How to Partner with God in Prayer and Decluttering, Update on Texas Floods

Today, on Karl and Crew, we continued with our weekly theme of “Killing Sin” with a discussion about how to partner with God in daily struggles, such as reviving our prayer life and decluttering. Dr. Bill (William) Thrasher joined us to discuss how to intentionally involve God in eradicating sin from our lives through prayer in the Spirit. Dr. Thrasher has served on the Moody Bible Institute faculty since 1980 and is currently the Lead Professor in the Master’s Program in Spiritual Formation and Discipleship. He is also a frequent speaker and has authored several books, including “How to Resurrect a Dead Prayer Life.” We then had Kathi Lipp join us to discuss how to break through the shame of living in clutter with God. Kathi is an author, speaker, blogger, and podcast host of Clutter Free Academy, the Podcast. Kathi is an expert and well-respected on the topics of overcoming clutter from a biblical perspective. She has also authored several books, including “Clutter Free”. Then, Ethan Forhertz joined us to provide an update on the need for support in Central Texas following one of the most severe flooding events in the U.S. during the Fourth of July weekend. Ethan is the National Spokesperson for Convoy of Hope, a Disaster Relief Ministry that serves people who are impoverished, hungry, and hurting. Ethan and the ministry are currently in the Texas Hill Country serving those in need. You can hear the highlights of today's program on the Karl and Crew Showcast.

If you're looking to hear a particular segment from the show, look at the following time stamps: 

Dr. Bill Thrasher Interview (Praying in the Spirit) [05:07-22:21]

Gospel (Humility) [ 22:32-31:46 ]

Kathi Lipp Interview (Overcoming the Shame of Clutter)  [36:17-49:41]

Gospel (Connected with God) [49:48-57:59 ]

Ethan Forhertz (Update on Texas Floods) [58:09-01:09:38 ]

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Episode Transcript

S1 (00:00):
Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio.
This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.

S2 (00:08):
It's good to be with you this morning. Hope you're
off to a phenomenal start. You know, I feel prompted
in my heart that there's many of you maybe getting up,
rolling here, wondering how in the world am I going
to overcome what's in front of me today? Those can
be daunting. It can come in a lot of different ways,
but our God is able to do what we can't do.

(00:31):
I want to take you back to a time when
I learned how to water ski back in the day.
You remember this story? Super died. The drought going through
my nose. Okay. So I'm at. I'm at solid Rock
Bible camp, and I went down to the lake and
it was the day for me to learn how to
water ski. And I had seen water skiers as a
young kid growing up. And I always thought, I really

(00:53):
want to learn how to water ski. And they got
me all set up and it was a water start.
That's really the best way to learn. You certainly don't
want to learn with a doc start, right? Super die.
No way.

S3 (01:04):
Those skis up in front of you and kind of
hoisted half out of the water.

S2 (01:07):
Yeah, you just want the tips up out of the water.
You want that rope right between your skis. And he
told me, he said, when you are ready, when you
feel comfortable, you just yell, hit it. And I felt
good and I was ready to go. And he'd given
me all the instructions. I was ready. So I yelled,

(01:28):
hit it! And boy, that beautiful boat! It was a
ski ngatik. I don't know if you remember that. That
kind of boat, that was a great boat. And it
had been offered to the camp free of charge from
the guy that owned Ski Nautique, and he. So it's
a high powered machine and it was just dynamite. So

(01:48):
I yell, hit it, and here we go. And I'm
coming up out of the water, and I'm about halfway
up out of the lake And I did the craziest thing.
I broke water skiing 101. My arms were extended and
somehow I thought, I need to help this boat get

(02:10):
me up out of the lake. So I pulled that
handle toward my chest, and the minute I pulled that
handle toward my chest, I went right over the top
of my skis. I went into the lake. And that's
when I felt like three lake trout went through each
nostril because it was a nasal cleanser. Like, it's it's

(02:30):
it's it's a cheap way. You don't have to go
buy a badge when that happens. So. So I went
down into the lake, bobbed back up. Here comes the
ski Natick around me. I've got some buddies on board
and they're hooting and hollering. They thought that was the
greatest thing in the world. And the responsible adult on
board looked at me. He said, listen, you almost got up.

(02:53):
Here's what you got to do. Don't help the boat.
You just hold on. That's right. Let the boat do
the work. And I said okay. And we tried it again.
I yelled, hit it! And here we go. I'm coming
up out of the lake and everything inside me still
wanted to pull that handle toward me. It's like, let
me get up out of this water here. Kept my

(03:14):
arms extended. I got up on the surface of the
lake and we were off and skiing. You know, it's
a great lesson in that. I think oftentimes we think
we've got to do the work here when we're attached
to a God of inestimable power and strength when it
comes to killing sin or taking those issues in our

(03:37):
life where we're missing the mark, the tendency is to think,
I've got to do something here, and we may in
fact be called to do something, but it's really following
our utter dependence on God's power to do in us
what we can't do in ourself. It's God's work or
it won't work. And that's the point that we want

(03:59):
to be tackling here today. You know, we've had a
great time away. I am broadcasting from Maranatha here. It's
a camp that's more than a camp, actually, right on
the shores of Lake Michigan. It's been a joy to
watch God change lives. Really working hearts and coming up.
It's so beautiful. Night one I'm preaching away, and I

(04:22):
look out into the audience and I thought, is that
it is. That's doctor Bill Thrasher sitting out there.

S3 (04:28):
I know that face.

S2 (04:30):
Yes. And he has graciously agreed to come in here
this morning and offer up more discussion around this whole
issue of how do we pray in a way that
really trusts the Lord. How are we guided in this
really walk of prayer that is utterly dependent on God?

(04:50):
So buckle up. Keep your arms extended. Boom, crew. And
we're going to have doctor Bill Thrasher coming up straight ahead.

S1 (04:58):
She was trying to earn her way to God, but
God showed her she didn't have to. Ali is in
the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.

S2 (05:08):
Carl and crew. And we are here to help you
take your next step with Jesus. Sometimes the best step
that you can take with Jesus is to step back
from any self-effort and say, God, I am going to
rely upon you here today. You know, when it comes
to putting sin to death, the Apostle Paul is clear.

(05:29):
In fact, he's just hearkening back to what Jesus had spoken.
You know, if our sin is related to whatever it
may be that you're struggling with today, that missing the mark,
it feels like, oh, Carl, I could pin down a
lot of things that I have sin or missing the
mark in. Uh, no. This, my friend, the gospel is clear.

(05:49):
The same God who saved you is the same God
who's going to train you, equip you, and give you
all the power necessary to grow and go with God.
Becoming powerful is not about us knowing more, it's about
us surrendering more. And we find this over and over
in Scripture. But I. I love this alley. I know

(06:10):
you do in Romans 813, for if you live according
to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit,
Holy Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body,
you will live. Pretty definitive there, wouldn't you say, Ali?

S4 (06:26):
It is. And I think the tough thing is, you know, um,
when you talk about being pulled by that boat and
not helping yourself, but at the same time you say,
put to death the deeds of the body, how do
I both put to death the deeds of the body,
but not interfere with trying to do what only God
can do?

S2 (06:43):
Yeah. And that's a that's an interesting thing. And it's
echoed again by Paul in Galatians five. But I say,
walk by the spirit capital s Holy Spirit, and you
will not gratify the desires of the flesh. That is
a huge promise with us today, doctor Bill Thrasher. These
promises of God to come through when we feel like

(07:04):
we can't. They are so encouraging.

