Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio. This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio. Carl and crew.
And we are debunking myths all week long. So many. Funny, I was actually dreaming about some of those myths we were talking about. Were you? Which one? Uh, the crazy watermelon seed one. And a couple of the other silly ones. And there's a couple I was thinking about. It's like. Yeah, that's right. Like you don't. It's not about having your head covered and heat escaping that caused you to catch a cold. It's a virus. As Ali said yesterday, it's
cold virus that you catch. Yeah, I guess you can get your immunity system down enough where you can be more susceptible. For sure. For sure.
That's the. That's the catch. And infants, apparently they do lose more heat through their head. I wonder if that's because they're bald, but that's another story. But for the rest of us, um. No more heat does not escape through your head. Also, the Great Wall of China cannot be seen from space. Have you heard that one? That the Great Wall of China is visible from space? Yeah, that is not true. It's also not true that that a mama bird will abandon the baby birds if the
human touches the nest. Also not true.
That's good.
I thought that one for sure.
I mean, still don't touch the nest.
Still don't mess with the nest. But, um. Yeah, it does not call a cause. Have you heard that one, Carl?
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I've heard that one. I didn't I didn't know that was not true. See, miss getting debunked left and right here. Yeah, and I want I want to give you. The world is not round. It is flat. The earth is flat.
Well, now we know.
Flat. Yeah. Okay.
Well.
Thank you. Even even from space. You see it? It's just a flat surface. You can see it right there. It's a flat earth.
I feel like we should make a distinction. No. We shouldn't.
I'm joking.
Yes.
There are actually people that do believe in flat earth. They need to get out a little more, maybe get on a plane and look at horizons and see things like, what are you laughing about, Young Thunder? You can't just chuckle under your breath there.
You're just. You're being honest about it. Well, come on, I think it's I mean, yes, it's good, it's fair. You have to.
The last thing I'm going to do is open up phone lines for flat earthers to call in here and debate this thing.
Thanks.
What a classic response. Thanks.
Oh that's good.
Just saying. Yeah, I needed this. Oh. Oh, goodness.
You know which one? That always. That always cracks me up because.
Change the topic quickly. Yes. What do you got?
You know, because people love to use this one sort of as inspiration. You know, Michael Jordan, we're here in Chicago, so Michael Jordan's still a big name. You know, people will say, well, you know, Michael Jordan was cut from his high school team. You know, people always say that. Oh, yeah.
So is that not true?
Well, it's kind of. He was he was not able to play varsity. He was put on JV. So which to me is quite a bit different.
I mean but I will but I will say he was a JV in in sophomore or. Yes.
You know his sophomore year I believe.
Okay. Yeah. So you're right Ellie. So because there's a lot of guys on JV and sophomore.
Yeah.
So it's I guess it's kind of inspirational, but it's also like it doesn't have the same impact as, like.
It's just normal. It's.
But I will say this. Nobody picked him to be the goat of all of basketball forevermore when he was even in college, right? Or. Yeah.
I mean, by the time he got. So when he was a sophomore, he was only 511, which tall for like regular life, but not tall for basketball. So he hadn't quite hit that growth spurt. So he was not yet the, you know, the six six imposing presence that he would become when he got a little bit older. So it's just but it's one of those things that it the lure of it, the appeal of it to motivate that kid.
It just sounds so much better.
You still got a shot, kid, because Michael Jordan got cut from varsity.
Which is normal.
Unless you're a child prodigy. Most kids, I mean, my son played a lot of ball. I don't I don't know ball like Ali does. Ali's going to die with a scent of gym on her body. I mean, there's no way she can scrub it out because she'd been in so many gyms. But it's it's funny because the unless you're a child prodigy and really had a growth spurt beyond everyone else and actually could handle your body growth, even the best players were playing JV.
You're going to spend some time on the younger teams before they just make that jump to varsity. I think that's I think that's a pretty normal progression.
Oh, boy. We got somebody weighing in here. LeBron was on varsity all four years. Just proves that. Just proves the point.
LeBron was a physical specimen.
Yeah I mean I.
Mean he was he he was a 25 year old playing high school basketball. Yeah there's that.
Yeah I mean I ran track against a guy when I was in like eighth grade who had a full beard. And I'm like, who?
That was so scary when you're like in middle school and there's a guy walking around with a beard, like, you're not meant to be here.
I didn't even have peach fuzz, and this guy's got a full beard. My pits were doing nothing crazy. And he's got a full beard. Yeah. I mean, it was it was crazy. Uh, coming up here in a moment, I want to talk about something very important here today. This is really important. Talk about a myth to debunk. So much so I think I've been prepping my whole life for this one, wouldn't you say, Ali?
I think so, yeah.
Yeah, this is a big one. In fact, I'm going to give you the myth. I've been a Christian my whole life. It's a myth. And we got to get into the weeds of that and break it down. Pull it apart. But I want to tell you, this myth is so profound that I'm going to call it a bait of Satan. It's a bait of Satan. And I really mean this. This is something Satan is working overtime on. Because if he can keep this issue clouded, he can keep many on a highway to destruction when God wants
to truly set them free. So we had a little bit of a rat problem in our garage.
Rat.
Yeah we did. Oh boy. Problem. And I know, yeah, I know your reactions. Like my wife. Oh, boy. And so they were. They were not. The reason I found out is they as they were nibbling on some birdseed and they'd found a hole in these sneaky little buggers. I didn't know it until I pick up this bag and the seeds start to go out the back end of it, I'm like, Uh-Oh. And these guys have been having a feast on sunflower seeds. Just a feast. So, you know, you can wish those things away all day long.
But there's one sure way to get rats. So I got these cool little devices called rat traps and open those claws up. And I've got myself some good old fashioned cheese. Set it down in that trap. I went out the next morning. Snap, snap, snap. Three of them were gone. Went out the next day. Reset some traps. Got two more. So had five of those boogers and sure enough, it cleaned up things. Here's the crazy maker.
Satan is constantly setting traps. He's got different baits. It's a different bait for someone who's truly born again to keep us from growing up in our relationship with God. It's the bait of satisfaction and security and significance. Those three big S's that we find in the sermon on the Mount, in The Temptation of Jesus, by the way, we find them as well, where Satan's trying to tempt with all those things of this world, and Satan tries to bait us away so that we won't be fully
fruit bearing men and women of God. Fair enough guys?
