I Can't Find Peace

Today, on Karl and Crew, we continued our weekly theme, "Debunking Myths, and we discussed the statement, "I can't find peace."  Karl shared three key conversations that can change the course of your life and give you peace: Talk with your brothers and sisters in ways that bring unity (Phil.4:2-3); Talk with God in ways that release you from anxiousness (Phil.4:4-7); Talk with yourself in ways that bring gratitude and peace (Phil.4:8-9).  God is providential, omnipotent, and sovereign...He promises peace.  Our special guest was J. Warner Wallace.  He is a Dateline featured cold-case homicide detective, speaker, and best-selling author, including his book, "Cold-Case Christianity".  As a former atheist, he shared his powerful testimony and the importance of knowing our identity in Christ, which leads to peace.  You can hear the highlights of today's program on the Karl and Crew Showcast.

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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 Carl and crew helping you take your next step
with Jesus. We've got. We got a day to day, man.
I'm going to start this thing out of the chute. Hot.
You guys ever had piece ripped off from you or
feel like it's elusive?

S3 (00:24):
Yeah, absolutely.

S4 (00:25):
Of course.

S2 (00:27):
What are the situations in your life? What are the
situations in your life that seem to rob peace from you?
I'm not wanting gory details. I don't need you guys
to do that. But generally speaking, what can rob peace?

S5 (00:41):
Family situations.

S2 (00:42):
Family's huge, isn't it?

S5 (00:44):
Big?

S3 (00:44):
Big? Yeah I think, uh, identity anxiety. Yeah.

S5 (00:49):
Work.

S2 (00:50):
What do you mean by that?

S3 (00:51):
So I think that there's a lot of anxiety about
that out there about who we are. I, you know,
I'm so messed up from this. You know, I've experienced this,
and it affects me today. We don't know who we are,
and it makes us anxious.

S2 (01:06):
Yeah, we can look at our life and we can
see things that have happened in the past. And we're like,
who just could be, in our own estimation, a trail
of tears. It's unredeemable. How in the world is God
going to pull anything out of the ashes here?

S3 (01:20):
Or someone spoken a word to you that that is
horrible and untrue, and now you can't get that word
out of your head and they go, oh, that person
was right. I am this. And it's like, no.

S2 (01:31):
Yeah, we can face issues at work, at home, even
in the neighborhood that it's like, boy, there's a situation
dangling out here. I don't know what to do with it.
And sometimes it's a situation beyond our control. Yes. And
it's something being foisted on us. And it can just
rob us of peace, rip us off. One of the

(01:53):
biggest peace robbers I ever had in my life hit me.
Just blindsided. I can't get into too many details except
to say it was about oh goodness sakes, I've been
saying 15 years ago now forever, but probably 16, 17
years ago. And it was it was one of the
most brutal piece robbers you can ever have in your life. And,

(02:17):
you know, the interesting thing about betrayal is that the
guy on the street can't betray you, right?

S3 (02:22):
Yeah.

S2 (02:23):
Because only someone who has close proximity can betray you, right?
Somebody out on the street can say something about you.
The way you look, the way you walk, the way
you talk. Whatever. But that's not betrayal.

S3 (02:36):
No, there's no trust.

S2 (02:37):
There's no trust that's been built in order for betrayal
to happen. But I went through a season where a
couple of guys that I really put my full faith
and trust in. And by the way, some of you
might say, well, there's the problem. You got to put
your full faith and trust in God. Yes and no.

(02:58):
We may put our trust in people all the time
for partnerships, for marriage, totally. For teachers of our kids
at school, we put our trust in them. I mean,
government officials wink, wink. We put our trust in them.

S5 (03:12):
A certain degree, of.

S2 (03:12):
Course. So we entrust ourselves to people all the time
or trust people all the time. In fact, there's a
there's a key word there. Who do we entrust ourselves to?
It has to be God. And that's part of the solution.
But we put a level of trust in people. And
then when you find that something you shared or something
that you've lived or that something is that is said

(03:35):
about you is untrue, and you got a fork hanging
out of your back. One day when you wake up,
oh my goodness, it can steal peace. When a friend
does you wrong with someone you've trusted, truly does you wrong.
It can really Rob you of peace can steal it.

(03:57):
The myth we want to debunk today is I can't
find peace. Peace can seem so elusive, and it's always
going to be at risk. There's no way there aren't
peace robbers out there waiting for you today. It's in

(04:17):
the world system that we live in. Yep. Things can
rob us of peace. It's in our own flesh. Things
that we do that can steal peace from us. That's
where we look at ourselves going. Oh, man, I'm so.
I'm such an idiot. I'm never going to break loose
from these patterns in my life. And Satan's constantly setting

(04:40):
traps and saying things to you that rob peace left,
right and center today. And I don't know how much
ground we're going to make in any segment, one segment
or half hour today, but we're going to cover some ground.
There are three conversations that can change the course of
your life and give you peace. Three conversations, three conversations.

(05:04):
And it covers every aspect of life, these three conversations.
And I'm not overpromising. It comes right from the book
of Philippians. It's one of the most beautiful aha moments.
And you might have come here today and very candidly,
you feel like, man, Carl, peace is so elusive for me.

(05:27):
I mean, God promises peace, but it seems so far away.
Peace is a fruit of the spirit, and I'm abiding
in Christ. But where's the peace here? We're just going
to focus on peace. Because when peace is missing, everything

(05:48):
seems to be falling down. Isn't peace one of the
greatest commodities we can possibly have in this world? Give
me a little peace. Yeah, we'd buy it, wouldn't we?

S5 (05:58):
Oh, absolutely. And especially in some situations when you have
that peace. Others come up to you and go, well,
I don't get it.

S2 (06:05):
Especially if they know a situation you're going through.

S5 (06:08):
Is very heavy. Exactly. Like, how are you dealing with how.

S2 (06:11):
How does that.

S5 (06:12):
Happen? Yeah.

S2 (06:12):
Yeah. Coming up here, we're going to talk about the
first conversation that can change the course of your life
and bring you peace. Some of you are down a
path that just is robbing peace from you at every corner.
What if I told you Scripture is clear that there
are three conversations that can change the course of your life,

(06:36):
and you don't have to say any longer, I can't
find peace. We're going to be breaking it down for
you this morning. And I know some of you did.
You came here today going, boy. Carl, if I could
just find a little bit of peace here, life would
be so much different. It can be. God's word is
just loaded with hope. Hang on.

S1 (06:56):
You're listening to Curl and Crew on Moody Radio.

S2 (07:00):
One of the key things to experiencing peace is understanding
who in the world you are in Christ, your identity.
There's a lot of discussion about identity in this world
that we live in today, for sure, and a lot
of people think that they can't choose or settle in
on their true identity, but that's simply a falsehood. God
wants you to get anchored in who you are in

(07:21):
Jesus later on this hour. J Warner Wallace is going
to be with us here. Cold case, homicide detective, turned
full blown theologian, theologian, apologist and radical Jesus follower.

S5 (07:33):
You can't even write that.

S2 (07:34):
I mean, what a great dude, huh?

S5 (07:36):
Right.

S2 (07:36):
What a great.