S5 (07:06):
They certainly are. And I just think I really appreciate
your setup. I appreciate Allie's question there. It brings back
a situation. Years ago, I was had a touchy situation
in regard to a relationship. And and I was writing
a letter to sort of deal with that conflict. As
I was writing a letter, I felt tension going all

(07:26):
through my body. And here was the realization, you know, Lord,
I'm solving this letter to solve the problem. I'm trusting
this letter. And so I put down my pencil and said, Lord,
I want to trust you to solve the problem. It's
like activating your faith before you activate your will at
a later time. I wrote a letter, so that's a

(07:48):
little bit what Ali is saying. That's a little about
your water skiing. Sometimes we we see a need and
we want to we activate our will before we activate
our faith. You know? Psalm 37 five commit yourself to
the Lord. Trust also in him, and he will do it.
Now you see, you can't trust God with something. You
have it surrendered to him. Yeah. And so trust becomes

(08:11):
a cheap word. Uh, but because trust is to be
backed by our life, it's trust. Saying, God, I'm willing
to do anything you ask me to do. I'll do
it in your timing and your will and, um, and
in your power. But that's the, you know, in in
my own life, uh, I shared with, with, uh, Carl
this morning earlier before we got on the air, that, uh,

(08:33):
I remember when I was a college student, I was,
I was saved, I was saved at a Billy Graham
crusade in 1965, he came to Montgomery, Alabama. in the
midst of the racial crisis in the 60s, and he
was there by presidential order. I learned later, Lyndon Johnson said,
you come down there, your gospel is the only thing
that can do anything for the racial crisis. Wow. Yes,

(08:54):
he canceled a European vacation, came there because, you know,
his his, um, crusades were integrated from the beginning, and
that was different than the 60s South. And, uh, so.
But he came there, and I heard the gospel. I
was saved, but I was and went to denominational church,
but and would read the Bible every day and try

(09:16):
to keep myself sort of clean and pure, but really
was a defeated Christian. Uh, when I went off to college,
everything outwardly was going great. I was in a what
the world would call a very good fraternity. I was
making the very best of grades. Uh, I looked outwardly successful.
I was absolutely, inwardly bankrupt, full of fears, anxiety. I

(09:37):
wandered into the room of a fraternity brother, a very
unusual individual, Robert Buster Holmes. He had pledged that fraternity
to lead people to Christ.

S2 (09:47):
That's why he pledged him.

S5 (09:48):
That's why he pledged it. And if you know anything
about secular fraternities on secular campuses, that's usually not why
people join them. No, but. But he was the real deal.
And they'd give him a hard time. But, you know,
he was so respected because his life was so consistent.
I would just wandered into his room, didn't ask a question,
and he said he shared this booklet, that crew, maybe

(10:09):
they still use it. Have you made the wonderful discovery
of the spirit filled life? I hung on every word.
I didn't ask a question, I didn't respond, but I said, Lord,
I walked away. There's a resource I don't know anything about. Um, now,
he gave me a little book to read. It was
in December, went to the holidays, but we had arranged.
His roommate was moving out and so was mine to

(10:31):
room together, a room with him for a year. And
that's what showed me, just like, uh, just like you said,
your father living with him. Working with him taught you Grace. Um, well,
sometimes we do need other people saying that this is
not just a fairy tale thing. This is really true. Yes. Um.
And so God was very merciful to me. I have
to continually rediscover it. Uh, Doctor Stephen Olford was very

(10:55):
helpful to me when I came in. God's great providence, uh,
came to in 1980. I lived in the same apartment building.
He was on the 19th floor. I was on the
second floor. And he was very skilled in communicating these truths.
I love the three words he used. I still use them. Uh,
not that there's just one set of words you can use,
but he said it's it's being open to God's control.

(11:17):
Fear is usually why we're not open to God's control. Yeah,
but let God invade our fear. That's my constant prayer, Lord,
let God's invade our fears and our shame open to
his control. And we can talk about each of these words,
dependent upon his control and responsive to his control. Those
are very precious. Those are the words that best communicate
to me how to walk, because we don't want to

(11:38):
just talk about the spiritual life. And that's what you
have been doing this week, not just talking about the
spiritual life, but leading us into the experience of it. Yeah.
And oh my goodness, that's what we need.

S2 (11:50):
What we need.

S4 (11:51):
Doctor Bill Thrasher, our guest this morning, he served on
the faculty of the Moody Bible Institute. He's a frequent
speaker across the country. Doctor Thrasher. What did you see
in the day to day life of that roommate that
really helped teach you how to live a spirit filled life?

S5 (12:06):
Well, you know, I certainly I saw, uh, the discipline
of prayer. Uh, and I just reasoned this way. Well,
I guess you're. I guess that's what a Christian is
supposed to do. Uh, he, uh. I guess you're supposed
to brush your teeth every day. I guess you're supposed
to pray. And so I developed the discipline of prayer. Now,
it took a while for God to put ingredients in

(12:28):
that because that was the right thing to do. Uh,
but for God to continually keep life in that discipline
was another thing. But I saw that. I saw he
just didn't. The Lord was a part of every part
of his life. We prayed together. We, uh, just it
was as natural as talking to anybody as the way
he talked to God. And, uh, it was, uh, just
a joyful experience, uh, serving each other, loving each other. Uh,

(12:53):
it was an incredible experience. And he, uh, his he
was lonely for him when he was a freshman. And
he said, God, I pray this group of men will
be known for its men of God. When I graduated,
I got an award or whatever. I think it was
on the back of all of his prayers. But there
was a steady stream of people going into the Lord's work.

S2 (13:12):
How amazing. Because of his witness.

S5 (13:14):
Because of his witness.

S2 (13:15):
Coming up here, coming up here in a moment. Let's
take that a little bit further here. Uh, the question
that you may have today is I'm up against something here.
And how in the world can prayer and praying in
the spirit? How does that even work? What are the
mechanics of that? What are the deeper things of that

(13:35):
that I might be missing today? Hang on, doctor Bill Thrasher.
More with him straight ahead.

S1 (13:40):
He's a sports fanatic with a stat for anything you
can think of. Young Thunder is in the crew. It's
curl and crew on Moody Radio.

S4 (13:50):
Scripture calls us to pray without ceasing, to pray in
the spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers
and requests without ceasing. Pray in the spirit. What does
that actually look like? Let's make it practical. Doctor Bill
Thrasher joining us right now, doctor Thrasher, pray in the spirit.
It sounds really good. How do we do that?

S5 (14:13):
Well, I think this is what God showed me. There
are five commands in relationship to the Holy Spirit. Walk
by the spirit. Be filled with the spirit. Don't grieve
the spirit. Don't quench the spirit. But the fifth one
is praying in the spirit. And there was a time
that after, uh, having a very vibrant prayer life for
many years that was ignited by that college roommate. And

(14:34):
and I carried it on. Uh, but then as you're
around the Christian church, people say, pray for this, pray
for this, pray for this. I really tried to pray
for it. I had a life of prayer. But then
there was one day that the I'm. This is the
thought in my mind. I said, God, I think the
greatest gift you could give me is just take this
whole burden off my back. That's what it was. And

(14:57):
so if you'd asked me, I said, God, I've gotta learn.
Here's what if you ask me, what have I learned
about prayer? I hear it again and again and again.
There's two things people teach me. Uh, one is very,
very important. Well, I bought into that. Number two, you
need to discipline yourself to do it, or else everything's theoretical.
I bought into that, but my prayer life died. How
do you and I had to find a dead prayer life?

