Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio. This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
There is a notion running around out there in circles of disciples and I mean disciples. People who love God have been radically altered by Jesus, and they suspect I need to change my life. Let me give you one statement, and then we'll shut down the show for today. And we're done.
Okay. This replay, this three minutes for. Wow.
No you don't. That's God's work. I want you to think about what you're up against today. When I say up against, I'm not talking about external forces of opposition. I'm talking about the internal battles that you have going on in your mind, in your body. Addictive cycles that need to be broken. And those come in a lot of different forms. Don't don't go to the. Oh, yeah, those cocaine snorters like old Carl was back in his young 20s. No, no, I'm talking about those behavioral things
that range from lack of time control. So you're wasting great hours in the day that God wants to redeem in your life, and you know it. Don't beat yourself up. Let's just have a touchpoint here to that common thing you do when your cup gets bumped and anger just splashes out to the ones that you love the most, to your a serial gossiper and you can't seem to
shut the trap up. You've tried over and over again. To. I am chronically given toward sullenness, and I let my sullenness be seen by everybody, hoping that that will give me some comfort, but I know God wants to change my sullenness. He goes on and on. Right, guys?
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. There's I mean, if you allowed yourself to look at all the things that you quote unquote need to work on, then you can just become overwhelmed because you're like, oh, man, there's just so many things. And every time I take care of one quote unquote, there's like three more that pop up.
Oh yeah, man, it's I love spiritual. Whack a mole is a great illustration for this.
It is a great, great term.
But the funny thing about spiritual whack a mole is you're right, young thunder. You whack one. And that's not like one more comes up. It's like 2 or 3. It's like, oh, for crying out, pick. And you can't get your hand working fast enough.
No you can't. And you just get tired and then you probably get frustrated and say, I'm done playing.
Yeah. And you know, that is what happens. We feel this overwhelming need to change our life. And then exhaustion creeps in. And then we wave a white flag. And you know what we believe. Well, some things will never change. That really ticks me off. For you, it really does. I'm not mad at you because I live just like you do. We're all the same. There's no such thing as sinless perfection. No one's claiming this. But these cycles that we feel like when we look at our life.
And it can be any way under the sun. I mean, the the patterns that are destructive to our life can manifest themselves in every layer imaginable. And I think Satan does a pretty good job of trying to. It's kind of like, you know, the the big game in Africa. We've determined the big stuff. This is how Recovery Ministries got going. And I'm going to remind you again. I love Recovery Ministries and they give me an upset tummy as a pastor. And I genuinely mean this because it
casts this, this notion over the body at large. That, boy, we got this recovery group over there. Look at those guys. You see them over there. Oh my goodness. Bless their hearts. They're in recovery. Yeah boy. And then we forget we're all in recovery. Every one of us. No one no one's not right, Ellie.
Right. And it's so often the people who come to the end of something and show up at a recovery group are actually the ones best positioned to actually change.
Boom. And then the follow up question is, why is that? And you got to ask that question. Why do you hear such stories of breakthrough from Recovery Ministries? And could it be that God could do that in me? And the answer is absolutely. So coming up here, I'm going to give you the single most secret sauce to changing your life that you will ever find or hear about the single most important thing. Money back guarantee. Money back guarantee.
I'm really curious. Like, I'm trying to think of what you're going to whittle it down to, and I'm actually not sure.
That's good.
We're gonna we're gonna have a little competition between the team here. We're. None of us know exactly what you're going to say, but we're all going to come up with a guess of what that one thing might be, and we'll see who gets closest to it.
The single most important factor that will begin to give you breakthrough in your life. And I'm going to give one away because some of you are guessing, oh, Carl's big on humility. It's humility. Nope.
Nope. That was my guess. Okay, check.
Yeah. Me too. Throw that one out the window. I want humility.
Not humility.
Humility is right on this one's heels. But this one is the single most important factor. You learn to celebrate this, things will start to change in your life. Yeah. So fired up. I can barely stand it.
Start your day moving closer to Jesus. You're listening to Carl and crew.
I'll tell you when I praise God. And I'm doing it this morning. When you have a touch point of truth that you're like, boom! That. That is so true. You know what I'm talking about, guys. You read through the Bible, you see a truth, and you go.
Whoa! Where the world has this been?
Mind blown emoji.
It's just so great. So here's the question because the myth is I need to change my life. And here's the truth. You can't do that. Which is somewhat freeing because you beat your head against the wall over something in your life. And I want to make sure that we're not letting anyone escape the orbit of what we're
talking about here today. So what are some of the little things that we kind of give a pass to, that need to change in our life, that we can maybe benefit greatly by going, no, no, no, let's not let's not give that a pass. What are some of these things that are kind of accepted in evangelical circles, if you will?
That's a good question.
A big one we hear often from people is lack of time management.
It's big, isn't it?
So like an unproductive time wasting.
Yeah. And full confession here I feel like I leverage time as well, or better than almost anyone that's in my sphere of influence around me. I really work at that. Can I tell you something, guys? It is an 24 hours is a lot of time. I know you're you got a lot going on. You're raising kids. Ali's got this. Um, I mean, she's shuttling kids to basketball games when she gets off air and does a bunch more work than she goes home. And here goes mama. Commuter engine. She's
flying all over. I get it, but I'm telling you, it's. Let's just pressure test this. Ali, there's still moments in your day that could get unredeemed. And of course, I don't want to put words.
No, no, no, I mean, that's 100%. And we get so programmed to kind of say, well, I'm so busy. And kind of the flip side is so I sort of deserve to kind of like veg out or and they're talking about relaxation because relaxation is purposeful, right?
There's spiritual rest for sure. And promote.
