Latest / Karl and Crew / Biblical Alignment with Dr. Adam Rasmussen & From Atheism to a Believer with York Moore

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Biblical Alignment with Dr. Adam Rasmussen & From Atheism to a Believer with York Moore · Karl and Crew

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  S1: Broadcasting from Chicago, across North America and beyond. It's Carl
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  S1: and crew. Come as you are an experienced guide, overcome
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  S1: what seems impossible and live as you never imagined. Start
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  S1: your morning with a laugh.
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  S2: Practical from the Bible. Tips and tricks to kill. Not tricks,
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  S2: but tips and tricks. Tips and tricks to kill. Tips and.
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  S1: Tricks. Delivering the truth daily.
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  S3: All of my attempts to you know. Prop myself up
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  S3: with achievement and good works. Well, God wasn't impressed by that,
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  S3: even if other people were.
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  S2: The gospel changes everything.
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  S4: Freedom in Christ. Man, it's like that backpack of cement
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  S4: just falling to the ground.
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  S1: Now, from the call of Hope Studios, this is Carl
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  S1: and crew.
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  S5: Hey. Good morning to you. I'm Ali, this is Carl
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  S5: and crew. Already off to a great start here on
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  S5: this Thursday morning.
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  S2: This is a weird week. I was just telling one
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  S2: of our engineers that yesterday I had to keep reminding
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  S2: myself that it wasn't Thursday. It was Wednesday. Now it's Thursday,
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  S2: and it really feels like it's a Friday. It's not.
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  S5: It's not.
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  S2: It'll be here tomorrow, too.
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  S5: Welcome to Thursday. Have you ever met somebody who says, uh,
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  S5: I'm spiritual, but I'm not really into organized religion? Yeah.
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  S5: You ever.
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  S2: Met somebody.
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  S5: Who says that there's a lot of different variations that
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  S5: people have on this same sort of school of thought
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  S5: that they are maybe have some openness to a higher power,
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  S5: something bigger than us. This is the kind of language
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  S5: I have my own personal beliefs. I'm not religious. I
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  S5: believe in the universe. I'm more about spirituality than doctrine.
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  S2: Yeah. Some people think that I don't have like a
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  S2: quote for it, but some people think that religion is
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  S2: more of like a man made thing to try to
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  S2: contain their idea of God. or a higher power in
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  S2: some of these people's minds.
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  S5: Yeah, I believe in being a good person. Um, I'm
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  S5: more into philosophy. I'm open to spiritual ideas. Have you
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  S5: ever had those conversations? You know, I remember I was
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  S5: at the dentist. This was a couple of years ago. And,
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  S5: you know, I got a great dentist. It's been it's
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  S5: been my dentist for quite a lot of years and
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  S5: how it goes at my dentist office. And this is
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  S5: maybe similar to yours, but I spend the most of
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  S5: the time with the dental hygienist, the person who cleans
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  S5: the teeth and does the check, and then the dentist
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  S5: comes in. At least my dentist comes in for like
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  S5: the last maybe 5 to 10 minutes of the appointment.
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  S5: That's kind of a check over. Make sure double checks,
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  S5: make sure everything looks good. Does the little pokey thing
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  S5: where they try to stick that into the back of
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  S5: your teeth and make sure you got no soft spots.
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  S5: Don't have any soft spots indicating a cavity. I had
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  S5: one of those filled recently, which was not fun. But anyway,
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  S5: so this was during that like ten minutes. So in
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  S5: those in over ten minutes per visit, once every six
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  S5: months over. I would say I've been going to the
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  S5: same dentist for like maybe ten years.
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  S2: Sure takes a while to get to know that.
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  S5: And so, you know, I know, I know he's got
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  S5: a couple of kids I know around their ages. So
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  S5: one's in college now, one's about to graduate high school.
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  S5: And so we'll usually do the check in. How are
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  S5: the kids doing. And so in this particular time we
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  S5: were talking about something as really as it related to
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  S5: decision making. I think it had to do with kids. And,
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  S5: and I said, yeah, you know, I believe God's going
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  S5: to show us what to do here. Something to that effect.
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  S5: And he says, yeah, I definitely think the universe has
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  S5: a way of, of working these things out. Mhm. And
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  S5: it was an interesting but subtle shift where he wanted
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  S5: to meet me in the place where he felt like
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  S5: he could, but he couldn't bring himself to agreement that, yes,
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  S5: God would would lead, guide and direct. But he was
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  S5: open to the fact that the universe, whatever that means,
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  S5: had some sort of influence on things. It's kind of
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  S5: the everything happens for a reason, but it doesn't land anywhere.
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  S5: You hear this, Jonathan? You hear.
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  S2: This? Totally. It's, uh, I think. God, we're made in
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  S2: God's image, so we're made to find him. But our
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  S2: hard hearts sometimes keep us from recognizing him. So we
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  S2: try to recognize something. Yeah. And and even if there's
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  S2: not a lot of reason to it, just this kind
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  S2: of floating fate, you know, we we have to try
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  S2: to find something.
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  S5: Yeah. There's a, I think there's a desire to find
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  S5: some sort of meaning and purpose to all of this. Yeah.
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  S5: You know, coming such a powerful testimony. You just heard
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  S5: from our York Moore. And you know, I love how
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  S5: he how honest he was about his search and his struggle.
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  S5: You know, I think it's easy to get frustrated when
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  S5: you hear people say things like that, like they won't
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  S5: meet you. They won't. There's not agreement on on God,
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  S5: on Jesus as Lord and Savior. But there's a sort
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  S5: of a spiritual openness, a religiosity, a higher power. And
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  S5: it can be easy to get frustrated with that and
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  S5: to want to kind of put your foot down and say, no,
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  S5: it's not about the universe. It's not this your truth,
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  S5: my truth nonsense. But I want to go to a
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  S5: story that was brought to mind to me last night
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  S5: as I was thinking about our topic today, and what
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  S5: if we had a different approach? What if we were
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  S5: the ones who tried to meet people where they were at?
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  S5: At least initially? I'm not talking about an abandonment of
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  S5: truth here. We are truth tellers. The gospel requires it.
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  S5: But what if instead of getting frustrated, even angry, we
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  S5: tried to meet people with their. My truth, your truth
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  S5: universe mentality with a little bit more compassion and met
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  S5: them where they are. It's what Paul did. I'm going
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  S5: to take you to a story in acts. This is
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  S5: one of my favorite in Scripture. I think you're going
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  S5: to love it as well. Coming up here on Carl
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  S5: and Crew.
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  S1: Tune in whenever you like. Check out the Carl and
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  S1: Crew podcast wherever you like to stream.
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  S5: Hey, I'm Ali, this is Carl and crew. You know,
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  S5: we're having this conversation all week. What are you looking for?
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  S5: And a lot of people are are looking for purpose
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  S5: and meaning. And what often happens is that people stop
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  S5: short of landing at genuine, saving faith in Jesus Christ
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  S5: for a lot of reasons that we don't need to
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  S5: go into today. But I think sometimes our approach can
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  S5: be to get frustrated and to get angry with people
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  S5: when we can tell that they are obviously keeping it
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  S5: away from landing at absolute truth.
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  S2: Oh, 100%. Well, it's hard when you. You know something?
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  S5: Yeah.
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  S2: And and obviously to us it is clear. It is
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  S2: obvious it is truth. And it is and God.
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  S5: We know from Romans one that all of creation.
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  S2: Yeah.
