Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio. This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
I want to thank you at the top of this hour. For all of you that have jumped in to be part of the prayer warriors. I mean, what's the best? What's the best description? Ali.
Oh, boy. I mean, it's an army. It's a prayer army. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're on mission. They're marching orders. Instructions committed to one goal.
Yeah. We're going to resource you, give you insider peak. We want to give you. In fact, you know, there's things that come up during share, which starts in earnest next week that are obstacles that we want to overcome, kind of insights that we're gaining. And we want to give you an insider's perspective of what's going on and then be shoulder to shoulder with you in prayer so that when you grab your half hour slot for prayer, you've got prayer points that we're going to give you
real good guidance. And we're even going to give you scriptures to be leaning into as you pray. You can do this on a walk. You can do this truly. If you've got a commute where you can just lean into God. You can pray with your eyes wide open. Guys, I do it all the time. You got a prayer closet? You can go there as well, but we're asking you to jump in and be a part of share in the most important way. Would you grab a half an hour of prayer? And if you've got a gift of
this praying, fill them in, man. Grab a couple of slots. Grab a friend. Call a friend. This is something that you can do together. Ten people per half hour slot. Where are we at here, super guy? What's our count? How many do we have to go yet?
Let me do one more update just to make sure I've got the right count. We actually need 400. Even we are at 200 already.
All right. Yeah, we got 400 slots to fill. Let's get let's get 40 of those right now. Let's just get 40 of them right now.
We got an easy sign up link for you if you text the word crew c r e w to 800 555 7898. Text crew to 805 five five 7898. You'll get a link back from us. Just click. Click on it and scroll down and pick the 30 minute slot that works for you. You don't have to come here. Like Carl said, you can pray on your commute. You can. I like pray prayer walking like that's a that's a great way to do it. You're outside. Hopefully you get
some nice weather in a little bit of sunshine. But a prayer walk or prayer drive, a prayer sit, a prayer kneel, you pick the place that works for you. Just commit to the time. We'll send you the reminder and some prayer points. Text crew to 805, five, five, 78, 98.
And somebody needs to take a risk there. Like on the bubble. I'm asking you to jump over and grab it right now. That's you. Yeah. I'm talking to you, friend. Yeah. Oh, busted. Text crew to 800 555 98. Big difference between going to church and being the church. And we're breaking it down all week long. And boy, what a way to kick it off with our York. More smoke on the water.
Like you smoke.
Smoke on the water like Ali likes to say.
Definitely Carlism.
Oh, that's an alias right there. Ali. Go girl. Woo!
He was sharing the gospel on the radio and then he got saved. Young thunders in the crew. It's Carlin crew on Moody Radio.
Be the church. As opposed to what Carl? As opposed to going to church. Now, going to church is a great thing. Don't hear me wrong on this one, right? Super die. We got to get there in order to be there.
Yes. Don't hear us wrong. You've got to go to be as you just said. But what do you.
Say, young thunder difference for you from going to church and being the church?
Well, going to church I did for years. You show up, you sit in the pew or the chair and you listen to the sermon. Maybe you say hi to a couple people and then you're out and and that's your kind of your time with the people of God. That's your time with his community. That's your time in his word. And then you just come back next week. Maybe you don't even come back next week. Maybe it's just a
couple times a month. Being the church is saying, I understand that I have been affected by the love of Jesus so greatly that now I am going to live that in my life. That's how I interact with brothers and sisters in Christ. That's how I interact with with people who don't know Christ yet. And that's inside the church. That's outside the church. It's not confined to walls.
I've got York more with me right now. He's going to spike that young thunder revivalist, gifted communicator, great leader, president and CEO, national evangelist of the coalition for Christian Outreach. What do you say, York? How do we move from going to church to be the church, my man.
Well, it's great to hear your voice again, Carl. You know, it really is everything. You know, when Jesus calls us to follow him. He calls us into all of life. And that doesn't just mean a nice Sunday service. And there's nothing wrong. Like you said, there's nothing wrong with attending a church service. But our faith is supposed to be a Monday through Sunday faith. And really, the best part of following Jesus is actually when we're out in the world, you know, 99% of Christians live 99% of
their lives in the workplace. And so being the church on mission really does happen oftentimes in a place of work. And so the Coalition of Christian outreach, we're discipling students, we're disciple making movement, and we're discipling students with this arc toward occupation, toward work. And so oftentimes we sit in that Sunday morning pew or the bench or the chair, as you said, and we hear a message about how to have good marriages, or we hear messages about, you know,
forgiveness and all of that's very important. It's all very important. But I think oftentimes being the church on mission with Jesus is more about what it looks like to actually be functionally in the world with non-believers, rather than how to have a better inner life, or how to have a better prayer life or these kinds of things. And so God is sending us into all of life, whether
it's the workplace I just got back from vacation. And vacation is something that oftentimes we leave Jesus back at home. But Jesus wants to be the Lord of every square inch of our lives, every moment of our lives, Monday through Sunday, not just Sunday morning.
