God's Greatest Hits

This is Hans Scheil 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. A 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're glad that you're with us this week, because we have an amazing topic. You know, it would have been a great one to set up a pre- kind of clip to talk about the topic. That would have been a good idea. Yeah. You have that? No, I don't.

No, I'm not going to do that. Yeah, I heard you. Go ahead. Go ahead, Robby. You got something you want to say?

Sam Kaysen recorded this. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, which I'm not going to play, so that's good. You know, I was just remarkably impressed that, like, you would put that- you mixed it and everything. Oh, it's real hard. It's too tracked.

And not playing would actually seem like an absolute crime of nature. Well, if you want to hear it, you can reach out to me at sam at masculinejourney.org. I would say Keith would be proud, but I don't think you would be proud.

No, I don't think you would either. Hey, it sounded really good at five o'clock on Saturday morning when I was like, okay, I'm awake and I need something to do here. Was this before coffee or after coffee? During coffee. During coffee.

It was before the caffeine really kicked in. Anyway, we do have an amazing topic. We are talking about God's greatest hits.

And what I thought about was the old show, you know, America's Top 40, right? But we probably could each have 40, 50, 60 things that we talk about. We're not going to talk about that many tonight. We're going to pick some of them and talk about the greatest things that God's done in our life.

You know, at least up to this point, for some of us, that's less time than others. You know, no particular person in mind, Harold. And just... And you put some guard rails on that too, right?

I did, yeah. I put some limiters on it because I know this group. We would have talked about kids, spouses, pets, you know, things like that. And so it's like, no, no relationships. We would have talked about the Band of Brothers. You know, that would have been in there.

And those are all viable things and those are all important, but we talk about those a lot. We want to be more personal. You know, what has God done for your heart? Where has God really had breakthrough with you and made great, deep impacts in your life?

And just wanted to hear what God had in store for you. But I do have a clip, and yes, it's my clip, but it's not really my clip. I have my own clip I'm going to play later. But this is a clip that I made, I know. You guys always give me a hard time because you say I always play my clip first. It's your world and we're just here. We're just living in it. I want to try to understand how it's not yours if you put it in the folder. Well, at least I know how to put it in the folder. Well played, well played. Okay, so that's an inside joke.

If you want to know more about that, you can email Robby at basketballjourney.org. But no, what this first clip is, it's a clip for all of us. And the reason I said it's a clip for all of us because it's from a song from Lauren Daigle and it's called Rescue You. And regardless of the stories you're going to hear from all my brothers tonight, as they talk about it, you're going to hear a story of rescue. It may be rescue and identity or rescue from woundedness or rescue and sonship or whatever that might be, but it's always involving a rescue.

And so I'm going to play this clip and we're going to come back and talk about it a little bit more and then get on to some more of the show. You are not hidden There's never been a moment You were forgotten You are not hopeless Though you have been broken Your innocence stolen I hear you whisper underneath your breath I hear your S.O.S., your S.O.S. I will send out an army to find you in the middle of the darkest night It's true, I will rescue you I know she was pretty easy to understand, but I want to go ahead and read the lyrics because I think it's worth reading again.

She sings, you are not hidden There's never been a moment that you were forgotten You are not hopeless Though you have been broken Your innocence stolen I hear you whisper underneath your breath I hear your S.O.S., your S.O.S. I will send out an army to find you in the middle of the darkest night It's true, I will rescue you Very powerful song, very powerful story. And you're going to hear that in all of our stories. It's going to be stories of rescue. Before we get to the first clip, anything that comes to mind that you guys want to share on this topic as we set up the first clip? Don't everybody talk, just somebody jump in. Grant, you have something.

The Lord of Remembers, my bad things, my bad thoughts. Well, thank you, Grant. Well, I guess since no one, anyone want their clip to go first?

If not, I'll just play mine because it's sitting here. I'm just saying. It's your world, we're just here, living in it. Yeah, you're on borrowed time. You kicked me out.

Remains me to see if you'll be here for the after hours. It was a musical Saturday for me when I was cutting clips. First of all, I had the thing that I didn't play.

And then I had some musical clips. And this is from Jason Gray and it's called Remember Who I Am. Remind me who I am. I want to remember who I am, but I need God to remind me who I am, so thank you. Remind me who I am.