(15:17):
The way what is when you pray and you're not
really expecting anything to happen? Your prayer life is dead. Yeah.
Ask yourself, why pray? So I said, God, something has to.
And it was okay. God, would you teach me what
it means to pray in the spirit? See, I'm not.
I'm not in this discipline by myself. Uh. God's spirit,
as we said, to walk by the spirit. Okay. I

(15:39):
need him to motivate it, to empower and to guide
my prayer. So that put me on a journey. Um.
And I think we can come to God. Say God,
if if God gives you a command, you know it's
his will. Yes. And if you're a childlike enough to believe. Okay, God,
you've commanded me to pray in the spirit. So, Lord,
you would you teach me in language that I can
understand even the words I used about walking by the spirit?

(16:01):
Maybe those are not the best words to communicate to you,
but you can come to God as a child. Say, God,
you've told me to walk by the spirit in this situation. God,
would you show me how to do it? You told
me how to pray in the spirit. One of the
things that was so liberating to me, this person was saying,
this person said, you know, he says, I tried to
pray for everything that needed to be prayed for. That's
where I was. Uh, and my prayer life seemed to

(16:24):
get nowhere till I discovered that God wasn't personally asking
me always to pray for everything that needed to be
prayed for. I need to let God set the agenda
of my prayer life. Yes, that brought great freedom. That
brought great freedom.

S2 (16:37):
You know the interesting thing, doctor Bill Thrasher, guest right
now is that this spirit led prayer in the prayers
of the spirit that ultimately lead to putting to death
the deeds of the body and helping others get victory
as well. Right? You know, Jesus speaks that it's to
our advantage that he go. The spirit will come and

(16:58):
he will guide us into all truth. I find, and
I want to hear your story on this. I find
that when we are armed with the Word of God,
the sword of the spirit, which is the sword of
the spirit, by the way that God gives us this
offensive weapon of war that can be rehearsed and utilized

(17:19):
in prayer, prompted by the spirit to a lot of
people who listen and go boy Promptings or nudgings? Some
are fearful to believe that that that can happen in them.
Dispel that myth.

S5 (17:32):
Well, you know, certainly God does. I mean, you would
not want a relationship with somebody that couldn't ever speak
to you. And so we speak to him. He speaks
to us. Now, certainly, if God, there's many spirits in
the world. Uh, God's spirit is a spirit of truth. Uh,
so if he speaks, it's going to be consistent with
the balanced teaching of God's Word. So that's protects us. Uh,

(17:55):
but he does speak. He does guide us. And I,
like you, quoted this verse the other night and talked
to on it very effectively. If you abide in me
and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will,
and it shall be done for you. There God puts
together the disciplines of Scripture and the disciplines of prayer.
What God has joined together. Let no man separate. So

(18:15):
you don't separate the disciplines of Scripture, the disciplines of prayer. Um,
it's certainly our faith is attacked. Uh, Um, uh, Paul says,
I came to find out about your faith. Let's attempt
to having tempted you. So I need. I need his strength.
I need his spirit. I like, uh, to be strong
in the Lord and the strength of his might. Uh,
that same Greek word, be strong is used in Romans four.

(18:36):
Abraham was strengthened to believe. We pray God anoints this
radio program as he has to continually encourage people to
believe God. Our posture is this God, what do you
want us to believe you for today? Yes. And, uh,
and that's.

S2 (18:51):
How he speaks.

S5 (18:52):
He speaks?

S2 (18:53):
Yeah. That is absolutely beautiful.

S4 (18:55):
Doctor Bill Thrasher, our guest right now, how has this
transformed your life and helped you in your teaching students?
You've taught many, many students over your several decades here
at Moody Bible Institute. How do you help them adopt
this in their own life?

S5 (19:11):
Well, you know, in regard to my teaching, I remember
I came into Moody in 1980 and, uh, was excited and,
and I would come and, uh, come to a class,
and I tried to pack it with as much as
I possibly could. And I felt like everything I knew
about that subject is what I should deliver in that lecture.
And that's really but learning to lean upon. But, see,

(19:36):
it's not a matter of not being incredibly prepared. I
was prepared very much so. But learning to lean upon
the spirit God, maybe everything I have done here doesn't
need to be said today. Uh, maybe there's something I
need to listen to you in regard to prompting that.
So I think when you see a person experiencing that,
that helps them. But I needed that. I have to

(19:58):
continually I need everything I'm saying today. I have to
continually relearn it, uh, at a deeper level. Uh, so, uh,
that's been a great privilege that I ask usually an
assignment in every class. At each class, they have to
write a reflective paragraph of what God said to them.

(20:19):
I said, I'm not asking you to give me a
summary of everything we said, but I want you to
have an experience with God that he speaks to you.
He knows your name. He knows your address. Uh, and
he knows everything going on in your life, and he
cares about it. And so, um, uh, you know, there
was a time that the Lord's day, uh, going to church,

(20:41):
I was there, I was faithful, I sung the songs,
but it was a dry experience. I remember, uh, you
hate to say that kind of thing, and you can
blame everybody, but maybe taking responsibility yourself. But I remember
getting alone with God and saying, God, something got to change.
I really don't look forward to the Lord's day and
and and worshiping you. And, uh, I remember this was

(21:03):
years ago, uh, 40 years ago or so I remember
I said it takes a little preparation. So I said,
it's this. What I do is I look at the
week ahead and I write down best I can determine God,
what's on my heart. The three greatest concerns in my
heart may be a relational concern, may be an upcoming responsibility,
maybe a decision you need to make. And I write

(21:23):
those down and I go and maybe speaking that day,
but I go into their listening to God. God, what
do you have to say about that? Out of all
the things going on in the world, he's infinite. He
can care about the little mundane concerns of your life,
as if they were the only thing going on in
the world. So to have that sense of expectancy and
is is a great privilege.

S2 (21:44):
You know, it's so encouraging because Paul goes on in
Romans eight and he says, likewise, the spirit helps us
in our weakness.

S5 (21:51):
Amen.

S2 (21:52):
Which is a commodity in God's kingdom. Mhm. For we
do not know what to pray for as we ought.

S5 (21:59):
Yes.

S2 (22:00):
As we ought not what to pray for, but as
we ought. But the spirit himself intercedes for us with
groanings too deep for words. And maybe your prayer right
now is just a groaning.

S5 (22:12):
Amen.

S2 (22:13):
Maybe it's a groaning to God saying, God, hear, you
don't need to have all the words right. Our God
is able. And that's the message of the day.

S1 (22:22):
Romans eight brought her to Jesus while broadcasting traffic overnight.
Super die is in the crew. It's curl and crew
on Moody Radio crew.

S2 (22:32):
Who am I to deny what the Lord can do?
There's the point. Who am I to deny what the
Lord can do? And the question for some of us is,
can I get the pressure off of me doing what
the Lord wants to do in my life? If we
live by the power of the spirit, we can put
to death the deeds of the flesh. If you live
in the spirit, keep in step with the spirit. Titus

(22:53):
211 and 12. God's grace saves us. God's grace trains
us to renounce ungodliness, worldly passions, and to live self-controlled,
godly lives in this present age. So it sounds like
it's all about God. The tendency is to put the
pressure on ourselves. I was a young married man, told

(23:14):
my bride. We were staying at her mom and dad's
home in Sunriver, Oregon. Beautiful area. And I told her,
I said, I am going to head off into the
woods and spend some time with God. So I got
together some matches and a a little bit of a hatchet,
and I walked out into the woods and I just
built a fire, found some pine boughs that were low,

(23:35):
that were dead to get some kindling going. And then
I found some deadfall, and I chopped it up and
built a little fire out in the middle of the woods.
And I spent a couple hours just before the Lord
and I went through a list of all the things
I'm going to do for God, and I made a
list of how many chapters of the Bible I was
going to read every day, and how many people I
wanted to reach for him, and how many I was

(23:57):
going to pray for. And the intentions were good. But
what I walked out of that forest with just a
few hours later was great disappointment in this heavy weight
on my shoulders. And I think a lot of us
tend to look at power thinking, I need to muster
the strength to say, I'm going to display the power
that's going to honor you, God. But God never asks

(24:18):
us to do things for him. It's always with him.
Isn't that freeing, Ali?

