The Father's Core Desires After Hours

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This is the Truth Network. Coming to you 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. Darrell Bock Welcome to Masculine Journey After Hours, and we are talking about a really interesting topic.

I know I say that a lot, and I'm always glad that you're with us, and I am. Those are legitimate things, but if one of us finds it interesting, then by definition, it's interesting. True? Right? Darrell Bock But it's very unique.

You don't have to have a quorum or anything? Darrell Bock Well, it's kind of like the jokes I tell. As long as I laugh at them, I at least got a laugh, right? So, you know, that counts. So, we are talking about – Andy, do you want to share with us what we're talking about today? Andy We'll go ahead.

Darrell Bock Okay, I'll do it. We are talking about the core desires of the Father's heart. No, not your earthly father, right?

But your heavenly father. What are the core desires of our heavenly Father's heart? And so, if you listen to the first show, we covered some things on it. If you didn't, go back and listen to it.

It's a great show, and you're going to hear some things. And we're going to talk about more of those desires today. And often, our desires, our healthy good desires, are always given to us right from God, right?

And so, we mirror a lot of his desires as we get down to it. And so, Andy, you actually have the first clip in this segment. Andy Okay, cool. So, this is from The Voyage of the Dawn Trader.

I haven't seen this movie, but it's from The Chronicles of Narnia, which I've seen the first one. Darrell Bock Get a DVD player. Andy Yeah, exactly.

Darrell Bock Good one there. I have a bunch of them. I need that DVD, though, if anybody wants to get it for me for Christmas or something.

I've got a long wait for that. Andy You do, you do. Darrell Bock But, anyway, this is about near the end of the show or the movie that the children, and I don't know the names of all of them, but they're – Aslan, who is a Christ figure, is having them go on to the next world. And he's basically said, okay, you've matured and grown up. And there's this, you know, this dialogue.

I think I just want you to listen to the clip, and we'll talk about it, pull some stuff out from it. Darrell Bock It's Lucy and Peter. Andy Lucy and Peter, thank you. Welcome, children. You have done well, very well indeed. You have come far.

Now your journey is at its end. You have grown up, my dear one, just like Peter and Susan. Susan Were you visitors in our world?

Darrell Bock I shall be watching you always. In your world, I have another name. You must learn to know me by it.

That was the very reason you were brought to Narnia. That by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there. Susan Will we meet again?

Darrell Bock Yes, dear one. One day. Andy Lucy So where Aslan roars right there, it opens up to the next world through this water wall that's holding back or whatever. But anyway, the two things that I point out from that clip that Aslan wants us, you know, the Christ figure or father figure is that to be known, he wants to be known by them, right? And God definitely wants us, he knows us and he wants to be known by us to know him. And then also, for us to mature, it talks about their maturity, they were ready to go to the next world.

And I think both of those are important. I mean, discipleship is about that maturity that we talked about in his desire for us there. And I think even more simply, we've kind of touched on it through intimacy and all, but God wants to be loved. I mean, that's the first and greatest commandment, to love the Lord thy God with all the heart, soul, mind and strength. And he wants to be loved by us. And whatever he does for us, we're supposed to reciprocate the love that he gives us back to him. And I just think sometimes we kind of pass over it like, oh, yeah, we know that.

But I think that's the key top desire of God is just for his creation to love him. Dr. Darrell Bock Yeah. You may have said this because I wasn't fully listening. I'm just kidding. That happens often.

That was for me. But no. Yeah, but that's really our story here. He's preparing us here for the next world in which we'll know him in a different way. Dr. Darrell Bock Right.

True. Dr. Darrell Bock And more intimately. Dr. Darrell Bock Yeah. Dr. Darrell Bock Right.

And so we're practicing here for what it's going to look like later on. Dr. Darrell Bock Yep. For sure. Dr. Darrell Bock Right. But anyway, that's good, Andy. Thank you. I didn't listen.