Promotes rest. But what happens to me often is I'll just kind of like get into like a funk of like, okay, well, I'm tired, so I think I'm just going to scroll or I'm just going to like sit here and like, but it's not purposeful rest. It's just like unproductivity. And then you don't feel good about it. You don't feel any better. You feel worse.
I love your term, purposeful rest. That's the line of demarcation. That's what delineates good rest from slothfulness. I mean, let's use the word right. It's not just slothfulness. There's other things that get a pass. There's things like and we almost we didn't go here because there were some pastors that were pretty big gluttony That that I remember as a kid thinking as a kid going, because I heard
this word gluttony in Sunday school class. And I thought, I wonder why we don't talk a lot about that.
And you're right. We don't.
And that's a hard one.
It's a hard one.
And I've always said this here. Easy for you to say, Carl. You've got challenges in your life, and and weight is not one of them. But in the. The bummer about gluttony is that it is. So there's a lot of tentacles to it. A lot of this stuff is is a place of self-protection because of things that have happened in the past. But even in that if you pressure test it, God wants to give us victory even there.
Yes.
Even their hard fought hallelujah.
And it's not about, you know, it's not about the eating. It's about what you get from it almost. You know, I feel like there's a, a deeper thing that comes with it. You know, I've tried to make some changes of of eating healthier and, and having specific days where I can, I can have a snack or something that I really like. And I, I noticed at the beginning of it sometimes now that, hey, I'm a little I'm a little more upset on the days where I can't
have the snack because. Because maybe I was trusting in that a little too much to make me feel good after a stressful day.
All right. Gluttony. Confession. I'm going to come in right behind you. I'm going to tell you what it is. I've actually had to get this under control. By the power of the spirit. I'm going to make a confession to you here. This is. This might sound goofy to you, but it's a spiritual thing to me. So I used to love Cheez-Its when I was a kid, but my wife told me those things are just jammed full of chemicals. We got to get you something different here. And so
she got me on to these things. They're called bunnies. I think that you get them at healthy kind of places and they're like, you know, made with, you know, they strip out all.
The cheddar.
Bunnies.
Yeah, they're like cheddar bunnies.
Oh, the cheddar bunnies. Okay.
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Well, you know what I do get a box. I have been known to eat the entire box in one sitting.
I love it.
Entire box of cheddar.
Bunnies. That's real.
And then I get up. Oh, why'd I do that? I ate the whole box. Should I even tell my wife? Should I? Should I put the empty box up in the cabinet? Or should I throw it in the trash and then have her say to me, what's going on with the cheddar bunnies, man? You went on a cheddar bunny binge.
It's so good.
I'm serious about this, guys. Let's cut it to you straight.
No. That's real.
Let's be real here. Well, I digress. I don't care if it's cheddar bunnies gossiping in the lobby. Kind of an addiction to sullenness. You know what I mean? Guys, we can all get into that funk. It's kind of like o b o b o b. Oh.
Yeah.
Things. Things aren't very good over here.
Oh, woe is me.
Sort of outlook on life.
Yeah. Victim mode. We can all get there. We're all in recovery. Here's the secret sauce. Here is the secret sauce to your life changing one word weakness and learning to celebrate that you are too weak to change your life. Apostle Paul said it. He said, man, it's thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Reading from Second Corinthians 12. But look at the many verses here.
Is it the money verses? Verse eight. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that I that it should leave me. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. Oh, no, not just sufficient. There's a comma. For my power is made perfect in weakness. Back to Paul writing here. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I am contentment with my weaknesses, even insults and hardships,
persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Oh my goodness! How great is God's word!
Here's my question for you though. So does this mean that I can boast in the weakness of, let's say, unproductivity and time management say, well, that's the thorn in my flesh, and I'm okay with that because weakness is good.
Great question. Let's tackle that straight ahead.
He was sharing the gospel on the radio and then he got saved. Young thunders in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
The crazy economy of God's world, as we find in Scripture, is so inverted, upside down and backwards to the world that we live in. I mean, we live in a world that screams at you. You need to overcome something. You need to get bowed up. You need to get strong. You need to get over this thing. You can do it. I mean, how many posters were in the 70s that said, inspiration, you can do this thing. And the reason people got sick of those after a while is guess what? They can be a real black hole.
It's exhausting.
It's exhausting. And you know, this is another topic for another time. But I'm absolutely convinced of this. I had a great discussion a number of years ago with my son. We were talking about tech founders that he was working with, and he said, man, there's a there's a black hole with a lot of tech founders. He goes, they're they're on Adderall to get their day started, and they're on weed to shut down the day. And he says, I've seen a couple of these guys get off one or
the other or both. But the conclusion was they pick up some other kind of vice or thing because, wow, what are we left when we have nothing at all? The interesting thing, Ali asked a great question. And that is, do we kind of revel in the thorn in the flesh? I mean, is that thing that keeps us weak? Restate that question.
Yeah. I mean, you read the passage out of Second Corinthians about boasting in the weakness so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Does that mean that we accept whatever it is? I keep using the lack of time management or time wasting slothfulness and say, okay, well, that's the thorn in the flesh. That's how I am. This is my weakness. And so then I'm not going to do anything about it because of Second Corinthians 12.
Yeah, that's a that's a good point here, because the malady that that Paul struggled with was something that he desperately wanted to overcome. The general overarching thing here that we find in Isaiah 40. And I'm going to give this to you in just a moment, because it's classic, is that weakness is to be celebrated because it forces us to rely upon the grace of God to get through and overcome things in our life. We find this over and over again. I have two appeals that I'll
have on this one. One is blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. When we are bankrupt emotionally, spiritually, relationally, when we realize we've got nothing, Jesus says, now you've got everything. Okay, so the way up is down. You want to go to the front of the line, go to the back of the line. Everything in God's economy is different than what we're told in our youth. And here in Isaiah 40.
