Boot Camp Favorites After Hours

Hey, this is Mike Zwick from If Not For God Podcast, our show.

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Starts here, now. Welcome to Masculine Journey After Hours, and we are in our second favorite week. I can't say that.

It's one of our favorite weeks. I can't really classify whether it's- Is it favorite or flavorite? Well, it depends. Danny?

Don't call me. I got nothing. Yeah, I thought you might have a flavor of how that should go. Oh, my gosh.

All right. Anyway, so this is one of our favorite shows of the year, and this is the post-boot camp. This happens to be an advance camp. The post-advance camp favorite moments, clips, our time to share about the boot camp. And last week, if you listen to the show, you got to hear from the campers that were there and what God was doing for them. And so, we talk about that from our perspective this week. And so, Danny, you have a moment that you want to talk about, but it also has a clip.

It has a clip that was not from this boot camp. I wasn't going to say that. You broke the rules, but it's okay. We need to clarify. Well, this is a rule-breaking crowd. Well, you know, you massage the rules a little bit.

Yeah, you know. Anyway. Legalism. That's the whole problem.

Legalism. Yeah, we should go back into racing, wrestling, and all that stuff. The clip is from the butterfly circus. We've used it in other boot camps and other arenas. And so, it is a familiar thing around here. I'm just saying. It is.

But the moment was, you know, how God came after my heart and during the boot camp on Friday. So, we can play the clip and I'll talk about it afterwards. The clip is from the butterfly circus. And the guy, if you've never seen it, has no arms and no legs. And he's in a sideshow circus. And people are being really cruel to him. And it's the voice of the enemy coming at his heart. So, that's what you're gonna hear. Yeah, it's the voice of the enemy through the barker of the sideshow.

Yeah, the guy promoting it, right? All right, here we go. And now, ladies and gentlemen, gathering. A perversion of nature. A man, if you could even call him that, whom God himself has turned his back upon.

I give you, the limbless man. So, at boot camp, you know, I've shared on here before that, you know, one of the things between me and my wife and one of the wounds that she had was that ministry became the other woman, as she puts it, in our previous ministry. And rightfully so, because, you know, that was where I was drawing my identity from. And so, you know, there were lots of different hurts and that kind of thing. And so, on Thursday night, we had the bonfire. And, you know, it got late quick and I didn't call her. She had to work the next day. Well, when I talked to her the next morning, she seemed a little put offish. And I think I thought, and the enemy just kept whispering, you're doing it again.

You've done it again. She's mad. She's, you know, and so all this stuff is piling in. And I'm the master of projecting what conversations are going to happen, even the other side of it.

So, where's it got on? And I talked to a few of you guys. And so, I text her, I followed some advice and I text her and I got nothing.

And the enemy is just, he is on my case. And so, we go on forward into the afternoon and I finally get a text from my wife. She said, oh my gosh, I thought I sent this hours ago. She said, no, I'm fine. She said that she had a dream that a dog got hurt or something.

And she said it had nothing to do. She said, I know where you are and what you're doing. And, you know, we're fine.

We're absolutely fine. And we talked about things. But in that process, God came after me and said, in a sense that, you know, I've got this, you know, and you're not in the wrong, you know, or if there is a right or wrong in here, I've got this and you'll understand. And the redemption behind it was so great that to know that, you know what, you try to do the right thing. Yeah, there's going to be warfare and the enemy is going to attack you on every front. But God's got this. And that's what I walked away with.

And it was pretty powerful. So, yeah, it gets back to, for me, as I listen to that clip, you know, is what labels have I accepted? Yeah.

You know, in life, what, what things have I agreed with the enemy in? Right. And as much as I think I'm past those, if I'm not careful, I can slip back into those just by buying in and making the same agreements again. Yeah. Right.

I can be right back where I was before. And the good news is, we know how to get back out of that by leaning right back into God. But, you know, sometimes it takes us a little bit of time to do that. And the tape that began to play is, well, maybe I am overdoing ministry, maybe I am, you know, maybe I am doing all this stuff. And, you know, I've analyzed it every which way you can and then some other than, you know, sitting down, but, but in the ultimate goal was that and you said it well was that your, your own mission, and the enemy doesn't like it. And that was so true. And my wife pretty much said that in other words. So, yeah, he's not gonna let that lay there. He's gonna come after it.

Jim, you want to add something? Yeah, one of the things that's really beautiful in that, and I, I want to strangle the people that are there, but the guy that, that represents Jesus in this film comes to his rescue saying exactly the same words. And the guy, child, why would you say that about me? And it was because you believe it. And we do believe it. We want to tend to believe the worst about ourselves. And I think everybody is guilty of that.

And God doesn't want that. Yeah. And the enemy is so good at using, you know, the partial truth that we talked about before, if it was completely something, it was an out and out lie, you're usually going to discount that. Right. But because there was a piece of truth where that was part of your past, you know, he's able to say, Oh, well, this is just like that. Right. And so you're back here again, you're back at the same place.

