Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio. This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Carl and crew leading into a big Ole weekend here. Not long, but big.
It's a big weekend. 4th of July weekend.
Cue the patriotic music.
Yes, absolutely.
Sparklers.
One thing that I'm thrilled about with my son in law is he is one of the most patriotic guys on the planet.
Really?
Oh my God. It's. It's funny, isn't it? How sometimes, you know, you think of patriotism and you think of Vietnam vets, World War Two vets, people that have people that have given their lives for freedom. And and boy, that resonates. But when you find a kid from new Jersey that loves to fly a flag, it's funny. He was coming to our home here. What was that? Oh, some. Oh, it was was it Veterans Day or something recently? Anyway, he was rounding the corner, coming to our home with
my daughter, of course. And our grandchild. Yes. Little Kate. And, uh, he was just saying to Muriel, our daughter. I wonder if your dad's got his flag out yet. They round the corner, and there I am, putting it in the slot at that very time, and they just started chuckling. They said, there he goes. Oh my goodness. There's it's it's going to be super. I've got a couple of rescue cats that one of them in particular. Man they are not. They don't like 4th of July fireworks right. Yeah. Freaks,
freaks this big boy out. He's a Norwegian forest cat, and he's a. Oh, I can get choked up thinking about this guy when we got him. You know, I don't know why I said yes, but, you know, when my bride's calling me from from the the rescue center and says, we got a guy here, he's wheezing. He's he's beautiful, but he's lame. He's got one foot that's broken. He can only walk on three. I'm like, all right, bring him home. There's gonna be a hospital for cats
around here. And he brought that big old boy home, and we thought he was stuck on one floor for the longest time. We're like, oh, no. And then I'm in my own heart. I didn't tell my bride this. I'm like, oh, no, we're going to have to have we're going to have to have food on this level and food and water on that level. And oh, because we got this townhouse situation that goes straight up in the air. It's about five feet wide and 49 stories
tall is what it feels like. So I'm like, oh no, and praise God this guy got healed up and now he runs around on all four legs.
But he's not a fan of the fourth.
No, the 4th of July freaks him out, man. Even. And so last night some of these guys are getting warmed up. Oh get going early.
The warmups.
That all.
The warm up is the worst.
It's like, what are we doing, guys? It's not even dark outside. It's like, what? Do you hold on to these things? Wait till it gets dark. You can't see. All you hear is bang. That's all you.
Get. It's true.
It's the bang. But man, I'm telling you, that big old boy, you could see it on his face. He's like, oh, no. It's that time of year again.
Did we just do this?
Did we do this at New Year's? What's going on? Oh, bless his heart. But yeah, it's it's it's an awesome thing to see him get healed up. But the point is, we've got this three day weekend coming up, and it it really gets me cogitating on this idea that vacations can be the least restful thing on the planet.
Long weekends, days off.
Isn't it wild how you can come back from a vacation desperately needing a vacation?
Yes. Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
Why is that, Ali? I want to know. Explain what's going on.
Well, what I've experienced is that you gear up for it. And if you're, let's say from my perspective, I'm a I'm a mom of two. And so leading up to vacation, I got to make sure everybody has the right clothes, that we are packed, that we have the itinerary, that we've handled all of the organizational aspect of it. So then we get to vacation and then I'm trying to figure out, okay, we need to do this and we need to do this. So then I'm trying to fill
the days with activity, wrangle teenagers. And then by the time I come home from that, I go, well, that wasn't very restful. Maybe we saw a couple things. Got some nice pictures for the album, but boy am I tired. That's just my perspective.
You proved the point so well. I'm exhausted listening to you. I'm exhausted listening.
Maybe it's fun, but it usually doesn't feel like it was particularly restful.
Yeah, it's just wild how that is. And and I think it has to do with you're breaking your routines a little bit. Your sleep patterns are broken up differently. And sometimes the days go long and you're exhausted. But it's fun. And then that day before you come back, you're like, uh oh, right.
I gotta take a day. I gotta take a day recovering from my vacation before I feel good enough to go back to work.
I don't know that I've ever heard. Well, I haven't heard too many people that come back going, woo! I'm refreshed and ready to rumble.
Yeah, it doesn't happen often.
It's usually not complaining. It's usually had a good break. Oh, but we're we're bushed. We're exhausted.
True. And I think that sometimes we put a false expectation on it. I mean, we we want something out of it that, let's be honest, it really can't deliver. I mean, many people kind of live for that two weeks of the year. However much you get that that's going to be the time that my soul is refreshed. I look forward to that. If I look forward to that,
it's got to deliver some sort of payoff. So I think from a kind of a taking it a layer deeper, we're we're putting something, a weight on it that it can't deliver, even in the best circumstances.
Boy, you are full of profundities today. So it's the logistics and all the stuff. And then we put expectations on it that a vacation can't deliver.
It cannot.
Boy, did you set us up here. Ali. Uh, what's on your heart?
I was going to say, I think just one final thing is that we mistake what real rest is. You know, we think it's. I'm gonna go and sleep all day. Or. Because sometimes I sleep all day, and then I'm more tired at the end of the day than I would have been if I was running around, you know, like, so we mistake what what rest and recovery is supposed to be.
Boom! You guys are nailing it. So I had an experiment on our last vacation that my bride and I were on. And I just, in my heart of hearts said, Lord, I want to come back so refreshed coming up here, I'm going to give you the secret sauce. And I and I really mean this bedrock ways to come back from your little mini break. And some of you are in the middle of it right now, and you're driving somewhere and you're listening to us going, yeah, we're bushed already.
