Latest / Karl and Crew / Godly Ambition with Ruslan KD & AI Shaping Us by Nick Skytland

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Godly Ambition with Ruslan KD & AI Shaping Us by Nick Skytland · Karl and Crew

• 0:00
  S1: Broadcasting from Chicago, across North America and beyond. It's Carl
• 0:06
  S1: and crew. Come as you are an experienced guide. Overcome
• 0:10
  S1: what seems impossible and live as you never imagined. Start
• 0:15
  S1: your morning with a laugh.
• 0:17
  S2: Practical from the Bible. Tips and tricks to kill. Not
• 0:21
  S2: tricks but tips and tricks.
• 0:25
  S3: Tips and tricks to kill. Tips and tricks.
• 0:28
  S1: Delivering the truth daily.
• 0:30
  S4: All of my attempts to, you know, prop myself up
• 0:33
  S4: with achievement in good works. Well, God wasn't impressed by that,
• 0:36
  S4: even if other people were.
• 0:38
  S2: The gospel changes everything.
• 0:41
  S5: Freedom in Christ. Man, it's like that backpack of cement
• 0:44
  S5: just falling to the ground.
• 0:46
  S1: Now from the call of Hope Studios, this is Carl
• 0:50
  S1: and crew. Big big, big discovery. Big discovery.
• 0:56
  S4: Well, good morning to you, too.
• 0:57
  S6: Yep. Welcome aboard. Yeah. Good morning everybody.
• 1:02
  S4: What a strange way to start a conversation.
• 1:04
  S6: Big discovery. I do that a lot.
• 1:07
  S4: You just walk into your house?
• 1:08
  S6: Yes.
• 1:09
  S4: Big discovery.
• 1:11
  S6: No, I do that. I do that a lot. I've
• 1:14
  S6: done that with you guys, with meetings, walking into a room.
• 1:16
  S6: No greeting. Just start talking. Yeah. That's what friends are for.
• 1:21
  S6: In good times and spontaneous times. Always on my mind forevermore.
• 1:26
  S4: Okay, so what's the big discovery?
• 1:27
  S6: Big discovery is this. We've got a new benchmark for
• 1:32
  S6: Young Thunder. What's a benchmark, Ali?
• 1:34
  S4: Oh, a benchmark in radio terms. I think Ali thinks
• 1:38
  S4: it's funny. It's the thing that is marked by time
• 1:42
  S4: and day. And it starts to become a thing that
• 1:45
  S4: you wait for on the show. At least I hope
• 1:46
  S4: you wait for the jokes. You know that they're coming
• 1:48
  S4: on Wednesday.
• 1:49
  S3: Wait for the jokes.
• 1:50
  S4: Trust me, you know.
• 1:50
  S6: They're not coming this week.
• 1:52
  S4: I know, I'm so sorry, but you know that on
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  S4: Wednesdays at the bottom of the hour to expect it.
• 1:57
  S4: So we are looking to come up with something for Jonathan.
• 2:00
  S4: That will be time stamped on a certain day and
• 2:04
  S4: you will come to expect it.
• 2:06
  S6: He's going to become metaphor man. What we should do
• 2:08
  S6: is make this battle of the metaphor. Have someone come online,
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  S6: listen to the story, and have them battle with Jonathan
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  S6: to make it into a spiritual metaphor.
• 2:17
  S3: Yeah, I kind of.
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  S6: Like who wins?
• 2:18
  S2: Or we could, if you want. We could also try
• 2:21
  S2: to do it where it's like Stump Young Thunder and
• 2:24
  S2: people could call in with their, their object or story
• 2:28
  S2: or whatever to see if they can confuse me on
• 2:31
  S2: how to make it a metaphor.
• 2:33
  S4: Oh, and then if it doesn't go well, we could
• 2:35
  S4: slime you.
• 2:37
  S6: Oh, that's.
• 2:38
  S3: Awesome.
• 2:38
  S6: Little Nickelodeon action.
• 2:40
  S3: I was just thinking how on so many shows.
• 2:42
  S4: Like, they just wanted to. I grew up in the 90s,
• 2:45
  S4: and so I feel like there was always slime incorporated
• 2:48
  S4: into things. So I'm like, maybe if it doesn't go well,
• 2:51
  S4: just a bucket of slime comes from the ceiling.
• 2:54
  S3: I'm good with.
• 2:54
  S2: Some type of some type of punishment too. You know,
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  S2: for losing.
• 2:59
  S3: Maybe not slime.
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  S4: It might get messy.
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  S6: For the word punishment, not punishment.
• 3:03
  S3: Consequence.
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  S2: Rebuke.
• 3:05
  S3: No, that's cause that's even worse. No rebukes.
• 3:08
  S6: Awful. Where are you getting these words, man?
• 3:10
  S3: I don't know the Bible. No.
• 3:13
  S6: Punishment is not discipline. Yes. Punishment. No.
• 3:16
  S4: So not punishment. Not rebuke. We can.
• 3:18
  S3: Rebuke. Yes. Rebuke is there.
• 3:20
  S4: We can rate it and see if we think it's passable.
• 3:24
  S3: Yeah.
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  S6: Yeah. Well, so it's very apparent to me that we
• 3:27
  S6: got some.
• 3:28
  S3: We got.
• 3:28
  S6: To do.
• 3:29
  S3: On that. We're still brainstorming.
• 3:30
  S4: We'll circle back when we have a plan.
• 3:34
  S3: Speaking of.
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  S2: That's the funniest truth I've ever heard. We just came
• 3:39
  S2: with this big thing. He said we'll tell you more
• 3:41
  S2: when we come.
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  S3: Up with it. We have this.
• 3:43
  S4: Plan because Carl likes to. Not only does he like.
• 3:47
  S3: Oh, you're gonna.
• 3:48
  S6: Blame this on me.
• 3:49
  S4: Okay, so not only Carl quirks, not only does he
• 3:52
  S4: enter rooms and apparently his own home with big proclamations
• 3:56
  S4: like Big discovery. He also announces things that he has.
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  S3: Not.
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  S6: Thought through.
• 4:03
  S4: And sometimes not even told us. And then he goes,
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  S4: hey guys, what about?
• 4:07
  S6: That's fair.
• 4:08
  S3: That's fair.
• 4:09
  S4: It's just a funny thing that you do.
• 4:11
  S6: It's fair.
• 4:11
  S4: It's okay.
• 4:13
  S6: It's true. It's okay. Until it's not.
• 4:16
  S4: So we'll let you know. We'll take this offline.
• 4:19
  S3: Yeah.
• 4:20
  S6: All right. Coming up here in a minute. We're talking
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  S6: AI and end times all week long and not never.
• 4:27
  S6: The twain shall meet. They do come together. But we
• 4:30
  S6: got a couple of new voices to the show, and
• 4:32
  S6: we got one of them coming up here. Buckle up,
• 4:35
  S6: grab that swig of water and bring a little coffee
• 4:37
  S6: along for the ride. Do you know that you can
• 4:39
  S6: get some hydration from coffee?
• 4:42
  S4: No.
• 4:43
  S2: Yeah you can. Not a lot, but you can.
• 4:45
  S3: It's pretty.
• 4:45
  S4: Dehydrating.
• 4:46
  S6: Yeah, because it's a diuretic, right?
• 4:49
  S2: Isn't it like half 60% or half of the hydration
• 4:52
  S2: you'd get from water.
• 4:54
  S6: I don't know what the ratio is. Could you grok
• 4:56
  S6: that for me, please?
• 4:57
  S2: I can.
• 4:57
  S6: Thank you. Um, more coming up here in just a
• 5:00
  S6: moment with a special guest. Talking AI and we've got. Oh,
• 5:05
  S6: he's bringing with him some glue as well.
• 5:08
  S4: We'll explain coming up.
• 5:11
  S1: Tune in whenever you like. Check out the Carl and
• 5:14
  S1: Crew podcast wherever you like to stream.
• 5:18
  S6: Boy, we've been having some AI experts this week. Ali.
• 5:21
  S4: We have. And you know, when you think there's so
• 5:23
  S4: many different layers to. How you think about AI, you know,
• 5:27
  S4: what about the worldview of AI? You know, when you
• 5:30
  S4: ask a person a question, you keep in mind their background.
• 5:34
  S6: Yeah, absolutely.
• 5:36
  S4: I'm sure back in the day when you had your
• 5:38
  S4: buddies and you would ask them a question about life,
• 5:41
  S4: you had to keep in mind what worldview they were
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  S4: coming from, and that would affect whether or not you
• 5:46
  S4: would take their advice.
• 5:48
  S6: 100%. And you know what? You know what's funny about that?
• 5:51
  S6: That's low hanging fruit. That's a great way to look
• 5:53
  S6: at this because then you got to ask the question,
• 5:57
  S6: who's your buddy that's on the other end of AI.
• 6:00
  S4: We have Nic Scotland with us right now, vice president
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  S4: of Global development and AI research. Give us just first
• 6:06
  S4: an overview of what Glu is.
• 6:09
  S7: All right. Well, Glu is a technology company that serves
• 6:13
  S7: the faith ecosystem. We are living on the edge, the
• 6:17
  S7: frontier of AI, and we have a heart for the church.
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  S4: So talk about that AI world view. When you ask
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  S4: AI a question, you should consider what's the worldview? The
• 6:30
  S4: viewpoint of the. It's not a person that's answering, but
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  S4: this chatbot that's giving me a response.
• 6:36
  S7: Yeah, that's exactly right. So AI is often assumed to
• 6:38
  S7: be neutral, but like every technology, it reflects the values
• 6:43
  S7: of the people who build it, right? And so AI
• 6:45
  S7: is trained on data. Data is ingested into it. And
• 6:49
  S7: so it represents the values and the views of the data.
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  S7: And so imagine if you were trying to say, what
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  S7: is the worldview of the internet? Is that a Christian worldview?
• 6:59
  S7: And you can see the misalignment in that because of course,
• 7:02
  S7: the internet is not Christian. It's probably more secular and pluralistic.
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  S6: Nick so let's do a deep dive on this one.
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  S6: So when I was first using AI and I was,
• 7:11
  S6: I was pretty early adopter and I use it all
• 7:13
  S6: the time now, but I was testing it. So I
• 7:16
  S6: used Wayne Grudem, a friend of mine, we had him
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  S6: on this week. He's a great theologian, and I asked
• 7:20
  S6: it for his positions on a few different theological things,
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  S6: and then I cross-referenced it with what I have in
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  S6: his books, and it was spot on. Now I found
• 7:29
  S6: things that weren't right. But when does the worldview. If
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  S6: you're asking for data points, can it give you bad information?
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  S6: Even when you're asking direct reference prompts to a specific
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  S6: person or topic.
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  S7: Yeah. So the way you did that is actually really wise, right?
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  S7: You said, hey, answer it like this. And so you
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  S7: had an assumption and you guided it. And we often say,
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  S7: you know, the answers you get are only as good
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  S7: as the questions you ask. My concern is less when
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  S7: you are discerning and say, hey, could you please look
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  S7: at it from this perspective? But what if you just
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  S7: ask it a question like, hey, I'm really struggling in
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  S7: my marriage. What should I do? Yeah, the answer that
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  S7: it's going to give you, unless you explicitly prompt it
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  S7: is good, is going to be, you know, based on
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  S7: the underlying values of the data that it's trained on,
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  S7: which is oftentimes generic and, you know, secular, it's not
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  S7: going to give you a Christian answer necessarily. And even
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  S7: if it does give you a Christian answer over many,
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  S7: many turns of the conversation, it will likely default back
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  S7: to its core assumptions, which again, is not a Christian assumption.