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  S5: Points to to God 100%. So it's not as if
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  S5: it's this blind faith not rooted in.
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  S2: Very correct.
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  S5: Reality. But I want to I want to take you
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  S5: to acts 17. And this is, uh, describing Paul's second
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  S5: missionary journey. So he makes a couple stops at different places.
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  S5: He's in Greece and he comes to Athens, which is
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  S5: a city full of idols. And so at the beginning
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  S5: of acts 17, it says that they, you know, they'd
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  S5: pass through these different cities. And what Paul typically does
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  S5: is when he goes to these cities, he goes into
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  S5: the synagogue and he reasons with people. And he some
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  S5: people are are persuaded, and many people are kind of
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  S5: ticked off that he's there. And so he's he's been
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  S5: causing quite an uproar. Uproar. But when he goes to Athens,
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  S5: it says he was provoked within him. So there's something
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  S5: in his spirit that's provoked. This is acts 17. Now
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  S5: verse 16, he saw that the city was full of idols.
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  S5: And so he does something that's kind of interesting. He
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  S5: goes and he starts reasoning with the people. And I
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  S5: love that the word reasoning is used. He's he's kind
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  S5: of he's using persuasive arguments. He's not, um, not condemning
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  S5: them necessarily. He's not argumentative. He's just simply talking to
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  S5: them about what is true. And so there's some philosophers
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  S5: who join in on this conversation, some epicurean and stoic philosophers,
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  S5: and they are intrigued by Paul, by what he's saying.
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  S5: He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities, is
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  S5: how some people describe him. And so these philosophers are
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  S5: so intrigued that they invite him to this place called
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  S5: the Areopagus. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly.
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  S2: I believe it's Areopagus.
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  S5: Areopagus. Thank you. Thank you. Jonathan. Areopagus. Yes. There's an
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  S5: extra syllable there. And otherwise known as Mars Hill. I
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  S5: didn't realize this until.
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  S2: Me neither.
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  S5: Yes. So. And this is a rocky hill northwest of
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  S5: the Acropolis. A cool thing is I actually lived in Athens,
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  S5: Greece for a year, so I know where this is.
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  S5: You've seen, I'm sure, the Parthenon, that famous landmark that
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  S5: if people go to Athens, Greece.
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  S2: That's where you go.
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  S5: Nine times out of ten, you're going to have a picture.
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  S5: And I have a couple of them. Whenever people would
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  S5: come to visit me in Athens, that was the place
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  S5: to go. So I can actually picture this place. And
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  S5: this was the home of like this tribunal. And they
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  S5: are kind of the court of morals. There's some legislative
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  S5: things that happen here. Council of elders. It's also this
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  S5: center for like philosophical thought and discussion. And so Paul
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  S5: is invited to go ahead and, and share something in
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  S5: front on this hill, in front of people who are
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  S5: going to take a listen to what he has to say.
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  S5: And his approach. I love because I think there's so
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  S5: much we can learn, especially in this day and age.
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  S5: There's nothing new. People have been having this whole spiritual
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  S5: but not religious for a long time. How did Paul
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  S5: go after it? I'll tell you. Coming up.
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  S1: Walking closer to Jesus every day, you're listening to Carl
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  S1: and crew.
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  S5: Looking at acts 17 this morning. And Paul is in
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  S5: Athens and in this city full of idols. He is
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  S5: preaching Jesus and the resurrection, and it's attracted the interest
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  S5: of some of the philosophers of the day. For you
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  S5: bring some strange things to our ears. They say, we
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  S5: wish to therefore know, therefore, what these things mean. So
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  S5: there are people who are gathered at this place called
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  S5: the Areopagus. It's a place where philosophical discussions are happening.
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  S5: It's also a center where the court of elders, the
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  S5: Council of Elders meet. And so it's a pretty important place.
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  S5: And so he's given a bit of a platform, an
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  S5: opening to go ahead and say what you want to say.
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  S5: We're curious enough to listen. I want to read from
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  S5: acts 17, starting at verse 22.
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  S2: Okay, so Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said,
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  S2: Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you
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  S2: are very religious. For as I passed along and observed
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  S2: the objects of your worship, I found also an altar
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  S2: with this inscription to the unknown God. What therefore you
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  S2: worship is unknown. This I proclaim to you the God
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  S2: who made the world and everything in it, being Lord
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  S2: of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made
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  S2: by man, nor is he served by human hands as
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  S2: though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all
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  S2: mankind life and breath and everything he made from one man,
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  S2: every nation of mankind, to live on all the face
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  S2: of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries
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  S2: of their dwelling place, that they should seek God and
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  S2: perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet
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  S2: he is actually not far from each one of us,
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  S2: for in him we live and move and have our being.
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  S2: As even some of your own poets have said, for
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  S2: we are indeed his offspring.
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  S5: I love this passage of Scripture.
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  S2: It's a really creative way of evangelism.
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  S5: You know, and I want you to picture this. So
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  S5: he's standing at this, the Mars Hill, the Parthenon.
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  S2: Mhm.
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  S5: Probably within highly visible from where they're standing. So when
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  S5: he says that what you worship as unknown, the God
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  S5: who made the world and everything in it does not
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  S5: live in temples made by man, i.e., the Parthenon, right?
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  S2: The thing you're all looking at right now.
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  S5: In this city full of idols. But he meets them
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  S5: where they're at. Yeah, I perceive that in every way.
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  S5: You are very religious. Now, it's not clear if this
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  S5: is a positive or a negative thing. Sure. But at
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  S5: the very least, he's giving them like, okay, you're you're religious,
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  S5: you're close. You have this, this inscription I saw in
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  S5: your city to an unknown God. Let me explain to
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  S5: you how you can know this God.
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  S2: Right? Absolutely. And I love it because I think I
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  S2: don't think it's necessarily when he talks about them being religious,
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  S2: that it it has I, you know, either a positive
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  S2: or a negative.
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  S5: If you think neutral.
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  S2: I think it's kind of neutral. It's like, hey, I
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  S2: have perceived walking through your town that you are seeking
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  S2: to have a relationship with the creator. In their mind,
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  S2: it was the creators of the universe, and he, and
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  S2: even so much so that they made an idol to
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  S2: a god in case they missed one. Uh, you know,
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  S2: kind of anything. Anything we may not recognize. It goes
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  S2: to this one. And he says, you missed one. You
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  S2: missed the one I want to tell you about him.
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  S5: And there's just something. So, I mean, let's let's be clear.
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  S5: This is it's not the case that if we are
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  S5: simply persuasive and winsome enough, correct, that people will turn
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  S5: to Jesus. No, no, no, no, no, that's not. But
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  S5: I like how Carl often says that there are God
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  S5: seekers out there. There are people who simply haven't had
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  S5: a fair shot at hearing the truth. And so in
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  S5: their search for God, they're clinging on to a lot
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  S5: of different things, spirituality, things that feel sort of religious,
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  S5: other schools of thought, new ageism, anything to kind of
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  S5: connect them in some way to some sort of purpose.
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  S5: They're willing to settle for that for an unknown god. Yeah.
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  S5: When we can come in and say, hey, what you
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  S5: worship as unknown. This I proclaim to you the God
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  S5: who made the world and everything in it, being Lord
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  S5: of heaven and earth does not live in temples made
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  S5: by man. And then when you get down to verse
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  S5: 26 and 27, he made from one man every nation
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  S5: of mankind to live on all the face of the earth,
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  S5: having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place.
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  S5: You know what that means? God's sovereign over all of that.
