Karl and Crew Rewind- God's Calling and Identity in Christ

Today on Karl and Crew, the team talked about the story of Esther and how God moved providencially through the casting of lots to give Esther the time to make a difference. We also talked about the importance of knowing who we are in Jesus. Pastor Philip Miller of The Moody Church joined us to talk about our desire for significance, security, satisfaction, and where we find it.

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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. Scotland crew mornings.

S2 (00:09):
Helping you take your next step with Jesus. Well, be careful,
because sometimes we kind of gamble with the faith, and
gambling has its own perils. You know, the interesting thing
about gambling is, I mean, I guess at the end
of the day, it's a goal to gain some kind
of edge in life by a roll of the dice, right?

(00:30):
Whether it's scratch off or whatever you're doing.

S3 (00:33):
Or, or, I mean, the online gambling is so prevalent,
sports betting.

S2 (00:40):
High school kids are getting into this heavily. Somebody texted
us earlier and said that there's kids that are racking
up $30,000 in debt. I don't even know how you
can do that on a gambling site. How do they
let you get that far in debt? How does that work?

S3 (00:55):
I do not know, but that's terrifying.

S2 (00:58):
Yeah. Here's the proverb. Proverbs 1633 the lot is cast
into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.
Now does the Lord want us to get ahead by chance? No.
This is why the House wins all the time. All
you got to do is look at casinos. All those lights,
that bright red carpet, the parking garages, everything they're paid

(01:22):
for with the losses of people that come in hopes
of winning. And are there certain games that people can
win with? I'd say poker is probably the one, because
there's a certain skill level there, but the rest of
them are just in chance, and even poker players will
tell you, be careful here. It's just it's a crazy thing,

(01:44):
especially when you look at Proverbs and go, God's the
one who tells you how they're coming up here, guys.

S3 (01:50):
And so, I mean, the interesting thing is when you
think about casting lots, I mean, don't you think a
lot of times people want some sort of direction or
certainty with where they're headed with with something.

S2 (02:03):
Yeah. And the amazing thing is, God, you used used
lots as a way to give direction. I mean, there's
no denying it. It's all the way through the Old Testament.
And early on in the New Testament, when Judas was
gone and they needed a new disciple, they cast lots.
And you look at that and go, whoa, what's going on? Well,
Proverbs says that God directs them, and there was a

(02:25):
humble dependence. Now, in the New covenant at Pentecost, when
the Holy Spirit came and indwelled his children, all of
a sudden dice thrown no longer happened. It was done
for 2000 years. No followers of Jesus have cast lots
or thrown dice because that's what lots were. So coming up,
we're going to take you on a little trip to

(02:48):
a lot that was cast. And boy, does it prove
that God was providentially involved in this thing. Hang on.

S1 (02:56):
This is curling crew on Moody Radio.

S2 (02:59):
All right. We're going to show you how not to
do it so that we can learn how to do it.
And sometimes a great way to observe Scripture. Heyman is
his name. Tell me about Heyman, young Thunder.

S4 (03:10):
Oh man, Heyman is a jerk. I don't like Heyman.

S2 (03:14):
Heyman was a bad dude.

S4 (03:16):
He's a bad dude.

S2 (03:16):
What do you think he looked like?

S4 (03:17):
Oh man. So the only thing I I can get
when I think of Heyman is Veggie Tales. Veggie Tales.
There was the story of Esther.

S2 (03:25):
That was coming.

S4 (03:26):
And, uh. And the potato I think he was a
potato played Heyman. And so I just think of the
of the kind of like any he had like little
squinty eyed potato with a little, uh, hairline mustache. And
so that's what I think of when I think of fame.
And I can't change it. It's just stuck in my
head like that.

S2 (03:45):
Things you thought you would not hear when you ask
a question.

S4 (03:48):
Yeah.

S3 (03:48):
Veggie tales.

S4 (03:49):
I know, right?

S2 (03:50):
For 500 right there. I just I just won. You
just won that I did not know that was going
to pop up. Okay, so Heyman bad dude tell the story.

S4 (03:58):
Yeah. So Heyman is the right hand man of Xerxes
and and he's pompous and he wants everyone to bow
down to him. And you know and we talked a
little bit about this yesterday. Heyman is walking out in,
you know in front of the temple and or not
in front of the in front of the palace. And
and Mordecai, who is a relative to Esther, is, is
sitting out there and he wants everyone to bow before

(04:20):
him as he walks by because he goes, hey, I'm
I'm high up. You guys better recognize and and Mordecai says, no,
I'm not doing it. I'm you know, you're not a
man of God. I don't have anything to do with you.
I'm not bowing to you. And and Heyman is so
offended by this. He says, I'm going to take it out.
Not just on Mordecai, but on Mordecai. Entire, entire people group.
So he he basically he tells the king, listen, there's

(04:43):
this people group out there that's following laws that aren't
your laws, and you have no benefit of keeping them
in your kingdom. He goes, let me take care of it.
The king says, yeah, go ahead, take care of these people.
He doesn't tell them it's the Jews. And he says,
you know, I'm going to go take care of these
people for you. So he makes an edict to say,
let's kill all the Jews, identify every single one of
them in our entire empire, and then let's kill them.

(05:06):
And Mordechai is going to be one of them. He
makes a gallow specifically for Mordechai to die on. But
before he sends this edict out, he decides, hey, let's
put a little gamble to it and decide when this
is going to happen by casting lots. And so he
basically throws down a set of dice to see when
when he's going to set it out. And in God's providence,

(05:27):
it landed on 11 months away.

S2 (05:30):
The 13th day of Adar, which was 11 months away.
The OP, I mean, a full, almost a full calendar
year away.

S4 (05:38):
And he had every right to just say, send the
edict out now, let's get it moving today. He could
have done that. He decided not to. And in God's providence,
it gave Esther and Mordecai enough time to talk with
the King about this, to hear about it, talk with
the king about it, and then let the king know
so they could stop it.

S2 (05:58):
We got a we got a resource for you. There
is a celebration two day celebration called Purim p u
r I'm and it is celebrated to this day. It's
a celebration of the dice being rolled by Heyman that
came up so far out that it gave time for
the providence of God to work. It's pretty cool celebration.

(06:21):
Isn't that cool? They're celebrating Heyman's rolling of the dice.
Per is lots. Lots are dice rolling or short straw.
It could be either.

S4 (06:32):
Probably not the action Heyman wanted of his to be celebrated,
but by God's providence it is.

S2 (06:39):
Got it nonetheless. We got a resource for you right now.

S3 (06:42):
Just text lots to 805, 55, 78, 98. Lots to
800 555 Five, 78, 98.

S2 (06:51):
So lots were thrown by God's people for thousands of years.
When did it all change in? What does that mean
for you coming up?

S5 (07:03):
Well, I better lose the gambler. Yeah, just throwing snake eyes. Oh,
love ain't got me down hard. I know around the
corner light. My fool's Paradise. Just another roll of the dice. Oh, yeah. Oh, my.

S2 (07:26):
It's not his.

S5 (07:26):
Fault. I mean.

S2 (07:29):
The boss sounds. Every song sounds the same.

S4 (07:32):
They really do.

S2 (07:33):
Every song sounds the same.

S4 (07:35):
There's no variation.

S2 (07:36):
It's so funny, man. You hear that? And you're like,
all right, man, born in the USA. You just sits
in the same key and you just keep going, man.

S6 (07:45):
Glory days.

S2 (07:46):
Yeah. Same thing. It just keeps on rolling.

S4 (07:49):
That's so funny.

S2 (07:50):
Um, so we don't roll dice anymore? What do we do, Ali?