• 8:39
  S6: Okay. We have nibbled around the edges of this one, Ali,
• 8:42
  S6: but this is super important. We're talking about granularity with
• 8:46
  S6: regard to prompts. So Nick, um, drill down on this
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  S6: a little bit more because I think a lot of
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  S6: people do go to AI and it's being used more
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  S6: and more all the time, and we're not given enough prompts.
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  S6: I think people need to know you can converse with
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  S6: this thing. I use voice, but you can converse with
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  S6: it in a way that you can really narrow it
• 9:06
  S6: and force it to get down a Christian worldview. And
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  S6: that's vital, isn't it? Nick.
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  S7: It's very vital because, you know, it's not just answering questions,
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  S7: it's actually shaping how we think, you know, it forms
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  S7: us in our conversations with it, or it shapes our
• 9:22
  S7: thoughts and our viewpoints and our beliefs. And if we're
• 9:25
  S7: not paying attention to that, it could really just unintentionally
• 9:28
  S7: disciple us without us even realizing it.
• 9:31
  S4: Wow. You know, I love that you used the word
• 9:33
  S4: disciple because most people would not think that they are
• 9:37
  S4: being discipled by content that they're taking in, whether it's
• 9:41
  S4: from articles that they're reading online or from an AI conversation.
• 9:45
  S4: But discipleship is happening even maybe unintentionally.
• 9:51
  S7: That's exactly right. It's about human formation, right? We don't
• 9:54
  S7: necessarily realize that we're interacting with AI models in that way.
• 9:58
  S7: And we might explicitly ask a Christian question, but even then,
• 10:01
  S7: these systems are not trained to necessarily give you, you know,
• 10:06
  S7: a reference to scripture or unpack Christian practices or give
• 10:11
  S7: you deep theological reasoning unless you specifically prompt it to. Right.
• 10:16
  S7: And that takes energy. It takes discernment to do that.
• 10:19
  S7: And so when you think about the average user using
• 10:21
  S7: AI to just quickly answer a question and get some advice,
• 10:24
  S7: ask for their purpose in life, you can see how
• 10:27
  S7: this is about human formation. And you do that over time.
• 10:30
  S7: And you know, it can really form us, it can
• 10:33
  S7: really disciple us. And so we really want to be
• 10:34
  S7: aware of like, how does AI support truth and wisdom
• 10:39
  S7: and human flourishing from the perspective of the Bible.
• 10:42
  S6: Yeah. It's beautiful man. Nick Scotland, our guest right now. Okay,
• 10:47
  S6: so you're with glue, you're the VP there, and you
• 10:50
  S6: do AI research and you want to get people on
• 10:53
  S6: the front edge of innovation so that we're not caught unaware.
• 10:58
  S6: How do you do that with AI changing every day?
• 11:01
  S7: Yeah, it is changing every day. And we really do
• 11:04
  S7: have a belief and a conviction that it is the
• 11:06
  S7: most powerful and transformational technology in all of history. It's
• 11:10
  S7: the Gutenberg press moment of our time. So we have
• 11:12
  S7: this conviction, right? And so we, uh, we do a
• 11:15
  S7: number of things at glue. Obviously, we provide a technology
• 11:18
  S7: infrastructure that you can trust that the church can build on.
• 11:22
  S7: We also do a ton of work in terms of
• 11:24
  S7: just research and insights. We're constantly measuring how the latest models, uh,
• 11:30
  S7: you know, how they respond, what their values are. Um,
• 11:34
  S7: are they in alignment or not with a Christian worldview
• 11:37
  S7: so that you can have confidence and just an understanding
• 11:41
  S7: when you build and you use AI and we serve 100,000l,
• 11:46
  S7: you know, many, many organisations by being the technology platform
• 11:50
  S7: for them.
• 11:51
  S4: We've got Nick Scotland with us coming up. Let's talk
• 11:53
  S4: about his background. How do you go from two decades
• 11:56
  S4: of work at NASA to what he's doing now currently
• 12:00
  S4: shaping the AI space and helping churches and Christians stay
• 12:04
  S4: on the front lines coming up.
• 12:06
  S1: Celebrating the unstoppable gospel.
• 12:09
  S2: It's not that I've got to fill in these check boxes,
• 12:11
  S2: so he's okay with me, but it's that I get
• 12:13
  S2: to stand close to him so that I can experience
• 12:16
  S2: the life that he has for me.
• 12:18
  S1: You're listening to Carl and Cru.
• 12:22
  S4: We've been talking AI this week, and right now we
• 12:25
  S4: have Nick Scanlon. He's the president of Glu, but previously
• 12:29
  S4: he spent two decades at NASA.
• 12:31
  S6: Oh, by the way. Yeah, it was two decades at NASA.
• 12:35
  S4: 20 years as NASA as chief Technologist. Tell us, what
• 12:39
  S4: was your work there and what made you leave?
• 12:43
  S7: Yeah, so when I was at NASA, I, I led
• 12:46
  S7: a technology innovation and partnerships and really worked on the
• 12:48
  S7: frontier of space exploration. Um, a lot of the decisions
• 12:53
  S7: we were making had obviously large stakes and high term
• 12:57
  S7: or long term consequences, you know? And over time, I
• 13:00
  S7: became convinced, as I had this front row seat to technology,
• 13:04
  S7: that the next frontier isn't just in space. In fact,
• 13:07
  S7: it's about how technology shapes humans here on this planet.
• 13:11
  S7: And that led me to Glu, where I'm now focused
• 13:13
  S7: on making sure AI is aligned with human flourishing. And
• 13:16
  S7: for me, that's from a biblical worldview. Uh, and I
• 13:21
  S7: always say I, you know, I left something that was really,
• 13:23
  S7: really good to do something really great for the kingdom
• 13:26
  S7: because I feel so convicted about this AI moment that
• 13:29
  S7: we're all living through right now.
• 13:31
  S6: Okay. How are you adding value to the kingdom? I'm
• 13:34
  S6: going to go. We don't normally do this, but I'm
• 13:36
  S6: going to let you get on a soapbox. What is
• 13:38
  S6: glue doing that you can help us with?
• 13:40
  S7: So I'm a father of three kids, right? And these
• 13:45
  S7: kids are growing up in a world that is shaped
• 13:48
  S7: through digital technology. Digital technology is mediating increasingly their experience
• 13:55
  S7: in the world. And this is true for millions of
• 13:57
  S7: people that are turning to AI for guidance every single day.
• 14:00
  S7: Questions about meaning, identity, their own faith, right? It's it's frictionless.
• 14:05
  S7: It's easier than interacting with a human. And you can
• 14:09
  S7: see the great temptation that we humans have when it
• 14:12
  S7: comes to our tools and our technologies. We have a,
• 14:15
  S7: we have a propensity to make them idols in our life.
• 14:19
  S7: We take a good thing and we sometimes turn that
• 14:21
  S7: into an idol, right? And so we see that this
• 14:25
  S7: is happening. And we know we we believe deeply that
• 14:28
  S7: technology can change the world, and it should. And we
• 14:30
  S7: can reach the church through technology, but we. We want
• 14:33
  S7: the church to know that they can build with technology
• 14:37
  S7: in a way that's aligned with their values, that's authentic
• 14:40
  S7: and true to the Bible. That's accurate, that's aligned theologically.
• 14:45
  S7: And so that's what we do. We build the technology
• 14:47
  S7: and we work to shape the industry so that we
• 14:51
  S7: could continue to, you know, work at the speed and
• 14:54
  S7: innovate at the speed of business. But we can do
• 14:56
  S7: it in a way that is authentic and faithful to
• 14:58
  S7: the church.
• 14:59
  S4: Nick, you know, when we start having these kind of
• 15:02
  S4: conversations and about technology and AI, there is a, a
• 15:08
  S4: growing segment of the population that says, can I just
• 15:11
  S4: opt out altogether? This AI stuff, it freaks me out.
• 15:15
  S4: This is scary. Certainly all of this is from the devil,
• 15:18
  S4: and I'm just summarizing the things that people actually think
• 15:21
  S4: and feel. Yes, y one can we not just opt out?
• 15:26
  S4: And I guess part two is maybe. Why should we
• 15:29
  S4: not even consider it? Even if it were an option?
• 15:33
  S7: Yeah. You know, it's such a good question. I have
• 15:35
  S7: this conversation all the time. I mean, you can certainly
• 15:37
  S7: limit your exposure to AI. I was just reading an
• 15:40
  S7: article myself about this idea of friction. Maxine, in the
• 15:44
  S7: world of AI, the world of carrying your device everywhere.
• 15:48
  S7: What if you just intentionally left your cell phone at home?
• 15:51
  S7: All that is true. We should take digital Sabbaths as
• 15:54
  S7: an example, but we can't fully opt out of the
• 15:56
  S7: influence of AI in the world that we live in.
• 15:59
  S7: And honestly, for me, this is about stewardship, right? We
• 16:02
  S7: have a biblical mandate to steward creation. We need to
• 16:05
  S7: show up in the world as it is and be
• 16:08
  S7: the church in the world. We need to shape culture
• 16:12
  S7: and information in the hearts of the humans who are
• 16:15
  S7: using this technology. And for me, actually, that just gets
• 16:18
  S7: me really excited. I think we, the church, have this
• 16:21
  S7: huge opportunity to show up in the world in a
• 16:25
  S7: way that we've never had um. Before.
• 16:28
  S6: Love it. You know what, Nick? Uh, we've got a
• 16:30
  S6: link that we're going to get out to folks here
• 16:32
  S6: in just a moment, but I got a crazy one
• 16:34
  S6: for you. Speaking of AI, I want to get real practical.
• 16:37
  S6: You are a wild man. I thought I was an adventurer,
• 16:40
  S6: having run the Iditarod trail race when I was 18
• 16:42
  S6: across Alaska. That's one thing, but you've run more than
• 16:46
  S6: 20 Ironman races. Now, here's the question I got for you.
• 16:50
  S6: I got a hunch here. Have you used AI to
• 16:53
  S6: help yourself with Ironman races either via nutrition training, style
• 16:58
  S6: of running, competing bicycle that you use? What's the answer?
• 17:03
  S7: Absolutely. Now, obviously I've been doing this for a while.
• 17:06
  S7: And so I, uh, I use AI a lot better
• 17:10
  S7: today than I, you know, was able to use technology
• 17:12
  S7: early on. Um, but yeah, it is so good with
• 17:15
  S7: optimization problems, right? And so, you know, how can you
• 17:18
  S7: optimize what you're eating? How can you optimize your workout plan?
• 17:22
  S7: I love data, I love to collect data, you know,
• 17:25
  S7: heart rates, you know, using Strava or Garmin.
• 17:29
  S8: I love this guy.
• 17:30
  S7: Your run data, you know, you can you can hyper
• 17:32
  S7: optimize it. I used to wake up and check my
• 17:34
  S7: resting heart rate every single day to know, am I
• 17:37
  S7: recovering or not? Should I push it today or not?
• 17:40
  S7: Now I can use, I can feed all that into
• 17:41
  S7: AI and it is much more specific about how to train.
• 17:45
  S7: It's powerful.
• 17:46
  S8: It's crazy.
• 17:47
  S6: Okay, so let's, let's we got to tackle this one.