I love it. York Moore, our guest. We're going to have a link, guys, with some great resources that he produces. York when we think about going versus being, what's going on at a heart level there, I know that there's a grand illusion of salvation for many who go to church. They've never been in Christ. That's a reality here in America. And there's other issues of derailed disciples. What's your take? You've seen it a lot. What's going on in the pew and in the chair.
Well, my entry into the church was a very unusual one, but it was very telling. So I grew up as an atheist. We were homeless on the streets of Detroit. We had a sign on the front of our home when we weren't homeless the moors, the atheists. We had a barrel for burning Bibles. I was not raised in the church. I had a radical come to Jesus born again experience while I was a university student at the University of Michigan, and I started attending church in my
20s for the first time. And what I experienced was initially just a set of confusing feelings and observations as I watched many Christians, not all, but many Christians, believing that they were on mission and following Jesus simply because they could check the Nicene Creed, or they attended church and tithed, or those kinds of things. But again, there, Monday through Sunday, faith wasn't really integrated, right? So they had this idea that following Jesus was really about attending
a church service. And when you look at the difference between somebody who's truly on mission, where Jesus is the Lord over every square inch of their lives, qualitatively there's no comparison. So when Jesus calls us to be disciples, that's what he's talking about. He's talking about. Yes. It's important. Don't neglect the gathering of yourselves together, as is the habit of some. We understand that gathering in the local
church is important. It's a command, in my opinion. It's where the life of a believer should be lived out. But it's in the going that we actually are formed into disciples. So I tend to think of the church service on a Sunday morning as not necessarily just a pit stop. It's where I go to connect with other people who have made this commitment to be on mission for the rest of the week, and for the rest of their lives with Jesus.
What's the sticking point? What's got people stuck? My conviction as a pastor here in Chicagoland is that there's hints of want to, but then they run up against barriers. What are those barriers to move from nominal Christianity into being a disciple of Christ? Carl, I'm.
Going to say something that I hope doesn't offend you or offend other pastors who might be listening, but I think the problem is really us. It's Christian leaders. We've built this metric of success that revolves largely around how many butts are in the seat, how many baptisms are in the building. And we, unfortunately, I think, have drank a little bit of our own Kool-Aid. And we've given the church largely this idea that success looks like growing
numbers in the building, growing, giving units, growing baptisms. All of that's good. Don't hear me wrong. I want as many people in the building as I possibly can get, but at the end of the day, it's about how many of those people are actually leaving that building and going into all of life with this passion and this mission to join Jesus in making all things new, not just, you know, having a devotional each morning, which is important. I had mine this morning in Second Kings. It's not
just praying over a meal. All of that's important, but we should actually be measuring the success of the local church by how many people are actually leaving those doors after a Sunday service, committed to living every square inch of their lives as a form and expression of worship and devotion to Jesus York.
This is so right on. This is so right on. And it hits hard. And I've been on this journey. The primary metric in most churches is how much money is given and how many people are attending. You're right. It's butts and bucks and yeah, we can do better coming up here in a moment, I want you boom crew to get York Moors vantage point. What he's seeing the transforming of college students. What can we learn from what God is doing on college campuses, and how does
that translate to you and me? I know, let that boiling want to build right now. God wants to meet you there today.
She was trying to earn her way to God, but God showed her she didn't have to. Ali is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
With me right now is York Moore. Our York Moore. It's fascinating because you're doing some great work on college campuses and you're seeing young people and we're hearing stories. Ohio State, UCLA, if I'm not mistaken, campuses across the country. Tell us what you're seeing and what can we learn? Many people here who you're speaking to today are not in that age bracket any longer. What can we learn?
Well, I think the number one thing people need to hear is God's not dead and God's not finished with this generation. God is very much alive and at work on our college campuses. We tend to look at the rioting and the protests, whether it's a Palestinians or over sexual identity. You know, our college campuses are hotbeds of of activity very much reminiscent of the 60s, early 70s.
It's very, very different. Carl. What we're actually seeing is that the largest generation in American history, Gen Z, the largest unaffiliated generation in all of American history. Gen Z's largely, uh, non-affiliated when it comes to any religious affiliation, but 84% of Gen Z are open to talking about Jesus and the gospel. They're looking for transformative community. They are hoping for mentoring relationships with an adult. We call that discipleship.
This is an opportunity like we've never seen before. I've been in college ministry now for 30 years, 27 years as the national evangelist with a ministry called InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and now the president of the coalition for Christian Outreach. And I've never seen the amount of openness in this
generation like what we're seeing right now. We'll have thousands come every February to downtown Pittsburgh for a conference we call Jubilee, and we're discipling students into machine learning and algorithms and botany and agriculture and IT 72 seminar or seminars, rather, workshops that are all geared toward integrating faith into work. But we see hundreds of people coming to faith at this conference, and this is just one of many, many conferences.
We know every single college campus in America. We know who is ministering on those campuses and across the country. You've mentioned UCLA, you've mentioned Ohio State. The list could go on and on and on. We're seeing a move of God on the college campuses like we've never seen before. And many of us, myself included, we believe that this is the beginning of a wave of spiritual activity that's actually going to accelerate. And that's exciting. God is at work.
He's moving in power. Students are responding to the gospel.