S4 (24:24):
It is freeing. And the interesting thing is, you know,
there's there's nothing that pushes you up against what can
feel like a moment of pressure than being asked to
do something, particularly something for the Lord that you feel
so underqualified to do.

S2 (24:39):
Yeah.

S4 (24:39):
Lead a small group. Um, share a devotional, serve with
the children. The list goes on and on. There's all
these things, and you and you realize there's nothing. I've
got nothing to offer that is of any substance apart
from God at work in me. And you realize it quickly, right? Yes.

S2 (24:59):
And so. So the real question is, how do we
get ourselves off that hook? Right?

S4 (25:03):
Exactly.

S2 (25:04):
And how do we begin to partner with God? Well,
there are postures for power that are profound in Scripture,
but maybe one of the most important postures that we
can take that has very little to do with doing it,
has to do with being, is humility. And I love
to quote Andrew Murray. Andrew Murray said in his book humility.

(25:26):
It's a wonderful work. He says humility is the one
virtue that gives birth to every other virtue. He also
said the absence of humility is explanation enough for every
character defect that we may have in our life. Now
you go to the Word of God, and there's a
couple of champion passages here. In first Peter five six

(25:48):
we find, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,
so that at the proper time he may exalt you.
Now this is subordination to God, and it leads to
exaltation by God. And it's not humility motivated by elevation.
It's not like I'm going to humble myself so you
can lift me up. It's humility motivated by God's glorification.

(26:10):
And the satisfaction, that sweetness of soul that says, I'm
finding rest in God. And it's a binary choice. This
is the amazing thing about humility versus pride. Pride says,
I got to do something for God. And we often
don't see that as pride, but it's independent of his
work in our life. Humility says, God, I'm going to

(26:32):
posture myself before you so that you can work in me. Now,
the warning that we find in James four six is
a real cautionary tale. We'll get to that straight ahead.

S1 (26:45):
You can take him out of Alaska, but you can't
take Alaska out of him. Carl is in the crew.
It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.

S2 (26:55):
Nothing will position you for God's power more than humility.
It's a binary choice. You know, I often thought humility
is one of those things that it's like walk into
the woods and let let God work in such a
way that humility just kind of falls on you like
a gift from heaven. Right, Ali?

S4 (27:13):
Yes. You would just sort of get hit over the
head with humility.

S2 (27:19):
But it's a choice that we make. And in this
moment right now, we can make the choice. I'm going
to humble myself under the mighty hand of God. Now,
humility is not thinking less of yourself. It's thinking more
of God, and it's lifting God to his rightful place.
It's recognizing his sovereignty, his providence, his authority over all things.

(27:39):
And we often think of things that we got to
do for God. But what if we changed our mind
and said, no, I'm going to humble myself under God's
hand and I'm going to partner with God. Everything can change.
Now here's the cautionary warning. In James four six we

(27:59):
find these words God opposes the proud, but he gives
grace to the humble. This is amazing. So it's not
like the absence of humility is just kind of a
neutral space. God loves us so much, he says, I'm
going to I'm going to lovingly hold you at arm's
length until you bow low before me. And as you

(28:23):
bow low before me, grace will be poured out on you.
Then we can do something together. And we know this
is true, because James goes on to say, faith without
works is dead. But the works that James God is
calling us to is a works that's born out of
utter dependence on God in humility positions us for just that.

S4 (28:46):
And there's nothing that keeps you at that place more
than having to do things that require faith. I mean,
and I really believe that sometimes the Lord will put
us in positions. And I'm not talking about a taking
on a new position in terms of prominence. I'm talking
about being our lives, being positioned in such a way
where God is, we're out a little bit on faith,

(29:09):
a little bit more on faith. The thing that you
always say, Carl, just a little bigger than me, just
a little a little bigger than me. And it can
be uncomfortable. But I think those are the the things
that keep us in humility and dependence on God.

S2 (29:21):
Yeah. And what Ali is saying is so true. Boom.
I want you to hear me right now. I believe
God gets us over our skis. I believe God divinely
positions us in situations that we feel like I can't
do this.

S4 (29:40):
Yes.

S2 (29:42):
And he does that for the purpose of allowing us
the space to say, God, what I cannot do. Will
you fill that void? And the posture for power that
I propose to you today is humility and humility isn't
thinking little of yourself. It's thinking much of God. And

(30:04):
as we understand who we are in Jesus Christ, and
that he wants to fill us with his power, we
will begin to find victory for those trials, challenges that
we're up against and most particularly what we're talking about
this week the ability to deal with sin in our
life in a way that God's power is being brought

(30:24):
to bear so that we can break these chains that
have held us for so long. And I think in
this moment right now, the best thing we can do
is just say to you, would you take a moment
during this next song to humble yourself under God's mighty hand?
Let him work. And again, this isn't saying I'm nothing.

(30:47):
It's saying no. God has made me his child. He
holds all the power. I'm going to position myself by
humility that says, God, I don't have the answers. I
don't want to do anything for you. I want you
to work inside me. That's the game changer.

S4 (31:05):
I want to make sure you have a resource that
we have for you, doctor Bill Thrasher. You heard him
earlier this morning. He's got some tremendous books on prayer,
on that walking in that abundant life and humility with God.
Text pray. If you want to get connected with doctor
Bill Thrasher and his resources, text pray to 800 555 7898.

(31:27):
Text pray to 800 555 7898.

S2 (31:32):
Yeah, great resource, great man of God. And if you
weren't here for that, whenever you need to just text
the word show to our number here and you can
hear that again. 800 555 7898.

S1 (31:46):
This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.

S2 (31:50):
You know the beautiful thing about the good news. And
if you could put the Bible into a phrase, it
would become, as you are experiencing him overcome what seems
impossible and live as you never imagined. And when we
think about the impossible, there's sometimes some byproducts of living
in this world that we live in today, especially in
the West, and that is the very blessings of God

(32:13):
can become distractions from God. It happens all the time.
Meaning the stuff that we accumulate can be a problem.

S4 (32:21):
And this is true in so many areas. I mean,
think about all of the good things that we have
that can get misused. I mean, I've got a smartphone
right in front of me. It's a good thing that
can be misused very easily. There's so many examples, but
sometimes it's the accumulation of stuff. We can have so
many things that can actually start to clutter, not just

(32:42):
our spaces, but our hearts, our minds.

S2 (32:47):
I can tell you one time we had a storage
unit when we were moving, and we had a very
small place in the short term, and we needed to
get something a little bit bigger than a one room.
We had a one room apartment, one bedroom apartment, and
our kids came home from college. We were just in transition,
and we had one sleeping on one side of a
queen bed and the other one sleeping on the other side.

(33:08):
And there was some joy in that, you know what
I mean? There is here we are camping out as
a family, both kids home from college. And I mean,
it's like, oh my goodness, like Beverly Hillbillies or something.
I don't know what it was, but it was it
was fun. And I went down to the storage unit
after we got a new place. They got it provided
after a lot of prayer, really, on my wife's behalf.

