Latest / Karl and Crew / A Book Like No Other with Dr. Mike Fabarez & Living Out the Great Commission with Nik Ripken

Transcript

A Book Like No Other with Dr. Mike Fabarez & Living Out the Great Commission with Nik Ripken · Karl and Crew

• 0:00
  S1: Broadcasting from Chicago, across North America and beyond. It's Carl
• 0:06
  S1: and crew. Come as you are an experienced guide, overcome
• 0:10
  S1: what seems impossible and live as you never imagined 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.
• 0:49
  S5: You ever feel like there's something that is you're trying
• 0:53
  S5: to hold on to, but some force is trying to
• 0:55
  S5: pull it from you. Some kind of conviction that you
• 0:58
  S5: have or something is happening. That's a rare thing that happens.
• 1:03
  S5: But I think it was you. Super. I came in,
• 1:07
  S5: we came in early and told you three weeks ago
• 1:10
  S5: that this thing, this conviction, this crisis that, uh, God's
• 1:16
  S5: Spirit has landed me on felt like Satan and all
• 1:20
  S5: of his demons were trying to pull this thing right
• 1:22
  S5: out of my hands, full force. And it was just
• 1:25
  S5: a wild thing. And what I'm about to say is
• 1:28
  S5: going to be very sobering. But it is hopeful because
• 1:32
  S5: there is hope. There is a crisis across the West,
• 1:39
  S5: and we've exported it around the world. And if you've
• 1:43
  S5: been a listener to Carl and crew any length of
• 1:45
  S5: time at all, you know that it was a number
• 1:47
  S5: of years ago when we really cast a net for
• 1:50
  S5: authentic salvation, the real gospel, the gospel of repentance. You know,
• 1:56
  S5: when Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ. It's
• 2:00
  S5: no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
• 2:02
  S5: And the life you now live in the flesh. I
• 2:05
  S5: live by faith in the Son of God. Wow! I
• 2:10
  S5: have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live.
• 2:15
  S5: That is such a radical statement if you just take
• 2:19
  S5: it at face value, right? I mean, that's just a
• 2:22
  S5: big deal. That's just a big deal. Deal. And we're
• 2:27
  S5: new creations. The old has gone, the new has come.
• 2:31
  S5: And then you find this fruit of the spirit and
• 2:33
  S5: you find a flourishing life, a life that's going to
• 2:36
  S5: be multiplying in fruit. It certainly is not perfection, but
• 2:40
  S5: it is radical transformation. So. You take a gap of numbers.
• 2:52
  S5: You know, they're polling the midterms and they're saying that
• 2:55
  S5: it's very hard to poll because they aren't getting accurate
• 2:59
  S5: feedback and nobody's picking up their phones anymore. And can
• 3:02
  S5: you blame them? By the way?
• 3:04
  S3: No. Yeah. Usually you don't answer the phone right away
• 3:06
  S3: if it is like an unknown number.
• 3:09
  S5: But it's usually even if they're going to be off,
• 3:12
  S5: they're going to be off by a little bit, right?
• 3:14
  S3: Yeah.
• 3:15
  S5: They have two or 4 or 5.
• 3:17
  S3: Yeah. Margins of error. They usually give a plus or
• 3:19
  S3: minus on percentage points that they're off by.
• 3:21
  S5: Yeah. So let's just say the margin of error for
• 3:24
  S5: the stats I'm about to give you. Let's just say
• 3:26
  S5: it's 12%. Sure. Let's even say it's 20%. Okay. Just
• 3:33
  S5: last year. Pew came out with a study that said 24%
• 3:37
  S5: of Americans. So Canada and anyone really. In the West
• 3:41
  S5: and beyond. I'd say this is probably symptomatic of most
• 3:45
  S5: people in persecution free zones of Christianity around the world
• 3:50
  S5: would fall into this category. Category 24% identify as Christian
• 3:55
  S5: and go to a Protestant gospel preaching church of some kind,
• 4:00
  S5: whether that's Christmas and Easter or I'm there when the
• 4:04
  S5: doors are open somewhere in there, they identify with that,
• 4:06
  S5: and they would call themselves Christian. But then you look
• 4:10
  S5: at Barney's report from last year, 4% have a biblical
• 4:14
  S5: worldview and aim to order their private and public lives
• 4:18
  S5: around it. In other words, they're in it. They hold
• 4:22
  S5: on to some core tenets of truth, and they are
• 4:25
  S5: aligning their life around those truths. They're disciples of Christ,
• 4:30
  S5: or so even they would claim to be. But if
• 4:32
  S5: you look at that gap, just take it at face value.
• 4:36
  S5: With the raw numbers, you do the math on it.
• 4:38
  S5: It means that 80% of those that identify as Christian
• 4:46
  S5: have not even come to the point where they hold
• 4:48
  S5: to this biblical worldview. They still hold out a lot
• 4:52
  S5: of other things that I, I believe would be antithetical
• 4:55
  S5: to the gospel. They might hold that life is kind
• 4:59
  S5: of a coin flip in the womb. They might hold
• 5:01
  S5: to some social issues of gender identity and all of
• 5:06
  S5: that stuff. And what constitutes a marriage. It's it's then
• 5:13
  S5: gets really, really sobering. You look at our own team
• 5:18
  S5: and I did an interview with you guys, and my
• 5:22
  S5: bride actually saw all the edited cuts of this thing.
• 5:25
  S5: And she goes, that thing was amazing. The day we
• 5:27
  S5: did it, I felt the Spirit of God was all
• 5:29
  S5: over that. Remember that guys?
• 5:31
  S3: That was that precious time.
• 5:32
  S4: I thank you for for allowing us to do that.
• 5:35
  S3: I completely agree with you, by the way, on on
• 5:38
  S3: feeling God's presence moving through that. I think it was
• 5:40
  S3: such an important conversation.
• 5:42
  S5: It was so, so important. So I was interviewing my team,
• 5:45
  S5: not here on radio, but for for the unstoppable gospel
• 5:50
  S5: and we've got a QR code in the book even
• 5:52
  S5: that has our interview there. But it's it is sobering.
• 5:57
  S5: And I'm not, by God's grace, in his mercy, I'm
• 6:00
  S5: not going to let this message be pried from me
• 6:02
  S5: because I believe we have a crisis. Our greatest enemy
• 6:06
  S5: is not outside the walls of the church. It's inside guys.
• 6:11
  S5: And we've got a lot of you that are beginning
• 6:13
  S5: to embrace the reality of kids or loved ones, or
• 6:19
  S5: lots of people who left the church. And maybe for
• 6:23
  S5: years you were praying, oh God, get them back to church.
• 6:26
  S5: But many of you are realizing, no, they were never
• 6:29
  S5: in Christ because you go to First John. You find out, wow,
• 6:32
  S5: they went out from us because they were not of us.
• 6:36
  S5: And can disciples become derailed, discouraged, go through deserts? The
• 6:41
  S5: answer is yes. But will they ultimately, when push comes
• 6:44
  S5: to shove, say, Jesus is my Savior and I'm. And
• 6:49
  S5: I'm desperate for his grace to get me back on
• 6:52
  S5: track with him. Oh, absolutely. There's no denying that. So
• 6:57
  S5: it you it it it just leads us to this reality.
• 7:01
  S5: There's this big gap. And the question is what's going on?
• 7:04
  S5: I'll tell you what's going on. It's fake Christianity. It's
• 7:09
  S5: powerless belief. It's a verbal assent, a cultural Christianity that
• 7:14
  S5: sweeps you along. And it is so toxic. And the
• 7:18
  S5: reason it's toxic is because it is deceptive. It has
• 7:24
  S5: the ability to deceive us. And I mean, through and through.