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  S5: Where you live, where you work.
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  S2: How long you live.
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  S5: How long you were live, that you will live, that
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  S5: they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward
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  S5: him and find him. Yet he is actually not far
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  S5: from each one of us. Remember, there was a period
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  S5: of time I was really praying for someone in our
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  S5: life who I would describe as religious. say this person
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  S5: was well respected in the community. A very had a
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  S5: very charitable mindset. So they were very generous with their
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  S5: time and money and they had a form of religion.
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  S5: And I used to pray this, that, Lord let them
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  S5: feel their way toward you. They're not that far off.
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  S2: Yeah.
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  S5: He's not far from each one of us. And then
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  S5: Paul even quotes some of their own poets.
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  S2: I love that.
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  S5: In him we live and move and have our being.
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  S5: And then. For we are indeed his offspring. So I
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  S5: want you to think about your own testimony.
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  S1: Want to hear that again? Just download the Curl and
• 16:23
  S1: Crew podcast wherever you like to stream.
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  S5: You know, I just got a text message from someone
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  S5: who said they're really happy to hear this topic. They
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  S5: said they, they teach yoga. Um, they said, I'm a Christian.
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  S5: I attend Bible studies. It's been I see very clearly
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  S5: how Christianity is the foundation of spirituality, and I can
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  S5: explain to spiritual people where it all came from the
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  S5: Bible originally, and lead them back to the truth. You know,
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  S5: when we ground the truth in the Word of God,
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  S5: that's where we have to land. And so, you know,
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  S5: the meeting, I want to be clear that meeting people
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  S5: where they're at is not a compromise of of truth.
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  S5: I want to keep saying that because I think it's important,
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  S5: especially in a day and age where truth gets more
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  S5: and more muddied. So we're clear on what's true. But
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  S5: in this meeting people where they're at, it's acknowledging, as
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  S5: Paul did here in acts 17, the this honesty of
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  S5: the search he started with. I perceive that in every
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  S5: way you are very religious. That was what was needed
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  S5: for the moment. He could have started with, look at
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  S5: all these idols you got.
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  S2: What's wrong with.
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  S5: You, you godless people?
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  S2: Yeah, he could have.
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  S5: And maybe there was a time for that. I mean,
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  S5: certainly we see Jesus confronting things all the time.
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  S2: Sure.
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  S5: So there's a time for that. But I think when
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  S5: we're dealing with people who are seeking, there's an invitation to,
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  S5: to meet them where they're at, to bring the truth
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  S5: that maybe they haven't even heard before.
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  S2: Mhm. You know, and I think about, I think about
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  S2: how we, how we should talk, how we should communicate.
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  S2: Because you're right, there are certain times for things. But
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  S2: the way that Jesus confronted people is that he was
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  S2: angry with those that claimed to know the father. Yeah.
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  S2: And and didn't and were pompous about it. And the
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  S2: idols that were torn down were torn down in the
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  S2: Old Testament from villages and communities that said they were
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  S2: followers of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Yet
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  S2: they had all these idols set up and that wasn't okay.
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  S2: There are a lot of people around us that to
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  S2: their own admittance, don't know our Jesus, don't know the
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  S2: true God yet. They're trying to find him. They're not.
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  S2: They're not looking in the right spot, but they're trying
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  S2: to find him. So I think the way Paul meets
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  S2: them is admirable for the way that we should meet
• 18:55
  S2: that group of people. Yeah.
• 18:57
  S5: Good. Good observation there. Maybe that was you. You would
• 18:59
  S5: have would have once considered yourself spiritual but not religious.
• 19:04
  S5: And I hear that so often. So I just kind
• 19:05
  S5: of made it that that's what we're going with. You
• 19:08
  S5: considered yourself spiritual but not religious or something similar. How
• 19:12
  S5: did God take you from that sort of spiritual openness,
• 19:15
  S5: seeking to becoming a genuine follower of Jesus Christ, landing
• 19:20
  S5: on the truth of the cross, the resurrection, the gospel
• 19:23
  S5: 805 five, five, 78, 98. Would love to hear a
• 19:27
  S5: little bit more about your journey, your testimony this morning
• 19:29
  S5: 800 555, 78, 98. Let's get a couple headlines.
• 19:34
  S1: He was sharing the gospel on the radio and then
• 19:37
  S1: he got saved. Young thunders in the crew. It's Carl
• 19:42
  S1: and crew on Moody Radio.
• 19:44
  S6: What are you looking for?
• 19:46
  S5: You know, there's so many people who are looking for
• 19:47
  S5: purpose and meaning, direction, guidance. And so often people land
• 19:53
  S5: on a higher power, an openness to spiritual things that
• 19:57
  S5: can be. There's some negative side to that because when
• 19:59
  S5: you're open to spiritual things, man, you.
• 20:02
  S2: You can open yourself to a lot of dark.
• 20:03
  S7: Doors, a lot of dark.
• 20:05
  S5: Things. But the flip side is there's an openness that
• 20:09
  S5: people have that when presented with the truth, as Paul
• 20:13
  S5: did in this Areopagus, Mars hill. And he was persuaded
• 20:18
  S5: and he reasons and he tells people about the God
• 20:21
  S5: who made the world and everything in it, that they
• 20:23
  S5: don't have to worship an unknown God. They can actually
• 20:26
  S5: know him, feel their way toward him, and find him.
• 20:30
  S5: Verse 27 says, yet he is actually not far from
• 20:33
  S5: each one of us. So it's led to a question
• 20:35
  S5: this morning. Maybe you were someone who would you would
• 20:38
  S5: have considered yourself spiritually open, spiritual, but not religious. How
• 20:42
  S5: did God lead you to landing on the truth? To
• 20:46
  S5: turning your heart, surrendering to him, a follower of Jesus Christ?
• 20:50
  S5: Let's go to Andrew, first time caller from West Palm Beach, Florida.
• 20:53
  S5: Would you have considered yourself in that category of spiritually open,
• 20:57
  S5: maybe spiritual, but not religious?
• 21:01
  S8: Yes, yes I would. My grandmother was the one that
• 21:05
  S8: introduced me to God. She made me go to church
• 21:08
  S8: every Sunday and over a period of time. I always
• 21:10
  S8: saw her read the Bible and praying for us, and
• 21:14
  S8: I was ignorant to that fact. And I went out
• 21:17
  S8: there in the world and and received a lot of
• 21:20
  S8: pain and suffering. And I thought back to my grandmother,
• 21:23
  S8: while my grandmother believed in God highly. So let me
• 21:27
  S8: give God a try in my life. And I prayed,
• 21:30
  S8: God help me. And he did. He turned my life
• 21:33
  S8: around and it's been 20 years now.
• 21:36
  S5: Awesome. Andrew, thank you so much. First time caller from
• 21:39
  S5: West Palm Beach, Florida. So encouraging to hear your testimony
• 21:42
  S5: this morning. Uh, Michaela calling in also from Florida. Birchfield, Florida.
• 21:46
  S5: Were you a spiritual but not religious? Tell me about
• 21:50
  S5: your story.
• 21:51
  S9: Yeah, I was actually into sage and crystals and pendulums
• 21:56
  S9: and tarot cards and all that stuff. Um, and then
• 22:00
  S9: God brought someone in my life who was very outspoken
• 22:03
  S9: about Jesus. Um, so it was kind of like one
• 22:06
  S9: of those things where God's calling you and you really
• 22:07
  S9: can't ignore it now.
