Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio. This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
It's Carl and crew helping you take your next step with Jesus. It's that first one that matters most. It's moving out of darkness and into light. And I want to take you just quickly back to the Raspberry Hills. The Raspberry Hills are outside of Unalakleet, headed for the village of Shaktoolik. If you ever find yourself in the Iditarod Trail Race, you'll love the Raspberry Hills. It's beautiful.
I like the name.
Isn't it great?
The Raspberry Hills? It sounds like something out of like a Jane Austen novel or something.
Yeah, yeah, they're a bunch of raspberries on it.
Yeah, well, there are in the summer, apparently, but I've never been there in the summer as they're in the dead of winter and there were no raspberries. If they were, they were freeze dried, let's put it that way, because it was cold that night as I was passing through the raspberry hills and I didn't see any raspberry bushes, my headlamp was focused on my team in front of me. Team was making some good speed. And then we crested the hill just outside of Unalakleet, headed for Shaktoolik on
the west coast of Alaska. Middle of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race when I was 18 years old, and I'm coming down these hills and I've got I've got a broken sled runner and I've got a break that isn't functioning really well. So I'm like on my break yelling whoa, whoa! And what whoa means is slow down guys. We've got way too much speed coming down this long, steep hill. And dogs don't listen to you. They're like middle school kids.
When they have the opportunity to run, they're gonna do it, man.
They're taking off. And I don't know, sometimes they would feel their oats whenever they would see or hear some game in front of them, whether it's a moose or something in the trail, and they would pick it up. So I and I mean, it's like, oh, I thought you guys were out of gas. And now you seem to have all the gas you need.
Oh, that's.
Funny, but we're steaming down this hill. And, um, man, I wanted to get to Shaktoolik so badly. I mean, I'm cold. I never shared this part of the story, but my feet had gotten wet. So inside my mukluks from from working to get up the hill, raspberry hills I had. I was sweating just profusely. And the worst thing you can do when you're in subzero temperatures is sweat and not get dried out, because that can really
be a problem called hypothermia and leading to death. So you want to be careful with that.
Oh, wow.
So I've got wet socks. So I'm having to keep moving. Right. And I'm looking for shaktoolik. And I'm like, come on shack tulik. You got to be out there. Which in Yupik means endless wind. I was soon going to find that out, but we came down off that hill and I'm wanting it so badly. I'm sleep deprived. I'm hungry. My team's hungry. I want to get them on some straw, get them fed. And man, there it was. Boom! Right there in front of me. There's shack tulik and I'm
seeing a little village appear and it was great. I'm delighted. I'm thrilled. It was a little bit weird. I didn't quite it just didn't register with me. What's going on? This seemed a little sooner than I would have imagined it to be, but I'm ready. And I'm seeing the light on in a cabin and a guy out in front splitting wood. No joking my mind. Sot I stopped, my team put in the emergency brake. It's called a
snow hook. Boom. Stomp it into the ground, take a few steps toward that cabin and poof, the village is gone.
It's so scary.
Wow.
It was scary. It was eerie. Because now I'm standing there a little bit away from my team, and my team's going, what are you doing?
Yeah, they're like, what is he walking towards?
What are you doing? Carl and I get back on the sled. It's really funny because as I look back, I almost had it. It was almost like a shame moment. Like, how did I see that village? Well, it was called hallucination. And sometimes the hallucination of salvation and we've been unpacking it all week is so insidious, and there's a lot of reasons for why this happens. We had someone call in here already this morning that just laid it down. Ali, just retell her story quickly.
Yeah, she called in and she said that her grandfather had he was a pastor, and he decided to just go ahead and baptize his grandkids. So she got baptized as part of the group of grandkids at a young age. And so she proceeded through life kind of thinking that that was I got I got baptized, I'm in Christ. And it wasn't until many years later, as an adult, when her husband came to faith in Christ and she started to see in his life things that were so
foreign to her. I mean, his his commitment to the word and and trying to understand it, even though he couldn't really read well in his prayer life. And she was like, he's got something that I don't have. And that was the wake up call for her that wait a second, though, that I had some sort of religious experience or some sort of religious ceremony I was a part of way back when. I'm not actually in Christ.
What are some of the other things that are false markers of being in Christ that we have in our culture today?
Well, I remember when I was in middle school, I was coming back from a missions trip with the youth group and sitting in the van. I remember thinking, I wonder if I'll make it into heaven. And I was kind of recounting the moments of my life. And I said, well, you know what? I just got off missions trip. So, like, I'm doing I'm doing God's work. So I think I'll probably make it in there. And I think I literally thought that I was like, maybe I'll like just make it in because I've done enough and.
