Hello, this is Matt Slick from the Matt Slick Live Podcast, where I defend the Christian faith and lay out our foundations of the truth of God's Word. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network.
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. Welcome to Masculine Journey After Hours, and we're in the middle of a great topic where we're kind of changing our perspective from the negative to the positive, but I'll let Harold tell us a little bit more about the topic as he reboots it and tells us what we're talking about. We're talking about why me and trying to move from the attitude of why is this bad thing happening to me over and saying, well, you know, look at all the good things. Why me for that? And so, I think that this topic is relevant for all of us, and the particular clip that I used, I've not seen the movie. It's Captain America, the first Avenger, but I found the clip and then I looked at the plot line and I thought it was really good. The voices you're going to hear is of a young man in 1942, after America had gotten into the war, and he could not join the Army, apparently, to Puny, but there's a... Puny, can you define that for us?
Somebody small like me. That's a visual, I got it out there. Is that good enough for you? Yeah, we got it, we're good.
There's a scientist that has developed a serum, you'll hear him mention it, that can enhance his body, make him be the maximum of a human, and the answer that is given to the young man's question of why me, I think is priceless and might talk about it after you hear it. May I? Yeah. Can't sleep? Get the jitters, I guess.
Me too. Can I ask you a question? Just one.
Why me? I suppose that is the only question that matters. This is from Augsburg, my city. So many people forget that the first country the Nazis invaded was their own. You know, after the last war, my people struggled, they felt weak, they felt small, and then Hitler comes along with the marching, and the big show, and the flags, and he hears of me, my work, and he finds me, and he says, you, he says, you will make a storm.
Well, I am not interested. So he sends the head of Hydra, his research division, a brilliant scientist by the name of Johann Schmidt. Now, Schmidt is a member of the inner circle, and he has ambitious effects. The serum was not ready, but more important, the men. The serum amplifies everything that is inside, so good becomes great, bad becomes worse. This is why you were chosen, because a strong man, who has known power all his life, may lose respect for that power, but a weak man knows the value of strength, and knows compassion. Thanks, I think. It was a great clip.
Yeah, I thought it was too. I was glad I stumbled onto it, but at any rate, I think it's great when you take someone that appears to be weak, and yet they have character that makes them stronger than the person that does have a strong body, because the mind is going to overcome in the end. I just loved it. The idea of why me?
Well, because you're the best candidate, because you won't misuse what this serum will do to you and for you. So I thought it was great. It's like a living example of, his strength is made perfect in our puniness. I'm sorry, I just had to ad-lib that little ending there. Yeah, it's the Rabi standard.
R-I-V, right. But nonetheless, no, it really is. In so many different ways, we always talk about being crackpots, and if it weren't for the cracks, the light doesn't shine through, and it's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful clip. The second time I listened to it, the more I listened to it, the more I like it. Yeah, I think it's a beautiful clip.
The second time I listened to it, the more I listened to it, the more I like it. It goes back to Morgan in Becoming a King. He talks about God is looking around for men who he can entrust his power with, and that was kind of the point. He was this Steve Guy or whatever, Captain America. He wasn't trusting in his own power.
He was trusting in the power given to him. Yeah. Well, I've always said I'd rather have a big brain and a small body than a big body and a small brain. Yeah. Oh, you got which one?
I'm blessed with both. So Andy, your clip is next. I'm just messing with you. I already did yours. I just want to see you freak out there for a second.
Get the stare going. Andy, go ahead. It's your turn. There we go. So wow. Yeah, Robby, it's your turn. It's your clip next.
Yeah. So we've shown this clip at every boot camp since I've been involved because this movie is so outstanding, and I couldn't think of a better example of what it illustrates. That to me, why me being the story of my life, cancer, G. Paxton falling from the street, losing the dealership. You can go on and on about all the different things that God has allowed me to go through. But again, 2 Corinthians chapter 1 says, may the God of all comfort comfort us with the comfort that we are comforted with. Comfort others for the comfort we are comforted with. You know, that's again RSV. A lot of comfort going around.
Yeah, it's just really comfortable. The point being that if you ever watch the butterfly circus, we talk about it constantly, that there's a man by the name of Nick Vashak, I think is close to what he was. And he was born without any arms and legs for real.
I mean, that's how he is. But in the movie, the butterfly circus, he's in a freak show. And in this freak show, you know, he's cursed by everybody that walks in, you know, here's a man cursed by God that even God himself has turned his back on. And the problem is he goes into an agreement. I mean, you know, we talk about agreements all the time on the show and talk, you know, people put their label on us, whatever that may be.