S3 (07:55):
Seek the power of the Holy Spirit.

S2 (07:59):
When did that happen?

S3 (08:01):
I mean, the day of Pentecost.

S2 (08:02):
Yeah. It's a it's an astounding observation here. If you
look in the New Testament, you find that they were
rolling dice, casting lots, even to fill the slot of
judas's discipleship. He's gone. Matthias was coming in. They rolled
dice to find out who would be selected, but they're
never rolled again. I'm going to give the floor to

(08:25):
you guys. Why is this so powerful now?

S3 (08:28):
Why? I find this really fascinating one, the timing of it.
Because I just literally last night was reading and and
not even this passage, another one about lots and I
and I was like, I wonder what that is. So
I love that we're talking about this today. But I
mean the desire to see God's sovereign will. The rolling

(08:49):
of the dice at the time was a guarantee that
that that God would be controlling the outcome.

S2 (08:55):
Because he does.

S3 (08:56):
Because he does so. There was no influence of anyone else.
But we don't have to rely on that sort of
roll of the dice, because we have now have the
leading of the Holy Spirit. But here's the thing, though.
Do you think that sometimes rolling the dice would feel easier?

S2 (09:14):
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

S4 (09:18):
Absolutely.

S3 (09:18):
It's definitive. Everybody can see it. You can't miss what
it says.

S4 (09:24):
It's a literal sign. Do this.

S3 (09:26):
Exactly. And so I think most people would say, give
me the literal sign, please. If I have the choice
between the two. I think it'd be tempting to be like.
Can I get a literal sign?

S2 (09:35):
Yeah. This is why you don't want to do you
don't want to use Gideon's story of putting out a
fleece as what you're doing, because the the fleece that
he put out was an act of disobedience because God
had already told him what to do. Yeah. So you
don't want to use that as a proof text. And
here we find in Proverbs 1633, the lot is cast
into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.

(09:57):
Don't go to a casino, don't do scratch offs, don't
do any of that stuff. Because in the New Covenant
we don't cast lots, roll dice, we don't gamble. We
get led by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's
the power of Pentecost.

S3 (10:14):
Okay. Oh, go ahead, Jonathan.

S4 (10:15):
I was going to say, I think of John 1027
where Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice and I
know them, and they follow me. Is is that's kind
of the new the new way of doing it is
when we are in Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit.
We know his voice. So when he calls us, yeah,
sometimes we want to go and get counsel and say,
you know, but at the same time, God's using all

(10:37):
these things to bring it together to where we can
hear his voice and say, I know God's calling me
to do that.

S3 (10:42):
Okay. So, Carl. So, someone who's facing a decision, let's
say they come to you. You're a pastor. Like, is
it wrong for me to ask God to show me
in a specific way? Is that a wrong way to
seek to be led by the power of the Holy Spirit?
Could these work together? Obviously, I'm not going to roll
a dice, but I mean, you've heard of people who

(11:04):
look for closed and open doors. Like, I feel that
God opened this door. Isn't that similar?

S2 (11:10):
Okay, so you just gave me three there. So let's
let's deal with the last one first. Be careful with
open door prayers, because Satan is more than willing to
open doors of opportunity that maybe are not from God.
That's one. Secondly, is it bad to ask God for

(11:32):
wisdom and insight? No. What do we find? My bride
and I were up early this morning praying together. And
what do we find in verse five of James one?
I think it's verse five. If you lack wisdom for
the trial that you're going through, check me on that.
If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. And
God wants to freely give us that wisdom when we're

(11:55):
going through that trial. Yeah, I'm certain it's verse five.

S4 (11:58):
Yeah. James one.

S2 (11:58):
Five. Yeah. So we. Open door can be dangerous. Have
you ever seen that God opens doors for us that
we realize in retrospect, it's like, whoa, there's. There's an
open door here. Sometimes open doors are from the Lord,
sometimes they're not. And by the way, this is why

(12:19):
we need to be careful with this, because even the
apostle Paul says in first Corinthians 16 verse nine, he said, look,
I want to come see you in Corinth, but right
now I'm going to stay on in Ephesus for a
wide door for effective work has opened to me. And
there are many adversaries. So does Paul use open door policy? Yeah,
but there's there's something even deeper still. And that is this.

(12:44):
And proven, by the way, with what Paul said. Notice
we often look for open doors or windows of opportunity
or signs that God's leading because it will be absent,
maybe of conflict, or maybe some of the question marks
will evaporate because it'll be a clear sign. Yeah. This
is a boulevard of opportunity in front of me. But

(13:04):
according to Paul in first Corinthians 16, verse nine, that
wide door for effective work actually was met with resistance
from the evil one, because there were many adversaries. So
this is a great question, Ali. And this is a
really there's a there's a very clear answer here. If

(13:25):
we look at what God's will is for our life,
it's pretty conclusive. Even if you look at First Thessalonians
chapter four, verse three, and I steal this from John
Piper from about 25 years ago. It's been that long?
He was asked by someone, how can I know the
will of God? And he? You? He went to first

(13:47):
Thessalonians four, verse three. Now it goes on to talk
about abstaining from sexual immorality. But it's a good enough
standalone where Paul says, this is the will of God,
your sanctification. So God's will for our life is that
we would grow up in him. Have you ever noticed
that the things that cause us to grow often we

(14:08):
head into with trembling and apprehension?

S3 (14:11):
Absolutely.

S2 (14:12):
Yeah. And sometimes we find things that grow us up,
that we're at the same time begging. God, God, take
this cup from me. But then we need to remember
what Jesus even said on the Mount of Olives. Not
my will, but yours be done. So was Jesus on
the right path when he went to the cross?

S4 (14:32):
Of course he was.

S2 (14:32):
Of course he was. Was it hard?

S7 (14:36):
Of course. Brutal.

S2 (14:37):
He took the sins of mankind on his shoulders, man
and on his heart. He took it all the way
to the cross. So I remember the first time I
used this. It was really cool. I remember the first
time after hearing John Piper share this. So it had
to have been maybe more than 25 years ago. Um,
we were with a bunch of hundreds of single adults

(14:57):
that were just growing and just going with God. And
a guy came up to me after a Thursday night
service and he said, hey, I've got an opportunity. How
do I know if this is from the Lord or not?
I said, well, let me run this by you. Open
up the Bible to one Thessalonians four, verse three. And
I said, if this move he was moving from little
Rock to Dallas or that was what's in front of him.

(15:18):
I said, if this move, based on opportunity and challenges alike,
combined for an opportunity that's going to press you closer
to God, maybe move you out of some apathy. And
when I said that, he goes, man, that's it. He said,
I feel like I've gotten so apathetic in my faith,

(15:39):
and even the prospect of going to Dallas has already
driven me to my face before the Lord, I go.
You know, that could be God's dinner bell for you,
that you're on the right path here. Because when something
is going to drive us closer to the Lord, depending
on him more, and is by virtue of making that move,
that decision, that job that we take, that promotion that

(16:03):
we take or don't take. Isn't that interesting?

S3 (16:06):
Yeah.

S2 (16:07):
Will cause us to grow up in our relationship with God.
All of those things can be great indicators that we're
on the right path. Here's the added thing that I
would say. Not all doors. Okay. So let's rehearse this.
Not all open doors are from God. Satan's willing to
open plenty of doors for you. My goodness, we we
don't have to explain that. We can all see things

(16:28):
in our life that seem like. Whoa, look at that.
We jumped in it and we're like, oh, that wasn't
from God. Can we ask God for wisdom and should
we ask him for signs? Absolutely. Sometimes the wisdom that
comes down from above is going to be God crossing

(16:49):
someone in our path who's older and wiser in the Lord.
And we ask them for counsel in many counselors wisdom.
But know this at the end of the day, any
decision that's going to drive you closer to dependence upon
God is probably a good decision to make. Any decision
that's going aimed at giving you, um, a little more glory.