S5 (07:37):
Man. Good friend of the show.

S2 (07:38):
I mean, been on Dateline, so you're going to hear
his voice and go, I've heard that voice. Yeah, you've
heard it before. Imagine those spending all your time doing
cold case detective work.

S5 (07:50):
That's heavy. Heavy talk about peace. Talk about peace in
your head.

S2 (07:54):
Yeah. This is why his radical transformation. Not as a
young man or in Sunday school, but later on in life,
proved to be one of the biggest transformative things that
he could have ever imagined. And he's going to be
here with us today. I can't find peace. Is that
myth that needs to be debunked? You may not have

(08:17):
it for a moment, so I want I don't want
to diminish the lack of peace. Anxiousness is a very
real thing. And the reason we know it's going to
be real, even for followers of Jesus. And praise God,
we don't have to paste on the fake fruit of peace.
Have you ever tried to do that where it's like
you're going through an anxious moment and like, give me
a plastic banana of peace over here.

S5 (08:36):
It's fine.

S2 (08:39):
You guys nailed it, man.

S3 (08:40):
Yeah, it's fine, it's fine. Don't worry about it. Just
push it off. Yeah. Don't think about it.

S5 (08:45):
Just keep swimming.

S2 (08:46):
You guys never do that, do you?

S3 (08:48):
No, never. Of course. Yes, I do it.

S5 (08:49):
No. I'm fine, I'm good. Yeah. Never.

S2 (08:54):
It's a dangerous thing. Three conversations we want to cover
this morning. I don't know, let's cover one of them
right now. Spend some time here before the bottom of
the hour. Really covering something here. Three conversations that can
change the course of your life and really bring you peace.
It's a fascinating storyline here in Philippians four, he got

(09:15):
he got two ladies in Philippi who are at odds
with one another. And this is what Paul says. I
entreat Euodia and Syntyche to agree in the Lord. How
in the world did they make it into this letter?
I'm going to explain that in just a moment. Yes.
I ask you also, true companion, help these women who
have labored side by side with me in the gospel,

(09:38):
together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers
whose names are in the book of life. So Paul's
interrupting this incredible book to really talk about as we're
going to unfold here today, three conversations that can change
the course of life and give you peace. So the
backstory on Aotea and Syntyche is that we don't know
much at all.

S5 (09:59):
Yeah, no.

S2 (09:59):
Because they're introduced right here.

S5 (10:01):
And then out of nowhere.

S3 (10:02):
And it's gone pretty quickly.

S2 (10:04):
Yeah, it's in and out. So here's the cool little
insight that we can get. Euodia and Syntyche were obviously
partners in the gospel at such a level that if
they didn't have peace in their relationship, it was going
to have ripple effects throughout the church of Philippi.

S5 (10:22):
Right? You see that and feel that.

S2 (10:25):
And there's another player here, and we don't even know
who it is. Yes. I ask you also, true companion,
help these women who have labored side by side with
me in the gospel. We don't know who this is.
We don't know if this is Timothy. We don't know
if we don't know if this is Luke. We don't
know who in the world this is. All we know
is that these women are at odds with one another. Now,

(10:46):
if you do a deeper dive on Scripture, I'm absolutely
convinced that this wasn't a big deal that had caused
a divide here, because if it was, it had been
a theological issue, something of substance that it would have
been it would have been much different for Paul. He
would have been writing.

S5 (11:05):
Oh, he'd been right there.

S2 (11:06):
One of you or one of you are writing heresy
or speaking heresy, and or both of you have bailed
on the truth of the gospel. No, he's just saying,
I entreat Euodia, and I entreat Syntyche. So he's entreating
them both. This is very interesting. By the way, I'm
talking to you both here to agree in the Lord. Yes.

(11:28):
I ask you also, true companion, help these women who
have labored side by side with me in the gospel,
together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers
whose names are in the book of life. What's he
helping them to do? He's helping them to find peace.
There is something that has caused a divide. And here's
the amazing thing about relationships that rob peace from you

(11:50):
and cause you to say, I can't find peace with
this person. I can't find peace with someone, particularly in
the body of Christ, because this is why it's so important.
The body of Christ are closer relationships than even our
blood relatives. That's what Jesus said. Who's your sisters? Brothers? Mothers? Fathers? Who? Aunts? Uncles?

(12:13):
Who are they? Aren't they of the household of faith? Yes. Why?
Because we are knit together. Not by common earthly blood,
but by spiritual blood. The blood of Jesus Christ. He
brings us together so that unity is almost more important
than getting sideways with family. Even though family can wreck
your heart. We're going to talk about that today. So

(12:36):
it was probably a little thing. And this is just
like marriage. And you might be in a marriage right
now where you're going. We don't have peace. So the
application point here is real for you as well. If
you got two people that are in the Lord and
you're finding a wall between you, here's what I've found
many years of ministry. It's usually not the big things

(12:59):
that divide. It's a little brick, little brick, little brick
of little stuff that creates a wall of divide. That's
what does it. Coming up here in three minutes. What
in the world is the principle here that we find
in this text that peace seems elusive for you now
with someone. What does it mean to find peace in

(13:24):
the Lord? Let's break it down. Straight ahead.

S1 (13:27):
He's a sports fanatic with a stat for anything you
can think of. Young Thunder is in the crew. It's
Carl and crew on Moody Radio.

S2 (13:37):
Today we're tackling the myths. I can't find peace. And
sometimes the biggest peace robbers are in relationships, even those
in the body of Christ. This is a big one. Why?
Because we need each other in Christ more than almost
biological family. That's very true. We know what it is

(13:57):
to lack peace with regard to where our kids are at,
where a spouse is at, and all these different relationships
that we have. And we're going to get into that today.
But one of the three conversations that can bring peace
to you and change the course of your life is
this talk with your brothers and sisters in ways that
bring unity. It doesn't mean that whatever caused Euodia and

(14:22):
Syntyche to not have agreement, you just kind of brush
that under the rug. It's the bigger yes. You know,
there's a character trait in Scripture that we're called to
use constantly, and that is forbearance. Forbearance says just because
you do something differently than me, just because you set

(14:43):
up the info kiosk differently than me at church, just
because you put the sugars by the coffee's a little
bit differently than I would. Doesn't mean we need to
have a problem here.

S3 (14:53):
That's very correct. And I think sometimes we can miss that.

S5 (14:57):
It's fairly true to.

S2 (14:58):
The things that divide us in spiritual relationships are usually
not big theological things. They're usually stylistic more than they
are substantive.

S3 (15:08):
Yeah. Yeah, I would agree because I mean, largely in
your faith based community, there are going to be the
majority of people who theologically agree with you on the
most important things, the the dogma, which is the gospel. Uh,
you know, the things that cannot be changed or disagreed
upon and still be okay. So every most people agree

(15:31):
on those things in your community. However, preferential stuff is
the stuff that sometimes we feel the most emotionally charged
to because we have this grip on it, this hold
on it, that it has to be this way or
I like this the best. And we kind of interpret
that as it has to be this way.