Are York more with me right now? So how should we then live? What the average person listening right now, I think we got to get a fuel in our belly. We got some vision for what God is doing and we need to fill that gap. Because what you alluded to is a lot of these students, they're only want. They're only want is someone that can point the way, what do we do?
Well, let me back it up a little bit to our conversation we were having about how easy it is to be lulled into a state of complacency, you know, in the church where and I'm guilty of this as well. So I'll just put my cards on the table. It's very easy to go to church and not be the church. It's very easy to go to church and sit in the pew and receive the goods and services to reflect on it just a bit, just enough, and then to go home and live our lives basically as functional atheists.
That's how many Christians are living their lives today in America. It's functionally atheism. You know, we indulge in materialism and we doomscroll, and we watch just as much Netflix as the person next to us who doesn't have a relationship with Jesus. Now don't hear me wrong. There's nothing wrong with with scrolling on social media. There's nothing wrong with
watching Netflix. But here's the difference. When we who have the hope of heaven live in a way that's indiscernible from those people who are on their way to a crisis eternity. Something is wrong. And my hope and prayer for myself is that God would give me holy discontent, that he would give me the unction of the Spirit of God, a fire in my belly, that I might not just give in to the easy way of life. And let's just admit it, it's easier than ever to
live life in 2025. Regardless of what our economic situation is, there are more things to distract us, to dissuade us from being passionate followers of Jesus than ever before. Yeah, and my prayer is that God light a fire in the belly of the church in North America, that we would rise up and be the people of God?
Seems that we're going to have to abhor what is evil in order to cling to what is good. And I take Paul's words literally. That there's things that we're going to have to say no to in order to say yes to the greater good. York I mean, that's discipleship, isn't it, my friend? I mean, and it's not I'm not going to watch TV. It could be I'm not going to watch an extra hour, or I'm not going
to scroll for two hours. When I get down that rabbit hole, I'm going to set a timer and I'm going to do 15 minutes, and I'm going to spend more time in humble consecration in the morning. Five minutes of that can go so much further than a Netflix even one hour episode can do, right, York?
Yeah. You know, it's interesting that you bring this up. I just preached several messages to a couple of different places, and I think, here's what happens when we actually make the invitation to follow Jesus about a high and holy calling, a sacrifice, uh, living as peculiar people and being strangers in this land. When we make it actually hard, we call people to something difficult. They take it more seriously.
You know, I think gone are the days where we give a call to faith when we're calling people to just give Jesus a try to see the Jesus boost will make their lives just a little bit better. No, you know, what I do is I make the Lordship of Christ high and heavy on the hearts of people who are hearing the gospel, and I make it difficult for them to respond. Oftentimes, I'll say, don't come forward unless you're willing to give every segment of your life
to Jesus. Don't come forward unless you're willing to repent of. And then I list many of the ways in which we are living lives of sin and complicity when we do that. What I've noticed over 30 years of evangelism is that more people respond more sincerely, and they have a conversion experience that is authentic and transformative and goes on to transform the world.
You know, I wonder if we've actually how do I capture this? Sold. Short. Short. Armed. The real gospel and people with a watered down gospel might say, well, I've tried self-help. That doesn't really appeal to me. When if we put the true gospel before them, you know, humility isn't the pinnacle of discipleship. It's the gateway to. Unless a man humbles himself, denies himself, and follows me, you're
not fit for the kingdom of God. Is that call, that clarion call to renounce oneself not for the sake of denigrating oneself, but to glorify God and ultimately bring great joy to yourself. Is that the missing link today, York?
I think it's part of it. I would throw into this conversation, Carl, the idea of beauty and the the exalted glory of the Lord. You read sermons from the great preachers and Spurgeon and and others, and how much time they spent exalting the Lord, having him high and lifted up. Yeah, we've reduced oftentimes the gospel in Jesus
to some kind of medical, you know, life boost. And when we actually help people see the glory and the otherness of God and how he's high and lifted up, you know, when I preach the gospel, I have this mental ritual in my mind as if Jesus is actually sitting right next to me on the stage, and I'm introducing people for the first time to an actual person rather than a set of propositional truths. And as I'm doing that, I myself are caught up in the beauty
and the glory and the weight of his presence. And people can sense that, you know. Now, that's not a good formula for building your next megachurch. But at the same time, when people actually catch a glimpse of the beauty and the glory of the Exalted one that creates a qualitatively different kind of convert. A convert who is enraptured not with their own need for self-help, but enraptured with the glory of God and His reign and rule over all of life.
Yeah, you're right on our York Moor. Oh, goodness, brother, we got to get you back more frequently. This is exactly what the Lord has been doing in my life now, for I don't know how long, guys, I don't know, five years. And it just keeps getting deeper and deeper. You know the interesting thing? One last word here. You see this decline into a increased humility on Paul's part. It's an interesting thing. He calls himself least of the apostles,
then least of the saints. And then finally, in his final letter to Timothy, he says, I'm the chief of sinners. Isn't it weird? Isn't it wild that with that growth, he was more aware of his need for God. You get the final word on that.
