Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio. This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Carl and crew come as you are. Overcome what seems impossible. Live as you never imagined. Is that possible? It's all done in the name of Jesus. It's interesting. A lot of us look at if we maybe tag on in Jesus name, that that is the way we pray. That was never the intent in the name of Jesus. And praying in Jesus name. Is that the embodiment of what we just shared, God willing, is true to who we are, true to the character of God, true to the truth of God's Word. And we say it all in the
name of Jesus, meaning he has the efficacy. He has the ability. He has the power to change not only us, but those people around us here today. You know, I am aware this morning that you get up and you have things on your heart that are heavy And one of the great tools of transformation that is right at the ready here today is to be able to pray and ask God, God, what would you do today? It's easy to ask, what am I going to do today?
How am I going to handle this? How am I going to overcome this obstacle that's standing right in front of me? How am I going to deal with a wayward kid that's assaulting me verbally? I mean, fill in the blank. But there's a beautiful thing that we can do when we, in the name of Jesus, take all the trials and the challenges that we're going to face today and just lay them before God. There's something about open,
honest vulnerability. The greatest prayers are not these surface prayers, but they go deep down to the innermost groanings of our heart. You find that in David. It's a beautiful thing. And I think that deep work that God wants to do in us is one of the ones that we most avoid. Why do we avoid the deep work that God wants to do in us, young thunder?
Because the deep work can hurt a little bit. Sometimes I think that it involves, uh, a little bit more digging. And sometimes the deeper you get, the more you maybe identify things. Pain in your past that is hard to recount or something that you need to admit that you don't want to admit. You know, it can require hard things sometimes to go deeper.
Can really can. It can get really tough. And the beautiful thing about the Word of God is it reveals deep work all over the place. When that comes into our mind and we just become kind of intellectual brokers. Knowledge brokers is what I love to call it. When we become brokers of knowledge, there can be some liberty in that. But when we become brokers of truth that digs down deep and really cares for the souls of people. Boy, it changes everything. When we think about the harvest that's
ready in this world today, it's. It's real, isn't it? I mean, we see we see a lot of pain. We see a lot of recklessness. And I think we're tempted to say things never change. They're always going to be this way. But we live in the kingdom of God. We live in a new kingdom. And, you know, there's so much going on. I'm thinking about what's happening in New York. And they had a big vote yesterday. I don't think it's the final vote. It's the primary.
Primary?
Yeah. For the mayor of New York. And boy, there's a lot of different choices that people have. And. The question comes up, are we going to be political animals that have strong opinions and maybe wring our hands about whatever kind of a political, social, cultural thing that we see? Or are we going to be spiritual children of God that go before his throne and lay it out? We don't have because we don't ask at times. And whether it's a national or local or very personal issue that's
on your heart today. One of the great tools of transformation is that we can bring our heart before the Lord, open it up and say, father, here's my situation and this is the beautiful place where real work gets done. Now I want to show this to you because oftentimes we say we want to raise up workers for the harvest field because look at the harvest, man. It's so ripe. And we and we underestimate the two pronged approach to care for those that are in the harvest. We don't
look at the context of the passage. It's easy to say the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly for the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. The question is, what is the work that's to be done by the laborers? Fair enough.
Fair enough.
We got to ask that one, don't we? Super dei every time. If we're raising up workers, what in the world kind of work are the workers going to be doing?
Well, you kind of want to know that.
Thank you. Yeah.
So coming up here in a moment, I just I really felt prompted this morning that we needed to talk about what is this work. Because these tools of transformation
that we're talking about all week long. And we're going to have Jim Coakley in here talking about a book that's been highly endorsed, by the way, not only by my bride, who says it's the best book she's ever read to understand the scriptures as she reads it, but it's a book that helps us then take the truths that we understand and use them as tools in practical ways, in our life and in the life of others. Coming up here in a moment. Matthew nine. The harvest is plentiful,
but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. What are the laborers to do? It's right in the context of the passage, and we'll break it down. This is Caleb. And John. Got a hallelujah feeling this morning. Give God praise. No matter what you're going through. Give voice in prayer to God today for that thing. Watch him work.
He's a sports fanatic with a stat for anything you can think of. Young Thunder is in the crew. It's curl and crew on Moody Radio.
You know, there is a awesome thing that we find in the scriptures. And I'm going to give you the passage and then I'm going to illustrate this, and then I'm going to ask you to call in and illustrate it from your own life. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest field. When we think about labors, what do we commonly think, guys?
Well, I think we laborers in a spiritual sense.
Yeah. Pastors.
Missionaries, I think.
Missionaries, yeah. People who were who were volunteering each week on a team, you know, an evangelist, something like that.
Yeah.
Yeah. And I think that's good.
Yeah.
But it's not great because we're missing something like the broadside of a barn here. This is one of the most powerful things. And this is going to this for some of you. You're going to go, oh, I know who did this for me. This is what Jesus said. He went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. Okay. That we would say that's work. That's harvest.
Work.
That's a harvest.
That's it.
