S1: Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio.
S1: This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2: If you've lived any length of time at all, you
S2: know that you're going to hit some bad patches in life, right, guys? Yes.
S3: Of course.
S2: Choices that you make for yourself. Um, I have those.
S2: Ali doesn't have those.
S4: Of course not.
S2: Ali. Uh, we had a live audience in studio yesterday,
S2: and she said, uh, you know, I was the kind
S2: of the goody two shoes kid. But it's true, Ali.
S2: Even the goody two shoes kids, their their problems, their
S2: messes that they make for themselves are sometimes even more complex. Oh, yeah.
S2: They're in secret.
S4: Yeah. Because it's it's quiet. Because there's it's quiet. There's
S4: an outward, real high level of compliance with rules. There's
S4: a high level of performing for people, but inside all
S4: kind of things can be going on.
S2: And that must be pressure, huh?
S4: Oh, yeah. I mean, when you when you put the
S4: pressure on yourself to always be good. And I use
S4: that in air quotes because we know that Scripture says
S4: no one is good. But if you feel that pressure
S4: to always be the good kid, to not get in trouble,
S4: to not disappoint teachers or parents, well, then you just
S4: start hiding stuff.
S2: Yeah. I, on the other hand, am out there. There
S2: was no pretense of goody two shoes for me. I
S2: think I wanted to put on a good front with
S2: Mom and Dad.
S3: Sure. Yeah.
S2: By and large, I was out there kind of living it.
S2: But whether you make the bad yourself and you'll understand
S2: why I'm using the word bad. I mean, that can
S2: be a pretty generic term. Whether the bad that you're
S2: experiencing is self-inflicted or if it's others inflicted. And those happen. Man,
S2: we live in a world right now that I was,
S2: I was telling a group of men in Arizona over
S2: the weekend when you're breaking free from sin. I said,
S2: listen to me. Make sure that you find people that
S2: you can trust. I even told them I said, doesn't
S2: mean that you go into a small group and tell
S2: everyone in that group, this is what I'm battling with.
S2: I sometimes that's okay because you can trust everyone in
S2: the group. You got to find people you can trust,
S2: because sometimes things that you share with people today can
S2: be used as a knife hanging out of your back tomorrow.
S2: So be wise even in how you do that. But
S2: pain from others is real. Sometimes you're in the bad
S2: suit because of something that someone did. It could be
S2: from childhood. Those things ravage our soul. And the question is,
S2: can God turn it around? And that's what we're focused
S2: on today. And I just want you to I'm going
S2: to give you the payoff punchline right now. According to
S2: Romans 828. And this is why context is so important.
S2: I was talking to my right hand man at 180 Chicago, Christopher,
S2: and I said, man, we need to the the epistles.
S2: We need to read the entire book and have full
S2: context to understand what's going on, he said. Carl. Every
S2: book of the Bible, you can really only understand these letters,
S2: these works, when you understand the broader perspective and the
S2: broader perspective of Romans. Quick flyby is we're on this
S2: highway to hell, and apart from God intervening, who knows
S2: what we're going to do? Romans one lays it all
S2: out that creation is screaming at us, but we got
S2: our backs to God and we're going a new way.
S2: But by faith, the father of all who believe Abraham
S2: displayed that we put our full faith and trust in
S2: God with no assurance of what's going to happen. And
S2: then Paul moves into, but we got this problem called
S2: sin in our life. We do bad stuff, we create messes.
S2: And then he says, but praise be to the Lord
S2: Jesus Christ. So all of that leads up to Romans eight,
S2: where we find these words, and we know that for
S2: those who love God, all things work together for good
S2: for those who are called according to his purpose. We're
S2: going to illustrate that this hour. But this you need
S2: to know right now. Whatever bad you're going through, God
S2: can turn to good. I've seen it. Ali seen it.
S2: Super die, young thunder. We've all seen it. Yeah, it's
S2: not saying that it's all roses, but it's redeemed. God
S2: does that. So I'm asking you today to love God.
