May 7, 2025 • 41 mins
Today, on Karl and Crew, we dove deeper into yesterday's conversation about pursuing Godly manhood. We had Dr. Robert Lewis join the conversation as he shared a strategy for discipling younger men and pursuing Godly manhood. Dr. Lewis has been a pastor, writer, speaker, and visionary for over 40 years. He is also the founder of the Men’s Fraternity ministry, developed its 3-year video curriculum, and is the founding partner of Better Man. He has also authored several books, including “Raising a Modern-Day Knight.” We also heard from our listeners how moms overcome obstacles. You can hear the highlights of today’s program on Karl and Crew Showcast.
Donate to Moody Radio: http://moodyradio.org/donateto/morningshow
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:00):
Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio.
This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2 (00:08):
At Carl and crew. What we try to do is
go right to the heart of the matter. So let
me give this to you. Cogitating on this a lot.
And I've thought about this for years. Even when I
ran track and field back in high school. There's a
common thread through all of life. There's things that we
(00:29):
either feel called to do innately, or things that we
aspire to personally. And with all those things, we can
get a grand vision of what could be. But if
you don't have a strategy to get there, you you're
you get your proverbial cookie in a Squisher took us
in a squishes. You weren't going to get there. Fair enough, guys. Fair. Absolutely.
(00:50):
So and this is what I love about life. Because
if you look at life and then you open up
the Word of God, you go, oh my goodness. There's
vision and strategy. That's the cool thing. So I want
to make this so practical. Now the number of years
(01:12):
ago I guess that's a fair way to put it
over 40 something like that. I ran a dog sled
race across Alaska. If you're new listening here, I ran
a dog sled race called the Iditarod. It's 1100 miles
from Anchorage, Alaska to Nome, Alaska. I still can't believe
I made it. 21 days, eight hours, 12 minutes, 32 seconds.
(01:32):
I mean.
S3 (01:32):
That's a feat, man.
S2 (01:34):
It was, it was, and I. Its history feels like
someone else. You know what? Have you ever done something
that feels like somebody else did that?
S3 (01:43):
Yes. Yes, absolutely.
S2 (01:44):
So I give all credit to my dogs. They were
the athletes. In fact, I told people after the race
was over, my team could have gotten there quicker if
they'd had a better musher. I was a good musher
for 18, but 18 is young. I had a lot
to learn, and I knew that intuitively. But I learned
something from my dogs that was just fascinating. So let
(02:04):
me tell you about what it's like to have 50
dogs in your kennel. 50 huskies. And what happens over
a couple of years time. You go out on these
training runs, and I would get some that would get
on some, maybe get some laceration on their pad, a
little bit of blood coming out of their pad, and
I'd load them up in the sled and take care
of them and put some ointment on them and bandage
(02:26):
them up. And it was almost like they'd look at
me like, thanks. Thanks so much, friend. I so appreciate
that we're dogs, that we get tired at times and
I'd load them in the sled because we're training, you know,
and some of them just didn't have the stamina, and
some of them felt the pressure and the shame of
not being able to make it. I kid you not,
they had shame in their eyes. And I would tell them, no,
(02:46):
you're doing all right, buddy. You're you're all right. It's okay.
We're going to get you back in the team tomorrow,
and we're going to get some more wind in you.
We're going to get a little more strength in you.
Everything's going to be all right. And we'd go through overflow,
open water, and I'd get out of the water and
I'd dry myself off, and then I'd quickly dry off
(03:07):
the team. Well, after a while, you start to build
some real rapport with your dogs, and it's a sweet thing.
Those dogs are born to run. They're born and bred
to run. If you don't run an Alaskan Husky that's
born this way, you're selling them short. And the way
that I knew this best is when I'd walk into
the dog lot and I'd start the cooker cooking for
(03:29):
the feed, they'd get excited. But when I walked into
the dog lot and I opened the door to the
harness shed where the harnesses were that they put on there,
I put on their body and then hook them into
the gang lines. They went bananas, I mean bananas. Neighbors
way down the lake could hear my dogs.