I just wanted to give you a hard time. David, you're actually next on the next clip. I changed the order. Dr. Darrell Bock You did change it. Dr. Darrell Bock Yeah. I wanted to just shock you, throw you a crow loop.

Yeah. Dr. Darrell Bock That's his knuckleball. Dr. Darrell Bock That's a knuckleball. Dr. Darrell Bock I want a real good one, was it?

Dr. Darrell Bock You won't be able to hit it anyway. Dr. Darrell Bock You knocked it out of the park. Dr. Darrell Bock You're about to knock it out of the park. Dr. Darrell Bock Am I?

Yeah. Dr. Darrell Bock Yeah. Dr. Darrell Bock Yeah. Dr. Darrell Bock So my clip comes from Evan Almighty.

If you haven't seen the movie, it's the story of Noah's Ark, but with Steve Carell. And this is the interaction that he has with Morgan Freeman, who plays God in Evan Almighty and Bruce Almighty. And for me, it really, you know, I feel that God's desire is for us to get to know him and be friends with him. You know, growing up, I always saw God in the church that I grew up in as an authority figure, and rightfully so, he is an authority figure. But as I've grown older and gotten more mature, as Andy was hitting on, God wants to be more of a friend to us, too, and have a relationship with us, not just be like, you know, if you do wrong, God's gonna come down on you and be, you know, the punisher and whatnot. But so we'll listen to this clip, and we'll come back and talk about it. Dad, what are you doing?

I'm watching this. Genesis 614. Genesis 614.

Joe, do we have a Bible anywhere? Genesis 614, make an ark of gopher wood. Go for what? Get it? Go. Well, it's not really gopher wood. I just like the word play. No, it's pine and maple.

It was clear cut from this valley to make room for all those houses. Excuse me, do I know you? Not as well as I'd like. I see you got my housewarming gift. That was you? You sent those?

What are they for? Hey. Hey. Genesis chapter 6, verse 14. I want you to build an ark. You want me to build an ark? Yes. So that's why the tools and you are responsible for the wood. All right.

Well, let's just start over. Hello. I am Evan Baxter. Born June 15th, 1962. Eight pounds of Evan else's. Mother's Carol Ann Parker.

Father Eugene Evan Baxter. You have internet access. Very impressive.

Do you also have cable? You're a clean freak. You care much too much about your outward appearance.

Your left nipple is a quarter inch higher than your right nipple. And when you were a little boy, you were afraid of Gumby. Who are you? I'm God. I mean, the afraid of Gumby part, I don't know.

The what? I said being afraid of Gumby part. That's a little weird, but God wants us to go on the adventure with him and he already knows what's going to happen before we make that choice. I know growing up for me, as I said just a little bit ago, it was more of an authority figure, but when I really started coming back around and get back on the path with God, he was throwing hints and subliminal, not necessarily subliminal messages, but throwing things in my path and you know, no going to jump over and go this way. No going to jump over and go this way until I finally started to actually curve that around and actually build that relationship with him. You know, I got to have some of the similar interaction that you heard in this clip.

No one, me having a conversation with Morgan Freeman, but it was me having a conversation out in the woods during a bootcamp with God saying, Hey God, what do you want me to do? And ultimately it was take me with you, be with me. You know, we built that friendship.

So that, I mean, that's, that's what I believe God's desire is. Good, good. So a lot of what we've talked about just to kind of recap on some of this stuff, yours was regarding relationship, Danny, yours was regarding what, if we can get you to talk into the microphone there.

I know what it was, but how would you sum it up? Father-son relationship. Yeah. Relationship. Right. Andy, what about you?

Well, you got to have a microphone. That's essentially the same, you know, um, that relationship and the maturity that comes from just being with him and then reciprocating love to him. Or relationship. Relationship.

I'm trying to get, I know you're, uh, we're going fishing for a particular word. No, not really. I just, I'm just trying to, just trying to summarize, uh, sorry, Robby, yours would be summarized with, well, trust, which is the, you know, the lifeblood of relationship. Yeah, exactly.

