Student Teacher After Hours

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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 and I'm excited to be telling you about this topic today, but I'm not going to tell you. My friend Andy's going to tell you about the topic because it's his topic. So Andy, what are we talking about today? We're talking about being a lifetime learner and how that affects your life and then how it qualifies you to become a lifelong teacher if you pass on what God teaches you, God and life.

And you know how I got this? I got this as my word of the year and about that same time I was reading Psalm 25 and you know how whenever you get a certain word, you see that word everywhere. Okay, what's the word? The word is teach and teach and learn, it all depends on how you're looking at it, but it's not teachable or anything. It's the word is teach and he teaches us and then therefore we're in a position, he's really the teacher, but he uses us to teach just in explaining what our life experience is, what we learn from a situation and that helps others. I can't tell you how much hearing your stories from the stage when I first came to boot camp, what that was like and then you become open, you become much more teachable and pliable when you realize you ain't got all the answers and other people do, right?

And it makes it much easier to receive truth. It humbles you to realize I thought I was really right here, but I was wrong, you know, that kind of thing. Yeah, it's a series of coming to the end of ourselves. Yeah, yeah. Right, and so when you realize I don't have all the answers for finances, I don't have all the answers for parenting, I don't have all the answers, fill in the blank, relationships, right, which none of us do, but we all think we do. Yeah, for walking this masculine journey.

Yeah. Yeah, we don't, none of us have all of it. Some of us have bits and pieces, some of us have even way less than we think we have, yeah. But it takes us getting to the end of ourself to say, okay, I have to turn, right, and so then who do you turn to? I mean we – Well, we hope you turn to God.

We hope you turn to God, yeah. I mean you talk about these band of brothers and again – About butters, yeah. About butters. Yeah, like there's Marjorie and there's – there's band of butters.

Slow me down. Hey, butters. It's not butter. It's not butter.

No. Marjorie. Parquet.

Parquet. We got a lot of them. But just what I've learned from you guys, and of course it's what God has sewn into you and then God percolates all that and helps us to really learn from one another.

We talk about the community, but part of that community is an ever-learning process. Yeah, so God's a coffee maker. That's right. Maybe Mr. Coffee.

Yeah. But I have just a couple scriptures from Psalm 25. Make me to know your ways, O Lord. Teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation. For you I wait all the day.

And all that speaks to it repetitively. Hey, you've got the truth. Teach me that truth. None of us like the last part. For you I wait all day. We don't like waiting on things. But that's an important part of it. I think we touched on it in the first show is it's a process. God's not typically one to just teach you instantaneously in a moment.

I mean, he does. But most of the time it's through a process or you've got to scrape your knees and you've got to go through some things sometimes. And something I heard at the boot camp, I heard it in September. I think Derek was talking about it, but it really is true about hurry and how part of this teaching thing I think only comes when we're patient and waiting on him. When we're the kid who says, I've got to have the answer right now, God. He was like, no. So it's Dallas Willard is talking about that we have to ruthlessly take hurry out of our lives.

And I think it wasn't tied directly to this idea about learning, but I think that's a lot of it. If you're in a rush to get an answer, if you're in a rush to get something instead of, again, investing in the relationship and making it participatory with God and really listening to him and him talking to you, then you're really missing the whole point. So we need to hurry to take hurry out. Yeah, hurry up and wait.

Hurry up and wait, right? Hurry up and get to your clip so we can learn something. Well, you're up with the clip. Oh, wow.

Okay. Good transition there, Jim. So this clip, I thought it was perfect when I heard it. It's from The Chosen. It's your clip. Yeah, it's my clip. And it only makes sense this way.

It does. But it's from The Chosen, and what I like about it was because it talks about, it's Jesus talking about the sower and where he goes to sow the seed and what kind of ground will it fall upon. But as he's doing it, he's doing it to a large crowd, and his disciples are basically being his speakers, his amplification system to get the message all the way from the front row to the back row. And you'll hear all this repetitive.

It'll be kind of aggravating, but you get the point. Take a picture of it in your mind of just what's happening here to get that message out. But what's cool is it makes my point about once you learn something, like these disciples are hearing this word, they're taking it and passing it on to the audience.

How can it be that I inspire and transform some people, but seem to threaten and repulse others? And so as I said, I'd like to respond with a story. A sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil. Immediately they sprang up, for there was no depth of soil. And immediately they sprang up, for there was no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away. And since they had no root, they withered away. The thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. And the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil, produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

Some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. You know, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. That's the whole point of being a disciple or learning. You've got a teacher there that's getting the message out.