S3 (03:52):
That's so great.
S2 (03:53):
No way down the lake.
S3 (03:54):
That's why you got.
S2 (03:55):
There was a friend of mine had a had a kennel.
He called it the, um, the Howling Dog Farm because
that's a great descriptor of what happens when these dogs
see a harness come out of a shed.
S3 (04:07):
And it's 50, 50 dogs all at one time, just
losing their minds. Very vocal animals. Yes.
S2 (04:12):
It's one of the coolest things. It's one of the
coolest sounds you can hear when you're standing in the
middle of 50 dogs, and they're going bananas with the
dog harness on, and you've got someone standing right next
to you, you have to get in their ear and
go grab that one right there, the one with the
white coat and the piercing blue eyes. Grab him. Put
this harness. You're yelling at them like that because that
(04:35):
that is how loud the dogs are. You know, you've
got a. You've got a God sized vision in front
of you to be the man that God wants you
to be. And you might think, boy, I know I do.
You know it innately. You know it. When you were
born again, God stamped on your heart. You're a new
(04:58):
man and you just need someone with a strategy to
get you there so that when they pull out the harnesses,
you go, oh, I know how to get there. And
coming up here in a moment, I want you to
know that this innate sense that there is more for
men is real. But what if you had someone on
(05:18):
the back of the sled that had a strategy for
how to get there? So there might be some serious
howling going on here in a moment. And that's for
good reason, because we got a good friend coming in here.
S4 (05:32):
Doctor Robert Lewis with Better Man Ministries, with not just
a vision, but a strategy for helping you as a
man and the men in your life to really become
what God's called you to be.
S1 (05:44):
You can take him out of Alaska, but you can't
take Alaska out of him. Carl is in the crew.
It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2 (05:53):
You know, I had a man tell me one time
to know the will of God. You can read the
book to know the way of God, to get to
the will of God. You got to read a little deeper.
The same thing is true with vision. You can get
a vision of manhood and you can hear it talked about.
You can have a grand idea of what could be
out there, but without a strategy, we're never going to
(06:15):
get there. What if the better man that God has
designed you to be was within reach? It is. Doctor
Robert Lewis is with us right now. It's fascinating, isn't it, Robert? We.
I think we can get a vision for biblical, authentic
manhood and get a rousing sense in our heart. But
then we got to do something with that. We need
(06:36):
a strategy, don't we, my friend?
S5 (06:38):
Absolutely. Because I think today, because of the breakdown of
the home, most young men moving into young adulthood walk
into a big fog and guess their way through manhood.
S4 (06:52):
Robert Lewis with us right now he is a pastor, speaker, author,
founding partner of Better Man Ministries. You know, you you
have a quote on your website. You cannot become what
you cannot define. For so many men, the messages are
very mixed as to what even it looks like to
be a strong man. You don't want toxic masculinity, but
(07:12):
you don't want to be passive. You want to pursue
a woman, but you don't want to be intimidating, or
make her think that she's diminished in some in some way.
It's a it's a tough landscape to navigate.
S5 (07:24):
Well, it's gotten tougher in our day because when we
remove more traditional roles and that kind of thing, and
it's kind of every man for himself. Uh, a lot
of men do not look to other men for help
in their manhood. They think they should know it. So
they try to guess their life and their manhood into
the future. And oftentimes those hit tragic, hurtful, and sometimes
(07:47):
even deadly dead ends.
S2 (07:49):
Yeah. You know, it's interesting, Robert. I was with 500
men in Arizona, and I saw a common thread again
that I see over and over. Sometimes those tragic dead
ends are God's dinner bell to redeem something that has
been wasted. Tell us about that.
S5 (08:05):
One of the things that I'm so excited about, what
I'm doing and working with younger men, is the fact
that there's a huge hunger out there. But you have
to have someone that a younger man respects that starts
speaking into his life. And if he takes the time
to do that and he's genuine in his outreach. One
(08:26):
of the great things about the day in which we
live is younger men want to learn, but they need
older men just to initiate towards them. And that's what
we've seen with better man using older men to reach
younger men. But there's a tremendous hunger of young men
to help me think through this, because inside they know
(08:46):
that they don't know, but they just don't want other
men to know that they don't know.