• 7:30
  S5: So what are you saying, Carl? I'm saying the church,
• 7:32
  S5: even on weekends, are loaded with lost people who think
• 7:36
  S5: they're born again. And then we've tried to disciple all
• 7:40
  S5: of these lost people. And what that does is bring
• 7:44
  S5: the temperature down in the room and we wonder, why
• 7:48
  S5: don't people follow through on basic little things that we're
• 7:51
  S5: giving them to do? Or why is it just fill
• 7:53
  S5: in the blank? And a lot of people, maybe you're
• 7:56
  S5: here this morning wondering why is there this gap between
• 8:01
  S5: what I think I believe in the promises of God
• 8:06
  S5: and that can be unnerving. It really can. I am
• 8:11
  S5: not going to let this get pulled from me. This
• 8:14
  S5: is an epidemic. This hallucination of salvation. People thinking they
• 8:19
  S5: know Jesus and don't. What are you guys thoughts on
• 8:23
  S5: this one? Before we go any further here this morning?
• 8:26
  S3: I mean, you're absolutely right. This is an epidemic. This
• 8:29
  S3: is something that we need to address heavily in the
• 8:32
  S3: church because, I mean, decisionism the kind of the walking aisles,
• 8:37
  S3: the thing that Carl, you said Spurgeon had such a,
• 8:41
  S3: you know, pause or hesitation to, to, to see happening
• 8:45
  S3: in the culture. It's been happening for, you know, over
• 8:48
  S3: a century now. Uh, and that has kind of weaved
• 8:53
  S3: its way into the culture of belief and faith in
• 8:56
  S3: Christ to where a lot of people in church don't
• 8:59
  S3: really understand what it means to have genuine saving faith.
• 9:03
  S3: And when a lot of people in the church don't
• 9:06
  S3: have that, how can we effectively evangelize to anybody? Uh,
• 9:11
  S3: because if you know, if the, if the, if.
• 9:14
  S5: You're not new.
• 9:15
  S3: If you're yeah, if you're not new, then you can't,
• 9:17
  S3: you can't give the gospel out effectively and, and accurately
• 9:21
  S3: to where people can understand and have a saving relationship
• 9:24
  S3: with Jesus. Yeah.
• 9:25
  S5: Yeah. It's a big deal.
• 9:27
  S3: I mean, I, I think about it. I had my
• 9:29
  S3: illusion of salvation, you know, that, that I've talked about
• 9:33
  S3: and coming to faith here. Uh, one of my buddies
• 9:36
  S3: from high school, the, the one guy from high school
• 9:38
  S3: that I still have a friendship with, uh, he's now
• 9:41
  S3: saved as well. But at the time we. We both
• 9:45
  S3: were not thinking that we were. And I remember I
• 9:48
  S3: was home from college and I was driving with him
• 9:51
  S3: around around town and he was talking with me about, man,
• 9:54
  S3: I just don't know where I'm at with Jesus. And
• 9:57
  S3: for me, I was still in my illusion of salvation.
• 9:59
  S3: And so both of us were kind of living, you know,
• 10:01
  S3: off the rails a little bit. And I said, dude,
• 10:04
  S3: you ain't got nothing. I said, what do you believe?
• 10:06
  S3: That he exists and that he died for you on
• 10:08
  S3: the cross? And he goes, yeah, I believe all that stuff.
• 10:10
  S3: I said, then you're fine. Stop worrying about it. And
• 10:12
  S3: that was that was basically my my talking him through it.
• 10:16
  S3: And then I got saved and I realized, oh man,
• 10:18
  S3: I gave him horrible advice. Uh, that that is not
• 10:22
  S3: the end of the picture. No, and that's not a clear,
• 10:25
  S3: full picture. And so I actually went back to him
• 10:27
  S3: after we were both saved. And I said, hey, man,
• 10:30
  S3: I made a big mistake that day when I was
• 10:32
  S3: talking with you about faith. I gave you a horrible picture.
• 10:35
  S3: And I said, I'm really sorry because I delayed your journey.
• 10:39
  S3: And we talked about it and it was great, but
• 10:42
  S3: that was horrible evangelism to him because I also didn't
• 10:45
  S3: understand the gospel.
• 10:46
  S5: Yeah. You were you were trying to confirm something.
• 10:48
  S3: Yeah. In myself.
• 10:49
  S4: As yourself. Yeah.
• 10:51
  S5: So yeah, it's it's heavy, man.
• 10:54
  S4: It really is. I mean, there's a peace of mind
• 10:58
  S4: with the assurance of salvation. Uh, confidence. God's promises for
• 11:04
  S4: you in a full purposed life that you can hold
• 11:07
  S4: on to the gift of the Holy Spirit. I mean,
• 11:09
  S4: the encouragement you want holy living within yourself. But more
• 11:13
  S4: than anything, the hope of eternal life. And to not
• 11:17
  S4: have that that is so important for Christians to be
• 11:20
  S4: able to have that confidence, you know, that God's forgiveness
• 11:23
  S4: and the peace in his heart and and to want
• 11:25
  S4: that for others as well.
• 11:27
  S5: So we got something coming up that I'm going to give, uh,
• 11:31
  S5: a pump primer for all of you, and I'm going
• 11:34
  S5: to give it to you. No charge just to, just
• 11:37
  S5: to read it, I'm convinced. I really am convinced this
• 11:43
  S5: hard hitting stuff and it may may really cause you
• 11:46
  S5: some pause, may cause you to really look at wayward
• 11:50
  S5: kids or spouses or people that you sit around or
• 11:53
  S5: connect with at church that seem pretty, um, pretty cold
• 12:00
  S5: to a fire for God. They go to church, but
• 12:04
  S5: you know, there's, there's, when dead people come to life,
• 12:08
  S5: it is, it's a game changer.
• 12:12
  S3: Yeah, it really is.
• 12:13
  S5: And we were four for four here as a team
• 12:16
  S5: thinking that we knew Jesus and didn't. And a lot
• 12:19
  S5: of us here were heavily involved in church. From powerless
• 12:25
  S5: belief to a true faith that changes everything. Announced this
• 12:30
  S5: a couple of weeks ago, but now we're going to
• 12:31
  S5: go for it here. It's short notice, but there's time
• 12:34
  S5: to get there. Here's what I want to do. I'm
• 12:37
  S5: going to send you the intro to my book, and
• 12:41
  S5: I want you to take some time today to read it.
• 12:45
  S5: At the bottom, there's a link because November 14th, it
• 12:49
  S5: is the Unstoppable Gospel Conference, and I'm going to have
• 12:54
  S5: four sessions there. The lie that fills our churches with
• 12:57
  S5: lost people. The truth that makes dead people come alive.
• 13:03
  S5: I'm super fired up about session three. Seven surprising ways
• 13:07
  S5: God saves those you love. And that is going to
• 13:10
  S5: be so hope filled. And then living in the power
• 13:14
  S5: that changes everything. There's some disciplines of the authentic life
• 13:20
  S5: in Christ that we've missed that are so vital. And yeah,
• 13:26
  S5: I think we've got a crisis maybe even listening here today,
• 13:29
  S5: vast numbers of people that maybe still do not know Jesus.
• 13:33
  S5: But the gospel is clear and the Holy Spirit will
• 13:37
  S5: agree with your spirit when you are children of God.
• 13:41
  S5: Jesus never tried to talk people into something they didn't possess.
• 13:46
  S5: So I just want you right now, wherever you are,
• 13:49
  S5: to get it. I'm going to send you this intro
• 13:52
  S5: to the book free. No charge at all. Super. How
• 13:55
  S5: did they get it? And then at the bottom of it,
• 13:57
  S5: it's got two links there, right, sister?
• 13:59
  S4: Absolutely. Right. For that November 14th date. So the word
• 14:03
  S4: to text is intro. The word is intro INTRO. Text
• 14:08
  S4: that to 805 557898. You will get the intro to
• 14:13
  S4: Carl's book plus the links to register. Intro is the
• 14:17
  S4: word to text 805 557898.
• 14:23
  S5: Yeah, two links at the bottom of this PDF and
• 14:26
  S5: I just checked them out. They're hot, they're ready to go.
• 14:29
  S5: And if you go down after you read the intro,
• 14:33
  S5: you'll see a conference link and I'm fired up about this.
