Latest / Karl and Crew / Overcoming Clutter with Kathi Lipp & From a Life of Crime to Planting a Church with Leonard Tank Jr.
Transcript
- 0:00S1: Broadcasting from Chicago, across North America and beyond. It's Carl
- 0:06S1: and crew. Come as you are an experienced guide. Overcome
- 0:10S1: what seems impossible and live as you never imagined. Start
- 0:15S1: your morning with a laugh.
- 0:17S2: Practical from the Bible. Tips and tricks to kill. Not
- 0:21S2: tricks but tips and tricks.
- 0:25S3: Tips and tricks to kill. Tips and tricks.
- 0:28S1: Delivering the truth daily.
- 0:30S4: All of my attempts to, you know, prop myself up
- 0:33S4: with achievement in good works. Well, God wasn't impressed by that,
- 0:36S4: even if other people were.
- 0:38S2: The gospel changes everything.
- 0:41S5: Freedom in Christ. Man, it's like that backpack of cement
- 0:44S5: just falling to the ground.
- 0:46S1: Now from the call of Hope Studios, this is Carl
- 0:50S1: and Crew. We got a couple baby stories for you.
- 0:55S1: Got a couple of them. Yesterday I got a call
- 0:57S1: while I was on air from my daughter. And when
- 0:59S1: I get a call from my daughter while I'm on air,
- 1:01S1: it's like, Ruh roh, what's going on here? So I
- 1:05S1: connected with her and found out, guess what? Although I
- 1:09S1: wasn't the first up, I was down the line.
- 1:13S5: You're on the list.
- 1:14S1: I'm on the list. Yeah. What happened is my. My
- 1:17S1: bride had something that she was cooking on and couldn't
- 1:20S1: get away from it. And my daughter got a call
- 1:23S1: from someone who was going to be watching her little
- 1:25S1: one yesterday, and they had a headache or sick or something.
- 1:30S1: And my son in law was downtown Chicago at work.
- 1:35S1: And so my daughter calls dad and she says, dad,
- 1:39S1: is there any way you could cut loose this afternoon?
- 1:42S1: I've got to be on a Zoom call with a
- 1:44S1: few hundred folks presenting something, and I just need to
- 1:48S1: be there and I'm like, I'm there.
- 1:51S5: He said yes before she finished the question.
- 1:54S1: You better believe it. So I shot over there and
- 1:57S1: the two dogs went crazy because for some reason they
- 2:00S1: like my energy. And then the, the, uh, the, uh,
- 2:05S1: little granddaughter of mine, baby Kate, she gave me a
- 2:08S1: big old smile, like, wow, I'm getting you midday here.
- 2:12S1: The sun's up and we're cooking here, grandpa.
- 2:14S2: Nothing better than a little midday, grandpa time.
- 2:17S1: Oh, we had a great time for an hour and
- 2:18S1: 15 minutes. I just held on to that girl and
- 2:21S1: talked to her about life and holding on to her.
- 2:23S1: And her mom told me for sure she was going
- 2:26S1: to pass out because she's so tired. But guess what?
- 2:28S5: Yeah, right.
- 2:29S1: She didn't pass out until I was gone. My daughter
- 2:32S1: texted us and said she just woke up from the
- 2:35S1: mother of all naps. She like crashed for a couple
- 2:38S1: of hours after grandpa left. But we had a sweet
- 2:40S1: time together. Babies are awesome. And Jonathan's got some big news.
- 2:43S2: Man, I got.
- 2:45S6: To love.
- 2:47S2: Another little baby girl on the way.
- 2:51S5: Girl. Dad.
- 2:52S2: Dad, I'm so excited. Having my first little girl is
- 2:56S2: the best, so having double that is going to be awesome.
- 2:59S2: I grew up in a house with four boys where
- 3:02S2: we were drawing blood.
- 3:03S1: And God knew you had enough.
- 3:05S2: And had enough, I had enough. My. I always remember
- 3:08S2: my brother's 16th birthday. I was ten, he got boxing
- 3:11S2: gloves and he wanted to test them out with me.
- 3:14S2: He said, put him on, let's spar. And the first
- 3:16S2: thing he did was punch me in the gut and.
- 3:19S2: And so you know what? I had enough boy time.
- 3:22S2: You know what? I'm ready to have a house full
- 3:24S2: of girls. And now I do. And I'm so excited.
- 3:26S1: 18 year old laying the picking leather to a ten
- 3:29S1: year old brother's stomach. That's classic.
- 3:31S2: Yeah, it was fun. And then, you know, as soon
- 3:33S2: as you get hit, they go, are you okay? Are
- 3:35S2: you okay? Don't. Whatever you do, don't tell Mom and
- 3:37S2: Dad kind of how that works.
- 3:39S5: Good.
- 3:39S3: Right?
- 3:39S2: Right.
- 3:40S1: How many times did you hear that line?
- 3:42S2: Oh, man. You know what? For me, not very often.
- 3:45S2: I was a, I was I was not that much
- 3:48S2: of a troublemaker. I was more of a troublemaker with
- 3:50S2: my words. Uh, the biggest one is my brother. Older
- 3:54S2: than me. He wanted to watch TV and I wouldn't
- 3:56S2: let him. And so, uh, he. Because I was watching TV.
- 4:00S2: So he stood at the TV and kept hitting the
- 4:02S2: power button there. So I would interrupt my show and
- 4:05S2: I'd turn it back on with the remote, and he'd
- 4:07S2: turn it off again. So I got up and left
- 4:09S2: with the remote in my hand and he said, give
- 4:11S2: me that back. And I said, fine. So I turned
- 4:13S2: around and I chucked the remote and it hit him
- 4:15S2: in the face and. And then he started crying because
- 4:19S2: it hurt. But then the crying turned to anger, crying.
- 4:22S2: And that's when I knew to run. So I said,
- 4:26S2: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And I
- 4:27S2: took off because I knew he was going to beat
- 4:30S2: me up when he caught me.
- 4:31S1: So well, listen, back to the baby. Yeah. Congratulations.
- 4:35S2: Thank you. I really am so excited. Uh, our second
- 4:38S2: little one coming up right at the end of September. And, uh,
- 4:42S2: and our little girl is very excited to have a
- 4:44S2: little sister. She'd been calling sister for a while.
- 4:47S3: Big sister.
- 4:47S2: That's right.
- 4:48S4: And girls bring a different a different flavor of of drama.
- 4:54S3: Oh my goodness.
- 4:55S2: Yeah yeah yeah, absolutely. Well, I was going to say,
- 4:58S2: and it's funny because it is, it is really a
- 5:01S2: whole new thing. You know, my, my daughter, she'll watch
- 5:04S2: football with me and stuff when I have it on,
- 5:06S2: which is great. Yeah. But she's also a girls girl.
- 5:09S2: We dress up in princess stuff and she puts the
- 5:12S2: little crown on dad, and she wants me to wear
- 5:14S2: hairbows when she wears hairbows. And so it's fun and
- 5:17S2: it's cute and I love it.
- 5:19S1: Oh, that's awesome when she.
- 5:20S5: Comes, dad all the way.
- 5:21S1: She is. She is dressed up.
- 5:23S2: Oh, yeah. She's my little princess, man, and she knows it.
- 5:26S4: That's awesome. It's exciting news. Congrats.
- 5:29S5: Congrats, congrats.
- 5:31S2: Oh, it's the best.
- 5:32S1: I do get a kick out of these shorts with
- 5:34S1: these little kids that come in, and their mom just
- 5:36S1: gave birth, and one little guy goes. Send him back.
- 5:41S4: Oh, that was that was when we were joking about
- 5:43S4: this when I was with my family recently, because I
- 5:46S4: have a sister, I have two sisters. I'm right in
- 5:48S4: the middle. And my older sister was two When I
- 5:51S4: was born. Oh, and so she famously backed into a
- 5:54S4: corner and said, I don't want her. I don't want her.
- 5:58S4: Take her back. Oh, and as I mean, as it happened,
- 6:02S4: I got pretty sick as a newborn, so I had
- 6:04S4: to go back to the hospital for like a week.
- 6:07S4: So then they brought me home a second time and
- 6:09S4: she was like, I thought she was gone. I thought
- 6:12S4: you took her back. So it was like double, double
- 6:16S4: sadness because she really thought that her, you know, her
- 6:19S4: request had been granted and that they had just taken
- 6:21S4: me back. Now you're.
- 6:22S1: Best.
- 6:23S3: Buddies.
- 6:23S4: Yeah. Now we're best buddies. Many, many years. I mean,
- 6:26S4: we were we were best buddies, you know, within a
- 6:28S4: within a year, you guys took a liking to me, man.
- 6:31S4: But she definitely thought she had succeeded in getting rid
- 6:34S4: of me. And then, lo and behold, here comes baby
- 6:37S4: Ali again.
- 6:39S5: Oh.
- 6:40S4: Take that baby away.
