I Am Statements Week 2 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.

Oh, yes, it does. It starts here and we are after hours. We're so grateful that you have chosen to listen to this podcast and I think you will find it – yeah, it's going to be enlightening. It's going to be a lot of things. It could be a little entertaining.

It could happen, Andy. But we are carrying on Sam's topic in Masculine Journey tradition. He's not here to share his topic. And so we thought we'd kind of do this clip in honor of Sam and this upcoming discussion. If you think about Sam, just think about the topic that we're getting into. But pretty much what's the topic, Andy? So it's the I Am statements. We did its continuation of last week's show and I think we covered – I can't even remember what they were.

But I remember – I know what this week's show is. We're talking about I am the resurrection in the life, I am the way, the truth in the life, and I am the vine. So those scriptures from John 14, 15, 16, I think – or 14 and 15.

And so as I was considering this I am the vine and the fact that we're all connected together in a very beautiful, amazing way, this being upcoming Palm Sunday for those of you listening, it's tomorrow. And Palm Sunday is a picture that obviously is just beyond belief how God started to paint this idea of a donkey ride, which King James rightly calls an ass, okay? And so he started with Isaac getting his journey, right, on the donkey, and then later on he would talk about Judah being a donkey. And it goes on to like throughout the Bible that there were 40 judges in the book of Acts in one group. They're all – The book of Judges. The book of Judges, right. Sorry, not the book of Acts.

Well, those acts are the judges. I'm glad you got me straight on that. But anyway, it's all leading up to Zachariah 9 where it says, Rejoice, O greatly, daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold, thy king cometh unto thee, he is just, and having salvation lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt of the foal of an ass.

Now, in regular old farmer technology in good old Central America, that would be a jackass because the reason it is is because you've got Jenny asses, those are females, and a colt of an ass would be a jackass, which is so descriptive in so many ways, especially when you consider Robby Dilmore, okay? But in the case of Sam Main, you might go there too, doesn't it? The reason is is that – and the significance of this passage in so many ways, if you think about it, that Jesus has told his disciples now, if you remember the book of Matthew chapter 21, he sends the two disciples to go get these donkeys or asses as the case may be. And he tells them, hey, there's this Lexus down the way, and the keys are in it, and you just go over there and steal it. And don't worry, if they say anything about it, just tell them the Lord has need of it. Now, if you're a disciple in that day, this is a challenging little situation here because you end up stoned, et cetera, for stealing a man's ride.

Yeah, this isn't good, man. And so it's a pretty remarkable thing that they go to do. And then the real challenging thing – Stealing his Mustang, right. Right, if you know about donkeys, here's the deal. A female donkey is called a Jenny, and they're pretty easy to deal with. But a young male donkey, which when they say that it's a colt that's a foal of an ass, we're talking about a young male donkey probably in the neighborhood of three to four years old because you couldn't ride a baby donkey. So that donkey is already extremely sexually active, okay.

It is. And the problem, they will tell you do not have one of these jackasses around your kids because if they smell anything in the air, and they can smell from what I understand a female donkey from some 150 miles, okay. And you're thinking about it riding around Jerusalem, there's probably one or two of those around.

And they're just uncontrollable because they think that you are the opposition, and they're perfectly capable of stomping a wolf, and so they will stomp you. So you get the picture that this donkey is thinking about one thing and one thing only, which is how it reminds me of me. I am.

I am, right. But he's thinking about himself, right. And he's thinking about his own situation, which is obviously if we're not in Christ, then we're acting essentially a jackass, right, out of control or whatever.

So why is this significant that the – what happens here is Jesus sends the disciple to bring the jackass to himself. And so his disciples – and we know we've got to tie a rope around our friends. And we've got to say here we go. We're going to go to Jesus. I mean this is the actual solution.

Here's what needs to happen. And so as I was thinking through this whole situation of really – and then they put the clothes down on him, which is a picture of really laying down your own treachery, which you'll see in the Book of Kings when they go to make Jehu king, they lay their clothes down, and it's the same kind of deal. And so they're literally laying down this treachery on top of this jackass, and then the only reason that Jesus can ride it is because he is nothing but peace, you see. And the reason why all those judges in Israel in the Book of Judges could ride 40 different cults of an ass, which means 40 jackasses, the only kind of person that could ride something like that was a donkey whisperer or somebody who had complete peace about them, right.

