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Carl and crew helping you take your next step with Jesus. Expanded version. Come as you are. Experience God. Overcome what seems impossible and live as you never imagined. Is that a pipe dream? No. No. It's a promise all the way through the scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation, God holds out before us this life that is so extraordinary, a 30 6000 fold life, a life of abundance. What we find in Scripture are some unblushing promises of God, says C.S. Lewis,
that are staggering. If you consider the promises of God just in the Gospels, we have to be in awe over what God wants to do in our life. The theme for this week is rock solid. I went to solid Rock Bible Camp and so solid Rock Bible Camp better have a big old rock than they did.
That's true. You know what? I didn't think about that before. Because I've heard the name a lot when you've shared the stories, but it better have a big rock on it.
It's it has a humongous rock. And when I say a big rock, this rock, it was split in two. And so you could kind of walk through it, but it was I don't know what the mass of this thing would have been, but it was probably 80ft long and about 40ft wide and about 25ft tall to the point where you could repel off the rock. And it was where everybody hung out. Trees grew on the rock.
Oh, cool.
So this was a rock. It was amazing. And that metaphor of the rock is all the way through the scriptures most. I think the most striking evidence of a rock solid faith is found in Matthew seven, the very last words of Jesus in the sermon on the Mount. And we love to be anchored in this passage, pardon the pun here, because what we find Jesus saying is that there's two different kinds of people in this kind of Christian world or religious world that we live in.
So his audience is very Jewish, and he's laid down a teaching in the sermon on the Mount. That is who heavy duty. He says, you have heard it was said on a number of times, and he's referring to the Old Testament and some of the law. But then he raised the bar. If the law wasn't tough enough to achieve, he raised the bar. But the promise that he has is this if you hear his words and apply them to your life, you will be like a
person who builds their life on the rock. The storms of this life come and you're going to sustain those storms. The flip side is true as well. You can be a person who hears these words and doesn't apply them to their life. And you'll be like a house built on the sand. Everything we're going to point you to this week is what I would call rock solid. And so I think the first thing we got to clear
out of the way is, is God's word solid? I mean, before we even think about applying it, shouldn't we know the validity of it, the inspiration of it? Is it from God? How do we know that? Is there all important questions? And we're going to come out hot this morning. Doctor TP is going to be with me. And we're going to break down apologetics in such a practical way. Asking questions is this a reliable source if I want
to apply it to my life is it reliable. And when you find out its reliability, you have that much more motivation to put it into application in your life. So buckle up, get a swig of water, grab your cup of coffee if you're on the road. Whoo! I hope you've got a few minutes, doctor TP coming up.
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Well, there's a lot of reasons that people have for not bowing a knee before God, and sometimes they're just an excuse. And I think sometimes when you run into someone and I've had this happen many times where they say, oh, come on, uh, you know, how can I trust that the Scripture is truly God breathed? How do we know that the Gospels are an actual account of what Jesus truly said? We've run into people like that, Jonathan.
Oh, yeah. Absolutely. And I think that the questions are fair. You know, it's a book. There are a lot of religions that have quote unquote, holy books that they say are inspired by God.
It's old, It's old.
And and so it makes sense that people would look at it and say, well, how do I know that's from God?
Doctor Timothy Paul Jones or Doctor TP is with me right now. Is the issue of canonicity and the authority of Scripture. Is that a convenient excuse? Where do people land on this? I mean, it's hard to bow a knee before God. Is that just an easy out, an intellectual argument that allows them to avoid submission to God? What do you say, doc?
I think it's a little bit of both. It's actually is some people have legitimate questions and they're real questions about this. But at the same time, there are people who use it as a cover. I don't want to submit to God. Therefore, I can draw on this as an excuse. And when you enter into a conversation with them, you can tell pretty quickly which one they are, because some people are willing to hear some evidence, hear some ideas, and process that and other people, they will just jump
onto some other doubt that they have. And if they just keep jumping doubt to doubt, that's a pretty sure indicator that actually they're simply not wanting to believe and not wanting to submit to God.
Yeah. Doing a dance around the Lordship of Christ. Doctor Jones serves as VP of Doctoral Studies and is chair of the Department of Apologetics, Ethics and Philosophy at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He's also pastor at Sojourn Church Midtown in Louisville, and he's authored a lot of great books. Guys, take a listen to this. Why should I trust the Bible? How we got the Bible that received a Gold Medallion Christian Book Award, and a lot of other great works here. Okay,
doctor TP, I want to jump into canonicity. Let's hit that first. What is canonicity? Why do some people have a problem with the books that we have in the Bible?
So when you talk about canonicity or the canon, you're not talking about a gun that you shoot or anything like that, that actually comes from the same root all the way back at the beginning. It comes from a river reed that they would cut to measure things. So you think about a cannon was a river reed that they used to cut to measure things. And so what the root meaning of cannon has to do with is that it is something that you are measured by, or
that you measure with. Side note cannon and is in the weapon comes from the fact that both are a tubular construction, and that's why it is. So anyway, so there you go. But the cannon is the books of the Bible, which are authoritative for the people of God. So when we talk about the cannon, we're simply saying, these are the texts, these are the books that are authoritative for the people of God. And yeah, people have a lot of questions about this and a lot of
doubts about this. And they may have several years ago run across The Da Vinci Code, and they may have run across some on one of the cable channels or the YouTube or whatever it may be over the past few decades that causes doubts about the books that are in there, because there's all these people talking about the lost gospels and lost books and all of that. So it is an area where people have questions, some legitimate questions,
but it has to do with authority. And what is authoritative for people who worship Jesus Christ.
A lot of how we receive the canon was the early Church fathers, right? I mean, they were councils that were formed that determined what got in and what didn't make the cut. How was that determinative and how much confidence do you have that we have solid ground that we're standing on there?