- 6:41S7: It's so funny.
- 6:43S3: It's so.
- 6:43S7: Good. Get him out of here. Take him back to
- 6:45S7: where they came from.
- 6:47S1: Oh, kids. Or something else? I keep telling, I keep.
- 6:50S1: I've got a lot of friends with kids your age,
- 6:52S1: and I tell them. I've told you, young thunder, wait
- 6:54S1: till they're 4 or 5. They're going to tell. They're
- 6:56S1: going to say stuff that's going to make your hair curl, man. Oh,
- 7:00S1: it's going to be awesome. I can hardly wait.
- 7:02S3: Yeah.
- 7:03S1: Hardly. Wait. Your turn's coming, man.
- 7:06S2: I'm excited. I'm gonna get real careful. The hard part
- 7:09S2: is you just have to learn. Because you can say
- 7:13S2: certain things when they're an infant, because they aren't processing,
- 7:16S2: they are not repeating. And then they get to two
- 7:19S2: and they are repeating everything. And so you're like, all right,
- 7:23S2: now I gotta really like tighten up the nozzle here
- 7:26S2: because because she just says everything I say.
- 7:30S3: Like, yeah, not fun.
- 7:31S2: I don't want it.
- 7:32S1: Gotta love it.
- 7:33S2: And now she's gonna share all my family secrets. No,
- 7:36S2: it's gonna be.
- 7:37S4: Can I share one of the most embarrassing things that
- 7:39S4: my son ever did to me when he was little.
- 7:41S3: Please. Yes.
- 7:41S4: So he was at a church camp, and my husband
- 7:44S4: travels a lot for work, so he had to go
- 7:47S4: to a big basketball summer league in Las Vegas. And
- 7:51S4: so my son, who and so we, you know, we
- 7:53S4: pray for dad when he's on his trips. And so
- 7:56S4: they're in front of all the parents, all the kids
- 7:58S4: at camp, they're all sharing prayer requests. And so they
- 8:02S4: get to my son, he takes the microphone and he said,
- 8:06S4: I just want to pray for my dad. He's gone
- 8:08S4: to Vegas, and we pray that he comes back. And
- 8:11S4: I was like, no. And I'm sitting there, all the
- 8:16S4: blood goes out of my face. And the woman, she's like, okay,
- 8:19S4: we're going to pray for his dad that he comes
- 8:21S4: back and I'm like, can I explain that this Vegas
- 8:25S4: strip is for work?
- 8:27S3: It had to be.
- 8:27S2: It had to be Vegas that week, didn't it?
- 8:30S3: Oh, yeah.
- 8:30S4: He's he's in Las Vegas and we pray he comes home.
- 8:34S2: He couldn't have been in like.
- 8:35S3: Oklahoma.
- 8:36S4: Like.
- 8:36S1: Facilitators. Facilitators didn't get his mortgage in the home.
- 8:40S4: There's a story that I want to explain, but I
- 8:43S4: just got to let this one lie. So I just
- 8:44S4: had to smile and, you know, let everybody think that
- 8:47S4: he's gone off to Vegas.
- 8:49S3: I loved that.
- 8:50S4: That was.
- 8:50S3: Good.
- 8:50S1: 000 pricing all week long. Sometimes you need hope rising
- 8:56S1: when it feels like the Doge just sitting there flat
- 9:00S1: because you're going through some tough stuff, right?
- 9:02S4: I keep taking the punches. We've got a guest coming up.
- 9:05S4: She's honest about man. She's taken some punches over the
- 9:09S4: last couple months, but she's still got hope. What's going
- 9:12S4: on and how is she clinging to God? You're going
- 9:14S4: to hear from Kathy Lipp coming up.
- 9:16S1: Yeah. Also some great advice if you feel like the
- 9:19S1: hope that's being stolen from you is because of the
- 9:22S1: stuff in the home. Yeah, she's an expert teed up.
- 9:26S1: Coming up, Kathy Lipp.
- 9:27S8: He was running from God, but God's love brought him home.
- 9:31S8: Carl is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on
- 9:35S8: Moody Radio.
- 9:37S1: So a question I have is, how does a person
- 9:40S1: who is by nature happy clappy. And I don't mean
- 9:44S1: that in a bad way. I mean it in a
- 9:46S1: good way. I mean, they're like, whoa. When they come
- 9:48S1: on air with us, they're bringing the joy. What happens
- 9:52S1: when they go through a series of things? All joking aside,
- 9:55S1: that could really rip off the hope from you. It's
- 9:58S1: hope rising week here. And I just got to ask you,
- 10:01S1: Kathi Lipp, how are you doing?
- 10:04S5: I am a lot better than the last time I
- 10:07S5: was supposed to be on and had to bail on you.
- 10:10S5: So what? It's not my nature.
- 10:13S1: No, it's not your nature at all. And. And Nelly
- 10:16S1: and I love you because. Because you're so. Isn't she lovable?
- 10:21S3: Ali?
- 10:22S4: Oh, yeah.
- 10:22S1: I mean, come on.
- 10:23S4: Cathy. Lovable lip.
- 10:25S3: There we go.
- 10:25S4: Yes, that's what we'll call.
- 10:26S3: Her for sure.
- 10:29S1: Um, so.
- 10:29S3: Cathy.
- 10:30S5: I need to be on more often. I feel so
- 10:32S5: much better after I talk to you guys. I'm glad.
- 10:35S1: So what? What was Satan and I don't I'm not
- 10:38S1: saying I ascribe it all to Satan. Sometimes circumstances. Satan leverages.
- 10:42S1: I don't look for a demon under every rock. But
- 10:44S1: what have you gone through? And I want folks to
- 10:47S1: get a feel for it. You've gone through a series
- 10:49S1: of tough blows here recently.
- 10:52S5: It's been a one, two, three punch. So the first
- 10:55S5: thing is I was at a speaking engagement of June
- 10:58S5: of last year and caught Covid like everybody does at
- 11:02S5: one point or another, but mine turned into long Covid.
- 11:05S5: And I have been working at about, I would say
- 11:09S5: a third of capacity since then. And then we had
- 11:14S5: a tree fall on our house. We live in the
- 11:16S5: middle of, you know, 33 acres out in the woods.
- 11:20S5: And we had a big snowstorm, which wasn't a ton
- 11:23S5: of snow, but it was heavy snow. And that tree landed,
- 11:28S5: I don't know, maybe six feet away from my head.
- 11:31S1: And it came through the roof.
- 11:33S5: It did. It did.
- 11:35S4: Whoa.
- 11:35S5: So yeah, so that that was yeah, that was exciting,
- 11:40S5: I guess is one word. Terrifying. I slept downstairs for
- 11:43S5: four days. And then, uh, just as all of that
- 11:48S5: was kind of, you know, we were figuring those things out.
- 11:51S5: I passed out upstairs in our bedroom. It's like, well,
- 11:54S5: that's weird. Went to the ER. They couldn't figure it out.
- 11:57S5: Two days later, I'm in for emergency gallbladder surgery. So,
- 12:01S5: you know, it was just like we couldn't catch our breath.
- 12:04S5: And guys, it was. I have the most supportive husband
- 12:09S5: on the planet who takes excellent care of me. But
- 12:13S5: at some point, you just look around and you're like,
- 12:16S5: is this my life now? Is this just how it's
- 12:18S5: going to go for? Because, you know, I'm canceling appointments. I,
- 12:23S5: I know I'm not letting people down, but I know
- 12:25S5: it's not it's not how it used to be. Let
- 12:29S5: me just put it that way.
- 12:30S3: Yeah.
- 12:31S4: Kathy Lipp, our guest this morning, author, speaker, blogger, podcast host,
- 12:35S4: clutter free Academy is what she's known for. Did you
- 12:39S4: find yourself losing hope a little bit? Even though you
- 12:42S4: knew it wouldn't always be like this? Did you feel
- 12:45S4: a little hopeless as you just kept getting hit?
- 12:48S5: Absolutely. Because you kept you keep thinking, okay, when I
- 12:52S5: feel better or okay, when we get the tree out
- 12:55S5: of the house or.
- 12:57S3: I'm sorry.
- 12:58S1: For laughing about that, but you got a tree.
- 13:00S3: And.
- 13:00S5: You have to.
- 13:01S3: Laugh.
- 13:02S5: You have to laugh. Yeah, I mean, we could have
- 13:04S5: sold it as a feature. A skylight, I don't know. Um,
- 13:08S5: but it was unrelenting and, you know, along with, you know,
- 13:13S5: the other things that everybody just goes through, you know,
- 13:16S5: your kids going through a crisis, aging parent. It just
- 13:20S5: felt like, are we ever going to be able to
- 13:23S5: catch our breath again?
- 13:24S3: Yeah.
- 13:25S1: What caused you to catch your breath? I know that
- 13:27S1: you're a woman that's anchored in the word in our
- 13:29S1: premise here is that at the end of the day.
