Obedience

Hello, this is Will Hardy with Man Talk Radio. We are all about breaking down the walls of race and denomination. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few minutes. Enjoy it, share it. But most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Network Podcast.

This is the Truth Network. It's a complete 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. The golden voice of Ernie Hodge.

If you've ever wondered who that is, that does the announcing there, one of the very talented voice people we have at the Truth Network. If you ever want Ernie, come by and see him sometime. If you ever want to take a tour, you can just get a hold of us. We would love to take you. But we are, hey, we're glad you're here. We're glad you're listening. But once again, it seems we're Sam-less in Seattle.

Even Winston. But Sam may be calling in here shortly. Keith is trying to get him on the phone, so we may get him in a minute. But tonight's topic, I'm just going to give you a little spoiler alert. You're not going to go, oh, man, I can hardly wait to hear about this one. What? It's exciting, Robby. What are you talking about? But it may grow on you.

We're hoping it will. Now, actually, it's got everything to do with all of our journeys, not just masculine, but feminine as well. But Rodney, it was your topic, so I'll let you dive in there now that I've set you up so beautifully. Yeah, set me up for what?

To trip and fall and fall flat on my face here, yeah. So last week, we were going over Andy's scripture and reading it, and I was looking at that compared to where we were the previous week. So we've been in loyalty and strongmen, and this topic I was studying just kind of jumped out at me as like, hey, I think it might be something we could do. And I was like, okay, well, I loved Andy's scripture reading, so I went right back just a few verses earlier and thought, well, let me just jump in there because I love 1 John because it just has so many truths in it. And what John has in there as basically his three tests, which was the first one is kind of a doctrinal about belief, the second one is more of a moral about obedience, and the third one is like a social about love. And where I want to go in this topic was to kind of stick with the same theme was basically the moral test of obedience and just kind of sticking in there because basically with what John does in 1 John is basically just sets up an incredible encouragement for those who are in John and basically also sets up how he can expose those that are unbelievers. And that all comes out there, and it just gives you incredible confidence in your salvation, which was one of the heresies back then, you know, you're not going to be saved. And I just love how 1 John sets that up, and I thought obedience would be a great place to go after our last topics. So for a lot of us, including me, we may have had older sisters that played on this obedience thing, and so when you say the word obedience to me, I can't help but think of this clip actually that Rodney got from Despicable Me, and Gru's got some kids.

Yeah, I mean, Gru comes home. He is bringing up the three girls that he just adopted, and he's bringing them into his house, and basically this is their first introduction to the home life. And here you go, talk about obedience. As you can see, I have provided everything a child might need. All right. Okay, as I was saying, hey!

Somebody broke that. Okay, clearly we need to set some rules. Rule number one, you will not touch anything. Uh-huh, what about the floor? Yes, you may touch the floor. What about the air?

Yes, you may touch the air. What about this? Where did you get that? Found it. Okay, rule number two, you will not bother me while I'm working. Rule number three, you will not cry or whine or laugh or giggle or sneeze or burp or fart. So no annoying sounds, right?

Does this count as annoying? Very. I will see you in six hours. Okay, don't worry. Everything's going to be fine. We're going to be really happy here. Right, Agnes? Yeah, so you can see that, you know, but it's interesting.

There's lots of challenges here, but I think there's amazing adventures here as well. So we do have Sam. He's called him from Seattle. He's from Seattle.

We were Sam-less in Seattle, or we were Seattle-less in Sam, however that worked, but nonetheless, you got a story along these lines, don't you, Sam? I do, I do. As I always looked at obedience to be very transparent and honest, I kind of thought of a dog, you know? You throw the thing, it wants to have to go fetch it, bring it back, you know, whatever that is, right, the ball, whatever, and I always kind of thought of obedience in that manner in regards to how a dog responds to its master. You know, and there's been some times when God's called me to be obedient on some things that I really didn't want to go do. You know, the first one was to tell my wife at the time that I had been struggling with pornography, and I really did not want to have that conversation, and God was on me for probably six months.

You need to have it, you need to have it, you need to have it. And he told me something at that point that really was pretty freeing, and then he told me again to me later on with another situation I'll talk about here in a second. But he, you know, he said, look, you own being obedient, you don't own the outcome, right, because I was afraid of her response, obviously, of what that was going to look like.