But he goes on and healing every disease and affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Whoa! Hold it here a second. He went into the synagogues and preached, but he healed. And if you think about healing, there's a certain amount of proximity that goes far deeper than just teaching in a synagogue, sitting at a pulpit. It gets into the life of someone, you know, how
they're injured, how they're hurting, what they need. But then you see the real flavor of this. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. The one time you see Jesus really weeping was when he looked at a city of Jerusalem, and he knew that they were hurting people. There's a certain amount of empathy where you get into the muck of a person's life, and the heart behind it is not just gospel proclamation, but
gospel compassion. Passion. Gospel compassion. One of the coolest things that ever happened to me. The first taste I ever got of gospel compassion, probably beyond my parents. I knew that my mom and dad had compassion for me. Sure. You know, I think one of the plates for a lot of kids that were raised in church is that we almost take for granted the love of mom and dad. But boy, when you feel it from someone else, Katie
bar the door. I was working in the oil fields, really running from God and I love to tell this story. And British Petroleum, I was working for them. They had a. This is back in the Wild West. Days were 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle. We're in this beautiful facility, and they had contracted in a band and they had an open bar. They don't have open bars anymore, but they had an open bar and the partying was heavy.
We worked 12 hours on, 12 hours off for a week to two weeks, sometimes four weeks, and then back home. A hitch was 12 hours a day minimum. Sometimes it went well beyond that. So you were up there to work, but occasionally they would have these parties trying to keep the troops morale up and things like that. So I had a few in me and I looked across while the band was playing. They were playing a good song. I'm saying with a few buddies and I there, I
saw Dave Churchill. Can't wait to talk with this guy in heaven. Dave Churchill was planting a church with my mom and dad outside Anchorage, Alaska. He was a man's man. Former Alaska state trooper, now a security guard, retired security guard at British Petroleum, up in the oil fields. And here he comes walking my way. And I'm like, I might have been maybe the first guy to coin the phrase hold my beer.
But not in the way that people think. You were afraid.
I'm scared. Where can I crawl under something?
Here comes Dave Churchill. And I thought, oh boy, I'm going to get scolded. Well, he did something worse. He put his arm around me. The band playing kind of yelled quietly into my ear because the band's loud. He said, hey, Carl, it's good to see you. How are you, buddy? I said, I'm doing great, Dave. Trying not to breathe on him. Doing great Dave. Doing great. Uh, don't tell my parents that I got alcohol on my breath up here, even though they knew it. And he put his arm around
me and he said, look at me. And I looked at him. And in those eyes were compassion, genuine compassion. And what was worse than getting kind of tongue lashed with not being in church and having a beer in my hand that he clearly saw, even though now my buddy had it. He looked at me and he said, hey, listen. Life on the slope, it's called the slope. Life on the slope can be tough, man. If you ever need anyone to talk to and we're on the same hitch. I'm here for you, bro. Yeah, well, it was awful.
And, yeah, I know it was awful.
Dave Churchill was one of the first guys ever in my life that reached below gospel presentation to have empathy. And it was powerful. God used Dave Churchill and a set of other circumstances to call me out of darkness and into light. Because when the chips are down, for someone who's really hurting, the very kind of people that Jesus looked at and said, they're harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. That's who flashes through your head.
It's that kind of compassion, that kind of empathy. It's a powerful thing, guys. Yeah. One of the tools of transformation, when we think about workers that are being raised up for the harvest field, is not just gospel proclamation. It's heartfelt compassion, willing to get into the weeds and the muck and the mire with someone and say, hey, if you ever need to talk to anyone, I'm here. It's a powerful thing. I've had people since Dave Churchill. It
was beautiful. It's an awesome thing. But here's what I want you to know. And here's what I want you to testify to. Some of you have a person in mind that didn't just do the work of proclamation. They did the work of compassion. They did the work of empathy. They looked in your eyes and said, I love you. I know that below the surface is some stuff that isn't pretty. And I'm here for you. I want you to call in and testify to those people this morning.
You don't have to give gory details, but you can give some. But anyone that's truly been transformed by God and is growing up in him. Probably had someone who became a Y in the road in their life when they were at a crisis, and they loved him and they spoke words of life over him. Give me a call right now. Share your story. 805 55 7898. Come on in. 805 55, 78, 98. One of the great missing tools of transformation is to be armed with empathy
and compassion. And it's powerful. Come on. Light them up. 800 555. 7898. You're overjoyed in the salvation that you have in Jesus Christ. And you can look back and you can see people who did more than just gospel proclamation. It was gospel empathy. It was gospel compassion proclamations. Awesome compassion. That's where breakthrough comes. Jesus got down in it with the people. He didn't stand off Standoff from afar. He got down in it with the people. Give us a
call right now. 805, 55, 78, 98. Just need 1 or 2 of you in here. 805, 55. 78. 98. If the Spirit of God has a lump in your throat, he's probably ringing the dinner bell for you. So give me a call. 800 555 7898.
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.
Who's that person in your life who had proclamation which amused amusing some iteration here, but I'm using the words that Jesus has here in Matthew nine. He proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom, but he also had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless. It was both proclamation and compassion. And when they come together, wow, you got a lethal combination. I it's beautiful, uh, green driving here in Chicago. What do you say, green?