S2 (15:48):
It's my way or the highway, brother or sister. And
here's what Paul says to Euodia and Syntyche. He says,
I entreat you both to agree in the Lord, and
you've got to ask, what in the world is that?
I think there's forbearance there, for sure, but all you
have to do is look back two chapters. And when

(16:09):
I was doing a deep dive on this text a
couple of weeks ago, this is what you find. Have
this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who,
though he was in the form of God, did not
count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but
emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being
born in the likeness of man and being formed. Being

(16:32):
found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death, even death on the cross.
The preeminent characteristic that can bring some peace into your
life is to begin to have conversations with brothers and sisters.

(16:53):
In a way that makes Christ central. Agree in the Lord.
You notice what Paul's saying here. He doesn't say, come
to agreement about all the details of what's got you
all messed up, ladies?

S3 (17:06):
Yeah, one of you better submit and agree to the
other person's opinion.

S2 (17:09):
You know what he's saying? It's the greater good. It's
the bigger. Yes, it's the yes. And some of you
right now when I'm saying this, you're going, oh, boy,
you're right. I'm all hung up on the handlebars of
a stylistic thing or a way they do something, or
the way they didn't talk to me or the way
they did talk to me. What if, instead of me

(17:32):
getting piece robbed, I have a conversation that says, let's
come back to the Lord and maybe you don't say
it to the other person. You just exhibit it and say,
I'm going to take the posture of humility. It's not
my way or the highway. I know there's differences in
the body of Christ. Have you ever noticed how different

(17:53):
we are, guys?

S3 (17:54):
Very. I mean, we're all unique people.

S5 (17:57):
For a purpose and a reason.

S3 (17:59):
You got a family of six and you got six
completely different people. It's a bigger. It's a bigger group.

S2 (18:05):
And their family is six. You at least have same
family of origin kind of issues that you can all
relate to. But when you've got like we have downtown,
our downtown campus has 22 languages spoken at it. Do you.

S5 (18:16):
Know beautiful.

S2 (18:17):
Do you know how much potential there is for conflict?
Goodness sakes. Cultural differences. But when we agree in the Lord,
we're taking on a posture of humility. It's not my
way or the highway, and I just appeal to you today.
One conversation that can give you peace and change the

(18:40):
course of your life is talked with your brothers in
a way that bring unity, and it's usually through humility.
Choose it today. And I'm telling you, peace is right
around the corner. Think about that person or persons you
felt something for. A little forbearance goes a long way.

(19:02):
Humility takes it over the top. Live it today, guys.

S1 (19:07):
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 (19:17):
The tongue is a powerful thing, isn't it? Oh, boy.

S3 (19:20):
Man. No doubt.

S2 (19:20):
What we speak, what we say matters. The most comprehensive,
the most comprehensive teaching in all the scriptures on the
tongue is in the book of James, chapter three, verses
one through 13. I'm almost inclined to read this whole thing.
Let me grab let me grab chunks of it here.

(19:43):
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for
you know that we who teach will be judged with
greater strictness. So here's the deal. James says, we all
stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble
in what he says, he's a perfect man, able to
bridle his whole body. If you can get the tongue
under control, you got everything cooking here. He goes on.

(20:07):
If we put bits into the mouths of horses so
that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Boy,
that's a great metaphor. Look at the ships also. I've
seen some big boys, Though they are so large and
driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very
small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. It's

(20:27):
true guys, I've seen some of the. When I commercial
fished in Alaska for eight seasons, we would go deliver
our salmon to tenders. Okay, so if you've ever seen
the crabbers on The Deadliest Catch. Yeah. So like high
spirits and all these different boats, I've been in the

(20:47):
kitchen galley. That's what they're called of a good number
of those boats on Deadliest Catch. Those boats have been
around a long time. And those boats in crab season,
Deadliest Catch, they're out there in the high seas of
the Bering Sea, just getting tossed about to and fro.
But in the summer months, they come in and they collect.

(21:09):
They're the intermediary between our little 32 foot gillnetters, and
we're putting anywhere from 5 to £25,000 pounds of salmon
on our boat, and then we go deliver them. And
they're in big trailers. They're called their big old nets.
When you pull up alongside these tenders, they gather them up,
pick it up. And that's this is the fun part
because there's a scale at the bottom of the picking hook.

(21:32):
Oh cool. So it's a big digital scale. And they
pick up that trailer. And I would always guess how
many pounds are in those trailers. They'd be 2 to 3, three,
£4,000 of fish in one day.

S5 (21:44):
Wow.

S2 (21:45):
One net. So they pick it up and it's like £3,200. Yes.
And I'm doing the math in my head because that
was that was big dollars for a kid.

S3 (21:54):
Pounds to dollars.

S2 (21:55):
Oh, it was big, big dollars. But then those tenders
would take those fish from that tender to a larger ship.
And these were they were called Trampers. They were converted
World War Two ships that the Japanese had. So these
were ships that were used against us once upon a time.

(22:17):
Now they're converted into refrigeration processing ships. So then the
the the fish get taken from those tenders in huge
batches over to these Japanese trawlers. And here's these guys, man.
They it was great. I got invited up on one
one time and this was before I was saved. So

(22:37):
they introduced me to Saki, which is bad news. It's
just poison. Clear poison is what it is. Oh my goodness.
And seaweed and all kinds of goodies. And I couldn't
speak their language, but we spoke the language of food
really well.

S5 (22:50):
Something was spoken there for sure.

S2 (22:52):
So. But here's what's funny. The the tides were so
huge in Bristol Bay that at times these huge Japanese
trawlers would get beached and the waters would go out.
And here's the entire ship on a beachhead out of
the water. And then you'd look down and the point
is you'd look down at the rudder and you're like, man,

(23:13):
I mean, the rudder is big, but when you've got
a ship that's 350ft long and I don't know how
many tons, and you've got a piece of metal that's
like six feet by eight feet. That's steering it, right.

S3 (23:25):
Oh, it's tiny comparatively to the ship.

S5 (23:27):
Yeah, well, that controls it. Exactly.

S2 (23:30):
Yeah. Now, Paul didn't see the same ships I did,
but he's or James, the brother of Jesus. But they
still had that going on.

S3 (23:37):
Absolutely.

S2 (23:37):
And so he goes on, he says, man, these ships
are guided by very small rudder where wherever the will
of the pilot directs. So also is the tongue a
small member? Yet it boasts of great things. And then
it goes on to talk about forests set ablaze by
a small fire. In this this tongue is a fire,

(24:01):
a world of unrighteousness. And he goes on to explain
this with it we bless our Lord, and with it
we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.
And then he says these words in verse 13, who
is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct,
let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom,

(24:22):
meaning wise people get their tongues under control. This morning
we're talking about three conversations that can change the course
of your life and give you peace. And for some
of you, the myth that we're debunking today is very pointed.
I can't find peace, Carl. I can't find peace. Coming

(24:48):
up here, I'm going to tackle the second conversation that
can change the course of your life. It's all hinges
in God's providence, omnipotence, and sovereignty. We'll give you the
whole thing straight ahead.

S1 (25:02):
Your shot of hope to help you through the day.
This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.

