I've Always Been a Christian

Today, on Karl and Crew, we continued our weekly theme, "Debunking Myths, and we discussed the statement, "I've always been a Christian."  We are not born Christians...we are born with our backs to God.  True salvation is personal and life-changing, not hereditary.  Special guests included Dr. Jed Coppenger, who is the lead pastor of First Baptist Church in Cumming, Georgia.  He wrote the book "Fake Christianity: 10 Traps of an Inauthentic Faith and How to Avoid Them".   Phil Zielke also joined us.  He is the Founder and Executive Director of Phil's Friends, which is a ministry and outreach offering Christ-like hope and support to those going through cancer.  Phil had Stage 4 cancer twice, and he shared his powerful testimony of coming to faith through that journey.  His book is titled "Seeing the Good in It."  Another guest was author, evangelist, speaker, and ministry leader Jay Lowder. He founded Jay Lowder Harvest Ministries, an organization dedicated to reaching diverse groups of people with the Gospel. You can listen to his full testimony on the Snapshot Testimony podcast with Ally Domercant, and 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. Carl and crew.

S2 (00:10):
And we are debunking myths all week long. So many. Funny,
I was actually dreaming about some of those myths we
were talking about. Were you? Which one? Uh, the crazy
watermelon seed one. And a couple of the other silly ones.
And there's a couple I was thinking about. It's like. Yeah,
that's right. Like you don't. It's not about having your

(00:30):
head covered and heat escaping that caused you to catch
a cold. It's a virus. As Ali said yesterday, it's
cold virus that you catch. Yeah, I guess you can
get your immunity system down enough where you can be
more susceptible. For sure. For sure.

S3 (00:46):
That's the. That's the catch. And infants, apparently they do
lose more heat through their head. I wonder if that's
because they're bald, but that's another story. But for the
rest of us, um. No more heat does not escape
through your head. Also, the Great Wall of China cannot
be seen from space. Have you heard that one? That

(01:06):
the Great Wall of China is visible from space? Yeah,
that is not true. It's also not true that that
a mama bird will abandon the baby birds if the
human touches the nest. Also not true.

S4 (01:18):
That's good.

S3 (01:19):
I thought that one for sure.

S4 (01:21):
I mean, still don't touch the nest.

S3 (01:23):
Still don't mess with the nest. But, um. Yeah, it
does not call a cause. Have you heard that one, Carl?

S2 (01:28):
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I've heard that one. I didn't I
didn't know that was not true. See, miss getting debunked
left and right here. Yeah, and I want I want
to give you. The world is not round. It is flat.
The earth is flat.

S4 (01:42):
Well, now we know.

S2 (01:43):
Flat. Yeah. Okay.

S3 (01:44):
Well.

S2 (01:44):
Thank you. Even even from space. You see it? It's
just a flat surface. You can see it right there.
It's a flat earth.

S4 (01:52):
I feel like we should make a distinction. No. We shouldn't.

S2 (01:56):
I'm joking.

S4 (01:57):
Yes.

S2 (01:58):
There are actually people that do believe in flat earth.
They need to get out a little more, maybe get
on a plane and look at horizons and see things like,
what are you laughing about, Young Thunder? You can't just
chuckle under your breath there.

S4 (02:11):
You're just. You're being honest about it. Well, come on,
I think it's I mean, yes, it's good, it's fair.
You have to.

S2 (02:17):
The last thing I'm going to do is open up
phone lines for flat earthers to call in here and
debate this thing.

S3 (02:22):
Thanks.

S2 (02:25):
What a classic response. Thanks.

S4 (02:30):
Oh that's good.

S5 (02:32):
Just saying. Yeah, I needed this. Oh. Oh, goodness.

S3 (02:36):
You know which one? That always. That always cracks me
up because.

S2 (02:39):
Change the topic quickly. Yes. What do you got?

S3 (02:41):
You know, because people love to use this one sort
of as inspiration. You know, Michael Jordan, we're here in Chicago,
so Michael Jordan's still a big name. You know, people
will say, well, you know, Michael Jordan was cut from
his high school team. You know, people always say that. Oh, yeah.

S2 (02:54):
So is that not true?

S3 (02:55):
Well, it's kind of. He was he was not able
to play varsity. He was put on JV. So which
to me is quite a bit different.

S2 (03:04):
I mean but I will but I will say he
was a JV in in sophomore or. Yes.

S3 (03:12):
You know his sophomore year I believe.

S2 (03:13):
Okay. Yeah. So you're right Ellie. So because there's a
lot of guys on JV and sophomore.

S4 (03:18):
Yeah.

S3 (03:18):
So it's I guess it's kind of inspirational, but it's
also like it doesn't have the same impact as, like.

S4 (03:26):
It's just normal. It's.

S2 (03:27):
But I will say this. Nobody picked him to be
the goat of all of basketball forevermore when he was
even in college, right? Or. Yeah.

S3 (03:37):
I mean, by the time he got. So when he
was a sophomore, he was only 511, which tall for
like regular life, but not tall for basketball. So he
hadn't quite hit that growth spurt. So he was not
yet the, you know, the six six imposing presence that
he would become when he got a little bit older.
So it's just but it's one of those things that

(03:59):
it the lure of it, the appeal of it to
motivate that kid.

S6 (04:04):
It just sounds so much better.

S3 (04:06):
You still got a shot, kid, because Michael Jordan got
cut from varsity.

S4 (04:12):
Which is normal.

S2 (04:16):
Unless you're a child prodigy. Most kids, I mean, my
son played a lot of ball. I don't I don't
know ball like Ali does. Ali's going to die with
a scent of gym on her body. I mean, there's
no way she can scrub it out because she'd been
in so many gyms. But it's it's funny because the
unless you're a child prodigy and really had a growth

(04:39):
spurt beyond everyone else and actually could handle your body growth,
even the best players were playing JV.

S3 (04:46):
You're going to spend some time on the younger teams
before they just make that jump to varsity. I think
that's I think that's a pretty normal progression.

S2 (04:55):
Oh, boy. We got somebody weighing in here. LeBron was
on varsity all four years. Just proves that. Just proves
the point.

S3 (05:01):
LeBron was a physical specimen.

S2 (05:03):
Yeah I mean I.

S4 (05:05):
Mean he was he he was a 25 year old
playing high school basketball. Yeah there's that.

S2 (05:10):
Yeah I mean I ran track against a guy when
I was in like eighth grade who had a full beard.
And I'm like, who?

S4 (05:17):
That was so scary when you're like in middle school
and there's a guy walking around with a beard, like,
you're not meant to be here.

S2 (05:24):
I didn't even have peach fuzz, and this guy's got
a full beard. My pits were doing nothing crazy. And
he's got a full beard. Yeah. I mean, it was
it was crazy. Uh, coming up here in a moment,
I want to talk about something very important here today.
This is really important. Talk about a myth to debunk.

(05:46):
So much so I think I've been prepping my whole
life for this one, wouldn't you say, Ali?

S3 (05:52):
I think so, yeah.

S2 (05:53):
Yeah, this is a big one. In fact, I'm going
to give you the myth. I've been a Christian my
whole life. It's a myth. And we got to get
into the weeds of that and break it down. Pull
it apart. But I want to tell you, this myth
is so profound that I'm going to call it a
bait of Satan. It's a bait of Satan. And I

(06:16):
really mean this. This is something Satan is working overtime on.
Because if he can keep this issue clouded, he can
keep many on a highway to destruction when God wants
to truly set them free. So we had a little
bit of a rat problem in our garage.