Some of you want to come back next week refreshed. And by the way, this doesn't change when you're retired. I don't care how old you are. Sometimes you come back just because of events. It might be a staycation, but you got so much going on. You're chopping up the taters for the potato salad and you got potato salad. It's the best. This might be the best feature of 4th of July is potato salad.
That's hilarious coming from you.
No agreement there. No agreement. Agreement. Oh! Come on.
Celery and.
Onions. Take us off.
Okay, so coming up here, we're going to talk about how to come back refreshed. And I have got the secret sauce for you. I do it's bedrock truth on how to do this.
Walking closer to Jesus every day. You're listening to Carl and crew.
Oh, I want for you to get a taste of it. A little mini taste this weekend. Some of you are in the throes of a little bit of a break right now. You might be listening to us, and you feel in your heart what I was just sharing. And that is we can sometimes go away on a vacation and find ourselves getting out of rhythms, getting into logistics. We have expectations on vacations that vacations can't provide. That's that's really powerful. Ally, when you said that we have
an expectation on vacations that they inherently can't deliver. Yes. And that could sound like we're here to discourage you today.
But not.
At all. Not. We're really not. I want to build a little. Why, how and what? This is a cool little paradigm to think through. Oftentimes we talk about what we're doing, and then you talk about, oh, maybe how to do it, but you got to get down to the why. So let me begin with the why of what you want coming out the pipe of your vacation. It comes right out of Psalm 139. It's a prayer by David who knows that God knows him intimately. And these are the final two verses of this incredible psalm.
Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there is any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. That's the why that I want to give you this morning. The the kind of the, the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever. That's a knockoff little twist. Uh, Piper ized of the Westminster Confession and its powerful truth. The way we do this is we never check out of conversation with God. Fair enough. Guys.
Right?
Absolutely.
We stay locked in with them. And that prayer of David is one of my go to prayers. Psalm 139, verse 23 and 24. It's powerful. Then I want to go to the how, and then I'll go to the what. All right, here's the how. Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place where he prayed. Mark 135. That's the how that gets to the why. So now I'm going to back up. And here is the what? Be still and know that I am God.
That's Psalm 4610. So if you think about this in really practical terms, I want to encourage you today. Oftentimes we start with the what? Be still and know that I'm God. But without the scream and why we really we we don't we don't have it. All we've got is a really what we've got is a ritual, right? We've got a religious action. Be still and know that I'm God. Well, what's the why? The why is what we're aiming at. And that is see if there'd be any way in me that's leading me away. And lead
me back onto the way everlasting. Now, if you put the how in there, right in the middle and we're going to, we're going to have a link for you here that's going to break this down so you can take it to the bank very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed. That's the how. And the payoff is what we find with with David. Here's the point. On our last vacation, I went away aiming to come back really refreshed. And
this was the three part discipline that I exercised. Every morning I got up early. I spent time alone with the Lord. I talked with him and I asked him, set my day on a course that's going to give you glory and me joy. Lead me in the way everlasting. I'm not saying it's some magic sauce. I'm saying it's a spiritual discipline that if you linger there long enough and it doesn't take a lot of time, I was probably doing 20 to 30 minutes. Just one morning, I got on my knees and I said, Lord, this day
is your day. Even as we're buzzing around doing vacation stuff, I want to be mindful of you, and it set the course of my day to hear his voice, to go his way. It brought refreshment and I came back. Here's my testimony. I came back so refreshed from time away. I think you guys might remember that I came back.
I do very much so.
Oh, yeah, it was. It was awesome. And so the proposal this three day weekend or for some of you, you've stretched it out 4 or 5 days. Grab that early morning time and watch what God can do. The what, the how and the why. Keep the keep the why in mind. Try me. Know me. Are there any thoughts that are wiggy here today in practically speaking, am I am I trying to please family on the 4th of July? Am I trying to? Am I a people pleaser here?
Has my priority structure gotten screwed up? Am I trying to get something out of vacation that it can't provide? That's a great insight, Ali. We look to vacations to provide something that only God can provide.
Yeah, very much so.
And say, Lord, I'm going to go away. What? To a silent place, a quiet place. Be still and know that I'm God. The how is. I'm going to talk with you early this morning, and I'm going to watch you do something powerful in my life. I love this stuff. Ali, it's so good to come back refreshed.
It is. We've got a key word for you. If you want these three little points, just text vacation to 800 555 7898. Text vacation to 800 555 7898. We'll also have this up on our Facebook and Instagram page. Just search Carl and crew mornings.
Yeah, what a sweet time when you go away for a few days. Get up early in the morning. Spend that time alone with the Lord. Why? To get the whole day in your life aligned with him. It can change everything, I promise you that. Up.
You're listening to Curl and Crew on Moody Radio.
Just a reminder, Grace, if you want to pass a course in seminary, you call it unmerited favor. But the real fleshing out of the word grace is not only unmerited favor, it's unlimited power. It's the power of God. It's the grace that saves and the grace that trains. You want a couple of passages. You want one passage that kind of anchors us around here. Never forget the day even mentioned this in a message. Now, I mentioned this at T7, our power pack. Last Saturday we did
a discipleship half half day morning. Uh, for we had about 42 folks there. It was a dynamite time. Young Thunder, you were there, man. It was a it was a sweet time.
