WEBVTT - How Do I Apply the Word to my Life? 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:04.400 Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio. 0:00:04.720 --> 0:00:08.160 This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio. 0:00:08.720 --> 0:00:11.799 Carl and crew helping you take your next step with Jesus. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:16.200 Expanded version. Come as you are. Experience God. Overcome what 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:20.520 seems impossible and live as you never imagined. Is that 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:23.920 a pipe dream? No. No. It's a promise all the 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:27.560 way through the scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation, God holds 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:31.960 out before us this life that is so extraordinary, a 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:37.680 30 6000 fold life, a life of abundance. What we 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:42.919 find in Scripture are some unblushing promises of God, says C.S. Lewis, 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:46.840 that are staggering. If you consider the promises of God 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:50.720 just in the Gospels, we have to be in awe 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:54.920 over what God wants to do in our life. The 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:58.279 theme for this week is rock solid. I went to 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:00.980 solid Rock Bible Camp and so solid Rock Bible Camp 0:01:00.980 --> 0:01:02.780 better have a big old rock than they did. 0:01:03.660 --> 0:01:05.979 That's true. You know what? I didn't think about that before. 0:01:06.020 --> 0:01:08.100 Because I've heard the name a lot when you've shared 0:01:08.100 --> 0:01:10.619 the stories, but it better have a big rock on it. 0:01:10.660 --> 0:01:14.100 It's it has a humongous rock. And when I say 0:01:14.100 --> 0:01:18.459 a big rock, this rock, it was split in two. 0:01:18.500 --> 0:01:20.539 And so you could kind of walk through it, but 0:01:20.540 --> 0:01:22.660 it was I don't know what the mass of this 0:01:22.660 --> 0:01:27.380 thing would have been, but it was probably 80ft long 0:01:27.380 --> 0:01:32.940 and about 40ft wide and about 25ft tall to the 0:01:32.940 --> 0:01:35.300 point where you could repel off the rock. And it 0:01:35.300 --> 0:01:38.899 was where everybody hung out. Trees grew on the rock. 0:01:38.940 --> 0:01:39.459 Oh, cool. 0:01:39.500 --> 0:01:43.780 So this was a rock. It was amazing. And that 0:01:43.780 --> 0:01:46.660 metaphor of the rock is all the way through the 0:01:46.660 --> 0:01:54.300 scriptures most. I think the most striking evidence of a 0:01:54.300 --> 0:01:57.700 rock solid faith is found in Matthew seven, the very 0:01:57.700 --> 0:02:00.170 last words of Jesus in the sermon on the Mount. 0:02:00.930 --> 0:02:03.889 And we love to be anchored in this passage, pardon 0:02:03.890 --> 0:02:07.090 the pun here, because what we find Jesus saying is 0:02:07.090 --> 0:02:10.649 that there's two different kinds of people in this kind 0:02:10.650 --> 0:02:13.250 of Christian world or religious world that we live in. 0:02:14.410 --> 0:02:17.730 So his audience is very Jewish, and he's laid down 0:02:17.730 --> 0:02:20.050 a teaching in the sermon on the Mount. That is 0:02:20.250 --> 0:02:23.970 who heavy duty. He says, you have heard it was 0:02:23.970 --> 0:02:26.970 said on a number of times, and he's referring to 0:02:27.770 --> 0:02:31.410 the Old Testament and some of the law. But then 0:02:31.410 --> 0:02:33.530 he raised the bar. If the law wasn't tough enough 0:02:33.530 --> 0:02:37.250 to achieve, he raised the bar. But the promise that 0:02:37.250 --> 0:02:40.930 he has is this if you hear his words and 0:02:40.930 --> 0:02:45.530 apply them to your life, you will be like a 0:02:45.530 --> 0:02:48.530 person who builds their life on the rock. The storms 0:02:48.530 --> 0:02:51.690 of this life come and you're going to sustain those storms. 0:02:53.250 --> 0:02:55.930 The flip side is true as well. You can be 0:02:55.930 --> 0:02:59.030 a person who hears these words and doesn't apply them 0:02:59.030 --> 0:03:02.070 to their life. And you'll be like a house built 0:03:02.070 --> 0:03:05.910 on the sand. Everything we're going to point you to 0:03:05.950 --> 0:03:09.910 this week is what I would call rock solid. And 0:03:09.910 --> 0:03:11.750 so I think the first thing we got to clear 0:03:11.750 --> 0:03:16.950 out of the way is, is God's word solid? I mean, 0:03:17.870 --> 0:03:20.950 before we even think about applying it, shouldn't we know 0:03:20.950 --> 0:03:25.630 the validity of it, the inspiration of it? Is it 0:03:25.630 --> 0:03:29.070 from God? How do we know that? Is there all 0:03:29.070 --> 0:03:31.910 important questions? And we're going to come out hot this morning. 0:03:31.950 --> 0:03:35.110 Doctor TP is going to be with me. And we're 0:03:35.110 --> 0:03:39.870 going to break down apologetics in such a practical way. 0:03:39.910 --> 0:03:45.070 Asking questions is this a reliable source if I want 0:03:45.110 --> 0:03:47.750 to apply it to my life is it reliable. And 0:03:47.750 --> 0:03:51.310 when you find out its reliability, you have that much 0:03:51.310 --> 0:03:54.150 more motivation to put it into application in your life. 0:03:54.790 --> 0:03:57.380 So buckle up, get a swig of water, grab your 0:03:57.380 --> 0:03:59.820 cup of coffee if you're on the road. Whoo! I 0:03:59.860 --> 0:04:04.300 hope you've got a few minutes, doctor TP coming up. 0:04:04.580 --> 0:04:07.260 She was trying to earn her way to God, but 0:04:07.260 --> 0:04:10.780 God showed her she didn't have to. Ali is in 0:04:10.780 --> 0:04:14.140 the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio. 0:04:14.420 --> 0:04:16.779 Well, there's a lot of reasons that people have for 0:04:16.779 --> 0:04:20.020 not bowing a knee before God, and sometimes they're just 0:04:20.020 --> 0:04:23.180 an excuse. And I think sometimes when you run into 0:04:23.220 --> 0:04:26.820 someone and I've had this happen many times where they say, oh, 0:04:26.820 --> 0:04:29.460 come on, uh, you know, how can I trust that 0:04:29.460 --> 0:04:33.020 the Scripture is truly God breathed? How do we know 0:04:33.020 --> 0:04:36.700 that the Gospels are an actual account of what Jesus 0:04:36.700 --> 0:04:39.700 truly said? We've run into people like that, Jonathan. 0:04:39.740 --> 0:04:43.300 Oh, yeah. Absolutely. And I think that the questions are fair. 0:04:43.500 --> 0:04:46.660 You know, it's a book. There are a lot of 0:04:46.660 --> 0:04:51.539 religions that have quote unquote, holy books that they say 0:04:51.540 --> 0:04:52.700 are inspired by God. 0:04:52.740 --> 0:04:54.400 It's old, It's old. 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:58.000 And and so it makes sense that people would look 0:04:58.000 --> 0:04:59.599 at it and say, well, how do I know that's 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:00.239 from God? 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:06.560 Doctor Timothy Paul Jones or Doctor TP is with me 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:11.279 right now. Is the issue of canonicity and the authority 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:15.680 of Scripture. Is that a convenient excuse? Where do people 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:17.920 land on this? I mean, it's hard to bow a 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:21.360 knee before God. Is that just an easy out, an 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:25.120 intellectual argument that allows them to avoid submission to God? 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:26.280 What do you say, doc? 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:28.520 I think it's a little bit of both. It's actually 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:32.240 is some people have legitimate questions and they're real questions 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:35.359 about this. But at the same time, there are people 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:37.479 who use it as a cover. I don't want to 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:40.680 submit to God. Therefore, I can draw on this as 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:43.600 an excuse. And when you enter into a conversation with them, 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:46.000 you can tell pretty quickly which one they are, because 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:49.560 some people are willing to hear some evidence, hear some ideas, 0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:52.550 and process that and other people, they will just jump 0:05:52.550 --> 0:05:54.910 onto some other doubt that they have. And if they 0:05:54.910 --> 0:05:58.070 just keep jumping doubt to doubt, that's a pretty sure 0:05:58.110 --> 0:06:02.470 indicator that actually they're simply not wanting to believe and 0:06:02.470 --> 0:06:04.470 not wanting to submit to God. 0:06:04.510 --> 0:06:07.190 Yeah. Doing a dance around the Lordship of Christ. Doctor 0:06:07.190 --> 0:06:11.510 Jones serves as VP of Doctoral Studies and is chair 0:06:11.510 --> 0:06:14.550 of the Department of Apologetics, Ethics and Philosophy at the 0:06:14.550 --> 0:06:20.470 Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He's also pastor at Sojourn Church 0:06:20.510 --> 0:06:23.830 Midtown in Louisville, and he's authored a lot of great books. Guys, 0:06:23.830 --> 0:06:26.710 take a listen to this. Why should I trust the Bible? 0:06:26.990 --> 0:06:30.270 How we got the Bible that received a Gold Medallion 0:06:30.270 --> 0:06:34.550 Christian Book Award, and a lot of other great works here. Okay, 0:06:34.830 --> 0:06:39.310 doctor TP, I want to jump into canonicity. Let's hit 0:06:39.310 --> 0:06:43.150 that first. What is canonicity? Why do some people have 0:06:43.150 --> 0:06:46.390 a problem with the books that we have in the Bible? 0:06:46.750 --> 0:06:49.150 So when you talk about canonicity or the canon, you're 0:06:49.150 --> 0:06:51.490 not talking about a gun that you shoot or anything 0:06:51.490 --> 0:06:53.810 like that, that actually comes from the same root all 0:06:53.810 --> 0:06:56.130 the way back at the beginning. It comes from a 0:06:56.130 --> 0:06:58.970 river reed that they would cut to measure things. So 0:06:58.970 --> 0:07:02.290 you think about a cannon was a river reed that 0:07:02.290 --> 0:07:04.610 they used to cut to measure things. And so what 0:07:04.610 --> 0:07:08.570 the root meaning of cannon has to do with is 0:07:08.570 --> 0:07:11.530 that it is something that you are measured by, or 0:07:11.530 --> 0:07:14.130 that you measure with. Side note cannon and is in 0:07:14.130 --> 0:07:16.370 the weapon comes from the fact that both are a 0:07:16.410 --> 0:07:19.810 tubular construction, and that's why it is. So anyway, so 0:07:19.810 --> 0:07:22.530 there you go. But the cannon is the books of 0:07:22.530 --> 0:07:26.810 the Bible, which are authoritative for the people of God. 0:07:26.810 --> 0:07:29.570 So when we talk about the cannon, we're simply saying, 0:07:29.570 --> 0:07:32.450 these are the texts, these are the books that are 0:07:32.490 --> 0:07:35.250 authoritative for the people of God. And yeah, people have 0:07:35.250 --> 0:07:37.770 a lot of questions about this and a lot of 0:07:37.770 --> 0:07:40.290 doubts about this. And they may have several years ago 0:07:40.330 --> 0:07:42.410 run across The Da Vinci Code, and they may have 0:07:42.410 --> 0:07:45.690 run across some on one of the cable channels or 0:07:45.730 --> 0:07:47.690 the YouTube or whatever it may be over the past 0:07:47.690 --> 0:07:50.640 few decades that causes doubts about the books that are 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:53.040 in there, because there's all these people talking about the 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:55.240 lost gospels and lost books and all of that. So 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:59.120 it is an area where people have questions, some legitimate questions, 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:01.240 but it has to do with authority. And what is 0:08:01.240 --> 0:08:04.200 authoritative for people who worship Jesus Christ. 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:07.880 A lot of how we receive the canon was the 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:11.720 early Church fathers, right? I mean, they were councils that 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:14.800 were formed that determined what got in and what didn't 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:18.480 make the cut. How was that determinative and how much 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:21.120 confidence do you have that we have solid ground that 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:22.200 we're standing on there? 