It's an amazing thing. Verse 29, he gives power to the faint and to him who has no might, he increases strength. What an amazing thing to he who has no might. He increases strength. So what's going on there? It's like, hold it. He increased his strength. How? By embracing the fact that apart from him, we can do nothing. Nothing?
Not a thing.
And then he goes on. This is classic. You probably you just didn't know that verse. But you know, verse 30, a lot of you do. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. What a beautiful thing! Those who wait on God's power. So here's the deal. Do you need to change your life? No.
That's God's work in you. Bottom line, it's God's work in you. And he can do it. And it is a beautiful thing. It is beautiful. Let him have his way in you today. We're going to be talking about this all morning. Big myth we're debunking. I need to change my life. No. First reliance upon God's power.
This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
It's one of the greatest discoveries that we can find wherever you go in God's word. I mean, consider my favorite king. I can you can go anywhere in the Bible to find people that walk in victory. And there is this one key. It's more than an emotion. Help me with this word. It's the awareness that I am too weak to do anything about this situation. It's what got the tax collector Matthew out of the tree to follow Jesus. It's the this the stunning response of the
woman at the well. It's it's Lydia, the the seller of purple who just saw her need to then bring in these guests that were preaching to her. It's it's the list goes on and on and on. It's Moses, It's Moses faced with a sea in front of him and Pharaoh's army coming after him. God, what do we do?
It's it's it's over and over. Isn't it amazing, guys, that when you look at the Hall of Fame, of faith from Genesis to Revelation, when you look at the Hall of Fame of faith, you see this deep river of perceived weakness in themselves and a and a desire to lean into God.
I think the thing is that keeps us stuck is that so often we live with the illusion that for this thing, I just need to keep trying harder, or that there's some tactic that I haven't tried. I think we get it, that there's nothing we can do when we're faced with something that feels out of our control, some sort of diagnosis, something that's that truly we had
nothing to do with per se. But when it's like those daily habits and hangups, we kind of live with the illusion that I'm just not trying hard enough.
Yeah.
Absolutely. Ali.
I think we our big mistake is that we live as unqualified people constantly trying to qualify ourselves.
That's a great way to put it, young Thunder.
We are we.
Unable people that try to be able.
Yeah. And it's just the way it is. We will always be unqualified. The victory and the success comes when we acknowledge, when we're aware of our inability to be qualified on our own, and the fact that it's all God. God does the work when we let him have it. He gets the glory and he uses us.
So what do you do when you realize your weakness, your inability to change your life? Do you sit there because you could sit there and just go, yeah, I can't do it. Or does that move us into a relationship with the Holy Trinity that positions us for God's power? Hang on.
Tune in whenever you like. Check out the Carl and Crew podcast wherever you like to stream.
Okay, here's the beauty. And I want to. I want to tackle this quickly. And I've done it again. She did it again. She's coming up with a cool little hot link that all you're going to do is text a keyword, and we're going to shoot it back to you. Bang! You don't even have anything to open up. It'll be right there before you. This proves how incredibly how incredibly. I almost want to use the word simple. Yeah, simple, but not easy. God's solutions are for our life. They're
not easy, but they are very simple. God made the gospel so relatable to all of us. This is why he says, let the children come to me. Let the children come to me. The gospel is relevant for all ages, stages, and no matter what you're up against today, the first thing that needs to be celebrated when you realize you can't change something in your life is that you are utterly weak and you rejoice in it, as Paul did as Isaiah tells us. In our weakness he is strong.
He gives power to the faint, says Idea Isaiah. And to him who has no might, he increases strength. Is that amazing? I mean, how how beautiful is God's Word and how beautiful is God.
It's the upside down kingdom.
It's the upside down kingdom.
I think that that's one of the best ways to explain the kingdom of God, because it's the stuff that you wouldn't, you wouldn't think by worldly terms is what's going to move you closer to him, what's going to make you stronger. But it's true. Weakness is strength.
Let me just give it to you quickly if you want real change. First and foremost, embrace Race. Your utter inability to change yourself. That's number one. That then ushers you into an awareness for where real change happens. And it's all related to the Trinity. It's found in humility before God. You humble yourself under God's mighty hand. He will lift you up. It's proximity to Jesus. You be a branch that abides in the vine. You will bear
much fruit. And it's also found in the liberty of the Holy Spirit, raising the sails of your soul and allowing God to absolutely rock your world. This is such an important. This is such an important kind of paradigm shift. I love what you just said, Young Thunder. How did you say that again? The kingdom is.
It's the upside down kingdom. The. The things that the world tells us are what we need to be strong or what we need to have it all is is just. It's the opposite in the Kingdom of God. It's blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall receive the kingdom of heaven. It's Jesus saying, whoever is first will be last, and whoever is last will be first. It's God lifts up those who are weak. It's, you know, it's it's.
The upside down kingdom. How good is that? The upside down kingdom.
It's so true.
You know, I don't know what you're up against today, but I know this for sure. A myth that many of us have believed. And. And by the way, do we have to fight this off in here? Can we just all.
Yes, yes. Hands raised. Hands raised.
Can. I've got both hands in the air right now. And can we just all say that this is one of the greatest baits of Satan?
Yeah.
When you hear that notion rattling around in your brain, boy, you need to change your life. The conviction Is possibly from God that something needs to change in your life. The deception is that you need to do it, and it's deadly. Scripture is loaded from beginning to end. Every time somebody wandered out into the wilderness of thinking, I got to. I got to fix this. I've got to get us across this river. I've got to. You've filling in the blank. I don't care what it is. I've
got to fight this war. Jehoshaphat said, I've got this. So much. So put the worship team out in front of that story. It's. It's an amazing paradigm shift embrace. Let me just boil this down. Embrace your weakness. When we are weak, then he is strong. Embrace it. And then go after this humility before God. You humble yourself under his mighty hand, he'll lift you up. Proximity to Jesus. You abide in the vine. You will bear much fruit.