S2: Those are not words. Those are not little, you know,
S2: hallmark sentiments. This is an abandonment of yourself to the
S2: lordship of Jesus Christ. Give him control of everything. Our
S2: God will turn it to good. And someone needed to
S2: hear that today. And we go right to the foot
S2: of the cross.
S1: He's a sports fanatic with a stat for anything you
S1: can think of. Young Thunder is in the crew. It's
S1: Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2: Every time I have found myself in the soup of
S2: bad stuff, wanting to see God turn it to the good.
S2: Every time there is no help and healing in Carl,
S2: wringing his hands and trying to get fancy with his footwork.
S2: I'm here to admit it today.
S4: And the hope that we have as Christ followers that
S4: that Jesus can redeem and does. I mean, that's a
S4: powerful hope, O ally.
S2: It is. And it's a hope based. It's not some
S2: fanciful notion like, oh yeah, butterflies for Jesus memes. This
S2: is about our God took to the cross, our sin.
S2: The tomb is empty. We're living in resurrection power till
S2: still today. Do you know Easter? Still going on?
S4: Yes.
S3: Amen. Amen.
S2: Come on man. So our guy can turn it all around. Well,
S2: every now and then I get fired up about something
S2: around here, boy. But there has to be a certain
S2: reason why I get fired up about this thing.
S4: Okay.
S3: Is there a good reason?
S2: Thinks I'm nuts. She does. She don't you? You think
S2: I'm certifiably nuts?
S4: Not every day.
S2: I don't even know what that means.
S3: We'll just let that one sit as is, I think.
S2: Hang on. Three minutes. You'll find out why.
S1: She was trying to earn her way to God. But
S1: God showed her she didn't have to. Ali is in
S1: the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2: What a golden opportunity we have today. And I just
S2: got some info that I'm so giddy about. Ali kind
S2: of knows what I'm giddy about here. I gotta tell you,
S2: there's going to be a lot of people out there
S2: today that are beckoning you. Come on. Own. I have
S2: not realized how big the uptick is, Ali, on this.
S2: There's a lot of people leveraging a day like today
S2: in a powerful way, and we've got some juice for
S2: incentive that is unparalleled. Rarely will you find this. There's
S2: my setup. I'm going to let you take it away. Ali.
S4: Okay. Well, before I tell you what it is, let
S4: me tell you what it is. It's giving day here
S4: at Moody Bible Institute. 139 years of God's faithfulness to
S4: Moody Bible Institute. Yeah. We are inviting you to partner
S4: with us, but I want to bring in doctor job
S4: giving day 139 years. Connect the dots. What is this?
S5: Well, you know, it's a great idea. I didn't really
S5: realize it until I started here. That it's a really
S5: a day of celebration of the faithfulness of God. You know,
S5: Moody Bible Institute next year will be 140 years.
S2: Yeah.
S5: It's amazing that students have been coming to the campus
S5: of in Chicago at Moody Bible Institute, being trained and
S5: sent all over the world. And so this is one
S5: day where the entire institute sort of celebrates God's faithfulness,
S5: his resources. Because Moody is tuition sponsored. Students that come,
S5: they they pay for their room and board if you're
S5: full time on campus, but the tuition is paid by
S5: generous people, really, from all over the world that say,
S5: I believe in the mission that we need to train
S5: the next generation. So it's a day of celebration.
S2: That's beautiful. Mark, one of the things that we hear
S2: constantly from our boom crew is that they're so grateful
S2: that we're not weak in the knees, we're not wobbly
S2: on the gospel. We're going gospel. We're not going to
S2: start getting weak on this. I want you to pour
S2: out your heart. Why, as the leader of MBI, this
S2: is so important to you. And what are we doing
S2: to stay strong in a culture that can sometimes get
S2: weak in the knees? About what the truth really is?