- 13:32S1: Oh my goodness, you must have had some scripture that
- 13:34S1: you went to.
- 13:35S5: Here's the thing. I am on a sermon team and
- 13:41S5: for the church that I used to go to, you know,
- 13:44S5: back in the Bay area, and we were going through
- 13:47S5: Romans and just looking at the belief that the Saints
- 13:55S5: had and just seeing that over and over and over.
- 13:59S5: And that is such a a series of chapters on
- 14:02S5: faithfulness and belief. So it was reading that kind of
- 14:06S5: as my homework. Yeah, that was so anchoring for me.
- 14:11S5: It was also knowing when I was at my worst
- 14:14S5: that I had several people, not everybody knew what was
- 14:18S5: going on, but I had several people that I knew
- 14:21S5: were praying for me every single day. Like I didn't
- 14:23S5: even have to question it. It's just who they are.
- 14:26S5: And so having that and then having Roger, you know,
- 14:30S5: praying with me before surgery, you know, it's the prayer
- 14:34S5: and the word of God that kept coming back over
- 14:38S5: and over. Even when I couldn't pray. You know, you
- 14:40S5: think about the four friends carrying the stretcher. I knew
- 14:44S5: that there were a number of people bringing me before
- 14:48S5: God every single day.
- 14:50S4: Kathy Lipp, our guest. Let me read you a couple
- 14:53S4: of the titles of some of her many books. She's
- 14:56S4: a best selling author of 20 books, clutter free that
- 14:59S4: get yourself Organized project Overwhelmed, How to Quiet the Chaos
- 15:03S4: and Restore the Sanity. We would be doing you a
- 15:07S4: disservice if we brought her on and did not help you,
- 15:11S4: who feel like your hope is waning because you were overwhelmed,
- 15:15S4: drowning in clutter and chaos. Help and hope on the way.
- 15:19S4: With Kathy Lipp coming up.
- 15:20S8: You're listening to Curl and Crew on Moody Radio.
- 15:24S4: Well, this is usually the time of year that people,
- 15:27S4: at least in the Midwest, want to start opening some windows,
- 15:30S4: bringing some fresh air in. We haven't seen consistent spring,
- 15:34S4: but we know that it's coming. And so you want
- 15:37S4: to clean things out. You want to enjoy the space
- 15:40S4: that you have, whether it's a little bit or a lot.
- 15:43S4: But sometimes it's the clutter and the chaos that keeps
- 15:47S4: you from enjoying the very place that God has given you. Cathy,
- 15:50S4: you have been there. Cathy Lip, our guest right now.
- 15:53S4: You know that feeling, right? Cathy?
- 15:55S5: Oh, 100%. I grew up with a hoarder. My dad
- 15:58S5: was a hoarder, and so we were always closed in.
- 16:03S5: And I love what you said about opening the windows
- 16:05S5: and letting the fresh air in the house I grew
- 16:09S5: up in. Didn't feel like that oftentimes. And we were
- 16:12S5: closed off not just because of the clutter, but because
- 16:16S5: we didn't want to bring people into our home because
- 16:19S5: sometimes it could be embarrassing. And so this is why
- 16:22S5: I'm so passionate about decluttering one. I know that clutter
- 16:28S5: can be a physical harm to people, especially if you
- 16:32S5: have older people in your home or toddler, whoever is
- 16:36S5: in your home, you want it to be safe. So
- 16:38S5: getting that clutter out is a huge gift, but also
- 16:42S5: just the peace of mind because clutter makes our brain
- 16:46S5: ping off of things and it doesn't allow for true
- 16:49S5: peace and rest. So that's why I'm so passionate about
- 16:53S5: creating a space where you can have that peace.
- 16:56S1: You know, I got to tell you, I am by nature.
- 16:58S1: No no no no no, by upbringing, by nature. I'm
- 17:02S1: probably a mess by upbringing. I was raised around. I mean,
- 17:07S1: my dad. He outlined tools on his pegboard. I mean, the.
- 17:10S3: Saw.
- 17:11S1: The.
- 17:11S3: Pliers.
- 17:12S1: The screwdrivers, and I'm talking hundreds of tools. So that
- 17:15S1: and it was helpful. Then I knew where to put
- 17:17S1: them back, you know, it was.
- 17:18S3: A.
- 17:18S1: Really cool thing. My mom, she was more she was
- 17:21S1: more organized than that. Now you can go too far
- 17:24S1: with this stuff. You can you can get so stinking
- 17:29S1: messed up where you start worshiping order, right? And that
- 17:33S1: would be dangerous. So I want to talk about that
- 17:35S1: for a second. But the other side is I appreciate
- 17:38S1: that upbringing because I know in my own life, when
- 17:41S1: things get scattered, that's an emotional strain on me that
- 17:46S1: I know God doesn't want me to carry. Speak to
- 17:48S1: that first.
- 17:50S5: Yeah. So we have so much coming at us, you know,
- 17:54S5: with relationships, with work, with raising kids or helping to
- 17:59S5: raise grandkids. There's already so much we have to balance.
- 18:03S5: And so when your world is in disorder, it makes
- 18:08S5: everything else so much harder. And I just think about
- 18:14S5: if I am going around and doing things in my
- 18:17S5: house and my house is cluttered, it's like I'm carrying
- 18:21S5: that clutter on my back. It's emotionally exhausting, it's physically exhausting.
- 18:27S5: And we're just we never get to the root of
- 18:30S5: what we need to do in the home. So and yes,
- 18:34S5: you can be to organize. I like to think the
- 18:38S5: goal is a kindergarten room. A lot of great learning,
- 18:42S5: a lot of great play happens in the kindergarten room.
- 18:45S5: But also we teach kindergartners, hey, this is the block bin. Hey,
- 18:50S5: this is the bookshelf. We know where things go at
- 18:54S5: the end of the day. And it doesn't take away
- 18:57S5: from that joy. It doesn't take away from that learning.
- 19:01S5: They're all contained in the same area.
- 19:04S4: That's a great.
- 19:05S3: Great.
- 19:06S4: Picture because I'm not too far removed from I've gotten
- 19:10S4: my youngest is 13, but I remember going into those
- 19:13S4: classrooms and there was a surprising amount of order, despite
- 19:17S4: the fact that it was very colorful. The chairs were
- 19:20S4: basically sitting on the ground. The carpet might have been
- 19:23S4: a little stained from kindergarten messes, but there was order.
- 19:27S3: That's true, isn't it?
- 19:28S4: Right. What are the top three questions to ask yourself
- 19:33S4: when you are starting to look through your home? Figuring
- 19:36S4: out what do I keep? What do I get rid of?
- 19:38S4: How do I start to make a dent in my clutter?
- 19:40S5: I think, why am I holding on to this item?
- 19:44S5: And there are three questions to ask. Fear, guilt and shame. Fear.
- 19:49S5: If I give this away, I might need it someday.
- 19:52S5: So I'm going to hold on to it until Jesus
- 19:55S5: comes back. Guilt is often so and so gave it
- 19:59S5: to me. And if I give it away, it means
- 20:02S5: that I didn't really honor that relationship. And then so fear,
- 20:07S5: guilt and then shame. I spent so much money on it.
- 20:10S5: And even though I don't use it, I need to
- 20:12S5: hold on to it until, I don't know, five, ten,
- 20:15S5: 20 years until I feel like, okay, it's no longer
- 20:19S5: of value and then I can get rid of it
- 20:22S5: guilt free. And I would just love for us to
- 20:26S5: turn that on its head and say, who could use
- 20:30S5: this now? I don't honor anybody. I don't honor the
- 20:33S5: money I spent by keeping it in a closet. But
- 20:36S5: maybe there's somebody who's looking for a job, or maybe
- 20:39S5: there's somebody who has a young child and they could
- 20:43S5: use that playpen, or they could use that suit. And
- 20:49S5: that is a way that my things can serve God,
- 20:52S5: serve others, and honor the money that we've already spent
- 20:56S5: on it.
- 20:56S4: Cathy, one story that you told that just stuck with me.
- 20:59S4: I want you to tell it again. You went shopping
- 21:02S4: and you had a son who was looking for shoes.
- 21:05S4: Tell that story because I told that one to my family.
- 21:08S4: Such an encouragement to get rid of stuff in your house.
- 21:12S5: I'm so glad that that was an encouragement. Yeah. As
- 21:15S5: you guys know, I was a single mom, and when
- 21:18S5: I became a single mom, my kids had never shopped
- 21:21S5: at a goodwill. We had gone there to donate things,
- 21:23S5: but that wasn't how we got things. And as a
- 21:27S5: single mom, I was unemployed. It was the only place
- 21:29S5: I could afford. But my son desperately needed shoes to
- 21:33S5: start school. And so we go to goodwill and we're
- 21:35S5: looking around and the pickings are slim. And my son
- 21:40S5: grabs a pair of shoes. He goes, I want these.
