The Enemy's Greatest Hits

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Welcome to masculine journey. We're glad that you're with us this week. And we have the A-Team with us this week. That's not my term. It's Rodney's term. So if the rest of guys that aren't here want to want to hear what that is, we are officially the A-Team. No, you're the one that was saying, man, it's about time we got rid of these bums that we could just have the A-Team here today.

No, that's not exactly what was said. You're remembering that wrong, which I'll let you, but the A-Team stands for available. You have the available team that's here. Several of the guys aren't available tonight. Rodney's not with us. Robby's not with us.

Danny's not with us. Well, it's either easier to say who's here than it is to say who's not. It is. It is. So in studio, we have Jim.

Which is a shocker. David, our resident guest. Rodney. Grant.

I don't know. I'm pointing at you guys because he can't see you on the radio. We're not live streaming tonight. No, I can see it. But you guys can't.

So that doesn't really help. And I forget Kenny's name for a minute. Yeah, he's like, the guy with the beard there. And your stall would have worked if you hadn't admitted it. What's that?

The stall would have worked if you hadn't admitted it. I know. But I was just I was going, I know his name. I just can't think of it. Yeah. And Kenny and Jim, they've been gone for quite a while.

Different reasons. Hey, I've been here two weeks in a row. And I got another one coming. Wow.

Then I'm gone for three. Yeah. Months. Well, we are kind of continuing a topic from last week and kind of not to some degree. We're going to the opposite side of last week's topic. And can one of you guys tell me what last week's topic was? Do you remember? It was trusting in the Father.

Trusting in the Father. Good job, David. You paid attention.

That's good. It was my topic. Oh, that's why you paid attention. I didn't pay attention to whose topic it was.

That's probably what it was. Because it was my topic. So it's fine.

That's usually where it goes. Yeah. And then this week's topic is the enemy's greatest hits. And so it's, it's how the enemy comes after you to try to tear down that trust of the Father.

Right? Ultimately, that's what he's after. We're going to talk about a lot of ways he tries uniquely with each one of us, but you'll find that there's probably a lot of similarities in each of our stories as well. You know, because the devil is original, but he tries the same things over and over and over again, because he knows they work. They worked on mankind 200 years ago.

They still work today. It may look a little different, but it's the same tactics. You know, and he's really good at it. I don't want to diminish him as an opponent. He's very crafty and very skilled at what he does.

And that does not give him accolades by any stretch, because I don't want to give him accolades. But recognizing who your opponent is, is a key part of winning a war. Right? If you underestimate your opponent, you're already done.

Right? And so we can't, we can't afford to underestimate the enemy here, because he is good at what he does. And so he has a way of coming at each one of us with part of our story, typically. You know, he used something from your past or something that you feared would be part of your future. And he used that against you.

And so I went ahead and put my clip in first, because it was my topic, and I wanted to. And these guys will say, it's the only way it makes sense. I get that. Yeah, but I use mine. And well, I would have used some of your guys's, but we couldn't play them.

Anyway, we will go with the ones that are available to us. So this is the A clip, meaning it's an available clip. And so this is one that's been played and replayed and replayed and replayed. And you'll find that sometimes we do that with clips, because something is true, it can be true in a lot of different contexts.

Right? And so it is, it is, it is, because the enemy is good at using this in many different contexts. And so this is from Sanford and Son, it's going to feel a lot longer than 32 seconds. But I did trim it down from Andy's original two minute one, which was really long, really.

And it's Fred Sanford, referring to his son Lamont and his favorite nickname for him. This we're going to play that we're gonna come back talk about why I chose that. You big dummy. You big dummy. You big dummy. You big cold blooded dummy. You big dummy.

See what you did? Oh, no, you big dummy. Oh, no, you big dummy. You dummy. You big dummy. You big, big dummy. I'm not kidding.

You're a big dummy. Exactly. So that's actually not the clip that I wanted to use.