That's so precious. How old were you?
I probably 13 or 14.
Oh that's great.
Yeah. And so I think we often do that, say, well, if I've done enough for God, then I'll be good.
Yeah, that's a real thing.
I remember standing in the back of a of a big outreach event that was targeting young, younger people. So I would say the it was like kindergarten maybe to fifth or sixth grade. And it was an incredible event and great speaking and great energetic songs. You know, all the dancing you do, you do a lot of dancing when you're working with kids and.
Kids, you got to move.
It. And so I remember a very well intentioned speaker shared kind of a, a little bit of the gospel and then asked kind of the effect of, so who wants to get saved? And like all these sort of hands went up and you see kind kids sort of looking around like, okay, I'm going to raise my hand to, yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to raise my hand. And is it possible that many of those kids became genuinely
saved that that evening? Absolutely. But you could definitely see sort of the peer pressure kind of effect of man. Everybody else has their hands up. So yeah, I'll do it too. And I think having slipped up a hand at some point or repeated after a pastor to pray a prayer, which is kind of the format that a
lot of churches use. It can be awesome, but I know it's going to rattle some people because maybe this isn't a popular opinion, but that is not my favorite way of approaching it, because I think it can contribute to this, that that sort of peer pressure effect of, uh, I'll just repeat it too, because, yeah, I'd like to get saved today. Yeah. And they're really not be any sort of heart connection to what's actually happening.
And that is you guys nailed it. You guys nailed it. Those are some of the big false markers. Potentially false markers.
Yeah. And I like that you used the word potentially because I am not saying that if you raised a hand and prayed a prayer, I'm not saying that that's not genuine saving faith. I think potentially the the effect of that happening in a room full of people can cause a lot of people to be deluded.
Yeah. And this is why we have, as John Piper says, millions of people every weekend that go to Bible preaching churches that do not know Jesus personally. They're in church, but they're not in Christ. So we're taking your testimonies today. We've been pouring out our heart this week. Oh yeah, we're going to have lots of opportunity to dive into on this journey until the Lord comes, or until we
live out our natural lives. Here we are. We are going to have a lot of opportunity to laugh and cry and overcome stuff, and learn how to raise kids in Christ and get victory over stuff that has been in the shadows of our life for years, that you've thought, oh, I'll never get a win over this. Believe him, he can help you with what seems impossible. We're going to do all that and more. But this week we wanted to just embed our stories and raise the specter of
is there a deception of salvation? And the answer is huge, especially in the Western church. But when this gets resolved by the power of the Holy Spirit, it changes everything. And so Ali brought in a question today, and boy, did she bring a power packed one.
We want to hear from you on this Freedom Friday. Phone lines open. I want to get as many of your stories as possible. Is this you? You were in church, maybe went through some sort of religious ceremony, but later realized you weren't actually in Christ? 805 55 7898 in church, not in Christ. 800 555 7898.
He was running from God, but God's love brought him home. Carl is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Taking your calls. Light them up, guys. You were in church, but not in Christ. John in Cleveland, Ohio, my man. Give us your story.
Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my call. So really quickly. Um, I was raised in a predominantly African-American church, and when I was young, I would notice that people around me in the service would have their eyes closed and their hands raised and crying. And I never knew what I was about. And then I became an adult and I came to Christ. I recognized that some people in the pews who were doing that, they'd have their hands raised and their eyes closed as if they were worshiping. But
their behavior after that did not match their worship. And I found the same thing in myself. And I recognized that. How do I know that today I could hear a song, I could be having an experience, and I get visited by the Holy Spirit? I know that because I'm crying, I'm. I'm worshiping. And then there are times where I try to continue that, and then all of a sudden the tears aren't coming. And I imagine the Holy Spirit telling me, well, son, I left you five minutes ago, that's all. You. That's
not me anymore, buddy. You're pretending. And it's. It's easy to tell in myself. So I believe the same thing happens with other people. And I'm not sure if everyone's doing that self-assessment to realize when it's them versus the Holy Spirit.
