WEBVTT - Reaching People with Diverse Ministries and Resources 0:00:00.380 --> 0:00:04.430 Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio. 0:00:04.460 --> 0:00:08.270 This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio. 0:00:08.300 --> 0:00:13.370 We are broadcasting live from NRP Hebrews one. My goodness, guys, 0:00:13.369 --> 0:00:16.220 listen to this. Long ago, at many times and in 0:00:16.220 --> 0:00:19.370 many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. 0:00:19.370 --> 0:00:22.759 But in these last days he has spoken to us 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:26.030 by His Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, 0:00:26.030 --> 0:00:29.660 through whom he also created the world. He is the 0:00:29.660 --> 0:00:33.530 radiance of the glory of God in thee. Get this 0:00:33.530 --> 0:00:36.080 he is the radiance of the glory of God in 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:40.310 the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the 0:00:40.310 --> 0:00:44.330 universe by the word of his power. Goes on to say, 0:00:44.330 --> 0:00:47.690 in comparing two angels of the angels, God said, he 0:00:47.690 --> 0:00:51.740 makes his angels winds. Excuse me? He makes his angels 0:00:51.740 --> 0:00:56.930 winds and his ministers a flame of fire. But the son, 0:00:57.290 --> 0:01:01.990 he says of this, Your throne, O God, is forever 0:01:01.990 --> 0:01:06.550 and ever. The scepter of uprightness. In the scepter of 0:01:06.550 --> 0:01:11.890 your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, 0:01:11.890 --> 0:01:15.759 your God, has anointed you. With the oil of gladness 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:22.059 beyond your companions. Wow! We've already won because of Jesus. 0:01:22.090 --> 0:01:27.610 He's the exact imprint of the character of God. What 0:01:27.610 --> 0:01:31.420 you see Jesus doing in the pages of the gospels 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:37.059 is God. Yeah, not a little bit of a facsimile. 0:01:37.540 --> 0:01:43.450 An exact imprint. I don't know what you need this morning, 0:01:43.450 --> 0:01:46.600 but you need encouragement that as you follow Jesus Christ, 0:01:46.630 --> 0:01:52.029 who King of kings, radiance of God, exact imprint above 0:01:52.030 --> 0:01:59.340 angels carrying scepters royalty. Oh my goodness. 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:02.040 You're on the winning team today. 0:02:02.070 --> 0:02:03.450 Big time. 0:02:03.870 --> 0:02:05.940 What a great thought. It's a great way to start 0:02:05.940 --> 0:02:09.030 your day. Yeah. Good way. You got to remember that. 0:02:10.110 --> 0:02:16.260 You've already won. You know what? Uh, I want to 0:02:16.260 --> 0:02:20.310 call out 20 of you right now. 20 of you. 0:02:20.550 --> 0:02:23.580 We need 20 people to come be prayer warriors during share. 0:02:23.580 --> 0:02:26.040 We got half hour slots. It starts, what, a week 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:28.950 and a half? Something like that. About that. And we 0:02:28.950 --> 0:02:31.020 need you to jump in. And I'm asking you to 0:02:31.050 --> 0:02:33.930 do this right now. Ali, we're going to really perk 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:35.880 these folks that jump in, aren't we? Yeah, we would 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:36.600 appreciate it. 0:02:36.630 --> 0:02:38.520 We've done this now for a couple of years and 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:41.790 the response has been incredible. We've heard cool stories back 0:02:41.790 --> 0:02:44.610 from you after you committed 30 minutes to pray. You 0:02:44.610 --> 0:02:47.160 do not have to come to us. You stay where 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:49.800 you are. You can drive. You can prayer walk. You 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:52.200 can be in your house. Whatever works for you. You 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:54.660 grab that 30 minute slot, you commit to it. We'll 0:02:54.660 --> 0:02:57.980 send you some prayer points, some just some quick kind 0:02:57.980 --> 0:03:00.709 of behind the scenes updates so you know how to pray. 0:03:00.710 --> 0:03:03.290 But if you're willing to check this out, grab a slot. 0:03:03.290 --> 0:03:08.240 Just text crew to 800 555 7898. If you want 0:03:08.270 --> 0:03:10.790 to be on our prayer crew, text that word crew 0:03:10.790 --> 0:03:14.600 to (800) 555-7898. 0:03:14.630 --> 0:03:17.840 Yeah, and we're grateful, man, I want to thank you 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:20.210 ahead of time. If we get 20 folks right now 0:03:20.210 --> 0:03:21.620 stepping up, going, all right, I'm going to be a 0:03:21.620 --> 0:03:26.450 part of this. That would be dynamite 800 555 7898 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:28.250 text the word crew. And we're going to we're going 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:33.109 to roll on broadcasting live from NB here in Texas. 0:03:33.110 --> 0:03:35.240 And we are grateful we got a lineup today. 0:03:35.510 --> 0:03:38.660 We do. We've had the most incredible guests pop by 0:03:38.660 --> 0:03:41.810 our table. And coming up we've got Jonathan Griffiths from 0:03:41.810 --> 0:03:42.980 Encounter the Truth. 0:03:43.010 --> 0:03:44.900 Yeah. We're going to talk about how in the world 0:03:44.900 --> 0:03:48.770 are we going to reach this world and equip saints 0:03:48.770 --> 0:03:52.220 in this digital age? We're going to be a sweet 0:03:52.250 --> 0:03:53.720 time this morning. Hang on. 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:57.300 She was trying to earn her way to God, but 0:03:57.300 --> 0:04:00.780 God showed her she didn't have to. Ali is in 0:04:00.780 --> 0:04:04.290 the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio. 0:04:04.620 --> 0:04:08.700 And crew broadcasting live from NB. Looks like everybody's tucked in. 0:04:08.700 --> 0:04:14.460 Where's everybody at? Where's everybody at? Yeah. That's you guys 0:04:14.460 --> 0:04:17.610 faking it? Like we got a big studio audience here today. 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:18.900 Yeah, they're all sleeping right now. 0:04:18.930 --> 0:04:20.909 Man, that was pretty weak. Two young thunder. You can 0:04:20.910 --> 0:04:23.460 give us a little more mustard than that last time around. Hey, 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:24.540 that was spontaneous. 0:04:24.660 --> 0:04:26.460 Trying to be honest and just letting people know how 0:04:26.460 --> 0:04:27.360 many people are in the room. 0:04:27.450 --> 0:04:30.030 The room's a little empty in this early hour, but 0:04:30.060 --> 0:04:30.630 it'll fill up. 0:04:30.690 --> 0:04:32.760 It's great. We've got a great guest with us here. 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:35.760 Here's the topic we want to tackle. This is so important. 0:04:35.790 --> 0:04:39.930 My goodness, we live in this digital age. And how 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:42.330 are we going to reach people. And the the sky's 0:04:42.330 --> 0:04:46.050 the limit. When you got an uptick of Bible sales 2024. 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:47.880 We've been saying this a lot only because it's such 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:50.940 great news. 22% uptick of Bible sales. 0:04:50.970 --> 0:04:51.810 Incredible. 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:56.570 Come on. All right, Jonathan Griffiths, let's go. How are 0:04:56.570 --> 0:04:58.609 we going to reach people? I want answers, I want 0:04:58.640 --> 0:04:59.539 them now. 0:04:59.750 --> 0:05:01.789 Well, I don't know that I got all the answers, 0:05:01.790 --> 0:05:04.040 but we got huge opportunities before us, don't we? Because 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:07.250 the digital age opens up so many doors of opportunity 0:05:07.250 --> 0:05:10.940 to get good Bible content into people's hearts and minds. 0:05:10.940 --> 0:05:12.980 And that's that's a wonderful thing. But it's also a 0:05:13.010 --> 0:05:17.600 jungle out there. And as as those who are receiving 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:20.900 and imbibing Bible content, we need to learn some discernment. 0:05:20.900 --> 0:05:22.640 And we need to be really careful, don't we? Because 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:24.739 we can access so much, but we can access the 0:05:24.740 --> 0:05:27.200 good and the bad. Yeah, and there's just a huge 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:29.330 need for all of us who are hungry for the 0:05:29.330 --> 0:05:32.419 Word of God to be learning that discernment between the 0:05:32.420 --> 0:05:34.669 good and the bad. And I think we learned that, 0:05:34.670 --> 0:05:36.950 first of all, in the local church, you know, each 0:05:36.950 --> 0:05:38.719 of us, as we grow in Christ, we need to 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:41.210 be really well grounded in a local church. 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:42.590 Boom, brother, don't we? 0:05:42.620 --> 0:05:45.890 I mean, yes, yes, where we are, where we are 0:05:45.890 --> 0:05:49.100 being taught to understand the scriptures and to discern between 0:05:49.100 --> 0:05:51.790 true and false and good and evil. And if we 0:05:51.820 --> 0:05:55.659 are only independent consumers of content, and we're not embedded 0:05:55.660 --> 0:05:57.070 in the life of the local church, we're going to 0:05:57.100 --> 0:05:58.929 we're going to go astray and we're going to be 0:05:58.930 --> 0:06:01.930 led astray. So I think that's I think that's number one. 0:06:01.930 --> 0:06:04.690 I think that's absolutely crucial. And I'd love to give 0:06:04.690 --> 0:06:07.000 that encouragement to anyone listening today. If you don't have 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:09.880 a local church where you are grounded, where you are involved, 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:13.029 where you have accountability, where you have people feeding into 0:06:13.029 --> 0:06:15.250 your life and you're feeding into other lives, you're going 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:16.030 to be impoverished. 0:06:16.060 --> 0:06:17.020 Find it. Yeah. 0:06:17.050 --> 0:06:20.140 Jonathan Griffiths, our guest this morning. He serves as lead 0:06:20.140 --> 0:06:22.900 pastor of the Metropolitan Bible Church in Ottawa, Canada. He 0:06:22.930 --> 0:06:25.479 sits on the Council of the Gospel Coalition. Canada gives 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:31.030 leadership to the Timothy trust exists to promote expository Bible ministry. 0:06:31.029 --> 0:06:34.870 There is no shortage of, as you mentioned, biblical content available. 0:06:34.870 --> 0:06:37.480 You can go on TikTok or Instagram, and you can 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:41.920 get in 15 seconds of somebody telling you something about 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:44.349 the Bible. But I imagine you have a thought or 0:06:44.350 --> 0:06:48.430 two as to why that can be good and bad. 0:06:48.460 --> 0:06:50.430 Well, it can be good and bad, and there's good, 0:06:50.460 --> 0:06:52.320 bad and everything else in between out there in the 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:55.020 Christian media marketplace. I mean, one of my great passions 0:06:55.050 --> 0:06:58.590 is training up the next generation of gospel workers. Right on. And, 0:06:58.710 --> 0:07:02.580 you know, for for those, um, to lead in the church, 0:07:02.580 --> 0:07:04.289 to do that well and faithfully, they need to be 0:07:04.290 --> 0:07:07.350 grounded in the truth themselves. And and that takes some 0:07:07.350 --> 0:07:09.929 time of study and that takes some education. And I 0:07:09.930 --> 0:07:12.600 know in the world of Moody Global Media, I'm talking 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:15.150 to the choir here because there's there's a commitment here 0:07:15.150 --> 0:07:18.510 to training up gospel workers for the global church. But 0:07:18.510 --> 0:07:20.550 we really need that. And and one of the things 0:07:20.550 --> 0:07:24.360 that's really changed, even post-Covid, just in the last five 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:27.660 years or so, is that the whole world of seminary 0:07:27.660 --> 0:07:31.140 education has been just turned on its head because we're 0:07:31.170 --> 0:07:35.550 we're wanting to be able to access education and substance, 0:07:35.580 --> 0:07:37.740 you know, from our living room without having to go anywhere. 0:07:37.740 --> 0:07:41.130 And so there's been a huge movement away from people, 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:42.510 you know, saying, I'm going to take 3 or 4 years, 0:07:42.510 --> 0:07:43.860 I'm going to go to seminary, I'm going to move 0:07:43.860 --> 0:07:45.570 my family there, and I'm going to have a time 0:07:45.570 --> 0:07:48.620 of study and get really grounded. That's all changed, and 0:07:48.620 --> 0:07:52.250 I think all of us involved in Christian education and 0:07:52.250 --> 0:07:55.010 Christian leadership need to really be thinking about how we 0:07:55.010 --> 0:07:58.340 enable people to access good education so they can step 0:07:58.340 --> 0:08:01.190 into Christian leadership and do that in some flexible ways, 0:08:01.190 --> 0:08:04.160 because the world's really changed and models of education have 0:08:04.190 --> 0:08:05.239 been transformed. 0:08:05.270 --> 0:08:07.670 You know, I got a passion for something because I'm 0:08:07.670 --> 0:08:10.940 a churchman at heart. That's my first and primary passion. 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:16.250 What would it look like if Bible College seminaries got 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:20.210 way more proactive, partnering with the local church, almost making 0:08:20.210 --> 0:08:23.030 those extensions? So here's what I want to do coming 0:08:23.030 --> 0:08:25.220 up in a few minutes. Let's explore that a little bit. 0:08:25.250 --> 0:08:28.310 I'd love to. Um, and just what would it look 0:08:28.310 --> 0:08:31.970 like if fill in the blank? We began to partner 0:08:31.970 --> 0:08:36.859 with churches in a way that puts the almost the onus. 0:08:37.070 --> 0:08:40.310 Responsibility and authority puts the big hat back on the 0:08:40.309 --> 0:08:43.550 local church, so to speak. It's let's kick that around. 0:08:43.550 --> 0:08:46.180 That's coming up in just a couple of minutes. Jonathan 0:08:46.179 --> 0:08:52.570 Griffiths here. He's from way up there. Cold country. Ottawa, Canada. 0:08:52.570 --> 0:08:53.500 Ottawa, Canada. 0:08:53.530 --> 0:08:54.280 Hang on. 0:08:54.610 --> 0:08:57.760 It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio. 0:08:59.380 --> 0:09:04.480 Equip the Saints to do the work of ministry. How 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:07.120 do we do it? Got some crazy thoughts on this 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:07.780 one this morning. 0:09:07.809 --> 0:09:11.200 Jonathan Griffiths with us right now. He's from Encounter the Truth. 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:14.620 Also the lead pastor of the Metropolitan Bible Church in Ottawa, Canada. 0:09:14.650 --> 0:09:17.350 You have a keen interest in this, Carl set up 0:09:17.470 --> 0:09:21.310 just before the break. The seminary, the role of seminary 0:09:21.309 --> 0:09:24.520 has changed the local church. We want to bring those 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:27.460 two together more so that we're not losing people for 0:09:27.460 --> 0:09:30.190 four years as they disappear and go get trained and 0:09:30.190 --> 0:09:32.530 are away from the local church. How can we bridge 0:09:32.530 --> 0:09:33.970 that gap a little bit more? 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:36.730 Well, I think there's been a really positive move. And 0:09:36.730 --> 0:09:40.720 somehow I think Covid sparked this for local churches to say, 0:09:40.750 --> 0:09:42.910 you know, we really want to get back involved in 0:09:42.940 --> 0:09:45.850 the in the training of our next generation of leaders. 