Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio. This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Unlike ESPN, unlike pop culture spin and records, talking about what Beyonce did yesterday and all that kind of different stuff, that's cool. That's all good. It's all in play. We start with a central passage of Scripture. Isn't that right, guys?
That's right. Every time.
Every time we start with here's the Word of God. And then we look at how life illustrates it, undergirds it, bolsters it, proves it. And we never get disappointed by God. Never. Why? Because all truth is God's truth. And I don't care what you're looking at in the world today. If you look at it through the grid of God's Word. Bada bing, bada boom. This thing's going to become crystal clear. And this is beautiful because I was a responsible adult and I went to bed at half time. Ali, she's a
responsible adult, by the way. I'm just messing with her.
Teenagers.
With teenagers who want to watch the national championship basketball game. Found something when she walked in here this morning. She goes. Have I got something for you guys? Did you see the game? Nope. Oh, have I got some boy in? Does she take it away?
Ali, let me tell you, if you did not see it. Houston versus Florida. 19 seconds to go in the game. Florida is up by two, but Houston has the ball plenty of time to either tie the game and send it to overtime or win it with a three. So they advance the ball up the court. Still about 12 seconds on the clock. They start to move the ball
around the perimeter. Florida is defending really well, but again Houston gets the ball to one of their best players who's made many, many three point shots throughout this tournament. He goes up in the air, elevates with the ball above his head, and you think he's going to go for that three. But he doesn't. He drops the ball to the floor because he sees the defender coming in. Thinks thinks this shot is going to get blocked. But the problem is in basketball you cannot land with the ball.
So he drops it, then lands and then watches the ball bounce because he knows if he touches it, he will get the whistle and he will get called for a travel. So the ball just bounces like 2 or 3 bounces with nobody doing anything but watching it. So he watches it, knows he can't touch it. His teammates are trying to figure out what in the world just happened. A Florida player. This is all happening like one second, two seconds. A Florida player lunges for it, hits the ground,
squeezes it like a teddy bear. A three year old hugging his teddy bear. And the clock expires Buyers and Florida wins. Great. But Houston, the fans, the coach, everybody stunned going, what happened after the game? Head coach Kelvin Sampson, he said some in somewhat kind of frustration. You just got to get a shot. You got to get a shot.
Oh.
That's so hard, man. You feel horrible for that kid.
Great kid.
Phenomenal shooter. In a split second, he decided, I can't take this shot. And then he was left with the even worse outcome of losing the game. You might have lost the game if the shot got blocked, if it didn't go in, but, oh, they didn't even get the shot off.
Kelvin Sampson said it forever when he was coaching. I think he's 70, but he said this forever. What did he always say? Ali? What did he always say about a shot taken or not?
I, I don't know every shot.
You've been saying it all morning long.
100% oh oh. You miss 100% of the shots that you don't take.
That's what he would have said over and over again, right?
100%.
Well, I learned this from gymnastics, too. You know, they all the major part of injuries that you get from gymnastics are stopping your motion because you're afraid you're going to get hurt. If you just do the motion, you're way more likely to not get hurt than if you stop it in the middle. And and so take the shot. Take the shot. Because not taking the shot could be a problem in and of itself.
And it's such an unsatisfying way to lose because you didn't give yourself a chance.
No. You're sitting there thinking, what if. What if I took it?
And God never wants his kids to live by what if? Faith has inherent risk. I mean, I know we want that the outcome is going to be. And he drained a three and it's victory. It. Here's what's crazy. Sometimes you don't drain a three. Sometimes you miss the shot. Sometimes it gets blocked. Sometimes you get a mulligan. He fouls you on the way. That's the shots going up and mixing metaphors here. Mixing golf with basketball. You get to go to the free throw line and you drain
it or you don't. But you took your shot. And in the kingdom of God, when we take our shot, there's no losers. And you might say, well, Carl, I've taken a shot before and didn't seem to win. That didn't seem to win. But all you got to do is read Hebrews, and we will in a little bit to prove. When you take your shot by faith, put it out there. You will never be disappointed. Coming up. Been looking at the story of Hadassah Esther, and this
story captures the essence of risk taking. I mean, death was imminent, but she took her shot.