Carl. My dad. Oh, my dad is consistency. Love of God. You know, living in people don't know how important it is to live in front of your children. And we did. I left high school seeking everything every other teenage college kid seek. But it's constant love and persistence and dedication to God. Just when I when I got to that point and the Lord, you know, did that call, it was so easy to transition because his consistency made it evident that God was real in him. And I wanted
him real in me. And now I have sons that are in the same thing. So my dad's passion, love, dedication to God seven days a week was the the the the TNT in my life.
Boom. Green up. I I'd bet my bottom buck. Your dad did not get weak in the knees about speaking truth to you, right? He spoke truth.
No, not not only did he speak truth, but he ministered truth as well. Yes. He tell you to do with your children.
Yeah. And he and he had compassion galore. That's. You had a lethal combination of good dad. Good man. That's a good dad. Green.
The love was so consistent. He did World War two in Corpus Christi, Texas, in the Navy. He worked at the steel mill for 30 years to feed eight children. But he never wavered in his commitment. I don't care how bad things got. He was there and the light was on, and you had to be. You had to be taken out of this world not to recognize it.
Ah, green, I love your dad. Never met him. Love that man. Thank you for calling in. See? Proclamation. Compassion. You put those two together. Look out! Jesse Pierre, South Dakota. First time caller. What do you say, Jesse?
Well, it's my foster father. That's who led me to Jesus. And, um, you know, such an inspiration. I always said, if anybody is, I could compare to anybody on this earth. To Jesus, that would be him. Foster dad. He didn't. I mean, he was such a wonderful man. Strong Christian family. I mean, I was in foster care for almost 16 years. But then towards the last 12 years, I met this family and it just changed my life.
Oh, Jesse.
I'm so grateful that, you know, he planted that seed. And this person that was lost absolutely lost because my parents threw me alongside the road and said, I don't want you no more. I remember that day. And the thing is, is that yes, I was three years old at the time, and and we were bounced here and there in foster care.
And I just.
Totally lost trust in people. I was scared of men. I was scared of everything. And then when I met my dad, it was like, you know, it took me about a year and a half to two years to trust him. But once I did, boy, that was it. I love my dad, but he left me about three years ago. He died of cancer. But, you know, that's that's my inspiration right there. That's what you know. That's, you know, God's love was seen through him.
Yeah. Jesse, that's one of the most powerful stories I've ever heard. Hear you remember when your parents cast you aside at three years of age? You remember that, Jesse?
Yes, I do. It was cold out. It was dark. And. And it was like I, my twin brother, and and I remember her words. She said, I don't want you. And she threw us out on the side of the road. And I was like, wow.
My goodness.
Jessie. And then we were in and out of foster care. And then I met my dad, and he's a Navy man, and he, you know, and I'm Native American, and he, you know, he didn't see my color either. He said, you're my daughter. You're my daughter.
Jessie.
Thank you.
I don't even have words for this guy. What a man of God, huh? Jessie.
Beautiful. He's a wonderful man. Wonderful man. Kind, caring. I mean, you saw that, though. Every characteristic that what I'm reading in the Bible. But Jesus, he had it. He had.
It. Oh my goodness.
Yeah. Thank the Lord for him. Oh, I'm going to do that with you. God, I'm with Jesse. I thank the Lord for her daddy. And what an amazing thing. And I think, Lord, for me, the fruit of Jesse's adopted dad, foster dad, whatever he role, whatever title he had, he. His impact is very evident to me. As seen in Jesse's life. There's no way a girl can look back at three and speak like she does without having a dad like her that pointed her to a father like you.
And God. We give you thanks for that man and Lord, I can't wait to meet Jesse's dad in heaven. In Jesus name. Let it be, man. I can't wait to meet your dad, Jesse.
I mean, he is there. He is there. Praise God.
Oh, my goodness, that was. That is powerful, Jesse. I don't even have words for that.
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.
I want to share with you my heart here for just a moment this morning. I want you to hear my heart more than my words. There are many of you that got up this morning. Maybe you tuned in to this radio station. You don't even know how you got here. But you're here. And I think God brought you here for a reason. And if there's one of you that this reason is important for, that's reason enough.
Our God loves you so much. And there comes a time in your life when God will allow you to go through a level of pain that you need someone to reach out with compassion and tell you, I see it, and I don't know your situation this morning, but I know this. I've been on my face, the inside of my heart, in turmoil, needing someone to reach out with compassion to me and tell me where to find life.