You know, it doesn't make it true, but it can feel true if you start to give him credence, if you start to say, okay, I'm going to listen. Right. As you're chattering at me. Chuck, do you want to add something?

Sure. I think too, what you can really draw on that, you mentioned a key point is your past. You know, many times we look back at our past and we think, Oh my goodness, I, you know, I hate I went through that. Or we, when we were struggling at the time, we're thinking, why did I have to go through that? But this is a, this is a, just a key point, you know, where Danny was able to draw back on that and say, I've been through this before in me. You're not going to do this to me again.

You know, I have the strength with God and I can move forward and kind of move through that a lot better than I did the first time. Yeah. I'm going to reclaim that victory.

Right. I'm going to get and grab that back again. Well, Michelle shared some wisdom to combat the enemy with me that day. And I have to share this with you guys.

When the enemy's whispering in your ear about all you are in that thing, just whisper back. I really love your eggs. What?

Deviled eggs. Oh, there you go. Okay. Yeah.

I was way, that was way over my head. No comment, Harold. I know you want to jump in there with me making a joke about that, but yeah. Um, so Jim, you have, um, Andy, did you want to add anything about that clip? Oh, you kind of looked like you had something to say? No. You sure? I was going to make another corny comment about the devil. Oh, okay.

Okay. Uh, Jim, you actually have a microphone in front of you. So why don't you talk about your clip? My clip is a wounded warrior. It's Alejandro is, uh, he's in the warrior phase and his brother's just been killed and he runs into the aging Zorro de la Vega. And this is their encounter. Uh, there's a, about a 15, 20 second fight you're going to miss, but, uh, you'll, you'll know where that is.

If you listen to the clip here. Where did you get that? None of your business.

Where did you get it? It was my brother's. He's dead. I'm sorry. You're sorry?

Why should we be sorry? You should not trade something like that for a mere glass of whiskey. Why not?

You think I could get two? Who's that? That's the man who killed my brother. You're drunk and you're angry and no condition to fight a professional soldier. Would you care to try again? Oh, you're welcome. For what? For saving your life. For what? 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, then would avenge your brother. I would have found the way. I've never lost a fight.

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

Alejandro. You know, 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.

The two brothers helped him as Zorro escaped from a tough place, and that's the medallion that he is trying to trade for whiskey that was given to him by Zorro. What really impresses me in this, and we use this saying a lot, that you will fight very bravely and die very quickly when we charge in ahead of God, and we're full of that youthful enthusiasm, but not the wisdom of how to go into the battle. We can resemble that remark, and I've done it more than a few times in my life, and it's made me a little more cautious in my old age.

Still ready to raft on the new, though. But the other part of that, which may be even more important, is when the pupil is ready, the teacher will appear, and every one of us that has Jesus in our heart has the Holy Spirit, who is the teacher, and can't get much nearer than being inside. And if we'll listen, the timing will be right, but when we do charge ahead, it can get pretty ugly. Yeah, as we talk about, you know, the masculine journey process that Robby talked about earlier with the lover stage, you know, it's one of those stages that God may allow events to be orchestrated that cause you to want to enter back into those, but he typically will let you go at your pace in most cases. You know, when you're ready, you have to come to him and say, God, you know, now I'm ready. And that's when he starts to do the deep work, the deep stuff with you, and that's where the fruits produce. That's when the freedom and the restoration and all that stuff happens on the backside of that. And so that is such a cool saying from that movie. And we do use that other one quite a bit that you'll fight bravely and die quickly, you know, because I think we've all lived that way, way too many times.

Andy, you got anything on this one? No, but I'll bring it over into mine, because it kind of plays into it. So not to get into the clip right away, but you know, just we haven't, I'm not sure we fully went through it, but how we did went about advanced camp, we kind of prayed about it and advanced the advanced content from Wild at Heart. We took about four of those talks that were new to us, but kind of had built on just Wild at Heart and boot camp that we had done before. But we also took on the stages of the Mexican journey.

I really wanted to kind of do my clip around that. But I also did the advanced talk on calling. And it really, I did, I was one of those who fought bravely but died quickly in my early ministry and walk with God. I really was excited about, you know, I guess I was excited about doing things for God and not with God and didn't really understand things.

I didn't have the character. And that's kind of what the calling talk that we base this on really got into is first the adversity that's going to come against this opposition, but just that life's adversity that's going to take us out of that calling. And that calling, Robby, kind of straightened me out on, I think sometimes I get my calling and mission confused. Mission is, calling is expressed in mission.