S2 (08:51):
Yeah.
S4 (08:52):
You know, there's an insecurity, I think, in this generation
of men. I saw this I saw this funny video, Robert,
and it was it was talking about toxic masculinity. And
they said the difference from, like, my dad's toxic masculinity
was that my dad and this is they were just
being honest. They said my dad could punch a wall,
but he could fix it. They said this generation's toxic
(09:13):
masculinity punches a wall in anger, but then has to
call somebody else to fix it because they never learned how.
So there's this sense of like, I want to break
this cycle. I don't want this anger, I don't want
this rage. But at the same time, I don't feel
equipped to do some of the things that my dad's
generation could do. So I feel less of a man
because I can't do some of those things. You get
(09:34):
where I'm going with this.
S5 (09:35):
Just think how imprisoning that is. If you don't know
what to do, and you don't even know how to
fight your way out of it, just kind of sit there.
And that's why we see mental health issues, depression, addiction,
all kinds of those things just skyrocketing among young men.
I mean, we used the George Barna Barna organization to
(09:57):
do a national survey with young men just to see
where they are. Men under 40. And I remember they
came back and said, this is the loneliest, most disconnected
generation of young men in history. And it's very it's
not just toxic to society. It's very toxic to them.
(10:18):
And a lot of health issues are escalating with young
men because they don't know what to do. They're just
in I call it the manhood fog.
S3 (10:28):
Yeah.
S2 (10:29):
You might be in this fog right now or wanting
to help someone get out. You're in a good place.
Coming up with doctor Robert Lewis. Credible author, great mentor,
a mentor of mine for a number of years and
still to this day. And we're going to tackle this.
How do we know we're in the fog. And how
do we get out? Straight ahead with Robert Lewis.
S1 (10:50):
She's a choreographer extraordinaire and everything is Greek to her.
Super die is in the crew. It's Karl and crew
on Moody Radio.
S2 (11:00):
It's called The Fog. So says Robert Lewis. We get
into this fog of real manhood, wondering what is it?
How do we walk forward? A lot of what we
learned in manhood, Robert was learned in the locker room.
That didn't work. And a lot of what we're learning
today is even less than that. There's so much as
you just cited loneliness and despair. And I want to
(11:21):
give you a scenario here and just speak to this scenario.
I've been mentoring a man at one of our campuses
here in Chicago, and it's been fascinating because he is
on the proverbial treadmill. Sin, shame. Repent, repeat. And there's
a voice going on in his head that says, I
can't do it. What do you say to that man?
S5 (11:41):
Well, one of the kind of Openings for young men
that I do a lot is to get a group
of young men together and just sit down for an evening,
and we ask them to tell their story. And by
telling their story, what I mean by that is to
draw out a picture of the family you grew up in,
not necessarily the one you were born into, because a
(12:04):
lot of families change in those early days. But the
one you grew up in and then tell us what
role you played in that family, and then tell us
about the relationship with your dad and what was something
you really learned that helps you today? But what's interesting,
most men have never opened up and told other men
their story. And they start realizing how lost they are,
(12:28):
and many of them with no dad or no instruction
from dad. But the big winner is they're being honest
with one another, and they're in a community of young
men where they can talk about it, and all of
a sudden they realized, this feels good. This feels good.
And it's the start of that community. That is the
(12:53):
opening to a healthy manhood. Because healthy manhood requires first
a safe community and then biblical clarity.
S2 (13:02):
Okay, let's spike that for a second here. So you're
saying a lot of the solution for this isolation and
these cycles of despair and wanting to get out, can't
get out, is just the lack of others to walk
this road with.
S5 (13:16):
That's right. To open up and just talk about what's
going on inside of me. It's just a huge pressure
relief valve when you're with other safe men. It could
be two. It could be three. It could be like
in the case of the other night with my group
of young men, it was ten of us. We're teaching.