• 22:08
  S5: Yeah.
• 22:11
  S9: And she was just wonderful because I started asking her
• 22:14
  S9: questions and she was very non-judgmental.
• 22:16
  S5: Yeah.
• 22:16
  S9: So she answered very lovingly, um, without pressure, you know,
• 22:21
  S9: she wasn't like, you have to turn to God right
• 22:23
  S9: now or you're going to hell. Um, because I find
• 22:26
  S9: that to be very, uh, it doesn't help anyway. So
• 22:30
  S9: but yeah, she just answered my questions and talked to
• 22:33
  S9: me without apology about Jesus. You know what I mean?
• 22:36
  S9: And here I am.
• 22:38
  S5: Yeah. Thank you so much for your call this morning
• 22:41
  S5: from Birchfield, Florida. You know, there's a there is a
• 22:45
  S5: tone of love and care and compassion that we want
• 22:49
  S5: to have when we are dealing with people. We know
• 22:51
  S5: that it's the kindness of God that led leads to repentance.
• 22:56
  S2: Yeah. And, and Ali, you mentioned this when we were
• 22:59
  S2: going through acts 17. Uh, and I want to hit
• 23:02
  S2: it again because we're talking about Paul reasoning with, with
• 23:07
  S2: these people through the gospel in a, in a really
• 23:10
  S2: creative way. And, and sometimes that can lead us to think, oh,
• 23:15
  S2: I just have to find the perfect way to do it.
• 23:18
  S2: And it's gonna work. At the end of the passage in,
• 23:21
  S2: in acts 17, in, in verse 32, it says, when
• 23:24
  S2: they heard about him talking the resurrection of the dead,
• 23:27
  S2: some mocked him. Others were like, well, we just want
• 23:29
  S2: to know more. Just keep talking. And then others followed
• 23:32
  S2: and believed in Jesus. And so. So even with Paul's
• 23:37
  S2: really creative way of sharing Jesus with people, some mocked him.
• 23:43
  S5: There were three different responses. You're right.
• 23:45
  S2: Three different responses.
• 23:46
  S5: Some mocked, some believed, and some were kind of in
• 23:49
  S5: this like, I'm, I'm not ready to make a decision now,
• 23:52
  S5: but I'd love to hear more.
• 23:54
  S2: Right. And so, so don't, don't go thinking from this.
• 23:57
  S2: I just have to be creative enough. God will give
• 24:00
  S2: you the words to say when you are spending time
• 24:04
  S2: with him and asking him for the words, but it's
• 24:07
  S2: his spirit that does the transformation.
• 24:09
  S5: Great point. Great observation there because as as Carl often says,
• 24:12
  S5: it's not, we don't need anyone to Jesus. It's not
• 24:16
  S5: my power. It's not my persuasion, my creativity. It's ultimately
• 24:20
  S5: the power of the Holy Spirit. Hey, coming up, we
• 24:23
  S5: have a special guest we're going to bring in as
• 24:25
  S5: we think about how the world view how we see things?
• 24:30
  S5: When you look at the numbers, what is the gap
• 24:32
  S5: that exists? Sometimes between what we say, we believe and
• 24:35
  S5: what we read in Scripture and how we actually live?
• 24:39
  S5: Some interesting numbers from a new report out coming up.
• 24:44
  S1: Romans eight brought her to Jesus while broadcasting traffic overnight.
• 24:48
  S1: Super di is in the crew. It's kollel and crew
• 24:52
  S1: on Moody Radio.
• 24:54
  S5: Well, I still remember a little song that my son
• 24:56
  S5: came home from one of his little Bible classes when
• 24:59
  S5: he was going to kids church, and he would say,
• 25:02
  S5: read your Bible and pray every day. Did you learn
• 25:05
  S5: this one, Jonathan? Yes, pray every day. And then at
• 25:08
  S5: the end it was, read your Bible and pray every
• 25:11
  S5: day and you'll grow, grow, grow. And he would move
• 25:14
  S5: his hand sequentially. He would move it from start out
• 25:18
  S5: like hitting one mark and then moving it up about
• 25:21
  S5: four more inches and then four more inches. Every time
• 25:23
  S5: he said, grow, that little hand would move and I
• 25:25
  S5: could picture him doing it now. There is something so
• 25:27
  S5: simple and true about this basics that we read our Bible.
• 25:32
  S5: We pray, we grow. But what happens when there's a
• 25:35
  S5: disconnect between what we're reading in the Word of God
• 25:38
  S5: and what we're actually applying to our everyday life? We've
• 25:43
  S5: got a special guest that's going to speak to this,
• 25:44
  S5: not the song itself, but the implications. Doctor Adam Rasmussen
• 25:48
  S5: with us, he is a fellow at the Cultural Research
• 25:50
  S5: Center and dean of the College of Arts and Humanities
• 25:53
  S5: at Arizona Christian University. Now you have a new report
• 25:57
  S5: out that shows something interesting, maybe even a little bit discouraging,
• 26:01
  S5: about our ability to apply what we are reading in Scripture. First,
• 26:06
  S5: let's just talk about the parameters. What were you looking at?
• 26:11
  S10: I remember that song. I know that song. I got
• 26:13
  S10: a big smile on my face. So thanks for starting
• 26:15
  S10: my day with that. Yeah. Well, we're looking at is
• 26:19
  S10: the worldview inventory that we have done for the last
• 26:23
  S10: 5 or 6 years, and George Barnett has been doing
• 26:26
  S10: all the way back to 1994. So we look at
• 26:29
  S10: that every year. And then we in this particular report,
• 26:33
  S10: we're looking at the different struggles that people are having
• 26:36
  S10: in applying the biblical worldview in eight categories. So purpose
• 26:42
  S10: and calling all the way down to faith practices and marriage,
• 26:48
  S10: family value of life, those kind of things.
• 26:50
  S5: Okay. So one stat that I'm looking at is that
• 26:53
  S5: the overwhelming majority of U.S. adults lack biblical alignment in
• 26:57
  S5: essential areas of worldview, beliefs, and behaviors. So 68 to 82%.
• 27:03
  S5: Is that right? That 68 to 82% of U.S. adults
• 27:07
  S5: aren't aligned in terms of what they believe in these categories?
• 27:11
  S10: That is absolutely true. What we're seeing is that Americans,
• 27:15
  S10: by and large, are syncretist, meaning that they pull their
• 27:20
  S10: religious beliefs and therefore their behaviors from a variety of sources.
• 27:24
  S10: And often it's contradictory. And when you have that kind
• 27:27
  S10: of mash up, it's really going to miss on what
• 27:31
  S10: the Bible requires as it comes to loving God first
• 27:34
  S10: and loving our neighbor as ourselves. And just as you
• 27:36
  S10: pointed out, Ali, they're really missing it in these basic
• 27:40
  S10: categories of morals and values.
• 27:43
  S5: Okay. So let's talk about the area where there's the
• 27:46
  S5: highest level of biblical alignment, meaning what I read in
• 27:50
  S5: the Word of God. What's present in the Word of
• 27:52
  S5: God is actually what I believe and live out in
• 27:55
  S5: my everyday life. Which category did you see that alignment
• 27:58
  S5: at the highest level, and which level or which category
• 28:02
  S5: is it at the lowest level?
• 28:04
  S10: Okay. So what we call category one purpose and calling
• 28:08
  S10: is the highest. And this measures beliefs and behaviors related
• 28:13
  S10: to life's purpose, one's calling, and what constitutes a successful life.