It really was.
But if if there is a passage of Scripture that captures the grace of God both for saving and training, it's the one that Ali whispered into my ear one time we were sitting in the studio and she goes on a break. She goes, hey, listen, I found this passage. You know you love to talk about the grace of God that saves you, and then the grace of God actually grows you. Have you looked at Titus 211 and 12? And I go over there and I look at it and I'm like, how have I not seen this before?
It's awesome. It is. Ali, do you have that thing handy? Talk about bedrock truth. Titus 211 and 12. Somebody pull it up. Yeah, this. This is the consummate passage on the grace of God and his favor and his power to change everything in us.
Yeah.
And and it's beautiful. What do you got?
For the grace of God has appeared. Bringing salvation for all people. Training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age.
Amazing passage. I scared her half to death. I read it and I'm like, yes, this is.
It.
It's the study Bible that I was was reading at the time. It it talked about it as saving grace and training grace. And I just loved that.
It's it's so spot on. And I've used that now for years as the central passage that illustrates the power of God. Any temptation to bootstrap it with regard to training? Let it go to the backdrop, man, that is not it. Grace is not against effort, but it is against earning. So you want a passage? Titus 211 and 12. You want to commit something to memory. It's beautiful. Give us that training excerpt. Just that piece there. Ali, listen to what? Listen to what is said right here.
Training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives.
Oh.
So training is to get rid of all this junk.
Yep.
And how to live upright. Self-controlled, which is a fruit of the.
Spirit.
In this present age. Sometimes God's Word just makes me want to scream and shout. It's just so liberating. Speaking of liberating, if you're on a vacation this weekend heading somewhere, maybe you're just going to do a staycation, but you want to come back refreshed. We have got a resource for you. We just super die and Ali teamed up and they took just a little sharing from the word on the what, the how and the why of having
a bedrock vacation. Three bedrock truths for you. And we've got it in one text and we don't even send you to a link, do we?
Ali.
Right. This is just one little text. Just text. Vacation to 855 five 7898. Vacation to (800) 555-7898.
Yeah, this is the way to vacation right here. I think it's self-explanatory. Look at those three little passages of Scripture, and it will set the course for your day in a beautiful way. I promise you that. I don't care where you are in this world. Just grab this little resource. I truly believe it'll help you. Text vacation to 800 555 7898. This little three bedrock truth brought me back from my last vacation so refreshed. I'm never going to take a weekend like this weekend. I'm never going to
go on vacation the same again. And I want that for you. Just text vacation to 855 five 7898. What I love about super I invented this here just a week or so ago. She's like, yeah, let's just build a little mini, little mini post that nobody has to link to. Anything else. They got it right there.
Yes.
Good work.
Super day. Well.
The Holy Spirit and it's thing is, that's what we want to do. We want to help people take their next step. And let's make it as easy and and just again we want to just share our resources. And so I'm just yeah, I'm very excited to do that. And thank you, by the way, for sharing it.
Yeah it's great. Okay. Speaking of bedrock. Boy, you look across the scripture, you find rocks and boulders and ceremonies everywhere, don't you, Ellie?
And stones. Stones, says Doctor Jim Coakley.
Get to know the team behind the scenes. Follow Carl and crew on Facebook and Instagram.
When I say the word, do you remember? You probably come up with an Earth, wind and fire song.
I didn't know if that's what you were going with it, but I was like, honestly.
Do you.
Remember? See.
It's amazing how music can bring things to mind. Yeah, but when I think about, do you remember if I isolate it to the word of God, there's two things that I go to.
Okay.
Right out of the chute. First Corinthians 11. Do this in remembrance of me. The Apostle Paul is citing the Lord's Supper. I got chills right now. Oh my goodness. And then I go back to the Joshua narrative. And they go through the Jordan. And the Jordan drives up and they grab 12 stones. That would be a monument of memorial to tell your kids and your grandkids and those kids all of the goodness of God. Remembering is huge, isn't it? Doctor Jim Coakley.
Yes, it sure is. And we have a tendency why we have to remember because we have a tendency to forget. And so we need these kind of memorials. We need these kind of reminders. We need these object lessons. And that's why we do. The Lord's table is because the bread and the cup, they symbolize very meaningful things. And they cause us to look back, to look inward, to look upward, to look around us. And again, it's a great teaching aid. I'm a teacher and I love the visuals. It's powerful.
Now we got a problem. I've been to the Jordan multiple times. Yes, I have not seen the stack of stones. No. So what do you think? How long did they last?
Well, I kind of wonder if they lasted at least until the New Testament time. And the reason why I say that is I think there's actually two stacks of stones. There's one in the middle of the river that are there, but then there's one that they put a little bit inland at Gilgal. Yes. And so they have one that they can kind of go to on dry land, and
one that's in the middle of the river. Now, when I read about what happened with John the Baptist, this is what's fascinating, because in Matthew chapter three, here's what happens. So he's doing the baptism in the Jordan River, which is where these stones were originally applied. But I think you'll love this. Listen to what he says as he says this about the thing he says, therefore bring forth
fruit in keeping with repentance. Do not suppose that you should say to yourselves, we have Abraham for our father. For I say to you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham these stones. Now where is John the Baptist? Yeah, he's in the Jordan River. These stones he's talking about.
I've never seen that before.