And then we buy it. And as we buy that, you know, we obviously give Satan, you know, full leverage into what all that is, and the freedom that Jesus obviously offers Nick in this case, is a chance to join the butterfly circus with this idea, the butterfly, you know, goes into the cocoon, it becomes a new creation, right? And so Nick comes in with this agreement. And what you're going to hear is a clip from where the ringmaster who saw him in the freak show now has him in the butterfly circus. And he's going to help him see the agreement he's made to break the agreement without lie. And then I want to talk about what happens afterwards, because then you're going to see why me because the real why me was to glorify God, and we'll show how that works.
And then if you can call him that, who God himself turned his back upon, stop it. Why would you say that? Because you see, the beauty that can come from ashes. I say, they let you go too soon. Good luck out there. Your problem now. No good to me, so get out. Good enough for me, doll face.
Here you go. They're different from me. Yes, you do have an advantage. The greater the struggle, the more glorious the triumph. So unfortunately, you can't see what happened there and the other three individuals. But the first one is that he shows him is that all the beauty that came out of the ashes, right, that there was a strong man that was a drunkard. And he was using his strength for all the wrong reasons, right? But now, you know, little boys were coming up to him grabbing his muscle and stuff in the movie because he was a strong man for God, right? He was an image of what strength should be, of true strength. And, you know, it was a cool thing that he'd come from the ashes to be this beautiful.
God makes everything beautiful in his time. And then there's unfortunately a lady who was a prostitute, right? And she became pregnant.
And, you know, this guy flips his quarter out there. It's just a heartbreaking little thing. But she ends up being literally the ballerina and is just beautiful. That's the grace that they were talking about when he was talking about that description of how God had redeemed that.
And then the child, right, is a big part of what's in the movie as well. Again, a new creation after hit and bottom, so to speak. And then he turns back to Nick and says, you know, obviously, you've got no arms, no legs.
It looks like, why me, right? Well, he learns to swim. And go on YouTube and watch this movie. It's one of the best movies ever.
Twenty minutes of your life well spent. But anyway, he learns through a mishap that he can swim. And so actually, at the end of the movie, after all the little kids made fun of him in the freak show, right, he does this death-defying feat.
I'm not going to spoil it for you. It was just death-defying. But as a result of this death-defying feat, the little kids are all coming up to him like, wow, mister, you know, how can you – and he went from being the joke to being, you know, like people really seeing how he'd overcome his struggle. Well, then this little boy that's on crutches is the best part of the whole movie, right? He comes up and he literally falls on to Nick, who's standing there with no arms and legs, right? And he's leaning on his shoulder and you just see the interchange. And the mom who's looking for somebody that could give the little boy hope, right?
Because here it is. See, Nick had been comforted. And now he was comforting this young man with the comfort that he'd been comforted with. And when you really look into a lot of people's stories, God's given them the grace to overcome something.
Why me? You know, and I can look around the room and see that in all these people that now they're comforting others with the comfort that they were comforted with, right? And it's amazing to see – well, if you know my story well, if you don't, I had lymphoma. And a pastor came in, heard somewhere I was supposed to be healed from God the Holy Spirit.
He was obedient, went to the dealership he was told to go to, comes in, lays hands on me. Long story short, I was supposed to have chemotherapy. I was healed like from this prayer from tumors that were all over my body from lymphoma.
Well, this weekend, right? I'm getting a text from a guy who's got stage four cancer. He wants to be baptized, right? And so I had a chance to anoint this man with oil and lay hands on him after having just baptized him, right? And you can't help but see it all come like, why me, right? I'm sitting here with a big why me. Twenty-two years ago, I flatlined twice, and the next morning had five bypasses, but I'm here 22 years later trying to do work for God.
Yeah, we all – yeah, every one of us. But as you said before, Robby, we can only give out of what we've experienced, right? And so in that, you were the perfect person for that guy. Yes. Because you lived it.
Absolutely. In a different way, you lived it. And so you could have compassion. You could have understanding that no one else would be able to have. I mean, that's the story God's telling on all of us. I mean, he just sits back and looks at his children like, yes, they got it.
They got the grace message, and now they're taking it and sharing it with somebody else. But back on – this came to me on Butterfly Circus. You were talking about Nick. His actual name in the film is Will.
Right. And I never had really put it together, but Will being like your Will. And his Will had to be won over. He had to realize – he had to choose to believe that why me and the positive instead of the negative.
But have you ever caught that? His name was Will. I think that was – I think they did that on purpose. Almost like Will, huh? Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, that is brilliant. Well, that's deep. I've got to just focus for a minute.