And, you know, it worked out well, it really did, you know, as well as it could work out. But, you know, when I had to turn around and talk to my mom a few years later about the molestation that I experienced as a kid, she did not know anything about it. And I really didn't want to tell her, but I thought at the time my brothers were coming to boot camp, which means they would have heard my story, I was going to talk about that at boot camp. And I didn't want her to hear from them, and so I was on my way to Florida anyway, and really did not want to tell her, because she was getting up in age at the time, and I couldn't see the point. My God, I don't understand the point of you asking me to tell her this story, because it's just going to break her heart, and I don't see any good that's going to come from it. And he kept saying, look, you need to be obedient, but you don't own the outcome. If she's mad, maybe she needs to be mad.

If she's this, maybe she needs to be this way, so I can work on her heart. And so I went and I told her, and really it became a very difficult conversation initially, but it became a very point that brought my mom and I closer together than I could ever imagine. It brought us and God together closer than I could have ever imagined. And so I think there's something freeing about being obedient when you realize that you don't own what happens after that God does. Sorry to belabor that point so long, but for me that's been a very freeing thing on obedience.

Oh, that's absolutely beautiful, Sam, and how cool is that? I mean, to me there's so many different ways when it comes to obedience that what you don't realize is God's got this absolutely amazing adventure. And so it's interesting to me that three of us submitted clips from Evan Almighty, and here's a real lesson in obedience in so many different ways, but don't miss the fact that God's called him on an adventure. So to set this up a little bit in Genesis 3.14, you may know that God called Noah to build an ark, and here he's going to call Evan Baxter to do something along those same lines.

Genesis 6.14. Make E an ark of gopher wood. Gopher wood. Gopher wood, get it?

Go. Well, it's not really gopher wood. I just like the wordplay. No, it's pine and maple.

It was clear cut from this valley to make room for all those houses. Excuse me, do I know you? As well as I'd like. I see you got my housewarming gift. That was you? You sent those?

What are they for? Hey, hey. Genesis chapter 6, verse 14. I want you to build an ark. You want me to build an ark? Yes.

So that's why the tools and you are responsible for the wood? Mm-hmm. All right, well, let's just start over. Who are you? I'm God. You're God? Yes, and I want you, Evan Baxter, to build an ark. Okay, you know what? This conversation is a little thing I like to call over, but I got to get going because, frankly, I have an ark to build.

Busy, busy, busy, busy. Nice meeting you. Take care. Oh, and... All right, see you later. Shake it off, Evan. It's over.

The nutcase is gone. I am successful. I'm powerful. I'm handsome. I'm happy.

Successful, powerful, handsome. Evan! Oh! Clear it out, son.

It's the beginning of wisdom. How did you get in here? Go hold the cops. Oh, no need. Look, look. There's one right there.

Right there. Officer! Officer! Officer! It's the beginning of wisdom, son. Let it out.

Let it out. Because you can see Evan's a little bit scared when God shows up in his back seat, which I imagine you would be, too. Right? And so, you know, it's interesting to me that, you know, here we have three people pulling from the same movie. Like, here is an opportunity for Evan to be obedient, and just because I love puns so much, God did a great job here. Because Gopherwood, if you looked at the side of that, if you didn't see the movie, there was a picture of a gopher, right? The animal, the gopher, and so it said – and then it said, go, G-O, and then four, wood. And so there was – That was the head from the company. So he had the pun about three different ways, and he did love the wordplay. And, oh, by the way, it was Genesis 6, 14 for those who said – Robby, I thought you said 3, 14.

Well, I was wrong. I was not being obedient to the – but anyway, very cool. And so, Rodney, you love this adventure, and this is part of why you went here.

Yeah, I just – I think the adventure we've been on ever since we came off the sage has just been awesome. And that's where tying all these things together about being a strong man is one who is going to at least try and strive to be obedient. I mean, it's a wonderful thing, but what I love is there's really – when you get into the scriptural references of this and what God says, the pressure's off. It's not about what you do. It's about who you believe in, and we can talk about that when we come back. But I think that's just – to me, it's freeing.

Right. So we've got a lot of adventure coming your way. Just be sure and go to Mastman Journey and register for the boot camp.

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. When we walk with the Lord in the light of His word, what a glory He sheds on our way. While we do His good will, He abides with us still and with all who will trust and obey.