- 21:44S5: And he grabbed them from the size eight shelf. But
- 21:48S5: at the time he was a men's size 11. I'm like, buddy,
- 21:52S5: you know, we can't be shopping in that section. And
- 21:55S5: so I grabbed them from him to put them back.
- 21:58S5: And I look at the tag on the shoes. By
- 22:02S5: the way, never Been worn. Still has the original tag
- 22:04S5: on them.
- 22:05S3: Oh my.
- 22:05S5: Goodness. And friends, if those were not a size 11
- 22:09S5: and I, I broke down and I cried in the
- 22:12S5: middle of the goodwill. At the time, I just was
- 22:15S5: thanking God, thanking God. And then I thought about the
- 22:19S5: guy or more likely his wife, who says you've had
- 22:24S5: these Nike shoes for years and you haven't worn them?
- 22:26S5: I'm going to donate them. And instead of holding on
- 22:30S5: to them to try to recoup some of that cost
- 22:32S5: or whatever goes through our brain when we hang on
- 22:35S5: to things we don't need to hang on to. They
- 22:38S5: decided to be generous, and it changed the trajectory of
- 22:43S5: my son, starting in a brand new school. I am
- 22:46S5: grateful to that woman every single day.
- 22:49S1: This is power. Okay. Fear, guilt and shame, I love that.
- 22:53S1: That is so good. How do you break? Okay, fear.
- 22:58S1: We get it. That we've got to trust in the Lord.
- 23:00S1: Guilt is a. That's probably my biggest sticking point because
- 23:04S1: I get a lot of things given to me just
- 23:06S1: because I'm a pastor. And.
- 23:08S3: Right.
- 23:08S1: They just get handed to me and I have battled.
- 23:11S1: So you know what I've done? I'm going to be
- 23:13S1: so self effacing here.
- 23:15S3: Tell me.
- 23:15S1: I hold on to things for a time, and then
- 23:18S1: I feel like if I've held on to it long enough,
- 23:21S1: It's kind of grandfathered into. Now I can hand it
- 23:24S1: off to someone else. And then one day I thought, well,
- 23:27S1: that's crazy thinking. Can't you just pick that up one time, Kathy,
- 23:30S1: and go, okay, I'm not going to be a slave
- 23:34S1: to this guilt. How do you break free from that?
- 23:36S5: I'll give you two different ideas. One. Oftentimes I like
- 23:41S5: to think about myself as just being the passer honor.
- 23:45S5: You know, somebody gives me something. It belongs to somebody else.
- 23:49S5: It's my job to get it to them. So that
- 23:51S5: doesn't mean I need to hand it to them directly.
- 23:54S5: It means it needs to be donated like those shoes
- 23:57S5: or when I've been given a bonus before. Maybe that
- 24:00S5: money isn't necessarily all for me. Maybe some of it
- 24:04S5: is for our food pantry here, which is one of
- 24:06S5: our favorite charities here. So to think about yourself as,
- 24:10S5: am I supposed to hold on to this? Or am
- 24:12S5: I supposed to be the one who gets it to
- 24:15S5: the right place? The other thing I would love for
- 24:18S5: you to consider. You know, I lost my dad about
- 24:22S5: 13 years ago, and at first I felt like I
- 24:25S5: had to keep everything to honor his memory. But then
- 24:28S5: what I decided is I didn't need to keep a
- 24:31S5: bunch of things in drawers. I needed to curate just
- 24:35S5: a few items. You know, one item was something that
- 24:38S5: was important to me and him. One item was something
- 24:41S5: that really represented him. And so I've got about six
- 24:46S5: things in a shadow box that represent my relationship with
- 24:50S5: my dad, which is so much more meaningful than a
- 24:53S5: bunch of things scattered throughout my house.
- 24:55S1: Or hidden in a cupboard.
- 24:56S5: Exactly.
- 24:57S4: Cathy Lipp, our guest this morning. She has a ton
- 25:00S4: of resources, books, but also blogs. There are three questions
- 25:05S4: to ask clutter free. Three clarifying questions. I'm not going
- 25:08S4: to give them to you. You got to look on
- 25:10S4: their site. Text clutter to 800 555 7898. You take
- 25:16S4: a look around. You're going to get some good motivation
- 25:18S4: and some practical help to start today. Text clutter to
- 25:22S4: (800) 555-7899 eight.
- 25:26S8: Take your next step with Jesus today. You're listening to
- 25:30S8: Carl and Crew.
- 25:31S4: Our theme this week and I hope you've been enjoying it.
- 25:33S4: It's been hope rising. Talking about hope and all of
- 25:36S4: these different circumstances. Sometimes difficult. Leonard. Thanks, junior. Our guest
- 25:41S4: right now, pastor apologist. He's an emerging theologian based in
- 25:45S4: the Cleveland area where he serves as a pastor and
- 25:47S4: church planner. Would you agree that one of the most
- 25:52S4: dangerous things to lose is hope?
- 25:56S9: Yeah, I think that, um, you don't have anything to
- 25:58S9: believe in and anything to hope for a future or
- 26:01S9: anything like that. It can create discouragement in the current
- 26:04S9: season of life, especially when we live with different circumstances
- 26:07S9: and things. For sure.
- 26:08S4: And, you know, and I think about, you know, living
- 26:10S4: in any big city, you encounter people from all walks
- 26:15S4: of life, all different set of circumstances and background. Sometimes
- 26:20S4: you can look into the eyes of a person down
- 26:22S4: and out and up and out. You can see businessmen.
- 26:26S4: You can see a homeless person. But sometimes you look
- 26:28S4: into the eyes of a person and you see there's
- 26:32S4: no hope. There's no hope. There's no hope that life
- 26:35S4: can be better than it is. There's no hope that
- 26:37S4: circumstances will ever change. Have you ever been in that place, pastor,
- 26:42S4: where if someone were to look into your eyes, like, really? Look,
- 26:46S4: there was no hope.
- 26:47S9: Yeah. I mean, there's many a times in my life specifically, um,
- 26:51S9: where they could have looked at that. Obviously it's been
- 26:53S9: changed a lot. Now my relationship with Jesus.
- 26:56S3: Sure.
- 26:56S9: Yeah. Kind of post my relationship with Jesus. There were
- 26:59S9: many times in that. And some of those times are
- 27:01S9: actually what led me. I think that God used to
- 27:04S9: really start to soften my heart and pierce through my heart,
- 27:07S9: to make me open to receive him.
- 27:09S4: Yeah. Take us back to before you were pastor of
- 27:12S4: Reach City Church in Ohio, before you were an apologist
- 27:17S4: studying theology. Talk about your early years.
- 27:22S9: You know, I was just really troubled kid in and
- 27:24S9: out of jail my whole life. Um, but specifically, I
- 27:28S9: remember kind of the moment, the last situation that kind
- 27:31S9: of led me to Christ facing five years waiting to
- 27:34S9: go to trial. You know, I was guilty at video
- 27:36S9: evidence and things like that. And so it really wasn't
- 27:39S9: any hope of actually getting out. It was kind of
- 27:42S9: like more so trying to prepare for what the next
- 27:44S9: five years will look like. And then going from my daughters.
- 27:47S9: And so that was probably one of the moments, the
- 27:49S9: last moments where it was just like complete feeling of hopelessness.
- 27:52S9: And I remember for me, that was kind of what
- 27:55S9: led me to reading the Bible. That's what led me
- 27:57S9: to pray, to seek God, to ask him and make
- 28:01S9: this deal with him, to kind of get me out
- 28:02S9: of jail. And so in that moment, God used that
- 28:06S9: hopelessness and that defeated ness to actually soften my heart,
- 28:10S9: to turn to him. And obviously in turning to him,
- 28:12S9: miraculously got out of jail, and then my whole trajectory
- 28:15S9: of my life shifted and changed.
- 28:16S4: What was the deal that you made with God? If
- 28:19S4: you get me out of this, I'll serve you. Was
- 28:21S4: it something along those lines?
- 28:22S9: Yeah. If you give me out of here, I'll serve
- 28:25S9: you the rest of my life. And for the longest
- 28:27S9: I used to tell that testimony is like. For some reason,
- 28:30S9: God believed me and got me out. But truthfully, that's
- 28:33S9: not the truth. At the end of the day. The
- 28:35S9: rest of the story actually is happening behind the scenes
- 28:39S9: that I didn't even know about while I was in jail.
- 28:42S9: A friend of mine was a part of a young
- 28:44S9: adult ministry, and they used to have Sunday prayer nights,
- 28:47S9: and I didn't know this until after I got out later,
- 28:50S9: because I ended up being a part of that group.
- 28:51S9: But she went to them and said, hey, my friend
- 28:54S9: is in jail. He asked me some questions about God.