Relationship. Yeah. Yeah. No, it was going that. So I just figured I'd come up with something. Well, no, I didn't.

We're going to have to now. I was not originally going there, but it's becoming apparent that that's what it's driving. A parent child relationship, love, which is part of relationship. A healthy one. A successful relationship. Yes. It is part of that. Yeah. Very successful.

I've been in love with that little girl for over 60 years. Wow. We're talking about God.

Well, I was relating the relationship I had with her to his relationship with me. Okay. Yep. Yep.

So now we get to your clip. Is there something you're trying to set up? Am I supposed to say something?

No, not at all. Relationship. Relationship. Yeah. Relationship.

No, I thought the answer was supposed to be Jesus. In a relationship. Yeah. All right. A relationship with Jesus.

Jesus' relationship. Yeah. Yeah. No, actually we get to your clip. So if you want to tell us a little bit about your clip.

Sure. I got kind of caught up with the text string, and I was like, looking at, oh, we got a topic. And I was like, okay, I like this one. I started thinking about- Oh, like you don't like most of the others? I get that. I know what you're saying. It was definitely something that was like, it just hit me right away.

Yeah. Because a lot of times, I look at it, I'm like, okay, well, let's see where that goes. But I was like, oh, desires of God.

How would I know what the Father desires? And I'm like, well, Jesus said he came to do the will of the Father, and there's all this stuff in John, the gospel. And I had a nice deep trek in there and started reading and going through, and a lot of stuff coming back. Oh, go find that passage. And I found that one.

And so I got some of that to go afterwards. But I was like, then I'm like, what clip would show that? And I was like, my mind just went to something out of World War II to kind of show what I was going through, because like Robby was saying earlier about obedience. And I was looking for some really good World War II clip, and the first thing I saw was a picture of Desmond Doss.

I didn't look at the clip. I was like, oh, yes, when he's up on top of Hacksaw Ridge, which is the movie, and he's just going to get just one more. And he's asking God, and he's like, I don't hear you.

And then he starts to hear things. And just his desire and heart for God, I thought he just in that movie and all his trials to get there, because again, out of suffering, because here he was going in to serve, wanting to be a medic, wanting to help, didn't want to carry a gun, very much, you see the heart of God. And that's like, no, I'm just coming to serve. I don't need to go kill anybody. I just want to serve.

I want to do my duty. I want to basically, you know, do unto others as he wants done unto him kind of thing. And it's just, that's where his heart's at in this whole thing.

But he gets spit on, beat on, and just made fun of, ridiculed constantly. And really it's kind of reminded me of Jesus then before going to the cross, right? His greatest work is on the cross, but it was all the other stuff that led up to that.

And his greatest work for Desmond was on top of Hacksaw Ridge, but it was, he had to be forged and be the crucible of that hatred that was going on with the, his so-called brothers at that so-called brothers at that time in the army. And then just what God can do with that. And you're like, man, you saw what he was going through.

It's like, why is it really worth it? And you find out, oh, there's a much bigger plan for his life than he ever anticipated. He didn't know that was coming. He was just trying to do the right thing.

And God really worked through his heart to make him who he was. So up on top of that Ridge, when he's rescuing all these people, you're going to find this clip where they all, you kind of get this surprise like, hey, there's one coming down. You don't get to, the clip would be way too long, but you know, one comes down, where'd this come from? Oh, there's another one.

And they're like, yeah, that's Doss. And they're like one after another, it keeps coming down all night long and he saved 75 men. And that just doesn't happen because, well, I just went along to get along.

No, he had to stand on principle and it was just a courageous story. So we just going to play the clip and we'll talk on the backside. Okay. I got you. There you go. Try now, try now.