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:25.080 Well, it's really important for us to recognize that. And yes, 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:28.559 the church fathers do testify to a lot of these things, 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:31.040 but I think it's important for us to recognize that 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:35.440 the church fathers didn't determine any of this. So they 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:38.960 had a definite set of standards by which they were 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:41.760 working in this in the early church. And we actually 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:43.720 have good evidence of that. Let me give you two 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:45.840 really quick bits of evidence for that, that we know 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:49.540 what their standard was. There's a document called the Muratorian 0:08:49.540 --> 0:08:52.180 fragment from the second half of the second century. It 0:08:52.179 --> 0:08:55.020 says that there's this book that they're trying to include 0:08:55.020 --> 0:08:58.060 in the authoritative books. The books publicly read called the 0:08:58.059 --> 0:09:00.740 Shepherd of Hermas. They say it can't be because it's 0:09:00.740 --> 0:09:02.980 after the time of the apostles. Let me give you 0:09:03.020 --> 0:09:05.700 one more quick tidbit right there. And that is a 0:09:05.700 --> 0:09:09.060 guy named Serapion of Antioch. In the second century, some 0:09:09.059 --> 0:09:11.540 people bring a text to him called the Gospel of Peter. 0:09:11.540 --> 0:09:13.620 He says, at first it's okay to read this. Then 0:09:13.620 --> 0:09:16.340 he realizes, no, this didn't really come from Peter. Stop 0:09:16.340 --> 0:09:19.620 reading this text as an authoritative text in any way. 0:09:19.620 --> 0:09:21.420 So you've got a couple of these. I could point 0:09:21.420 --> 0:09:24.140 to others, but here's the key point is that the 0:09:24.179 --> 0:09:28.540 books of the New Testament were considered to be authoritative 0:09:28.740 --> 0:09:32.820 because they came from either eyewitnesses of the risen Lord 0:09:32.820 --> 0:09:36.860 Jesus or close associates of the eyewitnesses. So whenever there's 0:09:36.860 --> 0:09:39.940 any group of Christians gathering talking about this, they are 0:09:39.940 --> 0:09:42.420 not sitting around deciding, we like this book, we don't 0:09:42.420 --> 0:09:44.740 like this book, or this book gives us political power. 0:09:44.740 --> 0:09:46.570 This one doesn't. That's not what they're doing. That's not 0:09:46.610 --> 0:09:48.890 what they're doing at all. What they're asking, what they're 0:09:48.890 --> 0:09:52.890 considering throughout this time is can this book be reliably 0:09:52.890 --> 0:09:55.890 connected to an eye witness of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, 0:09:55.890 --> 0:09:58.569 or a close associate of the eyewitness? And that's why 0:09:58.570 --> 0:10:01.570 I have strong confidence. Yeah, it was decades, even centuries 0:10:01.570 --> 0:10:05.650 before some of these books were actually universally accepted. But 0:10:05.970 --> 0:10:08.970 the question they were asking was, can we reliably trace 0:10:08.970 --> 0:10:11.650 this back to somebody who's an eyewitness or a close 0:10:11.650 --> 0:10:15.170 associate of an eyewitness? In some sense, our canon is 0:10:15.170 --> 0:10:17.970 Jesus shaped because of the fact that it had to 0:10:17.970 --> 0:10:20.410 be traced back to an eyewitness or a close associate 0:10:20.410 --> 0:10:21.530 of an eyewitness. 0:10:21.690 --> 0:10:26.290 Man, it's fascinating and rock solid information right there. Doctor 0:10:26.490 --> 0:10:28.770 TP with me right now, and we're going to have 0:10:28.770 --> 0:10:31.050 links for some podcasts that are going to blow your mind. 0:10:31.090 --> 0:10:34.330 Coming up, he's a co-host of a popular apologetics program 0:10:34.330 --> 0:10:39.170 called the Apologetics Podcast. I want to go to second 0:10:39.290 --> 0:10:42.890 Timothy 316. All Scripture is breathed out by God and 0:10:42.890 --> 0:10:45.670 profitable for teaching, for reproof, for reproof, for correction, for 0:10:45.670 --> 0:10:48.709 training in righteousness, that the man or woman of God 0:10:48.710 --> 0:10:51.630 may be complete, equipped for every good work. There's a 0:10:51.630 --> 0:10:55.670 lot of people that use that passage to confirm the 0:10:55.670 --> 0:11:00.109 canonization or the inspiration in the New Testament. Now, Paul 0:11:00.110 --> 0:11:03.870 coaching up Timothy probably didn't have that in mind. How 0:11:03.870 --> 0:11:07.030 can we apply that passage to old for sure. But 0:11:07.030 --> 0:11:10.030 to New Testament, is there any crossover in your mind? 0:11:10.309 --> 0:11:12.910 There is certainly crossover in this. So let's think about 0:11:12.910 --> 0:11:15.750 what Paul was meaning right there. He is referring there 0:11:15.750 --> 0:11:18.790 to the Old Testament, what we call the Old Testament, 0:11:18.790 --> 0:11:21.750 as something that is breathed out by God comes from 0:11:21.750 --> 0:11:25.270 the innermost identity of who God is. It expresses God's 0:11:25.270 --> 0:11:28.790 will perfectly. But here's what we recognize really early in 0:11:28.790 --> 0:11:31.590 the church's history. And we see this actually in the 0:11:31.590 --> 0:11:35.790 biblical text in Second Peter chapter three, verse 16, is 0:11:35.790 --> 0:11:41.310 that Paul's writings there are set alongside the other scriptures. 0:11:41.309 --> 0:11:45.100 It says, and so very early, these texts that came 0:11:45.100 --> 0:11:48.860 from associates of the eyewitnesses or eyewitnesses of the risen 0:11:48.860 --> 0:11:52.300 Lord Jesus, these texts that come from them are very 0:11:52.300 --> 0:11:56.540 early considered to be on par with equivalent to the 0:11:56.540 --> 0:12:00.819 scriptures of the Old Testament. And so it is legitimate 0:12:00.820 --> 0:12:04.300 for us to say that this text in Paul's letter 0:12:04.300 --> 0:12:08.260 to Timothy does reflect the New Testament as well, not 0:12:08.260 --> 0:12:10.860 because that's what Paul necessarily had in mind in that 0:12:10.860 --> 0:12:16.340 particular instant, but because we recognize how quickly Christians recognized 0:12:16.340 --> 0:12:20.100 the equivalent authority of the words of the apostles and 0:12:20.100 --> 0:12:23.540 those eyewitnesses and close associates of eyewitnesses, how quickly they 0:12:23.540 --> 0:12:27.420 recognized the equivalence between those and the Old Testament. 0:12:27.900 --> 0:12:30.179 My goodness, my man, you've done some deep work on 0:12:30.179 --> 0:12:32.820 this doctor TP with me right now. I'm going to 0:12:32.820 --> 0:12:36.060 keep going. You're lighting it up in, I believe it's 0:12:36.059 --> 0:12:39.740 Second Corinthians. Help me with the reference. Paul attests to first. 0:12:39.740 --> 0:12:42.400 Corinthians chapter 15, I believe right there. 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:46.120 Yes, he makes the claim that Christ rose from the 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:51.520 dead and appeared to more than 500. He put himself 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:56.000 out on a branch. How does this testimony in first Corinthians, 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:59.800 this letter, help validate the resurrection of the Christ? 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:03.559 Well, it's really important that Paul isn't the one who 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:06.360 comes up with first Corinthians 15 to begin with. That 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:09.720 section in verses three through seven of First Corinthians 15. 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:12.360 So it's really important to recognize it's not as if 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:15.240 Paul is sitting down there writing the Corinthians and saying, oh, 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:17.559 I'm going to make something up right here. But if 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:20.320 you read that verses one through three of that text, 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:22.760 which you see is that Paul is saying, hey, when 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:26.240 I was back with you before, this is what I 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:29.040 said to you. And not only that, he says, this 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:31.920 is something I received that I then passed on. Here's 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:35.600 what that lets us know. This is a tradition that 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:39.800 Paul has received from eyewitnesses that he is passing on 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:42.540 to the church in Corinth, and he has passed it 0:13:42.540 --> 0:13:45.700 on the exact same words to them several years earlier. 0:13:45.780 --> 0:13:49.620 He is simply reminding them of what he already said. 0:13:49.620 --> 0:13:54.100 Now that's really, really important because Paul is actually passing 0:13:54.100 --> 0:13:56.819 on something he got from eyewitnesses. And if you look 0:13:56.820 --> 0:14:00.300 even in critical scholarship, more liberal scholarship, they have to 0:14:00.340 --> 0:14:05.660 acknowledge that this text, that this tradition emerges sometime in 0:14:05.660 --> 0:14:09.579 the 30s, A.D. that is to say, within months to 0:14:09.620 --> 0:14:12.940 years after the resurrection of Jesus. Not only that, the 0:14:12.980 --> 0:14:15.540 wording and the structure of it suggests that it comes 0:14:15.540 --> 0:14:18.820 from a place where Aramaic is spoken. And one of 0:14:18.820 --> 0:14:20.940 the important things is we think about that is, is 0:14:20.940 --> 0:14:24.500 that that is the areas around Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, all 0:14:24.540 --> 0:14:27.660 of those areas there. So it comes from the time 0:14:27.660 --> 0:14:30.460 that Jesus was raised from the place that Jesus was 0:14:30.460 --> 0:14:34.260 raised from, people who would have known whether he was raised. 0:14:34.260 --> 0:14:38.460 And so this is an immense bit of evidence for 0:14:38.580 --> 0:14:42.690 the truthfulness, the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus. 0:14:43.130 --> 0:14:46.530 So, in essence, if Christ hadn't risen from the dead 0:14:46.530 --> 0:14:50.130 and Paul's going public with he appeared to more than 500, 0:14:50.610 --> 0:14:52.930 he would have been written off out of hand as 0:14:52.930 --> 0:14:54.970 a fraud in the first century. 0:14:54.970 --> 0:14:57.610 And rightly so. He should have been if he was 0:14:57.610 --> 0:15:00.930 saying this. And they went to those people and asked them, 0:15:01.130 --> 0:15:04.810 and these people remember, some of these people were circulating, traveling, 0:15:04.850 --> 0:15:08.250 especially to those among the apostles. They were clearly circulating 0:15:08.450 --> 0:15:10.890 among the churches. And see, that's that's the thing that 0:15:10.930 --> 0:15:13.090 there are certain critics who will say, well, the stories 0:15:13.090 --> 0:15:15.130 in the Bible are like the telephone game where you 0:15:15.170 --> 0:15:18.090 whisper something to somebody and you whisper something to somebody else, 0:15:18.090 --> 0:15:19.370 and you whisper and you go all the way around 0:15:19.370 --> 0:15:22.890 the circle, and then you share what was misheard, and 0:15:22.890 --> 0:15:26.050 everybody laughs because it was different than what you started with. 0:15:26.170 --> 0:15:28.770 They say that that's what it was. And my answer 0:15:28.770 --> 0:15:31.010 to that is I will grant you that. And here's 0:15:31.010 --> 0:15:32.930 what I mean when I say, I'll grant you that 0:15:33.170 --> 0:15:36.650 the reason that game works is because the same person 0:15:36.650 --> 0:15:40.710 who started that story that passed around the circle is 0:15:40.710 --> 0:15:43.630 still there when it gets to the end. And because 0:15:43.630 --> 0:15:47.230 of that, you can compare the garbled story with the 0:15:47.230 --> 0:15:51.590 original story. Everything in the New Testament was written during 0:15:51.590 --> 0:15:55.790 the lifetimes of eyewitnesses. What that means is when the 0:15:55.790 --> 0:15:58.790 story circulates, there are still people who are the eyewitnesses. 0:15:59.230 --> 0:16:01.750 When that story goes around the circle, the person who 0:16:01.750 --> 0:16:04.110 started the story is still there and can check it. 0:16:04.110 --> 0:16:08.070 So you have people circulating in the churches that can say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. 