But the condition of the heart is whether you receive or not. I mean, it makes the point that as a student, as somebody who's trying to learn, if your heart's not right, you're not going to receive. But I just liked how it made the point, though, with the disciples there. Again, they went on. They had heard the message, and that's probably what they had to do to get a whole crowd. They probably had to pass it on like that. So they're learning the message the whole time. And then when Jesus goes away, when he attends, they've got the message in their heart, and then they're able to teach it after that.

That's a good point. Anything else you got? So that's all I got.

I was just sitting there being quiet waiting for that moment. No, I was just saying that. You like to ask that. I do, I do. Put them on the spot.

Yeah, it's easy for me to do that from here. And you enjoy it. I do enjoy it. So, guys, one of the things we haven't really answered fully, I guess, a little bit we have, but what's God teaching you currently right in your life, or what's some lessons that you've learned recently that you've tried to pass on to others over time? For me, I know you guys well, and for most of you this is part of your issue, is patience.

But I can only speak for me because I know how impatient I am. There's been several situations over the last few years where I've had to learn patience and deferred enjoyment. One of them, I'll share a couple of them, one of them being an up and down cycle over the years with doing well with my finances and then not doing well with my finances. I get myself in pretty good shape, and then I'll spend a little bit on credit, a little bit here on credit, and then all of a sudden I get credit issues. I get too much credit card debt, and then I got to pay it all down. And over the last few years, God's been really working with me on that to not just get to the point where those things are paid, and I'm getting there and I'm almost there, but it's more of changing my heart around do you really need these things that you're getting, or is it just a want? When I look around my house and there's stuff that's been sitting there that I haven't touched and I don't know how long that I had to have at some point, and I no longer have to have it, it's like do I really need the next thing? And so teaching me some discernment as far as some wisdom in finances, because that's been a place that God woke me in the middle of the night years and years ago and said get your finances in order, and I didn't listen to him very well. And I wished I would have because I think it would have put me in a lot different position to be ready for retirement and some other things that are coming up and not chasing after some things as hard as I need to now had I just been a better listener and didn't think I knew better than God at the point.

And so that's been a good thing. And then I'd say the other one as far as patience goes is he's put me in a situation with my grandson, I only have one grandson, who's down in Florida and he's six, and he went in the hospital December 19th for a surgery on his lungs that he was supposed to be able to be out a week later. It's almost seven weeks later he's still in the hospital. He's going in and out of pediatric ICU. They can't seem to get things fixed for him.

He's not in immediate danger, but it doesn't seem like he's often in a place where he's not on the edge of being in immediate danger. And it's a situation where all I can do is rely on God. There's absolutely nothing I can do to change anything. I'm not a doctor. I can't go hire a doctor that knows more than what they're already doing.

I couldn't financially go do that or anything. All I can do is just say, God, I just got to walk with you in this. I don't know what the outcome is going to be. But part of that patience is just realizing there's so much of my life that I don't really have any control over. Honestly, the majority of it. I think I do. You want to be realistic?

Yeah, but being realistic. I don't really do. I have impact on those things in my life.

Consequences or blessings of the resources. I can influence things in my life. But at the end of the day, I don't have a lot of control. I don't have control tomorrow whether I have a job or not.

I hope I do. But that's on the hands of my employer. I'm not worried about it because I've worked for a great company, and I can influence it. But if I do stupid things, I won't have a job tomorrow. But if I do good things, maybe I have a longer livelihood. But at the end of the day, I can't force whatever that is to happen or not happen.

And we shouldn't really try. That's getting out of the trust that our Father's going to take care of us. I mean, he didn't keep Jesus back from us. The most precious thing, his child. He's relating to something we can relate to like he was talking about to your grandkid. He said he didn't hold that back from us. What's he going to hold back from us? What he tries to hold us back from doing things that's going to hurt us or hurt other people or hurt our relationships with him. And that's what he's really working on, like you said, the heart.

That motive that's going on. But patience is the first word he uses to describe love. So when we're being patient with God, it's like saying, God, I love you.

I trust you. And that's tough for us because the world wants to say get up and pull yourself up by the bootstraps, fix it, whatever. And it's part of our nature building. And there's time we do need to get out of the nest and do things. But that's where we're talking about being teachable and getting that wisdom, when to move and when to really be patient and wait on God.

And that's what we pray for is that revelation, the move. But you did say one word earlier that kind of struck back an old memory for me. It was about listening. You know, that's what we talked about earlier.