I thought it was blind. Keep it down. Can you get out of here, please? So I was like, how would I know the desire of the father's heart? And I have to know the father. And that's where, you know, I went through and started thinking, well, Jesus said, if you've seen me, you've seen the father, which I'll go through in a moment. I was like, well, how does he relate himself to us in four main ways? Like there's creation, there's creation, there's the creator, there's our conscience, which testifies to him.

There's his word. And then the central focus for me is, you know, Christ. And that's where I was going through the Gospel of John and like in 1 John 1, 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory.

That's Christ and the father's glory as glory of the ever gotten from the father full of grace and truth. And then in 14, 9, here he is, Peter's asking him, or sorry, Philip, because usually Peter, Philip is asking him, hey, just show us the father and it's enough. And he's that little chastisement coming back from and then he says in there, have I been with you so long with you and yet you do not come to know me? He says, who has seen me has seen the father.

You know, and it's like, okay, it's kind of like a little smack down, wake up. We do get to see the father, but it's so easy for us in our world just to drift off and walk away and take our eyes off of him. Because we have so many things that are in our world today that I believe most of us, you know, I believe most of us, you know, coming from Satan to distract us and do all this stuff. He loves to get us distracted and going on somewhere else. And then, you know, it's like, you know, like Grant was saying beforehand, you know, the father is the one that he came here to do the father's will and the father is the one who sent him. And he says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.

That's what we were talking about earlier, Robby. And then if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him. So that's where you get that relationship. And he's like, this is what I'm going to do. I'm giving you this relationship.

It's a gift from me because he first loved us. And then John 14, 31, but so that the world may know that I love the father, I do exactly as the father commanded me. Now we fall down on the exactly part, but our bent and our direction should always be to try to please and do what the father wants us to do, which is what Jesus told us to because he was the exact representation of the father. And therefore, anytime we're in adventure, we're in that battle with the beauty, trying to help and rescue her, we're in a battle to fight. If we take and go off in our own direction and are not doing what the father tells us to do through the son and through the spirit, then we have a broken relationship and we're going to crash and burn. But when we have him in sight and we follow him, that just illuminates everything. And I know, like for me, just the more I know God and study him and understand who he is and what he's done for me, it just brings that awe and reverence to the fact that, okay, I don't have to know everything. I can walk in this journey with him and not have to worry about everything that I'm doing, not worry about every little mess up or every high point, just steady as she goes, keep learning about him, and just trust and have faith in him that I never had before.

And then I can leave it with him and I can go on knowing that, yeah, I screwed up again, but yet have victory in the long haul because my relationship with him is ever growing closer. Darrell Bock Thank you. I wanted to ask you guys a question.

We've got a few more minutes till we wrap up. So how is this digging into this topic, and you shared a little bit of it there, Rodney, quite a bit, actually. But it's a question I had on my heart.

How has it changed your perceptions at all? And I'll go first because I knew what the question was coming, right? Rodney Stiles And it only makes sense. And I have a DVD player. Anyway.

Darrell Bock But if you're going to watch Narnia, you really need a VCR. Rodney Stiles You probably do, yeah. You're an IT guy. You can stream stuff. You know that, right?

I know how to use YouTube. Yeah, you do. You do.

For me, it takes a lot of pressure off. You know, my point was God laid on my heart is he just wants to spend time with me, right? All it requires of me is being available. You know, there's so many times in my life I focus on, you know, God, what do you want me to do in my career? What do you want me to do in this ministry? What do you want me to do here? What do you want me to do, do, do, do? And a lot of times it's like, I just want you to be, to be present with me, to be here with me.

All that stuff will flow out of it. But I focus way more on the do than I do on the be. You know, and it's just a reminder that the B is actually the easiest part and it's the most vital part. Darrell Bock Sort of a doobie doobie doo.