It was close. But the clip that I wanted to use comes from a TV show that I'm not necessarily recommending that you watch. It doesn't have a whole lot of redeeming value unless you just like to laugh at stupid things. There's a lot of stupid stuff in it. But it was a show called the 70 show or that 70 show. And in that the father character named Red would call his son Eric something very similar.

It began with dumb had another word after it, obviously couldn't use that on the air. But honestly, the reason I chose that is that is the enemy's nickname for me. When I do something that's stupid, which I do from time to time, more than I want to admit. But when I do, that's how he attacks me. Because he knows that if I know I've done something stupid, it's hard for me to argue the point. Right? You know, because we know that Satan is a father of lies, right?

He's accuser the brother. And we know that those are true. But when he says something that has some truth to it, man, it's hard to fight against.

Right? And if I do something stupid, which I do, you know, and I know I know you guys, well, you all do, too. We all do something stupid, right? But, but that's what he uses on me. And it makes it hard for me to argue against it.

Because in fact, he's right, I did something stupid. And it was a dumb move. It was an idiotic move. Right? But you got to get good at stopping it there.

Because in the past, what that would do would be an opening. You know, it's like that foot in the door. Right? As soon as I said, Yeah, you're right. I was really stupid with that.

And then I let the door open, then he starts pouring on the rest of it. Right? Trying to get me to some other pieces of the things that he attacks me with, which we'll talk about more throughout the show, because some of your guys's story, too. Right?

And we'll talk about it. But that's his gateway in, in order to do that. And so I've learned over time that I can stop that.

You know, and so when I do something stupid, and I hear him call me the name, I say, Yeah, I did something dumb. That's all the further it's going. Right? I'm not gonna give you more credence to the rest of what you say. Yeah, I can't argue the point that I did something that was not smart. Right?

We can all see that. But I don't have to believe any more that you're thrown at me. Just because this was true doesn't mean everything else you're going to tell me is true.

Right? But he's really, really good at disguising the lie in the midst of something that feels incredibly true. But it's also a distraction from that grace that we were saved by grace to faith. We believe in the works of Christ. And if he can get our minds and our hearts off of that, into our failures instead of Christ's victory, you know, it will pull into his territory instead of staying in the grace territory and that mercy and all because we all we all do stupid.

You know, I know, as Dave Ramsey said, everybody does stupid and everybody pays stupid tax. But the ultimate taxpayer was Christ on the cross. He takes our dumb things, our sins, our misgivings and loved us enough to die for us so he could pay that. And he wants to distract us from our salvation and steal our joy. And all of a sudden God – I'm in Paul's shoes, you know, wretched man I am. I'm doing things I shouldn't do and 11 things I shouldn't do.

Who's going to save me? He always came back to Christ. And that's when we got to go with each other and encourage each other because Satan's always wanting to get us out there, enter our faults, our failings, and then we're a lot easier targets than when we're in our brotherhood or in the faith or in the church or in our group. We miss that. Yeah, it's just like the easiest one for me, the analogy is fishing. What do we do? We throw a bait out there that has no value of anything other than it's supposed to attract you. And what do we do?

We put something out there shiny so it attacks it and we got a bunch of hooks on it. They're going to grab you and pull you into somewhere else. And that's what's going on. That's all Satan does. He's like, well, what's going to get them? And typically the number one thing like back in the garden, did God really say? Doubt. Doubt, God. And if you have any unbelief, any doubt, ah, yeah, okay, now here I go a little deeper. And that's where the dumb or dummy stuff comes out and says, hey, this is where you're at. And all he's looking for is just get that down. I know he's used that a lot with me and that's where through this ministry has been one of the biggest things that early on I was like, ooh, I have to stop thinking.

I have to stop thinking of myself in something that I'm not and trust God's word and what he says about me that I've been redeemed through him and I'm a son rather than a dummy. Right. Well, you get back to identity, right? That's right. So the core tenants, right?

I can do something that's really stupid and still be a son of God. Yep. Right. Yeah.

But when he gets you to identify with the dummy statement or whatever the statement is and you start to live out of that. Yeah. Right.