• 28:17
  S10: It seems that overall, Americans are pretty much lined up
• 28:21
  S10: with what the Bible says. They're the very lowest is, sadly,
• 28:26
  S10: family and the value of life, which measures convictions about marriage,
• 28:30
  S10: the sanctity of human life and abortion, and personal ethics
• 28:34
  S10: as viewed through or apart from a biblical lens. So
• 28:38
  S10: we're really missing it. Only 5% of Americans understand what
• 28:43
  S10: the Bible says on those issues.
• 28:45
  S5: What do you make of that?
• 28:46
  S10: Well, I think our culture is influencing the church more
• 28:49
  S10: than the church is influencing the culture. And there are
• 28:52
  S10: many statistics we can look at with this. And we
• 28:57
  S10: really have to understand that if we're going to have
• 28:59
  S10: a flourishing society, we have to have flourishing marriages and families.
• 29:04
  S10: And unfortunately, the tide of culture has really swept through.
• 29:10
  S10: And people don't understand that. They don't value children as
• 29:13
  S10: they should. They don't honor the marriage bed, as we're
• 29:16
  S10: told in Hebrews chapter 13. And we got a lot
• 29:20
  S10: of work to do there, Ali.
• 29:21
  S5: Now, I'm sure that you in this research, there are
• 29:24
  S5: as far as self-identified Christians, people are going to view
• 29:28
  S5: that differently. And we talk about that on this show
• 29:31
  S5: a lot, that just because someone calls themselves a Christian,
• 29:34
  S5: just because someone even attends church does not mean that
• 29:37
  S5: they are born again. And Carl's not here today. But
• 29:40
  S5: this is this is a big one for him and
• 29:42
  S5: for all of us. How did you break this down
• 29:45
  S5: in terms of how how committed of a disciple of
• 29:48
  S5: Jesus Christ a person is and how that relates to
• 29:51
  S5: their alignment biblically?
• 29:54
  S10: You're right. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian
• 29:57
  S10: anymore than sitting in a garage makes you a car.
• 30:00
  S10: So it has to do with the change that Jesus
• 30:04
  S10: does in our hearts. And so what we look at here,
• 30:07
  S10: we have three categories. The first one is what we
• 30:10
  S10: call integrated disciples, and they have an overall biblical alignment
• 30:16
  S10: in their beliefs and behaviors. and they possess a cohesive
• 30:20
  S10: biblical worldview. Those are integrated disciples. That's about 4% of
• 30:25
  S10: adults in America. The next group we would call emergent followers.
• 30:30
  S10: And these are individuals who possess some biblical beliefs and behaviors,
• 30:35
  S10: but not a full biblical worldview. And that's about 10%
• 30:39
  S10: or 25 million Americans are in that emergent followers. And
• 30:44
  S10: when you combine both of those numbers, it comes to
• 30:46
  S10: about 15%. And like you said, we're not really asking
• 30:51
  S10: about the self-identified Christian. We're actually trying to probe into
• 30:55
  S10: what they believe in their worldview. And that leaves the
• 30:58
  S10: last group, which is 85% of adults in America are
• 31:04
  S10: world citizens. And this third group are adults whose beliefs
• 31:08
  S10: and behaviors are shaped primarily by the surrounding culture rather
• 31:12
  S10: than by Scripture, and they have little to no biblical
• 31:15
  S10: alignment in the categories that we're talking about today.
• 31:19
  S5: You know, we we hear stats, I know believe it
• 31:22
  S5: was last year, there was a 22% increase in in
• 31:26
  S5: Bible purchases, Bible sales. There's been a renewed interest in
• 31:31
  S5: certainly in spiritual practices. Why, from your vantage point, is
• 31:35
  S5: the increase in Bible purchases or interest in spiritual things
• 31:40
  S5: not necessarily translating to an increase in biblical alignment? Or
• 31:44
  S5: maybe is it too soon to measure that?
• 31:47
  S10: Well, I hope that it's the second that it's too
• 31:50
  S10: soon to measure, because one of the things that we
• 31:53
  S10: talked about in the wake of Charlie Kirk's death was
• 31:56
  S10: the fact that a lot of churches really aren't prepared
• 31:59
  S10: for discipleship. So when people are buying Bibles and it's
• 32:03
  S10: wonderful that there are more Bibles being sold and people
• 32:06
  S10: hopefully are reading them, but there's a difference between just
• 32:10
  S10: having a Bible app or having a Bible and actually
• 32:13
  S10: having somebody walk you through that and help you grow
• 32:16
  S10: as a Christian. So we think that it's going to
• 32:20
  S10: take a lot of work because young people that come
• 32:22
  S10: to church, uh, anyone that's coming to church for the
• 32:25
  S10: first time is going to have a lot of questions
• 32:27
  S10: that need to be answered. They need a safe place
• 32:29
  S10: and they need a friend, a mentor, a discipler who's
• 32:33
  S10: going to walk through that. I know when I became
• 32:35
  S10: a Christian, it was that exact same thing. And that's
• 32:38
  S10: what Jesus died for. He died for followers, for disciples.
• 32:42
  S10: And so it might take some time for some of
• 32:45
  S10: these things to turn around. And boy, I would love
• 32:47
  S10: to see these numbers go in the right direction.
• 32:50
  S5: Yeah. You know, Carl often likes to talk about kind
• 32:52
  S5: of the blue sky vision. Uh, what is the blue
• 32:55
  S5: sky vision in this? Because certainly it could be discouraging
• 32:57
  S5: to hear that only 4% of people have a true
• 33:00
  S5: biblical worldview, that there's this gap in these different categories.
• 33:04
  S5: But certainly there's opportunity here because as as you said,
• 33:08
  S5: discipleship might be the missing component to close that gap.
• 33:12
  S5: Speak to that.
• 33:13
  S10: Yeah, I agree 100%. And as I mentioned earlier, there's
• 33:18
  S10: a group of people that have some knowledge and belief
• 33:21
  S10: in the Bible, Jesus salvation. These are the emergent followers,
• 33:26
  S10: about 10% of adults in America, most likely a lot
• 33:29
  S10: of people that go to church, they just don't have
• 33:33
  S10: that comprehensive biblical worldview. Wouldn't it be amazing if we
• 33:38
  S10: discipled them up 25 million Americans actually saying, I'm going
• 33:43
  S10: to carve out more time, not less, to meet with
• 33:46
  S10: other Christians? More of my focus is going to be
• 33:49
  S10: on God and advancing his kingdom in this world. Wow,
• 33:54
  S10: what a change would take place. And that for me
• 33:57
  S10: is the blue sky vision. And of course, when we're
• 34:00
  S10: doing that, more people who have never heard about Jesus
• 34:03
  S10: will join in because everyone is connected, right? We all
• 34:07
  S10: have these friends and networks of relationships, but we have
• 34:11
  S10: to get serious and joyful about our Christian faith. I
• 34:15
  S10: think moving towards discipling children within families, and definitely the
• 34:22
  S10: younger you are, the less likely it is right now
• 34:24
  S10: for you to have a biblical worldview. So partnering with
• 34:28
  S10: those parents of young children and supporting them in their
• 34:31
  S10: marriage and in their child rearing, I think would be
• 34:34
  S10: an excellent goal, an excellent target for us as the church.
• 34:39
  S5: Doctor Adam Rasmussen from the Arizona Christian University, the Cultural
• 34:43
  S5: Research Center. If you want to take a look at
• 34:45
  S5: this research for yourself, and I would encourage you to.