0:16:08.070 --> 0:16:10.990 That was not the way the story actually happened. I 0:16:10.990 --> 0:16:12.910 was there or I know somebody who was there and 0:16:12.910 --> 0:16:16.830 it was more like this. You can't fabricate very far 0:16:16.950 --> 0:16:20.830 when the eyewitnesses are still there. And that's important for 0:16:20.830 --> 0:16:21.590 the text. 0:16:21.830 --> 0:16:27.470 Do we have any fragments of any letters or testimonies 0:16:27.950 --> 0:16:32.270 that basically called Paul a fraud for what he said? 0:16:32.310 --> 0:16:34.750 We don't really. Now, that's not to say there weren't some. 0:16:34.750 --> 0:16:36.780 I'm not trying to say that there weren't. We can't 0:16:36.780 --> 0:16:40.100 speak to what wasn't there. What we have are some 0:16:40.100 --> 0:16:42.660 of the Gnostic writings that emerged in the second, third 0:16:42.660 --> 0:16:46.100 and into the fourth centuries, particularly that actually try to 0:16:46.140 --> 0:16:49.460 retell the story in a different way, but they don't 0:16:49.500 --> 0:16:54.260 charge with fraud or with misstating this. Rather, they they 0:16:54.300 --> 0:16:58.100 separate themselves from the history completely of the text and 0:16:58.100 --> 0:17:01.980 then extrapolate or go beyond what the text has to say. 0:17:02.100 --> 0:17:04.820 Love it. Doctor TP with me right now. I'm going 0:17:04.820 --> 0:17:06.740 to fire you. One more. Boy, you are on fire 0:17:06.740 --> 0:17:09.220 here today, my friend. Let me hit this. The Gospels. 0:17:09.220 --> 0:17:12.140 There's a lot of discussion about. Oh, boy, there's a 0:17:12.140 --> 0:17:16.700 there's different phrasing. There's different. They don't totally synthesize. My 0:17:16.700 --> 0:17:21.980 take is it's astounding how incredibly similar the gospels are. 0:17:21.980 --> 0:17:24.060 I want you to riff on that. Pour out your heart. 0:17:24.340 --> 0:17:26.020 That's a great thing I love to talk about. So 0:17:26.020 --> 0:17:28.940 let's think about the Gospels. Well, first talk about just 0:17:28.940 --> 0:17:31.980 the formation and then the copying of them. We talk 0:17:32.020 --> 0:17:36.200 about just the formation of them. You have. Mark's gospel 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:39.199 is recognized early on, and this we find that the 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:41.840 church fathers, we find it in other places as the 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:46.640 stories of the Apostle Peter. So Mark was Simon Peter's translator. 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:48.720 And so what we have is the stories of that. 0:17:48.720 --> 0:17:52.560 So naturally, Matthew and Luke are going to draw from 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:56.760 that source that is considered to be is already understood 0:17:56.760 --> 0:17:59.439 to be in the church reliable. So you've got Matthew, 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:02.399 Mark and Luke with a lot of these similarities with 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:06.680 borrowed content, but also with other content from eyewitnesses, from 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:09.360 people they have talked to. And so you've got Matthew, 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:12.120 Mark and Luke. Are there differences between them? Yes, there 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:16.520 are differences between them. But none of these differences overthrow 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:19.720 the fundamental historicity and truthfulness of any of these texts. 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:22.520 And then you have John's Gospel that's just different from 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:26.040 all of them. And John's Gospel also from an eyewitness, 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:30.000 very early testimony to that. You got John's gospel being written. 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:32.200 That's different. And I want to tell people, don't be 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:35.630 concerned with those differences, because if you're in a courtroom 0:18:35.990 --> 0:18:38.750 and you have two people saying the same story word 0:18:38.750 --> 0:18:42.870 for word, then you might suspect they had gotten together. 0:18:42.910 --> 0:18:45.230 They had gotten their stories. Yeah, that's exactly what you're 0:18:45.230 --> 0:18:47.630 going to think, and rightly so. But if you have 0:18:47.630 --> 0:18:51.310 differences between them, they're telling the same story, but they're 0:18:51.310 --> 0:18:55.150 telling it in different ways. That is more likely to 0:18:55.190 --> 0:18:58.830 be the truth that is being told when they're saying 0:18:58.830 --> 0:19:02.149 the same story, but they're saying it in slightly different ways. 0:19:02.150 --> 0:19:05.429 That's what you have in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. 0:19:05.430 --> 0:19:07.830 And when we look at the copies now, let's move 0:19:07.830 --> 0:19:11.030 to the copying of these texts. Are there differences in 0:19:11.030 --> 0:19:14.750 the manuscript copies? Yes, there are there are differences spread across. 0:19:14.750 --> 0:19:19.149 There are somewhere between 5 and 6000 fragments of manuscripts 0:19:19.150 --> 0:19:22.670 and entire manuscripts of portions of of the New Testament. 0:19:22.710 --> 0:19:25.909 Of course, there are copying variations, but not one of 0:19:25.910 --> 0:19:30.510 those copying variations overthrows anything that we believe about God 0:19:30.510 --> 0:19:33.050 or about his work in the world, and the vast, 0:19:33.050 --> 0:19:40.409 overwhelming majority of those overwhelming majority can be relatively easily identified. 0:19:40.410 --> 0:19:43.129 And we can find what the original reading was that 0:19:43.170 --> 0:19:47.250 handful of cases where we can't. It doesn't overthrow anything 0:19:47.290 --> 0:19:49.649 about what we believe about God or about his work 0:19:49.650 --> 0:19:50.530 in the world. 0:19:51.050 --> 0:19:56.290 Amazing Doctor Timothy Paul Jones or Doctor TP to those 0:19:56.290 --> 0:19:58.369 that love him and know him. And so you are 0:19:58.410 --> 0:20:01.290 that to me, my man. He has got a podcast 0:20:01.290 --> 0:20:04.890 with some of the most amazing content. Also, this will 0:20:04.890 --> 0:20:07.969 link to to other resources and books. I want you 0:20:07.970 --> 0:20:15.170 to check it out. Text trust to (800) 555-7898. Just that 0:20:15.170 --> 0:20:22.090 one word trust to 800 555 7898. Doctor TP, I 0:20:22.090 --> 0:20:24.210 want to thank you for being with me today. This 0:20:24.210 --> 0:20:29.450 is rock solid information and sometimes information can be transformative. 0:20:29.450 --> 0:20:30.800 Thank you for your time today. 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:35.040 He was running from God, but God's love brought him home. 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:39.119 Carl is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:40.080 Moody Radio. 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:42.520 This beautiful Monday morning. Hope you're off to a great 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:45.480 start today. Listen, in this world, there's going to be 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:49.200 a lot of craziness that's going on. And yet our 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:51.880 God is able. And he's mighty. And he allows us 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:54.840 to bear fruit through it all and to be radiant 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:57.280 lights for the world around us. Coming up here in 0:20:57.280 --> 0:20:59.040 a couple of minutes. Oh, by the way, got a 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:03.360 great response from someone here. Said enjoying your interview with 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:10.159 TP doctor TP. Refreshing to hear solid biblical historical evidence 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:11.440 isn't it young Thunder? 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:17.440 It is super encouraging because we we act by faith, 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:20.960 but we also are given lots of things to look 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:23.560 at in order that are that are proofs to say 0:21:23.760 --> 0:21:27.120 this is very obvious, that the God of the Bible 0:21:27.280 --> 0:21:29.900 is the one true God that Jesus lived on earth, 0:21:29.900 --> 0:21:32.460 that he died and rose again. There's evidence for that, 0:21:32.460 --> 0:21:34.820 and we can look at that and be encouraged by it. 0:21:35.540 --> 0:21:39.260 Yeah, some of you maybe heard a piece of that interview, 0:21:39.260 --> 0:21:41.500 or you want to pass it on to someone else, 0:21:41.700 --> 0:21:45.580 because some people do have very curious questions. They're not 0:21:45.580 --> 0:21:49.940 asking questions just to not bow a knee to God. 0:21:49.980 --> 0:21:52.820 Some are very curious and understand how the books of 0:21:52.820 --> 0:21:57.540 the Bible get there. Are the Gospels authoritative? Do they 0:21:57.580 --> 0:22:02.100 sync up? There's answers for those questions and get the 0:22:02.100 --> 0:22:05.300 show cast. If you haven't yet gotten the show cast, 0:22:05.340 --> 0:22:07.300 we've been banner adding this thing. All you have to 0:22:07.300 --> 0:22:10.180 do is get it one time. Download the link for 0:22:10.180 --> 0:22:13.619 either iPhone or Android, and then subscribe on that page. 0:22:13.619 --> 0:22:16.140 And you don't have to keep texting back show. But 0:22:16.140 --> 0:22:19.100 if you get this one key word, we're going to 0:22:19.140 --> 0:22:21.140 send you two links. And if you have a hard 0:22:21.140 --> 0:22:26.139 time understanding how to subscribe, just ask someone in their 0:22:26.140 --> 0:22:29.690 30s and they'll get you figured out on this one. 0:22:29.730 --> 0:22:33.490 Or 20s? 20s. 30s. And guess what? There's some 40 0:22:33.530 --> 0:22:35.890 and 50 year olds that got it together. There's some 0:22:35.890 --> 0:22:38.649 6070 year olds that got it together on this stuff. 0:22:38.650 --> 0:22:44.010 But text the word show to 805, five, five, 78, 98. 0:22:44.050 --> 0:22:48.369 If you didn't get all of doctor, doctor TP, you 0:22:48.369 --> 0:22:53.609 can get them now. Text show to 800 555 7898. 0:22:53.650 --> 0:22:57.850 Show to 800 555 7898. Coming up, I got a question. 0:22:57.850 --> 0:23:01.650 Did you go to church yesterday or should I say, 0:23:01.650 --> 0:23:05.170 did you go to a building and be with the church? 0:23:05.810 --> 0:23:08.169 And what came out of that? We're going to open 0:23:08.170 --> 0:23:11.490 up phone lines here bright and early on this Monday morning. 0:23:11.490 --> 0:23:12.330 Hang on guys. 0:23:12.770 --> 0:23:17.369 She's a choreographer extraordinaire and everything is Greek to her. 0:23:17.770 --> 0:23:21.490 Super die is in the crew. It's Carl and crew 0:23:21.530 --> 0:23:22.850 on Moody Radio. 0:23:22.970 --> 0:23:27.390 We all need Jesus. And yet when we hear the 0:23:27.390 --> 0:23:32.189 words of Jesus, the words of Paul, the prophets, the 0:23:32.190 --> 0:23:33.989 question is, what are we going to do with it? 0:23:34.030 --> 0:23:39.389 Now this is the simple game changer. The only difference 0:23:39.390 --> 0:23:42.190 between having a life that's built on the sand and 0:23:42.190 --> 0:23:45.909 when storms come. Man, you can't withstand storms and storms 0:23:45.910 --> 0:23:49.790 are coming. The only difference between a house built on 0:23:49.790 --> 0:23:54.869 sand and house built on the rock is one singular thing. 0:23:55.390 --> 0:24:01.950 One both heard truth. Both have hopes. Both have dreams. 0:24:02.750 --> 0:24:05.390 Both might have a God sized vision for their life. 0:24:06.070 --> 0:24:13.270 One difference. One application. That's it. How many of us 0:24:13.310 --> 0:24:16.350 have walked out of a Sunday going, man, that was good. 0:24:17.790 --> 0:24:18.310 Yeah. 0:24:18.710 --> 0:24:23.270 And then we came away from a weekend service. Goes. Boy, 0:24:23.869 --> 0:24:28.620 that was tremendous. And how do you make that tremendous 0:24:28.619 --> 0:24:33.980 into something stupendous, like over the top, like crazy good 0:24:33.980 --> 0:24:38.100 in your life? One word application. That's it. So I'm 0:24:38.100 --> 0:24:40.979 going to open up phone lines right now. And for 0:24:40.980 --> 0:24:44.100 some of you, you've got a recall, something that you 0:24:44.100 --> 0:24:48.580 were fired up about less than 24 hours ago. How 0:24:48.580 --> 0:24:54.340 wild is that? But I want you to reach back 24, 0:24:54.380 --> 0:24:58.980 48 hours. That's it. What is the one truth you 0:24:59.020 --> 0:25:02.540 heard in the weekend? Message that you want to apply 0:25:02.540 --> 0:25:05.380 to your life? Because the Spirit of God said, bang! 0:25:05.380 --> 0:25:08.300 This is the one. Think about it now. What is 0:25:08.300 --> 0:25:13.300 the one truth you heard in the weekend message that 0:25:13.300 --> 0:25:16.900 we just came off of that you want to apply 0:25:16.900 --> 0:25:22.900 to your life? Application is everything. Without it, we're going 0:25:22.940 --> 0:25:27.159 to be seeing builders, and you don't want that. Simple 0:25:27.480 --> 0:25:33.600 application of truth allows God in us to build a 0:25:33.600 --> 0:25:38.880 life that survives storms. Think about that. Is it possible 0:25:38.880 --> 0:25:40.720 to know a lot of stuff and have a house 0:25:40.720 --> 0:25:44.600 built on the sand? Ask a Pharisee next time you 0:25:44.600 --> 0:25:45.119 see one. 0:25:45.160 --> 0:25:46.359 Yep. Absolutely. 