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This is the Truth Network. The heart of 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're glad that you're with us this week. And we just, we kind of have a sparse group this week. We all have our own mics. Yeah, we all have our own mics. That's the first time that's happened in a long time. There's just four of us in studio currently.
No creaking back and forth between exchanges. Yeah. And so Danny will be here at the turn into the next show, and so we'll have five of us total.
But welcome everybody. We have an interesting topic, I think. We didn't have it until Sunday evening sometime, or Sunday late afternoon. And it just kind of happened to stumble upon it in God's own way that we were texting back and forth as a group and had asked something about a topic. And Danny said that he would be on call, I think is what it said. And then Grant said, is that our topic?
And I said, yep, that's our topic. It's on calling. And so what we're talking about today is what's God's calling in your life, not for the whole life, or what you're seeing 10 years down the road, but right now. Right now in your life, what's God calling you to do, to be, to fill in the blank. And so we're going to be talking all around that topic today as we kind of unpack it ourselves as God continues to unpack it in our lives.
And so Robby, you actually have the first clip if you want to tell us a little bit about it. Yeah, well, it's, it's an interesting thing, calling, right? It's, you know, if you ever come to boot camp, and I wish you would, because we really want to meet you, is we talk about there's a way that you kind of triangulate your position, right?
Like, like you would in navigation. And in order to understand your calling, which is not necessarily your vocation, it's not necessarily, you know, how you make a living. It is more of a, you know, a big part of your story. And the things that we use is the touch points for that are number one, desire. And then number two is validation, which is, you know, kind of where do you sense God's pleasure, which I know Jim's going to cover that one here shortly. And then, right, and then the other one is story, right? No, actually, it's risk, isn't it? It's well, yeah.
I mean, story is integrated in all three. I'm sorry about that. I like that. I like to be correct. That's why I married Tammy. She's, people get a big kick out of it when I'm given a sermon.
Tammy will jump right up and say, No, it's not that. I'm sorry, but I was struggling to think of them and it finally came to me. Plus, it's my talk this time. So, right, but your story is the map.
If you recall, that the map is your story, but then you're right, the three touch points are risk and validation and desire. So, you know, when I look at my own story, and I could, you know, go back, it's fascinating to me that God was clearly showing me how much I enjoyed public speaking from a kid, you know, that I remember that when I ran for student council, which I lost in like the seventh grade, but I remember giving the speech and the adrenaline rush that came, you know, I was scared and terrified like anybody at public speaking, but it came that way. And then interestingly, when I was selling cars way, you know, way back when I first started selling cars, I had opportunity to do these walk around competitions, which I kept winning. And then I ended up doing it. You know, I won all the way to Detroit where I got to do it in front of the cameras and all the chief people at General Motors in the actual design center. And what a rush that was.
And I was just shocked that I did that. Well, you know, it was like, wow, apparently, you know, I could give a walk around competition. And then when I actually came through management in the car business, my favorite part of the whole deal where I really would find my pleasure, or where I sense God's pleasure was in giving the sales meetings and having that chance to, you know, teach and speak and all those kind of things. I just find it fascinating now that God's really been teaching me that my whole life. Well, you know, obviously I do the Christian Car Guys show and I've had a chance to speak a lot over the last number of years. And then I had a chance to become assistant pastor at West Ashboro Baptist Church. And then through a series of events that really shocked me no end, you know, I became an interim pastor, which, you know, all of a sudden that's a role I never anticipated. And this year I've certainly spoke more than I ever have in my life and also called to numerous other opportunities to speak at churches and other events like, oh my goodness.
So I have a clip here. It's from a movie that came out in 1955, but it's interesting in 1955, there were preachers that were speaking the same message that John Eldred talks about who Jesus is today. And so no relation to the year of your birth though, right?
Yeah, it is the year of my birth. But if you get to speak about anything, apart from me, you can do nothing. And certainly what God called me to when I really looked back time and again was, you know, Robby, you need to help people. You need to invest in people. It's all about people.
And so I love this. Peter Marshall was the chaplain for the Congress in the 1940s during World War II. And he was also the pastor of the first Presbyterian church there in Washington, DC.
And so when he first went to that church, it dwindled due to poor leadership. And he now finds himself giving his first sermon. And it's a remarkable sermon.
So if you want to play that. It has been said that a new minister's first sermon, while he is still strange to his congregation and his congregation is strange to him, frequently has far reaching repercussions. You have your ideas of what your pastor should be. And your pastor has his ideas of what your church should be. I look out this morning on a church not even half filled. Now, this in no way injures my personal pride, my vanity.