• 34:47
  S5: Not only is it illuminating, I think that there's some
• 34:50
  S5: real opportunity, as we talked about, just text research to (800) 555-7898.
• 34:57
  S5: Text research will send it to you, just research to
• 35:00
  S5: 805 557898.
• 35:03
  S1: She was trying to earn her way to God, but
• 35:06
  S1: God showed her she didn't have to. Ali is in
• 35:09
  S1: the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
• 35:13
  S5: Well, everybody is looking for something, even if they can't
• 35:17
  S5: put words to it. Even if they can't put a
• 35:19
  S5: finger on it. We're all. And each day we are
• 35:22
  S5: looking for purpose. We're looking for meaning. We're looking for fulfillment.
• 35:26
  S5: Sometimes looking for pleasure. Our York more our guests. Right
• 35:29
  S5: now he's a gifted speaker revivalist. He's an accomplished TikToker. Yes. Yeah.
• 35:34
  S5: We'll get to that in a minute. He's currently the
• 35:37
  S5: president CEO and national evangelist for the coalition for Christian Outreach.
• 35:41
  S5: You are active in ministry. Are York more. But before
• 35:45
  S5: that you were a college kid looking for something. What
• 35:49
  S5: was it you were looking for?
• 35:51
  S11: Well, I was an unusual college student because I wasn't
• 35:53
  S11: looking for a good job or a spouse. I went
• 35:56
  S11: to college searching for the meaning of the universe. I
• 36:00
  S11: was raised by atheists.
• 36:01
  S5: Okay, wait. You really? At the time that's what you
• 36:04
  S5: knew you were looking for?
• 36:05
  S11: Yes, absolutely.
• 36:06
  S5: Wow.
• 36:07
  S11: Okay. And I went to the University of Michigan. Go blue.
• 36:09
  S11: Still live here in the Ann Arbor area. I'm a
• 36:11
  S11: tried and true wolverine, but being raised by atheists. When
• 36:15
  S11: I came to college, I took on that mantle. And
• 36:18
  S11: in fact, my nickname in my fraternity was Satan, because
• 36:21
  S11: I persecuted Christians and wrote papers against Christians. But I
• 36:24
  S11: was looking for the foundation for my life. If there's
• 36:28
  S11: no God, if there's no transcendence, can anything mean anything
• 36:33
  S11: at all? And that was the quest that I was on.
• 36:35
  S11: So I was quite certain that the answer was no.
• 36:38
  S11: But I wanted to make sure. And so I became
• 36:40
  S11: an honors student in both data sciences section of the
• 36:43
  S11: psychology department. And my great love, which was the philosophy department.
• 36:48
  S11: So that's that's how I went to college, searching for
• 36:50
  S11: the meaning of the universe.
• 36:52
  S5: At what point did you realize that wait, my the
• 36:58
  S5: purposelessness of atheism. When did that all start to become
• 37:02
  S5: clear to you? And the answers found in Jesus Christ illuminated.
• 37:06
  S11: Well, you know, I don't think I was looking for
• 37:08
  S11: answers in religion. In fact, I was quite sure there
• 37:10
  S11: were none. And so when I got to the end
• 37:14
  S11: of my studies, my philosophic studies, I turned my honors
• 37:17
  S11: thesis in to the chair of our department. And it
• 37:20
  S11: was basically an atheistic expression that we call existentialism. You know,
• 37:24
  S11: think about Jean-Paul Sartre and others. And I remember turning
• 37:28
  S11: that paper in, and this is the short version. This
• 37:30
  S11: isn't the first encounter with the Holy Spirit. But I
• 37:33
  S11: turned that paper in. I walked out of the building,
• 37:36
  S11: and a cold blast of Michigan air swept the parking lot,
• 37:40
  S11: and I literally heard the voice of God. And I
• 37:42
  S11: wouldn't have used those words at the time, but I
• 37:44
  S11: heard God ask this question if you really believe everything
• 37:48
  S11: that you've written in that paper, why do anything at all?
• 37:51
  S11: Because I was a, you know, intJ type three, you know,
• 37:54
  S11: type A personality. I was a driver. I had multiple
• 37:57
  S11: jobs and multiple girlfriends. And I was an honor student
• 37:59
  S11: in multiple departments. And God basically brought me to my
• 38:03
  S11: knees by asking this question, why do anything at all
• 38:06
  S11: if it doesn't matter. I didn't have an answer for that,
• 38:09
  S11: but I knew that if there was a being that
• 38:11
  S11: was speaking to me in this wind, then I got
• 38:14
  S11: to figure out who he or she or it is.
• 38:17
  S11: And so I did something very unusual as an atheist.
• 38:19
  S11: I started to pray. Uh, and I said, every day
• 38:22
  S11: I said, Dear Allah, Buddha, Krishna, Jesus, he she it,
• 38:25
  S11: whoever you are, show me the money. And I was
• 38:28
  S11: looking for the angel Moroni or some algorithm to fall
• 38:31
  S11: out of the sky to demonstrate to me for sure
• 38:34
  S11: that there was a God. And so I started reading
• 38:37
  S11: the Bible and reading the Upanishads and reading the Quran
• 38:40
  S11: and talking to Muslims and talking to pastors and talking
• 38:42
  S11: to Christians. And after several weeks of investigation, I came
• 38:46
  S11: to the conclusion that there really is no God, and
• 38:48
  S11: religious people have no foundation for their ideology. And so therefore,
• 38:53
  S11: I was going to kill myself. So it was a
• 38:54
  S11: rational decision to commit suicide. It wasn't because I was
• 38:57
  S11: depressed or anything like that. It was, you know, the
• 39:00
  S11: end of the conclusion and existentialism. We call this the
• 39:02
  S11: great angst. When you come to the end of yourself
• 39:06
  S11: and you come to the end of the world and
• 39:08
  S11: there's nothing. It's just a great void of nothingness. But
• 39:12
  S11: before I did the act, I said, well, you know, maybe, uh,
• 39:16
  S11: maybe God can speak for himself. And so I went
• 39:18
  S11: back to prayer and, uh, after hearing nothing, I remember
• 39:22
  S11: it all came to a head. December 24th, 1989, Christmas Eve.
• 39:26
  S11: I'm sitting in the movie theater watching The Little Mermaid
• 39:29
  S11: with my fiance at that point, and I had what
• 39:32
  S11: I would call an atheistic epiphany. There is no God.
• 39:35
  S11: There is no afterlife. There is no meaning. There is
• 39:38
  S11: no purpose. It's all cartoons and sex and drugs and
• 39:42
  S11: the accumulation of material wealth. And if that's all there is,
• 39:45
  S11: I'm killing myself tonight. So I got my girlfriend or
• 39:48
  S11: my fiance rather dropped off at her house. I got
• 39:50
  S11: my car going about 90 miles an hour down the freeway.
• 39:53
  S11: A power and a presence flooded my car, took hold
• 39:56
  S11: of the wheel, and in that moment of decision, steered
• 39:59
  S11: me to safety. See, I'm the original Jesus take the
• 40:02
  S11: wheel story. I should be getting royalties, but I haven't
• 40:04
  S11: seen any checks yet. Wow. That encounter wasn't enough to
• 40:08
  S11: convert me. I still didn't know who I had this encounter,
• 40:11
  S11: what it meant, but it was enough to get me
• 40:13
  S11: home that night and I fell asleep. Woke up on
• 40:15
  S11: Christmas morning. And this is where my story with Jesus begins.
