Good Time With the Father

This is Hans Schile from the Finishing Well Podcast. On Finishing Well, we help you make godly choices about Medicare, long-term care, and your money. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds.

Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Every man craves a great adventure, but life doesn't usually feel that way. Jesus speaks of narrow gates and wide roads, but the masculine journey is filled with many twists and turns.

So how do we keep from losing heart while trying to find the good way when life feels more like a losing battle than something worth dying for? Grab your gear and come on a quest with your band of brothers who will serve as the guides in what we call the masculine journey. The masculine journey starts here now.

Welcome to Masculine Journey. We are glad you're with us this week. And I don't know about you guys, but we have six people in the room and it feels like it's empty.

Isn't that amazing? I mean, there was a day and an age when six people would feel like we were busting out the seams of the room. And we have six people here and it seems a little quiet.

It is cooler. We don't throw another five bodies in the room, you know, it gets a little cooler, you know, not enough body heat coming off. But we do miss the guys that aren't here. Too many of them to name. But if you're not here, I'll tell you who is here. Danny, Rodney, Andy's name, I think Andy, Terry, Robby and me, Sam.

So that's who you have in the studio today. And the rest of them are gone. So we'll be praying for them and hope everything's going okay. Some of them we know we're going to be gone, others we didn't.

So we're just hoping they're doing okay. So today's topic. Today's last minute topic. Just kidding. Sometimes our topics are last minute, but they're only last minute to us.

They're not last minute to God. God knows what we're going to be doing them on. And so we'd been kind of going back and forth.

And whether we had a topic or not, we weren't really sure. And so this one got picked Sunday, and it got picked Sunday. And we record on Tuesdays, just so you know, and so that's just a little bit of time to get some clips. There's not a lot of time in there, but it was enough time. But I had been out mowing and I like a certain playlist when I'm out mowing the yard.

It's just very enjoyable for me. And so I use the same playlist pretty much every time I mow the yard and this time I'm mowing and I hear the song and it's a Darius Rucker playlist. If you don't know who that is, he's a country artist who was Hootie with Hootie and the Blowfish back in the day, you know that saying hold my hand and some other songs you might have heard of 20 years ago. But he does country songs now and so this is a song from him. And so as he's singing, I'll go ahead and I'll read the lyrics to you before we get going on it so you can kind of know what we're talking about.

But here's what he says as we go to say it. I've got to get my glasses. Sorry. I can't see without them. When you get old, that's what happens.

All right. So as he starts singing, he's going to say, been running this road, both feet on the gas, working too hard, going too fast. To life reminded me I had to slow it on down instead of worrying about the things I can't change, going to lay in the sun and dance in the rain, do a little bit more living right here in the here and now and figure out how to have a few yes and some back porch hallelujahs sipping on the sunset where the good Lord's talking to you. Riding the lows, chasing the highs, fall in love and love this life.

Place your bets, no regrets and don't forget to have a good time. And so I was thinking about that. It really hit me and the rest of songs really good as well. But it was that first part that really hit me because I thought about most of my life is spent where it feels like both of my feet are on the gas. You know, rushing to this next thing, rushing to this thing, I got this to do and it's a blessing to have a big family. But with big families come lots of activities, right? And there's always something to be done. You know, most of the time you're, a lot of times you're turning things away because you have too many things scheduled. And busyness is something the enemy uses as a huge distraction. And so my life is classified most of the time as busyness all the time.

It's rare that I have a day that I'm not busy, right? And so I do feel like I'm living with both feet on the gas a lot of the time. And then the worry, the enemy loves to use fear. He loves to use worry in our life, right? And so I really like the part of the lyric which says worrying about the things I can't change, right? Most of the things we worry about never come true, right?

The high percentage of it. But we spend all that time worrying. And he says instead I'm going to, you know, lay in the sun and dance in the rain, you know, and just think about and have a good time, focus on having a good time. And that really made me think. He says sitting on the porch, sipping a sunset, listen to the good Lord talking to you, right? And then he says focus on having a good time.