I'm so grateful to God that I had a couple of people in my life who didn't reach out with condemnation or platitudes, but they reached into my heart and they spoke deeply. One was my own dad, who saw, although I was raised in church, was so far from God, and he reached out with love, put his arm around me with tears streaming down his face, and he said,
we're praying today. Speaking of his, my mom and him said, we're praying today that either your life has totally turned over to the leadership and the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and you give everything that you are to Jesus, or that God would take you out of this world because
you're killing yourself anyway. Carl. The backstory behind this is, although I was a pretty good kid growing up, lined up my Matchbox cars, I had this hole in my heart and I tried to fill it with everything possible from an 1100 mile dog sled race across Alaska to working in the oil fields, making good money to get in a raging cocaine habit. There wasn't enough cocaine in Alaska to fill the void in my heart, but Jesus did. And I want to speak to you this morning. You've
believed in Jesus, but the belief is not transformative. It's an intellectual belief, but it's not a soul surrendered belief. I want you to give your life to Jesus today. I have felt the pain that you've felt in the past. It's real as real can be. And you know what's going on in your life. Jesus looked at people like you and he said, you need a shepherd right now. You're being ranched you're being ranched by all the different worldviews that are out there. You're being ranched by family
of origin issues. You're being ranched by your own addictions, but no one's put his arm around you to say, walk this way. But Jesus is this morning by the power of the Holy Spirit, saying, today's the day to surrender all that you are to Jesus Christ today. Take it from an old cocaine addict. Take it from an old partier. God can take the deepest pain in your life and transform you completely. And he wants to do that today. You might be asking how you know when
you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. That's deep man, because it's more than just saying like the demons believe and they tremble. No, it's saying, I believe that Jesus Christ is more than just a good man or the Savior of the world. He's my savior today. It's an it's an awesome thing when you've been brought so low that you have nothing but to cling to Jesus. That's that's God's grace. He got you there this morning.
And take it from a guy who was raised in church and walked aisles and was in a youth ministry and did all kinds of spiritual stuff that can't save you, friend. Only Jesus, through full surrender to his lordship, can save your life, but he can save you thoroughly today. And I have compassion for you. I can only imagine the pain that you have in your life. But this is what I know. Although I can only imagine the pain in your life, I know the one who can shepherd
your soul into streams of living water. He can satisfy a thirst that you've had and quench it like you can't believe. But you must turn around and surrender your life to Jesus today and believe that he's been raised from the dead. Make Jesus Lord for the first time in your life. Don't let the delusion of church attendance and spiritual activity think that that can save you. It will not save you. You're on a highway to hell. Friend. But Jesus can turn you around today. And he is,
isn't he? I want you to pray with me. It's a prayer of faith. And just tell him this. I'm hurting God. Thank you for the compassion that I feel. God, today I need a shepherd. I'm tired of being ranched. Today I surrender everything that I am to Jesus Christ. Everything. Today I say you are my savior. I give you my whole life. Thank you for dying for my sins. Thank you for saving my soul. Right now, this is going to sound strange, but I want you to do
this right now. Tell him thank you for the pain that brought me to the point of calling out to the good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. Tell him that. And if today is a day friend that you know that you've come to the end of yourself, get this. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Wow! Spiritual bankruptcy is met with kingdom life. No price for admission.
It was paid for you by Jesus Christ. And if that's you and God's doing a work in you and you're driving right now, praise God you're walking right now. Praise God you're in an office. You're at home. You're in a kitchen. Wherever you are, I want you to get to. If you're driving side of the road, get to a safe place, and I want all of you that are surrendering your life to Jesus today. And you are. You are feeling the compassion and the calling of Jesus
to surrender your life fully to Christ today. Just text the word new and we're going to help you with some with a resource that's going to tell you what to do in these first steps with Jesus. Just text the word new right now. Got your phone text new to 800 555 7898. Man. God knew that you'd be here. The Spirit of God knew that. He'd prompt me at this very moment in this hour, to let you know about the greatest lover of your soul, the one filled
with compassion who loves you. And I'm asking you right now to respond to him. Don't delay. And we're going to help you text the word new right now to 800 555 78, 98. Just one word. I'll say it slowly. Here's the number text new to 805 Five, 55, 78, 98. God knew you'd be here. God knew you needed him. And God can make all things new. And he's doing it today. Coming up here in a moment, I'll shout out the last four numbers of all of you that
are responding to Jesus today. Just text the word new and we'll help you in your first steps of surrender to Jesus Christ to 800 555 7898. Just that one word new to 800 555 7898. And man, I'm talking soft, but I'm rejoicing in my heart.
A basketball mom who's mastered the dad joke. Ali is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
It's Carl and crew. It's Wednesday morning, bottom of the hour, but. Oh, no. We're going to break some hearts this morning.
We are.
Boy, we're going to break some hearts. This is tough. I want to be able to tell you this though. Ali has gone to a mission field that cannot be disclosed. So we're going to have to leave some mystery in that. But she is headed off to a mission field that cannot be disclosed. It's one of those kind of fields of ministry. But how cool that our sister is rolling up her sleeves doing something like that.
That's awesome. Yeah. So excited in my prayers, that is for sure. I can't wait to hear her stories when she comes back.
It's going to be tremendous. And please be praying for Ali as she's away and give us some grace on the jokes. I was thinking about doing them and then the Holy Spirit told me, no, you're not going to try dad jokes for Ali. That isn't going to work. No. They've got Doctor Jim Coakley here with us today, and we are going to really mix it up. Here's what I want to spike here before I bring in Jim. This is very important. And I want you to hear me boom crew. And I want you to hear me
loud and clear. Oftentimes when we think of the work of the ministry, it's what Super and Young Thunder just said at the top of the hour. Come on, let's go through them. Work of ministry. What is it, guys? Come on. Normal conventional wisdom. Work of ministry.