But here's a challenge for somebody that if you have good character, right, and you're a Christian, you know that Jesus died on the cross for everything I ever did, ever thought I would do or ever will do. And I conceptually get that. Right. And I understand it. But there's something in me that feels like it almost lets me off the hook. I mean, it does let you off the hook. I get it.

But right. Because there's something in you if you have character that you want to learn from it. I want to learn from it. So I don't want to repeat it. But that's also a trap from the enemy because he can get you to learn from it and live in it way too long instead of just chalking it up. Okay, I don't want to do that again.

How can I prevent doing that again? But not live and wallow in it. 30 years ago, there was a song that really hit me hard along those lines. And it was one of the lyrics was, do you still feel the nails every time I fail? And that I mean, I, as you do lots of dumb things, and I was doing even more than I do now, largely because I had more energy than I do now.

It was awake more. Yeah. But that song really made me think about it. Yeah, I when I am not a man of integrity, I'm called to be. And it it still is, has to be a pain to Jesus, but he did die for all of our sins, past, present futures, the one we recognize the ones we have no clue we've committed.

They're all forgiven. Right. Yeah. And you can see where the enemy would even say, Well, you just live in a loophole. Yeah, right. Are you really learning?

Are you just living in your Christian loophole, that God's forgiven you, you know, and you can keep kind of moving on. I mean, I think he uses the tackle our identities to start to distract us. So we let our, our guard down. And that way you can come in and start attacking us on other areas, when we're already at the local store, isolating us from our band of brothers from God and just start whittling away at it. Yep, go to mask on journey.org to register for the upcoming entrenchment and the upcoming boot camp.

We'll talk to you after the break. What we have at our boot camp is something that makes you stronger and gives you the strength to go on your regular walk with God. It's something that will make you be bigger than you were when you got there. I don't know what your expectation was coming in. If we've met that or it's something different. I did not know what to expect.

Okay, the truth. I was born and raised. My mother and father were both ministers up in New Jersey. And I was thinking that this would be like a church atmosphere. But this is great the way you give your testimonies, Rodney and Sam and Robby, all of you guys. It's quite impressive. So I thank you for doing this. I just didn't know what to expect. And I'm glad I can. Register today at masculine journey.org.

Welcome back to masculine journey. That is David's favorite band. Three dog night. If you don't know, if you don't know why you just tag, just email him at David at masculine journey.org and ask him why three dog night is his favorite band. Yeah, yeah, we covered it pre show a couple weeks ago.

But yeah, but no, that's from three dog night. And the name of the song obviously is liar. But I picked that that was my bump that I picked this time.

And I picked that because that's all you need to remember about the enemy. It's really that simple when he's talking. That's what he's doing. Right. And so the sooner we can realize that when we hear that voice and being able to know that that's his voice that we're hearing, to have that response to him, can stop him in his tracks for the moment.

He's going to come back around. Right. I mean, he's, he's relentless if he's nothing else. Oh, he kept going after Jesus. Yeah, something.

Yeah. I mean, he paints it and makes it look like a pretty picture to what he's whispering in your own those lies. I mean, he makes it look like, you know, just listen to what I'm saying. I mean, sometimes he doesn't necessarily. I mean, he does he mimics what God's trying to tell you to sometimes so that way you get his, his calls into you and sink them in deep and then away you go.

Don't be mistaken. He knows scripture. I know better than I do.

You know, and better than I'd say probably anybody in the room or anyone walking right now. Right. He knows scripture. He's been around since it was originated. And he's been around a long time, not since it's originated, but early on, you know, he was one of the first creations.

Right. And so he knows, you know, and he knows how to trip us up in it. So Kenny, we actually get to your clip.

Do you want to tell us something about your clip? Well, this came to my mind when you brought the subject up, because we all struggle with different attractions or things that draw us away from our fellowship with God and each other. And Satan's a master at it. And, but our strategy, we got to, you know, Christ called us to be sober and vigilant and be on guard. And that means we got to keep reminding, we're in a war. Well, we're actually in the skirmishes. War has been won on the cross. It was won. You know, we're more than conquerors in Christ. You know, death. Where's your victory?