One of those fruits is self-control. Something you've been kicking your tail. You're like, I have no self-control and you don't have to produce it. That's the fruit of the spirit. And liberty of the Holy Spirit. Raise the sails of your soul. Let the Spirit of God remind you of truth that's going to carry you into God's power and into change. It's an awesome thing. And super. I did it again for us.
Yes she did.
She put together these quick little points just in a key word for you to grab. It's just a power packed little statement. But man, there's scripture attached to it, so spend some time with it. Just text change to 800 555 7898. Just text change to 800 555 7898.
Yeah. What a what a thrill. And I think what's so great about the Word of God is that it is not easy, but there's no complexity. God is very simple with this. Embrace your weakness, my friend. And then let's go on this ride. Trust in God. Text the word change to 800 555 7898. Just change to 800 555 7898.
Your spiritual pit stop to keep you going in the race. You're listening to Carl and crew.
Alex, got a question for you. You exhausted yourself trying to change yourself, and then you cried out to God. And you've got a story of deliverance. In our weakness, he is strong. We are ready for your calls right now.
800 555 Five, 7898 (800) 555-7898.
This is a big one, isn't it? Because it's it's the point at which we realise I can't do this, that God shows up. Why do we keep thinking I need to do this in my strength? What keeps us there? Ali?
Well, it's that dangling carrot. I think we are hard wired. I mean, every January 1st, most people, whether they make a specific resolution or not, most people have some sort of idea that this is going to be a year that X, Y, or Z happens. This is going to
be the year that's different. People have like dry months where they if they feel like they're too dependent on alcohol, people will do dry January and try to give up drinking for a month, or I'm going back to the gym because we're hardwired to want to be better.
I this is something that God's been putting on my heart a lot recently, and I'm finding a lot of areas where it comes up, So it's convicting for me. But I think that we either don't trust to experience God in this kind of way, that he's going to handle it for us or or we just have assumed like, ah, God doesn't really show up in lives like that anymore. You know, I think about the way the apostles experienced Jesus because they were with him and they had this
relationship with him. And even when he left, they were close. They had these encounters of the Holy Spirit. And there's this quote that I heard recently that really has stuck with me saying, you know, the the apostles had this life changing experience with, with Jesus, but it wasn't because Jesus loved or attended to them more than he does to us. It's because they loved and attended to him
more than we do. And and I think that's a big deal when it comes to this, that we we tend to go on our own because we go, oh, God doesn't God doesn't show up in lives like that. But if we allow ourselves to experience him and spend time with him and love him, then he does.
Yeah. And here's one point I want to I want a nuance to this is all you have to do is look at the apostles life and the struggle that they had with this very thing. Look at Peter. Sure enough, he denied Christ. And all you got to do is look at Peter and go, hold it a second here. Okay. We're all in a process. Yep. Do you think they got weak in the knees and tried to trust in their own strength when they were taking the gospel around? Undoubtedly, guys. Yeah. Undoubtedly. That was a battle.
I mean, Paul even talks about in Galatians how he had to confront Peter because Peter was was getting a little more afraid of what people thought of him than what the gospel really was. And he was sticking around with maybe some of the the Jewish believers who were the, the, the over legalistic type of followers and and he was not sitting with the Gentile crowd. And I mean, they they did that. They struggled with the same stuff.
Yeah. Good question Ali. You exhausted yourself trying to change yourself and then you cried out to God. We're looking for some testimonies in here today. Come on, get on the soapbox and share what God did in your life when you came to the end of yourself. In our weakness, he is strong. Life change happens when we embrace our weakness and God's strength. Phone lines wide open. I'm asking you to call in right now and testify your story. Someone needs to hear it. 800 555 7898 800 555 7898.
Walking closer to Jesus every day you're listening to Carl and crew.
The single most important emotion that we can have when we really want to see change in our lives is when we embrace our utter weakness to make it happen. Sounds crazy, but it's true. In our weakness, he is strong. We find it all over Scripture. Check this out Isaiah 40. He gives power to the faint and to him who has no might. He increases strength. How much might know.
Might know.
Might, might.
It's so good.
It's so powerful. When you embrace your weakness now you're positioned for the God of all power to do a work in your life. We're asking you a question. You exhausted yourself trying to change yourself, and then you cried out to God. What stories do you have today?
800 555 7898. Let's go to Nikki. First time caller from Florida. Nikki, tell us your story. You exhausted yourself trying to change yourself.
So a little over a year ago, I was having a really bad, Intrusive suicidal thoughts. And I kept telling myself that, you know, I just have to change my way of thinking. I had to go to a therapist, go to a counselor, just, you know, change the way I was doing things. And after months of failing and the intrusive thoughts were getting worse, I dropped to my knee. I was a lukewarm Christian before all this also, and
I dropped to my knees and I just. I begged Jesus for help and, you know, just opened my heart to him. And immediately those intrusive thoughts disappeared. And they haven't been back since then.
Wow.
Yeah. And, Nikki, this is not this is not some cheap fix. You were you were truly desperate, and you embraced weakness in a very practical way and cried out to God. It's just that must have been a beautiful moment of emptying yourself and realizing, God, you got to do this, Nikki.
It was. And, you know, I remind my family all the time, like, you know, you just have to open yourself up because, you know, my my family worries about stuff. They're like, oh, bills and know this and know that. And I'm just like, that's not. Yeah. You just have to let God let it be and let God.