• 14:36
  S5: Moody publishers is helping me with this. This is a
• 14:39
  S5: big deal. It's going to be live in Rolling Meadows,
• 14:41
  S5: so if you are anywhere within striking distance of Rolling Meadows, Illinois,
• 14:47
  S5: it's going to be at our new campus there for
• 14:49
  S5: 180 Chicago, and we're fired up to host you there.
• 14:53
  S5: Would love to meet you. If you're in the boom crew,
• 14:55
  S5: that would be dynamite. And if wherever you are around
• 14:59
  S5: the world, we've got the opportunity for you to register
• 15:01
  S5: there as well. And we would just love to have you.
• 15:06
  S5: And I can't let this message get pulled from my hands.
• 15:11
  S5: It's humbling. I'm seeing more talk of this. Um, it's
• 15:17
  S5: it's a vital topic. So text intro. There's also a
• 15:21
  S5: link to grab a copy of the book. Um, and
• 15:24
  S5: that would, if you want to go further, no obligation
• 15:28
  S5: obviously guys, but I think it's going to whet your
• 15:30
  S5: appetite in a big way. Text intro to 805 557898.
• 15:37
  S5: One word intro to 805 557898. Man, I feel prompted.
• 15:44
  S5: We're going to go to a song here in a moment.
• 15:46
  S5: But Jonathan, would you pray for us right now that
• 15:51
  S5: people won't be wigged out, but that we will actually
• 15:54
  S5: explore what the gospel really means?
• 15:58
  S3: Yeah. God, I thank you for the truth of Your
• 16:02
  S3: word and how it cuts to the heart and convicts
• 16:07
  S3: us of things in ways that we need to turn
• 16:09
  S3: back to you. God, I pray for peaceful conviction, uh,
• 16:15
  S3: in a way that would not scare people and delay
• 16:19
  S3: people from understanding where they're at with you. I pray
• 16:22
  S3: that you would calm their hearts enough to where they
• 16:24
  S3: are able to inspect themselves with you. Yeah, Lord. So
• 16:29
  S3: they can understand where they're at with you. And if
• 16:31
  S3: they are not with you, that they may turn to
• 16:33
  S3: you and experience a real relationship with you. God, I
• 16:37
  S3: pray for all of us. Saved. Uh, in in a
• 16:42
  S3: relationship with you right now, Lord, that we can begin
• 16:45
  S3: to understand this epidemic more so that we can help
• 16:50
  S3: bring people to you, that we can help other people
• 16:53
  S3: understand what the real unstoppable gospel is. And Lord, that
• 16:59
  S3: you would start a revival, uh, through all who are
• 17:04
  S3: ready to take this journey with you.
• 17:05
  S5: Yes, please.
• 17:06
  S3: Lord, in Jesus name we pray these things. Amen. Amen.
• 17:10
  S5: Yeah. Get it. Get the intro to the book. I've
• 17:13
  S5: got it for you in a PDF. And, uh, take
• 17:16
  S5: some time to read that. At the bottom is a
• 17:18
  S5: link for the conference on November 14th and a link
• 17:21
  S5: for the book as well. But man, I'm, I'm really
• 17:24
  S5: fired up about this. We have 44 people that myself
• 17:29
  S5: and Laurie, my assistant, have actually, Laurie is the one
• 17:32
  S5: that enlisted him for praying about this for the next
• 17:35
  S5: few months, that this message will go strong. So text
• 17:40
  S5: intro to 805 557898, one word intro INTRO to 805 557898.
• 17:52
  S1: She was trying to earn her way to God, but
• 17:55
  S1: God showed her she didn't have to. Allie is in
• 17:58
  S1: the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
• 18:02
  S5: Well, you know, one of the things that we're going
• 18:03
  S5: to do at this conference is we are going to
• 18:05
  S5: have a tool to put loved ones first names into
• 18:09
  S5: a large prayer pool. How cool is that going to be?
• 18:12
  S6: Well that's great.
• 18:13
  S5: Yeah, we've got something super creative that Drew Dickinson is
• 18:17
  S5: working on for me. That's going to be epic. Um,
• 18:21
  S5: and this isn't just going to be local. This is
• 18:23
  S5: going to be global. An opportunity to get your loved
• 18:27
  S5: one's name before the eyes of God willing tens of
• 18:31
  S5: thousands of people to get prayers going up for it.
• 18:33
  S5: It's going to be. That's just one aspect of the
• 18:35
  S5: conference that's going to be happening November 14th, and we're
• 18:39
  S5: going to be hosting you at the Rolling Meadows campus
• 18:42
  S5: of 180 Chicago. It's our new campus. So if you're
• 18:45
  S5: within striking distance, great. But you don't have to be there.
• 18:47
  S5: You can be wherever you are in this world. Yep.
• 18:50
  S5: Turks and Caicos, Canada. Yep. Cleveland. Yep. Florida. Yep. Indy.
• 18:55
  S5: All across the United States and beyond. So text the
• 18:59
  S5: word intro. You get a free PDF here. There's no
• 19:03
  S5: charge for this. I'm going to shoot you the intro
• 19:05
  S5: to the book. I think this is going to do
• 19:08
  S5: something deep within you. I really believe that. Text intro
• 19:11
  S5: to 805, five, five, 78, 98. And at the bottom
• 19:15
  S5: there's two links, right?
• 19:16
  S4: Super day actually, yes, actually there is the two links
• 19:20
  S4: with the intro as well. I could talk this morning,
• 19:22
  S4: but yeah, all this for you. Simply just text that
• 19:25
  S4: word intro and all that comes to you. Pardon me.
• 19:28
  S4: It's intro to 805 557898 805 557898. Just text that word. Intro.
• 19:38
  S5: Got a great question here. Somebody said, Pastor Carl, how
• 19:40
  S5: may I lead my wife to the honest truth of
• 19:43
  S5: the gospel? That is one of the coolest things about
• 19:47
  S5: this conference, the seven surprising ways God Saves those You love.
• 19:52
  S5: It is right from the Word of God. It is
• 19:54
  S5: bedrock truth that's going to give you massive hope. Uh,
• 19:59
  S5: and I'm going to sprinkle those after this conference throughout
• 20:02
  S5: our show from time to time, it's hard to sit
• 20:05
  S5: down here and crack this open for an hour or
• 20:08
  S5: 45 minutes, but we're going to have that for you
• 20:11
  S5: because this, this is a reality. Here's a guy that's
• 20:14
  S5: got a wife that does not know Jesus personally, and
• 20:17
  S5: he's wondering, what can we do? And, and God's got
• 20:20
  S5: answers for that. So grab the link. Intro to 805 557898.
• 20:26
  S5: Coming up here, we got time really quickly. A couple
• 20:29
  S5: of you want you to call in. You were like
• 20:33
  S5: Jonathan or myself or super or Ali. You were in church,
• 20:36
  S5: but you were not in Christ. You professed Christ, but
• 20:43
  S5: you did not possess Christ. That's R.C. Sproul. It's real.
• 20:48
  S5: It's an epidemic. Give us a call 805 557898 if
• 20:53
  S5: that's your story. You thought you were saved and then
• 20:56
  S5: you realized I was not. Give us a quick call,
• 21:00
  S5: 805 557898.
• 21:05
  S1: Breaking chains and running free. You're listening to Carl and crew.
• 21:10
  S5: I have been crucified with Christ. Think about those words.
• 21:15
  S5: It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives
• 21:19
  S5: in me and the life I now live in the flesh.
• 21:21
  S5: I live by faith in the Son of God. There's
• 21:24
  S5: a new authority, a new allegiance, a new passion. This
• 21:28
  S5: is not about raising a hand. Can God save you
• 21:31
  S5: in that moment? Yes. Can you be deceived into thinking
• 21:35
  S5: you possess something you don't have? Yes. It's an epidemic. Yeah,
• 21:39
  S5: it's a crisis, man. But you were saved. You were transformed.
• 21:43
  S5: Getting your stories here quickly. You thought you were born again.