She's a choreographer extraordinaire, and everything is Greek to her. Super die is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Here's the funny thing about faith. There's no certainty that this thing's going to go beautifully. That's faith.
Right?
I mean, it's not faith if it's, like, ironclad. It's not faith. When you're a congressperson, you've got insider trading and you strike a deal, you know? That's not faith.
Very true.
That's not faith.
That's what we want, though. It's like, can you just tell me how this thing ends?
Give me some insider trading. God. Esther didn't have inside scoop, did she? Jonathan, take it away, my man.
She certainly didn't. She was going on God only. So this takes place in the Persian Empire during when the Israelites were exiled from Israel. And and so a lot of Israelites are living in the Persian Empire. The Persian Empire is pretty gigantic at this time. I did some looking up on it, and it covered two point 9,000,000mi². So this is as far east as as India. It covers Greece and Turkey and Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan, all those places that you would see today on the map that
was the Persian Empire was gigantic. Yeah. And and so Xerxes is the king over all of this. And that's where the book starts. Xerxes is throwing this, this gigantic party with all of his friends. That goes for seven days. And so he's drinking a lot of wine. His friends are drinking a lot of wine. They're having a party. And and at the seventh day, he gets this grand, not so grand idea of, hey, I'm going to trot my wife out here because my wife's great looking and
I want to make all these guys jealous. And so, I mean, that's what he's thinking. So he's like, look how beautiful my wife is. And and so he sends his servants to go get Vashti, his wife, and Vashti says, I'm not coming out there. He goes, I know what you're doing. That's disrespectful. I'm not going to be a part of it. And oh boy, I mean, that makes the King look bad. Back in those days. And so all of his, all of his dude friends come up to him and say, Xerxes.
You got a problem?
We got a problem. This is making you look really bad. But not only you. When our wives catch word of this that your wife just doesn't have to listen to you, then they're going to start not listening to us, and we're.
Going to catch like wildfire. Man, we got problem. We're gonna have disrespectful women all over this kingdom.
And so these jerk dudes come up with this plan that they're going to depose Vashti, they're going to make this edict go out to all of the provinces of the Persian Empire saying, hey, Vashti is deposed because she wouldn't listen to the king. Not only that, but there's a new law and requirement that that men are the leaders of the household, and you have to listen to them just to make sure they don't get any uprising there. And and so Vashti is deposed. She doesn't get her
queenly duties anymore. And. And Xerxes says, I got to look for a new wife. I got to find a new a new woman who can, who can be the queen. And so he starts holding this, this basically glorified beauty pageant where he's bringing all these women in from all over his provinces, Virgin specifically. So young women and and he's just going to check them all out and say, hey, this is who I want to be to have my as my wife.
It's a self it's a self glorified beauty pageant.
Oh, it's so glorified. It's all for him. It's an audience of one. And and so he brings in all these women. Esther ended up being one of them. Mordecai, which is Esther's uncle, says, you got to get into this. You gotta you gotta jump in on this. And so she did. She she gets this gigantic spa package where she's being taken care of. She's got the makeup, she's got the the face washers, you know, she's taken care of. She gets presented before the king, and the king says, wow,
look at this woman. He goes, I love her more than I've loved anybody else that's walked in this door. She's it. She's the one. So he makes Esther the Queen. She's now up and high. She doesn't. He does not know that she's an Israelite woman. No, never told to him. So he just marries her. Now she's the queen. So we go into these side stories now, kind of, you know, takes a break off of Esther, and it focuses in on Mordecai and Haman. Hayman was a servant to the
king high up guy. He's kind of been put one of the, you know, top commanders. And as he walks around, he wants everyone to bow before him. Mordecai knows this is not a man of God. He's not going to bow before him. So Haman walks before him and, you know, basically says, bow to me. Mordecai says, I'm not going to do it. And Haman's offended by this, he says,
I'm going to get Mordecai back for this. But not only am I going to get Mordecai back, I'm taking it out on anybody who shares his people group, his bloodline, the Israelites. So he goes before the king and he says, King, there's this group of people out there, doesn't say the name of the people. There's this group of people out there. They follow their own laws. They don't follow your laws. It's not beneficial for you to keep these people here. You got to do something about this. The king says,
take my ring. Make whatever edict you want. It'll have my approval. So he does. He sends a law out to all the provinces of the entire empire and says, identify the Jews, kill them all. It would be the first Holocaust. That was what the law was going to enact. Yeah. Mordecai catches wind of this before it gets sent out. He goes to Esther and he says, Esther, you'll never believe what's happening. They're going to kill all of our people.