(33:28):
And it was amazing because, uh, can prayer get you
a home that you really believe is a gift from God? Absolutely.
So we got this. We got this pad, and it
came time for me to go down and look through
this stuff that we were going to move into the home.
And I had an overwhelming moment. I'm like, we have
gone months without any of this stuff. And it. The

(33:51):
question in my mind is how much of this stuff
do we need actually need? Now my wife set me
straight right away. I mean, some of these things. Bob. Look,
I'm running the home and camping out is one thing,
but having a few things that you need around you
is a good thing. But no one is immune to
getting too much stuff around us. And here's the amazing thing.

(34:12):
Stuff can create system imbalance that can bring stressors to
our life that are even sometimes hard to identify as such.

S4 (34:22):
Absolutely. I mean, I know how I feel when I'm
trying to pray or I'm trying to sit down and
relax after after a long day or a long morning.
And I feel like sometimes my space can work against me.
I can all of a sudden I'm aware of where
there's clutter, of where there's disorder, and it actually affects

(34:42):
me internally. And I know I'm not alone in that.

S2 (34:45):
You know, for the longest time I thought I must
be just a product of my upbringing. And I had
a mom. I was raised by a mom who had
everything in order and everything in place, and and she
had a rule that if she didn't use it in
two years, get rid of it. Somebody else can use it.
And and those are those are good principles. Now you

(35:08):
can go off a cliff on order, and you can
get to the point where you're so tight as a tick.
You got a home that's untouchable and those kind of things.
That's a whole nother issue. But one of the great
dangers here and in the West is that we can
accumulate so much. My bride has a little thing going
on where if if she's got a book that's coming in,

(35:31):
she'll go through her library and a book goes out
so that because you could have a library that grows
out of a room down the stairs into another. I mean,
things can happen that way, and it's just an undeniable
reality of living in the West.

S4 (35:46):
So coming up, we're going to talk to someone who's
both lived this. She's taught this. She's experienced massive victory,
not by going out and buying more storage bins and
organizing things, but by actually getting victory from the things
that were going on in her heart that were causing
her to cling to the material things. Cathy Lip clutter

(36:08):
expert decluttering expert. Not just the space, but the heart
as well. She's coming up.

S1 (36:14):
You're listening to Curl and Crew on Moody Radio.

S2 (36:17):
You know, I want to handle this rightly because we
all need stuff. And I think I love the definition
in James. To him who knows what is right and
doesn't do it to him it is sin. I think.
Here's what I want to do. I just want to
begin with what is right with regard to the stuff
that we have. And when you know it's wrong and

(36:39):
you've got to change something, that's kind of the dinner bell, right?
Ali for something's got to change here.

S4 (36:45):
Yeah, that's a good way to put it. Let's bring
in Kathy Lipp, who is a best selling author of
20 books. She's the host of Clutter Free Academy, the podcast.
How do you know when your relationship with stuff has
turned to an unhealthy place?

S6 (37:01):
We often think, oh, you know, I'm spending too much
money or I have too much stuff. But I think
the real indication is when it starts to affect other
parts of your life. When you say, you know what?
I'm too overwhelmed to, you know, pray today. So I'm
just going to skip it today, but tomorrow, tomorrow I'll
be fine or I can't get myself to work in

(37:23):
the morning on time because there's so much around me
that is just out of control or it's starting to
affect my relationships. People are noticing that, you know, I'm
not showing up when I say I'm going to or
I'm not doing the things. And so it's really just
it's overwhelm. It's not lazy. It's not that you don't

(37:43):
care about people. It's that you, your mind and your
spirit is overwhelmed.

S4 (37:48):
That's interesting answer, Cathy. I'm going to push a little
bit more on that. So it's not even related to
the amount of stuff you have. It's that it's causing
you to kind of drop the ball in places. I
explain that a little bit more.

S6 (38:01):
So some people are minimalists. Good for them. I'm happy
for them. That will never be me. I am a maximalist.
Two to the core. I can have more stuff around me,
but I can't have chaos around me. And when things
start to get chaotic, when I can't find my keys
in the morning, when I don't have good systems in
place to get dinner on the table or myself out

(38:24):
the door, that's when I know, okay, clutter is just
a manifestation of what's going on inside of us. And
so if we're overwhelmed in our spirit, it'll start to
show up in some way. And for 60% of women,
it is clutter. And I you know, it's probably the
same for men, but they don't tend to get as

(38:44):
stressed out about it as us. Scientifically, our cortisol levels
go crazy around clutter, and so that's why we need
to take care of it.

S2 (38:54):
Yeah, I love what you're saying here, Kathy. Kathy Lipp
is our guest right now, and she is an expert
on this stuff. And she learned the hard way quite candidly.
But I love what you're saying because this is true
for me. It's not stuff. It's what stuff does to
break up systems. And when my systems are clear and
I've got I know where things are. I know what

(39:17):
to grab. I know what not to grab. Man, life
goes a lot better. You can have quite a few things,
but if they're ordered, that's that's the game changer, isn't it?

S6 (39:27):
Exactly right. Because when stuff is out, lots of times
we leave stuff out because we're afraid if we put
it away, we're never going to see it again. Guilty.
And but here's the problem. Our brains ping off of it.
You know, we see that thing that's out of place
and our brain notices it over and over and over again.
And so when we want to be at peace, we

(39:49):
have to have some clear surfaces. Our brain, our eyes
have to have places that rest. And we have to
be sure, hey, we know where those keys are. We
know where that wallet is. That makes us settle in
and be peaceful.

S4 (40:04):
Cathy Lipp, our guest right now, you know, there's a
lot of shame around this issue. So you almost have
to be careful talking about it, because when you hear
words like hoarding, there are the TV shows that kind
of dramatize it. There's, you know, the picture of the
house where you can't see the floor, you can't see
the table. And and this is the reality for, for

(40:25):
many people. How do you break through the shame and
maybe the embarrassment that comes with maybe a situation that's
gotten out of control in my home to start to
get to the place of freedom.

S6 (40:38):
We can stay stuck in shame and not change what
we're doing. I think one of the things is to
have somebody that you trust, who is not going to
shame you, to say, hey, I just need a little
bit of accountability today, I'm going to spend five minutes
clearing off my kitchen table, or I'm going to work
on my nightstand. And when you start to build on

(41:02):
those spaces where you can just have a clear space,
it can make such a huge difference. But if you've
got somebody in your life who really struggles, maybe it's
a child who can't keep their room together, or maybe
it's your parent to come in and not be shaming,
but to say, I know this is overwhelming, and one

(41:23):
of the things that a friend can do, which seems
like nothing but really it's everything is just sit with them,
sit in the room while they're trying to declutter, sit
on the phone while they're trying or FaceTime, whatever that is.
It's a technique called body doubling that just says there's
somebody there who's in your corner who's cheering you on.

(41:46):
It's a huge game changer for so many people. And
it takes that shame away that you were talking about.

S2 (41:53):
You know, this is fascinating, Cathy. And having been a
pastor for a long time, you know what's fascinating? I
never thought of it this way, but I never prescribe
anyone to get off cocaine, weed, alcohol, pornography alone. Ever.
And I think sometimes I wonder if this is why

(42:15):
so many people listen. Right now, my heart is leaping
for joy. I wonder if this is one of the
secrets to breaking free. And there's an aspect of trust here.
I want to hit here in a moment, but I
think you're hitting something. Oftentimes our systems are so out
of whack and we got to get them in order
and we don't know how to do that. And when
we try to do it alone, it's as futile as

(42:38):
trying to. For a man to kick pornography alone, it's impossible.
When did you discover that?