Amen. Nikki, there's so much truth in that. It's the large and the small stuff. It's horrible thinking suicidal thoughts to I've got to get this to do list done today. It's it's that real God's power. Is that real? Evelyn in Florida. Thanks for holding on. What's your story, Evelyn?
Hi. Good morning. Yeah, I had been in alcoholic addiction for over 30 years, seeking help from recovery programs, from counseling, and nothing work. I would just get worse. And I remember sitting in my living room crying to God and asking him, God, why can't I do this? And he gave me a vision of what my life would be like if I didn't stop. And that day, um, he took me to a church and I surrendered myself entirely to God. And I've been three and a half years sober since then.
Wow.
Praise God. Were you born again on that day for the first time, Evelyn, or what was going on?
I'm going to say I was because I knew who God was. But today I know who God is.
Yeah, I.
Knew who God was. But today I know who God is.
Yeah.
Are you kidding me? Quotable quotes. Evelyn. Way to go, Sister Cynthia. First time caller in Tennessee. What's your story, Cynthia Carle.
Back in 1993, I was a young girl. Not having anywhere to live, found myself in a fornicating relationship, was there because mainly I needed shelter. But I heard the gospel. And the Holy Spirit, you know, just filled me up and and led me to understand that I can't be on both sides. So I wanted to serve God with my whole heart. But I knew that would call for me to give up the shelter that I had in the relationship. And six times I tried to come out of it on my own, tried my own strength, and
kept failing miserably. And on the seventh time I said I went to church, went to the altar, I said, God, I have tried six times to come out of this because I want to serve you in truth. I said, but Lord, here I am again, broken. Can't do it on my own. I said, father, if you don't do it, it cannot be done. And I'm not taking myself out of this anymore. I'm letting you know I want to come out. So you're going to have to take me out. And I saw the power of God move in my life,
removed me from that situation. And the rest is history. Gave me a husband like the following year. We were married for 20, almost 27 years when he passed away from Covid in in 2021. And I'm living the best life. Still serving the Lord. I can tell you stories upon stories about the miracles we have wrought in my life. From that one decision I made to choose him over a fornicating relationship.
Oh, Cynthia. Oh, God bless you, sister. In the. And you know what the fruit of the spirit is pouring out of you? Just pouring out of you, Cynthia.
Absolutely.
Oh.
Oh, what a tremendous word. And listen, if you're listening right now, you've got to. You got to know something. Cynthia's story can be your story. Guys, this is. This is why we do this here.
Yeah.
In our weakness, he is strong. There are hundreds of women and men listening to that saying, oh, God, let it be me. Fall to your face, my friend. Come right to the end of yourself. You got to get to the point where Cynthia got where she said, I got nothing here. God. I can't do this. Six times I've tried to separate myself. I can't do it. But God can. I mean. Some of the greatest evidence. Let's go back to the phone lines here. What do.
We have.
Cindy calling in? First time caller. Cindy, first time caller from Pennsylvania. Cindy. Go ahead. Tell us your story.
Oh, so at 62, due to back problems, I became an alcoholic. And alcohol is in my family, so I knew the consequences, but I couldn't stop. I would get up in the morning and say, okay, I'm not drinking today. On the way home from work, I would stop at the state store. And so I found out about Celebrate Recovery and went to one of their meetings. And on the way home I just screamed at the Lord, who does that? And I said, Lord, I don't care what
it takes. This has to stop and you have to do it because I can't.
Amen.
And I this is stupid, but I fell down the cellar stairs and broke my C-2, and by rights, I should have died or been a paraplegic. And I'm as normal as I ever was. That's not saying a whole lot.
I hear that one. But the bottom line, Cindy. Bottom line, Cindy, is you cried out to God and he saved you right there. That is beautiful, Cindy. First time caller from Pennsylvania. I mean, this is awesome, man. We got barely time here. I got to get one more in. Heather, first time caller from Florida. We got a moment here. What's your story, sister?
Uh, I am now clean and sober from drugs, cocaine and opiates and alcohol for 13.5 years. And in sobriety, I have also been pushed down to my knees by God with my face in the ground, crying, begging for help to take something that I was once again trying to control. And today I earn a living with my clothes on and I walk with my head held high. And I'm so grateful. And I get the opportunity to help other women do this journey as well.
Wow.
Heather, what a story. And I hear that other little thread in your story. Heather. And that is beautiful, sister. Ample evidence. We just got here. Allie.
Right?
Yeah. I mean, the common denominator is getting to that point where you're so sick and tired of being sick and tired, as the quote goes, and and you cry out to God and you finally get to the point where you go, I can't do this myself. And that's where you're best positioned to receive all of the grace and the mercy and the help that's available for gossip.
For lack of time, redemption, discipline in your life. For horrible thoughts that keep coming back again and again. In our weakness. He is strong. Fall to your knees today, friend. I don't care what it is. Please don't whitewash it and shove it back into the shadows. Own it. Let God change you. He absolutely can. He absolutely can. Wow. Boom! Crew! You guys are awesome.
Get to know the team behind the scenes. Follow Carl and crew on Facebook and Instagram.
It's unavoidable. It's almost like a mantra. Even for Christ followers, I need to change my life. The question is, what do you do with that? And I think the operative word that needs to change is I. It's often a man centered gospel knowing that God alone saved us, and then we think it's on us to change us. David Gregory. That's a crazy maker, isn't it, my man?
It is. Good morning, Carl and Ashley. So good to be with you again.
Yeah. What's going on there? Um, how did we get this? It seems to not just be in North America as I traveled here recently to Africa. It's all over the world. Is it is Satan baiting a trap to get this thing called sanctification? Growing up in God, making it all about us?