Pastors.
Missionaries.
Yeah.
Uh, you got evangelists? Yeah. Your regular volunteers at the church who are who are at the Welcome Center, that kind of thing.
Yeah, yeah. And those are all great. I mean, my goodness. Evangelists, teachers.
Thank you. Yes.
Yeah. We got to have that. We've got to have servants. We've got people that are rolling up their sleeves and caring for little kids. But therein lies now we're getting into the word a little bit more. See, to have proclamation without compassion was never the intent of God. As a matter of fact, proclamation without compassion. What is it? It's cold Orthodoxy. It's cold. And if you look into your own life, you've all got the Dave Churchill's in
your life. People that loved you enough to say, look, I know you got alcohol on your breath, Carl. That's Dave Churchill's story for me. I know you're up here partying in the north Slope of Alaska, 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle, working hard, earning a lot of money. But deep inside your soul, you're empty. And I'm here for you. That's what Dave Churchill was saying to me. And boy, did he read my mail. Everything inside of me wanted to talk to Dave and go. Dave, let
me tell you more here, man. But I was too proud to do it right there. Got my buddies. One of them's holding my beer. So the question is, how do we get into the Word of God and begin to see things? I'm kind of interested. What's one of the 14 fresh ways that I looked at this passage right here, and got beyond the proclamation and see the compassion? Well, context is very important, and just reading around a central
passage of Scripture is key. But there are 14 fresh ways to enjoy the Bible, and it is a book, and it's such a great book. We had callers yesterday that said it just changed their life. A guy named Garth called me yesterday and said, change. Change the way I read the Bible. And I think the biggest testimonial for this book is my own bride who says, Bob, this book single handedly has changed my Bible reading into a more robust understanding like no other book that I've read.
So talk about tools to transform. And the author of this, Jim Coakley is in studio, and we're going to talk with him in just a moment. Great man of God, dear friend, colleague here at Moody, but also one of our elders at 180 Chicago. So I get to see up close and personal a heart of compassion in this guy. And it's a beautiful thing. Hang on. Jim Coakley coming up straight ahead.
It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
The heart of the Savior is amazing. You see him weeping over Jerusalem. And in this narrative of Matthew chapter nine, you see these words and these are often quoted. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly for the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Doctor Jim Coakley with us right now, author of a tremendous book, and we're going to break that down. But I want to jump right into this narrative, Jim.
It's an interesting thing. We can get a cultural default that says proclamation, teaching of the word. That's the essence of workers or using your gift in some way, shape or form. But there is both proclamation and compassion here that is absolutely beautiful. And we've got to catch that, don't we, Jim?
Oh, we sure do. And that's the the beauty of what I think I see in this passage right from the start. Oftentimes we think that, hey, the reason I before I can even minister, before I become a missionary, before I become a pastor, I need to work up compassion. But if you look at what the text says, look at what it begins with. It says Jesus went through all the towns and villages teaching in their synagogues. So it wasn't like he needed to muster up compassion before
he went into ministry. He was doing ministry. And while he's doing ministry, that compassion developed. And so this is where it's a combination that you can't separate the two. They're dovetailed together. Is that as you're going out doing the Lord's work, you develop compassion and then you want to do more of the Lord's work. And so this is really, I think that idea of proclamation and compassion together is really so embedded, so intertwined here in Matthew chapter nine.
I don't know that we have, because the goal of real work is that it's transformative to our listeners and to those that we're reaching out to and touching. Jim, you must have had that early on before you were born again, if you haven't seen a picture of it. Jim Coakley, he was bandana man, long hair and, uh, far from God, Jim. But somebody must have reached into your heart more than just with the gospel, but with the heart of love and compassion.
Yeah. I mean, I think there's several people that I think were were part of that. One of them is my beloved wife, Gail. When I think about what I look like in high school and the. The long haired hippie type with the bandana around my head and the fact that she didn't shun me, and the idea of even her parents when I was first starting to go to church.
That's bigger. Yeah, yeah.
That was a bigger. And I'm thinking now, based on what I would have thought of myself with anybody wanting to date my daughter, now she's married. So I think we have to worry about those kind of things. But the idea is, you know, that I was not shunned. Even though I looked different. I didn't look like I was a Christian. If there was a prototype, that could
be that I was not it. And so the idea that they allowed me space to be able to process the claims of the gospel in a way that gave me freedom to kind of work through that was, I think, really the catalyst that it could have really set me off in a totally different trajectory if they had rejected me.
What's one of the ways waves in 14 ways when it comes to studying the Bible and looking at the Bible, what way have we utilized today that allows us to see the full embodiment of workers or laborers for the harvest field, as both proclamation and compassion? What are we doing there that you would cheer for?