(17:11):
And by the way, um, a little more platform. You know,
I'd be suspicious of that, but there's a lot of
you that are maybe on the cusp of applying for
a new job, or looking for a promotion or looking
for a new avenue. And by virtue of you taking this,

(17:31):
you may get a little more exposure. Ali's going to
share her story, but it's going to cause you to
cling more closely to God. Wow. That could be a
beautiful thing. So it's not a straight line. It involves
getting some wise counsel around you. But it's a great
question to ask Ali. This is the will of God,
your sanctification. So any decision that you're facing today, just

(17:55):
ask God, is this going to grow me up? Is
this going to grow me up? Is this going to
take me closer to you? And if it is, you
might be on some solid ground. Get some wise counsel around.

S7 (18:03):
You.

S3 (18:03):
Want to make sure you can get the show cast today.
Maybe you heard that and that's something you want to
share with someone in your life who you know is
facing a decision. Just get our show cast. You can
send them the link. Just text show to 800 555 7898.
Text show to 800 555 7898.

S1 (18:22):
Your spiritual pit stop to keep you going in the race.
You're listening to Carl and crew.

S2 (18:29):
So get back from vacation. You learn a lot when
you're away. One is you better have ID when you're
going through different checkpoints. You better have ID. I mean,
it's amazing, isn't it? I mean, goodness sakes, if you
don't have. What's the new ID called?

S3 (18:44):
Real ID?

S2 (18:46):
Oh, yeah. Real ID as opposed to what, by the way,
fake ID? Well, the world are we doing here? So
I didn't have the real ID, but I had a passport.
Could you hold on to that? Right. Because that's who
you are. Is my face is on there, and there's
my number. And it's. I was came from Homer, Alaska.

(19:10):
And it's got it all right down there. But you
got to have it. This whole ID stuff is important
when it comes to who we are in Jesus, Ali.

S3 (19:17):
There's a movie that was popular a couple years ago,
and I can picture the scene. And this woman, she
grabs a hold, she's a nanny for this little girl.
And she grabs a hold of the little girl's face,
and she looks at her deep in her eyes and
she says. She says, you is strong, you is smart,
you is important. And it kind of became a meme.
And it was her trying to speak identity into this

(19:40):
little girl and tell her that she was strong, smart
and important. Those were her big three. We've got a
special guest, Philip miller, joining us right now. You have
a big three, and it's a little different from that
popular phrase out of the movie.

S8 (19:53):
Yeah. So, you know, when we look at the Bible,
there's three big core identity needs that lie in the
heart of each one of us, and that is we
need significance. We need security, and we need satisfaction. And
the reality is, all three of those things we're meant
to find in God, in our relationship with him as
his children. And if you think about it, Jesus at

(20:15):
his baptism, you know, the God the Father says, this
is my son. Significance, right? He's beloved. He's we're secure
in his love. Jesus is secure in the father's love
and in him. I'm well pleased. Right. There's there's satisfaction there.
And so the reality is, if we are in Christ,
those statements actually apply to us as well, that we

(20:36):
are God's children. We are beloved in him. We he
is well pleased over us for Jesus sake. And so
the deep identity that we all long for to matter,
for significance, to feel safe in the universe, to be secure,
to be delighted and happy in the world, to be
satisfied those deep identity needs are met in God as

(20:57):
our father and we are his beloved children. That's where
our real, deep, true identity lies.

S2 (21:02):
Philip miller again. Our guest right now, pastor of the
Moody Church. You still got the up there, right? I mean,
it's got. Oh, yeah.

S8 (21:09):
The Moody church. Yeah, I.

S2 (21:10):
Love that, Philip. Here's what I love. I think if
most people are talking about who we are in Christ,
they go, okay, um, I'm significant. That's good. I'm secure.
That's good. But I am satisfied. I'm not so sure
that makes a list. Why is that so important?

S8 (21:28):
We're made to rejoice. We're made to be happy like God.
God is. You know, you read the Psalms and you
see things like delight yourself in the Lord, or at
your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Right. There's abundant promises
that God is the fountain of our satisfaction. We're made

(21:48):
for him. We're made to come alive and and find joy.
That's what the woman at the well was looking for
in all those failed relationships. And Jesus said, I'm the
real deal, right? So we were made for the Lord himself.
And here's what happens, Carl, I think we wake up
in the universe. We're made for God. We're made to
have these deep identity needs met in relationship with him.

(22:10):
But we wake up estranged in the universe. And so
we wake up functionally as orphans, and we go out
and we fend for ourselves and we think, well, I've
got to get significant security and satisfaction on my own.
I've got to go find it somewhere else. And so
we look for anything that will give us promises that
sound like they're plausible. And so we look to career

(22:32):
and romance and relationships and vacations and like all the
things that promise to make us happy and significant and safe.
And of course, all those things fail their idols and
they will never deliver what God alone can give. And
so our orphan hearts, though, create these like habitual patterns,
these muscle memories of like how to cope through life

(22:55):
in the universe and find identity on, on our own.
And it never works. And so then at the end
of the day, we come back and we say, wait
a minute, maybe, maybe God is the one we were
made for all along.

S2 (23:07):
Maybe God had something to say here.

S8 (23:09):
Yeah. And here's the thing. Even as Christians, followers of Jesus,
here's what I think. What happens? I think we have
so much muscle memory from living as orphans that even
though we confess Jesus as Lord, we believe in the gospel.
We have this deep muscle memory, these habits of a
lifetime that have programmed us, as it were, to live

(23:31):
as orphans, even though we have the resources of being
children of God at our fingertips. And part of sanctification
growing in Christ is learning to retrain that muscle memory,
so that we learn to look to God for our
significant security and our satisfaction, instead of all the other
stuff that that are the false promises out there.

S2 (23:53):
Oh my goodness. Phillip miller here with us, lead pastor
of the Moody Church downtown Chicago, coming up here. I'm
going to pin you, pastor. Here we go. How does
this work for you? Because here's the truth a lot
of people just want to know, is anyone else like me,
pastor Miller? Just like you. Coming up.

S1 (24:15):
He's a sports fanatic with a stat for anything you
can think of. Young Thunder is in the crew. its
curling crew on Moody Radio.

S2 (24:25):
It's for the glory of God and the good of others,
and God is calling you to take a step of faith.
I think that's that's paramount here, oftentimes, and not to
rank on anyone at all. But we need to beware
when we're feeling like we're hearing from God. But it's
got a big thread of self-promotion in that thing. We

(24:46):
just need to be on alert, because the steps of
faith that we find throughout Scripture are singularly for God's glory,
and secondarily, for the good of others around us. You
see this with with every act of faith. I mean,
you go to, you go to Hebrews 11 camp out there.
And that needs to be your kind of your template

(25:07):
for really assessing is my step of faith, truly for
the glory of God and the good of others. Uh, Thad,
let's get you in here from Alaska. My man. What
do you say?

S9 (25:18):
Yeah, I just yesterday filled out an application for the
ABC Crisis Pregnancy Center. Just have had it on my
heart recently, tried to run from it a little bit
and the Lord just prompted me hard again. And I
don't know what I can provide, but it sounds like
they're men that come there with their either their girlfriends

(25:39):
or their wives and need counsel and coaching. And I'm
just stepping out and hopefully I can contribute in one
way or another to the glory of God.

S2 (25:50):
Amen. Dad. What's what, uh, what town are you in
up there in Alaska.