S5: Yeah. You know, a week ago this past Monday, we
S5: celebrated 170 years of the conversion of a 17 year
S5: old boy whose father was an alcoholic, who grew up
S5: in poverty, who people would have just discarded this guy.
S5: He's comes from a broken family, toxic poor, was working
S5: at a shoe store, and a Sunday school teacher came
S5: in and shared the gospel with him. His life was
S5: forever changed his night. His name was D.L. Moody and
S5: he became a passionate evangelist. And and really, the school
S5: was started because the gospel does change everything. Out of
S5: a passion to get the gospel to the nations. And
S5: I don't know why specifically, but in a very supernatural way,
S5: God has had his hand on this institute and kept
S5: it anchored in the truth, grounded in the Word of God.
S5: In spite of how culture has changed, because I look
S5: around the landscape of America and so many schools started
S5: sort of like moody, but they have gone way off course.
S5: God has had his hand on this place in a unique,
S5: powerful way and kept this place grounded. So every student
S5: that comes here is going to get Bible courses, no
S5: matter what their degree is. They're going to get Bible courses,
S5: systematic theology, survey of the New Testament. They're going to
S5: be in chapels. They're going to be going they're going
S5: out into Chicago doing practical Christian ministry. In fact, I
S5: was taking a walk yesterday. Uh, it was a nice night.
S5: I was downtown on Michigan Avenue and there was some
S5: street preachers there, so I went up to encourage them. Hey,
S5: thanks for sharing the gospel. That's great. And you know what?
S5: And and I found out two things. One of the guys,
S5: he said, hey, uh, I go to one of your campuses. So.
S5: So he was one of, uh, goes to one of
S5: our campuses, one of our new life. But a young
S5: guy came up to me and says, I'm a moody student.
S5: And here it was out in Chicago sharing the gospel.
S5: And I thought, wow, I love that that I ran
S5: into Moody Student out in the streets of Chicago sharing
S5: the gospel.
S4: With this tuition sponsored model. Whenever you give to something,
S4: you like to know where that money goes. And obviously
S4: it goes to help sponsor the education of a moody student.
S4: But talk about some of the alumni. Where does that
S4: money ultimately go in terms of where these students are sent,
S4: what they do after they graduate?
S5: Yeah. So we have 50,000 living alumni. And as I
S5: travel around the world speaking in different places, I'm always
S5: amazed to run into people. Some of them that lead great,
S5: you know, big ministries and some of them that are
S5: in faithful spots. You would never know their name, but
S5: they are just faithfully serving in very difficult parts of
S5: the world. And I'm talking about close countries. I'm talking about, um,
S5: inner cities. I'm talking about, uh, just every nook and
S5: cranny that you can imagine. There's moody students that are
S5: serving God. I'm so encouraged when, uh, people come back
S5: to campus and they tell me, hey, for 50 years,
S5: I've been pastoring a little rural town in, you know, Montana.
S5: Or they come back and say, I've been leading an
S5: orphanage in Africa or I've been, uh, you know, leading
S5: a non-for-profit. That's that's helping to mentor inner city youth
S5: in Detroit. Uh, it's just amazing that these alumni go
S5: all over the place. Um, some of them end up
S5: in other places outside of what we would call traditional
S5: vocational ministry. Like there's a congressman that, you know, I
S5: talked to recently that's a moody grad. And I said,
S5: are you sort of sad that you went to Moody?
S5: I don't know how that equipped you. He said, no,
S5: the best thing I did in my life was get
S5: biblically grounded. And he said, I view my position in
S5: Washington as a ministry to people in Washington, and I thought,
S5: I love it. Wow.
S2: That's beautiful. Okay. Huge news when I heard this, this
S2: this will put fuel in your belly. Mark, I'm going
S2: to let you share this. We've got either a person
S2: or persons who stepped together and have done something pretty extraordinary.
S2: We've got a do I have this right? A dollar
S2: for dollar match until 9 a.m. on any gift given today.
