Strong Men After Hours

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Welcome to Masculine Journey After Hours. Today's topic has been strength. We've been dealing with this, Andy.

And so you hit us with 1 John that we gave you credit for originally in the first show, but it was – Be like, exactly, 1st Andy 2. So carry on. So, yeah, actually I'm speaking specifically to men and strong men. 1 John 2 is the passage of the last part of the book that I mentioned in the first show.

Go back and hear it. But another scripture that I found this week, and I felt like it was a timely thing from God, but 1 Corinthians 16, 13, Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. And, boy, do we need that today. I mean, all of history has needed that, but we need to have strong men. And I think we've talked about it on here before, masculinity is being attacked and challenged. There's not always been a good view of masculinity, but I think it's important that we as men show our strength in a good and holy way. There is such.

God calls us to do it, obviously, from that scripture. So what's that look like? That's what we're going to be talking about today. Robby, I wanted to answer the question you asked me, but we ran out of time. Okay.

The question was how do you build the strength for your signature move? My answer is in the Word. You need to be in the Word on your own because there's too much bad information that's being circulated out there. People are claiming to be speaking for God, but they're not. Yeah, it's a beautiful thing.

If you want to fish, why not go someplace where there's fish? And if you want to find out about Jesus and be bestowed true masculinity, there's nobody like getting it from the source himself, right? And clearly, you know, I can't even begin to share how much that is meant to my own heart as well as my own strength.

So, you know, one of the neat things that you, as Andy pointed out, that this is something that through 1 John that we're calling out younger men, right? And so you've got this clip from McFarland. Yeah, McFarland is a great movie.

It has so many aspects and people growing through the movie. So you've got these kids that are workers in the field and their parents work in the field. There's a whole, it's a small town.

There's a bunch of Mexican workers in the fields and they're in the school. McFarland's, I forget the guy's name for the, who's the coach, but he's, he's in this small school. He goes through this whole growth himself where he's down and out.

My gosh, I'm in this lowly town. He's thinking he's to be some hotshot coach and all this other stuff and he's, you know, losing other jobs. Now he's in this one and he's struggling in his new identity as this coach. The kids, they struggle every single day just trying to get all their work done, get their schoolwork done. And now he started up this cross-country track team and added on to everything else that they have for the hardships in their lives and their family's lives. And he makes this transition from being this, oh, woe is me. I've got everything so bad to realizing what people who really have it bad and how joyous they are because they have each other and have family.

And so what happens during this movie is this track team becomes really, really good at running long distance cross-country and they're at the state championships and he gives this little talk to them. All right, everybody, gather around. Come on.

Once you look around, best in the state, right? Every team that's here deserves to be, including you. They haven't got what you got, all right? They don't get up at dawn like you and go to work in the fields, right? They don't go to school all day and then go back to those same fields. That's what you do.

And then you come out with me and you run eight miles, ten miles, and you take on, you take on even more pain. These kids don't do what you do. They can't even imagine it. When I went out in the field that day with you, these kids, I'll be honest with you, it was the worst day's work I ever had to do in my life. And I said to myself, whatever kind of crappy job I end up in, it'll never be as tough as that. You kids do it every day, and your parents hope they can do it every day, and they'll do it for a lifetime if it means a better life for you. You guys are superhuman. What you endured just to be here, to get a shot at this, the kind of privilege that someone like me takes for granted. There's nothing you can't do with that kind of strength, with that kind of heart.

Kids have the biggest hearts I've ever seen. They go run your race. Hey coach, want to call it?

Uno, dos, tres, make fun of it! So what happens there is he's basically kind of telling them he's done. It's time for you guys to go do it. He actually assigns one of them as captain and he walks turns away and they called him that guy, that same kid, calls him back in so the coach can call it so he can send him off like he always has because they need him.

And that's where they're starting to realize that too. It's like, wow, we need you coach. You've become the coach, the leader that we need. And what I love about that ending is when you look over and you get this big roar, I mean you have seven or eight kids running. That big roar came from the whole community. And that's what we as Saints, we got to come together as a community of Saints and say, hey, no, we're all in this together. We're going to roar behind each other. We're going to stand up for each other. We're going to stand up for truth. And the beauty of it is, can you imagine with me, as I was listening to that clip, I couldn't help but think of here's King David, you know, essentially with the Israelites army that was, you know, at this point in time, Saul has chased him all over the place, right?

And these are the complete second-class citizens of a second-class country that, you know, they're in the land of misfit toys. And King David is saying the same thing to them, right? That, hey, they don't know this, but you guys are superhuman. And clearly when you see King David's mighty men, well, why do you think they were mighty?

