind of brought it up as well.

What kind of came to mind was, you know, show me your faith by your works. But it's more than that. It was much more than that. In fact, Father didn't really open it up until we were talking pre-show. This clip is from the show The Chosen. It's when Simon Peter, they went a little outside of the box, because we don't really know all the pieces and parts, but we know the gist of Father's heart. And, spoiler alert, if you haven't seen The Chosen, it's about the disciples and Jesus, right?

And how he chose his disciples. And Peter is having a really hard time, no hope. He's at the last straw, the last place that he would have ever imagined himself to be.

And we'll just let you play that. So he could have taken a lesson from Forrest Gump in being obedient here. It's him. Excuse me. It's Simon. That's him. No time for this, Andrew. It's him. Simon. It's the man. John said he's here.

I know. May I ask a favor? I'm teaching these people and apparently they're having trouble hearing me. If I could stand on your boat, it would be helpful.

They're having trouble hearing you, huh? Yes, yes. Of course.

Please, please stand on my boat. Thank you. I need to go.

I'm sorry. No time for this today. Stay a few moments longer. I have something for you. For me? I'm in a hurry.

Yes, I know. Just allow me a few moments, please. Simon. Trust me, as I have trusted you. This man is the Messiah. It's good to see you again, Andrew.

Yes. I'm Jesus. Thanks for this.

Simon. In my last moments with you, I want to share another story. Can everyone hear me? Put that down for a catch.

A little farther out. I don't have a call with you, teacher, but we've been doing this all night. Nothing. All right. Enter a word. I told you. I told you!

The boat, excuse me. My brother and the baptizer, you are the Lamb of God, yes? I am. Depart from me. I am a sinful man. You don't know who I am and the things I've done. Don't be afraid, Simon. I'm sorry. We've waited for you for so long.

We believe, but by faith, how sorry. Lift up your head, fisherman. What do you want from me?

Anything you ask, I will do. Follow me. So, Wayne, unlike Bubba, he wasn't quite as obedient, but the shrimp was really coming in there.

I should have dragged that net on the bottom of the boat. But nonetheless, his obedience led him to a greater faith. That's kind of where I am right now. The obedience led to a greater faith, a greater walk. So, you know, how cool is that? In a way that we can walk with him in new ways throughout a year. It's a beautiful thing, the themes and the adventure that we can go on. When we come back, we've got a song, I think, and we've got some lyrics to a song. We've got all that stuff coming, as well as more on the word of the year. So stay tuned.

We've got so much more coming at you. Don't forget, masculinejourneyradio.org. What if one weekend wasn't up to you that you could go and God would orchestrate it all? Masculine Journey Boot Camp, 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.

Fall Boot Camp coming up November 18th through the 21st. Go to masculinejourney.org and register today. There we go. Words of Life today on the Masculine Journey. And it's, you know, he does give us words. If we ask, are we willing to listen? And then follow or obey is the case maybe, as we heard in the last segment. But Rodney, I love, you know, God was coming after you this year and he did it in part through lyrics.

Yeah, well, he's always finding different ways to go reach after you, right? So one of the things that I was looking up for my word of the year was a song. And I was trying to figure out, well, what song would kind of bring out the heart of where I'm at, where I've been on my journey? Because again, like we talked earlier, it's been a three year journey for me.

So this is my third word and they've just kind of built on each other, each one. And it's just trying to find something that would say more than just my word for this year, but more about the journey. And I finally ran across this song called Thy Will. And it starts off that as she sings, it says, I'm so confused and then ends up, you know, OK, well, thy will be done. And ends up at the end basically, you know, saying, OK, Lord, you see me, your plans are for me and your goodness you have in store. So thy will be done. So it's like, OK, I surrender.

And it's from that fighting to surrendering. And that's where I've been on this journey because he had me first in what it's like to be a son. Then it was about him as father and then it's about family.

So it's about all this interconnectedness. And so this clip is a lady named Hillary Scott. She wrote the song Thy Will on a very sad circumstance that she had recently been through a miscarriage. She had prayed and prayed and prayed to have a child, answered prayers.

Right. She's pregnant and then only to have a miscarriage. And, you know, as a father, I can I can think about where my feelings would be and how sad that would be.

But as the mother, it's got to be even harder. And the song is about her struggle to overcome and the prayers that she had answered were in a much different way than what she thought was going to be the answer. And so in this clip of the interview, you'll hear refer back to those verses. And really what she's referring back to is the verses in Matthew about the Lord's Prayer and just constantly kept coming to her.

Thy will be done, which came out with this song. And this kind of what leads her to just reflect and reflect. And she's doing that. You could only imagine what you're going through in this reflection time of why, Lord, what's going on. And it was just a time of her surrendering.

So let's go. And that's what the song says. And it's exactly what I was going through. And those verses just kept coming up and coming up in the most random, but not random places.

You know, it's just how he works. And and I looked in the translation of the message and where it says thy will be done. It translates to do what's best. And in that moment, I just it was such an epiphany of like, OK, your will is what's best. Even when I don't understand, even when I can't see light at the end of the tunnel, I'm holding on to these words in this truth. I'm in a very vulnerable place with this song.