S5: On any gift given. Any gift given until 9:00. We've
S5: had some, um, generous donors that really believe in what
S5: we're doing here, and and they're willing to double whatever
S5: you give. $100, it turns into 200. Give 500, turns
S5: into 1000. And, you know, yesterday I was with some
S5: students talking to them about their story, and two of
S5: them happened to be international. One was from Portugal and
S5: the other one was from Kyrgyzstan. And they came here
S5: to get trained and have a passion to go back
S5: to their nations as well. And, um, we have a
S5: thousand students that live here on the campus. We train
S5: a lot more than that, but a thousand that live
S5: in the heart of Chicago, coming from all over the world.
S5: Sit down and hear their story. And how some of
S5: them got here is literally a miracle. I talked to
S5: one student a little while back. He's from Pakistan and
S5: his dad's a pastor there, and he was telling me
S5: how people pelt their building. And his dad, pretty much.
S5: He was telling me his dad pretty much scraped up
S5: everything he could get to to send him to Moody
S5: Bible Institute. And I thought, wow, that is who you're
S5: investing in those kind of students.
S4: You know, I met a young man on just on
S4: Easter Sunday. We were singing in the choir together. I'd
S4: never met him, I said, and I asked him his name.
S4: He said, my name is Tom. I said, where are
S4: you from? He said, I'm from Kenya. And I said,
S4: how did you get here to Chicago? He goes, well,
S4: I wanted to come to Chicago and I wanted to
S4: come to a Bible college. So I looked online and
S4: I found Moody Bible Institute. So I came here to
S4: go to Moody Bible Institute to be trained up. Young
S4: man from Kenya. Tom. Carl. Go ahead.
S2: Yeah. This is big guys. I'm asking you to jump
S2: in right now. Every gift of any size is doubled
S2: right now. And we're asking you to do this. Do
S2: this for the Tom's from Kenya. Do this for those
S2: from that have come from all around the globe, some
S2: of them overcoming huge obstacles to put it all on
S2: the line. And some of them are standing on street
S2: corners preaching the gospel. Would you be a part of
S2: this today? Text the word give right now to 805, 55, 78, 98.
S2: Just text the word give. Every gift of every amount
S2: is doubled.
S4: What do you love that.
S2: I love that. Well, the reason I love that is
S2: it's every part in God's greater family that's doing their
S2: what they can handle. And we've got some folks that
S2: have stepped up and said, let's, let's make this a
S2: phenomenal day. Text the word give to 800 555 7898.
S2: Give to 800 555 7898. Mark, thanks for ducking in here, man.
S2: We appreciate you doing this today.
S5: Absolutely. Thank you again and God bless you. And again,
S5: thank you, listeners, for praying for us and for your generosity.
S5: God bless.
S2: It's a beautiful thing. Text that word. Give to 800
S2: 555 7898. Give to 800 555 7898.
S1: You're listening to Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2: Crazy questions, because that's what I do.
S3: You're good at those.
S2: Have you ever had a detergent or cleaner that you
S2: just bragged about to someone?
S4: A detergent.
S2: Detergent or cleaner? Think about it right now. Super dry. Obviously.
S2: Her default is Windex. I mean, come on.
S4: Yes.
S6: Come on. Duh.
S2: She's Greek. Don't you know?
S6: Of course.
S2: That was the best flick ever. I laughed so.
S6: Hard. You know, it's one of your favorites. My big
S6: fat Greek wedding. Yeah, you got it.
S2: If you. If you. Part one, the other ones leave
S2: them out. They tried to churn some dollars off the
S2: first good one. That was.
S3: Disappointing.
S2: But back to my cleaners thing. You ever had a
S2: cleaner product? House product. Counter. Scrubber. Granite washer. Stainless steel buffer.
S2: Some kind of cleaning product that you're like, um. Are
S2: you guys gonna leave me high and dry here? No
S2: one has a product.
S3: I mean, okay, what do you got? I don't think
S3: a lot about.