• 21:47
  S5: You thought you were standing with God, but you weren't.
• 21:50
  S5: Patrick in Cleveland, Ohio. Thanks for calling in. What's your story, Patrick?
• 21:55
  S7: Good morning, Carl and everybody. My story is this. I
• 21:58
  S7: was immersed in Catholicism, and I recall vividly learning the
• 22:02
  S7: story about the wise man who built his house upon
• 22:06
  S7: the rock, and the foolish one who built his house
• 22:08
  S7: upon the sand. And so I thought, you know, I
• 22:12
  S7: understand this. And I lived a couple of decades of
• 22:16
  S7: my life what seemed like an upward, righteous way, and
• 22:22
  S7: I had no Christ. None at all. No element of
• 22:25
  S7: Christ was in my being. It wasn't until I encountered
• 22:29
  S7: Christ that things changed, and then I was able to
• 22:33
  S7: gain some something solid.
• 22:36
  S5: Yea, this we hear over and over again. And just
• 22:39
  S5: to be fair here guys, you can be in an
• 22:42
  S5: evangelical church, Baptist.
• 22:43
  S6: Church.
• 22:44
  S5: Any kind of church, any brand of church out there.
• 22:47
  S5: But Patrick, when you became new in Jesus, the old
• 22:52
  S5: Patrick died, right? My man.
• 22:55
  S7: That's correct.
• 22:56
  S5: Yeah.
• 22:57
  S7: That is that is correct.
• 22:59
  S5: Yeah, yeah. And it's a radical work. Thank you, Patrick,
• 23:02
  S5: for calling in. It's a radical, transforming thing. If you're
• 23:06
  S5: just joining us, we're talking about a conference and a
• 23:11
  S5: tool and a free resource that we're giving you this morning.
• 23:16
  S5: The conference is going to be November 14th. We're going
• 23:19
  S5: to be hosting this in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. It's our
• 23:21
  S5: new campus for one eighth of Chicago, for which Young Thunder.
• 23:24
  S6: Yeah.
• 23:26
  S5: You're part of the the team man.
• 23:28
  S3: I'm a member and I get to I get to serve.
• 23:31
  S3: And it's an excellent thing. My wife and I are
• 23:34
  S3: so excited to be there and we really see God moving.
• 23:36
  S3: I'm excited for this conference because I really think that
• 23:38
  S3: this is going to be a blessing to all who
• 23:41
  S3: are involved. This is something we need to be so
• 23:44
  S3: aware about, saved or not. If we if we're not saved,
• 23:46
  S3: we need to go so that we can understand the
• 23:48
  S3: full gospel and turn to Jesus. If we are saved,
• 23:50
  S3: we need to go so that we can really understand
• 23:53
  S3: how to bring people into the fold of the real,
• 23:56
  S3: unstoppable gospel.
• 23:57
  S5: Yeah, give him a fair shot at Christ. Yeah. Nathaniel.
• 24:01
  S5: First time caller, Cleveland, man. Give us your story. We
• 24:03
  S5: just got a second here, but. Go, bro.
• 24:06
  S8: Okay. Um, yes. I grew up being a preacher's kid, and, um,
• 24:10
  S8: I profess Christ, but I never possessed him as a
• 24:14
  S8: young kid and even as a teenager growing up. Growing up,
• 24:18
  S8: being a preacher's kid knew about Jesus all my life,
• 24:21
  S8: but I never had a personal relationship with him until
• 24:24
  S8: I turned 21. And when I truly became born again
• 24:27
  S8: in June of 1977. I'm 71 years old now. The
• 24:32
  S8: Lord led me and my best friend who I was
• 24:34
  S8: in the world. We found Jesus Christ in this Pentecostal
• 24:36
  S8: church where his evangelist, the Lord, let us. Right in
• 24:39
  S8: the middle of that Sunday during the week. It was
• 24:42
  S8: an evangelist there, and they had a revival.
• 24:46
  S5: And he gave the gospel.
• 24:48
  S8: Yeah, he I've heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. I mean,
• 24:51
  S8: I've heard of Jesus all of my life. But disadvantages
• 24:55
  S8: talked about Jesus in a way about the born again experience.
• 24:58
  S8: I cried, I remember going up to the altar and
• 25:00
  S8: giving my heart and life to Jesus Christ. Really professing it.
• 25:03
  S8: And when I did that, uh, that first Corinthians 517,
• 25:07
  S8: I became a new creature in Christ. I accept him
• 25:09
  S8: as my Lord and Savior. And I'm, like I said,
• 25:12
  S8: I was 21. I'm 71 now, and I've been following
• 25:14
  S8: the Lord ever since. Yeah. Thank God that I have
• 25:16
  S8: a personal relationship with them.
• 25:17
  S5: Whoo! Way to go, Nathaniel. You just spiked that. That's
• 25:21
  S5: a great call, man. That's a great call. I'm going
• 25:24
  S5: to get one more in here. This just proves this
• 25:28
  S5: hallucination of salvation that people can be under. It's epidemic, guys,
• 25:33
  S5: it's a crisis. Churches are good. Churches are loaded with
• 25:37
  S5: people like this. Uh, Jeff. Chatsworth, Georgia. Just got a
• 25:41
  S5: second here, bro. What do you got?
• 25:44
  S9: Good morning. When I was in my late teens, I
• 25:47
  S9: was invited to go to church with a neighbor. And, uh,
• 25:51
  S9: during the service, I made a walk down the aisle
• 25:56
  S9: and made a profession of faith. I had a head knowledge,
• 26:00
  S9: not a heart knowledge. And between heaven and hell, I
• 26:04
  S9: made the choice that, yeah, I want to go to heaven. Yeah,
• 26:07
  S9: but I never got mentored after that. didn't go to
• 26:11
  S9: church after that. And ten years later, in a Sunday
• 26:15
  S9: night service, the Holy Spirit started speaking to me. And
• 26:19
  S9: God in His graciousness, revealed to me that there was
• 26:22
  S9: not a life change. From that point. I walked the
• 26:26
  S9: aisle to where I was then. I was even serving
• 26:30
  S9: in church at that point. Yeah, but God, in his graciousness,
• 26:36
  S9: revealed to me his son, and I grasped the relationship
• 26:42
  S9: that he wanted to have with me. And I accepted
• 26:45
  S9: Christ not only as a way out of hell, but
• 26:50
  S9: in a relationship with him. And I praise the Lord.
• 26:55
  S5: That's it, Jeff. That's it. And Jeff, you get it, man.
• 27:01
  S5: And how many people are coming to church serving like
• 27:04
  S5: he did?
• 27:05
  S6: Mhm.
• 27:06
  S5: Plugged in doing this, doing that. Is it possible? Yes.
• 27:10
  S5: Matthew seven says, many will say on that day, Lord, Lord,
• 27:12
  S5: and he's going to say, I never knew you.
• 27:14
  S6: Yeah.
• 27:14
  S5: And they did mighty works. They were religiously active in
• 27:18
  S5: Jesus name.
• 27:19
  S3: Many means many. I mean, there's no there's no way
• 27:23
  S3: around it. I think that, you know, we would probably
• 27:26
  S3: less so now that we're I think we're talking about
• 27:28
  S3: it more, but I think we'd be pretty shocked to
• 27:31
  S3: see the amount of people that are included in the
• 27:33
  S3: word many.
• 27:34
  S6: Yeah.
• 27:36
  S5: Father, I pray in Jesus name that you will create
• 27:41
  S5: a holy awakening across our nation in the world. Lord,
• 27:47
  S5: we we live in such uncertain times, but I thank
• 27:50
  S5: you that you are the Rock. I thank you when
• 27:52
  S5: I get up every morning. I know my Jesus lives
• 27:56
  S5: and I know that he lives in me and I
• 27:58
  S5: want that for so many more. Oh God, have your way.
• 28:02
  S5: We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
• 28:06
  S1: It's Carl and Crew on Moody Radio.