• 17:51
  S6: What's a good prompt for someone who wants to optimize
• 17:54
  S6: their spiritual trajectory with Jesus? How do you personalize it?
• 17:58
  S7: So from if you were wanting to write a good
• 18:01
  S7: prompt just to optimize spiritual trajectory, and I would say,
• 18:03
  S7: you know, just align biblically and theologically, you can start
• 18:08
  S7: the conversation that you're having by saying, you know, from
• 18:11
  S7: a biblical and Christ centered perspective, help me with this situation.
• 18:15
  S7: You know, ground that response the model is going to
• 18:19
  S7: give you in Scripture, in historic Christian teaching, in practical
• 18:22
  S7: Wisdom and then go from there. And that can apply
• 18:26
  S7: to everything from, you know, just. Optimization problems to relational
• 18:30
  S7: problems to questions about purpose and theology. But. Just a
• 18:34
  S7: simple upfront sentence like that will help a lot.
• 18:38
  S4: Thanks. It's been a joy glue developer. AI researcher formerly
• 18:44
  S4: at NASA as chief technologist. We've learned a lot. Covered
• 18:47
  S4: a lot of ground. If you want more, text Skye
• 18:50
  S4: to 800 555 7898. Text Skye s k y to
• 18:55
  S4: 800 555 7898.
• 18:59
  S1: Walking closer to Jesus every day. You're listening to Carl
• 19:03
  S1: and crew.
• 19:05
  S6: Well, we got a gap we got to talk about.
• 19:07
  S6: And I'm not talking a clothing store. I'm talking about
• 19:11
  S6: a big gap that is. It's a it's a big deal, guys.
• 19:16
  S6: So we've been talking about this. It's been a mind
• 19:18
  S6: blower for me and Ali. It's been huge. Data points
• 19:22
  S6: are just tremendous. I mean, you think about political campaigns,
• 19:26
  S6: they'll look at like where we're weak over here and
• 19:29
  S6: they'll put money at that gap, right? They'll throw money
• 19:32
  S6: at it. Why? Because it's proven that where you put
• 19:35
  S6: your focus to close a gap, it generally can possibly
• 19:41
  S6: change the trend lines. So the gap that kind of
• 19:44
  S6: is astounding is and this one really isn't a shocker. 72%
• 19:49
  S6: of Americans call themselves Christian that that. Does that shock you? 72%.
• 19:56
  S3: No.
• 19:57
  S6: Okay. Why does that not shock you?
• 19:59
  S4: Because I think that most the average person, if they
• 20:03
  S4: had to put themselves in a category in this country,
• 20:06
  S4: that it's a lower population of people who would consider
• 20:09
  S4: themselves other religion, certainly Christian is the predominant religion of
• 20:14
  S4: most people in this country. And so I think that
• 20:18
  S4: people would consider category. Well, I'm not this, this or this,
• 20:21
  S4: so I must be this.
• 20:23
  S6: You know what? That is a great observation. The way
• 20:27
  S6: we come up with these categories is not. I am this,
• 20:31
  S6: but I'm not this.
• 20:32
  S4: Exactly.
• 20:33
  S6: Yeah.
• 20:34
  S4: And so if I wouldn't say I'm Hindu, Muslim, atheist. Yeah. Christian. Yeah.
• 20:39
  S4: That that's probably.
• 20:40
  S3: Okay.
• 20:41
  S6: Powerful. And I think that, by the way, is a
• 20:43
  S6: huge observation because I think that's right on. It's not
• 20:46
  S6: who I am. It's who I'm not. I'm not this guy.
• 20:49
  S3: Right.
• 20:50
  S6: So I must be this guy. Okay. That's great. So 72%
• 20:53
  S6: say they're Christian. These are stats, by the way, from 2025.
• 20:57
  S6: And we're using Barna Research and Pew Reports. And this
• 21:00
  S6: one's from a Pew report. 24% of people identify with
• 21:05
  S6: evangelical Bible believing gospel preaching churches, not mainline churches, but
• 21:14
  S6: gospel preaching churches. What do you think about that number.
• 21:17
  S6: Just any thoughts?
• 21:18
  S4: He's at 24%.
• 21:19
  S6: 24%.
• 21:20
  S4: So it drops quite.
• 21:22
  S3: A bit.
• 21:22
  S6: Precipitously.
• 21:23
  S3: Yeah.
• 21:23
  S4: I mean, you go from 70 something to 20 something
• 21:25
  S4: as far as just and that's just church attendance or
• 21:28
  S4: church affiliation.
• 21:30
  S6: They call it church affiliation. It allows room for Easter's,
• 21:33
  S6: which is Christmas and Easter attenders and infrequent attenders and
• 21:38
  S6: radically all in go all the time, you know, morning,
• 21:41
  S6: noon and night kind of folks.
• 21:43
  S3: Uh.
• 21:44
  S4: Okay. That number doesn't surprise me either.
• 21:46
  S6: Okay. And this last one might not either, because we've
• 21:49
  S6: been in the saddle here a long time doing it,
• 21:52
  S6: but the world I this one was the one that
• 21:58
  S6: actually gave me hope that we've got a massive mission field.
• 22:00
  S6: Maybe it's even in the church because the Barna study
• 22:04
  S6: came out and he's got this shocking stat. 4% of
• 22:11
  S6: Americans in Canada. I know your next door neighbor's and
• 22:15
  S6: you might be in the same range here. Um, in
• 22:18
  S6: other parts of North America and beyond listening, you might
• 22:20
  S6: be in the same range. 4% of Americans say that
• 22:23
  S6: they have a Christian worldview, which would include a Triune God,
• 22:29
  S6: a real Jesus that came to earth, died for our sins,
• 22:32
  S6: rose again, and he's at the right hand of the
• 22:35
  S6: father interceding for us, and that he's going to come
• 22:39
  S6: again one day and take his children to be with
• 22:41
  S6: him for eternity. That's a rough outline Christian worldview, and
• 22:46
  S6: we aim to let that worldview, the biblical worldview, impact
• 22:52
  S6: our private and public lives. 4%. Okay. Is that how's
• 22:57
  S6: that bounce.
• 22:57
  S3: Off.
• 22:58
  S4: You is surprising. That one's surprising, particularly given the other two.
• 23:03
  S6: Okay, so I think it is for me too, maybe
• 23:07
  S6: because I'm an optimist and I want to believe it's
• 23:10
  S6: higher than that. So I probably would have put I
• 23:13
  S6: would have guessed it if Barnet would have said, guess it, Carl.
• 23:16
  S6: I probably would have gone. 8%.
• 23:18
  S3: Okay, sure.
• 23:19
  S6: But I don't think I would have gone beyond eight.
• 23:21
  S6: What do you think, Jonathan?
• 23:22
  S2: Yeah, I mean, I guess it doesn't surprise me too
• 23:25
  S2: much just because I've been thinking about this all week.
• 23:27
  S2: As you've been saying, these numbers, 74% was the first number.
• 23:31
  S3: 72, 70.
• 23:32
  S6: 71, actually 71.
• 23:33
  S3: 71.
• 23:34
  S2: I mean, if you think about how the world would
• 23:37
  S2: look with 71% of.
• 23:40
  S3: People who say.
• 23:41
  S2: They're Christian are actually genuine disciples and followers of Jesus,
• 23:44
  S2: the world will look insanely different.
• 23:47
  S6: Not because those people are perfect. Just look at your
• 23:50
  S6: friend Carl, because it does radically alter us.
• 23:53
  S2: Yes, because the gospel changes us. And so when we
• 23:56
  S2: follow him genuinely, we are genuinely transformed. And the world
• 23:59
  S2: doesn't look very transformed right now. So it doesn't surprise
• 24:02
  S2: me that the number is low.
• 24:03
  S6: Okay. Let what are some of the reasons for the
• 24:07
  S6: gap between 24% and the 4%? Let's just spitball. What
• 24:11
  S6: are some of those reasons?
• 24:12
  S4: So the gap between church.
• 24:15
  S3: Attendance.
• 24:16
  S6: With evangelical gospel preaching, churches that open the Word of
• 24:20
  S6: God and preach it with some form of integrity. What's that?
• 24:24
  S6: Why that gap between 24 and 4?
• 24:30
  S2: I think convenience.
• 24:33
  S3: Okay.
• 24:33
  S2: It's not convenient to, I guess, let go of some
• 24:39
  S2: of the things that we hold tightly onto.
• 24:41
  S6: Okay.
• 24:42
  S3: Okay. Yeah.
• 24:43
  S4: Uh, saturation of information of non biblical viewpoints everywhere else.
• 24:50
  S6: That's a good one. So. Oh, this is good. Yeah.
• 24:55
  S6: So saturation of a worldview that can't be counteracted with
• 25:01
  S6: a christocentric worldview.
• 25:03
  S4: Yes. Because we mentioned yesterday this word that we are
• 25:07
  S4: being discipled by many different things we are being influenced by.
• 25:13
  S4: Let's just take social media. You know, a lot of
• 25:16
  S4: people spend a lot of time on social media. And
• 25:18
  S4: so if if that starts to shape your worldview in
• 25:22
  S4: subtle ways, you start to believe things to be true
• 25:25
  S4: about human flourishing, about sexuality, about about God, that isn't
• 25:30
  S4: biblical necessarily. It's somebody's viewpoint, somebody's opinion. And over time,
• 25:36
  S4: without even realizing it, you can have shifted pretty dramatically
• 25:39
  S4: from an actual true biblical worldview, especially if you are
• 25:44
  S4: not inclined to read the Bible regularly, read and study
• 25:47
  S4: it on your own.
• 25:48
  S6: So a saturation with a worldview that the biblical worldview
• 25:52
  S6: can't overcome. I need you to write that down because
• 25:55
  S6: we need to deal with that on.
• 25:57
  S3: Here.
• 25:57
  S6: For a topic someday. Seriously, that is hugely insightful. Young Thunder,
• 26:02
  S6: one more shot.
• 26:02
  S2: I think another thing is that we've we've misunderstood the
• 26:06
  S2: purpose of of good works in the Christian faith and
• 26:10
  S2: attending church. You know, it's we look at it like
• 26:14
  S2: box checking. I used to do this when I was
• 26:15
  S2: in middle school.
• 26:16
  S6: That's the end of the road.
• 26:17
  S2: Yeah. The crisis of my faith in middle school of
• 26:20
  S2: of do I really know? AM I going to make
• 26:22
  S2: it to heaven? And it's like, well, I served on
• 26:24
  S2: a missions trip this summer, so I think I'm all set. We,
• 26:27
  S2: we look at it like box checking. It's different than that.
• 26:31
  S6: This is huge, man. This fires me up. I could
• 26:34
  S6: mosh pit this stuff all day long. We could sit
• 26:37
  S6: for three more hours here because I love this. Okay,
• 26:40
  S6: coming up in a moment. I want to make you
• 26:41
  S6: a promise. There's one more thing that we left out
• 26:45
  S6: that is very, very important here. And it's actually a
• 26:48
  S6: byproduct of what Ali said. And it's big and it
• 26:55
  S6: might relate to you. And you might have this question. Yeah.
• 26:58
  S6: Why isn't this thing called Christianity really working out for me?
• 27:02
  S6: Why isn't this thing working out? There can be a
• 27:04
  S6: lot of reasons, but there's one in particular that is
• 27:07
  S6: an epidemic right now in the Western Church, and we're
• 27:10
  S6: going to talk about it. Hang on.