I'm not here to recruit fans for a fellow named Peter Marshall, nor am I here to sell anything. So today, as I start my ministry in this hallowed old church, I think it only fair to explain that it isn't the church or religion that I'm trying to present, but Christ. Not the pale, anemic, nanby, pamby Jesus, the gentle Jesus, meek and mild, but the Christ of the gospels, striding up and down the dusty miles of Palestine, sun tanned, bronzed, fearless, the knuckles big in his carpenter's hands, the Christ who upset the moneylenders, the Christ who had a good time at weddings and who would not allow his host to be embarrassed by running short of wine, the Christ who loved people, all kinds of people, but particularly red blooded folk, for he himself was red blooded. The Christ who called a spade a spade and who let the chips fall where they might. Not the Jesus of the perfume cloisters of pious sentiment, but the man who walked the streets of the city, stopping here and there to pass the time of day in places where you and I could not afford to be seen and getting a huge kick out of it.
Darrell Bock Yeah, so it was absolutely remarkable to me that somehow or another that message seemed so fresh when I heard it from John Eldredge, but then to find out it was the same thing was being preached at the year of my birth was kind of surprising to me, but I'm sure there's been pastors throughout the ages that preached Christ. But our calling, when you think about it, everybody has one, and it has to do with you have a calling with your family. You have a calling with your occupation. You have it with your own health. You have all those things, and beautifully, apart from me, you can do what?
Nothing. And so that Christ that Peter just described is that relationship as you push into it, he will continue to, and it's been my experience anyway, give you more and more opportunities to share him in more and more different ways. And again, interestingly, I had no idea what it would have been like to be a pastor until this year, at least not the lead pastor and to have those responsibilities, but oh my goodness, what neat opportunities to really help a family that's really, really hurting. The stuff happens within families where family members really get bruised and people do crazy stuff, and all of a sudden you can see Christ come into that situation, and you can see him begin to heal things, and you can watch families mend, and sometimes families go off the deep end, but God is still working, and it's a fascinating thing to me that I did not realize what a beautiful thing that we all get a chance to take part in, and one of those things as a pastor is helping other people understand this is not a spectator sport.
In other words, everybody is called into the adventure, and everybody gets more calling, and the more that you can obviously die to yourself, right, I'm crucified with Christ, meaning now I'm ready to give myself to the church, or I'm ready to give myself to my family, I'm ready to give myself to all the things in the order that they should be, it's a beautiful thing. Darrell Bock Yeah, you were talking about a point that God really laid on my heart on this topic over the last week, because I've always looked at calling to be, okay, vocation, or to be the next big step, you know, what are you calling me to, you know, with this, inside this ministry to do next, or inside this ministry to do next, and he really kind of helped me see this week that, no, the calling is just his desire for my heart of what he wants me to do in all those situations as you laid out. You know, what's my calling with each one of my kids individually right now? What's my calling at work when I'm there? What's my calling in this ministry, you know, Mass Going Journey, what's my calling in the midst of the Hope Center that I work with, and those types of things, and just having more of my prayer be, you know, God, what's your calling for me here? You know, and just kind of focusing on that, because he's constantly doing that.
He's having us do that, and Robby, you mentioned health, you know, what's your calling in my health right now? You know, and I think a lot of times we know what that is, and are we willing to go do what we're supposed to go do? We've all had these, you know, these categories that we want that just are part of our lives, or roles we play, and you do have that desire. A lot of times we've segmented that, and I'm becoming more open to God being involved in all of them, much more so than in the past.
As I used to, I'd like to keep him in a box. The things that you got, you can have the ministry part, that's your deal, right? But my career, I got this, you know, or something like that.
Yeah, my finances. Exactly, yeah, exactly. And I'm still a work in progress, but that is true. That's what Morgan talks about, I think, being an integrated man fully. You don't have all these chopped up individual roles or whatever. They're all integrated, and they all relate.
They do. And we do have a boot camp coming up. It's coming up November 21st through 24th.
Go to masculinejourney.org to register. We'll talk to you after the break. What we have at our boot camp is something that makes you stronger, and it 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.
How's things been going since the last boot camp? It's been good growing. I've got growing pains. I came up here as a little boy, falling down, getting up, and now I'm a cowboy ranger going into adolescent hood.
It's a pleasure to be here. So you're speaking about cowboy rangers. Is that one of the talks that really came alive to you this weekend? Yep. I don't want to grow up real fast.