Listen to what? Again. You talk about this, and the axe is ready to fall. But he goes on to say. As for me, of course I baptize you with water for repentance. But he was coming after me is mightier than I. And I am not fit to remove his sandals. Uh, and so the idea here is that, uh, he's going to baptize you with fire. Uh, Holy Spirit and the fire. But it's really so that you get the fear of the Lord in. And so again, that's why we need
to be reminded. And so these stones, I think, were present even up until the time of John the Baptist.
Now, I love this idea that children are mentioned here.
Yes.
That the thought is for the future generations that you can reference these stones to your kids. Talk a little bit about that. The significance of going from one generation to the next.
You know, in a sense, remember they were not always literate. So they didn't have hand copies of the Word of God with them. And so they had to have these object lessons. And of course, Deuteronomy talks about, you know, when you lie down, when you get up, when you're on the way, Underway. And certainly then these memorial stones would be a great field trip. Storytelling parent to take their children to. Let me tell you what happened. Years ago and why we are to fear the Lord. And
so again, it's a great teaching aid. It's a way for them to kind of I'm a visual learner. I mean, these kind of things are really fit to that kind of learning style. And so it is a wonderful teaching tool to use it as a prompter to talk about spiritual truth.
All right. Let's get practical. So someone's going through life and there are some things that God wants them to remember. How do the stones in that application that we find in Joshua four and beyond, how does that relate to today?
So what?
Yeah. Well, you're taking something from the past to inform the present. And so this is where we always have to kind of be looking for. How is it that I can keep these things in the front of my mind? And so coming up with some type of memorial kind of stones or places. Typically they're associated with the place. I can envision right now. In my mind, when our kids were growing up, we went to Acadia National Park on top of Mount Cadillac. There's this huge round boulder.
I mean, if anybody of our listeners have been there, you've probably been to that rock. We have pictures of our kids on that rock. And then when we took our grandchildren there a couple years ago, we put our grandchildren on that rock. And we say, this is where your mom sat years ago and how we enjoy family time. And it was a kind of a memento, but also a way to kind of let the past inform the present and how we firm family values and being together
and loving one another. And it's all based on a rock.
You know, we had at least two excursions with our kids when.
They were growing.
Up where we made memorial.
Stones.
One was a joyful experience. One was tragic.
And they.
To this.
Day, remember those.
Experiences. There's something about.
Ceremony, isn't there, guys?
Yes there is. And that's the thing with these rocks in Joshua is a good memorial about God bringing them across where the Ark of the covenant was, where the Lord is going to be with them. But also in the book of Joshua you have rocks to remind them of disobedience. Achan is stoned and they have a pile of rocks. Where to remember that? But then you also end kind of as a bookend to the book of Joshua.
You have these memorial stones, but at the end you have this covenant renewal ceremony at Shechem, and there's a rock there. And I've actually been only one time to Shechem in all my tours to Israel. But this standing stone, this rock is still there. It's kind of been cut off a little bit, but it's almost as if you can go visit that same rock where the Word of God was recited, and it's a witness against the people
to keep faithful to the words of the Lord. And so those are pilgrimage sites, so to speak, to again cause you to remember Joshua four.
I'm going to read it to you now that you have this context. Take a listen. Starting at verse four. Then Joshua called the 12 men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed a man from each tribe. And Joshua said to them, pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of tribes of the people of Israel,
that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, what do these stones mean to you? Then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.
When you experience.
Any movement of God in your.
Life.
And especially those ones that.
Stand.
Out as particularly.
Significant.
Remember.
Them, mark them.
Go back to them. Take loved ones with you.
That's our bottom line, isn't it, guys?
It sure is.
You know.
I want to tell you something. My bride loves Jim Coakley. He's one of our elders at our church. He loves. She loves his handle on the Word of God. She loves that teaching gift. But she will tell you that 14 Fresh Ways to Enjoy the Bible, written by Jim Coakley, is the book that has helped her more to understand, catalyze, and energize her Bible study than any other book. That's a weighty statement.
Yes it is.
And we don't often do this here. We love to give away free stuff. But today I'm giving you a link to something that could possibly change. As my bride has experienced the way you read the Word of God. 14 Fresh Ways to Enjoy the Bible by Doctor Jim Coakley.
If you want the link, just text fresh to 855 five 7898. Text fresh to 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.
I'm just wired this way. I need to apologize before I even confess.
It to you. What's. What's happening?
I'm just wired this way. I'm just wired this way. When when I. When I get a new toy, I got to tell everyone about it. And I got to use it as much as possible.
Okay.
What does this mean?
Allie's freaking out.
I know.
I don't know. I'm super, super diagnose.
Well, I've been ever since super died. Did this little mini blog on this keyword bucket don't. You don't have to send that right now. And then this morning we went a little mini. When I say mini blog, I mean so short we just text it back to you. You have no link or anything like that. And we did vacation that in that last song I said to Super Die, man, I got to do one for Grace. I mean, it's God's grace saves us. God's grace trains us. And. And then I got a text back from someone. Here
he goes. Oh, man, that passage is so good. I've got a wife and six kids, and we're going to memorize Titus 211 through 12.
Oh, I love that.
How awesome is that?
That's great.
And it's a short but powerful. I think everything of grace is best embodied. I mean, you go to Galatians. Yeah, you get grace fleshed out and that long letter. But if you want to capture it in two verses, it's Titus 211 and 12, and the new toy is I fired a little, just a little snippet of that that really reveals for you that grace is God's unmerited favor and it's power without boundaries. It's it's amazing. So we
put it all right there for you. So what I'm saying is, Ali, we got another little mini blog for you.
