Latest / Karl and Crew / Reclaiming Real Life from Screens with Arlene Pellicane & The Temptation to Let AI Speak for You with Drew Dickens

Transcript

Reclaiming Real Life from Screens with Arlene Pellicane & The Temptation to Let AI Speak for You with Drew Dickens · Karl and Crew

0:00
S1: Broadcasting from Chicago, across North America and beyond. It's Carl
0:06
S1: and crew. Come as you are an experienced God, overcome
0:10
S1: what seems impossible and live as you never imagined delivering
0:16
S1: the truth daily.
0:17
S2: If it were possible to have every worldly gain available
0:21
S2: and you're forfeiting your soul. There's no amount of gain
0:25
S2: that would make it worth it.
0:26
S3: Our own way never ever works. Because it's apart from
0:29
S3: the life source, which is God.
0:32
S4: For me, growing up, love was always conditional and can
0:36
S4: be taken from you. Christ's love can't. And he went
0:39
S4: to the cross with my mind and my heart that night.
0:44
S1: Now, from the call of Hope Studios, this is Carl
0:48
S1: and Crew. Here we are, smack dab at the start
0:52
S1: of temptation week, and we're going to be dealing with, uh,
0:56
S1: as we've already this hour, this first hour bringing in
1:00
S1: experts looking at this from a totally different angle. Knowing
1:05
S1: that we've got experts from every walk of life, from
1:09
S1: discipleship to parenting to getting a home, decluttered, you name it,
1:14
S1: we've got it all. And with every one of these
1:18
S1: persons expertise, there is joined in the spiritual realm, a
1:24
S1: temptation that's trying to pull us away from executing this
1:29
S1: thing that God has called us to with excellence. We
1:33
S1: know this is true because we're called to be on
1:36
S1: the alert. In Ephesians six, we find the great temptation
1:41
S1: of Jesus. Three times Satan came at him. But here's
1:47
S1: what we've got to spike over and over again. Here
1:52
S1: it is. Pregnant. Pause. Moment. Take a close listen. The
1:59
S1: only offensive weapon of war that we have for temptation
2:07
S1: is the Word of God. It's what Jesus used in
2:11
S1: the temptation. He quotes Deuteronomy back to Satan, who twisted Deuteronomy. Yeah.
2:18
S1: So if we're going to be winning the battle with temptation,
2:22
S1: we've got to be armed with truth. Let me remind
2:26
S1: you of something. 70 times in the New Testament, we
2:32
S1: find the word rhema, the spoken word of God. We
2:38
S1: find it when Jesus is tempted. Man shall not live
2:41
S1: by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from
2:45
S1: the mouth of God. That word in the original language
2:47
S1: is rhema. It means the spoken word of God, and
2:50
S1: Jesus did it. So that's we got 69 other times
2:55
S1: when it's used in the New Testament. What? What can
2:58
S1: we learn? Well, all we got to do is pop
3:00
S1: over to Ephesians six. Take up the sword of the spirit,
3:05
S1: which is the rhema of God, the spoken word of God.
3:10
S1: So this is vital. Make a bold statement here. It
3:19
S1: is impossible. History proves it is impossible. Both for the
3:27
S1: first century disciples and modern day disciples, to follow Jesus
3:33
S1: without wielding the sword of the spirit, which is the
3:36
S1: Word of God. Now, does this mean that you need
3:39
S1: to be to have the New Testament memorized? No. Do
3:44
S1: there need to be select passages that you're knowing, identifying,
3:49
S1: and wielding so that you can fight off temptation?
3:53
S3: Absolutely, 100%.
3:56
S1: And in the first century, it was oral tradition. I mean,
4:00
S1: you might say, well, for a century they didn't even
4:02
S1: have the written word of God. You're right. They almost
4:06
S1: had something better. They had stories and statements, and they
4:11
S1: still leverage the Old Testament, much like Jesus did, to
4:16
S1: deal with these spiritual battles. And one of the great
4:20
S1: dangers of spiritual scriptural illiteracy is not that we don't
4:27
S1: know something, it's that we don't know the things we
4:33
S1: need to wield in times of temptation. No temptation has
4:39
S1: seized you but that which is common to man, and
4:42
S1: God has provided a way of escape. And you might say, well,
4:44
S1: what is that way of escape? One of them we
4:46
S1: find in Scripture is that you speak the truth back
4:50
S1: at Satan. You fight twisted truth with the truth. Can't
4:57
S1: tell I'm rabid about this one, can you?
4:59
S3: And you can't fight twisted truth unless you know the truth.
5:04
S3: And you have to be able to call it back.
5:05
S1: Yes. And you don't. You don't need. Boy, I'm struggling here.
5:14
S1: I think a question could come up. Well, how much
5:17
S1: truth do I need? I'll tell you how much truth
5:19
S1: you need. You need all the truth that you need
5:22
S1: to deal with that temptation in that moment. Matter of fact,
5:25
S1: I hadn't even planned on this. We need to give
5:27
S1: away the truth blog. Yeah, because half of this battle
5:30
S1: is who you are in Jesus Christ. And being able
5:34
S1: to speak back to Satan. You know, I've been crucified
5:39
S1: with Christ. It's no longer Karl who lives, but Christ
5:42
S1: who lives in Karl and the life I now live
5:45
S1: in the flesh, which is the Sarx doesn't mean sin.
5:48
S1: There's no attribution and attribution of sin with the word sarx.
5:53
S1: It just means all that we are life. I now
5:56
S1: live in the flesh. I live by faith in the
5:58
S1: Son of God. I mean, that's that's wielding the sword
6:05
S1: of the spirit. So let's do it here. I'm going
6:08
S1: to give away truth blog. Just text the word truth.
6:12
S1: Some of you have maybe gotten this in past years.
6:15
S1: Maybe you're new to the show. This is a tool.
6:18
S1: How many truths are in this tool? I don't know, 21,
6:21
S1: something like that.
6:22
S3: Yeah, we're around that.