• 28:09
  S10: Well, when I heard that the first part of his
• 28:11
  S10: testimony involved hearing God's call to salvation while working in
• 28:16
  S10: a cheese factory. As a good journalist, I said, this
• 28:20
  S10: is something I have to hear more about. Our special guest,
• 28:22
  S10: Nick Ripken. He's an American author, speaker, veteran missionary, leading
• 28:27
  S10: expert on the persecuted church. Before we get to all
• 28:30
  S10: of that, a cheese factory, please tell me more.
• 28:33
  S11: My dad came and got me off the baseball field
• 28:37
  S11: and said, I've got good news and bad news. I said,
• 28:39
  S11: what's the good news? He said, the job you applied
• 28:43
  S11: for with Kraft Foods Cheese Factory, you got the job.
• 28:46
  S11: I said, what's the bad news? He said, you start tonight.
• 28:49
  S11: And I said, dad, I have 11 weeks of high
• 28:51
  S11: school left. He said, don't be foolish, I know that.
• 28:54
  S11: But do you want to go to college? I say, yes,
• 28:56
  S11: and so I started working that night from 7:00 to
• 28:59
  S11: 330 in the morning, and I never missed a day
• 29:02
  S11: of school. And my teachers were very gracious to me
• 29:05
  S11: because they knew how hard I was working, and I'm
• 29:08
  S11: over in a corner by myself at midnight, putting lids
• 29:12
  S11: on £500 barrels of cheese and put them in a
• 29:15
  S11: vacuum chamber, and the nearest person was probably a football
• 29:19
  S11: field away and clear as as I'm hearing you, someone said, uh, Nick,
• 29:25
  S11: are you tired of running? Are you ready to follow me?
• 29:28
  S11: And and my heart stopped as I turned around to
• 29:31
  S11: see who had snuck up on me and no one,
• 29:34
  S11: which made me more nervous. And that happened again, and
• 29:38
  S11: I turned quickly. No one's there. The third time it
• 29:42
  S11: just washed all over me that this was the voice
• 29:44
  S11: of God.
• 29:45
  S6: Wow.
• 29:46
  S11: You know, my mom had seven kids, so she loved
• 29:48
  S11: Vacation Bible school, and she took us to everyone around.
• 29:52
  S10: Sure.
• 29:53
  S11: And so all of these years, I had different pictures
• 29:56
  S11: of Bible stories and stories of Jesus and all that
• 30:00
  S11: coalesced as I got on my knees in that factory
• 30:03
  S11: and gave my life to Christ in that factory. Everything
• 30:07
  S11: changed in an instant. Wow. And just an instant, I
• 30:12
  S11: cancelled my scholarship to University of Kentucky to study veterinary science.
• 30:17
  S11: The first two pastors I went to and told them
• 30:19
  S11: what had happened to me. They told me I was
• 30:22
  S11: not a Christian because God doesn't speak to people directly
• 30:25
  S11: like that anymore. He only speaks to them through the
• 30:28
  S11: preaching of the word in the church. But I knew
• 30:31
  S11: what had happened to me, and I found a young
• 30:33
  S11: pastor that began to mentor me. And that was the
• 30:36
  S11: start of my journey. I read Matthew in one setting.
• 30:41
  S11: I read Genesis in one setting. And when Jesus had
• 30:44
  S11: gone all the world, I thought, hey, you mean I
• 30:47
  S11: can get out of rural Kentucky? And so from that
• 30:50
  S11: moment of reading, all I've wanted to do is go
• 30:53
  S11: to the nations. I met Ruth my sophomore year and
• 30:58
  S11: found out we're both PKS. She's a pastor's kid and
• 31:02
  S11: I'm a Pagan's kid, and so I know what it's
• 31:06
  S11: like to be terribly lost.
• 31:09
  S10: Yeah.
• 31:10
  S11: And she knows what to do once you find Jesus.
• 31:13
  S11: So we've made a great match.
• 31:14
  S10: Oh that's wonderful. Nik Ripken with us right now. Now,
• 31:17
  S10: you have lived and served in Malawi, South Africa, Kenya, Somali, Germany, Ethiopia, Jordan.
• 31:24
  S10: You visited over 85 countries. Which place impacted you most?
• 31:30
  S10: I mean, every place. I'm sure you took some of
• 31:33
  S10: it with you, but in terms of the defining moment
• 31:36
  S10: of what you view at your call as a missionary,
• 31:39
  S10: the call to the church, is there a place that
• 31:42
  S10: stands out to you?
• 31:43
  S11: Probably two one in the Soviet Union with the guy
• 31:48
  S11: that's featured in our first book. And in the documentary,
• 31:52
  S11: it was almost seven hours sitting at his feet. And
• 31:56
  S11: in the midst of that, I remember putting my head
• 31:59
  S11: in my hands, listening to his biblical centered story and saying,
• 32:06
  S11: O Lord, if this man represents normal Christianity, do I
• 32:10
  S11: even begin to know Jesus? It was just life changing.
• 32:14
  S11: And Dimitri, in the Soviet Union. Then there was a
• 32:18
  S11: guy in Central Asia that people told me I needed
• 32:22
  S11: to talk to. And for three years I couldn't find him.
• 32:24
  S11: And this is how the interviews work. No one had
• 32:27
  S11: ever done this before. And so he told me to
• 32:29
  S11: fly to a certain country. I did, and to call
• 32:32
  S11: a certain number. And I called the number, told me
• 32:34
  S11: to go to another city. So I flew to that city.
• 32:37
  S11: And then when I got to that city, I called
• 32:39
  S11: a different number and he sent me to another city.
• 32:41
  S11: When I got to that city, he said, take a
• 32:43
  S11: taxi to this part of this city and go to
• 32:47
  S11: this building. When the taxi leaves, I'll tell you where
• 32:49
  S11: to come and have me walk up seven floors, open
• 32:53
  S11: up a door, light bulb hanging in my face, and
• 32:56
  S11: I stood there as I heard him his story for
• 32:59
  S11: over four hours. Wow. And this was a man that
• 33:02
  S11: was a leader when the Soviet Union was in Afghanistan.
• 33:08
  S11: But he had killed by his own hands over 100 people.
• 33:13
  S11: And finally he dreamed. And there was this man clothed
• 33:16
  S11: in white with scars in his head, his side, his hands,
• 33:20
  S11: his feet, and saying in his language, I'm Jesus Messiah.
• 33:24
  S11: You find me. I'll take the blood off. And he
• 33:27
  S11: found a Bible in one country and began to put
• 33:29
  S11: pieces together. And the moment he gave his life to Jesus,
• 33:33
  S11: he became one of the greatest evangelists I've ever met.
• 33:37
  S11: They had captured him. They had broken his bones and
• 33:40
  S11: put him in jail. They left him in freezing places.
• 33:43
  S11: And yet this man was the toughest man I ever met.
• 33:48
  S11: And yet his heart was so tender for the lostness
• 33:51
  S11: of his people. It was like he took everything I'd
• 33:55
  S11: ever learned about Jesus and put it in 2 to
• 33:58
  S11: 4 hours. And it just changed the trajectory of my life.
• 34:02
  S10: Mhm. So you spent you spent a lot of time,
• 34:05
  S10: you and your wife really gathering stories from different missionaries
• 34:09
  S10: around the world. What have you learned about about suffering
• 34:14
  S10: and persecution that has shaped you or changed you?
• 34:20
  S11: I would guess 99.9% of all the interviews I did.
• 34:24
  S11: They had never met anybody like me. And the process
• 34:27
  S11: of getting to them was each time was just a
• 34:31
  S11: Holy Spirit thing. Whether I was getting passed along from house,
• 34:34
  S11: church to house church in China or other ground places.
• 34:38
  S11: But there are just some things about them. Believers in persecution.