0:25:46.920 --> 0:25:52.240 I mean, absolutely possible. Absolutely possible. 0:25:52.280 --> 0:25:56.480 You know, thinking about this, what God gave me yesterday. 0:25:56.520 --> 0:25:58.920 I was sitting in church and we were talking through 0:25:59.240 --> 0:26:03.480 a portion of Philippians three, and my pastor was going 0:26:03.480 --> 0:26:06.760 on it, and he was talking through verse 18 and 19, 0:26:06.760 --> 0:26:10.720 where Paul is talking about some false teachers, and Paul's 0:26:10.720 --> 0:26:14.320 describing what they're like. The example that they set and 0:26:14.560 --> 0:26:16.879 in the midst of the example that they set at 0:26:16.880 --> 0:26:19.400 the end of verse 19, he says, they have their 0:26:19.400 --> 0:26:22.740 minds set on earthly things. And in that moment I 0:26:22.740 --> 0:26:27.219 was thinking about it and God convicted me with something. 0:26:27.740 --> 0:26:31.899 I often have a really hard time with discipline, you know, 0:26:31.940 --> 0:26:35.180 getting into the spiritual disciplines of life. I get going 0:26:35.220 --> 0:26:36.740 and then maybe I get a little tired and I 0:26:36.780 --> 0:26:38.379 fall off of them a little bit. I have a 0:26:38.380 --> 0:26:41.659 hard time staying committed to being disciplined. But there is 0:26:41.660 --> 0:26:44.540 something in my life, something that I wanted. An earthly thing. 0:26:44.540 --> 0:26:47.859 Not a bad thing. Just, you know, a material thing 0:26:47.859 --> 0:26:51.260 that I really wanted that took some discipline to get. 0:26:51.619 --> 0:26:54.060 And I had no trouble having that discipline in order 0:26:54.060 --> 0:26:59.180 to get it. And I said, maybe I can set 0:26:59.180 --> 0:27:02.060 my mind towards things of God, and the discipline wouldn't 0:27:02.060 --> 0:27:02.820 be so hard. 0:27:03.340 --> 0:27:04.660 Something to apply to your life? 0:27:04.780 --> 0:27:05.700 Something to apply. 0:27:06.619 --> 0:27:09.100 What is the one truth you heard in the weekend? 0:27:09.100 --> 0:27:11.820 Message that you want to apply to your life? Spirit 0:27:11.820 --> 0:27:14.820 of God prompted you and is reminding you this morning. 0:27:14.820 --> 0:27:16.660 Give us a call right now. We're going to get 0:27:16.660 --> 0:27:18.739 as many calls in as we can in just a 0:27:18.740 --> 0:27:24.730 few minutes. It's 805, 55, 78, 98. Give us a 0:27:24.730 --> 0:27:29.890 call right now. 800 555, 78, 98. 0:27:30.210 --> 0:27:33.250 He's a sports fanatic with a stat for anything you 0:27:33.250 --> 0:27:37.490 can think of. Young Thunder is in the crew. It's 0:27:37.490 --> 0:27:39.770 curling crew on Moody Radio. 0:27:40.050 --> 0:27:43.690 So what is that? The one truth you heard in 0:27:43.690 --> 0:27:47.889 the message this weekend. You went to church. You were 0:27:47.890 --> 0:27:51.250 with the church because it's not a building. And there's 0:27:51.250 --> 0:27:53.210 a truth that was spoken that you want to apply 0:27:53.210 --> 0:27:56.770 to your life today. Luana in Florida. First time caller. 0:27:56.770 --> 0:27:57.850 What do you say, Luana? 0:28:00.090 --> 0:28:03.369 The message I got was be bold in your witness 0:28:03.369 --> 0:28:07.609 for the Lord like Elijah and like John the Baptist. 0:28:08.330 --> 0:28:11.010 Because our time here is short. 0:28:12.490 --> 0:28:14.930 Boy, it is short. Luana, thank you for that. That's 0:28:14.930 --> 0:28:17.889 a great word. You know, it's one thing to hear 0:28:17.890 --> 0:28:21.109 a message about being bold with the witness. It's another 0:28:21.109 --> 0:28:23.110 thing to do it and apply it to your life. 0:28:23.750 --> 0:28:28.310 You know, the cool thing about that truth is that 0:28:28.310 --> 0:28:33.310 God's promise in the Great Commission, when we go into 0:28:33.310 --> 0:28:36.670 all the world, preach the gospel, make disciples, he is 0:28:36.670 --> 0:28:39.790 with us to the end of the age. What a promise. 0:28:40.190 --> 0:28:42.950 Think about that one truth that Louwana just gave us today. 0:28:42.950 --> 0:28:45.670 And I want you to think about this. Is God 0:28:45.670 --> 0:28:49.190 opening the door for me today to share my story, 0:28:49.230 --> 0:28:53.950 what God's done in me? And will he use that 0:28:53.950 --> 0:28:58.350 opportunity to share the good news of Jesus Christ with somebody? 0:28:59.070 --> 0:29:03.390 I believe he can, and I believe he will. Opportunities 0:29:03.390 --> 0:29:04.510 all around us here. 0:29:04.950 --> 0:29:07.830 You're listening to Carl and crew on Moody Radio. 0:29:08.230 --> 0:29:11.910 What is the one truth you heard in the weekend? 0:29:11.910 --> 0:29:16.550 Message that the Holy Spirit is saying, apply it to 0:29:16.550 --> 0:29:20.540 your life. Craig. First time caller in Miami. Good to 0:29:20.540 --> 0:29:22.740 have you with us this morning, my man. What did 0:29:22.740 --> 0:29:24.220 you hear? And what are you going to apply? 0:29:25.820 --> 0:29:29.100 What I heard is that, um, the preacher was saying, 0:29:29.140 --> 0:29:32.980 trust in God is okay, but trust God is greater. 0:29:33.540 --> 0:29:35.980 And most of the time, we trust in the Word 0:29:35.980 --> 0:29:40.340 of God. But when situation arises, we forget to trust 0:29:40.380 --> 0:29:45.260 God who spoke that word. And that's what that's what. Yeah. 0:29:45.260 --> 0:29:47.540 And that's what I you know, I grew up and 0:29:47.580 --> 0:29:51.620 I would like to apply that moving forward, learning to 0:29:51.660 --> 0:29:54.860 trust God, not only his word, but trust him for 0:29:54.860 --> 0:29:55.580 who he is. 0:29:55.780 --> 0:29:58.380 Yeah, it's a semantic issue, but it's more than that. 0:29:58.380 --> 0:30:00.540 This is a real heart issue, isn't it, Craig? First 0:30:00.580 --> 0:30:03.900 time caller from Miami. That's a beautiful observation. I love 0:30:03.900 --> 0:30:08.020 it because it's one thing to say I trust in God, 0:30:08.300 --> 0:30:11.380 but then it comes down to crunch time. And is 0:30:11.380 --> 0:30:17.080 it in this moment that I'm going to Trust God. 0:30:18.840 --> 0:30:22.360 Lost a job. Wayward kid. What's on your heart? 0:30:22.600 --> 0:30:25.560 It's easier said than done. Because, you know, we. We 0:30:25.640 --> 0:30:29.400 sit and we read and we believe it. Absolutely. But 0:30:29.400 --> 0:30:32.160 then when when rubber meets the road. And that tough 0:30:32.160 --> 0:30:34.840 situation staring us right in the face, it can be 0:30:34.840 --> 0:30:37.720 so easy to look away from God and to look 0:30:37.720 --> 0:30:40.720 back into our own situations. I mean, Peter, you know, 0:30:40.760 --> 0:30:44.040 walked on water with Jesus. He saw Jesus walking on water. 0:30:44.040 --> 0:30:45.840 And he said, Lord, if it's really you, call me 0:30:45.840 --> 0:30:48.240 out onto the waters. And he did. And so Peter 0:30:48.240 --> 0:30:50.760 followed him in faith. But then he started looking at 0:30:50.760 --> 0:30:53.920 his surroundings. He got scared, and then he started to fall. 0:30:54.800 --> 0:30:58.480 Yeah, this is a classic. And if anyone was raised 0:30:58.480 --> 0:31:02.480 in church, you know this passage. Proverbs three five and six. 0:31:02.520 --> 0:31:06.560 Listen to this. In fact. Yeah, let me get these 0:31:06.560 --> 0:31:09.080 two verses and I might do more here because sometimes 0:31:09.080 --> 0:31:11.680 the context is even better. Trust in the Lord with 0:31:11.680 --> 0:31:16.110 all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. 0:31:16.110 --> 0:31:18.310 Here's here's what's quantified. So a lot of us say 0:31:18.310 --> 0:31:21.870 we trust in God, but it goes on. And do 0:31:21.870 --> 0:31:25.830 not lean on your own understanding in all your ways 0:31:25.830 --> 0:31:28.830 acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. So 0:31:28.830 --> 0:31:33.950 here's the implication. If we try to sort out something 0:31:33.950 --> 0:31:37.390 in our life, in our own understanding, absent of the 0:31:37.390 --> 0:31:41.990 counsel of God, our paths are going to be wobbly, 0:31:41.990 --> 0:31:45.550 like a drunk dude walking down a sidewalk. We don't 0:31:45.550 --> 0:31:48.150 want to be the drunk dude walking down the sidewalk. 0:31:48.550 --> 0:31:52.990 We want to have this straight arrow relationship with Jesus. 0:31:53.270 --> 0:31:57.229 Simple truth. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, 0:31:57.230 --> 0:32:00.709 and do not lean on your own understanding. In all 0:32:00.710 --> 0:32:03.710 your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. 0:32:04.190 --> 0:32:07.310 Awesome stuff Craig. First time caller from Miami. Love that. 0:32:07.710 --> 0:32:10.550 Let's go back to the phone lines. Uh, let's go 0:32:10.590 --> 0:32:13.490 Jackie in Cleveland. What do you say, Jackie? 0:32:14.930 --> 0:32:18.850 Hi. Um, thanks for taking my call. Um, I was 0:32:18.850 --> 0:32:22.450 baptized a year ago, and I realized this message didn't. Uh, 0:32:22.610 --> 0:32:28.010 this message in the service about active versus passive faith. Um, 0:32:28.690 --> 0:32:32.610 I was I was leading a path of faith. And, um, 0:32:32.810 --> 0:32:37.210 I realized after hearing about Moses and his journey that 0:32:37.210 --> 0:32:40.090 you have to be active. Um, long story short, I'm 0:32:40.130 --> 0:32:44.050 going through a horrific divorce, fighting over money. I'm chronically 0:32:44.050 --> 0:32:47.330 ill as my son is. I decided to stop fighting 0:32:47.370 --> 0:32:51.130 about money. Be active, and the Lord Jesus will take 0:32:51.130 --> 0:32:51.810 care of me. 0:32:52.210 --> 0:32:55.090 Jackie, I believe it's sister. And I'm so sorry. You're 0:32:55.090 --> 0:32:58.490 going through a hard battle right now. But, Jackie, you 0:32:58.490 --> 0:33:02.130 believe that, don't you? That if we actively. It's. It's 0:33:02.130 --> 0:33:04.570 so easy to take this into our hands. But if 0:33:04.570 --> 0:33:06.490 we lay this at the foot of the cross, that's 0:33:06.490 --> 0:33:09.730 my bride's term all the time. It can change things, 0:33:09.730 --> 0:33:10.730 can it, Jackie? 0:33:12.280 --> 0:33:15.200 It is. I even have a lighter spirit just thinking 0:33:15.200 --> 0:33:18.520 about it. And I know, I know the other way. 0:33:18.560 --> 0:33:21.720 All the money in the world can't change what's going on. 0:33:22.160 --> 0:33:25.040 Yeah, it's an amazing thing, Jackie. And I just want 0:33:25.040 --> 0:33:27.320 you to ride the coattails of something that I've seen 0:33:27.320 --> 0:33:30.239 in life. It's hard to get your mind around it, 0:33:30.240 --> 0:33:34.280 but when we do, when we can release to God 0:33:34.280 --> 0:33:37.760 the worries of this world, the deceitfulness of wealth and 0:33:37.760 --> 0:33:41.680 the desire for other things, and say, God, I put 0:33:41.680 --> 0:33:45.280 this in your hands. It doesn't mean that he won't 0:33:45.280 --> 0:33:49.160 call us to act, but the actions that we do 0:33:49.320 --> 0:33:52.280 after that full surrender of whatever it is that we're 0:33:52.280 --> 0:33:56.959 up against, it will it will be way lighter yoked. 0:33:57.240 --> 0:34:01.560 It'll have a lot less, uh, it'll have a lot 0:34:01.560 --> 0:34:05.000 less words around it than the words that we use 0:34:05.000 --> 0:34:09.000 when we're taking things into our own hands. There will 0:34:09.000 --> 0:34:13.739 be a peace that transcends all understanding, and it will 0:34:13.739 --> 0:34:16.340 guard our hearts in Christ Jesus. Way to go, Jackie! 0:34:16.940 --> 0:34:20.219 Way to go! What is it that you heard yesterday? 0:34:21.140 --> 0:34:24.180 You were at church. Could have been a Saturday night service. 0:34:24.219 --> 0:34:27.060 You went to be with the people, the church. And 0:34:27.060 --> 0:34:31.020 God showed you something, and you're like, gotta apply that. 0:34:31.940 --> 0:34:33.739 Here's what I want to ask you today. You want 0:34:33.780 --> 0:34:36.660 to have a house built on a rock. Hearing it's 0:34:36.660 --> 0:34:40.940 one thing. Applying it is everything. Put feet to it today. 0:34:40.940 --> 0:34:42.219 This is Zach Williams. 