Yes, absolutely.
The bait of Satan, though that is most dangerous, in my opinion, is the bait of cultural Christianity. And it is devastating. The impact on our church across North America and the world today is significant. The myth that we're debunking today is, I've been a Christian my whole life. I want to give you some verses that illustrate the fact that that's theologically impossible. Can't be done in Romans five verse 12 it says, Paul writing says, sin entered
the world through one man and death through sin. And in this way death came to all people because all sinned. We can't be a Christian our whole life. Ephesians two undergirds this you were dead in your transgressions and sins. By nature, deserving of wrath. Piper says about this humanity's natural state is spiritual death, hostile to God and under wrath until regenerated by faith. Whew! Super clear. I could go on and on, because Scripture is loaded with evidence
that we were born with our back to God. The great myth is that I've been a Christian my whole life. Now I know what's in that. What's layered in that is that from my earliest remembrance, I've been a Christian. And, you know, here's the truth. There are people who surrender to Christ at a young age and have that cultivated. And when I say cultivated, I mean this belief was a great man of God. And he did a great
little booklet on how to steward his parents. That little faith, the reason that this is so important is there can be an exuberance of I follow Jesus, and that's great. But especially at the age of accountability, when kids begin to understand abstract thought, to draw them back into that awareness that I'm a sinner who needs a Savior. Yes, I affirm that. Very important to shepherd kids into that.
But what can often happen is we get a cultural Christianity that actually gives people what I call a hallucination of salvation. And it all comes some variation of this myth. I've been a Christian my whole life. This is why you often hear things right here. If you hear testimonies, you hear them over and over again where kids are saying and they even have a hard time wrestling with the words that come out of their mouth. Right, Allie?
Because they talk about I've, you know, they they speak in terms of I was a Christian, but now I'm really committed to Christ. Right. And.
Right, right. And we noticed this a lot of times when people will call in and share their testimony and, and they'll try to have language for those early years and people will say, well, I've been a Christian my whole life. Um, I went to church every week. I was raised in a Christian home. My parents were Christian. And then oftentimes people will say, but then I got to a point in my, my late teens or my 20s and my young adult years, and it's like my
faith became real to me. And that's usually one of those ones that we lovingly try to try to help them process through that. It's it's entirely possible that what you thought you had in your younger years was not actual, genuine saving faith. You had a cultural awareness. You had a religious understanding. You had some things that you did by that point in time where you kind of describe as my faith became real to me. May very well be the moment of salvation.
Boom, boom coming up here. What is the bait of Satan? What does he try to get people in a Christian culture to believe that keeps them from being born again? Hang on. Jesus went to great lengths to expose the bait of Satan. The bait of Satan is a cultural Christianity. It's lethal. It's deadly. It's a deep delusion. I call it a hallucination. You see something in yourself that is not there. You see something in your kids that is not there. Very possible. In fact probable, especially in our
Christian culture in North America. But not just here. I just did a 30 minute teaching last night that I sent to a dear friend in Burundi. Here's the poorest country in the world. And when I was sharing this with some spiritual leaders, pastors in Burundi, Bujumbura, Isaiah, this great man of God said to me, pastor, would you please do a 30 minute teaching and send it back to us when you get back home? This is my heart, guys. And he sees the same issue in the poorest country
in the world. Isn't that doesn't that drop you a little bit, guys?
It does. But then. But then you remember that the the Bible wasn't written specifically to Americans. Sometimes we can read an Americanized version of it. And so clearly this is something that's present in People, not just in our country.
Yeah. And that's that was something that was good for me going to Burundi because I was like, rattled with this global impact of this issue that Jesus spoke of 2000 years ago. Here's the bait of Satan. The bait of Satan is to get us in a Christian culture and not be born again, thereby believing I've been a Christian my whole life. The second to last teaching in
the sermon on the Mount is jaw dropping. Jesus says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. On that day, the day of judgment, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name. And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness! Whoa!
We gotta let that sink in. Many will take the bait of Satan and presuppose that all of their spiritual activity is evidence of spiritual life, and it's not so. And we could go on and on with our stories here to prove this to you. That's my story. For Pete's sake, it's young, young thunder story. You made it into my teaching buddy down in Burundi that I filmed last night. You made it in there? Yeah. And I'm going to give your story quickly. It's kids raised in
a Christian home, raised by a good man. A pastor came to Moody Bible Institute, graduated from Moody Bible Institute, married a committed Jesus follower. I was in a meeting with her yesterday. This girl's rock solid for Jesus.
Yeah.
And then young thunder was broken under the weight of Matthew seven and born again. That's powerhouse.
Yeah.
That's powerhouse. I was so thrilled to hear your bride tell me yesterday. She goes, I didn't I wasn't going to talk him out of that story. She said, I told my husband, I'm so happy that you're in Christ.
Yeah. She's good to me.
She felt empathy for what it must have felt like for you, trying to toil, living this Christian life. Yeah. Without having the power of God.
Mhm. It's impossible. And it's tiring.
It's tiring, isn't it?
Mhm.
So it leaves a question and that is what in the world does it mean to be born again. There's a lot of evidences of this. There's a hunger for the Word of God, and the Word of God begins to make incredible sense. There's also a fruit bearing ness about you 30, 60 and 100 fold. That's authentic faith no longer choked out by the worries of this world,
the deceitfulness of wealth, the desire for other things. But there must come a time, according to Matthew 16, and I'm just going to turn there because this is beautiful. We often look at denial of self as kind of high road Christianity. Whoa. Those are the ones that man. I mean, they sell stuff and go all in and hit the mission field. No, listen, what Jesus said. He told his disciples if anyone would come after me. Following
Jesus is the evidence of being born again. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. Let me just stop there. Self-denial is saying no to all pursuits that I have on this broad path that leads to destruction. All the satisfaction, status, security, significance I can find on this path, saying no to all of that, considering that as dung, to take hold of the grace and power that is found in Jesus Christ.