And it really made me think about I really need to focus more on my good times with God, right? That's what life's about, right? If you're a Christian and you don't have joy in your life, then the people around you looking at you go what's the point of being a Christian? I can not be a Christian and not have joy, right? And Nehemiah says the joy of the Lord is our strength, too. So we run out of strength with no joy. So the enemy comes after us to rob our joy, that's his whole point, to make us worry about the things that we can't control, that we can't change a lot of times, right? So that we focus on those things instead of focusing on life and the joy that can be found in relationship with God.

So I'm going to go ahead and play the clip. We'll come back and talk about it some more. There's a few hands and some backboards Hallelujah sipping on the sunset Where the good Lord's talking to you Ride the Lord's chase the highs Fall in love and love this life Place your bets, no regrets And don't forget to have a good time You know, there's lots of times I look back at a week and I can look at all the busyness that I had. I can look at all the things I worried about, but along the way I forgot to have a good time, right? Well, every Tuesday I have a good time with you guys, but that's a given. Platitudes, platitudes. But what about us?

But what about you? Well, I have a good time at your expense, typically, is what that is. But yeah, so for me, the good time I've been currently having with God, there's a bunch of them, but the one that really came to mind for me was a month or so ago, a part of this thing with the Curtisville Civitans, which is an amazing civic group that helps nonprofits. They help a food bank I'm a part of. And we have a thing at the Spring Folly where we have volunteers come in and we sell pizza.

And then all the money that's raised from that goes to the food bank to get food. And so last year, not this past year, last year we raised about $4,000. It was great over Friday and Saturday. And this year I was really looking forward to who all, we were going to have even a bigger year, it looked like, because we had worked out a lot of the bugs. And so I'd sent the sign-ups out a few weeks early, you know, like I always do, just trying to get people signed up, getting it on their calendar. And Friday night filled up pretty quickly.

There was a few little gaps in it, but I wasn't worried about it. I knew Friday would fill up, but Saturdays was like a ghost town. And Saturday's the big day. You go from noon till 10 at night. Well, 1130 till 10 at night. And so I'm going to be there the whole time on both Friday and Saturday, but I don't want to work it the whole time.

You know, I'd like to sit down part of that time. And I just kept saying, God, I don't know what to do here. And, you know, I wasn't really asking him. I was just kind of stating that to him.

I don't remember ever asking him, am I going to be okay? But I just kept saying, I don't know what I'm going to do. And so I reached out to everybody I knew, reached out to pastors I knew, all the people saying, hey, can anyone help out? Crickets. Everybody had something going on or just didn't get back.

They just couldn't help. Well, I was really stressed about it, and Friday night went great. We made about $2,000. It was going to be a great weekend. Well, that weekend was the first weekend in May, and it rained all day Saturday.

We had more volunteers working in the booth than we had people buy pizza that day. God knew that we had it covered. I worried and worried and worried about that and kept thinking, God, why are you abandoning me?

I'm just being very straight up. God, why are you leaving me hanging here, pal? I mean, I knew he wouldn't.

I know he loves me, and I know all that, but there's that thought of, why are you leaving me hanging? You know, and I'd seen the weather, and it was going to – a little bit of rain, but it was supposed to do that again Friday, too. Well, it didn't rain Friday, and it dumped all day Saturday. But I didn't need any volunteers.

I didn't need one single person that wasn't already signed up. God had my back the whole time, and I worried about that for nothing. And so the good time for me is really realizing more and more how much I really need to depend on God, and I need to let go of the rains, because holding onto those rains is where the worry comes from. If I hold onto the rains, then I've got to own all of it.

If I'm holding onto the rains, who else is going to worry about it but me? And it doesn't absolve me of doing my part. God calls us to do our part, but then it's asking him, God, have I done everything you want me to do? And if he says yeah, just say, okay, he's got it. You know, what I've learned to do, like when I get to points in my life where I don't know what's up, I've learned to give that moment to God. And I think you guys heard me echo that a couple of times, give God a moment.