6:23
S1: I forget what it is, but grab this now it's
6:27
S1: in a little statement, but find 2 or 3 of
6:30
S1: these little statements that summarize those truths, and then open
6:35
S1: up the Bible and grab those truths, grab a highlighter,
6:38
S1: highlight them, and you know what some of you need
6:41
S1: to do. And if you think about this, let's say
6:44
S1: you're getting beat up in some area of your life.
6:48
S1: You don't know who you are in Christ. You don't
6:50
S1: know the authority that you have in Christ. Guys, is
6:54
S1: it worth it to memorize, like five sentences?
6:59
S3: Yes.
7:00
S1: Yeah. The answer is.
7:02
S3: It's it's the most simple yes you could ever say.
7:04
S1: Absolutely, absolutely. So text the word truth. Get armed today.
7:11
S1: Text truth to 805 557898. Get armed with truth. Text
7:20
S1: truth to 805 557898. Take up the sword of the spirit,
7:26
S1: which is the Word of God. Man shall not live
7:29
S1: by bread alone, but by every word rhema that proceeds
7:35
S1: from the mouth of God. What did Jesus do when
7:38
S1: he was tempted? He quoted Scripture. Should we expect a shortcut? No, no,
7:46
S1: that is the cut.
7:48
S3: It's the only way. It's the only way. I you know,
7:50
S3: if our if our battle is not flesh and blood,
7:54
S3: then the ways in which we fight it can't be
7:57
S3: flesh and blood. And that also means of our own self-will.
8:00
S3: The things that we can tell ourselves that aren't of God.
8:03
S3: The only way to combat a battle within the spiritual
8:07
S3: realm is a spiritual sword, which is the Word of God.
8:11
S1: Yeah, that's a great way to put it. The only
8:13
S1: way to battle with a with a spiritual battle is
8:17
S1: with a spiritual tool.
8:19
S3: Mhm. That's it.
8:22
S1: I mean, fighting Satan with. Self-Confidence.
8:29
S3: Yeah.
8:30
S1: You're going to be on the canvas, baby. He's going
8:32
S1: to knock you out.
8:33
S3: Even just positive self-talk. You know, we've talked about it
8:36
S3: a few times here. Ali mentions it. The the I
8:39
S3: am enough statements.
8:41
S1: It's like Ali Ali's I got a little bugaboo today.
8:44
S1: But yeah, Ali Ali says that a lot, doesn't she?
8:48
S3: Yeah. And Satan can twist that six ways from Sunday.
8:51
S3: Because the truth is, is that in and of ourselves
8:54
S3: we are absolutely not enough. But the spiritual truth is,
8:58
S3: is that God has those who he has predestined. He
9:02
S3: has also called those who he has called he justified,
9:05
S3: and those who he justified. He glorified we. Because God
9:09
S3: says so. We are enough. We are not enough in
9:12
S3: and of ourselves. Satan's right. When he twists that. But
9:15
S3: he leaves out. The most important part is that God
9:17
S3: has called us enough, and he's made us enough through
9:19
S3: what he's done.
9:20
S1: Yeah. So right now, let's get 2000 of you right
9:24
S1: now across the nation and beyond, 2000 of you armed
9:28
S1: up with this blog. Please get these truths. Text the
9:31
S1: word truth right now 805 557898. If you. Here's, here's
9:38
S1: the litmus test. If you feel like you've been getting
9:41
S1: boxed and beat up by Satan. And you've not used
9:46
S1: truth as the weapon of war, and you need. Just
9:50
S1: a few truths. You know. Spirit of God saying you
9:52
S1: need a few truths to. Really get armed up and
9:55
S1: take them on. Text truth right now. Let's get 2000
9:58
S1: of you right now, from this moment for the next
10:01
S1: few minutes. 2000 of you across the nation and beyond
10:06
S1: right now. Text truth to (800) 555-7898 one word truth 805 557898. Man,
10:17
S1: God's got a plan. It's right there in the book
10:20
S1: Rhema Word, the spoken word of God dealing with temptation.
10:25
S5: It's Carl and crew on Moody radio. If you want
10:29
S5: to be.
10:29
S1: Clutter free, there's temptation Satan's going to offer you. He
10:32
S1: will bait you with something to pull you away. You
10:35
S1: want to be a great parent. There's temptations coming your way.
10:39
S1: You want to grow up in a certain spiritual discipline. Yep.
10:43
S1: Satan's going to be right there going, hey, take a
10:45
S1: walk over here. Why? Why worry about that with me
10:49
S1: right now? Doctor Drew Dickens, he is our AI expert. Boy,
10:53
S1: what a joy. It's been a joy to know you
10:56
S1: now for over a year, drew. Man, I'm glad God
10:58
S1: had us run into one another.
11:00
S6: What a gift. That was amazing, wasn't it? Yeah. Fantastic.
11:03
S1: Really good. Okay, before we get into temptations, what are
11:07
S1: the latest developments with AI? It's no joking. Every week
11:11
S1: something significant is popping with AI, right, drew?
11:15
S6: That would be a slow time if it was only
11:17
S6: once a week. Uh, it's it's, it's every day. Every day.
11:21
S6: Of course, everybody heard about Elon Musk and the big
11:24
S6: IPO and the trillionaire. Yeah. That, you know, ties right
11:27
S6: back to his company grok and that model that he has. Um,
11:31
S6: one of the things in fact, is it's, it's my
11:34
S6: episode topic today on my podcast is temptation. But one
11:38
S6: of the things that came out just a week or
11:40
S6: so ago was, uh, open AI, which is, um, uh,
11:45
S6: ChatGPT came out with a kind of a new tool
11:48
S6: for them called Codex, um, which I think ties beautifully
11:51
S6: into your topic this week and my topic on my
11:54
S6: podcast about temptation. Um, and, uh, so just more and
11:58
S6: more tools coming out like that, that, uh, affect how
12:01
S6: we might use AI in our daily workflow.
12:04
S1: Well, what in the world? Codex.