There's no one in the kingdom that has a position like yours to be able to tell the King about this and stop it. We need your help now. She knows the risks. She says, Mordecai, I haven't seen my husband for a month. I'm not allowed to go in front of him. I can't just walk in the door. It's a death sentence. Mordecai says. Listen, God may have put you here for a time such as this. You
have to trust him. I'm paraphrasing here and in chapter four, verse 16, Esther says, okay, go and gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, which was the capital city, and hold the fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women, her servants, will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.
Okay, those last words are epic. If I perish, I perish. But she took her shot.
She took her shot by faith.
Now we want to look at faith, as always, rewarded in earthly terms like, man, this is awesome. He took his shot and it's great. Look at what happened. It's an Esther story because the story goes on. The Holocaust that was coming down the pipe was thwarted. In fact, the turnaround is amazing. And we're going to cover that over the next two days. You're going to be here. We're breaking this whole story down. Ooh. But here's the kicker. If you look at faith, you'll notice something. The outcomes
from an earthly perspective can be diametrically opposed. There can be a three pointer at the buzzer that everybody's inhalation. And there can be, from an earthly perspective, air balls thrown up. But they took their shot. And God says, well done, good and faithful servant. You want to hear that too? You're going to look at a passage of Scripture that's very important. Because half of this passage, you go, yeah,
give me the ball, give me the ball. And the other half you go, I think I'm going to give an assist up here. You take the shot. But God says, take the shot.
It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
We're on the crew here, man been saved by the grace of God. An amazing thing. Then we can live a life that is so different. We live by faith. Now faith is not presumption. Faith is for the. And there's two defining characteristics of faith. And you're going to see it here. Faith is for the glory of God and the good of mankind. No kidding. It might be for a small group of mankind. It might be for the good of your little family. But those acts of faith are for the glory of God and the good
of man. But if you define faith strictly by Esther rules, we're going to miss it. And some of you, bless your heart, have walked by faith. And it's like, this is going to be so encouraging to you today. Hebrews 11, the Hall of Fame of faith. It's by faith, Abraham by faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them greeted people from afar. God blessed by faith. Abraham by faith, Moses by faith. The people crossed the Red sea. And it goes on verse 32. And what
more shall I say? Says the writer of Hebrews, for time would fail me to tell you of Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jeptha, and David, and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead Lazarus by resurrection. Some were tortured,
refusing to accept what? Yeah. There's a shift in verse 32. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves on the earth.
And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. Here's the point the better was the coming Messiah. But the Messiah came because of acts of faith. If Jesus had taken a me 23 test, he would have found the blood of Rahab, who by faith stood tall. And we stand on the shoulders of men and women that have gone before us, who by faith some saw
the ball go in the basket, some didn't. But they took their shot. They took their shot. In biblical faith is taking your shot. Without certainty of the outcomes. That's faith. And God rewards faith sometimes in this life. slope sometimes in the life to come. And that's the hope in our soul. That that's what puts fuel in our belly.