That's my go-to, giving God that moment. And he seems, like you said, he seems to make it work. Yeah, it may not work out the way you intend, and it usually doesn't. Right. Right, but it works out better. Absolutely. Yeah, it works out the way it needs to. Absolutely. Amen. So we're so dependent on ourselves, it goes back to the – anybody know what I'm going to say? Orphan spirit.

Yeah, it does. Yeah, I can see it in your eyes. But I mean, I struggle with the same thing, and I think what is it worries like meditating on a negative outcome. And it's easy to go there whenever, you know, you've grown up that way or whatever, and you don't feel like God has your back. And as you walk into this more, I think you would say probably you catch yourself a lot more. I know I do. But I still – there's times, you know, I've got a lot of stuff going on in my life, too, and it's so easy to go there to that place. And, you know, if you think about it, if you have an engaged father, earthly father that you could really trust, you didn't sit around and worry about whether he was going to come through.

He always did. And it's a poor reflection on us sometimes that we take a position where we can trust our earthly fathers more than we can our heavenly father. Yeah, when I was looking back, you know, I looked at all the data, all the knowledge that was available to me. Yeah, right. That's what we do.

Very analytical, logical. Yeah, yeah. Well, I looked at, oh, it's a 20 percent chance of rain. You know, what's the chances? And that's just maybe, right?

It might do that. 20 percent chance is 20 percent chance. And God knew it was 100 percent chance.

The weather people didn't, you know. And so, again, I just worried for nothing. And, you know, all that stress, all that stuff, it's not good for your body. It's not good for your soul. And it's not good for your relationship with God because, you know, you need to just – I need to.

I can't speak for everyone else. I need to just lean into him and say, God, I know you got this, and I need to trust you and walk away from it. And so it's challenged me to more so be looking at the things that I worry about. And when I start to worry, say, okay, am I worrying or do I need to give this to God? Which the answer is always, yes, I need to give this to God.

And then ask him, what do I need to do with it? Right? Because there may not be more that I can do.

That's right. Right? It may be out of my control. Well, we've got about probably 30 seconds till we go into break.

Anything anyone else would like to add? You know what? I think, again, that in our worry is yet our doubt.

Yeah. You know, in our worry, we are actually doubting God. We're worrying about ourselves. We're doubting God. That's right.

That's right. I mean, that's exactly what we're doing. Go to masculinejourney.org to register for the upcoming boot camp. It's coming up November 21st through 24th, masculinejourney.org. We'll talk to you after the break. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. We'll be right back. We'll be right back.

Welcome back to Masculine Journey. Don't forget to have a good time. And that's what we're talking about today. We're talking about the good times with God, the good times with our Father. We're post Father's Day, but it was just last Saturday, right? But every day is Father's Day when you're walking with God. And so what are the good times that you're having with God right now in your life?

And that's really what our topic's about today. And letting go of the things that the enemy throws at you, the busyness, the worry, all that stuff so that you can have joy and you can have relaxation and peace in your life. Peace we always feel is the absence of conflict, right?

It's not. You're never going to be absent of conflict in your life because we live in a world at war, right? I'm not talking about what's going on politically. I'm not talking about that's enough, but I'm talking about the bigger story, the larger story where we live literally in a world at war, right?

And it's a constant war, and so we're never going to be absent of conflict, but the key is having peace in the midst of conflict, right? And that comes from walking with God. And so, Robby, you have the next clip.

Robby Barbaro Yeah, how exciting. As you know, my role seriously changed in life besides all the radio stuff God gives me to do. I got to become the interim pastor at West Asheville Baptist Church at the beginning of the year. And so I get to preach every Sunday. But also one of the big things that happened for me at the beginning of the year, always every year he gives me a word of the year.

And the word of the year I had for this year, I have for this year, is vision. Like I had the sense that God was going to give me this vision. And so as I went into this time of pastoring this church, which is really a unique opportunity for me, I will obviously lean heavily on the Father, like, where are we going?