I'm really stuck. It wasn't Will. It's just Will.
I always thought I'd grab to get the hollow hanging fruit, you know. Don't you think it would be great if somebody had a last name of Dunn and first name of Will, middle initial B? Will be Dunn. Wouldn't that be great? I'm sure it's a rapper somewhere.
It sounds like a rapper. And his brother, Thi. Yeah. I'm not adding any more to my – I know. That was good, Andy. That was great.
I just was messing with you. Well, I revisited a clip that we used a few weeks ago. Because when this topic came out, this clip just really spoke to me a few weeks ago, and it still does. And the question becomes, why doesn't God intervene? And the enemy likes to say, well, God's leaving you hanging. God's not there for you.
He's abandoning you. But there's always a different perspective when you get past it. And so when I listen to this, it's – I believe it's Anthony Hopkins that's doing this, and it's just a little series on this whole topic. So I'm going to play it for a few seconds, a few minutes here, and we'll listen to it and come back and talk about it. To give it a chance.
Give it a chance. God said, no. Suffering draws you apart from worldly cares and brings you closer to me. I asked God to make my spirit grow. God said, no.
You must grow on your own, but I will prune you to make you fruitful. I asked for all things that I might enjoy in life. God said, no. I will give you life so that you may enjoy all things. Then I asked God to help me love others as much as he loves me. God said, finally, you get the idea.
You know, as I was listening to it this time – I'm going to have an Andy moment here for a second – but no, when I was listening to it this time, you could take that and say, well, God's just not there. He's making you do everything. You know, you've got to change your perspective.
You've got to do that. No, God's there with you every step of the way, guiding you through it. You know, if you talk to anybody that's battled addiction, you know, if Danny was here, he would share with you that, you know, God was definitely involved, but it takes an act of will as well. Yes, you have to have God in your life, but you have a part to play.
And that's what they were saying in that, that, you know, you have a part to play in all this, that, you know, part of that, why me, is an opportunity to say, how do I get past whatever that might be, or how do I lean more into God? I have a friend that was a smoker, and he prayed for God to take it away, and God did. He totally lost his desire for cigarettes. And then a few years later, he picked him back up again, and he could not quit. He couldn't lay him back down until he was forced to be without him for a few years.
And he's never going to smoke again, but God will sometimes make it easy. But if you don't appreciate it like you should, the next time it will be hard. Yeah, I think, you know, as parents and parenting our kids, we want them to grow up and mature and make decisions. We want them to value the decisions they make. Or in relation to us, like, this whole thing of, do I want to give up this habit or whatever, or do I want God? And you choose God. God wants to be chosen above those things. And I think that's part of it.
You see people get victory. Sometimes he comes in some amazing, you know, like the first time the guy was delivered from cigarettes. Sometimes God graces it. But sometimes, it's like the clip you had, I mean, there's a lot of it, he expects us in our maturity to choose him, choose the right way. He'll help us along the way, but it has to be, it gets back to our will. It does.
It does. Go back to David. I will not sacrifice to the Lord that which cost me nothing. And I think that's very applicable for us, that, you know, we shouldn't ask God to do everything, but just to help us.
You know, Lord, give me the strength to do what I need to do. Yeah, as I was listening to this, all of them made a good point, but he was talking about, you know, please take pain away. Right? And God said, no, pain allows you to leave the world behind, you know, basically lean more into me. And you see people get polarized there.
They either kind of run from God, you know, and listen to the enemy, or they do exactly that, and they lean more into him. Right? And the ones that lean into him is definitely a different delivery, whether that's escape from the pain or, you know, eventually they pass, you know, but either way, it's such a better transition, right, from one to the other. And most pain, maybe even all pain, is useful. It's necessary. If you don't, like my feet, I have no feeling in my feet.
And directly because of that, I've lost the half a big toe and two other half toes. Well, piggies went to market and didn't come back. Yeah. They're still shopping.
I'd say something about my wife there, but she's not really that big a shopper. Yeah. But one of the things that hit me in that clip, too, is that the senior moment, where'd it go? Oh, well, if it comes back, we'll share it next. Maybe it's a boomerang. It'll come back eventually. You'll catch it.
You know what you call a boomerang that doesn't come back. Stick. Okay, there we go.
Stick. Yeah, that's good. Well, you know, we have a few minutes left, so I'm going to change. We haven't really talked about boot camp. And so, you know, I always like to talk about boot camp. But the question I'm going to ask you guys is, why me? Meaning, why would God want me at boot camp?
Right? So why do you think God would want you at the boot camp? And why would he want the listener at boot camp?