Jesus goes on to say, for whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? I need you to hear my heart. There's some of you right now that are under the weight of conviction that you've been a cultural Christian, and I praise God for that. We're exposing the bait of Satan for you today. And Satan is at work. The God
of the sage. Paul said in Second Corinthians four. Has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel. You know what Paul is saying there? He's saying, these are the ones who are going to say, all my spiritual activity, all the mighty works I did in your name, all these things he's saying Satan blinded you. The bait of cultural Christianity has
blinded you to knowing Christ personally. That's hard, but it's beautiful because when the blinders come down just through the Word of God as we read it to you, you know what God's doing to you. He's saying, come to me. I'm the way, the truth, and the life. Turn around from that broad path. Follow me today. And so I simply want to ask you today. Have you been caught in a myth that is debunked by God's Word. Have you taken the bait of Satan? You've had a lot
of Christian activity, but the Holy Spirit. This is what's beautiful. We aren't revealing this to you. The Holy Spirit is revealing to you right now. I've been Christian in name only. I've never denied myself, taken up the cross and followed Jesus Christ. But today, Carl, I want to go all in with Jesus. Praise be to God. Oh, my heart just beats fast for you right now. And you say, well,
what do I do? You know, it's super clear in Scripture if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, that means he is the brand new leader of my life. Nothing of significance, satisfaction, and security on this broad path that I've been chasing that is dung compared to knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. That revelation in your soul that I need to turn around and follow Jesus. Repent and follow him. That's the pathway to liberty. That's the gateway to a 30 6000 fold life, my friend. I am
the truth, Jesus said, embracing the truth. And I mean swallowing hard and saying, I'm a sinner who needs a Savior. All of my Christian culture can't save me, but what my Christian culture can't do, Jesus Christ did. Oh, he did it. He died for my sins. Is that the cry of your heart right now, friend? Please. Pride caused Satan to fall from the presence of God. Don't let pride keep you nibbling on the bait of Satan. Don't let stubbornness, partial blindness, keep you from the living reality
of what Jesus told Nicodemus. You must be born again. And if today is the first day ever that you are turning from your broad path the significance, the security and the satisfaction of all these things in this world, and you're turning your life to Jesus today. Praise God. If you're embracing the truth that you're a sinner, praise God. We want to help you today. Allie's going to give you a link. I know we've kept you here a while,
but this is important stuff. Allie's going to give you a link right now, so I want you to get your phones out because we're going to help you. It's a mystery, but God in his goodness pulls back the veil of darkness and allows you to see your need for Jesus. Today he's calling you into a brand new life no matter how long you've been in cultural Christianity today you are born again and we want to send you something. It's going to encourage you just some words
and next steps to take. And and then I'm going to pray for you. But I want you to get your phones ready right now. Ali, we've got brand new followers all over North America this morning.
I'm convinced if that's you, just text the word new to 800 555 7890 8NEW just one word. New to 800 555 7898. What you're going to get back from us is an auto reply. That's going to give you some practical next steps, some tips on what to do next. Just text new to 800 555 7898.
Yeah, yeah.
You're breaking free and you're running home. Today's a brand new day. I'm going to pray for you. but don't delay if the Spirit of God's calling you. Don't harden your heart today. Don't do it. Don't let pride of all that you've done in the name of Jesus keep you from Jesus. Don't do it, friend. Today's a new day. Surrender your heart to Jesus today. Come to him today. Many responding. Just text the word new to 800 555 7898 right now. Today is your day of salvation. Today
is the day. Text new to 800 555 7898. Father, I thank you in the name of Jesus that you are working miracles this morning. You're pulling down the blinders. You're exposing the bait of Satan. It's a miracle. You're turning hearts toward home. You're causing men and women to be born again today. And I give you praise. There's no one like you. God. I thank you for humble hearts that are receiving you today. Seeing their sins, seeing themselves for what they are, and seeing you for who
you are. In Jesus name, Amen.
Amen.
I'm going to spin a song here in a moment, but we want to shout out last four numbers of those of you that are responding new this morning. Ali, if you could reach down there and just cite them, that'd be great.
Yeah, I want to. Welcome to the family. 6203 2744. These are the last four digits of your phone number 92, 89, 23, 41, 81, 26. Welcome to the family. 7991 5011 76, 2242, 46, 74. 70 or 74. 71. 76. 22. 42. 46. 74. 81. Zero three. Zero three. 23. 28. 39. 93. Oh one. 20. 25.
Welcome to the family. Welcome to the family. It's not too late to respond to Jesus today. If today is the day that you are saying no any longer to the bait of Satan, and today you're surrendering your life in total to Jesus Christ. Man. Welcome to the family. Welcome to the family. Just text the word new to 800 555 7898. Some of you are getting to the side of a road, getting to a safe place. Welcome to the family. 8930 7636 welcome to the family. Why
is this so important? Ali, before we spin a record here, what's on your heart?
Oh, this is so important because it's the Word of God. And this is I know that this is an uncomfortable one to talk about. It's it was uncomfortable for me to talk about because you think, what do I do with this? You know, what do I what do I do with this information? But it's in the word of God. And so even though I don't think it's talked about
enough in church, it's all over Scripture. So we have to wrestle with this reality that it's possible to be in church, to be spiritually active, but to not know Jesus. And so we have to look at the Word of God and wrestle with it. That's why it's important.
That's why it's important. 9463 whosoever will may come, whosoever will may come. What a good God we have. He makes all things new. Guys, welcome to the family 6562. Welcome to the family. I never get tired talking about this. This thing of illusion, of salvation. It is so profound. And it's in Matthew seven and Ali, you know it by heart. What are the three big kickers for people that they're often stuck with thinking, well, this must prove I know Jesus, right?
Yeah, that we've done things in his name that we've prophesied. Or yes, you could think about the things that you do spiritually that make you active, but you could actually be spiritually active and not know Jesus big time.
Jesus will say, depart from me. I never knew you. And the fact that those are spiritually, like you say, active people. Mind blowing. J louder with us right now. He's been featured on CNN, ABC, NBC, Daystar, Discovery Channel. How did God get you onto those networks, my man?
Really? I came to Christ at 21 years of age, and people started wanting me to share my story, and one thing led to the other, and I got invited here and got invited to there and really just stemmed from my call, my passion to try to help reach other people, just like someone reached me.