We do?
Okay, I missed that.
It's a good one.
It's a good one. What is it? Super dei? And what does it say?
Well, again, it's unpacking that. Titus 211 through 12 and really just hitting home that, you know, grace is your access to God, who alone, just him alone, can rescue you. So you have to lean into the grace of God today. And we want to send you this friendly reminder. So text the word grace. The word is grace and the number is 800 555 7898. Be encouraged. Text the word grace 800 555 7898.
Yeah, grace is your access to God who alone can rescue you. And here's the kicker change you. And I think most of us get that first half, don't we? Yeah, we know, we know that it's the grace of God that saved us because we were blowing snot out of both nostrils or at the end of ourself. And we're like, I can't do this.
We do not save ourselves.
But then who trains us? And this is one of the things that we have to fight here. Can I just confess to you that I'm with you on this one? For some reason, in the West we adopted a perspective on sanctification, which is growing up in God, which leaned heavily on our own strength and wisdom as a person.
What we can try to do for ourselves.
Yep. And what have we learned about that? Jesus reminds us in John 15 apart from him, we can do nothing. Nothing. So you want to get another? They're going out like crazy. We are having some fun here with these little. What do we want to call these little mini blogs? I mean, what, they aren't blogs.
Yeah, we need to.
We gotta come up with.
Yeah, Allie's the namer around here.
We gotta get.
To name this.
Thing. Her journalistic. Yeah, she's.
Just get it. And. And this would be worth memorizing. Titus 211 through 12. But a little quick hit on what grace is unmerited favor and unlimited power. Come and get it. Grace to 805 At 55, 78, 98. Just that keyword grace to 800 555 7898.
Start your day moving closer to Jesus. You're listening to Carl and crew.
If you've never worried, everything we're about to talk about are, you've already got it.
So won't apply to you.
But I got a hunch. Just a hunch. Haven't been a pastor for a few decades. And a radio host here for a short time. Yeah, Ali. Worrying happens, doesn't it?
It does.
You. You walk through life and maybe things are going okay, and then something pops up that causes you to be fearful, to be anxious. And you know that the scriptures tell us not to worry. But how do we not worry?
Yeah.
I want to tackle three bedrock truths for the worrier. Doctor Neely, you've never worried a day in your life, right?
No, sir. I have absolutely no idea or notion or inkling of what's involved in worry. I love you. Oh my goodness, man.
Oh. All right, give us, give us, give us one. And then and then Ali's going to properly introduce you. But give us the first bedrock truth for the warrior today.
Understand the difference between, uh, concern and worry. I think that's the big one. Um, you know, um, we have to be concerned about what's going on in life. You know, I retired, I retired recently, and I had a lot of low level anxiety about that. And one of the things that I had to do was, you know, make sure that I had all of my, you know, that I was actually ready for retirement in terms of plans and things like that. Uh, but that was that was some anxiety about it. Uh, and I had to remind
myself that, uh, I'm not here alone. I'm not doing this in my own strength. I need to be concerned about stepping into this next season of my life. But I don't have to be losing sleep over it. I don't have to think before God that I have to navigate this in my own strength and power, with my
own wisdom. That's the worry side of this. So I think understanding that that there's a difference between the two is really important, that when Scripture says be anxious for nothing, this is not a call for us to be apathetic or indifferent or to disengage from life. What it is saying is that we engage life, all of life and faith and trust in wisdom based on the Word of
God and the power of the Holy Spirit. But we don't do it in our own strength, because when we attempt to do it in our own strength, with our own wisdom, under our own steam, that's when we fall into the slimy pit of anxiety and Worry.
Doctor Winifred Neely, our guest right now, he mentioned he's a newly retired vice president and dean here at Moody Theological Seminary. He's an author. He has been a pastor for many years. Okay, so I can see someone hearing this. Okay, okay. I'm not worried about my son or daughter who's away from the Lord, but I'm very concerned about it. It's almost seems like a, like semantics. How do you take that and really grab on to this truth of concern versus worry? Dig a little deeper there.
Well, I think, uh, one, uh, my children fundamentally belong to God. They're they're his gifts to me. And I do what I can to to love them, to, uh, continue to model Christ before them. Uh, but I also am not losing sleep over them. And what I mean by that, Ali, is that I'm not I'm not trying to figure out what I need to do in my own strength, with my own wisdom, uh, to, uh, get them to walk with God. I continue to love. I continue to listen, uh, you know, we do meals together.
We laugh, we cry, we, you know, and I pray for them. And that just that difference has helped me and and understand that it takes time sometimes. Sometimes we have children who will walk away from the Lord Jesus Christ, and it may be years before they return to the Lord. Or if we see them return, uh, while we're alive, we may be dead and gone. And, uh, then a child may repent and come to know Christ or rededicate
their lives to the Lord Jesus. But I have found that anxiety actually gets in the way of healthy relationships with our kids, who are no longer walking with God. I hope that makes sense.
Yeah, very.
Very much so. Understanding the difference between concern and worry. That's that first truth. Give us the second bedrock truth for the warrior.