Well, you know, I just actually lost my mom. She passed away from lung cancer in my arms just a couple of months ago. Sorry. And I appreciate that. So I'm I'm feeling the weight of eternity in its nearness and the reality of our own mortality more than ever.
And I think even though I'm still a young man by many people's standards, at the age of 55, the reality is that this life is short and as we live it, and if we're honest with ourselves, all of the bravado that comes with our accolades and our accomplishments of our younger years, we begin to realize, you know what? Maybe I wasn't so great. Maybe I wasn't so charismatic. Maybe it was the favor of the Lord that accomplished these things. And we begin to have a more sober
perspective on who we are and what we've done. At least that's that's what maturity should look like, right? Oftentimes, a lot of people get to the end of their
life and they haven't faced that. Paul, I think you're right, is our great model that as we actually grow closer to heaven, as that veil gets thinner and thinner, we have a more sober perspective on who we are and just how much the grace of the Lord played a part in making us who we are and helping us to accomplish the things that we've done for him.
York more, our York more. I want you to come and grab a link. I know you are going to flock to this one. Text the word York to our number right now. York to 800 555, 7898. Great resources here. Text the word York 800 555 7898.
Do you feel stuck or paralyzed with victory just out of reach? Here are your questions answered. It's time for ask, Pastor Carl.
Every Monday, Bottom of the hour tackling your questions and we'll give you a link. Where to send those in to me. Keeping your ID confidential here. Grateful for these questions that are pouring in. And this is a good one. Pastor Carl, how can we know for sure? When I meet Jesus face to face that he will say, well done, good and faithful servant verses I never knew you. The letter is making reference to two different passages of Scripture. One is Matthew seven. Depart from me. I never knew you.
And that is indicating that there are people who are spiritually active. We use this passage often because it helps reveal an illusion of salvation. People who are preaching in the name of Jesus, baptizing in the name of Jesus, casting out demons, doing mighty works in the name of Jesus. Is it possible to be spiritually active and not be
born again? The answer is yes, that is possible. There's a lot of people that are busy doing good things, but have never been connected with Jesus Christ, the good Savior, and calls him friend. They don't know where they really stand with God. That is possible. Conversely, you go to Matthew 25, the passage that this writer is making reference to.
Well done, good and faithful servant. Now that comes out of the parable of the talents, and it's a story that's told that the master goes away on a trip, and he leaves behind four three servants, indicating those that are presumed to be in Christ. And I'll clarify that five talents, two talents and one talent. Now, a talent is a big deal. Guys, this is humongous. One talent would have been 20 years. One talent would have been 20 years for a working man's wage. Wow. So this
is a big thing. They've been entrusted with a lot, especially the five talent guy. My goodness, he's got 100 years of runway with the gifts that he's been given. It's just enormous amount of money. And the metaphor goes on when Jesus returns, because that's how the metaphor goes. And by the way, let's be very clear here. This is speaking of the second coming of Christ. Matthew 25 is dealing with the second coming of Christ. And here's
what is going to happen. Jesus is going to look to see what we've been given and how we handled it, for evidence of whether or not we are truly born again. This is going to be hard for some of you to hear, but the one talent guy, the story goes, he buried his talent out of fear for what's going to happen. The five talent guy invested it. He's given all that and more. The two talent guy invested it.
He was given all that and more. There's a lot of debate theologically about what in the world are these talents, and a lot of times it gets preached as money. It's not money. It's the totality of all that we've been given in God. And whether or not we are leveraging the grace of God in a way that reveals that we are one of God's kids. Many believe that one talent person must be a carnal person. I and many people would agree that it is not. This is
a lost person who thinks they're saved. That kind of raises the stakes here, doesn't it, guys? Yeah. And by the way, moody Bible commentary nails that point. The one talent person is a person with illusion of salvation, and I think it's best seen by the fact that there was a fear of the master rather than a confidence in relationship with the master, so he buried that one. See, when we come into authentic relationship with Jesus Christ, he says,
I no longer call you servant. I call you friend. See, our Scripture interprets scripture here. It's a beautiful thing. So here's something that we need to hit that's going to help answer this. And then I'm going to give you a link that is very important in just a moment. Works are not a means to salvation. What you do with what you've been given is that's not the deal. James, the half brother of Jesus, says, faith without works is dead.
What does that mean? It means if you claim to have faith but have no outworking of that, you may not have faith at all. So the question persists, pastor Carl, how can I know for sure? When I meet Jesus face to face that he will say either well done, good and faithful servant versus I never knew you. Here's the beauty of the Word of God, and this is what I want you to hear right now. Scripture is replete with evidence of what truly born again people do.