0:09:45.850 --> 0:09:48.940 And I think as some people maybe, you know, weren't 0:09:48.940 --> 0:09:51.550 able to go away to seminary and have in-person training 0:09:51.580 --> 0:09:54.579 in the depths of Covid, the churches started to notice, hey, 0:09:54.580 --> 0:09:57.910 we love having our young people around, the people who 0:09:57.910 --> 0:09:59.980 are in training. We love having them here within the 0:09:59.980 --> 0:10:02.500 local church, serving within the local church while they're studying, 0:10:02.500 --> 0:10:04.390 and some of them doing that online and so on. 0:10:04.390 --> 0:10:07.420 And I think that's sparking some really big conversations between 0:10:07.420 --> 0:10:11.440 churches and denominations and seminaries about how we maybe re 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:17.589 envisage theological education keeping our our promising young people involved 0:10:17.590 --> 0:10:20.079 in the life of the local church while they're training, 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:22.570 while they're studying so that they can be mentored by 0:10:22.570 --> 0:10:25.720 their pastors and their elders within their fellowship so they 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:29.229 can actually be engaging in ministry, not not just having 0:10:29.230 --> 0:10:32.050 an ivory tower experience, but engaging in ministry all the 0:10:32.050 --> 0:10:34.750 time while they're training. And I think these conversations are great. 0:10:34.750 --> 0:10:36.280 I don't think we know where the dust is going 0:10:36.309 --> 0:10:40.000 to settle on seminary education for the next generation. But 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:41.650 but the world is changing. 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:49.160 Yeah, it's changing quickly. Um, worldview. 4% of Americans have 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:52.220 a biblical worldview. I'm sure that's not much different in Canada. 0:10:52.250 --> 0:10:53.179 It's probably lower. 0:10:53.210 --> 0:10:56.000 Probably a little bit lower. Thanks for saying that. Um, 0:10:56.000 --> 0:11:00.530 it's so the worldview, though, there's four huge anchors of 0:11:00.530 --> 0:11:05.300 a worldview. Sovereignty of God, lostness of man. Regenerating power 0:11:05.330 --> 0:11:10.130 of Christ through the Holy Spirit and the sanctification process. 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:14.660 When you get those four anchors in your soul, you 0:11:14.660 --> 0:11:19.309 can go somewhere. Yeah, it seems to me wondering if 0:11:19.309 --> 0:11:22.130 I'm under leveraging. So, I mean, I got a moody prof, 0:11:22.130 --> 0:11:24.350 one of our elders, and I've got one of the 0:11:24.350 --> 0:11:29.090 greatest Greek minds is my right hand man. But the 0:11:29.090 --> 0:11:32.390 weird thing about even getting worldview, it seems it feels 0:11:32.390 --> 0:11:36.170 like it's taking us away from reaching people. But really, 0:11:36.170 --> 0:11:39.440 it's almost a delayed gratification. If we can get embedded 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:41.790 in our leaders a biblical worldview and that gets a 0:11:41.790 --> 0:11:44.610 boiler going in. What do you think about that? 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:47.640 Oh, absolutely. But the way in which we shape biblical 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:50.550 worldview is through just immersing ourselves in the word, in 0:11:50.550 --> 0:11:54.179 the Word of God, and being really grounded in the word. Yes. 0:11:54.210 --> 0:11:55.740 And I think one of the things we need to 0:11:55.740 --> 0:11:58.709 do unashamedly and come back to this in an unashamed 0:11:58.710 --> 0:12:01.770 way is, is to focus our education of young people 0:12:01.770 --> 0:12:04.200 who are preparing for ministry, to focus their education in 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:07.350 the Word of God, to get them really grounded in Scripture. Because, 0:12:07.380 --> 0:12:09.750 you know, the Word of God is is is the 0:12:09.750 --> 0:12:12.660 power of God for life transformation. And we need people 0:12:12.660 --> 0:12:15.930 whose minds are so shaped by Scripture that their whole 0:12:15.929 --> 0:12:19.500 view of reality is shaped by Scripture. Yes. And and 0:12:19.500 --> 0:12:21.270 I think we need to come back to a real 0:12:21.270 --> 0:12:24.060 focus of get people into the word, get them grounded 0:12:24.059 --> 0:12:26.010 in the word so that they are mighty in the 0:12:26.010 --> 0:12:29.160 scriptures and able to teach the scriptures. Yeah. And I 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:33.030 want that simplicity to shape our Christian education. Really, at 0:12:33.030 --> 0:12:33.780 every level. 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:37.110 You pastor in Canada, you are part of the Timothy Trust, 0:12:37.140 --> 0:12:40.760 which is all about the revitalization of the church in Canada. 0:12:40.790 --> 0:12:43.760 You mentioned you think in Canada, biblical worldview might even 0:12:43.790 --> 0:12:47.300 be lower than here in the States. What would you 0:12:47.300 --> 0:12:50.209 say are the unique challenges that you're seeing from your 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:53.240 vantage point? Maybe that we're not even seeing. 0:12:53.270 --> 0:12:55.610 Well, you know, Canada and the United States share a 0:12:55.610 --> 0:12:58.730 lot in common historically and culturally, of course, but there 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:02.450 there has been a faster movement away from our biblical 0:13:02.450 --> 0:13:05.690 moorings in Canada overall than there has in the United States. 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:07.790 I mean, we're on the same trajectory, but I think 0:13:07.790 --> 0:13:09.560 it's been a little bit, a little bit quicker. 0:13:09.650 --> 0:13:10.850 You're little European. 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:13.160 We're a little European. We're a few years ahead. I mean, 0:13:13.190 --> 0:13:15.680 you're the United States is heading in the same direction, 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:17.540 but we tend to get to some of the key 0:13:17.540 --> 0:13:20.600 markers a little bit quicker. That's been true historically with 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:23.900 massive social change over the last 50 years. Each each 0:13:23.900 --> 0:13:26.720 negative step. Canada's been a few steps ahead of the 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:29.600 United States. There are various reasons for that. You know, 0:13:29.630 --> 0:13:31.520 our church where I serve is on the border of 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:35.330 Ontario and Quebec. So Quebec being French Canada, Quebec is 0:13:35.330 --> 0:13:40.390 the least reached region in the Americas. North south central Caribbean. Wow. With, 0:13:40.420 --> 0:13:44.590 you know, 2 or 3% evangelical Christian in Quebec. That's 0:13:44.620 --> 0:13:47.170 the that's the lowest you'll find anywhere in the Americas. 0:13:47.170 --> 0:13:49.270 And part of the history of that actually has been 0:13:49.270 --> 0:13:53.319 a very negative reaction in Quebec against a historically very 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:57.610 repressive Roman Catholicism. That's just Quebec French history, but that 0:13:57.610 --> 0:14:02.200 has shaped our our region of Canada. There's a very strong, anti-Christian, 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:07.720 very strong secularizing cultural move in that part of the world. 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:10.360 And and you see that then represented in, in our 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:12.670 politics and in the social direction of the country. So 0:14:12.670 --> 0:14:14.530 that's been a little bit of a unique factor in 0:14:14.530 --> 0:14:17.410 Canada that I think has moved things on a little 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:20.260 bit more quickly. But but what I want to say is, 0:14:20.260 --> 0:14:22.690 despite all that, the reality on the ground in the 0:14:22.690 --> 0:14:24.250 churches is we're seeing people coming to Christ. 0:14:24.250 --> 0:14:25.120 That's what I was wondering. 0:14:25.150 --> 0:14:28.660 We're seeing young people. We're seeing young men come to Christ. 0:14:28.690 --> 0:14:34.360 It's really fascinating and loving expository Bible teaching, like teaching 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:37.290 through books of the Bible, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. 0:14:37.290 --> 0:14:40.739 They're hungry for that. Our young adults group seem to 0:14:40.740 --> 0:14:43.739 be the hungriest for it. So we've got. We've got 0:14:43.770 --> 0:14:47.880 hundreds of, you know, college age students and young professionals coming. 0:14:47.910 --> 0:14:49.710 To our church. And I tell you, if I gave 0:14:49.710 --> 0:14:52.710 up doing expository Bible teaching on a Sunday morning and 0:14:52.710 --> 0:14:55.200 I went all kind of light and fluffy and, and 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:58.320 did kind of randomized topical teaching that wasn't grounded in 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:02.430 the text, they would first complain and then they would leave. Wow. 0:15:02.460 --> 0:15:04.380 My my my my young adults. 0:15:04.860 --> 0:15:05.490 That is. 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:06.750 That's encouraging. Yeah. 0:15:06.780 --> 0:15:07.830 Yeah, I love that. 0:15:07.860 --> 0:15:11.760 You know, we've we've seen that. Um, we're seeing that 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:14.790 in Chicago. Are you. Yeah, we're seeing that. It's really 0:15:14.790 --> 0:15:18.359 a bizarre thing, but I'm seeing the greatest hunger for 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:21.840 the word of God in our downtown campus, 30, 40 0:15:21.870 --> 0:15:26.160 of these young professionals. And they just they want the word. 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:29.790 They're filling small groups. It's wonderful. They're busting open the word. 0:15:29.790 --> 0:15:33.960 They've got the word of God open constantly. Yeah. So 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:37.130 We better make hay while the sun is shining, baby. 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:38.180 You know what I mean? 0:15:38.210 --> 0:15:40.250 I think so. I think the Spirit of God is 0:15:40.250 --> 0:15:43.370 doing something. I think that there is a reaction against 0:15:43.370 --> 0:15:46.940 just the ridiculousness of what's going on in culture, I think. 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:49.250 I think young people are looking out at the cultural 0:15:49.250 --> 0:15:50.120 landscape and saying, this. 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:50.840 Ain't working, this. 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:53.780 Ain't working, this is empty. What is something solid upon 0:15:53.780 --> 0:15:56.390 which I can build my life? Yeah. And and there's 0:15:56.390 --> 0:15:57.860 a hunger for the word of God. And people are 0:15:57.860 --> 0:16:00.680 coming to Christ. So we rejoice in that. Yeah. 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:03.710 Guys, can we just stop for a moment and say, 0:16:03.710 --> 0:16:04.490 Praise God? 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:05.630 Praise the Lord. Yeah. 0:16:05.660 --> 0:16:09.140 Praise God. And what's wild about this is there seems 0:16:09.140 --> 0:16:12.140 to be this threshold. So things devolve, devolve, devolve. And 0:16:12.140 --> 0:16:16.430 then there's this little group that goes, this is crazy. 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:21.470 Where's truth? Yeah. Where's absolute truth? Here? Exactly. And then 0:16:21.500 --> 0:16:25.250 that could be the beginnings of a bit of an awakening. 0:16:25.250 --> 0:16:28.010 And how cool would that be? That always comes through 0:16:28.010 --> 0:16:31.280 the students. It always comes through a youth movement often. 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:33.170 And through the preaching of the word of God. I mean, 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:37.010 historically in church history. Revival is sparked through the open 0:16:37.010 --> 0:16:39.980 proclamation of the Word of God, and the Lord uses that. 0:16:39.980 --> 0:16:42.260 And I mean, I'm daring to hope that we might 0:16:42.260 --> 0:16:44.450 see something of a revival in our generation. I mean, 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:45.260 wouldn't that be wonderful? 0:16:45.290 --> 0:16:48.350 Oh, are you kidding me, man? God, please bring it on. 0:16:48.410 --> 0:16:51.890 All right, listen, you're listening to a guy going, who 0:16:51.890 --> 0:16:54.500 is this guy? We got a link for you. 0:16:54.530 --> 0:16:58.070 Just text local. Jonathan Griffiths, our guest. He is all 0:16:58.070 --> 0:17:00.410 about the local church. As you heard his heart. Text 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:09.470 local to 800555 7898. Local to 805 five five 7898. 0:17:09.500 --> 0:17:13.100 Jonathan, I love you, man. Your heart for the Lord. 0:17:13.100 --> 0:17:15.860 Your clarity of communication. It's inspiring. Thank you for being 0:17:15.859 --> 0:17:16.159 with us. 0:17:16.310 --> 0:17:18.080 So great to be with you both. Thanks for having me. 0:17:18.109 --> 0:17:21.680 Yeah. What a joy. Grateful. Aren't we guys? Yes. 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:22.040 Very much. 0:17:22.070 --> 0:17:24.649 Goodness, man. This will put fuel in your belly. What 0:17:24.650 --> 0:17:24.860 a way. 0:17:24.859 --> 0:17:26.300 To start the morning. What a way. 0:17:26.750 --> 0:17:29.510 Good morning. Boom! Crew helping you take your next step 0:17:29.510 --> 0:17:30.620 with Jesus. 0:17:30.690 --> 0:17:35.639 She's a choreographer extraordinaire and everything is Greek to her. 0:17:35.670 --> 0:17:39.630 Super D is in the crew. It's Karl and crew 0:17:39.660 --> 0:17:41.130 on Moody Radio. 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:45.630 Lay down your life as a living sacrifice. Holy and 0:17:45.630 --> 0:17:49.530 acceptable to God. Let's do it today. Well, we get 0:17:49.530 --> 0:17:52.800 the call of God on our life is to go 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:58.080 and reach. But Jesus did something really practical. He cared 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:00.629 for the practical needs of people. You know, when I 0:18:00.630 --> 0:18:04.020 turn on my water system at home, it's great water 0:18:04.050 --> 0:18:08.760 got one of those home filtration systems. But the amount 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:11.280 of people around the globe today that are just walking 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:14.280 great distances, just to get a drink of water that 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:18.479 isn't going to infect them with something staggering. The numbers 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:21.450 are off the chart. What are those numbers, Chris? Do 0:18:21.450 --> 0:18:23.040 you have any idea what in the world is going 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:24.570 on with water around the world? 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:28.500 Yeah, there's 785 million people around the world that don't 0:18:28.500 --> 0:18:31.720 have access to something that most of us have taken 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:35.560 for granted for most of our lives. So there's 331 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:40.030 million people in the US, so more than twice the 0:18:40.030 --> 0:18:44.560 population of the United States doesn't have access to clean, 0:18:44.590 --> 0:18:45.730 safe drinking water. 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:49.330 You've got Christopher Bethe, founder of the Bucket Ministry, joining 0:18:49.330 --> 0:18:51.430 us right now. You got to tell this story, though. 