Latest / Karl and Crew / Running to Grace When Temptation Hits with Lina AbuJamra & The Temptation to Live in Your Own Strength with Anne Graham Lotz

Transcript

Running to Grace When Temptation Hits with Lina AbuJamra & The Temptation to Live in Your Own Strength with Anne Graham Lotz · 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 delivering
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  S1: the truth daily.
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  S2: If it were possible to have every worldly gain available.
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  S2: And you're forfeiting your soul. There's no amount of gain
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  S2: that would make it worth it.
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  S3: Our own way never ever works. Because it's apart from
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  S3: the life source, which is God.
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  S4: For me, growing up, love was always conditional and can
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  S4: be taken from you. Christ's love can't. And he went
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  S4: to the cross with my mind and my heart that night.
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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: Man, what a joy. I gotta tell you, this has
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  S5: been an incredible week here, dealing with the issue of temptation. And, uh,
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  S5: always grateful that you're with us here. Some of you
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  S5: have got your alarms set for top of the hour. Welcome, man.
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  S5: God is the one who can save. We know that
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  S5: we have a Savior, Jesus, who was tempted in every
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  S5: way and without yet without sin. That's in Hebrews chapter four.
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  S5: And because of that, we have an opportunity to go
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  S5: into the Holy of Holies. Yes, we have an opportunity
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  S5: to commune with God through His Son, Jesus Christ, and
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  S5: be guided by the comforting power of the Holy Spirit.
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  S5: And we go into this throne room called. He will
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  S5: do it for you. It's the throne room of grace,
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  S5: his power, his favor to overcome what we're facing today.
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  S5: And I don't know what you're up against with regard
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  S5: to temptation right now, but I want you to know
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  S5: that God has the power to do it. One thing
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  S5: I feel prompted with right now is I want to
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  S5: be really clear. I have not shared this story a lot,
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  S5: but I'm going to do it right now. This is
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  S5: this shows how strong Christian culture can become in a
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  S5: person's life and lead to what we talk about around
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  S5: here often, which is this illusion of salvation, which is
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  S5: thinking you possess something that you don't have. And that's
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  S5: what we find in Matthew seven. Many will say to
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  S5: me on that day, Lord, Lord, and he's going to say,
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  S5: I never knew you. Depart from me. Find it. Matthew 25.
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  S5: And we're warned over and over again in the pastoral epistles,
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  S5: Apostle Paul even tells the church of Corinth, man, examine
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  S5: yourself to see if you're in the faith. Why? Because
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  S5: it is possible to be so religiously active that you
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  S5: don't realize that you're spiritually unregenerate. And you might say, wow,
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  S5: is that really true? Absolutely. I mean, you can I mean,
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  S5: we can see this in clubs or different things that
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  S5: you join in this world. You can have certain expressions
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  S5: of things that you do in the club, but not
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  S5: be really in the club. I mean, that happens all
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  S5: the time.
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  S3: Yeah. It's like, uh, you know, when I, when I
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  S3: sit in the stadium at Wrigley Field and I say,
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  S3: you know, we're the Cubs, we're a really good team
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  S3: this year. And I say we I am not a
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  S3: part of that team. I say we kind of like
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  S3: I am like, I have some stake in it, but
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  S3: I don't actually have stake in it.
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  S5: Yeah. And the interesting thing about the Kingdom of God
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  S5: is that it's not about a club or a team.
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  S5: It's about a person and being connected with him. And
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  S5: his name is Jesus. And then he changes us from
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  S5: the inside out. But this is this is a funny one.
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  S5: So I made attempts to get overcome things in my
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  S5: life over and over again. This is before I was
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  S5: born again and I, I remember on one occasion, after
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  S5: a very close call with some feds over a package
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  S5: of cocaine, that I avoided some prison time, and I
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  S5: still didn't know when. When I made this great deal
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  S5: with God, I still didn't know if I was going
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  S5: to be free and clear or not. In fact, I
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  S5: thought I was looking at some real trouble and I
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  S5: made a deal with God. God, if you get me
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  S5: out of this one man, I promise you I'll do
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  S5: everything I can to follow you with my whole heart.
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  S5: So I knew all the words. I knew what to say.
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  S5: But my heart wasn't changed. And the beat went on.
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  S5: Then for a few years. But I was so culture
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  S5: ized as a Christian, raised in church, knew everything that
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  S5: was going on, knew how to sing, knew, knew the verses,
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  S5: knew kind of when to stand up, when to sit down,
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  S5: when to say amen. That I got to the point
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  S5: where I concluded because I didn't like the life I
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  S5: was living, I wanted it to change, but I was
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  S5: so Christian culture ized that I began to think, I've
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  S5: got a demon and I know a guy who delivers
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  S5: people from demons. Now, without respect to what you think
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  S5: about all that, I do believe that there are truth
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  S5: encounters for sure. Not power encounters, but truth encounters. Not
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  S5: screaming and shouting, but helping people walk into breaking strongholds
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  S5: in their life from demonic strongholds by having truth encounter
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  S5: proclaiming who Jesus is, declaring that you are a child
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  S5: of God and walking free. So my assumption is I'm
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  S5: born again. All I need is a demon cast out
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  S5: of me. And you might say, Carl, that's crazy thinking.
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  S5: No it's not if you're a Christian. Because as a
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  S5: kid growing up, I had heard about my pastor and
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  S5: my dad having encounters with people and just speaking the
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  S5: truth and watching people get set free. So I invited
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  S5: this guy up to my apartment and I said to
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  S5: my childhood pastor, I said, hey, I wonder if you
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  S5: could spend some time with him. I got some roadblocks
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  S5: in my life I can't seem to get over. He said, absolutely.
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  S5: So he came up, poured him a cup of coffee,
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  S5: and we sat down and. And I'm bracing myself because
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  S5: I'm thinking, all right, man, I'm got some real problems here.
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  S5: Really following God. So here's, here's where my life is at.
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  S5: I'm snorting cocaine, I'm drinking alcohol, I'm carousing around. I'm
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  S5: working hard, making a boatload of money for a young
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  S5: man in Alaska. But but I'm my assumption is I
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  S5: can't walk with God because I've got this demonic activity
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  S5: in my life never thinking for a moment that I
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  S5: might be lost and far from God. So he sits
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  S5: down and for whatever reason I thought, oh my goodness,
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  S5: I might be twitching on the floor here in a moment.
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  S5: Who knows what's going to come out of my mouth?
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  S5: I mean, I had all these almost cinematic visions in
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  S5: my mind of what was going to happen, and he
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  S5: was with me for probably an hour and a half,
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  S5: two hours. And at one point he stood up and
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  S5: walked toward me, extended his hand. I stood up and
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  S5: I'm like, what's in my heart? I'm like, is this
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  S5: thing over? And he looked at me and he said
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  S5: the most powerful words. He said, Carl, you don't have
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  S5: a demon problem. You have a Carl problem. He had
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  S5: been looking into my eyes and asking me to declare,
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  S5: who in the world is my leader and all this stuff?
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  S5: But he said, you don't have a demon problem. You
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  S5: got a Carl problem. It was many months, maybe a
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  S5: year and a half later, I forget exactly the timeline.
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  S5: Things are foggy back then where I was driving down
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  S5: the road in Anchorage, and Jesus just said to me,
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  S5: almost audibly, it wasn't audible, but it was such a
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  S5: deep impression in my soul. It was just simply this
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  S5: are you done yet? And on that day, I became
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  S5: like a kernel of wheat that fell to the ground
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  S5: and died to myself. Up until that moment, I was
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  S5: isolated and far from God. Jesus said, unless a grain
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  S5: of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone.
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  S5: But when it dies, what happens is that shell, that
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  S5: hard shell around your heart opens up, and now you
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  S5: can begin to flourish. You can bear fruit. You can
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  S5: see your life really change as a result of the
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  S5: grace of God. Being Christianized and in a Christian culture
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  S5: can be so deceiving. It can be so intoxicating. And
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  S5: what's worse is it becomes anesthetizing. You get anesthetized to
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  S5: what your spiritual condition is. And I don't know if
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  S5: this is a moment for you when the Spirit of
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  S5: God is revealing to you, you call him Lord, but
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  S5: do not do what he says. That was Jonathan's issue, right, bud?
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  S3: Oh, 100%. I was comfortable with everything. Christianity in terms
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  S3: of the religious aspects of it, the ministry trips. And
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  S3: I mean, I went to Moody Bible Institute, man.
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  S5: I you you're a graduate of Moody man.
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  S3: Yeah, I was I mean, I grew up a pastor's kid,
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  S3: so I spent my whole life in kind of ministry
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  S3: Christian circles. And and so it was comfortable for me,
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  S3: even though I didn't know Jesus, I, I believed that
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  S3: he existed. I believed that he died for my sins. Uh,
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  S3: but I had no desire or, and I mean it,
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  S3: no desire or intention to follow him. I kind of
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  S3: basically had the mindset of like, I'm going to do
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  S3: what I want to do right now. And then when
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  S3: that stops being fun, maybe when I'm close to death
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  S3: and I kind of know it's coming, then I'll, I'll
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  S3: get that all stuff, all that stuff squared away with him.
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  S5: And that was that was subconscious, right? That wasn't a
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  S5: conscious statement. No. I spoke.
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  S3: It out. I spoke that.
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  S5: You did speak.
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  S3: It. Yeah. I, I remember I was in a youth
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  S3: group my junior year of high school and I told
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  S3: my friends, I said, I kind of just want to
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  S3: do what I want to do right now. I was like, I'll,
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  S3: I'll get it together with God before I go. But,
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  S3: you know, and, and so, but I to be honest, and,
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  S3: and I had a moment after that, shortly after that
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  S3: where I was like, oh, man, okay, I'm gonna give
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  S3: it all to Jesus. Kind of one of those little moments, uh,
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  S3: emotional high type of moment. Uh, but, But I mean,
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  S3: as soon as it was at like a, uh, a
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  S3: winter youth camp type of thing, but by the time
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  S3: I got home from the five hour drive, I mean,
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  S3: I was back to just doing everything the same way
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  S3: I had normally done it. Uh, so the emotional high
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  S3: didn't last very long. And then I just kind of
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  S3: went back to doing what I was going to do.
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  S3: And then it kind of came a subconscious deal. Uh,
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  S3: but I mean, for me, it just, it was Luke 646.
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  S3: Why do you call me Lord and do not do
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  S3: what I say? And I realized I had no rebuttal
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  S3: for that.
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  S5: It's wild. You know, some of you listening don't have
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  S5: a financial problem. You don't have a relational problem. You do.