- 28:57S9: Can we just begin to pray that God would do
- 28:59S9: something in his heart while he's in there? Wow. And
- 29:02S9: so what I learned later, it wasn't that God, for
- 29:04S9: some reason believed me because, you know, I mean, John
- 29:08S9: chapter two says, man, Jesus doesn't entrust himself to man
- 29:10S9: because he knows what's in there. And even men with
- 29:13S9: the best intentions will still fail, will still turn their
- 29:16S9: back on. God will still walk another way. But it
- 29:19S9: was actually these prayers of these righteous people who were
- 29:23S9: praying that God would do a work in my life.
- 29:25S9: That was actually the cause of the answer of my prayer,
- 29:29S9: that it was less about me and more about him
- 29:31S9: being faithful to the prayers of the righteous. Hearing their
- 29:35S9: prayers and then responding to their prayers. Not my prayers.
- 29:38S9: I thought it was my prayers, but it was really
- 29:39S9: their prayer that he responded to and worked on my behalf.
- 29:45S4: How soon after your release did you know you were
- 29:49S4: going to be a pastor? I mean, you said you,
- 29:52S4: I'll give you my life. I'll serve you whether or
- 29:55S4: not you meant it fully. How soon after?
- 29:58S9: Probably maybe about a year and a half in. I
- 30:01S9: felt like I had this love for the word and
- 30:03S9: wanted to communicate his word. And then kind of the
- 30:05S9: call for the pastor came a little bit later. But
- 30:08S9: I was so arrogant and so prideful. I also reverted
- 30:11S9: with just this desire to be the man. Even in
- 30:13S9: the church space, you know? And so 2010 is when
- 30:17S9: I got saved. Three years later, it's kind of where
- 30:19S9: that press will be like. I feel like God, maybe
- 30:22S9: calling me later to shepherd people.
- 30:24S4: Leonard. Thanks, junior. Our guest right now out of the
- 30:26S4: Cleveland area, pastor, church planter, reached city church. You know,
- 30:31S4: when you think about hope, hope is anchored in the
- 30:34S4: faithfulness of God. More coming up with pastor tanks right
- 30:38S4: here on Carl and crew.
- 30:39S8: He's a sports fanatic with a stat for anything you
- 30:42S8: can think of. Young Thunder is in the crew. It's
- 30:46S8: Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
- 30:49S4: We've got a special guest with us this morning. His
- 30:51S4: name is Leonard. Thanks, junior. A familiar voice to those
- 30:54S4: of you in the Cleveland area. He is the pastor
- 30:57S4: of Reach City Church in Cleveland, Ohio. Powerful testimony. You know,
- 31:02S4: when you think about hope, everybody wants to have a hope.
- 31:06S4: But it's usually usually linked to a hope that something
- 31:09S4: in my life will change as far as circumstances. When
- 31:13S4: we think about a hope that's anchored in the faithfulness
- 31:15S4: of God. Sometimes our immediate circumstances change, but sometimes they don't.
- 31:21S4: Explain that a little bit.
- 31:23S9: We think that Hope answered is always like, well, I
- 31:29S9: prayed and God was. If God is faithful, then he's
- 31:32S9: going to immediately change my circumstance. And these situations might change.
- 31:36S9: But I think the reality is not necessarily that the
- 31:39S9: circumstances and situations will change immediately, but it's that the
- 31:43S9: faithfulness of God is that he will bring about his
- 31:46S9: desired plans. At the end of the day, it will happen.
- 31:50S9: And I think about when you read the scriptures, you
- 31:52S9: see the faithfulness of God being declared to Israel. And
- 31:56S9: yet Israel was still find themselves in captivity for 70 years.
- 32:00S9: But during those 70 years, God was still faithful. And
- 32:03S9: he even said to them, hey, my plan is to
- 32:06S9: give you a hope and a future. And so this
- 32:08S9: 70 years of discipline is not meant to destroy you.
- 32:12S9: And I will be faithful to bring you out of this.
- 32:15S9: But your circumstance will be what it is for the
- 32:17S9: next 70 years. I think about the faithfulness of God
- 32:20S9: and the life of the disciples, where Jesus says to
- 32:24S9: them in Mark 14, he says, hey, I'm going to
- 32:27S9: be arrested, and you're going to abandon me, right? But hey,
- 32:31S9: I'm going to go ahead of you. When I rise
- 32:33S9: and meet you in Galilee. And he was being faithful
- 32:36S9: to his disciples in the mission that he had called
- 32:39S9: them to, even though they still abandoned him, they still
- 32:42S9: fled from him. But what was the message that the
- 32:45S9: angels gave to Mary at the tomb? Go and tell
- 32:48S9: the disciples that he is going ahead of you to
- 32:50S9: Galilee like he told you. And so I'm still faithful
- 32:53S9: to my promise to you. And though you may have
- 32:57S9: abandoned me, and maybe in that current circumstance, you were
- 33:00S9: still hiding and afraid. But I'm going to be faithful
- 33:03S9: to what I said to you. And I'm going to
- 33:05S9: Galilee to meet you there. And in that place I
- 33:07S9: will recommission you. I will restore you and recommission you
- 33:10S9: based upon my faithfulness to you, not based upon your
- 33:14S9: intentions or your failures or your circumstances. And so I
- 33:17S9: think sometimes we have to have a hope that it
- 33:20S9: doesn't matter what it looks like today, that if God
- 33:23S9: has promised or spoken something over our life, he will
- 33:26S9: be faithful even through our failures and our struggles and
- 33:31S9: our humanity to bring it about.
- 33:33S4: How have you seen this in your own life, where
- 33:36S4: maybe there was some circumstances that didn't go quite how
- 33:39S4: you had thought or expected, but God allowed you to
- 33:43S4: continue to hope.
- 33:44S9: Church planting.
- 33:46S3: Oh.
- 33:46S9: Like I am a church planter. And it's hard seasons.
- 33:52S9: It's hard seasons. It's hard weeks. It's hard months. You know,
- 33:56S9: God has spoken a clear vision to me and my wife.
- 33:58S9: It's 3:00 in the morning. It's been written down in
- 34:00S9: a journal since 2019. But along the journey, it doesn't
- 34:04S9: necessarily look like we saw the vision to be. And
- 34:07S9: there's been seasons in my life, specifically two years ago
- 34:10S9: where I was really discouraged. And I'm like, God is
- 34:12S9: have you taken your oil from me? AM I no
- 34:14S9: longer graced to do this work? Because I don't understand
- 34:18S9: why we're not seeing what I saw that you gave
- 34:21S9: us to build here. And I was really hopeless. I
- 34:24S9: ain't gonna lie. I was hopeless, and a lot of
- 34:25S9: it was connected to, you know, seeing other people and
- 34:27S9: different things like that. But one of the things that
- 34:30S9: God told me during that season specifically was he had
- 34:33S9: me reading Deuteronomy chapter seven, where he talked about that
- 34:37S9: the Israelites would not be able to take the land
- 34:39S9: all at once, because if they would, the inhabitants of
- 34:42S9: the land would overpower them and be too much for them.
- 34:45S9: And so he said, I'm going to drive them out
- 34:47S9: little by little. And he and he reminded me, they're like, hey,
- 34:50S9: I'm still faithful to what I showed you. But if
- 34:52S9: I give it all to you right now, it'll be
- 34:55S9: too much and it'll actually destroy you. So little by little,
- 34:58S9: I'm building what I showed you. And that gave me hope.
- 35:01S9: and little by little, we have seen God continuing to
- 35:04S9: bring bits and pieces of what he showed me and
- 35:07S9: my wife. And so I had to hold on to
- 35:09S9: the fact that, hey, even if it doesn't look like
- 35:12S9: what he showed you, he's still being faithful to bring
- 35:16S9: it through. But in his wisdom and in his timing,
- 35:18S9: so that what he showed us can thrive and be
- 35:20S9: successful versus engulfing us and overpowering us and overwhelming us.
- 35:25S9: And then we burn out and can't handle it. And
- 35:28S9: so church planting is like the very real practical right now, uh,
- 35:32S9: hope leaning on the faithfulness of God.
- 35:34S4: Yeah. I appreciate you sharing that with us, Leonard. Thanks, junior.
- 35:37S4: Our guest. If you want more on the ministry, Reach
- 35:40S4: City Church is the name of the one he pastors.
- 35:43S4: Just text reach to (800) 555-7898. Just that one word. Reach
- 35:50S4: 800 555 7898.
- 35:53S8: Your shot of hope to get you through the day.
- 35:56S10: You are so, so loved. God does not want you
- 35:59S10: to stay in your past, and I want you to
- 36:01S10: know and believe that today.
- 36:03S8: You're listening to Carl and Crew.
- 36:05S1: So we're going to do something really fun here. I
- 36:09S1: want to tell you one of my favorite stories in
- 36:11S1: the Old Testament and in the entire Bible. It's so epic.
- 36:18S1: It's a story that is filled with heartache and pain.
- 36:22S1: It's gruesome. It's tough. Uh, we might do it. In fact,
- 36:26S1: let me do a little ear warning here right now. Um,
- 36:30S1: I'm not going to be too graphic, but the story
- 36:33S1: in itself is. I mean, you make a movie of this.