• 34:43
  S11: Even if they were highly literate, they'd committed about 70%
• 34:48
  S11: of God's Word to memory, and they have written their
• 34:52
  S11: own songs. One of the most powerful things I learned
• 34:55
  S11: from them is that the greatest gift we can give
• 34:59
  S11: God is singing his words back to him and watching
• 35:03
  S11: the way they worship. Listen. On the border between China
• 35:07
  S11: and another country that I won't mention. I watch we're
• 35:10
  S11: a family of four worship and they spoke the story
• 35:14
  S11: of the Bible softly. And when they went to sing,
• 35:17
  S11: they had their knees touching each other and they would
• 35:21
  S11: move their mouths with no sound coming out. Because if
• 35:24
  S11: a neighborhood heard it through a wall or out a
• 35:27
  S11: window and turned them in, three generations of their family
• 35:31
  S11: would be in prison that night or in a labor camp.
• 35:33
  S11: And they, they have never come out. And just being
• 35:36
  S11: with them as they worship, watching them, how they witness
• 35:40
  S11: here was my dilemma. Evil doesn't care. You can say
• 35:43
  S11: that the Bible is inerrant. It's infallible. It's the Word
• 35:47
  S11: of God. It's authoritative. It is a clear record of
• 35:50
  S11: what God used to do. And as long as you
• 35:53
  S11: put God in his actions in past tense, and that's
• 35:56
  S11: what I. How I was told to study the Bible.
• 35:59
  S11: But believers look at the Bible as a present, active,
• 36:03
  S11: tense roadmap. And when you put the Bible in present
• 36:07
  S11: tense and you understand that everything that God has done.
• 36:11
  S11: God is still doing. It changes everything.
• 36:14
  S10: Nick. The nature of the ministry that you do. Were
• 36:16
  S10: you a pastor or were you a lay leader? What
• 36:20
  S10: was your role on the mission field?
• 36:23
  S11: Well, if you grow up in rural Kentucky and God
• 36:26
  S11: has captured your life, the only one have one place
• 36:28
  S11: to put you. And that's in the pastorate. Paul says
• 36:31
  S11: about Jesus. And to some in Ephesians. Apostle, church planter, evangelist,
• 36:36
  S11: church planter. Pastor, teacher. Our culture gets an A plus
• 36:40
  S11: for pastor, teacher, and a D minus for church planting
• 36:43
  S11: and evangelism. And so what I found early on is
• 36:47
  S11: that God had made me to tell people about Christ.
• 36:51
  S11: And Jesus said, I'm sending you a sheep among wolves.
• 36:54
  S11: But in my bachelor's, master's, and doctorate, every class I
• 36:58
  S11: had trained me to be sheep among sheep. And that
• 37:02
  S11: is one of the biggest problems with Western Christianity today.
• 37:05
  S11: It doesn't even teach you how to go to your neighbors,
• 37:08
  S11: let alone how to go to the ends of the earth.
• 37:10
  S11: But my wife and I, we went with a five
• 37:13
  S11: year old and a three year old to the mission field.
• 37:17
  S11: We did traditional mission work in Malawi and South Africa.
• 37:22
  S11: In 1991, we moved to Kenya to start working in
• 37:25
  S11: the Somali Civil War. And again, that changed everything. There
• 37:28
  S11: was 150 believers there when I first made my first
• 37:32
  S11: journey into Somalia. By the time we got kicked out,
• 37:36
  S11: all but four of those believers had been killed. Being
• 37:39
  S11: killed for who Jesus is is far different from being
• 37:44
  S11: killed for who Nick is. And so we try to
• 37:47
  S11: find help for the work in Somalia and we could
• 37:50
  S11: not find it anywhere. And that's when people at Moody
• 37:53
  S11: Radio and Moody Ministries started praying as partners with us
• 37:57
  S11: in a deep, deep way. And so God just said, listen,
• 38:01
  S11: there's nowhere in the West. And he gave my wife
• 38:04
  S11: and I a vision to go to believers in persecution
• 38:08
  S11: and to sit at their feet and say, listen, we
• 38:11
  S11: don't know how to be sheep among wolves, and we
• 38:14
  S11: don't know how to love them the way that Jesus
• 38:17
  S11: loved them. And that way we probably sit and listen
• 38:20
  S11: to them 6 to 8000 hours for them to train
• 38:24
  S11: us in how to work in the hardest places on
• 38:27
  S11: the planet.
• 38:28
  S10: Nick, you know the person who's listening right now, you,
• 38:32
  S10: you can feel the weight of, of, of your words.
• 38:34
  S10: And you mentioned, you know, feeling early on when you
• 38:37
  S10: talked to, I believe it was the, the believer in
• 38:41
  S10: the Soviet Union and feeling like, do I even have
• 38:44
  S10: a faith compared to this guy. And it's. And we
• 38:48
  S10: don't want to compare our faith to others in that
• 38:50
  S10: sense where we feel somehow condemned because God has placed
• 38:54
  S10: us here as opposed to somewhere else. What's the takeaway
• 38:57
  S10: for the person listening? Because we want to live out
• 39:00
  S10: faithfully the call to the Great Commission, wherever that is,
• 39:04
  S10: whether that's in the Soviet, you know, former Soviet Union
• 39:07
  S10: or someplace in the Middle East or whether it's downtown Chicago.
• 39:11
  S11: Well, the issue is not location, it's obedience. We've been
• 39:15
  S11: throughout the South and throughout the world, for that matter.
• 39:18
  S11: And Jesus says, go to Jerusalem, go to Judea, go
• 39:23
  S11: to Samaria, go to the ends of the world. You're
• 39:25
  S11: going all those places. All of us together. We're going
• 39:28
  S11: to all of those places at the same time. And
• 39:31
  S11: what Nick and Ruth would share with you. The hardest
• 39:33
  S11: place to go on earth is to your Judea. And
• 39:36
  S11: usually Judea for us is the next people group. Probably
• 39:40
  S11: don't have to learn a language. They are a different culture.
• 39:44
  S11: For instance, in Africa, they almost never take the gospel
• 39:49
  S11: to the next tribe, but they're willing to go with
• 39:52
  S11: us and go to India in the same way people
• 39:55
  S11: are wanting to go with Ruth and I to the
• 39:57
  S11: ends of the earth. And they won't cross the street
• 40:00
  S11: to an African American. They won't cross the street to
• 40:02
  S11: their Hindu neighbor. And so usually the hardest place for
• 40:07
  S11: any of us to go is to step out of
• 40:09
  S11: Jerusalem and go to Judea. And I have not been
• 40:12
  S11: as faithful. That's not the right word. I have not
• 40:15
  S11: been as joyful being back in Kentucky as I was, say,
• 40:19
  S11: perhaps in Somalia. So Ruth and I are working very,
• 40:23
  S11: very hard to do the same things in Kentucky that
• 40:26
  S11: we were doing in Somalia, giving people access to the
• 40:30
  S11: kingdom of God, helping people to see that through Nonracial eyes.
• 40:35
  S11: I'm just trying to say, is the biggest hindrance to
• 40:38
  S11: the kingdom of God on the planet is racism. And
• 40:42
  S11: so conquering that in Somalia for most of us would
• 40:46
  S11: be easier than crossing the street to our neighbor.
• 40:50
  S10: Nick, thank you so much for your conversation this morning.
• 40:54
  S10: You've given us a lot to think about. I want
• 40:56
  S10: to send you a link so that you can find
• 40:58
  S10: out more about this faithful missionary, this faithful servant of God.
• 41:02
  S10: Just text RIP to 805 557898. His name is Nick Ripken.
• 41:08
  S10: Just text RIP to 805 557898.
• 41:14
  S1: He was running from God. But God's love brought him home.
• 41:18
  S1: Carl is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on
• 41:21
  S1: Moody Radio.
• 41:23
  S5: One of the things that we're seeing today in our
• 41:25
  S5: culture is that there are a lot of pastors. They
• 41:29
  S5: use that with air quotes that have absolutely abandoned the gospel. Lock,
• 41:35
  S5: stock and barrel. Bringing in doctor Mike with us right now. Mike,
• 41:42
  S5: I witnessed something here just a couple of days ago
• 41:45
  S5: where a pastor, her name is Vicky, stood in the
• 41:48
  S5: pulpit and she was asked a question. What do you
• 41:51
  S5: believe when people say Jesus died for our sins? And
• 41:54
  S5: she said, that's an old line. And that's an old
• 41:58
  S5: line that's been used for hundreds of years. And the
• 42:02
  S5: truth is that Jesus Christ was just an intimidating figure.