0:18:51.460 --> 0:18:54.010 You this started for you. This was not something you 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:56.980 were interested in. You were not interested in missions. You 0:18:56.980 --> 0:18:59.889 weren't even particularly strong in your faith. I've heard your story. 0:18:59.890 --> 0:19:02.139 So I know that you've told this before. But tell 0:19:02.140 --> 0:19:04.719 us about how this whole thing got started. You got 0:19:04.750 --> 0:19:09.310 roped into chaperoning a mission trip with your daughter. Went reluctantly. 0:19:09.310 --> 0:19:10.690 Oh, this is good. 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:14.199 In 2012, my daughter came home from high school and 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:16.390 said she wanted to go on this mission trip to 0:19:16.420 --> 0:19:20.320 the Brazilian Amazon. And, I mean, she'd been to South 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:23.770 Texas before, but we thought it was a little bit further. 0:19:23.770 --> 0:19:26.530 So my wife and I said, hey, listen, if you're 0:19:26.530 --> 0:19:28.200 going to go on this trip, you got to raise 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:31.290 all the money. So this was a reverse psychology move 0:19:31.290 --> 0:19:35.970 at this point. So a couple weeks went by and 0:19:35.970 --> 0:19:39.090 sure enough, she raised 3500 bucks. So then we decided 0:19:39.090 --> 0:19:40.770 if she's going to go, one of us has to 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:44.399 go with her. Yeah. And that became my job. And 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:47.609 my only job, though, was to bring her home. I 0:19:47.609 --> 0:19:50.670 didn't go there because I had a love or compassion 0:19:50.670 --> 0:19:54.690 for the Brazilian people. I didn't go there because I 0:19:54.690 --> 0:19:57.840 thought I wanted to be the hands and feet of Jesus. 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:00.870 I just went there to bring my kid home, and 0:20:00.869 --> 0:20:04.560 the things that I saw changed me at a core level. 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:09.510 And really, um, God showed me why he had created me. 0:20:09.540 --> 0:20:11.070 What did he do in your heart? 0:20:11.220 --> 0:20:16.919 Well, uh, I saw things that I could not reconcile. 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:20.580 I saw things that I never thought was possible prior 0:20:20.580 --> 0:20:22.410 to this. I didn't even know there was a world 0:20:22.410 --> 0:20:25.440 water crisis. I mean, I lived, like most of us 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:28.729 live if I was thirsty, I went to my refrigerator, 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:31.700 put a cup underneath the filter and got a glass 0:20:31.700 --> 0:20:34.790 of water, or I bought a bottle of water. I 0:20:34.790 --> 0:20:37.940 never even thought people had to drink out of a lake, river, 0:20:37.940 --> 0:20:42.650 stream or anything like that. So when I saw that 0:20:42.770 --> 0:20:46.730 for the first time, I was crushed and I thought, 0:20:46.760 --> 0:20:49.670 with everything we have in the world, how is it 0:20:49.670 --> 0:20:54.020 even possible that people are drinking out of a river 0:20:54.470 --> 0:20:59.149 today and thinking that's normal? That was probably the biggest 0:20:59.150 --> 0:21:03.260 tragedy for me, is they thought that was normal. They 0:21:03.260 --> 0:21:07.070 thought that being sick all the time was normal. They 0:21:07.070 --> 0:21:10.580 thought that not naming their children for the first two 0:21:10.580 --> 0:21:13.129 years of the child's life, because they weren't sure the 0:21:13.130 --> 0:21:17.869 child was going to survive, was normal. So while I 0:21:17.869 --> 0:21:22.160 was in a house in the Amazon, a Brazilian woman 0:21:22.160 --> 0:21:24.669 asked me, are you thirsty? And I'm just this giant, 0:21:24.670 --> 0:21:28.180 sweaty American, right? And she she looks at me, she 0:21:28.180 --> 0:21:31.150 sees I'm sweaty. She says, are you thirsty? And I'm like, yeah, 0:21:31.180 --> 0:21:34.780 I'm thirsty. But I'm looking around her home and there's 0:21:34.780 --> 0:21:38.560 no refrigerator, there's no water cooler. So I'm thinking, where's 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:41.380 she going to get this water from? She takes two 0:21:41.410 --> 0:21:44.889 cups from her kitchen. They were mismatched and they were cracked. 0:21:44.890 --> 0:21:47.560 And she goes out into this little dock area on 0:21:47.560 --> 0:21:51.730 the side of the river, bends down in the river 0:21:51.730 --> 0:21:55.000 and grabs two cups of water. And I'm standing in 0:21:55.000 --> 0:21:58.360 the doorway thinking, what is this crazy woman doing? I 0:21:58.390 --> 0:22:01.480 am not going to drink that. But sure enough, she 0:22:01.480 --> 0:22:03.190 comes and hands one cup to me. 0:22:03.220 --> 0:22:03.970 Oh boy. 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:09.159 One cup to my interpreter. So now I have this decision. Yeah. 0:22:09.190 --> 0:22:11.800 Do I drink this because I just told her how 0:22:11.830 --> 0:22:14.740 thirsty I was. But if I don't, she's going to 0:22:14.740 --> 0:22:17.380 think I'm rude. So as I'm pondering this decision, my 0:22:17.380 --> 0:22:20.440 interpreter is wagging his finger. Don't do that. Do it. 0:22:20.470 --> 0:22:25.650 But now I realize the gravity of this. She thinks 0:22:25.650 --> 0:22:30.119 this is normal. Then, as I'm holding this, I heard 0:22:30.119 --> 0:22:34.230 something I'd never heard before, and I had at this point. 0:22:34.230 --> 0:22:36.460 I had only been walking with Jesus for about 3 0:22:36.460 --> 0:22:39.990 or 4 years. Didn't even really fully understand my own 0:22:39.990 --> 0:22:43.649 relationship with Christ yet. But as I'm holding this glass 0:22:43.650 --> 0:22:46.710 of water and there's things swimming in it, I heard 0:22:46.710 --> 0:22:51.840 something I'd never heard before. And prior to this day, 0:22:51.840 --> 0:22:54.840 if someone would have told me, hey, I got a 0:22:54.840 --> 0:22:58.590 word from God today, or God gave me some instruction today, 0:22:58.590 --> 0:22:58.800 you would. 0:22:58.830 --> 0:23:00.360 Have thought, that's kind of loopy. 0:23:00.390 --> 0:23:04.890 Yeah, I was skeptical. And if I'm just being completely honest, 0:23:04.890 --> 0:23:07.859 I would have thought really? He stopped his day to 0:23:07.890 --> 0:23:11.370 have a conversation with you. But as I'm holding this 0:23:11.369 --> 0:23:14.880 glass of dirty water, I heard two words and he said, 0:23:14.880 --> 0:23:18.690 help them. But it came with no other instruction. I 0:23:18.690 --> 0:23:20.520 didn't know what help them meant. Am I supposed to 0:23:20.550 --> 0:23:23.780 give these people 20 bucks? Am I supposed to repair 0:23:23.780 --> 0:23:25.850 their boat? Am I supposed to cook them dinner? I 0:23:25.850 --> 0:23:29.570 don't know what help them means. So that trip in 0:23:29.570 --> 0:23:33.080 the Amazon is where God showed me why he had 0:23:33.080 --> 0:23:34.070 created me. 0:23:34.369 --> 0:23:40.220 Wow, you're a storyteller. You know what you are? You're 0:23:40.220 --> 0:23:42.409 a guy that got hit deeply at a heart level 0:23:42.440 --> 0:23:44.659 by the Spirit of God. Amen. And you got a 0:23:44.660 --> 0:23:45.590 story to tell. 0:23:45.619 --> 0:23:46.250 Amen. 0:23:46.340 --> 0:23:50.119 Coming up. Where did it go from there? And what's 0:23:50.119 --> 0:23:59.330 happening today? Chris is with us. Just another follower of Jesus, dude, 0:23:59.359 --> 0:24:01.850 who God's working in his life. Hang on. 0:24:02.119 --> 0:24:05.149 Your shot of hope to help you through the day. 0:24:05.150 --> 0:24:08.720 This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio. 0:24:09.140 --> 0:24:12.080 He was somewhere in the middle of the Amazon and 0:24:12.080 --> 0:24:15.260 he heard the words help them. That was the heart 0:24:15.260 --> 0:24:18.770 behind this ministry, the bucket ministry. What do you do 0:24:18.770 --> 0:24:20.949 with that? You said you didn't didn't come with instructions. 0:24:20.950 --> 0:24:22.930 The Lord didn't say how you were going to help them. 0:24:22.930 --> 0:24:25.270 So the first step was to discern what do I do? 0:24:25.300 --> 0:24:27.970 They don't have access to clean water, but how could 0:24:27.970 --> 0:24:31.360 I possibly be involved in helping solve this? 0:24:31.630 --> 0:24:34.360 Yeah. You know, at the end of the day, I'm 0:24:34.359 --> 0:24:37.360 just an ordinary guy. I was a business guy. I 0:24:37.359 --> 0:24:42.370 really had no training in ministry. I had very little relationship, 0:24:42.369 --> 0:24:45.100 even with the church. At that point, I hadn't even 0:24:45.100 --> 0:24:48.430 been discipled. So we got home from that trip and 0:24:48.430 --> 0:24:52.900 just started researching the world water crisis. Tried to find 0:24:52.900 --> 0:24:56.560 out just how big the problem really is. At the 0:24:56.560 --> 0:25:00.550 end of the day, everywhere I searched, water was just 0:25:00.550 --> 0:25:04.990 such a major issue. And there's really two spaces within water. 0:25:04.990 --> 0:25:09.340 There's access to water and then there's access to clean, 0:25:09.340 --> 0:25:15.189 safe drinking water. And, um, two really different issues. So 0:25:15.190 --> 0:25:17.840 I started looking at what could be a solution in 0:25:17.840 --> 0:25:22.639 the Amazon basin, and we researched a variety of filters. 0:25:22.640 --> 0:25:25.340 We bought a variety of filters, tried to find a 0:25:25.340 --> 0:25:29.450 tool that would work, and finally my family and I 0:25:29.480 --> 0:25:33.320 were at Rei. It's a camping supply store here in Dallas, 0:25:33.320 --> 0:25:36.619 and I was in the water filter aisle for camping, 0:25:36.619 --> 0:25:39.650 and I stumbled across this filter by a company out 0:25:39.650 --> 0:25:44.210 of Tampa called Sawyer Products that attaches to a bucket 0:25:44.210 --> 0:25:47.540 and uses the gravity of water in the bucket to 0:25:47.570 --> 0:25:51.170 force that water through the filter. The filter captures all 0:25:51.170 --> 0:25:55.540 the debris, all the contaminants, and then yields 350 to 0:25:55.540 --> 0:26:00.170 500 gallons per day of clean, safe drinking water. So 0:26:00.170 --> 0:26:04.369 I thought, man, this is portable. This is simple. It 0:26:04.369 --> 0:26:07.940 doesn't require an engineer to operate it. And I think 0:26:07.940 --> 0:26:10.490 I could teach a seven year old or a 97 0:26:10.520 --> 0:26:14.600 year old how to use this tool. So we we 0:26:14.600 --> 0:26:17.859 bought about 80 of these filters and went back to 0:26:17.890 --> 0:26:21.310 the Amazon the next year. But again, in the beginning 0:26:21.310 --> 0:26:24.879 I only thought this was water. I didn't even understand 0:26:24.880 --> 0:26:28.000 the connection to the gospel. So we're in the Amazon, 0:26:28.000 --> 0:26:31.870 we're distributing 80 filters, and I get done. I feel 0:26:31.869 --> 0:26:34.690 really good about myself and I thought this is what 0:26:34.690 --> 0:26:37.960 helped them meant. Then this Brazilian man comes up to 0:26:37.990 --> 0:26:40.540 me and he says, can you tell me how you 0:26:40.540 --> 0:26:43.180 got here? And I made a joke. And I said, well, 0:26:43.180 --> 0:26:45.850 that boat, that's how I got here. He's like, no, no, no. 0:26:45.880 --> 0:26:49.300 Of all the villages in the Amazon, how did you 0:26:49.330 --> 0:26:53.470 come to ours? I'm thinking, wow, that's a deep question. Uh, 0:26:53.470 --> 0:26:57.010 and I said, well, I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. 0:26:57.010 --> 0:27:00.730 And we thought that we should bring you this gift. 0:27:00.730 --> 0:27:03.879 And the next thing he said changed everything for us 0:27:03.880 --> 0:27:09.280 and me personally. And this man says, who is this Jesus? 0:27:09.310 --> 0:27:11.139 So at this point, you're like. 0:27:11.140 --> 0:27:11.890 Whoa. 0:27:11.920 --> 0:27:14.260 Yeah. And again, at this point, I had only been 0:27:14.280 --> 0:27:17.250 walking with Christ about four years, so I'm looking around. Hey, 0:27:17.250 --> 0:27:20.430 where's the pastor? Somebody find the pastor. Get a pastor 0:27:20.430 --> 0:27:22.950 over here so they can tell this guy about Jesus. 0:27:22.980 --> 0:27:26.280 So there was nobody except for my interpreter. So now 0:27:26.280 --> 0:27:29.220 I'm like, oh, what do I do? So I just 0:27:29.220 --> 0:27:32.160 start sharing my testimony with this man, and I tell 0:27:32.160 --> 0:27:33.840 him about how my daughter and I were in a 0:27:33.840 --> 0:27:37.170 car crash, and I came to faith in a hospital 0:27:37.170 --> 0:27:41.010 and turned my life over and repented of my sins. 0:27:41.040 --> 0:27:45.209 And the next thing he said changed me at a 0:27:45.210 --> 0:27:48.480 wholesale level. He said, how can I? 0:27:48.510 --> 0:27:48.960 Oh my word. 0:27:48.990 --> 0:27:54.330 Have a friend that will never leave me. And I 0:27:54.330 --> 0:27:57.510 was like, oh my goodness, what just happened here? 0:27:57.540 --> 0:27:58.199 Changed everything. 0:27:58.230 --> 0:28:02.640 And then there's 30 people behind him. Brazilians, they're raising 0:28:02.640 --> 0:28:05.399 their hand and say, hey, we want that same gift too. 0:28:05.430 --> 0:28:08.369 Oh my word. So that's where we realized that the 0:28:08.369 --> 0:28:15.200 filter will save lives physically, but more importantly, it introduced 0:28:15.230 --> 0:28:18.230 introduces people to a relationship with Jesus. 0:28:18.260 --> 0:28:20.899 We just got a moment. Give us some facts and 0:28:20.900 --> 0:28:23.300 figures of where you are now. Yeah, we're. 0:28:23.300 --> 0:28:26.510 Working in about 20 different countries right now with most 0:28:26.510 --> 0:28:30.380 of our work happening, about 60% of our work happening 0:28:30.380 --> 0:28:36.560 in Kenya right now. We have probably served nearly 300,000 0:28:36.560 --> 0:28:40.190 families in just the last ten years. And with the 0:28:40.190 --> 0:28:45.800 last year alone in 2024, we served 41,000 families. We 0:28:45.800 --> 0:28:53.330 had about 22,000 salvations and, um, just significant work all 0:28:53.330 --> 0:28:54.410 around the world. 0:28:57.380 --> 0:29:03.890 This has God tracks all over it. Chris. Amen. You 0:29:03.890 --> 0:29:05.720 can't claim a stick of this, can you? 0:29:05.750 --> 0:29:09.560 No, no, this is this is so far beyond me 0:29:10.220 --> 0:29:13.690 I really don't even recognize myself anymore. 0:29:17.200 --> 0:29:20.140 You know, here's here's a question. We're going to do 0:29:20.140 --> 0:29:22.570 this quick because I want to give a link out 0:29:22.570 --> 0:29:26.620 here in just a moment. What do you say to 0:29:26.650 --> 0:29:31.420 the person who's just going through the grind, listening to 0:29:31.420 --> 0:29:34.930 you right now? What, you got to get on a 0:29:34.930 --> 0:29:38.050 ragged edge somewhere. Yeah. Got to get on a ragged edge, right? 0:29:38.080 --> 0:29:41.620 Man, I just hope that this story of an ordinary 0:29:41.620 --> 0:29:48.850 business guy, uneducated, untrained, just like the Sanhedrin, saw Peter 0:29:48.850 --> 0:29:49.420 and John. 0:29:49.450 --> 0:29:50.080 In the same way. 0:29:50.080 --> 0:29:55.300 For 13. I just hope that somebody hears this and says, well, 0:29:55.330 --> 0:30:00.550 if this ordinary, uneducated guy can be part of that solution, 0:30:00.550 --> 0:30:04.060 maybe I can do something. I hope this becomes an 0:30:04.090 --> 0:30:07.870 anthem for a person sitting on the couch at home, 0:30:07.870 --> 0:30:14.340 driving in their car, knowing that there's more so compelling. 0:30:14.370 --> 0:30:22.500 Ally. Just got to take a risk that's walking by faith. Amen. 0:30:22.530 --> 0:30:26.010 You just got to step out there. Oh my goodness. 0:30:26.010 --> 0:30:31.980 Boom crew. I want you to find out more. I 0:30:31.980 --> 0:30:38.610 think whether you give or just it fuels your soul 0:30:38.610 --> 0:30:41.910 and ignites something in you. Whatever the case, some of 0:30:41.910 --> 0:30:43.830 you are going to want to give some shekels, some 0:30:43.830 --> 0:30:48.150 a ton of shekels getting behind ministries like this. What 0:30:48.180 --> 0:30:49.770 a powerful thing, ally it is. 0:30:49.800 --> 0:30:53.370 This is called the Bucket Ministry. Christopher Beth, the founder 0:30:53.400 --> 0:30:56.760 and director with us this morning. Text bucket. If you 0:30:56.760 --> 0:31:03.180 want more information, text bucket to 800 555 7898. Bucket 0:31:03.210 --> 0:31:06.870 to 800 555 7898. 