• 27:11
  S1: Your shot of hope to help you through the day.
• 27:14
  S1: This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
• 27:19
  S6: I want to make you a promise that what I'm
• 27:21
  S6: about to tell you is one of the key reasons
• 27:25
  S6: for why a lot of people find the promises of
• 27:28
  S6: God to be so elusive. And I'm going to cut
• 27:31
  S6: to the chase and tell you that one of the
• 27:33
  S6: big gaps between the 4% that have a Christian worldview
• 27:37
  S6: that directs their private and public lives and actually results
• 27:40
  S6: in the fruit of the spirit, enjoy the abundant life
• 27:43
  S6: that Jesus promised, is that they have moved from cultural
• 27:48
  S6: Christianity into authentic followers of Christ. They've moved from going
• 27:55
  S6: to church to being in Christ. And boy, that's a
• 27:59
  S6: big difference. My heart's racing right now with expectation in
• 28:03
  S6: a really cool way. You know, I don't know if
• 28:06
  S6: your new listening here, if you've been here a long time,
• 28:09
  S6: but we, we realized that the power of the Holy
• 28:11
  S6: Spirit is so powerful that when we share the hope
• 28:13
  S6: of the gospel, the Holy Spirit and his goodness will
• 28:16
  S6: pull down blinders. And I'm praying that he's doing that now.
• 28:19
  S6: And there's others praying as well. I'm certain of it.
• 28:23
  S6: This cultural Christianity thing is an epidemic, and we know
• 28:27
  S6: it's the potentiality for it is huge. And I'm going
• 28:30
  S6: to make a quick reference here to a couple of
• 28:32
  S6: quick stories. Interestingly enough, in John, in excuse me, in
• 28:36
  S6: Matthew chapter seven and in Matthew 25 one is the
• 28:41
  S6: sermon on the Mount. The other one is a story
• 28:44
  S6: Jesus talks about about ten bridesmaids, the ten bridesmaids. There's
• 28:49
  S6: five that are ready when God returns. Jesus returns, and
• 28:52
  S6: there are five who are not. They all think they
• 28:54
  S6: are ready. They all think that they're ready. They're all
• 28:58
  S6: waiting for Jesus to return. Five are ready, five are
• 29:01
  S6: or not. And he says in Matthew 25, many will say, Lord, Lord,
• 29:06
  S6: five of those bridesmaids, half will say, Lord, Lord. And
• 29:09
  S6: he's going to say, I never knew you. Interestingly enough,
• 29:11
  S6: that's the same words, guys, that we find in Matthew seven.
• 29:14
  S6: Many will say on that day, Lord, Lord. And he's
• 29:17
  S6: going to say, I never knew you. Jesus uses those
• 29:19
  S6: same words twice, guys twice. And it's used to people
• 29:26
  S6: in both occasions who think they've got the real thing. Now,
• 29:32
  S6: that ought to stop us dead in our tracks because
• 29:34
  S6: these are not agnostic atheists, you know, shaking a fist
• 29:39
  S6: at God, cursing, drinking, going crazy, just losing their minds
• 29:43
  S6: out there. This this is these are well-meaning people. Isn't
• 29:50
  S6: that crazy? These are that's a fair enough statement. I
• 29:53
  S6: think I'm accurate.
• 29:54
  S3: With.
• 29:54
  S6: The text. These are well-meaning people. And he's going to say,
• 30:02
  S6: I never knew you. And our our goal here is
• 30:07
  S6: not to try to rattle you and go, man, I
• 30:09
  S6: don't know, maybe I'm not born again or I've thought
• 30:13
  S6: this over and over again. Listen, there are ample ways
• 30:15
  S6: to know. You stand with God and He stands with you.
• 30:17
  S6: And I've coined nine of them in a in a blog.
• 30:21
  S6: And anytime you need it, you can text the word
• 30:24
  S6: stand to our number here, and you can stand on
• 30:28
  S6: the Word of God and see if these things are
• 30:30
  S6: characteristic of you. You can text it anytime. That word
• 30:34
  S6: stand here to our number. But let me let me
• 30:36
  S6: just continue on here because for some, the Holy Spirit's
• 30:40
  S6: pulling down blinders and it's like, okay, Carl, I'm listening.
• 30:44
  S6: So here's the truth. We have interpreted church attendance or
• 30:51
  S6: emotional moments, or raising a hand or even walking an aisle,
• 30:55
  S6: or the action of getting baptized as indicative of someone
• 30:59
  S6: who is right with God. Those things, although they're all good,
• 31:05
  S6: may or may not indicate that you have the real
• 31:08
  S6: deal with Jesus. I was that way. Jonathan for sure
• 31:12
  S6: was that way to some degree. Ali, your story says,
• 31:15
  S6: you know, there was you were that way. But here's
• 31:20
  S6: here's the cool thing. You can know that you stand
• 31:23
  S6: with God. Let me tell you what the real gospel
• 31:25
  S6: is and what's been left out, and what it means
• 31:28
  S6: to really follow Jesus and be in relationship with him.
• 31:34
  S6: There has to come a point where you repent. Now
• 31:37
  S6: why repentance? Because we're born unto a broad path that
• 31:40
  S6: leads to destruction, I love to say, and Ali loves
• 31:44
  S6: to repeat it. And it's true. We're born with our
• 31:47
  S6: backs to God, aren't we?
• 31:48
  S3: Ali.
• 31:49
  S4: Right. I mean, we're the idea that we're all born
• 31:52
  S4: children of God or that we all somehow belong to
• 31:55
  S4: him as a default position biblically is just not true.
• 31:58
  S6: It's just not true. We're all born in sin. Sin
• 32:01
  S6: separated us from God and put our backs to him
• 32:03
  S6: from birth. And we're all born under this broad path
• 32:07
  S6: trying to figure out life. See, Jesus said, go out
• 32:11
  S6: to his disciples and talk about repentance. Repentance. Repentance means
• 32:15
  S6: turning around. It means changing your mind, changing the direction
• 32:20
  S6: of your life, changing your allegiance. See if you confess
• 32:25
  S6: with your mouth Jesus as Lord. This isn't just that
• 32:29
  S6: Jesus is an authority. He's my authority. Confess with your
• 32:35
  S6: mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that
• 32:38
  S6: God raised him from the dead. You will be saved.
• 32:41
  S6: This is big though, man. This is belief is not
• 32:44
  S6: just a nod of the head and intellectual assent. It's
• 32:48
  S6: an embracing at a soul level. I'm a sinner. I
• 32:51
  S6: need a Savior. My God is risen and he died
• 32:56
  S6: for me, and I'm going to turn my life over
• 32:59
  S6: to him. Repent. That's the gospel. You know what it is?
• 33:06
  S6: It's emptying your hands of trying to hold on to
• 33:10
  S6: all the gods on the broad path, and trying to
• 33:13
  S6: hold on to Jesus as well. And it's saying, no,
• 33:16
  S6: I'm letting go of all my substitute gods, all my idols,
• 33:18
  S6: and I'm turning around and I'm surrendering all I am
• 33:21
  S6: to Jesus today. And there's some of you that the gap.
• 33:30
  S6: Has been that you are a cultural Christian. You're a
• 33:34
  S6: Christian in name only. And God wants to save you
• 33:40
  S6: from yourself and your deception. And it's a cool thing
• 33:45
  S6: because right now the Holy Spirit's saying, that's you. And
• 33:50
  S6: salvation is the cry of the soul. It's just a
• 33:53
  S6: heart crying out saying, God, I need you right now.
• 33:55
  S6: I need you. And it's beautiful and God's calling you.
• 34:01
  S6: Come to me. You're weary and heavy laden. Take my
• 34:04
  S6: yoke upon you. Learn from me. I'm gentle and humble
• 34:07
  S6: in heart. You're going to find rest for your souls.
• 34:11
  S6: For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
• 34:19
  S6: And some of you have half heartedly in the past,
• 34:22
  S6: surrendered your life to Jesus, but you haven't fully surrendered
• 34:25
  S6: your life to Jesus. I mean, give him your all
• 34:29
  S6: and come empty handed and walk a path that few
• 34:33
  S6: will walk. But by God's grace, by the power of
• 34:36
  S6: the Holy Spirit, he's showing you. You need that today.
• 34:39
  S6: If today is your day of repentance, today is acknowledging
• 34:42
  S6: I'm a sinner. This isn't adding Jesus to my life.
• 34:46
  S6: This is giving my life to Jesus. You will be
• 34:52
  S6: born again. We're going to give you a link in
• 34:57
  S6: a moment here. I want you to use Aliy's going
• 34:59
  S6: to give it to you. But guys, I'm telling you
• 35:01
  S6: right now, today, if today is the day when you
• 35:04
  S6: acknowledge I'm a sinner, if Jesus died just for me,
• 35:07
  S6: it was worth it all. But he took the penalty
• 35:12
  S6: of my sin on his shoulders to the cross and
• 35:14
  S6: he rose again. He's alive. And I'm not going to
• 35:16
  S6: be a cultural Christianity Christian anymore. I am following Jesus.
• 35:21
  S6: I'm surrendering all I am to him today. I am repenting,
• 35:25
  S6: I am turning around, and it's all by God's grace.
• 35:31
  S6: But I just want to do this right now. God,
• 35:33
  S6: I rejoice that people right now are repenting and turning
• 35:36
  S6: to you. I praise you, you are an awesome God
• 35:40
  S6: and I give you thanks. In the name of Jesus,
• 35:43
  S6: I pray it. Amen. Ali, we want to help these
• 35:48
  S6: people who are having this, this huge answer for the
• 35:51
  S6: gap in their life, don't we?
• 35:52
  S4: Yes. So if that's you, I want you to just
• 35:54
  S4: text the word new. Just that one word n e
• 35:57
  S4: w to 800 555 7898. Just text new to 800
• 36:05
  S4: 555 7898. We just want to send you a link
• 36:08
  S4: that's going to give you just some next steps and
• 36:11
  S4: opportunity to get follow up, even from someone from our
• 36:14
  S4: Moody radio team. So just text new to 805 55 7898.
• 36:20
  S6: Yeah. Praise God that you were here today. He had
• 36:25
  S6: an appointment for you.
• 36:27
  S1: She's a choreographer extraordinaire and everything is Greek to her.
• 36:32
  S1: Super di is in the crew. It's Carl and crew
• 36:36
  S1: on Moody Radio.
• 36:39
  S6: So we had a little kicking it around here before
• 36:42
  S6: our last guest. By the way, that key word is sky.
• 36:46
  S6: You want to get it? Just sky. SKY1 word. Sky
• 36:50
  S6: to 800 555 7898. Uh, before we kick off our
• 36:55
  S6: next guest and move along here this morning, young Thunder,
• 36:59
  S6: I asked you, what's the hydration of a cup of coffee?
• 37:02
  S6: What percentage of the cup of coffee actually hydrates? Do
• 37:05
  S6: you have the answer for that one, my man.
• 37:06
  S2: Yeah. You know, I'm still making sure I've got it right.
• 37:09
  S2: But at least in terms of like Google's AI, it
• 37:12
  S2: says that a cup of coffee will hydrate you almost
• 37:15
  S2: as effectively as water. Contrary to popular belief, because coffee's
• 37:19
  S2: over 95% water.
• 37:21
  S3: I thought.
• 37:22
  S6: That caffeine counteracts the hydration.
• 37:24
  S3: Problem.
• 37:25
  S2: Says.
• 37:25
  S3: The flu.