S4: Mine is a laundry product.
S6: Okay.
S3: Okay.
S2: Or you're not willing to.
S6: Say.
S4: Well, okay, so it's a laundry bar. It looks like
S4: a bar of soap. It's called Fels-naptha. It's it's very
S4: random looking, but it looks like a long bar of soap.
S4: But this thing can get stains out of anything. I mean,
S4: like grass stained baseball stained pants. You take it and
S4: you scrub it into the fabric. It gets anything out?
S4: It is not. Failed me once.
S6: What's it called again?
S2: You know what you have to do right now, or
S2: else we're going to get texts out the wazoo.
S6: I know.
S4: I am. This is a product that I love. I
S4: want to be careful. Fels-naptha is what it's called. It's a, uh.
S4: It's a laundry bar.
S6: I'm going to try it. Thank you. There you go. Yeah.
S2: Good grief. That's not even my department in my life.
S2: But I think I'm going to go get one.
S6: Like, maybe I got sold pants. I can go out
S6: and play.
S4: In the grass.
S6: Today just to try it out.
S2: Yeah, I'm going to go out. Well, here's. You know
S2: why you like that?
S4: Because it.
S6: Works.
S2: It works.
S6: It works really well.
S2: It works. And I I'm going to boil it down.
S2: That is the litmus test for any God you are following.
S2: And I believe there's one true God and that he
S2: can work to good, even the bad. And if it
S2: doesn't work, it's not worth using or following anything. Right, guys?
S6: Yeah, that's true, of course, but.
S4: I think the question is, how do you know? Like,
S4: what's the proof of whether or not it works?
S2: Yeah. That's. Yeah. And and how do we do this
S2: with God. Well, this is the claim that Paul has
S2: in Romans 828. And we know that for those who
S2: love God, all things work together for good, for those
S2: who are called according to his purpose. And it goes
S2: on in verse 29, for those he foreknew, he also
S2: predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son,
S2: in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
S2: Here's the point. I am absolutely convinced that some people
S2: aren't convinced that God can work all things together for good,
S2: even the bad stuff. And when I'm talking bad stuff,
S2: I'm talking self-inflicted bad, for which we all have that.
S2: Even ally goody two shoes ally, as she likes to
S2: call herself. But and we talked about that in a
S2: previous hour. But and I'm not making light of that
S2: because one of the great pains of, of people that
S2: are putting their best out front is you live with
S2: some pain inside that.
S6: Oh, yeah.
S2: It's hard. Right?
S6: Sure.
S4: And that's true for every. No one escapes it.
S2: No one escapes it. So the question is, can God
S2: turn what is bad? Self-inflicted. Others inflicted. Inflicted for good.
S2: That's the acid test of the gospel. Because if he can't,
S2: why follow him? Bottom line. Now the secret sauce is
S2: a full blown abandonment of self to the Lordship of
S2: Jesus Christ. It's Paul crying out, foolish man, that I
S2: am that which I want to do, I don't do,
S2: and that which I do, I don't want to do.
S2: Who will rescue me from this body of sin and death?
S2: Praise be to the Lord Jesus Christ. Coming up here
S2: in a moment, we're going to do it right. We
S2: are going to illustrate it by way of story. Hang on.
S2: He's in the boom crew.
S1: She's a choreographer extraordinaire, and everything is Greek to her.
S1: Super die is in the crew. It's Carl and crew
S1: on Moody Radio.
S2: Well, you're the boom crew, and this is your show,
S2: and we're going to prove it to you right now.
S2: Little show prep. Yesterday, I was pouring my heart out
S2: to my bride, and I said, Romans 828 God taken
S2: bad stuff and turning it to good. Self inflicted. Others inflicted.
S2: Some of you going through some tough things right now
S2: and you're like, how in the world is God going
S2: to turn this around? I don't care how many locusts
S2: came to the years or seasons of your life, that
S2: is the promise of God. And sometimes you got to
S2: hear a story to just bank it. Somebody in the
S2: boom crew that we love have actually had a chance
S2: to go out and get a bite of breakfast with.