12:07
S6: So Codex, um, instead of, uh, you know, you, you
12:10
S6: going in and typing a prompt into any of the
12:14
S6: language models, you know, help write a better email or
12:17
S6: do this or do that. Um, codex actually goes into, uh,
12:21
S6: imagine it going into your draft folder, you know, that
12:27
S6: you have kind of half baked ideas about a future
12:29
S6: show that you want to do. Um, it goes into
12:32
S6: that folder, um, without really you prompting it to, and
12:36
S6: finds kind of the half baked ideas and bakes them
12:39
S6: and finishes them for you. And, uh, so that's, uh,
12:44
S6: you know, the temptation of just handing, handing it over.
12:48
S6: Are half baked ideas and having it complete those thoughts
12:52
S6: for us. Um, I'm reminded of Exodus four and Moses,
12:56
S6: you know, I'm not, I'm not worthy to, to, to speak. Um,
13:00
S6: it says, hey, no problem. I will speak for you.
13:02
S6: And boy, the temptation of that is so alluring. So yeah.
13:07
S1: You know, drew, um, a lot of people are afraid
13:11
S1: of AI. Yeah. But we can't avoid it. It's it's everywhere.
13:16
S1: This last week, I was thinking about you coming in
13:18
S1: this morning. I think over the weekend I think I
13:21
S1: counted probably 4 or 5 encounters with either a voice
13:26
S1: mechanism machine that I was calling a third party vendor
13:30
S1: or something to something online, to a Microsoft Word doc
13:34
S1: that now has AI assistants. I think it's called pilot
13:38
S1: or something. I forget what it's called.
13:39
S6: Copilot.
13:40
S1: Yeah. Copilot. Um, we can't avoid it. Right. But if
13:46
S1: you could pin down the biggest temptations that Christ's followers
13:50
S1: need to be aware of, what would they be?
13:54
S6: Well, I was moved by your introduction this morning. You
13:56
S6: were talking about Rhema, the Word of God in the
13:58
S6: Old Testament in Hebrew. Um, its version of that is dabar. Uh,
14:03
S6: and again, I just mentioned this a second ago, but
14:05
S6: we come across that in Exodus four where Moses is
14:08
S6: describing himself as I'm not a man of words. Uh,
14:11
S6: and so that's the Hebrew version of that. Um, and
14:14
S6: I think the temptation for us is none of us
14:18
S6: feel worthy. I, I was, uh, not to, to, to,
14:21
S6: to pin you on this, but a few minutes ago,
14:23
S6: you were so excited about this topic today. And, and
14:26
S6: you paused for a moment and you said, I'm struggling here. Um, boy,
14:31
S6: we that that's as I'm doing right now. We feel
14:34
S6: uncomfortable in that position. We don't feel qualified. We don't
14:37
S6: feel able to put our words together. Um, and, and
14:40
S6: I think that's a temptation that we have with AI
14:43
S6: when we're struggling, when we don't have those words, when
14:46
S6: we have those half baked ideas AI offers us and
14:49
S6: that fear of not being good enough, right? AI offers
14:52
S6: us speed without the humiliation. It offers us competence on demand.
15:00
S6: And that's so alluring for it to, you know, here's
15:03
S6: a half written email that I don't like improve it. Um,
15:08
S6: and the temptation to do that, um, is so strong within,
15:12
S6: within all of us. But again, what do we learn
15:14
S6: from Exodus four? God said, no, I know you stutter, Moses.
15:18
S6: I know you're not a man of words, but I
15:21
S6: will be your mouth. Um, I will speak through you.
15:25
S6: I want you to be vulnerable, uh, and half baked
15:30
S6: because I'll be glorified in that. Um, but I, I, it's,
15:35
S6: it's so tempting to lean into something that, that makes
15:39
S6: us appear wiser, smarter, better, more competent. Um, and, and
15:46
S6: I think that's the greatest temptation for me. Um, as,
15:49
S6: as I often do on your show is a time
15:51
S6: of vulnerability for me is to use AI for me
15:54
S6: to appear, um, you know, better, smarter, faster. Uh, and
15:58
S6: I think that's going to be one of the greatest temptations.
16:01
S1: You know, let's talk about what are the ethics in
16:04
S1: your opinion on E? Let's just take an email. Um,
16:08
S1: you're kind of stuck and you feel like, ah, I
16:11
S1: wish I could word this better. Um, where, where, where
16:14
S1: does editing end and kind of kind of taking control
16:19
S1: of our voice begin and how do we measure that?
16:23
S1: What do you think?
16:24
S6: Yeah, I think it started with me with, uh, kind
16:28
S6: of pre GPT was using Grammarly, which is and I'm
16:32
S6: not endorsing anything, but that's a tool probably most of
16:34
S6: us are familiar with Grammarly. Absolutely. But, you know, when
16:39
S6: I was writing my dissertation and I'm looking at, you know, three,
16:42
S6: 400 pages of this thing and it finds, I don't know,
16:46
S6: a trillion different examples of me incorrectly using commas or
16:50
S6: semicolons or whatever. Um, and I go through and I
16:53
S6: just start accepting all those updates. I start asking myself,
16:56
S6: at what point is that no longer me, my word,
16:59
S6: write my dissertation. Um, and has it become grammarly's? And, um,
17:04
S6: so I think the first step in that is just
17:06
S6: acknowledging that, uh, this is something I wrote out of
17:09
S6: my head and yes, I need to use better commas
17:13
S6: here and there. Um, but I don't want it to
17:15
S6: become someone else's or something else's words. And so first,
17:18
S6: I think step is just to be aware, um, how
17:21
S6: far is this going to go before it's no longer mine?
17:24
S6: Before this isn't my voice anymore. Um, and the second
17:27
S6: thing I keep asking myself to do every week, And
17:30
S6: it was one of the things this week already. My
17:32
S6: goal is, is to kind of go analog. Um, sit
17:36
S6: down with a paper and pen and, and, and just
17:39
S6: and stumble on my words, but just let the Holy
17:42
S6: Spirit guide thoughts onto paper. Um, and kind of do
17:46
S6: it the analog way without turning to some of those
17:48
S6: tools and just be messy for a while.