What do we listen to, all these voices and all. My memory of something my grandma said, boy, if you don't learn to listen, you're going to learn to feel. And she talked about getting that consequence back because there were a few things she told me to do, I didn't listen. And I got some consequences. She said, I told you. I tried to tell you. It's weird how other parts of your body will open up your ears. That's right.

From time to time they clear out that blockage of the ears pretty well. He who has ears to hear. One thing I guess I would share as far as what I'm trying to pass on, it's secular but it's not. You know, I build houses is what I do. I've done it many, many years, 38 years, something like that.

I've always been in new home construction. And I've been in a situation at work where I've been teaching and training. And one of the things that I really try to work with, right now I'm working with somebody that's just turning 40. Another one's in their early 20s.

And I'm 60. And so we're all at different stages of life. But one of the things that we all got to keep in mind at all times is properly understanding priorities. Because working in the construction industry, and it's like this in a lot of industries, but in construction you're never totally caught up. There's always something more you could go do. There's something more that needs done. It'd be the same for ministry.

It'd be the same for a lot of things. And you can work yourself to all hours of the day and not really make good progress. And the thing is understanding what's my priority. Yes, I want to do a great job. You know, we're called to work as if we're working to God, right? And so I want to do a great job.

But when is it okay to turn that off, right? And to step into my life priorities, which aside from providing an income to take care of my family, which is vital, right? I also have to love my family well and be around them and pour into them, right? And so being able to balance those priorities and say, look, work is important, but it's not your everything, right?

Because eventually it will be gone. And if you're not careful, so will those other relationships, right? And helping them understand, look, let's get the priorities right. Yes, we have to work a lot of hours sometimes, and there's other times we don't.

But let's make sure that what we're doing is what we have to do and not what we think we should do, but what's the most important things to do. Sam, you touched on my major most recent, but I can give you my whole life in 30 seconds. I was born wanting to learn everything. I was pursuing knowledge like crazy until well into my 30s. Then I went to, oh, well, wisdom is more important than knowledge. And so I got into reading the Bible, studying His Word, going to divinity school. And you touched on it, and you're getting to the one that my most recent thing to discover is I don't really have to pursue anything except listening to God and doing what He puts in front of me.

And there's huge freedom, and yeah, I get to go on all these cruises, but God talks to me more there about stepping into this person's life and gives me words to give to complete strangers that's an absolute joy. Or I could be trying to learn stuff as I've done in the past and work hard at it and maybe have something else I can tell you that you won't care about or understand. But just having that relationship with God is really the only thing I want to learn and grow in at this point is to get closer and hear more. And I agree. I think it's tough, though. A, if you're raised without ever having a relationship with God, those words don't – what's that really mean?

I don't even know what that looks like. And so part of that is learned over time and walking. It's like any other relationship. I don't want to speak out of turn, but most Christians that I know are incredibly fired up when they first become a Christian. It's just like a new relationship of any other kind.

Yeah, I'm all into this, right? And then comes the long part of the relationship where if I don't learn to lean into God more and I don't learn some things differently and I only do what I've always done, it'll become stagnant. It's like any other relationship. I need to learn to give more, and God always gives more. God's constantly giving, and I need to learn to receive more.

And it's a learned relationship as you go along the way. And so, yeah, I was always amazed that it seemed like most older Christians that's retired, that's been around, are always so humble. And I'm like, why are they so humble? Because they've walked with God and they realize how much they don't know, right? They're probably some of the wisest people I know, but what makes them wise is they realize, man, there's so much more I don't know than I do know. One of the points we made before the show was, and this particularly hit me in Divinity School. I thought I knew the Bible pretty well before I started. I learned how much I didn't know by the time I finished those, well, six years that were supposed to be three, but I was a slow learner at that point. But it is a, and we don't really know the truth unless, if we're looking at a proposition, you only know the truth when you look at the person who is the truth.

And so we can learn all kinds of stuff, but until it's applied through Jesus Christ, it doesn't do us a lot of good. Yeah, and honestly, you were just marinating is how you were doing, Jim. You just marinated longer, right? Unless you're the true opposite.

To where the bones are falling off. Yeah, maybe too long. So what about you guys? What's God been teaching you? He's called you to share? Anything you want to talk about? Unless you're a true opposite, being too humble, like me.