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  S5: But there's something deeper than that. You don't have a
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  S5: demon problem.
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  S3: Mhm.
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  S5: You do, but it's deeper than that. You don't have
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  S5: a go to church enough problem. It's way deeper than that.
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  S5: You have a you problem. And we know that this
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  S5: is possible to take it from myself and young thunder.
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  S5: Come on man.
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  S3: I had a Jonathan problem.
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  S5: Yeah. Yeah. You had a Jonathan problem. I had a
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  S5: real problem. And there's one solution for that. And it's
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  S5: not accepting Jesus because we're never even told to do that.
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  S5: It's to receive him. You don't receive him means. It
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  S5: means to take him into the innermost part of you,
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  S5: and you will be called children of God. It is
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  S5: so easy to be cultural culture ized as a Christian
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  S5: and not be a disciple of Christ. A disciple is
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  S5: the descriptive word of what indicates that you have been
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  S5: born again. See, you must be born again. Jesus told
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  S5: Nicodemus that. But being a disciple is what is evidence
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  S5: of that. And a disciple is not someone who just
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  S5: goes to church because anyone can and not be in Christ.
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  S5: It's not ascending to certain things and outward performance and
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  S5: all that. It's about an inner man, inner woman thing
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  S5: that says, I surrender all that I am to you,
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  S5: and I'm going to stumble, and I'm going to Bumble
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  S5: and I'm going to hit my lips. But every part
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  S5: of me, truly, at the end of the day, wants
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  S5: to follow and love you the rest of my life. Jesus. Yeah. See,
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  S5: salvation and to be born again is to admit I'm
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  S5: the problem. Not to add Jesus to the problem that
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  S5: doesn't fix the problem. It's to admit to Jesus I
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  S5: am the problem. You are the way. I gotta turn around.
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  S5: You are the truth. The truth is I'm the problem.
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  S5: You are the life and I want the life that
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  S5: is found in you. Jesus. And I just want to
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  S5: ask you right now because there's no patent prayer in Scripture,
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  S5: you can't find it. But if you. Today. God's Spirit
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  S5: in it. This is what's so cool about this. The
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  S5: Holy Spirit convicts the world regarding sin, righteousness, and judgment.
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  S5: This conviction that you're missing the mark and that you're
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  S5: the problem is the greatest gift of grace you can have.
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  S5: Full stop. And the Spirit of God, I believe right
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  S5: now is convicting you. I'm not talking to everyone, but
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  S5: I'm talking to you. This is so important. We're called
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  S5: to take up our cross and follow Jesus, not to
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  S5: join a church. That's great. Dynamite. Not to go on missions, trips, dynamite.
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  S5: But is it possible to join a church and go
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  S5: on missions, trips and everything else and not be born again? Yeah,
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  S5: I'm a living testimony. And so is Jonathan. Yep, yep.
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  S5: So we trust the Holy Spirit to work in your
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  S5: life right now. And if you now, right now. You
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  S5: say what Jonathan heard. Why do you call me savior
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  S5: and do not call me Lord? Mhm. Why do you
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  S5: call him Savior and do not call him Lord? And
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  S5: you're now realizing, shoot, I've I've just accepted Jesus, but
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  S5: I've got still a handful of idols in my own effort,
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  S5: walking down a broad path that leads to destruction. I've
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  S5: never fully surrendered my life to Jesus in my life. Mhm.
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  S5: Today is the day. It is not a mental assent
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  S5: to something. It's a full surrender of your heart to
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  S5: Jesus Christ, and I want to offer you the message
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  S5: of salvation today. That's what I'm doing. You say, what's
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  S5: my response, Carl? Your response right now is to look
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  S5: in the mirror of your soul and go, Jesus, I'm
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  S5: the problem. There is nothing good in me, and I
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  S5: surrender all that I am to you today and today.
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  S5: I repent and follow Jesus. Is that your heart? Do
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  S5: you say, today I'm a sinner? I'm the problem. Do
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  S5: you say today, today I repent and I. I walk
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  S5: away from everything on this broad path that I've built
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  S5: for myself. I give all of it, even even the
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  S5: unknown future. I give it all to God today. That's
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  S5: the evidence of the Spirit of God at work in you.
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  S5: And if you're saying that today, I want to welcome
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  S5: you to the family of God. Many will say on
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  S5: that day, Lord, Lord, and he's going to say, I
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  S5: never knew you. And today you're moving from illusion, hallucination
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  S5: of salvation, thinking that you saw something in yourself that
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  S5: wasn't there into being the real deal with Jesus, because
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  S5: Jesus has taken over your life and I praise God
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  S5: for you. I'm going to pray for you in just
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  S5: a moment, but I want to get a resource into
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  S5: your hand. Jonathan. Let's give it away, man.
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  S3: Yeah. If that is you today and you are surrendering
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  S3: it all to Jesus as your Lord, your master and Savior.
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  S3: Text the word new to 805 557898. We just want
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  S3: to send you a resource that will help you get
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  S3: your first steps going. Even send you a Bible if
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  S3: you need it, just text the word new to 805 557898.
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  S5: Yeah, just grab that resource right now. I'm going to
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  S5: pray for you. Text new some. Most of you probably
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  S5: have never texted the show here before. Some of you
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  S5: have texted for years and, and the veil of darkness
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  S5: just came crashing down. Tex knew to 800 555, 78, 98.
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  S5: One word knew. 805. 557898 let me pray for you
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  S5: right now. You go ahead and get that keyword in
• 17:42
  S5: right now, but get to a side of a road
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  S5: if you can, just to key it in. Father, thank
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  S5: you for the, the hope of of the good news
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  S5: of Jesus Christ. I thank you that we are ambassadors
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  S5: for Christ and that Jonathan and I consider this morning
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  S5: and share with our friends near and far where life
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  S5: is really found. It's found in Jesus. Lord, I thank
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  S5: you for those that are like a seed fallen to
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  S5: the ground and dying. You are opening them up to
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  S5: the power and presence of your Holy Spirit, regenerating souls
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  S5: and changing them. And I give you thanks for that today.
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  S5: There is no one like you, God, and I give
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  S5: you praise, Lord. Comfort them. Those that have been transformed
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  S5: by you, comfort them, protect them, and do do mighty
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  S5: battle with Satan right now. Who's trying to lie to
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  S5: them still? In Jesus name, Amen. If this is you
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  S5: and you're just maybe wiping tears out of your eyes,
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  S5: just text the word new. One word new to 805 557898,
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  S5: just new to 805 557898.
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  S3: I want to say one more thing. When I first
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  S3: got this conviction in my heart that I wasn't saved,
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  S3: that I didn't know Jesus personally, really, it took me
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  S3: two years to finally agree and surrender. Maybe you've been
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  S3: listening to the show for a while, and you've heard
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  S3: this message, and God convicted you a while ago, but
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  S3: you've you've told them, no, no, no, that's not true.
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  S3: That's not true, that's not true. But the aching kind
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  S3: of never left your heart. Every single time we talked
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  S3: about this. Turn it over to him. If that is
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  S3: where you are today and he is convicting your heart,
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  S3: do not wait a second longer. Don't let pride hold
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  S3: you back. Don't let fear hold you back. Surrender to
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  S3: him today and experience true life.
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  S6: Yeah, yeah.
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  S5: It's really true. Jonathan. Thank you, man, for sharing that.
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  S6: Yeah.
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  S5: If this is you and maybe with what Jonathan said
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  S5: right there, there's another logjam in someone's soul just broken
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  S5: loose going, yeah, man, I've heard God calling me for
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  S5: years and I've never fully surrendered to him. Doesn't matter.
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  S5: Don't let what people may think hold you back from
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  S5: eternity with God.
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  S3: It ain't worth it.
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  S5: Text new to 805 557898. Just a minute. I'm going
• 20:15
  S5: to shout out the last four numbers of your phone
• 20:17
  S5: number and just acknowledge the great work of the Holy Spirit.
• 20:21
  S5: Today all we are is messengers. It's all we are.
• 20:24
  S5: We're ambassadors for Christ. Welcome to the family. If this
• 20:28
  S5: is you, text new to 805 557898.
• 20:33
  S1: He was running from God, but God's love brought him home.
• 20:37
  S1: Carl is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on
• 20:41
  S1: Moody Radio.
• 20:43
  S5: Yeah, man, it's a beautiful thing, you know? Um, so grateful.
• 20:47
  S5: I'm going to shout out the last four numbers of
• 20:49
  S5: telephone numbers that have just texted for resource Bible connection
• 20:54
  S5: with someone who can help you. And I'm asking you
• 20:56
  S5: to use these links, guys, this God, this God work
• 21:00
  S5: inside you. It's just begun. And you are telling you
• 21:05
  S5: you're in for a ride and a half. The blues
• 21:06
  S5: are bluer, greens are greener. It's just amazing. And some
• 21:10
  S5: of you, I know this because this happened to me
• 21:13
  S5: when God finally said to me, are you done yet?
• 21:17
  S5: And I was so stoked I couldn't. I could barely
• 21:20
  S5: drive down the road. I got to my sister's home,
• 21:23
  S5: my big sis, because I knew. She knew and loved God.
• 21:26
  S5: And I went and told her what happened. But right now,
• 21:30
  S5: some of you are wiping away tears and we want.
• 21:32
  S5: We want to help you. By the way, according to
• 21:34
  S5: second Corinthians five. You know what we are? We're ambassadors
• 21:37
  S5: for Christ. What we came to you with is this
• 21:40
  S5: message of hope, reconciliation, how to get squared with God.
• 21:44
  S5: And so we're just we don't save anyone. We're just
• 21:48
  S5: speaking on behalf of the one who can. His name
• 21:51
  S5: is Jesus. So text the word new and we're going
• 21:56
  S5: to get a resource your way to (800) 555-7898. Want to
• 22:02
  S5: shout out some numbers here? We've got a number of
• 22:04
  S5: you surrendering your life to Jesus today. 920996083400814093 90. Welcome
• 22:17
  S5: to the family. 31, 23, 69, 95, 57, 84, 32,
• 22:24
  S5: ten uh. 1484 it's so awesome when you hear your
• 22:28
  S5: number and then you go, man, that's that's me. Listen,
• 22:32
  S5: it's this is our, it's our joy to be able
• 22:34
  S5: to say we see you, but better than that, God
• 22:37
  S5: sees you. Yes, he, he's got your number five, six, one, six, 23, 33, 70, 56, 50, 69, 62, 47, 59, 86, 31,
• 22:53
  S5: oh three, 68, 12. Welcome to the family. 7751, 2637 welcome. Uh. 41. 69,
• 23:03
  S5: 3344 I'm looking at, by the way, area codes are
• 23:07
  S5: from all over the globe. Man, this is so cool. 66, 94, 96, 97.