S2 (25:09):
Sometimes we start believing this myth that I just can't
find peace. I can't find it. I don't want you
to beat yourself up. Sometimes the absence of peace is
the presence of incredible heartache. God's not asking you to
wave a magic wand over your life, but really, conversations

(25:31):
that we have, three of them that we're covering here
today can bring peace when it seems elusive. And I
promise you that I do. You know. You ever see.
Now you're talking. We all do, don't we? Now you're.

S5 (25:45):
Talking. Oh, yeah.

S2 (25:46):
Isn't that a common phrase? Let me. Let me tell you.
Let me tell you. When I say now you're talking.
Let me give you a couple. When my bride says,
let's go to Napoli, I'm like, now you're talking. Yeah.
Napoli has got the real pizza. Real pizza is thin
crust from Sicily, I think. Right.

S5 (26:05):
I mean, careful.

S2 (26:06):
No, I'm going to go for it all, you deep crushers.
Uh uh, all the thick pi pi people, all that stuff. No,
I'm a Napoleon patootie. I get a diavola with extra diavola,
which is just a classic pepperoni pizza. I love it.
It's so good I can polish off one whole thing myself.

(26:26):
No problem. So when my bride says, want to go
to Napoli, I'm like, now you're talking.

S3 (26:32):
Came from Naples, Italy.

S2 (26:33):
Naples. Okay, there we go.

S3 (26:34):
Not Florida. Italy?

S2 (26:37):
Yes.

S5 (26:39):
Thank you.

S3 (26:39):
Just making sure.

S2 (26:40):
Maybe there's a pizza joint in Naples, Florida.

S3 (26:42):
There probably.

S5 (26:43):
Is.

S3 (26:44):
There's a Little Caesars.

S5 (26:45):
A good one. Oh, no.

S2 (26:48):
Don't even get me going there. I'm not even going
to go there. Okay. So when do you say. Now
you're talking. Come on.

S3 (26:55):
Oh, man. Uh, now I'm talking. Probably.

S2 (26:58):
Now you're talking. Yeah. So someone else says something to you.
You go. Now you're talking.

S3 (27:02):
Uh, so the food thing. Definitely. My wife says, hey,
you want to get chick fil A tonight? That would
be mine.

S2 (27:07):
Oh my word.

S3 (27:08):
Oh, yeah. You're. Now you're talking.

S2 (27:09):
You're easily pleased.

S3 (27:10):
That's good. I am easily pleased.

S2 (27:12):
Uh, chick fil A is good, though.

S3 (27:13):
Or, uh, you know, when when the bears quarterback throws
a deep touchdown pass. That's probably my. Yeah. Sports related
for me. That's that's a big one.

S2 (27:22):
You two. Super day.

S5 (27:23):
Yeah. Sports related. That kind of thing with the Cubs.
Now you're talking. Come on. Yeah.

S2 (27:27):
When the Cubs. Sorry, I'm in Chicago here for all
you fans everywhere else. When the Cubs management before the
trading deadline gets three new pitchers. Yes. Two relievers and
one one starter. Now you're talking. They haven't done it yet.
But I'll be. I'll be doing it. I'll be saying.
Now you're.

S5 (27:45):
Talking. That's right.

S2 (27:46):
Now you're talking. That's right. It's it's funny because what
we say matters.

S3 (27:52):
Yes.

S2 (27:54):
And there's three conversations that can change the course of
your life and give you peace covering the second one. Now,
talk with God in ways that release you from anxiousness.
Look at what Paul says here. Rejoice in the Lord always.
Again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known

(28:15):
to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be
anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will

(28:35):
guard actually a better word. Translated there is garrison. It's
not just guard. It's not like you got a little
foam thing up in front of you here. It's like
there's this fortress of God's power. It will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So what does
this mean? I mean, what's it mean? Well, this conversation

(28:59):
with God, talking with God in ways that releases you
from anxiousness is embedded right here. We'll break it down
straight ahead.

S1 (29:09):
Get to know the team behind the scenes. Follow Carl
and crew on Facebook and Instagram.

S2 (29:15):
Covering three conversations that can change the course of your
life and bring deep peace. We're in the second conversation.
Talk with God in ways that release you from anxiousness.
There's a peace in this. Before I get into who
in the world we're talking to, because I think prayer
sometimes is feeling like I've got to speak some words

(29:35):
about something that stealing peace from me. And if I
speak these words, then the magic sauce is then I'm
going to have peace. And we sometimes wonder, well, what's
the gap? And this is where we got to understand
who we're talking to. But there's one aspect in here
of thankfulness that you want to spike Young Thunder.

S3 (29:54):
Yeah, I love this because I think back to my
time where I was in the church but didn't know Christ.
And if I read this verse at this time, I
would have thought something because, uh, Paul says here in
verse six, do not be anxious about anything, but in
everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known to God. So we're talking to God
about what makes us anxious, asking him for what we need,

(30:17):
but also in thanksgiving. And I would have read that
and probably thought like, that's a weird kind of power
trip thing that like, oh, I've gotta, I've gotta make
sure I say my thank yous to God. Otherwise, you know,
he's not going to hear my stuff or hear my requests.
And and that's not what this is about at all.
God is is telling us to talk to him in

(30:37):
thankfulness for our benefit. Because I was thinking about this, um,
gratitude allows us to remember what God has done for
us in the past and his faithfulness for us today.
So I thought about it.

S2 (30:53):
It's not a weird oh, thank you.

S3 (30:54):
You better.

S2 (30:55):
That's in a void of any experience.

S3 (30:57):
No. Absolutely not. And I think about it this way.
My wife does so much for our family. Uh, a
little synopsis of her day is that she gets up
early in the morning, uh, 640, 7:00, and immediately my
daughter is up and she's taking care of my daughter.
So it's immediate sacrifice playing with her, feeding her, taking
her on a walk. And then once she gets her

(31:19):
down for her afternoon nap, I come home from work
and she starts work. Then she works through the afternoon.
And once she's done working, she gets to making dinner. And.
But my daughter hasn't seen her all day. So now
she wants. My daughter wants her to hold her. So
she's holding my daughter and making dinner at the same time. Hey, dad.
Can't take Ellie away from from her mom. That's just
not gonna happen. And so. So she's doing all this,

(31:40):
and then. And then we go out on a walk together,
and we're doing family time, and then we put our
daughter down, and it's a couple hours together before I
gotta go to bed and wake up early the next day.
But she's focused on me. And how can she connect
with me? How can she take care of me? Because
I've had a long day and she wants to do
that if I don't thank her, I will in my own,
in my own human nature, forget all of the things

(32:02):
that she's done for me in a day. But when
I say, you know what, Shannon, thank you so much
for how you've served today. I remember everything, and and
that's what God wants. He says, thank because you will
remember how I've been faithful to you, and then you
will know and be able to trust that I will
be faithful to you again in what you're asking me

(32:23):
for right now.

S2 (32:23):
Awesome. Beautiful. Now. Shannon has great capability.

S3 (32:32):
Yes.

S2 (32:33):
She's an amazing woman of God. I love your bride.
But even Shannon comes short of God.

S3 (32:41):
Of course. Right? Yeah.