S3 (06:36):
Rat.

S2 (06:37):
Yeah we did. Oh boy. Problem. And I know, yeah,
I know your reactions. Like my wife. Oh, boy. And
so they were. They were not. The reason I found
out is they as they were nibbling on some birdseed
and they'd found a hole in these sneaky little buggers.
I didn't know it until I pick up this bag
and the seeds start to go out the back end
of it, I'm like, Uh-Oh. And these guys have been

(07:00):
having a feast on sunflower seeds. Just a feast. So,
you know, you can wish those things away all day long.
But there's one sure way to get rats. So I
got these cool little devices called rat traps and open
those claws up. And I've got myself some good old
fashioned cheese. Set it down in that trap. I went

(07:23):
out the next morning. Snap, snap, snap. Three of them
were gone. Went out the next day. Reset some traps.
Got two more. So had five of those boogers and
sure enough, it cleaned up things. Here's the crazy maker.
Satan is constantly setting traps. He's got different baits. It's

(07:47):
a different bait for someone who's truly born again to
keep us from growing up in our relationship with God.
It's the bait of satisfaction and security and significance. Those
three big S's that we find in the sermon on
the Mount, in The Temptation of Jesus, by the way,
we find them as well, where Satan's trying to tempt
with all those things of this world, and Satan tries

(08:10):
to bait us away so that we won't be fully
fruit bearing men and women of God. Fair enough guys?

S3 (08:16):
Yes, absolutely.

S2 (08:19):
The bait of Satan, though that is most dangerous, in
my opinion, is the bait of cultural Christianity. And it
is devastating. The impact on our church across North America
and the world today is significant. The myth that we're

(08:39):
debunking today is, I've been a Christian my whole life.
I want to give you some verses that illustrate the
fact that that's theologically impossible. Can't be done in Romans
five verse 12 it says, Paul writing says, sin entered
the world through one man and death through sin. And

(08:59):
in this way death came to all people because all sinned.
We can't be a Christian our whole life. Ephesians two
undergirds this you were dead in your transgressions and sins.
By nature, deserving of wrath. Piper says about this humanity's
natural state is spiritual death, hostile to God and under

(09:23):
wrath until regenerated by faith. Whew! Super clear. I could
go on and on, because Scripture is loaded with evidence
that we were born with our back to God. The
great myth is that I've been a Christian my whole life.
Now I know what's in that. What's layered in that

(09:45):
is that from my earliest remembrance, I've been a Christian. And,
you know, here's the truth. There are people who surrender
to Christ at a young age and have that cultivated.
And when I say cultivated, I mean this belief was
a great man of God. And he did a great
little booklet on how to steward his parents. That little faith,

(10:08):
the reason that this is so important is there can
be an exuberance of I follow Jesus, and that's great.
But especially at the age of accountability, when kids begin
to understand abstract thought, to draw them back into that
awareness that I'm a sinner who needs a Savior. Yes,
I affirm that. Very important to shepherd kids into that.

(10:32):
But what can often happen is we get a cultural
Christianity that actually gives people what I call a hallucination
of salvation. And it all comes some variation of this myth.
I've been a Christian my whole life. This is why
you often hear things right here. If you hear testimonies,

(10:53):
you hear them over and over again where kids are
saying and they even have a hard time wrestling with
the words that come out of their mouth. Right, Allie?
Because they talk about I've, you know, they they speak
in terms of I was a Christian, but now I'm
really committed to Christ. Right. And.

S3 (11:10):
Right, right. And we noticed this a lot of times
when people will call in and share their testimony and,
and they'll try to have language for those early years
and people will say, well, I've been a Christian my
whole life. Um, I went to church every week. I
was raised in a Christian home. My parents were Christian.
And then oftentimes people will say, but then I got
to a point in my, my late teens or my

(11:31):
20s and my young adult years, and it's like my
faith became real to me. And that's usually one of
those ones that we lovingly try to try to help
them process through that. It's it's entirely possible that what
you thought you had in your younger years was not actual,
genuine saving faith. You had a cultural awareness. You had
a religious understanding. You had some things that you did

(11:55):
by that point in time where you kind of describe
as my faith became real to me. May very well
be the moment of salvation.

S2 (12:05):
Boom, boom coming up here. What is the bait of Satan?
What does he try to get people in a Christian
culture to believe that keeps them from being born again?
Hang on. Jesus went to great lengths to expose the
bait of Satan. The bait of Satan is a cultural Christianity.

(12:30):
It's lethal. It's deadly. It's a deep delusion. I call
it a hallucination. You see something in yourself that is
not there. You see something in your kids that is
not there. Very possible. In fact probable, especially in our
Christian culture in North America. But not just here. I

(12:52):
just did a 30 minute teaching last night that I
sent to a dear friend in Burundi. Here's the poorest
country in the world. And when I was sharing this
with some spiritual leaders, pastors in Burundi, Bujumbura, Isaiah, this
great man of God said to me, pastor, would you
please do a 30 minute teaching and send it back
to us when you get back home? This is my heart, guys.

(13:14):
And he sees the same issue in the poorest country
in the world. Isn't that doesn't that drop you a
little bit, guys?

S3 (13:20):
It does. But then. But then you remember that the
the Bible wasn't written specifically to Americans. Sometimes we can
read an Americanized version of it. And so clearly this
is something that's present in People, not just in our country.

S2 (13:39):
Yeah. And that's that was something that was good for
me going to Burundi because I was like, rattled with
this global impact of this issue that Jesus spoke of
2000 years ago. Here's the bait of Satan. The bait
of Satan is to get us in a Christian culture
and not be born again, thereby believing I've been a

(14:03):
Christian my whole life. The second to last teaching in
the sermon on the Mount is jaw dropping. Jesus says,
not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter
the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the
will of my father who is in heaven. On that day,

(14:23):
the day of judgment, many will say to me, Lord, Lord,
did we not prophesy in your name and cast out
demons in your name, and do many mighty works in
your name. And then I will declare to them, I
never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness! Whoa!

(14:45):
We gotta let that sink in. Many will take the
bait of Satan and presuppose that all of their spiritual
activity is evidence of spiritual life, and it's not so.

(15:05):
And we could go on and on with our stories
here to prove this to you. That's my story. For
Pete's sake, it's young, young thunder story. You made it
into my teaching buddy down in Burundi that I filmed
last night. You made it in there? Yeah. And I'm
going to give your story quickly. It's kids raised in
a Christian home, raised by a good man. A pastor

(15:29):
came to Moody Bible Institute, graduated from Moody Bible Institute,
married a committed Jesus follower. I was in a meeting
with her yesterday. This girl's rock solid for Jesus.

S4 (15:39):
Yeah.

S2 (15:40):
And then young thunder was broken under the weight of
Matthew seven and born again. That's powerhouse.

S4 (15:47):
Yeah.

S2 (15:49):
That's powerhouse. I was so thrilled to hear your bride
tell me yesterday. She goes, I didn't I wasn't going
to talk him out of that story. She said, I
told my husband, I'm so happy that you're in Christ.

S4 (16:02):
Yeah. She's good to me.

S2 (16:06):
She felt empathy for what it must have felt like
for you, trying to toil, living this Christian life. Yeah.
Without having the power of God.