Yeah, but what causes a network like. I'm so curious. Does ABC call you up and go? I heard you were raised in church and lost as a goose. Come tell us about it. There's got to be an angle. God's using here, right?
Oh, well, I mean, we've spoken into a lot of different things, but one of them is we had a television show that was really geared at reaching out to people that are on the fray. And so, um, it was broadcast on, on all the major networks. It was a late night show that came on Friday and Saturday nights. It's a 30 minute program, but it wasn't your typical Christian programming. I mean, it was people, former strippers and
former addicts. Wow. Yeah, it was targeted a specific group of people that were coming in late after a night of partying.
That'll get the world's attention, for sure.
Your heart is for people on the fray, as you say. Because although you were raised in the church, as soon as you could make your own decision, you stopped going and your life took a pretty dangerous path from there. Tell us a little bit about your testimony of what it took for God to really get Ahold of your heart.
I did grow up in church, and my mom taught Sunday school, and when I graduated high school, I did what a lot of young people did, and I just abandoned the church. The reason I abandoned the church was I didn't have a relationship with Christ. And quite frankly, most of the people that I grew up with and knew were a lot like me. You know, they went out on weekends and partied, and then their parents drug them to church on Sunday. And then at church, they
sit on the back row and talked about it. And so I walked away from the church for several years, went off to college. And, um, anyway, the reason I ended up going back to a church, which was really going to be a one off, was because I had attempted suicide and there was a guy that had been brought into our area. I went to hear him really hoping to get some tools that I could, I could employ to help me escape some of my suicidal thoughts. I didn't go to hear the gospel, I can tell
you that. And I sure didn't go to hear anything about Jesus. So that was the intent. The challenge with that was he didn't tell anything about his story, which I thought he was going to do. Instead, he shared the gospel. And that night, I came to the realization that I had a religion, but I didn't have a relationship, that I knew all about Jesus, but I didn't know
him personally. And as the speaker said, I was one of those people that one day were going to wake up in a godless eternity singing amazing Grace.
Wow, what an amazing story. Jay, what brought you to that point, do you think? What was it? Just the emptiness of trying to find something to fill what Pascal calls that God shaped void? I mean, what was going on there?
Well, that was certainly part of it, but it wasn't all of it. I mean, there was a lot of depression. There was some mental health issues. Some of it was situational, too. I was 21 years old, and at that time, I had lost my job, my car, my girlfriend. I dropped out of college. And so there was kind of a gumbo of things that had happened where my life was falling apart. I was on government unemployment, faking government documents
because I couldn't work, because I had an addiction. So my life was was really I mean, it was unraveling fast.
Jay, what do you think needs to happen in in church today to kind of stem the tide of, of this? I mean, if we acknowledge that there are many people who may be self-deceived and think they have something that they don't, what can we do about it?
Well, I think the problem really starts with leadership. I mean, it's ironic. I've been in full time evangelism for 20 years, and I've spoken in every mainline denomination church, and you'd be surprised how many times that I have seen people come to Christ that have been in church like me their whole life. Yeah. You know, it reminds me of that passage in Second Timothy when it says, in the
last days it says chapter three, verse five. One of them says, in the last days it will be people that have a form of godliness but deny its power. And then it goes on. Two verses later it says, there will be people who are ever learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. And here we live in this society where biblical truth and theology is accessible anytime, any, place, anywhere. And yet many people are ignorant of spiritual truth. And again, in a
lot of churches, the gospel's never really preached. I mean, there are denominations that I've been to that people have never heard a clear presentation of the gospel in their life. So I think that plays a huge role in it. And then I also would say that another aspect of that is we can't deny the fact that spiritual darkness, that one of the chief goals of the enemy is to keep people in darkness. You know, Christ is light, the enemy is dark. And you can do a lot
of things that won't bother him. But if you don't know Christ, his main objective is to keep you in the dark and not knowing Christ.
Yeah. This is great. Jay, louder. Our guest right now. Jay, we know because we do this, especially on Fridays here called it Freedom Friday. But I want you to spike for us here if you could, in the most clear terms. Spirit of God's got someone here that's been in church their whole life. They could have been an elder. They could be a pastor. Right, brother? I mean, come on, let's get honest here. And yet they don't know Jesus personally.
Pour it out. What's on your heart? What's the Spirit of God bringing to mind right now?
Well, the first thing I would say is everybody should go get a checkup. And people do that physically. And the Bible actually tells us to examine ourselves, whether we be in the faith that's found in Second Corinthians 13 five, and we're to prove our own salvation. And there needs to be a red flag that goes up. There needs to be a warning signal when we claim to live
something that we don't practice. And I'm not talking about a level of perfection, but something's wrong when you only know Christ and name when it doesn't change the way you live, when you don't have a concern for other people that don't know Christ, and so do a spiritual checkup,
you know, is the evidence there? Can you extract from your life the evidence that Christ lives within you, not just, you know, like I said, that you were sprinkled or you were baptized or you joined a church or, you know, you pray every time you get in trouble. But is God real to you? Is there a supernatural hunger to follow him? Is there a supernatural hunger to obey him? Does he answer your prayers? Is he a priority in
your life? I mean, again, that's not a conclusive list, but those are some things that should be very real indicators of whether or not a person has a genuine relationship with Christ. You know, you mentioned that there are people literally and I've seen this, I mean, pastors or Sunday school teachers. I mean, I was preaching not long ago. This is a true story. No exaggeration. The guy working the soundboard came forward to give his life for Christ.
He had been working the soundboard for 12 years. The lead worship leader in the same service came forward to give her life to Christ and eventually the pastor's wife. So this isn't a one off. This isn't an anomaly. There are multitudes of people that have been deceived by the forces of darkness to keep them from knowing Christ.
God bless you. J. Louder! My goodness, my man. Boom! Crew! You're listening to this right now, going, man, I bet this guy's got some resources. Boy, does he. We want to point you to him right now.
Text j j a y to 805 55 7898. Just type out that one word j a y to 855 five 7898.
A holy fear of God is a great thing and allows us to approach His word and go, how am I doing? Well, if there's traps that are set by Satan, boy, does he bait them. And there are traps of inauthentic faith that can keep us far from God. I've been looking forward to this, doctor. You're with us right now, Jed. These traps, they're deadly, aren't they? My man.