S2 (32:43):
When we're talking with God, there's three things I want
you to remember. God's providence, his omnipotence, and his sovereignty.
Providence of God means that he is actively involved in
governing details of the universe in your life to fulfill
his purposes, and they're always good and wise. Boom! Anchor it.

(33:04):
He's providential. He's omnipotent. His power is infinite. His ability
to create, sustain, and act in any way miracles of redemption.
All these things that he orders in our life. And
he works outside the sphere of humankind so he can
rearrange things that are not bound by the limits of

(33:25):
what we can do. That's his power. And then his sovereignty.
He has supreme authority over everything. Nothing happens outside his control.
When we begin to talk with God in ways that
we know his providence, his omnipotence, his sovereignty, we can

(33:47):
pray with thankfulness because we've seen him work back here,
and he will work again. And all of a sudden
when we lay it down at the foot of the cross,
we go, I can have peace. Now, here's here's a
big deal, guys, I want you to know that I
haven't always prayed in a way that brings peace. What
do I mean? Even for many years as a pastor,

(34:10):
I saw prayer as far too perfunctory. It's just something
we do. Being honest with you here. But when I
began to pray, knowing God pulls the levers of things
that are concerning me today, and then I truly, in humility,
laid them down at the cross. And I began to

(34:31):
see God work. And I listened to his spirit, and
I began to watch. What in the world is he
orchestrating here? Unbelievable. To the point where I know this
is something that you want and I want to tell you.
It can be yours. I pray with expectation, Confidence and
peace like never before in my life. It's the craziest thing.

(34:55):
I can look over this last week and I can
see God's hand moving. Sometimes God's hand not moving. And
the benefit of that.

S3 (35:04):
Yeah.

S2 (35:06):
And I don't know what you're up against today, but
I want you to know our God is a God
of providence. Our God is a God of omnipotence. Our
God is a God of sovereignty. Our God moves. And
when we pray, he takes it. And I don't know
what you're up against today, but I know this for sure.
Talk with God in ways that trust his providence. Trust

(35:28):
his power, trust his sovereignty. And then I want you
to live with your head on a swivel and look
at what God is doing today. I am asking you
taste and see that the Lord is good. Watch what
happens today.

S1 (35:46):
A basketball mom who's mastered the dad joke. Ali is
in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.

S2 (35:55):
I'm reminded of the fact that Jesus said, go talk
to your father. He wants to give you good things.
He knows your heart. He says, what kind of a
earthly dad? If you ask for bread, he's going to
give you a stone, right? Now, some of you have
some horrendous upbringings, and I get that, and that taints

(36:16):
your view of God. But take it from me with
my dad, when I would ask my dad, I remember
one time working on a go cart, I was driving,
I was going crazy. I couldn't get the wheel on
the axle, I couldn't get the keeper key to work
or anything like that. And I said, dad, now this
is what I said, hey dad, I'm in the garage.

(36:38):
I got a problem with my go kart. And you
know what he said? Oh, hang on, son, I'll be
right now. And he comes down and he goes, well,
let's look at this here. Let's pick this axle up.
Let's put this here. And oh you got a little
sticking point here. Grab that rubber mallet off the workbench.
Grab that rubber mallet. He goes look at this. Bang
bang bang. Tap that in. Let's get that keeper key

(36:59):
right there. Okay, we got it I said thanks, dad.
Now you know what Jesus said. If our father in heaven,
you you being earthly, are so imperfect. Dads. What? Jesus
says with absolute confidence. How much better is it to
take these requests to God? And there's some of you that,

(37:21):
as Sam Storms reminded us a couple of weeks ago,
I remember this, he said, and I bottom lined him.
I said, so, Sam, what you're saying is some things,
some answered prayers are going to be left on the
table here on earth because we've not given them to God.
And he said, yeah, so I don't want you to

(37:41):
leave things on the table. I want you to come
and get these blessings from God. He's providential. He orders
the affairs of this world. He's omnipotent. He has power
to move in people or situations like you can't move
and he's sovereign. He orders all these things. Nothing happens
apart from his ultimate will. Even the attacks of Satan

(38:02):
on your life. But God is greater.

S3 (38:05):
Yeah, and you know what? He cares. He cares about you.
In this verse that we're reading from Philippians four verse six,
you know, it says, do not be anxious about anything,
but that's not the first part of the sentence. That
first part of the sentence, actually in verse five where
it says, the Lord is at hand. Do not be
anxious about anything. Yeah. I've, I've done a little bit

(38:25):
of research on this and that Lord is at hand.
More likely means that the Lord is near. The Lord
is near to you. Do not be anxious about anything.
He's close. He wants to grab you up, hold you
and hear what you have to say.

S2 (38:39):
Hand it to him.

S3 (38:40):
Hand it to him.

S2 (38:41):
Ask him for help.

S3 (38:43):
Yeah, he's right there.

S2 (38:44):
And I can't get into deep weeds. Of all the
answered prayers that I've seen just in the last week.
But I can tell you this right now. You pour
your heart out before God and don't prescribe how it's
going to go. But tell him, all right? This is
the thing that's got me wigged out right now. God,
could you come help me? And he's not going to

(39:07):
throw a stone down the staircase. When you've asked for
a loaf of bread, he's going to come down. He's
going to say, let me help you on this one, kid.
We got this thing. Here's what's beautiful about beginning to
pray to a God who can move outside the sphere

(39:28):
of human realm and reorder things. When you see God
answer one prayer that you've truly released to him because
he's near, you will now have an attitude of Thanksgiving
because you've seen him move in the past and he
will move again. I'm telling you, my bride and I
are praying with expectation like never before, not presumption, but

(39:51):
with expectation that he's going to move like never before
in our lives. And I want you to begin to
move that muscle of prayer. But it's got to have
that backdrop of our God is good, our God is loving.
He's at hand. He can move outside the realm of
what you can see, touch and move. Think about that

(40:12):
wayward kid that you have. Think about that wayward spouse
that you have. Think about that wayward grandkid that you
have right now. You want a real practical prayer. God,
according to John 14, trouble their hearts to the point
where they say, I believe in God. I believe in Jesus.

(40:32):
Bring them. Give them no joy in being off in Antioch.
That's parable, the wayward son. Give him no joy with
the lights of the city and the stuff of this world.
God let everything that they're tapping into and spending money
on come up empty. Have I seen that prayer answered?

(40:53):
You better believe it. It's almost eerie. My bride and
I were at a Cubs game and she was talking
with someone, and we got up and left the Cubs game.
We'd been praying for this person. She goes, bub, we're
walking out. She goes, bub, you won't believe it. I'm
sitting there listening to this girl talk back to me.

(41:17):
And she goes, that's an answered prayer. That's an answered prayer.
That's she counted ten things that she said at this
Cubs game. This girl is repeating back to her things
that were answers to prayer.

S5 (41:29):
Wow.

S2 (41:30):
Directly from the hand of God. Believe it. Guys.

S1 (41:34):
Tune in whenever you like. Check out the Carl and
Crew podcast wherever you like to stream.