What are we doing? And, and he started giving me this vision. And interestingly, out of Malachi 3, something that I had never seen before. So a lot of people know the whole passage in Malachi 3 about you rob God, don't rob God. Well, in verse 10, he tells you, bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house. And so you may know Robby immediately dug into the Hebrew on meat and all that. And I came to the conclusion that in Hebrew, meat is meat, man. So, you know, I had no hidden meaning there was no, it was meat.

And that idea for me being a guy is I just love meat. And so, so Arby's is a Hebrew word. Yeah, it is.

It is. And so I, I came up with for our church, Operation Arby's, like we have the meats, like, I mean, I wanted everybody in that neighborhood of Ashboro on Wednesday nights, man, they were going to smell a barbecue like it, we were going to serve serious meats, you know, steak and chicken and all these different things that we would barbecue every Wednesday nights was was the idea well as, as I entered into that, you know, it became more and more obvious that if it was going to get done, guess who was going to do it. This isn't a church of 6000 people. You know, it was an opportunity for me to cook and I've always loved to cook, right. But I was like, okay, you know, I got to feed 30, 40 people, Lord, I need your help. Like I've, I've grilled steaks for my family, even big, you know, at the beach when everybody comes together.

But you know, now we're talking about 20, 30 people and we got this big, huge grill and all this stuff. But oh my gosh, it's been so much fun. He arrives just in time every time and then he takes everything I've cooked and he's made it so good. Like it's the best I've ever. I mean, not only am I cooking for 10 times the number of people I would normally cook for, maybe more than that, but it's just been such a blast to see how he arrives just in time with the beautiful thing is that, you know, for me is when he said, feed my people, he really did.

He was like, Robby, here's the vision. Feed my people. Right. And then we get to do the meat thing and then we go straight into our, our Wednesday night Bible study and where we actually get to eat real meat, you know, and, uh, what we have enjoyed there is like bootcamp to me, right? The guys sitting around loving the word of God and laughing and joking and just like it is like being in here tonight, you know, that, that same kind of feeling where you're amongst the dearest friends and here's your real thoughts about this passage and Ruth through this passage, whatever it is you're studying.

And I've just had like the time of my life with God, just, you know, cooking and lots of different ways. So you're ready for your clip? Yeah. I forgot about the clip because we didn't talk about the clip now we know why you got the clip well played. So the clip is from vacation and uncle Eddie is going to do some barbecue and clip.

Uh, he, he's having a little struggle, you know, from obviously, um, trying to think of Clark Clark's point of view, but yeah, you just play the clip. It's for itself. Here we go. How do you like yours, Clark? Oh, maybe rare a little pink inside. Oh, you're fine.

Light or dark. Oh, uh, either way, it doesn't matter. Vicki, can I help you with that Kool-Aid please? I don't know why they call this stuff hamburger helper.

It does just fine by itself. Huh? Uh, I like it better than tuna helper myself, don't you Clark? You're the gourmet around here, Ed. No meat in this?

You get plenty of meat at home, beef light, have some ketchup. Real tomato ketchup, Eddie? Oh, nothing but the best and Edna, the helper's getting cold. Is that your hand, Edna? Yeah, the classic stuff in that clip is this, you know, clearly I forget the name of the girl that's mixing the Kool-Aid with her hand. It's kind of visual when you see it, you know, you're like, oh my gosh, can I help you with that? Please.

Please. And when he says real tomato ketchup, it looks like they just minced up a tomato. Oh, wow. Please tell me you don't put your hand in there mixing up the Kool-Aid.

I think ever since seeing that clip, I've got to give it a try. Well, you can't really feel if this shaker's mixed up. That's right. You've got your hand in there. Now, there's sweet tea, you know, just help you with that sweet tea.

