Good Companions After Hours

This is Hans Schile from the Finishing Well Podcast.

On Finishing Well, we help you make godly choices about Medicare, long-term care, and your money. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. From an entrenched barricade deep in the heart of central North Carolina, Masculine Journey After Hours. A time to go deeper and be more transparent on the topic covered on this week's broadcast. So sit back and join us on this adventure. The Masculine Journey After Hours starts here, now.

Welcome to Masculine Journey After Hours. We're really glad to have you with us this week. And we are actually, Robby, I'm going to ask you to get the microphone for a second. We're on it.

We miss us on the regular show. We're in Yves. Yeah. Yeah. Labor Day. Yeah, absolutely. Happy Labor Day. Yeah. We're going to be laboring to make friends. I mean, laboring to cook something and eat.

That's really my goal for Labor Day is just cook something and eat. That's about it. Yeah.

So back to the show. Harold, this is your topic. You want to tell us a little bit about it? It's about choosing your friends wisely.

It's about the impact that our friends have on us, either good or bad. And you need to make the right choices. Yep. That is true. That is true. You are known by the company you keep.

So, you know, making sure you do that wisely. And so, Robby, you actually have the first clip of the After Hours. If you want to tell us a little bit about it. Yeah. Well, it may not seem like a friend's clip because it's actually Moses at the burning bush. And I think most people are familiar with it as Charlton Heston. And if you didn't know, a little spoiler alert, the voice of God is actually Charlton Heston as well. It was a little bit of a trickery to create this God-like voice, which he had the best voice for.

And so you hear Charlton kind of speaking to himself there. But the reason why I use this clip is I've thought about it for years and years. But, you know, I like to ponder things and ponder why is it that he had to take off his shoes? I mean, what's up with the holy ground and the shoes? Because I didn't think that it was his feet that were going to, you know, be betrayed by the dirt.

You know, it just didn't make any sense to me. But as I study, study, study things, I came to discover that in that culture and at that time, and you can find this in several scriptures, it's like when his wife, Moses' wife, cut off their son's foreskin and threw it at his feet. It's a very significant picture there because the feet in that culture had to do with someone's manhood. And so when they uncovered their feet, we were getting up close and personal.

I mean, really close and personal. And so this idea of Moses taking off his feet is not… His shoes? Yeah. I was going to be taking off his feet. That would be kind of cool. I didn't remember the story, so I wasn't sure.

I think my GI Joe, I used to do that too. Yeah, exactly. I'm not surprised. So when Moses was to take off his shoes, the concept was not unlike circumcision, that he was going to get real and personal, and this was going to really affect him.

So we use that clip all the time about Bruce Almighty. What do you really care about? What do you really feel?

What's authentic? And so the reason why I chose this clip is that holy ground, as it turns out from my perspective at this point, is when things get very personal and very real. And that is a good friendship because good friendships don't come out of the poser or somebody pretending to be something they're not. It comes when somebody tells you what they're really struggling with, what they're really going through, and then you get real with them back and forth. And so my experience with this group I know is Sam sharing a story one night that was very personal, not unlike the whole thing we're talking about here. By him being able to do that, I could relate with one of the biggest struggles in my life, which was also very close to this idea and very personal. And as a result, I got real with God, like Moses gets real with God here. So as you listen to this clip, I want you to listen to it with fresh ears, to listen what Moses really cares about. He cares about the people, and does God really hear that? And so he gets real with God, and then God gets real with Moses, like, okay, I'm sending you. And then Moses gets real with his problems, which may sound like Moses is kind of chickening out, but in all reality, Moses is saying the things you would say. I mean, this is real, and this is not covered up.

This is no posing going on. So go ahead and play it. Okay. Lord, Lord, why do you not hear the cries of their children in the bondage of Egypt? I have surely seen the affection of my people which are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry by the reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sons. Therefore I will send these sons to Pharaoh. The doubt is to bring my people out of Egypt. Who am I, Lord, that you should send me? How can I lead these people out of bondage?

What words can I speak that they will heed? So again, as you think about this, and I hope you have some friends like this, and of course, you know, that's what boot camps are for, is to get that kind of intimacy where you really can get real with what you really are struggling with. And you can listen to other people get real, because as a result of that, in both Sam's case and my case, we were able to get real with God. And that's what it actually requires to get the freedom. And in Moses' case, think about what he lacked was faith. You know, he didn't think he had what it took to get those people out of bondage.