Yeah, that's an interesting thing. John. I want to thank you for calling in from Cleveland. Good man. Yeah. So there's really two things that John's speaking of here. There are some because I did it too. Man, I raised my hands at times when I was in youth group and I remember sitting on a beach. We we went in a boat. Youth group is a little bit different
in Alaska. Okay. Just a little bit different. So we got we got into a boat and we took, we had a 50 horse Evinrude on it and big aluminum skiff and we took about, I don't know, 1012 of us to a beach across the bay and parked it there. And my buddy, who was the real deal, Mark Doerner, never forget it, loved this kid, man. And he built a bonfire and he started just opening the word and people started worshiping and hands went in the air. And
so mine did too. And it was years later that I realized that I didn't have a reason, really, for lifting my hands, except that it was the peer pressure of this is what disciples do, and I didn't want to be left out. That's very real, John. The other aspect of this that's very real is that we're called to be filled with the spirit daily. This is not a one and done, and this is an ongoing filling. D.L. Moody said the reason we need that is because we leak.
We leak. And there's there's a that's a profound observation by John. Uh, two things can be going on. One, you could have an a deception of salvation. Uh, there's a lot of lives that people look back after they're born again and go shoot. Man. I was in church raising hands. Eyes closed. But, boy, when I left that door, my life was very different from what Christ called me to. That's a great observation, John. Thanks for calling in from Cleveland, man.
Appreciate your heart. Let's go back to the phone lines here.
Let's go to Katie calling in this morning from Ohio. Katie, you can relate to this. You were in church, but not in Christ.
Yes I was. Um, predominantly raised Catholic my whole life. Received all the sacraments. Went to church on Sunday, but never truly understood Christ until recently when I joined another church in Cleveland, and it's a Lutheran church where they have a preacher, and everything was different about it. You know what he what he spoke about, I understood Jesus. I'm understanding the Bible. The people are so welcoming. It's
a total new experience for me. And it's it's brought out so many wonderful things in my life, especially now, because I need it. Really now?
Yeah. Katie. Way to go, sister. And we're so grateful that you heard the gospel. Because one thing, one thing's for sure. We had a guy call in here. I guess he texted in. This is a couple of years ago, but it was so. It was so pick and funny. Well, I forget why it struck a Sally to remember the guy that called in or texted in.
The one that said growing up he'd gotten some bad information about the gospel. Yeah. Yeah. I'll never forget that one. It was a it was a message sent during actually during share. And that was part of the reason why he was giving to Cher is because he was hearing the gospel clearly, and he was able to see that growing up, I got bad information that was so well put because I thought in my mind, you know what I think I did too? I think I got some bad information.
Yeah. I mean, bad information is all over out there. This is why teachers are called to a higher account. Why? Because when you open up your mouth and you're speaking in the name of Jesus, that message needs to jive with the words of Scripture and the heart of God behind it. And that's a that's a nerve wracking deal. Taking your calls this morning. And what a sweet question Ali brought in here. You were in church, but not
in Christ. You know, I feel prompted by the spirit here to explain for some of you that are brand new here today, listening. And you hadn't listened to us all week. We've been pouring out our heart with our stories.
And I want to be super clear. And it's really interesting to me how I believe the Spirit of God actually had me hold back on one text so you can go to first Corinthians chapter 11 and find that there's people in the church who Paul says to them, examine yourself to see if you're in the faith, and you're like, whoa, is that true? Is that possible? Well, Jesus said to his disciples. His disciples said, hey man, we've this story of wheat and weeds growing together, wheat
and tares, actually. And because weeds are very different from wheat, but tares are a weed, but they simulate wheat. And they said, should we uproot the the tares that look like wheat? And Jesus said, no, you might get the real deal ripped out of there. So I'll take care of this at the end. But the specter is raised that there can be wheat and weeds growing together, looking similar but not being of the same nature, not having been born again and having the Spirit of God in them.
And then you go to Matthew seven. We've been hitting this one all week. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, and he's going to say, I never knew you. But then you go to Matthew 16. I hadn't shared this. This is powerful. A lot of us think of self-denial as pinnacle Christianity. Man. That's when you sell your business and you start a youth camp. This is when you, um, move from stateside to a mission field or something like that, right? I mean, that's self-denial. Oh, man,
that person's grown up in Jesus. What if I told you Jesus said self-denial is the entry point to eternal life? That's what he said. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. What? And whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. This is. This is powerhouse. And then he asks this question. Jesus does. For what? Will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul. And
the answer is nothing. Nothing. So I want to pour my heart out to you right now. Do you have a deception of salvation? God can clear that up for you today. Today, my friend, God wants to give you a life that bears fruit 30, 60, a hundred fold. You can say no to cultural Christianity. You can say no to your own deception and say yes to Jesus. And it's because of the power of the Holy Spirit. And right now, the Holy Spirit works like this. This
is what he does. He convicts the world regarding sin, righteousness, and judgment. Meaning in that whole triad of conviction, God calls people out of darkness and into the light. It's the Holy Spirit that regenerates a soul. And all you're doing is responding to God's call in your life to deny yourself. It's not pinnacle Christianity. Self-denial is the threshold we walk across by God's grace to have authentic faith.