Where's the sting? God took all that. But at the same time, we got to deal with this rascal that's coming after us from everything and through a lot of, you know, his media, a lot of its, sometimes associations, sometimes environments. And we have to deal with it. But I picked this clip cause we got to start, if we don't recognize where things are coming from, then we're going to get blindsided.

I've been there too many times. And one thing I keep working on is what Barney's talking about here. And I'll let you play the clip, then we'll go into it a little bit more. So this is from the Andy Griffith Show. Right. Right. And this is one of Barney's favorite sayings. Yes. Well, he always, what is better say is it's some way.

Don't give it away. It's one of his favorites, I think, anyway. At least according to this montage, it's one of his favorites.

And it's a shortened montage. Yeah. So we'll go ahead and play it and try to figure out what he's telling us to do. I say this calls for action and now, nip it in the bud. First sign of youngsters going wrong, you got to nip it in the bud. Nip it.

You go read any book you want on the subject of child discipline and you'll find that every one of them is in favor of bud nipping. Take care of it. Only one way to take care of it. Nip it. In the bud. Set up a checkpoint, nip this speed and ride in the bud.

Forget about her. Nip it, nip it in the bud. Now the minute it looks like there's gonna be trouble, we got to nip it. Nip it in the bud. Let's hear it.

Nip it in the bud. I can't help but get tickled at his enthusiasm, you know, and I prayed. I had that enthusiasm when Satan's trying to trip me up or lead me astray. And I've got better at it. I'm not there yet. I'm still, look back, I've done stupid. I'm thankful for grace, but at the same time, that's not my excuse.

And my excuse is, hey, I didn't nip it in the bud. You know, when you feel that temptation, because I found out Satan hunts us in temptations, you know, because he's wanting to devour us. And that, like you said, he throws that bait out there.

If he gets to look at that bait or did a hold of that bait, he's gonna, like you say, open that door and pull more and more in. Try to get more and more foothold or stronghold. The best way to kill a weed is you got to pull the roots up. You can cut it off, but it's gonna grow back. You got to keep cutting them roots off.

You know, if he tries to replant it, you got to cut them off. So to me, it's that nipping it in the bud. And, you know, I think that's, I know for me, it's a very important battleground because I'm easily distracted, easily led astray. And, you know, me and that man in the mirror wrestle a lot because the flesh and spirit, there's a war.

There's a war. And I know if I go to the flesh, I'm gonna get corruption. Now if I go to the spirit, I'm gonna find life. And it's that choice I got to make. And I pray I see that choice when that, like you was talking about earlier, that picture is painted as so pretty or so attractive that I see through it. You know, if sin on the surface wasn't attractive, we wouldn't move towards that.

We'd see what it's gonna be. The laws are often very subtle. It sounds like the truth to us because we want to believe it. It's often founded in some piece of truth, right? Because if it was just an out and out lie, we would just discount it all together, right? You know, if the enemy came at you and said, you know, the sky is magenta, you go, not today, it's not. It's really not.

It's more like a blue, you know, but if it was just something completely out of character, you go, okay, no, this isn't right. Well, there's an awful lot of outright lies that are taken for truth today because I say it's truth. Oh, that's true.

I mean, I never would have thought you'd have this much of a dichotomy from where I was as a child and even up and through what, even just five years ago, and seeing what people take for truth now, it's shocking as to how far. So I'd want to spend the rest of this show. We've got plenty more stories for the after hours.

We got a few more clips in the after hours, but I'd like to spend the rest of this show talking about why, why is the enemy doing that? Right. Okay. So why does he really care about calling me a dummy? Why does he really care about whatever, you know, he trips you up with?

Okay. Because like you talked about earlier in the beginning of the show, it's a way to get in because ultimately what's he after, right? He's after, it's very clearly kill, steal and destroy, right?

No, those are good endings. Just saying he's wanting to kill our relationship with the father. That's really what he's after. And he knows that if he just throws that out there and he throws that out as the leading thing, you're going to go, oh no, I'm not doing that.