• 23:14
  S5: Welcome to the family. 9645600622870460, 12673244, 67, 88, 98, 48, 4031.
• 23:32
  S5: Welcome to the family. 2393 got more here. 816354, 57, 57, 33, 4240.
• 23:44
  S5: Welcome to the family. So grateful for God doing a
• 23:47
  S5: work in you today. Pretty cool isn't it? Young thunder.
• 23:51
  S5: More than pretty cool.
• 23:52
  S3: It doesn't get better than this.
• 23:54
  S5: It doesn't get any better than this.
• 23:55
  S3: I mean, every number you just read is like one
• 24:00
  S3: more person walking through the gates of heaven into the
• 24:03
  S3: embrace of Jesus. We get to watch that happen. However
• 24:08
  S3: many more you just read right now, we get to
• 24:11
  S3: watch those people come in because of God's message today?
• 24:15
  S6: Yeah.
• 24:15
  S5: He did a work in you today. 1735 somebody just said,
• 24:20
  S5: is there a way to get the recording of your
• 24:22
  S5: testimony you gave this morning? So if you're just tuning in, Jonathan,
• 24:26
  S5: I teamed up. It was a big chunk of content,
• 24:29
  S5: but it's something they said to share. And, and that
• 24:34
  S5: would be great. So we will have this posted at
• 24:37
  S5: 1030 central time. And I would encourage you because we
• 24:43
  S5: get in this so honest about even and how crazy
• 24:47
  S5: that I thought I just had a demon problem and
• 24:49
  S5: how courageous of this man to tell me I got
• 24:51
  S5: a real problem. Uh, all of what we shared Scripture, truth, honest,
• 24:58
  S5: vulnerable hearts here, just text the word show and get
• 25:02
  S5: our show cast and we're going to have it posted
• 25:04
  S5: at 1030. Let's make sure this segments right at the
• 25:07
  S5: front end.
• 25:07
  S6: Yeah, absolutely.
• 25:08
  S3: And the nice thing about the show cast too, Along
• 25:11
  S3: with this, this will be at the front. But the
• 25:13
  S3: nice thing about the showcase is that everything in there
• 25:15
  S3: is time stamped. So if there is something in that's
• 25:18
  S3: not at the front, you can get to it just
• 25:20
  S3: by clicking the timestamps in the description. This will be
• 25:22
  S3: right at the front though, so you can share the showcase.
• 25:25
  S3: Just text the word show to 805 557898, the word
• 25:29
  S3: show to 805 557898. That'll take you to a couple
• 25:33
  S3: different podcast platforms where you can select the episode right
• 25:36
  S3: there starting at 1030 central time.
• 25:39
  S1: Your spiritual pit stop to keep you going in the race.
• 25:43
  S1: You're listening to Carl and Crew.
• 25:46
  S5: Boom crew, we love you. We're so grateful, man. Uh,
• 25:49
  S5: we just came off of a segment where a ton
• 25:51
  S5: of people just surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ and
• 25:55
  S5: looked in the mirror, their soul and said, I'm the
• 25:57
  S5: problem here. And we're just grateful from the bottom of
• 26:02
  S5: our heart. We are just grateful, uh, that the Spirit
• 26:06
  S5: of God Living, active, working, moving, convicting. And conviction hurts.
• 26:15
  S5: But it hurts so good.
• 26:17
  S6: It does.
• 26:18
  S3: It does. Conviction always hurts when you're first presented with it.
• 26:22
  S3: But when you finally surrender to the Lord because of
• 26:25
  S3: that conviction, it's one of the most freeing experiences you
• 26:29
  S3: can ever have. I remember the agony of the two
• 26:32
  S3: years that I experienced conviction from the Lord without having
• 26:36
  S3: surrendered to it. It was the worst time of my life.
• 26:39
  S5: It was brutal. You were losing weight. You couldn't afford
• 26:42
  S5: to lose.
• 26:43
  S3: Yeah, I was, I remember I was 185 in December
• 26:46
  S3: when I got married. I was 155 when I came
• 26:50
  S3: to Jesus in August of that following year. And I
• 26:54
  S3: promise I wasn't out there just going health crazy. I
• 26:57
  S3: was losing it because of conviction and anxiety. That was
• 27:00
  S3: that was within me. And I just.
• 27:02
  S6: Your.
• 27:03
  S5: Battle was you thought Satan was deceiving you?
• 27:06
  S3: Yeah, I told myself, I, you know, I sat in here, man.
• 27:09
  S3: I'll remember I sat in here, uh, you know, after
• 27:13
  S3: hearing the message and I'm convicted and it's coming to
• 27:15
  S3: me and I'm sitting at the producer's chair saying, oh,
• 27:18
  S3: it's just Satan's just trying to freak me out. He's
• 27:21
  S3: just trying to freak me out. And we went to
• 27:23
  S3: the worship songs, and I would sing the worship songs
• 27:25
  S3: in my heart and get real quiet off in the
• 27:27
  S3: corner and try to calm down. And for a little
• 27:30
  S3: bit of time, that would work. That would that would
• 27:32
  S3: calm me down for a little bit. And then I
• 27:34
  S3: would hear the gospel message again and right back. That
• 27:36
  S3: conviction just boop, boop, boop, come back and or, or God.
• 27:41
  S5: That is painful, man.
• 27:42
  S6: Or God would put.
• 27:43
  S3: Those verses in my head again and say, hey, you
• 27:46
  S3: keep saying you're, you're, I'm your Lord, but what are
• 27:49
  S3: you doing in your life? Look at your life. Look
• 27:51
  S3: at all this sin that you're just letting run rampant.
• 27:53
  S6: And hide.
• 27:54
  S3: And hide and you're not. Look at you, man. You
• 27:57
  S3: are not a follower of me. And I would it
• 28:00
  S3: was bad. It was a hard two years. But when
• 28:03
  S3: I finally accepted it and surrendered to him through his conviction.
• 28:08
  S3: It became the most freeing experience that I've ever had
• 28:11
  S3: in my life. Those first two years brought me to
• 28:14
  S3: the best moment.
• 28:15
  S5: Yeah, it's almost hard to get your head around, but
• 28:18
  S5: it's that real guys deception. Is that real?
• 28:22
  S6: No joke.
• 28:23
  S5: I mean, you're a peak of a good as in pastor?
• 28:27
  S3: Yes. My.
• 28:28
  S6: He's a great.
• 28:28
  S5: Man of.
• 28:29
  S6: God.
• 28:29
  S3: My dad is a great man of God.
• 28:31
  S5: A tremendous man.
• 28:32
  S3: Genuinely loves the Lord.
• 28:34
  S6: I preaches.
• 28:35
  S5: The gospel.
• 28:36
  S3: Yep. And me and him get together and have discipleship
• 28:39
  S3: moments on the weekends sometimes. And and I have those
• 28:42
  S3: great conversations with him now because of where I am
• 28:44
  S3: with Jesus. But it's not it wasn't his fault.
• 28:48
  S5: No, you you're sinner on your own.
• 28:50
  S3: Yeah. I had a Jonathan problem. I could grow up
• 28:54
  S3: in all the good stuff. And I still had a
• 28:56
  S3: Jonathan problem.
• 28:56
  S5: Yeah, man. Would you pray for every new follower of
• 29:00
  S5: Jesus today? Guys? Just stop. Offer up a prayer for protection.
• 29:05
  S1: Take your next step with Jesus today. You're listening to
• 29:09
  S1: cast and Crew.
• 29:10
  S5: Well, we're.
• 29:12
  S1: Tailing.
• 29:12
  S5: In to the final stretch of our week on temptation.
• 29:16
  S5: And boy, have we got a great teacher of the
• 29:18
  S5: word with us right now. Lina Abujamra. Amazing woman of God,
• 29:22
  S5: pediatric ER, doc, telemedicine, you name it. But founder of
• 29:27
  S5: Living with Power Ministries, we're going to give you a
• 29:29
  S5: link here in a little bit. But Lina, how are you, sister?
• 29:33
  S7: Hey. Really good. Haven't talked to you in a while.
• 29:35
  S7: So excited to be on here catching up with you.
• 29:37
  S5: Yeah, it's so good. Hey, you don't ever struggle with temptation, right?
• 29:41
  S5: So you can tell us how to get over it.
• 29:43
  S7: Never. It's easy peasy, right? I wrote a whole book
• 29:47
  S7: about it, but no, you know, there's all sorts of temptations, honestly. People. Right?
• 29:51
  S7: Don't you think? As soon as people hear the word temptation,
• 29:53
  S7: they just their mind goes to, oh, you might be
• 29:55
  S7: talking about sexual temptation. Oh, yeah. There's so many temptations
• 29:58
  S7: in your life.
• 29:59
  S5: Well, and let's begin there because I think we do
• 30:02
  S5: get into it's almost like the big four or whatever.
• 30:05
  S5: It's it's interesting though. There's a temptation I'm thinking about Paul,
• 30:10
  S5: that which I want to do. I don't do that,
• 30:11
  S5: which I do. I don't want to do the sins
• 30:13
  S5: of commission, their sins of omission. So we get tempted
• 30:17
  S5: to withhold love, tempted to withhold whatever. I mean, temptation,
• 30:22
  S5: there could be. It's kind of like Hindu gods. There
• 30:24
  S5: could be hundreds of thousands of these things, right?
• 30:27
  S7: Yeah. I mean, I think the temptation is anything that
• 30:29
  S7: draws your attention away from God at the end of
• 30:31
  S7: the day. Right? And, and something you seek to find
• 30:35
  S7: comfort in is how I like to think of it. So,
• 30:38
  S7: I mean, obviously sexual sin is, you know, addictions of
• 30:42
  S7: all sorts, eating, overeating sins. Those are ways that people
• 30:45
  S7: numb pain traditionally, you know? Right. But there's all sorts
• 30:49
  S7: of ways where, you know, like what you're saying about
• 30:51
  S7: like withholding love from someone that can feed your own wounds,
• 30:56
  S7: you know, so that temptation of where do you go to,
• 30:58
  S7: to get comfort when you're hurting. I think that's always
• 31:01
  S7: a good way to tell what what your temptation is.
• 31:03
  S5: Uh, Lena, our guest right now, she's amazing. Teacher of
• 31:07
  S5: the word. Give us a couple of things that you've
• 31:09
  S5: mined from the word that are like, stand on the rock.