S2: This man is Phillip, and he has got a walking
S2: banner ad for God turning bad stuff into good. How
S2: you doing, Phillip?
S7: Good morning, my brother. I'm blessed beyond measure. How are you, man?
S2: Doing great. Um, I gotta tell you, Phillip, I. We're
S2: going to cut you loose here. Give us your story.
S2: High level. What? What? This thing got off the rails here,
S2: my man. Let's get honest. Your life was a train
S2: wreck on steroids, right, Phillip?
S7: Absolutely. It was. I mean, I was lost, I was
S7: chasing my tail. I was so lost in sin. But
S7: you know something? During all that time, oftentimes our Lord
S7: and Savior Jesus Christ will allow you to go just
S7: as far as he needs you to go in order
S7: for you to reach what is going to be your end,
S7: the end of yourself. And that's what happened to me.
S4: Philip Van Lier is our guest right now, a part
S4: of the boom crew. He's a graduate of Moody Theological Seminary.
S4: He has a 40 year career as a professional actor director, presenter.
S4: We know him as Philip from Aurora.
S6: Which is a suburb of Chicago.
S2: You've probably seen him on small screen or big screen
S2: because he's done a lot of stuff, right?
S6: Yes, he has.
S4: He most prominent roles in Prison Break, Chicago Code, Meet
S4: the Browns, Holiday Heist, My Dog, The Space Traveler. That
S4: sounds interesting. He's appeared regularly on stage here in the
S4: Chicago area as well. Philip, you you got into acting?
S4: Was that what you thought this was going to spend?
S4: I'm going to spend my whole life on the stage
S4: in front of the screen. Was that your passion?
S7: Oh, from the time I was in seventh grade, I was,
S7: as you can imagine, a rambunctious child. I guess I
S7: can just say it that way. I had a teacher,
S7: Vincent Popolizio. God bless him. And he said, you know,
S7: young man, we've got to find an outlet for you.
S7: So you use that energy in a positive fashion. He
S7: turned me on to theater and that's all it took.
S2: You know, Philip, I want to get as as honest.
S2: You're very honest guy. But what led to this spiral
S2: downhill that God ultimately pulled you out of? And give
S2: us some of the give us some of the low points.
S2: And let's just pour it out here right now.
S7: The greatest sin, as we know, is pride and believing
S7: that we are our own gods. And I, I grab
S7: hold of that with both hands. I had made it
S7: a determination back in the early 70s that I was
S7: going to be the greatest actor to come out of Aurora, Illinois.
S7: And I was going to do whatever it took. And
S7: I went for it with all the gusto. But it
S7: also meant I went for all the things that the
S7: world had to offer regarding that business. Uh, women, drugs, alcohol, Home. Uh,
S7: just the most, uh. The most, uh, Colonel, uh, segment
S7: of that business that I could find. And as oftentimes
S7: the enemy does, he latched on to those weaknesses in me.
S7: I did find fame. I found fortune, but unfortunately, what
S7: tripped me up is that I didn't recognize the folly
S7: when it fell into my lap.
S4: So, Philip, did you reach a a breaking point was
S4: obviously there's the fleeting pleasures of sin, or else we
S4: wouldn't go back to it. As you're seeing success in
S4: your acting career, you're living the life and the pleasures
S4: of sin. What brought you to a point where you go,
S4: this is this can't continue. Did you make that decision
S4: on your own, or did God absolutely break you?
S7: The decisions I made on my own allies, but got
S7: me into that place. So absolutely. You know, I was
S7: I made my own mess. But but, you know, as
S7: as the fame increased and I was, you know, doing
S7: show after show on stage here in Chicago, you know,
S7: I was doing television and film. I was working with
S7: three major corporations and presenting all over the world. But,
S7: you know, there was this as we know, Pascal told us,
S7: this God sized hole in my heart where I knew
S7: that I had walked away from the faith of my family.