Right? Why do you think they were mighty? Jim once smiled because he knows why they were mighty, right? They got their masculinity called out.

And they had this wonderful ancient battle cry, the Rach Hazach Hamatz, which is basically be strong, be courageous, but it is in, and it's a fervor that allows them to charge into battle together single-minded for God. Right. And that's the important part. I think we don't want to lose track of the strength thing. Oh, I can bench press a thousand pounds. I can't, at least not in the last 50 years. But that strength is a minor portion of the overall strength that God's given us, and we have to be careful how we use it.

Right. And so when you see these stories about King David's mighty men, maybe you've got a story like that in your life. Well, I just happened to.

I know you're going to be shocked. Do tell. So, you know, when I was a Boy Scout, we had this, I got all the misfits because I was the only leader of all the Boy Scouts when they put these troops together that had any experience. And so I'd been a Boy Scout for a couple of years. And so when they picked the people that are going to be in each patrol, which is what you call it in Boy Scouts, you know, all the popular kids went into, you know, popular groups, whatever, and for whatever reason, they sent me all the misfits. So I got the bedwetters, you know, I got the, you know, what you would think were the complete oddballs of all time when you saw this rattlesnake patrol, because I mean, this one kid was a thief. His name was Neil Blum.

He'd steal anything from anybody. He was just bad news. And everybody I had was just weird. I mean, it was a land of misfit toy. And so for two years, every competition, you know, Boy Scouts have all kinds of competitions. You do jamborees, you do this, that, and the other.

You know, we would get killed. And so they had this, it's called a Klondike Derby. And so what you got to do is you got to build this sled.

This is in Michigan, and you're going to build this. It looks like a dog sled, but you pull it with the Boy Scouts and you got to pull it to different stations based on a compass. Well, this particular Klondike Derby, it is snowing to beat the band.

Like it is snowing so hard that you can't see anything for like two feet in front of you. And so, you know, we're out there. Well, and I had this one kid. I mean, he was, knowing what I know now, he was probably autistic, socially, terribly awkward, but the kid could read a map like there was no tomorrow. Okay, give the boy a compass and you were going to get to where you needed to go.

He was totally weird and didn't belong, you know, necessarily in the group. But man, so, you know, here we are, we're in this thing, like, okay. And so, you know, he says, well, we got to go to that first station. Well, we don't even think harp, you know, we give him the map. Well, none of the rest of them have to do nothing.

And he takes us right till we get to the first station. They said, well, you got to build a fire in the middle of the snowstorm with one match. Well, this other nutcase was a complete pyromaniac. I mean, he could start a fire in any situation, right? I mean, there was no way that he couldn't start a fire. So, man, boof, you know, he had a dadgum bonfire going before he could hardly believe it. You know, we're off to the next station.

We have no problem because we had this guy that could read the map. And we get to this next station and you got to lash these things together and make this tower. Well, my bed wetter, Petey, kid could lash, man. He was good with a rope. You know, in other words, he had his own way that he reflected God and his signature move was with a rope.

He could lash, man. And so we picked up this tower, we didn't think anything about it. We've done three stations where the Rattlesnake Patrol – we think, you know, we've had a good time. Let's go sledding. We got this beautiful sled. It's snowing.

We got no chance of winning this thing, right? And so let's sled, you know. So we spent the next two hours sledding and, of course, you know, we didn't get lost because we didn't have time to come back. You know, we just turned to the guy that could use a map. And as we're coming across the finish line, people are cheering like crazy because the Rattlesnake Patrol had won the Klondike Derby. Gave you police to that Klondike bar, huh? And what happened to the Rattlesnake Patrol?

You know, they gave you this blue ribbon to put on your patrol flag and all this stuff. And I'll never, ever forget the transformation within what was the – everybody picked – you did not want to play dodgeball with these kids, I'm telling you, this would be bad. But nonetheless, like what we came together in was that battle cry, right? We came together because we knew each other's strength. It's like, okay, we need a fire. Lenny, build a fire. You know, away you go. And, you know, just giftedness, Andy. There you go. Strength.

Darrell Bock Strength. I just was kind of worried that you were talking about me because I was your first two scouts in that. And I was in the leftover patrol, too, the Eagle Patrol in my day, so. Well, this is a perfect time for you to talk about the – let's talk about a loser we got in a mask – go, Jim, go. Mask of Zorro. Well, let's jump into that.