So I'm going to ask you a question. What does it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your soul? And you know the answer in the Spirit of God screaming in your heart right now. And the answer is nothing. And so I'm asking you right now, will you deny yourself, take up the cross and follow Jesus? What a metaphor that Jesus uses over and over again. There's this broad path that leads to judgment, and many are on it. There's a narrow path that leads to life,
and few will find it. But you're among the few today, and you're about right now. You are in the process of being born again by the power of the spirit and Alys, right? It's not about lifting a hand and saying a certain patent prayer like you've often heard. No, it's about this right now. It's your declaration of your soul. Today I'm following Jesus. Just tell him that right now. And I know you're choked up. And tears might be flowing,
but today you're following Jesus. You've never followed him before. But today is your day of salvation. How sweet is this? And you're saying I confess with my mouth, Jesus is Lord. You know what that means? It's confessing with your mouth. Jesus, you are my leader. You're my leader. I'm no longer following my will. Your will be done. So are you turning around today to follow Jesus for the first time in your life? Never before. Not like, not like this.
You've raised a hand, but you've. You've never. Your soul has never turned to God. But you are denying yourself and following Jesus. And you're confessing with your mouth, I'm a sinner. I need a Savior. His name is Jesus. And today just say this. I give you my life. Every bit of it. And if that's you, I want to help you today. We've been helping people all week. 500 people have surrendered to Christ this week alone. 500. It's overwhelming. But just text the word new. Right now.
We've got a little link we're going to send you. Grab your phone as quick as you can, pull to the side of the road. This is this is the the best resource we can give you at this juncture. This is the best we have right now. And in it are embedded three links. And I want you to come and get it. Text the word new to 800 555 7898. Just that one word. New to 800 555 7898. We love you enough to tell you the truth. 800 555 7898 just text that one word new to 800
555 7898. 98, and whom the son sets free is free indeed. God is doing this work in you today and we praise God for it. And here they come in from all across the nation right now again praising God. He knew you'd be here today. He had an appointment with you. He had an appointment with you. Today is the day when you are now being born again. Wow. Just text the word new when you can. Some of you are like, I know how this goes. You're like, Carl, God's doing a work in me. Now slow down. Text
the word new as soon as you can. If today is your day of salvation, you are being saved from your self denying self. Just text the word new to 800 555, 7898. Overwhelming. What God's doing this week?
Ali it's so it's such a privilege to be a part of it. That's it's a privilege to be a part of it.
It is. Kristen. Testify here. Sister. What's going on in Michigan?
Amen. Um, from the age of 8 to 16, I grew up in juvenile homes and orphanages and such. And at 14.5 about, I was placed temporarily because I was a runaway in Detroit with a mormon family. And I loved what I saw, family and love. And they went to church, if you will. And so they were teaching me all this stuff, and I wanted to feel what I never felt. I never I hadn't had family. I didn't have the love. And and so I got baptized
because I wanted to feel what, what I saw. I wanted to have this experience, but it wasn't until I was almost 30 years old. So for all those years in between, I was living in the world. I was so broken. I just went through a whole life of misery. And I got invited to church and I went and I heard the gospel message and that it wasn't about
an experience. It wasn't about me feeling happy or, um, it didn't have anything really to do with me, but what Christ did for me, and about surrendering, repenting, and crowning him Lord over my life. And and then that's 30 years ago.
Chris.
Oh, thank you Lord.
Yes.
Wow.
Kristen, you are dynamite sister. Thank you so much. From Greenville, Michigan. Thank you. What a what a joy. I mean, this is the heart's cry of people that have been transformed by the power of God. Yeah.
If you have a story, you were in church, but not in Christ. 800 555, 78, 7898. Would love to get your testimony this morning. 800 555 7898.
Yeah. Welcome to the family. All of you that are texting in new. Just a quick note as you get that link opened up, just, um, go through it, work through those three links. And on the third link, it actually has a place for you to put your address and we're going to send you something. Zero obligation, no charge free of charge. We're going to send you a resource that's going to help you live in God's power and no longer by self-help. And we love you. We're
grateful for you. You know, you look at what's going on in the world and you look at, uh, power brokers that are at each other's throats. And I mean, lots of breaking news. And you know what it reminded me of? I, I texted my adult son, who's in Miami, and I said, man, who you can trust in chariots and horses all day long, but, man, that's not going to get you there. You can. And chariots and horses represent the power brokers and the power centers of our day.