0:31:06.900 --> 0:31:10.400 I kicked a song out because you're too compelling. So 0:31:10.430 --> 0:31:13.340 I want a one minute story. One minute. 0:31:13.610 --> 0:31:17.660 One minute. Uh, we have a member of our team 0:31:17.660 --> 0:31:21.830 in Kenya. Her name is Linda Okumu. Linda was orphaned 0:31:21.830 --> 0:31:28.340 at the age of 11, and she was without any 0:31:28.340 --> 0:31:31.070 family to care for her. And from the age of 0:31:31.070 --> 0:31:36.650 11 until her 30s, the only way she could survive 0:31:36.650 --> 0:31:42.320 was by selling her body. And we met her in 0:31:42.320 --> 0:31:47.000 her 30s. We delivered a water filter to her home, 0:31:47.000 --> 0:31:52.280 and she heard the gospel in her home. And after 0:31:52.280 --> 0:31:56.450 that day, she decided to follow Jesus. She was baptized 0:31:56.450 --> 0:32:00.590 and she's now on our team of missionaries. Come on. 0:32:00.590 --> 0:32:05.570 Working in Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya. Come on. And 0:32:05.570 --> 0:32:10.960 she's our one of our most prolific missionaries and just 0:32:10.960 --> 0:32:14.830 bragging on her a little bit. She tends to spend 0:32:14.830 --> 0:32:19.600 so much time with her recipients that she's just reproducing 0:32:19.600 --> 0:32:20.410 what she's heard. 0:32:20.440 --> 0:32:27.220 Unbelievable. You want more text bucket to 800 555 7898. 0:32:27.220 --> 0:32:31.390 More on the bucket Ministry. Incredible. Incredible work done around 0:32:31.390 --> 0:32:35.800 the world. Text bucket to 800 555 7898. 0:32:35.830 --> 0:32:39.970 Yeah. This is this is extraordinary, to say the least. 0:32:39.970 --> 0:32:42.490 I want to thank you for your heart, Chris. Thank you. 0:32:42.520 --> 0:32:49.990 Christopher Beth, founder, chief storyteller. You kidding me? Chief poobah? Storyteller. 0:32:50.020 --> 0:32:54.370 Let me tell you what. Text bucket to 805 five 0:32:54.400 --> 0:32:59.170 five 7898. Let this fuel the fire inside you. God 0:32:59.170 --> 0:33:02.020 wants to do this in you today. There's no question 0:33:02.020 --> 0:33:03.190 about it. Amen. 0:33:03.550 --> 0:33:06.710 He was sharing the gospel on the radio and then 0:33:06.710 --> 0:33:11.090 he got saved. Young thunders in the crew. It's Carl 0:33:11.090 --> 0:33:12.980 and crew on Moody Radio. 0:33:13.100 --> 0:33:16.520 Carl and crew broadcasting live from NB here in Dallas, Texas. 0:33:16.550 --> 0:33:20.450 And we're watching God do some amazing things. You know, 0:33:20.450 --> 0:33:22.520 when you think about the the Word of God, our 0:33:22.520 --> 0:33:25.610 heart is for people to not only know Jesus, but 0:33:25.610 --> 0:33:28.040 then to grow up. Central to this is the Word 0:33:28.040 --> 0:33:32.000 of God. I mean, I mentioned man cannot live by 0:33:32.000 --> 0:33:35.030 bread alone, but by every word. That word is the 0:33:35.030 --> 0:33:37.790 spoken word of God. The word is rhema that proceeds 0:33:37.790 --> 0:33:40.550 from the mouth of God. It's vital, isn't it, Ali? 0:33:40.580 --> 0:33:43.520 And so all of the different creative ways of getting 0:33:43.520 --> 0:33:45.920 people engaged with the Word of God. We've got one 0:33:45.920 --> 0:33:48.560 for you today. Mark Harper joins us at the table. 0:33:48.590 --> 0:33:52.040 He's director of special projects at Revelation Media. You guys 0:33:52.040 --> 0:33:55.460 are all about getting people connected to the Word of God. First, 0:33:55.460 --> 0:33:59.120 just give us the vision for this new project. 0:33:59.150 --> 0:34:02.950 Sure. So this is, um, I Bible has always been 0:34:02.980 --> 0:34:03.670 a it's. 0:34:03.670 --> 0:34:06.219 Been an eight year journey so far to get the 0:34:06.220 --> 0:34:09.040 Word of God to the world in a way that 0:34:09.040 --> 0:34:13.930 they can see it, they can hear it and read it. Um, um, 0:34:13.960 --> 0:34:17.530 a little backstory. Steve Cleary, the founder of Revelation Media. 0:34:17.530 --> 0:34:19.180 I met him when I was working on the movie 0:34:19.180 --> 0:34:21.280 The End of the spear, and the end of the 0:34:21.280 --> 0:34:23.170 spear was about the missionaries that were killed in Ecuador 0:34:23.170 --> 0:34:27.250 in 1956. And it was actually at Moody sharing that film, 0:34:27.700 --> 0:34:30.910 and was pretty overwhelmed that the student sitting in that 0:34:30.940 --> 0:34:33.279 room could be the ones that are taking the Word 0:34:33.280 --> 0:34:36.489 of God to the farthest reaches of the world to 0:34:36.520 --> 0:34:39.400 share it, laying down their lives. And I don't know 0:34:39.400 --> 0:34:40.390 why I'm getting emotional this morning. 0:34:40.420 --> 0:34:42.430 No, that's all right, man. You're in good company. 0:34:42.460 --> 0:34:46.570 So, um, you know, we we I say we live 0:34:46.570 --> 0:34:49.780 in a sight and sound generation. Steve would say we've 0:34:49.780 --> 0:34:52.000 always lived in a sight and sound generation. But when 0:34:52.000 --> 0:34:55.180 I was working for Mark green, who founded the end 0:34:55.180 --> 0:34:57.520 of the spear movie and the ministry called Bearing Fruit 0:34:57.520 --> 0:35:01.680 Communications at the time, Mark green says this book is alive. 0:35:01.710 --> 0:35:05.370 And that's that's the four words he lives for. This 0:35:05.370 --> 0:35:07.620 book is alive. And so it is the the Word 0:35:07.620 --> 0:35:09.480 of God that's alive. And I think there is a 0:35:09.480 --> 0:35:11.850 huge adventure for more people that can get involved in 0:35:11.850 --> 0:35:15.060 sharing God's Word. There's some people that get nervous. What's 0:35:15.060 --> 0:35:17.370 someone going to think? Um, you know, are they going 0:35:17.400 --> 0:35:21.239 to think I'm being pushy? Um, but there's so much 0:35:21.239 --> 0:35:24.330 that can be life and death, power of the tongue 0:35:24.630 --> 0:35:27.120 that can be given to people by sharing God's word. 0:35:27.180 --> 0:35:30.060 What in the world is the I Bible? Obviously, it's 0:35:30.060 --> 0:35:33.000 got digital included here. What is it? Sight. Sound? Yeah. 0:35:33.000 --> 0:35:37.739 So I Bible. It's a free app. I Bible app. Com. Um, 0:35:37.739 --> 0:35:40.859 it is a it's it's literally a book that has 0:35:40.860 --> 0:35:44.850 come alive. It's an illustrated animated Bible. Interactive free to 0:35:44.880 --> 0:35:49.140 the entire world. Oh my goodness. And, um, uh, it 0:35:49.140 --> 0:35:53.489 originally it was, um, envisioned as DVDs. And when we 0:35:53.489 --> 0:35:56.460 were putting out the animated movie The Pilgrim's Progress that 0:35:56.460 --> 0:35:59.600 came out in theaters in 2019, we came up with 0:35:59.600 --> 0:36:01.910 a format where you could literally, like, just turn the 0:36:01.910 --> 0:36:04.820 page with your finger, and just as it would turn 0:36:04.820 --> 0:36:07.640 the page, the animation would just come alive on the screen. 0:36:07.640 --> 0:36:10.550 And it was very engaging. But unfortunately, to have that 0:36:10.550 --> 0:36:13.400 kind of technology, it's expensive. It's hard. So what you 0:36:13.400 --> 0:36:15.589 do see when you see each video, it's a chapter 0:36:15.590 --> 0:36:20.120 by chapter, um, Genesis, for example, is 42 episodes because 0:36:20.120 --> 0:36:23.810 there's 42 different stories in Genesis, but it's I Bible 0:36:23.810 --> 0:36:28.250 is one story. It's it's God's story. Um, it's coherent. 0:36:28.250 --> 0:36:32.570 It's the we were created. The divine narrative is creation, 0:36:32.600 --> 0:36:36.950 the fall redemption through Christ and restoration for eternity. 0:36:36.950 --> 0:36:38.420 Biblical worldview, biblical. 0:36:38.420 --> 0:36:41.270 Worldview and make it easy. You know, when you when 0:36:41.270 --> 0:36:44.299 you present the story only with our own testimony, we're 0:36:44.300 --> 0:36:46.910 in the middle of the story. There's a much bigger story, 0:36:46.910 --> 0:36:48.950 and it's God's story, and it's easy. He loves us. 0:36:48.950 --> 0:36:51.500 He made us. We fell away. He saved us through 0:36:51.500 --> 0:36:55.160 his son. And you know, there's an abundant life. We've 0:36:55.160 --> 0:37:00.160 had over 359,000, Actually 360,000. This morning we just looked 0:37:00.310 --> 0:37:03.339 Salvation's Through the real story of Jesus, which is a 0:37:03.340 --> 0:37:06.850 9.5 minute short film version of the Bible. It's in 0:37:06.850 --> 0:37:11.380 118 languages and you can get it online or on 0:37:11.380 --> 0:37:12.790 the app. The real story of Jesus. 0:37:12.790 --> 0:37:19.540 Com wow. Leveraging media, leveraging digital resources coming up. How 0:37:19.540 --> 0:37:22.870 can we get this? More people spend time on their 0:37:22.870 --> 0:37:26.350 phone three hours a day, five hours for our young people, 0:37:26.350 --> 0:37:28.510 and maybe for you, it's even more, how can we 0:37:28.510 --> 0:37:31.480 introduce this to a world that already has their phone 0:37:31.480 --> 0:37:34.510 in their hand? More with our guest, Mark Harper, coming up. 0:37:34.810 --> 0:37:38.170 You're listening to Carl and crew on Moody Radio. 0:37:38.890 --> 0:37:42.520 Wow. What God is doing around the globe. We are 0:37:42.520 --> 0:37:47.319 here broadcasting live from Dallas, Texas at NRB National Religious 0:37:47.320 --> 0:37:50.500 Broadcasters and pick it up Ali. Let's go. Well, when 0:37:50.500 --> 0:37:50.710 you think. 0:37:50.710 --> 0:37:52.870 About getting Bibles to the world, a lot of times 0:37:52.870 --> 0:37:56.670 we think about the old fashioned way, the printed material, 0:37:56.670 --> 0:38:00.900 but now leveraging digital resources. The AI Bible is what 0:38:00.900 --> 0:38:03.060 we're featuring this morning. This is the first of its 0:38:03.060 --> 0:38:07.380 kind visual, interactive Bible for a visual and connected world. 0:38:07.380 --> 0:38:12.060 People already have a smartphone around the world. Majority of 0:38:12.060 --> 0:38:16.680 people are holding a phone. Tell us about this. When 0:38:16.680 --> 0:38:20.279 someone goes to this, the app or the website, how 0:38:20.310 --> 0:38:21.779 are they going to interact with the Bible in a 0:38:21.780 --> 0:38:23.490 way that maybe they've never done before? 0:38:23.520 --> 0:38:26.700 Yeah. Great question. And you're right. We hold phones in 0:38:26.700 --> 0:38:28.739 our hands. Anyone, any of your listeners who have kids 0:38:28.739 --> 0:38:31.170 and they're watching TV or movies, you know, it's like, 0:38:31.200 --> 0:38:33.330 are they watching TV or are they watching their phone? 0:38:33.330 --> 0:38:36.719 Are they really soaking in what they're getting? Our desire 0:38:36.719 --> 0:38:40.710 was to give families something they could do together. And 0:38:40.890 --> 0:38:43.800 so when you look at the AI Bible app, you 0:38:43.800 --> 0:38:47.130 have immediately the option to jump into Genesis. We have 0:38:47.130 --> 0:38:54.029 42 episodes of Genesis in five languages Spanish, Farsi, Hindi, English, 0:38:54.060 --> 0:38:56.690 of course, and then Bulgarian, because my wife is Bulgarian 0:38:56.690 --> 0:39:00.830 and we took I Bible over to Bulgaria. And then 0:39:00.830 --> 0:39:03.380 there is also I mentioned the real story of Jesus. 0:39:03.380 --> 0:39:05.989 There's the prayer of Jabez, you know, and all of 0:39:05.989 --> 0:39:07.880 this is visual. So you tap it, you watch it. 0:39:07.910 --> 0:39:13.040 Each chapter is about eight minutes. There's quizzes, there's scripture memory. 0:39:13.070 --> 0:39:16.609 You know, it's just the desire is to get young 0:39:16.610 --> 0:39:20.240 people and their parents into the word together, talk about it, 0:39:20.270 --> 0:39:22.219 see it. And when you see it, you just think 0:39:22.219 --> 0:39:23.900 of things you might not have thought before. I mean, 0:39:23.930 --> 0:39:26.480 that's what the popularity of The Chosen is. Wow. I 0:39:26.480 --> 0:39:29.810 never thought about the disciples in this way. So just 0:39:29.810 --> 0:39:33.469 seeing God's Word, you know, hearing God's Word, reading God's Word, 0:39:33.469 --> 0:39:37.250 all multi-sensory experience, it's just it's exciting. I hope everybody 0:39:37.250 --> 0:39:37.550 gets it. 0:39:37.580 --> 0:39:40.279 Yeah. So what gets you fired up? What's what's God 0:39:40.310 --> 0:39:43.279 doing right now that has you going? This man, this 0:39:43.280 --> 0:39:45.830 is costing me sleep. It's so good. Yeah. 0:39:45.920 --> 0:39:48.350 You know, it really is, um, understanding that this is 0:39:48.350 --> 0:39:51.770 going out all over the world. It's impacting lives. Um, 0:39:51.770 --> 0:39:54.209 when we were in Bulgaria, we did a couple of 0:39:54.210 --> 0:39:57.930 red carpet events with church leaders to introduce I Bible 0:39:57.960 --> 0:40:01.410 to them, and there was a group of kids that 0:40:01.410 --> 0:40:03.330 came in that are from an orphanage, and they were 0:40:03.330 --> 0:40:07.080 performing a song and, um, you know, just seeing people 0:40:07.080 --> 0:40:11.580 come alive with the excitement of God's Word, you know, um, 0:40:11.760 --> 0:40:14.520 that's what drives us. And just seeing it get to 0:40:14.550 --> 0:40:18.959 more places. Um, Steve has been to Kenya. We've distributed 0:40:18.960 --> 0:40:23.339 almost a million QR codes where they can instantly access 0:40:23.340 --> 0:40:28.140 God's word. Wow. Just it's amazing the connectedness that's available now. 0:40:28.320 --> 0:40:32.790 There's stunning animation, the the dramatic audio and then the 0:40:32.790 --> 0:40:35.640 scripts for this talk about the process to get a 0:40:35.640 --> 0:40:37.500 script like this. I mean, there there are a lot 0:40:37.530 --> 0:40:41.010 of people involved in making sure that this is biblically accurate. Yeah. 0:40:41.040 --> 0:40:43.410 Great question. Because one of the interesting things that's a 0:40:43.410 --> 0:40:46.800 distinction for AI Bible is we don't add any characters 0:40:46.800 --> 0:40:49.500 or dialogue that's not in Scripture. So it comes straight 0:40:49.500 --> 0:40:52.280 from the Bible, but it's not word for word. It's 0:40:52.280 --> 0:40:54.469 the narrative. It's the storytelling part. And when you tell 0:40:54.500 --> 0:40:56.810 people a story, you know, everyone leans in, they want 0:40:56.840 --> 0:41:00.799 to hear a great story. So it is in our 0:41:00.830 --> 0:41:04.820 in our in our estimation, it's the only visual narrative. 0:41:04.820 --> 0:41:09.200 And so which is one of the Bible translation, you know, 0:41:09.260 --> 0:41:12.620 certification organizations, they gave it the gold seal of approval 0:41:12.620 --> 0:41:16.160 for our Genesis script. So we're literally a translation of 0:41:16.160 --> 0:41:19.550 the Bible. And we'll keep doing that with each chapter. 0:41:19.580 --> 0:41:21.740 There's a lot of process and people that go into that. 0:41:21.739 --> 0:41:27.049 Steve writes those. We get feedback from all over the world. So, um, yeah, 0:41:27.500 --> 0:41:28.910 it's going to take us a little while to get 0:41:28.910 --> 0:41:31.850 it done. We're changing up the animation format. If they 0:41:31.850 --> 0:41:33.410 look at the real story of Jesus, they're going to 0:41:33.410 --> 0:41:36.710 see like a comic book looking style, which is very effective. 0:41:36.710 --> 0:41:39.830 And people love it, but it's also very time consuming. 0:41:39.860 --> 0:41:41.989 It takes a, you know, it's very expensive, a lot 0:41:42.020 --> 0:41:44.120 of labor hours. So we're switching it up to an 0:41:44.120 --> 0:41:47.330 Unreal Engine, which is the same style that video game 0:41:47.330 --> 0:41:50.360 players see when they're playing video games and video game 0:41:50.360 --> 0:41:53.420 industry dwarfs the film industry, and so you might. 0:41:53.420 --> 0:41:53.990 As well jump. 0:41:53.989 --> 0:41:56.960 In. Yeah, we're jumping in. And it is. I mean, 0:41:56.989 --> 0:42:00.830 just the stunning visuals and just a way to get 0:42:00.830 --> 0:42:02.839 it done quicker and more affordable. 0:42:02.870 --> 0:42:05.360 What's the spiritual battle you fight? 