17:50
S1: Yeah. You know, God doesn't mind that mess when we
17:53
S1: get up early in the morning and talk with him
17:55
S1: and we're bumbling around and stumbling, and that's okay. God's
17:58
S1: good with that. Yeah. And the funny thing about this
18:01
S1: is if it seems to me, drew, that if we're
18:03
S1: if we're letting AI edit all of our words in print,
18:07
S1: then we go meet someone in person and they go,
18:10
S1: hold it. This guy isn't near as clear in person
18:14
S1: as he is in print here, man. It's going to
18:17
S1: bite us in the booty. Drew.
18:19
S6: I don't know if this has ever happened to you,
18:21
S6: but you're sitting in front of a board right now
18:23
S6: that has, you know, a million different slides and buttons
18:27
S6: and switches on it that make your voice sound a
18:30
S6: particular way. And then you meet someone in person and, uh,
18:34
S6: you're like, I'm not don't have that deep resonance. Um.
18:39
S1: Well, thankfully we don't modify, you know, it's funny. We,
18:42
S1: it's interesting. That's, I guess that's one good thing, wouldn't
18:44
S1: you say? Jonathan, when you meet people, don't they say,
18:47
S1: oh man, it's you. It's I hear I recognize your voice.
18:50
S3: Yeah. Thankfully they can. Right. We don't we don't change
18:52
S3: stuff too crazy around here. They can they recognize us
18:54
S3: when they hear us.
18:55
S1: Yeah, yeah. It's really interesting. So what's in this brand
19:00
S1: new podcast that you put out on temptation? And thank you,
19:03
S1: by the way, for doing that for our listeners.
19:05
S6: Absolutely, absolutely. I was really touched this week by Codex
19:09
S6: when that came out. And I thought, man, how, how
19:12
S6: is that affecting when it goes into when it AI
19:16
S6: goes into my half baked idea folder and I really
19:20
S6: don't have to give it any prompting. I just say,
19:22
S6: here's a, here's an idea I haven't fleshed out yet.
19:26
S6: You take it from here. And it does, and it
19:29
S6: does a phenomenal job of it, quite frankly. And then
19:32
S6: I have to look back and you again, you talked
19:34
S6: about the ethics. I have to look back and say, um, okay.
19:38
S6: This was my half thought through idea. It finished it.
19:41
S6: But is it now my thought anymore? Um, and you're right. God,
19:45
S6: I think kind of likes the messiness in us. He,
19:47
S6: he wants the draft version. Um, and so, uh, that that's,
19:51
S6: that's the podcast is, is how can we be aware
19:55
S6: that we're doing that? We're surrendering our voice, um, to, to,
20:00
S6: to have an AI finish our thoughts, uh, improve on
20:03
S6: our thoughts when they become no longer ours, but something
20:06
S6: else is. And so that's the theme of today's podcast.
20:09
S1: I remember back in the day, probably even as recent
20:12
S1: as 20, maybe 15 years ago, we used to kind
20:17
S1: of say, oh yeah, that guy's got a ghostwriter. He's
20:20
S1: got a ghostwriter. Well, now everybody's got a ghostwriter.
20:23
S6: Everybody's got a to Ghost Rider. Exactly right. Yeah.
20:27
S1: That's good stuff. Boom! Crew. Listen up, man. This is
20:31
S1: phenomenal content. Drew's got a brand new podcast. When did
20:34
S1: this thing drop?
20:35
S6: Uh, what time is it? Dropped three hours ago. So
20:39
S6: it's brand new.
20:40
S1: He did this for you. Boom. Crew. Guys, this is
20:43
S1: what drew does. So his brand new podcast dropped on
20:47
S1: temptation with regard to AI, specifically Codex. So check it out.
20:52
S1: There's so many other more. There's so many other resources there.
20:56
S1: One is whispers of the spirit, a 40 Day Guide
20:58
S1: to Intimate Prayer. So check it out. Text drew to
21:03
S1: 805 557898. One word drew DREW to 805 557898.
21:15
S5: Breaking chains and running free. You're listening to cast and Crew.
21:20
S1: Well, here we are in temptation week and temptation is
21:24
S1: not to be trifled with. We need to be alert
21:27
S1: to the fact that. And I really appreciate the fact
21:30
S1: that the temptation of Christ himself is so well iterated.
21:34
S1: And isn't it amazing that the way Jesus dealt with
21:38
S1: that was by quoting the Word of God? Ali.
21:42
S2: Yeah. And it's such a model for the temptations that
21:45
S2: we have dealt with, that we deal with every day,
21:48
S2: the things that can pull us away from what we
21:50
S2: know to be right and true.
21:52
S1: Yeah. So we're bringing in experts this whole week and
21:55
S1: we're asking a very unique question. And that is, what
21:58
S1: is the temptations that you face that pull you away
22:02
S1: from your primary objectives and calling? David Nelms with us
22:06
S1: right now. David, you are a disciple or church planter.
22:10
S1: How many churches have been planted through TTI since its inception?
22:16
S7: The last time I checked, it was about 267,000.
22:21
S1: That's almost hard to get ahead around. And by the way,
22:23
S1: boom crew, if you haven't heard of David Gnomes, great guy.
22:26
S1: We're going to give a proper identification of him here
22:29
S1: in just a second. But here's the point. Churches in
22:33
S1: their context are in oftentimes very persecuted parts of the world,
22:37
S1: and a church is constituted of people who gather together
22:40
S1: in the name of Jesus. They can be anywhere from
22:43
S1: a handful under a tree to a growing number that
22:46
S1: continue to make disciples. And it's an awesome thing. Who
22:49
S1: is this guy?
22:50
S2: Doctor David Nelms is founder of the Timothy Initiative that's
22:54
S2: become a ministry near and dear to our heart. He's
22:56
S2: a former senior pastor. He is a Moody Bible Institute
23:00
S2: alum as well. So when you think about the temptations
23:04
S2: that you face, most people think immediately that goes into
23:08
S2: certain types of sin. But there are temptations that you
23:11
S2: face even when you're doing ministry. Speak to that a
23:15
S2: little bit.