S6 (42:45):
First of all, Carl, you could not be speaking bigger truth. And, uh,
let me just say, I grew up in a home
that had both of these issues. Pornography and clutter. And
can I tell you, when I was a young mom,
I just thought, okay, if I get out of that house,
I'm going to be able to do this. And I

(43:06):
didn't know how. And so it was finally reaching out
to a friend of mine who also struggled with the
same thing. And so once a week, we would go
to her house and work on things for three hours,
and then the next week we would come to my
house and we would work on things for three hours.
And can I tell you, I got more done in

(43:27):
those three hours than I did the rest of the
month because there was somebody there who was cheering me on,
who had been in the same boat and was not
judging me. It's the trifecta, right? They know our pain.
They don't judge us and they are for the win.
They care for our spirit. And it is. It's powerful.

(43:48):
It's powerful.

S2 (43:49):
You know, this almost gives me chills right now because
this is a huge breakthrough. I know you say 60%
of women, I guess, feel a sense that clutter is
in the way, and it probably is. I think one
of the big barriers here is just like it is
for a guy getting off porn. I'm working with someone
right now who's getting off alcohol. Um, and they're committed

(44:11):
Christ followers. Uh, but you know what? This person had
to bust through the shame of coming up and telling
me I was sipping wine. Now it's sipping me. And,
you know, how do you break through that? Because I
think there's a lot of people that feel like if
I share it with this person, they might have had
an had experience where they've been betrayed in the past.
It's like they hung something out there and now it's

(44:33):
hanging out of their back like a fork the next week.
So how do we break through to find those? And
how do we find people that are trustworthy to bring
into our home and sit down while they watch us
help clean up our messes? That is like heavy duty challenge.

S6 (44:51):
Yeah. So I think you start sharing in small ways.
You know, you can talk about how you are overwhelmed
with your schedule, or maybe you're overwhelmed with something at work, which,
by the way, is perfectly society wise, you know, acceptable, right?
But when you start to talk about clutter, there can
be judgment. But can I tell you there are a

(45:13):
lot of people laying down what we're picking up when
we say, you know, I, I, I'm struggling with just
the day to day. Somebody else in that Bible study,
somebody else and let it be a Christ follower. Friends,
let it be a Christ follower because hopefully as Christ followers,
we are coming in without judgment. We are coming in

(45:35):
to say, how can I serve in this way? So
I want to just say to people, be the safe person.
Be the person who doesn't react with shock or shame shaming,
but says, you know what, there are a lot of
people going through this and there is victory on the
other side. So share in small ways and be that

(45:57):
safe person. Can I say we have a Facebook group
of 16,000 people of safe people. It's just called Clutter
Free Academy and you are not going to be shamed
in there. We it's the kindest corner of the internet
because can I tell you, Cluttery people are the meanest
people in the world, but only to one person themselves.
And so when we understand that you are not alone,

(46:21):
this is not. Most people struggle with this. There's freedom there.

S4 (46:24):
Wow. Cathy, I want to ask you about the summertime.
You know, when I think about what this season could
bring for people, it's the garage sales. The estate sales.
It's the vacation. Maybe that you go on where there's
trinkets and things that you can bring back. Oh, what
do you say? That would be kind of unique to

(46:47):
this time of year. That might help someone who has
some temptation here.

S6 (46:51):
Oh, Ali, I am the most tempted among us. And
here's what I've told myself. Every item I bring into
my house cost me an hour. Where am I going
to put it? Where am I going to file it?
How am I going to eventually get rid of it?
It's going to cost me an hour to bring that
thing into my house. Now, there are some things that

(47:11):
are worth it, right? You know, that shirt that you're
going to get 100 wears out of that is worth it.
But maybe that freebie that they gave the parents at VBS,
maybe not quite as life changing.

S7 (47:29):
Sorry for laughing, but this is getting too real now.

S6 (47:32):
It's it's it's real. Right? And so one thing that
I do is I have a bag for recycling and
a bag for garbage in my car. And when my
kids would come home from things, I'm like, okay, which
bag does it really need to go in? Does it
need to come into our house, or can we sort
it out here? Because guys, if it comes into the house,
you have to be the one to put it away.

(47:54):
Can I tell you they filled up that garbage and
recycling bag really quickly?

S2 (47:59):
What's crazy about this topic, guys, is that we're laughing
about it, but late at night. It's not funny. No,
you know what I mean? It's, like dead serious. And
this has huge spiritual impact. Speak to that briefly. Doesn't
this rob us of intimacy with God when we're so
inundated with stuff? Cathy. Kathy.

S6 (48:21):
You know, when I have too many things in my
bedroom as I'm laying in bed at night, instead of praying,
I'm pinging right. I'm pinging off everything in that room
and my mind cannot settle. My spirit cannot settle. And
so what I've learned I want my home to be
holy ground. I want it to be a place where

(48:44):
peace is abundant, where people can come to refresh and restore,
including myself. And so we have to get the stuff out.
We have to get the stuff out. Life is so complicated.
The world is so complicated. Let's make our homes simple.
Places of peace.

S2 (49:02):
Love it. Kathy Lipp, an incredible woman of God. And
you know, here I'm going to I'm going to brag
on you, your vulnerability with your own life and your
honesty about what it takes to walk out of this,
I'm telling you, gives people hope galore. Whenever we have
you on the show cast goes boom and just blows up.

(49:22):
We've got a link for you. And this link is
going to put you on to some amazing resources. Ali,
take it away, sister.

S4 (49:29):
Just text the word clutter to 800 555, 7898. Tons
of resources on Cathy's website. Just text clutter to 800
555 7898.

S1 (49:42):
Your shot of hope to help you through the day.
This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.

S2 (49:48):
There's a lot of metaphors that explain what it is
to be connected with God. And that's the goal here,
because this disconnect is one of the most dangerous things
we can do. You look at a passage like John 15,
which I love around here, and I'm going to give
you a wrinkle to it here today. It's a little
bit of a tweak on this thing that we don't
explore often, but the promise is real. If you abide

(50:10):
in me and I abide in you, you stay connected
to me. I'm the vine, you're the branch. You abide
in me. You will bear much fruit. And I love this.
It's to God's glory that you bear much fruit. And
guess what? God is anti-plastic bananas and plastic grapes. Aren't
we glad for that, Ali?

S4 (50:26):
Yes. Real fruit can grow from our lives when we abide.
The fake fruit may look good from a distance, but
it doesn't do anything. It doesn't nourish us or anyone else.

S2 (50:39):
No. And so I want you to hold on to this.
I'm going to read it to you and hold on
to it. And then I'm going to show you a
fill in the blank. That is a huge aha moment.
This is what we find John 15 four through five
abide in me and I in you. As the branch
cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. Definitive, right?
Neither can you, unless you abide in me. Now Jesus

(51:02):
is telling his disciples this two days from going to
the cross. So this is a just a huge banner
ad for how in the world to live the abundant life.
He goes on to say, whoever abides in me and
I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.
For apart from me you can do nothing. Now that's definitive.
There's no gray zone here. It's either you have fruit

(51:25):
that's real or you're forced to place, you know, plastic peace,
plastic joy. You know, those things are just there in
their pain staking because you find yourself in a room.
It's like I got to be joyful or you find
yourself in a situation that I need to have love here,
and it never works out well that way, does it, Ali?