S9 (25:55):
I'm in.

S2 (25:56):
Soldotna, bro. I used to go to solid Rock Bible
Camp all the time, and I served there for several years.
I'm an Alaskan, so I know you know where solid
rock is. Right down the road from you, buddy. Way
to go. I'm proud of you, Thad. What a cool
step of faith by Thad.

S6 (26:13):
I love that. Yes.

S3 (26:14):
Wow.

S2 (26:15):
Come on.

S3 (26:16):
Thad kind of ran from it for a little bit,
and then just took that step of faith to go. God,
could you use me here?

S2 (26:22):
Joyce in Illinois. What do you say, Joyce?

S10 (26:25):
Yes. Hi. My step in faith was when I was
driving my granddaughter home from school. I pick her up
every day, and he has been prompting me and prompted
me to share the gospel with her, to ask her
if she had any questions about being saved, what it entailed.
And I was terrified to start the conversation, but I

(26:47):
did it. And before we got home, I got her
into ordering a Bible. She's going to start reading that Bible,
and she's going to start speaking with me every time
she has a question. And Carl, I've been with you
guys since 2011, and I've been growing and growing and

(27:07):
growing and growing. God is great.

S2 (27:10):
Joyce, you are an inspiration. We love you, Joyce. We love.

S10 (27:14):
You. I love you too.

S2 (27:16):
Oh, we love Wow.

S6 (27:18):
Wow. Cool story.

S2 (27:19):
Hold on a second. Hold on. Boom boom boom. Triple boom.
And Joyce. Because that is. Come on now.

S3 (27:28):
Yeah, that. That trepidation that you feel like. Man, this
could be awkward trying to talk to my 17 year
old granddaughter. I mean, what if she gets mad? What
if she doesn't want to hear it? What if it
hurts our relationship?

S4 (27:41):
Yeah.

S2 (27:42):
God has prompted you to step out by faith, and
it's for his glory and someone else's good. That's big.
Two leading indicators. It's from God. Jeannette, first time caller
in Tennessee. What's your story, Jeannette?

S11 (27:57):
Well, um, I was cruising down the road this morning
on my way to work, and a gentleman caught my
eye and I heard, you know, go give him some love.
And I'm like, yeah, right, right. It's like, okay, you know. Yeah.
And so I turned around and went back and. Oh, yeah, um,

(28:19):
I approached him and we spoke for a minute. I
asked him if I could pray for him. Um, I
gave him a hug. And, you know, when I reached
out to, you know, and I don't carry cash, but
when I was told to give him 20 bucks and,
you know, I. Yeah, I don't know who he was, but. Well,
I do know his name is Corey. And I'm going

(28:41):
to keep praying for him.

S2 (28:42):
That's beautiful.

S11 (28:44):
This is not something I do.

S2 (28:46):
That's okay. See, that's the point. Because you got to be. Listen,
you don't take every testimony here as a proof text
for something you've got to go do, because, I mean,
just having. Thanks, Jeannette. Boom. Sister from Tennessee. First time caller.
But when when you do feel truly prompted to the Lord.

(29:08):
And by the way, God's not going to put you
in a compromised position. Faith is not reckless, is what
I would say, but oftentimes it's out of the norm.
And I love hearing her say, I don't do this
all the time, like never. But it's a beautiful thing
when God prompts us by faith to do something.

S1 (29:29):
Romans eight brought her to Jesus while broadcasting traffic overnight.
Super dei is in the crew. It's Carl and crew
on Moody Radio.

S2 (29:38):
You know this the amazing thing about coming to belief
in Jesus Christ. Which is what when Thomas asked Jesus,
which I again, I just love Thomas. I gotta say,
he asked questions no one else had the courage to ask.
It should be Doubting Thomas. Okay, if you're calling him

(30:00):
Doubting Thomas, it should have a added parenthetical statement that
says Doubting Thomas, who actually spoke up for all those
that didn't have the courage to ask the same questions.

S6 (30:12):
Oh, really?

S4 (30:13):
I mean, yeah, it's true.

S2 (30:14):
Guaranteed. The others are like. Yeah.

S4 (30:18):
He asked that and glad.

S2 (30:20):
Oh, he put fingers in there and he's given the affirmative. Ooh.
That's good. Yeah. He felt his nail pierced hands. Okay.
That's good.

S6 (30:29):
Right.

S2 (30:29):
Because everybody felt that. I would suspect not everybody, but
a few of them did, for sure. I mean, it's
just a cool thing, but Peter gets told by Jesus
when he's clarifying where he's going. He says, believe in God.
Believe also in me. Now that belief changes things. I mean,

(30:51):
and it's not just a theological change. It is a
practical shift. Everything happens differently. Now look at Paul on
the road to Damascus. How did his career shift?

S3 (31:01):
Oh, in a major way. I mean, he.

S6 (31:03):
Was.

S3 (31:04):
He was headed to persecute. He was a persecutor of Christians.

S6 (31:08):
Yeah.

S2 (31:09):
I mean, he was Persecutors. Slash. He was a what's
it called? Uh, what's the law called when you're it?
What's it called when you're a bystander? Nah, it's not
a bystander. When you're watching a homicide and you do nothing.
What's it called? Somebody help me. That's got a law degree.
It's not co-conspirator. It's something else. Anyway, there's a technical

(31:32):
term for it. So at minimum, he's that some people
have said he's a murderer. I think directly murder one
he was heading for. But on the on the way
to Damascus clearly. But he was at minimum passive when
Stephen was getting stoned to death. I mean, here he
was collecting cloaks.

S4 (31:54):
Yeah. That that rule or that law is, is, comes
from the bystander effect. So Paul wouldn't be a bystander.
But from that, that rule, it's bystander.

S6 (32:03):
Name that we have in our in our.

S2 (32:04):
System. By the way, every system is different. Wherever I go.

S6 (32:06):
In the world, everybody's.

S2 (32:07):
Got a.

S6 (32:07):
Different world.

S3 (32:08):
Where you are, you know, like you think about when
someone commits an armed robbery, they will charge the. And
it goes bad and someone dies. The person who's driving
the getaway car gets can get the same charge.

S2 (32:19):
Get the same.

S6 (32:19):
Charge.

S3 (32:20):
Because they were. And so Paul was kind of in
more in that role where he was he was a
not an active participant, but certainly a part of the group.

S4 (32:29):
Kind of like a.

S6 (32:29):
I know.

S2 (32:30):
It's called accessory.

S6 (32:31):
To murder. There you go. Accessory.

S2 (32:33):
Accessory to.

S6 (32:34):
Murder.

S2 (32:34):
So he was an accessory to murder, if not a murderer?

S6 (32:37):
Outright, for sure.

S2 (32:38):
And he had a career shift.

S4 (32:40):
Yeah.

S6 (32:40):
He did. And a half big one. Yeah. I mean,
come on.

S2 (32:46):
So we were. We were talking about this, and I
want to kick it around with you. Boom crew. Because
this is an important one. When you believe in Jesus Christ.
Everything changes in your life. I mean, just take the
parable of the soils. You go from a hard hearted
person where you heard about the scriptures and you heard
about Jesus, but the seed fell on hard soil. Dink

(33:09):
dink dink. Satan comes along and grabs that seed so that,
lest it bear fruit. Right? And then you've got the
seed on shallow soil. It goes into a heart. It's
not grounded, shoots up, says, ah, yeah, I'm all in.
And then, you know, by high noon we're out. And
then you've got the third kind of soil that's described
by Jesus, which is the thorny soil, the worries of

(33:32):
this world, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desire for
other things make it unfruitful. By the way, do you
know what, John Piper? Um, let me go through the
ones that I studied this up on. John MacArthur, John Piper. Uh,
Sam Storms, I don't want to speak out of turn here,
but those I studied all three of those guys in particular,

(33:53):
contemporary kind of theologians, deep thinkers, all of them put
that in the category of three out of the four
heart conditions of soil are lost. Do not know Jesus.
All of them. And only one does. And that's the
one that produces a crop 30, 60 and 100 fold.