0:34:42.739 --> 0:34:45.460 Your shot of hope to help you through the day. 0:34:45.739 --> 0:34:48.819 This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio. 0:34:48.860 --> 0:34:55.700 Topic rock solid. Why that topic? You can find the 0:34:55.700 --> 0:35:00.419 metaphor of rocks as representing a relationship with God or 0:35:00.420 --> 0:35:05.100 who God is all throughout the scriptures, it's everywhere. But 0:35:05.100 --> 0:35:09.210 my favorite reference to a rock is the promise Jesus 0:35:09.210 --> 0:35:13.250 gives at the very last story that he tells in 0:35:13.250 --> 0:35:16.450 the sermon on the Mount. He says, listen, those of 0:35:16.450 --> 0:35:18.689 you that hear my words today, and boy, he laid 0:35:18.690 --> 0:35:20.690 it down. Sermon on the Mount. You could camp out 0:35:20.690 --> 0:35:23.009 there for a month of Sundays and never run out 0:35:23.010 --> 0:35:25.130 of things to apply to your life. But he said, 0:35:25.370 --> 0:35:30.130 those of you that hear what I'm teaching and put 0:35:30.130 --> 0:35:34.450 it into action, meaning application, you're going to be like 0:35:34.450 --> 0:35:38.810 a house built on a rock. You're going to survive storms. Conversely, 0:35:38.810 --> 0:35:44.370 those that have good information without application, they are destined 0:35:44.370 --> 0:35:48.370 for a life that's built on the sand. Storms come. Boom. 0:35:49.330 --> 0:35:54.170 Can't handle the pressure. Can't handle the storms. It's a 0:35:54.170 --> 0:35:57.330 binary choice. That's what's wild about it. And God gives 0:35:57.330 --> 0:36:01.690 us that opportunity to choose between life and death. Blessings 0:36:01.690 --> 0:36:04.690 and curses. And he says, choose life. So we find 0:36:05.610 --> 0:36:09.310 Jesus is God's call to the nation of Israel in Deuteronomy. 0:36:09.310 --> 0:36:13.150 But the same choice binary choice is before us today. 0:36:14.190 --> 0:36:17.390 You hear the word and you apply it, and it 0:36:17.390 --> 0:36:22.750 changes everything. Application is everything. This is why many people 0:36:22.790 --> 0:36:25.150 and you might know someone like this. This isn't picking 0:36:25.150 --> 0:36:28.390 on anyone, but just an observation. You might know. People 0:36:28.390 --> 0:36:30.989 that have been in church a long time seem to 0:36:31.030 --> 0:36:34.230 know a lot of truth, but their private lives don't 0:36:34.230 --> 0:36:37.109 seem to be too well in order. Some things seem 0:36:37.110 --> 0:36:40.710 to be kind of squiggly with regard to how their 0:36:40.710 --> 0:36:43.989 lives are lived. Well, there's a reason for that. And 0:36:43.989 --> 0:36:48.350 God wants to turn this whole thing around and he can. 0:36:49.390 --> 0:36:53.950 Application is everything. Everything. Tom and Arizona. What do you say, 0:36:53.950 --> 0:36:56.629 my man? What did you learn that you need to apply. 0:36:57.670 --> 0:36:59.989 Good morning. Carl. I sit around in my family and 0:36:59.989 --> 0:37:03.270 we talk about politics, complaining about this or that. And 0:37:03.270 --> 0:37:08.259 then my pastor talked about first Peter 217 honor the Emperor. 0:37:08.300 --> 0:37:11.219 And the fact is, all these elected officials and the 0:37:11.219 --> 0:37:14.940 school boards and all this, they're they're all elected. They're 0:37:14.940 --> 0:37:18.500 chosen by God. We need to just honor them and 0:37:18.860 --> 0:37:21.580 don't when you're seeing it, he said in the parade. 0:37:21.580 --> 0:37:23.980 You don't boo the people going by that you don't like. 0:37:24.020 --> 0:37:26.859 You're giving them honor and respect. How you doing? And 0:37:26.860 --> 0:37:29.140 you're doing that for Christ. You're doing it because that's 0:37:29.140 --> 0:37:29.780 the law. 0:37:30.100 --> 0:37:35.180 Yeah. It's interesting. I mean, God is not against opinions. 0:37:35.460 --> 0:37:39.540 He's not against voting. He's for all that stuff. Sure. 0:37:39.620 --> 0:37:43.540 I mean, God's put in the Constitution of the United 0:37:43.540 --> 0:37:46.540 States of America. Everybody gets to voice their opinion. But 0:37:46.540 --> 0:37:50.660 there comes a time when you're wringing your hands, more 0:37:50.660 --> 0:37:54.020 so over the political dynamics in our world than the 0:37:54.020 --> 0:37:58.940 spiritual realities. We're off the rails. We're off the rails. 0:38:00.300 --> 0:38:04.220 Tom from Arizona. Boom, brother. That's what I'm talking about. 0:38:04.320 --> 0:38:07.280 That's a great word. And that's a hard one to hear. Yeah. 0:38:07.560 --> 0:38:10.120 I mean, it's easy to get twisted around the axle 0:38:10.120 --> 0:38:13.480 of who knows what's going on. We had someone call 0:38:13.480 --> 0:38:16.480 in here a couple hours ago already. Goodness sakes. Yeah. 0:38:17.120 --> 0:38:22.520 And their big conviction and action point was that it's 0:38:22.520 --> 0:38:25.279 one thing to trust in God. It's another thing to 0:38:25.320 --> 0:38:27.279 trust God. And I don't know what you need to 0:38:27.320 --> 0:38:29.000 lay down at the foot of the cross today, but 0:38:29.000 --> 0:38:32.680 he's got something for you. He does. He's got something 0:38:32.680 --> 0:38:35.480 for you to lay down today and trust him for. 0:38:35.520 --> 0:38:37.879 Carl, I got a question for you. So you're a pastor. 0:38:38.080 --> 0:38:41.720 You preach often on the weekends. How does God move 0:38:41.719 --> 0:38:45.280 through a sermon that you're speaking to teach you something? 0:38:45.400 --> 0:38:48.120 The best messages preached are the ones that are owned 0:38:48.120 --> 0:38:52.040 first and foremost by the speaker. And I try to 0:38:52.080 --> 0:38:54.759 apply it first to my life before I preach it 0:38:54.760 --> 0:38:58.560 to others. Good question dude. Yeah. I mean, it's it's 0:38:59.080 --> 0:39:02.120 I just find the more I own it and boy, 0:39:02.120 --> 0:39:04.260 did I own it this weekend. The more I own 0:39:04.260 --> 0:39:07.899 it and feel it, the more it has power. When 0:39:07.900 --> 0:39:10.380 it comes off of my heart and off of my lips. 0:39:10.380 --> 0:39:13.180 And it's really the message of God. The beauty. This 0:39:13.180 --> 0:39:16.580 is why having topical messages that never crack open the 0:39:16.580 --> 0:39:18.500 Word of God probably not a good idea. 0:39:18.540 --> 0:39:19.100 Yeah, agreed. 0:39:19.100 --> 0:39:22.180 Because those things come back empty. But God's word never 0:39:22.180 --> 0:39:25.460 returns void. And I think for all of us that 0:39:25.460 --> 0:39:29.300 are finding ourselves in teaching positions or small group leadership, 0:39:29.580 --> 0:39:33.340 let that thing be resonant in your heart first, apply 0:39:33.340 --> 0:39:38.420 it first, then you can put the oxygen masks on others. 0:39:38.860 --> 0:39:41.620 It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio. 0:39:41.900 --> 0:39:45.980 Sometimes Jesus tells a story that create a binary choice. 0:39:46.540 --> 0:39:49.020 Just you can go this way, you can go that. 0:39:49.020 --> 0:39:52.260 And I. One of the most famous stories in the 0:39:52.260 --> 0:39:56.460 sermon on the Mount is there's two guys. Same storms, 0:39:56.500 --> 0:40:00.060 same aspirations, same hopes, same dreams, and they're wanting to 0:40:00.060 --> 0:40:04.090 build a life that counts. One hears the word doesn't 0:40:04.090 --> 0:40:07.609 apply it. One hears the word and applies it. That 0:40:07.610 --> 0:40:10.610 whole issue of application is everything, and it's a game changer. 0:40:10.810 --> 0:40:14.410 Application gives you a choice between a life that's built 0:40:14.410 --> 0:40:17.250 on the rock rock solid, or a life that's built 0:40:17.250 --> 0:40:19.730 on the sand. I got a guy right now that's 0:40:19.730 --> 0:40:23.410 rock solid Simon Gilbert, he's from across the pond. He 0:40:23.410 --> 0:40:27.010 talks really funny. Or he thinks I do, which who 0:40:27.050 --> 0:40:29.130 talks funny anyway? Simon? Me or you? 0:40:29.410 --> 0:40:33.810 Man, you've got some crazy accent. Two countries divided by 0:40:33.850 --> 0:40:34.930 a common language. 0:40:35.730 --> 0:40:36.770 Isn't that true? 0:40:37.090 --> 0:40:37.689 It's just. 0:40:37.690 --> 0:40:41.330 Crazy. Simon, what's the fresh thing God's doing in your life, 0:40:41.330 --> 0:40:42.010 my man? 0:40:42.410 --> 0:40:44.330 Oh, well, I mean, we were together a few weeks 0:40:44.330 --> 0:40:47.089 ago in in Burundi, and it was so good, wasn't it, 0:40:47.090 --> 0:40:50.250 to be there preaching together on this rickety stage with, 0:40:50.250 --> 0:40:53.410 I don't know, 1500 people and calling and God's Spirit 0:40:53.410 --> 0:40:56.450 to come and people coming forward and some demons manifesting 0:40:56.450 --> 0:40:58.569 and people getting healed. It's such a treat, isn't it, 0:40:58.570 --> 0:40:59.250 to serve Jesus. 0:40:59.290 --> 0:41:02.390 Yeah, Yeah, that was an epic trip. I'm still living 0:41:02.390 --> 0:41:05.029 with the aftermath. My tummy hasn't settled down, but that's 0:41:05.030 --> 0:41:08.670 a good price to pay for something like that. Simon Gilbeau. 0:41:08.710 --> 0:41:11.870 He is the founder of glow. Glow is a powerhouse 0:41:11.870 --> 0:41:17.989 ministry across Burundi. They are watching young men, young women 0:41:18.030 --> 0:41:23.229 unleashed and into ministry. It's amazing what God is doing there, 0:41:23.230 --> 0:41:24.230 isn't it? Simon? 0:41:24.790 --> 0:41:28.710 Yeah. I mean, I think God is close to the brokenhearted, 0:41:28.710 --> 0:41:30.590 doesn't he? And he saves those who are crushed in spirit. 0:41:30.630 --> 0:41:33.350 Quoting Scripture at you. So if people recognize their need 0:41:33.390 --> 0:41:35.630 it and they're humble, you saw it yourself when we 0:41:35.630 --> 0:41:38.670 looked out at that crowd. I have never in general, 0:41:38.710 --> 0:41:42.750 across preaching in different nations, seen a more hungry, desperate 0:41:42.750 --> 0:41:46.270 and expectant crowd to meet with God because they've seen 0:41:46.270 --> 0:41:49.350 that corrupt leaders have failed. They've seen all the lies, 0:41:49.350 --> 0:41:52.390 that they've been deceived with false promises. And they're like 0:41:52.430 --> 0:41:54.549 everyone else has let me down, and I'm going to 0:41:54.550 --> 0:41:57.310 give Jesus a shot. And you need to be broken 0:41:57.950 --> 0:42:00.299 to And you need to be humbled to meet with God. 0:42:00.340 --> 0:42:02.900 God opposes the proud, doesn't he? But he gives grace 0:42:02.900 --> 0:42:03.660 to the humble. 0:42:03.860 --> 0:42:06.300 Yeah. And I and I love the fact that if 0:42:06.300 --> 0:42:09.420 we will humble ourselves under his mighty hand, he will 0:42:09.420 --> 0:42:14.380 lift us up. Simon is a podcaster in England, and 0:42:14.380 --> 0:42:17.180 God is using him powerfully. And we're going to give 0:42:17.180 --> 0:42:18.779 you a link to that podcast here in just a 0:42:18.780 --> 0:42:21.420 little bit. So my theme this week is rock solid 0:42:21.420 --> 0:42:25.700 and there's a binary choice. I love Jesus's stories. So 0:42:25.700 --> 0:42:29.380 on the story of building our life on the Rock, 0:42:29.380 --> 0:42:31.540 what has God done in you? How have you seen this? 0:42:31.540 --> 0:42:34.020 You're a preacher. But more than that, you're an applier. 0:42:34.060 --> 0:42:37.380 You've seen people who hear the truth walk away. Don't apply. 0:42:37.380 --> 0:42:40.739 You've seen those who hear it, apply it. It changes 0:42:40.739 --> 0:42:43.940 everything of the construct of our life, doesn't it, Simon? 0:42:44.380 --> 0:42:45.540 That's right. Yeah. I mean. 0:42:45.540 --> 0:42:47.379 If we go way back to when I. You know 0:42:47.420 --> 0:42:49.660 why I ended up in Burundi? I prayed a prayer 0:42:49.700 --> 0:42:52.420 27 years ago. My prayer was, God, I'll do anything. 0:42:52.420 --> 0:42:54.980 I'll go anywhere. That was my prayer. I'll do anything. 0:42:54.980 --> 0:42:57.200 I'll go anywhere. This guy tracks me down in the 0:42:57.200 --> 0:43:00.880 Wall Street of of London the equivalent. And he says, 0:43:00.880 --> 0:43:02.360 I believe God sent me to you. He wants you 0:43:02.360 --> 0:43:04.160 to go to Burundi and be involved in youth and 0:43:04.160 --> 0:43:07.439 mission evangelism. I'm like my heart's thumping in my chest thinking, God, 0:43:07.440 --> 0:43:09.120 is this some nut job or is this you? So 0:43:09.120 --> 0:43:11.360 I said to that guy, I said to that guy, thanks, weirdo. 0:43:11.400 --> 0:43:13.480 I'll think about it. I'll be spiritual. I'll pray about it. 0:43:13.520 --> 0:43:14.960 I went back to my job. I was in front 0:43:14.960 --> 0:43:17.440 of the computer, said, God, if that wasn't some nut job, 0:43:17.440 --> 0:43:19.279 then that means going to the most dangerous country in 0:43:19.280 --> 0:43:20.799 the world. I might get killed and people try to 0:43:20.800 --> 0:43:23.000 kill me. Give me a radical sign right now in 0:43:23.000 --> 0:43:24.279 front of the computer if you want me to go. 0:43:24.280 --> 0:43:27.160 It means leaving family, friends, security, career, everything. So give 0:43:27.160 --> 0:43:29.600 me a radical sign. I kid you not. Before God, 0:43:29.640 --> 0:43:31.280 the phone rang. I picked it up and the voice 0:43:31.280 --> 0:43:32.879 on the other end, out of the blue, said, do 0:43:32.880 --> 0:43:37.120 you know anyone who wants to work in Burundi now? 0:43:37.160 --> 0:43:40.000 No way. That that was my call. That was my call. 0:43:40.000 --> 0:43:42.640 It was nuts. And it was clearly God, you know, 0:43:42.680 --> 0:43:44.759 my job had nothing to do with Africa. I lost 0:43:44.760 --> 0:43:46.400 the plot in the office. People thought it was more 0:43:46.400 --> 0:43:49.480 weird than usual. But, you know, you can have a 0:43:49.480 --> 0:43:52.359 great promise, but you've got to act on it. So, 0:43:52.400 --> 0:43:55.239 you know, I often preach on Genesis 12 where God's 0:43:55.239 --> 0:43:56.910 called to call to Abraham. He says, leave your country, 0:43:56.910 --> 0:43:59.029 your people, your father's household, and go to the land 0:43:59.030 --> 0:44:01.990 I've called you to go to. And and Abram left 0:44:01.989 --> 0:44:04.190 as the Lord had told him, you can claim God's promises, 0:44:04.190 --> 0:44:07.589 but you've also got to obey God's commands. And so 0:44:07.590 --> 0:44:09.229 the onward part of that story is that I couldn't 0:44:09.230 --> 0:44:11.430 just say, wow, I've got this crazy answer to prayer. I, 0:44:11.430 --> 0:44:13.830 I had to obey. I had to leave the safety, 0:44:13.870 --> 0:44:17.670 the comfort of a of a fancy job in the 0:44:17.670 --> 0:44:20.670 West and family and friends and security and go to 0:44:20.710 --> 0:44:22.549 what was at the time the most dangerous country in 0:44:22.550 --> 0:44:24.670 the world. And all I can say is to God's glory. 