Trust and obey. So for those of you who don't normally get to hear Keith, our producer Keith himself picked – you know, he does do our narration on the joy ride. So you get to hear Keith then, but Keith, you picked that bump and it's perfect, right?

Yeah. Well, I saw that we didn't have a bump for this week, so I just typed in a Google, songs about obedience. I was being obedient. That was the task. You done well.

I did okay. And don't you think it's so critical? Like, it's hard to obey if you don't trust, and that was my problem with my big sister when she babysit. Yeah, that goes hand in hand.

You can't obey if you don't trust, though, yeah. And so, you know, that's the deal. So Jim's got something. Thanks, Keith. I just wanted to say what he said, trust and obey.

There is no better way than to give it to Keith to find one. There you go. So, you know, one of the people that I know has been on many adventures when it comes to obedience is my friend Wayne, who is with us today. Wayne, you know, you told a story that's really kind of hard to hear, but I think it's significant that people do hear it, that, you know, you had a tough thing happen here in the last year or so with God, with obedience.

Yeah. We were talking about earlier in the room kind of discussing the topic, and I mentioned how important obedience is. You know, when we're not obedient, other people miss out. Father doesn't ask us to be obedient for no reason.

We don't have to understand the outcome or what it's about, but we're supposed to do what we're supposed to do. And I had had a dream about a young lady that I grew up with, and Father had kind of given me some things that I needed to share with her. Mostly just my own story, like what I was going through, the things that I had been brought through with the addiction and things like that, you know, some of the heartaches that I was going through. And really just to kind of go and give her some hope and to let her know, you know, this is what Father says, and he's with you. And it so happened that I was going to be in the town that she opened up a shop in, and I went to visit her while I was there. And when I went in, you know, she was extremely ecstatic to see me, and she was a young lady that if you ever met her, you would never know there were any issues. Like just the joy that she carried and shared with people. While I was there, you know, a fear came on me, like I don't want her to know my stuff.

I don't want them to look at me, look down at me and know that I've had these issues. But I ended up, you know, I loved on her, but I didn't love on her the way that God had told me to love on her. You know, I didn't give her the thing that I was supposed to.

And I walked out of there, and then a few months later, she committed suicide. And the Lord prompted me very, very, you know, very lovingly, but said, this is what it looks like when you're not obedient. There is a price to pay. So it's, again, we don't get to know all the pieces and parts of why we're supposed to do what we're supposed to do. It says that, you know, sometimes He's a light unto your feet, and sometimes He's a light unto your, you know, unto your path, right? So it's, do what He's asking you to do.

And, yeah, it is a hard thing to let ourselves be vulnerable in that way. St. Danny, our listeners love to hear from you, and I can see you. You've got some scripture here, you're studying, just looking at it, looking at it, looking at it. So what you got for us? Well, in 1 Samuel 15, it was the scripture that always comes up.

What are you flopping over there for? Somebody took my clip. I stole your scripture. 1 Samuel 15, verse 22 says, And Samuel said, Hath the Lord had great delight in burn offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken better than the fat of rams. And that's after Saul had been disobedient with the Lord, yeah.

It's because you got your laptop open. Yeah. But that's the, so have you had something like that in your own life, Danny? Yeah, I mean, and it's been said well already, but you know, you don't understand where God's taking you sometimes. And even so, you think you've got a glimpse of where things are going, and sometimes it ends up in a totally different place. And I mean, in my own ministry journey, I don't know how I ended up in King, I really don't.

But I'm here, and I'm in Winston now, but I live in King. But the whole journey as to where he's taking me through, and I'll get into that a little bit later, but it didn't make sense at the time. But in the last year or so, I had time to reflect on the lessons that were learned in just being obedient, and disobedient, and the twists and turns. Yeah, there's that concept of a long obedience in the same direction.

I kind of like that, because we do have a tendency to trip and fall. But to pick up our friend Evan, you know, he's slipped a few times before he's got a chance to find out what it means to obey God. So can you pick us up on the next clip there, Rodney?

Yeah, so it was funny that we all ended up going to the same movie, because it paints a great picture with the three clips that we're going to use. But so here, Evan earlier is like, no, I'm going to be disobedient, right? And at the end of that clip, you heard him in the car, and here's God popping up his face in your rear-view mirror. And then, no, here's a cop over there. Oh, he's the face of the cop. He's the face of the guy in the crosswalk. So eventually, you know, God works on you when you finally actually come to believe who he is and what he's telling you to do.