S2 (41:40):
So there's three conversations that can change the course of
your life. They are as real as real can be.
They're right here in Philippians chapter four. We've been breaking
them down for you today. We're on the third conversation.
And this is this is a little bit wild, but
it's absolutely true to the scriptures. Talk with yourself in
ways that bring gratitude and peace. Look at what we

(42:03):
find Paul saying here. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever
is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is commendable. Boy, he's covering some ground here, huh?
If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy

(42:23):
of praise, think about these things. What you have learned
and received and heard and seen in me. Practice these things,
and the God of peace will be with you. Now
it's more than just thinking the word for think. And
just take this one for instance. The word Hagar in
the Old Testament is often translated meditate. So you find

(42:48):
Hagar in Psalm one one through three. Meditate on the
law day and night and meditate on it, and you
will be like a tree planted by streams of water.
Your leaf will never wither, and all you do, you
will prosper. Joshua one. We find you going to the
new land. You meditate on the law day and night.
You will have success and prosperity wherever you go. You

(43:08):
know what the the Hebrew word Hagar means? It means
to mutter, moan, shout, scream, sing. Isn't that fascinating?

S5 (43:15):
I love.

S2 (43:15):
That. Oftentimes we just go, I'm just going to think
about it. What if you spoke it out? And so
here we find whatever is true, honorable, whatever is just,
whatever is pure, whatever is lovely. This is so important.
Here's the point. Talk with yourself in ways that bring
gratitude and peace. And I just want to spike this

(43:35):
with a really practical exercise that some of you can
do today. And I want to give you permission. Turn
off Carl and crew if you have to, because this
is a good tool. For a number of years, my
bride has done something that is so cool when I
get up early in the morning. Early. My bride's up

(43:59):
right behind me and she opens up a journal and
she writes, you know what it is? It's a gratitude journal.

S6 (44:06):
I love that.

S2 (44:07):
She writes and writes and writes. And one day I thought,
what in the world is she writing about? And then
it dawned on me, oh, she's married to me. It's
a joke. I thought, she's going on. I've even teased
her like that. Boy, you must be writing about me again, huh?
And she goes, knock it off, you crazy person. But she.
She does.

S3 (44:28):
Sure.

S2 (44:29):
Write out gratitude. And here's what this has done. She
went through a time where she says, man, I was
suffering from deep, dark night of the soul. And she
heard a great talk on brain science, how God's wired
us and what gratitude can do to change all your circumstances.

(44:50):
And here's the bottom line for you. You got to
begin to talk with yourself in ways that bring gratitude
and peace. I know you're going through something that's got
you in the soup, but you know what? If you
start going, huh? What's true, what's honorable, what's just, what's pure,

(45:11):
what's lovely, what's commendable, what's excellent? Is there anything worthy
of praise? Think about these things Paul says. Yeah. And
you know what the peace of God will be with you.
It's time to start having conversations with yourself about what's

(45:33):
going good out there.

S3 (45:34):
Absolutely. And listen, you like you're talking about having the
word in you to the point where you can speak
it out. We can't think about what is good, honorable, pure,
praiseworthy if we don't take it in. We have to
take in the word. We have to take in what
is good in order to have thoughts about what is good,

(45:55):
and then in order to think about what is.

S2 (45:57):
Yeah. And practically speaking, you can get up this morning
and you can look at yesterday. And by the way,
you do these crazy gratitude exercises. What's wild about them
is that we did this at Thanksgiving as a family
one year, and it had us all in tears. We
were going through a tough season, but we stopped to go,
all right, what can we thank God for? We started

(46:18):
going around the table, guys, pretty quick. We got tears
of joy. All four of us son, daughter, mom, dad
and we got tears coming down our face because we're like,
you know, there's so much soup that's got garbage in it.
But if you weed through it, get the shells out
you go. Wow, look at this. Look at this, look
at this. It'll change the whole perspective on your day,

(46:40):
your life, and maybe the very course that you're carving here.

S5 (46:45):
Absolutely. And the thing is, you're thinking Journal. It can be.
Just wake up this morning, think of three things. Just
start small. Three things. I woke up this morning. I
have provisions this morning. I got a warm bed this morning.
Start there. Yeah.

S2 (46:58):
You might. And then some might say the bed was
too warm. Make it colder tomorrow. But you had a bed.
You had a you had a bed. Find something to
give God praise for what is excellent that he has done.
Bank on it. Sit on that one today. And the
God of peace is going to guard your heart in
Christ Jesus. Guys.

S1 (47:18):
Walking closer to Jesus every day. You're listening to Carl
and crew.

S2 (47:26):
Gratitude is an amazing thing and it's a powerful tool.
Apostle Paul goes to great lengths to illustrate how powerful
this is. He says, listen, brothers, which, by the way,
is the original Greek word there indicates it's anthropo, meaning
brothers and sisters. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true,

(47:50):
whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure. But wait,
there's more. Whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable. There's even more.
If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy
of praise, think about these things. What you have learned
and received and heard and seen in me. Practice these things,

(48:10):
and the God of peace will be with you. Paul did.
We can as well. It's a powerful discipline taking your calls.
We've had some wacky doodle phone situations here. I know
taking your calls and we had some of you even
screened and we lost you. So give us a call,
use the gratitude journal. And it's been changing your life.

(48:31):
800 555 7898 800 555 7898. Jeannie. First time caller
in Florida. What's your story, Jeannie?

S7 (48:42):
Hi. Uh, yeah. So I've been doing a gratitude list
for years. Every morning I'm in a 12 step program,
and I learned to do this a long, long time ago.
I share it with all my friends. I can't imagine
going a day without it. Just like I can't imagine
being in God's word first thing in the morning. Yeah,
it's it's been amazing.

S2 (49:04):
That's beautiful. Janie. Janie. What was what happened the first
time you started journaling? Gratitude. What? What shifted do you
remember that day?

S7 (49:14):
Yeah, I remember that. I just had negative thoughts all
the time. And I was advised to do five things
to be grateful for every day and say, I am
grateful for such and such. And then give the reason.
Because such and such. And I used to do just five,
even if it was having toothpaste for my toothbrush, and
now it's just page after page after page, because every

(49:37):
good and perfect gift comes from the father of the
heavenly lights. And so I'm able to reflect every morning
on the day before. Of all the gifts that God
has given me. And the love of Jesus sister.

S2 (49:49):
Way to go. I'm proud of you. That is exactly right. Guys,
there's so many things to praise God for. Way to go, Janie.
First time caller from Florida. It's just a powerful discipline.
Some of you are like, man, gratitude journal. This isn't
a bad idea.

S3 (50:07):
Not at all. It's great.

S2 (50:09):
Nancy in Indiana. What do you say, Nancy?

S7 (50:13):
Um.

S8 (50:14):
So I was telling the girl that I was going
through about ten years ago, I started what I call
My Blessings journal. I was going through a divorce. It
was mental health situation and I just started my blessings
journal and just it was wonderful because it just focuses
you on all the good things. And I haven't done

(50:35):
it in a while, but I was telling her, yes,
I need to get back to that.

S2 (50:38):
Yeah. There you go. There you go, Nance. Yeah. It's interesting.
Here's what's funny. Nancy, bring up Janie. She's still with us.

S3 (50:49):
Yeah, Janie's still here.