This is a serious thing. Maybe the king of kings and lord of lords. Right, right, exactly. And so you could see that this was the king coming. But who was he coming to? And the bottom line is he was coming to a group of jackasses, okay. And so when you listen to this clip, it's from Animal House, you can't help but note that, you know, they can be tied together.

And somebody will lead them if they, you know, speak their language. So here you go. Looks like I missed something. Yeah, you did. We're all officially kicked out of school.

They kicked us out of school? Huh, that makes sense. Hey, what's this lying around? Well, what was supposed to do, you moron? The war's over, man. Wermer dropped the big one.

What? Over? Did you say over? Nothing is over until we decide it is. Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

The Germans? Forget it, he's rolling. It ain't over now.

Because when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Who's with me? Let's go. Come on. Where's the spirit?

Where's the guts, huh? This could be the greatest night of our lives. But you're going to let it be the worst. Oh, we're afraid to go with you, Bluto. We might get in trouble.

Not me. I'm not going to take this. Wermer, he's a dead man. Marmalade, dead!

Niemeyer! Dead. Bluto's right. Psychotic, but absolutely right. Now, we could fight him with conventional weapons.

That could take years and cost millions of lives. No, no, no. No, in this case, I think we have to go all out.

I think this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part. We're just the guys to do it. Let's do it. Let's do it! That's perfect, right, Andy?

Perfect. The reason I – again, I am the vine, you are the branches, right? And it's pretty obvious that we need a whole lot of trimming. I mean, we really do. And the beautiful part of that picture is if we're united in him and you begin to gather in a group of brothers, I can't help but note that, you know, when Sam starts throwing a mouse, you know – Or a stapler.

Or a stapler, as the case may be, right? It's a pretty good thing, or if I throw a fit, and I've been known to, that I've got people that love me in spite of the fact that they know that I can certainly be a jackass, right? I mean, and Jesus knows that, and that's why he wants those donkeys untied so that they can be free to join the vine, right? And so, you know, I've assembled this particular team here now. In front of me, I have – On the spot.

On the spot, I have Kenny. So, Kenny, when you hear all that, which I know it's a little unusual, you probably have never heard that before, but maybe you have, I don't know. Well, you're kind of putting it together way. How do we really see ourselves? When we started this I Am, when we see Jesus, do we really see our own brokenness? The things that hit us in life. And I look back, and I think, God, he knocked me off my high horse. You know, you think you got it all together.

You got security and all that. And God said, no, you don't. Until he is.

Until he is. And so tell us the story. The story, well, I was painting – Well, I was winterizing a building, and I took a dive head first on concrete, not by purpose. It's just one of those – I stepped back to take a better angle at it and fell and about killed myself.

You know, they had to reattach the left arm, brakes here, fractured teeth. I just messed up. You know, and I know I was on the line, as far as you know, as far as at that point.

They say the light. I felt the peace, because I had been going to church, but I knew I was in his hands. So there was a peace there.

So what you're saying is, prior to your dive, you probably weren't as close as he might have liked. No. No, I'll be honest. We were kind of playing church. Okay. Doing our – getting the groove, you know, you get in that little cycle instead of really getting into the heart. Right. We wasn't really letting him into our heart.

We were doing the youth rallies and the church events and the rivals, but really letting him into our lives day by day to really become a disciple, take up our cross daily and follow him. No. So now you find yourself in the hospital. Yeah, I found myself in the hospital. For a long time. Yeah, yeah.

Well, it was like a good ten days or so, something like that, and they wrapped me up like a mummy and sent me home, you know, because they put – I don't know if you know what fixators are, but – I do. Metals. Yeah. If anybody would know, he would know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, with your legs.

We've been down – he can't bump with these jackets. With your heart in, he's going to get your attention. I went head first, too, so, you know, just we have that in common. Yes. Yeah. But when you look back and you thank God, he cared enough about to break me, to save me, because he saved me from a really more occult-type attitude towards Christ instead of that relationship. He's my savior. He's the one that leads me day to day. Who's going to lead – I was leading me in playing the religious game. Right.

Was I really doing that? You could say he was the way, right? Yes, yes. So, Andy, you were talking about that during Morgan's – Becoming a king retreat, yeah. That they show a scene from The Horse Whisperer where he really breaks this horse. He does. That horse has been traumatized from a wreck that – or accident that – he survived, but he had become pretty much a useless horse.