But we all know he did, but with God, you know, when he had God on his side and with him and all those things. So, you know, it's not unlike for me, you know, the importance of not only friends, but friends that are real about the real personal stuff in their life, not hiding anything. Thank you, Robby. David, would you have anything? It's glad to have our favorite guest speaker back with us.

David, we're glad to have you with us. Just don't ask me to take off my shoes. Yeah, I won't. I smelled your feet before. Or your feet. Yeah.

Or my feet. Just leave your feet at the door and we'll call it good. Do you have anything you'd like to add to this particular topic? Anything good?

Well, you know, since it's about, you know, keeping a good company, and I keep mostly good company with looking around the room and there's Sam, you know. But it's, you know, not only has it allowed me to strengthen my relationship and friendship with God, but it's allowed me other opportunities to strengthen the help that we give out into our community. Like coming up, we do have a canned food drive at all the local sheets for the Hope Center and Project Re3. It started yesterday on September 1st, and it'll be going through the entire month of September.

Just stop at your local sheets here in the Triad area and drop off three cans of canned food. Sounds like a shameless plug to me. That's a great plug. I'm really on board with this. Keep talking, David. I mean, I'm trying to win some brownie points here, man. Is sheets the word that, okay. Yeah. Yeah.

It's a great, great friendship. It helps the Hope Center. Yeah, the Hope Center. The Hope Center.

It's the friendship between the sheets and the Hope Center. Yeah. So. That makes sense.

Yeah. But come by and get a free drink with three canned foods. Do you have to take off your shoes when you... Not when you go into sheets.

Don't take off your shoes when you go into sheets. They are a food service establishment. Maybe the Hope Center. I don't know. Yeah. No, no. No shirt. No shoes. No service. No service. Yeah.

Probably not. But yeah. But the drink that they get is just not something out of the thing. It's a... Like a water if you'd like that.

You know, they have fountain water. So. Yeah.

Other than the plug, do you have any thoughts that you want to add? No. I mean, that was pretty much it. So, you know. Okay.

I mean, that was the whole reason I think I was invited to the show tonight. Yeah, yeah. Just to kind of plug that in. So. Well, yeah, that was most of it.

Yeah. No, it's good to see you again, David. Good to see you, David. It's been a while since you've been here. And so, Andy, you actually have the next clip.

Would you like to tell us... He was acting like a true guest there. He was.

He was. So my clip is from Remember the Titans, kind of the feel from part two of last week where we used Woodlawn, but it was in that time in the 70s and you had all the integration between the schools and you had a lot of the black-white conflict on football teams as you put guys together. And this clip, I mean, you almost have to see the movie, hopefully everybody's seen Remember the Titans, but you have this dynamic of the black and white guys, you know, they're fighting in the beginning, some of the leaders on each, blacks and whites were fighting between each other and Coach Boone tries to bring them together and enforcing it, you'll hear the leaders, Gary and Julius talking where Gary's calling Julius out to be more of a team player. And then it goes on to, Gary's got a friend, Ray, who's just fallen down and not really supporting the black guys.

And same way with Julius and some other guys. PD, yeah, exactly. And it goes on, but basically it's a progression of this idea of poor friends, bad friends, bad influences, and walking away from that and finding a good friend to walk with. And then just kind of how that evolves, Gary runs into some tragedy, he's in a car wreck, and you hear that at the end, but it's just that progression, I've had those times. I've had friends that, they weren't friends, they were enemies that became good friends. And it's cool how God does that at times where you're able to do that, where the very people that tried to bring you down or you tried to bring them down, how you can come together, and this is an example of that.

All right, here we go. I think you're nothing, nothing but a pure waste of God-given talent. You don't listen to nobody, man. You can't run over everybody in this league and every time you do, you leave one of your teammates hanging out to dry. What was that, Ray?

Whatever it is, it ain't blocking. Give me a break. You want a break? I'll give you a break.

Me and Julius- Wait a minute. Just let him in. We'll get the ref once, just one time. I swear to God, I'm gonna hit you so hard by the time you come to. Ooh, boy, you're gonna need a new haircut.