And so I'm going to go ahead and play it and then talk about why. But it's something we use at boot camp quite a bit and it's just remembering your identity in Jesus and who you really are. When I lose my way, I forgive my name. Remind me who I am. And the mirror all I see is who I don't want to be. Remind me who I am. In the loneliest places when I can't remember what grace is. Tell me once again who I am to you, who I am to you. Tell me lest I forget who I am to you, I belong to you, to you. That song, I first heard it actually at a women's retreat we did a long time ago. And they played it there and we didn't really use video clips, movie clips, or not movie clips, we always use movie clips, video musical clips very often.

But I don't think we've missed a boot camp with this one in a long time. And it's a very visual song. If you go on YouTube and look up Jason Gray, remind me who I am, as Andy would correct me if I said it wrong again. But the reason that that was so powerful for me, when I first got the book Wild at Heart I'd honestly lost sight of who I was. Through brokenness, through things the enemy had robbed from me. And I never really knew deep in my soul who I was. I had all the labels the world had put on me. And that's what this song does really well. During the first part of the song you'll see all these people at different places it interacts with and they hold up these little signs and it's the labels that the world's given them. I cheated on them too, this guy with his kids. They cheated on his wife obviously and forgotten and all these different labels abandoned.

I don't matter. All these kind of signs. At the end it's really cool because all those signs are replaced with just one word. It's replaced with the word beloved. And so for me God's done some amazing things but probably one of the biggest things is even in my worst day at the end of the day I'm still his beloved son. When I can't feel really good about myself or decisions I've made or situations or my anger's reared up or whatever that might be, at the end of the day I'm still his beloved son regardless of what that day transpired. And so when I can hold onto that even in the darkest of times there's hope in the midst of everything. And there's so much more that he's done but it always for me has to be related to that identity of when the enemy can steal that identity he's got access to everything. When I forget that at my core I'm his beloved son and so are you or you're his beloved daughter. It doesn't matter what your story is. It doesn't matter what you've done, what you haven't done or whatever the enemy's telling you who you are or what your label is.

What matters are who you are in Christ. And it's one of those songs that every time I hear it, A, it puts me in a good mood, B, it brings me to tears. Just because it's so powerful that message in my heart and the much that God used to change that for me.

So I know you guys also have enjoyed that song over the time. Yeah, to your point, it is from a father-son or father-daughter position of how God sees us and again, I was talking to a friend about this today. We have patience. We don't break fellowship with our kids just every time they do something wrong. Neither does God but sometimes we think that. We think those labels are what gets in the way just like we could put the label on our child. We don't put the shameful label on them.

We put beloved on them. And we have a lot less capacity to love than what God does. Yeah, it's often that we worry about, okay, well God, I'm here again. Well, A, he knew you were already going to be there.

And B, he's loved you through it and he's already forgiven you for it. Harold? Sometime back, I wrote a poem that kind of goes along with this and it was titled, Who Am I? And it starts out, Do I really know who I am?

Is the image in the mirror really me or is it only a sham? What do others look and see? And my idea is we have to be careful or we'll believe that we're something different than what we really are. And his song, I think, addresses the issue, remind me, let me know who I am, not just who I might want to be or think I might be, but who am I really in my core?

Absolutely. Well, so much of that we base on feelings, but God bases it on truth. This is who I say you are. This is what Scripture says. But yeah, I'm basing it on, I feel about the spiritual of the toad this morning, that kind of thing. Yeah, it's we, ebb and flow, where God's consistent.

His message is consistent, but the enemy's is also consistent in the opposite direction. Go to masculinejourney.org. We do have a boot camp coming up. It's coming up November 21st through 24th.

You can register now. If you have trouble financially, let us know. We'll find a way to help you.

Talk to you after the break. What we have at our boot camp is something that makes you stronger and gives you the strength to go on your regular walk with God. It's something that will make you be bigger than you were when you got there. I've been coming regularly, and it's just such a blessing. When you guys invited me, I was at the worst time of my Christian walk. I was going through some things. The first time I came, I don't know if you remember, I couldn't even walk.

I couldn't even stand up straight. And I'm walking now. I ain't running around the lake yet, but you know. The greatest things is just being around a group of men that love the Lord and sharing His kindness and His love. All of you guys, I done sat and talked with all of you guys, different occasions, different conversations, and it's all been unique and refreshing. You guys gave me a whole different perspective in life, and you can't hide the true, genuine love of God.