They don't do to get they do out of friendship. There's no longer a master servant kind of analogy going on. It's friend to friend. So those servants, although they were servants, they had a connection with the master that the one talent guy didn't have. Baptism is an a public declaration of an internal transformation, utilizing our lives to the glory of God and investing the totality of all. He's given us all the graces of God. It's just a reflection of us being touched at a heart level by the
grace of God. We're no longer enemies of the cross. We're born again. We've been changed. There's two things I want to do here right now. I hadn't planned on this, but there's some of you right now that are cut to the heart by the Holy Spirit. And you've never had friendship with God. And today you can have friendship with God. And this is how. Turn around. Repent of your sin. Hold nothing back. You might have just been with us here as we were having a conversation with
York Moore. I would be in spiritual malpractice if I did anything but tell you that you must be born again to turn away from the broad path onto the narrow path means that you're giving everything to God. You're enthralled with his goodness, his grace. And in this moment, the Holy Spirit is saying, it's you, my friend. You're the one talent person. But today you can be born again by an act of faith. The cry of your soul right now. No fancy prayers, just a heart that
is cut deeply. You say, I have not surrendered all to Jesus, but today I give my life away completely. Holding nothing back. So let me just ask you right now, do you believe today as never before, that Jesus died for your sins? And that out of that recognition you're turning away from your own way and you're going to follow Jesus and you're holding nothing back. You're not holding on to your identity, to your money, to your to your position in life, to even holding on to your
insecurities or your pride. You're letting that all go. Today, Jesus, we'll call you friend. And if that's you right now, you'd say, that's me, Carl. I just want you to text new, and we're going to send you a resource that's going to help you with your first steps with Jesus. If that's you, just text new to 800 555 7898. When confronted with passages like Matthew 25 and Matthew seven, the Holy Spirit can cut down to the bottom and go, kid, you've been in church, but you've never been in me.
You've been trying to live a good life, but you've you've never realized that. I want to call you friend. We've had an arm's length relationship, but today I want to give you a hug. If that's you, just text the word new right now. If today is a day of faith for you, that you surrender all to Jesus, knowing he died for your sins and there's no life apart from him. Text. New right now. Right now to 800 555 7898. This is your day of salvation. This is your day. This is your day. 65 oh 6506
4955 welcome to the family. This is your day. And we've got a link that you can click that link. And there's embedded links in there that are going to help you in your first steps with Jesus. And we say, welcome to the family right now. Grateful for every one of you right now. And it's an overwhelming thing when you get confronted with the reality of what authentic faith really is, and you can begin a journey today, that is, it's never going to be the same again. 6872. Welcome
to the family. And then coming up here in a moment, I want to offer up a link for many of you Who have been wondering, how can I know? Because the question from this great person who sent me this vulnerable question can be answered when we look at the totality of Scripture and look at the evidences of those who truly have friendship with God. But we're grateful so many of you surrender in life to Jesus today never ceases to amaze me. 4727 08852624 this is serious biz.
And this is here's what's awesome about this. God brought you here today to allow the Holy Spirit to work in your life in ways that you never would have imagined, and it's beautiful. Grateful for you. If today is your day of surrender before, you've never fully surrendered to Jesus, but today is your day. Just text new to 800 555 Five, 7898. He no longer calls you servant, but he calls you friend. Hold nothing back, my friend. Give it all to Jesus today. Okay. Got a question here.
And boy, did some deep thinking on it. And I'm like, oh, there's really two answers for this. So hang on. I want to make sure that we understand this clearly. The enemy is attacking me with doubt and fear, and I feel like I am losing the battle. First off, it's not the first time it's ever happened to someone. Thank you for that little extra mustard of music there, young Thunder, I appreciate it.
I'm here for you. Yeah?
Yeah, man. Um, this is this is a heartbreaking one because I, I know this, and I've experienced this. You get filled with doubt and fear. My goodness. Of course. Here's what I'm going to say. Something's broken. And there's two primary things that can possibly be going on. And frankly, I'm going to start tackling the latter one a whole lot more than I have in the past. The former one is something's broken in your thinking, and you've got to get your thinking aligned with who you are in Christ.
If you've been born again and you find yourself struggling with fear and doubt. My bride, my goodness. She's right on with this one. I stole it years ago. I heard her talking to a few ladies and she said, you got to wallpaper your mind with truth, because what you are thinking today is going to dictate how you're living. Fear and doubt can be a direct result of something being broken, and you need to get your thinking right.
Now we give out this link a lot, but if you haven't read it in a while or you've never read it, get it because it will retrain your mind, right, Ali? Yes. We just got to do it. Yeah.
Are you ready for it?
Let's go. Okay.
Text truth to 805 Five five, five, 7898. If you need some reminders of who you are in Christ, your identity, what the Word of God says about you. Text truth T.r.u.t.h to 800 555 7898.
And this might be exactly what God would have for you today. Just grab this link text truth to 800 555 7898 and let the Word of God soak over you because something's broken in your thinking. Now I'm using this broken metaphor because I got to give you Iditarod illustration here today, because it's kicking off today and my heart is in Alaska today. Sorry about that, but I've got a couple of friends. I don't know them all anymore, but Mitch Seavey, who's a 4 or 5 time winner,
check that out for me, man. How many times is Mitch Seavey won the Iditarod? 4 or 5, something like that. And he's back in it today. I sent him a text last night not knowing if he'd even have time to see it. I thought for sure he'd have that phone turned off trying to get some shut eye, but he sent word back after I told him I was praying for him one four times. Is that right? Young thunder?
That's correct. One four times.