0:44:24.710 --> 0:44:27.750 We've seen. We've seen hundreds of thousands of people come 0:44:27.750 --> 0:44:30.750 to Jesus out of out of being obedient. And so 0:44:30.790 --> 0:44:34.870 discipleship is daily obedience to the prompts with a dramatic 0:44:34.870 --> 0:44:37.750 or just little nudges of God. And, you know, that's 0:44:37.750 --> 0:44:40.750 that's a massive, uh, example I've given you. But then 0:44:40.750 --> 0:44:43.509 I think day by day and I challenge listeners to 0:44:43.550 --> 0:44:45.430 I just this is what I try to implement is 0:44:45.430 --> 0:44:49.430 that when I, when someone comes to mind in my head, I, 0:44:49.790 --> 0:44:52.029 I send them a WhatsApp message. I just send them 0:44:52.030 --> 0:44:56.490 an encouragement, encouraging note and so many times that little 0:44:56.489 --> 0:45:00.090 step of obedience is. You know, in extremis, that guy's 0:45:00.090 --> 0:45:03.530 about to commit suicide, or that woman has just given 0:45:03.530 --> 0:45:05.689 up on her marriage, and you just get a message saying, 0:45:05.690 --> 0:45:09.649 I'm praying for you in your marriage and boom, there's hope. Yes. 0:45:09.690 --> 0:45:11.810 And so, you know, we can do that. Just little 0:45:11.810 --> 0:45:14.730 steps of obedience. And I'm sure that people listening right now, 0:45:14.730 --> 0:45:17.050 if you put that in practice today, it will so 0:45:17.090 --> 0:45:19.930 boost your own faith journey because God's going to use 0:45:19.930 --> 0:45:21.850 you in ten people's lives as you just fire off 0:45:21.850 --> 0:45:24.450 a few messages and then you get the encouragement. It's 0:45:24.450 --> 0:45:26.970 a virtuous circle of obedience and discipleship. 0:45:27.010 --> 0:45:30.649 It is. You know, Simon, going back to Burundi, one 0:45:30.650 --> 0:45:32.609 of the things that struck me, and you're right when 0:45:32.610 --> 0:45:35.330 you look at these people attentive. First time I was 0:45:35.330 --> 0:45:38.370 in Burundi. I'm up on this platform. We had at 0:45:38.410 --> 0:45:42.049 that at that incredible evangelistic rally. We must have had 0:45:42.050 --> 0:45:44.850 3 to 4000 people at that first one I was at. 0:45:44.850 --> 0:45:47.370 And I see this truck, I'm sitting on the platform, 0:45:47.410 --> 0:45:49.049 I'm bride sitting next to me, and I see this 0:45:49.050 --> 0:45:51.650 truck and it's coming down the road. It's a big 0:45:51.650 --> 0:45:54.960 panel truck. And I thought, oh, this is the food 0:45:54.960 --> 0:45:58.120 that they're feeding everyone because I thought, you know, call 0:45:58.160 --> 0:46:01.759 me cynical, but I thought, these people come here, but 0:46:01.800 --> 0:46:04.960 they're in there in rapt attention. They must be almost 0:46:04.960 --> 0:46:08.440 being good because they're going to get something. So I 0:46:08.480 --> 0:46:10.480 told my wife that. And then I leaned across. I 0:46:10.480 --> 0:46:12.560 looked at Isaiah. I said, is that the food truck 0:46:12.560 --> 0:46:15.719 that's coming? And he goes, what do you mean? And 0:46:15.719 --> 0:46:18.440 I said, aren't we feeding everyone here? I mean, some 0:46:18.440 --> 0:46:21.440 of these people have walked ten, 15km. Aren't we feeding 0:46:21.440 --> 0:46:23.520 people here? And he goes, oh no, we don't we 0:46:23.560 --> 0:46:25.600 don't have that in our budget to feed people. They 0:46:25.600 --> 0:46:28.640 just come here to listen to the gospel. Boy, did 0:46:28.640 --> 0:46:32.560 God do a smackdown on me. Number one, I didn't 0:46:32.680 --> 0:46:34.839 I didn't know the hunger that was there. But then 0:46:34.840 --> 0:46:37.680 God gave me a perspective. The hunger in those eyes, 0:46:37.719 --> 0:46:40.160 the hunger in those feet as they come to follow 0:46:40.160 --> 0:46:44.359 Jesus Christ. What is it that positions people like that 0:46:44.360 --> 0:46:47.640 to respond? That someone listening today can take that same 0:46:47.640 --> 0:46:48.600 posture of heart? 0:46:48.600 --> 0:46:54.420 Simon I think being stripped of everything is a painful thing, 0:46:54.420 --> 0:46:56.899 but it's a good thing. And I'm not saying in 0:46:56.900 --> 0:46:58.660 this coming story, I'm not saying this is good what 0:46:58.660 --> 0:47:00.900 happened to him, but it's an amazing story because I 0:47:00.900 --> 0:47:03.580 think of a friend of mine who, um, was in 0:47:03.580 --> 0:47:06.899 a refugee camp and she saw this old guy, this 0:47:06.900 --> 0:47:10.900 old dude in his rags, uh, with an empty bowl, praying. 0:47:10.900 --> 0:47:12.820 And she she was like, oh, that just looks a 0:47:12.820 --> 0:47:14.620 bit weird, incongruous as a sight. So she went and 0:47:14.620 --> 0:47:15.979 sat next to him and she said, what's your story, 0:47:15.980 --> 0:47:18.299 old man? And and he told her how he'd seen 0:47:18.300 --> 0:47:20.020 his wife and kids hacked to death. He was in 0:47:20.020 --> 0:47:23.620 his 80s. He'd walked six days to that refugee camp. 0:47:23.620 --> 0:47:26.859 He'd seen his house burnt down. He had lost everything 0:47:26.860 --> 0:47:29.500 in the world. And at the end of this horrific 0:47:29.500 --> 0:47:31.379 story of woe, he turned to her and he said, 0:47:31.380 --> 0:47:36.500 Madame Missioner, Madame missionary, missus, missionary. I never realized that 0:47:36.500 --> 0:47:42.939 Jesus was all I needed until Jesus was all I had. 0:47:43.460 --> 0:47:46.219 And I think that in in the West we just 0:47:46.219 --> 0:47:50.410 have so much stuff and it clouds out good. And 0:47:50.410 --> 0:47:53.730 we can think. We can live under the delusion that 0:47:53.730 --> 0:47:58.250 the stuff will meet our needs or satisfy our deepest desires, 0:47:58.250 --> 0:48:03.330 and it won't. It's a bankrupt, flawed worldview. And please, Lord, 0:48:03.330 --> 0:48:05.489 don't take me to the state of having my wife 0:48:05.489 --> 0:48:06.969 and kids hacked to death and my house burnt down 0:48:06.969 --> 0:48:11.210 and losing everything. But yes, Lord, I painfully say, strip 0:48:11.210 --> 0:48:15.489 me of my alternative idols of disobedience in terms of 0:48:15.489 --> 0:48:17.009 where I'm putting my faith. 0:48:17.410 --> 0:48:20.210 Yeah. You know, Simon, it's interesting. I've had people come 0:48:20.210 --> 0:48:22.730 up to me many times stateside here where there is 0:48:22.730 --> 0:48:25.730 plenty and there's so many distractions and so much wealth 0:48:25.730 --> 0:48:28.610 relative to the world. And I've had people at times 0:48:28.610 --> 0:48:32.570 tell me I'm empty. I'm at the end of myself. I'm. 0:48:32.610 --> 0:48:35.450 I'm a loser. I'm I'm never going to make it. 0:48:35.450 --> 0:48:38.530 And the stories vary, but the theme is the same. 0:48:38.530 --> 0:48:42.210 I'm broken. And one time I remember looking at a 0:48:42.210 --> 0:48:44.489 guy and he's got tears flowing down his face, and 0:48:44.489 --> 0:48:49.270 I said, brother, you've never been more strategically positioned for 0:48:49.270 --> 0:48:52.149 God to do something amazing in your life. Yeah. And 0:48:52.150 --> 0:48:55.670 he said, really, Carl? And I said, really, brother? And 0:48:55.670 --> 0:48:59.589 to the person that's listening right now, God's got you 0:48:59.630 --> 0:49:04.190 strategically positioned to do something like you've never imagined before 0:49:04.190 --> 0:49:07.950 in your life. Take hold of him today. You know, Simon, I, 0:49:08.190 --> 0:49:11.510 I've been kind of wood chopping on this in my 0:49:11.510 --> 0:49:15.990 brain a little bit, and I'm like, Lord, how do 0:49:15.989 --> 0:49:19.469 we in the West with so much stuff? And it 0:49:19.469 --> 0:49:22.870 is such. I'm, I'm convinced some of this stuff, even 0:49:22.870 --> 0:49:26.590 the American dream, when it's not attached to the God 0:49:26.590 --> 0:49:30.549 of vision, is so demonic, it can actually keep us 0:49:30.550 --> 0:49:32.510 from the one who wants to give us real life. 0:49:32.910 --> 0:49:35.790 How do we I mean, take a person right now 0:49:35.790 --> 0:49:39.469 that's doing really well in the world's eyes. How do 0:49:39.469 --> 0:49:42.350 we grab ourselves? How do we let the Lord grab 0:49:42.350 --> 0:49:47.730 ourselves by the spiritual heart and say, whoa, Stop. Stop 0:49:47.770 --> 0:49:50.009 trusting these things. Have you ever thought about that? How 0:49:50.010 --> 0:49:50.850 do we get there? 0:49:51.290 --> 0:49:53.009 I mean, that's a tough one to answer, isn't it? 0:49:53.010 --> 0:49:56.290 Because the God of this age has blinded people. And 0:49:56.290 --> 0:49:58.609 so we need to pray for them. We need, we 0:49:58.610 --> 0:50:01.890 ourselves need, and people we care about need a revelation 0:50:02.250 --> 0:50:05.450 of of of God's heart, God's heart for the poor. 0:50:05.489 --> 0:50:08.090 God's heart for us. Because you know we can be 0:50:08.090 --> 0:50:12.890 rich in the world's eyes and spiritually bankrupt. Um, so yeah, 0:50:12.890 --> 0:50:16.489 I think it's helpful to engage with, with, uh, get 0:50:16.530 --> 0:50:20.410 get outside our bubble because we surround, we surround ourselves 0:50:20.410 --> 0:50:23.530 with like minded people. And so, you know, I know because, 0:50:23.570 --> 0:50:25.130 you know, a few days ago we were together in 0:50:25.130 --> 0:50:28.210 Central Africa that is very helpful to our spiritual lives, 0:50:28.210 --> 0:50:30.970 because we get a reordering of our sense of values 0:50:30.969 --> 0:50:34.370 and priorities that it's hard to get when you're just 0:50:34.410 --> 0:50:36.770 in the rat race, you know, commuting with, with people 0:50:36.810 --> 0:50:39.690 whose highest aspiration is to is to add another zero 0:50:39.690 --> 0:50:44.170 to their paycheck or and consumed with, with, with just 0:50:44.170 --> 0:50:49.040 materialistic gain as the yardstick of what constitutes happiness and success. So, 0:50:49.280 --> 0:50:53.319 so it's it's, um, being in relationship with people who 0:50:53.320 --> 0:50:56.920 will be iron sharpening iron. So I'm really grateful for 0:50:56.920 --> 0:50:59.239 the key guys in my life who I invite into 0:50:59.280 --> 0:51:02.440 an intentional relationship to challenge me and say, hey, hey, 0:51:02.480 --> 0:51:04.960 you've toned down there. Hey, you're getting a bit distracted 0:51:04.960 --> 0:51:08.320 by the allure of, uh, more followers or, you know, 0:51:08.360 --> 0:51:11.440 on the podcast, you know, just, you know, concentrate on 0:51:11.480 --> 0:51:14.920 concentrate on Jesus, not on viewing statistics or anything like that. 0:51:14.960 --> 0:51:17.600 You know, they're so easy to get distracted. 0:51:18.000 --> 0:51:20.640 It is I love it. I think you're spot on, Simon. 0:51:20.640 --> 0:51:22.960 I think getting outside of ourselves, making sure that we're 0:51:22.960 --> 0:51:25.440 rolling up our sleeves, getting into the lives of others, 0:51:25.680 --> 0:51:28.600 I think the things of Earth grow strangely dim in 0:51:28.600 --> 0:51:32.040 the light of his glory and grace. Good word, Simon Guilbeau, 0:51:32.080 --> 0:51:33.919 my guest. Guys, I got to tell you something. He's 0:51:33.920 --> 0:51:37.200 got a podcast that's blowing up in the UK. It's 0:51:37.200 --> 0:51:41.520 either number one or number two on any given week, um, 0:51:41.640 --> 0:51:46.700 for spiritual, uh, Podcasts, and it's off the charts, literally. 0:51:46.700 --> 0:51:48.739 And it's a beautiful thing. I want you to get 0:51:48.739 --> 0:51:52.580 a link. It's always good to hear someone who talks 0:51:52.580 --> 0:51:56.620 very differently than us because it shocks us. The thing 0:51:56.820 --> 0:52:01.819 that's really funny, Simon, is we confer something on the 0:52:01.820 --> 0:52:06.180 Brits that it's it's it's really cool how God uses 0:52:06.180 --> 0:52:08.379 your accent to jar us a little bit. And I'm 0:52:08.420 --> 0:52:13.180 not kidding you, brother. It's so bizarre. Cable news channels 0:52:13.180 --> 0:52:16.420 find guys with British accents just to shake it up 0:52:16.420 --> 0:52:18.339 a little bit. And thanks for shaking it up today. 0:52:18.340 --> 0:52:25.540 You've done it, Simon. Uh, text the word inspired to 800, 555, 78, 98. 0:52:25.580 --> 0:52:31.780 Inspired to 800 555 7898. Get this podcast. If God's 0:52:31.780 --> 0:52:33.980 using it in your life, spread it around. Let's get 0:52:33.980 --> 0:52:36.100 him going on this side of the pond as well. 0:52:36.140 --> 0:52:38.780 Simon Guilbeau I love you hot dog. Thanks for stopping 0:52:38.780 --> 0:52:39.500 in today. 