This is a wonderful example yet of another sage taking on a pupil and teaching him how to be strong, and he thinks he already is, as most young men do, but he gets a lesson from the older man. Where did you get that? It's none of your business, Doc.

Where did you get it? Most of my brothers. He's dead. I'm sorry. You're sorry? Why should you be sorry? You should not trade something like that for a mere glass of whiskey. Why not?

Think I could get two? Who's that? That's the man who gave my brother. You're drunk and you're angry and no condition to fight a professional soldier.

They're out of my way, old man. Would you care to try again? Oh, you're welcome. For what? For saving your life. For saving your life. I would have killed him.

No, not today. He is trained to kill. You seem trained to drink. Yes, my friend, you would have fought very bravely and died very quickly, and then would avenge your brother. I would have found the way, having never lost a fight.

Except to a crippled old man just now. What is your name? Alejandro.

Alejandro. You know what there is a saying, a very old saying, when the pupil is ready, the master will appear. Now if you want to kill this man, I can help you and I can teach you how, how to move, how to think, how to take your revenge with honor and live to celebrate it. I will take dedication, I will take time. Why are you so eager to help me?

Because once, a long time ago, you did the same for me. You miss a lot of action there, but Alejandro is drunk, he's going after the guy that killed his brother, and he is stopped by the original Zorro. And he is trained to become the next Zorro, and that allows him to fulfill his destiny and getting that revenge, which is not a great thing to target your strength at, but in this case it was defeating evil, so there's that. But in this scene, it shows when we are on our own, I love the line, I've used it many times, you know, we will, you will fight bravely and die quickly.

If we are doing things on our own, we're in trouble. Darrell Bock Right, but if you go into it wholehearted, then when the pupil is ready, the master will appear, which is, there's tremendous wisdom in both those lines that are coming from the sage, and you know, that was just it. When Harold talked about going to the word, if you really want to get strong, you know, it's not terribly hard to find strength, because the word is full, and when you're really ready and you're hungry enough, right Andy, then the master will appear.

Well, I know you had this clip, we've been saving the best for last, because you know, this is, it brings it all home, right? Gary Barnes Yeah, but before that, I mean, I like about the word. So you know, it was in that first John, talks about you're strong because the word of God imbibes in you. Obviously, it's the word, and I, you know, I think a lot of us, we had the word, but we weren't necessarily applying it right.

We weren't using it skillfully in battle, so we fought bravely and died quickly. That's kind of where I was at. So this clip, though, that I have is from Robin Hood, I submitted it last week for loyalty, and it seems to me to play a little bit better even this week. I liked how it's Robin Hood speaking to the king, and the king is basically being authoritarian and trying to, you know, basically demand loyalty to his subjects, which the enemy likes to do to us. And he offers, you know, he wants that loyalty, but he offers nothing, and that's what Robin Hood says to him. But he comes from a point of strength, and that's, I guess, how it kind of really grabbed my heart was the fact that that's the way I want to speak to the enemy or to kings, anybody that tries to lord over me that is not, you know, in line with what God's plan is for me. And I think that's what we have, that this king reminds me of the voices I heard before.

Go ahead. A king does not bargain for the loyalty that every subject owes him. Without loyalty, there is no kingdom.

There is nothing. I'm here to speak for Sir Walter Locksley. Speak, if you must.

If you're trying to build for the future, you must set your foundation strong. The laws of this land enslave people to its king, a king who demands loyalty, but offers nothing in return. In tyranny lies only failure. You build a country like you build a cathedral from the ground up, empower every man, and you will gain strength.

Well, who could object to such reasonable words? If your majesty were to offer justice, justice in the form of a charter of liberties, allowing every man to forage for his heart, to be safe from conviction without cause or prison without charge, to work, eat, and live on the sweat of his own brow, and be as many as he can. That king would be great. Not only would he receive the loyalty of his people, but their love as well.

So what would you have? Castle for every man. Every Englishman's home is his castle. What we would ask, your majesty, is liberty. Liberty by law. I just love that strength that goes after that freedom. That's essentially what we're talking about, strength to obtain that. We talked about how if a king, if he would do his, I guess, his kingdom, but if he does it right, he'll both have loyalty and love.

That's what it is. I mean, God has my loyalty and love because what he's done for me, but there's a certain amount of strength that you have as a man to say, yes, this is something I want, and I'm going to go after it. It takes strength to do that, and if you don't step into that, you'll never walk into that special solace, that glory.