A humble of you. When, I think a few years ago, you know, as much as I've even said on here, you know, it's just things that work just drive me crazy because I'm like, I just don't understand why we wouldn't do some things that seem to be very obvious. You have people in the know that touch this product every day, and they seem to be like, if we do this and this, it would really help, and they have all kinds of ideas, and it seems really to make a lot of sense, and we just don't do these things. I end up getting very frustrated, and I keep thinking when I'm talking about people that, oh, I'm doing it for all the right reasons, right? Because, oh, because this is stupid.

We should be doing it better or whatever. And I really tried the last couple of years to really check myself, especially even in the middle of saying things and go, okay, why am I bringing this up? Why am I talking about this person? Why am I talking about a rumor? Why am I, am I just spreading half-truths or lies or whatever you want to call them?

And I just have to make sure that where is my hardness? Am I really doing this so that we get better together as, and this as a secular thing as far as, you know, the company and working together? Or am I doing it just to bring somebody down so I can look better? And I really have to make sure that I walk that well and try to explain my motives and ask people to even, you know, check me on those things, because it's real easy just to start pointing fingers and blaming, blame shifting, you know, right? It's the woman you gave me, God. You know, that's the problem.

You're to blame, God, because you did this. And it's like I've got to be very cautious, because there are things that, yes, it's truth. These things happen. These people said or did things. Sometimes it's, well, this is what I heard them say.

I've got to be very careful to distinguish between those. Well, are we bringing out, are we looking how to bring out the best in people? You know, because they call this the salt in life.

That's preservative or flavor or the sea. And that, to me, takes a lot of prayers, like we talked about, getting that wisdom, because each individual, you know, God knows where they're at. And that's what I look for, God.

How do I approach this person to really encourage them? Because we're all in a battle. You know, Satan's, we've got an enemy, and he's setting out to destroy you and your family and everything, and it's precious to us and God, really. Yeah.

I promise you, regardless of what you'll read on social media, no one has a perfect life going on right now. No. And there's all sorts of brokenness everywhere. Yes.

It's on the Internet. It must be true. It must be true, yeah. No, everybody's got that wound that started in the garden.

Yeah. We were made to be with God and Him to walk with us and live in our hearts and our lives. And Satan fights that constantly in us. But are we pliable enough to let us be taught and to teach? I love the way, you know, you've been in construction, you understand. When you go into a construction site, you don't go in there wide open, do you? Not usually.

Not usually. You know what I'm saying? Because you know there's delicate things going on until we see each other like that.

Right. God's got some delicate things going on in our hearts and lives that He's wanting us to deal with personally and He wants – hopefully we see each other like that. That, hey, this is a precious image of God that's been tarnished by the fall, by Satan's attacks and all the agreements and distortions he's thrown at us over the years. And my prayer is how do we pull past that and get each of us focused back on being that child of God? I love the way the Masculine Journey points out – he said he's not going to leave us orphans. We are sons and daughters of Christ through Christ of God.

And that's that distortion factor that Satan's always trying to pull us out of because he don't want us to trust God and let Him just be the Father and lead us through that. Life is so much easier – that's been my word of the year is follow. It's so much easier to follow somebody that knows where they're going, like you're teaching these guys when God knows where he's going.

He said, come and follow me. I want to make you teachers of men or fishers of men. And that's the key to me being too successful. And you just get down to motives. And I had goals.

What is their goal? And at the end of our days, are we looking for that well-done, good and faithful servant? Or send him to the well-done section. He didn't listen, you know. I don't know you. Darrell Bock I'm more medium well.

Kenny Adams Yeah, more medium well. But that's that – he's talking about the different souls. We got to keep cultivating our soul because Satan's always trying to get them thorns and briars in there to choke it out of us or pull us out of us or crush us. Darrell Bock Thank you, Kenny. Andy, why don't you take us home. We've got just a little bit more time. So what I'm learning probably is I just look back to my last two words of the year.

I just tried to press into those. And I just look back two years ago it was charity or love. And then last year it was presence. And I look back at the fruit of my life where I've been intentional and tried to follow God into that and how he's led me. And a lot of the whole love thing was I just needed work on just taking time and being patient and then being present with somebody. I used to be really impetuous or just wanting to make a decision. I always had a comment right up. I just sit there and listen like God does with us.

Just listen. And those things are the things that are – so much fruit's coming from that. And so much of my life is spent not doing that. It's just been fruitful and been good for my heart.

Thank you, Andy. Speaking of fruitful, we have an entrenchment coming up the 23rd and 24th of February. It is free. Go to masculinejourney.org to register. That's going to be in Ashboro. It is not a stay over at the place. It's a go home at night and come back the next day and go register for the boot camp coming up in April. Talk to you next week.