- 36:37S1: It's R-rated. There's no way around it. It's no way
- 36:40S1: around it. It's just one of those stories. But in it,
- 36:44S1: there's some different elements of Hope rising. And I'm going
- 36:46S1: to ask my team to help me out here because
- 36:48S1: I'm going to tell this story, and then we're going
- 36:51S1: to grab an aspect of this story for Hope rising
- 36:55S1: and just hear what's on your heart this morning. Take
- 36:59S1: me just a moment to kind of frame this out.
- 37:01S1: The year is probably 850 BC. The location is Israel.
- 37:09S1: The king is Jehoram and he's a godless king. So
- 37:13S1: here you've got a nation that is led by a
- 37:17S1: guy who is far from God. Well, a guy named
- 37:20S1: Ben Hadad, he's the king of Syria. He comes in
- 37:24S1: and surrounds Samaria, the city of Samaria in Israel. And
- 37:31S1: as the story goes, he absolutely cuts off all supply
- 37:35S1: lines to this city. No one's getting in, no one's
- 37:38S1: getting out. But what's worse than that is there is
- 37:41S1: no supplies. Getting in in the city is going to starve.
- 37:46S1: And that's Ben Haddad's goal. We're going to starve him out, man.
- 37:50S1: We're going to starve him out. Now, in the city
- 37:54S1: happened to be the prophet Elisha. So he's huddled with
- 37:59S1: some elders down kind of in the bowels of this city.
- 38:02S1: And he's a God fearing, godly guy. And there's godly
- 38:05S1: people in this city, for sure. But I mean, when
- 38:09S1: I see things are getting bad, they're getting bad. Like
- 38:13S1: dove dung was selling for like a month's wages. What
- 38:17S1: would have been a month's wages? Like they're trying to
- 38:20S1: get some nutrition from dove poop guys. Literally.
- 38:23S2: It's crazy.
- 38:24S1: They are taking dead horses heads chopping them off. And
- 38:28S1: there's there. Oh boy. Little ear warning here. They're scooping
- 38:32S1: out any kind of nutrients, probably from cheek bones and
- 38:36S1: different things from a horse head and maybe even the
- 38:39S1: matter inside the cranium, trying to be somewhat careful here.
- 38:45S1: And so that sold a horse head was selling for
- 38:48S1: a year's wages and he gets worse. Uh, Jehoram evil king,
- 38:55S1: You know he's wailing. What's going on here? He's walking
- 38:58S1: the walls, looking down at his people, and all of
- 39:01S1: a sudden he hears a woman just screaming, Kang Kang.
- 39:07S1: He's like, what's going on? Be quiet. And she goes,
- 39:10S1: I can't be quiet. I struck a deal with this woman.
- 39:14S1: So imagine a king standing on a wall, and he's
- 39:16S1: looking down at these two women, and he's looking at
- 39:20S1: this woman. He's going, what's going on? She says, I
- 39:22S1: struck a deal with my friend. We each have a son.
- 39:25S1: And yesterday we struck a deal. I mean, this is
- 39:27S1: how the how strong the famine was. We're going to
- 39:30S1: take my son's life, and it's cannibalism. I'm not even
- 39:38S1: going to get the words out here like that. You
- 39:40S1: can put two and two together. And we struck a
- 39:43S1: deal that yesterday we'd take my son, and today we'd
- 39:47S1: take her son and she hit her son. Okay, this
- 39:52S1: is dark times, man. Can anyone else feel with me
- 39:56S1: how brutal this is?
- 39:58S4: Yeah. I mean, the fact that it's hard to even, like,
- 40:01S4: say the words to.
- 40:02S3: Get out.
- 40:02S4: What was happening.
- 40:03S1: You can't say the words. I mean, even in an
- 40:05S1: R-rated movie, you can't depict this stuff.
- 40:08S3: Okay?
- 40:08S2: No, you can't, you can't.
- 40:11S1: And Elijah, he's huddled down. He doesn't know what's going
- 40:16S1: up above deck. Jehoram. This evil king. He's like, well,
- 40:22S1: he he doesn't even know who to yell at. He's
- 40:24S1: not a God fearing man. He's not crying out to God.
- 40:26S1: But he sits down in ashes and he yells at
- 40:32S1: his right hand man. He says, you go get Elijah.
- 40:35S1: I'm going to kill that guy, this prophet of God.
- 40:37S1: I'm going to kill him. So he's headed down this
- 40:42S1: right hand man of the king, and he's heading down
- 40:45S1: into the bowels. And and God's Spirit tells Elijah, there's
- 40:50S1: a dude coming for your neck. So they block the door.
- 40:54S1: And this right hand man of King Jehoram outside and
- 40:57S1: he says, listen, you're you're a you're going to die.
- 41:01S1: Come out of there. We're chopping your head off today.
- 41:04S1: And Elisha says, listen, things are really bad here right now,
- 41:09S1: but my God is going to change the economy here radically.
- 41:16S1: In 24 hours from now, we will have all the
- 41:20S1: food we need. And the guy says, even if God
- 41:24S1: were to open up the windows of heaven, this ain't
- 41:26S1: going to happen. He said, it will happen, but you
- 41:29S1: won't see it. So the story shifts gears in chapter
- 41:36S1: seven of Second Kings. And it's so wild because verse
- 41:39S1: three says, now there were four men who were lepers.
- 41:42S1: So that's the only verse I'm going to look down
- 41:44S1: and read. Other than that, it's just from my heart here.
- 41:47S1: So there were four men who were lepers. And when
- 41:49S1: you read the story, you're like, whoop! Plot shift.
- 41:52S2: Okay, you can see the scene change.
- 41:54S1: Yeah, I mean, scene change. We're now outside. So these
- 41:57S1: four lepers were outside at the gate and they'd been
- 42:00S1: begging bread. It's it's a tough business to be begging
- 42:03S1: bread when the economy is as bad as it is.
- 42:07S3: Yeah.
- 42:07S2: In a city where there's a famine, because everything is
- 42:09S2: being bottlenecked.
- 42:11S3: Yes.
- 42:11S1: Yeah. They're not getting dip diddly squat. No, they're not
- 42:15S1: even getting dove squat. All right. They're not getting anything.
- 42:19S1: So they're like one of the guys says the other three.
- 42:22S1: He says, hey man, why don't we just head to
- 42:24S1: the Syrian camp? I mean, if we if we die,
- 42:28S1: we die. We're dying anyway. And who knows what might happen?
- 42:32S1: So these four lepers start shuffling their feet to the
- 42:35S1: Syrian camp. And the way the text goes is that
- 42:39S1: to Ben Haddad in all of his army, and we're
- 42:42S1: talking throngs of guys here. It sounded like what had
- 42:47S1: happened is King Joram had gotten some allies outside and
- 42:51S1: aligned some armies against them, and what they hear from
- 42:55S1: amplified eight feet of four lepers. So God took eight
- 42:59S1: feet shuffling through the sand and made it sound like chariots, warriors,
- 43:04S1: and like he supercharged with the soundtrack. All these guys.
- 43:08S3: This.
- 43:08S4: Is wild.
- 43:09S1: This is a wild deal. And what do they do?
- 43:12S1: They're so freaked out, they leave everything. I mean, fires
- 43:18S1: are cooking, tents are up, gold is in place. Foodstuffs, horses,
- 43:24S1: everything is right there. And so these four lepers walk
- 43:27S1: into camp, the Syrian camp, and it's fully abandoned, like
- 43:31S1: acres and acres of a camp or abandoned. There is
- 43:34S1: no one there. And they're chowing down and they're going
- 43:38S1: from fire to fire, and they're like, this is unbelievable.
- 43:42S1: And then one of them says, hey, maybe we should
- 43:44S1: tell the folks back in Samaria.
- 43:45S3: About this.
- 43:46S2: And good on them for thinking to do that.
- 43:48S3: Because.
- 43:50S2: Because these are the people who are, you know, stuck
- 43:52S2: outside because they're not allowed to be in with the
- 43:55S2: rest of the people. Yeah. And they could have thought
- 43:57S2: to themselves, it's all ours.
- 43:59S1: Well, and they could have thought, these guys, they hate
- 44:01S1: us anyway. The reason they're outside is they're lepers. They
- 44:04S1: got a skin disease and they're like, get out of here. Yeah.
- 44:08S1: So they go, you know what? We should. So they
- 44:12S1: go back and they tell they tell. They get message
- 44:16S1: to King Joram. And and these guys are doing what
- 44:20S1: I would do, which is like, these guys are lying.
- 44:23S1: They're lying through their teeth.
- 44:25S2: Oh, sure. They're just.
- 44:26S3: They're.
- 44:27S1: Thinking, they're thinking Ben Hadad, he's set them up. And
- 44:32S1: these guys have now flipped sides. Who knows what they're thinking?