I'm not going to go there. But if he can slowly erode our minds, our identity, our faith in God, the father to be there for us, right? Because for me that being a dummy or whatever word close to that he uses for me, being that, right, starts to become some of my identity if I live in it, right?

And then when I live in it long enough, I'm like, well, I can't succeed in anything unless I just make sure I do it myself, right? And then it's like you can't trust God and then it becomes an issue between me and God. And it drags us into sin. When Carolyn asked me, my wife asked me what the topic was, I called it Satan's Biggest Hits. She immediately went to our most common sins and I said, well, yeah, that's what he's trying to drag us into. In fact, I have my pet sin, which is gluttony, but it is a matter of saying, well, you can do this little thing and it's not too bad because everybody does it. But we're being drawn into a sinful lifestyle and the more we do that, the further we get from God. Yeah, it's the frog in the pot that's slowly getting warmer, right?

You never feel it getting warmer until you're boiled. It's like stealing, which I was a bit of a thief when I was younger and I looked at the pen I'm holding and it's from Billy Graham, the Cove pen. So you stole a pen from Billy Graham? I wonder if I just stuck this in my pocket or if it was part of a packet. I don't remember.

I could have. And that's a little thing, but it's the little things that start you on the slippery slope. Yeah, because Paul talks about, you know, when he's talking about, you know, in your anger do not sin, right? It's really not as much about the anger as it is living in a place where the enemy can get a foothold, because that's really what he's talking about in that passage when you peel it back. He's talking about the enemy getting a foothold, whether it's a foothold in the relationship, but ultimately it's a foothold in your heart, right? Because once he has that foothold, which is literally a military term, it's a place to advance from. That's what a foothold is. Beachhead would be the common. Right, right, a beachhead, right? But, you know, the one we use in Scripture often is foothold, and that's what he's trying to do is get a place that he can advance from, an entry point that he can push forward into your heart, into your life, and to tear it up more.

Yeah, stronghold. He's going to basically, like you said, set up a beachhead, set up camp. He's going to stay there. He's not leaving. He's looking to come in and stay. He doesn't want to just, oh, entice you over here, do a couple of small – no, he wants you on his side. He's ultimately out to – he wants to hurt the Father.

God kicked him out. He wants to get even. He's going to take as many of us down as he can, because he knows everyone that he takes, it hurts the Father. And that's what he's trying to do, and we're just fodder for him. He didn't care about us at all. He just wants to use us to try to get back to God like he did with Job. He makes up all kinds of excuses, and God knew better.

He's like, no, this one, you can't turn. I know his heart. And that's the hard part for us is we're weak. Oh, yeah, absolutely, in our own flesh. Yeah, absolutely. We're weak. And then when God becomes big enough that we can put his truth in front of everything, and we and others become smaller, it's the only way that we're going to actually start to walk forward with God.

And changing that equation isn't the easiest thing to do. And most of the guys sitting here, and many of you guys out there listening, are fathers. And the question is, is somebody going to hurt you more by attacking you or by attacking your children? Yep. And where do you think the enemy goes for me, Jim? Oh, absolutely.

That is both. I mean, he does attack me, too, but I've said it before on the show. When his attacks come to me, and I'm just like, you know what, no, I know what this is.

We're not going to do it. He immediately goes and starts attacking my kids, because he knows at the end of that I might not see them. I'm distracted, and then I let my guard down, and then he's able to come in and attack my identity at that point. Yeah, he's relentless, and his goal is to hurt God's heart. That's the only tool he has. That's the only thing he has available to him.

He can't destroy God, but he can destroy the ones that God loves, and that's what he's after. Go to masculinejourney.org to register for the upcoming Advanced Boot Camp. We have, it's April 4th through 7th. In order to go to an Advanced Camp, you have to have been to an Entrenchment or a Base Camp. So if you haven't been to one of those, good news is we have an Entrenchment coming up February 23rd and 24th. masculinejourney.org to register. Love somebody well this week. This is the Truth Network.