• 37:25
  S6: Because it's a diuretic.
• 37:26
  S2: Well, it says the fluid intake outweighs the mild diuretic
• 37:29
  S2: effect of caffeine, especially in moderate amounts, 2 to 4
• 37:33
  S2: cups a day, while water.
• 37:34
  S3: Superior is moderate.
• 37:36
  S2: Well, I guess at least according to this, I can
• 37:40
  S2: imagine there are a lot of coffee drinkers who have
• 37:42
  S2: four cups of coffee.
• 37:43
  S6: Oh, no. I mean, I worked with the guy in
• 37:45
  S6: Prudhoe Bay who drank it all day long. I estimated
• 37:48
  S6: one time how many cups of coffee he had. And
• 37:50
  S6: I think it was something like 40 in a day.
• 37:52
  S2: That's crazy.
• 37:52
  S6: Drank it all day long.
• 37:54
  S3: 40?
• 37:54
  S6: Oh, yeah. At least 40 cups a day. He just
• 37:59
  S6: drank it morning, noon and night. Just drank it all
• 38:01
  S6: day long.
• 38:02
  S4: Interesting.
• 38:02
  S6: I had to talk him into hydrating before I knew
• 38:04
  S6: how important drinking water really was.
• 38:07
  S4: Okay, so we're still not, are we? Still are. So
• 38:10
  S4: we're going to go with that because that just.
• 38:13
  S6: I'm going to put a cautionary.
• 38:14
  S3: Thing.
• 38:15
  S4: Everything I've ever learned. And I'm not a coffee drinker
• 38:18
  S4: because I am kind of allergic to it and I
• 38:20
  S4: don't like the taste of it anyway.
• 38:23
  S8: Two good reasons not to drink it. So I'm sorry,
• 38:29
  S8: but I'm cracking up this morning.
• 38:31
  S3: I don't drink it because.
• 38:32
  S6: I'm.
• 38:33
  S3: Kind of allergic and I don't like the taste.
• 38:36
  S2: I'm looking at it. So I ran it through a
• 38:38
  S2: different AI. I ran it through ChatGPT. And this says
• 38:41
  S2: that coffee hydrates you 80 to 90% as much as water. So.
• 38:45
  S3: Wow.
• 38:46
  S2: So so pretty good.
• 38:48
  S8: Okay.
• 38:49
  S6: I'm still going to drink water.
• 38:51
  S4: Yeah.
• 38:52
  S3: Yeah. Water's better.
• 38:53
  S4: I think that there's other reasons why you shouldn't just
• 38:55
  S4: drink coffee all day. Even if it doesn't fully dehydrate you,
• 38:59
  S4: you need water to actually, you know, flush out your system.
• 39:03
  S6: Can you say eyeballs coming out of your head? That's
• 39:05
  S6: one reason not to drink coffee all day long.
• 39:07
  S3: Yeah. Very true.
• 39:08
  S6: Okay. Uh, coming up here in just a moment. Uh, boy,
• 39:12
  S6: when you've got one name for a moniker, you generally
• 39:17
  S6: have an influencer's platform. Ruslan. Coming up straight ahead.
• 39:23
  S1: Romans eight brought her to Jesus while broadcasting traffic overnight.
• 39:27
  S1: Super di is in the crew. It's curl and crew
• 39:31
  S1: on Moody radio.
• 39:34
  S6: Well, it's not often. Guys, we have a guest in
• 39:36
  S6: here that. I guess we got some one name Guess. Right.
• 39:40
  S6: We got a few of them.
• 39:41
  S3: Yeah.
• 39:42
  S6: Drew. I mean, everybody go. Oh, that's Dickens, man. He's
• 39:46
  S6: bringing the AI content. But on this one, we've got
• 39:49
  S6: a guy named Ruslan. How in the world did you
• 39:51
  S6: get that name? That is your name, I'm assuming. Right,
• 39:53
  S6: my friend.
• 39:55
  S9: That that is my government name. Correct.
• 39:58
  S8: That's good. All right.
• 39:59
  S6: We want to jump right in here. Ruslan, I know
• 40:01
  S6: you got a big following. You know what? I got
• 40:04
  S6: a curveball question for you. You're not old. You're not
• 40:08
  S6: a kid. How do you stay humble when you've got
• 40:11
  S6: a big platform? And a lot of people that hang
• 40:13
  S6: on every word you say?
• 40:15
  S9: Marriage. I have a very good marriage. What a great
• 40:20
  S9: wife that is not impressed with with any of the
• 40:23
  S9: stuff I got going on.
• 40:25
  S8: That's really a good answer.
• 40:28
  S4: Ruslan Kadi, that's what he's known on YouTube. He's a
• 40:32
  S4: Christian YouTuber, podcaster, entrepreneur. He's known for his thought provoking
• 40:36
  S4: Commentary on faith, culture and personal development. As a YouTuber,
• 40:42
  S4: I know you. You'd have to pay attention to some
• 40:44
  S4: of what trends in terms of your content, what has
• 40:48
  S4: been your content piece that has gone the furthest and
• 40:52
  S4: widest just in terms of downloads, I guess, or views?
• 40:57
  S9: There's been an interesting resurgence in the podcast sphere around faith.
• 41:03
  S9: So particularly Joe Rogan recently coming to church and going
• 41:08
  S9: to church regularly. Uh, we were able to kind of
• 41:10
  S9: call that years and years ago. And then seeing friends
• 41:14
  S9: of mine like Wes Huff end up on there and
• 41:17
  S9: Stephen Myers. Uh, and that's been really fascinating. So we
• 41:21
  S9: were kind of early to call what we would probably
• 41:23
  S9: acknowledge today is some sort of, what do we call it,
• 41:26
  S9: awakening or revival. Uh, talked about that fairly early on.
• 41:30
  S9: So I'd say that that's probably the thing that was
• 41:32
  S9: that that was most interesting for us.
• 41:34
  S3: You know.
• 41:35
  S6: I've been so intrigued with Rogan and what he's saying
• 41:38
  S6: about him going to church. I don't even know where
• 41:40
  S6: he's at exactly with God. But here's what I'm finding
• 41:43
  S6: with this new media. There is a freedom. They don't
• 41:46
  S6: feel constrained like the old media. What's your take on that, Ruslan?
• 41:52
  S9: Well, yeah, once you eliminate any massive corporations or any
• 41:55
  S9: middlemen or anyone that's handling the relationships between the sponsors,
• 42:00
  S9: and you can go directly to your audience. I think
• 42:02
  S9: it definitely gives people more freedom to, to be themselves
• 42:05
  S9: and be transparent in terms of what they're exploring and
• 42:09
  S9: who they're becoming.
• 42:11
  S4: Let's get a little bit of your own personal story.
• 42:14
  S4: You know, I just saw a couple of articles about you.
• 42:18
  S4: One article, the headline is Ex Atheist who escapes horrors
• 42:22
  S4: of communism becomes Christian. YouTube star inspires next generation.
• 42:27
  S3: That's a headline.
• 42:28
  S4: That is a headline on a story written about you
• 42:30
  S4: in the Christian Broadcasting Network. Give us fill in the
• 42:34
  S4: gaps because there's a lot there in that one headline.
• 42:38
  S9: Yeah. It's accurate. So I grew up, uh, I'm ethnically
• 42:42
  S9: Armenian and I grew up in a country named Azerbaijan. Baku. Uh,
• 42:48
  S9: this is in the Middle East, very, very peaceful part
• 42:51
  S9: of the world, a lot of tranquility and, uh, no,
• 42:55
  S9: I'm joking. It's not.
• 42:55
  S3: It's like, wait a second.
• 42:56
  S9: Just north of Iran and Iraq, that's where I grew up. Uh,
• 43:01
  S9: and so I am ethnically Armenian, but Azerbaijan, much like Iran,
• 43:05
  S9: is a Muslim part of the world, same type of Islam.
• 43:09
  S9: They practice in Iran, they practice in Azerbaijan. And so
• 43:12
  S9: this is all under the backdrop of the Soviet Union
• 43:15
  S9: and communism. And long story short, in the late 80s,
• 43:18
  S9: there was something called the pogroms of Baku, where about
• 43:21
  S9: half a million Armenians were ethnically displaced from Baku. And
• 43:28
  S9: we were scattered all over. And so me and my
• 43:30
  S9: family came to the United States in 1991. And then
• 43:35
  S9: subsequently after my mom and my dad split. And I
• 43:37
  S9: had a pretty rough upbringing, which then led me to, uh,
• 43:41
  S9: I had to have been the youngest self-identifying atheist. I
• 43:44
  S9: was probably 10 or 11 years old, uh, saying the
• 43:47
  S9: word atheist because my, my framework was that there is
• 43:50
  S9: no God. And if there was a God, he definitely
• 43:52
  S9: didn't love me and didn't care about me.
• 43:55
  S6: How'd that change?
• 43:57
  S9: Through a series of pretty events, I ended up getting
• 44:01
  S9: arrested at the age of, uh, 11 for attempting to
• 44:06
  S9: break into our house because we were trying to get
• 44:08
  S9: bail money to bail out my, my, our quote unquote,
• 44:11
  S9: gang leader. And we were in a lot of stuff.
• 44:15
  S9: It was me and this other Armenian, uh, family, refugee
• 44:17
  S9: family in our neighborhood. And I, I mean, I just,
• 44:20
  S9: I just had been through the ringer. I was smoking weed, drinking,
• 44:24
  S9: getting arrested, just, just a complete diet. Uh, dumb kid
• 44:29
  S9: to say the least. And in that process, I ended
• 44:32
  S9: up having to do some community service hours. Uh, and
• 44:36
  S9: I like the typical knucklehead that I was waited until
• 44:39
  S9: the last minute to get these community service hours in,
• 44:41
  S9: but I knew I had a court date coming up.
• 44:43
  S3: So you were motivated? I do.
• 44:46
  S9: Yeah. What do I do? I end up going to
• 44:49
  S9: my neighbor's church to finish up these community service hours.
• 44:52
  S9: It's the only way I was going to get them
• 44:54
  S9: in time and their church. She had also. Her name
• 44:58
  S9: is Sheri, had a radical encounter with Jesus after going
• 45:01
  S9: to jail. Uh, for much, much serious, you know, crimes
• 45:05
  S9: that I was doing and, uh, coming out of jail,
• 45:07
  S9: getting saved. And then everybody in our apartment complex except
• 45:11
  S9: the two refugee families became Christian. And that's who I
• 45:13
  S9: ended up doing the community service hours with was, uh,
• 45:17
  S9: my next door neighbor was Charlie and Willy, who went
• 45:19
  S9: to the church, and they ended up just sharing Jesus
• 45:21
  S9: with me over and over. It's like seventh grade. And
• 45:24
  S9: I was really resistant for years. And then we relocated.
• 45:28
  S9: We moved. And it's just like the Lord just kept
• 45:30
  S9: putting people in my life that told me about Jesus.
• 45:33
  S9: And freshman year, I started dating a girl. She's telling
• 45:36
  S9: me about Jesus. And then eventually through about two years
• 45:40
  S9: of wrestling, I come to the faith through the door
• 45:43
  S9: of apologetics. I actually read the book The New Evidence
• 45:46
  S9: That Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell in high school. And, uh,
• 45:50
  S9: you know, surrender my life to the Lord about the
• 45:53
  S9: end of my junior year.