S4 (16:15):
Mhm. It's impossible. And it's tiring.

S2 (16:19):
It's tiring, isn't it?

S4 (16:20):
Mhm.

S2 (16:25):
So it leaves a question and that is what in
the world does it mean to be born again. There's
a lot of evidences of this. There's a hunger for
the Word of God, and the Word of God begins
to make incredible sense. There's also a fruit bearing ness
about you 30, 60 and 100 fold. That's authentic faith

(16:47):
no longer choked out by the worries of this world,
the deceitfulness of wealth, the desire for other things. But
there must come a time, according to Matthew 16, and
I'm just going to turn there because this is beautiful.
We often look at denial of self as kind of
high road Christianity. Whoa. Those are the ones that man.

(17:09):
I mean, they sell stuff and go all in and
hit the mission field. No, listen, what Jesus said. He
told his disciples if anyone would come after me. Following
Jesus is the evidence of being born again. If anyone
would come after me, let him deny himself, take up
his cross and follow me. Let me just stop there.

(17:31):
Self-denial is saying no to all pursuits that I have
on this broad path that leads to destruction. All the satisfaction, status, security,
significance I can find on this path, saying no to
all of that, considering that as dung, to take hold
of the grace and power that is found in Jesus Christ.

(17:53):
Jesus goes on to say, for whoever would save his
life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for
my sake will find it. For what does it profit
a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits
his soul? I need you to hear my heart. There's
some of you right now that are under the weight

(18:15):
of conviction that you've been a cultural Christian, and I
praise God for that. We're exposing the bait of Satan
for you today. And Satan is at work. The God
of the sage. Paul said in Second Corinthians four. Has
blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see
the light of the gospel. You know what Paul is

(18:35):
saying there? He's saying, these are the ones who are
going to say, all my spiritual activity, all the mighty
works I did in your name, all these things he's
saying Satan blinded you. The bait of cultural Christianity has
blinded you to knowing Christ personally. That's hard, but it's

(18:57):
beautiful because when the blinders come down just through the
Word of God as we read it to you, you
know what God's doing to you. He's saying, come to me.
I'm the way, the truth, and the life. Turn around
from that broad path. Follow me today. And so I

(19:17):
simply want to ask you today. Have you been caught
in a myth that is debunked by God's Word. Have
you taken the bait of Satan? You've had a lot
of Christian activity, but the Holy Spirit. This is what's beautiful.
We aren't revealing this to you. The Holy Spirit is
revealing to you right now. I've been Christian in name only.

(19:40):
I've never denied myself, taken up the cross and followed
Jesus Christ. But today, Carl, I want to go all
in with Jesus. Praise be to God. Oh, my heart
just beats fast for you right now. And you say, well,
what do I do? You know, it's super clear in
Scripture if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord,

(20:03):
that means he is the brand new leader of my life.
Nothing of significance, satisfaction, and security on this broad path
that I've been chasing that is dung compared to knowing
Christ Jesus my Lord. That revelation in your soul that
I need to turn around and follow Jesus. Repent and

(20:25):
follow him. That's the pathway to liberty. That's the gateway
to a 30 6000 fold life, my friend. I am
the truth, Jesus said, embracing the truth. And I mean
swallowing hard and saying, I'm a sinner who needs a Savior.

(20:48):
All of my Christian culture can't save me, but what
my Christian culture can't do, Jesus Christ did. Oh, he
did it. He died for my sins. Is that the
cry of your heart right now, friend? Please. Pride caused

(21:13):
Satan to fall from the presence of God. Don't let
pride keep you nibbling on the bait of Satan. Don't
let stubbornness, partial blindness, keep you from the living reality
of what Jesus told Nicodemus. You must be born again.

(21:35):
And if today is the first day ever that you
are turning from your broad path the significance, the security
and the satisfaction of all these things in this world,
and you're turning your life to Jesus today. Praise God.
If you're embracing the truth that you're a sinner, praise God.

(21:55):
We want to help you today. Allie's going to give
you a link. I know we've kept you here a while,
but this is important stuff. Allie's going to give you
a link right now, so I want you to get
your phones out because we're going to help you. It's
a mystery, but God in his goodness pulls back the
veil of darkness and allows you to see your need

(22:16):
for Jesus. Today he's calling you into a brand new
life no matter how long you've been in cultural Christianity
today you are born again and we want to send
you something. It's going to encourage you just some words
and next steps to take. And and then I'm going
to pray for you. But I want you to get
your phones ready right now. Ali, we've got brand new

(22:37):
followers all over North America this morning.

S3 (22:39):
I'm convinced if that's you, just text the word new
to 800 555 7890 8NEW just one word. New to
800 555 7898. What you're going to get back from
us is an auto reply. That's going to give you
some practical next steps, some tips on what to do next.

(23:01):
Just text new to 800 555 7898.

S6 (23:05):
Yeah, yeah.

S2 (23:10):
You're breaking free and you're running home. Today's a brand
new day. I'm going to pray for you. but don't
delay if the Spirit of God's calling you. Don't harden
your heart today. Don't do it. Don't let pride of
all that you've done in the name of Jesus keep

(23:31):
you from Jesus. Don't do it, friend. Today's a new day.
Surrender your heart to Jesus today. Come to him today.
Many responding. Just text the word new to 800 555
7898 right now. Today is your day of salvation. Today

(23:53):
is the day. Text new to 800 555 7898. Father,
I thank you in the name of Jesus that you
are working miracles this morning. You're pulling down the blinders.
You're exposing the bait of Satan. It's a miracle. You're

(24:18):
turning hearts toward home. You're causing men and women to
be born again today. And I give you praise. There's
no one like you. God. I thank you for humble
hearts that are receiving you today. Seeing their sins, seeing
themselves for what they are, and seeing you for who

(24:41):
you are. In Jesus name, Amen.

S5 (24:44):
Amen.

S2 (24:45):
I'm going to spin a song here in a moment,
but we want to shout out last four numbers of
those of you that are responding new this morning. Ali,
if you could reach down there and just cite them,
that'd be great.

S3 (24:55):
Yeah, I want to. Welcome to the family. 6203 2744.
These are the last four digits of your phone number 92, 89, 23, 41, 81, 26.
Welcome to the family. 7991 5011 76, 2242, 46, 74.
70 or 74. 71. 76. 22. 42. 46. 74. 81.

(25:22):
Zero three. Zero three. 23. 28. 39. 93. Oh one. 20. 25.

S2 (25:32):
Welcome to the family. Welcome to the family. It's not
too late to respond to Jesus today. If today is
the day that you are saying no any longer to
the bait of Satan, and today you're surrendering your life
in total to Jesus Christ. Man. Welcome to the family.
Welcome to the family. Just text the word new to

(25:53):
800 555 7898. Some of you are getting to the
side of a road, getting to a safe place. Welcome
to the family. 8930 7636 welcome to the family. Why
is this so important? Ali, before we spin a record here,
what's on your heart?

S3 (26:12):
Oh, this is so important because it's the Word of God.
And this is I know that this is an uncomfortable
one to talk about. It's it was uncomfortable for me
to talk about because you think, what do I do
with this? You know, what do I what do I
do with this information? But it's in the word of God.
And so even though I don't think it's talked about

(26:33):
enough in church, it's all over Scripture. So we have
to wrestle with this reality that it's possible to be
in church, to be spiritually active, but to not know Jesus.
And so we have to look at the Word of
God and wrestle with it. That's why it's important.