I had to do that a long time ago. I'm just taking baby steps along this journey, and I can't think of any place or a group of guys I'd rather be with because you are appointed and accountable for me to learn and listen, and I've got a notebook full of good tools that's going to help me grow. Order today at masculinejourney.org. It's from Casting Crowns. We are the body, and it's a good question. Of all those things that God has for us to do, that he's commanded us to do, if we're the body, why aren't we doing them? And maybe we are, but it's definitely something we want to press into. Yeah. That's a great quote. Go ahead.
Go ahead. No, I was going to say that in the midst of that, I heard the answer. It's because our ears aren't listening. You know, I interviewed a pro bull rider today on Truth Talk Live, and it was fascinating to me.
I asked him – I guess the Holy Spirit prompted me to ask this question. I said, so you see a pro bull rider. They sit in that chute, right, and you watch. They slap their hat down.
They have their hand around this thing that's crazy, that they're attached to this 3,000-pound animal that's fixed to whatever, and you can see the intensity on it. So I asked him, what's going through your mind right that minute, right before you nod – because the deal is, they nod their head to open that chute. I said, what's going through your mind right that second before you nod your head? And he goes – he said, you have to be totally present. He said, you have to be – you have to clear the clutter, and there's nothing else going on between you and anything else but that bull, and you have to be present, because you may have ridden that same bull five times, but that's a different ride. And I thought of that actually I interviewed Casting Crowns about two months ago, and I asked them what it was like to write a song, and they almost said exactly the same thing about clearing out the clutter, listening for – in other words, the same thing being totally present. And then you go back to the scene from Bagger Vance where he says you've got to see the field, right, the focus of just being present and looking for that one true authentic ride, that one true authentic thing that God is in for you with whatever that particular situation is.
And I think that that's a big, big, big part is to somehow or another clear away all the clutter and see if you can just get with him, because if you do that, he's going to take you on the ride. Darrell Bock For sure. Darrell Bock So where would be a great place for them to clear the clutter?
Any thoughts on that? How about a boot camp? Darrell Bock Covenant of silence, right. You go out there, and it is, and if you can be totally present, it will change your life. Darrell Bock Yeah. Yeah, that's the power of the weekend is the times that we're silent and listening for God, you know, and the work that he does.
I was going to offer wandering up into the mountains, which was major for me when I was really struggling with some things many years ago, but anywhere you can get alone with God and away from all the stuff that's going on around you. Darrell Bock And away from your phone. Darrell Bock Yeah, which I usually am on a cruise. Darrell Bock That's true.
That's true. I have the next clip, and it's from a TV show called Rings of Power. It's on Amazon Prime, and it's the prequel to The Hobbit. You know, so it's what happened before The Hobbit. If you're familiar with The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit series, The Lord of the Rings is the end of the story, right?
And then The Hobbit was before that, and The Rings of Power was before that. And so I'm in the middle of the second season. I'm pretty well caught up.
I'm almost, I've got one more show to watch, and I'll be caught up to next week's show. And it stayed very true to that formula of that series, and so if you've enjoyed those, I would highly recommend it. It is kind of gory at times, as you would expect, but other than that, it's very family friendly.
No bad words in it, no nudity or anything like that, at least so far for a year and a half, and I would expect it would stay the same. But in the scene that we're going to listen to, you have a person that's been introduced, and you don't know who they are, and he doesn't know who he is. He's trying to learn who he is, and all he was, he just came down to Earth in a comet, kind of, and he lands in this comet, and he wakes up, and he knows that he's supposed to go follow these stars. And so he follows the stars, and he learns along the way that he's a wizard, because he has some powers, but he doesn't know how to use them, right? And so he thinks that when he gets to this place under the stars, he's going to find the staff that helps him, kind of, control his powers, and things will come more clear as he tries to figure out who he is and his identity. And instead, he runs into a gentleman named Tom, which Tom is the god character, at least so far, in the show, and he's got a lot of wisdom, and he's got power well beyond what this wizard has. And so he's setting, and he's had some dinner with him.
He's had some honey and some bread. And they're talking, and they hear commotion outside, and someone else is coming. And so we kind of pick up the story there, because someone's been chasing him and his friends, the stranger that's a wizard, not Tom.
And so we kind of pick it up there, but I want you to listen to their exchange, then we'll come back and talk about it. What is it? We're not alone.