So here is Evan making that switch from I'm in disbelief, I'm nuts, and okay, you are who you say you are, and I'm going to follow you. So you're really him, aren't you? You want more proof?

I haven't done the pillar of salt thing in a while. That's all right. I believe you. I just, I don't understand why you chose me. You want to change the world, son. So do I. What?

What an arc. I mean, that's like flood territory. You wouldn't do that again. You wouldn't do that.

Would you do that? Let's just say that whatever I do, I do because I love you. Well, then you have to understand that this whole building and arc thing is really not part of my plans here. I need to settle into my house.

I need to make a good impression at work. What? Your plans.

What are you talking? We're talking about an arc, right? I mean, an arc.

An arc is huge. I don't even know where I would begin. Well, I hear that a lot. People want to change the world. Don't know how to begin. You want to know how to change the world, son? One act of random kindness at a time. Build the arc. I'll tell you what. You build it, I'll fill it.

And if anybody asks, tell them flood's coming. Oh, and you might need this. Okay, so what do I do?

I grab the wood. Okay, you know, that's just cruel. Do you see him? Yeah. I don't see him. Yeah, that's where he's talking to the dog there at the end. It's like, hey, do you see him? No, he's just disappeared on us again, didn't he? He appears and disappears on you all the time, and that's one of the things that, you know, when you're sitting there trying to come in and be close and comfortable with God, it's going to be uncomfortable.

When you think it's going to be uncomfortable and the thing's going to be really hard, all of a sudden things are smooth. It's just the opposite almost all the time with him because he's like, no, I'm going to keep you guessing. I want to keep you trying to reach and find me.

I'm not going to make it easy on you, but I'm going to make you work, but that's what's going to pay off and be the gold nugget at the end. Yeah, so what I saw there too is, and I think God does this and all, of course it was a movie, but God called him to a level of obedience for something he was totally not prepared for, didn't want to go there, rejected that he had what it takes. But what I noticed was that God called out and said, you want to change the world? He noticed that in him. That's what we all carry within us is a desire to make life better and to fulfill his plan, but a lot of us just do not feel like we have what it takes.

So therefore we don't obey and to step into those adventures he has for us. So eventually we get to do Danny's clip. So here we go, Danny. Hey. Hey. What are you doing here?

Just hanging out with some old friends. You knew all along, didn't you? My plan was unstable. It hadn't been for the ark, my family, the neighbors. I fought you every step of the way. Yes, but you did it. So you had nothing to do with the flood?

Like where the ark landed exactly? I gave you no shove at the end. Sue me. You did good, son. You changed the world.

No, no, I didn't. Spending time with your family, making them very happy. Gave that dog a home. Right.

So? So how do we change the world? One act of random kindness at a time.

One act of random kindness. Yeah, I can remember when we were beginning ministry in Ashboro, or I didn't know we were beginning ministry. We were talking about it and I was scared to death. I remember being in the pastor's office, tears in my eyes going, you got the wrong guy. You just got the wrong guy. And he laughed.

And I didn't think it was funny, but he was a big guy, so I let him laugh. And what became of that was a journey of not sure where money was coming from. We got cut out of the budget. We got reduced and reduced and then non-existent. And then we decided we were going to renovate a house and we were doing the plans for it.

And I can remember us coming up with a figure like $90,000 and I'm going, this is more than buying hot dogs. He scared me to death. Where is this going to come from? What is this going to do? And then when it all ended up, it was kind of like, I had this vision of houses everywhere, the whole nine yards. And then it was like, we're shutting it down and I'm going, I don't understand.

But in the end, I mean, God was like, well done. Did you do the dance? No, I can't dance. Have you seen the movie? They do the dance at the end.

It's all right. It's a victory kind of thing. Yeah, there you go.

You got it. Oh, I hate that listeners couldn't see that. So we have an After Hours show. We're going to hear more of these stories of obedience slash disobedience, as the case may be.

We have a really neat clip from an old Disney movie. So you go to masculinejourney.org and there you can listen to the podcast After Hours or wherever you get your podcasts, as well as a joyride with Keith many times. Or while you're there, why not register for the boot camp? You get to see Danny do the dance live. If you come, I promise you, he will do it on stage. So don't miss it. Go to masculinejourneyradio.org. This is the Truth Network.