S2 (26:51):
That's why it's important. 9463 whosoever will may come, whosoever
will may come. What a good God we have. He
makes all things new. Guys, welcome to the family 6562.
Welcome to the family. I never get tired talking about this.

(27:13):
This thing of illusion, of salvation. It is so profound.
And it's in Matthew seven and Ali, you know it
by heart. What are the three big kickers for people
that they're often stuck with thinking, well, this must prove
I know Jesus, right?

S3 (27:27):
Yeah, that we've done things in his name that we've prophesied.
Or yes, you could think about the things that you
do spiritually that make you active, but you could actually
be spiritually active and not know Jesus big time.

S7 (27:40):
Jesus will say, depart from me. I never knew you.
And the fact that those are spiritually, like you say,
active people. Mind blowing. J louder with us right now.
He's been featured on CNN, ABC, NBC, Daystar, Discovery Channel.
How did God get you onto those networks, my man?

S8 (28:00):
Really? I came to Christ at 21 years of age,
and people started wanting me to share my story, and
one thing led to the other, and I got invited
here and got invited to there and really just stemmed
from my call, my passion to try to help reach
other people, just like someone reached me.

S7 (28:17):
Yeah, but what causes a network like. I'm so curious.
Does ABC call you up and go? I heard you
were raised in church and lost as a goose. Come
tell us about it. There's got to be an angle.
God's using here, right?

S8 (28:29):
Oh, well, I mean, we've spoken into a lot of
different things, but one of them is we had a
television show that was really geared at reaching out to
people that are on the fray. And so, um, it
was broadcast on, on all the major networks. It was
a late night show that came on Friday and Saturday nights.
It's a 30 minute program, but it wasn't your typical

(28:52):
Christian programming. I mean, it was people, former strippers and
former addicts. Wow. Yeah, it was targeted a specific group
of people that were coming in late after a night
of partying.

S7 (29:01):
That'll get the world's attention, for sure.

S3 (29:03):
Your heart is for people on the fray, as you say.
Because although you were raised in the church, as soon
as you could make your own decision, you stopped going
and your life took a pretty dangerous path from there.
Tell us a little bit about your testimony of what
it took for God to really get Ahold of your heart.

S8 (29:21):
I did grow up in church, and my mom taught
Sunday school, and when I graduated high school, I did
what a lot of young people did, and I just
abandoned the church. The reason I abandoned the church was
I didn't have a relationship with Christ. And quite frankly,
most of the people that I grew up with and
knew were a lot like me. You know, they went
out on weekends and partied, and then their parents drug

(29:42):
them to church on Sunday. And then at church, they
sit on the back row and talked about it. And
so I walked away from the church for several years,
went off to college. And, um, anyway, the reason I
ended up going back to a church, which was really
going to be a one off, was because I had
attempted suicide and there was a guy that had been
brought into our area. I went to hear him really

(30:05):
hoping to get some tools that I could, I could
employ to help me escape some of my suicidal thoughts.
I didn't go to hear the gospel, I can tell
you that. And I sure didn't go to hear anything
about Jesus. So that was the intent. The challenge with
that was he didn't tell anything about his story, which
I thought he was going to do. Instead, he shared
the gospel. And that night, I came to the realization

(30:27):
that I had a religion, but I didn't have a relationship,
that I knew all about Jesus, but I didn't know
him personally. And as the speaker said, I was one
of those people that one day were going to wake
up in a godless eternity singing amazing Grace.

S7 (30:41):
Wow, what an amazing story. Jay, what brought you to
that point, do you think? What was it? Just the
emptiness of trying to find something to fill what Pascal
calls that God shaped void? I mean, what was going
on there?

S8 (30:53):
Well, that was certainly part of it, but it wasn't
all of it. I mean, there was a lot of depression.
There was some mental health issues. Some of it was situational, too.
I was 21 years old, and at that time, I
had lost my job, my car, my girlfriend. I dropped
out of college. And so there was kind of a
gumbo of things that had happened where my life was
falling apart. I was on government unemployment, faking government documents

(31:17):
because I couldn't work, because I had an addiction. So
my life was was really I mean, it was unraveling fast.

S3 (31:25):
Jay, what do you think needs to happen in in
church today to kind of stem the tide of, of this?
I mean, if we acknowledge that there are many people
who may be self-deceived and think they have something that
they don't, what can we do about it?

S8 (31:40):
Well, I think the problem really starts with leadership. I mean,
it's ironic. I've been in full time evangelism for 20 years,
and I've spoken in every mainline denomination church, and you'd
be surprised how many times that I have seen people
come to Christ that have been in church like me
their whole life. Yeah. You know, it reminds me of
that passage in Second Timothy when it says, in the

(32:01):
last days it says chapter three, verse five. One of
them says, in the last days it will be people
that have a form of godliness but deny its power.
And then it goes on. Two verses later it says,
there will be people who are ever learning and never
able to come to a knowledge of the truth. And
here we live in this society where biblical truth and
theology is accessible anytime, any, place, anywhere. And yet many

(32:25):
people are ignorant of spiritual truth. And again, in a
lot of churches, the gospel's never really preached. I mean,
there are denominations that I've been to that people have
never heard a clear presentation of the gospel in their life.
So I think that plays a huge role in it.
And then I also would say that another aspect of
that is we can't deny the fact that spiritual darkness,

(32:46):
that one of the chief goals of the enemy is
to keep people in darkness. You know, Christ is light,
the enemy is dark. And you can do a lot
of things that won't bother him. But if you don't
know Christ, his main objective is to keep you in
the dark and not knowing Christ.

S7 (33:01):
Yeah. This is great. Jay, louder. Our guest right now. Jay,
we know because we do this, especially on Fridays here
called it Freedom Friday. But I want you to spike
for us here if you could, in the most clear terms.
Spirit of God's got someone here that's been in church

(33:22):
their whole life. They could have been an elder. They
could be a pastor. Right, brother? I mean, come on,
let's get honest here. And yet they don't know Jesus personally.
Pour it out. What's on your heart? What's the Spirit
of God bringing to mind right now?

S8 (33:35):
Well, the first thing I would say is everybody should
go get a checkup. And people do that physically. And
the Bible actually tells us to examine ourselves, whether we
be in the faith that's found in Second Corinthians 13 five,
and we're to prove our own salvation. And there needs
to be a red flag that goes up. There needs
to be a warning signal when we claim to live

(33:59):
something that we don't practice. And I'm not talking about
a level of perfection, but something's wrong when you only
know Christ and name when it doesn't change the way
you live, when you don't have a concern for other
people that don't know Christ, and so do a spiritual checkup,
you know, is the evidence there? Can you extract from
your life the evidence that Christ lives within you, not just,

(34:22):
you know, like I said, that you were sprinkled or
you were baptized or you joined a church or, you know,
you pray every time you get in trouble. But is
God real to you? Is there a supernatural hunger to
follow him? Is there a supernatural hunger to obey him?
Does he answer your prayers? Is he a priority in
your life? I mean, again, that's not a conclusive list,

(34:43):
but those are some things that should be very real
indicators of whether or not a person has a genuine
relationship with Christ. You know, you mentioned that there are
people literally and I've seen this, I mean, pastors or
Sunday school teachers. I mean, I was preaching not long ago.
This is a true story. No exaggeration. The guy working
the soundboard came forward to give his life for Christ.