I love what Robby was talking about. It really gets to the identity of how God created you. So I'm going to tie this to my story a bit as it goes into the new name talk. For the longest time, I wanted to have that strength, and I just never really felt like I did. I felt like I struggled with anger, lust, those things, and you always heard the enemy's voices that just kept you bound by that in shame. But I think it was like the third, maybe the third boot camp that I went to, I was asking God what my new name is, and I'd heard some other things, but nothing really resonated, and I remember him saying, go hook up your given name.

And I think I'd heard this as a kid and just forgot it, but the name Andrew means strength, and that's something I really had struggled with, and it was like that identity allowed me to really step in. It was, I actually, I've really become, you know, to where I've seen God as my Father, but the first thing that really made an impact to me from the boot camps was the new name and the identity message, because, you know, that's what you have to start with. You have to realize what God calls you, and a lot of times when men made progress in their strength in the Bible, it was when they got their identity. Darrell Bock Yeah, we talked last week with loyalty, you know, what is loyalty, what is not loyalty, how loyalty could be misconstrued, misused, and the same thing, strength is probably even more misused, and that's what's caused a lot of division in our society, because a bunch of men went out and misused their strength and tore others down to make themselves look better, and talk about, you know, signature move and things of that nature when you were talking, because I was like, I don't know what my signature move is, I don't have a signature move, and then popped into two words, discipline and accountability, and I have used that ever since learning that early on in my career, in the secular world, but they are the two things. It's like, if you just focus on getting discipline and accountability in the workforce, in your whatever you're doing, it just, I haven't found anything it doesn't apply to in helping, and you know, even in your Christian walk, it's, yeah, you need to have some discipline and accountability, you know, and that's what good brothers and good sisters will do with you is help you through that, is like, yes, you have to have that discipline in the Word as Harold was talking about, I wholeheartedly agree with you, Harold, there's that, okay, are you doing it just as a chore, and I got to do it, and I did my 15 minutes, and I did my 30 minutes, no, it's the discipline to go deeper with him and to learn and to listen to him.

All that comes in there. And then it's the accountability to be in a church group, be in a brotherhood, be in some kind of, and again, whatever your church group is, but it is with other, you know, community of believers, and you have to walk in that and be accountable to them for something before you're really going to start to grow. Darrell Bock Yeah, it's kind of cool that from when you look at what Deuteronomy teaches, as well as the 1 John passage, that if you're going to teach your children, or if you're going to teach the young man, or whoever it is that you go to teach, there's accountability in that, which when you go to teach something, first you've got to learn it. Darrell Bock Yeah.

And that's the best way to learn it, is by teaching it, because you will make mistakes, and you have to go deeper to find out what's in there. Darrell Bock Exactly. So go to teach a passage, or one of the best accountabilities, you know, you get a radio show every week, and guess what, you're going to be accountable to, you know, to find yourself, you know, researching clips or, you know, different things, or if you teach a Sunday school class, or whatever it is that God allows you to serve, right? And interestingly, you know, the Jews call those things mitzvahs, or their commandments, when you see it, especially in Psalms, you'll see them refer to commandments all the time also in Deuteronomy. But what you may not have thought about is they think of these commandments as a way that you actually clothe yourself, like you, that they cover you, and this is how they cover you. Chris You put them on.

Darrell Bock Right. This was an action that you decided, God gave you the opportunity, right, to go speak at this camp, or God gave you this opportunity to do the PowerPoint at your church, right? It's a mitzvah, because they think of it as good deeds. Like here's an opportunity that you've been asked by God to go take part in what it is that he's doing. And so by stepping into that, right, and providing your strength to do the PowerPoint, interestingly, where does that, where has that taken you over the years, Harold, as God has given you that opportunity? Harold Jones Great joy. Great satisfaction.

I love being able to take some of the photographs that I've taken of landscapes. And find the very best scripture that I can find to put on that, that sends a message. So I feel like that the preacher may be standing in the pulpit teaching, but I've already done my teaching with the slides that I've had to introduce songs and the time for prayer and the time for scripture reading. So I do my teaching without opening my mouth. Darrell Bock So think about what King David was saying in Psalm 119 when he's crying out, open my eyes that your commandments wouldn't be hidden from me. What he's actually talking about is these opportunities to serve him that they wouldn't be hidden, because they lead you into adventures like you would never believe as you step into your faith and, and walk into this discipline and accountability by law.

As Robin Hood would say, right? So how fun we need you to come to the boot camp so we can come share life with you guys. So you go to masculinejourneyradio.org, register for the boot camp. That's why we're here. We want to see you. This is the Truth Network.