Yeah. That's okay. You don't drink it anyway. Nobody's going to drink the sweet tea tomorrow, I can guarantee you. You know, it's a blast when you know, okay, this is what God asked me to do, right? He's got my back.

I'm just going to walk in this, and it's so much fun. So your secondary Scripture would be taste and see that the Lord is good. Yeah. Oh, I like that. Well played, Andy. Yeah.

Okay. Well, Andy, you actually have the next clip, which is the one from Little Boy, I think is the name of the movie. Well, this clip is from a movie I've never seen, I just saw it on Wing Clips, but it's Little Boy Peppers, and he and his dad really connect, and you'll hear it in the clip. And the story goes on, I'll tell a little bit more about it, but really, you just hear Little Boy and his experience with his dad at a younger age.

The story really starts the day I met my dad, my only friend, my partner. He's a boy. Wow. He's so- What little?

Well, he'll grow, right? I got you covered, okay? Because we're partners. I wanted to be just like him and do everything he did. And everything we did became a great adventure.

Very proud of you, partner. You handled the pain like a true hero. Actually, you remind me of another hero, Ben Eagle, the magician. Ben Eagle said to his sidekick, do you believe you can do this?

That became our motto. Do you believe we can do this? Yes, I believe we can do this. Let's go, partner.

The mask is broken. Partner, do you believe you can do this? Yes, I believe I can do this.

This is the police. Partner, do you believe we can do this? So there's just so much in there.

I mean, I looked at it. My only friend, I got you covered. The father says I got you covered. You know, the boy says I wanted to grow up just like you and do everything like you do.

The great adventure partners, I believe we can do this. I mean, every bit of that is applicable to our relationship with our father. And as far as me and what I'm going through, not going through, but experiencing in life, there's something that came – when I found God as father, there was something of me that wanted to enter into that time, that young time. In fact, I've told a story about how just trips with my dad and played into trips with my Heavenly Father these days. But there's just so much there that I think where we get jaded as men, where we have an orphan spirit, we take our eyes.

And not trusting in God like we are is a jacked up childhood or adolescence that take away the innocence and don't really allow us to see God as our father, and we talk many times about it. I think there's more healing that comes than that in anything, because ultimately it's what Jesus came for. But as for me, just some of the stuff now, you guys know that I love to get out and experience God in nature, but I've got a lot going on. And I have basically – I'm down here and I'm in Boone and I'm spending all my time on 421 that connects the two, hour and a half drive back and forth, I'm sleeping in different beds all the time. And then I've got all this stuff accumulating that I need to do, and I finally have gotten in a position where I really need to get some stuff done.

And you can get into that busyness. I can get into that busyness to where I still know that I want to get that time with God, but yeah, God, I've got to do that. And there's a practical way of trying to open myself up to allow him to be there, but there's also a time where I've got to get her done. And I just find myself trying to manage that and always go back to him. I know that a part of me that breaks things up is when I'm not on mission, not trying to get something done, I'm just spending that time with him.

I love my time just hiking. I just, whether it's that or in the kayak or whatever, I can really get some time to focus on him and stuff, but again, I don't have to do that daily in the Word. I don't know really what I'm trying to say there other than the fact that it's intentional like any relationship to go back and get with the Father and allow yourself to have some good times, but the good times don't have to always be in play.

The good times can come. I've enjoyed allowing – it sounds corny, but I was out there pulling weeds and I just felt like the Father was with me. And the more I try to do – Well, they're his weeds. They are his weeds. It's his creation that we are stewards of, right?

It takes us back to the garden, right? Well, aren't you enjoying – and I'm not putting words in your mouth, but you're working out again and all that, but isn't that part of adventure you're doing, dealing with God? Yeah, absolutely. It's been a time in my life I got really healthy and kind of let it go again, but I need to push back into that.

God's about our health, for sure. See that from you guys. A lot of us have taken on fitness and stuff, and I think it should be as a whole man we need to lean into that.

Yeah. Go to masculinejourney.org for the upcoming boot camp. It's coming up in November. See you next week.