(34:14):
It's fascinating stuff. So when you're truly born again, everything
changes for me. It did. I mean, guys, I went
from coke snorting, Crown royal drunk and foolish man to
radically transformed. And my entire orientation of my world shifted overnight.

(34:35):
I mean, overnight in a matter of six months. Was
it six months? In a matter of. Yeah, six, eight months.
I was applying to a Bible college to go to
a Bible college that I told my big sister who
went to this same one. I will never go to

(34:57):
this man. This place is filled with dorks and weirdos.
Those are.

S3 (35:00):
The exact.

S2 (35:01):
Those are the exact words I told her.

S3 (35:03):
Wow.

S2 (35:03):
And she just smiled at me. She's five years older
than me. She thought I was a knucklehead.

S3 (35:09):
Yeah.

S2 (35:10):
But now I'm at the Bible college that I told
her I would never go to. Why? Because Jesus radically
altered me now. It doesn't mean that you get an
absolute career shift for everyone. Look at somebody. You didn't
get a career shift. You got a career supercharge.

S12 (35:27):
Oh, absolutely. And a mind shift of the career that
I had.

S2 (35:30):
Okay. So really quickly, Hancock Tower, is it called tower?
What's it called?

S12 (35:35):
It was the John Hancock building. Building? Yes. All right. So. Yeah.

S2 (35:40):
So you're up there. God smokes you 3 a.m. or
something like that.

S12 (35:45):
To about 215.

S2 (35:46):
To be.

S12 (35:47):
Exact. 2:15 a.m. central. Exactly. Between traffic reports. Absolutely. Smoked
me up and became a Christian as an adult. Cared
a lot. A lot of hate, a lot of revenge
in me just because of things that had happened through
my life and just keeping them in a backpack like
cement and just carry that all my life. And that night,

(36:08):
reading the Bible between traffic reports and in Romans eight
and just fell to my knees. Let that backpack drop
and never look back.

S3 (36:18):
Yeah.

S2 (36:19):
Change the way you related to people.

S12 (36:21):
How I related to people. My heart. I mean, I truly,
physically felt warmth as I was just sobbing and then
had to pull it together to do another traffic report
and then sob some more. Yeah.

S2 (36:32):
Yeah.

S12 (36:32):
But yeah.

S2 (36:33):
Okay, so here's the deal, guys. How has your spiritual transformation,
genuine faith in Christ, changed the trajectory of your life?
And it could have been career. It could have been
something else. It could have been you stayed in that
career path, but it changed kind of how that thing worked.

S4 (36:54):
Absolutely.

S2 (36:55):
And coming up here in a minute, we're all going
to take a shot at this.

S1 (36:58):
He was running from God, but God's love brought him home.
Carl is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on
Moody Radio.

S2 (37:09):
It's Carl and crew. Morning's here. Look, we get this. Uh,
the fact is, when you are transformed by the power
of God. Look at Paul. Went from full on persecutor
of the church to the the most significant voice of
the church.

S3 (37:29):
That's a real shift.

S2 (37:32):
That's an understatement. I mean, that's like a whiplash shift.

S4 (37:36):
No doubt.

S2 (37:37):
Look at all the disciples. Six of them. Check me
on this. Six were definitively fishermen. Some were hard laborers.
Some were accountants. Got Matthew, who was a tax collector.
So you had career shifts. So for all of them now,
I put them in a different category, because there's an
apostleship with these guys that put the whole church in motion.

(38:00):
I mean, Jesus had to have some people come away
from their nets from tax collecting for the purpose of
we need some intensive movement on the ground.

S3 (38:09):
Right.

S2 (38:10):
So that's, that's that could be a little bit different.
But for all of us who are born again, when
we're kind of in that movement of life and, you know,
it could be this too. It could be when you
were a kid in high school and you did all
that career testing when you were in high school. That
stuff was funny, wasn't it? And then you find out, no, man,
I'm born again. This has taken me this way. I

(38:33):
simple question how did being transformed by Christ change your
career trajectory? Karen in Tennessee. What do you say, Karen?

S13 (38:42):
I was young, I was 28. Just working at any
kind of jobs. Actually sold to prisons for a while
on the phone and just wanted to make a change
in a difference in this world for God, and ended
up going to a concert and realizing I wanted to
work for a Christian record company and couldn't have left
to get here to Nashville, but the company moved me here, and, um,

(39:07):
I felt like I was making a difference. Um, I
ended up being in the lives of our little boys,
you know? And, um, anyway, it's a long story, but, um,
that's how I got moved to Nashville, and God did
amazing things here.

S2 (39:23):
That's awesome. Karen, way to go. Way to go, Karen
from Tennessee. That's why we call you the B crew.

S4 (39:31):
Amen to that.

S2 (39:32):
Love this feedback.

S4 (39:33):
So I did some looking up on the professions of
the disciples. So at least four are confirmed to be fishermen.

S2 (39:40):
I thought there were six confirmed fishermen.

S4 (39:42):
Well, there's Peter, Andrew, James and John. Right. Then we've got, uh, Philip,
who was likely a fisherman or tradesman. Yeah. Matthew, who
was a tax collector. Yes. Uh, Bartholomew. Some traditions suggest
he was a scholar or a nobleman of some type. Uh, Thomas,
it says by tradition, possibly a builder or a tradesman.

S2 (40:03):
I thought his profession was doubting, but. No.

S4 (40:05):
No. Not that. Uh, James. James the less is how
he is sometimes known.

S2 (40:10):
Yeah, what a bummer.

S4 (40:12):
I don't like that, but his his background's not really known.
Same with Thaddeus Simon the Zealot. Uh, so that could,
I mean, indicates he's part of the radical movement that
was anti-Roman, uh, a violent religious.

S2 (40:24):
So he was an opposition guy?

S4 (40:25):
Maybe opposition guy. And then, uh, Judas Iscariot, I mean,
he handled the money for the disciples.

S2 (40:31):
He was probably he was probably he didn't have a
spiritual gift because he wasn't born again, by the way.
Let's get real straight on that one. But he probably
had a talent of some kind or clerical work.

S4 (40:43):
Absolutely. He was good with money.

S2 (40:45):
They gave him the cheddar.

S4 (40:47):
When it when you have a tax collector who's good
with money on the team, and he's not the guy
who's watching the money, then you know, he's good with money.

S2 (40:55):
Daniel. right here in Illinois. What do you say, Daniel?

S14 (40:57):
I want the Northern Illinois University. And I graduated in 1988.
I graduated with a finance and accounting degree and five
years of college. I had four BS. I graduated with
a 3.9 GPA. I graduated magna cum laude. I was
going to go work for the FBI as an accountant,
or work for one of the big six accounting firms.
At the time, I was all set to do that,

(41:18):
but then God kind of redirected my path. So I
ended up at a smaller firm with eight people, and
the owner of the owner of the firm is my
brother's best friend. So we're all family. We're family based.
So long story short, I was able to share with
my boss who wasn't a Christian. He got born again,
his ex-wife got born again, his daughter is born again,
and she's a Wheaton grad. We have eight people that

(41:40):
work for us and five of us are born again.
We work for the unions in Chicago, all the trade unions,
and we feel we're a faith based company. They know
we're faith based company.

S2 (41:50):
That's awesome.