We're just talking and sharing where we came from to
try to connect the dots of where we are and
(13:38):
then talk about what do you need? So it's unveiling
the past, cracking the lid, being honest and in that community,
being open to say, okay, here's where I am. I've
never had a relationship with my dad or just went
through a divorce, or I'm in this addiction or I'm
struggling with this issue. But I've discovered tonight there are
(13:59):
other guys around the table who have similar stories who
can identify with me. And so it sets the table
to what do we do? And I always say, hey,
the best thing to do is look for some enduring
wisdom in the Bible is the greatest source of enduring wisdom.
So let's talk about what the Bible has to say.
So into that community of chaos, we bring biblical clarity
(14:22):
that suddenly brings these aha's that I've seen change men's lives.
As you know, Carl, for now, 35 years.
S4 (14:30):
Doctor Robert Lewis, our guest right now. Now, you have
a passion to make this more accessible than ever. What
you're talking about to actually become a reality. You've had
now 500,000 men, 10,000 churches taking part in these better
man teachings. Explain what you're offering up for free.
S5 (14:48):
Well, what we did is about four years ago, some
men that I was close to down in Dallas, Texas,
asked me if I would do some series where we
could reach young men and they were willing to fund everything,
and I said I would do it if you could
offer it all for free. So we got together, formed
better man. Uh, we did video series. We did what
(15:10):
I call the ten Fundamentals of Manhood, and it's all online.
We've got multiple teachers teaching those ten weeks. So we
have different ethnicities, different age groups. But you can go
online and see each one of those teachers teach those
ten weeks and then off your phone or computer, you
(15:31):
can download for free those ten weeks and the workbook,
and then just get with a small group of guys.
That's what we recommend. Usually having at least one older
man in the group and go through the series together,
and it has really connected with young men, and it's
great to bring older men into it. And a listener
(15:52):
today could download anything he wanted off our website for free.
S2 (15:57):
Today's the day, guys. I'm telling you right now, I
got a boiling passion inside of me. This is real. Uh,
it's desperately needed. You know it. And most I would
say Ali. I mean, it's anecdotal, but we get how
much feedback here about how do I get my way
out of this thing now, we've got something here, don't we?
S4 (16:17):
Absolutely. And this is going to be content that you
can do with the small group that you can bring
to your church to help them get on board with it.
We've got it for you. Just text man to 855
five 7898. If you want to explore more of this
free content. This video teaching. This is very much a
plug and play option where it has been prepared for
you so that you can engage with some brothers in Christ.
(16:40):
Go ahead and text man to 800 555 7898. Man
to (800)Â 555-7898.
S2 (16:48):
Robert, before we let you go, give us a story.
Give us a story that's fresh on your heart about somebody,
a young man. He may not have arrived, but he's
got some breakthrough right now.
S5 (16:58):
Well, it's funny you said that because the other day
I got a text from a young man in Saudi Arabia,
and somehow he had gotten hold of the better man material,
downloaded it with another guy and walked through it. Because
you're not going to fix your manhood by just a coffee.
You've got to have some time where you sit and
(17:19):
soak in the truths of the scriptures made relevant through
this kind of video technology. And he had done that
by himself with another guy, and they had just talked
through it and he wanted to contact me, didn't know
how he had worked through our better man resources. But
basically what he said, He said, I grew up a Buddhist.
I didn't know anything about manhood. I went through the series,
(17:43):
I was introduced to Jesus with my friend, and we
talked about it through the series. And he said, I
wanted you to know at the end of that time,
I gave my life to Jesus.
S2 (17:55):
Oh my goodness.
S5 (17:56):
Now that's a guy who is as far out from
my ability to influence him as you can possibly get
another country, a different religion. He's using technology, but the
truths of the Scripture made relevant to his manhood in
community with one other guy. They came to Christ just
(18:20):
by listening to the Bible made relevant to their manhood,
and they went from a foggy manhood to Jesus's life
giving manhood. And that ended up with them walking with
Jesus himself. That's why I'm in the game, Carl. Because
I've seen that happen thousands of times.