Well, it's really important for us to recognize that. And yes, the church fathers do testify to a lot of these things, but I think it's important for us to recognize that the church fathers didn't determine any of this. So they had a definite set of standards by which they were working in this in the early church. And we actually have good evidence of that. Let me give you two really quick bits of evidence for that, that we know what their standard was. There's a document called the Muratorian
fragment from the second half of the second century. It says that there's this book that they're trying to include in the authoritative books. The books publicly read called the Shepherd of Hermas. They say it can't be because it's after the time of the apostles. Let me give you one more quick tidbit right there. And that is a guy named Serapion of Antioch. In the second century, some people bring a text to him called the Gospel of Peter. He says, at first it's okay to read this. Then
he realizes, no, this didn't really come from Peter. Stop reading this text as an authoritative text in any way. So you've got a couple of these. I could point to others, but here's the key point is that the books of the New Testament were considered to be authoritative because they came from either eyewitnesses of the risen Lord
Jesus or close associates of the eyewitnesses. So whenever there's any group of Christians gathering talking about this, they are not sitting around deciding, we like this book, we don't like this book, or this book gives us political power. This one doesn't. That's not what they're doing. That's not what they're doing at all. What they're asking, what they're considering throughout this time is can this book be reliably connected to an eye witness of the risen Lord Jesus Christ,
or a close associate of the eyewitness? And that's why I have strong confidence. Yeah, it was decades, even centuries before some of these books were actually universally accepted. But the question they were asking was, can we reliably trace this back to somebody who's an eyewitness or a close associate of an eyewitness? In some sense, our canon is Jesus shaped because of the fact that it had to be traced back to an eyewitness or a close associate of an eyewitness.
Man, it's fascinating and rock solid information right there. Doctor TP with me right now, and we're going to have links for some podcasts that are going to blow your mind. Coming up, he's a co-host of a popular apologetics program called the Apologetics Podcast. I want to go to second Timothy 316. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man or woman of God
may be complete, equipped for every good work. There's a lot of people that use that passage to confirm the canonization or the inspiration in the New Testament. Now, Paul coaching up Timothy probably didn't have that in mind. How can we apply that passage to old for sure. But to New Testament, is there any crossover in your mind?
There is certainly crossover in this. So let's think about what Paul was meaning right there. He is referring there to the Old Testament, what we call the Old Testament, as something that is breathed out by God comes from the innermost identity of who God is. It expresses God's will perfectly. But here's what we recognize really early in
the church's history. And we see this actually in the biblical text in Second Peter chapter three, verse 16, is that Paul's writings there are set alongside the other scriptures. It says, and so very early, these texts that came from associates of the eyewitnesses or eyewitnesses of the risen Lord Jesus, these texts that come from them are very early considered to be on par with equivalent to the
scriptures of the Old Testament. And so it is legitimate for us to say that this text in Paul's letter to Timothy does reflect the New Testament as well, not because that's what Paul necessarily had in mind in that particular instant, but because we recognize how quickly Christians recognized the equivalent authority of the words of the apostles and those eyewitnesses and close associates of eyewitnesses, how quickly they recognized the equivalence between those and the Old Testament.
My goodness, my man, you've done some deep work on this doctor TP with me right now. I'm going to keep going. You're lighting it up in, I believe it's Second Corinthians. Help me with the reference. Paul attests to first.
Corinthians chapter 15, I believe right there.
Yes, he makes the claim that Christ rose from the dead and appeared to more than 500. He put himself out on a branch. How does this testimony in first Corinthians, this letter, help validate the resurrection of the Christ?
Well, it's really important that Paul isn't the one who comes up with first Corinthians 15 to begin with. That section in verses three through seven of First Corinthians 15. So it's really important to recognize it's not as if Paul is sitting down there writing the Corinthians and saying, oh, I'm going to make something up right here. But if you read that verses one through three of that text, which you see is that Paul is saying, hey, when I was back with you before, this is what I
said to you. And not only that, he says, this is something I received that I then passed on. Here's what that lets us know. This is a tradition that Paul has received from eyewitnesses that he is passing on to the church in Corinth, and he has passed it on the exact same words to them several years earlier. He is simply reminding them of what he already said. Now that's really, really important because Paul is actually passing
on something he got from eyewitnesses. And if you look even in critical scholarship, more liberal scholarship, they have to acknowledge that this text, that this tradition emerges sometime in the 30s, A.D. that is to say, within months to years after the resurrection of Jesus. Not only that, the wording and the structure of it suggests that it comes
from a place where Aramaic is spoken. And one of the important things is we think about that is, is that that is the areas around Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, all of those areas there. So it comes from the time that Jesus was raised from the place that Jesus was raised from, people who would have known whether he was raised. And so this is an immense bit of evidence for the truthfulness, the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus.
So, in essence, if Christ hadn't risen from the dead and Paul's going public with he appeared to more than 500, he would have been written off out of hand as a fraud in the first century.
And rightly so. He should have been if he was saying this. And they went to those people and asked them, and these people remember, some of these people were circulating, traveling, especially to those among the apostles. They were clearly circulating
among the churches. And see, that's that's the thing that there are certain critics who will say, well, the stories in the Bible are like the telephone game where you whisper something to somebody and you whisper something to somebody else, and you whisper and you go all the way around the circle, and then you share what was misheard, and everybody laughs because it was different than what you started with. They say that that's what it was. And my answer
to that is I will grant you that. And here's what I mean when I say, I'll grant you that the reason that game works is because the same person who started that story that passed around the circle is still there when it gets to the end. And because of that, you can compare the garbled story with the original story. Everything in the New Testament was written during the lifetimes of eyewitnesses. What that means is when the story circulates, there are still people who are the eyewitnesses.
When that story goes around the circle, the person who started the story is still there and can check it. So you have people circulating in the churches that can say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That was not the way the story actually happened. I was there or I know somebody who was there and it was more like this. You can't fabricate very far when the eyewitnesses are still there. And that's important for the text.
Do we have any fragments of any letters or testimonies that basically called Paul a fraud for what he said?
We don't really. Now, that's not to say there weren't some. I'm not trying to say that there weren't. We can't speak to what wasn't there. What we have are some of the Gnostic writings that emerged in the second, third and into the fourth centuries, particularly that actually try to retell the story in a different way, but they don't
charge with fraud or with misstating this. Rather, they they separate themselves from the history completely of the text and then extrapolate or go beyond what the text has to say.
Love it. Doctor TP with me right now. I'm going to fire you. One more. Boy, you are on fire here today, my friend. Let me hit this. The Gospels. There's a lot of discussion about. Oh, boy, there's a there's different phrasing. There's different. They don't totally synthesize. My take is it's astounding how incredibly similar the gospels are. I want you to riff on that. Pour out your heart.
That's a great thing I love to talk about. So let's think about the Gospels. Well, first talk about just the formation and then the copying of them. We talk about just the formation of them. You have. Mark's gospel is recognized early on, and this we find that the church fathers, we find it in other places as the stories of the Apostle Peter. So Mark was Simon Peter's translator. And so what we have is the stories of that.