• 42:07
  S5: And his whole message was love. It had nothing to
• 42:10
  S5: do with our sins. Now, when I heard that everything
• 42:13
  S5: inside me went off my spidey senses here. This is
• 42:19
  S5: no joke, Mike. We are getting into a day and
• 42:22
  S5: age where self-professed pastors are edging beyond moral relativism. They
• 42:29
  S5: don't even use the Word of God as their guidebook.
• 42:32
  S5: Let's just touch on that for a moment. Do you
• 42:33
  S5: see that springing up more and more?
• 42:36
  S12: Absolutely. We live in a day where people want to
• 42:39
  S12: feel their way through the Christian life. They want to
• 42:42
  S12: feel their way to what they believe is their truth.
• 42:46
  S12: And we've lost, really, a sense of what truth is
• 42:49
  S12: and defining truth. So, you know, that is the problem.
• 42:53
  S12: And then we end up saying whatever we want. We
• 42:55
  S12: pick and choose whatever concepts we want from the Bible,
• 42:59
  S12: and we end up being Vicky and thinking, you know,
• 43:02
  S12: we can ignore the gist of the penal, substitutionary atonement
• 43:08
  S12: of Christ, which is the reason we've been saying that
• 43:10
  S12: for hundreds of years.
• 43:11
  S5: Yeah. So you've got a new workout, and I'm so
• 43:14
  S5: intrigued with this, and I'm so glad for it because
• 43:17
  S5: at the kind of the root of a lot of
• 43:20
  S5: the abandonment of truth, I think is probably a predisposition
• 43:25
  S5: to just follow their own gods down a broad path.
• 43:29
  S5: But there's also seems to be a getting a weak
• 43:31
  S5: in the knees, even in a lot of evangelical churches.
• 43:35
  S5: With regard to the historical, archaeological, prophetic evidence of Scripture
• 43:42
  S5: to help us trust Scripture, which happens to be the
• 43:46
  S5: subtitle of your book. Why is this so vital? There
• 43:49
  S5: had to have been something inside you that said, we've
• 43:52
  S5: got to reclaim some of the anchoring truths of why
• 43:55
  S5: we have the Bible.
• 43:56
  S12: Yeah, absolutely. And I do think the problem of us
• 43:59
  S12: being bombarded with a message from the world that says,
• 44:03
  S12: you can't trust the Bible. The Bible isn't reliable. You know,
• 44:06
  S12: it's just a book that's been rewritten, you know, and
• 44:09
  S12: translated a million times. And it's just man's opinions about God.
• 44:13
  S12: I mean, if you're scrolling through TikTok and Instagram all
• 44:16
  S12: day long, that's most of what you're going to hear. So,
• 44:19
  S12: you know, we've got to get back to what we
• 44:21
  S12: know is true about the reliability and the evidence for
• 44:25
  S12: the Bible. That's why the word evidence is really the
• 44:27
  S12: key word here. We're looking at all the evidence, first
• 44:30
  S12: of all, for truth, for God, for the fact that
• 44:33
  S12: the Bible is God's Word. And we've just got to
• 44:35
  S12: reorient ourselves to that. It's not that it's absent, it's
• 44:38
  S12: just that we're not, uh, we're not bathing in that truth.
• 44:41
  S12: We're not we're not getting ourselves surrounded by those things.
• 44:45
  S5: Give us some core evidences. Just cherry pick a couple.
• 44:48
  S5: You obviously can't cover the whole book that you think
• 44:50
  S5: are like hallmark. This is put an anchor in it.
• 44:54
  S5: This is going to hold you solid here.
• 44:56
  S12: Well, the thing I would say even on my worst
• 44:59
  S12: days when I'm thinking, man, I wish I could just
• 45:02
  S12: do my own thing. I'm living like in Psalm two.
• 45:04
  S12: I just wish I could cast off all restraint and
• 45:07
  S12: be my own God. I mean, all of us at
• 45:09
  S12: some point, uh, would imagine that I get back to
• 45:12
  S12: the fact that, um, you know, there is a book
• 45:16
  S12: that has predictive prophecies in it that is something I
• 45:20
  S12: can't get away from. There's no other book that does
• 45:22
  S12: what the Bible does in predicting the future. And we've
• 45:26
  S12: seen it come true. Right? The book, what's great about
• 45:29
  S12: the Bible, it wasn't written in one person's lifetime, right?
• 45:32
  S12: This started back in 1445 B.C., and it goes all
• 45:36
  S12: the way through the first century A.D. and we have
• 45:38
  S12: plenty of time for these prophecies to be written back
• 45:41
  S12: in Moses's day, all the way through Isaiah's day, all
• 45:44
  S12: the way to Malachi's day, all the way through the apostles.
• 45:47
  S12: And we see all of these things coming true. I mean,
• 45:50
  S12: the gist of of them about the Messiah himself. Yes.
• 45:54
  S12: And we think, okay, what what book can do that
• 45:56
  S12: even in Isaiah, right? Isaiah is saying, hey, God says
• 45:59
  S12: through Isaiah, give me your your gods and and tell
• 46:03
  S12: me their prophecies and let me fear them. But there
• 46:06
  S12: are no others. And you can't find a holy book
• 46:09
  S12: that does this. I mean, you can't find any Buddhist work,
• 46:11
  S12: any Hindu work, any Islamic work that does what the
• 46:15
  S12: Bible does. So in even in my most skeptical moment,
• 46:18
  S12: I can't get away from the fact that the Bible
• 46:21
  S12: has God's fingerprints all over it, not to mention archaeology,
• 46:24
  S12: manuscript evidence, the reliability of everything that we have in
• 46:27
  S12: terms of the lineage of going from the original writings
• 46:31
  S12: all the way to the one translation from Hebrew, Aramaic
• 46:35
  S12: and Greek into the English text that I'm holding in
• 46:38
  S12: my hands today. This is an unbroken chain that gives
• 46:42
  S12: us this 99.9% pure text. No matter what Bart Erdmann
• 46:46
  S12: says or some guy on TikTok says. Yes, we have
• 46:49
  S12: a book that we can rely on.
• 46:50
  S5: Yeah. Bart Erdmann, that's a that's a name. The book
• 46:54
  S5: boom crew. Listen to me. It's called The Bible, a
• 46:57
  S5: book like no other historical, archaeological, and prophetic evidence for
• 47:03
  S5: trusting Scripture is your hope that the skeptic gets convinced,
• 47:10
  S5: or that the convince gets strengthened, or a little bit
• 47:13
  S5: of both. Mike.
• 47:14
  S12: Yeah, it's a lot of both. I want both to
• 47:17
  S12: be true. I mean, the first box I got before
• 47:20
  S12: it ever got went public, I took the first one
• 47:23
  S12: and I went to my next door neighbor's house and
• 47:25
  S12: I gave it to my non-Christian next door neighbor, just
• 47:28
  S12: because I know he's willing to read the books that
• 47:31
  S12: I write. I mean, he's a skeptic. He's a non-Christian,
• 47:34
  S12: but he's willing to read what I write because he knows,
• 47:36
  S12: you know, I'm a pastor. I'm a paid religious guy,
• 47:39
  S12: and he likes me. We talk over, you know, the
• 47:41
  S12: trash cans. And so I wanted him to get it.
• 47:44
  S12: And I wanted him to read this because I know
• 47:45
  S12: this is the critical issue, is the Bible God's Word.