(35:06):
He had been working the soundboard for 12 years. The
lead worship leader in the same service came forward to
give her life to Christ and eventually the pastor's wife.
So this isn't a one off. This isn't an anomaly.
There are multitudes of people that have been deceived by
the forces of darkness to keep them from knowing Christ.

S7 (35:25):
God bless you. J. Louder! My goodness, my man. Boom! Crew!
You're listening to this right now, going, man, I bet
this guy's got some resources. Boy, does he. We want
to point you to him right now.

S3 (35:37):
Text j j a y to 805 55 7898. Just
type out that one word j a y to 855
five 7898.

S2 (35:50):
A holy fear of God is a great thing and
allows us to approach His word and go, how am
I doing? Well, if there's traps that are set by Satan, boy,
does he bait them. And there are traps of inauthentic
faith that can keep us far from God. I've been
looking forward to this, doctor. You're with us right now, Jed.

(36:11):
These traps, they're deadly, aren't they? My man.

S9 (36:14):
They are deadly. And one of the things that makes
them so deadly is how deceptive they are. The manner
in which they come to us is that they seem
like the way of life, but oftentimes they're the way
of death. And so that's why I think Jesus sounds
the alarm so intensely like he does.

S3 (36:31):
Doctor Jed Coppinger, our guest right now. Okay. So start
to break these down for us. You come at this
from a pastor's perspective. You've been in ministry for quite
a while. How have you seen this play out both
in your own life, but then in the life of
those you've pastored?

S9 (36:46):
Yeah, I've seen this play out. It's been so surprising
to me because the things you think you need to
watch out for are for those those big sins in
the culture, which of course, we need to stand against.
But Jesus sounds the alarm for something much more subtle,
something much more hidden. That's that's in our own hearts
that we need to be aware of, that we can

(37:08):
actually be the the kind of people he's talking about
who honor him with their lips, but really have a
heart that's far from him.

S2 (37:17):
What's interesting is that it's this grand, oh, the God
of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving.
Let's just start there. If the if the God of
the age, the prince and power of the air. Satan
himself has blinded minds. How how does the veil come down?

S9 (37:35):
Well, it's a miracle when it comes down, right? God says,
let there be light. Second Corinthians four says this every
time there's a regeneration, every time there's there's that new life.
But we have a role to play in that. And
I think one of the things that I found in
my own life as someone who was a fake Christian.
Up until I was 20 years old. I knew the
right answers. I had all the truths in my head,

(37:58):
but I had a heart that was far from him.
I was like those whitewashed tombs that Jesus talked about
in his final public message there on the Tuesday of
Easter week, where he said everything looked good on the outside,
but it was filled with dead men's bones. I had
a zeal for God, kind of like Paul talked about,
but not according to knowledge. And and so one of

(38:20):
the things you got to do is you got to
keep coming back to the Word of God and saying,
am I a Christian or am I an American cultural Christian,
which is someone who says, I've been a Christian my
whole life, but it doesn't really make any big difference
in my life, except for maybe in a really scary moment.
That's why I think that quote by John Piper is

(38:41):
so important. He says, you know, New Testament Christianity isn't
just about new decisions, it's about new affections. Are you
alive to God. Do you enjoy God? Do you enjoy
walking in the word? Like James says, not being just
a hearer of the word, but a doer of the word?
Because if you're just a hearer, you're deceiving yourself. The

(39:04):
the New Testament teaches us that no one lies to
us more than ourselves, and the only way to get
out of that trap is by walking in the truth.
The truth is found in the Word of God.

S3 (39:17):
Jed, what caused you to confront this in your own life?
You mentioned coming to genuine saving faith at age 20
after years of of fake Christianity. What caused you to
see the difference?

S9 (39:30):
You know, from a human perspective, I got to experience
the emptiness of success. I got all the things that
I wanted. Sometimes we come to Christ in a really
tough time, and we realize we need someone to pull
us out of the ditch another time. Other times, and
this is the case for me, is that we finally
get to the bottom of the broken cistern and we realize, man,

(39:51):
there's got to be something more to life than this success,
whatever the success might be for a person. For me,
it was basketball. It was the party life. It was
all those kinds of things. And I had all of
it that I kind of had oriented my whole life around.
And I was just empty, and I wasn't experiencing the

(40:11):
fullness of what Jesus talks about is alone in his presence,
fullness of joy, eternal pleasures. He's calling us to more,
not to settle for what the world offers. And so
I gave my life to him on August of my
junior year in college.

S2 (40:25):
You know, Pastor Jed, I got to tell you, if
you look at John 16, we've looked at this one
little passage here. I'm just going to do it from
my heart here. Jesus says, if anyone would come after me,
let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.
You got to lose your life to gain it. And
then he says, what does it profit a man to
gain the whole world and lose his soul. The interesting

(40:48):
thing here is that we've looked at self-denial as like
pinnacle Christianity. Wow, you're really rocking with Jesus when you're self-denial.
Jesus says self-denial is the. It's the threshold of salvation.
It's the gate by which we pass. Pour out your
heart on that, Jed.

S9 (41:05):
Yeah, it's it's it is absolutely a critical part of it.
What Jesus is trying to do there is to try
to get us to die to these things that will
never give us life anyways, right? He says, for what
does it profit a man to gain the whole world
and forfeit his soul? I, I like the way that, uh,
the comedian Jim Carrey put it one time. He says,
I wish everyone could get rich and famous and everything

(41:27):
they ever dreamed of so they could see. It's not
the answer. And I think that that's a something that
Jesus is trying to highlight for us. But the enemy
wants us to understand, wants to keep us trapped and
and keep us far from God. And the way that
he does that is by is by that It's crazy
lie that we're all tempted to believe, which is, you know,

(41:47):
what's going to bring you satisfaction just a little bit more,
just a little bit more at work. Just a little
bit more money. Just a little bit. Another trip, more applause,
more affirmation. Whatever the thing might be, it's never going
to be enough. Be enough. That's what Jesus says. The
way to salvation isn't by keeping going down the path
you're going down. It's by turning. It's repenting and dying

(42:09):
to that old way and receiving by faith the life
that he has purchased for you by your blood, by
his blood. Not something that you could earn, only something
you can receive by faith. And when you receive that
gift by faith, it changes you.

S2 (42:27):
You know, I gotta tell you. Um, going back to Piper,
he spoke in Atlanta with Louie Giglio a number of
years ago now to about 30, 40,000 students. And he
made the statement, there are millions and millions and millions
of people who go to great Bible preaching churches every
weekend and are lost as can be. What do you

(42:49):
say to that?

S9 (42:51):
I would say that's a very biblical perspective. Jesus in
Matthew chapter 23, which is what my book is primarily
based on. He's talking to people who have Old Testament
books memorized, like the ones that we're tempted to skip over,
right in the, in the Old Testament in our Bible reading.
Some of those guys had those things memorized, and still

(43:13):
they missed it. They missed the truth of what it
was all about, which is looking to Jesus and placing
our faith in Him and His work, not in us thinking,
you know what? I'm going to do this. I'm going
to do this. I'm going to avoid that. And you
know what? I've got a good chance in heaven. I
think I'm going to be good enough. It's someone that
looks at Jesus and says, Jesus, you alone are my

(43:36):
only hope for salvation, and you alone are my only
guide for life. You're my saviour, you're my lord. And
you're my greatest treasure. And I'll leave everything. Whatever it
is that you call me to do. Because as long
as I have you, I have everything. That's what I
said on that. That night in August of my junior
year in college, I just remember thinking, man, I've wasted

(43:59):
everything that you've given me, Lord. But whatever I have now,
it's all yours. All my sin. All my. You say,
come to me. All you who are weary and heavy laden.
I'm collapsing in your arms of grace. And I'm trusting you.