23:16
S7: You know, when I was a young man, which was many,
23:18
S7: many moons ago, I was told repeatedly that in ministry
23:24
S7: there are three major temptations to watch out for, and
23:29
S7: those three were pride, money, immorality, and in the church planting,
23:37
S7: disciple making movement world that I'm a part of. It
23:41
S7: is the exact same as in all other ministry. The
23:45
S7: main temptation, though, is pride. And we've all heard that
23:50
S7: old quote pride is not thinking less of yourself, but
23:55
S7: thinking of yourself less. Okay, so pride is the one
23:59
S7: that that I personally have to deal with that I
24:01
S7: think most of us have to deal with. And it
24:03
S7: certainly is a major problem in the world I live in.
24:08
S1: Yeah. David, this is real because pride keeps knocking at
24:12
S1: the door every day. And what's amazing is the very
24:16
S1: blessings that God gives us. We know they're from God,
24:20
S1: but if we're not careful, we can start gaining too
24:24
S1: much of an attachment that we somehow did it right. David?
24:28
S7: Yeah. What I found is the best way to, to
24:32
S7: resist pride is just to remember who he is. He
24:37
S7: is the one with all authority who deserves all the glory.
24:42
S7: If he deserves all the glory, then that means none
24:46
S7: of us deserve any of the glory. Because if he
24:49
S7: gets it all, there's nothing left. And then we just
24:52
S7: got to remember that apart from his amazing redeeming grace,
24:56
S7: we are at best dead in our sins, without God,
25:00
S7: without hope. And so if you can just keep those
25:03
S7: two things in your mind, who he is and where
25:06
S7: we would be and who we would, we would be
25:08
S7: apart from his grace. I think that'll kill the pride
25:11
S7: off pretty quick.
25:12
S2: You know, it's interesting that God, in his mercy and grace,
25:16
S2: Allows us to be a part of what he's doing. And,
25:20
S2: you know, I think about from your context ministry on
25:23
S2: a global scale, the enemy is so, so, so persistent
25:29
S2: and you can be doing something for the Lord. And
25:32
S2: your motives were right, your heart was right. And boy,
25:35
S2: it goes well. And then in creeps that little tiny voice,
25:39
S2: look what you just did. Look how well you spoke.
25:42
S2: Look how well you discipled. Look how well you shared
25:45
S2: your faith. And all of a sudden this great thing
25:47
S2: that you had that God allowed you to do with him,
25:51
S2: it starts to become the thing that makes you that
25:54
S2: puffs you up a little bit. And we constantly have
25:57
S2: to be on guard in every context against that. Right?
26:00
S2: It's such a strange thing.
26:03
S7: Yeah, it is. And I was talking to one of
26:06
S7: our key leaders. I said, what's the biggest temptation our
26:09
S7: guys face overseas? And these are guys laying down their
26:13
S7: lives for Jesus. I mean, they're not I mean, they're
26:16
S7: they are dead serious. And the first thing he said was,
26:20
S7: I think the big one is trying to protect our
26:22
S7: position rather than empowering others. In other words, wanting to
26:26
S7: be the hero rather than if someone said the hero maker.
26:29
S7: And that's really just pride. It's wanting to be seen
26:33
S7: as the boss, the bishop, the spiritual leader, the greatest.
26:39
S7: And I got to thinking about that's exactly what the
26:42
S7: 12 were arguing about, literally on the way to the
26:45
S7: upper room, just before Jesus. I mean, he's on his
26:48
S7: way to wash their feet in the upper room and
26:51
S7: then go die on a cross. And they are arguing
26:53
S7: about who's going to be the greatest. And so I
26:56
S7: think we have to develop an attitude towards our disciples
27:00
S7: that are being made. This is not an explanation of
27:03
S7: this verse, but an application. You remember when John the
27:06
S7: Baptist said about Jesus, he must increase and I must decrease?
27:09
S1: Yes.
27:10
S7: I think we must learn to really have in our
27:12
S7: hearts a sincere motive of these people I'm discipling. They
27:17
S7: must increase and I must decrease. And I think if
27:21
S7: we can set that as a constant reminder in our hearts,
27:24
S7: I think it will help us a lot.
27:26
S1: Yeah. David, this is so good. David Nelms, our guest
27:28
S1: right now. And this has application not just in a
27:32
S1: church planting organization, but for anyone listening who's got a
27:36
S1: chunk of ministry that they've been entrusted with. I don't
27:39
S1: care if it's overseeing a student ministry, a lay volunteer
27:44
S1: with a bunch of connect team members that are greeters.
27:47
S1: It is so easy to begin to think, this is mine,
27:51
S1: and I somehow made it. And we need to be
27:55
S1: careful with that, don't we, David? Here's what I'm thinking.
27:59
S1: I don't know that anything kills the forward movement of
28:02
S1: the Kingdom ministry that we've been entrusted with more than
28:06
S1: getting our hands sticky with regard to the stuff we're doing. David,
28:09
S1: what do you think?
28:11
S7: You're exactly right. And you know, when we see quote
28:14
S7: unquote success, we can come to think that it's because
28:18
S7: of us, our efforts, uh, we can even come to
28:21
S7: see ourselves as being indispensable, if you will, which, by
28:25
S7: the way, is pride. It's look at all I've done.
28:28
S7: Look at all the churches I've planted. Look at all
28:30
S7: the disciples I've made. It's I, I, I that kind
28:34
S7: of reminds me of a guy long time ago named Lucifer.
28:37
S7: You know, it was I did this and I did that,
28:39
S7: and I'm going to do this and I'm going to
28:41
S7: do that. We forget that apart from me, you can
28:44
S7: do nothing. We forget except the Lord build the house.
28:48
S7: We're laboring in vain. We forget. Yet not I, but
28:52
S7: Christ living in me.
28:54
S1: Yeah.