Who are they? Why do they hunt me and my friends? You're not the first Istar who's eaten honey by my fire. Years ago, there was another. The Dark Wizard. What became of him? Once, he sought to control magic, like you. Now, he controls much of Arun. But still, he hungers for more. Do you believe his evil will spread? Not without an ally far more powerful even than himself. Sauron, if these two flames combine into one, there will be no end to burning till all Middle-earth is ashes. Can you stop it? Great deeds are left to the hands they were placed in. And I shall gather lilies while yet they grow.
You mean, you mean my hands? Is it my task to stop the fire? Is it my task to face Sauron?
Your task is to face them both. So the reason I wanted to talk about that, and I know there's some reference in there, you probably don't know if you haven't watched some of the series, but what you can relate to is that there's an evil presence, right? And there is a dark wizard, which we know is the devil, which is Lucifer, that was talked about in scripture, that is the devil that's in our life. And the calling that we all have is to fight against that evil. As he's talking about in there, the fire and then Sauron, Sauron is the ultimate evil president.
He's the devil in the Lord of the Rings series. But the fire, to me, represents, honestly, the world, right? There's three parts of the unholy trinity. There's our old self that wants to align with the enemy that Paul talks about, the killing of the old self that has to die daily, right? It's those old worldly desires before we became a Christian that kind of well up in us.
And so that's one that we own holding on to. But we also own fighting against the other two parts of the unholy trinity, which is the devil and the world. And I don't think it takes anyone out there that's been watching the world moves more and more into the devil's world all along the way. And, you know, it takes good people standing up, right, and talking about what's not right and what's not good. And it gets harder and harder as time goes on.
You know, you start to hear terms like being canceled or hearing things like that when you don't, when you speak something different than what the world says is truth. And, you know, and I think it's something that we all own is, as God calls us in our own way, to stand against the enemy, first and foremost, against the devil in our life, and then to deal with the ways of the world in our life. You know, and let God lead us through that. We're not all called to go fight the same way or to fight the same battle, but we are all called to fight. I was just going to say, I love the idea of, you know, in Matthew, the Beatitudes, it says blessed are the persecuted, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
And when you look, study that, you'll find the word persecuted is in the perfect tense, meaning that it happened from the moment in time you accepted Christ, or it even probably happened from before the beginning, because present tense means it's always happening both before and after. And so the battle is upon you, whether you will accept it or not. The fire is what you're up against, whether you want to fight it or not.
And all those things are there. But blessed is you because yours is the kingdom of heaven. You have at your disposal, Christ, and you have at your disposal, all those spiritual gifts in order to, because our battle is not against flesh and blood, against spiritual forces in high places, but you've got to be in Christ and you've got to be walking with Christ in order to fight that battle, which is essentially like we talk about at boot camp, on your knees, however that works. But you've got to be aware, and most of my life, I honestly had no clue of where the attacks were coming from or even that this was something I had any power over.
Darrell Bock Right. Our society has been responsible for bringing us into a world of science, and I love science, but that has pushed out any acceptance of the supernatural. And without knowing you've got an enemy there, you have no clue how or even if to fight them. And what you just quoted, our fight is not against flesh and blood, it's against powers and principalities. And that is one of the steps that God has walked me through lately in my new direction that I had to agree to and not realize that it's not the people that I feel I'm opposing and they're opposing me, it's the enemy. And at that point, he made it very clear to me who that enemy was. Darrell Bock Yeah, I was going to follow up on what Robby said, the open war is upon you whether you would risk it or not. And that comes from the same story, right?
It's the beginning, right? So I really think that was life changing for me, too. I've mentioned it many times, there's so many ways I've gotten victory, just understanding. I was in a war, I kind of knew it, but it was like Brazil, didn't really understand the context and how to fight back and that kind of thing like what Robby was saying. But you know, it's interesting talking about boot camps, is most guys when they come, I've heard a bunch of guys, and maybe not across the board, but got some form of mighty warrior or warrior in their name.
And that's because it's essential to us all. And God wants to convey that most of us haven't fought, you know, that we haven't played the warrior role for most of our life. John Green Right, or we played it wrong. Darrell Bock Right. John Green You can't have a victory without a battle. Darrell Bock Yeah, right. John Green That's true.
Or we fought things we shouldn't be fighting against. Darrell Bock Exactly, yeah. John Green So go to masculinejourney.org to register for the upcoming boot camp November 21st through 24th. Again, if you need help financially, please don't let that keep you from coming. Reach out to us, any of our first names at masculinejourney.org. We'll get back to you and help you get there. Love somebody well this week. This is the Truth Network.