S2 (50:49):
Janie and Nancy, you both get to chime in with
me here. So you get to run the radio show today.
Here's what's amazing when you start journaling, right, ladies? You
start to see things. When you start to see 1
or 2 things and you start lingering there, they start
piling up, don't they, ladies?

S8 (51:06):
Yeah.

S7 (51:08):
Page after page.

S2 (51:09):
Yeah. It's it's sweet.

S7 (51:11):
The other thing I do is, um, there's some questions
I ask myself every day I take an inventory. One
of them is, what did I do good yesterday? What
did I do for someone else yesterday? What happened yesterday
that made me happy? That I had absolutely nothing to
do with me. Which is which? We have to stay
quiet and reflect. Because God has given you so many

(51:34):
unexpected treats that you didn't had nothing to do with you.

S2 (51:38):
That's awesome.

S7 (51:39):
Way to go! How did I fall short? How did
I fall short? Do I own amends? Am I closer
or further from God? And then what about my actions
and behaviors? It's a.

S2 (51:48):
Beautiful.

S7 (51:49):
Inventory.

S2 (51:50):
Yeah. That's beautiful. Janie. How about you, Nancy? Anything, dad. There, sister.

S8 (51:56):
Um, yes, I am. I do this journey of spiritual formation. Um,
it's like a three year program. And there it's called
Prayer of Examine, and it's what fills me today. What
drained me today. What does God want me to learn
on through there.

S2 (52:14):
That's beautiful. Way to go, Janey and Nancy. One from Florida,
one from Indiana. And we're sitting in Chicago. And that's
the way live radio rolls.

S3 (52:24):
Amen.

S1 (52:26):
Your spiritual pit stop to keep you going in the race.
You're listening to Carl and crew.

S2 (52:33):
So this whole issue of identity, even discussing it can
get a little unnerving. It's like, where do we go
with this? And at the end of the day, I
think the Christian mind needs to get anchored of, first
and foremost, who we are in Christ. J Warner. Wallace.
With me right now, God's been having you do a

(52:53):
deep work on this identity issue. What have you been
showing you? J Warner.

S9 (52:57):
Well, I mean, a lot of this is coming down
to how we form identity, and we only form identity
three ways, okay. And one of those three ways is
a much more advantageous way to form identity. Let me
show you what I mean. So you either form identity
outside in. That's where you look outside yourself and you say,
you know, I kind of like that group over there.
The ancients did it this way. They look outside themselves
and say, well, who is my clan? Who is my tribe?

(53:17):
Who is my nation? Who is my village? What occupation
do my parents hold? Oh, we're farmers, we're coal miners.
We're whatever we reach outside ourselves to something that pre-existed us.
And we say, yeah, I like that. I'm one of them.
That's called Outside In. I'm calling it outside in identity formation. Good.
Now there's another one that's much more current, and that's

(53:38):
where you're inside out. Identity formation. That's where you decide
based on the desires of your heart, based on things
you may be good at or you think you're good at.
And you say, I'm one of these, and I want
all of you to recognize me as one of these
from now on. This could be based on maybe your skill.
Like if you've ever watched American Idol and you see
people who think they're singers in the early rounds, okay?

(54:00):
And they force all of us to identify them as singers. Okay.
But it could also be it could also be your
sexual desire, your sexual identity. You could find these things
that you say, this is who I really am based
on the desires of my heart. You now all must
recognize me this way. This is called inside out identity formation. Now,
let me just say one thing about this. I discovered
this a long time ago, that when you suffer trauma,

(54:22):
it causes you to shift the way you think of yourself. Yes,
it's an identity shift. So, for example, I'm a healthy person. Well,
now you get the cancer diagnosis. Oh, I'm a married man. Oh.
Not anymore. Now you've been divorced. When we suffer a
trauma in our lives, we end up changing the way
we think about ourselves. Now, keep that in mind, because
the opposite is also true. When you suffer an identity shift,

(54:46):
you also suffer trauma. I experienced this for myself just
when I retired as a detective. I had been a
detective for so long, it was the only way I
saw myself. And then as I moved away from that,
I was like, well, who am I now? And it
was traumatic for about, I'd say about five years. I
had to get my feet again. Well, okay, so here's
my point. Trauma causes identity shifts and conversely, identity shifts

(55:10):
cause trauma. So if you wanted to reduce the amount
of trauma in your life, I tell young people this
all the time. Here's a hot tip simply pick an
identity that doesn't shift. And that comes to the third
form of identity formation, which is I call top side down.
That's where you put your identity in something that is unshiftable,
that is immutable, that is eternal, that is unchanging. And

(55:32):
of course, what would that be? Well, of course, for
us as Christians, we would say, well, our identity is
in Christ. Well, we say that, but the truth of
it is, even those of us who say our identity
is in Christ, often it is not. And here's what
I mean by that. Look, if you look at Scripture,
you only see the Christians called Christians three times. Three
times in.

S2 (55:50):
The.

S9 (55:50):
Bible. Yep. Yeah. Yep. Most of the time, Paul will say,
it's those who are in Christ. You can make a
strong argument that if your identity is not in Christ,
you aren't actually a Christian. But what is your identity
in really? Well, we say it's in Christ. As Christians,
we even say that. But let me ask you, where
are you spending your discretionary income? That's probably where your
identity is. What are you spending your time on when

(56:10):
you've got discretionary time, disposable income, disposable time, the freedom
you have after you've done all the things you have
to do, you're going to spend it doing something. You're
standing in front of your idol. You're standing in front
of your God. You're standing in front of whatever you worship.
That is what you're going to place your identity in.
And if you worship your achievements or you worship your spouse,
or you worship your family, your kids, well, it turns

(56:33):
out you now have got your identity over there. And
that's going to shift because you're going to age. Your
kids are going to grow up and leave. You're going
to your job is going to you're going to retire.
These are things that are going to be traumatic because
you've chosen them to be traumatic, because you put your
identity in them. Yeah. What is our object of worship?
So for example, one quick way to find this is
what is the thing that animates you or gets you

(56:54):
mad quickly. Is it politics? Is it the culture that's
around us? Well, I can tell you where your gods are.
Like you're not living in Christ. You're living in the moment,
in your identity that you've crafted for yourself based on
all of your misplaced devotion?

S2 (57:07):
Yeah, and it's easy to get your identity in a
401 K, a political party, a football team, a baseball team,
almost anything. J Warner. Wallace, my guest right now featured
in Dateline. You might recognize that voice going, I've seen
or heard this guy before. He was a homicide detective
and a good one. And now he is an apologist

(57:27):
and he is on fire. I want to unpack this
with that second layer. I am intrigued by something. You
say that trauma creates identity and we need top down.
This might give us a whole lot more compassion for
people who are struggling with sexual identity. When we understand

(57:48):
the trauma of their childhood or youth. What say you?
J Warner.