So naturally, Matthew and Luke are going to draw from that source that is considered to be is already understood to be in the church reliable. So you've got Matthew, Mark and Luke with a lot of these similarities with borrowed content, but also with other content from eyewitnesses, from people they have talked to. And so you've got Matthew, Mark and Luke. Are there differences between them? Yes, there
are differences between them. But none of these differences overthrow the fundamental historicity and truthfulness of any of these texts. And then you have John's Gospel that's just different from all of them. And John's Gospel also from an eyewitness, very early testimony to that. You got John's gospel being written.
That's different. And I want to tell people, don't be concerned with those differences, because if you're in a courtroom and you have two people saying the same story word for word, then you might suspect they had gotten together. They had gotten their stories. Yeah, that's exactly what you're going to think, and rightly so. But if you have differences between them, they're telling the same story, but they're
telling it in different ways. That is more likely to be the truth that is being told when they're saying the same story, but they're saying it in slightly different ways. That's what you have in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And when we look at the copies now, let's move to the copying of these texts. Are there differences in the manuscript copies? Yes, there are there are differences spread across.
There are somewhere between 5 and 6000 fragments of manuscripts and entire manuscripts of portions of of the New Testament. Of course, there are copying variations, but not one of those copying variations overthrows anything that we believe about God or about his work in the world, and the vast, overwhelming majority of those overwhelming majority can be relatively easily identified. And we can find what the original reading was that
handful of cases where we can't. It doesn't overthrow anything about what we believe about God or about his work in the world.
Amazing Doctor Timothy Paul Jones or Doctor TP to those that love him and know him. And so you are that to me, my man. He has got a podcast with some of the most amazing content. Also, this will link to to other resources and books. I want you to check it out. Text trust to (800) 555-7898. Just that one word trust to 800 555 7898. Doctor TP, I want to thank you for being with me today. This is rock solid information and sometimes information can be transformative. Thank you for your time today.
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.
This beautiful Monday morning. Hope you're off to a great start today. Listen, in this world, there's going to be a lot of craziness that's going on. And yet our God is able. And he's mighty. And he allows us to bear fruit through it all and to be radiant lights for the world around us. Coming up here in a couple of minutes. Oh, by the way, got a great response from someone here. Said enjoying your interview with
TP doctor TP. Refreshing to hear solid biblical historical evidence isn't it young Thunder?
It is super encouraging because we we act by faith, but we also are given lots of things to look at in order that are that are proofs to say this is very obvious, that the God of the Bible is the one true God that Jesus lived on earth, that he died and rose again. There's evidence for that, and we can look at that and be encouraged by it.
Yeah, some of you maybe heard a piece of that interview, or you want to pass it on to someone else, because some people do have very curious questions. They're not asking questions just to not bow a knee to God. Some are very curious and understand how the books of the Bible get there. Are the Gospels authoritative? Do they sync up? There's answers for those questions and get the show cast. If you haven't yet gotten the show cast, we've been banner adding this thing. All you have to
do is get it one time. Download the link for either iPhone or Android, and then subscribe on that page. And you don't have to keep texting back show. But if you get this one key word, we're going to send you two links. And if you have a hard time understanding how to subscribe, just ask someone in their 30s and they'll get you figured out on this one. Or 20s? 20s. 30s. And guess what? There's some 40
and 50 year olds that got it together. There's some 6070 year olds that got it together on this stuff. But text the word show to 805, five, five, 78, 98. If you didn't get all of doctor, doctor TP, you can get them now. Text show to 800 555 7898. Show to 800 555 7898. Coming up, I got a question. Did you go to church yesterday or should I say, did you go to a building and be with the church?
And what came out of that? We're going to open up phone lines here bright and early on this Monday morning. Hang on guys.
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We all need Jesus. And yet when we hear the words of Jesus, the words of Paul, the prophets, the question is, what are we going to do with it? Now this is the simple game changer. The only difference between having a life that's built on the sand and when storms come. Man, you can't withstand storms and storms are coming. The only difference between a house built on sand and house built on the rock is one singular thing. One both heard truth. Both have hopes. Both have dreams.
Both might have a God sized vision for their life. One difference. One application. That's it. How many of us have walked out of a Sunday going, man, that was good.
Yeah.
And then we came away from a weekend service. Goes. Boy, that was tremendous. And how do you make that tremendous into something stupendous, like over the top, like crazy good in your life? One word application. That's it. So I'm going to open up phone lines right now. And for some of you, you've got a recall, something that you were fired up about less than 24 hours ago. How wild is that? But I want you to reach back 24, 48 hours. That's it. What is the one truth you
heard in the weekend? Message that you want to apply to your life? Because the Spirit of God said, bang! This is the one. Think about it now. What is the one truth you heard in the weekend message that we just came off of that you want to apply to your life? Application is everything. Without it, we're going to be seeing builders, and you don't want that. Simple application of truth allows God in us to build a
life that survives storms. Think about that. Is it possible to know a lot of stuff and have a house built on the sand? Ask a Pharisee next time you see one.
Yep. Absolutely.
I mean, absolutely possible. Absolutely possible.
You know, thinking about this, what God gave me yesterday. I was sitting in church and we were talking through a portion of Philippians three, and my pastor was going on it, and he was talking through verse 18 and 19, where Paul is talking about some false teachers, and Paul's describing what they're like. The example that they set and in the midst of the example that they set at the end of verse 19, he says, they have their
minds set on earthly things. And in that moment I was thinking about it and God convicted me with something. I often have a really hard time with discipline, you know, getting into the spiritual disciplines of life. I get going and then maybe I get a little tired and I fall off of them a little bit. I have a hard time staying committed to being disciplined. But there is something in my life, something that I wanted. An earthly thing.
Not a bad thing. Just, you know, a material thing that I really wanted that took some discipline to get. And I had no trouble having that discipline in order to get it. And I said, maybe I can set my mind towards things of God, and the discipline wouldn't be so hard.
Something to apply to your life?
Something to apply.
What is the one truth you heard in the weekend? Message that you want to apply to your life? Spirit of God prompted you and is reminding you this morning. Give us a call right now. We're going to get as many calls in as we can in just a few minutes. It's 805, 55, 78, 98. Give us a call right now. 800 555, 78, 98.
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So what is that? The one truth you heard in the message this weekend. You went to church. You were with the church because it's not a building. And there's a truth that was spoken that you want to apply to your life today. Luana in Florida. First time caller. What do you say, Luana?