You understand me? Ugh! Ha ha!

Let's play, fellas! Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! Ugh!

Ugh! Woo hoo! You all right there, Petey? You all right? You really stuck him, Campbell. Yeah, I love it!

A little contact, Petey. Left side! Strong side! Left side! Strong side! Left side! Strong side! Left side! Strong side! Left side!

Strong side! Only Ken's allowed in here. Alice, are you blind? Don't you see the family resemblance? That's my brother.

Oh, man. You think I look banged up, you should see my Camaro. Man, I sure am sorry, man. I should have been there with you.

What are you talking about? You would have been in the bed right next to me. You can't be hurt like this.

You're Superman. I was afraid of you, Julius. I only saw what I was afraid of. And I don't know, I was only hating my brother. I was only hating my brother. I'll tell you what, though. When all this is over, then you gonna move out the same neighborhood together.

You gonna get old, you gonna get fat, and there gonna be all this black-white between us. Left side. Strong side. Yeah, I just love that ending because it takes them back to where they really finally had bonded. And from what I gather from the true part of the story, they stayed in contact. And there's so many people that can drag you down. I mean, Harold's part, when he sent out the text, was there's good companions, and I think a lot of it was referring to art, you know, or the team here. But you can get in with the wrong crowd. We all are like amphibious. We're going between people in the kingdom of God and the people who know God, and we're going into the world, and there's those draws to be pulled away.

And it's so refreshing when you know you can come back to a group like this and look somebody in the face, and you keep, I'm not big on accountability, but just being with one another. It preserves that right good companionship that we all need. You know, I think it's, I mean, Jesus named 12 disciples. He didn't need them. He didn't need them. But he wanted companionship and friendship, and he was a pretty good influence on them, and they became a good influence for one another.

Even Jesus had one bad apple. Yeah, he did, indeed. I'm just saying. Yeah, exactly. It's gotta happen.

If it happened to Jesus, it's probably gonna happen to you. Indeed. Yeah, it made me, it reminded me of a story that, you know, I had a good friend growing up, and he was one of the first of us to get a car. You know, he'd saved up his money, and he got a nice older Mustang. It was a 65 Mustang, and it was nice. And so we'd go out riding in it, and one time he wanted another guy to go with us, you know, just kind of going between towns.

I grew up in a really small town, and so there wasn't much to do there, so you get bored, you go to other towns, and kind of, you know, drive around. And so he wanted this guy to go with us, and I'm like, eh, all right. So we go, and as we're going through town, there's a yellow light, and I'm like, dude, you better stop. And the other guy's like, no, punch it. And so, of course, he punched it right next to the police station, and the police were setting right outside there, and so he saw him run the red light. And so, you know, they drive by their car, and they start following us, and I'm like, all right, man, you better pull over. And the other guy's like, no, run him, run, run, run.

And so my friend listens to him and takes off, and we go on this wild chase, and we end up with police cars surrounding all of us, and being hauled back to the local police station, you know, in different cars, and have all these stories and everything. And I ended up not really getting in a lot of trouble over the whole deal, but I ended up kind of losing a friend over it, because my parents wouldn't allow me to hang out with him. And really, he wasn't a bad guy at all. He was a really good guy.

He was just listening to some bad influence, right? And that, in fact, affected both of us, and affected our friendship in the long run. And, you know, I think back about that, and just saying, you gotta be careful who you do walk with, you know, and involve God in that decision-making.

You know, because the wrong person can be pretty deadly if you're not careful. Sadly, I was that guy at times growing up, you know? Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't have hung out with you. Probably. I'm really questioning it now. No, I'm just kidding. Yeah, I don't know what to say about that.

No, actually, I was gonna say something. Andy and I hung out this last weekend, right? But there were some times we had some really deep conversation, which was really kind of nice.

Most of it was about David, but still, you know, when we got off that topic, you know, there was a lot of talk about you, but yeah. You know, Robby and I were talking about the thing that they're doing at Wild at Heart on fires, doing, you know, sitting around the bonfire and talking and being real, and that is so much a part of what we do. And we talk about it regularly, but to Art's point, there's so many lonely guys out there. To be able to have a place where you can come in and be real, be real.