S7: You know, I was raised in the church. You know,
S7: my my family footprint fingerprint was all over the church
S7: that I grew up in. But I had turned my
S7: back on it. But, you know, even though you may
S7: walk away the Holy Spirit, once you've given yourself to Christ,
S7: once you've received Christ into your heart, the Holy Spirit
S7: is dwelling in you. And as much as you try
S7: to push it away, it's still going to be pulling
S7: you back. And so I knew that. I knew how
S7: far I had fallen, and that what I was doing was,
S7: was killing myself, killing those around me. I had already
S7: torpedoed two marriages. I was on my third, and I
S7: had started to detonate that marriage as well. Um. But. But, God. Yeah,
S7: but God, finally. You know. Yes. Turned me around.
S2: Coming up, Phillip is going to share with us here,
S2: and we get to all take it in together. How?
S2: God takes the bad sometimes the mess we've made ourselves.
S2: And I'm talking ugly stuff and can turn this for
S2: good to those who love God. And that's the point.
S2: More with Phillip Van Lear straight ahead.
S1: You can take him out of Alaska, but you can't
S1: take Alaska out of him. Carl is in the crew.
S1: It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2: Can God take what is bad? Self-inflicted. Brought on by others.
S2: And I mean ugly. Bad and turn it for good.
S2: That's the promise in Romans 828. But the key is
S2: for those who love him. It's that formation of the soul.
S2: That's everything. He was high flying, low living, blew up
S2: two marriages fixing to ruin a third. And God got
S2: a hold of him. His name is Philip, and we
S2: love him a bunch here. He's one of the boom crew. Philip,
S2: tell us what happened. I want you to take us
S2: to that moment. Moment of, I mean, snot blowing brokenness
S2: where you're like, this has got to end.
S7: No. Amen. Amen. You know, because rehab didn't work. Carl,
S7: I like rehab so much. I went three times.
S2: You and me, buddy. We must have gone to the
S2: same dive.
S7: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. We have. Somehow we got the same reference.
S7: You know, I, you know, I wanted to get that
S7: that 90 and 90 chip. And then once I got one,
S7: I said, well let me go back and get two more. Yeah.
S7: But you know, but you know, that's the madness. That's
S7: the insanity of sin. But what really got it for me?
S7: Praise God for my lovely wife. You know, Heather, such
S7: a strong woman, been through so much. I so all
S7: kicked my coverage, but I remember it was May. It
S7: was May of 2012, and and I had just been
S7: on a bit of a bender. It had been five
S7: days of constant drug use. And Heather looked at me
S7: and she said, that's it, I'm done. Either you're going
S7: to get help or you're leaving. Now notice she didn't
S7: say she was leaving. She said no. She said she
S7: and the kids were going to stay in the house
S7: that we had just bought. She said, she said, but you,
S7: you are going to leave. And it was that moment,
S7: and maybe it was something in the tone of her
S7: voice or the look in her eye where I knew
S7: that she was serious, you know? And all this time
S7: I had been playing a church card and I had
S7: been going to church. And of course, it was a
S7: church that was a mess, you know, with the rainbow
S7: flag hanging over the altar and everything. So I was
S7: just going there because it itched my ears, you know.
S7: But finally I went and got help. And I remember
S7: the day sitting in that psychiatrist's office when she did
S7: an assessment of me, and she said after her assessment,
S7: she said, you are you're suffering from severe depression and
S7: severe anxiety. And the dam broke right there. The tears
S7: just flowed. Not because I had a miraculous conversion. No.
S7: I had already been saved by the grace and mercy
S7: of God. But at that point, I realized that all
S7: of this machismo, this macho thing, especially as a black man,
S7: that I could handle it, that I was going to
S7: be okay. That wall broke down. Praise be to God. Yeah.
S7: And I realized it was all right for me to
S7: ask for help, to seek help. I got help right then.