Calling is who we are, becoming who we are, becoming who we are. And just that whole, the adversity, but then also the character that's built through that adversity enables us in our future life to really know who we are and come through it and grow in that. So this clip I have is from the movie The Rookie. And it's about major league pitcher Jim Morris, who had had some adversity. He was a really good pitcher as a young kid, but really didn't throw that hard and ended up his career kind of got taken off. He failed into minor leagues, became a high school chemistry teacher and coach. And as he's trying to encourage his team that he was coaching at the time to go on and succeed, they found out that he could throw really hard and ends up going and getting a tryout and major league team gets on with that team. But ultimately I'll talk about how it turns out at the end, but this is the trailer and you'll hear a lot of stuff.

Hopefully I've set it up good enough. The point is though, is God took somebody later in life and allowed them to find their call. Yeah. The only thing I would add is in his story, he was injured, right? And so his shot was gone and all the way that the society would say, right? The professional sports would say, you know, you're kind of washed up, you're done.

And now you're 38. Yeah. Yes. Injured 38 year olds don't come back to pitch in the major leagues. Yeah.

So we'll go ahead and listen to it and come back. Jimmy Morris, well on his way to the world series title. 15 years ago. You got your shot at baseball. You got hurt. Jimmy Morris put his dreams aside, but sometimes. Hey coach, you want to throw?

I'll throw a couple. Yeah. When you least expect it. Oh my God. Dreams come back to life.

That's true today. How hard? Pretty hard.

Anybody want to tell me how we lost that game? Quit out there. I'm talking about having dreams. You don't have dreams. You don't have anything. You're the one who should be wanting something more.

Last time I checked, scouts aren't looking for high school science teachers. We start winning. You try out again. Are you serious? Yeah.

All right. The district champion. Now it's your turn, coach. It started as a simple bet. I promised to try out. It was this thing to get the kids to start playing.

It became the most incredible true story. Rule number one is arms slow down when they get up in baseball history. We've got an eight-year-old boy who waited all day in the rain to see his daddy try to do something that nobody believed he could do. Now what are we telling him if you don't try now?

This spring. You bringing some kids? Besides your own? I'm here for me. Jimmy, come on. You're up.

Just a second. I'm not doing that. Don't hurt yourself. His dream was impossible. But his journey was extraordinary. To coach Jimmy Morris, the man who taught us about wanting something more. Dennis Quaid. Do you know how many guys can throw about 98 miles an hour?

Not many. So just an incredible story. He ended up pitching for two years and the major leagues got hurt again. Retired, but the moves shows where he struggled with his wife and his family of not being there for him. And he ended up going back teaching and coaching something that really was his calling. And just to be truthful, in the story I did a little bit more reading on him.

His wife and he ended up breaking up. But he took that on and then he became, started leading youth recovery programs for at-risk kids. And he asked somebody, he was like, why couldn't I have just started out here? And that's what a lot of us do is, why couldn't I have just started out here without going through all that junk?

Why couldn't I? And the junk is what makes us, or what God uses for who we are. You know, if we start out and everything was good, what kind of testimony, what kind of encouragement does that give to somebody that is struggling? We hear it from the guys that are campers. We just try to be real because we're real. And this is one of the things I love about boot camp is we get up and share our story, the good, the bad, and the ugly. And I really believe there's power in that sharing, that vulnerability.

And it's not us. I've thought about it and, you know, there's a scripture that says, confess your faults one to another that you may be healed. But it says, it says, confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed. So there's a power of God that goes into that. But that vulnerability and that truthfulness, that's what God's just trying to get us to do is be true to who we are. And once you share that, there's power in it. And it allows us to walk deeper into our calling. Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm sure it's the same way that, you know, as you're preparing the talk, you know, you know where you want to basically to put a story. But part of that journey with God is saying, okay, God, what story do you want me to share? Yeah, absolutely. Right.

I don't, I don't know what you want here. And sometimes you kind of have it all lined out. And at the last minute, he's like, nope, we're going to go with this direction. And other times he says, no, we're going to go with what we talked about. But, you know, it's walking with him and, and, you know, Robby, he's exactly right. Every time, you know, he makes the, he makes the right call on what we need to share. And, you know, it reaches people because he's orchestrating. You know, he knows what they need to hear.

Yeah. And we did something, you know, we've done that a number of boot camps, which is listening prayer, but every time we've ever done it, it feels like you're stepping off a cliff, you know, looking for the, you know, bridge of faith, you know, that you're going to land on something because you're just sitting there amongst a bunch of people. And, you know, people are expected to hear what God has to say. And, oh my goodness, I mean, every time we've done it, you know, God just came for people's hearts in ways that just still blows my mind.