Remember? Remember, we can pray to God about anything that's troubling us. I say, remember, because we have a tendency to forget. Now think about this. I wrote a book, little book on how to overcome worry. I preached this text many, many years. We've had altar calls where droves of people have come forward and I'm stepping into retirement. Do you realize I had to? I'm going to be honest with you getting ready for this. Getting ready for this interview with y'all reminded me when you can pray
about everything, son. And so. And I just think of the providence of God. Carl. Yeah. You all didn't know I was going through all of that. And here I am this morning, 70 years old and still having to remember after all of these years that I can talk to my Heavenly Father about anything that's troubling me. And the thing is, it says. And so the big thing is, you got to think it through because it says, let
your requests be made known to God. That presupposes that I have something specific and detailed that I'm bringing to God. I have thought it through. Lord, this is what I need. This is what the problem is. Would you give me wisdom or strategy, or plan to navigate this in a way that honors you?
You know, this is so encouraging. Prof. And I'll tell you why. Because I think a lot of us kick ourselves because it's like, yeah, I. I wrote on that or I had memorized a verse about that or I whatever, you know, the goodness of God's grace is that the Spirit of God does knock on our hearts doors still. Prof. And he calls us back to these core truths. Boy they're beautiful.
Well, you know, you know, I think it was someone. I forget the author, but someone said, God's people need to be reminded as much as they need to be informed who you know. Yeah, we need to be reminded. We suffer from spiritual amnesia. You know, so we, you know, we we need some what I call spiritual provision. I would say to your younger listeners may not even know what provision is. That's what people my age who have have to take stuff to keep the memory going. We
need that. We need spiritual provision to remember. Yeah. The great truths of God's word. Yeah.
And spiritual provision doesn't have paralysis as a side effect, so it's really good. Okay. Oh my goodness. Okay. Third bedrock truth for the warrior. What do you say?
Uh, expect God's peace. And what I mean, what I mean by that. So I mean, we we we we've thought it through. We've we've devised a strategy, in the presence of God. We're not indifferent, we're concerned, we're not worried, but we are concerned. And the Lord will give us peace in the midst of life. And I think that's that's a big one, that the wholeness, the the well-being of God that that he grants to us to allow us to flourish in any in all contexts. We can
expect that from him. It doesn't mean that life is going to be perfect. It doesn't mean that we're not going to have problems. Uh, but it does mean that we will have all the grace and peace from God to navigate any and all circumstances in life. And again, this is not to say that, uh, life is easy. Think things happen, you know, you, you know, and again, in my case, in my case, of course, Stephanie and I are older now and we are navigating this season
of of life. Right. Yeah. But we have we have peace as we go through it.
Doctor Winifred Neeley, our guest right now, Doctor Neeley. You know, this generation coming up behind us is, uh, maybe more anxious than any before. And, you know, there's nothing new under the sun. There's always been challenges. But it seems like for the younger generation, it's coming at them from every direction. It's through social media. It's through advertising. Everything that comes at them is telling them, you need to
be worried. You need to be concerned. How do we help coach our kids through their anxious seasons of life? Speak to those with, particularly kids who are in the younger years, maybe even up to young adults.
How about unplugging, you know, turn all of that stuff off? You know, it's interesting. I know Jill Briscoe. I heard her say once that when her grandchildren came to her home that every grandchild these are young kids had to drop the cell phone at the door. No cell phones here for these three days that we're going to be together. And I and I think, Ali, that we are so connected to social media to in all of these other platforms that we don't have the the objective distance from
all of that stuff to hear from God. And this is one of the reasons why I'm an advocate, by the way, of the old Bible conferences or and what happens is when you get to these places, you spend concentrated time in the Word of God. You've got yourself unplugged just under the sound of the word and prayer for 2 or 3 days, and you hear from God and you step back into life better. So I that's one of the things that I would do, you know, just turn some, turn that off for a while, turn
it off. And it's not rocket science. We're two. We. We're constantly getting these messages and all that kind of stuff. You know, when I lived in the suburbs of Chicago many, many years ago, I got so many negative messages about the city of Chicago that I, an African American from the south side of the city, was afraid to come to the city of Chicago because I was getting all of this stuff filtered through the news and the media, and everything else is absolutely crazy.
I just. Can you believe?
Then you get downtown. You go, well, this isn't near as bad as I. It was advertised.
This is not as bad as it was advertised. And safety is of the Lord. Frankly, there is.
No place on earth.
That you can claim to be exempt from any kind of danger or anything like that. Safety is of the Lord. And so, uh, that's I hope that that's one of the things that I try to encourage folks, you know, just put your cell phone down, put your device down, turn your computer off. Um, stop binge watching Netflix and all of this stuff here and allow yourself to spend some time in the presence of God and hear from him, and you'll be better in the process.
Yeah. You know, you mentioned this conference thing. I gotta tell you, Winfred, I have been noodling on the very same thing. About two weeks ago, the Lord hit me. It's like, you know what? We need to get a good old fashioned, 2 to 3 day conference where you just soak in the word because we're. There is. You're spot on. Well, I got to tell you, boom crew. Have we got a link for you? This is one of the most practical, powerful. And here's what's great. 95, 85%
of books you get purchased never get read. You got a possibility with this one because it's compelling content and and it's short enough and digestible in relevant words. And I mean powerful statements all throughout this book. I've read it cover to cover. You want to check this out? We've got a link for you, don't we, Ali?
We do.
It's doctor Neely. Doctor Winifred Neely, the author. He's our guest right now. How to overcome worry. Experiencing the peace of God in every situation. Text worry to 800 555 7898. Text worry to 800 555 7898.
You're always professor doctor Winifred Neely. To me, you can't retire out of that. It's like a marine brother. You're in there the whole way.