• 45:54
  S6: Beautiful man. That is a beautiful story. What's the fresh
• 45:58
  S6: thing God's doing in your life right now? I love
• 46:00
  S6: to ask that question. And here's why. The apostle Paul,
• 46:02
  S6: standing in front of Agrippa, gave his whole pedigree, all
• 46:05
  S6: the pick and bumps and bruises of trying to be
• 46:08
  S6: a Christian killer, getting smoked on the road to Damascus.
• 46:11
  S6: And then he looks at Agrippa and he says, and
• 46:13
  S6: this God is helping me to this very day. You
• 46:16
  S6: believe that, don't you?
• 46:18
  S9: Amen, Amen. Yeah. So this very day, I mean, there's
• 46:21
  S9: so many things God is doing. Uh, the impact of
• 46:24
  S9: the book has been amazing and I'm sure we'll talk
• 46:27
  S9: about that. Yeah, I've been I've been very fortunate in
• 46:30
  S9: that regard. We just had a baby. Uh, I have
• 46:33
  S9: a four month old. His name is Luc Pascal. So
• 46:35
  S9: babies are a great a great way for the Lord
• 46:38
  S9: to move and show up. And you see the development
• 46:41
  S9: and the smiles and the coos. Um, I recently did a, uh,
• 46:47
  S9: a buddy of mine, Justin Early, wrote a book called
• 46:49
  S9: The Body Teaches the Soul. And it's all about like
• 46:54
  S9: erasing the idea of Gnosticism and holistically walking in fullness
• 46:58
  S9: of taking care of your body. And so I've been
• 46:59
  S9: on a health journey as well. I cut out caffeine
• 47:01
  S9: for a couple of weeks. Uh, I, you know, I
• 47:04
  S9: strength train pretty hard and I'm, uh, I'm, I love
• 47:07
  S9: that part because once I, once I lock in there,
• 47:10
  S9: there's something that happens when my natural body submits to
• 47:14
  S9: the things of God in terms of eating and sleeping. Um,
• 47:18
  S9: I'm doing a Bible in a two year plan on logos,
• 47:20
  S9: Bible software, which I'm a big fan of. So that's,
• 47:22
  S9: that's exciting. You know, five days a week, logos, Bible software. Um,
• 47:26
  S9: I go through the Bible in two years, which I've
• 47:28
  S9: never done before. I've done one year, but I always
• 47:31
  S9: fall behind and struggle. Whereas a two year plan, just
• 47:35
  S9: every day I'm coming fresh to the word. It's about
• 47:37
  S9: seven minutes of reading a day. So there's so many
• 47:39
  S9: amazing things and I can go deeper on any of
• 47:41
  S9: those if you want to.
• 47:42
  S6: Yeah, yeah, I can tell you, Ruslan, let me tell
• 47:45
  S6: you something. You're a breath of fresh air. You know,
• 47:48
  S6: a lot of people might come on and go, yeah,
• 47:50
  S6: I've got I read the Bible every eight weeks through
• 47:53
  S6: cover to cover. Now, I love your take on this thing.
• 47:57
  S6: And coming up here, boom crew, I want to tell
• 47:59
  S6: you something. He's written a book that has taken off.
• 48:01
  S6: It's called Godly Ambition. And I love how he dispels
• 48:06
  S6: the myth of the super spirituality. It says you shouldn't
• 48:10
  S6: have any ambition. And then this craziness, it says everything's
• 48:14
  S6: about ambition. And he's talking about leveraging that godly ambition
• 48:17
  S6: in ways that really direct your time, talent and treasure.
• 48:20
  S6: Hang on more with Ruslan straight ahead.
• 48:23
  S1: She was trying to earn her way to God, but
• 48:26
  S1: God showed her she didn't have to. Ali is in
• 48:29
  S1: the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
• 48:35
  S6: We've got Ruslan with us right now. Yep. He's got
• 48:37
  S6: a big enough platform that one name will work. And
• 48:41
  S6: it's really cool. Godly kid. Uh, I call you kid
• 48:44
  S6: because I'm way older than you, so I can do that, Ruslan.
• 48:47
  S6: But I appreciate your humility and just the vulnerability that
• 48:51
  S6: you have. You know, I also love the fact that
• 48:55
  S6: you're a resistance trainer and your experiment with health things
• 48:58
  S6: you knew. I'd love that, right?
• 49:00
  S4: Oh, yeah. That's right up your alley.
• 49:01
  S3: Oh, come on now.
• 49:02
  S6: So talk to us about godly ambition and what's what
• 49:07
  S6: do we get right? What do we get wrong and
• 49:09
  S6: what have you learned?
• 49:11
  S9: Wow. I think there's so many things that we get
• 49:15
  S9: right in the sense that like, even before being a Christian,
• 49:19
  S9: there are some things that every one of us has
• 49:21
  S9: kind of built to get after, and those are good things.
• 49:24
  S9: And I think what happens is if we don't walk
• 49:27
  S9: with Jesus, we then get polluted by the world. And
• 49:30
  S9: those good desires like to become a provider, like to
• 49:33
  S9: take care of your body, uh, like to figure out
• 49:36
  S9: what your purpose and your calling is. It's a good desires.
• 49:38
  S9: Those are good ambitions. But what happens is, uh, if you,
• 49:41
  S9: if you're not following Jesus, you'll get polluted by the world.
• 49:44
  S9: And then those things become selfish ambition. Uh, the scriptures
• 49:47
  S9: call that, uh, adithya in the Greek. And that is
• 49:51
  S9: like a selfish. I'm going to clobber, get after it
• 49:54
  S9: by any means necessary. And then what happens for for
• 49:57
  S9: some of us is we become followers of Jesus. And
• 50:00
  S9: then the church tells us that all ambition is evil.
• 50:03
  S9: And this is actually a sermon I heard from a pastor,
• 50:07
  S9: a well known pastor, that inspired this book about almost
• 50:11
  S9: ten years ago, 2017, 2018, and it was a viral
• 50:14
  S9: clip that said all ambition is evil and it's still
• 50:19
  S9: up till this day and people can Google it. I'm
• 50:20
  S9: not going to name check the. The pastor is. So
• 50:23
  S9: this is going viral. And the ironic part about this
• 50:26
  S9: clip is I'm watching it and I'm like, this guy
• 50:28
  S9: is well dressed. He has an amazing stage design. He's
• 50:33
  S9: preaching with passion. Someone on his team had the capacity
• 50:37
  S9: to clip this up in a way that would go
• 50:39
  S9: viral and everything about this exhibit's ambition, but he's telling
• 50:42
  S9: young people that all ambition is evil and it's demonic
• 50:45
  S9: and it's bad.
• 50:46
  S3: And.
• 50:46
  S9: You shouldn't go. And I'm like, this is this is
• 50:49
  S9: this is dumb. And so that's the other extreme is
• 50:51
  S9: people that say all ambition is evil and that's false too.
• 50:55
  S9: And so what I discovered in the scriptures is there's
• 50:57
  S9: actually a word for ambition that's different than the type
• 51:01
  S9: of ambition in the original Greek. It's something like filio tamam,
• 51:05
  S9: which is where we get the word filio is where
• 51:08
  S9: we get our word Philadelphia or brotherly, and then Tamam,
• 51:12
  S9: there's the root word time there. So it's a type
• 51:14
  S9: of ambition that Paul uses three times. He says he
• 51:16
  S9: makes it his ambition to preach the gospel where others
• 51:19
  S9: have it. He makes it his ambition to do what
• 51:23
  S9: pleases God, and he makes it his ambition to lead
• 51:26
  S9: a quiet life. Working with your own hands, minding your
• 51:28
  S9: own business so that you won't be dependent on anyone
• 51:30
  S9: in your daily life, may win the respect of outsiders.
• 51:33
  S9: And so that's a godly ambition that I end up
• 51:36
  S9: exploring in the book, and really trying to get people
• 51:38
  S9: in tune with calling identity their purpose. Why are they here?
• 51:43
  S9: How do they go after it? And what sort of
• 51:45
  S9: framework can we give people to discover this?
• 51:48
  S3: Love it.
• 51:48
  S4: Ruslan. Katie, our guest right now, he's a Christian YouTuber, podcaster, entrepreneur.
• 51:53
  S4: You know, the YouTube space is an interesting one. You
• 51:57
  S4: got into it pretty early. You 2015. So you've been
• 51:59
  S4: doing this for a while. There's this, there's really a generational, uh,
• 52:05
  S4: I don't want to say divide, but you know, my
• 52:07
  S4: son is very into YouTube. He's 13. He's got the,
• 52:10
  S4: his favorite YouTubers that he follows me. Not so much.
• 52:14
  S4: My parents. Really? Not at all. Why is the YouTube
• 52:18
  S4: platform a good place for ministry?
• 52:22
  S9: Well, YouTube is not the time square of our digital world,
• 52:26
  S9: and it can get you in front of a lot
• 52:29
  S9: of people if you understand the platform. And I think
• 52:33
  S9: whenever we have an opportunity to speak in front of people, uh,
• 52:36
  S9: that's always a good thing. And so the beautiful part
• 52:38
  S9: about YouTube is it's replacing television now. So most people
• 52:42
  S9: are watching more YouTube. They're on social media more than
• 52:45
  S9: they were watching TV. And that could be a good
• 52:48
  S9: thing or a bad thing because, you know, TV had some,
• 52:50
  S9: some guardrails, if you will. And now there's almost something
• 52:54
  S9: for everyone. But the beautiful part about YouTube is if
• 52:56
  S9: we could understand what people are struggling with, what people
• 53:00
  S9: are wrestling with, what concerns, what fears, what questions they have,
• 53:03
  S9: then we as followers of Jesus can speak directly into
• 53:05
  S9: that and take topics that they're interested about. And the
• 53:08
  S9: YouTube search will work our things up in front of them,
• 53:12
  S9: and we arguably get access to more non-Christians, more Jesus
• 53:16
  S9: curious people than through any medium in the history of media.
• 53:21
  S6: What are the top things that you're finding really do, um,
• 53:26
  S6: provoke people to take a listen to what you're saying?
• 53:30
  S6: God's given you a big platform. Those aren't all people
• 53:33
  S6: that are church kids or adults. What's what's God doing?
• 53:37
  S9: Well, I think this generation, specifically Gen Z in the
• 53:41
  S9: coming Gen Alpha, is arguably the most marketed to generation ever.
• 53:46
  S9: I mean, they all grew up with phones in their
• 53:48
  S9: hands or tablets on them. And they're they're tired of
• 53:51
  S9: being marketed to. And I think they're looking for something
• 53:53
  S9: that is real, that is genuine and that is authentic.
• 53:57
  S9: And I think we are seeing a ton of interest
• 54:00
  S9: on everything from just, just the topic of Jesus and
• 54:02
  S9: how to live a life that follows Jesus. You know,
• 54:04
  S9: they say 45% of non-Christian Gen Z is Jesus curious? Um,
• 54:10
  S9: and then all the way to, you know, we talk
• 54:13
  S9: about everything from demons and aliens and the Nephilim all
• 54:16
  S9: have different, uh, investigators on theologians on, uh, we talk about,
• 54:22
  S9: you know, stuff that 20 years ago we may have
• 54:24
  S9: found boring, which is like the validity of the scriptures.
• 54:27
  S9: You know, Wes Huff has gone mega-viral now, I've had
• 54:29
  S9: him on the channel quite a few times. Uh, he
• 54:31
  S9: endorsed my book as well. And so we'll have on,
• 54:34
  S9: you know, the historicity of why the scriptures are reliable.