S14 (41:51):
We got a lot of business. The business has been
going for 50 years. We're small. We just got a
shot at the operating engineers account. 150 so it's a
faith based company. They know it and they respect it.
I feel God has blessed us all. It was great.

S2 (42:04):
Daniel. That's a great story, man. That is a great story. Yeah.
When you're lined up and you're going to go with
one of those big firms, I mean, those are big deals.
And now you're in a firm of eight, but you're
watching God's hand move and power your faith based. You're
interacting with unions. I mean, come on.

S4 (42:21):
It's a big deal.

S2 (42:21):
It's in Chicago here. This was when you got when
you got descendants of mob bosses that are bringing you
on with the Christian firm. You're doing something, man.

S4 (42:30):
Amen to that.

S2 (42:31):
That's awesome.

S1 (42:33):
Walking closer to Jesus every day. You're listening to Carl
and crew.

S2 (42:38):
How did being transformed by Christ change your career trajectory?
Love that word. Trajectory. What a great word. How did
that happen? Young thunder. Quickly! Quick hit!

S4 (42:50):
Yeah. For me, well, it didn't change my job because
my job is the same. I'm in the same place
as I was before I came to Christ.

S2 (42:56):
But it changed your trajectory.

S4 (42:58):
It changed me. It changed my job.

S2 (43:00):
Yeah.

S4 (43:00):
So I, I grew up in a Christian home. My
dad's a pastor, so ministry was very comfortable for me,
but I wasn't following God. So when it came time to, hey,
there's a job open at Moody Radio. It's great. I
want to be in radio ministry's comfortable for me. I'm
familiar with the field. They can jump into that pretty easily,
but when I came to having a genuine relationship with

(43:21):
Jesus Christ, everything changed. When I come in, I can say, Lord,
what do you want to do in me today? God,
how can I honor you today?

S2 (43:28):
Those totally changed everything, man. Those months of being unregenerate
and needing to bring spiritual goods to the table must
have been painful.

S4 (43:36):
I what was it? It was over two years. Yeah. 2017,
early 2017 to late 2019.

S2 (43:43):
It must have been brutal.

S4 (43:44):
It was it was brutal. Some days. Some days. I mean,
I had a knowledge of the Bible. I went to
Moody Bible.

S2 (43:49):
Institute.

S4 (43:49):
So I could dish it up and I could have
a sense of belief in it. I believe Jesus was
was a savior, but I just didn't have a desire
of following him in my own life.

S2 (43:59):
And then Matthew seven.

S4 (44:00):
Matthew seven got me.

S2 (44:02):
I love Matthew seven.

S4 (44:04):
I love Matthew seven two as much as I didn't
at the time, I love it.

S2 (44:07):
Oh man. In Matthew 13 I was powering through the
word and it's like God was just downloading outlines and
content for our show here, left and right, like crazy. Yeah. Like,
you gotta see. I gotta show my team.

S4 (44:18):
He's pulling stuff out.

S15 (44:20):
I'm pulling out my Bible.

S4 (44:21):
You getting your.

S15 (44:21):
Bible? Well, what's.

S2 (44:22):
Crazy about this is I and I did. I mean,
I went through and I just started going through, and
I only put blue letters in the margins. Those are
all show questions or show content ideas. All of them.
All of that.

S15 (44:39):
All of that.

S2 (44:40):
Isn't that something, guys?

S15 (44:41):
That's great. Isn't that cool?

S12 (44:42):
Yeah.

S2 (44:43):
And and I'm going to outline the entire New Testament
that way. And then I'm going to go tackle the
Old Testament. And I made a commitment to do that.
God willing, by the end of the year, I'm putting
myself on the line.

S15 (44:53):
Very cool.

S2 (44:54):
But it's when when you begin to look at the
Word of God and you're regenerate, genuinely transform. It begins
to change everything about you. And sometimes career trajectory. Maryland
in Ohio. Thanks for holding on, sister. What do you say?

S16 (45:14):
It's a story of God's mercy. I was 17, I
was not saved. I graduated from high school and I
had a a full tuition to any Illinois state school.
I wanted to go to tuition, room and board. And
I turned it down because I was so wise at
17 and I became a secretary downtown with my girlfriend.
And then I became a Christian at a campus crusade

(45:36):
meeting one night. And God took me, put me in
a position where I reported to the vice president of
education as a secretary. And he looked at me one
day and he said, and why he said this, I
don't know. It was the Holy Spirit. Marilyn, you need
to be a programmer. And I got into a company

(45:57):
programming class and was immediately given a job. And I
had 48 years of. I ended up being a senior
executive director. I was a director for over 30 years. Now,
why did that change my life? Well, in the business world,
it's dog eat dog. And I was an ambitious person,

(46:21):
but I was following Christ. And one of the things
I did was I made sure I could witness wherever
I could in that business world. And I started prayer
meetings at every company that I worked at cause me
trouble sometimes. But I will know the fruit of those
prayer meetings when I get to heaven.

S2 (46:42):
Yes you will.

S16 (46:43):
And I had many, many people work for me from
all over the world. And if I looked at them
and said, can I pray for you? They were always touched.
People knew where I stood. And he took this dumb
little 17 year old, transformed her life and gave her
her position where she could reach people for Jesus Christ.

S15 (47:05):
Boom! Marilyn. Boom!

S2 (47:07):
Marilyn.

S15 (47:09):
That's awesome.

S3 (47:10):
That's awesome.

S15 (47:12):
Man. What a story, right?

S2 (47:14):
That's what God.

S15 (47:15):
Does.

S2 (47:16):
You know. And there's somebody listening right now, and you're
shaking in your boots because you're like, oh, no, Carl,
why this topic today? I've been deciding between this and that,
and now God's telling me that for sure. And that's
just the way it rolls, because you hear a testimony
and you're like, that's my story. God.

S1 (47:33):
This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.

S2 (47:37):
You know, knowing who you are, not who you were,
not where you were born, but who you are, really
can keep you out of a world of hurt and
keep you safely at home. A crazy thing happened many
years ago now. You guys know how much I love

(47:58):
my grandpa Axl Johnson. Boy, talk about a big old Swede. He's.
He's the guy. He's the man who left home at 16,
said goodbye to his dad knowing that he'd never see
him again. Most probably. And they shed some tears. Gave
each other hugs. My my grandpa, Axl Johnson got on
the boat from Stockholm, headed for America for the great

(48:20):
new dream, right? And he he's quite a guy, man.
He was in Chicago for a lot of years, and
then he went out to Southern California, started Atlantic Richfield
Company gas stations, got a about four of them going
in Los Angeles area. Years go by. Grandpa's getting older.

(48:41):
Moved to Kingsburg. I started doing shuffleboard when I'd visit
down there with my grandpa. Shuffleboard is like required activities
for older people.

S4 (48:50):
Apparently you got to get you got to get into
that no matter what.

S2 (48:54):
Yeah. You got to have cornmeal down. So he had
a beautiful you got to have cornmeal down. You got
those little discs and shoot those down there. I had
a hard time beating grandpa, man. He was good. He
was good. He was so good at that. But he
was just a great dude. Just a giant of a man.
I mean, he he was he just had a great

(49:14):
sense of humor. He had a couple of neighbors over.
We sat in the back yard, had some tea. It
was hot out, and we were in Kingsburg. And and
he says with that great Swedish accent, let me introduce
you to. And he says that the two big wheels
that lived next to me here, he says I'm the
axle between two big wheels, Carl. And he was just

(49:38):
he was just great that way. He had a great
sense of humor and just a just a man's man.
Just a great dude. Well, the last time my grandpa
ever drove a car was because it couldn't happen again.
We're in Alaska, and we get notified that grandpa has
gone missing with his car.