• 31:12
  S5: We will not be shaken. These are truths that we
• 31:15
  S5: can hold on to about temptation.
• 31:17
  S7: I mean, there's a couple of passages that right away,
• 31:21
  S7: I mean, stop the mind. Of course, first Corinthians 1012
• 31:26
  S7: and 13. I think if you are a person who
• 31:28
  S7: struggles with temptation, that should be just at the tip
• 31:30
  S7: of your tongue. In fact, the entire chapter is pretty
• 31:32
  S7: amazing because the church, the people in the church of
• 31:35
  S7: Corinth were struggled with temptation and they acted on it
• 31:37
  S7: and they suffered for it. But Paul, in talking about it,
• 31:40
  S7: uses this example of the people of Israel and the
• 31:44
  S7: people of Israel were were like, there's so much like us. And,
• 31:47
  S7: and in the Old Testament, we see this pattern where
• 31:49
  S7: they would turn to constantly to, to want to feed
• 31:53
  S7: their security with what they thought would give them that
• 31:56
  S7: sense of security. So it would look at other people
• 31:58
  S7: and be like, oh, well, you know, the nations around
• 32:00
  S7: us are secure because they have a lot of wives.
• 32:02
  S7: So they want a lot of wives or whatever it
• 32:04
  S7: is that they thought would bring them to idols, and
• 32:06
  S7: they worship idols. And, and so, um, they often found
• 32:09
  S7: themselves discontented with their life. And so they, and so
• 32:12
  S7: Paul uses them as an example. And I, I connect
• 32:15
  S7: to that, but then he gets to verse 12 and
• 32:17
  S7: he says, therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands
• 32:19
  S7: take heed lest he fall. Now verse 13, no temptation
• 32:24
  S7: has overtaken you that is not common to man. God
• 32:27
  S7: is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted
• 32:30
  S7: beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also
• 32:33
  S7: provide the way of escape that you may be able
• 32:36
  S7: to endure it. Bam!
• 32:38
  S5: Huge isn't it? And there are two things I want
• 32:41
  S5: to hit here. It's really interesting, Lina. I think some
• 32:45
  S5: people beat themselves up over the temptation itself. Number one,
• 32:49
  S5: I think that's a common thing. It's like if I'm
• 32:51
  S5: thinking that I'm a sick person, right. That's and let's
• 32:56
  S5: be real honest, that can be, that can be, that
• 32:59
  S5: can be a place of real vulnerability. The other one
• 33:01
  S5: is we don't know how to look for that way
• 33:05
  S5: of escape. So take that false condemnation one first and
• 33:09
  S5: then talk about the way of escape as you understand it.
• 33:13
  S7: Well, I think you're right. First of all, and by
• 33:17
  S7: the way, I wrote my book, Don't Tell Anyone you're
• 33:18
  S7: reading this. And I called it that because of that
• 33:21
  S7: very point is, and I think we're really good at
• 33:24
  S7: this in the church is because we become ashamed. And
• 33:27
  S7: I think there's no greater joy for Satan than to
• 33:30
  S7: see the people of God hidden in shame. That's what
• 33:32
  S7: happened with Adam and Eve in the garden. And so
• 33:35
  S7: what becomes even a greater issue than the battle is
• 33:38
  S7: how we handle the battle. And so you've got a
• 33:41
  S7: bunch of Christians kind of who got saved by grace
• 33:43
  S7: through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the
• 33:45
  S7: work of God. Sort of living this Christian life. Or like,
• 33:48
  S7: I'm so bad, I'm so bad, I can't talk to God. Right?
• 33:51
  S7: Saved you in your worst state, and I think sometimes
• 33:54
  S7: I find that self-condemnation happens, gets worse with time as
• 33:59
  S7: you become a longer Christian. Like when you first get saved,
• 34:03
  S7: you're bad. Like, right? You know, you're wretched, man, that
• 34:06
  S7: I am. But then you live like five years in Christ,
• 34:09
  S7: or ten years in Christ or 15 years in Christ,
• 34:11
  S7: and you wake up and you go, I can't believe
• 34:12
  S7: I had that thought or I can't believe I saw
• 34:13
  S7: that thing.
• 34:14
  S6: Right.
• 34:14
  S7: And then the condemnation is greater because now you think
• 34:17
  S7: I should know better? Totally. And you should to a
• 34:20
  S7: certain degree. I mean, we all fall. I mean, you
• 34:21
  S7: have to you have to explore that. I'm not justifying
• 34:24
  S7: the sin. I think there's something when you fall, when
• 34:27
  S7: you when you find yourself in a season of falling
• 34:28
  S7: to temptation, you got to really stop and wonder what's
• 34:31
  S7: going on here. AM I burnt out? AM I upset?
• 34:33
  S7: AM I disappointed? What is driving that? But I think
• 34:37
  S7: this idea that that why we get surprised sort of
• 34:41
  S7: makes me now that I've thought about it and written
• 34:43
  S7: about it and and lived it. I think the longer
• 34:46
  S7: you're a Christian, the more we become aware of the
• 34:50
  S7: depravity of man, of myself, and the sweeter the price
• 34:54
  S7: that Christ paid for us should become, but also a
• 34:56
  S7: greater motivation to not sin. So it's a two edged sword,
• 34:58
  S7: you know, and this is, I think, why the apostle
• 35:00
  S7: Paul also wrote that there's no condemnation to those who
• 35:03
  S7: are in Christ Jesus.
• 35:05
  S5: Yeah, there's no question about it. Lina Abujamra, our guest
• 35:08
  S5: right now. Okay. The way of escape. I want to
• 35:10
  S5: drill down on that one for a while here. I
• 35:13
  S5: don't know that we take God at His word. Lina.
• 35:15
  S5: He will provide a way of escape. That's a promise.
• 35:20
  S5: And a half there, sister.
• 35:22
  S7: Yeah. And I think maybe I know there was a
• 35:25
  S7: season in my life when I read that verse, and
• 35:27
  S7: I wrestled with it because I think I felt frustrated
• 35:30
  S7: when I read it, because it almost sounded like there
• 35:32
  S7: should be some magic pill and.
• 35:34
  S6: That.
• 35:35
  S7: Like, I almost felt resentful that I still struggled with
• 35:37
  S7: the temptation because maybe in my mind, I thought that
• 35:39
  S7: the way of escape should be that I should have
• 35:41
  S7: no temptation.
• 35:42
  S5: Okay, that is profound. So it's not the absence of temptation, nor.
• 35:49
  S5: And that temptation may still come at us, but it's
• 35:52
  S5: the ability to not succumb to the sin that's attached
• 35:55
  S5: to it. Is that what you're proposing?
• 35:57
  S7: Both. Both. And so I think first of all, I
• 35:59
  S7: think I think that part of it is, yes, learning
• 36:02
  S7: how to fight it when it comes. But I also
• 36:04
  S7: think that the more we practice the rhythms of grace
• 36:07
  S7: and the disciplines of grace that God has given us,
• 36:10
  S7: the more we can avoid certain temptations, Satan will continue
• 36:14
  S7: to throw some at us and some you cannot escape
• 36:16
  S7: while you're living in this life, in this flesh. But
• 36:18
  S7: there's some that you could protect against. And I think
• 36:22
  S7: the way to protect against them, I think, is to
• 36:24
  S7: go back to the roots. So a lot of us
• 36:26
  S7: fight temptation by trying to fix the symptoms without getting
• 36:29
  S7: to the heart. And again, that's a huge premise of
• 36:32
  S7: what I wrote about. If you can't understand what's happening
• 36:34
  S7: in your heart, just fixing, you know, I have a
• 36:37
  S7: proponent now. I mean, of course you need to guard
• 36:39
  S7: what you see. You know, if you're tempted to, you know,
• 36:42
  S7: have a pint of ice cream every time you're depressed,
• 36:43
  S7: like don't stock ice cream in the fridge. Like, of course.
• 36:46
  S7: But if you can't figure out what gets you depressed
• 36:48
  S7: in the first place. Like you're just removing the the
• 36:51
  S7: symptoms isn't going to fix the root problem. And so
• 36:54
  S7: you go back to that. I think there's a lot
• 36:56
  S7: of work that can be done in every individual Christian
• 36:58
  S7: to look into that. And I think sometimes that understanding
• 37:01
  S7: is key. But also, and I think John Piper writes
• 37:04
  S7: a lot about that, and I do agree with him 100%,
• 37:06
  S7: which is you have to go back to your desires,
• 37:10
  S7: the desires of your heart, not as a single person.
• 37:12
  S7: I think obviously sexual temptation is something that I've written
• 37:15
  S7: about a lot, you know, in terms of like pornography
• 37:17
  S7: and women reading pornographic books. And now it's like, you know,
• 37:21
  S7: the things that are popular on, on, on TV and
• 37:23
  S7: such or Netflix or whatever. I mean, they really indicate that,
• 37:26
  S7: that we do turn to those things. Like the numbers
• 37:28
  S7: don't lie at the end of the day, within and
• 37:30
  S7: without the outside of the church. Yeah. But I think
• 37:32
  S7: that until we learn to delight in Christ, so God
• 37:35
  S7: has to not only change our behavior, but before that,
• 37:38
  S7: he has to change our desires. And I think there's
• 37:41
  S7: a path for every Christian to learn to delight in Christ.
• 37:45
  S7: And I think that part I think I thought it
• 37:48
  S7: would like there. Of course, you go to a conference,
• 37:50
  S7: you do something magical with God and you feel something great,
• 37:53
  S7: and then you think, this should be like this every day,
• 37:54
  S7: but you know, you're married. I'm not. But it's like
• 37:56
  S7: the wedding day. Of course, you feel great about your
• 37:59
  S7: spouse when you get married, I would imagine. But then
• 38:00
  S7: there's real life. You have to cultivate that. And I
• 38:04
  S7: think this is where I think one of the ways
• 38:06
  S7: of escape is to learn to cultivate your relationship with Christ.
• 38:09
  S7: And the more you cultivate those things that feed that,
• 38:13
  S7: the more you have a way of escape.
• 38:14
  S5: Amen. You know, it's interesting here I was in this, uh,
• 38:17
  S5: Tuesday this week and I, I love this passage. It's
• 38:21
  S5: in Hebrews four. And I love this because he says,
• 38:24
  S5: we have the writer of Hebrews. We have a high
• 38:27
  S5: priest who is able to sympathize with us in our weaknesses,
• 38:33
  S5: but in every respect, even though he was tempted, he
• 38:36
  S5: was without sin. But then in verse 16 is the kicker.