But we trust in the name of the Lord our God. Because there is nothing. If you're relying on global peace or a political angle or or some kind of prestige personally to get you through this life. Take that horse back to the barn. He's wet and tired.
You're not wrong.
Get the chariot back into the. Take it home because it's come. The wheels are coming off the axles of the chariot. It ain't worth trusting in, man.
No.
Yeah. We trust in the name of the Lord our God. It's Carl and crew helping you take your next step with Jesus. Scores more. Surrendering to Jesus this morning, over 500 people this week have surrendered their lives to Jesus for the very first time. Ali came in with a question. She's armed, loaded for bear here today. Let's go. Ali.
What we really want this morning is your story. Can you relate? You were in church, but not in Christ. 800 555 7898 it's Freedom Friday. Phone lines are open 800 555 7898.
Your testimonies are touching so many lives already today. God is using you. 800 555 7898 you were in church, but not in Christ.
He was sharing the gospel on the radio and then he got saved. Young thunders in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
We are messengers a thousand times. When you see God work in the past, man, you can. You can know for certain God is working. To day. It's Carl and crew helping you take your next step with Jesus. And for many of you, it's your first step. What a joy and what a joy to celebrate. I'd ask you that that you have absolute certainty where you stand with God and that he stands with you. Be praying 500 plus new souls following Jesus as a result of just
casting the net of salvation. And you know what's amazing about this? God uses very imperfect people to share the good news. It's amazing, but true. He left behind one. You know, I got a friend in Nashville, Tennessee, who says, and he's just a rock star for Jesus. He says, you know what, Carl? We are a beautiful mess. The church is meaning we are not all together, but God uses us in spite of ourselves. It's a beautiful thing. Taking your calls here we are ready to light them up.
We got a few lines available. Let's go.
Ali, you were in church, but not in Christ. Is that part of your story? 855 five 7898 (800) 555-7898.
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.
Got a question for you that I think this conversation brings up for people.
Okay.
What do you how do you approach if you feel like someone in your life, someone close to you? This applies to. We do not want to walk around being, as I like to say, spec specialists, looking at the spec in other people's eyes by missing the log in our own. We don't want to be trying to determine are you really saved or not? Because that can come
off really badly. But if we genuinely have a suspicion that we know people who claim to be Christians, but we we aren't sure that that's the case, is that something that we should approach with people that we love?
Yeah. It's interesting. So years ago, when I was a new follower of Jesus, I commonly heard the term we're not supposed to be fruit inspectors. Well, the problem with that is, is that Jesus says we absolutely are.
Well, okay. What do you mean by that?
Well, a tree is going to bear fruit in keeping with its root. And even in the sermon on the Mount, he said, there's going to be all these false teachers, right? And that you can see that they're false by the lives that they live. Bottom line. So now to back up, though, we got to be careful if you're trying to be the the kind of the prophet on the wall going, yeah, I'm up here from my perch and I see who's
got it and who doesn't. I doubt they had a southern accent, but, um, that's that's not at all in play here. It's really something you said a few days ago. It's the kindness of God that leads to repentance. So fruit inspection and that. And I don't mean this from a standpoint of scrutiny. I mean, for the purpose of evidence, any any attitude toward that, that is, I want to see what other people have rather than I have a
heart that people would know Jesus personally. And what comes out of their life is a fruit bearing life, fruit bearing. According to Galatians five, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. Goodness. Gentleness. Faithfulness. Self-control. I mean, how beautiful is that? So, Allie, you're right on. I think it's a heart attitude that says out of kindness, God, I'm concerned for someone that I love who maybe does claim to know Jesus but don't exhibit the lifestyle, um,
or the fruit that is consistent with it. And here's what you need to know. Pressure's off. You don't save anyone. That's the Holy Spirit's job. Come on, give me a hallelujah, everybody. Yes! My goodness. So we don't save a soul. That's God's work. But we do shine brightly. And we do. We do invite people into an opportunity to look at their own life. I mean, I've done this many times with men and women. I've seen my bride do it too many times where
you open the Word of God. And in fact, my bride was mentored by a woman that all she used was the Bible. And for 30 some years Muriel. We named our daughter after this woman, Muriel Cook, who had opened the Bible and go. What's that say? And she read it. Go! Well, how does that apply to your life? And bit by bit, that's how my wife was discipled by this woman. Opened the word. What's it say? How does this apply to your life? One step after the next.