28:55
S7: And so pride is just, man. We gotta watch out
28:57
S7: for it. We can become so busy in ministry, whatever
29:00
S7: the ministry is. Mine happens to be planting churches, but
29:04
S7: we can become so busy in ministry that we just
29:07
S7: fail to spend time with God Again. I think it's
29:10
S7: because we seem to think I can do it on
29:12
S7: my own. I don't need him. And if you think
29:15
S7: about Jesus, he was just always, always talking to his father.
29:20
S7: I can't hardly think of anything he did that didn't
29:22
S7: involve prayer. And every time he opened his mouth, the
29:26
S7: scriptures popped out. He just consumed those things. We have
29:30
S7: to be careful that we don't get. So, as my
29:32
S7: mother used to say. So big for your britches.
29:34
S1: Yeah.
29:35
S7: That somehow we think we don't need him. Without him,
29:38
S7: we can do nothing.
29:39
S1: Amen. Yeah. That little message that he gave his disciples
29:43
S1: is so powerful. John 15. If you want to see
29:46
S1: that story, guys. Yeah. It's so beautiful. I don't know
29:50
S1: if I ever told you the story, but I think,
29:51
S1: you know, I was mentored by Robert Lewis back in
29:54
S1: the day. And Robert is a great man of God.
29:58
S1: And when I was going to take a church where
30:00
S1: I was going to be the point man, he said,
30:02
S1: there's one story I've never told you, Carl, that I
30:04
S1: got to give to you. And he's sitting there across
30:07
S1: this big desk and he said, you know, ministry, Carlos,
30:11
S1: like God giving you this big old pie. And he
30:15
S1: brings his hand down in front of him. And he said,
30:18
S1: most of us in ministry, and by the way, this
30:21
S1: applies to every person listening right now, because whether your
30:24
S1: pie is big or small, we all have some role
30:26
S1: in the kingdom. And he said, it's like we slice
30:30
S1: that thing up and we give away pieces. Yeah, we
30:32
S1: give away, but we always hold back a big old
30:35
S1: piece for ourselves and go, this is my piece of
30:37
S1: the pie. And he said, Carl, I want to tell
30:40
S1: you what real Godward leadership does. It gives away that
30:43
S1: last slice.
30:46
S7: Wow.
30:46
S1: And then he said, the weird the weirdest thing happens, Carl.
30:50
S1: And he reaches back. I'll never forget it. Grabs something
30:55
S1: else out of the air, brings it back down the table.
30:58
S1: He says, every time I've done that, God's always given
31:01
S1: me another pie to divvy up. MM. And I thought,
31:05
S1: Holy smokes. And David, you've been. I've seen you since
31:09
S1: we're on this topic. You aren't going to get the
31:11
S1: big head, but I've seen you authorize and give away
31:14
S1: ministry left and right. That's the secret sauce, isn't it,
31:17
S1: my man?
31:18
S7: Yeah. And in fact, our strategist that I was talking to,
31:22
S7: he mentioned that he said, there's the temptation to try
31:24
S7: to hold on, to try to control people rather than
31:28
S7: developing them. We want to be the decision maker. We
31:31
S7: want to do it our way. It's follow the leader.
31:33
S7: And don't forget I'm the leader. And we would never
31:37
S7: put it in these words because we're too spiritual. And
31:40
S7: that's pride, by the way. But basically our philosophy of ministry,
31:44
S7: if we're not careful, can be always do what's right
31:47
S7: and best and what's right and best is whatever I
31:50
S7: say it is. And sometimes, by the way, what we
31:53
S7: think is right and best is really what's best for
31:56
S7: our individual ministry so that we can hold on to
31:59
S7: that bigger piece of the pie, if you will. And
32:01
S7: so yeah, you're dead on.
32:04
S1: Yeah. I'll tell you something. Boom crew. It has been
32:06
S1: a joy for Allie and I to partner up with
32:08
S1: this man of God.
32:10
S8: Hasn't it? Yes.
32:11
S1: I mean, this has been epic. You know, I was
32:14
S1: asked for a quote about t t recently and I
32:17
S1: said this. It could well be the ministry that has
32:23
S1: more return on investment than anything you can give toward
32:27
S1: right now internationally, for sure. And that's a big statement.
32:31
S1: But I I've seen it. And Allie, we've got a
32:35
S1: lot of people that jumped on board when we really
32:38
S1: plugged this ministry some months ago now. But man, we're
32:41
S1: still there with them, aren't we?
32:42
S2: Absolutely. And you, if you want more on the Timothy initiative,
32:46
S2: just text disciple to 805 557898, text disciple to 805 557898.
32:58
S5: Get to know the team behind the scenes. Follow Carl
33:01
S5: and crew on Facebook and Instagram for.
33:04
S1: Every hobby that you may have, for every job you
33:10
S1: go to, for every discipline that you want to pursue
33:15
S1: in the spiritual life. Invariably, there's a temptation trying to
33:20
S1: pull us away. No doubt. No question about.
33:22
S3: It. Every single one of them.
33:24
S1: So if you think about your hope is to have
33:27
S1: a happy home and you might say, happy. I want
33:30
S1: to have joy. Well, the Beatitudes in the sermon on
33:33
S1: the Mount are all blessed. Really could be transposed. Happy,
33:38
S1: happy are those. And if you want to have a
33:42
S1: happy home, I mean, blessed of God, you got to
33:46
S1: ask the question, what are the primary temptations that are
33:51
S1: going to pull me away from this great pursuit? No
33:55
S1: one better to have on here than our dear friend,
33:57
S1: Arlene Pelikan. Arlene, what are they? What what what are
34:02
S1: we up against here, sister?
34:03
S9: So, so many things. You know, I think of digital
34:06
S9: temptations because unlike like a cigarette of the past where
34:10
S9: you could say like, okay, I'm just going to not
34:12
S9: buy that anymore. We are all going to be holding phones, tablets, computers, laptops, right. Everywhere.