- 44:35S1: But they're thinking this is a bunch of hooey. So
- 44:38S1: on a whim, he says, send out our our couple
- 44:42S1: of live horses with riders. So they had a couple
- 44:44S1: in there and they're like, send them out and see
- 44:48S1: what's going on. And these guys start riding and they
- 44:51S1: are blown away. Not only did that was that whole
- 44:53S1: camp left behind, but these guys are throwing off cloaks.
- 44:56S1: They're throwing off any swords, any weights as they're running
- 44:59S1: away from this non-existent military force that they think is
- 45:04S1: chasing them down. And Elijah's words were true because then
- 45:09S1: the word came back and the whole city, I mean,
- 45:13S1: flooded the exits and they're like storming the gates, getting out,
- 45:17S1: going to the Syrian camp and the messenger, the right
- 45:20S1: hand man. Because remember what Elijah said? He said, yeah,
- 45:24S1: the windows of heaven are going to be opened up
- 45:27S1: and you're going to see it, but you aren't going
- 45:28S1: to taste it. And he got trampled under feet, dead
- 45:32S1: by the crowd that was storming out of the gates
- 45:36S1: of the city of Samaria. And the whole thing was changed.
- 45:41S1: The entire economy went from obscene poverty, despicable acts to
- 45:48S1: everything they needed and more in 24 hours. Now, one
- 45:53S1: of the dangers with the story like this is that
- 45:56S1: you've got such a crisis. You need hope so much
- 46:00S1: that you start superimposing that this will happen for me.
- 46:04S2: Sure.
- 46:05S1: But there are some hopeful premises in this text. What
- 46:10S1: are some of them, guys?
- 46:12S2: I think that that God takes care of his people.
- 46:16S2: It may not always be in the way that we
- 46:18S2: think or expect or even sometimes wish it would. But
- 46:22S2: I mean, Jesus tells us that if we look at
- 46:25S2: the birds and we look at the lilies, he takes
- 46:26S2: care of them. So. So it may not be in this,
- 46:30S2: this type of grand way that the promise is going
- 46:32S2: to show for you too. But I think it does
- 46:35S2: show in the promise that he does take care of
- 46:37S2: his people.
- 46:37S3: Okay.
- 46:38S1: And I'm going to up the bar a little bit.
- 46:39S1: God can do radically miraculous provisions.
- 46:42S3: Yes.
- 46:43S1: Not just birdseed, 100%. God. God can do radically instantaneous deliverance.
- 46:50S1: And we, I think all of us at some level
- 46:53S1: can look back in our life and go, whoa, that
- 46:55S1: was from the hand of God. And it came out
- 46:57S1: of the blue and it was huge.
- 46:58S2: No doubt, no.
- 46:59S1: Doubt, no doubt about it. Anything else that we see?
- 47:02S3: I think, well.
- 47:03S10: God can use anyone. I mean, hope is for anyone.
- 47:07S10: The lepers. It's not for the prominent. It's not for
- 47:09S10: the kings. It's hope is for.
- 47:11S3: Everyone.
- 47:12S10: And available to everyone. I should say.
- 47:14S1: Yeah. No, that's that's a phenomenal observation that God is
- 47:19S1: no respecter of persons. He'll use anyone, even the ones
- 47:22S1: that were seen as unclean and despicable. Ali, what do
- 47:25S1: you think?
- 47:25S4: I think also just that, uh, having keeping a posture
- 47:29S4: of faith. I mean, I don't think we should take
- 47:31S4: it literally that God's going to strike us down dead
- 47:34S4: if we have a moment of doubt. I think that
- 47:36S4: that would be a misapplication of Scripture here.
- 47:39S3: Right?
- 47:39S4: But certainly we don't want to be the one who
- 47:43S4: someone saying, God, God can do it. And we're going, okay, yeah, right.
- 47:48S2: Yeah.
- 47:48S3: Oh, that.
- 47:49S1: Hold it. Stop there. That's a killer observation. Don't be
- 47:54S1: Debbie Downer on people, right?
- 47:56S3: Yes, yes.
- 47:57S4: I mean on God.
- 47:58S1: Ultimately on, on on on about two people about God.
- 48:02S3: Yeah.
- 48:02S1: Don't do that because we don't know how God may provide.
- 48:06S2: And I think this is important because the man showed
- 48:09S2: a lack of faith after he was told by a
- 48:12S2: prophet of God, this is what would happen. And so
- 48:16S2: I think I think sometimes, I mean, Elisha was obviously
- 48:19S2: known as a man of God, and someone who spoke
- 48:22S2: on behalf of God or God would speak through on
- 48:24S2: a common basis. And so it was it was already
- 48:27S2: known that God spoke through Elisha. So I think we
- 48:31S2: can also take this application that we read the the
- 48:33S2: promises in Scripture sometimes, and we don't believe them. That is.
- 48:38S2: That is a word that has already been given to
- 48:41S2: us by God, and therefore we. We have no right
- 48:45S2: to not trust it.
- 48:45S3: Yeah.
- 48:46S1: Don't get the spirit of Jehoram on you. Get that
- 48:49S1: off of you.
- 48:50S2: Absolutely. If God says it's going to be done, then
- 48:52S2: it's going to be done.
- 48:53S1: Yeah, man.
- 48:54S10: And I would just say, don't hoard hope. Hope is
- 48:57S10: to be shared. You know, for a.
- 48:59S3: While.
- 48:59S10: The lepers were like, hey, we're going to keep this
- 49:01S10: to ourselves and thought, no, we got to share hope.
- 49:06S1: So we're doing this live. Ali, what do you think
- 49:10S1: is a reasonable question? I've teed up thought here that
- 49:15S1: we want to give the boom crew today. So we
- 49:17S1: gave them a smattering of things here.
- 49:19S4: Yeah. I think if you can recall a time where
- 49:23S4: you felt hopeless, you were fighting to hold on to
- 49:27S4: hope in a hopeless situation, and you saw God move
- 49:30S4: in some in some way. Maybe it felt like, man,
- 49:34S4: just the window opened just a little bit and you
- 49:36S4: got a glimpse of maybe it was a floodgates opened up.
- 49:40S4: But you were in a hopeless situation, but you clung
- 49:43S4: to hope and saw God move. 800 555 7898, 800
- 49:48S4: 555 78, 98.
- 49:51S3: Boom.
- 49:51S1: That is the question. We want to hear about that.
- 49:54S1: And you know what? That little moment of hope is
- 49:57S1: going to be? Hope. Rising vision for someone else. Our
- 50:01S1: God's not dead. He's not done. Give us a call
- 50:04S1: 800 555 7898.
- 50:08S8: Your shot of hope to help you through the day.
- 50:11S8: This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
- 50:15S3: You know.
- 50:16S1: We've got to be careful with this. This is not presumption.
- 50:19S1: It's not forecasting for God. This is what you're going
- 50:22S1: to do. It's coming open handed saying, God, I'm believing
- 50:25S1: you for something and I don't know what it's going
- 50:27S1: to look like, but you can open wide the windows
- 50:30S1: of heaven in an instant and change circumstances. You can.
- 50:35S1: And then on occasion, God and His grace will do that.
- 50:39S1: So oftentimes, God in his mercy will leave us in
- 50:42S1: a tough spot. The lessons to be learned, things outside
- 50:46S1: of our control. And but God's mercy is good still.
- 50:49S1: He'll let us soldier through those even with tears coming
- 50:52S1: down our face. But when God provides, it gives us
- 50:56S1: a a hint and a hope that, oh, God's not
- 51:00S1: done with us yet. Allie's got a beautiful question for
- 51:02S1: you this morning.
- 51:03S4: We want to hear from you. We. Have you been
- 51:05S4: in a hopeless situation? There was no earthly reason to
- 51:09S4: have hope, but you clung to hope and saw God
- 51:12S4: move in some way. You tell us what that was.
- 51:15S4: 800 555 78, 98. Ben, first time caller from West Chicago.
- 51:20S4: What do you say? What was that hopeless situation that
- 51:23S4: you saw God move in?
- 51:26S11: Yeah. Hey, thanks for having me on. And yeah, the
- 51:29S11: situation that my wife and I were in, um, both
- 51:32S11: of us were just in jobs that we were just
- 51:36S11: feeling like just absolutely destroyed and wasted by the end
- 51:39S11: of the day. And, um, both of us, ironically, at
- 51:44S11: the same time, felt like God was calling us to
- 51:46S11: leave our jobs and to just trust him and start
- 51:49S11: up a new business. Um, and not, which was absolutely terrifying.
- 51:55S3: It's like.
- 51:57S11: It's just been so cool seeing how God provided for us.
- 52:01S11: Not that we've been living the lavish life, but it's
- 52:05S11: like we he has provided every single step of the way.
- 52:08S11: Like it's not been a question of, hey, will we
- 52:11S11: have enough? It's, hey, what opportunities got to open it
- 52:13S11: up for us today?