• 40:19
  S11: Christmas morning I wake up and for the first time
• 40:22
  S11: I pray a prayer of desperation. I said, God, if
• 40:25
  S11: that was you last night, I need to know right
• 40:27
  S11: now because I'm still going to kill myself. And I
• 40:29
  S11: walked into the next room, and my two older brothers
• 40:32
  S11: were also home from the University of Michigan, Go Blue.
• 40:35
  S11: And we were all sitting around the living room, and
• 40:37
  S11: one of my brothers, none of them were Christians, but
• 40:39
  S11: he had brought the poem footprints in the sand, a
• 40:43
  S11: very large printed, framed poster of the poem footprints in
• 40:47
  S11: the sand. And if you're not familiar with that, it's
• 40:50
  S11: just a story about how God is active in our lives,
• 40:52
  S11: how he's working in our lives, particularly during times of
• 40:56
  S11: difficulty and challenge. And I'm reading this, and I actually
• 41:00
  S11: heard the voice of God say three things to me
• 41:02
  S11: that changed my forever. He said, number one, I do exist.
• 41:05
  S11: Number two, I'm the reason why you exist. And number three,
• 41:08
  S11: I'm the one who kept you from killing yourself last night.
• 41:11
  S11: Which meant that God knew who I was, who I was.
• 41:13
  S11: He was involved in my story, and he cared enough
• 41:16
  S11: to actually intervene. And so, in tears, I ran into
• 41:20
  S11: the room and I still didn't know which God I
• 41:21
  S11: was praying to. But I said, Dear God, if you
• 41:23
  S11: can take my life and make anything out of it
• 41:25
  S11: from this day forward, I'm living for you. So that
• 41:28
  S11: was the beginning of my walk with the Lord. And, uh,
• 41:30
  S11: it's a, it's a testimony that wows a lot of people.
• 41:34
  S11: It's not the one that I wish that I had.
• 41:35
  S11: It's not the one I wished for my kids to have,
• 41:38
  S11: but it's the one that I got. Yeah.
• 41:41
  S5: Our York Moore, our guest right now, uh, he is
• 41:43
  S5: president and CEO of National evangelist for the coalition for
• 41:46
  S5: Christian Outreach, uh, formerly served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. He's
• 41:50
  S5: got a powerful TikTok ministry. You're a lot of what
• 41:54
  S5: I just read deals with young people. You have a
• 41:57
  S5: heart and a passion for young people. And after hearing
• 42:00
  S5: your story. It's pretty easy to understand why, unless I'm
• 42:04
  S5: drawing too many conclusions too quickly. It was a lot
• 42:07
  S5: of your passion born out of what you went through.
• 42:09
  S11: Yeah, absolutely. I have a passion for this generation and
• 42:13
  S11: the past several generations. I've been on the I went
• 42:15
  S11: to college in 1987 and I never left. I've been
• 42:18
  S11: on the college campuses now for, you know, 30 something years.
• 42:22
  S11: And I love I love this generation. Gen Z is
• 42:25
  S11: on our college campuses and we're getting ready for Gen
• 42:28
  S11: Alpha and they're coming. But here's the interesting thing, you know,
• 42:32
  S11: I've been an evangelist now for 30 years and I've
• 42:34
  S11: never seen an evangelistic opportunity like we're seeing in America
• 42:37
  S11: right now. All across the United States, we're seeing people
• 42:41
  S11: come to Jesus in ways that are extraordinary at levels
• 42:44
  S11: we've never seen before. In 2017, I co-founded the Every
• 42:48
  S11: Campus Coalition, which has 120 organizations. Every single collegiate ministry
• 42:53
  S11: in America is on the platform, and we're seeking God
• 42:57
  S11: for revival in our college campuses. And we believe that
• 43:00
  S11: we're beginning to see that. And we're seeing we're seeing
• 43:03
  S11: students baptized in the back of pickup trucks. We're seeing
• 43:06
  S11: athletes baptized in the in the water tanks, in their
• 43:09
  S11: locker rooms, coaches, uh, Bible studies that would typically have
• 43:13
  S11: 50 students have 500 students. Even in our ministry of
• 43:16
  S11: the coalition for Christian Outreach put our our missionaries on
• 43:19
  S11: staff at local churches. And we disciple students in the
• 43:22
  S11: context of the local church. We've seen a rash of
• 43:26
  S11: students coming into Bible studies, coming into churches, requesting to
• 43:30
  S11: be baptized, and they're showing up saying things like, I
• 43:33
  S11: don't know exactly why I'm here. I just got out
• 43:36
  S11: of bed and found myself here. Well, can you tell
• 43:38
  S11: me about Jesus? Like, you can't make this stuff up.
• 43:41
  S11: What we're seeing is extraordinary. But at the foundational level,
• 43:45
  S11: there is a heart search that's going on, and we
• 43:48
  S11: see it in many different ways. And what we're saying
• 43:51
  S11: is we need to be active and present and available
• 43:54
  S11: for this move of God that we're seeing.
• 43:56
  S5: Our York Moore, our guest right now. Coming up, let's
• 43:58
  S5: talk a little bit more about that search that many
• 44:01
  S5: young people are on and what he's seeing and how
• 44:04
  S5: we can be praying for this next generation. More coming
• 44:08
  S5: up here with our York more here on Carl and crew.
• 44:10
  S1: He was running from God, but God's love brought him home.
• 44:15
  S1: Carl is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on
• 44:18
  S1: Moody Radio.
• 44:20
  S5: We're seeing stories on college campuses. You're seeing it on
• 44:23
  S5: social media. Our York Moore, our guest right now, there
• 44:26
  S5: is an awakening happening in this country, maybe not reported on,
• 44:31
  S5: but you're seeing it every day. Give us just a
• 44:34
  S5: little bit of a recap of what you're seeing across
• 44:37
  S5: the country as it pertains to young people.
• 44:39
  S11: We're seeing a move of God, to be honest. It
• 44:43
  S11: full stop. We're seeing something like we've never seen before.
• 44:46
  S11: We're seeing an openness to the gospel. We're seeing students
• 44:49
  S11: interested in joining church. And, you know, I don't know
• 44:52
  S11: if you've seen the recent statistic, but, you know, Gen
• 44:54
  S11: Z has increased Bible purchases for the first time in
• 44:58
  S11: decades and decades. You know, church attendance in the United
• 45:01
  S11: States was going down year over year for over 20 years.
• 45:04
  S11: Until last year, Gen Z, being led by young men,
• 45:08
  S11: have actually increased church attendance across the United States. Many
• 45:11
  S11: of these are things that, you know, even in our
• 45:14
  S11: wildest dreams, all of the, you know, prognosticators that deal
• 45:18
  S11: in statistics, we never saw this coming. And listen, there's
• 45:22
  S11: only one explanation. And that is God is on the
• 45:25
  S11: move in a powerful way. And he's meeting a generation
• 45:28
  S11: that are hungrier than ever before.
• 45:30
  S7: What do you.
• 45:31
  S5: See that primarily young people are looking for? And obviously,
• 45:36
  S5: we can't broad brush it too much. But trends that
• 45:38
  S5: you're seeing, you're active on TikTok, you have how many
• 45:42
  S5: is it followers on TikTok or viewers? Or how does
• 45:45
  S5: how is that metric measured?