It, you know, came from one of the guys who had lost a baby early in life with his, with another wife that he'd never mourned and, you know, came for our friend Ricky Corn, is a bird, was actually saying Ricky's name to, you know, one of the other campers. And I think about that, you know, he orchestrated so many things about this camp, who was there, you know, what he was working on in the calling of all these people, because I was just thinking about, you know, for Andy's calling, right? You know, Andy is Andy. But he wasn't Andy, you know, it's kind of like the clip from Alice in Wonderland, you know, he's not quite Andy yet, but he's been becoming Andy ever since I've known him, you know, and, and, ah, Andy at last. That's a good point. That's a good point. Anyone else want to talk about that clip?

Anything? It's a really, really good movie as well. It's, it's a very wholesome movie. Now some of the clips we use aren't from wholesome movies, but this one is. It's a good picture of those of us that think we're done aren't.

I mean, you look at this bunch, I mean, we're on the radio, so somebody out there is silly enough to put us on a pedestal and think we're holier than thou when we aren't. We're a bunch of silly guys that get together, but we're surrendered to God. And when you do that, it doesn't matter what your situation is. He will use you in a mighty way.

All you got to do is let him and surrender that ego to him. And that's really what we're about is showing you got hit straight shots with crooked sticks. Yeah. And I think a lot of times in scripture, and you guys can correct me because a lot of times I'm wrong, but you know, more times than not, God used people later in life, right? After they've been through the struggles after, you know, look at Moses, you look at some of the people they've been through some failure, they've been through some of it, and they have to lean into God in order for it to work, you know?

And that's a lesson we learn is on our own strength, which is one I had to be reminded of during listening prayer at, at bootcamp this time, which was very good for my heart, but you know, on our own strength, we're not going to succeed much. Right. But in his strength, you know, the sky's the limit, you know, he's going to take it where he wants it to go. Go ahead, Chuck. That's where we need to trust. Thank you, Kenny.

Yeah. He's watching over us. He's going after our hearts. One of my prayers and you know, God's helped me solidify is you asked that question, God, what am I letting get in your way?

And a lot of time it is me. It is, like you said, putting a mask on, doing the posing, trying to instead of just being who God made me to be and appreciating the challenges he puts in our lives and the second and third and fourth, fifth chances he gives us because he is a God of redemption. And I know he's redeemed this guy a lot of times from, uh, like he was talking charging ahead.

Yeah. And I think it's one of the critical mistakes that our society pushes is pull yourself up both by your bootstraps and do your own thing instead of really getting God involved in every aspect of your life. I mean, that battle of really loving God with all your heart, your mind and soul, that's the battleground that you guys are really treading very well. And we appreciate that. Thank you.

Like I said, I brought my son in because I knew y'all were going after God's heart and he's going after our hearts. And that's what we all need. We appreciate. Well, thank you. Thank you, Chuck.

You want to add something? Yeah, that's, that's what I was going to say about that. It's just when you sit back and watch you guys work, it's just a beautiful thing to see because the magnification isn't on you guys, it's on Christ, you know? And, you know, John tells us he must increase, but I must decrease. And that's what our lifelong process is all about. You know, early on in life, it's all about us. You know, what can we get? What can we achieve? You know, and the focus is always on us, but God uses our wounds and our failures and this life circumstances to really move us in that right direction to make us turn our eyes toward him and really focus on him and really let him take control of our life.

It's all about being that Lord and Savior. Yeah, that's awesome. Thank you guys.

Appreciate that. You know, Andy, as I was listening to your clip this time, you know, one of the things I never really thought about in that clip is, you know, no wonder that the boys did so well, they had a coach throw 98 miles an hour. They could learn to hit, they could probably hit the 50 mile an hour. Yeah, maybe, maybe, or shoot, if you never hit the ball. Yeah, that's true.

Well, it could be you're swinging at 98 miles an hour, and now you're way ahead of everything. I think the whole thing, it really truly was an inspiration where he put his, his faith on the line to dream and encourages, encourage them on their quest for the championship. And we didn't talk about that, but they do go on and win their championship for their district, I believe it is. Yeah, their district champions, which that, that was the bet. Yeah, yeah, right. Which makes him have to go try out. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's a bet that makes him have to try out. And so, but he reluctantly does it. Right.

And that's pretty cool. We do have an entrenchment coming up. It's coming up, it's coming up April 28th. It's going to be in Lexington. If you're not familiar with Lexington, it's south of Winston-Salem, about 40 minutes, 30 minutes, depending on where you're at in Winston-Salem. So it's not too far away. If you're from Charlotte, it's not that far from Charlotte. It's about an hour away from Charlotte. So, you know, a lot of people can come. And if you're from out of state, you can come too. But it's a Friday night and Saturday. It's not an overnight. So you'd have to have a place to stay on Friday.

But it is a Friday night and Saturday. We do have a boot camp coming up in November. And next week we're going to announce something we have coming up in June that we're going to talk a little bit more about, a joint venture with another ministry at a boot camp in West Virginia. So we'll talk more about that. We'll talk with you next week. We love you and hope you'll be joining us next week. This is the Truth Network.