• 54:37
  S9: So we actually end up having a pretty broad conversation
• 54:40
  S9: around all these things. And the interesting thing is, I mean,
• 54:43
  S9: young people are curious about all of it. Like it's
• 54:46
  S9: they want to know their calling. They want to know
• 54:48
  S9: their purpose. They also want to understand the stuff that's
• 54:50
  S9: happening with the aliens and the Nephilim, you know, Bigfoot.
• 54:53
  S9: And they, they just, they're curious bunch and a lot
• 54:56
  S9: of questions.
• 54:57
  S3: I love it.
• 54:58
  S6: Well, there's something really cool coming up here. Uh, not
• 55:01
  S6: just in Chicagoland, but it is in Chicago, but it's
• 55:03
  S6: around the nation. And we've got a link for all this,
• 55:06
  S6: but we also have a link in this keyword that
• 55:09
  S6: we're going to give you, this link to this book
• 55:12
  S6: for which I ordered one already. Godly ambition unlocking the
• 55:16
  S6: full potential of your time, talent, and treasure. I'm a
• 55:19
  S6: Lifehacker that way, Ruslan, so I'm looking forward to seeing
• 55:21
  S6: what I can learn from you. Ali. How do they
• 55:24
  S6: get it?
• 55:24
  S4: Yeah. This is going to give you everything. The book.
• 55:26
  S4: And then as Carl mentioned, there's an upcoming tour that's
• 55:30
  S4: going to be an experience. It's going to blend a
• 55:33
  S4: lot of your passions. Ruslan, you said there's going to
• 55:35
  S4: be some music, some Q&A, some storytelling. You're a one
• 55:39
  S4: man band for sure. Just text bless to (800) 555-7898. It's
• 55:45
  S4: the Godly Ambition Tour, kicking off April 10th here in
• 55:48
  S4: Chicago with them with stops nationwide. Just text bless to (800) 555-7898.
• 55:54
  S4: We'll get you the details.
• 55:57
  S1: Get to know the team behind the scenes. Follow Carl
• 56:00
  S1: and crew on Facebook and Instagram.
• 56:05
  S3: All right.
• 56:06
  S6: A couple big things we got for you this half hour.
• 56:09
  S6: The first one is really cool and really simple. We
• 56:12
  S6: want to have you part of planning where we're going
• 56:15
  S6: with this show. We call it the War Room and
• 56:17
  S6: we are inviting you in. Ali's got the details.
• 56:20
  S3: Take it away, Ali.
• 56:22
  S4: So our war room is our planning session. We pray. We, uh,
• 56:26
  S4: brainstorm different ideas. We listen to your feedback, which is
• 56:30
  S4: what we're asking for now. What topics would you like
• 56:33
  S4: to hear us talk more about? Or maybe talk about?
• 56:36
  S4: You've never heard about it on Karl and Crew, but
• 56:38
  S4: you'd love to hear us and capture this or go
• 56:42
  S4: in this direction. And someone said, I want you guys
• 56:45
  S4: to say gospel focused. Oh, absolutely.
• 56:48
  S3: Yeah, we ain't going away from that.
• 56:50
  S4: We're not going to turn into a cooking show or
• 56:53
  S4: pop culture or the top ten lists of X, Y,
• 56:56
  S4: or Z. No, no, no, no. This is all under
• 56:59
  S4: the umbrella of the gospel changes everything. So no worries there.
• 57:03
  S2: I really want to know how young Thunder cooks his
• 57:05
  S2: mac and cheese.
• 57:07
  S4: Segment coming your way. It involves a microwave, most likely.
• 57:12
  S3: It involves a box and a microwave. Hey.
• 57:15
  S2: Just because it's accurate doesn't mean it's not hurtful.
• 57:17
  S4: So what is that idea? What is that topic suggestion
• 57:20
  S4: that you have for us? (800) 555-7898. So much. Hundreds of
• 57:27
  S4: texts already have come in on this one. So make
• 57:29
  S4: sure that you weigh in. What do you want to
• 57:30
  S4: hear more of? What has helped you in your walk
• 57:33
  S4: with Jesus? 800 555 7898.
• 57:37
  S6: Okay, here's the question we've got for you this half
• 57:40
  S6: hour and we're going to light it up. We're going
• 57:41
  S6: old school. Classic Freedom Friday. Haven't done this in a while.
• 57:45
  S6: What did God use to grab your heart and transform it?
• 57:51
  S6: I'm talking salvation. Was it a book? Was it a preacher?
• 57:55
  S6: Was it a radio show? Was it a YouTube channel?
• 57:59
  S6: Was it you had heard truth before and you got
• 58:02
  S6: smoked by the spirit driving down the road like me.
• 58:05
  S6: And God said, are you done yet? Because you already
• 58:08
  S6: knew the gospel. So think about it. What did God
• 58:12
  S6: use to grab your heart and transform your soul? I
• 58:17
  S6: love this, this is old school Freedom Friday.
• 58:20
  S4: Here it is. What was it? Was it a person?
• 58:23
  S4: Was it a book, a podcast, a radio show, a
• 58:27
  S4: church service? 855 five 7898. What did God use to
• 58:32
  S4: grab your heart and transform your soul? 805 55 7898.
• 58:38
  S3: Was.
• 58:38
  S6: It Billy Graham?
• 58:39
  S4: I, I think there's, there's so many different ways that
• 58:43
  S4: this could be answered. And I'm really excited to hear
• 58:46
  S4: stories this morning.
• 58:47
  S6: Yeah, we got to get your stories. So call in,
• 58:50
  S6: light them up. We got every phone line wide open.
• 58:54
  S6: Come and fill them up. We are asking you to.
• 58:58
  S6: Well come on, we're giving you input to the show now.
• 59:00
  S6: It's time. Boy, we got full show participation today. This
• 59:04
  S6: is awesome. What did God use to grab your heart
• 59:07
  S6: and transform your soul? Light them up. Take a moment.
• 59:12
  S6: Call in. You won't be on here long. And we
• 59:14
  S6: don't bite. We just nibble. 800 555, 78, 98. And
• 59:20
  S6: this is going to inspire someone else. 800 555 7898.
• 59:27
  S6: Light them up, guys. Now's the time.
• 59:30
  S1: Get in the know with life's biggest questions. It's ask
• 59:34
  S1: the experts week with Carl and crew.
• 59:38
  S6: Phone lines are jammed. I love that.
• 59:42
  S4: It's Freedom Friday. Here's the question. What did God use
• 59:45
  S4: to grab your heart and transform your soul? This could
• 59:48
  S4: be a what or a who, I guess. Was it
• 59:50
  S4: a book, a YouTube channel, a person, a podcast man?
• 59:55
  S4: You ready?
• 59:55
  S6: Yeah. Let's go. Janis. Murfreesboro, Tennessee. What do you say, sister? Janice.
• 1:00:03
  S6: You're on air. You got the radio up in the background.
• 1:00:05
  S6: What do you got, Janice?
• 1:00:07
  S10: Oh, hi. Um, yeah, I'm Janice from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and I, um,
• 1:00:13
  S10: came to know the Lord through a girl who was
• 1:00:15
  S10: a neighbor, and she was at a biker party that
• 1:00:19
  S10: I was at. I was preaching about Jesus, um, at a,
• 1:00:23
  S10: at a campfire, and I heard the call of the
• 1:00:26
  S10: Lord and, um, gave my life to Christ and went
• 1:00:31
  S10: back to church or went to church and have been
• 1:00:34
  S10: following him since the Jesus Revolution.
• 1:00:37
  S4: Wow.
• 1:00:38
  S6: Janice. Nothing like somebody preaching from a soft tail of
• 1:00:42
  S6: a Harley-Davidson, right, sister?
• 1:00:44
  S11: That's right.
• 1:00:46
  S4: Oh, I love that.
• 1:00:48
  S6: Oh my goodness, that's awesome. Let's keep going to the
• 1:00:50
  S6: phone lines here.
• 1:00:51
  S4: Ali, what did God use to grab your heart and
• 1:00:53
  S4: transform your soul? George from Charleston, South Carolina. What was
• 1:00:57
  S4: it for you?
• 1:00:58
  S1: Hello.
• 1:00:59
  S4: Hello. Go ahead. George. Yes, we got you, George. Go ahead.
• 1:01:04
  S12: Yeah. Um, so a couple things, but make a long
• 1:01:08
  S12: story short. I had a Gideon Bible given to me
• 1:01:10
  S12: for my brother. You know, when he went to the
• 1:01:13
  S12: Air Force that started warming my heart. But what really
• 1:01:16
  S12: grabbed my heart was, uh. And Carl, I know you're
• 1:01:18
  S12: familiar with this ministry. Pacific Garden mission.
• 1:01:21
  S6: Oh, yeah, we all are.
• 1:01:23
  S12: Yeah. So back in 1987, I was on the road
• 1:01:27
  S12: selling vacuum cleaners and stuff like that. And I found
• 1:01:30
  S12: a way to hear this podcast. I heard this radio
• 1:01:33
  S12: show called unshackled. And, uh, after three months of being
• 1:01:39
  S12: on the road. Listen to this, listen to this program. Yeah,
• 1:01:42
  S12: it just, you know, it's true stories about how people
• 1:01:45
  S12: come to faith in Christ. And I just said, Lord,
• 1:01:48
  S12: I ain't worth nothing. But whatever it is, it's all yours. Wow.
• 1:01:52
  S12: Praise God. 39 years later, my beautiful wife stuck with me.
• 1:01:56
  S12: That was two months before I got married. I had
• 1:01:58
  S12: to confess stuff. She stayed with me. And we both have.
• 1:02:01
  S12: We're believers. Our kids are believers. Our. By God's grace,
• 1:02:04
  S12: our grandkids will be too.
• 1:02:06
  S13: Praise God. Wow.
• 1:02:07
  S6: George. Smoke on the water. Boom, brother. Unshackled.
• 1:02:11
  S4: Yes. Longest, longest running radio drama in history. So they
• 1:02:15
  S4: take these testimonies and they are, um, kind of like
• 1:02:19
  S4: they're dramatized by trained actors. And yeah, it is an
• 1:02:23
  S4: incredible radio program.
• 1:02:25
  S6: Great stuff. Dennis. Chattanooga, Tennessee. What's your story? Dennis?
• 1:02:29
  S14: Yes. Uh, I found the Lord back in my 30s
• 1:02:33
  S14: and he showed me a love, mercy, and grace and
• 1:02:37
  S14: he set me down to do it that I, I
• 1:02:39
  S14: was supposed to take over and, and show that I'm
• 1:02:43
  S14: willing to go the distance. And I fell short and
• 1:02:45
  S14: ran away and I was gone for 15 years. Moved
• 1:02:48
  S14: back to Red Bank in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And one morning
• 1:02:52
  S14: I walked out to the truck to go to work,
• 1:02:54
  S14: and a voice from heaven spoke and told me to
• 1:02:56
  S14: pick a road. And the power was so strong that
• 1:02:59
  S14: when the voice spoke, you could feel that. And now
• 1:03:02
  S14: I've been sober. And without that, that sinful thing in
• 1:03:06
  S14: my life. I've been there for ten years. I had
• 1:03:09
  S14: my anniversary was last month, and I have found a
• 1:03:13
  S14: new way to live. And every day I wake up,
• 1:03:15
  S14: I think about how I can please God.
• 1:03:17
  S6: Oh, Dennis.