You can't hide it. Register today at masculinejourney.org. Welcome back to Masculine Journey. Yes, we did play that at the beginning of the show, but it was such a good song, we wanted to come back and play part of it again for our bump back in, and that's Lauren Daigle, and it's Rescue is the name of the song. Very, very, very good song.

I encourage you to just listen to the words of it and let God just kind of guide your heart and let it sink in. And Danny, you are up with the next clip, and this is a brand-new clip we've never used before. Brand-new genre of me picking out clips, and it's already got some controversy attached to it, so I know it was the right thing. It's not Andy Griffith. It's not Andy Griffith. It's not Blue Bloods. Nope.

It's not Fire Country. Nope. Wow. Can we expect follow-ups, follow-up clips from it? You may find follow-up clips from it, trying to break out.

Branch out. It's from a movie called The World's Fastest Indian Motorcycle. That's not the title of the movie, but for Andy's sake, I'm clarifying that, because he was struggling just a little bit. Yeah. With that, so.

But it's based on a true story, and a guy from Australia set out to break the World Land Speed record for motorcycles less than 1,000 cc's. And his whole journey, and Anthony Hopkins, you know, I waited the whole movie for him to say, hello, Clarice, but he never did. He doesn't? No, he doesn't do it. Quid pro quo? Does he say that? No.

Okay. But in this clip, this whole journey to get to the Utah Flats to time trial this thing. And it's an old motorcycle, and he lives in his shop. And the young son of the neighbor comes over quite a bit, helps him, and just is fascinated with it. What you're going to hear is the beginning of the clip, you're going to hear the boy on the motorcycle pretending he's ripping and roaring down the highway. But you're going to hear Anthony Hopkins' character reminisce a little bit. He's got a photo album, and he's looking through some photo albums. But he's telling his story, part of his story, to this young boy. But I think he's more or less reminding himself who he is, actually. And there's a couple of phrases in there, and I'll single them out after the clip. But it's just a great thing. You can see the impact that things have had on Anthony Hopkins.

And you can play the clip, and we'll talk about it afterwards. Hey, not so fast. I'm the record breaker. And that's before I put the streamliner on it.

What's that one? Yeah, that's a girlfriend of mine. When I first bought the bike, it was a long time ago, that was. Yeah. Aren't you scared you'll kill yourself if you crash? No. No, you live more in five minutes on a bike like this, going flat out than some people live in a lifetime.

And, yeah, more in five minutes. That's my dead day. Now, danger is the spice of life, and you've got to take a risk now and again, haven't you, son? That's what makes life worthwhile.

And having some nice ladies around can be a big help, mind you. You really don't get scared? No, no. When I was a boy about your age, I had a little twin brother. His name was Ernie.

And one day our dad was out the back cutting down a tree, and suddenly it got hung up, or the tree, that is, it got stuck or something, and Ernie went to try and help, and all of a sudden the tree slipped and fell on him and killed him, was down dead. Yeah. I always remember that. Anyway, since then I've always tried never to be scared of anything.

Though I must say, before a big bike event, I do sometimes get nervous, you know, if the butterflies in my stomach were cows. Oh. Yeah, it cut off. It cut off. That's fine.

He says if they were cows, he'd open a dairy farm. That's basically what it is. So often, you know, risk and danger is part of what we do in Christianity. I think if sitting on a church pew was all there was to Christianity, I don't think I'd be a part of it. And so often, when you're young in the faith, and even older in the faith, there are different wounds and different ways the enemy comes after you.

But God's always asking you to take a risk. And I was going to tell one story, but another one has come to mind. Years ago, I just saw a vision of a bunch of men around a campfire, and having like a men's retreat overnight, camping out and that kind of thing. I lived right near a retreat center, rode by it every day, and we had done a couple of things down there.

I just felt like it was what God told me to do. And so we put some flowers together. We sent some emails out, and very unorganized with what we did, but didn't get registration and that kind of thing. The weekend comes up, and there's a front coming that's producing tornadoes in Tennessee.

And here we are. I've got a way of calling this thing off because I can't call anybody. So that afternoon, or that day, I was supposed to go out there and set up. It was mist and rain, and I called a buddy of mine.

I said, what do you think it'll do? He said, go set your tent up out there in the field. I thought, that tent's going to be in Tennessee if I set it up as wind. And I was just literally not knowing what to do. So I'm out there by myself, and there's a crosswalk, a little trail cut out in the woods with different stations of the cross and that kind of thing. And I went out there, and I'm praying. And finally, I asked the question. I said, God, all those guys you took out in the wilderness, in the Scripture, I read, what did you tell them?