The message I got was be bold in your witness for the Lord like Elijah and like John the Baptist. Because our time here is short.
Boy, it is short. Luana, thank you for that. That's a great word. You know, it's one thing to hear a message about being bold with the witness. It's another thing to do it and apply it to your life. You know, the cool thing about that truth is that God's promise in the Great Commission, when we go into all the world, preach the gospel, make disciples, he is with us to the end of the age. What a promise. Think about that one truth that Louwana just gave us today.
And I want you to think about this. Is God opening the door for me today to share my story, what God's done in me? And will he use that opportunity to share the good news of Jesus Christ with somebody? I believe he can, and I believe he will. Opportunities all around us here.
You're listening to Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
What is the one truth you heard in the weekend? Message that the Holy Spirit is saying, apply it to your life. Craig. First time caller in Miami. Good to have you with us this morning, my man. What did you hear? And what are you going to apply?
What I heard is that, um, the preacher was saying, trust in God is okay, but trust God is greater. And most of the time, we trust in the Word of God. But when situation arises, we forget to trust God who spoke that word. And that's what that's what. Yeah. And that's what I you know, I grew up and I would like to apply that moving forward, learning to trust God, not only his word, but trust him for who he is.
Yeah, it's a semantic issue, but it's more than that. This is a real heart issue, isn't it, Craig? First time caller from Miami. That's a beautiful observation. I love it because it's one thing to say I trust in God, but then it comes down to crunch time. And is it in this moment that I'm going to Trust God. Lost a job. Wayward kid. What's on your heart?
It's easier said than done. Because, you know, we. We sit and we read and we believe it. Absolutely. But then when when rubber meets the road. And that tough situation staring us right in the face, it can be so easy to look away from God and to look back into our own situations. I mean, Peter, you know, walked on water with Jesus. He saw Jesus walking on water. And he said, Lord, if it's really you, call me out onto the waters. And he did. And so Peter
followed him in faith. But then he started looking at his surroundings. He got scared, and then he started to fall.
Yeah, this is a classic. And if anyone was raised in church, you know this passage. Proverbs three five and six. Listen to this. In fact. Yeah, let me get these two verses and I might do more here because sometimes the context is even better. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. Here's here's what's quantified. So a lot of us say we trust in God, but it goes on. And do not lean on your own understanding in all your ways
acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. So here's the implication. If we try to sort out something in our life, in our own understanding, absent of the counsel of God, our paths are going to be wobbly, like a drunk dude walking down a sidewalk. We don't want to be the drunk dude walking down the sidewalk. We want to have this straight arrow relationship with Jesus. Simple truth. Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. Awesome stuff Craig. First time caller from Miami. Love that. Let's go back to the phone lines. Uh, let's go Jackie in Cleveland. What do you say, Jackie?
Hi. Um, thanks for taking my call. Um, I was baptized a year ago, and I realized this message didn't. Uh, this message in the service about active versus passive faith. Um, I was I was leading a path of faith. And, um, I realized after hearing about Moses and his journey that you have to be active. Um, long story short, I'm going through a horrific divorce, fighting over money. I'm chronically ill as my son is. I decided to stop fighting
about money. Be active, and the Lord Jesus will take care of me.
Jackie, I believe it's sister. And I'm so sorry. You're going through a hard battle right now. But, Jackie, you believe that, don't you? That if we actively. It's. It's so easy to take this into our hands. But if we lay this at the foot of the cross, that's my bride's term all the time. It can change things, can it, Jackie?
It is. I even have a lighter spirit just thinking about it. And I know, I know the other way. All the money in the world can't change what's going on.
Yeah, it's an amazing thing, Jackie. And I just want you to ride the coattails of something that I've seen in life. It's hard to get your mind around it, but when we do, when we can release to God the worries of this world, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for other things, and say, God, I put
this in your hands. It doesn't mean that he won't call us to act, but the actions that we do after that full surrender of whatever it is that we're up against, it will it will be way lighter yoked. It'll have a lot less, uh, it'll have a lot less words around it than the words that we use when we're taking things into our own hands. There will be a peace that transcends all understanding, and it will guard our hearts in Christ Jesus. Way to go, Jackie!
Way to go! What is it that you heard yesterday? You were at church. Could have been a Saturday night service. You went to be with the people, the church. And God showed you something, and you're like, gotta apply that. Here's what I want to ask you today. You want to have a house built on a rock. Hearing it's one thing. Applying it is everything. Put feet to it today. This is Zach Williams.
Your shot of hope to help you through the day. This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Topic rock solid. Why that topic? You can find the metaphor of rocks as representing a relationship with God or who God is all throughout the scriptures, it's everywhere. But my favorite reference to a rock is the promise Jesus gives at the very last story that he tells in the sermon on the Mount. He says, listen, those of you that hear my words today, and boy, he laid it down. Sermon on the Mount. You could camp out there for a month of Sundays and never run out
of things to apply to your life. But he said, those of you that hear what I'm teaching and put it into action, meaning application, you're going to be like a house built on a rock. You're going to survive storms. Conversely, those that have good information without application, they are destined for a life that's built on the sand. Storms come. Boom. Can't handle the pressure. Can't handle the storms. It's a binary choice. That's what's wild about it. And God gives
us that opportunity to choose between life and death. Blessings and curses. And he says, choose life. So we find Jesus is God's call to the nation of Israel in Deuteronomy. But the same choice binary choice is before us today. You hear the word and you apply it, and it changes everything. Application is everything. This is why many people and you might know someone like this. This isn't picking
on anyone, but just an observation. You might know. People that have been in church a long time seem to know a lot of truth, but their private lives don't seem to be too well in order. Some things seem to be kind of squiggly with regard to how their lives are lived. Well, there's a reason for that. And God wants to turn this whole thing around and he can. Application is everything. Everything. Tom and Arizona. What do you say, my man? What did you learn that you need to apply.
Good morning. Carl. I sit around in my family and we talk about politics, complaining about this or that. And then my pastor talked about first Peter 217 honor the Emperor. And the fact is, all these elected officials and the school boards and all this, they're they're all elected. They're chosen by God. We need to just honor them and don't when you're seeing it, he said in the parade. You don't boo the people going by that you don't like. You're giving them honor and respect. How you doing? And
you're doing that for Christ. You're doing it because that's the law.