Well, I think, you know, first of all, I see repetition. If you look at that last verse, it says harvest three times. So whenever something is repeated multiple times, you always want to pay attention to that, because it could have easily been summarized just once rather than repeatedly. So clearly we see this heart of compassion being determined as he's looking out at the harvest. They're ready for again
the workers to harvest the crop, as it were. And so that repetition of harvest really sets the geographical background for what really sets up this proclamation compassion combination.
That's beautiful coming up here. Straight ahead. More with Doctor Jim Coakley 14 Fresh Ways to Enjoy the Bible. My own bride says this book has single handedly transformed her reading of the scriptures in ways she couldn't have imagined. What's in it? Hang on.
You're listening to Curl and Crew on Moody Radio.
Transformational tools. Tools that God gives us. Ultimately, the Word of God is the ultimate tool. It's the this is the bread of life. And from these words we find transformation. But tools can help us understand when we dig into it what we're looking for. Doctor Jim Coakley, my guest right now, dear friend, incredible author of the book 14 Fresh Ways to Enjoy the Bible. What motivated you, Jim, to get this book written?
Well, I think it was my own Bible reading. I mean, I had gone to Bible college, I'd gone to seminary, did doctoral work, but I still felt like I wasn't really getting into the word like I wanted to. Of course, I was getting the information. I could do all sorts of Bible trivia. I had Bible memory verses, but there was just something about that I wasn't seeing what I thought the author was trying to get me to focus on. And so I was hearing lots of information, but I
was more concerned. How can I get to the heartbeat of what the biblical authors, both human and divine, are trying to say to me? And that's when I began to kind of say, well, what kind of techniques do all good communicators use to convey what they're really interested in talking about.
Whether speaking or writing.
Whether speaking or writing. And so all of a sudden, I found that there's these little tricks and tips and techniques that all good communicators use. And so it all started with the concept of looking at when a Bible character is introduced, look at their first words, their first actions,
and any physical descriptor, because that's what we call indirect characterization. Now, I've never been literarily trained, but I just realized that I'm a consumer, just like everyone else is in our audience of good film, good literature, and to realize that all good communicators use this technique because they can't spill out everything about a character. So they have to show us rather than tell us.
Make that technique super simple. What's it mean?
What's that mean is, when an author is introducing a character, they are going to be selective in what they want the reader or the viewer to watch. And that's going to be a very important kind of character trait that's going to follow that individual the rest of the way.
So repetition.
Repetition, but also it's the notion of first words again, speech. What is it that we first see this character saying, uh, also too, along with what labels, what character labels are given, how do we see them? Do we see them as an occupation? Do we see them in familiar language? Do we see them as an ethnic label? And all of a sudden I'm paying attention to the the ways that authors can communicate about a character without necessarily. In a sense,
telegraphing it. But we get to experience it. I'm getting ready for speaking next week at Maranatha Camp for Moody. Week. And this is the 50th anniversary of the movie jaws. Okay, so.
Oh, boy.
How.
And I'm getting old.
Yeah, I know, I'm getting old too. But one of the main characters is a guy by the name of Quint. Okay. Okay. And so I'm looking at the movie. How was he first introduced? Because he's going to be a main character. He's the one who helps to hunt down the shark and everything else. But the first scene we see him doing, the town is all gathered together, and they're all squabbling about, you know, they shut down the beach because the shark attack.
And you see this guy sitting on a chair, and he scratches the chalkboard in a classroom with his fingernails. So again, how irritating is that? The first thing we see this guy doing is scratching a chalkboard. And he also speaks very uncouth. And so what that's telling us is that this guy is nonconformist. He's a little bit cantankerous. He's an irritant, but he's the guy that's going to be used to, in a sense, hunt down this, you know,
great white shark. And so it's showing us without telling us that that's what his character is going to be like the rest of the way. And sure enough, as you watch the rest of the film, he portrays that character out very well in every scene.
Okay, so let's camp out here. Give me an example of that in Scripture. Opening scene. How it sets the tone.
Yeah. You think of Moses. Okay. The first thing we see him doing is as an adult, because of course, we we know he's growing up in Pharaoh's court. But the first action that we see Moses doing is when he sees a, you know, Hebrew or a pharaoh hitting an Egyptian slave, I mean, a an Egyptian taskmaster. And so looking this way and that, so we see fear. He hits and kills the Egyptian and hides him in the sand. So we see, first of all, that he's
a man of compassion. We talked about compassion earlier. Uh, here we see a character trait of Moses. The first thing we see him doing is he has compassion upon his fellow Hebrews. But the first actions is he has also got anger. And so we see that trait, compassion, which also mixed with anger. And so both of those traits are going to characterize Moses the rest of the way. He's a man of compassion, but also too, he is
a man that has anger issues. So paying attention to his first actions, you know, and the first words come out to the next day when he sees two Hebrews fighting together. First words that come out of Moses mouth, why are you hitting your fellow Egyptians, fellow Hebrew? So we see this man who's justice oriented, associated with the law.
So right from the start, that introduction of compassion and anger, but also justice orientation is really a perfect introduction to Moses, the character, The rest of the way in the Bible.
30s. Why in the world do you want someone to read this book? Give them your passion.