• 38:39
  S5: Let us then, with confidence draw near to the throne
• 38:44
  S5: of grace. And I got a friend that calls it this.
• 38:46
  S5: Go into the throne room of. I will do it
• 38:49
  S5: for you. And I think sometimes when we're faced with temptation,
• 38:53
  S5: we think, I've got to get victory over this. That's
• 38:58
  S5: not what the text says. It says, go into the
• 39:01
  S5: throne room of. I will do it for you. Comment
• 39:04
  S5: on that. Lena.
• 39:05
  S7: There's a temptation to think that if I can clean
• 39:08
  S7: up enough that I can get in in good grace
• 39:11
  S7: with God. Right. And so if I get enough days
• 39:13
  S7: of not falling to temptation, if I can control my temper,
• 39:16
  S7: if I can, you know, whatever it is. And so
• 39:18
  S7: it becomes again, a class of defeat because you're not
• 39:20
  S7: going to be able to you can't do it on
• 39:22
  S7: your own. And so this idea that, you know, if
• 39:24
  S7: I could just show God that I'm serious this time,
• 39:28
  S7: that's the other thing is the more you fail, the more.
• 39:30
  S6: You.
• 39:31
  S7: Like, you start realizing like, why am I even trying
• 39:33
  S7: to convince God he knows I'm a just a matter
• 39:35
  S7: of time. Because you're doing it in the flesh. And
• 39:37
  S7: I sort of have had to learn this like, and
• 39:40
  S7: eventually you go, well, how do we get back to God? Well,
• 39:41
  S7: because you're his child and he's going to get you
• 39:43
  S7: back to him. And this is where I taste. The
• 39:45
  S7: sweetness of God's grace is those moments where I'm like,
• 39:48
  S7: I really don't deserve it, but I no longer have
• 39:50
  S7: the energy to fight it. And I think for me,
• 39:52
  S7: this was a turning point in the battle against temptation,
• 39:55
  S7: is that when I started to see that, God doesn't say, oh, okay, Lena,
• 39:58
  S7: I'm going to put her on a shelf because she
• 39:59
  S7: can't figure out how to fight this. But it was
• 40:01
  S7: like this awareness that he's still there. He's not going anywhere,
• 40:04
  S7: and his blood has paid the price. And so I'm
• 40:07
  S7: part of the victory has come from learning to run
• 40:09
  S7: to that throne of grace quicker and quicker and quicker
• 40:13
  S7: until it's natural. You're almost staying there. I don't have
• 40:17
  S7: to keep banging down that door.
• 40:20
  S5: I believe it. Oh, boom. Crew, I gotta tell you,
• 40:23
  S5: Lena's got phenomenal resources. She's an incredible teacher of the
• 40:27
  S5: word of God. You can tell she's lacking a little
• 40:30
  S5: zip and energy. I know that, but we're working on that.
• 40:34
  S5: But here's what I want you to do right now.
• 40:37
  S5: We've got a resource that's going to take you to
• 40:40
  S5: Living with power.org. One word. Here's what I want you
• 40:44
  S5: to do. Text the word power. Resources galore. A new
• 40:47
  S5: book coming out in a couple of months off the
• 40:50
  S5: chain going to be amazing. Text the word power to
• 40:54
  S5: 805 5578981 word power 805 557898.
• 41:05
  S1: Breaking chains and running free. You're listening to cast and crew.
• 41:10
  S5: You can walk into a room, into a meeting, and
• 41:13
  S5: you can have a thought in many, many Christ followers.
• 41:16
  S5: I would venture to say, every one of us that
• 41:18
  S5: have been transformed by the grace of God have often
• 41:21
  S5: wondered at some point, boy, am I the only one
• 41:24
  S5: that battles with this thought right now. AM I the
• 41:27
  S5: only one that's up against it? It feels so lonely.
• 41:32
  S5: But when you begin to understand that we're all tempted
• 41:37
  S5: by Satan. Every one of us. It doesn't give you freedom,
• 41:44
  S5: but it gives you hope and encouragement because you see
• 41:47
  S5: people of faith around you that walk in victory. And
• 41:49
  S5: you say to yourself, that person's been tempted. I have
• 41:54
  S5: one of those guests with me right now, Anne Graham Lotz,
• 41:58
  S5: and is known for deep biblical wisdom, speaking globally called
• 42:02
  S5: the best preacher in the family by her late papa,
• 42:05
  S5: Billy Graham. And she's with us right now. And I
• 42:08
  S5: think there's a lot of people that would look at
• 42:10
  S5: you and they might surmise, maybe you don't go through
• 42:14
  S5: the temptation battles that they do. What do you say
• 42:18
  S5: to that, Anne?
• 42:19
  S8: Well, I think the more you grow in your faith,
• 42:23
  S8: the closer you get to the Lord, the the stronger
• 42:26
  S8: the temptations come. And they're more subtle. You know, the
• 42:30
  S8: devil doesn't come to me tempting me to get drunk
• 42:34
  S8: or be immoral or something, but his temptations are much
• 42:38
  S8: more subtle. He's the Angel of light who comes. And
• 42:42
  S8: in a soft. But it can be just as destructive. And, um.
• 42:47
  S8: And while you are sort of setting me up, another
• 42:50
  S8: temptation came to mind. I had one that I was
• 42:52
  S8: going to share with you, and I will, but, but
• 42:54
  S8: there's one that I've had victory over. But I struggled
• 42:57
  S8: for so long with just extreme self-consciousness. And so you
• 43:01
  S8: were saying, when you go into a public room or,
• 43:03
  S8: you know, when you're in a public setting and, and
• 43:06
  S8: the enemy would just come and whisper to me, um, to,
• 43:10
  S8: to the point that I would want to withdraw, I
• 43:13
  S8: would just feel almost afraid to say the next word.
• 43:16
  S8: And the way I overcame that. In fact, I had
• 43:19
  S8: a mentor, Stephen Alford, who was a fabulous Bible teacher.
• 43:22
  S8: And he told me, he said, Ian, when you step
• 43:24
  S8: on the platform, you just have to say this. He said,
• 43:27
  S8: you just crucify yourself. And so as I would step
• 43:31
  S8: on the platform, I would I would say that literally
• 43:33
  S8: in prayer as I walked to the podium or wherever
• 43:36
  S8: it was I was going to be speaking and and
• 43:38
  S8: just crucify myself, put my focus on the message, and
• 43:42
  S8: release myself to what the Lord wanted to say in
• 43:45
  S8: and through me. And, um, and so it's interesting now
• 43:49
  S8: I've overcome it to the point that I don't battle
• 43:51
  S8: that anymore. And I guess I would want to tell
• 43:54
  S8: people who are listening that you can have victory over
• 43:58
  S8: whether it's temptation or besetting sins, anything the devil would
• 44:02
  S8: use to pull you down make you hesitant to be obedient.
• 44:05
  S8: Step out in faith. You can overcome that, and God
• 44:09
  S8: will give you practical things to do.
• 44:12
  S5: And you bring up a good point. And it almost
• 44:15
  S5: seems it's backwards and inverted, because you're saying that when
• 44:21
  S5: you feel unsure of yourself, that's the time to go
• 44:25
  S5: lower still. That's profound. Dan.
• 44:29
  S8: Well, to acknowledge that without Jesus I can do nothing.
• 44:33
  S8: He said that in John 15, that without him we
• 44:37
  S8: couldn't do anything of eternal value. And he also said that,
• 44:41
  S8: you know, Paul said that we're to be crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
• 44:45
  S8: we live in our physical bodies, but the life we
• 44:48
  S8: now live, we live by faith in the Son of
• 44:50
  S8: God who loved us and gave himself for us. So
• 44:52
  S8: there's a the key, Carl, is this sort of make
• 44:56
  S8: that transition from being aware of ourselves. And I don't know,
• 45:00
  S8: we have to be aware of ourselves, but. But to
• 45:02
  S8: be self conscious, to have our focus on ourselves and
• 45:05
  S8: to shift that and put our focus on Jesus, on
• 45:09
  S8: His Word, what the Holy Spirit wants to do in
• 45:11
  S8: and through us, put our focus on other people and
• 45:14
  S8: what their needs might be, and overcome that self-preoccupation that
• 45:19
  S8: can be so can be just a downward spiral. You know,
• 45:23
  S8: I don't know if what you're referring to is this,
• 45:24
  S8: but I think it was Spurgeon that said the way
• 45:26
  S8: up is down. It is so so we have to
• 45:29
  S8: come down, you know, at the foot of the cross
• 45:32
  S8: on our face before the Lord, surrendering everything to him.
• 45:35
  S8: Then he raises us up and, um, and it's a
• 45:39
  S8: he raises up into freedom. There's a wonderful freedom when
• 45:42
  S8: you're free of yourself and free of trying to promote yourself.
• 45:46
  S8: Think about yourself, get other people to, you know, to,
• 45:50
  S8: to look at you or whatever. And there's a freedom
• 45:53
  S8: that comes when you just release all of that and
• 45:56
  S8: seek to put the focus on the Lord and, um,
• 45:59
  S8: what he's called you to do, who he wants you
• 46:01
  S8: to be.
• 46:01
  S5: I want to linger here for a moment because I
• 46:03
  S5: think this is the battle. I often say it's we
• 46:06
  S5: come to Christ on our knees, and then we metaphorically
• 46:08
  S5: get up on our feet and think that we've got
• 46:10
  S5: to pull it off. I guess in true sincerity, if
• 46:14
  S5: you look at Paul in Galatians 220, I've been crucified
• 46:16
  S5: with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ
• 46:19
  S5: who lives in me. And the life I now live
• 46:21
  S5: in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son
• 46:22
  S5: of God. That verse singularly alone. Oh, I'm getting choked
• 46:27
  S5: up here thinking about it, it is an amazing thing
• 46:31
  S5: to understand the new birth miracle, isn't it? And it's
• 46:35
  S5: requisite to live in the power of God.
• 46:38
  S8: That's right. And I don't know. I think Paul also
• 46:41
  S8: was the one that said, how is it that we
• 46:42
  S8: could be saved by faith, but then we start living
• 46:45
  S8: in the flesh. So it's like we trust Jesus for
• 46:48
  S8: our salvation. We come to the cross, confess our sin.