And it wasn't audible, but he said, you tell them I am since you. And I come out of there, if I'd have run into a demon, I'd have throat punched him. I mean, just, ah. But the miraculous thing was the storm front literally separated around us. It only rained on us one time when we were under shelter. And people showed up from all over the place. I mean, it was just an awesome time. And God's Spirit was there, and the fellowship and everything was just great.

And we camped out, and then we had a thing the next morning. But ultimately, I walked away from that thing knowing that all I've got to do is take a risk. All I've got to do is, because God's worth the risk. And if there isn't a little bit of danger, a little bit of risk in it, but it does, as Anthony Harper said, it makes you really come alive. Because when you're in risk with God, it really makes you come alive.

Absolutely. I'm having fun thinking about that motorcycle. Because for several years, I rode an 1100cc bike. But one of the times that I had some fear is I had my sweetheart on the back. And we were coming around the road, coming back home. And a dog went running out in front of us, and I couldn't avoid him. I ran over the dog, and we didn't go down. God saved our little fannies on that one. But anyway, I got to see that movie. As far as watching it, it's a great movie. Well, Harold, since you have a mic in front of you, would you like to go ahead and share?

Yeah, I can. The thing that is biggest for me, you wouldn't let me talk about. That was God throwing my sweetheart in front of me. But the other thing that I wanted to talk about is that most of my life, I was troubled with anger. I had road rage before they had a name for it. And I would get angry at anything and everybody.

And he took that away. I tried different things over the years. And I finally started asking the Holy Spirit to help me get rid of that. Let me get on the road and drive without screaming at every other driver, telling them how stupid they are.

And did they get their driver's license out of a box of Cracker Jacks, etc. I was a complete idiot. I look back on it now and I think I bordered on insanity.

If we were going to make a trip back to Alabama to visit family, I would start getting mad before I got in the car because I would be anticipating the stupid moves that were going to interfere with me driving the way I wanted to drive. And I look back on it and, you know, what an idiot I was. And how much better it is now that God has taken that away from me.

The same stuff is there, but I don't go nuts over it. So what has that done for your heart and for your relationships? Oh, it's been great. My sweetheart no longer says, you're polluting my air. Which I can't tell you how many times I heard that. But I was making her miserable. And I wasn't changing anything. And I mean, I did some dumb stuff. I mean, I actually pulled off on the apron at times and blocked people who were trying to get up to the head of the line. Because to me, that was impolite, unfair, et cetera. And I'm going to enforce the rule.

And then, you know, there have been a lot of people who got shot. I decided it wasn't worth enforcing the rule. Right. And probably wouldn't have been really good for your heart to keep getting that much stressed out. No. Yeah, we decided long years ago, even before I got rid of the anger with the Lord's help, that that was the major reason that I had to have the five bypasses done and flatline twice.

Stress is a killer. Right. Well, thank you. We do have a boot camp coming up, like I said, November 21st through 24th. And a lot of our stories, God can reach you anywhere and God will reach you anywhere. He just chooses to reach us most often at a boot camp.

Right. And so I'd encourage you to consider going, pray about going. And don't listen for the yes. Listen for the no. Because I'm telling you, unless God tells you no, he probably wants you there.

So I can't speak for him. I'm just saying he will tell you no if you're not supposed to go. But we'd love to have you there for camp.

And it would be very powerful to you. David, we'll get to you in the after hours, if that's all right. We'll hear some more of your story because I don't want to cut you short.

But anything else you guys would like to add? You guys, we're heading out of this last 30 seconds or so. Anyone? Bueller? You're just looking at each other, so I'll just talk some more.

Go for it. So where do they go to register for boot camp, Andy? MasculineJourney.org. Thank you. Danny, where do they go? MasculineJourney.org.

All right. Harold, where do we go? MasculineJourney.org.

You know, if you haven't got it by now, guys, it's really not that hard. It's the name of the show,.org. Go and register. And like I said before, if you're having trouble financially, please let us know. We will help you find a way to get there. If you want to have somebody, you want to sponsor somebody to come, let us know. We could always use sponsors. If you have any ideas for show topics, let us know. But more importantly, love yourself well this week and love others well. Talk to you next week.