0:52:39.500 --> 0:52:40.900 Thanks, Carl. What a pleasure. 0:52:41.500 --> 0:52:46.050 A basketball mom who's mastered the dad joke. Ali is 0:52:46.050 --> 0:52:49.730 in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio. 0:52:50.010 --> 0:52:51.850 That I want to tell you a story about my 0:52:51.850 --> 0:52:55.450 dad that will capture a big appreciation that we have 0:52:55.450 --> 0:52:59.930 for you. My heart was far from God when my 0:52:59.930 --> 0:53:03.049 dad asked me to join him for a Billy Graham 0:53:03.050 --> 0:53:07.090 crusade warm up. It was an event before Billy Graham 0:53:07.090 --> 0:53:09.690 was going to be coming to Anchorage, Alaska. Believe it 0:53:09.690 --> 0:53:12.170 or not. And he said, come on with me, son. 0:53:12.770 --> 0:53:14.890 And he knew my heart was far from God. And 0:53:14.890 --> 0:53:17.890 as I stood there beside him, I'll never forget when 0:53:17.890 --> 0:53:26.649 George Beverly Shea got up. And sang a song to God. 0:53:28.690 --> 0:53:33.370 How great thou art. And as George Beverly Shea sang, 0:53:33.370 --> 0:53:37.250 I looked up, looked beside at my dad, and I looked. 0:53:37.290 --> 0:53:41.029 And he was a big boy. Big Swedish boy. And 0:53:41.030 --> 0:53:43.469 tears are just pouring down his face. I think some 0:53:43.469 --> 0:53:46.310 of those tears were probably my son's here. God work 0:53:46.310 --> 0:53:47.950 in his life. I don't think there was any way 0:53:47.950 --> 0:53:50.069 of hiding that. But at the same time, he was 0:53:50.070 --> 0:53:54.910 just grateful for the goodness of God. Years go by, 0:53:55.190 --> 0:53:57.790 I become a pastor at a church in Alaska and 0:53:57.790 --> 0:54:01.470 God was on the move. We had so many services. 0:54:01.950 --> 0:54:04.910 Our Saturday night was two services and then Sunday and 0:54:04.910 --> 0:54:07.069 a gymnasium grew to the point where we had to 0:54:07.070 --> 0:54:10.830 have services at nine, 11, one, three and five. No joking. 0:54:11.870 --> 0:54:13.910 And God was on the move so much. We saw 0:54:13.910 --> 0:54:18.870 so many young people coming to Jesus. We had music 0:54:18.870 --> 0:54:21.670 that was contemporary. We would lean into some of the 0:54:21.670 --> 0:54:24.430 old classic hymns, but we had pretty much contemporary music. 0:54:24.430 --> 0:54:26.109 And one day I asked my dad, how are you 0:54:26.110 --> 0:54:30.310 doing with all this new music, dad? He was at 0:54:30.350 --> 0:54:35.230 that time in his early 80s, and I said, how 0:54:35.270 --> 0:54:36.989 are you doing, dad? You know what my dad said 0:54:36.989 --> 0:54:42.739 to me, Carl? I had a lot of years where 0:54:42.739 --> 0:54:47.500 I had music styles that fit my palate, and I 0:54:48.460 --> 0:54:52.459 totally surrendered the music styles of this day. Knowing that 0:54:52.460 --> 0:54:59.180 God is doing a new thing today and it's okay. Now, 0:54:59.219 --> 0:55:01.859 why do I tell that story about my dad? My 0:55:01.860 --> 0:55:05.700 dad died at 95 years of age and he rocked 0:55:05.700 --> 0:55:09.060 with Jesus right into eternity. One of the hallmarks of 0:55:09.060 --> 0:55:13.620 my dad is that he handled change better than most, 0:55:13.620 --> 0:55:17.620 because he surrendered it all to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. 0:55:18.739 --> 0:55:23.060 He said, what's the bigger yes for now. And I 0:55:23.060 --> 0:55:27.219 want to applaud you because there's been a lot of changes. 0:55:27.420 --> 0:55:31.220 And even this morning we are being broadcast live right now. 0:55:31.700 --> 0:55:45.320 9:00 East Coast, 8:00 central, 7:00. Mountain, 6:00 Pacific, 5 a.m. Alaska. 0:55:46.160 --> 0:55:49.040 And who knows whatever else time zone you're in. We 0:55:49.080 --> 0:55:51.640 got guy called in from Budapest, Hungary, here a few 0:55:51.640 --> 0:55:54.880 days ago. So that's what is it, three in the 0:55:54.880 --> 0:55:58.600 afternoon or something? Crazy. Here's what I want to say 0:55:58.600 --> 0:56:04.359 to you as there are alignment shifts and changes in 0:56:04.360 --> 0:56:08.200 our life. I just want to continue to encourage you, 0:56:08.200 --> 0:56:11.640 because we've had such an amazing response from so many 0:56:11.640 --> 0:56:15.759 of you that have my dad's heart attitude. I want 0:56:15.800 --> 0:56:20.120 to applaud you and say, way to go! It's easy, 0:56:20.120 --> 0:56:22.919 I get it. Change is hard. But to say, oh, 0:56:22.960 --> 0:56:27.080 who moved my cheese? Who moved my cheese? But to 0:56:27.080 --> 0:56:30.799 be able to say, God, it's a new season. A 0:56:30.800 --> 0:56:35.400 new day and there's new things to you. Be glory 0:56:36.080 --> 0:56:39.230 as I follow your Son Jesus by the power of 0:56:39.230 --> 0:56:41.590 the Holy Spirit. To all of you, I want to 0:56:41.590 --> 0:56:43.589 say thank you from the bottom of my heart. Yeah, 0:56:43.630 --> 0:56:47.710 we we love you and we're grateful for you. So 0:56:47.710 --> 0:56:50.230 by way of a story about my dad, I hope 0:56:50.230 --> 0:56:53.110 you get the bigger picture here. And again, thank you 0:56:53.630 --> 0:56:58.590 for your heart, your commitment to discipleship and all that 0:56:59.950 --> 0:57:05.149 God is doing in and through you. You are what 0:57:05.150 --> 0:57:07.310 makes this morning show go. And I mean that from 0:57:07.310 --> 0:57:09.630 the bottom of my heart. Somebody said, can you play 0:57:09.670 --> 0:57:13.069 Beverly Shea's? We don't have George Bev. No, but we 0:57:13.110 --> 0:57:18.830 got Chris Rice. It's pretty close. My dad, shedding tears 0:57:18.870 --> 0:57:23.910 over this song and still humble enough and dependent on 0:57:23.910 --> 0:57:27.229 God enough to see change in his time that he said, 0:57:27.230 --> 0:57:29.190 it's well with my soul. It's okay. 0:57:29.510 --> 0:57:32.230 You can take him out of Alaska, but you can't 0:57:32.270 --> 0:57:36.130 take Alaska out of him. Carl is in the crew. 0:57:36.370 --> 0:57:38.930 It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio. 0:57:39.130 --> 0:57:41.610 You know, I want to thank you again. Extend a 0:57:41.610 --> 0:57:47.650 word of just grace and gratitude to you. It's an 0:57:47.650 --> 0:57:51.010 awesome thing. For those of you that don't know, Carl 0:57:51.010 --> 0:57:56.610 and crew here is now live still in the 9:00 eastern, 0:57:56.650 --> 0:58:04.610 8:00 central, 7:00 mountain, 6:00 Pacific, 5:00 Alaska. And who 0:58:04.610 --> 0:58:07.970 knows where else. We had someone call in from Budapest, Hungary. 0:58:08.170 --> 0:58:08.610 Yeah. 0:58:08.930 --> 0:58:12.010 Probably two, 3 p.m. right there, right now. And I 0:58:12.010 --> 0:58:14.850 want to thank you. And I want to applaud you 0:58:14.970 --> 0:58:17.210 with my dad. Stories of backdrop I want to say 0:58:17.210 --> 0:58:21.330 this one more time in this hour. My dad went 0:58:21.330 --> 0:58:23.850 on to be with the Lord at 95 years of age. 0:58:23.850 --> 0:58:29.890 And he was a grace full guy, meaning he saw 0:58:29.930 --> 0:58:32.730 God's favor and God's power in his life, and he 0:58:32.730 --> 0:58:36.760 passed that on to his son and to many others. 0:58:37.120 --> 0:58:39.440 And one of the best ways I saw my dad's 0:58:39.440 --> 0:58:43.480 spiritual maturity was how he handled change. I do, I 0:58:43.520 --> 0:58:47.520 do remember how moved he was by George Beverly Shea. Now, 0:58:47.520 --> 0:58:49.640 some of you don't know George Beverly Shea from The 0:58:49.640 --> 0:58:52.520 Man in the moon. It's okay. Some of you don't 0:58:52.520 --> 0:58:56.000 know Luis Palau, one of my good friends who went 0:58:56.000 --> 0:58:57.840 home to be with the Lord a couple of years ago. 0:58:57.880 --> 0:59:01.040 And he had the privilege of ministering to almost more 0:59:01.240 --> 0:59:06.280 people live in evangelistic crusades than any man in recent history. 0:59:07.080 --> 0:59:12.600 And so seasons come, seasons go. But the gospel never changes. 0:59:12.600 --> 0:59:15.640 And my dad knew that. Never forget the time when 0:59:15.640 --> 0:59:19.040 he was listening to a worship band at our church 0:59:19.880 --> 0:59:23.640 in Alaska. And boy, they were they were playing something 0:59:23.640 --> 0:59:25.920 that was a totally different rhythm and content than what 0:59:25.920 --> 0:59:29.160 he had heard for many years. And I leaned over 0:59:29.160 --> 0:59:30.760 to him. I said, dad, how you doing? I was 0:59:30.760 --> 0:59:33.940 about ready to get up and preach the gospel, he said. Oh, 0:59:33.980 --> 0:59:38.140 you mean the song style? I said, yeah. He said, hey, 0:59:38.500 --> 0:59:42.340 I had my fun in the sun. He said, my 0:59:42.340 --> 0:59:44.260 bigger goal is for all these kids that are sitting 0:59:44.260 --> 0:59:48.660 here today, this new generation. And I want to thank 0:59:48.660 --> 0:59:51.820 you because so many of you have already displayed this morning. 0:59:51.860 --> 0:59:53.900 In fact, I got an email and we got a 0:59:53.900 --> 0:59:59.980 text message. Um, just saying, let's go. I know program 0:59:59.980 --> 1:00:04.740 changes happen, cheese gets moved. But I thank you for 1:00:04.740 --> 1:00:08.660 so many thousands, tens of thousands of you right now listening, 1:00:08.660 --> 1:00:14.420 who are so gracious because seasons change and you've been 1:00:14.420 --> 1:00:19.260 so awesome. Some of you are through gritted teeth. I 1:00:19.260 --> 1:00:21.540 trust the Lord. It's okay. 1:00:21.740 --> 1:00:22.340 Absolutely. 1:00:22.380 --> 1:00:25.780 Grit em today. You'll open mouth tomorrow and it'll be great. 1:00:26.180 --> 1:00:27.980 But I want to thank you from the bottom of 1:00:27.980 --> 1:00:31.290 my heart. But I also want to be really clear 1:00:31.290 --> 1:00:35.250 with something here that's very important here this morning. I 1:00:35.290 --> 1:00:39.850 am absolutely convinced that at any given moment, all across 1:00:39.850 --> 1:00:45.370 North America and beyond, people come here who are absolutely 1:00:45.370 --> 1:00:50.290 bankrupt spiritually, and they're realizing it for the first time today. 1:00:50.330 --> 1:00:52.330 What do I mean by that? Jesus said, blessed are 1:00:52.330 --> 1:00:54.770 the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 1:00:54.770 --> 1:00:56.970 First words out of his mouth in the sermon on 1:00:56.970 --> 1:01:01.370 the Mount are so counterintuitive. He said, blessed are you happy? 1:01:01.370 --> 1:01:05.330 Are you joy filled? Are you? When you realize that 1:01:05.330 --> 1:01:10.810 you have nothing apart from a relationship with God? And 1:01:10.810 --> 1:01:15.130 many came here today like this, but it is a 1:01:15.130 --> 1:01:21.250 divine blessing from God. I've had so many people as 1:01:21.250 --> 1:01:23.810 a pastor come to me going pastor, I feel like 1:01:23.810 --> 1:01:26.650 a loser. I'm at the end of myself. I nothing 1:01:26.650 --> 1:01:29.830 seems to work. I feel like I feel like my 1:01:29.830 --> 1:01:33.030 whole life has amounted to nothing to this point in time. 1:01:34.070 --> 1:01:36.110 And one man told me that with tears streaming down 1:01:36.110 --> 1:01:38.590 his face, and I said with a smile on my face, 1:01:38.790 --> 1:01:41.669 I want you to know something, friend. You are more 1:01:41.670 --> 1:01:44.990 strategically positioned for God to do something radical in your 1:01:44.990 --> 1:01:48.430 life than you've ever been, because we're not fit for 1:01:48.430 --> 1:01:50.390 the kingdom of God until we come to the end 1:01:50.390 --> 1:01:53.950 of ourselves. No one becomes a friend of God. No 1:01:53.950 --> 1:01:57.470 one becomes a child of God until we are born 1:01:57.470 --> 1:02:00.910 again and no one is born again. By saying, yeah, 1:02:00.910 --> 1:02:03.110 it looks like a little bit of an advantage to 1:02:03.150 --> 1:02:05.750 follow Jesus. Yeah, I'll throw that into the mix too, 1:02:05.790 --> 1:02:09.470 with my 401 and everything else I got going on. Yeah, 1:02:10.670 --> 1:02:16.110 until a person comes to the end of themself, we 1:02:16.150 --> 1:02:19.390 are not fit for the kingdom of God. You can 1:02:19.390 --> 1:02:24.590 be in church for decades. You can serve. You can 1:02:24.590 --> 1:02:28.330 teach and not know Jesus. We find that in Matthew 1:02:28.330 --> 1:02:30.890 seven many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, 1:02:30.890 --> 1:02:34.210 and he's going to say, I never knew you. Now 1:02:34.210 --> 1:02:36.610 for some of you right now that those words right 1:02:36.610 --> 1:02:39.730 there that Jesus spoke are convicting to you because you've 1:02:39.730 --> 1:02:42.450 been very spiritually active, but you've never been a friend 1:02:42.450 --> 1:02:44.170 of God. And I want to tell you, God wants 1:02:44.170 --> 1:02:46.810 to bridge that gap today. And I believe that God 1:02:46.850 --> 1:02:53.930 brought you here to save your life from yourself and 1:02:53.930 --> 1:02:57.730 all the striving. And for many of you, religious activity. 