You know, I think men are dying to do it, but scared to do it. And once it happens, once you can come and be real, it's so therapeutic, and it's what our hearts were really created for. Yeah, and the key with that, even, is you're being real with God leading you, right? You know, you can be real at the absolute wrong time. We've all been there, too.

There's plenty of people being real at the bar. Yeah, well, yeah, I've been real and really been burnt, you know, because it was not following God's lead. It was my own lead. I shared a little bit too much, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Well, Kenny, what about you? Did you get something you'd like to add on this topic?

He already has a microphone in front of him, Andy. Yeah. Well, just sitting back, listening to you guys is, you know, the comorbidity of true friendship. I mean, we were made for relationships, because that's what Satan came after in the garden, was to break that trust between God and man. And, you know, man chose to listen to, there's that companionship, that draw again, listen to the wrong voices. And we have that choice every day, too. And who we hang out with is so very important. What we listen to, because that can be a companion in its own way, you know, the airways, and what we listen to and pour in, it's going to eventually come out, or it's going to lead us in the wrong direction.

It is about making choices of companionship with people, and where are they leading you? Like you say, do you want to end up in the backseat of a car, handcuffed? No, no, no, particularly.

No, that's right. And are the people leading you to a deeper relationship with God, Christ, and even yourself? Yeah.

They really become honest. That's the friendships you really, you got to have. If you don't, you're going to be in, usually a spiral goes down. Yeah. It's not going to end up where your heart, your life needs. Yeah, kind of like a toilet bowl, you just kind of spiral down and just ride out.

Yeah, you just go right on out, exactly. Well, actually we now go to my clip. And so my clip is from the TV show Friends, which this show is about friends, so I think that that's applicable. And when you listen to this, I'm not going to really set it up a whole lot, except just tell you what's happened before this, but I'll tell you why I use the clip after the clip, because you're going to go, why did you use that clip?

I know you're going to say that. But what we have going on here is Joey, if you haven't seen the show, Joey and Chandler are roommates, and it's about a group of six friends that kind of hang out together all the time. And so you have three people in this particular clip. You have Joey and Chandler, and then their friend, Ross, that you hear all three of them talk. And so Joey comes in and wants to know where his underwear is.

That's how the clip begins. And what happened before that, apparently his roommate, Chandler, Joey had taken something of his, some cushions, and hid it or did something with it. So in return, Chandler thought it'd be a good idea to hide Joey's underwear, and it kind of picks up from there. And there's going to be a little break in the middle. And what you hear when he comes back in is Joey is wearing all of Chandler's clothes that Chandler owns together, like layers and layers of clothes.

And so we're going to listen to it and come back and talk about it. Where's my underwear? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Come on, come on, what, you took his underwear?

He took my essence. Okay, hold on. Joey, why can't you just wear the underwear you're wearing now? Because I'm not wearing any underwear now. Okay, then why do you have to wear underwear tonight?

It's a rented tux, okay? Not going to go commando in another man's fatigue. Well, then it looks like somebody's going to have to give somebody back his cushions. Okay, you hide my clothes. I'm going to do the exact opposite to you. What are you, what are you going to show me, my clothes? Okay, opposite is opposite.

He's got nothing. Okay, buddy boy, here it is. You hide my clothes, I'm wearing everything you own. Oh my God, it's so not the opposite of taking somebody's underwear.

Look at me, I'm Chandler. Could I be wearing any more clothes? Maybe if I wasn't going commando.

I'll tell you, it's hot with all this stuff on. I better not do any, I don't know, lunges. Okay, okay, enough, enough with the lunging. No, I'm sick of this, okay? I've had up to here with you two.

Neither of you can come to the party. Jeez, what a baby. All right, so the reason I chose that clip, yeah, when Harold first sent out the text about the topic, this is a clip that came to mind, and I was like, I don't know why I want to use this clip. I mean, I think it's funny, and that's part of it, but why do I want to use it? And so I didn't cut it until actually yesterday, because I just kept thinking about why do I want to use it? And then it kind of became clear that when you have good friendships, you're going to have conflict, right? You know, every relationship has conflict. You can't have a healthy relationship without having some level of conflict in it, because if you don't have conflict, you can't get through that conflict, which makes the relationship stronger and deeper, right?