That today some may walk into a boardroom meeting and have a moment where it's like they're going around and they're doing something really wild, and they're asking stories like, oh, so, um, what's the most impactful thing that's ever happened in your life? And you're like, oh no. Oh yes. Okay. God, here we go. And the room's quiet and they look at you because it's your turn, and you pour out your heart and you tell them about Jesus, who saved you
from filling the blank. And the meeting ends, and a guy walks up at the end of the meeting says to you, tell me more about Jesus. You took your shot and God worked, but someone else walks into a meeting. They're going around. They're saying, tell your story and it gets to you. And you go, God, I hear your voice. I'm going to do it for your glory and the
good of others. And you tell your story, and somebody picks a piece out of your story, and they snicker in the corner and laugh and take a shot at you and gets a few cheap chuckles around the room. And you walk out and you go, God. And you know what you hear him say? You took your shot, kid. You took your shot. Well done. Good and faithful servant. Because you don't know what was going on in that room. That's God. We got a question for you this morning.
Very important question. You took your shot. And for some of you. It was a three at a buzzer. It was for the glory of God and the good of man. And it was beautiful. For others of you, you took your shot. And from an earthly perspective, man, no celebration here. But God, and there you are in the Hall of Fame of faith. Because you obeyed. You went with God. You took your shot. And that's all that matters. We want to hear your call, don't we, Ali?
We do. So we're ready for you. You took your shot. Maybe you saw what felt like a huge win. Maybe you took an L or so it felt like. But, man, you know God was with you. Was pleased in your obedience. 805 55 7898 tell us what happened when you took your shot. 805 5578.
98 he's a sports fanatic with a stat for anything you can think of. Young Thunder is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
When we take our shot and we walk by faith, sometimes it's like bingo, baby. Three pointer at the buzzer. God to you be glory. And it's for the good of others and it's awesome. And then you walk by faith sometimes and you put it out there. You take your shot and it. Well, Evangelos, is that your story? It doesn't always go like you'd really want it to in earthly terms, right, my man?
That's correct.
Give us the story.
Saturday morning. Yeah. Saturday morning on my way to a Christian men's breakfast and middle of winter snow everywhere, I passed this guy up who was walking in the same direction I was driving, and it's like the Holy Spirit hit me in the back of the head. Turned around, picked this guy up. So I turned around. I pulled alongside him. I said, could you use a ride? He said, sure, I'm going to a bar up the road there Saturday morning. Friday night, people dropping their chains all over the place.
I'm picking up change. I said, well, then I'm going to a Christian men's breakfast. How would you like me to buy you a breakfast this morning? He said, no, I'm not dressed for it. And I said, no, dude, it's just a bunch of sinners celebrating the goodness of God. He said, I appreciate it, man, but just just drop me off at the bar, which I did. And I was so disappointed. I failed in my in my mission. I feel like, you know, God was calling me to this.
I make it to the meeting and the guy and the pastor there, Stan Smith, says, you know, I tell him how disappointed I was that no, you were successful. You did exactly what God wanted you. He wanted you to turn around. He wanted you to pick them up and invite them. That was your that was your goal and you succeeded 100%.
It's a good pastor.
I don't know whether or not. Yeah, whether or not this guy would plant a seed, right? We don't know. He knew a Christian guy invited him.
All he knows is some dude picked him up in the snow, and instead of going to the men's study, he went to the bar to pick up loose change. And all I'm telling you is, bro, that is a shining example of failure. That ain't failure at all and it's time we redefine it. When you heard this this morning, evangelist, you must have thought. Yeah, I mean, that must put fuel in your belly back on that snowy day, right, bro?
Well, he made my day when he told me I didn't fail. And just to realize how God looks at success, we don't look at it the same way.
Stay on the horn. You're getting two prize packs. One for you, one for your pastor. Stan. Stay on the horn. Stay on the horn. Evangelize.
Wow. Wow. Out.
In Wisconsin. What's your story, Corey?