Well, well, they won't let me go. I'm. I'm running for the for NBA in the fall, man.
So I'm teaching three classes. Oh, well, you are retired.
You're still in the saddle, my man.
Oh, my.
Yeah, you.
Are all.
Right.
Text, text.
Worry to 800 555 78, 98. Just that one word. Worry to 800 555 78, 98. Prof. Neely, thank you for being with us, my friend.
Your spiritual pit stop to keep you going in the race. You're listening to Carl and crew.
Sometimes you get your cage rattled, and it's one of the most beautiful things on the planet. And I don't know how this went down, except that we got this common friend named George. George cook.
Okay.
And George invited me out. He said, hey, Carl, you got to come listen to this guy. I'm bringing this guy in. You got to come listen to him. I'm going to be serving lunch. And so I'm like, ah, it's one of those meetings. You're like, all right, George, I'll show up. And when I got there, I'm like, God, this is why I'm here. So the back story is God had just broken me and brought me back to the beginning of it all. And that is pastors first
and foremost. Calling is to make disciples. And then I run into this character, David Nelms, and I'm like, who is this guy? He talks funny. He's got an accent. Guys, I'm not saying he talks funny. He thinks we talk funny, okay? But his heart is so sincere. Sear. And it rocked my world. You remember that lunch, David, by chance? I don't know if you do or not.
Yeah, Carl, I do. And and I'm sure glad George introduced us. It was a great day.
Yeah, it was a great day.
All right. We're going to start with something totally different here. Ali and I were rocked by something you said in this studio. Goodness sakes. A couple of years ago. Ali, take it away. You remember the statement?
Yeah.
Doctor David Nelms with the Timothy Initiative. You said that we are not called to plant churches. We are called to make disciples. And it was like all of a sudden, something became clear that had maybe gotten a little foggy with sometimes the model that is put forth. First of all, what's the difference between planting a church and making a disciple? Why are they not one and the same?
Well, let me be clear planting churches is probably my hobby. Okay. Yeah, you'll be hard to find anybody more excited about planting churches than me, but I used to think I knew the Great Commission was to make disciples. I thought the best way to make disciples was by planting churches. But I came to realize that I had it backwards. Uh, more accurate would be the best way to plant churches is by making disciples for Jesus. The Great Commission Jesus
did not say, go therefore and plant churches. He said, go therefore and make disciples. And so that should be our priority. Now if you make disciples who make disciples, you can't stop it from happening. The fruit of that will be churches will spring up. And so I'm not saying don't plant churches. I'm saying the best way to plant churches is by obeying the Great Commission, going and making disciples.
Doctor David Nelms with the Timothy Initiative. It's a global movement that makes and multiplies disciples, churches and leaders. They're committed to getting a church in every village, everywhere around the globe.
David, I want to go back to something before I brought you on air. I don't know if you heard what I was sharing, but there is a gravitational, I mean, force field that to get out of that orbit is difficult. And it's a lot of pastors and a lot of people listening right now struggle with. Yeah, we're validated by how many people are coming and how much money's given. How do you get out of that gravitational pull into a genuine heart for disciple making?
For me, Carl. And let me let me say this to your listeners, I about the only thing I'm really good at is not being good. Okay.
So with Paul and me. Yeah.
Yeah. I don't see myself as as an example by any means. But, you know, I would define a disciple as someone who lives like Jesus and leads others to do the same. And Jesus reached thousands. He preached to thousands of people. But I don't think his motivation was numbers. I think his motivation was bringing glory to his father. Yeah, and the Great Commission, to me, first and foremost, it's
about honoring God, bringing glory to God. And I think, as you said before, there's nothing wrong with counting our attendance. I certainly did for the many years I was a pastor. There's nothing wrong with that. But I don't think Heaven is impressed with the fact that we're running a hundred more this year than we were last year. I think what matters there is, you know, when we get to heaven, the rewards are going to be based on well done, good and faithful servant, where we faithful to do what
God's called us to do. And his great commission is to make disciples who make disciples. So that needs to be the focus.
Doctor David Nelms, talk a little bit about or explain for our listener what this looks like, the work that you're doing with the Timothy Initiative, this disciple making making disciples who make disciples.
Much of the world is made up of what's called unreached people, groups and ethnicities that are very few, if any, believers. And we're talking about 40% of the world's population. 40% plus. Basically, it's your Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, animist parts of the world. And we're not a sending agency. We simply we have national teams who train pastors that we call the Pauls. The Pauls recruit members of their church that we call Timothy's.
The Pauls train the Timothy's to share their story, share God's story out where they live, work, study, shop, play. And as those Timothy's lead new believers to Christ, the Timothy begins discipling the new believer. Don't bring them back to the Paul. The Paul is equipping the Timothy to do the work of the ministry, which, if it's anything, it's the Great Commission making disciples. And so as the Timothy begins discipling his or her Timothy, we call the
Timothy's Timothy, Titus, just the next generation. Great. Then pretty soon that Titus says, hey, I got a husband, or I got a wife, or I want my mom to hear about this. And they begin bringing in their their oikos, their friends and family. And the next thing you know, wham! A little churches sprung up. And because, uh, multiplication is in the DNA, we're not focused on making disciples, but disciple makers. The goal is not to plant a church. It's to plant a church that plants a church. And
so it just continues to move. And we're just seeing God do some, I mean, book of Acts type stuff. Incredible stuff.