• 46:51
  S8: We're willing to turn away from it. Ask him to
• 46:53
  S8: forgive us, come into our hearts, surrender our lives to
• 46:56
  S8: him as Lord, and then we. Why is it that
• 46:59
  S8: then we think we have to live our lives in
• 47:01
  S8: our own strength so that we no longer. We don't
• 47:04
  S8: live by faith. We're saved by faith, but somehow we
• 47:06
  S8: don't live by faith. So I think that's something to
• 47:09
  S8: learn in the Christian life. And, you know, I would
• 47:12
  S8: encourage those listening to learn it quickly, because that's where
• 47:15
  S8: the freedom comes. That's where the blessing comes. That's where
• 47:18
  S8: the the reward comes. And that peace in your heart,
• 47:21
  S8: the joy that doesn't depend on circumstances, the hope for
• 47:24
  S8: the future. You're released in the fullness of God's blessing.
• 47:28
  S8: When you just walk by faith and let him lead,
• 47:30
  S8: let him take care of you, you know?
• 47:32
  S5: So let's go there because you're referring to Galatians three.
• 47:35
  S5: And Paul begins that chapter by saying, who has bewitched you?
• 47:38
  S5: And I was studying that recently, and there is a
• 47:41
  S5: demonic influence that gets us to live in our own strength,
• 47:46
  S5: he says. He goes on to say, you lived what
• 47:48
  S5: began in the spirit. You're now working out in your
• 47:51
  S5: own strength, the flesh. Boy, that's the ultimate temptation, isn't it, Ann?
• 47:56
  S8: Well, it is for us. Yes, I think it is
• 47:59
  S8: probably for everybody. You know, sometimes it may be stronger
• 48:02
  S8: for one person or not as strong for another person.
• 48:06
  S8: But you know that verse that people quote, which isn't
• 48:09
  S8: in the Bible at all, but that God helps those
• 48:11
  S8: who help themselves, you know, and, and we think we
• 48:14
  S8: have to somehow do it ourselves. And, and I think
• 48:18
  S8: that might, you know, you could apply that to the
• 48:20
  S8: temptation that the devil gave Eve way back in Genesis
• 48:24
  S8: chapter three and one. He caused her to doubt God's
• 48:27
  S8: goodness and doubt God's love. But then the other thing
• 48:30
  S8: was to take care of herself. You know, if you
• 48:32
  S8: eat eat this fruit, then you're going to be like God,
• 48:34
  S8: and you'll be able to know good and evil. And,
• 48:37
  S8: and so it was, you know, he was telling her
• 48:39
  S8: that she had to help herself. She had to be
• 48:43
  S8: somebody if she wanted to achieve greatness. And, um, and
• 48:47
  S8: it was a, it was a huge, huge law. And
• 48:50
  S8: it was a temptation that we're still paying for today
• 48:54
  S8: when she gave in to it.
• 48:55
  S6: Yeah.
• 48:55
  S5: Anne Graham Lotz with me right now talking temptation. Uh,
• 48:59
  S5: I don't know how deep you want to go, but
• 49:02
  S5: you still we're we're always we're never going to be
• 49:05
  S5: free of temptation. In fact, I remember my big sister
• 49:08
  S5: had a banner up. I was far from following Jesus.
• 49:12
  S5: But I remember looking into her bedroom and she had
• 49:14
  S5: a banner up. If Satan isn't bothering you, you probably
• 49:18
  S5: aren't bothering Satan. And I remember as the years went by,
• 49:22
  S5: I began to wear that as a badge of honor.
• 49:25
  S5: There's a lot of truth in that.
• 49:26
  S8: That's right. My mother would use the illustration that you
• 49:29
  S8: don't see bees going after fake flowers. You know, the
• 49:33
  S8: bees attack the real thing.
• 49:34
  S5: Yeah, it's really true.
• 49:36
  S8: Satan attacks the real, the real thing. The people who
• 49:38
  S8: are walking by faith, who are growing in their faith,
• 49:40
  S8: who are leading other people in faith. So he attacks
• 49:43
  S8: us in many different ways. And that's just one and,
• 49:46
  S8: and that's one that needs to be settled so that
• 49:48
  S8: we learn to walk by faith and trust the Lord.
• 49:51
  S8: My daughter and I have just written a book on
• 49:54
  S8: the life of Joseph called God Won't Leave You There. And,
• 49:57
  S8: and the way we've just been so impressed the way
• 50:00
  S8: God was in the details of Joseph's life when his life,
• 50:03
  S8: he was betrayed. He was, you know, sold into slavery
• 50:06
  S8: by his brothers. He was enslaved in Potiphar's house and
• 50:10
  S8: imprisoned in Pharaoh's. I mean, just for 14 years. He
• 50:12
  S8: just went through it. And yet God was in the
• 50:15
  S8: details the whole time. And Joseph was somebody who lived
• 50:18
  S8: by faith in an amazing way. And he just trusted
• 50:21
  S8: that God was with him and that God would see
• 50:23
  S8: him through. And God did. So I think we need
• 50:25
  S8: to learn. And sometimes God lets us go through really
• 50:28
  S8: hard things so that we have to turn to him
• 50:31
  S8: by faith. We can't solve it ourselves. We have no
• 50:34
  S8: one else to turn to. And that can be a
• 50:36
  S8: blessing because then we turn to God and we we
• 50:39
  S8: discover who he is and who he wants to be
• 50:41
  S8: for us, and we release ourselves to walk by faith.
• 50:44
  S8: And then it becomes exciting because it's like Peter getting
• 50:47
  S8: out of the boat, you know, and he, Peter walked
• 50:49
  S8: on water. And we always think about him falling in
• 50:51
  S8: the waves. But but don't don't forget he walked on water. Yeah.
• 50:55
  S8: And when Jesus reached out to the Savior, when he
• 50:58
  S8: began to sink, I, I expect they walked back on
• 51:00
  S8: the water to get into the boat. And so that
• 51:03
  S8: was an exhilarating experience for Peter. He, he was walking
• 51:07
  S8: by sheer faith as he went to Jesus. And so
• 51:11
  S8: the point of that, I think, is that we have
• 51:13
  S8: to stay focused on him. Don't look at the waves.
• 51:15
  S8: You just stay focused on Jesus.
• 51:16
  S5: Beautiful. And any last. You alluded to another temptation. I
• 51:22
  S5: don't want to drag it out of you, but you
• 51:23
  S5: brought it up. Is there something else that you could
• 51:26
  S5: encourage us with today?
• 51:28
  S8: Yes. I think this is the one we just spoke
• 51:30
  S8: about was sort of a public temptation, or when I'm
• 51:32
  S8: in public, but the private one is also a very
• 51:35
  S8: subtle one. And it's to sleep in, in the morning.
• 51:39
  S8: I've battled this all my Christian life because I love
• 51:44
  S8: to sleep. I need a lot of sleep, and it's
• 51:47
  S8: very difficult for me to get up in the morning
• 51:49
  S8: and have a quiet time or prayer time with the Lord.
• 51:52
  S8: And so I settled that years ago. I just got
• 51:55
  S8: an alarm clock from the mall that went off like
• 51:58
  S8: a bomb going off, you know? And so I set
• 52:00
  S8: it to when I needed to get up and my,
• 52:02
  S8: my poor husband, it's when my husband was with me and,
• 52:04
  S8: and he just yelled and said, and what in the
• 52:07
  S8: world are you doing? I should have warned him what
• 52:09
  S8: I was doing. But but the alarm was so loud
• 52:13
  S8: that it made me scared. So my heart was beating.
• 52:15
  S8: I wouldn't go back to sleep, so I would get
• 52:17
  S8: up and spend time with him and. But I still
• 52:20
  S8: battle with that. And so I still right now it's
• 52:24
  S8: a little bit easier because I can set my own schedule.
• 52:26
  S8: But when your children are small, you know, you're just.
• 52:29
  S8: That was something I wrestled with. And, and I think
• 52:32
  S8: you can have prayer time any time during the day.
• 52:35
  S8: So I don't want to be legalistic about that. But
• 52:37
  S8: but God called Moses to come up early in the morning.
• 52:39
  S8: He called Joshua to meet with him early in the morning.
• 52:41
  S8: David said, early in the morning, Will I seek you?
• 52:43
  S8: And there's something about the morning hours before you begin
• 52:46
  S8: the day that I think is a precious time to
• 52:49
  S8: meet with the Lord. And so I've I've gotten to
• 52:52
  S8: the point that I can get up now without the alarm,
• 52:56
  S8: but I wouldn't want to go a day without meeting
• 52:59
  S8: the Lord first. Before I check the news headlines, before
• 53:02
  S8: I answer the phone, before I do any email, before
• 53:05
  S8: I even look at my phone. I want to spend
• 53:08
  S8: that time with the Lord to just center down in him.
• 53:10
  S8: Don't get legalistic about it. You can change the place
• 53:13
  S8: that you meet with the Lord. You can meet outside
• 53:14
  S8: if it's pretty weather or inside or wherever, you can
• 53:17
  S8: have a few private moments and it's a love relationship.
• 53:20
  S8: If you if you oversleep, which I have done, um,
• 53:23
  S8: it's okay. The Lord understands, but but I don't want
• 53:27
  S8: to make it a habit because he's there to meet
• 53:29
  S8: with me and I don't want to keep him waiting.
• 53:31
  S5: Yeah. And you know what? And I think you nailed
• 53:34
  S5: something because my battle has not been getting up in
• 53:38
  S5: the morning because I have to. My battle has been
• 53:41
  S5: getting to bed in time. The temptation to stay up
• 53:44
  S5: a little longer. I've had to, by God's grace and power,
• 53:47
  S5: fight that off. But I find that the single most
• 53:52
  S5: fruitful thing that God has done in my life is
• 53:54
  S5: the early morning hours. And I've been asking God, search me,
• 53:58
  S5: know me, try me. I've been doing David's prayer and
• 54:01
  S5: and you know, the Lord's never failed me there. And
• 54:04
  S5: he's met with me and he's spoken to me by
• 54:07
  S5: the power of the spirit to show me what needs
• 54:09
  S5: to be adjusted that day. And it's beautiful, isn't it, sister?
• 54:13
  S8: It. It is. And not only what needs to be
• 54:15
  S8: adjusted in you, but giving you a word of encouragement
• 54:18
  S8: for the day or word of instruction. Something. And how
• 54:22
  S8: many times, Carl, have I. I've had that time in
• 54:24
  S8: the morning and going through the day. The very thing
• 54:26
  S8: that God said to me in my morning time is
• 54:29
  S8: something I needed to say to somebody else during the day.