And my wife would tell you. And someday we're going to have her on here to share her testimony. She was she had created a religion for herself that was a little bit of eastern thought and all kinds. It was a conglomeration of things out of the pain in her life, even though she was a pastor's kid and God used Muriel to unwind that. So using the Word of God is powerful, but letting your light so shine before people is the bomb, because that's when others see
in you what they don't have in themselves. Oh, Katie, bar the door. That's a beautiful thing. So it's hard attitude. You're big on that one, Ali. It's heart attitude. You're right. If you're going out and going man, look at the look at these flaws in people. And you've got a you've got the equivalent of a six by six ten foot long beam in your eye. I think it'd be good to get that out. And then real inspection without humility is not inspection. It's condemnation. And that's a real danger.
So inspection versus condemnation air on the front side of that one. Hope that helps a little bit.
Yeah I think that's great context because I you know if you're new around here, questions are I love asking questions. And so I ask my own questions. But I also try to think of what questions other people might be asking. And so that's something that I really enjoy doing. So if you have a question though, of anything that we're talking about at any time, you can always shoot us a text. I'll try to throw it out there so we can discuss it. Just text us 800 555 7898
800 555 7898. Our Freedom Friday Call segment right now if you want to weigh in. You were in church, but not in Christ. Same number call in 800 555 7898.
Christina called in a little bit earlier and it was so crystal clear and powerhouse. I want you to take a listen to this.
My grandfather was a pastor, and what he did was he took all of his grandchildren and baptized them without the confession of faith. And then when I became older and my late husband became a believer, he stayed before the Lord on his face. And he would read his Bible a lot. And he was illiterate. He was frustrated because he could not understand the Bible. And I watched him and I said, Lord, whatever he has, I don't have and I want it.
Wow.
And I just fell on my face before the Lord. I started crying out to the Lord. At first I couldn't even understand the Bible, but now I do. So I just thought that, um, that's how I became a part of the hallucinated.
Yeah. What? What a testimony, Ali.
You know, and I, I love how the Lord used someone else. And it wasn't wasn't her husband kind of needling her with it, like, man, you don't seem to be reading your Bible as much as I am. And understanding simply his light, that the light was shining in such a way that it made her curious.
That's Matthew five six.
Yes, yes, it's a godly jealousy where you go, whatever they have, God, I want that.
And you might say, is godly jealousy biblical? It is. The Apostle Paul is clear. He was thrilled that the Gentiles were coming to Christ, because it would create a holy envy in the heart of Jewish men and women. Isn't that amazing?
I think.
It's I want what they.
Got. It's a beautiful thing, whether it's salvation or anything else. When you. Because the gifts of God. He's no respecter of person. He gives us different spiritual gifts. But in terms of what he pours out to his kids, if you see a piece that somebody else has, if you see Grace at work, in someone else's life, it's okay to have that holy envy and go, God, I see you gave it to them. How about I get some of that too? Some of that peace, joy, love, self control?
My goodness, I'm so fired up this week I could spontaneously combust right here.
Just don't do that. But we get it.
Oh my goodness.
We're so grateful for you in the boom crew. We call you the Boom Crew. Oh, I missed it. I got a boom Christina boom. That's a modern day vernacular for Amen and let it be and Hallelujah all wrapped into one. Grateful for what God's doing in your life here today and the stories that are coming in. Got a question for you. You were in church, but not in Christ. What's your story? Just in a few sentences. Just call in. Just tell us, how did that work
for you? And your story, like Pristina will be used in others. You were in church, but you were not in Christ. Give us a call on this Freedom Friday. This is Ryan Stevenson. It's called the gospel. What a beautiful thing. What a beautiful thing. Give us a call 800 555 7898.
Romans eight brought her to Jesus while broadcasting traffic overnight. Super die is in the crew. It's curling crew on Moody Radio.
We are having an incredible week. The content of this week. Boil it down, Ali. What have we been doing here? What have we seen?
God do we have really tried to put the gospel at the forefront and illustrated through stories how it's not just possible, but it's pretty common in the Western mindset to have been in church, but not in Christ. And for some period of time, because of the way some of the ways that we do church, because of some of the tradition and cultural things associated with with church, it can be sometimes confusing for people, and many people can live many years with the hallucination of salvation.
What is it culturally? Let's go through a list of them. Some of those false markers that we have that cause John Piper to get up in front of a stadium full of students in Atlanta a number of years ago and say millions of people in Bible preaching churches every weekend have. A deception that they know Jesus, but they don't. What are some of those markers? Let's go.