0:42:06.260 --> 0:42:10.190 Distraction. You know, we're on our phones. And so while 0:42:10.190 --> 0:42:12.710 you're on your your Bible app, even on YouVersion, you 0:42:12.710 --> 0:42:16.190 get a text notification. You get, you know, I mean, 0:42:16.219 --> 0:42:19.759 the the way that all technology just seeps into our lives, 0:42:19.760 --> 0:42:21.680 I definitely think it's a, it's a tool of the 0:42:21.680 --> 0:42:24.950 enemy to distract us. Yeah. And so yeah, that's a 0:42:24.950 --> 0:42:26.150 great question, Carl. 0:42:26.180 --> 0:42:28.219 Yeah. Mark, I want to thank you for this. What 0:42:28.250 --> 0:42:33.290 a great effort. And I, on behalf of all the 0:42:33.290 --> 0:42:36.170 boom crew who are listening right now. Thank you. What 0:42:36.200 --> 0:42:38.990 a joy that we get to feature what you're doing here. 0:42:39.020 --> 0:42:41.210 The work that you're doing. And there's a lot of 0:42:41.210 --> 0:42:43.070 you that want to learn more. And we've got a 0:42:43.070 --> 0:42:45.410 link for you. Every one of our guests, we've got 0:42:45.410 --> 0:42:46.340 a link for today. 0:42:46.370 --> 0:42:51.660 Yeah. Text media to 800 555 7898. If you want 0:42:51.690 --> 0:42:54.239 to check out the website and kind of follow along 0:42:54.239 --> 0:42:57.960 as this is continuing to be developed. Text media to 0:42:57.989 --> 0:43:01.259 800 555 7898. 0:43:01.290 --> 0:43:03.930 Yeah. I'm going to pray right now for you. Thank 0:43:03.930 --> 0:43:06.000 you father. I thank you for Mark. I thank you 0:43:06.000 --> 0:43:08.760 for I Bible and we ask, by the power of 0:43:08.760 --> 0:43:11.760 your spirit, would you proliferate this message far and wide? 0:43:11.760 --> 0:43:14.790 Would you grant him wisdom? And I'm praying this over 0:43:14.790 --> 0:43:17.100 you right now. Mark, would you grant him wisdom to 0:43:17.130 --> 0:43:20.310 see what you want him to see? Would you give 0:43:20.310 --> 0:43:23.339 him such promptings of your spirit that remind him of 0:43:23.340 --> 0:43:26.520 the truth of your word, that it would be supernaturally 0:43:26.520 --> 0:43:31.230 teleprompting him as he leads this effort to reach so many? 0:43:31.230 --> 0:43:35.489 And Lord, as he was sharing, I don't know, putting 0:43:35.489 --> 0:43:37.410 a comma here, you can talk to people and talk 0:43:37.410 --> 0:43:41.310 to God. By the way, guys, um, before I pray 0:43:41.310 --> 0:43:43.529 a little bit more here, Mark, you, you had mentioned 0:43:43.560 --> 0:43:47.210 that there's there's a great you think that there's something 0:43:47.210 --> 0:43:50.299 happening with the proliferation of the message of hope around 0:43:50.300 --> 0:43:54.710 the globe. Something extraordinary is happening now via sight and sound, right? Sure. 0:43:54.739 --> 0:43:57.529 I mean, when you think about the the road of 0:43:57.560 --> 0:44:01.010 the Roman Empire to get the message out, then for 0:44:01.010 --> 0:44:03.860 the gospel, and now we have just such an incredible 0:44:03.860 --> 0:44:05.750 reach to the globe. I mean, there still are a 0:44:05.750 --> 0:44:09.110 lot of languages that don't have scripture. Yeah. Um, and 0:44:09.110 --> 0:44:13.580 their oral languages. Yeah. So. But there's an outpouring. I'm 0:44:13.580 --> 0:44:16.310 just getting bumps right now. Just an outpouring of the 0:44:16.310 --> 0:44:18.650 message going out and the church being equipped to be 0:44:18.680 --> 0:44:20.690 able to carry the message. So it's like, how many 0:44:20.719 --> 0:44:23.750 how much time will the Lord give us before he returns? 0:44:23.780 --> 0:44:26.360 Could be close. So I back go back to talking 0:44:26.360 --> 0:44:28.460 with you, father. And I just thank you for Mark 0:44:28.460 --> 0:44:32.540 and it is exciting to see what you're doing. Um, 0:44:32.540 --> 0:44:36.140 around the globe, to reach vast swaths of people that 0:44:36.140 --> 0:44:38.690 were unreachable in the past. But through digital and through 0:44:38.719 --> 0:44:41.120 what Ali was saying, everybody's got a phone in their hand. 0:44:41.150 --> 0:44:44.379 I've seen that in the poorest country in the world. Okay. 0:44:44.410 --> 0:44:48.100 And Lord, you're working and we give you praise. Pray 0:44:48.100 --> 0:44:51.190 for Mark. Pray for his team. God, give him the 0:44:51.190 --> 0:44:56.560 unction of your spirit. I pray in Jesus name. His name. Amen. Amen. Again, 0:44:56.560 --> 0:44:58.150 you want to get a link here, guys? You want 0:44:58.180 --> 0:45:00.070 to do this? You want to pass this stuff around. 0:45:00.070 --> 0:45:04.360 You don't have to be passive. Little things create huge 0:45:04.360 --> 0:45:06.580 groundswells of movement text. 0:45:06.580 --> 0:45:14.140 Media to 800 555 7898 media to 800 555 7898. 0:45:14.170 --> 0:45:17.080 You can take him out of Alaska, but you can't 0:45:17.110 --> 0:45:21.040 take Alaska out of him. Curl is in the crew. 0:45:21.070 --> 0:45:24.009 It's curl and crew on Moody Radio. 0:45:24.130 --> 0:45:28.660 Uh, open up grok o grok. What a friend he is. 0:45:29.410 --> 0:45:33.549 Grok doesn't talk back to me. He just talks to me. Who? 0:45:33.580 --> 0:45:34.300 What are you talking about? 0:45:34.330 --> 0:45:35.469 Yeah. Grok, man. 0:45:35.739 --> 0:45:36.339 Grok. 0:45:36.489 --> 0:45:40.090 Groks. Uh, I think Elon came up with that. Or 0:45:40.090 --> 0:45:41.680 some who came up with grok. 0:45:42.190 --> 0:45:42.490 Ellen. 0:45:42.810 --> 0:45:49.260 Ellen. Ellen. It's. It's. I. And it's embedded now in Twitter. 0:45:49.290 --> 0:45:51.930 I can't call it X, but you can go find 0:45:51.930 --> 0:45:54.930 out anything. And I've also got ChatGPT plus or the 0:45:54.930 --> 0:45:59.340 latest 2.4.0 whatever I've got. It's it's the amount of 0:45:59.340 --> 0:46:03.720 information and frankly, I've checked this out. So I did 0:46:03.719 --> 0:46:06.810 a question about Wayne Grudem from Systematic Theology. I said 0:46:06.810 --> 0:46:11.310 give me his top five arguments for and against Cessationism. 0:46:11.340 --> 0:46:14.190 Now forget what that's all about, but it's a deep 0:46:14.190 --> 0:46:17.580 dive into something that I put it to the test. 0:46:17.610 --> 0:46:18.690 Very theological. 0:46:18.690 --> 0:46:23.910 In a nanosecond it spit out the correct information. I 0:46:23.910 --> 0:46:26.880 use it all the time. I don't Google dip nothing. 0:46:26.880 --> 0:46:29.760 Google's dead in my life. It's gone. I buried Google 0:46:29.760 --> 0:46:33.450 about two months ago. So what do we do with AI? 0:46:33.480 --> 0:46:36.090 Because you hear all the stories, right? Yeah. 0:46:36.120 --> 0:46:39.390 And some of it can be a little intimidating and 0:46:39.390 --> 0:46:41.980 that's putting it mildly. We've got Doctor Drew Dickens with 0:46:41.980 --> 0:46:45.549 us right now. Visionary leader, author, AI expert. You are 0:46:45.550 --> 0:46:48.069 in this field and that's all anybody wants to talk 0:46:48.070 --> 0:46:49.870 about right now is AI, right? 0:46:49.900 --> 0:46:52.450 Yeah, exactly. Yeah. The joke was, I when I started 0:46:52.450 --> 0:46:54.759 working on my doctorate in this six years ago, I 0:46:54.760 --> 0:46:58.000 couldn't get a return phone call. And now it's like 0:46:58.000 --> 0:47:01.270 everybody wants me on their podcast. And so isn't that something? 0:47:01.270 --> 0:47:04.240 I'm an expert because I read up on it last week. 0:47:04.480 --> 0:47:05.380 So it's it's that. 0:47:05.710 --> 0:47:07.509 But you did a dissertation. 0:47:07.840 --> 0:47:09.790 With 300 pages worth of. Yeah. 0:47:09.820 --> 0:47:11.050 Yapping about what did you learn. 0:47:11.050 --> 0:47:13.960 About all of this? What did I learn? So so 0:47:13.989 --> 0:47:16.270 the the big takeaway for me is this really isn't 0:47:16.270 --> 0:47:19.419 anything new. I mean, we've always had this within the church. 0:47:19.420 --> 0:47:23.500 We've always had this fascinating relationship, this tension between technology 0:47:23.500 --> 0:47:27.880 and theology. Uh, we can go back further. But Gutenberg, 0:47:27.910 --> 0:47:30.430 I mean, just look at the effects of the technology 0:47:30.430 --> 0:47:32.290 of the printing press and and what they was able 0:47:32.290 --> 0:47:34.000 to put into the hands of common people. 0:47:34.000 --> 0:47:36.280 And many were freaked out by it. That's. 0:47:36.460 --> 0:47:39.190 Yeah, we always think of the advantages of that, but 0:47:39.190 --> 0:47:42.360 no doubt there were church deacon meetings where they were 0:47:42.360 --> 0:47:44.700 like freaking out about hold on now. Now we've got 0:47:44.700 --> 0:47:46.290 a Bible on a bedside table. What does that have 0:47:46.290 --> 0:47:47.940 to do with, you know, how is that going to affect? 0:47:47.940 --> 0:47:49.410 I'm supposed to go to church to read this, and 0:47:49.410 --> 0:47:51.420 now I can do it at home. So it had 0:47:51.420 --> 0:47:53.430 a lot of negative effects on on a lot of people. 0:47:53.460 --> 0:47:56.520 So we've had this tension resolve over technology for a 0:47:56.520 --> 0:47:58.440 long time. So part of it is nothing new. I 0:47:58.440 --> 0:48:02.190 think what's different about AI this time, and no doubt 0:48:02.190 --> 0:48:04.560 at every stage they say what's different about this? But 0:48:04.560 --> 0:48:09.509 I think what's fundamentally different about AI generative AI is 0:48:09.540 --> 0:48:16.500 it has embedded within it an opportunity for a live radio. 0:48:16.500 --> 0:48:20.549 But I'll air quote here relationship. Um, you you mentioned 0:48:20.550 --> 0:48:25.710 during the break about the joy of encountering your listeners 0:48:25.710 --> 0:48:27.239 and what it's like to hear back from them and 0:48:27.239 --> 0:48:30.210 have this. That's what I love about radio is there's 0:48:30.210 --> 0:48:34.380 that intimacy here. We're feeling that, I think with AI 0:48:34.410 --> 0:48:37.050 where over time it gets to know us to the 0:48:37.050 --> 0:48:39.960 point where we feel like we can engage with it 0:48:39.960 --> 0:48:44.250 on an intimate, personal level, and we don't. We haven't 0:48:44.250 --> 0:48:45.870 had that kind of interaction before. Yeah. 0:48:45.900 --> 0:48:50.100 So you've got a podcast, I and spirituality. I'm looking 0:48:50.100 --> 0:48:52.950 at some of your episode titles. Fascinating. Let me go 0:48:52.950 --> 0:48:58.200 to your February 19th episode. AI and spirituality will a.g.i. 0:48:58.230 --> 0:49:03.569 Transcend humanity. AGI artificial general intelligence. Can we get there? 0:49:03.600 --> 0:49:06.330 I mean, there's this there's this whole kind of. Obviously, 0:49:06.330 --> 0:49:10.020 we know that anything that's artificially generated is not going 0:49:10.050 --> 0:49:13.200 to have a spiritual component. There's not a Holy Spirit 0:49:13.200 --> 0:49:15.810 speaking through AI or is there? 0:49:17.040 --> 0:49:19.770 Yeah. I'm lighting up at your question because. Or is there. 0:49:19.830 --> 0:49:21.839 One of the examples I use with radio quite a bit. 0:49:21.870 --> 0:49:24.089 How many times do you have testimonies of your listeners 0:49:24.090 --> 0:49:27.750 getting in the car and kind of down? Today I 0:49:27.750 --> 0:49:29.820 really am slugging through my morning and all of a 0:49:29.820 --> 0:49:32.430 sudden a song came on that the Holy Spirit knew 0:49:32.460 --> 0:49:35.340 that I needed to hear. Yeah. So at some point, 0:49:35.340 --> 0:49:39.010 what's the involvement of the spirit with a program director who, 0:49:39.040 --> 0:49:41.229 a couple of weeks ago, chose to drop a song 0:49:41.230 --> 0:49:42.100 into that break? 0:49:42.130 --> 0:49:43.180 You're right on about that. 0:49:43.180 --> 0:49:45.040 But the spirit can work through that. So can the 0:49:45.040 --> 0:49:50.320 spirit work through a disembodied digital platform to to do 0:49:50.320 --> 0:49:53.260 that any different than it can with radio. So AGI 0:49:53.380 --> 0:49:57.819 artificial general intelligence will we know when we get there? 0:49:57.850 --> 0:50:01.570 There was books, book written 30 or so years ago, 0:50:01.780 --> 0:50:05.620 Ray Kurzweil, who pegged that at some point in the next, 0:50:05.650 --> 0:50:07.180 maybe 20 years, I don't think we're going to make 0:50:07.180 --> 0:50:08.200 it that long. I think it's going to be in 0:50:08.200 --> 0:50:10.120 the next couple of years. We're going to cross some 0:50:10.120 --> 0:50:14.920 threshold where it becomes smarter than we are, where it's 0:50:14.920 --> 0:50:18.219 we're no longer the smartest kids in the pool, where 0:50:18.550 --> 0:50:23.080 it will surpass human cognition. Will we know when we 0:50:23.110 --> 0:50:26.050 cross that line? I'm not sure what that'll look like, 0:50:26.080 --> 0:50:29.170 but that's that's the race. That's what Elon is racing towards. 0:50:29.170 --> 0:50:32.170 That's what every, every AI company is racing towards. Is 0:50:32.170 --> 0:50:35.640 that AGI line when it when it becomes the smartest 0:50:35.640 --> 0:50:36.180 in the room. 0:50:36.180 --> 0:50:38.970 How does the church respond to that? When you when you. 0:50:39.000 --> 0:50:44.670 It's the chance of sentient intelligence is far off. Or 0:50:44.700 --> 0:50:48.630 is it? I mean, and the crazy thing about AI, 0:50:48.660 --> 0:50:54.240 it's it's multiplied in factors that we can barely get 0:50:54.239 --> 0:50:57.570 our head around as we speak. Right now, grok is 0:50:57.570 --> 0:51:01.710 getting smarter 100 x by, I think per second or 0:51:01.710 --> 0:51:04.590 something crazy. What do we do with that? 0:51:04.620 --> 0:51:07.410 Yeah, the line is I will never be any worse 0:51:07.410 --> 0:51:10.500 than it is today. So it gets better every day. 0:51:10.500 --> 0:51:13.320 It learns more, it learns to improve on itself every day. 0:51:13.320 --> 0:51:17.490 So how can the church get involved in that? Uh, humanity, um, 0:51:17.489 --> 0:51:23.250 is it's so tempting to look at opportunities to project 0:51:23.250 --> 0:51:27.360 more content, bring in more people, and, and sit down 0:51:27.719 --> 0:51:31.440 with a with an event on a Sunday morning. Uh, 0:51:31.440 --> 0:51:35.150 we can't forget humanity. We can't forget to reach out 0:51:35.150 --> 0:51:38.210 and embrace. To live life together. 0:51:38.239 --> 0:51:39.410 That's what I can't do. 0:51:39.440 --> 0:51:43.250 Can't do. It doesn't have a personal experiences. It can 0:51:43.250 --> 0:51:46.820 create them. It can make them up very convincingly. But 0:51:46.820 --> 0:51:49.520 it can't draw on experience like we can. So that's 0:51:49.520 --> 0:51:50.930 going to be how the church gets involved. 0:51:50.960 --> 0:51:53.690 Doctor Drew Dickens with us. Right now we are talking 0:51:53.719 --> 0:51:58.190 AI and spirituality. Coming up, let's get a little history 0:51:58.190 --> 0:52:02.900 of artificial intelligence. How did we get here? Coming up. 0:52:03.680 --> 0:52:07.160 This is Carolyn Crew on Moody Radio. 0:52:07.969 --> 0:52:11.900 Well, you open ChatGPT and you say, where should I 0:52:11.900 --> 0:52:16.940 read in the Bible today? Or suggest five vacation destinations? 0:52:16.940 --> 0:52:20.300 I want to go somewhere sunny, somewhere that's family friendly. 0:52:20.300 --> 0:52:24.200 Suggest some hotels. That's where we're at. And that's the basics. Now, 0:52:24.200 --> 0:52:26.930 give us a brief history of how we got here 0:52:26.930 --> 0:52:29.509 with AI. We've got special guest Doctor Drew Dickens with 0:52:29.510 --> 0:52:30.200 us right now. 0:52:30.230 --> 0:52:33.190 I tell you what what's spookier is we're getting to 0:52:33.219 --> 0:52:36.220 the point. And I'm talking days, not not months or 0:52:36.250 --> 0:52:39.940 years for you. Open it up and it says, hey, 0:52:40.060 --> 0:52:41.860 you seem a little down. 0:52:41.890 --> 0:52:43.450 Oh, wow. Right. 0:52:43.480 --> 0:52:46.540 Wow. Or I've noticed in your journaling or I've noticed 0:52:46.540 --> 0:52:48.670 this or that that you seem you need a break. 0:52:48.700 --> 0:52:51.609 By the way, I've booked a vacation for you. Here 0:52:51.610 --> 0:52:53.799 are some spots, that kind of thing. So it it's 0:52:53.800 --> 0:52:58.120 ability to anticipate because that's essentially what AI is, is 0:52:58.120 --> 0:53:05.620 a really massive autocomplete platform. Okay. So for it to 0:53:05.650 --> 0:53:08.859 anticipate your, your, your your needs is great. So the 0:53:08.860 --> 0:53:12.880 the history that's another segment we can go back to. Uh, 0:53:12.880 --> 0:53:16.900 you know 2000 BC. But let's start with World War two. 0:53:16.930 --> 0:53:21.460 Alan Turing. If you've seen the movie The Imitation Game. Um, 0:53:21.640 --> 0:53:25.750 fantastic history of Alan Turing as a scientist in World 0:53:25.750 --> 0:53:30.420 War two. Broke the German Enigma machine, their code machine, 0:53:30.480 --> 0:53:33.960 and which was considered unbreakable. And so he came in 0:53:33.960 --> 0:53:37.770 and built essentially an AI platform for it to look 0:53:37.770 --> 0:53:40.350 for patterns within the German codes and that kind of thing. 