S3 (44:11):
Jed, you break it down pretty practically in this book
I'm looking at some of these chapter titles. Fake Christianity
fails to practice what it preaches, mandates higher standards for others,
is motivated by human attention and affirmation. Those are the
first three chapters. Pick one and and break it down
a little bit.

S9 (44:31):
I found that the motivation for human attention Jesus says
that they expanded their phylacteries and prayer shawls and different
things like this. He says they did this to be
seen by others. He's letting us know that it's easy
for us to do the right thing in the wrong way,
that we can slip into a performer's mentality and to
be motivated to buy human attention and affirmation. And Jesus

(44:54):
says he wants us to be motivated with a servant's heart,
to be helpful and to bring glory to him and man.
It is easy to slip into that. I remember early
on in my ministry, I was getting ready to preach
a message on a passage that was really an easy
passage to preach on, but I was so anxious and
as I examined why it was, I was so anxious,
I realized it wasn't because I was worried I would

(45:16):
get the truth of scripture wrong. It was because I
was worried that I wouldn't be thought of as a
good preacher, and without even realizing it, my heart had
slipped into a performer's mentality. I wanted to be seen
affirmed by others for doing these things. Jesus calls us
to something more, to be a servant, to bring him glory,

(45:37):
to be consumed with that kind of approach. And that's
the place of freedom. That's the place of peace.

S2 (45:43):
Beautiful man. I gotta tell you, pastor, this is some
good stuff here. And I when I saw that this
book came out, I'm like, Katie, bar the door. We
got to get Pastor Jed in here. And you. You
crushed it, my man. Name of the book is Fake
Christianity ten traps of an inauthentic Faith. This is good

(46:04):
for you. I want you to check it out. Text
the word fake. Text the word fake. You might not
want to have anyone looking over your shoulder when you
text it. Just text the word fake to 800 555 7898.
Just that one word fake to 800 555 7898. Before
I let you go, I got one question here revolves

(46:26):
around parents. There's an epidemic and I've been a pastor. Now.
I'm not a radio guy. I just stumbled into this
in the last ten years. Know God called me into it.
Let's get that right. But I've been a pastor for
a lot of years, and I've seen this in our
church campuses here in Chicago alone. We have my wife

(46:46):
says now, 41 kids that were raised in church in good, imperfect,
but good Christian homes who are far from God. There's
a tendency, though, for a lot of moms and dads
to find validation in where their kids are, and so
they don't even pray for their kids rightly. They're praying
for them to get back to church when the prayer
needs to be God, get them in you. Would you

(47:07):
pour out your heart on that one?

S9 (47:08):
Yeah. I mean, nothing shows us more than anything about
the need for a prayer life than parenting, because it
reveals to us I'm at a family camp right now
talking to folks about this issue right here, because it's
so critical, because you cannot control outcomes. You can only
cultivate them just like a farmer. You can do the
work in the soil, but you need God to send

(47:30):
the rain. And that's why we want to be a
people that pray. And our prayer lives show that we
believe God is is loving enough and powerful enough to
work in our kids lives. And also it shows that
we are humble enough in a stage where we need it.
Pride doesn't pray. That's why Jesus points us to a
father child relationship. At this stage where our child needs

(47:53):
help with daily bread to show us, this is what
I want you to think about when you think about prayer,
that pride doesn't pray. So let's fight that pride with
our prayer lives. Let's pray our problems. Let's pray our fears.
Let's pray our tears. All the things that you're dealing
with with your kids. Let's pray that God sends the rain.
That he sends the fire, that he awakens hearts and

(48:15):
stirs them. We don't just want kids who are moral,
which is great. That keeps you out of jail. We
want kids going to heaven and that's why we need
to pray for regeneration.

S2 (48:26):
Amen. Good stuff guys. Grab it takes the word fake
to 800 Five, 55, 78, 98. It'll give you a
link to fake Christianity. Ten traps of inauthentic Faith. Pastor,
thanks for being with us today. Appreciate you so much,
my man. When you encounter the love of God, it
just overflows. And we've had some guests on here before

(48:48):
that have some powerful ministries and you're like, whoa, look
at what God's doing through these crazy yahoos. Yahoo!

S3 (48:56):
Where did that come from?

S2 (48:57):
It came from my pastor way back in the day.
Called us all yahoos. So some of these yahoos come
in here and you're like, man, look at what God did.
But then you peel it back and peel it back
and peel it back and you go, oh, they're blown
away by the grace of God. Because much like what
we're talking about today, they had this grand hallucination of salvation.

(49:19):
And then God, by his grace, pulled down the blinders. Who,
the God of this age has blinded the minds of
the unbelieving. And then they see. Phil, we'll talk about
your ministry at the end of this, but we got
to talk to you first about your story. You were
in that, weren't you, my man?

S10 (49:34):
I was, and I appreciate you having me on this morning.

S2 (49:36):
Yeah. All right, let's break it down a little bit. Phil.
Give us your pedigree from a from a religious standpoint,
what did Satan use to kind of pull the wool
over your eyes? That you had a relationship with God,
but you didn't. What was going on in your childhood
and upbringing?

S10 (49:53):
First of all, I was raised in a Christian home
and my parents were believers. And, um, I went to
Christian school basically all my life, and I just figured
I was a guy who basically, I realized at the
end of the day, went through the motions. You know,
I went to church on Sundays, but the rest of
my life I was not living for the Lord. So
there was really not a heart change or a mind
change that was there. Um, but I thought I was good,

(50:14):
I thought I was in and, um, it wasn't until
I graduated high school, and, you know, I was a
person who had a very strong will. Whatever I put
my mind to, I wanted to accomplish that task. And
so for me, I wanted to get a scholarship to
pay for school in college. And so I ended up
getting an athletic scholarship and ended up out of my
parent's home. Went through a lot of depression, a lot
of struggle, a lot of, uh, you know, abusing things. And, um,

(50:38):
you know, I really just did not my heart was
not set on the Lord, but I didn't realize it.
And my mom would always send me these notes and
these letters and just say, hey, Phil, we're praying for you.
And then eventually, I ended up flunking out of school
my junior year because I had I was living the
wrong kind of life, and I ended up transferring schools.
And then I met this girl. Uh, her name is Carrie. And, uh,

(50:59):
there was the first time I met her. I knew
there was something different about her. She was a Christian.
She said she was a Christian. But her life and
my life, we did not line up at all. We
couldn't have been farthest from the truth. But she was beautiful.
And the day I saw her, I thought, that's the
girl that I want to marry. And, um, you know,
I am married to her now, 19 years.

S3 (51:17):
Wow. So, Phil Zylka, our guest right now, founder and
executive director of Phil's friends. We'll get there in a minute.
But first, we got to know. What did you do? Like,
so see you meet Kerry and you go, huh? She
says she's a Christian, too. We should have that in common.
But why does it feel like we're two totally different lives?
What did you do with that?