• 45:47
  S11: Yeah, followers about 650,000 followers on TikTok. And, you know,
• 45:51
  S11: I've been on the platform for, you know, 4 or
• 45:54
  S11: 5 years and micro trends, like the individual things that
• 45:58
  S11: catch fire. Those come and go. But here's the reality.
• 46:02
  S11: This generation isn't just scrolling. They're searching. Yeah. You know.
• 46:05
  S11: Behind this endless scrolling is a deeper search for identity,
• 46:09
  S11: for belonging, for purpose. 1 in 3 Gen Z says
• 46:12
  S11: they feel addicted to their phones and addicted to social media.
• 46:15
  S11: But listen, Gen Z reports. And should this surprise us
• 46:18
  S11: higher levels than ever of loneliness and anxiety than any
• 46:23
  S11: previous generation? And I think it's in that loneliness and
• 46:26
  S11: that anxiety, that vacuum for meaning and purpose that God
• 46:31
  S11: is birthing a desire for something greater, something more.
• 46:35
  S5: You know, I have a 16 year old daughter and
• 46:37
  S5: the phone is definitely attached to her much of the time.
• 46:40
  S5: I have a 13 year old son who doesn't care
• 46:43
  S5: as much about. He doesn't actually have a phone, but
• 46:45
  S5: the video games draw his attention. Now, obviously, as parents
• 46:49
  S5: and in general, we don't want our kids addicted to screens.
• 46:53
  S5: It's a battle we we do want to stay in
• 46:55
  S5: the fight. But how do we, from your perspective, how
• 46:58
  S5: do we leverage the fact that they are going to
• 47:01
  S5: be on screens for the good?
• 47:03
  S11: Yeah, we're never going back. And it's it's only going
• 47:05
  S11: to get more intense with the dawn of, you know,
• 47:08
  S11: automated generative artificial intelligence. And I'm thinking a lot and
• 47:11
  S11: speaking a lot on AI these days, but the ubiquitous
• 47:15
  S11: presence of screens in our lives is only going to
• 47:17
  S11: become more and more. And the question is, how do
• 47:21
  S11: we think christianly about these things? I personally believe that
• 47:24
  S11: all things belong to God, that there isn't a square
• 47:27
  S11: inch of the creation that doesn't belong to Jesus, and
• 47:31
  S11: that includes the digital realm, the place where we go
• 47:35
  S11: on our screens. The screen is just a tool that
• 47:38
  S11: takes us to a place, and that place connects us
• 47:40
  S11: with friends, and it connects us with predators. So we
• 47:44
  S11: see the opportunity and we see the risk. At the
• 47:46
  S11: same time, it connects us with pornography, but it also
• 47:48
  S11: connects us to the Bible app and to, you know,
• 47:51
  S11: resources like my TikTok channel. So the screen itself is benign.
• 47:56
  S11: It's neither morally good or bad. It's what it teleports
• 47:59
  S11: us to. It's what it invites us to. But here's
• 48:02
  S11: the thing. Our young people are being discipled. They are
• 48:06
  S11: being discipled by their algorithms. Your algorithm tells you everything
• 48:10
  S11: that you need to know about a person. You want
• 48:12
  S11: to know somebody. Something about a person that you're dating,
• 48:14
  S11: or something that you're interested in, or somebody that your
• 48:17
  S11: daughter or your son is interested in. You take a
• 48:19
  S11: look at their phone without any clicks and you just
• 48:22
  S11: scroll through their for you page on TikTok or Instagram reels.
• 48:25
  S11: And what will automatically come up will show you what's
• 48:28
  S11: discipling them. And so that means that the church needs
• 48:31
  S11: to be present and active. We can't put our head
• 48:34
  S11: in the sand and just kind of wish for yesteryear
• 48:36
  S11: where screens didn't dominate our time. The answer isn't a
• 48:40
  S11: kind of monastic pullback from digital technology. It's to think
• 48:43
  S11: christianly about it. And to say this too belongs to
• 48:47
  S11: the Lord Jesus Christ. This screen, the digital realm, whether
• 48:50
  S11: it's Snapchat or TikTok or Instagram, whether it's an algorithm
• 48:54
  S11: or an artificial intelligence, all of those things, they belong
• 48:58
  S11: to God and they must be brought under submission to
• 49:01
  S11: the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
• 49:02
  S5: You know one thing, and I am certainly not as
• 49:04
  S5: tuned in to this stuff as you are. But one
• 49:06
  S5: thing I have noticed, just in my own, uh, observation
• 49:10
  S5: of trends, I've seen a high interest in baptism. I've
• 49:15
  S5: seen a high interest of younger people in spirituality, but
• 49:18
  S5: I've also seen this sort of dangerous linking of kind
• 49:22
  S5: of Jesus as an add on to the things that
• 49:25
  S5: I already want to do, if that makes sense. How
• 49:28
  S5: do we make sure that the the interest in spiritual
• 49:32
  S5: things is anchored and grounded in truth?
• 49:36
  S11: That's a great question. And I do think it's the
• 49:38
  S11: challenge of discipleship in the age that we're in. And
• 49:40
  S11: so what I would say is that we are experiencing
• 49:43
  S11: the dawn of a new syncretism, and that is that
• 49:47
  S11: we're trying to compatible our interest and excitement about Jesus
• 49:52
  S11: with all kinds of things Western materialism, um, manifestation techniques
• 49:57
  S11: that are very, very popular. That's an entirely new burgeoning religion, right?
• 50:01
  S11: If you're not aware of that. And so young people,
• 50:04
  S11: they definitely don't see the incongruity. So how do we
• 50:07
  S11: actually root them in truth? Well, we obviously have to
• 50:11
  S11: expose them to discipleship opportunities. But you look at things
• 50:14
  S11: like the Bible Project, you look at all kinds of
• 50:18
  S11: online learning communities, like Tara Cobbs and other kinds of
• 50:22
  S11: communities that are getting young people into the Word of God.
• 50:25
  S11: You know, and there's good news on that front. The
• 50:27
  S11: there's a direct correlation through studies that shows that Gen
• 50:32
  S11: Z's consumption of the hit show the chosen has a
• 50:36
  S11: direct correlation to the increase in Bible sales in the
• 50:40
  S11: United States. So when you expose people increasingly to truth,
• 50:44
  S11: they're going to be discipled by truth. When you expose
• 50:47
  S11: people Increasingly to lies and corruption and false worldviews and
• 50:52
  S11: ideologies and false religions. They're going to be discipled by
• 50:55
  S11: those things. So there's a three alarm fire in my
• 50:58
  S11: mind of both opportunity and risk. This is not the
• 51:02
  S11: time for the church to lay back and figure out
• 51:05
  S11: what kind of new building we should have. Should we
• 51:07
  S11: pave the parking lot in October or April? No. Listen.
• 51:11
  S11: The fields are ripe unto harvest, and we need to
• 51:13
  S11: rush with all that we got. You know, capitalize on
• 51:16
  S11: this opportunity to win this nation for Christ. We have
• 51:20
  S11: to act like never before.
• 51:22
  S5: Good word are York Moore, our guest. If you want more.
• 51:25
  S5: We mentioned a lot. He is TikTok channel. If that's
• 51:28
  S5: something that that you, you or your kids or your
• 51:31
  S5: grandkids are interested in. You're going to want to get
• 51:33
  S5: connected there also. The coalition for Christian Outreach, we mentioned
• 51:37
  S5: that as well. If you want more, just text York
• 51:40
  S5: to 805 557898. We'll get you linked up. Just text
• 51:45
  S5: York to 805 557898.