Yes. His spirit was broken, really. But his will was getting in the way of – I don't know if his spirit was broken. He was just – his will was getting in the way. He was spooked, and he didn't really know how to respond. And he had to take that horse down in a very – what looks like a very inhumane way by tying his legs a certain way.

It's a very powerful scene because you've got a lot of these guys realizing they're looking at this scene like, you know, that's me. That's me. I'm the horse. He had to take me down.

He had to tie my feet in an awkward place to get me to finally get on my knees. And then when you see that that horse responds, and he's able to bring it back up, and the girls who hadn't been able to ride it is then able to ride it, and then you see the joy that it brings and stuff, you're like, man, that is a parallel to our lives. Right, because when we're spooked, and we all are, right, we're forced to think about nobody but ourselves.

And we could care less about that person that may want to get on our back, right, as the case may be. But thank you, Kenny. That was – Well, I thank God for it.

You know, sometimes – Me too, because it's not one of those stories. Through the pain we learned. We learned that true need. And I'm thankful because, you know, he's looking at eternity.

Well, I was looking at the temple. And like most people playing the game. Right. Yeah. So sitting next to you is a fellow – I won't say. My name is Jack. I am Jack. Yes, Jack Grant. Grant Jack.

And Grant Jack, okay. And so, Grant, you know, you had a similar, you know, experience in life, right? Yes, another one. Yeah, go ahead. Another one.

An old convertible cutlass. Was it? Yeah. A different one. Okay. That somebody kidnapped me.

Really? Two guys. And – How old were you?

18. Mm-hmm. Two guys kidnapped you in a cutlass convertible?

Yes. And they went out and eventually rolled it. Rolled the cutlass. But still, they got up, they walked – they ran away. And where were you?

In the seat for me being set on. Wow. And – And they had guns at the beginning. Wow. So were you injured in that?

Partial. Not bad. And did they catch these guys? Yes.

Yes. So how long were you in that trauma – I mean, that you were in this convertible with these guys with guns for how long? When they first came, when I was sitting in the cutlass straight up, they had guns pointed at me. But I actually took the guns away from them.

Okay. So where was God in that? I mean, how did he come for you afterwards? He helped me not to get killed by them. Clearly. And the wreck. True.

And teaching my lesson that do not play with people like that. Yeah. Well, I guess, you know, that's a difficult thing. No doubt.

No doubt. So sitting next to you is Art. What does that bring to your heart, Art?

Well, nothing like falling head first or being in a bad wreck or anything. But there was a big change that has happened recently in my life, some big changes that God led me to. And Kenny reminded me of that. He showed me a picture of his new dog that he has took in that people weren't able to care for it anymore. It's a Siberian Husky. And he showed me that. He wanted me to see that.

That dog's doing him a lot of good, he says, helping him get some exercise and being a companion to him. And it reminded me that I was around working on the farm and had a neighbor with a Siberian Husky that looks just like Kenny's. And she started kind of leaving home and coming and staying with me during the day. And I would catch her and use some twine string or something and tie her. And she would just lay down and hang out with me all day. And the neighbor would come home.

They'd come after it. And so I said, this is kind of cool having this dog come around and stay around with me. And I asked them, could I keep it? And they said, no. So I tried. That was my first attempt at getting a dog. Really? Yeah. I'd previously, you know, not given that much thought.

You know, I didn't really fit with my schedule when I when I was working and had some odd hours and overnights and things and lived in a small townhouse. I never really considered getting a dog before the end. But so this dog just came and came to me and said, you know, having a dog is a good thing. You know, it's a wonderful thing.

Darrell Bock You felt your heart come alive, essentially, going, hey, this is I can feel this. And so today, how many dogs do you have? I have two dogs and I bred them. They have three puppies. So and they're off. They're going tomorrow to police academy.

They're leaving home, going to school. So at like five weeks old. But, yeah. So I didn't get the Siberian Husky, but I knew a man that breeds and trains German shepherds. Yeah, that's my dog. That's your dog. Kenny's got him on the on the on his phone here.

That's precious. So so I called this man, asked him if he had a dog for sale and he didn't. But he thought he could find me one. And he had a he tried a couple of times and he didn't.

He wasn't able to get those dogs. And then he heard about the one I've got now that was in another in Virginia. And people didn't want her. And he went up there and got her for me. And she's been she wasn't treated real well, real, really well in her previous home. And so she's been a lot of work, but she's well worth it. She's paid me back in many ways.