Yeah. So he's back in it. Here's what happened to me. I had something broken on the Iditarod. And and this is my metaphor for for fear and doubt. Uh, on a dog sled, when the runners that you're standing on two runners, you know about shoulder length apart when they sweep up in the front. Right. And the goal of that is to go up and over snow and ice and berms. They aren't just straight. In fact, they're way more tipped up than a ski tip because the terrain
is a lot more dicey than anything. You're going to run into skiing on a downhill slope, so there's a big upturn. Well, I had a broken runner heading into the village of Golovin. I was about 200 miles from the finish line and my my runner had broken. I had hit a berm or a stump. Something in the trail just absolutely smash that runner and what it made, what it caused is my right runner to not have that upturn. It was just this almost nearly a blunt edge.
So I was going along fine and then whammo, I'd hit something that was a little bit too sharp in an upturn, and my runner couldn't get over the top of it, so I was having to stand on the left runner, and if I'd see a bump coming, I'd pick up the right runner. And I mean, it was here I am, exhausted, and I'm like, oh, I got something broken here. Some of you have fear and doubt because you've got a broken runner that you're standing on. You got a broken runner. And that can be flawed
thinking for sure. But you know what else it can be? It can be something that has crippled you, that is causing fear and doubt. Sometimes fear and doubt comes in because we find ourselves missing the mark repetitively in an area of our life. And when we miss the mark. It's the term for sin. Nothing deals a blow to our confidence, and nothing rattles us more than having something that constantly comes back and defeats us. You with me
on this one, guys? Yeah, it it really can rattle us, can't it, Ali?
And you're. It kind of becomes the the thing that's playing. Have you ever had like, music that's playing in the background and you can after a while you don't even hear it anymore. It becomes kind of the soundtrack that's in the background. But then you're constantly reminded something will remind you of it. And you just you don't feel confident in sharing your faith. You don't feel confident in ministry because you feel like there's this underlying thing that's like, ah.
And it's just there and it haunts you and it taunts you, doesn't it, Ali? Yeah. And then it defeats you. And then you get fear and doubt. You're like, how could a child of God do something like this? Well, children of God can do stupid people tricks, I'll tell you that. Trust me.
Have you read the Bible and read about all the people who did stupid things?
But God doesn't want to leave you there. And this is the hope that I have for you. That deep yearning you have to get rid of. Fear and doubt could be an indication that something's broken and God wants to heal it. Now, this is this is the other one. And I'm never going to go back on this. We're going to keep mentioning this because trying to overcome fear and doubt, while you've got something broken, a repetitive issue in your life that keeps kicking your booty. I don't
care if it's gossip. I don't care if it's some kind of addiction. I don't care if it's something done in the secret places of your life and no one knows about it. Or maybe a couple of people do. Those things are real and they hurt and they ding us, man. And they rip us off. And here's what we've got. We've got something really cool this year for sure. For any gift of any amount. We're sending a book called Killing Sin Conquer the one thing that is defeating you.
And that defeat is real, and it results oftentimes in fear and doubt because you're like, oh man, if I can't get victory over this thing, I must be, you know, who knows? Did I do the unpardonable sin? No, because you just wanting to get over it shows that you haven't blasphemed the Holy Spirit by denying Jesus Christ. And that's the only unpardonable sin. So you have not committed it, my friend. But to conquer fear and doubt, sometimes we need to just go. God, I got a broken runner
and I'm going along smooth. And then bam! Oh, it hits me again. And it feels like my whole spiritual team stops dead in its tracks in the trail. And we want to give you victory over that. And we're
not in sheer week, but we are in pressure. And what a cool thing that you can go right now and get some freedom, because some of you, you're resonating with going, yep, I can read all day long about who I am in Christ, but my runner's broken and my problem isn't that I'm not thinking rightly, it's that I'm not living rightly. And I got to get this squared away right now. Yes.
Yeah. And this book, Killing Sin, is going to be our gift to you for a gift of any amount. This is pre share. This is during share. They'll even continue this if you give after the live portion is continued. So help me out here. What are we texting. Share here. Yes. Okay. Text share to 800 555 7898. Text share to 800 555 7898.
Yeah. Gift of any amount. It's going to be sent to you. Broken runners spiritually happen, don't they? Ally?
They do. And it's good to identify it because that's the first step.
Yeah, it really is. So come and get it. Share hasn't even begun. But you can do it right now. Text share to 800 555 7898. When you give online. And that's the best way to do it right now. I don't know if we got people in the call center. You can just give online. Be sure to click the box that says, I want the book, and we'll get it out to you. And then and then how cool is this? You get to take part in helping us reach people with the gospel, and we're helping you fix
broken spiritual runners. I mean, this is just a sweet opportunity. So just text share to 800 555 7898. Give online and click the box. Get killing sin and I'm into fixing runners right Ali? Yes, it's hard to go through life with a broken runner.
Yeah, I the runner thing. I know I've not done the the outdoor sports, but but I'm with you on it. I can follow along even though I have it. Text shared 800 555 7898.