S2 (18:38):
Wow. You know, I've always known you to be a
passionate man. From the time when we sat down, I
was in your small group when you were writing this
core curriculum, when it all began. And yet, Robert, that
fire's not gone out. I feel like it's building here,
my friend. God's doing something.
S5 (18:53):
He is doing something. And we've got a lot of
great speakers on board who do our video series. But
these guys really connect with younger men, and we use
older men just to sit at the table as table guides,
just sharing honestly their life, going through these experiences. I mean,
we have multiple curriculums, but the basic curriculum on the
(19:14):
fundamentals of of manhood, called core, is the one we're
offering today for free. And just telling you some time
in that soaking in that curriculum with a community of men,
just talking and being real, it brings you out of
the cultural fog, the woke culture that we're in. That's.
Offering dead ends. And it will provide for you an
(19:37):
escape hatch to life giving manhood.
S2 (19:39):
Love it. Robert Louis is his name. He's a good man,
and he's got some phenomenal content again. Ali. What's that link, sister?
S4 (19:47):
Just text man to 800 555 78, 98. Man. Man (800)Â 555-7898.
S1 (19:55):
A basketball mom who's mastered the dad joke. Ali is
in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2 (20:04):
It's Wednesday. It's the bottom of the hour.
S1 (20:07):
It's time making herself laugh. No matter who joins her,
it's time for Ali thinks it's funny.
S4 (20:16):
Today's been a good day of jokes.
S3 (20:18):
We do?
S2 (20:18):
Yes. It has.
S4 (20:19):
Let's hope I don't mess it up.
S3 (20:21):
Finish strong, finish strong. Come on, come on.
S6 (20:25):
I shouldn't have set myself up.
S2 (20:27):
Oh, yeah.
S3 (20:27):
You did.
S4 (20:28):
All right. What do you call a fly without wings?
This is not philosophical. What do you call a fly
without wings? Anyone? Anyone?
S3 (20:39):
What do you believe? He can't.
S7 (20:40):
I believe he can't fly. I don't know.
S4 (20:42):
Oh, wow. Carl's coming with the alternative punch lines today.
A fly without wings is called a walk. It's called
a walk. Ladies and gentlemen.
S2 (20:55):
Pretty straightforward.
S3 (20:56):
Pretty good.
S4 (20:57):
Yes, yes. And then we like to give soar around here.
So I would like to give a bit of a PSA.
I think that my account was hacked.
S3 (21:05):
Oh, no.
S4 (21:05):
Unfortunate when that.
S3 (21:06):
Happens.
S4 (21:07):
So if you receive a message from me about investing
in canned meat, investing in canned meat, don't open.
S3 (21:15):
It. Ignore it. I already opened it.
S4 (21:17):
Don't open.
S3 (21:18):
It. Oh, no.
S4 (21:19):
You want to know why?
S3 (21:20):
Why? Why?
S4 (21:20):
Because it's spam. It's definitely.
S3 (21:22):
Spam. As soon as you.
S4 (21:25):
Said canned meat, I thought.
S3 (21:26):
That's awesome.
S7 (21:27):
That's great. That's great.
S4 (21:30):
If you want today's jokes, text jokes to 800 555 7898.
Jokes to 800 555 7898. Super die always sees the
punchline coming.
S2 (21:43):
Yeah she does.
S4 (21:44):
She always gets it.
S2 (21:45):
Is that why she grumbles when it lands?
S4 (21:47):
Because she gets like in her mind. She has all
of them answered before I get the get it out.
S2 (21:52):
She does. Can I tell you a quick spam story?
S3 (21:56):
Sure. Yes. All right.
S2 (21:57):
All right, so here's the deal. I was 18.5 years old,
and so I'm still relatively young on a crazy new adventure.
I had bought a 32 foot gillnetter wood plank gillnetter
that had all kinds of problems, not least of which
was the fact that it leaked like a sieve.
S4 (22:16):
Okay, what is it, an eight? Yeah. Back it up.