S4 (51:46):
No. And you know, I've everybody's experienced this where you
know what the moment requires of you. So you try
to give it what you've got in your own strength.
You mentioned the joy, the love, the peace. Like I
want to remain calm in this stressful situation. I need
peace right now. And you do your best to muster

(52:06):
up what you feel like is needed. But if there's
a detachment from the vine, you're faking it. And you're
trying to muster it up in your own strength, and
you can feel it. Even if other people don't see it.
You feel it. I've felt it.

S2 (52:21):
You feel it. By this my father is glorified, that
you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
Now there's one little verse in here that I've left
out on purpose. We're going to break down that verse
because this is absolutely central to the abiding life in
Christ and the fruit that God wants to bear in you.

(52:42):
Hang on.

S1 (52:43):
She's a choreographer extraordinaire and everything is Greek to her.
Super di is in the crew. It's Karl and crew
on Moody Radio.

S2 (52:53):
If we take Jesus at his word and look at
the full context of this story that is being told
in John 15, boom! The lights come on. So quick
rehearsal here. If we begin to see Jesus truly as
he is, he's the vine. We're the branch. we abide in.
Him will bear much fruit. Apart from him, we can

(53:14):
do nothing. Then we've got really one question left. And
that is what in the world does the abiding life
in Christ look like?

S4 (53:22):
Right? And so what's the verse that you mentioned that
you had left out, that you for a key reason?

S2 (53:29):
Yeah, it's it's this one in verse seven, Jesus goes
on to say this in speaking of abiding, if you
abide in me and my words abide in you, ask
whatever you wish and it will be done for you.
And I think a lot of people look at this
and they go, whoa, this is a humongous problem. Promise here.

(53:51):
The only the only the only contingency upon praying for
whatever you wish and it will be done, is that
you have this connection with the Word of God. That
is undeniable. I'll read it again. If you abide in
me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you
wish and it will be done for you. It's simply

(54:11):
this I think a lot of people could look at
this verse and go, wow, this is dynamite. If I'm
reading the Bible every day, I can ask God for
whatever I want and bada bing, bada boom, he's going
to deliver. That's not really what Jesus is saying here.
And all we have to do is look at Scripture
to interpret Scripture. What do we need to know? This

(54:32):
is a person who is abiding in the word in
a way that Jesus prescribed. It's not reading the word.
It's applying the word. It's a living word. It's active
in me. It's sharper than a two edged sword. It
cuts between bone and marrow. Here's the point. When we
are interacting with the Word of God in the way

(54:52):
that Jesus prescribed in the sermon on the Mount, where
we are not just hearers of the word, we're doing it.
We're putting it into practice. We're going to be like
a house built on the rock. We love that story here.
It's a great story. Those that read the word, hear
the Word of God and don't put it into practice.
They've got a house built on the sand. Here's what

(55:13):
I know from experience. When you have an abiding relationship
with God in the word, when the word is more
than just something that you're reading, more than just information gained,
it's something that's being applied in your life. It begins
to reorient your life and even your thinking with kingdom things.

(55:34):
Everything changes. So this abiding relationship with Christ is fundamentally
built on your relationship with the very words of God.
Am I putting them into practice because of the person
who practices the Word of God? Has their heart aligned
with the will of God? That makes a little more sense,

(55:55):
doesn't it?

S4 (55:56):
It does. And then when you when you think about
the types of prayers that flow from a heart that's
aligned with the will of God, well, that's something totally
different than just sort of praying my wish list. Even
if they're good and nice things, when my heart's aligned
with God, my prayers will be as well.

S2 (56:16):
Yeah, it's it's a beautiful thing. And I think the
picture is this as I was being fathered by my
own dad when when I was getting my behavior aligned
with what he knew, what was best for me, all
of a sudden, my whole perspective on my relationship with
my dad changed. And I didn't see him as a

(56:40):
gumball machine. I saw him as someone who had my
best in mind. And I began, my whole will changed
because I knew what he wanted for me. When I
was out of whack with my earthly father, I would.
Who knows? I would ask for things that were frankly
not healthy for me. Not good for me. The same

(57:02):
is true with our Heavenly Father and God's Word. It's
not a magic pill. It's truth that aligns our heart
with God in a way that sets us up for
asking for things that are according to God's will. So
our interaction with God's Word. It's powerful, isn't it?

S4 (57:20):
It absolutely is. If there's anything you want to relisten
to again, I know this is a lot in a
short period of time, text the word show. You can
relisten to this and anything else we've had this morning.
Text show to 800 555 7898. Coming up here on
Carlin crew. If you've been following the news, what's going
on in Texas? Man, it captured attention for a couple days,

(57:42):
but then for most people, it was not top of
mind anymore. But the devastation of those terrible floods continue
in Texas as rescue relief efforts continue. Glimmers of hope,
even in the midst of the devastation. We've got an
update on the ground from convoy of Hope coming up.

S1 (57:59):
He was sharing the gospel on the radio and then
he got saved. Young thunders in the crew. It's Carl
and crew on Moody Radio.

S2 (58:09):
It's so important to be positioned for God's power. This
notion that you've got to do it on your own.
It's just not there. And it's amazing to watch how
God uses other people as well, to jump in. And
in that gap of our need, folks, fill that void.
And that's a gift from God as well. Ethan Forhecz
is with us right now with convoy of Hope. He's

(58:31):
live from Texas. You pick us up there, Ethan, I can't.

S8 (58:34):
Good to be with you guys, man.

S2 (58:36):
You coming in loud and clear, my man. Alright, give
us an update. Ethan. What's God doing in Texas? What?
What are you give us? Start with a story of
redemptive grace here, my man.

S8 (58:46):
Well, I tell you, we were just at a at
a small church, small town, small church a couple of
nights ago, and a convoy of Hope truck pulled up,
loaded with supplies. This is the the things that people
need following a disaster like this. So water and food
and hygiene items, baby supplies, all the things that people
need that they maybe can't get in this situation. And
we were there with the pastor, and there were people

(59:08):
coming in by the dozens to get supplies and to
volunteer to hand out the supplies. Because we always work
through the local church, we want to empower the local
church to be the beacon of light in the community.
So that's what we were doing with this small town church.
And the pastor stopped one of our one of our
team members and said, this is unbelievable. I haven't had

(59:28):
a crowd this size at my church in years. There
were more than 300 people there, and it was the
flurry of activity that became the beacon in that town
of life and of light. And our crew was just
happy to be able to pray with people. His team
was able to pray with people just encourage people in

(59:51):
their community. And that's the church being the church. So
that was really, uh, an encouraging, uh, Situation that we
got to find ourselves in, in a, in a situation
that honestly, in a lot of ways for a lot
of people, can feel hopeless.

S4 (01:00:03):
Yeah. Ethan Fritz with us right now. Convoy of Hope. Humanitarian,
faith based organization. Their goal is to serve people who
are impoverished, hungry and hurting. They do disaster relief response
around the world. Give us a picture of where things
stand with the rescue and recovery efforts in Central Texas.

S8 (01:00:23):
Well, it's been really difficult here because it just won't
stop raining. Yesterday was the first rain free day that
we've had in a long time. So when that happens,
the rivers reflood. That's happening a lot. Water is over
roadways you can't get through, and that means that the
search and recovery crews are not able to be in
the water, because when the water gets up high again,

(01:00:43):
they have to get off for safety. So then when
they get back on the water and begin the search
yet again, arduous search. Can't imagine what they're going through
as they do that. So they need they need our
prayers for sure. But, uh, as they go, go through that,
they have to go back and research areas that they've
already searched because the river has now changed things as

(01:01:04):
it got high again. So it's a really long, arduous
process of the search and recovery. And that is kind
of holding up the ability for a lot of people
to get into areas. Those areas haven't been cleared yet,
so they're not able to to muck out houses and
begin to clean up property in a lot of areas.
So that's been one of the difficult things in the

(01:01:26):
days since the initial tragedy.