Yeah, we're grateful for you guys. Grateful? You know this issue of fear and doubt, there's a lot of reasons for it. But two primarily something broken in our life that continues to haunt us and taunt us, that needs to be healed and wrong thinking. And we're here to help you in any way we can. We love you guys. We really do, don't we? Man, it's so good to connect and hear and and see and hear stories of transformation and witness God at work in you. And we
just want you to know we love you, man. We love you. And that's from Jesus. Ally, how do people get questions into me?
Oh great question. Just text pastor if you want to submit a question for ask Pastor. Pastor Carl text pastor to 800 555 7898. Pastor to 805 five five 7898. 98. Just send it. You'll get instructions on how to send an email, and although Carl sees the email, we keep your name and information confidential.
Yeah. Totally confidential. Oh, I love this question. I gotta quit saying that. Oh, I love this question, but it's so good. Pastor Carl Jesus asked someone if they believe. They said yes. Help me with my unbelief. Is the same possible with forgiveness? If I said I forgave someone but prayed for Jesus to help me with my unforgiveness. Am I the only one or is this a common problem?
Okay, I'm with you on this. I love this question.
We forgive in our heads our minds, but not our hearts. Help me please. Okay, brother. Here we go. That's all I'm going to say, by the way, is it's a brother. There is a scene in Braveheart that captures the need to reaffirm forgiveness over and over again. Now you don't even have to have seen Braveheart, but it's an awesome it's a dude flick all the way. My bride loves
it as well. But William Wallace married a beautiful young lady, and by marrying her, he swept her up into a mess that cost her her life in the most horrific way. There's a scene where they're burying the daughter. William Wallace's wife. William Wallace, his father in law, is standing right behind him in. William Wallace's father in law reaches out with his hand and it's shaking, and he wants to grab William Wallace by the back of the neck, and you
can feel it with him. He loves him, but he's ticked. Marrying this man's man cost his daughter her life, and he's Is hot in the in the music builds in that hand is shaking and quivering and you wonder, is he going to grab him and take this guy down? Is he going to rip his throat out? And the father reaches reaches closer and his hand is shaking and quivering and pretty quick. He releases the tension in that hand and he drops it down to his side. That's
how forgiveness is. You can forgive a person today, and you can have a clenched, quivering fist tomorrow going, I just want a piece of them.
That's so true. Help my unforgiveness.
Yeah. Here's here's the key. And I'm just going to break it down for you. I've had to re forgive people in a couple of cases over and over again. And what you're doing is just reaffirming God's providence, his sovereignty, that if there is any right that needs to be made wrong because it could be in one situation I have, somebody came and asked for forgiveness and they said, what can I do to make amends? And I told them what to do, and they were too cowardly to make amends.
You know what I get in my heart sometimes about this guy? I get a quivering hand on the back side of his neck, and I'm like, you know, I want to rip his throat out. Okay, I'm going to reaffirm my forgiveness of this brother. Why? Especially when someone has come to you and asked for forgiveness. It can be easy to rehearse the pain again and get that quiver in hand, reaching for a neck. And all I'm telling you is, my friend, let God be God. And
do you have to do it? Sometimes. Multiple times? Yeah. Take it from your friend Carl. Sometimes you have to go back there 70 times seven. Saying I forgive you again. It's hard, isn't it, guys?
It's hard. It's hard as you, you. Your mood can shift you just thinking about it. Thank you for giving them. And then start to think about what they've done to you.
And my boy. Oh, boy. Yeah it's hard my brides classic on this one because this guy in our life and it's no. One in Chicagoland. So don't be freaking out if you think, oh no, is that me? Um. And no one listening. And my wife's like, is that it? Is that it? This guy gets to wander back into our life and he asks you for forgiveness, but he didn't ask me or the kids, and he affected all of us. And I'm like, I'm sorry, babe, do you
want me to double back? She goes, no, that's not what I need you to do, but what are you going to do? And this is what she says. I'm going to bundle them up and put them back at the foot of the cross. She gets out wrapping paper, metaphorically in her mind, and she bundles them up. And some of these. She doesn't take a lot of time. Packaging don't need a pretty package, but she wraps them up and puts them right down at the foot of the cross and she goes, all right, God, you take
care of this thing. And the reaffirming of forgiveness is one of the most powerful things you can do today, because sometimes you've forgiven someone. Sometimes when they've come and asked for forgiveness and you're like, I've got the.
Quivering hand around the back of their neck and I just get a piece of them, God.
And he says, leave room for me. I got this. Is it hard? Shoot, yeah. It's hard. I've found that every time I've waded in and grabbed a scruff of the neck, it never ends well anyway. Let God be God. William Wallace, father in law. Did he have the right to be angry? Yep. Did he have the responsibility to take it into his own hands to set wrongs right? Now, he realized in that moment. What's that going to do? It's going to exhaust me, complicate things, make what is
bad worse. You got to quivering hand out today, metaphorically. And you're like, man, I just want a piece of him. Carl, I'm telling you. Set down your hand and bundle them up and put them at the foot of the cross. God can deal this with this thing far better than you can. It's that easy. And it's that hard. So do we need to forgive? Shoot. Yeah. Many times.
And asking for help. Because it's impossible to do in our own strength. That's a really good prayer.