Well, the idea is, I think we have the standard process of, you know, observation, interpretation, application. But what I found the missing link was and often people's lives is they don't really know what to look for when they do the observation stage. So really this is that observation stage, skill building kind of book that will help them with that.
Tremendously awesome. Guys, I want you to grab this. We don't directly promote just books here. We try to give away free resources, but on occasion we'll say this is the one you need to consider getting 14 fresh waves to enjoy the Bible. Text the word fresh to 800 555 7898. Text the word fresh to 800 555 7898. At least get a look at it. One thing for sure, you can check out on most links and sites. You can see a first chapter for free. Scope it out, see if this is for you. Text fresh to 800
555 7898. Jim I love you brother. Thank you for being with us today.
Oh, you're so welcome. Blessings on you and our listeners.
Coming up here in a moment. Chris Martin, who in the world is this guy, and how in the world does he have a clearinghouse of resources that over a million people have tapped? Details coming up.
Your shot of hope to help you through the day. This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Let's talk with my son. He's got a startup in Miami, and he said, dad, for your staff there at church and even what's going on at Moody Radio? You got to find these young, fire breathing, run through the wall kind of guys. And I'm like, yeah, and they could be guys. That's my kind of universal term for guys and gals. But we got a very serious dude who runs through walls, and I've got him with me right now. How's that for an intro, Chris Martin?
I'll take it. I'll take it. I run through walls that. I suppose that could be a good thing or a bad thing. I try to run through walls constructively, more than destructively.
Yes, running through walls is a metaphor for willing to get.
Right.
Get done what you got to get done. And it's great to have you on this team here. For anyone that's kind of new to you, Chris, I'm going to let you give your own bio because I don't know what in the world kind of hats you're wearing right now. What's going on in your life?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So first, I'm a husband and dad. I'm a husband to Susie and father to Maggie and Daisy. Five and one and a half and, uh, yeah, my family and I, we live outside Nashville, and we've been there for a number of years. But I get to serve here at Moody Global Media and Moody Radio as the director of content. So I get to oversee everything we're doing on the air and how we're serving listeners,
like everyone listening today. And I also get to help, you know, we're doing this thing kind of alongside what we're doing with Moody Radio and yourself and others. We're kind of building up some more online content. So we're trying to develop more podcasts. We're developing more videos for YouTube because that's I mean, it's the biggest website in
the world. Virtually. Yes. And so we're just trying to do a lot of work to serve people wherever they want to be helped in taking their next steps in their walk with Christ, whether it's on the air, listening in their car, on their phone, or whether they're accessing stuff through Facebook, YouTube or the internet generally. So I'm trying to help serve you all and what you're doing on air, as well as develop some new content for the internet.
Yesterday we had callers, we had the phone lines wide open here, and people were just flooding us with all kinds of tools of transformation. That's what we're tackling all week long. We'll get to your side hustle called Bible to Life in a moment. But the the cool thing, Chris, is how many people are truly impacted by Moody Radio and the fact that you want to expand this into more of a digital realm, especially with video. You're you've got plans for that, even for the morning show right here.
Don't you?
Totally. Yeah. I mean, we we would love for this morning show and actually believe that sometime in the, in the next number of months. If not, you know, at least within this next year, but certainly in the next number of months, we want this morning show to go beyond the bounds of radio. We want you guys to
continue to thrive and serve everyone who's listening today. But we want to serve people who maybe don't listen to the radio on a daily basis, but they do watch YouTube shorts or they listen to podcasts, which I know you guys have got the show cast and plenty of people listen there, but I believe to get a little wonky here for a second, short form video on the internet is one of the most important forms of media I've seen in my 12 plus years working in in
digital media. More people are consuming TikToks, Instagram Reels, YouTube shorts than any form of content I've ever seen. The share of attention, if you think of it that way, the share of attention going to 30, 60, 92nd two minute videos is incredibly high. And to me, as someone who wants to take all the resources we have generously been given here at Moody Radio and Moody Global Media, through through generous donors, through the people who give their
time and efforts through working here. I want to say, how can we reach as many people with the gospel as possible? That makes me ask and think, hmm, well, where are people's eyes and ears? Insanely increasing number of people's eyes and ears are on short form video. And I want to take what you guys are doing, the ministry you're doing through Carl and crew in the morning show, and get that to people whose ears may never open up to radio, but who are scrolling these apps all
the time. And I think that's a you know, I was talking with a guy who leads our digital content efforts. His name is Sean, and he said, he said, man, this year, in the next 12 months or so, I want us to be posting 100 videos a week, 100 videos a week. Right now we're probably doing about 7 or 8, maybe ten. And so we just want to significantly increase the ministry we're doing in places where people's attention is rapidly increasing.
Yeah, it's so beautiful. What do you think? The blue sky is so blue ocean on me here. A little big time vision. What do you think can happen? I know that the goal of Mark job is to double our impact. We might be going way beyond that.