It's still hard to talk about even. And because it's just it's a place that's very raw for me still. But what I've really tried to say, whether it's the couple of times I performed it, like before I sing it, everyone has a story and everybody has really high points and really low points to their story. And but I think a lot of people walk around feeling like their story isn't as as cool as the next person or isn't as important. And what I've really learned is if you take a step out in boldness to share your story and and the story that God has been writing for your life, then someone else is going to respond to it, whether it's something they just went through or maybe it's something they're about to go through. And I the bond and the connection that you form with people, even complete strangers, sometimes when you have when you take that bold step to share, even when you might think that somebody's going to look at you like crazy, don't be afraid to do it, because that's been the most amazing way to heal for me with what I've been through is sharing it and hearing the response and the stories of others.

Yes, and I would definitely identify with one of those people who would say, yep, my story. It's not worth sharing. There's no value in it. Nothing can be changed.

I'm not going to be able to get healing or redemption. But walking with these men in this room and a few outside of this room, this is one of the places where I've started to find that, yes, family, which is my word for this year, is where you share that story. You share it.

This is the place you should be. The safest place to go to go share your story is family. And what God has shown me is that, yes, you have your blood relatives as family. But it is those in Christ that are the closest to you. And I have some blood relatives that are in Christ and some that are not. But it is those in Christ that just constantly can help you walk with Him and you can share life together.

And I just recently had a move and I had over 20 people helping me move from church because we just have a ministry that's just incredible. It's just they love on you one after another and everybody helps everybody in different ways. And the men in this room are constantly speaking into my life. And I'm watching men speak into other men's life and we speak into the wives' lives and kids' lives. And you just get to be a part of that. And that's what family is really all about. And that's the sharing.

And then it just leads you to, without even trying to get it, it just starts to come. You get the healing. You get the redemption.

You get to know that you are a son of God. It's really cool. We talk about it every year that it's a journey that when you get a word, you're almost going to not want to turn loose of it at the end of the year. It's been so much a part of you to see an interpretation.

Because it's like God's going to give you a word that's going to help you interpret what you're going through in a little bit different filter and a little bit different way of looking things. And so every year I'm like, I don't want to let go of this because it's been so much fun. And coming into this year, he really challenged me with a word, engage. Like, oh my goodness.

And it's been a struggle for me for years and years and years. Like that was something that I was going to have to step out of my comfort zone to really take on that word compared to other words that he'd given me in the past, not unlike Big Jim's word, which hopefully we'll get to shortly. So when I thought of engaging, this clip is from a movie called Nicky and the Perfect Stranger. And Jefferson Moore plays Jesus in this clip, and he's the guy that's talking to her, so don't miss it. Jesus has actually come to visit her for a second time. There's another movie where she meets him, and he's following back up with her where she has fallen into legalism to some extent. And so she's trying to make her way to the abundant life here, and she's actually riding in the car on a road trip with Jesus at this point in time.

And she's looking, you know, for answers, and I love how he takes her into her own world to show her that, you know, how to engage. Some kind of plan or program? Program. All righty. All right. How about we start with your devotional time?

What about it? What's the frequency now? Bi-weekly? Tri-weekly? Maybe tri-weekly, I guess. Good or daily?

Yeah, that'd be good. Hour? Half hour? Forty minutes. Okay.

Women's group? Do I have to? Hey, it's your program. Yeah, I better.

I'll see what's available. Church? Sunday morning, Sunday night. That it? Okay, we'll pick up Wednesday nights again.

I'll just have to give up Zumba. Tithing? Ten percent. Pre-tax or post-tax? Whatever you say it should be.

I say it's up to you. Great. Wow.

This is a lot. Program's not going to work, is it? I never used one. So I shouldn't do any of the things on the list? I didn't say that. It's just that you've got to put your horse before your cart. What's that mean?

It means where's your cart? What are you talking about? As long as you insist on reducing God to a task or a checklist, it's never going to feel right to you. So, wow, I mean, I just had seen that clip at about the same time that Wayne, you know, talking about family, talking about all the things that we're talking about, obedience, all these things, I've been working on this all year.

It's been quite the journey. And Wayne comes in, and he starts talking about Hebrews 5, verse 2, which talked about the high priest have all kinds of infirmities, and it just caught me in the left field. Like, what? I always wondered about it, Aaron.

Like, how did they pick this guy that went with the golden calf treatment? I mean, hey, Aaron, what's the deal with that? And as he began to process that word, infirmity, and realize that weakness had to do with self-talk, that weakness has to do with the story you are telling yourself, not just agreements like we've talked about so many times on the show, but actually what's the story that you're telling yourself? And as I'm studying that, there's actually this week, yesterday, God says, I want you to memorize this. You know, as I'm asking him for where we're going this week, he says, I want you to memorize the 13th Psalm. And the 13th Psalm, he says, David does, he says, How long, O Lord, will you forget me? Forever?

How long will you turn your face from me? He says, How long will I have to take my own counsel in my soul and have sorrows forever? In other words, David was saying, It's on you. And all of a sudden, it was almost what this guy is saying in this clip. What Jefferson Moore, Jesus, is saying is, Wait a minute. This is so much simpler than I thought. This has to do with asking Jesus for the engagement itself, right? Like putting it back. This is what David did. So we're going to have to get to the after hours to hear more.

We've got all these other words and so much stuff. If you go to maskandjourney.org, you can hear the after hours register for the boot camp. But I'm going to promise you this after hours is going to be extra cool. Go to the podcast, Mask and Journey Radio.