So it is necessary part of it from time to time for the relationship to grow. But what happens is if you're not listening to God in the midst of that conflict, and you're listening to the enemy, you end up doing things like wearing all of your roommate's clothes, you know, or doing something you think is really a good idea, but it's really not. And so walking with God in the midst of that is key, so you don't end up in silly places like this.

And I just thought it was funny to kind of play that because we could all laugh about it. But I've done some really dumb things when I'm not listening to God, especially in the middle of friendships, you know? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, David, I'm glad you don't have a microphone.

Throwing binders and staplers. Yeah, but you'll grow from that. Oh.

Well, we're praying for you, David. It should be okay. My mouse got hit pretty hard, too. Yeah, yeah, it was my mouse, actually. I was using when I got mad, but still.

I like when he like starts pushing on the keys really hard on the keyboard. Like, yeah, that's gonna make it work better. Yeah, listen to God.

I'm just saying, it's not getting well for you. So anyway, what other things would you guys like to share? What other stories would you like to share about this topic? I mean, we played a lot of stuff, but we want to hear some stories. The after hours is supposed to be about stories, right?

Of going deeper. I've already shared a couple. Shared about riding in the back of a police car, right? Shared about jumping off a bridge. Come out to your guys' turn. Share something here.

Or just be quiet. One thing that came to my mind that, you know, we're living the story. And Robby just reminded me about are we choosing to take our sandals off and walk on that holy ground?

And are we taking our friends or inviting them into that type of relationship with God and with us and with each other, where, you know, we got the mask off, the posing's gone, and we're really seeking God with all our heart and mind and our soul, because there's so many distractions in this old world. I appreciate that, you know. We're not just telling our stories. Sometimes we're living our story, and we appreciate you guys being part of that story, because we're gonna look back and have some even stories with this, older stories, stories about our stories. That's true.

So for me, you know, your clip really brought out my original, you know, wild and hard experience. That's true. That, you know. Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. Oh, yeah. So, you know, I get invited to this boot camp, and, you know, I had some mercy date, you know, said, well, you know, I have mercy date.

It kind of was, really. You know, these guys have spent $1,000 with us. I better leave so I can come so that I have a person show up, you know, whatever. So I get there, right? And Darren invites me in, and he's literally, Darren is in his boxers, man. Yeah. Fortunately, he wasn't commando. It was tighty-whities. They were, they were, they were tighty, weren't they? They were tighty-whities. And they were, oh, yeah.

And they were mostly whitey. No, I'm just kidding. No.

No, they, Darren, if you're listening, they were white. Yeah. I remember thinking, what if I, you know, what kind of, like Mr. Frodo, what kind of story have I found myself in? What kind of cult have I found myself in? So you're walking into this thing, man. Here's this guy in this tighty-whities. He's the leader of the pack, right?

And so, you know, unforgettable. But as somebody, I think it was Andy. Someone. I was not there. You were there. No, somebody had said that, God, you know, you don't know that these friends are gonna make a gigantic impact on your life. Yeah.

I can't even imagine what a difference it has made for my family, what a difference it has made in my everyday just walk with God. Like, man, I mean, the fruit's unbelievable. And it all started out with, you know, Darren in his tighty-whities. Yeah, that's true. That's true. It's an image, and it took me years to get out of my head. So I'm grateful you brought it back up.

So I have years to process it again. But, you know, yeah, that was different. But yeah, it was just, Darren was authentic. Go give him that. He was.

Yeah, that was it. Darren was all what Darren was. Yeah, Darren's always been authentic.

You're pretty close to having that fig leaf removed, right? Yeah, well, I'm grateful he had it. But yeah, no, but you know, if it wasn't for Darren, you know, none of this would happen. You know, Darren had the foresight to listen to God and seek out others. And he was a catalyst that God chose to get this whole thing going.

And so very grateful for everything he does and continues to do for the ministry. And I should say, too, that, you know, Vinny, talk about somebody who didn't wear a fig leaf. Oh, yeah.

I mean, there was nothing going on there. Vinny was so authentic. But I got a text from his daughter today. Those who may not know, Vinny went to be with the Lord a couple of years ago. Got a text from his daughter that, oh, we're going out. Yeah, well, we'll talk with you next week, and we'll finish that story another time. Talk with you later. This is The Truth Network.