Yeah. It's interesting. I mean, God is not against opinions. He's not against voting. He's for all that stuff. Sure. I mean, God's put in the Constitution of the United States of America. Everybody gets to voice their opinion. But there comes a time when you're wringing your hands, more so over the political dynamics in our world than the spiritual realities. We're off the rails. We're off the rails. Tom from Arizona. Boom, brother. That's what I'm talking about.
That's a great word. And that's a hard one to hear. Yeah. I mean, it's easy to get twisted around the axle of who knows what's going on. We had someone call in here a couple hours ago already. Goodness sakes. Yeah. And their big conviction and action point was that it's one thing to trust in God. It's another thing to trust God. And I don't know what you need to lay down at the foot of the cross today, but
he's got something for you. He does. He's got something for you to lay down today and trust him for.
Carl, I got a question for you. So you're a pastor. You preach often on the weekends. How does God move through a sermon that you're speaking to teach you something?
The best messages preached are the ones that are owned first and foremost by the speaker. And I try to apply it first to my life before I preach it to others. Good question dude. Yeah. I mean, it's it's I just find the more I own it and boy, did I own it this weekend. The more I own it and feel it, the more it has power. When it comes off of my heart and off of my lips.
And it's really the message of God. The beauty. This is why having topical messages that never crack open the Word of God probably not a good idea.
Yeah, agreed.
Because those things come back empty. But God's word never returns void. And I think for all of us that are finding ourselves in teaching positions or small group leadership, let that thing be resonant in your heart first, apply it first, then you can put the oxygen masks on others.
It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Sometimes Jesus tells a story that create a binary choice. Just you can go this way, you can go that. And I. One of the most famous stories in the sermon on the Mount is there's two guys. Same storms, same aspirations, same hopes, same dreams, and they're wanting to build a life that counts. One hears the word doesn't apply it. One hears the word and applies it. That whole issue of application is everything, and it's a game changer.
Application gives you a choice between a life that's built on the rock rock solid, or a life that's built on the sand. I got a guy right now that's rock solid Simon Gilbert, he's from across the pond. He talks really funny. Or he thinks I do, which who talks funny anyway? Simon? Me or you?
Man, you've got some crazy accent. Two countries divided by a common language.
Isn't that true?
It's just.
Crazy. Simon, what's the fresh thing God's doing in your life, my man?
Oh, well, I mean, we were together a few weeks ago in in Burundi, and it was so good, wasn't it, to be there preaching together on this rickety stage with, I don't know, 1500 people and calling and God's Spirit to come and people coming forward and some demons manifesting and people getting healed. It's such a treat, isn't it, to serve Jesus.
Yeah, Yeah, that was an epic trip. I'm still living with the aftermath. My tummy hasn't settled down, but that's a good price to pay for something like that. Simon Gilbeau. He is the founder of glow. Glow is a powerhouse ministry across Burundi. They are watching young men, young women unleashed and into ministry. It's amazing what God is doing there, isn't it? Simon?
Yeah. I mean, I think God is close to the brokenhearted, doesn't he? And he saves those who are crushed in spirit. Quoting Scripture at you. So if people recognize their need it and they're humble, you saw it yourself when we looked out at that crowd. I have never in general, across preaching in different nations, seen a more hungry, desperate and expectant crowd to meet with God because they've seen that corrupt leaders have failed. They've seen all the lies,
that they've been deceived with false promises. And they're like everyone else has let me down, and I'm going to give Jesus a shot. And you need to be broken to And you need to be humbled to meet with God. God opposes the proud, doesn't he? But he gives grace to the humble.
Yeah. And I and I love the fact that if we will humble ourselves under his mighty hand, he will lift us up. Simon is a podcaster in England, and God is using him powerfully. And we're going to give you a link to that podcast here in just a little bit. So my theme this week is rock solid and there's a binary choice. I love Jesus's stories. So on the story of building our life on the Rock, what has God done in you? How have you seen this? You're a preacher. But more than that, you're an applier.
You've seen people who hear the truth walk away. Don't apply. You've seen those who hear it, apply it. It changes everything of the construct of our life, doesn't it, Simon?
That's right. Yeah. I mean.
If we go way back to when I. You know why I ended up in Burundi? I prayed a prayer 27 years ago. My prayer was, God, I'll do anything. I'll go anywhere. That was my prayer. I'll do anything. I'll go anywhere. This guy tracks me down in the Wall Street of of London the equivalent. And he says, I believe God sent me to you. He wants you to go to Burundi and be involved in youth and mission evangelism. I'm like my heart's thumping in my chest thinking, God,
is this some nut job or is this you? So I said to that guy, I said to that guy, thanks, weirdo. I'll think about it. I'll be spiritual. I'll pray about it. I went back to my job. I was in front of the computer, said, God, if that wasn't some nut job, then that means going to the most dangerous country in the world. I might get killed and people try to kill me. Give me a radical sign right now in front of the computer if you want me to go.
It means leaving family, friends, security, career, everything. So give me a radical sign. I kid you not. Before God, the phone rang. I picked it up and the voice on the other end, out of the blue, said, do you know anyone who wants to work in Burundi now? No way. That that was my call. That was my call. It was nuts. And it was clearly God, you know, my job had nothing to do with Africa. I lost the plot in the office. People thought it was more weird than usual. But, you know, you can have a
great promise, but you've got to act on it. So, you know, I often preach on Genesis 12 where God's called to call to Abraham. He says, leave your country, your people, your father's household, and go to the land I've called you to go to. And and Abram left as the Lord had told him, you can claim God's promises, but you've also got to obey God's commands. And so the onward part of that story is that I couldn't just say, wow, I've got this crazy answer to prayer. I,
I had to obey. I had to leave the safety, the comfort of a of a fancy job in the West and family and friends and security and go to what was at the time the most dangerous country in the world. And all I can say is to God's glory. We've seen. We've seen hundreds of thousands of people come to Jesus out of out of being obedient. And so discipleship is daily obedience to the prompts with a dramatic or just little nudges of God. And, you know, that's
that's a massive, uh, example I've given you. But then I think day by day and I challenge listeners to I just this is what I try to implement is that when I, when someone comes to mind in my head, I, I send them a WhatsApp message. I just send them an encouragement, encouraging note and so many times that little step of obedience is. You know, in extremis, that guy's about to commit suicide, or that woman has just given up on her marriage, and you just get a message saying,
I'm praying for you in your marriage and boom, there's hope. Yes. And so, you know, we can do that. Just little steps of obedience. And I'm sure that people listening right now, if you put that in practice today, it will so boost your own faith journey because God's going to use you in ten people's lives as you just fire off a few messages and then you get the encouragement. It's a virtuous circle of obedience and discipleship.