Yeah. And I don't want people to get derailed by these numbers because they're so astronomical. But how many churches do you anticipate, by the way? These are churches visited twice to verify that there's leadership and that there's a a gathering that can that constitutes called out ones that meet together to grow up in a relationship with God. How many churches do you hope to plant here in 2025?
As it looks right now, it looks like it's going to be somewhere between 40 and 45,000 churches this year.
Is that staggering, guys?
It is.
Staggering.
And they're verified. This is not just some pipe dream or numbers for numbers sake. It's just awesome. Okay. David Nelms so let's break it down here. David, what I want from you today is three rock solid truths of disciple making. And I just got a hunch these things are going to jar us a little bit, so let's go. What are they for? You, my man.
Number one, I would say for me personally. Now this is for me. I would say the most important thing about the Great Commission or about making disciple makers, which is the Great Commission, is not what you do, but why you do it. I believe God is more concerned with why we do what we do than he is with what we do. Making disciples who make disciples. That's what we do. That's the Great Commission. But why do
we do it? I think the why behind the what, the why behind the Great Commission is the great commandment. meant when Jesus was asked, what is the greatest of all the commandments? He did not say, go make disciples. He did say, Love God with all your heart. Love your neighbor as yourself. And what I have found is this Carl. I grew up being taught to keep the main thing, the main thing. Yep. And and what the pastor's always meant by that was the main thing was
the Great Commission. They were right that we should keep the main thing. The main thing.
But that's the what?
Yes, that's the what. The main thing is loving God, loving people. And watch. If you love God, you're going to want to please him, honor him, obey him. I have a bunch of grandkids. I don't have any problem talking to people about my grandkids because I love my grandkids, and I want them to know about my grandkids. If I love God, I'm going to want people to know
about my father. And if I love people, I'm going to want them to have to experience God's grace and his forgiveness and have joy and peace in their hearts and and be able to walk on gold one day for all eternity in heaven. So if you love God and love people, the Great Commission, it's no longer a duty or a command.
Even sea outflow. Yeah.
Yeah. So the main thing I think our problem, Carl. My problem. It's a love thing. Yes. When I love God with all my heart and I love people. The Great Commission is like taking candy from a baby bro.
This is so spot on.
I mean, come on, we could stop right there. Let's get two more, though. What are these rock solid truths of disciple-making? Number one, love God and the Great Commission will flow out of it. Number two, what do you say?
Yeah. Really? Really. Be filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts one and verse eight, his last statement before he went back to heaven, his last words. And I'm going to paraphrase it. He said, I'm sending the Holy Spirit and he is going to give you the power you need to be my witnesses. I know the Holy Spirit has many ministries, is given for many reasons, but in our Lord's final statement, he directly connected the dots of the coming of the Holy Spirit with power to witness.
And I believe, by the way, a witness is just simply someone who tells what they've seen, heard, know to be the truth. It's not techniques. It's not strategies. It's being filled with the spirit, and the spirit produces the fruit of the spirit in your life. And it is that love, that joy, that peace, that patience. It's all that fruit. That's what God uses to draw like a magnet people to Jesus Christ. And so I would say
make much of the Holy Spirit every day. My first prayer in my life, every single day is, father, fill me with your Holy Spirit. And so, Carl, this is important to me because I grew up, uh, to me, the Holy Spirit was more of a doctrine.
Uh, I'm with you.
Yeah. And so, you know, see, God the Father, God the son, God the Holy Scriptures, as opposed to God the Holy Spirit. So when the Holy Spirit is alive in your heart and you're listening to him, and your desire is to be under his control again, the Great Commission just flows out of that.
Doctor David Nelms, our guest right now, founder of the Timothy Initiative. Okay. In these last minute or two, give us that third. What's that third rock solid truth of disciple making.
I would say it's understanding what's often called obedience based discipleship. Here in the States. Most of our discipling is knowledge based. It's just knowledge on top of knowledge, fact on top of fact. So we know it. But knowing it and doing it are two different things. The Great Commission passage Matthew 2820 Jesus did not say, teach those new believers Everything I commanded you. He said, teach them to observe
or obey everything I commanded you. And so I heard somebody say once, there's no please in the Great Commission. It's not a request. It is a command. It's more than a command, but it is a command and understanding that it's not learning. It's not memorizing the Romans Road or the three circles, or the four spiritual laws, or even how to share your story. It's understanding that the King of Kings, the one with all authority, the one that snaps his fingers in heaven, jumps. He has told
us to go out, share the gospel, make disciples. When we obey him, that is what brings him glory. So it's obedience based disciple making.
This is so right on. You know, I actually called David guys here.
Just, uh.
What was this a couple months ago? I said, what's the game changer? You get this love guy. you get all this stuff cooking here and he goes, at the end of the day, we've got it. We got to get rid of this notion that calling for obedience is legalism. That's another thing that's happened here, David, is that we've we've reduced obedience, discipleship down to, oh, that must be legalism. That's not legalism. Legalism is foisting something on people that
God never intended. Obedience is alignment of our life with God so that our lives change. And this is beautiful. I got to tell you, great Commission is the what? Here's the three really wise. You gotta ask, why do you do this, guys? That's what David just said. Love the Lord your God. Heart, soul, mind, strength. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Yes, and obedience based discipleship. David Nelms I love you, hot dog. You are such a blessing and we're grateful to have you in here.
If you want more, text disciple to 800 555 7898. Text disciple to 800 555 7898.