They are deadly. And one of the things that makes them so deadly is how deceptive they are. The manner in which they come to us is that they seem like the way of life, but oftentimes they're the way of death. And so that's why I think Jesus sounds the alarm so intensely like he does.
Doctor Jed Coppinger, our guest right now. Okay. So start to break these down for us. You come at this from a pastor's perspective. You've been in ministry for quite a while. How have you seen this play out both in your own life, but then in the life of those you've pastored?
Yeah, I've seen this play out. It's been so surprising to me because the things you think you need to watch out for are for those those big sins in the culture, which of course, we need to stand against. But Jesus sounds the alarm for something much more subtle, something much more hidden. That's that's in our own hearts that we need to be aware of, that we can actually be the the kind of people he's talking about who honor him with their lips, but really have a heart that's far from him.
What's interesting is that it's this grand, oh, the God of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving. Let's just start there. If the if the God of the age, the prince and power of the air. Satan himself has blinded minds. How how does the veil come down?
Well, it's a miracle when it comes down, right? God says, let there be light. Second Corinthians four says this every time there's a regeneration, every time there's there's that new life. But we have a role to play in that. And I think one of the things that I found in my own life as someone who was a fake Christian. Up until I was 20 years old. I knew the right answers. I had all the truths in my head, but I had a heart that was far from him.
I was like those whitewashed tombs that Jesus talked about in his final public message there on the Tuesday of Easter week, where he said everything looked good on the outside, but it was filled with dead men's bones. I had a zeal for God, kind of like Paul talked about,
but not according to knowledge. And and so one of the things you got to do is you got to keep coming back to the Word of God and saying, am I a Christian or am I an American cultural Christian, which is someone who says, I've been a Christian my whole life, but it doesn't really make any big difference in my life, except for maybe in a really scary moment. That's why I think that quote by John Piper is so important. He says, you know, New Testament Christianity isn't
just about new decisions, it's about new affections. Are you alive to God. Do you enjoy God? Do you enjoy walking in the word? Like James says, not being just a hearer of the word, but a doer of the word? Because if you're just a hearer, you're deceiving yourself. The the New Testament teaches us that no one lies to us more than ourselves, and the only way to get out of that trap is by walking in the truth. The truth is found in the Word of God.
Jed, what caused you to confront this in your own life? You mentioned coming to genuine saving faith at age 20 after years of of fake Christianity. What caused you to see the difference?
You know, from a human perspective, I got to experience the emptiness of success. I got all the things that I wanted. Sometimes we come to Christ in a really tough time, and we realize we need someone to pull us out of the ditch another time. Other times, and this is the case for me, is that we finally get to the bottom of the broken cistern and we realize, man, there's got to be something more to life than this success, whatever the success might be for a person. For me,
it was basketball. It was the party life. It was all those kinds of things. And I had all of it that I kind of had oriented my whole life around. And I was just empty, and I wasn't experiencing the fullness of what Jesus talks about is alone in his presence, fullness of joy, eternal pleasures. He's calling us to more, not to settle for what the world offers. And so I gave my life to him on August of my junior year in college.
You know, Pastor Jed, I got to tell you, if you look at John 16, we've looked at this one little passage here. I'm just going to do it from my heart here. Jesus says, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. You got to lose your life to gain it. And then he says, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul. The interesting thing here is that we've looked at self-denial as like
pinnacle Christianity. Wow, you're really rocking with Jesus when you're self-denial. Jesus says self-denial is the. It's the threshold of salvation. It's the gate by which we pass. Pour out your heart on that, Jed.
Yeah, it's it's it is absolutely a critical part of it. What Jesus is trying to do there is to try to get us to die to these things that will never give us life anyways, right? He says, for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? I, I like the way that, uh, the comedian Jim Carrey put it one time. He says, I wish everyone could get rich and famous and everything they ever dreamed of so they could see. It's not the answer. And I think that that's a something that
Jesus is trying to highlight for us. But the enemy wants us to understand, wants to keep us trapped and and keep us far from God. And the way that he does that is by is by that It's crazy lie that we're all tempted to believe, which is, you know, what's going to bring you satisfaction just a little bit more, just a little bit more at work. Just a little bit more money. Just a little bit. Another trip, more applause, more affirmation. Whatever the thing might be, it's never going
to be enough. Be enough. That's what Jesus says. The way to salvation isn't by keeping going down the path you're going down. It's by turning. It's repenting and dying to that old way and receiving by faith the life that he has purchased for you by your blood, by his blood. Not something that you could earn, only something you can receive by faith. And when you receive that gift by faith, it changes you.
You know, I gotta tell you. Um, going back to Piper, he spoke in Atlanta with Louie Giglio a number of years ago now to about 30, 40,000 students. And he made the statement, there are millions and millions and millions of people who go to great Bible preaching churches every weekend and are lost as can be. What do you say to that?
I would say that's a very biblical perspective. Jesus in Matthew chapter 23, which is what my book is primarily based on. He's talking to people who have Old Testament books memorized, like the ones that we're tempted to skip over, right in the, in the Old Testament in our Bible reading. Some of those guys had those things memorized, and still they missed it. They missed the truth of what it was all about, which is looking to Jesus and placing our faith in Him and His work, not in us thinking,
you know what? I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to avoid that. And you know what? I've got a good chance in heaven. I think I'm going to be good enough. It's someone that looks at Jesus and says, Jesus, you alone are my only hope for salvation, and you alone are my only guide for life. You're my saviour, you're my lord. And you're my greatest treasure. And I'll leave everything. Whatever it is that you call me to do. Because as long
as I have you, I have everything. That's what I said on that. That night in August of my junior year in college, I just remember thinking, man, I've wasted everything that you've given me, Lord. But whatever I have now, it's all yours. All my sin. All my. You say, come to me. All you who are weary and heavy laden. I'm collapsing in your arms of grace. And I'm trusting you.
Jed, you break it down pretty practically in this book I'm looking at some of these chapter titles. Fake Christianity fails to practice what it preaches, mandates higher standards for others, is motivated by human attention and affirmation. Those are the first three chapters. Pick one and and break it down a little bit.