It is. You know, Simon, going back to Burundi, one of the things that struck me, and you're right when you look at these people attentive. First time I was in Burundi. I'm up on this platform. We had at that at that incredible evangelistic rally. We must have had 3 to 4000 people at that first one I was at. And I see this truck, I'm sitting on the platform, I'm bride sitting next to me, and I see this truck and it's coming down the road. It's a big
panel truck. And I thought, oh, this is the food that they're feeding everyone because I thought, you know, call me cynical, but I thought, these people come here, but they're in there in rapt attention. They must be almost being good because they're going to get something. So I told my wife that. And then I leaned across. I looked at Isaiah. I said, is that the food truck that's coming? And he goes, what do you mean? And I said, aren't we feeding everyone here? I mean, some
of these people have walked ten, 15km. Aren't we feeding people here? And he goes, oh no, we don't we don't have that in our budget to feed people. They just come here to listen to the gospel. Boy, did God do a smackdown on me. Number one, I didn't I didn't know the hunger that was there. But then God gave me a perspective. The hunger in those eyes, the hunger in those feet as they come to follow Jesus Christ. What is it that positions people like that
to respond? That someone listening today can take that same posture of heart?
Simon I think being stripped of everything is a painful thing, but it's a good thing. And I'm not saying in this coming story, I'm not saying this is good what happened to him, but it's an amazing story because I think of a friend of mine who, um, was in a refugee camp and she saw this old guy, this old dude in his rags, uh, with an empty bowl, praying. And she she was like, oh, that just looks a bit weird, incongruous as a sight. So she went and sat next to him and she said, what's your story,
old man? And and he told her how he'd seen his wife and kids hacked to death. He was in his 80s. He'd walked six days to that refugee camp. He'd seen his house burnt down. He had lost everything in the world. And at the end of this horrific story of woe, he turned to her and he said, Madame Missioner, Madame missionary, missus, missionary. I never realized that Jesus was all I needed until Jesus was all I had. And I think that in in the West we just have so much stuff and it clouds out good. And
we can think. We can live under the delusion that the stuff will meet our needs or satisfy our deepest desires, and it won't. It's a bankrupt, flawed worldview. And please, Lord, don't take me to the state of having my wife and kids hacked to death and my house burnt down and losing everything. But yes, Lord, I painfully say, strip me of my alternative idols of disobedience in terms of where I'm putting my faith.
Yeah. You know, Simon, it's interesting. I've had people come up to me many times stateside here where there is plenty and there's so many distractions and so much wealth relative to the world. And I've had people at times tell me I'm empty. I'm at the end of myself. I'm. I'm a loser. I'm I'm never going to make it. And the stories vary, but the theme is the same.
I'm broken. And one time I remember looking at a guy and he's got tears flowing down his face, and I said, brother, you've never been more strategically positioned for God to do something amazing in your life. Yeah. And he said, really, Carl? And I said, really, brother? And to the person that's listening right now, God's got you strategically positioned to do something like you've never imagined before
in your life. Take hold of him today. You know, Simon, I, I've been kind of wood chopping on this in my brain a little bit, and I'm like, Lord, how do we in the West with so much stuff? And it is such. I'm, I'm convinced some of this stuff, even the American dream, when it's not attached to the God of vision, is so demonic, it can actually keep us from the one who wants to give us real life. How do we I mean, take a person right now that's doing really well in the world's eyes. How do
we grab ourselves? How do we let the Lord grab ourselves by the spiritual heart and say, whoa, Stop. Stop trusting these things. Have you ever thought about that? How do we get there?
I mean, that's a tough one to answer, isn't it? Because the God of this age has blinded people. And so we need to pray for them. We need, we ourselves need, and people we care about need a revelation of of of God's heart, God's heart for the poor. God's heart for us. Because you know we can be rich in the world's eyes and spiritually bankrupt. Um, so yeah, I think it's helpful to engage with, with, uh, get get outside our bubble because we surround, we surround ourselves
with like minded people. And so, you know, I know because, you know, a few days ago we were together in Central Africa that is very helpful to our spiritual lives, because we get a reordering of our sense of values and priorities that it's hard to get when you're just in the rat race, you know, commuting with, with people whose highest aspiration is to is to add another zero to their paycheck or and consumed with, with, with just
materialistic gain as the yardstick of what constitutes happiness and success. So, so it's it's, um, being in relationship with people who will be iron sharpening iron. So I'm really grateful for the key guys in my life who I invite into an intentional relationship to challenge me and say, hey, hey,
you've toned down there. Hey, you're getting a bit distracted by the allure of, uh, more followers or, you know, on the podcast, you know, just, you know, concentrate on concentrate on Jesus, not on viewing statistics or anything like that. You know, they're so easy to get distracted.
It is I love it. I think you're spot on, Simon. I think getting outside of ourselves, making sure that we're rolling up our sleeves, getting into the lives of others, I think the things of Earth grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Good word, Simon Guilbeau, my guest. Guys, I got to tell you something. He's got a podcast that's blowing up in the UK. It's either number one or number two on any given week, um, for spiritual, uh, Podcasts, and it's off the charts, literally.
And it's a beautiful thing. I want you to get a link. It's always good to hear someone who talks very differently than us because it shocks us. The thing that's really funny, Simon, is we confer something on the Brits that it's it's it's really cool how God uses your accent to jar us a little bit. And I'm not kidding you, brother. It's so bizarre. Cable news channels find guys with British accents just to shake it up a little bit. And thanks for shaking it up today.
You've done it, Simon. Uh, text the word inspired to 800, 555, 78, 98. Inspired to 800 555 7898. Get this podcast. If God's using it in your life, spread it around. Let's get him going on this side of the pond as well. Simon Guilbeau I love you hot dog. Thanks for stopping in today.
Thanks, Carl. What a pleasure.
A basketball mom who's mastered the dad joke. Ali is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
That I want to tell you a story about my dad that will capture a big appreciation that we have for you. My heart was far from God when my dad asked me to join him for a Billy Graham crusade warm up. It was an event before Billy Graham was going to be coming to Anchorage, Alaska. Believe it or not. And he said, come on with me, son. And he knew my heart was far from God. And as I stood there beside him, I'll never forget when George Beverly Shea got up. And sang a song to God.