Hi there. Um, so basically, I was a single mom to two kids. Two girls, um, under nine. And I earned my bachelor's, but I really wanted my teaching license. And I was in my 40s, and I went ahead and prayed and prayed and prayed. And I quit my job in June. Um, did a six month internship. Um, the church did help me. Um, I leaned on the Salvation Army for Christmas that year, and I did earn my teaching license. Um, I did also feel the spirit. I went ahead and got my masters three years ago,
and I come from a shelters and group homes. I had a broken family growing up. Statistically, I probably should not even have my education. And I'm ten and a half years in recovery as well. During this time, my father passed of suicide and I was broken. I just kept I just kept praying and he just carried me through. He carried me through the whole time. And he continues to carry me through today.
Yeah. But Corey, I'm going to I'm going to give some credit where credit's due here. Sister, you are living a life, taking your shot by faith. And it's for the glory of God and the good of others. And I'm proud of you, sister. That is powerhouse. Corey. Uh, stay on the horn, Corey. If I didn't give you a call and crew prize pack, a lightning bolt may come from the heavens. So you're getting one today. So there you go.
Thank you.
Stay on the horn. You didn't. You didn't call to get something. But way to go. My goodness. Uh, Daniel's getting one more here. First time caller from Illinois. What do you say, Daniel? What's your story? You took a shot.
Took my shot. So I was. I've been disabled by a moody grad for a year, and I told him I'm interested in the prison ministry. He goes, you got to do this. And I said, Brian, I'd love to do it, but I have trouble speaking in front of people. I went to speech courses in college. I couldn't even do it because you got to step out in faith. He says it's a learned skill. So I did it. And you know, God met me where I'm at, and
now I'm at the jail 2 or 3 times a week. Wow. And, um, I'm planning on enrolling in Moody in, um, in January. I want to pursue, uh, I want to pursue a master's degree in biblical theology. And last Thursday at my Bible study, they asked me, like, what my vision was. If it's God's will and only if it's God's will. I'd like to be a head chaplain of a federal prison. Glory be to God. And let me say one more thing. Four years ago, I was in the hospital, suicidal. I've
dealt with OCD for 39 years. I have 25 brain scans, been hospitalized seven times a month in nursing homes. And God, I felt God saying, you need to stop like you told Joel. Listen, you've been battling this for 38 years in your own strength. Let me do this. And through the grace of God, I was able to do it. If you would have told me four years ago. I'm where I'm at now. Even in my most faithful moment, I would have no chance. God is faithful. He's true to his word. I give him glory.
Daniel. That's a pick.
An awesome story, dude. Daniel.
Killer story.
So much.
So.
I'm just outside of Chicago. I actually do a Thursday night outreach in Inglewood at 63rd and California with, um, uh, teacher, uh, John. Uh, I love it. So prison ministry. Prison ministry is my heart, though. So, like I said, I'll do whatever God, you know, God restored my life. I have a second chance. So whatever God wants me to do, he's got it 100%. But I feel my calling is a prison ministry. I'm just very thankful I have a heart for these guys. There's
no judgment. We connect, I listen, I learn to be a good listener. I praise God for all this.
Wow. Daniel. Awesome testimony. First time caller from Chicago.
Powerhouse. Dude. Powerhouse. Stay on the horn, Daniel. Lightning bolts can come out of zero. Thunderclouds.
Wow.
So you're getting a Garland crew prize pack.
You don't want that lightning bolt.
Wow. Oh my goodness. Take your shot. Take your shot. Walk by faith. There are so many thousands of people right now going. God, what are you saying to me? Listen close to what he's saying. I don't know what he's saying, but he's speaking. He is speaking. Oh my goodness. Father, I give you praise for these stories. This morning you are putting a banner ad up in front of us today to walk by faith and not by sight. You're telling us. Take your shot, kids. It's a win win.
Even when you lose, you win. And I give you praise for it today. God. Lord, there's a there's a theme here that's on my heart. And that every one of these people have a genuine attitude of contrition and submission to you in a very deep way, and I thank you for it. Wow. God, just. That's all I can say is wow. Wow. Amen. And let it be. Yeah. Spin a record for this dude. All of them. That's why we call you the Boom crew. Oh, by the way, boom boom boom. This is why we call you the
boom crew. And you get triple boomed when you do these things.
It's the modern day. Amen.
My goodness.