Well, absolutely. And where it goes back to is us eating originally from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and evil, which puts us into a, um, a self sufficiency mode. And it's all up to me mode. And God has switched kingdoms on us and brought us into the kingdom of God. And now we're eating from the tree of life, which is a 100% grace mode. God does it, we receive it. And so what that means is that we are not the agent of change. The Holy Spirit is. And so our role is to receive
it all by faith. You know, in in Romans one, uh, Paul says, the righteousness of God is revealed not from our effort to our effort, but from faith to faith. It's because the gospel is a gospel of grace. And that means that God does it and we receive it. And so that's that's the the realm in which we operate now. But learning to operate fully in that realm rather than this realm, it's it's it's a real transition. I mean, God has to teach us.
David Gregory, our guest right now. Best New York Times best selling author. Tell us a little bit about your own journey. You were saved in college, but it wasn't until about ten years later that you made a pretty important discovery.
Yeah, I, I went to a retreat that was taught by this guy named Dan Stone and ended up going to several retreats that he was teaching at. And through him, he was just a pastor that nobody knew almost from, from Kentucky. But God had revealed to him the reality of Christ in us and how Christ has come to live within us in order for us to trust him to be living his life through us. Which is exactly the way Jesus operated on the earth, trusting the father
to be living his life through them. Through him. That's what, uh, is evident if you read the Gospel of John closely. And so Paul said, the primary message that God has given him to share with the church is Christ in us. It's not the forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness of sins is is obviously an essential message. But the primary message Paul said in Colossians one that God has given him is Christ in us. And when you think about it, if God Himself has come to live within us, shouldn't
that change everything? And why am I trying to pull off the life of Jesus and to, uh, you know, emulate the life of Jesus when Jesus himself is living in us and he is perfectly able to live his own life. I can't duplicate the life of Jesus, but he sure he can surely live it. Yeah. And so that's why Paul says in Galatians 220, I've been crucified with Christ, and it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now
live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and delivered himself up for me. And so Paul is saying, hey, I'm not even the one living this life. It's Jesus living in me, and all I'm doing is trusting him to do it. And so that is is the fullness of the gospel. When we really grab the reality that Jesus is the one who's living his life in us, and we are at rest in that reality, then the Christian life becomes
exactly what Jesus said it was. He said, uh, my my load is is uh, is easy and my, my, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. That doesn't mean life is easy, but walking with Jesus is supposed to be easy because we're simply trusting in him. We're not trying to pull it off all through our Herculean efforts.
Yeah, I love it. David Gregory, our guest right now, we're going to have a link for you in a little bit for more resources. This is a circuit breaking message, and my wife and I constantly say to one another, we we need to relearn this truth over and over again because there's a grooved swing, little golf metaphor here in our mind that says, I need to change my life.
So I just I want you to respond to this because Ali and I use this passage here all the time out of Titus two, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. And I think most people get that. We know that we didn't do anything. But there's a comma there. David training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. That is enormous, isn't it? David,
isn't that central to this whole issue? God does it by his grace.
Yeah. It's incredible. And that's what he. That's what he promised, uh, in the in the to his old covenant people that would happen under the new covenant. Uh, in Ezekiel and Jeremiah, God says, talking about the coming New covenant. He says, I will forgive you. I will cleanse you. I will remove your dead heart. I will give you a living heart. I will put my spirit in you, and I will
cause you to walk in my ways. Well, how many of us are living in the daily reality of God is the one who causes me to walk in his ways, and my role is to receive that, and simply to rest in trusting in that reality.
Wow.
You know your book that you co-wrote with your mentor, the rest of the gospel? What are we missing when we miss the rest of it? I mean, I know you captured in the book, but for those who haven't read it, what does life look like when we're only living out the partial gospel?
Yeah, the partial gospel is certainly contains a lot of truth, which is Christ died for the forgiveness of our sins. He he rose from the dead. We trust in him. We're forgiven. And one of these days we'll go be with him forever. But in the in between. How do we live this life? And the rest of the gospel is we can't live this life. The only one who can live it is Jesus, because it's his life. And he is the life. And so he's come to live within us. We're the vessels of his life, and he
simply wants to live his own life through us. And so our role in that is faith. We receive that. We trust him to do it. And, uh, so we just go from one episode of Faith to the other, trusting that Christ in us is living through us and he is completely sufficient for every circumstance.
David, I want to get into the real pragmatic end of this thing, because a lot of people then go, okay, well, what what in the world does this look like? Uh, this has been a great journey that my I say, my bride, she is just a great partner in really this knowledge and growth and the grace of God and the rest of the gospel was huge in our lives. I just need you to know that, David. Huge. It
was like Epiphany central. It was beautiful. But if we look at how we relate even to God, humility is the one of the postures that allows us to live there. With regard to the son. Proximity. John 15 allows us to bear fruit. None. None of those are our work. It's just a posture before the father and the son, and then the liberty of the Holy Spirit, hearing his voice and going his way as he reminds us of truth. Get really pragmatic here. Somebody gets up. Let's just take
let's just take an issue right now. Let's just take time. Redemption. A lot of people call in here and texting here going, I, I find I'm a sluggard. I can have I can work really hard. And then I waste four hours of the day. And then the common context is I need to change that about myself. David Gregory, coach us up. How do we live in the grace of God? How do we live in the rest of the gospel to see that change rather than our own self-help?
Well, I think our problem in that scenario, just like any scenario you might want to throw out, is we believe something that's false. What we believe is what you've been talking about. God expects me to change myself.
Yeah.