S15 (49:59):
And where was he?

S2 (50:01):
Well, he was supposed to be in Kingsburg, but he's
not going back home. Headed out in the morning, and
grandma called my mom and said, your dad's gone and
I don't know where he is. She said, what do
you mean you don't know where he is? Yeah, I
don't know where he is. She said, well, you need
to go down to his watering holes in downtown. She says,

(50:21):
I've been down to all the watering holes. All the
little places where he'd go to get a cup of
coffee in the morning. And hardware store to hang out
and talk with the fellas and things like that. He
is nowhere to be found, and no one's seen him.

S15 (50:32):
Oh.

S2 (50:33):
Well, now things get dicey because they can't find him.
It's getting early afternoon, then late afternoon into the evening,
and grandpa's not home, guys. It's kind of scary. The
next day. They got word from the Los Angeles Police

(50:55):
Department that my grandpa had been found. My grandpa Axel
had headed out and he was starting to slip. And
he had a big slip that morning before. And when
he headed out, somewhere in his mind, he needed to
jump on the I-5 head all the way up over

(51:18):
the grapevine, down into the LA basin. And he didn't
know where he was going. Ali. And he wound up
landed in some neighborhood and thanked the Lord. A sweet
woman saw Grandpa Axel walking up and down the streets

(51:39):
in a neighborhood and started asking them questions. Now, what's
funny is he knew everything about his childhood in Stockholm.

S3 (51:47):
Oh, wow.

S2 (51:48):
And he knew everything about coming to America. But he
did not know who he was now.

S15 (51:55):
Mhm.

S2 (51:57):
And so they had to do some sleuthing around. And
they found his car that was parked in the neighborhood.
And they start looking at registration and they find out
this is Axel Johnson who now lives in Kingsburg, California.
And he's a long ways away from home. And the
phone rings. My grandma Fern picks it up and says,

(52:20):
we've got your husband here at a police department in
Los Angeles. Could you come get him? She said, I'll
be right there in about four hours. You know, guys,
I share with you that story because some of us
are putting ourselves in a really perilous situation. Knowing who
we are in Christ today can keep us close to home.

(52:44):
And that's what God wants for us. And I don't
know where it is that you got off track understanding
who your identity in Christ is, but I want you
to be secure today. I want you to know who
you are in Jesus Christ so that you know who
you are now, not what you were, not where you've been,

(53:07):
not where you were born, but who you truly are
in Jesus Christ. It's a game changer. And I think
a lot of us almost go through life wondering. Or
stating if someone were to ask us. We can talk
about the jobs that we've had, where we've been, where
we were born. But there is nothing more important than

(53:29):
who we are today in our relationship with Jesus. It's
that vital?

S15 (53:37):
Yeah.

S2 (53:38):
That identity of who you are in Jesus Christ is
the thing that can keep you closest to home than
any other thing. And it's that powerful.

S4 (53:48):
I think it can be pretty dangerous to live in
the identity of yesterday. You know, whether it's the glory
days of the past that keep you from living in
the reality of today, or whether it's looking at the
the person that you were before Christ and kind of assuming, oh,
I was this awful person, I was horrible, and you

(54:08):
can't stop thinking about it. You don't live in the
truth and reality of who you are in Christ. A
freed person who who has been broken of the chains
and bondage of sin. I think that who we are
today is so important, and we have to be aware
of that reality. Otherwise, life doesn't get lived to its fullest.

S2 (54:28):
We're in a new place. You're right on Young Thunder.
We're in a new.

S15 (54:31):
Place.

S4 (54:31):
A new place.

S2 (54:32):
We're new people and knowing who you are in Christ
is absolutely vital.

S3 (54:37):
We have this resource for you. Maybe you haven't looked
at it in a while. Take a fresh look or
a first look. If this is new to you, just
text the word truth to 800 555 7898. Truth T.r.u.t.h.
Just that word. Truth to [phone]. Grab this resource. Read

(54:58):
it twice a day for the next 21 days, and
see if you don't have a better understanding of who
you are in Christ.

S1 (55:05):
Your spiritual pit stop to keep you going in the race.
You're listening to Carl and crew.

S2 (55:12):
So get back from vacation. You learn a lot when
you're away. One is you better have ID when you're
going through different checkpoints. You better have ID. I mean,
it's amazing, isn't it? I mean, goodness sakes, if you
don't have. What's the new ID called the real ID? Oh, yeah.
Real ID as opposed to what? By the way, Fake ID?

(55:35):
The world are we doing here? So I didn't have
the real ID, but I had a passport. Could you
hold on to that? Right, because that's who you are. Is.
My face is on there, and there's my number, and it's.
I was game from Homer Alaska. And it's got it
all right down there. But you got to have it.

(55:55):
This whole ID stuff is important when it comes to
who we are in Jesus.

S3 (56:00):
Ali, there's a movie that was popular a couple years ago,
and I can picture the scene. And this woman, she
grabs a hold, she's a nanny for this little girl.
And she grabs a hold of the little girl's face,
and she looks at her deep in her eyes and
she says. She says, you is strong, you is smart,
you is important. And it kind of became a meme.
And it was her trying to speak identity into this

(56:23):
little girl and tell her that she was strong, smart
and important. Those were her big three. We've got a
special guest, Philip miller, joining us right now you have
a big three, and it's a little different from that
popular phrase out of the movie.

S8 (56:36):
Yeah. So you know, when we look at the Bible,
there's three big core identity needs that lie in the
heart of each one of us. And that is we
need significance. We need security, and we need satisfaction. And
the reality is, all three of those things we're meant
to find in God, in our relationship with him as
his children. And if you think about it, Jesus at

(56:58):
his baptism, you know, the God the Father says, this
is my son. Significance, right? He's beloved. He's we're secure
in his love. Jesus is secure in the father's love.
And in him. I'm well pleased. Right. There's there's satisfaction there.
And so the reality is, if we are in Christ,
those statements actually apply to us as well, that we

(57:19):
are God's children. We are beloved in him. We he
is well pleased over us for Jesus sake. And so
the deep identity that we all long for to matter,
for significance, to feel safe in the universe, to be secure,
to be delighted and happy in the world. To be satisfied.
Those deep identity needs are met in God as our

(57:40):
father and we are his beloved children. That's where our real, deep,
true identity lies.

S2 (57:45):
Philip miller again. Our guest right now, pastor of the
Moody Church. He's still got the up there, right? I mean,
it's got. Oh, yeah.

S8 (57:52):
The Moody church. Yeah, I.

S2 (57:53):
Love that, Philip. Here's what I love. I think if
most people are talking about who we are in Christ,
they go, okay, um, I am significant. That's good. I'm secure.
That's good. But I am satisfied. I'm not so sure
that makes a list. Why is that so important?

S8 (58:11):
We're made to rejoice. We're made to be happy like God.
God is, um. You know, you read the Psalms and
you see things like delight yourself in the Lord, or
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Right. There's abundant Promises. Yes.
That God is the fountain of our satisfaction. We're made

(58:31):
for him. We're made to come alive and and find joy.
That's what the woman at the well was looking for
in all those failed relationships. And Jesus said, I'm the
real deal, right? So we were made for the Lord himself.
And here's what happens, Carl, I think we wake up
in the universe. We're made for God. We're made to
have these deep identity needs met in relationship with him.