A big one is family tradition being born into a family where this is what we do. And the awesome thing is your great seeds can be sown. I mean, you're passing down the faith from parents to children is is biblical. But the flip side of that is it can be dangerous to. If you believe that somehow being born into a family that goes to church means that you're born a Christian. Nobody's born a Christian.
Yeah, Satan can use that to pull the blinders over our eyes. Right. And keep us believing. Yeah. What else? Young thunder.
I think also it's our accolades, the things that we've done, quote unquote, for God. You know, when I was in middle school, I remember having a moment where I was thinking about, Will I make it into heaven? And I had already been baptized and all that stuff I had. I had prayed the prayer, but my thoughts didn't go back to the righteousness of Christ. They went to well, I did this ministry project this summer, and so, like I'm doing good work so I could like squeeze in there.
And that was my thought process was my. What I did was enough.
Yeah, it's powerful man.
And I if I could add this, you know, I had a conversation with someone who was, uh, from another faith background, and she even articulated our family is. I'll just say it. She said we are culturally Hindu, but non-practicing. I thought that was an interesting way of describing it, and it was an acknowledgment that this is kind of what we are because of where we're from, but we don't really practice it. I don't think people would describe it that same way as in Christianity, but many people
live that way. We are culturally Christian, but we're not really practicing.
That's so profound. Yeah, and so true. George, you were in church, but you weren't in Christ. Give us your story. Hello, George. Go ahead buddy.
Yeah, I grew up in church my whole life. Uh, I did, you know, Awana memorizing scriptures at a young age. Uh, my dad became a pastor, and then I was in church, um, sometimes three, four days a week. And even though I went to church as I got older, it was really just a family thing. I did it for my dad. I loved my dad, I did for him and everyone else in my family. But once I got some freedom, I went off to college. It became, you know, the last thing that I cared about. Um, and I just
lived like the world. Still going to church here and there, but, you know, definitely not as much. But I always would tell someone, yes, of course, I'm a Christian, but I live like the world. Um, all types of immorality, violence, I was angry, um, I would cheat, I would steal and all sorts of evil things. But I always had a justification. Everyone else does it. Or, you know, I'm stealing from this store, but it's a mega corporation, so
they don't really need the money. They're not really missing out.
Boy, that's.
Honest, you know? Oh. I'm sorry. What was that?
I said, that's honest, bro, I appreciate this. Keep rolling.
Oh, yes.
And I mean, I can go on, you know, but I always thought, well, I'm a Christian. I went to church. I go to church. So it's okay that I do this because God will just forgive me. And so you can kind of see the life I was living. I was a hypocrite. I was very judgmental. And I always thought, well, my dad's a pastor and I grew up in church. I know so much more than everyone else. I've always been a smart kid, and so pride has always been a huge stumbling block. So I never, you know, thought
to myself, are you are you genuinely in Christ? You know, of course, I know so much more than all these other people around me. You know, I'm so much better than them. And it wasn't until Covid shut things down at the end of, you know, my, my four years in college, Covid shut things down. And it took a lot of things away from me. You know, I was in college a frat guy. I was the party guy on campus. And now Covid shut all these social functions down. Okay,
so now what do you have? Oh, I had a girlfriend. I was living in sin with my girlfriend, and she threatened to break up with me, which was deserved because I was a terrible boyfriend. I was a terrible person. Um, but I told her. Okay, well, listen, let's just give this relationship one more chance, which I had said so many times before. But I said, this time, Let's do it God's way. And I'm just saying anything at this point. I'm just grasping.
For straws to keep it. Pulled the God card out.
Oh.
I did. I absolutely did. And for whatever reason, thank God she said okay. And she said, this is this is the last chance, George. There's no more. There's no more chances. And so what does it mean? Do God's way? I don't know, but I just figured we'll just start reading the Bible here and there and she'll forgive me. And over time, things go back to normal. That's what I.
Thought.
That was my plan. But God had other plans, and. And Scripture tells us that the Word of God is living and active, sharper than a double edged sword. And even though I was reading the Bible with her, we were reading one chapter a night and it was a total, you know, selfish, shallow thing I was doing. My intention was shallow, was unfaithful. But God is faithful and His
word totally transformed our lives. And as we were reading chapter by chapter through the book of Romans, I became convicted that you can't die to sin and still live in it and make excuses and justify it time after time after time. The way I was doing without any love for Christ in your heart. I got to the book of James and James says, you say you believe. You believe good. You believe God has won. Even the demons believe and they shudder. And yet I said I
believed in God, but I had no fear. I didn't shudder, I lived however I wanted to live and I abused the grace of Christ. And so as I was reading the Scripture chapter by chapter, God opened my eyes that, hey, something's wrong. George, you're not living right. This is not what a follower of Christ is like. And so I had church in my heart, but I had so much else in my heart. You know, unless you have Christ
in your heart. I was walking with the world Monday through Saturday and sitting in a pew on Sunday, and that's not enough, you know? So yeah, God used his word to to radically change my life.