And so then we develop plans and programs and schemes to do all that and it ends up failing. And then we think, okay, well, God's disappointed with me. But our initial premise is completely wrong. God doesn't expect us to change ourselves because the Holy Spirit is the agent of change. And so what we do is we say, okay, God, I see this, this area of my life that seems like it. It could use some improvement, which is my
time management. So I'm going to come before you. I'm going to wake up in the morning, I'm going to come before you and I'm going to say, God, how would you like me to be spending my time today? And I'm going to spend a little bit of time simply, quietly listening to what your Holy Spirit has to say to me. And when I hear what the Holy Spirit says to me, oh, work on this project today. Work on that project today. Do this with your kids today,
whatever it may be. Then I say, okay, I hear that from your spirit, and I'm trusting Jesus that you are completely able to do that through me today. I present myself to you as the vessel for you to do that through. Here we go. Let's get up. Let's fix breakfast. Let's let's start going through the day. And I'm going to trust you to do what the Holy Spirit has said. Do this.
Okay, David, I want or this is huge right now because the Holy Spirit was my lost God for two decades of my spiritual journey. He was at work, but I called it. Oh, I have a hunch. I have a prompting. You know, we kind of speak of it in terms like that. I am now absolutely convinced the Holy Spirit is speaking constantly, if we will but tune an ear to him. He is here. He's now he. We're sealed in the Holy Spirit. Ephesians one we're grafted in, and we need to raise the sales of our soul.
To those that have never listened to the Spirit's voice. I want you to demystify this, and let's just make this rock solid right now. David.
Well, we were made to communicate with God. I mean, that that's that's how God created human humanity in the first place. That is obvious from the Garden of Eden, how God and Adam and Eve were communicating constantly. I mean, there was an open flow of communication between them. And so that's how we were made. And so this idea that we actually hear from God and we not only speak to him in prayer, but we hear from him in prayer or just casually throughout the day, shouldn't be
something that's that's strange to us at all. I mean, you go through the Gospel of John, and Jesus is constantly saying, I only speak what I hear from the father. I only do the things I see the father doing. I only I only say the things that that the father tells me to say I don't do anything by my own initiative. I only do what the father is doing. And so the father was not only living through him, but the father was constantly communicating with him through the spirit.
And that's just the way we're designed to live. If we want to live like Jesus lived, that's how we live. We're in this constant communication with the father. And so that's something that we simply learn to do by letting the Holy Spirit teach us. And will we do it perfectly every time? Will we always know for sure? Okay, well, the Holy Spirit is saying this to me. Well, I think that's that's something that that he wants to train us to hear his voice. And so we just step
out in faith. We take time to be with him and we just say, Holy Spirit, what are you saying to me right now? Yeah. And, uh, and we trust that that he's speaking to us.
30s on this one. How do you discern between an accusation of Satan? Um, a self-led hunch versus the Spirit of God.
Well, God never accuses us of anything. And so that's never from the Holy Spirit. And I think in regard to trusting that it's the spirit. I think the best thing to do is just to realize we're on the same page as him. Our heart, our new heart, wants what he wants. And so he's not trying to overcome anything with us. We're already on the same page. And so if he nudges us in a certain direction, we take that as from him. Do we know 100%? Well, maybe not, but we learn. And it's that way with
any communication. And so he's our trainer and he's very patient.
David Gregory, if you want more resources to check out the website, some of the books just text David to 800 555 7898. For more on David Gregory, our guest this morning, text David to 800 555 7898.
898.
Yeah. David, I want to thank you for being with us today. And this is this is not a one and done. You feel that with me, Ali? This is not like one conversation and we're done. And the only I think one of the the little things I'd add and I want you to kind of follow up quickly here, David. We're up against it. But if you're if you're feeling a hunch that we've got the word of God, that the Spirit of God is constantly reminding us with his words,
that's the promise in John 14. John 16. We've got that as the kind of the failsafe to know if we're hearing from God and if it's confirmed in Scripture. Correct, David?
Absolutely. I'm so glad you said that. I mean, the Scripture will never lead us in a direction contrary to God's Word. I mean, that's a given. And so, uh, yeah, we can, uh, that's why it's important to know God's word. And so we need to both know God's Word and to learn to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Amen. Love it brother. Thank you so much. Again, that keyword and how do they get it out?
Text David to 800 555 7898. David to (800) 555-7898.
You're listening to Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Uh, we love making sure that you are resourced in every way possible. And there is I mean, one of my great joys in life is Sunday morning on either one of the campuses at 180 Chicago here and watching God move through worship. It is awe inspiring. And boy have we got which Shane do we have here?
We have.
Shane Bernard.
Oh, good.
He's along with his friend Shane Everett. They have the group Shane and Shane, a Texas based contemporary worship music band. They are known for acoustic praise and worship. I'm a personal fan.
I know.
You are. I am.
Yeah. And we're going to play. We're going to spin one of those in just a second here. Shane, how are you doing this morning? It's God at work in your life, my man.
Oh, doing great this morning. You know, just trying not to forget all his benefits this morning. You know what I'm saying?
Oh, absolutely. You know what I want to drill down on? You've already won. This has deep, solid theology. What does what caused you to write this song? And I want you to pour out your heart about the kind of the underbelly of that writing process. This is powerful truth that you sing about.
Oh, man. You know, I mean, there's just there's just crazy truth that we live in a time where, um, you know, things are hard. And we might ask ourselves the question a lot like, God, I don't know what you're doing. I don't know what you're doing, because, I mean, but he he he's promised that this in this world, we'll have trouble. And I don't know when we when
we travel around, we see people. We meet people where people are in a place where they're like, God, I don't know what you're doing, but there's a truth that he's given us through his Word. We are standing on the promise that he has won the victory, you know. And so we we know what he's done on the cross for us. And that's enough. That's enough. But because of his precious word, we know how the story ends. We know what's coming for those who are in Christ.