I found that the motivation for human attention Jesus says that they expanded their phylacteries and prayer shawls and different things like this. He says they did this to be seen by others. He's letting us know that it's easy for us to do the right thing in the wrong way, that we can slip into a performer's mentality and to be motivated to buy human attention and affirmation. And Jesus says he wants us to be motivated with a servant's heart, to be helpful and to bring glory to him and man.
It is easy to slip into that. I remember early on in my ministry, I was getting ready to preach a message on a passage that was really an easy passage to preach on, but I was so anxious and as I examined why it was, I was so anxious, I realized it wasn't because I was worried I would get the truth of scripture wrong. It was because I was worried that I wouldn't be thought of as a good preacher, and without even realizing it, my heart had slipped into a performer's mentality. I wanted to be seen
affirmed by others for doing these things. Jesus calls us to something more, to be a servant, to bring him glory, to be consumed with that kind of approach. And that's the place of freedom. That's the place of peace.
Beautiful man. I gotta tell you, pastor, this is some good stuff here. And I when I saw that this book came out, I'm like, Katie, bar the door. We got to get Pastor Jed in here. And you. You crushed it, my man. Name of the book is Fake Christianity ten traps of an inauthentic Faith. This is good for you. I want you to check it out. Text the word fake. Text the word fake. You might not want to have anyone looking over your shoulder when you text it. Just text the word fake to 800 555 7898.
Just that one word fake to 800 555 7898. Before I let you go, I got one question here revolves around parents. There's an epidemic and I've been a pastor. Now. I'm not a radio guy. I just stumbled into this in the last ten years. Know God called me into it. Let's get that right. But I've been a pastor for a lot of years, and I've seen this in our church campuses here in Chicago alone. We have my wife says now, 41 kids that were raised in church in good, imperfect,
but good Christian homes who are far from God. There's a tendency, though, for a lot of moms and dads to find validation in where their kids are, and so they don't even pray for their kids rightly. They're praying for them to get back to church when the prayer needs to be God, get them in you. Would you pour out your heart on that one?
Yeah. I mean, nothing shows us more than anything about the need for a prayer life than parenting, because it reveals to us I'm at a family camp right now talking to folks about this issue right here, because it's so critical, because you cannot control outcomes. You can only cultivate them just like a farmer. You can do the work in the soil, but you need God to send the rain. And that's why we want to be a
people that pray. And our prayer lives show that we believe God is is loving enough and powerful enough to work in our kids lives. And also it shows that we are humble enough in a stage where we need it. Pride doesn't pray. That's why Jesus points us to a father child relationship. At this stage where our child needs help with daily bread to show us, this is what I want you to think about when you think about prayer, that pride doesn't pray. So let's fight that pride with
our prayer lives. Let's pray our problems. Let's pray our fears. Let's pray our tears. All the things that you're dealing with with your kids. Let's pray that God sends the rain. That he sends the fire, that he awakens hearts and stirs them. We don't just want kids who are moral, which is great. That keeps you out of jail. We want kids going to heaven and that's why we need to pray for regeneration.
Amen. Good stuff guys. Grab it takes the word fake to 800 Five, 55, 78, 98. It'll give you a link to fake Christianity. Ten traps of inauthentic Faith. Pastor, thanks for being with us today. Appreciate you so much, my man. When you encounter the love of God, it just overflows. And we've had some guests on here before that have some powerful ministries and you're like, whoa, look at what God's doing through these crazy yahoos. Yahoo!
Where did that come from?
It came from my pastor way back in the day. Called us all yahoos. So some of these yahoos come in here and you're like, man, look at what God did. But then you peel it back and peel it back and peel it back and you go, oh, they're blown away by the grace of God. Because much like what we're talking about today, they had this grand hallucination of salvation. And then God, by his grace, pulled down the blinders. Who, the God of this age has blinded the minds of
the unbelieving. And then they see. Phil, we'll talk about your ministry at the end of this, but we got to talk to you first about your story. You were in that, weren't you, my man?
I was, and I appreciate you having me on this morning.
Yeah. All right, let's break it down a little bit. Phil. Give us your pedigree from a from a religious standpoint, what did Satan use to kind of pull the wool over your eyes? That you had a relationship with God, but you didn't. What was going on in your childhood and upbringing?
First of all, I was raised in a Christian home and my parents were believers. And, um, I went to Christian school basically all my life, and I just figured I was a guy who basically, I realized at the end of the day, went through the motions. You know, I went to church on Sundays, but the rest of my life I was not living for the Lord. So there was really not a heart change or a mind
change that was there. Um, but I thought I was good, I thought I was in and, um, it wasn't until I graduated high school, and, you know, I was a person who had a very strong will. Whatever I put my mind to, I wanted to accomplish that task. And so for me, I wanted to get a scholarship to pay for school in college. And so I ended up getting an athletic scholarship and ended up out of my parent's home. Went through a lot of depression, a lot
of struggle, a lot of, uh, you know, abusing things. And, um, you know, I really just did not my heart was not set on the Lord, but I didn't realize it. And my mom would always send me these notes and these letters and just say, hey, Phil, we're praying for you. And then eventually, I ended up flunking out of school my junior year because I had I was living the wrong kind of life, and I ended up transferring schools. And then I met this girl. Uh, her name is Carrie. And, uh,
there was the first time I met her. I knew there was something different about her. She was a Christian. She said she was a Christian. But her life and my life, we did not line up at all. We couldn't have been farthest from the truth. But she was beautiful. And the day I saw her, I thought, that's the girl that I want to marry. And, um, you know, I am married to her now, 19 years.
Wow. So, Phil Zylka, our guest right now, founder and executive director of Phil's friends. We'll get there in a minute. But first, we got to know. What did you do? Like, so see you meet Kerry and you go, huh? She says she's a Christian, too. We should have that in common. But why does it feel like we're two totally different lives? What did you do with that?