Rodney Stiles Yeah, exactly. So, you know, when you hear a song that has that from the 50s and the, no, if you have something like that, that's right. But you know, for me, it's just a game changer from the standpoint, yeah, I still want to know what God wants me to do and those things, but that'll flow out of us as being together. And if I focus more on being together, maybe I'll answer a lot of the questions, and I can only speak for me, but it'll answer a lot of the questions that I have that seem unclear. It's probably unclear because I don't go to the place that can give me clarity like I should go. Right?

Not with questions or a list of things. You know, I remember one boot camp I went to. This was my second boot camp.

You know, I went to my first one. It was the first time I ever heard from God in my life that I knew clearly it was God and it was him and he worked on some wounds. And so, you know, God and I were going to talk at that second boot camp. I had my agenda and I had a list of stuff, and I told you guys the story before, but I had a list of stuff God and I were going to talk about. And every quiet time I went out with my book and I opened it up and God and I were going to talk about some stuff, not a beep, not a peep, nothing, got nothing from him until finally the very last session we're sitting in there and I know they're closing up.

Oh my God, I guess I failed. I don't hear from you. Did I hear from you before?

I don't know. What do you want to say? He's like, I'm here. I've been here the whole time. You know, and it was just a lesson to me, like quit focusing on all this other stuff and just focus on me. Now I'd like to say I learned that lesson just a year ago, but it's apparently one I need to keep learning because I keep coming back to it. You know, it's my version of Groundhog Day. I keep coming back to it. So I'll let you guys think a little bit.

We've got a little bit more time. You know, again, I've been thinking about the whole idea of to obey, which is the Shema and, you know, the idea of hear and do what God is telling you to do. I've been thinking about that for actually months, but I never backed into why that would matter to God.

But this topic made me begin to push into that and actually, you know, what is it about his heart? And I realized that, wow, it has to do with my faith. It has to do with, do I believe God has what it takes, right?

Which is a really big core question that we have, not a core desire, but a core question is, do we have what it takes? And God knows, he knows what it has, but he's trying to us to get that level of faith that we really don't believe it with our heads, that we believe it in our actions, which is fun. I'm so glad you pushed it.

Thank you. So often, I think we treat Christianity with the respect of, okay, I've met God, and now he wants me to go do something, and he's going to stay at the house while I go out and pass or fail and come back, you know, kind of somewhat like the prodigal son. But, you know, to your point, he wants not only for us to go, he wants to go with us, and he wants to father us through everything. And that was such a foreign concept to me until, you know, a few years ago, is that, you know, okay, God wants me to do this, but I've got to figure it out. And so, boy, you can make a mess like that. You know, there's some stories.

But that's the thing, is that it is relationship. It is God wants every little detail. He wants to know about it. He wants to spend time with us, and that is just so cool. Thank you.

Anyone else have anything they want to add? This was happened actually before this last topic came up, but a couple of weeks ago, I was driving down here just to remember exactly where I was at coming out of Boone, and something came on my heart. You know, it talks about singing to God and singing spiritual songs or whatever. There was a song from, worship song from when I was 20, 30, somewhere about that, that I knew, and I started singing it, but forgot the last word. It was like, let God arise, let his enemies be, and I sat there for five minutes going down the road, vanquished, couldn't think of it, just kind of walked away from it, and then all of a sudden, scattered was the last word, let his enemies be scattered, and it came to me, and I just started laughing. I said, the Holy Spirit, you said you would remind us of these things, and in my spirit, I saw him wink at me. And I thought it was the coolest thing, and that's the kind of thing we're talking about here. It's just spending time with you, not doing anything great for the kingdom or anything.

It's just being with him. I'm sorry we couldn't get the rest of you to reply, but we do have a boot camp coming up and an entrenchment. The entrenchment is next week in masculinejourney.org.

It is free. It's in Asheboro. Go register. We'd love to have you there, and then the boot camp is April 4th through 7th. It's an advanced camp. You have to go to the entrenchment if you haven't been to a boot camp, masculinejourney.org. We'll talk with you next week. This is the Truth Network.