And so, you know these two truths. We live in the middle right now, and we we can really stand on the hope that he is coming to make all things new. But he has forgiven of our sins and has has paid the price for us to enter into relationship with him. And he's promised to be with us even through it. And so that's where this song comes from. It's just like, man, we live in that place of the already, but not yet. You know, we know the truth and he has already saved us, but he has
not yet wiped away every tear from our eyes. But but let me tell you something, believer. He is going to. Yes. And we don't even have a. We don't even have the mind to comprehend what is to come. Yeah. For those who are in Christ Jesus, it's it's going to be a good day.
Shane. So from your vantage point as a worship leader, we know that obviously musicality is important. You got to be able to play the instrument or hold a tune. Those things are vital. But from your vantage point, what is often missing when it comes to what we put forth on a Sunday morning in worship?
Oh, man. You know, like, I think as a as a person who, you know, has served the local church and, and we get to walk through an organization we started about ten years ago called the Worship Initiative with churches. We serve about 10,000 now on a weekly basis with resources. And what we found is there is a lot of well, I'll just say there's a lack of biblical knowledge and, and, and how the scriptures inform the songs that we sing.
And so we're on a mission to get the Word of God in the mouths and the hearts of worship leaders all over this nation and the world and, and, uh, you know, if you're a worship leader. It's just like, man, it's just like, how do I get better? What? At what I do. How do I, you know, you can. You can learn your instrument, but know the word of God. Saturate your mind and your heart in it. We plagiarize
the scriptures. You know, if you've ever listened to any of our music, you would realize that it's just like these guys have never written really anything on their own. And it's true, because we believe that the Word of God is the hey, it's the power of God to save. You know? So come on.
Oh come on, we're big. We're big on this one here. And we don't do Christian bubble gum. Here we go right after it. And central to that is the word of God. I mean, we've been drilling down this morning on the. If we want our life to change, the first emotion we need to break is that we are utterly powerless. And in our weakness, our God is strong. And it's this biblical illiteracy. It seems to be a big, a big challenge across the Christian landscape in North America
and beyond. How do you practically do this? We're about to spike a tool that you have for pastors, worship leaders, and members of worship teams, and you're going to be fired up to hear this. But before we get to that, how how important is this and how do you aim to equip people to be people that deliver the Word of God, not just music of God.
Who.
You know, I say this, I'll start with this. We've just done survey after survey after survey, specifically with pastors. And it's just like, what are your what are your deepest concerns for like the guys who lead on Sunday or your teams or what are the biggest holes that you you would like us to if you could help us with? And I think that a lot of it
is leadership in discipleship in the Word of God. Like, how do we duplicate and how do we find leaders who are not just hungry for the Word of God, but have a desire to see the people of God understand the truths in Scripture? And so what we do is every day we get up and we create content and resources to say, here's how you do it, you know. And so from discipling teams to really getting into Bible studies.
And so we build a lot of tools around like how do the scriptures inform the songs that we sing? A lot of people don't even know how rich some of these praise courses are in Scripture. And so what we try to do is just say, okay, this is where this come from. This is the concept. But like, here are tier ten verses that kind of inform this thought. Like implant those in your heart, implant those into people because it's just like, man, we're equipping people for the
I mean, for the good work, you know. And so if you've got if you've got people that are sitting under you on Sunday and you've got 22 minutes, it's just like, what are we going to do with those 22 minutes, man? We want to inform these people of God and equip them for the good work. You know, of sharing the gospel of of being, realizing who you are in Christ. Like connecting with the heart of God.
Born out of that passion. Shane and Shane started the Worship Initiative. It's a community of worship leaders and musicians from around the world committed to serving the church faithfully. Their support in just about every area. You can think about leadership, training and development, but also just the practical harmonies, strumming all of the things that go into a Sunday morning service. There's opportunities for you to take part of this individually or as a collective. Just text the word
worship to 800 555, 7898. Text the word worship to 800 555 7898.
Making herself laugh no matter who joins her, it's time for Allie thinks it's funny.
Anyone have a dentist in their life? I hope everybody has a dentist in their life.
In your life.
Is kind of an interesting way of putting.
It. You have a relationship.
With the dentist, correct?
Oh.
Yeah. I don't like to get too close to my dentists.
That's fair.
What would we do without our favorite dentist? I have a favorite dentist I've been going to for at least ten years.
Okay, quick, quick.
Note on this.
I know we'll get back to this, but I had a dentist friend who he was one of my elders years ago. In fact, he did a lot of work on my teeth and all that kind of stuff. And every time I got around him, I just felt the need to smile more.
It was.
Weird. And I noticed this and I said it one one day to him. I said, Paul, I feel so weird talking with you, even though we're comrades in ministry. I said, I feel like I have to check my teeth before we meet to make.
Sure I floss.
No groceries.
In there.
And then. And then I feel. And he laughed. He goes, everybody says that to me.
That's so funny. Isn't that funny?
So you got Paul. So I got a gift idea for you. What do you give your favorite dentist in your case, Paul? What do you give your favorite dentist at the end of the year? This is your way of saying thank you. You you give them a little plaque.
Thank you. Great. Oh.
Great.
So I have a hobby that maybe you didn't know about. I like to do a little limbo. A little limbo.
Wow. Yeah. I guess.
So there's a stick that I keep in my garage that's specifically for limbo. And would you believe that about three nights ago, someone stole my limbo stick out of my garage?
What a bummer.
Yeah.
I mean, how low can you go?
Every little girl all around the limbo world.
That was.
Good. Limbo around. All around.
Oh. That's great. If you love those jokes.
Or.
Sex jokes.
To 800, 555, 78, 98. Text jokes to 800 555 7890.