• 54:31
  S8: And it was his word to me, but it also
• 54:33
  S8: was his word to me for somebody else. And had
• 54:36
  S8: I not had that time with him, I wouldn't have
• 54:38
  S8: had what I needed to say to somebody who really
• 54:41
  S8: needed that word.
• 54:42
  S5: So encouraging. Anne Graham Lotz, what a guest. I want
• 54:46
  S5: to thank you for being with us today. And boom crew.
• 54:49
  S5: There is a new book out she has co-authored with
• 54:52
  S5: Rachel Ruth, Her daughter, God Won't Leave You There, and
• 54:56
  S5: many other dynamic resources. It's a one stop shop. I
• 55:01
  S5: want you to get there. Just text the word Graham.
• 55:03
  S5: I'll spell it for you. GRAHAMGRAHAM. Text the word graham
• 55:10
  S5: to 805, 557898, 805, five five, 78, 98.
• 55:21
  S1: Get to know the team behind the scenes. Follow Carl
• 55:24
  S1: and crew on Facebook and Instagram.
• 55:27
  S5: Well, here we are. Thursday, 630 central. Bottom of the hour.
• 55:32
  S5: And that means it is time for something really cool.
• 55:37
  S1: Finding nuggets of truth in everyday life.
• 55:40
  S9: It's a metaphor. It's just a metaphor, dude.
• 55:42
  S10: That's a metaphor.
• 55:44
  S9: It's a metaphor.
• 55:44
  S11: I know it's a metaphor.
• 55:46
  S1: It's time for making a metaphor with young thunder.
• 55:51
  S5: Yeah. Pitch young thunder or Ali pitches young thunder. A story.
• 55:57
  S5: Any old story from life. And invariably, we pitch it
• 56:03
  S5: to young thunder. And see if he can turn it
• 56:05
  S5: into a metaphor for the spiritual life.
• 56:07
  S3: And I really hope God moves. is usually. You can
• 56:11
  S3: find me praying about five minutes before they say it. God, please,
• 56:15
  S3: please give me what I need here because I really
• 56:17
  S3: don't know what's coming up.
• 56:18
  S5: Yeah, no, he has no clue what's happening here. Okay,
• 56:21
  S5: so I'm going to go back to my pup blaze.
• 56:24
  S5: I have an Alaskan husky puppy and he's a great
• 56:27
  S5: he's a great guy. He's nine months old now. And
• 56:29
  S5: oh boy. So blaze is in this season of life
• 56:34
  S5: where he is needing to sniff like crazy. Did you
• 56:38
  S5: know this young thunder? By the way, this has nothing
• 56:40
  S5: to do with the story. This is for free. But
• 56:42
  S5: a a dog actually gets more mental and even physical
• 56:49
  S5: energy expended where they then can rest if more than
• 56:54
  S5: walking actually is sniffing.
• 56:56
  S3: I did know that.
• 56:57
  S5: You did.
• 56:58
  S6: Know that.
• 56:58
  S3: Yeah. My dog, uh, we we call them his sniffers. Uh,
• 57:03
  S3: when we take him on walks.
• 57:04
  S6: Oh, okay.
• 57:04
  S3: Because he goes and he sniffs and and he sniffs
• 57:07
  S3: just about every square inch of grass he has available
• 57:10
  S3: to him, and it does tire him out way more.
• 57:12
  S3: It expends way more energy for him. And so. Yeah.
• 57:15
  S6: Yeah.
• 57:16
  S5: So with the sniffing comes along nibbling.
• 57:20
  S3: Ah.
• 57:21
  S5: And. I could tell just by evidence. And how do
• 57:30
  S5: I say this gently that he was eating stuff. Too
• 57:33
  S5: much stuff that isn't to be in his diet.
• 57:37
  S6: Correct? Yeah, sure.
• 57:38
  S5: I could just tell. And I thought, I'm being careful
• 57:41
  S5: with this, but I've had to really hunker down on this.
• 57:44
  S5: And it's been tough because I want him to sniff around.
• 57:49
  S5: But the problem is, is that he gets into some
• 57:52
  S5: of the stuff that it's like, oh my goodness, blaze,
• 57:56
  S5: don't eat that. And I'm not. I'm going to spare
• 58:00
  S5: everyone the grief of what in the world he gets into,
• 58:02
  S5: but he is Digging, scraping. We're walking down a path.
• 58:08
  S5: He'll grab any old piece of paper. Sometimes those whatever
• 58:13
  S5: it is that's on the side of the path, it's like,
• 58:16
  S5: oh no.
• 58:18
  S6: I know the feeling.
• 58:19
  S5: And I say to him, I've got one word now,
• 58:22
  S5: and he knows when he needs to be let loose
• 58:24
  S5: or something. I go, one word and here it is. Ick.
• 58:28
  S5: And so I'm just walking ecc, ecc, ecc. And on
• 58:31
  S5: about the third ECC, he's like, all right, I'll let
• 58:33
  S5: it down, but not until he's already chomped on it
• 58:37
  S5: a few times. And then he started to realize, hold it.
• 58:41
  S5: Carl knows what is really going to mess me up here. Yeah,
• 58:45
  S5: because there's been a couple of ICS where he bit
• 58:47
  S5: down twice on something. Almost gives me drives right now.
• 58:51
  S5: And and he's realizing, oh, that really is.
• 58:56
  S6: ECC.
• 58:56
  S5: So he's starting to learn. But I have to constantly
• 59:01
  S5: stay on him and I'm having to kind of pop
• 59:04
  S5: his collar every now and then going, dude, this is
• 59:06
  S5: not good for you. Now here's what's great. He's learning.
• 59:13
  S6: That's good.
• 59:14
  S5: He's getting it. He's learning what's good and what's bad.
• 59:17
  S5: And finally, we're making some headway here. Young thunder, my
• 59:22
  S5: dog blaze make it a metaphor.
• 59:25
  S3: Yeah. So as I think about that, I think about
• 59:27
  S3: the freedom that we have in Christ. And Carl, you've
• 59:31
  S3: shared this. Your dad shared this quote. Uh, it's his
• 59:35
  S3: definition of grace that grace doesn't give us the permission
• 59:39
  S3: to live as we like, but to live in a
• 59:43
  S3: way that wasn't possible, to follow Jesus in a way
• 59:46
  S3: that wasn't possible without his.
• 59:48
  S6: Grace.
• 59:48
  S5: To live as we never could before. As my dad's.
• 59:51
  S6: Quote.
• 59:51
  S3: Amen. And it makes me think about in my life
• 59:55
  S3: before Christ, I was running rampant doing whatever I wanted
• 1:00:01
  S3: to do, and I thought about the ways of Jesus
• 1:00:03
  S3: being constricting that there wasn't enough freedom in Christ I
• 1:00:08
  S3: couldn't go do. I saw it as, oh, I couldn't
• 1:00:10
  S3: go do the things I wanted to do. There's all
• 1:00:12
  S3: these fences up everywhere. The problem is, is that's just
• 1:00:16
  S3: not true at all. Jesus wants us to, in the
• 1:00:21
  S3: blaze metaphor, sniff around. He wants us to explore, to
• 1:00:25
  S3: enjoy the things that he's made. The problem is, is
• 1:00:30
  S3: the things that he doesn't want us to sniff around.
• 1:00:32
  S3: Where there are actually fences are things that will hurt us.
• 1:00:37
  S3: We don't look and say, oh, there's that minefield over there.
• 1:00:40
  S3: Why won't you let me just walk? You're so constricted
• 1:00:43
  S3: you won't let me walk in that minefield over there.
• 1:00:46
  S3: No one's gonna say that because we know the minefield
• 1:00:48
  S3: will kill us.
• 1:00:49
  S6: Yeah.
• 1:00:50
  S3: Jesus doesn't constrict us from things that are good for us.
• 1:00:54
  S3: He holds us back from things that will hurt us,
• 1:00:57
  S3: things that will kill us. And I think about the
• 1:00:59
  S3: first few verses of Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd.
• 1:01:03
  S3: I shall not want. He makes me lie down in
• 1:01:05
  S3: green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He makes me.
• 1:01:10
  S3: He is in control. He leads me. He's the one
• 1:01:14
  S3: in charge. I go where he lets me go. Yet
• 1:01:19
  S3: being there is the most free I could ever be.
• 1:01:23
  S3: Because right after that, verse three, he restores my soul
• 1:01:27
  S3: by going where he wants me to go and staying
• 1:01:30
  S3: where he wants me to stay. My soul is restored.
• 1:01:33
  S3: And right at the end of verse, right at the
• 1:01:35
  S3: end of Psalm 23, surely goodness and mercy shall follow
• 1:01:38
  S3: me all the days of my life. Don't see Jesus's
• 1:01:43
  S3: pulling you back from certain things as constricting. See it
• 1:01:47
  S3: as more free than you could ever be. Because one,
• 1:01:50
  S3: he's keeping you safe from stuff that's going to kill
• 1:01:52
  S3: you can like confirmed. And then two enjoy what he's
• 1:01:58
  S3: given you to sniff, because that's the stuff that's most
• 1:02:00
  S3: life giving.
• 1:02:01
  S5: Boom, buddy. It's really good. Yeah. It's really a truism
• 1:02:06
  S5: of of the Christian life is that God's not keeping
• 1:02:09
  S5: us from stuff as much as he's leading us into
• 1:02:14
  S5: the good stuff.
• 1:02:15
  S3: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:02:16
  S5: Yeah. And the perception is that God's trying to rip
• 1:02:19
  S5: us off.
• 1:02:20
  S3: I don't, which is just I mean, that's a talk
• 1:02:23
  S3: about lies from Satan. That's a lie. Straight out of
• 1:02:25
  S3: the pit of hell. He wants you to think the
• 1:02:27
  S3: minefield is enticing and freeing, but all that's over there
• 1:02:31
  S3: is just an empty field with a bunch of mines
• 1:02:33
  S3: laying around it where you're going to get hurt.
• 1:02:36
  S5: Excellent, man. Guys, that's make it a metaphor. And appreciate you,
• 1:02:42
  S5: young thunder. Good stuff.
• 1:02:43
  S6: Today.
• 1:02:45
  S1: Start your day moving closer to Jesus. You're listening to
• 1:02:49
  S1: Carl and crew. Finding nuggets of truth in everyday life.
• 1:02:56
  S9: It's a metaphor. It's just a metaphor, dude.
• 1:02:58
  S10: That's a metaphor.
• 1:03:00
  S9: It's a metaphor.
• 1:03:01
  S11: I know it's a metaphor.
• 1:03:02
  S1: It's time for making a metaphor with young thunder.
• 1:03:07
  S6: All right.