34:19
S9: So of course there's the big temptations. You know, it's like, oh,
34:22
S9: pornography or not necessarily, you know, sometimes you'll think to yourself, well,
34:27
S9: I'm not into like drugs or human trafficking or, you know,
34:31
S9: so I'm not in these big sins digitally, so I
34:34
S9: must be okay. But then you think, wait a minute,
34:37
S9: we are to flee from idolatry. And you think of
34:41
S9: this phone, this, this conformity machine in our pocket that's
34:45
S9: always telling us, this is what you need to buy.
34:48
S9: This is what you need to look like. This is
34:49
S9: what you need to wear. This is what your relationship
34:52
S9: should be doing for you. These are the feelings you
34:55
S9: should be feeling. And slowly we are conforming to those things? Totally.
35:00
S9: So I think that temptation to be distracted, so not
35:05
S9: to be present, but to be distracted with your phone comparison,
35:09
S9: that you're comparing your family against non-existing families, right? That
35:14
S9: you see online that don't even exist. Gossip that you
35:18
S9: say is venting, but, but you're just pouring gasoline, let's say,
35:22
S9: on complaining. So these kinds of things, you know, the laziness,
35:26
S9: you know, being a parent is hard. So I'm just
35:28
S9: going to tap out and, and I know this can
35:31
S9: feel offensive, but that we say, hey, we're just going
35:34
S9: to let the, the tablet do the figuring because I'm
35:37
S9: really tired after a long day of work. So these
35:40
S9: are temptations to instead bonding and connecting with your family.
35:44
S1: You know, we often bring you on to talk about
35:46
S1: screen kids and how to help kids. I am growing
35:51
S1: more and more convinced that the biggest and first line
35:59
S1: problem is parents.
36:02
S9: Yeah.
36:03
S1: And I'm going to be very forthright. I see it
36:06
S1: with me and with I've been trying to track news
36:10
S1: on a news aggregator that pulls X accounts and different things. Yeah,
36:15
S1: you can still, I'm telling you, they are so smart
36:19
S1: on algorithms, right? They can feed you stuff. I believe
36:23
S1: it's a crisis. AM I overstating it, Arlene?
36:26
S9: I don't think you're overstating it because we have. Our
36:30
S9: attention has been hijacked. Millions of us. Not just a
36:34
S9: few of us. And because it's so normal, nobody thinks, like, wait,
36:39
S9: this is odd. So I think that's the problem that
36:42
S9: we think this is just the way it is. And
36:44
S9: not realizing, wait, I could get out of this if
36:46
S9: I wanted to.
36:48
S1: It's a real temptation. And I think Satan put the
36:54
S1: bait out there. We took the bait Eight, and I
36:56
S1: don't even know how to unwind this thing. What are
36:59
S1: the best things you've learned for parents? First, because I
37:02
S1: get the you know, I'm on a plane and what
37:04
S1: do they say when the oxygen mask falls? Get them
37:07
S1: on your own mug first. Mom and dad. Right. I
37:10
S1: think that's the first line here to go, because we
37:13
S1: can't be hypocrites and model something we're asking our kids
37:17
S1: to not do.
37:18
S9: Yeah, I think it's us as parents, first of all,
37:22
S9: for ourselves reclaiming real life for ourselves. So saying to Jesus, Lord,
37:28
S9: I don't want to be tempted by the digital distractions
37:30
S9: of the world, by the laziness, by the candy, by
37:34
S9: all the things, the lust of the flesh and the
37:36
S9: lust of the eyes and the pride of life, which
37:39
S9: is basically what your algorithm is. Yes. And so to realize, okay, Lord,
37:44
S9: so maybe put yourself the same way. We would take
37:46
S9: a fast from food that we say, you know what?
37:48
S9: It's not a special occasion or anything, but I'm just
37:50
S9: going to take a week off of whatever it is
37:52
S9: you really are into. I'm going to take a week
37:54
S9: off of X. My. My husband will take himself up
37:57
S9: for a noose fast for a month because, you know,
37:59
S9: that's it's hard for him. So, you know, my I'll
38:02
S9: do like a social media fast. So put yourself on
38:04
S9: those kinds of things and test yourself and return to
38:09
S9: the Lord in your heart and and show your kids.
38:11
S9: Tell them what you're doing. So, hey, instead of maybe
38:14
S9: nagging our kids all summer, they watch, look at mom
38:17
S9: or dad, they're on this little news fast. They're on
38:20
S9: this little Instagram fast. What is this about? And I
38:22
S9: think that's a way to awaken curiosity and to loosen
38:25
S9: the bonds of that temptation, you know?
38:27
S1: So let's explore this. I have not found much success
38:32
S1: in trying to put a governor on things that are
38:35
S1: running amok. I have found greater success by cutting myself
38:41
S1: off for a season. I get a better it's a
38:43
S1: better jolt to the system. Have you experienced this, Arlene,
38:47
S1: and how does that work?
38:49
S9: This also goes with the temptation. I will say this
38:51
S9: with food, you know, you'll go into like, well, I'll
38:53
S9: just have a little bit of that chocolate. I mean,
38:55
S9: dark chocolate covered caramel with sea salt. I mean, I'm in, so,
38:59
S9: you know, so I'll think to myself, oh, I'll just
39:01
S9: have a little. And that rarely works for me. I
39:04
S9: usually have to be like, okay, for the next four days,
39:07
S9: I need to not eat that and then I'll be
39:09
S9: good versus I'll just have a few a day and
39:11
S9: maybe be okay. And then the box is gone. And
39:14
S9: technology is the same way. My friend Melanie Hemp, who's
39:17
S9: green strong, she's a nurse. She's just like, you wouldn't
39:19
S9: give your child just a little bit of crack or
39:22
S9: just a little bit of vaping or just, you know,
39:25
S9: and so she really talks about these are digital drugs
39:27
S9: for all of us. And we have to at least
39:30
S9: wait for a fully mature brain is kind of what
39:33
S9: we're thinking as parents before introducing these kinds of things.
39:36
S9: But I think you're right that, you know, try it.
39:38
S9: Try to see if this moderation thing works for you.
39:40
S9: And if you're finding, well, I'm really still struggling with this,
39:43
S9: then then say, hey, let me just take five days
39:45
S9: off and make it doable so that you win and
39:48
S9: you get that under your belt and you get to
39:51
S9: see what God can do and how he can work
39:53
S9: when you do that.