0:53:40.350 --> 0:53:44.310 And so he's really the the grandfather, the great great grandfather. 0:53:44.340 --> 0:53:47.759 There's several grandfathers of AI. So it started really essentially 0:53:47.760 --> 0:53:49.710 World War Two and built from there. There have been 0:53:49.710 --> 0:53:52.919 a lot of other incredible innovations since then, but that's 0:53:52.920 --> 0:53:54.450 really it goes back to World War two. 0:53:54.480 --> 0:53:58.650 Discipleship in AI. Mhm. What did we do. 0:53:58.950 --> 0:54:03.990 So it's easy to go dystopian but but let's look 0:54:03.989 --> 0:54:06.600 at some of the positives. And so being able to 0:54:06.630 --> 0:54:08.730 to to meet with someone for the first time in a, 0:54:08.730 --> 0:54:11.670 in a discipleship relationship. And I'm able to to put 0:54:11.670 --> 0:54:17.160 some basic personality indicators on who I'm talking to, age 0:54:17.190 --> 0:54:19.020 a little bit of their background and that kind of thing. 0:54:19.020 --> 0:54:22.020 And based upon that can give me a profile of that. 0:54:22.020 --> 0:54:26.100 Sounds like someone who might benefit from this type of program. 0:54:26.100 --> 0:54:32.230 And so here is a 12 week customized discipleship agenda 0:54:32.230 --> 0:54:36.490 for them to to meet with someone and go through that. 0:54:36.489 --> 0:54:37.120 And you can. 0:54:37.120 --> 0:54:41.590 Customize it because you could say this person's struggled with depression, right? 0:54:41.620 --> 0:54:45.850 Or this person is overcoming an addiction, or this person 0:54:45.850 --> 0:54:51.040 is struggling with gossip. And all of a sudden you've 0:54:51.040 --> 0:54:53.740 got a customized Bible study. 0:54:53.739 --> 0:54:55.840 Well, and you can even go further than that, because 0:54:55.840 --> 0:54:57.940 maybe as a church leader, I'm looking at someone who 0:54:57.940 --> 0:55:00.219 has those needs, but who do I connect them with? 0:55:00.219 --> 0:55:02.290 And so now I can put in a profile of 0:55:02.410 --> 0:55:04.960 who in my church might I connect them with. And 0:55:04.960 --> 0:55:07.779 so now you've got those two people, you know, ideally 0:55:08.050 --> 0:55:12.100 having that, that, that foundational relationship, because I've got a 0:55:12.100 --> 0:55:15.520 male 35 plus talking to a male 65 plus they 0:55:15.520 --> 0:55:17.770 have this in common and that in common. And so again, 0:55:17.800 --> 0:55:19.450 as you mentioned in the beginning of this of the 0:55:19.450 --> 0:55:23.259 set is instantaneously it draws those two together. So the 0:55:23.260 --> 0:55:24.430 efficiencies are massive. 0:55:24.460 --> 0:55:28.260 So it sounds like opportunity here. I mean, when you 0:55:28.260 --> 0:55:31.200 start talking about AI and spirituality, I think there's a 0:55:31.200 --> 0:55:34.200 lot of inherent fear of this is something we need 0:55:34.200 --> 0:55:37.770 to steer clear of. This could clearly go a lot 0:55:37.800 --> 0:55:39.960 of ways that we don't want it to go, but 0:55:39.989 --> 0:55:43.049 there's opportunity and that seems to be where you lean towards. 0:55:43.050 --> 0:55:45.390 Let's let's see what we can do to make it 0:55:45.390 --> 0:55:46.020 work for us. 0:55:46.050 --> 0:55:48.989 Yeah, I love the word. I think discernment is another 0:55:49.020 --> 0:55:52.319 good is let's go into this with eyes wide open. 0:55:52.350 --> 0:55:54.930 There are clearly some negatives that we need to be. 0:55:54.960 --> 0:55:56.520 There's some there's some touch points that we need to 0:55:56.550 --> 0:55:58.950 be cautious about. But if we go into this eyes 0:55:58.980 --> 0:56:02.700 wide open, there's immense good that the Holy Spirit again, 0:56:02.700 --> 0:56:05.279 we talked about earlier, the Holy Spirit can definitely leverage 0:56:05.280 --> 0:56:08.160 and use this incredible platform. 0:56:08.190 --> 0:56:11.250 I'm glad you mentioned that, because the Holy Spirit was 0:56:11.250 --> 0:56:16.410 my lost God for many years, and now I'm understanding fully, 0:56:16.440 --> 0:56:19.800 especially the body of teaching of Jesus in John 14 0:56:19.800 --> 0:56:24.239 and John 16. The power, the advantage to the disciple 0:56:24.239 --> 0:56:27.410 of Christ and so on top of I. Our brother 0:56:27.410 --> 0:56:33.350 here has a has a devo coming out. Whispers of 0:56:33.350 --> 0:56:36.380 the spirit of 40 day Guide to Intimate Prayer. We're 0:56:36.380 --> 0:56:38.150 going to have a link for you here in just 0:56:38.360 --> 0:56:41.780 right now that's going to put you on to from 0:56:41.780 --> 0:56:45.680 I to a good old fashioned 40 day devo. How 0:56:45.680 --> 0:56:48.200 cool is that? It's the old and the new combining 0:56:48.230 --> 0:56:49.100 together here. 0:56:49.100 --> 0:56:54.710 If you want it, just text peace to 800 555 7898. 0:56:54.739 --> 0:56:56.900 The devo is called whispers of the spirit of 40. 0:56:56.930 --> 0:57:00.799 Day Guide to Intimate Prayer. Uh, just text peace to 0:57:00.830 --> 0:57:03.710 800 555 7898. 0:57:03.739 --> 0:57:06.440 Doctor Jude Dickens, I want to thank you for bringing 0:57:06.440 --> 0:57:10.130 your intellect and octane to the table here today, and 0:57:10.130 --> 0:57:14.330 also your heart for the Lord. It's radiant and you 0:57:14.330 --> 0:57:16.820 are quite a guy. You're a piece of work, but 0:57:16.820 --> 0:57:17.570 you're quite a guy. 0:57:17.600 --> 0:57:19.400 It was an honor and a privilege this morning. Thank 0:57:19.430 --> 0:57:20.300 you very, very much. 0:57:20.330 --> 0:57:21.650 Okay. How do they get it? 0:57:21.680 --> 0:57:27.910 Text peace to 800 555 7898. Peace. Peace to 800 0:57:27.940 --> 0:57:30.160 555 7898. 0:57:30.190 --> 0:57:32.050 What an extraordinary world we live in. 0:57:32.980 --> 0:57:33.670 Excited? 0:57:33.670 --> 0:57:36.880 It's thrilling, isn't it? It really is. It's. It's really thrilling. 0:57:36.880 --> 0:57:40.870 Especially the customization. Got my wheels cooking just on discipleship. 0:57:41.110 --> 0:57:41.980 That alone. 0:57:42.010 --> 0:57:47.380 Yeah. It's it's huge. Where might God take us? Hang on, 0:57:47.380 --> 0:57:49.990 buckle up. We're in for a ride, guys. Text the 0:57:49.990 --> 0:57:52.960 word peace. You get both ends of the spectrum. You 0:57:52.960 --> 0:57:56.470 get I now and a devo on peace links for 0:57:56.470 --> 0:57:58.690 both of them right there. Text peace to our number 0:57:58.690 --> 0:58:00.910 right here. Godspeed. Boom crew. 0:58:01.180 --> 0:58:05.740 A basketball mom who's mastered the dad joke. Ali is 0:58:05.740 --> 0:58:09.729 in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio. 0:58:09.790 --> 0:58:15.700 You know, this whole issue of. Are you known by God? 0:58:15.700 --> 0:58:18.160 And do you know that you're known by God? It's 0:58:18.160 --> 0:58:21.310 that connection where we are not driven by the whims 0:58:21.330 --> 0:58:25.290 and opinions of this world, not by the reckless words 0:58:25.290 --> 0:58:28.590 of parents that were spoken over us years ago by 0:58:28.590 --> 0:58:32.220 those peers in high school that said something that, oh, Doug. 0:58:32.220 --> 0:58:35.220 And it stuck. Yeah, man, if we can get free. 0:58:35.250 --> 0:58:37.350 Look out! We've got a guest with us right now 0:58:37.350 --> 0:58:40.439 who's going to help us lean into being fully known? 0:58:40.440 --> 0:58:44.970 The joyful satisfaction of beholding, becoming and belonging. Doctor Sandra 0:58:45.060 --> 0:58:50.100 Dalton Smith, board certified internal medicine physician, international speaker. You know, 0:58:50.130 --> 0:58:53.310 I remember an exchange I had actually at church where 0:58:53.310 --> 0:58:55.830 I was a stay at home mom with two little kids, 0:58:55.830 --> 0:58:59.100 and someone asked me a question that stopped me cold. 0:58:59.100 --> 0:59:01.590 She said, so what do you do during the day? 0:59:01.860 --> 0:59:05.400 And I stammered a little bit to try to explain 0:59:05.400 --> 0:59:09.000 the tasks that filled my day. But in that moment, 0:59:09.000 --> 0:59:11.730 I felt a sense of needing to come up with 0:59:11.730 --> 0:59:15.390 more because I felt a strong link between what I 0:59:15.390 --> 0:59:17.760 did in the course of a day and kind of 0:59:17.790 --> 0:59:20.540 my worth as a person I don't think she meant 0:59:20.570 --> 0:59:23.209 meant it like that. But boy, when you get asked 0:59:23.210 --> 0:59:26.030 that question. So what do you do? All of us 0:59:26.030 --> 0:59:29.900 feel that pressure to kind of qualify or justify based 0:59:29.900 --> 0:59:32.300 on what we do. You relate. 0:59:32.330 --> 0:59:34.790 Absolutely. And I think that's part of the reason so 0:59:34.790 --> 0:59:38.720 many people feel exhausted because we are constantly trying to 0:59:38.750 --> 0:59:40.670 come up with more stuff to do so that we 0:59:40.670 --> 0:59:44.000 can prove our worth, prove our significance, prove that we 0:59:44.000 --> 0:59:47.330 have reasons to rest. And I feel like one of 0:59:47.330 --> 0:59:49.700 the ways to begin to change that process is to 0:59:49.730 --> 0:59:54.200 change the conversation. Oftentimes when we're in networking situations, that 0:59:54.200 --> 0:59:55.580 is the question what do you do? 0:59:55.610 --> 0:59:56.510 So what do you do? 0:59:56.660 --> 0:59:59.000 What I like to ask is, how is if it's 0:59:59.030 --> 1:00:02.060 a place where there are other believers? How is God 1:00:02.060 --> 1:00:04.490 moving in your life right now? And if it's in 1:00:04.520 --> 1:00:06.500 a place, let's say if it's in a business situation, 1:00:06.500 --> 1:00:10.100 what's bringing you joy right now? Because sometimes what we're 1:00:10.100 --> 1:00:14.030 doing is just scratching the surface of actually what God's 1:00:14.030 --> 1:00:16.730 placed inside of us. And so if we start asking 1:00:16.730 --> 1:00:19.870 deeper questions, we can actually open up the conversation to 1:00:19.900 --> 1:00:22.210 help people begin to see the areas where they may 1:00:22.210 --> 1:00:23.290 feel bound. 1:00:23.410 --> 1:00:28.840 Because asking someone what you do, that's shallow water. 1:00:28.870 --> 1:00:29.710 Absolutely. 1:00:29.710 --> 1:00:32.740 I mean, that's shallow water. How do we get below 1:00:32.740 --> 1:00:35.230 the water line? Because we live out of valleys, right? 1:00:35.230 --> 1:00:37.270 We live out of the what are you doing and 1:00:37.270 --> 1:00:40.210 what have you done lately? How do we get below? 1:00:40.240 --> 1:00:42.070 Well, part of that is we have to get to 1:00:42.100 --> 1:00:44.980 a place where we want to or we allow ourselves to, 1:00:45.010 --> 1:00:48.310 I should probably say, be more open and vulnerable and 1:00:48.310 --> 1:00:51.550 recognize that you have control at the vulnerability valve. You 1:00:51.550 --> 1:00:54.340 get to choose how much you disclose. But we have 1:00:54.340 --> 1:00:57.880 to be willing to get beyond transactional relationships. A lot 1:00:57.880 --> 1:01:01.900 of our conversations are very transactional. It's just surface level, 1:01:01.900 --> 1:01:04.630 not trying to get beyond that to the heart of 1:01:04.630 --> 1:01:07.750 the person, because sometimes we don't really feel as if 1:01:07.750 --> 1:01:12.430 we are able to express ourselves openly. Yeah. And so 1:01:12.430 --> 1:01:14.800 when we do allow those moments, you get into a 1:01:14.800 --> 1:01:17.580 level of what we call emotional rest. Where you go 1:01:17.580 --> 1:01:19.080 beyond your fears. 1:01:19.110 --> 1:01:20.580 Emotional rest. 1:01:20.610 --> 1:01:24.390 Yes, beyond your fears. Into the place where you are 1:01:24.390 --> 1:01:27.150 actually resting in the truth of who you are and 1:01:27.150 --> 1:01:28.590 how you're showing up in the world. 1:01:28.620 --> 1:01:31.650 You know, everybody is so busy and there's so many things, 1:01:31.650 --> 1:01:34.950 and we're burnt out and we're exhausted. I know that 1:01:34.950 --> 1:01:36.870 that's part of the heart behind a lot of what 1:01:36.870 --> 1:01:40.740 you do is helping people reclaim and find rest in Christ. 1:01:40.890 --> 1:01:42.810 Tell us a little bit of your own story of 1:01:42.840 --> 1:01:47.460 getting to that place of just that soul exhaustion. 1:01:47.550 --> 1:01:50.490 Yes. Like my first book on the topic of rest 1:01:50.490 --> 1:01:53.280 is called Sacred Rest. And when it when it came 1:01:53.280 --> 1:01:55.650 about was when I was burned out. As a physician, 1:01:55.650 --> 1:01:58.110 I'm an internal medicine physician. I had two kids very 1:01:58.110 --> 1:02:01.530 close together in age. And I remember coming home one 1:02:01.530 --> 1:02:04.230 day from work and I thought, God, this is everything. 1:02:04.230 --> 1:02:06.480 I've been praying for the kids, the husband, all the 1:02:06.480 --> 1:02:09.240 things I'm too exhausted to even enjoy the blessings you've 1:02:09.240 --> 1:02:11.520 placed in my life right now. And I remember laying 1:02:11.520 --> 1:02:14.520 out on that floor, just weeping and Sikh and let 1:02:14.560 --> 1:02:18.010 left that floor, seeking a way to be sustainable in 1:02:18.010 --> 1:02:20.560 the things that I love. Wow. And that led me 1:02:20.560 --> 1:02:23.380 on my journey of research that led to the seven 1:02:23.380 --> 1:02:28.450 types of rest. And and honestly, as an introvert, I'm thinking, okay, 1:02:28.480 --> 1:02:30.040 I can write a book. That's great. I don't have 1:02:30.040 --> 1:02:33.070 to talk to anybody. We're good. But that's not how 1:02:33.070 --> 1:02:36.400 it turned out. What? I started getting a lot of opportunities. 1:02:36.520 --> 1:02:38.860 I was asked to do a Ted talk. I was 1:02:38.860 --> 1:02:41.710 asked to do all of these different things. And I'm like, God, 1:02:41.710 --> 1:02:44.950 I'm not a speaker. And I remember, you know, in 1:02:44.980 --> 1:02:48.250 that moment, I felt like in my heart, God spoke 1:02:48.250 --> 1:02:50.470 to me and says, you don't know who you are. 1:02:50.590 --> 1:02:51.610 Let me show you. 1:02:51.640 --> 1:02:55.720 Whoa. Okay. There's a lot of people listening right now 1:02:55.720 --> 1:03:00.040 that they don't even know anymore who they are. They 1:03:00.040 --> 1:03:02.260 might have known it at one point, but then you 1:03:02.260 --> 1:03:06.040 get on the hamster wheel and you forget again. The 1:03:06.040 --> 1:03:08.170 question is, how do we discover that we're going to 1:03:08.170 --> 1:03:11.110 break that down? Coming up with our guest, doctor Sandra 1:03:11.140 --> 1:03:13.410 Dalton Smith. She's got a work out. We're going to 1:03:13.410 --> 1:03:14.910 give you a link here in a moment. But how 1:03:14.910 --> 1:03:16.530 in the world do we get there? Some of you 1:03:16.530 --> 1:03:18.570 I know right now you're saying, oh, Carl, if I 1:03:18.570 --> 1:03:20.820 could find that. How did you capture that rest? What 1:03:20.820 --> 1:03:23.070 was that? What was that term that we. Emotional rest. 1:03:23.100 --> 1:03:27.570 Emotional rest. If I could get that emotional rest. Oh, 1:03:27.570 --> 1:03:30.750 and what you're proposing is you don't have to necessarily 1:03:30.750 --> 1:03:33.150 get off the wheel. It's just how you're running that thing. 1:03:33.180 --> 1:03:34.050 Even sometimes. 1:03:34.080 --> 1:03:35.400 Exactly. Hang on. 1:03:35.850 --> 1:03:39.240 This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio. 1:03:41.520 --> 1:03:46.830 Life is busy. We all have work. Work is a 1:03:46.830 --> 1:03:51.030 good thing. The sluggard is warned. You don't work, you 1:03:51.030 --> 1:03:54.630 don't eat. But pretty quick. We're out there on that 1:03:54.630 --> 1:03:58.320 treadmill and we forgot the deeper meaning of life. And 1:03:58.320 --> 1:04:01.590 peace seems elusive. We got a guest with us. Doctor 1:04:01.590 --> 1:04:07.950 Sandra Dalton Smith, internal medicine physician, got burned out. Fried 1:04:07.950 --> 1:04:10.650 wondered who in the world am I? What are the 1:04:10.650 --> 1:04:13.200 questions we've got to ask that are the right questions? 