• 1:03:08
  S5: We pitched Jonathan's stories. By the way, some of you
• 1:03:11
  S5: may be wondering, where's Allie at? She's been sick, man.
• 1:03:14
  S5: I mean, clobbered pray for her. We're super diet. She's
• 1:03:18
  S5: on vacation. Hopefully she's leaning into the Lord on this break, man.
• 1:03:23
  S3: Amen. Amen. Like we were just talking about.
• 1:03:25
  S5: Yeah, we're just talking about that a little bit ago. Okay,
• 1:03:27
  S5: so I've got a story that Jonathan takes just everyday
• 1:03:31
  S5: crazy stories and turns them into metaphors. And this one,
• 1:03:36
  S5: I don't know what you're going to do with it.
• 1:03:37
  S3: Oh, brother. Thanks for starting it that way. Appreciate it.
• 1:03:40
  S3: I really don't know. And just so you know, I
• 1:03:41
  S3: really have never heard these stories before. They're shared with
• 1:03:43
  S3: me here.
• 1:03:44
  S6: Nope.
• 1:03:44
  S5: Never heard them. Okay, so get a little bit older
• 1:03:48
  S5: and things start to get a little tweaks and bumps
• 1:03:51
  S5: and little things that happen to you, Especially when my
• 1:03:54
  S5: dog blaze. I don't have a blaze story today. Well,
• 1:03:57
  S5: it might be related to him. Okay, that's part of
• 1:03:58
  S5: the mystery here. Uh, but especially when he gets out
• 1:04:02
  S5: at the end of his telescoping line, that's like 30ft,
• 1:04:06
  S5: and bam, all of a sudden it ends, but he's
• 1:04:10
  S5: at full tilt speed. This is why now, when he's getting,
• 1:04:14
  S5: he's running full tilt away from me. I either sprint
• 1:04:17
  S5: with him when he's on that telescopic leash or I
• 1:04:23
  S5: yell whoa! For which he doesn't always hear nor obey that.
• 1:04:27
  S5: So sometimes it's like wham! So every now and then, oof!
• 1:04:31
  S5: Left shoulder. Oh, Nelly. But that's all healed up. Everything's great.
• 1:04:35
  S5: Craziest thing out of the blue. I have no clue
• 1:04:38
  S5: what it is. Pure doctor. You might know, but it's
• 1:04:41
  S5: it's gonna it's it's starting to get a little bit better,
• 1:04:44
  S5: but out of the blue, nowhere. I don't even know
• 1:04:48
  S5: when it happened two days ago. I've got this pain
• 1:04:52
  S5: in my foot. Not on the bottom of the foot,
• 1:04:55
  S5: like on the very top of the foot. And I
• 1:04:58
  S5: can't tell if it's a ten. In fact, I'm feeling
• 1:05:00
  S5: it right now. I can't tell if it's a tendon
• 1:05:02
  S5: or a muscle or a bone. You can't tell what
• 1:05:06
  S5: it is. And so I've been massaging it. That seems
• 1:05:09
  S5: to get a little bit better. My wife's got this
• 1:05:11
  S5: little thumper. We call it a thumper, a little gun,
• 1:05:14
  S5: a little, you know, massage gun. And I'll put that
• 1:05:18
  S5: thing on a low speed and I'll kind of. Ah, yeah,
• 1:05:20
  S5: that gives a little bit of satisfaction to it, but
• 1:05:23
  S5: I have no clue what this is. And I'm telling
• 1:05:27
  S5: my bride, it's like, you know, even with these things, I'm,
• 1:05:30
  S5: I'm at the point now where it's like these little
• 1:05:33
  S5: things come up. It's like, all right, God, this whole
• 1:05:37
  S5: body's breaking down on me, but I trust you still do.
• 1:05:42
  S5: I have answers for it. I don't have any answers
• 1:05:44
  S5: for it. And I'm trying to figure it out. I'm
• 1:05:47
  S5: doing I'm I'm utilizing AI. I'm going. All right, now
• 1:05:50
  S5: this is what's going on. And I don't have any
• 1:05:53
  S5: conclusive answers on this thing. But here's where I've landed
• 1:05:56
  S5: with this. It's. I'm. You got to smile through the
• 1:06:02
  S5: storm sometimes. No doubt you can let little things like
• 1:06:06
  S5: a little foot pain ruin your day. Or you can
• 1:06:09
  S5: just go, all right. My God knows about this. I've
• 1:06:13
  S5: prayed about it. It's still bothering me, but he's still
• 1:06:18
  S5: God and I'm rolling on. And then I get perspective shifts.
• 1:06:22
  S5: Got a dear friend, has a bride that is struggling
• 1:06:25
  S5: with cancer big time. She's too young to be battling
• 1:06:27
  S5: with this, and that gives me perspective on my little pains,
• 1:06:32
  S5: my little things that are going on. But it doesn't
• 1:06:34
  S5: diminish it and God's aware of it. And I don't
• 1:06:38
  S5: know the answer to it. And I've gotten to the
• 1:06:40
  S5: point where that's okay.
• 1:06:42
  S6: Yeah.
• 1:06:43
  S5: Okay, my man, there's a weird one for you. Make
• 1:06:45
  S5: it a metaphor for spiritual life.
• 1:06:46
  S3: Okay, well, I got two little roots. I, I'm gonna go,
• 1:06:51
  S3: I'm gonna go. Both of them. I'm gonna give you
• 1:06:53
  S3: two metaphors that go down two different ways. Uh, the
• 1:06:56
  S3: first one is the weirder root. Uh, Carl, as you
• 1:07:01
  S3: felt this pain, you took time to examine it. You
• 1:07:04
  S3: took time to check it out, to see what's going on,
• 1:07:07
  S3: what's causing this problem? How can I fix this problem?
• 1:07:11
  S3: And I think self-examination on our bodies is so important
• 1:07:14
  S3: because we have to identify problems and find solutions so
• 1:07:18
  S3: that we can operate to the best of our ability.
• 1:07:21
  S3: We're called to do the same thing with our spiritual life,
• 1:07:24
  S3: to continue to examine ourselves. This one's a little bit
• 1:07:27
  S3: different because it's, uh, you know, it's, it's a to
• 1:07:30
  S3: see if you're in the faith. But Paul tells the
• 1:07:31
  S3: Corinthians to examine themselves, to see if they're in the faith.
• 1:07:35
  S3: We have to recognize problems that are in our lives,
• 1:07:39
  S3: and we have to examine those problems, see what's causing
• 1:07:41
  S3: those problems. And unless we take the time to examine it,
• 1:07:44
  S3: we'll never find Refined solutions that bring life into our lives.
• 1:07:49
  S3: So you may be feeling like, oh man. Spiritually, I've
• 1:07:52
  S3: got a little bit of a foot ache. Something seems wrong.
• 1:07:55
  S3: Don't ignore that problem and just hope it goes away.
• 1:07:59
  S6: Take time. Spiritually speaking.
• 1:08:00
  S3: Spiritually speaking. Do not ignore that problem. Do not say ah,
• 1:08:03
  S3: it's a little foot ache. I the spiritual foot ache.
• 1:08:06
  S3: I feel this problem. I'm going to let it be
• 1:08:07
  S3: and maybe it'll fix itself. It doesn't fix itself. Take
• 1:08:10
  S3: time to examine that problem with God and ask him
• 1:08:14
  S3: to help you find solutions.
• 1:08:15
  S5: Boy that's.
• 1:08:16
  S6: Good.
• 1:08:16
  S3: And I think the second one, when it comes to
• 1:08:21
  S3: the pain that you're experiencing. But in the midst of
• 1:08:24
  S3: trusting God in the middle of it, I think of
• 1:08:28
  S3: the thorn in the flesh that Paul was experiencing in
• 1:08:32
  S3: in second Corinthians, he talks about this and he asked
• 1:08:35
  S3: God three times, this is second Corinthians 12, that he
• 1:08:37
  S3: has this conversation with God, that he asked the Lord
• 1:08:40
  S3: three times to deliver him from this thorn in the flesh.
• 1:08:43
  S3: And God answered him by saying, my grace is sufficient
• 1:08:47
  S3: for you. And that thorn was not going to get released.
• 1:08:50
  S3: And that can be a hard thing to deal with sometimes.
• 1:08:53
  S3: That that thorn in the flesh never gets released. But
• 1:08:55
  S3: just as we've been talking about how Jesus sympathizes with us,
• 1:08:59
  S3: that maybe our prayers don't get answered in the way
• 1:09:01
  S3: that we want. Jesus can sympathize with us in that,
• 1:09:04
  S3: because even he had a prayer that was answered in
• 1:09:07
  S3: a way that he didn't initially want. As he's praying
• 1:09:11
  S3: in the garden just before he's arrested, he prays and says, Lord,
• 1:09:14
  S3: take this cup from me. If there's any other way
• 1:09:18
  S3: to accomplish your will, let me not have to go
• 1:09:20
  S3: to the cross. Let not my will be done though,
• 1:09:24
  S3: but yours. And you know what happens next. He gets arrested.
• 1:09:28
  S3: He gets beaten and tortured and crucified. His prayer was
• 1:09:33
  S3: not answered in the way that he would have wanted
• 1:09:36
  S3: and the way that he asked. Yet God's grace was
• 1:09:39
  S3: sufficient for him in that time to get him through
• 1:09:44
  S3: it so that he could experience God's will in the
• 1:09:46
  S3: midst of it, and so that we could have this.
• 1:09:49
  S3: Whatever you're experiencing right now, that maybe God's not answering
• 1:09:52
  S3: in the way that you want him to. Trust that
• 1:09:55
  S3: he knows what he's doing, trust that he's good and
• 1:09:59
  S3: that he'll be with you through it, even if he
• 1:10:01
  S3: doesn't relieve you of it.
• 1:10:03
  S5: Oh, man. Twofer.
• 1:10:06
  S3: Yeah, a little two for one.
• 1:10:10
  S5: That was great. Young thunder.
• 1:10:12
  S6: Praise God.
• 1:10:12
  S5: Good stuff. Good truth. Yeah, that's really good for some
• 1:10:18
  S5: of you. Take a close look. It's a metaphor for
• 1:10:22
  S5: spiritual pain that only God can resolve. Examine yourself. And
• 1:10:29
  S5: for all of us, we have these things come up
• 1:10:32
  S5: and it's like, I'm trusting God. He's good. He's got
• 1:10:36
  S5: me covered. Way to go. It's called make it a metaphor.
• 1:10:39
  S5: Way to go, young thunder. Good stuff.