And now I'm I'm so that's been it's been kind of a life change for me. Robby asked me what this is around my neck just now. And it's actually where I can have a beeper collar on them. I can beep them. It's actually a shot collar, but I don't shock them.

I just beep and make the noise and they come to me. Himself only. And what? Yourself only. Yeah, yeah.

And Grant's been there. You've seen me beep my dogs, haven't you? They come to me. Beep. The word is beep with a peep.

He's not beating his dogs. Beep. Beep.

Beeping. That's right. But anyway, it's kind of kind of I've kind of taken on a new identity almost. They seem to know me around town as the man with the black dog.

Because I have a dog with me all the time. And it's it's led to a lot of changes in my life. And it helped me to become better friends with Harold and Jan because they have a German Shepherd cross. And and then which led me which led to me coming here to this radio show. God has pulled me around through, you know, his animals.

Right through Mordor in order to get here with us. Okay. So we've still got Andy.

We've got to get to his clip. Yes. So Andy, you know, you're batting clean up, man. Here you go. Yeah, okay.

Gotcha. So this is from Chronicles of Narniwell, the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, I guess. And it's if you've seen the Aslan is the Christ figure here. And you'll hear the stone break when that stone breaks. He had been laying on the stone after they had killed him and it was a symbol of Christ's crucifixion. And when the stone breaks, he resurrects. It's a short dialogue just on the impact he has to the children and him laying down his life and then him going after Peter after that. Susan!

It's Aslan. But we saw the knife. The Witch. If the Witch knew the true meaning of sacrifice, she might have interpreted the deep magic differently. That when a willing victim who has committed no treachery is killed in a traitor's stead, the stone table will crack.

And even death itself would turn backwards. We sent the news that you were dead. Peter and Edmund will have gone to war. We have to help them. We will, dear one, but not alone. Climb on my back. We have far to go.

And little time to get there, as you may want to cover your ears. I love that because it shows just the humanity of Jesus. I mean, this is what Aslan is a figure of. And you know how as he resurrects, he's laughing and kind of, you know, you see the joy with the kids. And then he goes and he's like, you better cover your ears, and you see that lion.

And he's getting ready to go do some business. But my statements were, I am the resurrection and the life, and then I am the way, the truth and the life. And kind of like Danny, it's just life is tied up into both of those.

Life is so important, and that's essentially what we want. And I took this from that John 14.6, right before Jesus goes into that, I'm the way, the truth and the life. He says, you know, he's talking about going away and preparing a place, and then when he says, And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again, and I will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you also will be, and you know the way where I'm going. But these disciples were pretty dense, and they didn't act like they really knew where he was going.

Darrell Bock Well, I like that. You know, I personally love Thomas, who stood up and said, where are you going? I mean, after he just told them. That's a great question, though, because if you read the passage, you'd be going, where are you going?

Darrell Bock Right, exactly. But I think Jesus, what his point was, is you may not know in your mind, but your spirit knows where you're going. And that is that whole resurrection in the life of where he's taking us. He's a guide that's guiding us, where we're clueless, but he's not, I mean, he's not clueless.

He knows exactly where we're going. So I really like that, you know, just that scripture. I was just reading, trying to read it deeper and see something I hadn't seen before, and I saw that this week.

And I thought, you know, that's really, I've read that before, but never really pulled out that, the fact that, you know, Jesus said, whether you believe it or not, you know where you're going. Darrell Bock Yeah, and I love the idea that something has to die in order to truly live. Darrell Bock Yeah, unless the corn of wheat dies and falls and dies. Darrell Bock So where did Andy die? Darrell Bock I mean, you know, I don't like to share the same story over a lot of it had to do. Probably, there's a variety of times that I've died.

I guess the last one would be just an effect of broken relationships. And then when I really begin on a journey of discovery of not only finding God and who he was, but also finding out about myself, but, you know, going really to it. John 10 says he comes, we might have life and have it more abundantly. That's the life we're talking about here.

I used to look at that as what I could get out of life, but it's really just finding him, so. Darrell Bock Yeah, it's interesting, too, how a relationship breaks, but then it comes to life again after it dies. John 10 Right, yeah. Darrell Bock And I've seen that, you know, in so many ways with you and me.

John 10 Yeah, absolutely. Darrell Bock Very cool. Well, again, maskonjourneyradio.org. Got an advanced boot camp coming up. Go register. This is the Truth Network.