S10 (51:38):
Well, first of all, I didn't handle it very well.
You know, I was still living my normal life where,
you know, I was dating her, but I was still
a guy that, um, did not deserve to be to
be dating her. And so I was basically living two
different lives, but there was something so attractive and different
about her that I'd never noticed. It was this peace
that passes all understanding that I had never, ever seen before, really,

(51:59):
in my life. And I ended up being down on
spring break in Florida with some of my college friends,
and at that time she went to a retreat and
she prayed and she said, Lord, uh, this is not
going to work unless you change Phil. And so when
I came back from my trip, I realized that I
loved her, and now I was truly pursuing her. Um,
in a way, you know, she let go of the situation,
which is what God does in all our lives. And

(52:21):
we let go. He steps in and we're able to
move forward, um, in the way that he wants, and
he's able to work in those situations again when we
let go of ourselves. And so I went through that.
But then by the time I turned 22 on our
two year dating anniversary, I was diagnosed with stage four cancer.
And that's when life really changed for me.

S2 (52:39):
What happened? Phil, when you get diagnosed with cancer, what?
What did the doc say to you and what do
you feel like in that moment?

S10 (52:45):
Oh, I felt absolutely horrible. My dad is the one
who we had arranged for him to receive the news,
because I had been in and out of the doctor
for about a year, they didn't know what was wrong
with me. Lost £40. Night sweats, hip pains, fevers. You know,
all of it. My dad came home. I was laying
upstairs in my bedroom and came home early from work.
And he said, Phil, I don't know to tell you this,
but I talked to the doctors. And you have cancer.

(53:07):
And right there, my dad did something again as a believer,
very important with me. He prayed with me and he said, Lord,
I know that fills your child. No matter. No matter
what happens in his life, no matter how long he's
supposed to live. I just pray that he'll be a
witness for you. And when he said Amen, I had
just like this little thimbleful of peace. Like maybe we
can do something about this, but it was still going
to be a very long journey.

S3 (53:27):
Wow. So when did you when did you would you
say you came to genuine faith in Christ? Was it
was it as you were wrestling with this news of
this diagnosis?

S10 (53:37):
No, I wasn't there yet. Again, I was a person
with a strong will. So I thought, what I've put
into sports and, you know, I learned a lot of
great things through that. And given everything you have, I
really thought, okay, now I'm going to put all my
energy into getting better. And so I did six months
of chemo, got better, started my first year as a
fourth grade teacher. Fast forward a few months. I'm rediagnosed

(53:58):
again and this time I'm yelling at God, you know,
on the top of my lungs in the in the
hospital room saying, I don't understand this. I thought I
was doing what you wanted me to do, you know,
type of thing. But again, it was still all about me.
I hadn't fully surrendered. Went through. Fast forward for that
next year did chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant. And it
was that time when I was hooked up to tubes, uh,

(54:19):
you know, for feeding. I was on oxygen. Too sick
to have a sip of water because I had such
bad sores up and down my esophagus. And that was
the time when I finally hit my breaking point. And
that's when I cried out to God, because I realized
I was not going to get through this on my own.
So I basically had to get over myself because that
was the roadblock between me and God. And so I
just cried out to him and promised. And I said, Lord,

(54:40):
I believe Jesus died for me. Please take me to heaven.
I don't want to be in this pain. I can't
do this on my own. But if it's not my time,
I promise you can have the rest of my life.
And once I said Amen to that, it's like the
whole situation changed. I realized I wasn't going through this
so I could become a better person. Or, you know,
those are kind of byproducts of it. But I was
going through it because God had a real calling on

(55:01):
my life to be able to help other people. He
had shown me a real need, and now he wanted
me to get out there and use all those things
that I had before, the way he'd wired me of
the strong will and all those things, but have that
fully surrendered to him so that he could use that.
And I'm telling you, once you get to that point
in life, I mean, everything changes. Everything your outlook, your view.

(55:21):
You don't want anything to go back. You can say
things like, I am so glad I went through stage
four cancer twice. Why? Because it got me to that
point where I can surrender fully to God and he
can use me.

S2 (55:33):
Yeah, Phil, there's a lot of people facing roadblocks right now,
and they come in a lot of different forms, and
they can have a ladder leaning against the wall of success.
They can have they can have it. They can have
a ladder leaning against the wall of addiction. There's so
many things that get in the way, just mere religiosity.

(55:53):
If I can just go to church more, if I
can serve more. But they're lost as can be. I
want you to give the gospel right now to everyone listening.
I want you to tell them what needs to happen
to be born again.

S10 (56:04):
To be born again. It's really putting your faith fully
in Jesus Christ. It says the most quoted verse in
the Bible, For God so loved the world that he
gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him,
whoever believes in him, will not perish but have eternal life.
And it's getting to that point of surrender and saying, Lord,
I can't do this anymore. I throw my hands up.
I put my knees on the ground. Whether I'm in

(56:26):
my hospital bed or wherever it is going through a
family issue, depression, addiction. Get to that point and say, Lord,
I cannot do this because we're all broken people and
Jesus wants to heal us, not just physically. And we'll
all get that physical healing one day in heaven. But
most importantly, spiritually so we can be one with him.
And once you have that, you're going to have all
the fruits of the spirit of love, joy, peace and

(56:48):
patience and kindness. And and that's really what was missing
for me. I saw these people in my life carry
others that God had strategically planted in my life. They
had peace that passes all understanding. And I wanted that.
I desperately wanted that, and the only way that I
could get there was through the grace of Jesus Christ.

S7 (57:05):
Yeah, I'm going to do something really different.

S2 (57:07):
Phil, we're going to bring you back next week, actually,
to banner AD your ministry. We're going to bring you
back to banner ad the Ministry. But right now God's
doing some work here in hearts. You with me, bro?

S10 (57:18):
I'm with you 100%.

S2 (57:20):
100%. Um, right now some of you are saying that's me. Um,
I have I've yelled at God. I've been confused about
why God's not delivering me. And it's because you've been
in the way. You're the roadblock. And God is right now, today, saying,
surrender all to Jesus for the first time in your life.

(57:40):
No matter. Forget your pedigree. Forget how many verses you know.
Forget how much you've served. Forget all that stuff. What
does it profit a man to gain all the accolades?
I'm doing a little knockoff here of Matthew 16. What
does it profit you? I'm asking you, this friend, to

(58:01):
gain all the accolades and all the security of all
the religious stuff you've been doing, and to lose your soul.
And the answer is nothing. Nothing. And if today is
your day of salvation. Feel. I Feel. I just want
you to pray for all those surrendering right now, and
then we're going to give a link out to them
so that they can have their first steps with Jesus.

(58:21):
I want you to just pray a prayer of salvation
for everyone listening right now. Let's go.

S10 (58:27):
Dear Lord. You are a gracious father. You hold the
whole world in your hands. You care for us physically, spiritually,
more than we can ever ask or even think or
even imagine. You love us so much. Yeah, Lord, no
matter where we are right now, whether you feel close
to us or far away right now, as we get
down and surrender ourselves and pray. Lord, I'm sorry for

(58:49):
my sins. I'm sorry for what I've done. I know
that sin is what separates me from you and Lord Jesus.
I just ask that you'll come into my heart, into
my mind, into my soul, and wash myself free. Thank
you for going to the cross so that we can
have eternal life. And Lord, we accept that salvation today
and we come to you joyfully, leaving ourselves fully at

(59:09):
the feet of your cross. And we thank you in
advance for what you're doing right now, in this moment,
and what you'll do with us in the future. And Lord,
I also just ask that you'll surround surround each person
who prayed this prayer this morning, uh, with someone who
is a believer, with someone who can encourage them and
place them in a great community. All this we ask
in Jesus name. Amen.