(58:53):
But we wake up estranged in the universe. And so
we wake up functionally as orphans, and we go out
and we fend for ourselves. And we think, well, I've
got to get significant security and satisfaction on my own.
I've got to go find it somewhere else. And so
we look for anything that will give us promises that
sound like they're plausible. And so we look to career

(59:15):
and romance and relationships and vacations and like all the
things that promise to make us happy and significant and safe.
And of course, all those things fail their idols and
they will never deliver what God alone can give. And
so our orphan hearts, though, create these like habitual patterns,
these muscle memories of like how to cope through life

(59:38):
in the universe and find identity on on our own.
And it never works. And so then at the end
of the day, we come back and we say, wait
a minute, maybe, maybe God is the one we were
made for all along.

S2 (59:50):
Maybe God had something to say here.

S8 (59:52):
Yeah. And here's the thing. Even as Christians, followers of Jesus,
here's what I think happens. I think we have so
much muscle memory from living as orphans that even though
we confess Jesus as Lord, we believe in the gospel.
We have this deep muscle memory, these habits of a
lifetime that have programmed us, as it were, to live

(01:00:14):
as orphans, even though we have the resources of being
children of God at our fingertips. And part of sanctification
growing in Christ is learning to retrain that muscle memory
so that we learn to look to God for our significance, security,
and our satisfaction instead of all the other stuff that
that are the false promises out there.

S2 (01:00:36):
Oh my goodness. Philip miller here with us, lead pastor
of the Moody Church downtown Chicago, coming up here. I'm
going to pin you, pastor. Here we go. How does
this work for you? Because here's the truth a lot
of people just want to know, is anyone else like me,
pastor Miller? Just like you coming up.

S1 (01:00:58):
You're listening to Carl and crew on Moody Radio.

S2 (01:01:01):
With us right now. Phillip miller. He's pastor of the
Moody Church downtown Chicago. All right, I promised it. Now
we got to deliver, pastor. We all live this right.
We can all get on tilt. And I love your analogy.
Living as orphans. And we have a memory muscle of
living as orphans. That is powerful. But how does this
work for you? You've been kicked in the teeth. You've

(01:01:22):
been sucker punched before and you've got to regroup around
your identity.

S8 (01:01:27):
So here's what here's my thesis I think for, you know,
these categories, I've given significant security satisfaction. I think one
of those for most people is a primary longing. We
need all three. But I think for one of those
is for most of us going to be dominant. So
for me, it's significance. I want to matter. I want

(01:01:48):
to know that I count, I want to make a difference.
I want people to say, man, Philip, you know, that
guy's significant, right? So that's the deep longing in my heart.
What I learned as a child was that, you know what?
If I got good grades, if I scored a goal
in soccer, I would get applause, I would get affirmation.
And so I learned this is the formula. If I

(01:02:10):
want significance, I got to get it from people. And
so I'm going to perform and I'm going to win.
And then I'm going to get the approval and the applause.
And that's going to give me the significance my heart
is longing for. That was my orphan hearted strategy for
a living. And here's the reality that echoes into all
kinds of problems in my life, right? Like. Like if you.

(01:02:33):
If you have to win all the time, it makes
you a really bad person. Like, because you'll cut corners,
you'll do whatever it takes to get ahead, and you'll
be a really lousy loser. Like you will not be
able to handle it if you don't get the applause.
And it doesn't work. Like you cannot come in last place, right? Yeah.
And so it doesn't make you very loving. It makes

(01:02:54):
you very needy as a human being because you're not
just doing things. You're getting identity from the things you're doing.
And so you have way too much of your self
wrapped up in your pursuits. And it just makes everything unhealthy, right?
So for me as as a pastor, this is honestly Carl,
this is how it works in ministry. I think for

(01:03:15):
a lot of pastors, it's like if people are coming,
if attendance is rising, if programs are working, if the
budget is balanced, then God must love me. Instead of
looking to God for my significance and resting in the
fact that he delights in me for Jesus sake, and
that I'm his child and that nothing could take that away.

(01:03:36):
And like, that's the highest level of significance I could
ever want. I'm a child of God. Instead of resting
in that, what I've done is I've I've become an
orphan that's looking for that significance in my ministry. And
now the ministry itself is not just a thing I
do for Jesus. It's something I'm trying to get my
identity from. And so it goes toxic on me and

(01:03:57):
it destroys me. And of course, it can never give
me what I what I want. And that's where I think,
you know, you can feel it in your own soul.
That just how ministry can become an idol and you
can end up really getting toxic as a human being
because you're you're living for the wrong stuff, right? So
for me, I've got to get up every morning and say, God,

(01:04:18):
I thank you that you love me because you love me.
Help me to serve you today from that acceptance and
not for it. Wow. I'm not trying to get identity
from my ministry. I'm pouring my identity out into my
ministry because my identity is rooted somewhere else. It's rooted
in my relationship with God.

S3 (01:04:38):
Philip miller, our guest right now, pastor of the Moody Church.
This framework as a child of God, I am significant.
As a child of God. I'm secure, I am satisfied.
Thanks for honestly sharing what it looks like in your
own heart of when you're not secure in this significance.
Quick thought for those listening. What might it look like
for those who are primarily searching for security or satisfaction

(01:05:00):
and struggling to find it in Christ?

S8 (01:05:03):
Yeah, it's interesting because there's people in my life that
are wired this way, like I have a friend and
she's a security person. She just wants to feel safe
in the world. You know, that's her top value. And
so it's a slightly different set of resources. They're all
in the gospel. The gospel is the same, but the
set of the resources you metabolize are a little bit different.

(01:05:23):
So I'm I'm looking for significance. I'm like, where does
God validate and give me a sense of identity that
says he matters, right? That's what I'm looking for. This
friend of mine is looking for security. So different verses
will appeal. Like the Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. Like he makes me lie down in green pastures.
He restores my soul. He leads me beside still waters

(01:05:46):
like his rod and staff. They comfort me like the
fact that God is with me always. He will never
leave me or forsake me. That I'm perfectly safe in
his arms in this universe. That nothing ultimately can take
me down because I'm secure in his love forever, right?
Even death itself cannot disrupt the bond that I have

(01:06:08):
with my Savior. Those are deeply securing truths that help
us Let's remember that we really are safe and that
like a medical diagnosis is not the end of the story,
you know. And so you can face all kinds of
storms in life if you know you're safe in the
arms of the Lord.

S2 (01:06:29):
It dawns on me that the rich young ruler was
orphaned by his wealth. He was not secure in Christ.
He did not lean into that so we can get
orphaned in security, in weird, funky things that are actually
blessings from God. But not him. Right, Philip?

S8 (01:06:46):
Yeah. So, you know, zooming out here, all three of
these deep soul needs significant security satisfaction. I think when
we're an orphan hearted mode, they mainly attach to three
things people, power or possessions. Yes. And and those three
things people power and possessions. They work for each of
those three things. So if you actually think about it,

(01:07:07):
there's nine sort of permutations here, if you will. So
and what that means is that you can actually be
looking to, let's say, possessions. Let's say you want a
new car. So if you're a significance guy, you're probably thinking,
I need a new car because that's a status symbol.
It's going to show the world I've made it. If
you're a security person, you might need a new car

(01:07:28):
because you don't want your you don't want to break
down on the road. It's a safety thing for you.
Or if you're a satisfaction person, you're probably buying the
new car because you want to treat yourself. I deserve
to be happy. I worked hard for this, and you
know I deserve a little treat in my life, right?
So here we are buying a car. It's the same action,
but deep down it's doing different things for our soul.

S3 (01:07:50):
Pastor Philip miller, our guest. Right now, we want you
to get this in front of you. This is a
great little printout. You can download it on your phone
and keep it on your your device, but I would
highly recommend if you can get to a printer, print
it out so you have a hard copy. Just text
identity to 800 555 7898. Text identity to 855 five 7898.