Well, first of all, I didn't handle it very well. You know, I was still living my normal life where, you know, I was dating her, but I was still a guy that, um, did not deserve to be to be dating her. And so I was basically living two different lives, but there was something so attractive and different about her that I'd never noticed. It was this peace that passes all understanding that I had never, ever seen before, really,
in my life. And I ended up being down on spring break in Florida with some of my college friends, and at that time she went to a retreat and she prayed and she said, Lord, uh, this is not going to work unless you change Phil. And so when I came back from my trip, I realized that I loved her, and now I was truly pursuing her. Um, in a way, you know, she let go of the situation, which is what God does in all our lives. And
we let go. He steps in and we're able to move forward, um, in the way that he wants, and he's able to work in those situations again when we let go of ourselves. And so I went through that. But then by the time I turned 22 on our two year dating anniversary, I was diagnosed with stage four cancer. And that's when life really changed for me.
What happened? Phil, when you get diagnosed with cancer, what? What did the doc say to you and what do you feel like in that moment?
Oh, I felt absolutely horrible. My dad is the one who we had arranged for him to receive the news, because I had been in and out of the doctor for about a year, they didn't know what was wrong with me. Lost £40. Night sweats, hip pains, fevers. You know, all of it. My dad came home. I was laying upstairs in my bedroom and came home early from work. And he said, Phil, I don't know to tell you this, but I talked to the doctors. And you have cancer.
And right there, my dad did something again as a believer, very important with me. He prayed with me and he said, Lord, I know that fills your child. No matter. No matter what happens in his life, no matter how long he's supposed to live. I just pray that he'll be a witness for you. And when he said Amen, I had just like this little thimbleful of peace. Like maybe we can do something about this, but it was still going to be a very long journey.
Wow. So when did you when did you would you say you came to genuine faith in Christ? Was it was it as you were wrestling with this news of this diagnosis?
No, I wasn't there yet. Again, I was a person with a strong will. So I thought, what I've put into sports and, you know, I learned a lot of great things through that. And given everything you have, I really thought, okay, now I'm going to put all my energy into getting better. And so I did six months of chemo, got better, started my first year as a
fourth grade teacher. Fast forward a few months. I'm rediagnosed again and this time I'm yelling at God, you know, on the top of my lungs in the in the hospital room saying, I don't understand this. I thought I was doing what you wanted me to do, you know, type of thing. But again, it was still all about me. I hadn't fully surrendered. Went through. Fast forward for that next year did chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant. And it was that time when I was hooked up to tubes, uh,
you know, for feeding. I was on oxygen. Too sick to have a sip of water because I had such bad sores up and down my esophagus. And that was the time when I finally hit my breaking point. And that's when I cried out to God, because I realized I was not going to get through this on my own. So I basically had to get over myself because that was the roadblock between me and God. And so I just cried out to him and promised. And I said, Lord, I believe Jesus died for me. Please take me to heaven.
I don't want to be in this pain. I can't do this on my own. But if it's not my time, I promise you can have the rest of my life. And once I said Amen to that, it's like the whole situation changed. I realized I wasn't going through this so I could become a better person. Or, you know, those are kind of byproducts of it. But I was going through it because God had a real calling on
my life to be able to help other people. He had shown me a real need, and now he wanted me to get out there and use all those things that I had before, the way he'd wired me of the strong will and all those things, but have that fully surrendered to him so that he could use that. And I'm telling you, once you get to that point in life, I mean, everything changes. Everything your outlook, your view. You don't want anything to go back. You can say things like, I am so glad I went through stage
four cancer twice. Why? Because it got me to that point where I can surrender fully to God and he can use me.
Yeah, Phil, there's a lot of people facing roadblocks right now, and they come in a lot of different forms, and they can have a ladder leaning against the wall of success. They can have they can have it. They can have a ladder leaning against the wall of addiction. There's so many things that get in the way, just mere religiosity. If I can just go to church more, if I can serve more. But they're lost as can be. I want you to give the gospel right now to everyone listening.
I want you to tell them what needs to happen to be born again.
To be born again. It's really putting your faith fully in Jesus Christ. It says the most quoted verse in the Bible, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him, whoever believes in him, will not perish but have eternal life. And it's getting to that point of surrender and saying, Lord, I can't do this anymore. I throw my hands up. I put my knees on the ground. Whether I'm in my hospital bed or wherever it is going through a
family issue, depression, addiction. Get to that point and say, Lord, I cannot do this because we're all broken people and Jesus wants to heal us, not just physically. And we'll all get that physical healing one day in heaven. But most importantly, spiritually so we can be one with him. And once you have that, you're going to have all the fruits of the spirit of love, joy, peace and patience and kindness. And and that's really what was missing for me. I saw these people in my life carry
others that God had strategically planted in my life. They had peace that passes all understanding. And I wanted that. I desperately wanted that, and the only way that I could get there was through the grace of Jesus Christ.
Yeah, I'm going to do something really different.
Phil, we're going to bring you back next week, actually, to banner AD your ministry. We're going to bring you back to banner ad the Ministry. But right now God's doing some work here in hearts. You with me, bro?
I'm with you 100%.
100%. Um, right now some of you are saying that's me. Um, I have I've yelled at God. I've been confused about why God's not delivering me. And it's because you've been in the way. You're the roadblock. And God is right now, today, saying, surrender all to Jesus for the first time in your life. No matter. Forget your pedigree. Forget how many verses you know. Forget how much you've served. Forget all that stuff. What does it profit a man to gain all the accolades?
I'm doing a little knockoff here of Matthew 16. What does it profit you? I'm asking you, this friend, to gain all the accolades and all the security of all the religious stuff you've been doing, and to lose your soul. And the answer is nothing. Nothing. And if today is your day of salvation. Feel. I Feel. I just want you to pray for all those surrendering right now, and then we're going to give a link out to them so that they can have their first steps with Jesus.
I want you to just pray a prayer of salvation for everyone listening right now. Let's go.
Dear Lord. You are a gracious father. You hold the whole world in your hands. You care for us physically, spiritually, more than we can ever ask or even think or even imagine. You love us so much. Yeah, Lord, no matter where we are right now, whether you feel close to us or far away right now, as we get down and surrender ourselves and pray. Lord, I'm sorry for my sins. I'm sorry for what I've done. I know that sin is what separates me from you and Lord Jesus.