• 1:03:18
  S4: Wow.
• 1:03:19
  S6: Boom. Brother, this is Freedom Friday. Ali. Coming up. Taking
• 1:03:24
  S6: more of your calls. What's the question?
• 1:03:25
  S4: What did God use to grab your heart and transform
• 1:03:28
  S4: your soul? Was it a person, a book, a podcast,
• 1:03:32
  S4: a YouTube channel? You tell us 805, five, five, 78,
• 1:03:36
  S4: 98 taking your calls on this freedom. Friday 805 557898A.
• 1:03:42
  S1: Basketball mom who's mastered the dad joke. Ali is in
• 1:03:47
  S1: the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
• 1:03:51
  S6: Yeah, a lot of cool stories coming in on this
• 1:03:53
  S6: Freedom Friday. Man, what did God use to grab your
• 1:03:58
  S6: heart and transform your life? Person. Podcast. Preacher. Something. What
• 1:04:06
  S6: did he use? 800 555 7898 getting as many calls
• 1:04:10
  S6: in here as we can. Uh, Janice Oak Lawn right
• 1:04:13
  S6: here in Illinois. What do you say, Janice?
• 1:04:16
  S15: Hi. Thanks for taking my call. I was 30 years old,
• 1:04:20
  S15: and I was going through a divorce, and I had
• 1:04:22
  S15: three small kids, and I felt something within me was
• 1:04:26
  S15: going on. I had no idea what the what the
• 1:04:28
  S15: feeling was. But I said to God and I really
• 1:04:31
  S15: wasn't a religious person, I go, um, if there's a
• 1:04:35
  S15: real God in heaven, please reveal yourself to me. And
• 1:04:38
  S15: I thought, what did I say that for? So here
• 1:04:40
  S15: I am in the middle of the night crying and.
• 1:04:43
  S15: And I didn't want my children to see me cry.
• 1:04:46
  S15: I've got the TV on. I'm flicking the channels and
• 1:04:49
  S15: this guy says, um, your life's messed up. And I go, yeah,
• 1:04:52
  S15: it is. And he goes, you don't know what to
• 1:04:54
  S15: do about it, do you? And I go, no, I don't.
• 1:04:56
  S15: He says, you know, Jesus is a gentleman and he
• 1:04:59
  S15: will never, um, enter your life unless you ask him.
• 1:05:03
  S15: He won't crash in. He's a gentleman. And so I thought,
• 1:05:07
  S15: what do I have to lose? I knelt down and
• 1:05:09
  S15: I said, Jesus, I need you to come in my life.
• 1:05:13
  S15: And it was 40 years ago and I cannot imagine
• 1:05:16
  S15: my life without him.
• 1:05:18
  S6: Oh, Jess, that is so powerful, sister. Wow. Thank you
• 1:05:23
  S6: so much for taking the time to call in. That's beautiful,
• 1:05:27
  S6: isn't it, Ali?
• 1:05:28
  S4: I mean, the fact that the Lord used the the
• 1:05:31
  S4: television on. Surely a prerecorded program that in that moment
• 1:05:38
  S4: was a conversation.
• 1:05:40
  S6: And here's what that illustrates. We've talked about it. That's
• 1:05:42
  S6: prevenient grace. God was already warming her up to be
• 1:05:45
  S6: a God fearing woman. God was at work in that
• 1:05:48
  S6: whole thing.
• 1:05:49
  S2: Yeah. She just needed to hear the message.
• 1:05:51
  S6: Powerful. Marcos. Miami, Florida. What do you say? Marcos.
• 1:05:55
  S16: Yeah. Hi. My name is Marcos Santibanez. I'm from Miami, Florida.
• 1:05:59
  S16: I became one of the biggest drug kingpins in the
• 1:06:02
  S16: United States at the age of 22 years old. I
• 1:06:05
  S16: worked with Pablo Escobar at 22 years old. I had
• 1:06:08
  S16: a beauty salon in Miami, and I was running my
• 1:06:11
  S16: drug money because the government didn't know how much hair
• 1:06:13
  S16: you cut, your nails, you paint. And I started loading
• 1:06:15
  S16: my drug money at 22 years old. That's 25 years old.
• 1:06:19
  S16: I had two guys laundering me $1 million every four months.
• 1:06:23
  S16: And I built Dade County by the age of 23 years,
• 1:06:25
  S16: 25 years old. And I skied behind President Ford's house.
• 1:06:29
  S16: I had monkeys, racing boats. I had everything a man wanted,
• 1:06:32
  S16: but I was empty inside. And my mom used to
• 1:06:34
  S16: take me to church and I was a little boy.
• 1:06:37
  S16: My favorite verse was Philippians 413. I can do everything
• 1:06:39
  S16: through Christ who gives me the strength. And even though
• 1:06:42
  S16: I built a cartel in the United States of America.
• 1:06:44
  S16: Every Tuesday when I used to meet the cartel of
• 1:06:46
  S16: Pablo Escobar in Miami to talk about the shipment of drugs,
• 1:06:49
  S16: just like Donald Trump was blowing them up. I usually
• 1:06:51
  S16: have five a week, and I used to say, I
• 1:06:53
  S16: used to tell him, don't touch your food. We're going
• 1:06:55
  S16: to pray. And he's just telling me, you're a crazy Cuban.
• 1:06:57
  S16: Don't you know who you are? Who we are? You're
• 1:06:59
  S16: more lost. Someone to be found. We work for the
• 1:07:01
  S16: biggest drug kingpin, Pablo Escobar. Yeah, but what I do
• 1:07:05
  S16: and got nothing to do with Jesus Christ died for
• 1:07:06
  S16: me on the cross. And tell your story short. I
• 1:07:09
  S16: just sent 180 kilos every Wednesday to Atlanta, Georgia. 80 kilos,
• 1:07:13
  S16: Saint Petersburg, and ten kilos a day in Kansas City.
• 1:07:15
  S16: And ten times 30. That's 300 kilos. I was just
• 1:07:17
  S16: telling him a.
• 1:07:18
  S6: Lot of drugs, man. What God do, bro?
• 1:07:20
  S16: What happened? Yeah, I met I met four Canadians. Mo chillin,
• 1:07:25
  S16: Steve and Denise on the honeymoon in Miami. And when
• 1:07:28
  S16: I saw those shipment of drugs. I met him in
• 1:07:30
  S16: the hotel. I told him, look, I'm married. I got
• 1:07:32
  S16: five girlfriends besides my wife. Monkeys. I got everything a
• 1:07:35
  S16: man wants. I think I'm gonna lose everything. My dad
• 1:07:38
  S16: used to tell me. One day they're going to catch
• 1:07:40
  S16: you in the key of your cell. They're going to
• 1:07:41
  S16: make it a chocolate. The Canadians took me upstairs to
• 1:07:44
  S16: the room. They opened the Bible where it says, thou
• 1:07:45
  S16: shalt not commit adultery. And right there, like Jesus said,
• 1:07:48
  S16: when I die, I'm raised. The Holy Spirit comes to
• 1:07:50
  S16: earth to convict the man of sin and teach him
• 1:07:52
  S16: the truth that got convicted of the Holy Spirit of adultery.
• 1:07:55
  S16: And I kneel down, I said, Jesus Christ, I want
• 1:07:57
  S16: to accept you as my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
• 1:07:59
  S16: Forgive me for my sins. I know you died on
• 1:08:01
  S16: the cross for us. He said, father, I know in
• 1:08:02
  S16: my heart you raised your son for the dead. I
• 1:08:04
  S16: surrendered my heart in my life. To Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.
• 1:08:07
  S16: And when I got up from the ground, I felt
• 1:08:09
  S16: I feel peace. What's going on? He goes, man, God
• 1:08:12
  S16: called you to preach, and I called. I told my mom,
• 1:08:13
  S16: she's a Christian. I called my mom. My mom started crying.
• 1:08:16
  S16: I went to I went to Venezuela too many Republican
• 1:08:19
  S16: when they killed Pablo Escobar. Six months later, they paid
• 1:08:22
  S16: my trip to go to Colombia. Medellin and speak how
• 1:08:24
  S16: God could change a wreck like me. And I'm an
• 1:08:26
  S16: evangelist and preacher. I preaching in Dominican Republic and the
• 1:08:30
  S16: jails in Mexico and the worst jails over there.
• 1:08:32
  S6: I just built the Church of Goodness.
• 1:08:34
  S16: There's a book. There's a book about my life. It's
• 1:08:36
  S16: called for this reason, the cocaine Cartel for being a
• 1:08:40
  S16: drug lord to serve the Lord. Yeah, you can get
• 1:08:42
  S16: it on the Marco Santibanez ministry.
• 1:08:45
  S6: Okay, listen, Marcos. Marcos, Marcos, listen to me. If you've
• 1:08:49
  S6: heard my story, you know how much I connect with
• 1:08:51
  S6: you at a heart level, bro. And I want to
• 1:08:54
  S6: tell you, that is one of the coolest things going.
• 1:08:56
  S6: And I'm going to I'm going to check this story
• 1:08:59
  S6: out even more. And some people are hearing some of
• 1:09:01
  S6: the stuff that Marcos just shared and they're going, come on,
• 1:09:04
  S6: is that real? This is real. And by the way,
• 1:09:07
  S6: those speedboats, they paid guys big money to rocket ship
• 1:09:11
  S6: those things into Miami to drop off those big loads
• 1:09:14
  S6: happened all the time.
• 1:09:16
  S4: Wow.
• 1:09:17
  S6: And what what he's saying this isn't he's not blowing smoke.
• 1:09:21
  S6: This is real stuff. And, Marcos, I'm so glad you're
• 1:09:23
  S6: tuned in to Carl and crew. It takes all kinds
• 1:09:26
  S6: to make this show go round, doesn't it?
• 1:09:29
  S4: I love that, Marcos. You are listening to Carl and
• 1:09:32
  S4: crew on Moody Radio this morning.
• 1:09:34
  S6: Yeah, just thrilling, man. Just thrilling. Oh my goodness. You
• 1:09:40
  S6: know what? I'm just going to sit there and just
• 1:09:42
  S6: say thank you, Lord. We've heard. Let's just go through
• 1:09:46
  S6: it here. Someone was watching TV.
• 1:09:49
  S4: Yes.
• 1:09:50
  S6: Uh, what are the other highlights we've hit here? Just
• 1:09:53
  S6: in the last few minutes.
• 1:09:54
  S4: Someone simply heard a voice from heaven.
• 1:09:56
  S2: Yeah, walking out to their car.
• 1:09:58
  S6: Yeah. Yeah. We got a guy that's, um, a biker.
• 1:10:03
  S2: Oh, yeah.
• 1:10:05
  S6: Campfire biker biker sitting on a Harley softail. Preaching the gospel.
• 1:10:10
  S4: Unshackled radio programs.
• 1:10:12
  S6: Unshackled.
• 1:10:14
  S2: Yeah, man.
• 1:10:16
  S6: How good is God? Boom! Crew. Wow. How good is God?
• 1:10:19
  S6: And we're going to be. We're all going to go
• 1:10:21
  S6: into this new Jerusalem. We're going to look around going, boy,
• 1:10:24
  S6: when he said every nation, tribe and tongue, he really
• 1:10:27
  S6: meant it. Look at all these crazy different people here.
• 1:10:29
  S2: I love it so much.
• 1:10:31
  S4: Beautiful picture.
• 1:10:35
  S17: Oh my goodness.