How great thou art. And as George Beverly Shea sang, I looked up, looked beside at my dad, and I looked. And he was a big boy. Big Swedish boy. And tears are just pouring down his face. I think some of those tears were probably my son's here. God work in his life. I don't think there was any way of hiding that. But at the same time, he was just grateful for the goodness of God. Years go by, I become a pastor at a church in Alaska and God was on the move. We had so many services.
Our Saturday night was two services and then Sunday and a gymnasium grew to the point where we had to have services at nine, 11, one, three and five. No joking. And God was on the move so much. We saw so many young people coming to Jesus. We had music that was contemporary. We would lean into some of the old classic hymns, but we had pretty much contemporary music. And one day I asked my dad, how are you doing with all this new music, dad? He was at that time in his early 80s, and I said, how
are you doing, dad? You know what my dad said to me, Carl? I had a lot of years where I had music styles that fit my palate, and I totally surrendered the music styles of this day. Knowing that God is doing a new thing today and it's okay. Now, why do I tell that story about my dad? My dad died at 95 years of age and he rocked with Jesus right into eternity. One of the hallmarks of my dad is that he handled change better than most, because he surrendered it all to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
He said, what's the bigger yes for now. And I want to applaud you because there's been a lot of changes. And even this morning we are being broadcast live right now. 9:00 East Coast, 8:00 central, 7:00. Mountain, 6:00 Pacific, 5 a.m. Alaska. And who knows whatever else time zone you're in. We got guy called in from Budapest, Hungary, here a few days ago. So that's what is it, three in the afternoon or something? Crazy. Here's what I want to say to you as there are alignment shifts and changes in
our life. I just want to continue to encourage you, because we've had such an amazing response from so many of you that have my dad's heart attitude. I want to applaud you and say, way to go! It's easy, I get it. Change is hard. But to say, oh, who moved my cheese? Who moved my cheese? But to be able to say, God, it's a new season. A new day and there's new things to you. Be glory as I follow your Son Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. To all of you, I want to
say thank you from the bottom of my heart. Yeah, we we love you and we're grateful for you. So by way of a story about my dad, I hope you get the bigger picture here. And again, thank you for your heart, your commitment to discipleship and all that God is doing in and through you. You are what makes this morning show go. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart. Somebody said, can you play Beverly Shea's? We don't have George Bev. No, but we
got Chris Rice. It's pretty close. My dad, shedding tears over this song and still humble enough and dependent on God enough to see change in his time that he said, it's well with my soul. It's okay.
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.
You know, I want to thank you again. Extend a word of just grace and gratitude to you. It's an awesome thing. For those of you that don't know, Carl and crew here is now live still in the 9:00 eastern, 8:00 central, 7:00 mountain, 6:00 Pacific, 5:00 Alaska. And who knows where else. We had someone call in from Budapest, Hungary.
Yeah.
Probably two, 3 p.m. right there, right now. And I want to thank you. And I want to applaud you with my dad. Stories of backdrop I want to say this one more time in this hour. My dad went on to be with the Lord at 95 years of age. And he was a grace full guy, meaning he saw God's favor and God's power in his life, and he passed that on to his son and to many others. And one of the best ways I saw my dad's spiritual maturity was how he handled change. I do, I
do remember how moved he was by George Beverly Shea. Now, some of you don't know George Beverly Shea from The Man in the moon. It's okay. Some of you don't know Luis Palau, one of my good friends who went home to be with the Lord a couple of years ago. And he had the privilege of ministering to almost more people live in evangelistic crusades than any man in recent history. And so seasons come, seasons go. But the gospel never changes.
And my dad knew that. Never forget the time when he was listening to a worship band at our church in Alaska. And boy, they were they were playing something that was a totally different rhythm and content than what he had heard for many years. And I leaned over to him. I said, dad, how you doing? I was about ready to get up and preach the gospel, he said. Oh, you mean the song style? I said, yeah. He said, hey,
I had my fun in the sun. He said, my bigger goal is for all these kids that are sitting here today, this new generation. And I want to thank you because so many of you have already displayed this morning. In fact, I got an email and we got a text message. Um, just saying, let's go. I know program changes happen, cheese gets moved. But I thank you for so many thousands, tens of thousands of you right now listening, who are so gracious because seasons change and you've been
so awesome. Some of you are through gritted teeth. I trust the Lord. It's okay.
Absolutely.
Grit em today. You'll open mouth tomorrow and it'll be great. But I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. But I also want to be really clear with something here that's very important here this morning. I am absolutely convinced that at any given moment, all across North America and beyond, people come here who are absolutely bankrupt spiritually, and they're realizing it for the first time today.
What do I mean by that? Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. First words out of his mouth in the sermon on the Mount are so counterintuitive. He said, blessed are you happy? Are you joy filled? Are you? When you realize that you have nothing apart from a relationship with God? And many came here today like this, but it is a divine blessing from God. I've had so many people as a pastor come to me going pastor, I feel like
a loser. I'm at the end of myself. I nothing seems to work. I feel like I feel like my whole life has amounted to nothing to this point in time. And one man told me that with tears streaming down his face, and I said with a smile on my face, I want you to know something, friend. You are more strategically positioned for God to do something radical in your life than you've ever been, because we're not fit for the kingdom of God until we come to the end
of ourselves. No one becomes a friend of God. No one becomes a child of God until we are born again and no one is born again. By saying, yeah, it looks like a little bit of an advantage to follow Jesus. Yeah, I'll throw that into the mix too, with my 401 and everything else I got going on. Yeah, until a person comes to the end of themself, we are not fit for the kingdom of God. You can be in church for decades. You can serve. You can
teach and not know Jesus. We find that in Matthew seven many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, and he's going to say, I never knew you. Now for some of you right now that those words right there that Jesus spoke are convicting to you because you've been very spiritually active, but you've never been a friend of God. And I want to tell you, God wants to bridge that gap today. And I believe that God brought you here to save your life from yourself and
all the striving. And for many of you, religious activity. Some of you stumbled on this station this morning because you don't know why. But God, in His divine providence, in his power, brought you here for such a time as this. And I'm going to tell you how you can turn toward God today, become a friend of God, become born again, and experience what Jesus wants for you a 30 6000 fold life. He tells a story and lists a grain of wheat, falls to the ground and dies.