George. That's epic. George.
An epic story, bro. And you tell it so well. May God loosen your lips to share that all the time. You hear me, George?
Yes, sir.
Yeah. I, uh, I've got an idea. God loves you. And Carl has an idea for you, so I want you to stay on the horn and give our call screener. Savannah, who's an incredible girl. Give her your details, if you would. How I can reach out to you sometime. George. I love you, man. That's an epic story, George. You'll appreciate this then. I feel compelled to do this right now. You hear George's story, and you know it's the prevalence of people that are going to church but are so
far from God is so profound. And you can. We've been all over the scriptures this week. You can go to first Corinthians 11. It's the Lord's Supper. You know what Paul says. Let a person examine themselves, men and women alike. Examine yourself. See if you're in the faith. What thought? It's written to the church. Yeah. This goes back to Jesus's teaching. Weeds in wheat and tares grow Together and tears looked very similar to wheat. And Jesus disciples came to him and said, man, I think we
got a bunch of weeds with the wheat here. And Jesus says, don't root them out, man. You might get some of the good ones just I'll sort this out in the end. But in the meantime, Jesus was clear with the gospel, and he said, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, and he's going to say, I never knew you. And we've been casting this net all week. Yeah, we're going to have plenty of time to talk about all that gross stuff that we do
on this path with Jesus. But right now, today, we want to make certain that you know, that you know, that you're on this path with Jesus. And, you know, there's a passage here in Matthew 16. It says by Jesus, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. And we've looked at self-denial in so many different ways. It's the it's the family that goes, wow, we've done this and we've been working this way for so long. And let's sell
everything we have. And we're going to go to another country. We go, wow, that's epic. Yeah, right. That's big time. No, no. You know what Jesus said? The entry point to authentic faith is to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him. Follow him.
Your shot of hope to help you through the day. This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
I'm feeling deeply prompted of the Lord right now, and we're going to go here. You know, there's one passage of scripture that we've left out all week long, and I'm so glad that the Holy Spirit held this and really dumped it into my heart this morning early. And I'm thrilled about this. You can go to Matthew seven and find this. You can find this hallucination of salvation
thinking you have something that you don't. You can find this deception in not only Matthew seven where many will say on that day, Lord, Lord, and yet he never knew you. You can go to Matthew 25 and look at the ten bridesmaids and find all ten of them have lamps. Only five of them are filled with oil and ready, with a life filled with the power of the spirit, so that when the Lord comes, he'll take you home with him. And then you go to my goodness, you can go to Matthew 13. And but Matthew 16
is amazing. You think self-denial, man, that's like epic Christianity. It's like, whoa, these are people that are, as I've said a couple of times this morning, selling businesses and opening, you know, transition housing for troubled kids or something. You look at it and go, wow, that's that's self-denial. But self-denial is the prerequisite to be born again. You're going to go gulp. Are you serious? Well, listen to what Jesus said. If anyone would come after me, let him
deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. Whoa! This is entry level discipleship. Entry level Christianity is self-denial. And he goes on. For whoever would save his life will lose it. This is why trying to hold on to your life. Let it go, friend. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. And then Jesus asks this question. So what does it profit a man or a woman if he gains, or she gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? And the answer
is nothing. And there's some of you today that have a hallucination of salvation because of the church culture in the West that we live in. You think you know Jesus, but you don't. But today you can turn around and the Spirit of God does it, and the Spirit of God is telling you, deny yourself. Follow Jesus today for the first time in your life, and you will know that you know that you are born again and its powerhouse. And I can't explain the power of the spirit, but
I've experienced it. And right now he's working in you, telling you surrender all. And I want you to do a simple declaration. And then Allie's going to give you a link. Declare. Today I deny myself and I follow Jesus. For the first time in my life. I want to be taken. When Jesus comes back, I want to go with him. Today I confess I'm a sinner and I need a Savior. And his name is Jesus. And I'm holding nothing back. Today I give it all to Jesus.
We want to help you with this brand new revelation from the Holy Spirit.
Just text the word new to 800 555 7898 N-e-w new to 800 555 7898. You're going to get back from us a link that's going to give you just some practical encouragement, some next steps, how to get a Bible, what to look for in a church. If that's you, text new to 800 555 7898. Today you're new in Christ.