Any thoughts on that? So you don't say, why me? Yeah, yeah.
So we can walk away from those agreements and walk away from things. I always just, you know, what an opportunity to spend four days chasing after the heart of God, whatever that looks like. You know, it's a very unique experience.
No, it's not. It's different every time. Yes, there's going to be talks and amazing fellowship with some amazing people from my standpoint are going to be completely transparent.
I've never seen anybody that wasn't kind of shocked at how transparent the speakers will be with their own struggles. But it's the covenant silence times where you get out there and you actually hear from God. And I know the impact that that has made on a lot of folks life to say, Robby, did I really hear this? Well, listen, you wrote it down. There it is. Let's dig into that. And it really changes lives. But it's God that does that. And so here's an opportunity from my standpoint to taste eternity. Yeah. I got mine back. And then I'm going to comment on yours afterwards.
A lot of if I remember what that was. Now, a lot of times we are obedient, we do the right thing. And the outcome is nothing like what we expected. And I've learned the hard way a few times that when God tells me to do something, I'm obedient. My part's done.
The outcome is his. But I think everybody in this room, at least all of those that have been and keep coming back have a good addiction. I feel like I've missed something in my life anytime I miss a boot camp, and they've all been wonderful. And they've all been different. Any so to quote, Rob, Robby, when I first started, he said, whenever the first one he was like, so, Andy, how did God come after your heart this weekend, and I'm still spinning from the talks and different stuff. And, and I couldn't have even articulated what, what that even meant, understood it, no had no context for it, really. And then, really. And then, you know, but I would say why me is as so that so that you can get your heart back, everything is tied up into that. And you would think that continuing, you'd get your heart back after you'd been to so many boot camps, one, eight, whatever. But you can continually get your heart back because you continually have all this brokenness. And I didn't know I was missing my heart. But I was, that was an epiphany for me, as I went several times is I just didn't know I had lost harder and live from my heart, because, you know, the gospel had been in a heart killing way for a long time, you know, you suppress everything, you don't live it out.
And there's a way that that, you know, you a man gets in touch with his core desires and those kinds of things. But I guess the biggest thing was why me you need your heart back. And you need your heart back on a daily basis. It's not like a one and done you continually need to get your heart back because life is going to continue to require your heart. And you can lose your heart even after you've had your heart. Oh, yeah. As you were talking, one of the things I wanted to make clear was, it's not that we lose heart after each boot camp, it's each boot camp, you get more of your heart back. Yeah, right, right. Another chunk. And there are times that you lose part of that.
Yeah, you do. You step back in the enemy, you know, hates the fact that you got some progress, and he ramps up the warfare against you. And it's easy to put back in those agreements that you've broken. Yeah, you know, we went away a few weekends ago up to Ohio to be at the guys up there. And one of the talks in particular really just spoke to my heart in a place that I was living. And I talked about this thing called the river of life.
You know that there's a spirit of death right now that's out, that the enemy has out. And that's what I was living under. And I didn't realize it till I heard it talked about.
Right. And it changed the way I prayed, it changed the way I looked at things and, and realized how deep I'd gotten down the rabbit hole and didn't really realize it. You know, that there had been death in my family, there had been bad news, there had been a lot of things, it's been just a tough year, you know, and I was living not necessarily in an agreement, but under, you know, the enemy's authority in some areas. And God came after that in a huge way. And I can't tell you how many boot camps I've been to.
It's, it's well above 30, you know, probably close to 40. But each time, God's done something to help me get something I needed. Sometimes it's just the life preserver.
Yeah. You know, to get me to the next stage, or sometimes it's a bigger chunk that really gives me a lot of freedom. And it comes in a variety of ways. Some of it, some, sometimes it can be a talk, or God's talking right to you. Sometimes it can be in that covenant of silence.
Sometimes it's just a camaraderie and hanging out with your brothers and talking about what everybody's going through. Sometimes it's a movie clip. Yeah, movie clip. Yeah, that speaks to you.
Your freedom, right, will help set others free. Yeah. Yeah. And so you think this is all about you know it's not.
That's right. That's all the people around you are waiting for you to get your heart back. Yeah, I know my kids are different because I've been to boot camp.
Everything's different in my life and my relationships are different. And if you want to go, go to masculinejourney.org. It's coming up November 21st through 24th. If you have money that you can't, you don't have enough money to go, don't worry about that. Reach out to us. We'll find a way to help you get there.
Whatever you need. If you feel like God's landed on your heart to be there, we want you there. Go out and love somebody well this week and hopefully you'll come to boot camp and we'll see you there. Talk to you next week. This is the Truth Network.