1:04:13.200 --> 1:04:16.170 We don't ask the right questions sometimes. What have we 1:04:16.170 --> 1:04:17.070 got to ask? 1:04:17.460 --> 1:04:19.710 I think it begins by looking at some of our 1:04:19.710 --> 1:04:22.740 even past traumas, and how those traumas are affecting the 1:04:22.740 --> 1:04:26.190 way that we are approaching the world, the way that 1:04:26.190 --> 1:04:29.340 we engage with challenge, the way that we seek after 1:04:29.370 --> 1:04:33.180 or not adventure. I think sometimes people, particularly if you 1:04:33.180 --> 1:04:36.450 start feeling as if you're stuck within a career or 1:04:36.450 --> 1:04:38.730 you're unhappy at your job, you know, that's one of 1:04:38.730 --> 1:04:41.670 the key areas for burnout. People no longer find joy 1:04:41.670 --> 1:04:43.950 in the things that they used to do. And so 1:04:43.950 --> 1:04:45.840 when you get to that place, I think you have 1:04:45.840 --> 1:04:48.900 to start asking yourself, are there areas that I have 1:04:48.930 --> 1:04:51.330 put on the back burner because I didn't think that 1:04:51.330 --> 1:04:54.120 they would be fruitful? Yeah. Maybe you had a gift 1:04:54.120 --> 1:04:56.520 for art or music and you thought, well, it's safer 1:04:56.520 --> 1:04:58.170 to go down this route because I know I can 1:04:58.170 --> 1:05:01.020 get a paycheck there. But we have to realize that 1:05:01.020 --> 1:05:03.390 when we have gifts that we suppress, that becomes its 1:05:03.390 --> 1:05:06.840 own stressor. Because a part of you, especially parts of 1:05:06.840 --> 1:05:08.880 the gifts that are all gifts, are from God. So 1:05:08.880 --> 1:05:11.800 gifts that are given to us by God want a 1:05:11.800 --> 1:05:15.070 level of expression, and when we try to prevent that, 1:05:15.070 --> 1:05:18.070 we feel the unrest associated with it. 1:05:18.160 --> 1:05:21.010 So let's talk about this book being fully known, the 1:05:21.010 --> 1:05:25.930 joyful satisfaction of beholding, becoming and belonging. That's a worthy aim. 1:05:25.930 --> 1:05:28.990 We want to be fully known. Obviously we are fully 1:05:28.990 --> 1:05:32.020 known by God, but sometimes we live in an identity 1:05:32.020 --> 1:05:34.750 that suggests we have to do more. What did you 1:05:34.750 --> 1:05:36.730 discover as you were writing this book? 1:05:36.940 --> 1:05:38.950 Well, the number one thing is that it's a process, 1:05:38.950 --> 1:05:41.410 and for most people, that process has to begin with 1:05:41.440 --> 1:05:45.070 the beholding looking for God in all things, seeing him 1:05:45.070 --> 1:05:48.430 in all things. Actually, going back to the Scripture, allowing 1:05:48.430 --> 1:05:51.130 ourselves to view the Scripture as a living word. And 1:05:51.130 --> 1:05:55.000 so when you're reading it each time asking yourself, what 1:05:55.000 --> 1:05:58.000 am I seeing new? Because when you're seeing something new 1:05:58.000 --> 1:06:01.750 in him, new in his character, in his gifting, then 1:06:01.780 --> 1:06:05.950 you're actually seeing a mirror of yourself. Every person reads 1:06:05.950 --> 1:06:09.090 the scripture and gets something different from it, because what 1:06:09.120 --> 1:06:13.170 jumps out to you is your mirror. And if that 1:06:13.170 --> 1:06:15.750 if we allow that to take us into our becoming, 1:06:15.750 --> 1:06:19.170 not trying to becoming more of something, but becoming actually 1:06:19.170 --> 1:06:22.740 more aware of his character inside of us, it opens 1:06:22.740 --> 1:06:25.680 the door for stepping into a place of belonging. And 1:06:25.680 --> 1:06:28.980 that's the journey and belonging, not being trying to fit in. 1:06:28.980 --> 1:06:32.010 I think we have too many people trying to be 1:06:32.010 --> 1:06:35.190 like everyone else, kind of fit into something specific. But 1:06:35.190 --> 1:06:37.770 I look at it like this my husband loves doing puzzles. 1:06:37.770 --> 1:06:40.229 I'm horrible at it. And so I find a piece. 1:06:40.230 --> 1:06:42.360 I'm like, this looks right. I try to shove it 1:06:42.360 --> 1:06:45.540 into the spot and it doesn't go a lot of friction. 1:06:45.540 --> 1:06:48.510 Nothing happens. But he comes along with the one piece 1:06:48.510 --> 1:06:52.020 and it just plops into place. And that's what belonging 1:06:52.020 --> 1:06:55.350 really looks like. There are places that we fit, but 1:06:55.350 --> 1:06:58.470 we may not fit in. We complete the part of 1:06:58.470 --> 1:07:01.530 God's expression in that area and that could be your church, 1:07:01.530 --> 1:07:05.010 your home, your, your business, whatever. We have to realize 1:07:05.010 --> 1:07:07.550 that that's the journey each of us is on, and 1:07:07.550 --> 1:07:10.910 it's a continuous process. David was a shepherd. He was 1:07:10.910 --> 1:07:13.670 a king. We go into life as if we're looking 1:07:13.670 --> 1:07:17.150 for the one thing that we are. Everyone is on 1:07:17.180 --> 1:07:19.940 that same process where you're going to evolve and have 1:07:19.940 --> 1:07:21.980 different seasons, and we have to be willing to let 1:07:21.980 --> 1:07:23.900 go of seasons when they're over. 1:07:23.930 --> 1:07:27.530 This issue of fit is so huge, I would venture 1:07:27.530 --> 1:07:30.200 to say, I'm going to throw a guess out here. 1:07:30.200 --> 1:07:34.670 I would I would venture to say 60, 70, 80% 1:07:34.670 --> 1:07:38.180 of people that you're speaking to right now wonder, where 1:07:38.180 --> 1:07:43.340 do I really fit? Leaders can feel that way. Anyone 1:07:43.340 --> 1:07:48.500 can feel that way. The Word of God has to 1:07:48.500 --> 1:07:51.380 be central in this discovery. You got to know you 1:07:51.410 --> 1:07:53.810 fit with him first, right, doc? 1:07:53.840 --> 1:07:58.340 Yes, absolutely. And then we have to realize that in culture, 1:07:58.340 --> 1:08:02.450 we fit with him perfectly. In culture, we're going to 1:08:02.480 --> 1:08:07.680 not necessarily Fit in all the time. We're not going 1:08:07.710 --> 1:08:10.980 to look like everybody else. We're actually not supposed to. 1:08:11.010 --> 1:08:15.060 So if we're set apart, then that means we have 1:08:15.060 --> 1:08:19.890 to get comfortable not necessarily looking, sounding, being exactly like 1:08:19.890 --> 1:08:22.680 everyone else, and be as authentic as we can be 1:08:22.710 --> 1:08:25.890 for the expression of heaven that we have. I oftentimes 1:08:25.890 --> 1:08:30.150 say this each of us has a unique expression of heaven, 1:08:30.150 --> 1:08:33.960 and if we all release that, we complete his picture. 1:08:33.990 --> 1:08:34.830 Beautiful. 1:08:35.729 --> 1:08:38.490 Doctor Sandra Dalton Smith with us right now, the book 1:08:38.490 --> 1:08:41.550 is called Being Fully Known The Joyful Satisfaction of beholding, 1:08:41.550 --> 1:08:45.750 becoming and Belonging. If you want more text, rest to 1:08:45.780 --> 1:08:50.160 800 555 7898. We will get you linked up to 1:08:50.189 --> 1:08:53.309 her website. More on the book. Text rest to 800 1:08:53.340 --> 1:08:55.769 555 7898. 1:08:55.800 --> 1:08:59.700 Doctor, I love your humility. I love your vulnerability because 1:08:59.700 --> 1:09:03.530 that is the pathway for people to discover this, and 1:09:03.530 --> 1:09:06.080 I appreciate you being that vulnerable today. 1:09:06.530 --> 1:09:08.450 My pleasure. Thank you for having me. All right. 1:09:08.450 --> 1:09:09.620 Let's get this link out. 1:09:09.650 --> 1:09:17.420 Text rest to 800 555 7898. Rest 800 555 7898. 1:09:17.600 --> 1:09:20.750 He's a sports fanatic with a stat for anything you 1:09:20.750 --> 1:09:25.040 can think of. Young Thunder is in the crew. It's 1:09:25.040 --> 1:09:27.560 Carl and crew on Moody Radio. 1:09:27.710 --> 1:09:31.910 We're broadcasting live from NB here in Texas. 1:09:31.939 --> 1:09:35.960 National religious broadcasters, this is the International Christian Media Convention, 1:09:35.960 --> 1:09:39.200 and we've had so many incredible guests this week. 1:09:39.350 --> 1:09:43.309 Yeah, and stories galore. In fact, we heard a story 1:09:43.310 --> 1:09:45.500 that kind of relates to something I want to I 1:09:45.500 --> 1:09:48.800 want I want to see you on Saturday if you're 1:09:48.800 --> 1:09:51.350 in striking distance. But the story sets it up. 1:09:51.380 --> 1:09:53.750 You know, we're here at this convention. There's a lot 1:09:53.780 --> 1:09:57.020 going on. We've got folks from our publisher, Moody Publishers team, 1:09:57.020 --> 1:10:00.019 and they were setting up some books, including Karl's book 1:10:00.020 --> 1:10:02.650 Killing Sin. And they had a young man who walked 1:10:02.650 --> 1:10:04.689 up to the table and they were still getting set up, 1:10:04.689 --> 1:10:06.820 but he said, are you are you selling books or 1:10:06.850 --> 1:10:10.600 are you giving books away? And the Janis, she said, 1:10:10.630 --> 1:10:12.879 we're not selling them. But what book are you interested in? 1:10:12.910 --> 1:10:15.310 He pointed out this one with the bright red cover 1:10:15.310 --> 1:10:18.400 called Killing Sin. He goes, I'm interested in that one. 1:10:18.430 --> 1:10:20.439 She goes, well, I'd be happy to give it to you, 1:10:20.439 --> 1:10:22.720 but you have to make me a promise. You have 1:10:22.720 --> 1:10:24.880 to promise that you're. If I give it to you, 1:10:24.910 --> 1:10:27.220 you're actually going to read the entire thing. Because I 1:10:27.220 --> 1:10:28.810 want to make sure this gets into the hands of 1:10:28.810 --> 1:10:31.540 someone who can use it. And he gave the assurance. Yes, 1:10:31.540 --> 1:10:33.610 I actually intend to read it. So she handed him 1:10:33.610 --> 1:10:36.520 a copy of this bright red book, and he walked away. 1:10:36.520 --> 1:10:38.530 And that was the extent of the exchange. He just 1:10:38.560 --> 1:10:41.620 he was I don't think he was here for the convention. Convention? 1:10:41.620 --> 1:10:43.389 I think he was working in the hotel and just 1:10:43.390 --> 1:10:46.210 saw this book and thought, I need that. 1:10:46.270 --> 1:10:51.970 What a sweet thing. You know, we don't do this 1:10:51.970 --> 1:10:56.620 very often. I've never done this for some have done this. Yeah. 1:10:56.740 --> 1:11:00.809 Book signing. Yeah. First time. Yeah. And Ali. I want 1:11:00.840 --> 1:11:04.200 people that are in Chicagoland. If they've got a minute 1:11:04.200 --> 1:11:08.190 to show up on Saturday morning, we get to shake hands. 1:11:08.189 --> 1:11:09.990 We're going to have a whole team from Moody there. 1:11:10.020 --> 1:11:12.180 We've got the details. This event is going to be 1:11:12.180 --> 1:11:14.820 this Saturday morning, 9 to 12 out in Villa Park. 1:11:14.850 --> 1:11:18.330 That's in the Chicago suburbs. Realize that's out way out 1:11:18.360 --> 1:11:19.620 of the way for a lot of you. But for 1:11:19.620 --> 1:11:22.380 those of you who are in the area, get the details. 1:11:22.380 --> 1:11:27.390 Just text book to 800 555 7898. Get the details 1:11:27.390 --> 1:11:32.610 on this upcoming book signing text book to 800 555 7898. 1:11:32.640 --> 1:11:37.410 Yeah, and I am fired up to greet you, give 1:11:37.410 --> 1:11:39.810 you a hug, and let you know how important you 1:11:39.810 --> 1:11:41.700 are to us. And we mean that from the bottom 1:11:41.700 --> 1:11:44.700 of our heart. We value each and every one of you. 1:11:44.700 --> 1:11:48.689 And I can't wait to say hi. Text book to 1:11:48.720 --> 1:11:54.600 800 555 7898. It's that simple. Book to 805 five 1:11:54.630 --> 1:11:57.150 five 7898. And you might want to look down in 1:11:57.150 --> 1:12:00.830 the details of additional details. There's a cool little couple 1:12:00.830 --> 1:12:03.620 lines in there that might pique your interest. That's all 1:12:03.620 --> 1:12:07.519 I'll say about that. It's kind of radio TV land 1:12:07.520 --> 1:12:10.340 right there. That's what that is, right? Text book to 1:12:10.370 --> 1:12:14.480 800 555 7898. And we'll see you with bells on 1:12:14.479 --> 1:12:20.360 Saturday morning. Okay. Uh, boy, this has been a day. 1:12:20.390 --> 1:12:23.599 My goodness. Has this been a day, Ali? And I'm 1:12:23.600 --> 1:12:25.939 afraid some people might not have been here for the 1:12:25.939 --> 1:12:27.200 whole day. If you miss. 1:12:27.200 --> 1:12:29.780 Anything or want to hear it again, just text show 1:12:29.780 --> 1:12:34.280 to 800 555, 7898. The show cast will be updated 1:12:34.280 --> 1:12:37.939 with the interviews that we've featured. Text show to 800 1:12:37.970 --> 1:12:40.700 555 7898. Yeah. 1:12:40.790 --> 1:12:43.820 Buckle up. We're not done yet. We're still rolling here 1:12:43.820 --> 1:12:46.010 right to the top of the hour, and we're grateful 1:12:46.010 --> 1:12:47.240 that you're with us. 1:12:47.810 --> 1:12:52.130 Romans eight brought her to Jesus while broadcasting traffic overnight. 1:12:52.160 --> 1:12:56.090 Super die is in the crew. It's Carol and crew 1:12:56.120 --> 1:12:57.370 on Moody Radio. 1:12:57.550 --> 1:13:01.630 Carl and crew broadcasting live from NB here in Dallas, Texas. 1:13:01.660 --> 1:13:06.580 National religious broadcasters. You know, oftentimes we look at we 1:13:06.610 --> 1:13:08.979 fall off two sides of the high ridge of the 1:13:08.979 --> 1:13:10.780 laws of the land that we live in, and we're 1:13:10.780 --> 1:13:13.390 freedom fighters for Christ. And the question is, oh, where 1:13:13.390 --> 1:13:15.460 do we go here? And some people want to go, 1:13:16.030 --> 1:13:20.769 we're a Christian nation. We gotta get laws that reflect that. 1:13:21.340 --> 1:13:23.440 And I get that, and then we fall off the 1:13:23.439 --> 1:13:25.780 other side and go, well, we're disciples of Christ. We 1:13:25.780 --> 1:13:28.030 can't open our mouth, can't do anything, but we've been 1:13:28.030 --> 1:13:29.890 given freedoms in our country to speak. 1:13:29.890 --> 1:13:33.640 Up and navigating the cultural landscape. I mean, there's nothing 1:13:33.640 --> 1:13:35.590 new under the sun. So I hesitate to say it's 1:13:35.590 --> 1:13:37.570 more difficult than it's ever been, because I don't think 1:13:37.570 --> 1:13:40.809 that's the case. But certainly we are living in a 1:13:40.810 --> 1:13:44.229 time where discernment is needed. Yeah. 1:13:44.260 --> 1:13:47.650 How do we how do we slice this baby right 1:13:47.650 --> 1:13:50.050 down the middle and make sure that we're not falling 1:13:50.080 --> 1:13:52.120 off either side of this high ridge? How do we 1:13:52.120 --> 1:13:54.280 do that? You know, we're going to have a special 1:13:54.280 --> 1:13:59.200 guest with us. Keisha Tony Russell. She's a constitutional lawyer 1:13:59.200 --> 1:14:04.000 with First Liberty Institute. It's the largest legal organization in 1:14:04.000 --> 1:14:09.250 the nation dedicated to defending religious liberty. Interesting. Just that 1:14:09.250 --> 1:14:11.470 alone kind of gets you going, huh? 1:14:11.500 --> 1:14:13.060 You got some questions for her? 1:14:13.090 --> 1:14:15.580 Yeah. Yeah, I got a lot of questions for her. 1:14:16.150 --> 1:14:17.679 We aren't going to be able to cover them all, 1:14:17.680 --> 1:14:20.290 but we're going to get the basics here, and then 1:14:20.290 --> 1:14:21.670 we're going to be able to give you a link 1:14:21.670 --> 1:14:23.620 that's going to equip you with all that you need 1:14:23.620 --> 1:14:27.310 to really tackle these topics. Living on that high ridge 1:14:27.310 --> 1:14:29.980 is a dance sometimes, but by the power of the spirit, 1:14:29.979 --> 1:14:32.410 we can do it. Hang on guys, we're going to 1:14:32.410 --> 1:14:34.599 get to our special guest. Coming up. 1:14:34.720 --> 1:14:37.780 Your shot of hope to help you through the day. 1:14:37.780 --> 1:14:41.290 This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio. How do we. 1:14:41.290 --> 1:14:42.760 Live in this world? Ali? 1:14:42.850 --> 1:14:44.020 That's a big question. 1:14:44.170 --> 1:14:45.520 How do we do it? Come on, give me a 1:14:45.520 --> 1:14:46.570 quick answer here. 1:14:46.840 --> 1:14:49.210 With discernment and lots of prayer. 1:14:49.240 --> 1:14:52.780 Yeah. So we live in this world where? And we 1:14:52.790 --> 1:14:56.330 were in the storm of it right now. It's like, oh, 1:14:56.360 --> 1:14:59.060 we got some that are saying we want laws, we 1:14:59.060 --> 1:15:01.280 want our Christian nation. I don't even know if we 1:15:01.280 --> 1:15:06.620 were ever. When we define Christian, really discipleship followers of Jesus, 1:15:06.620 --> 1:15:09.740 that's a different thing. And then some would say, well, 1:15:09.770 --> 1:15:12.679 throw up our hands. You know, maybe we're in decline 1:15:12.680 --> 1:15:15.080 as a nation. What can we do about it anyway? Boy, 1:15:15.080 --> 1:15:16.970 have we got a guest who's got an opinion on 1:15:16.970 --> 1:15:17.810 this matter. 