It remains alone, but if it falls to the ground and dies, it produces a crop that multiplies over and over and over again. Your life counting for something that you've never even imagined or banked on up to this point in time. But you know what has to happen to that kernel. It's got to fall to the ground and die. And the metaphor is clear. Jesus says it's time to die to yourself so that you can be alive in a relationship with Jesus Christ. I love the
story in John 14. Jesus is telling his disciples, I got to go away. And when I when I go, man, I'm going to prepare a place for you. Then the new heaven and new earth that's iterated in the best part is the first seven verses of revelation 21. It's beautiful. He says, I'm going to prepare this new place for you, and I'm going to come again. And Thomas is a great disciple. He asks questions others were afraid to ask, and he said, hey, I, I'm not sure I know
where you're going. And he said, Thomas, let me tell you, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And if you follow me. I'll take you home with me when I come again. What's it mean if God caught you at a bottom? On this curve of life. Boy, you're strategically positioned today. Jesus said I am the way. Meaning you can no longer go your way, friend. It's time to turn around. It's the most loving word in the scriptures. Repentance is how we turn from our own
way onto the path less traveled with Jesus Christ. It's the full surrender, holding nothing back, saying I give all to Jesus today. I'm not just adding Jesus to my life. I'm making him my Lord, my leader. Got a question for you. Are you at the bottom to the point where you're saying today, Carl, I'm turning around today. I'm giving my life totally over to Jesus. I'm turning it all over to him. Great. He put some more rebar in this new foundation that you're getting. He said, I
am the way. I am. The truth. Meaning we can no longer live by the seat of our pants and our truth and our emotions and our feelings. We live by the truth of God's Word, beginning with we're all sinners that have gone our own way, and we need a Savior, and his name is Jesus. And today I'm asking you to receive that gift of salvation for the first time in your life. I'm asking you and I appeal to you. Don't let pride of all that you've done for God to keep you from walking with God
for the first time. Don't let religious activity cloud the scenario here that God is building in your life. He's changing you. Give him your life completely. Surrender to him today. Turn around today. Is that you, my friend? Is today this day? Just speak it out to God. Today is my day. God, just tell him this. Wherever you are. Walking on a path, driving in a car. And then he says, I am the life. The word there in
the original language is Zoe. It means abundant 30, 60, a hundred fold something that this world can't offer you. Jesus is giving you, and for some of you, he's filling you up right now. And in just a moment, I'm going to ask you to key in a key word, one word to us here, because I'm going to help you in your first steps with Jesus Christ today. As a matter of fact, I want you to do this right now. If you're driving, get to the side of
the road. Get to a safe place right now. Just pull to the side of the road, get on a shoulder, pull off on a side street. If you're walking, get out your phone. If you're at home, get out your phone. And right now, if today you are saying by the cry of your soul, which is the prayer of faith Jesus, today I turn around. I repent. For the first time in my life, I've tried to add you to my broad path that I've been walking. But today I surrender all to Jesus. Just say I repent. I turn around
and I believe that Jesus died for my sins. If that is you today, and for the first time ever, you are surrendering your life to Jesus. I want you to key in a word right now for the first time ever. You mean business with God. Just text the word new and we're going to help you in your first steps with Jesus. No matter where you are today, our God is with you. Just. Just text new that one word to 800 555 Five, 78, 98. Wherever you are.
800 555 7898 right now, just text that one word new to 800 555 7898 I'm going to shout out the last four numbers of your number. It's awesome that you know that someone knows that God now knows you as his kid. So just text it in right now. New to 800 555 7898 one word. We're going to help you in your first steps with Jesus. We're not going to spam you. We're just sending you a link that's going to help you walk with Jesus for the first time. 800 555 7898 and, father, I'm grateful for
all these surrendering to you today. I give you praise. There's no one like you, God. There's no one like you in this work that you are beginning in so many people right now. You're going to carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Then I give you thanks for these that are breaking free from the bottom, being lifted up by you in the name of Jesus. I thank you a men and let it be. Those of you texting the word new right now. New
life in Jesus today. Full surrender, full turning around. Giving your life to Jesus. Want to welcome you to the family of God? Just text the word new to 800 555 7898. I'm going to keep it right here. I'm going to keep it right here. We're going to keep it right here. And I'm going to shout out the last four numbers of your telephone number in just a moment. Just text that word new. Today is a new day, my friend. Doesn't matter how long you've been going to
church today, you are in relationship with Jesus Christ. And tears are normative. Those things happen.
Absolutely.
When I was saved, boy, I had gushers coming out of my eyes for two hours straight, man. Where all the shame was leaving and new life was pouring in. And we want to welcome you today. If today you are saying, I repent, I turn around. Today I followed Jesus. Today I confess I'm a sinner who needs a Savior. I'm going to embrace the truth of who I really am and what I need in Christ. Welcome to the family.
Just text new to 800 555 7898. I'm going to shout out your last four numbers here and just say right now, welcome to the family 9715, 2495 03830000 41 8414, 2170 55. Welcome to the family. 00795752973708103554772816737126. Welcome to the family to all of you 2149 7650 0491 1433 are gets emotional after a while 3964, 3474. Welcome to the family 2093 welcome to the family. Whosoever will may come.
That's you friend today God calling you out of darkness, into light, into a relationship with God no longer working for God. Christ in you is the new hope that you have. And we're grateful for you. What's on your heart? Young Thunder, for all these new followers of Jesus today.
Yeah, I, I want to encourage you. For those of you who haven't texted, uh, the word new, please do, because there are some things in there that are going to help you get started to take your first steps with Jesus. Uh, there's a little bit of advice that Carl's given that's so biblical. There's links to Bible translations.
We want you to have the word. So, uh, places where you can go to get a Bible and then also, uh, a blog talking about what to look for in a church because getting around the family of God is so important. We're not built to do any of this alone. So please don't don't do it alone. And if maybe you've been in the church forever, don't feel embarrassed or ashamed that you feel like today is the real first day you're coming to Jesus. This is your story. God gave it to you And it's a good thing.
Yeah, it's right on. Just text the word new to 800, 555, 78, 98. Just that one word. New to 805 five. Five, 78, 98. Man, it's for freedom. Christ has set you free. And there's new freedom today. 5211 5080. Welcome to the family. 0615. Welcome to the family. 6770. Welcome to the family of God. And even after we're gone here, you can text this. Some of you're scrambling for your phones right now. There's no hurry, but we're here for you. We're here to help.
And we say welcome. It's so awesome. 9158 amazing what God's doing all across North America and beyond. Welcome to the family. Who the son sets free is free indeed. And this God who began this work, he will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.