S11 (59:29):
Amen. Amen.

S2 (59:30):
If you're right now responding to the Lord first time
in your life that you've truly surrendered all to Jesus,
God caught you at a moment of brokenness. It may
not be laying in a hospital bed, but you're laying
in the pain of a self-led life. Jesus is saying, come,
and if this is you, I just want you right now.
First time ever truly surrendering to Jesus. All of the

(59:52):
actions before were empty compared to this moment. Just text
the word new right now to 800 555 7898. Just
text the word new right now to 800 555 7898.
I want you to stay on the horn here. Phil.
We're going to shout out some last four numbers of
all the people responding to Jesus this morning all over

(01:00:14):
North America and beyond. Right now, we've got some resources
we're going to send your way to say welcome to
the family. If right now, today, you are surrendering your
life to Jesus, you know what went on before. But
today is new. Just text the word new right now

(01:00:34):
to 800, 555, 78, 98. Just that one word. New
to 800, 555, 78, 98. It's amazing what God does
to reach into the hearts of people. Called them out
of darkness, into the light. And we are grateful for
you today. Just text that one word new to 800

(01:00:58):
555 7898. We're going to. This resource is just loaded
with good tools that are going to help you in
your first steps with Jesus. So welcome to the family.
I just got.

S7 (01:01:11):
In.

S2 (01:01:11):
My heart. Someone's chomping at the bit to tell someone
you had bought the myth. The lie. I've been a
Christian my whole life. And then you were born again.
Might have been in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s. If
that's you, I want to get you in here really quickly.
The spirit of God's been telling you. Get ready. Somebody's
about to ask this, and it's like, oh, boy. It's
now 805, five, five, 78, 98. Got to get you

(01:01:34):
in here quickly. Um, if that's you, we'd love to
hear that story. 800 555 78. 98. Ali, you found
something dynamite, sister, I love live radio.

S3 (01:01:45):
Well, this this resource on Desiring God, which is a
great website. It's it is so spot on to what
we're talking about. And I what I really love about
this article is it it really drills down on the
like what's missing. Because you could be you could be
sitting there going, okay, so is it about how much
I feel for God? Is it about how many you know,

(01:02:05):
did I lift a hand at a certain time. And
this drills down at really the difference between an authentic
faith and authentic faith. And what it boils down to
is obedience to the Word of God. Being a hearer
of the word and a doer of the word.

S2 (01:02:21):
It's so.

S7 (01:02:21):
Good.

S3 (01:02:21):
It's it is really.

S2 (01:02:23):
It is.

S7 (01:02:23):
So.

S2 (01:02:23):
Good.

S7 (01:02:24):
That.

S2 (01:02:24):
What I love about it, it's titled.

S7 (01:02:25):
I.

S2 (01:02:26):
Never Knew You Fatal Dreams of the Religious lost. This guy,
Greg Morris, we got to get him in here, but
he's got three, three. Fatal dreams are correct. Doctrine is insufficient.
Because here's the thing. The Pharisees have the right doctrine,
but they didn't know Jesus. Okay, guys, I mean, doctrine
can't save you. Emotions are inadequate. Sometimes you think, oh, man,

(01:02:49):
if I lift my hands a little higher here. And
activity can be deceptive. That's the big enchilada. I mean,
they did so much. We prophesied in your name, cast
out demons in your name, and did mighty works in
your name. I love what this author has done. He's
just broken it down. It's not a long read, but
it's powerful. Ali, let's make sure folks get it right now.

S3 (01:03:09):
Yeah, just text the word found to 800 555 7898.
If you want to read a really good I really
highly recommend this article. It's a good read on this one.
As Carl said, that won't take you, but more than
a couple minutes just text found to 800 555 7898
found to 800 555 7898. You know, the interesting thing

(01:03:33):
is we've heard from an author, from a pastor, now
an article. This is this is out there and it's everywhere.
You know, lest you think that this is sort of
an obscure thing that that isn't worth camping out on,
it's everywhere in Scripture. And when we look at people's
lived experience, this happens so often. This is not an

(01:03:57):
obscure thing. That's the exception and not the rule.

S2 (01:04:00):
No, you're right on Ali. And what I've been stunned
by lately is in for a long time. I'm going
to be candid with you. I felt like, man, am
I this. I didn't feel like a.

S7 (01:04:12):
Lone.

S2 (01:04:13):
Voice, like I'm some great man of God that has
an angle on this thing. I just felt felt so
convicted by it. And I started wondering, do other people
have the same sense? You know what I'm saying? It's like,
do other people feel this? Now I'm seeing this message
of this great hallucination of salvation. It's everywhere. And I'm

(01:04:35):
seeing I don't know if it's because that's in my algorithm,
but on the access that I have to a couple
of platforms, I'm getting pop ups constantly, preachers, young and old,
that are just saying, boy, don't get this delusion thinking
I'm in church. I've been raised in church. Therefore I'm
born again. Don't let it happen. Don't let it happen. Well,

(01:04:55):
I asked you to call in. We've got at least
one in here. Ben from Illinois. What's your story? You
were lost. And then God found you. And you were churched, right?
My man?

S12 (01:05:04):
That's right. Our parents took us to church every week
when I was young, and I loved the church. I
had a bunch of affection for the songs and the
potlucks and being with the church people, and I thought
I was a Christian. But when I was 24 years old, uh,
the Lord had really made it clear to me that
I was not a Christian. I was trying as hard
as I could to be good, and it wasn't working.

(01:05:25):
And one of my uncles spent a couple months with
me talking with me about the Lord. And, uh, this
is not a textbook way to lead somebody to Christ.
But what he did is he came to my apartment
and he said, I'm not leaving tonight until you make
a decision so you don't have to walk with the Lord.
But I'm just praying that you'll choose to walk with
the Lord. And after we prayed for a couple of hours,

(01:05:47):
I got on my knees. And, uh, when I stood up,
I knew I was a different man. And.

S2 (01:05:53):
Ben, that's so sweet, man. And it still gets you
to this day. I think that's a noble thing because
he asked you to make a decision. He was willing
to hear you say, I'm going my own way. But
you had to decide that night.

S12 (01:06:05):
Yeah. He knew I was a procrastinator and he'd been
sharing the Lord with me. I quit smoking cigarettes and
I was making changes. But he knew that I hadn't
made the change. And so he really pressed. Really, really
pressed me on it.

S2 (01:06:17):
Yeah. What? Another man from Illinois. Thank you for calling in, man. What?
What another great deception, huh? That that we can get
off something and kind of clean up a few things. Deadly. Uh,
I want to make sure we get this link into
your hand. A lot of them going out, but. Ali.
Spike it.

S7 (01:06:34):
Sister.

S3 (01:06:35):
Yeah. Just text the key word. Found to 800 555 7898.
Keyword found to 855 five 7898. This article, it's called
I Never Knew You Fatal Dreams of the Religious Lost.
A pretty provocative article, but definitely worth the read. Found
to 855 five 7898.

S2 (01:06:58):
Yeah. What an important discussion here.