1:02:58.490 --> 1:03:01.570 Some of you stumbled on this station this morning because 1:03:01.570 --> 1:03:06.130 you don't know why. But God, in His divine providence, 1:03:06.130 --> 1:03:09.170 in his power, brought you here for such a time 1:03:09.170 --> 1:03:12.650 as this. And I'm going to tell you how you 1:03:12.650 --> 1:03:15.530 can turn toward God today, become a friend of God, 1:03:15.570 --> 1:03:20.210 become born again, and experience what Jesus wants for you 1:03:20.250 --> 1:03:26.920 a 30 6000 fold life. He tells a story and 1:03:26.920 --> 1:03:29.240 lists a grain of wheat, falls to the ground and dies. 1:03:29.240 --> 1:03:31.720 It remains alone, but if it falls to the ground 1:03:31.720 --> 1:03:37.760 and dies, it produces a crop that multiplies over and 1:03:37.760 --> 1:03:41.800 over and over again. Your life counting for something that 1:03:41.800 --> 1:03:44.760 you've never even imagined or banked on up to this 1:03:44.760 --> 1:03:48.439 point in time. But you know what has to happen 1:03:48.440 --> 1:03:51.480 to that kernel. It's got to fall to the ground 1:03:51.480 --> 1:03:55.960 and die. And the metaphor is clear. Jesus says it's 1:03:55.960 --> 1:03:59.240 time to die to yourself so that you can be 1:03:59.240 --> 1:04:04.160 alive in a relationship with Jesus Christ. I love the 1:04:04.160 --> 1:04:09.840 story in John 14. Jesus is telling his disciples, I 1:04:09.880 --> 1:04:13.560 got to go away. And when I when I go, man, 1:04:13.560 --> 1:04:16.120 I'm going to prepare a place for you. Then the 1:04:16.120 --> 1:04:19.640 new heaven and new earth that's iterated in the best 1:04:19.640 --> 1:04:23.640 part is the first seven verses of revelation 21. It's beautiful. 1:04:24.360 --> 1:04:27.140 He says, I'm going to prepare this new place for you, 1:04:27.420 --> 1:04:30.780 and I'm going to come again. And Thomas is a 1:04:30.780 --> 1:04:33.900 great disciple. He asks questions others were afraid to ask, 1:04:34.260 --> 1:04:36.620 and he said, hey, I, I'm not sure I know 1:04:36.620 --> 1:04:40.580 where you're going. And he said, Thomas, let me tell you, 1:04:41.060 --> 1:04:47.660 I am the way, the truth, and the life. And 1:04:47.660 --> 1:04:54.580 if you follow me. I'll take you home with me 1:04:54.580 --> 1:05:00.260 when I come again. What's it mean if God caught 1:05:00.260 --> 1:05:07.540 you at a bottom? On this curve of life. Boy, 1:05:07.540 --> 1:05:10.940 you're strategically positioned today. Jesus said I am the way. 1:05:10.980 --> 1:05:13.740 Meaning you can no longer go your way, friend. It's 1:05:13.740 --> 1:05:16.980 time to turn around. It's the most loving word in 1:05:16.980 --> 1:05:20.980 the scriptures. Repentance is how we turn from our own 1:05:20.980 --> 1:05:26.210 way onto the path less traveled with Jesus Christ. It's 1:05:26.210 --> 1:05:28.890 the full surrender, holding nothing back, saying I give all 1:05:28.930 --> 1:05:32.770 to Jesus today. I'm not just adding Jesus to my life. 1:05:32.770 --> 1:05:38.770 I'm making him my Lord, my leader. Got a question 1:05:38.770 --> 1:05:41.169 for you. Are you at the bottom to the point 1:05:41.170 --> 1:05:43.970 where you're saying today, Carl, I'm turning around today. I'm 1:05:44.010 --> 1:05:46.810 giving my life totally over to Jesus. I'm turning it 1:05:46.810 --> 1:05:52.210 all over to him. Great. He put some more rebar 1:05:52.250 --> 1:05:54.850 in this new foundation that you're getting. He said, I 1:05:54.890 --> 1:05:57.890 am the way. I am. The truth. Meaning we can 1:05:57.890 --> 1:06:00.130 no longer live by the seat of our pants and 1:06:00.130 --> 1:06:02.490 our truth and our emotions and our feelings. We live 1:06:02.530 --> 1:06:05.570 by the truth of God's Word, beginning with we're all 1:06:05.570 --> 1:06:07.450 sinners that have gone our own way, and we need 1:06:07.450 --> 1:06:10.650 a Savior, and his name is Jesus. And today I'm 1:06:10.650 --> 1:06:13.890 asking you to receive that gift of salvation for the 1:06:13.890 --> 1:06:17.690 first time in your life. I'm asking you and I 1:06:17.730 --> 1:06:21.370 appeal to you. Don't let pride of all that you've 1:06:21.370 --> 1:06:25.910 done for God to keep you from walking with God 1:06:25.910 --> 1:06:30.430 for the first time. Don't let religious activity cloud the 1:06:30.430 --> 1:06:33.030 scenario here that God is building in your life. He's 1:06:33.030 --> 1:06:38.430 changing you. Give him your life completely. Surrender to him today. 1:06:38.470 --> 1:06:41.390 Turn around today. Is that you, my friend? Is today 1:06:41.390 --> 1:06:43.990 this day? Just speak it out to God. Today is 1:06:43.990 --> 1:06:46.550 my day. God, just tell him this. Wherever you are. 1:06:46.550 --> 1:06:51.110 Walking on a path, driving in a car. And then 1:06:51.110 --> 1:06:53.350 he says, I am the life. The word there in 1:06:53.350 --> 1:06:57.110 the original language is Zoe. It means abundant 30, 60, 1:06:57.190 --> 1:07:00.630 a hundred fold something that this world can't offer you. 1:07:00.630 --> 1:07:02.990 Jesus is giving you, and for some of you, he's 1:07:02.990 --> 1:07:07.870 filling you up right now. And in just a moment, 1:07:07.870 --> 1:07:10.190 I'm going to ask you to key in a key word, 1:07:10.190 --> 1:07:12.230 one word to us here, because I'm going to help 1:07:12.230 --> 1:07:15.670 you in your first steps with Jesus Christ today. As 1:07:15.670 --> 1:07:17.150 a matter of fact, I want you to do this 1:07:17.150 --> 1:07:19.190 right now. If you're driving, get to the side of 1:07:19.190 --> 1:07:21.540 the road. Get to a safe place right now. Just 1:07:21.540 --> 1:07:24.220 pull to the side of the road, get on a shoulder, 1:07:24.900 --> 1:07:27.500 pull off on a side street. If you're walking, get 1:07:27.500 --> 1:07:29.660 out your phone. If you're at home, get out your phone. 1:07:30.300 --> 1:07:33.060 And right now, if today you are saying by the 1:07:33.060 --> 1:07:35.740 cry of your soul, which is the prayer of faith Jesus, 1:07:35.740 --> 1:07:37.939 today I turn around. I repent. For the first time 1:07:37.940 --> 1:07:40.980 in my life, I've tried to add you to my 1:07:40.980 --> 1:07:43.500 broad path that I've been walking. But today I surrender 1:07:43.500 --> 1:07:50.340 all to Jesus. Just say I repent. I turn around 1:07:50.340 --> 1:07:52.980 and I believe that Jesus died for my sins. If 1:07:52.980 --> 1:07:55.380 that is you today, and for the first time ever, 1:07:55.380 --> 1:07:58.780 you are surrendering your life to Jesus. I want you 1:07:58.780 --> 1:08:02.540 to key in a word right now for the first 1:08:02.540 --> 1:08:06.420 time ever. You mean business with God. Just text the 1:08:06.420 --> 1:08:08.220 word new and we're going to help you in your 1:08:08.220 --> 1:08:11.100 first steps with Jesus. No matter where you are today, 1:08:11.140 --> 1:08:15.060 our God is with you. Just. Just text new that 1:08:15.060 --> 1:08:20.719 one word to 800 555 Five, 78, 98. Wherever you are. 1:08:21.439 --> 1:08:27.040 800 555 7898 right now, just text that one word 1:08:27.080 --> 1:08:33.760 new to 800 555 7898 I'm going to shout out 1:08:33.760 --> 1:08:36.839 the last four numbers of your number. It's awesome that 1:08:37.160 --> 1:08:41.320 you know that someone knows that God now knows you 1:08:41.320 --> 1:08:44.919 as his kid. So just text it in right now. 1:08:44.960 --> 1:08:50.840 New to 800 555 7898 one word. We're going to 1:08:50.840 --> 1:08:53.360 help you in your first steps with Jesus. We're not 1:08:53.360 --> 1:08:55.240 going to spam you. We're just sending you a link 1:08:55.240 --> 1:08:57.840 that's going to help you walk with Jesus for the 1:08:57.840 --> 1:09:05.439 first time. 800 555 7898 and, father, I'm grateful for 1:09:05.439 --> 1:09:07.879 all these surrendering to you today. I give you praise. 1:09:07.880 --> 1:09:11.280 There's no one like you, God. There's no one like 1:09:11.280 --> 1:09:13.680 you in this work that you are beginning in so 1:09:13.680 --> 1:09:15.920 many people right now. You're going to carry it on 1:09:15.960 --> 1:09:18.670 to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Then I 1:09:18.670 --> 1:09:23.269 give you thanks for these that are breaking free from 1:09:23.270 --> 1:09:26.429 the bottom, being lifted up by you in the name 1:09:26.430 --> 1:09:29.950 of Jesus. I thank you a men and let it be. 1:09:32.270 --> 1:09:35.270 Those of you texting the word new right now. New 1:09:35.270 --> 1:09:39.910 life in Jesus today. Full surrender, full turning around. Giving 1:09:39.910 --> 1:09:43.189 your life to Jesus. Want to welcome you to the 1:09:43.189 --> 1:09:46.670 family of God? Just text the word new to 800 1:09:47.270 --> 1:09:52.030 555 7898. I'm going to keep it right here. I'm 1:09:52.030 --> 1:09:54.229 going to keep it right here. We're going to keep 1:09:54.229 --> 1:09:57.390 it right here. And I'm going to shout out the 1:09:57.390 --> 1:10:01.190 last four numbers of your telephone number in just a moment. 1:10:02.590 --> 1:10:05.189 Just text that word new. Today is a new day, 1:10:05.189 --> 1:10:08.590 my friend. Doesn't matter how long you've been going to 1:10:08.630 --> 1:10:15.110 church today, you are in relationship with Jesus Christ. And 1:10:15.110 --> 1:10:18.490 tears are normative. Those things happen. 1:10:18.530 --> 1:10:19.370 Absolutely. 1:10:19.410 --> 1:10:24.130 When I was saved, boy, I had gushers coming out 1:10:24.170 --> 1:10:26.809 of my eyes for two hours straight, man. Where all 1:10:26.810 --> 1:10:29.809 the shame was leaving and new life was pouring in. 1:10:30.689 --> 1:10:33.090 And we want to welcome you today. If today you 1:10:33.130 --> 1:10:36.610 are saying, I repent, I turn around. Today I followed Jesus. 1:10:36.610 --> 1:10:40.250 Today I confess I'm a sinner who needs a Savior. 1:10:41.330 --> 1:10:43.610 I'm going to embrace the truth of who I really 1:10:43.610 --> 1:10:46.330 am and what I need in Christ. Welcome to the family. 1:10:46.330 --> 1:10:53.370 Just text new to 800 555 7898. I'm going to 1:10:53.370 --> 1:10:56.330 shout out your last four numbers here and just say 1:10:56.330 --> 1:11:11.810 right now, welcome to the family 9715, 2495 03830000 41 8414, 1:11:11.810 --> 1:11:35.360 2170 55. Welcome to the family. 00795752973708103554772816737126. Welcome to the 1:11:35.360 --> 1:11:45.800 family to all of you 2149 7650 0491 1433 are 1:11:45.840 --> 1:11:53.920 gets emotional after a while 3964, 3474. Welcome to the 1:11:53.920 --> 1:12:02.920 family 2093 welcome to the family. Whosoever will may come. 1:12:02.920 --> 1:12:09.280 That's you friend today God calling you out of darkness, 1:12:09.320 --> 1:12:14.900 into light, into a relationship with God no longer working 1:12:14.939 --> 1:12:18.900 for God. Christ in you is the new hope that 1:12:18.900 --> 1:12:22.460 you have. And we're grateful for you. What's on your heart? 1:12:22.500 --> 1:12:25.259 Young Thunder, for all these new followers of Jesus today. 1:12:25.300 --> 1:12:27.500 Yeah, I, I want to encourage you. For those of 1:12:27.500 --> 1:12:31.460 you who haven't texted, uh, the word new, please do, 1:12:31.820 --> 1:12:34.820 because there are some things in there that are going 1:12:34.820 --> 1:12:37.660 to help you get started to take your first steps 1:12:37.660 --> 1:12:41.979 with Jesus. Uh, there's a little bit of advice that 1:12:41.979 --> 1:12:46.700 Carl's given that's so biblical. There's links to Bible translations. 1:12:46.700 --> 1:12:49.259 We want you to have the word. So, uh, places 1:12:49.260 --> 1:12:51.620 where you can go to get a Bible and then also, uh, 1:12:51.620 --> 1:12:53.979 a blog talking about what to look for in a 1:12:53.979 --> 1:12:56.580 church because getting around the family of God is so important. 1:12:56.580 --> 1:12:59.019 We're not built to do any of this alone. So 1:12:59.020 --> 1:13:02.420 please don't don't do it alone. And if maybe you've 1:13:02.420 --> 1:13:05.780 been in the church forever, don't feel embarrassed or ashamed 1:13:05.780 --> 1:13:08.220 that you feel like today is the real first day 1:13:08.220 --> 1:13:11.099 you're coming to Jesus. This is your story. God gave 1:13:11.100 --> 1:13:12.969 it to you And it's a good thing. 1:13:13.010 --> 1:13:20.370 Yeah, it's right on. Just text the word new to 800, 555, 78, 98. 1:13:20.370 --> 1:13:26.849 Just that one word. New to 805 five. Five, 78, 98. Man, 1:13:26.850 --> 1:13:29.490 it's for freedom. Christ has set you free. And there's 1:13:29.530 --> 1:13:36.370 new freedom today. 5211 5080. Welcome to the family. 0615. 1:13:36.410 --> 1:13:42.729 Welcome to the family. 6770. Welcome to the family of God. 1:13:44.130 --> 1:13:46.570 And even after we're gone here, you can text this. 1:13:46.570 --> 1:13:49.009 Some of you're scrambling for your phones right now. There's 1:13:49.010 --> 1:13:51.929 no hurry, but we're here for you. We're here to help. 1:13:51.930 --> 1:13:57.769 And we say welcome. It's so awesome. 9158 amazing what 1:13:57.810 --> 1:14:02.210 God's doing all across North America and beyond. Welcome to 1:14:02.210 --> 1:14:05.889 the family. Who the son sets free is free indeed. 1:14:05.890 --> 1:14:08.370 And this God who began this work, he will carry 1:14:08.370 --> 1:14:11.290 it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.