- 52:14S1: Dude, you're living the love by God life. And that's
- 52:17S1: better than lavish. You know what I'm saying, bro?
- 52:20S11: Oh my goodness. Yeah, it it it is absolutely. It
- 52:24S11: is absolutely incredible. Which if I can say like even more,
- 52:28S11: even better than the provision of like, what's been happening
- 52:31S11: with work. It's like, I know Carl, you say it
- 52:34S11: all the time on the show, but it is being
- 52:37S11: in those disciplines of spending time in the word, praying,
- 52:41S11: like making sure priorities straight that God is first, that
- 52:46S11: I always say my wife and family has to be
- 52:49S11: second and then everything else will fall in place.
- 52:52S1: Yeah. No, dude, you keep Christ at the core and
- 52:54S1: look out. Ben. Boom! Brother. First time caller from West Chicago.
- 52:58S1: How old are you, Ben?
- 53:00S11: Yeah, I'm. I'm 29.
- 53:02S3: Yeah.
- 53:02S1: Dude, let me just tell you something. I am so
- 53:05S1: grateful that you're listening to us here. Um, and because
- 53:11S1: it's so encouraging to me that we've got a 29
- 53:14S1: year old walking by faith like this, and you're an
- 53:18S1: inspiration to me, man. Thank you for that, Ben. I
- 53:21S1: love you. I love.
- 53:22S3: You, man.
- 53:22S11: And thank you. I got to see you a little
- 53:24S11: while ago at, um, one of your events in Naperville. Um,
- 53:29S11: you were over at High Point. I hope it's okay
- 53:31S11: that I plug them.
- 53:32S1: No, that's. That's cool.
- 53:33S11: Thank you so much for sharing what you're doing.
- 53:36S1: Oh, man. Godspeed, Ben. Love you. Good stuff coming up here.
- 53:40S1: We'll take some more of your calls. Lightning round here.
- 53:43S1: Ali's got a special question. Flows out of this great narrative.
- 53:45S1: Some of you are wondering, where in the world is
- 53:47S1: this story? It's in Second Kings. You can just start
- 53:51S1: in chapter six, verse 24 and go all the way
- 53:55S1: through chapter seven. And the whole story is right there. Yeah,
- 53:59S1: it's graphic, it's tough, but it's beautiful.
- 54:02S4: Yeah. Here's the question for you. This morning you were
- 54:04S4: in a hopeless situation, but God allowed you to cling
- 54:08S4: to hope. And you saw him move 800 555, 78,
- 54:12S4: 98 (800) 555-7898.
- 54:17S8: Start your day moving closer to Jesus. You're listening to
- 54:21S8: Carl and Cru.
- 54:23S1: Yeah. Taking your stories. Alex, got a great question. You
- 54:26S1: were in a hopeless situation. You clung to God and
- 54:29S1: he provided. By the way, if you want a graphic
- 54:31S1: illustration of this that is epic, please get in the
- 54:34S1: sticky pages. Go to Second Kings chapter six. Starting in
- 54:37S1: verse 24. Read all the way through chapter seven. It's
- 54:40S1: one of the coolest stories. This is not a bedtime
- 54:43S1: story for your kids. This is one of those alone stories. Ali,
- 54:47S1: wouldn't you say?
- 54:48S3: Yes, yes.
- 54:50S1: This is not a bedtime story even for you. This
- 54:54S1: is middle of the day story. Sun's up story. But
- 54:58S1: it's beautiful because we see God's hand of provision in
- 55:01S1: horrific situations. All right, let's go back to the phone
- 55:04S1: lines here. Juan, first time caller in Oaklane. Man, you're
- 55:08S1: in a hopeless situation. You clung to God and he provided,
- 55:10S1: give us your story, bro.
- 55:13S12: Yes. You know, we overcome it by the word of
- 55:16S12: our testimony and by the blood of the Lamb. But
- 55:18S12: I'm so thankful because my back was hurting and I
- 55:21S12: was in trouble with my job, and I was a
- 55:24S12: sole provider for my family. I had three kids, my
- 55:27S12: wife to provide for them, and I was out of
- 55:29S12: work for a long time. And, you know, the mortgage and, uh,
- 55:33S12: you know, the bills were piling up. So there was
- 55:35S12: a flood that came to the area. Rain, hail, everything.
- 55:39S12: My house was torn up. And, uh, you know, at
- 55:42S12: the end of the day, when insurance covered everything up.
- 55:45S12: I was able to pay my bills, fix my house
- 55:47S12: and everything. And at the end of the day, the
- 55:50S12: Lord healed my body. Uh, so I'm so thankful that
- 55:53S12: if you just cling to the promises of God and
- 55:56S12: hold on to God's unchanging hand, God will make a way.
- 55:59S12: He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
- 56:01S12: No man can come unto me, you know, except to
- 56:04S12: the father. So I'm so thankful for calling on their
- 56:06S12: name and believing in their name. There's power in their name. So,
- 56:09S12: so thankful for the opportunity to share my testimony.
- 56:13S1: Juan. First time caller. Boom, brother. And you know, it's
- 56:15S1: going to kind of sound funny what I'm going to say,
- 56:17S1: but it's really true. Uh, I mean, I insurance is
- 56:23S1: an important thing, but insurance companies are in it to
- 56:26S1: win it. They're all about money and I don't fault
- 56:29S1: them for that. It's all about money. They've got shareholders
- 56:31S1: and all that. I've run into more people as a
- 56:34S1: pastor that find it a battle to get even what
- 56:37S1: is fair and right. Yeah. And so for Juan to
- 56:40S1: get what was fair and right and to break through
- 56:43S1: and then to watch the healing to his body, we
- 56:45S1: can look at God in those things. I remember one
- 56:49S1: brother telling me that he had an adjuster come out,
- 56:51S1: and the dude was just stone Cold Steve Austin. I
- 56:54S1: don't know where that term came from, a wrestling term.
- 56:57S3: I mean, he.
- 56:57S1: Was Stone Cold.
- 56:59S2: Steve.
- 57:00S3: Austin.
- 57:00S1: I don't know where that came from.
- 57:01S3: He's a sorry.
- 57:03S1: Carlosm all the way. I've never even seen this guy.
- 57:05S1: I guess he's one of these tatted up fighters or something.
- 57:07S10: Wrestler.
- 57:08S1: Yeah, yeah. Um, so it was just stone cold a
- 57:12S1: gesture and he's like, you ain't getting nothing. And it
- 57:16S1: was a real genuine claim. And then another guy got
- 57:20S1: sent out out of the blue to the to the job.
- 57:24S1: And the dude was filled with compassion and just goes, yeah,
- 57:27S1: this is we got to make this right. And the
- 57:30S1: guy's like, I that is God.
- 57:32S3: Yeah, that.
- 57:33S1: Changed my adjuster.
- 57:34S2: That's why we don't put our hope in insurance. The
- 57:37S2: scripture doesn't say that. It says, you know, we put
- 57:39S2: our hope in God.
- 57:41S1: No, these guys are lining pockets on the top side.
- 57:44S3: Yeah. And I think.
- 57:45S4: One of the one of the maybe sometimes the hardest
- 57:48S4: thing is to have an to not just cling to God,
- 57:51S4: but also cling to God with an open hand. Yes.
- 57:54S4: Because we I mean, how many times have you just
- 57:57S4: played out in your mind exactly how God should fix
- 58:01S4: this thing?
- 58:01S3: Oh no, like this should happen. Tell me your story.
- 58:06S4: And so it's it's clinging to the promises of God,
- 58:10S4: knowing that God is is not his. He's not like us.
- 58:15S4: So us trying to presume upon what he should and
- 58:19S4: is going to do based on promises from Scripture. I
- 58:23S4: think we have to be careful with that. We trust
- 58:25S4: that God is our provider, that we have hope in him,
- 58:28S4: and then we leave it up to him as to
- 58:30S4: how he's going to come through for us.
- 58:33S1: And also, don't short arm guys.
- 58:35S4: Exactly.
- 58:35S1: Because the flip side is true as well. Don't look
- 58:38S1: at your impotent self and put that on God. I mean,
- 58:43S1: really don't look at your. Absolutely. I mean, relative to God,
- 58:47S1: we're all impotent.
- 58:49S2: Yes.
- 58:50S1: I'm not saying you're weak. I'm saying relative to God,
- 58:53S1: he can do the unthinkable. And so it's this high.
- 58:58S1: It's the high ridge that.
- 59:00S4: We always come back to. We might be selling it
- 59:03S4: too short, but we we certainly don't want to say, okay, God, X, Y,
- 59:07S4: and Z, this is what you're going to do.
- 59:09S1: Yeah.
- 59:10S4: Let God be God.
- 59:11S1: Yeah. Let God be God. Yeah. Springtime harvest dessert. Let
- 59:16S1: him be God. I don't know what you need to
- 59:18S1: believe him for today, but just trust him.