S2 (01:01:30):
Yeah. Ethan with convoy of Hope, there's there's so many
needs in a situation like this. I mean, you've got
practical needs, like guys with chainsaws and the removal of
lots of debris. You've got needs for fresh water. You've
got needs for clothing. Uh, how do you when you
wade into this? You're an expert at this. What are

(01:01:51):
the primary needs that you focus on with convoy of Hope?
And how do you see God's redemptive story play out
in this process? Is it just the hands of feet
of Jesus that opens people's hearts to Jesus Christ?

S8 (01:02:05):
Yeah, it's it's, um, it's a difficult it's always difficult
to be here and to see people in the situation.
But it's always also encouraging to see some of the
responses from people and how open they are to hearing
things that maybe they wouldn't be. Uh, prior to convoy
of Hope gives out the the immediate things that we
give out are things that are always necessary following a
disaster like this. So it's water, it's food, hygiene items,

(01:02:30):
baby supplies, cleaning supplies. Because the flash flooding got into
your house, it's created a mess, uh, that you need
to clean up. So those are the types of things
that we give out in the immediate aftermath. And it's
a it's a the scale changes a little bit of
what we give out. It adjusts over time. But that's
what we do immediately. But you know, when we talk
about redemptive stories, Um, the thing that I hear most

(01:02:53):
as and I'm at a lot of these disasters over
the years is people who go through the line, yes,
they get the physical supplies that they need, but a
lot of times they'll say, the thing that they took
most from our distribution was the the arm on the shoulder, the, the,
the hug that we were able to give, the prayer
that we were able to pray on their behalf. Uh,

(01:03:16):
everyone is open to prayer in a situation like this.
Nobody turns it down. So we're happy to be able
to pray with people if if they would like that. Uh,
and that is what time after time I hear makes
the biggest difference in people's lives. They need to know
that their neighbors care about what's happening to them. Somebody cares.
They're seen and they're heard and that there's there's a

(01:03:37):
God who created them, who loves them.

S4 (01:03:40):
Ethan, how is doing this work over these years changed you?
I mean, you show up in, uh, where there's devastation,
there's tragedy, there's loss, there's a lot of despair. Spare
and you bring obviously the practical supplies, but the hope
of Jesus Christ. How has it changed you?

S8 (01:03:55):
Well, I think there's a story from Hurricane Harvey, also
down in Texas from a few years back, and it's
a story that has taught me that there's nothing nothing
that you do is too small. And you, you, you
may not know or you will not know the impact
that that can have on somebody else. There's a story
of a woman in Hurricane Harvey. She had lost her

(01:04:16):
her job in law enforcement a couple of weeks prior
to the storm. She had huge oak trees that were
down on her property, on her residence, and she was
sitting on her front porch at wits end when a
convoy of Hope volunteer truck pulled up and we were
able to deliver her a case of water. We were
able to give her cheese sandwiches. And then I know

(01:04:36):
this story because since then on X she and Twitter,
then she has posted that cheese sandwiches and chainsaws saved
her life. So we got in touch with her to ask,
what do you mean by that? What is that story?
And she would always tag convoy of Hope and ask
people to donate to us following other disasters. And she
said that she was sitting on her porch that day, um,

(01:04:57):
with a gun. And she was planning, sorry, she was
planning to end her life that day when our team
pulled up and we had chainsaws, we had cheese sandwiches
that we gave her, apparently. And, uh, they were our
team was able to cut down the trees on her house.
And it's because of that, she says that she is

(01:05:18):
still here today. And so that just tells me that,
you know, that was a small act of kindness on
our volunteers behalf, but it made yeah, she's here today
because of it. It made a huge impact. Wow.

S2 (01:05:32):
Ethan. That's huge man. You know, Ethan, you know, I
think sometimes we don't jump in and and do anything
because we think we have little to offer. You know
what that story tells us? the little does much, buddy.

S8 (01:05:47):
It does. It does more than you know.

S2 (01:05:50):
Yeah. You know, boom crew. You're listening right now. And, Ethan,
you're you're a man's man. I really believe that. Real
men of God can shed a tear over the movement
of God. And Ethan for hats is with us right now.
And just a great brother. Convoy of hope. He's on

(01:06:10):
the ground in Texas as we speak. There's some of
you wondering, well, what can I do? Well, we got
a link for you here. And when the when you
get to this link. Um, this is so on the
fly right now, getting Ethan in here. I guess we're
going to find links to ways to give and maybe
even be part of this. Right? Is everything there, ally?

S4 (01:06:31):
Yes, it is on the website. If you want to
text convoy to 800 555, 78, 98, you can see
how you can get involved. Help deliver emergency relief to
those impacted specifically by the Texas flooding. But then if
you want to support ongoing disaster relief efforts, just text
convoy to 800 555 7898. Convoy. Convoy to 800 555 7898.

S2 (01:06:58):
Yeah. Just love his heart. And grateful for you, Ethan.
What a terrific man of God. I'll tell you, man,
when a guy can get choked up about stuff like that,
that's when his manhood is coming into full focus. I
really mean that. It's just a beautiful thing. You know,
it's interesting. We're talking about this before we brought him in.

(01:07:19):
And again, that key word is convoy to 800 555, 78, 98.
Grateful for all of you. Just checking out what God
may do. And you know what we ask constantly around here?
And I want to make sure we spike this one.
Our our commitment here. The local church is is the hub.
It's the center by which we go out. Even what

(01:07:42):
we're doing here, we are a parish church ministry. We
come alongside the church. I haven't reminded folks of that
in a long time, but that's what we're doing here.
But as we are the church, because we are the
broader church capital C, as we find ourselves getting our
life and heart aligned with Jesus, it makes this conduit

(01:08:03):
of our lives. It just opens up the spigot more
and more. I don't know why that just dawned on
me late in the show here today, but it's true
in all of our lives, isn't it?

S4 (01:08:13):
It really is. And you know, I went to, um,
my churches Tuesday night prayer meeting, uh, on this just
this past Tuesday night. And I remember having a moment
and I had been to another big event, a big
basketball tournament a couple days prior. And I thought, you know,
it's it's one thing for people to gather and everybody's
here for basketball and everybody is kind of about self.
They want their kid to do well. They want their

(01:08:33):
kid's team to do well, I thought, but what is
it that makes a group of people to gather together
on a Tuesday night. We're all seeking God together. We're
all after the same thing. We're brothers and sisters in Christ.
And for some reason, in that moment, it hit me
a new way. That gathering together with the people of God,
being strengthened by your brothers and sisters, knowing that in

(01:08:54):
the good times and the hard times, you've got a family.
We don't do this thing alone. It was it was
moving to me in a new way.

S2 (01:09:03):
That is that is powerful. So another quick reminder. You
keep ringing the bell for me here, Ali.

S4 (01:09:09):
Sorry.

S2 (01:09:10):
So here's a ringing of the bell. Some of you
have been absent from church for a long time. You
know what? It's leaving a hole in your heart because
we were designed for community. I want to urge you.
Don't just get back church. Get back and be the church.
We need you. You're needed. You say? Carl, I don't

(01:09:30):
feel like it. You are. Whether you feel it or not,
you're needed. That's what the church is all about. Let's go.
Be that today.