S7: The last day I used Praise Be to God was
S7: the 24th of May, 2012. Now, things were not all
S7: unicorns and rainbows after that because as we often know,
S7: as as as addicts, we'll replace one addiction for another.
S2: Yes.
S7: And even though I was freed, praise God from that
S7: one addiction of cocaine and marijuana, I was freed from that.
S7: But yet the enemy said, okay, well, I got you
S7: over here. Come on over here, buddy. I got something
S7: for you. Yeah. And so then those other addictions, the, uh,
S7: the infidelity and the, uh, like the deceit, uh, those
S7: addictions kicked in. Now, praise be to God, man. I
S7: got connected with a great church out in Aurora, harvest
S7: Bible Chapel, the Aurora campus. And for the first time,
S7: first time in my life. And I've been a Christian
S7: since 19. What, 65? When I walked that aisle. But
S7: for the first time in my life, I had men,
S7: godly men who came around me that didn't shame me
S7: as much as I felt that shame from an absentee father.
S7: You know, as much as I felt that shame from
S7: other men that thought that I felt I was lesser
S7: in their eyes, seeking the glory of man, not of God.
S7: But for the first time I had men that loved
S7: me and held me to account, put my feet to
S7: the fire, and held me there and said, no, bro,
S7: we love you. But but you, you claim to be
S7: a child of God. But what are you doing? Yeah.
S7: You know, what fruit are you bearing right now? You know,
S7: and that that is when it began to change is
S7: when I. I realized that I was hurting my bride,
S7: the woman that had stayed with me through all of
S7: this mess. You know, she I was hurting her to
S7: the point where she was desperate.
S6: Yeah.
S4: Philip, tell me, how have you seen this? In about
S4: a minute left. How have you seen Romans 828? In
S4: your own life? We know that for those who love God,
S4: all things work together for good, for those who are
S4: called according to his purpose. You have walked a difficult road.
S4: Some of it, by your own admission, has been your
S4: own doing. But how have you seen God work things
S4: together for your good as one who loves him?
S7: You know when you come out of it and you
S7: start to realize that that God actually does love you
S7: and it's okay for you to love yourself. And and
S7: what I've seen is that even in the when we
S7: say we, we often misquote that verse and verse, and
S7: we think everything's going to be fine. You know how
S7: many coaches have told us, yo, all things can work.
S7: We're going to do this. No, no, that means that
S7: means that means everything. That means the good and the bad.
S7: That means my my glaucoma. You know, as I've lost
S7: my sight, it means, you know, my journey with cancer.
S7: When I had three tumors in my on my tongue
S7: and my throat and on my neck, you know, it
S7: means spinal fusion therapy. It means losing my agent, you know,
S7: and my professional career basically ending all of that worked
S7: for his good because what he did, he gave me
S7: opportunities to be a spokesperson for the Glaucoma Research Foundation.
S7: He gave me an opportunity to lead a men's ministry,
S7: to create a creative arts ministry at my old church
S7: city line. He he's given me opportunities to be able
S7: to speak to men on a real level because, as
S7: you know, the best witnesses are those witnesses who have
S7: who have been in the trenches or I should say,
S7: have been stuck in the muck and the mire because
S7: once God brings us out of that. Our story has
S7: much more validity to it, you know? It's because it's genuine,
S7: because we've lived it. And people can see in us
S7: the power of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Yes.
S7: And for those who love, you know, and when, when
S7: we profess, boldly profess Christ, proclaim Christ, and when people
S7: can see the love of Christ in us and in
S7: our eyes. Yes. Amen.
S2: Philip, I want to thank you from the bottom of
S2: my heart. There's a lot of you listening today. And
S2: your question is, can God do that for me? And
S2: the answer is he can. He absolutely can. Our God
S2: works together for good, even the bad, to those who
S2: love him, those that are called according to his purpose,
S2: those bowed low before God who are being made into
S2: the likeness of Christ. Bank it.