S9 (57:52):
Well, I think we got to be careful. Where. Look,
if nothing else, if you were just being very practical
about it, let's say you're not struggling with gender identity
issues as much as you're just struggling with sexual issues.
What is the thing you're worshiping? You you consider to
be of primary importance. Now, remember, all of our misplaced
devotion is put into things that God has actually created

(58:14):
for our good. There's only three categories of that, by
the way. It's sex, money, and power. So we put
our identity in one of those three things that God
has created for our good. But here's what we've done.
We've made them the goodest thing instead of just a
good thing. We've made them the God of our lives. Remember,
whatever you are enslaved to, that is your object of worship.

(58:35):
Now keep in mind every one of us is listening
to this right now. Is enslaved to something. Something your
desires limit. What your choices are you. There are certain
things you are willing to submit your life to. Paul
says in the book, in many places in Scripture that
he is a slave. The writers of the letters of
the New Testament will often say, I am a slave
to Christ Jesus. Well, not to mean that we are
limited in a bad way. Jesus says, your burden is

(58:57):
light over here, but you still have a burden because
whatever it is you worship, whatever it is you think
of as a primary importance, you've decided to voluntarily enslave
yourself to that. We're saying is, hey, there's a better
object of worship to which we could be completely devoted
because it has our best interest in mind. It's not
going to eat us up and spit us out. It's

(59:18):
actually going to do something good for us. And that's
why we want to readjust. If it's about sexual identity,
if it's about job identity, again, sex, money and power.
It's about money. It's about vacations. It's about hedonism, or
it's about sexual relationships or just relationships in your family.
Or it's about power, your authority, your position at your
job that you've achieved things through your job. These are

(59:39):
the things that control us.

S2 (59:40):
Yeah. J Warner Wallace, my guest right now. Okay. So
let's I love this because this almost takes the whole
identity issue because politically it's very charged. And we go
down that one narrow sliver, which by the way has
huge cost attached to that. You think about female swimmers,
and that's been litigated already, even at the Supreme Court level.

(01:00:03):
But then you get into the inner workings of our
own heart, and you find out something I'll never forget.
When it dawned on me, probably 20 years ago as
a pastor. Oh my goodness, I don't need to teach
people to worship their natural born worshippers. That's right. My
calling is to help redirect their worship to the one
and only true God. Speak to that, because a lot
of people right now, this is the tragedy. We've been

(01:00:25):
unpacking it all week. There's a huge delusion of salvation
in the church. A lot of people call themselves Christian
and are not because their identity truly is most anchored
in things that are not of God. Some, though listening
say r g Warner, I struggle, I know I love God,
he is my King. He saved me. But I do
struggle with my identity. How do we readjust to full

(01:00:48):
on top down identity in Christ?

S9 (01:00:51):
I totally get it. This is the project I'm working
on now. I'm starting to write another book on just
this second chapter of The Truth and True Crime, which
is on identity, because people ask me this all the time. Okay,
it sounds easy, but it's not easy. No one does it. Well,
I don't do it well. Remember these three steps of
the Christian life that we talk about all the time, right? Justification, sanctification, glorification,
justification has been described as that's the moment in which

(01:01:14):
you are removed from the penalty of sin. Sanctification. You're
removed from the overriding power of sin. Glorification. You're removed
from the presence of sin. Okay, so there's the three steps. Well,
it turns out that the justification is a moment in time.
It's the moment you decide to trust Christ as your Savior.
And glorification is another door you walk through instantly. It's
the moment you are standing in front of a holy God,

(01:01:36):
because you've passed from this life to the next. But
that middle part sanctification.

S2 (01:01:40):
Path we.

S9 (01:01:41):
Walk a door.

S2 (01:01:42):
Not a door.

S9 (01:01:43):
Crooked hallway. And that hallway is filled with corners and
sharp edges and slopes and bumps and bruises. And you'll
find yourself taking one step forward and two steps back.
I get it. And some people, by the way, don't
even decide to walk down that hallway. The thief on
the cross, for example. He went from first door to
second door. There was no hallway for him. Okay. He missed.

(01:02:04):
I can tell you this if you think you're going
to have a straight hallway, it's probably like the thief
on the cross. It's because you have a short life.
You make a decision for Christ, and you die because
anyone else who has time between the two doors is
going to live in the crooked hallway. Are you willing
to live in the crooked hallway because you can't take
a picture, a snapshot, a Polaroid at some step in
that hallway and and judge your whole walk based on

(01:02:27):
that Polaroid. You have to keep walking because the picture
is going to change. Now here's what I do know.
If you aim at nothing, you hit it every time.
So what we're going to do is get up every
day and ask ourselves two things. Number one, it's really
in the story of Nicodemus where Jesus quotes to him
Ezekiel to tell him the truth about his identity. And
what he says basically, is that you're going to have

(01:02:48):
to wash out the water. Is the washing out of
all of your idols, the same way that the prophet said,
the nation of Israel has to be washed of its idols.
You have got to figure out what is it now
that you worship? You care about that you fret over
that you dream about, that you spend your discretionary income.
Your thought life is given to this. That has become
your God. You got to wash that out first. You

(01:03:10):
will not put your identity back in Christ as long
as it's misplaced in some place else. And two, it's
about humility, this spirit that comes and turns your heart
of stone into a heart of flesh. Do you have
the humility to bend your knee? Because almost all the,
you know, the things we talk about sex, money and
power that distract us, they're built on a pedestal of

(01:03:31):
stupid called pride. It's pride that forces us in those directions. Well,
if you find yourself not putting your identity in Christ today,
it's because you pridefully think you've got a better way,
and you've now misplaced it in one of those objects
of false worship. So it's about every day. Number one,
identifying where you're going wrong so you can focus on

(01:03:52):
what you're doing right and not getting upset when you
find that you've maybe only got ten minutes today when
you were able to do it well, you're in the hallway.
You're going to walk and bump into things, but don't
be too hard on yourself. But if you aim at nothing,
you will hit it every.

S2 (01:04:05):
Yeah, yeah, humility. I quote Andrew Murray here all the time.
He said it is the one virtue that gives birth
to every other virtue. In fact, he added in his book, humility, humility,
the absence of humility is explanation enough for every character
defect down that hallway, to use your metaphor of life.
And here's the good thing about it it's a choice

(01:04:27):
we can make. We have a binary choice. Am I
going to be self-willed, prideful, or am I going to
humble myself under God's mighty hand today? And that's the
beauty of it. J Warner Wallace. Thank you, my man. Uh,
you know, I got a crazy question. One last thing
on your heart about identity. Give me one final shot.
What's on your heart?

S9 (01:04:43):
Nothing matters more. This idea of humility is the key
to human flourishing. It's a secret key that leads to
every other aspect of human flourishing. Deeper relationships. Better at
your job. Higher SAT scores earn more money. All of
these things are dependent upon the one thing that Christianity
uniquely offers. If you're listening right now, no other worldview

(01:05:04):
that requires you to earn something produces humility. All it
does is produce pride. That's a secular worldview because we
have to earn our way. It's also every other religious worldview.
Only Christianity is says, you can't do it. It's been
done for you. That's why Christianity is true.

S2 (01:05:21):
Yeah, man is at the center of every other world religion.
Christ is at the center of biblical Christianity and it's
so freeing. J Warner Wallace, what a great guest. And
if you want more simple text, the word case to
800 555 7898 text case, just that one word case
c a s e to 800 555 7898.