1:15:17.840 --> 1:15:21.770 Her name is Keisha Tony Russell. She's a constitutional lawyer 1:15:21.830 --> 1:15:25.040 with First Liberty Institute, the largest legal organization in the 1:15:25.040 --> 1:15:29.689 nation dedicated to defending religious liberty. You know, is it 1:15:29.720 --> 1:15:33.710 correct to feel like religious liberty is under assault? Is 1:15:33.710 --> 1:15:36.769 that something that we just feel, or is that accurate? 1:15:36.770 --> 1:15:38.900 Oh, it's very accurate. I can tell you in my, 1:15:38.930 --> 1:15:42.680 I guess, eight years now, at first Liberty Institute, where 1:15:42.680 --> 1:15:46.640 we defend religious liberty, it's religion is definitely under attack. 1:15:46.640 --> 1:15:49.970 And while things are a little better because during Trump's 1:15:49.970 --> 1:15:52.920 first administration, he appointed a lot of great judges who 1:15:52.920 --> 1:15:57.030 believe in defending and protecting the Constitution. Um, you know, 1:15:57.060 --> 1:16:00.990 our wins in the courts have been pretty great, but unfortunately, 1:16:00.990 --> 1:16:04.020 the culture and sort of the conflict that we're still 1:16:04.020 --> 1:16:06.839 in between religion and the culture that still exists and 1:16:06.840 --> 1:16:08.460 it's still pretty strong. 1:16:08.490 --> 1:16:15.450 How do we approach this without getting political? 1:16:16.020 --> 1:16:18.450 So that's a great question. And it's one of the 1:16:18.450 --> 1:16:20.910 reasons why I wrote my book in the first place. 1:16:20.910 --> 1:16:26.070 The I think the real method is to understand what 1:16:26.100 --> 1:16:28.950 what basis you're coming from. So what's the standard. Right. 1:16:28.979 --> 1:16:31.710 And when I say that, I mean for us as Christians, 1:16:31.710 --> 1:16:34.650 the standard is the Bible. The standard is God's standards, 1:16:34.650 --> 1:16:37.830 not necessarily our feelings or what we want. So we 1:16:37.830 --> 1:16:39.900 always have something to point to, a foundation. And the 1:16:39.900 --> 1:16:43.020 Constitution is the same for every American. That's supposed to 1:16:43.020 --> 1:16:46.169 be our foundation. We don't infringe on freedom of religion, 1:16:46.170 --> 1:16:49.290 we don't infringe on freedom of speech. But unfortunately, I 1:16:49.290 --> 1:16:52.769 think the culture has started to divert from those understanding. 1:16:52.800 --> 1:16:57.870 From that understanding. And instead they're interested in freedom of expression, 1:16:57.870 --> 1:17:00.330 which really means I get to have whatever I want, 1:17:00.360 --> 1:17:02.430 whenever I want it, and no one can stand in 1:17:02.430 --> 1:17:02.880 my way. 1:17:02.910 --> 1:17:05.910 Quick thought on that. I think when when some people 1:17:05.910 --> 1:17:11.010 in the general population hear the Bible, it's grounded. It's 1:17:11.010 --> 1:17:14.700 in the Constitution. The thing that we often miss in 1:17:14.700 --> 1:17:18.300 our messaging is that this is good for people. This 1:17:18.300 --> 1:17:21.660 is good. Absolutely. Our founders had a good idea. It 1:17:21.660 --> 1:17:25.500 was imperfect, but it was a good idea. What's your 1:17:25.500 --> 1:17:26.099 thought on that? 1:17:26.130 --> 1:17:29.849 Yeah. So let's let's think about it. Right. So the forefathers, 1:17:29.850 --> 1:17:32.640 I think now most of them were Christian and even 1:17:32.640 --> 1:17:35.100 the ones that weren't, they were all educated in the Bible. 1:17:35.100 --> 1:17:38.880 And they all believed in this foundational belief that man 1:17:38.880 --> 1:17:41.490 is corrupt, that if you give man too much power, 1:17:41.490 --> 1:17:43.890 he's going to try to usurp the power of God. 1:17:43.890 --> 1:17:46.889 And we've seen that happen over and over again in history. Right. 1:17:46.920 --> 1:17:49.900 And so that foundation is the basis for the structure 1:17:49.900 --> 1:17:52.330 of our government, the separation of powers. Why do we 1:17:52.360 --> 1:17:55.390 separate powers? Because we don't want one person to be judge, 1:17:55.390 --> 1:18:00.729 jury and executioner. And when people start thinking about that foundation, 1:18:00.729 --> 1:18:02.560 I think they start to have a lot more respect 1:18:02.560 --> 1:18:05.770 for the fact that Christianity was the basis for that 1:18:05.770 --> 1:18:09.850 structure of the government. It's so important and so instrumental 1:18:09.880 --> 1:18:11.620 to all the freedoms that we have. And if we 1:18:11.620 --> 1:18:13.599 get away from it, we can't keep the freedom. We've 1:18:13.600 --> 1:18:16.990 seen it happen over and over and over across the world. 1:18:17.020 --> 1:18:20.980 You have a book, Uncommon Courage Empowering Christians to Defend 1:18:21.010 --> 1:18:24.640 God's Truth amid the changing and challenging political climate. How 1:18:24.640 --> 1:18:29.260 do you advise people to prepare themselves for the potential 1:18:29.260 --> 1:18:33.220 infringement upon their religious liberty, whether it's in the workplace 1:18:33.220 --> 1:18:36.490 or in schools or in the marketplace? We want to 1:18:36.490 --> 1:18:39.790 be winsome when we present the case for Christ. We 1:18:39.790 --> 1:18:42.070 don't want to be, as we often talk about on 1:18:42.070 --> 1:18:46.920 this show, angry Evangelicals. We don't want to be Misunderstood 1:18:46.920 --> 1:18:49.979 or labeled in some way. But how do we prepare 1:18:49.979 --> 1:18:55.200 ourselves to make the case for religious liberty as Christ followers? 1:18:55.200 --> 1:18:58.590 So I think the main thing is remembering that, number one, 1:18:58.590 --> 1:19:00.750 the righteous are as bold as a lion, and you 1:19:00.750 --> 1:19:04.110 can do that without being angry and rude and nasty. 1:19:04.200 --> 1:19:05.940 But at the same time, you don't want to be 1:19:05.939 --> 1:19:09.509 so meek and timid that you're being shouted down from 1:19:09.510 --> 1:19:13.200 your own opinions, and you're being sort of, um, you know, 1:19:13.229 --> 1:19:16.890 intimidated into even expressing the truth of your beliefs. And 1:19:16.890 --> 1:19:18.570 so one of the things I think is important is 1:19:18.570 --> 1:19:21.840 knowing when to even engage in this conversation, you know, 1:19:21.870 --> 1:19:24.059 and talking to people who are really hungry and thirsty 1:19:24.090 --> 1:19:27.210 for truth or even just your perspective. They're not looking 1:19:27.240 --> 1:19:30.000 to destroy you and shout you down and just make 1:19:30.000 --> 1:19:32.220 a fool out of you. And that is the wisdom 1:19:32.220 --> 1:19:34.650 that comes with knowing when to engage in conversation and 1:19:34.650 --> 1:19:35.460 when not to. 1:19:35.490 --> 1:19:39.450 Okay, yeah, you intrigue me to no end, young lady. 1:19:39.479 --> 1:19:43.950 What are you battling right now in a in a 1:19:43.950 --> 1:19:47.270 real healthy spiritual sense. What do you find on the 1:19:47.270 --> 1:19:51.470 front lines of this freedom of religion? Freedom of speech? 1:19:51.500 --> 1:19:53.990 What's what's going on that we don't know. 1:19:54.020 --> 1:19:56.299 So let me give you an example. I am currently 1:19:56.300 --> 1:20:00.320 representing a 32 year veteran teacher named Marisol Castro in Connecticut. 1:20:00.350 --> 1:20:05.120 She's been teaching for 32 years, and she has has 1:20:05.120 --> 1:20:07.760 always kept a small crucifix by her desk in her 1:20:07.760 --> 1:20:11.570 personal workspace. Now she has been disciplined and is on 1:20:11.570 --> 1:20:14.570 paid administrative leave until she agrees to take that crucifix down. 1:20:14.600 --> 1:20:18.110 I mean, it's a tiny little thing, and one of 1:20:18.110 --> 1:20:21.020 the things we're starting to see over and over again 1:20:21.050 --> 1:20:24.469 is the fact that people think the government is supposed 1:20:24.470 --> 1:20:29.090 to be completely removed from religion, that you're supposed to 1:20:29.120 --> 1:20:31.189 banish religion, that you're supposed to be in the closet 1:20:31.189 --> 1:20:32.660 if you're religious, right? 1:20:33.290 --> 1:20:36.559 That's right. Church and state has been transposed into don't 1:20:36.560 --> 1:20:40.220 let the church have any kind of notion in the culture. 1:20:40.250 --> 1:20:42.500 That's right. So that means you if even if you 1:20:42.530 --> 1:20:44.840 are religious, you better keep that in your house or 1:20:44.840 --> 1:20:46.400 in your church, but you better not bring it in 1:20:46.400 --> 1:20:49.820 the public square, which we know is completely not biblical, right? 1:20:49.850 --> 1:20:53.120 And so, Marisol and the most respectful way has approached 1:20:53.120 --> 1:20:54.920 her leadership and said, look, this is part of my 1:20:54.920 --> 1:20:57.679 religious belief. I don't believe that there's anything wrong with 1:20:57.680 --> 1:21:00.679 what I'm doing. And so we approach the school, you know, 1:21:00.710 --> 1:21:03.139 in the district with a letter saying, hey, this is 1:21:03.140 --> 1:21:05.990 not right what you're doing. Um, we actually had a 1:21:05.990 --> 1:21:09.110 huge law firm partnering with us, WilmerHale, which is one 1:21:09.110 --> 1:21:12.469 of the largest and most powerful law firms in the country. 1:21:12.470 --> 1:21:16.130 And even with that letter, even with us coming and saying, 1:21:16.130 --> 1:21:18.650 here is all the laws that you're violating right now, 1:21:18.650 --> 1:21:21.920 including the Connecticut Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It's not even 1:21:21.920 --> 1:21:26.420 just the Constitution. They still refuse to comply. And so 1:21:26.420 --> 1:21:30.170 we were forced to sue. So it's always it's always interesting. 1:21:30.200 --> 1:21:32.390 People ask me, what's the line? You know, how do 1:21:32.390 --> 1:21:35.810 we know when to engage? And you just have to 1:21:35.810 --> 1:21:38.750 keep kind of dialing up the pressure and the temperature. 1:21:38.750 --> 1:21:40.400 And one of the ways we do that is by 1:21:40.430 --> 1:21:44.610 trying to first work with someone without going into litigation, 1:21:44.610 --> 1:21:48.450 without engaging in this like, you know, heavy conflict. And 1:21:48.450 --> 1:21:50.700 when that doesn't work, we have to keep going. And 1:21:50.700 --> 1:21:52.439 the reason we do that is because if they're going 1:21:52.470 --> 1:21:56.820 to censor marisol's, you know, passive crucifix in a corner, 1:21:56.820 --> 1:21:59.639 then who knows what else is coming. And if you guys, 1:21:59.640 --> 1:22:02.189 I'm sure, have heard of Coach Kennedy and his situation, 1:22:02.220 --> 1:22:05.189 all of that really impacts every person who works for 1:22:05.189 --> 1:22:08.820 the government and who works in general. Right. How much 1:22:08.820 --> 1:22:11.939 control does your employer really have over you? And so 1:22:11.939 --> 1:22:14.520 for us, it's about a larger mission, too, and also 1:22:14.520 --> 1:22:17.400 about educating the public about what they can and cannot 1:22:17.400 --> 1:22:20.130 do and what the government is supposed and what the 1:22:20.130 --> 1:22:23.040 government is required to do and respect in your religious freedom. 1:22:23.070 --> 1:22:27.000 Uncommon courage is the title of your book. What does 1:22:27.000 --> 1:22:29.610 it take to have uncommon courage? No. As the believer, 1:22:29.610 --> 1:22:31.440 we know that this doesn't happen. Apart from the power 1:22:31.439 --> 1:22:34.860 of the Holy Spirit, we can't muster up enough courage 1:22:34.860 --> 1:22:37.590 in our own strength to be able to face whatever 1:22:37.620 --> 1:22:40.960 is coming, but speak to that. What does it take 1:22:40.960 --> 1:22:42.790 to have uncommon courage? Well, I. 1:22:42.790 --> 1:22:45.729 Think starting with the knowledge that what you are doing 1:22:45.729 --> 1:22:48.429 is grounded in the truth of God. So having that 1:22:48.430 --> 1:22:51.550 confidence to know, okay, what I'm doing is biblical, but 1:22:51.550 --> 1:22:54.370 also I know what I'm talking about, right? So, Marisol, 1:22:54.370 --> 1:22:55.930 for example, I don't know if she knew in the 1:22:55.930 --> 1:22:59.650 beginning whether the Constitution really protected that. Right. She had 1:22:59.650 --> 1:23:01.990 to ask. She asked us, you know, is this okay? 1:23:02.020 --> 1:23:04.330 You know what's going on? This doesn't feel right. And 1:23:04.330 --> 1:23:06.250 we were able to confirm with the law that she 1:23:06.250 --> 1:23:09.670 is right. So having the knowledge right is the first thing, 1:23:09.670 --> 1:23:12.370 because that will give you the confidence to proclaim the 1:23:12.370 --> 1:23:15.250 truth and to stand up for yourself. But what does 1:23:15.250 --> 1:23:17.830 the Bible say? It's the truth, you know, that sets 1:23:17.830 --> 1:23:19.719 you free. It's not enough that the truth is just 1:23:19.720 --> 1:23:21.880 hanging out there if you don't know it. And so 1:23:21.880 --> 1:23:24.880 once you do know it, then you have the conviction 1:23:24.880 --> 1:23:27.190 to stand up for yourself. And so that I think 1:23:27.189 --> 1:23:30.490 is the main. The main part is just knowing, having 1:23:30.490 --> 1:23:33.400 that knowledge and then using it in your everyday life. 1:23:33.430 --> 1:23:38.520 When does freedom of religion encroach upon general freedoms of 1:23:38.520 --> 1:23:41.550 the populace. Because I'm thinking you almost want to pressure 1:23:41.550 --> 1:23:47.969 test this. What about a prayer rug for someone who's Islamic? 1:23:48.330 --> 1:23:54.479 So the the boundary is once you're coercing someone to worship, right? 1:23:54.479 --> 1:23:58.170 When they don't believe something and you're making them worship 1:23:58.170 --> 1:24:00.960 or tithe or whatever, that's what the Establishment Clause was 1:24:00.960 --> 1:24:04.170 really meant to prevent, right? You being forced to pray 1:24:04.170 --> 1:24:05.970 to a God that you don't believe in or to 1:24:06.000 --> 1:24:08.970 worship a person, um, or whatever it is. The government 1:24:08.970 --> 1:24:11.820 can't force you to worship anyone, and they can't tell 1:24:11.820 --> 1:24:14.429 you who and how to worship. And that's the line, right? 1:24:14.430 --> 1:24:16.950 So someone else can have their prayer rug and do 1:24:16.950 --> 1:24:18.990 their thing, but they can't then come and make you 1:24:18.990 --> 1:24:19.890 do the same. 1:24:20.400 --> 1:24:25.110 So the willingness to be freedom of religion is incumbent 1:24:25.110 --> 1:24:28.320 on all of us. What's the hope that you're seeing 1:24:28.320 --> 1:24:30.089 in your work right now? Come on, give us a 1:24:30.180 --> 1:24:33.450 we just got 30s, so we're running out of time here, 1:24:33.450 --> 1:24:34.200 but give it to us. 1:24:34.229 --> 1:24:36.950 My hope is that thankfully, we're in a climate where, 1:24:36.979 --> 1:24:38.750 you know, we have an administration that's a little bit 1:24:38.750 --> 1:24:40.729 more friendly, but and we have a lot of people 1:24:40.760 --> 1:24:43.880 who've woken up. You know, they're really hungry for truth 1:24:43.880 --> 1:24:46.490 and to understand now the things that they've been deceived about, 1:24:46.490 --> 1:24:49.160 about our Constitution, about our country. And I see a 1:24:49.160 --> 1:24:53.570 great opportunity for people like you to spread education and 1:24:53.570 --> 1:24:56.990 the gospel and to really empower people to take charge 1:24:56.990 --> 1:24:58.939 and to want to advance the kingdom of God in 1:24:58.939 --> 1:25:01.700 a healthy, compassionate, but truthful way. 1:25:01.729 --> 1:25:03.230 Well said, well said. 1:25:03.229 --> 1:25:06.020 We've got a key word for you. Just text defend 1:25:06.050 --> 1:25:10.910 to 800 555 7898. For more on our guest, Keisha 1:25:10.939 --> 1:25:16.250 Tony Russell, just text defend to 805 five five 7898. 1:25:16.280 --> 1:25:19.790 Wow, young lady, I am so proud of you and 1:25:19.790 --> 1:25:23.240 I know you are highly educated and you are in 1:25:23.240 --> 1:25:25.460 the mix. Thanks for being in the marketplace. 1:25:25.490 --> 1:25:27.769 Such a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me. 1:25:27.800 --> 1:25:35.689 Text defend to 800 555 7898. Defend to 805 557898.