Oh, yeah? Yeah. Moody Global Media wants to. Right now, we think, you know, estimates can be kind of tough, especially with radio. It's actually a little bit easier on digital where you can track views or people who are engaging. But we want to be reaching 100 million people a
week with the gospel. You know, our core of who we are is we want to help people take their next steps in their in their walk with Christ by giving them tools like you're talking about here, by serving them through the morning show, all of our national programming throughout the day, as well as through other tools like we're developing right now. We want to be serving 100 million people a week, and right now, we estimate we're probably serving about 44 million people a week. So we're
we're doing we're doing great. We're serving more people than we ever have. And we really think that by opening up these digital avenues of communication and media, that we can get to that 100 million people a week. Number. Within the next number of years.
Dynamite. And I just want to tell you. Boom crew. This guy, Chris Martin, he's the real deal. This guy loves the Lord deeply. And it gives me great hope for the future man of our nation, of the world and the gospel going forward. Okay, a little side hustle you have. It's called Bible to Life. Tell us all about it. Talk about tools that transform. First off, how many hits are you getting a month on this site?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I used to just for anyone listening, I used to work at Moody Publishers for a number of years before I came over here to Moody Radio and Moody Global Media, and when I was at Moody Publishers, they said, hey, you know, we understand the importance of digital. We recognize people aren't reading books as much as they
used to. What if we took bits and pieces of our books and chopped them up, you know, took a chapter here or a part of a chapter here, and we put them on the internet for people who are googling for spiritual questions or biblical questions about, you know, where's my dog go when it dies? Or does God love me even if I lie sometimes? You know, they're asking questions like this to Google more than they're asking
to pastors or parents. Which is sad. But rather than just weeping over that, we can also step in and say, how can we help? What can we do for people who are asking Google these kinds of questions? So we developed this website called Bible to Life, which is taking trusted Moody Publishers resources as well as articles written by friends of Moody Bible Institute and Moody Radio. And we are getting in the last 12 months. So since June of last year, we've had about 3.1 million people view
about 4.4 million articles. So. So 3.1 million people are coming to the site per year now. And it's it's rapidly growing. We're getting people from all over the world. People are looking for Bible verses to encourage them. They're looking for every year we do a big post of, hey, if you know, in January, want to start reading the Bible for the first time, here are a few Bible reading plans. That's always one of our most popular articles.
So when you're talking about tools and giving people tools to help follow Christ and become more like Jesus, this is exactly the kind of thing we're trying to do here. Bible tell your joke. It's a it's a side hustle. It's actually it is a ministry of Moody Global Media that I just do with a few hours, a month
of my time. And our hope is over the course of the next couple of years, and our efforts to serve people on the internet more in some more robust ways, is that Bible to life can become even more than what it currently is. But about 3 million people a year are being served by it, and we're grateful for that. And we're hopeful that that people are taking their next steps with Jesus with it.
So, Chris, the website Bible to life.com.
That's right. That's right. Bible Life.com you can go there and there's a there's a web page for new visitors. If you've never been there before, it'll tell you how to use it. If it's a bit confusing, there's also a weekly email. We don't send a ton of email. We won't spam you. But once a week I send out a collection of popular articles from the week if you would rather get an email. I know a lot of folks prefer that rather than going to a site and looking for things.
Yeah, I love it. Okay, I'm going to put you on the spot here. I've been advertising all week long. Mr. Pin, sleek, acid free highlighter on. Honestly, this is the best highlighter ever because most highlighters bleed through multiple pages of scripture. Yeah, it's kind of funny, I know, but it's a really good tool that helps transform my life because I get to highlight scriptures in a good old fashioned hard copy Bible. What resource has most impacted you spiritually lately?
Oh man. Most impacted me spiritually lately. Resources. So I, um, I've been brushing up on catching up on C.S. Lewis. So when I was in college, like a lot of people probably, I read a lot of C.S. Lewis for the first time, I read Mere Christianity. You know, I read the hits, I read Mere Christianity, I read Screwtape Letters, I read Narnia, but I didn't go beyond to a bunch of his other works. And so this spring, I've been kind of remedying that. So I read The Abolition
of Man. I read letters to Malcolm chiefly on prayer. I read The Weight of Glory. So I've read some of his work. So good. Yeah, I've read some of his works that aren't quite as well known. And man, Letters to Malcolm, chiefly on Prayer, which I think is the last book he ever published. Tremendous resource on And helping me reflect on my prayer life, my corporate worship life, and how I view the corporate worship experience. Just this week, actually,
I wrote in my newsletter. I think Lewis has a great point in there, talking about how we're often tempted to pray as we think we ought, rather than pray as we actually are. And I don't think there's a lot of ways that we can fumble our prayers and coming before the Lord. But I think our kind of admittance ticket is simply being ourselves, rather than being someone
we think we should be. And I think if there's any way we can truly fumble coming before the Lord in prayer, it's by thinking that we ought to come a certain way rather than come as we are. And I think Lewis just has a great point on that. So Letters to Malcolm chiefly on prayer would be my tool that I recommend.
Love it. Bible to life. Com boom crew. Check it out today. Get subscribed there and start looking around. You're going to find resources that are going to be transformative Bible to life. Com Chris Martin thanks for ducking in here man.