• 47:49
  S12: And if we can get to that, then we can
• 47:51
  S12: reason our way to biblical Christianity, and then he can
• 47:54
  S12: be in church with me singing worship songs and and
• 47:57
  S12: studying God's Word. So I want it to get in
• 47:59
  S12: the hands of non-Christians. But I just met with crew yesterday,
• 48:04
  S12: and they ordered thousands of them to get in the
• 48:06
  S12: hands of their leaders on the campuses of colleges and universities,
• 48:11
  S12: because they need to train their leaders to be able
• 48:13
  S12: to defend the truthfulness of God's Word. So this is
• 48:16
  S12: an important book, and I've even heard my publisher say,
• 48:19
  S12: Barnes and Noble has even ordered some, and I would
• 48:22
  S12: love to see that kind of edge out some of
• 48:23
  S12: the the tripe that's on the in the religious sections
• 48:26
  S12: of Barnes and Noble, so people can get back to
• 48:29
  S12: the Word of God. Right? Let's study this book. And
• 48:32
  S12: for all the people that say, well, what about all
• 48:34
  S12: these other religious books? I start the book by saying,
• 48:36
  S12: this is the number one best selling book of all time.
• 48:40
  S12: Before you start looking at other religions, let's just make
• 48:43
  S12: sure you fully investigate this book before you move on
• 48:47
  S12: to the next religious book. Let's start with this one.
• 48:49
  S12: This one has the metrics that should say, let's make
• 48:53
  S12: sure before we dismiss biblical Christianity. Let's start with that.
• 48:56
  S12: So I think any skeptic should begin with Christianity. Don't
• 49:00
  S12: stop saying, well, if you're born in a Buddhist country
• 49:02
  S12: or if you're born in India, right? This is the
• 49:04
  S12: number one book that has ever been written, and we
• 49:07
  S12: need to investigate it. And every skeptic should investigate it.
• 49:10
  S12: And every Christian should read a book to make sure
• 49:13
  S12: they're able to discuss it on the subway, on the bus,
• 49:15
  S12: as they walk their dog through the park. We should
• 49:17
  S12: be able to discuss this intelligently.
• 49:20
  S6: Amen.
• 49:20
  S5: My guest right now, doctor Mike Faberes, and he's written
• 49:25
  S5: this book, The Bible, a book like no other historical, archaeological,
• 49:29
  S5: and prophetic evidence for trusting Scripture. You know, as a
• 49:32
  S5: pastor and radio host, my hope constantly is that God
• 49:37
  S5: will give us things that God, by His Spirit, will
• 49:40
  S5: use to fuel the fires of awakening. Right? To keep
• 49:43
  S5: that going. How critical is good biblical evidence, historical, archaeological,
• 49:49
  S5: prophetic in fueling that fire of lordship, of making the
• 49:55
  S5: follower of Christ more brisk in their steps.
• 49:58
  S12: We all think of the line of Thomas my Lord
• 50:00
  S12: and my God, right? When you really are convinced which
• 50:05
  S12: Thomas was when he saw the resurrected Christ. His mind
• 50:09
  S12: was convinced he was ready to bow before Christ as
• 50:13
  S12: his Lord and his God. Right? I I'm ready to
• 50:16
  S12: do whatever Christ would have me do. Or go back
• 50:18
  S12: to Isaiah chapter six, right when we're convinced and we
• 50:21
  S12: see the Lord high and exalted, and we know there
• 50:23
  S12: is no other God. I'm not him and I should
• 50:26
  S12: do whatever he says. Then I'm willing to say, hey,
• 50:28
  S12: here am I. Send me. But I gotta have some
• 50:31
  S12: intellectual convincing. And I don't want dishonest questions. I want
• 50:35
  S12: honest questions. And I think everyone has the right to
• 50:39
  S12: investigate the truth. You know, Jesus doesn't condemn Thomas, right? No.
• 50:44
  S12: Even though, you know, we should believe that. Uh, the
• 50:47
  S12: apostles that he spent three and a half years with,
• 50:49
  S12: he should have believed their testimony. Nevertheless, he really capitulates
• 50:53
  S12: to his his interest and gives him the evidence that
• 50:55
  S12: he needs. And that's why the word evidence throughout this
• 50:58
  S12: book and every 18 chapters, I use the word evidence
• 51:01
  S12: in this book. We need the evidence about all the
• 51:04
  S12: things people are asking, like the canon. Why are these
• 51:07
  S12: 66 books really the books of the Bible? And why not,
• 51:10
  S12: you know, why don't we have 72 or 80 8
• 51:13
  S12: or 115? So we deal with everything that I think
• 51:16
  S12: the skeptic is going to ask. We need to think
• 51:18
  S12: through it so that we can be confident. The Bible
• 51:20
  S12: we have today is God's Word. And when we're confident,
• 51:23
  S12: then we're ready to follow Jesus Christ, even when it's hard.
• 51:26
  S5: Man, you got me fired up here because I've got
• 51:28
  S5: a dear friend who, uh, read a two page, uh,
• 51:31
  S5: piece out of the Atlantic and then concluded, well, the
• 51:35
  S5: canon is built on shaky soil, so I can't even
• 51:39
  S5: trust it. So I appreciate that. You know, going back
• 51:41
  S5: to Thomas, he gets a bad rap. Don't be a
• 51:45
  S5: doubting Thomas. I mean, we heard that as a kid
• 51:47
  S5: in Sunday school. Uh, my contention is Thomas spoke up
• 51:52
  S5: what everyone else was thinking, and I would venture to
• 51:55
  S5: say 90% of people that you're speaking to right now,
• 51:59
  S5: which could be about 100, 150,000 people. My guess is 90%
• 52:05
  S5: of us have some questions that we still need answered.
• 52:09
  S5: What do you think?
• 52:10
  S12: Absolutely. I mean, we were of the generation that would say,
• 52:14
  S12: I got questions and someone would hand us a book
• 52:16
  S12: by Francis Schaeffer. You know, then it was Josh McDowell.
• 52:19
  S12: And you're right, it's Lee Strobel or whatever. And there
• 52:22
  S12: are books that are key to get us to think
• 52:25
  S12: about the evidence so that we can have our honest
• 52:28
  S12: intellectual questions answered. And I think that is important. And
• 52:33
  S12: the problem is when we shift into no, just feel
• 52:35
  S12: it in your heart. You don't need to think. You
• 52:37
  S12: just need to feel. The problem is that we think
• 52:40
  S12: there are no answers. And I think we're living in
• 52:42
  S12: that day. But we got to get back to thinking about,
• 52:45
  S12: is there really evidence for the things that we say
• 52:48
  S12: we believe? And that's what this book is really all about.
• 52:51
  S5: Yeah. Boom. Crew, I need you to listen to me.
• 52:54
  S5: I don't do this very often here, but I'm going
• 52:57
  S5: to put a stake in the ground and say this.
• 53:01
  S5: Sometimes the devotionals you're reading need to be buttressed by
• 53:06
  S5: the underlying truth of the scriptures that are being utilized
• 53:10
  S5: in that devotional. Sometimes you may feel a little weak
• 53:15
  S5: in the knees with regard to your witness, because you've
• 53:18
  S5: got some undealt with question marks in your own mind,
• 53:21
  S5: and that's okay. But I want you to get those
• 53:24
  S5: resolved right now. Boom crew. I want to appeal to
• 53:29
  S5: you beyond a devotional, and I know you've probably got
• 53:32
  S5: a good one. That's great. And an open Bible is dynamite.
• 53:36
  S5: But the Bible, a book like no other historical, archaeological,
• 53:40
  S5: and prophetic evidence for trusting Scripture. I believe this holds
• 53:45
  S5: the potential to put fuel in your belly and actually
• 53:49
  S5: robustness to your reading of Scripture like nothing else in
• 53:53
  S5: this season. I want you to get a copy. And
• 53:56
  S5: as we're moving toward Christmas here, get a few and
• 53:59
  S5: give them away. The key word is evidence. Text evidence
• 54:03
  S5: to 805 557898, one word evidence to 805 557898. And
• 54:13
  S5: thank you, Mike, for being in here this morning. This
• 54:16
  S5: is compelling, my friend.