I just ask that you'll come into my heart, into my mind, into my soul, and wash myself free. Thank you for going to the cross so that we can have eternal life. And Lord, we accept that salvation today and we come to you joyfully, leaving ourselves fully at the feet of your cross. And we thank you in advance for what you're doing right now, in this moment,
and what you'll do with us in the future. And Lord, I also just ask that you'll surround surround each person who prayed this prayer this morning, uh, with someone who is a believer, with someone who can encourage them and place them in a great community. All this we ask in Jesus name. Amen.
Amen. Amen.
If you're right now responding to the Lord first time in your life that you've truly surrendered all to Jesus, God caught you at a moment of brokenness. It may not be laying in a hospital bed, but you're laying in the pain of a self-led life. Jesus is saying, come, and if this is you, I just want you right now. First time ever truly surrendering to Jesus. All of the actions before were empty compared to this moment. Just text
the word new right now to 800 555 7898. Just text the word new right now to 800 555 7898. I want you to stay on the horn here. Phil. We're going to shout out some last four numbers of all the people responding to Jesus this morning all over North America and beyond. Right now, we've got some resources we're going to send your way to say welcome to the family. If right now, today, you are surrendering your life to Jesus, you know what went on before. But
today is new. Just text the word new right now to 800, 555, 78, 98. Just that one word. New to 800, 555, 78, 98. It's amazing what God does to reach into the hearts of people. Called them out of darkness, into the light. And we are grateful for you today. Just text that one word new to 800 555 7898. We're going to. This resource is just loaded with good tools that are going to help you in your first steps with Jesus. So welcome to the family. I just got.
In.
My heart. Someone's chomping at the bit to tell someone you had bought the myth. The lie. I've been a Christian my whole life. And then you were born again. Might have been in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s. If that's you, I want to get you in here really quickly. The spirit of God's been telling you. Get ready. Somebody's about to ask this, and it's like, oh, boy. It's now 805, five, five, 78, 98. Got to get you in here quickly. Um, if that's you, we'd love to
hear that story. 800 555 78. 98. Ali, you found something dynamite, sister, I love live radio.
Well, this this resource on Desiring God, which is a great website. It's it is so spot on to what we're talking about. And I what I really love about this article is it it really drills down on the like what's missing. Because you could be you could be sitting there going, okay, so is it about how much I feel for God? Is it about how many you know, did I lift a hand at a certain time. And this drills down at really the difference between an authentic
faith and authentic faith. And what it boils down to is obedience to the Word of God. Being a hearer of the word and a doer of the word.
It's so.
Good.
It's it is really.
It is.
So.
Good.
That.
What I love about it, it's titled.
I.
Never Knew You Fatal Dreams of the Religious lost. This guy, Greg Morris, we got to get him in here, but he's got three, three. Fatal dreams are correct. Doctrine is insufficient. Because here's the thing. The Pharisees have the right doctrine, but they didn't know Jesus. Okay, guys, I mean, doctrine can't save you. Emotions are inadequate. Sometimes you think, oh, man, if I lift my hands a little higher here. And activity can be deceptive. That's the big enchilada. I mean,
they did so much. We prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and did mighty works in your name. I love what this author has done. He's just broken it down. It's not a long read, but it's powerful. Ali, let's make sure folks get it right now.
Yeah, just text the word found to 800 555 7898. If you want to read a really good I really highly recommend this article. It's a good read on this one. As Carl said, that won't take you, but more than a couple minutes just text found to 800 555 7898 found to 800 555 7898. You know, the interesting thing is we've heard from an author, from a pastor, now an article. This is this is out there and it's everywhere.
You know, lest you think that this is sort of an obscure thing that that isn't worth camping out on, it's everywhere in Scripture. And when we look at people's lived experience, this happens so often. This is not an obscure thing. That's the exception and not the rule.
No, you're right on Ali. And what I've been stunned by lately is in for a long time. I'm going to be candid with you. I felt like, man, am I this. I didn't feel like a.
Lone.
Voice, like I'm some great man of God that has an angle on this thing. I just felt felt so convicted by it. And I started wondering, do other people have the same sense? You know what I'm saying? It's like, do other people feel this? Now I'm seeing this message
of this great hallucination of salvation. It's everywhere. And I'm seeing I don't know if it's because that's in my algorithm, but on the access that I have to a couple of platforms, I'm getting pop ups constantly, preachers, young and old, that are just saying, boy, don't get this delusion thinking I'm in church. I've been raised in church. Therefore I'm born again. Don't let it happen. Don't let it happen. Well, I asked you to call in. We've got at least
one in here. Ben from Illinois. What's your story? You were lost. And then God found you. And you were churched, right? My man?
That's right. Our parents took us to church every week when I was young, and I loved the church. I had a bunch of affection for the songs and the potlucks and being with the church people, and I thought I was a Christian. But when I was 24 years old, uh, the Lord had really made it clear to me that I was not a Christian. I was trying as hard as I could to be good, and it wasn't working. And one of my uncles spent a couple months with
me talking with me about the Lord. And, uh, this is not a textbook way to lead somebody to Christ. But what he did is he came to my apartment and he said, I'm not leaving tonight until you make a decision so you don't have to walk with the Lord. But I'm just praying that you'll choose to walk with the Lord. And after we prayed for a couple of hours, I got on my knees. And, uh, when I stood up, I knew I was a different man. And.
Ben, that's so sweet, man. And it still gets you to this day. I think that's a noble thing because he asked you to make a decision. He was willing to hear you say, I'm going my own way. But you had to decide that night.
Yeah. He knew I was a procrastinator and he'd been sharing the Lord with me. I quit smoking cigarettes and I was making changes. But he knew that I hadn't made the change. And so he really pressed. Really, really pressed me on it.
Yeah. What? Another man from Illinois. Thank you for calling in, man. What? What another great deception, huh? That that we can get off something and kind of clean up a few things. Deadly. Uh, I want to make sure we get this link into your hand. A lot of them going out, but. Ali. Spike it.
Sister.
Yeah. Just text the key word. Found to 800 555 7898. Keyword found to 855 five 7898. This article, it's called I Never Knew You Fatal Dreams of the Religious Lost. A pretty provocative article, but definitely worth the read. Found to 855 five 7898.
Yeah. What an important discussion here.