39:54
S1: I'm really intrigued with your hubby, and I know that
39:57
S1: he's not here to defend.
39:59
S9: You should be.
39:59
S1: Nor tell nor tell his story. But so he's. You
40:04
S1: said it, so I'm going to go after it. He
40:05
S1: will go on news fasts. Is that right?
40:07
S9: Yes. Yeah. So he'll say, you know what. For one
40:09
S9: month I'm not going to check. You know it's like.
40:13
S9: So he'll go on X or he'll go on, you know,
40:15
S9: a news website. Yeah. So yeah. So he'll do that
40:18
S9: as a practice. You know something because there's obviously look
40:21
S9: at the world. There's always something like huge to look at. Yes.
40:25
S9: So he's looking, looking, looking. And so instead he'll skip
40:29
S9: that and kind of hear it from people telling him things,
40:31
S9: you know, like, oh yes. And some and I will
40:33
S9: say obviously things big happen. He'll look it up and
40:36
S9: he'll look at it. Sure. But it's more the practice
40:38
S9: of every day. You check into this news website, every
40:41
S9: day you look at X, you know, numerous times a day.
40:45
S9: He also doesn't put it on his phone ever so
40:48
S9: that he has to be at his laptop to do it.
40:50
S9: So it's not like something that's with him all the time.
40:53
S1: That's now. That is a good discipline. That's the way
40:56
S1: to fend off some temptation. Yeah. My guest, Arlene. Arlene Pelikan.
41:00
S1: I didn't even properly introduce her, for crying out loud, speaker, author,
41:04
S1: host of the Happy Home podcast. We're going to have
41:08
S1: resources galore. All right. I think the way you deal
41:11
S1: with temptation is get a blue sky vision for what
41:14
S1: could be. So give us a blue sky vision of
41:17
S1: what could be. And I want to focus on let's
41:19
S1: stay after parents here today.
41:21
S9: Yeah. The blue sky vision is we love the Lord
41:25
S9: our God so much in this home. And we're fun
41:29
S9: and we've got rules. And you're going to conform to
41:32
S9: this culture of love and the Bible instead of conform
41:36
S9: to Snapchat and Mario Brothers and nothing against Mario Brothers,
41:40
S9: but you know what I'm saying. So instead of.
41:42
S1: You're treading on Jonathan's toes, right?
41:44
S9: Yeah, exactly. I actually, I, I'm actually, I kind of
41:47
S9: felt bad about saying that one. It just popped in
41:49
S9: my mind. I'm kind of sorry.
41:50
S1: It's real. No, but it's real. Jonathan, weigh in on this.
41:53
S1: You're a young dad. This is a real battle, right?
41:55
S3: Absolutely. I'm one of my. When? When my daughter was
41:59
S3: a couple months old, you know, she wouldn't fall asleep
42:02
S3: anywhere but our arms. And so my wife and I
42:04
S3: used to do shifts at night. And I got into
42:06
S3: the pattern of playing video games in my hands while
42:10
S3: while the baby's sleeping so that I could stay awake.
42:13
S3: And and then that became a bad habit that just
42:16
S3: continues and it grows and it gets hard to stop doing,
42:19
S3: you know?
42:19
S9: And as we're talking, no condemnation like this is real.
42:22
S9: This is fun. This is what it's made to do to,
42:24
S9: to do these things. But in the family, that blue
42:27
S9: sky vision of, wait a minute, let's be connected to
42:30
S9: each other, let's be connected to God. And what that
42:32
S9: usually means is we've got to delay the what, my
42:36
S9: friend again, Melanie Hemby talks about the toxic trio of pornography,
42:41
S9: social media, video games, that these things are really addictive
42:45
S9: for kids. So being very careful to delay those things
42:49
S9: as long as possible. Obviously pornography, not at all, but
42:53
S9: you get what I'm saying.
42:53
S1: Oh, absolutely. And the scary part, especially again, I was
42:58
S1: going to go toward kids, but even for adults is
43:00
S1: that it's so at the ready. I think we have
43:04
S1: underestimated how this has crept into our lives so quickly, Arlene.
43:10
S9: And you know, and I'm going to go back to
43:12
S9: the do not be idolaters. You know, first Corinthians ten
43:14
S9: and all throughout the Bible obviously, do not be idolaters.
43:17
S9: Flee from idolatry. So if this thing in our pocket,
43:21
S9: it's very hard to flee from this thing in our pocket.
43:25
S9: And it's the pride of life. It's thinking like, let
43:28
S9: me let my status, you know, let me check my
43:30
S9: feet and make sure that I got so many likes
43:32
S9: and wait, my friend got, you know, went viral and
43:34
S9: I've never gone viral in my life. What's going on,
43:36
S9: you know, and all these things that are just in
43:39
S9: your pocket that now we must be so much more
43:41
S9: careful about.
43:43
S1: Okay, boom crew, I'm going to give you a key
43:44
S1: word here in a moment. And here's what you're going
43:47
S1: to find. You're going to go to this website. And
43:49
S1: if you go to the Happy Home podcast, one of
43:51
S1: the first links you're going to find right there, this
43:54
S1: is what's come up lately. How your marriage can go
43:57
S1: the distance with Larry McCall. Less control, more connection, parenting
44:01
S1: adult children. Well, with Kathy Cook. How about that? How
44:04
S1: to talk to your kids about sex and purity with
44:07
S1: Dana Gresh and the rekindled heart reviving your faith of
44:11
S1: your family with Marc Yarbrough. So I would say that
44:16
S1: one with Marc Yarbrough is closest to what we're talking about.
44:18
S1: But there are myriad podcasts here that are going to
44:22
S1: bring sobering perspective to the issue of digital stuff so
44:27
S1: that we can reclaim a happy home. So check it out.
44:30
S1: Go there right now. Text the word happy to 805
44:33
S1: 5578981 word happy to 805 557898. Let's get some victory
44:42
S1: over this temptation.