Yeah, it really is. And so you might need to say something like, God, I'm reaffirming today the forgiveness that I afforded this person. Would you help my unforgiveness? And if you listen closely, you'll hear his voice crying out to you, saying, I got you, kid. I got you. Want to get your questions in to me right now?
Just text pastor to 800 555 7898. Text pastor to (800) 555-7898.
Yeah. Grateful for that honest vulnerability on all your parts that are sending in questions.
You can take him out of Alaska, but you can't take Alaska out of him. Carl is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Yeah, we haven't talked forgiveness in a long while. That just felt like the right moment, man. Someone needed it. Someone needed it. Maybe as much as I did. You know what's great about these questions that I get to Pastor Carl? They are so I can relate to every one of these. Well, most of them. I mean, some of these things are some of these things are incredibly painful. Next Monday I'm going to tackle a really tough one.
I really tough one woman had a marriage of many years, and the dude left and hooked up with a gal 17 years his junior, and she's like, ah, I want a piece of this guy. I don't blame you. I don't blame you. What we're going to tackle those can't get to all of them. And I try to collapse some of these together when they're common topics. But man, grateful for all these questions. Forgiveness is a big one. And grabbing up that person after you've forgiven them, you
walk free and you're like, man, thank you. And maybe you had the benefit of that transactional word of forgiveness, which is someone acknowledging so that you can grant that to him. And then a week later you're like, I don't know that we plumbed the depths of that. What a piece of that guy. We feel we've all felt that that is so common. It's like, ah, that sucker.
He didn't own every bit of it. That one thing. Should I go back? Sometimes.
Maybe. Yes. Most often. No. It's just like, let God deal with it. Leaving room for God can be tough though, right, Ali?
It can, it can. Because in our minds, we want to we want to be able to kind of get the retribution. Now we want to see the kind of the scores settled. But sometimes forgiveness feels so unsatisfying because it lets them off the hook, but it also lets us off the hook of carrying that.
It does. It does. You're just dragging that old carcass around, man. Don't let them hold you back any longer. Let them go. Okay. Coming up here in a moment. We. Have you ever. Have you ever witnessed God answer prayer? And you were right in the kind of the center of that thing, and you're like, oh my goodness, did my prayer actually do something? Yeah. Tell you how you can be a part of that coming up.
She's a choreographer extraordinaire and everything is Greek to her. Super di is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Oh, I shared this a little bit ago and I think all my tears are out of me, so now I can do it without losing it here. But it was a little over three years ago. Know quite a bit over three years ago, three and a half years ago, that my bride and I were out for a date. We'd gone to a flick and then we went to a dinner. We went classic date that night, right? Dinner. You know, dinner and a movie. Dinner. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We went classic that night. We don't do that a lot.
But we did it that night and we're sitting down. We got the entrees, just landed on the table, and my wife's phone rings and she goes, mhm. It's call from the doctor. Her doctor said I'll be right back. She went out into the lobby and she got some tough news. When a doctor calls you on a Friday night it ain't it's not usually good guys. And some tests had been run, some pictures had been taken and they found a significant mass that turned out to be
ovarian cancer. She comes back to the table and she said, got some tough news. Doctor wants to talk to you. She sees me beginning to really kind of lose my bearings. And she actually says to me, reaches out with her hand, puts it on me. She actually didn't. I think she might have just said it's okay. And my goodness guys. We went into a stretch in our life that was brutal. Remember standing in the entry to our home? And it was the only time that I heard my wife, she
she shed one tear. That was it. Through this whole thing, one tear. And it was right there. And the tear was coming down her face down to her chin. And I wiped it away, and I put my arms around her. And I just called out to God, and I said, God, I'm asking you to spare my bride. And I rehearsed his sovereignty and his goodness and his providence and my bride. And I hugged after I was done praying. And she said, God's got this, bub. I said, I know he does.
We clung to him, and our story may not be yours. She was healed. It was confounding to the surgeon. It was mind blowing. But I had a front row seat. To this day, she's cancer free. I praise God for that. We have no guarantees about tomorrow. And I had a front row seat to watch God answer prayer. Was he good? Even if it.
Hadn't.
Been the same outcome, yeah, I'd have still had that front row seat. I just straight up inviting you into a front row seat. Some of you need a front row seat to God. Watch God do something. Is it his will that we would reach as many people as possible with the gospel? Oh, yeah. It's his will, right? Absolutely.
And so we are inviting you to be a part of our prayer crew for share what you're doing. Partnering with us is is a sacred Responsibility. You're not just praying that we would reach a budget, that we would have enough money. That's the practical aspect of it. But you're praying for souls that are linked to those dollars. You're praying for lives and transformations and families that are impacted just as you have been, just as I have been.
And so that's what we're inviting you into, to take a front row seat to be a part of this. So if you want to grab a 30 minute slot, just text crew to 805, five, five, 78, 98, text crew to 800 555 7898. What you're going to get back from us is a link. Click on it. You can scroll all the way down. There's lots of slots available. I think last check was around 400 slots broken up in 30 minute segments. Tech crew text crew to (800) 555-7898.
Thank you in advance for praying with us. Crew to 800 555 7898.
From the bottom of our heart. Thank you. Come on in.