S2 (22:19):
Gillnetter a wood plank. Gillnetter. It's a 32 foot commercial
fishing vessel. It was kind of old school. It had
a gasoline engine, which is, like very dangerous. They don't
do that at all anymore. It's just for commercial fishing.
It's just not wise. Catch a wood boat on fire
in a heartbeat. So we're. We're fishing in Togiak Bay
(22:40):
on the west coast of Alaska. The ice has just
come off the water, and we're fishing for herring. So
we're putting gillnets down into the water in these herring
schools that come fill it in. Boom. We load it
on board. But the funny thing about spam is that
we we didn't plan food that we needed on this trip,
and we ate up all of our good stuff ahead
of time, and all we had left near the end
(23:02):
of the season was a huge bag of potatoes and
many cans of spam and Grey Poupon mustard. That's it.
That's what we.
S7 (23:11):
Had.
S8 (23:11):
There's a combination.
S2 (23:13):
Yeah, and that's what we had morning, noon and night
for about a week. We had potatoes, spam and Grey
Poupon mustard.
S3 (23:21):
Oh my goodness.
S2 (23:21):
And I found ways to cook spam. Like you can't believe, man.
I mean, I would I was trying to air dry
it to make it jerky.
S3 (23:29):
Frying it in.
S4 (23:30):
Air. Dried spam.
S3 (23:32):
Yeah.
S2 (23:32):
It was. It was outstanding. And and I cooked. There's
gelatin in the spam, you know. So you pull that
out and I'd get that all sizzling, and then I'd
do thin sliced spam, and then I'd, I'd, I'd, I
wrapped it around and put, uh, put little toothpicks in
it to make little potato spam. Little.
S4 (23:52):
That's creative.
S3 (23:53):
Like little sliders.
S2 (23:54):
Little sliders.
S3 (23:55):
You gotta do what you gotta do.
S2 (23:57):
But the the the secret sauce to spam if you
don't like it. I happen to like it. But if
you don't like spam is Grey Poupon mustard man. It
covers over.
S3 (24:06):
A.
S2 (24:07):
Massive amount of iniquities of sin. It's just really good stuff.
S3 (24:10):
So you got some spam?
S2 (24:12):
Do people still buy spam?
S3 (24:14):
Oh yeah, I had spam, I don't know, a couple
months ago. You did? Yeah, for the first time. So
I didn't think it was all that bad. No, it's
pretty good. Not that bad.
S2 (24:24):
Who knows what's in that thing?
S3 (24:25):
That's all. That's also very true.
S2 (24:27):
I don't know what's in that sucker, man. It's like, oh, boy,
you see those mass processed videos of the goop that comes.
S3 (24:35):
Out, and then.
S2 (24:35):
You realize, oh.
S3 (24:36):
Don't ask questions you don't want the answer to. Yeah.
S2 (24:39):
How hot dogs are made. You don't want the answer
to that one.
S3 (24:42):
Nope.
S2 (24:43):
Yeah, there's lots of. You're getting horse innards or cow
innards or whatever it is.
S3 (24:47):
Thank you Carl.
S2 (24:48):
All kinds of stuff.
S4 (24:49):
Thank you.
S2 (24:50):
Carl. I just want to bless your socks off. But
the good news is, Ali, a little Grey Poupon.
S3 (24:58):
Here's the secret.
S4 (25:00):
See my jokes. It's the gift that keeps on giving.
S3 (25:03):
Yeah.
S4 (25:03):
You would not have.
S3 (25:04):
Gotten.
S2 (25:04):
That.
S4 (25:04):
Story had I.
S2 (25:05):
No I wouldn't. Thank you very much.
S3 (25:08):
Come on. Love covers a multitude of sin. And mustard
covers a multitude of spam.
S4 (25:13):
Oh, boy, it's Grey Poupon.
S2 (25:14):
Oh, I got some good news for you, Ali. Your favorite.
One of your favorite stores, Costco, sells mega packs of spam.
S4 (25:20):
Oh, yeah.
S2 (25:22):
Says one of our listeners.
S3 (25:23):
That's gone on over there?
S4 (25:26):
I love Costco, but I don't love spam. Sorry.
S2 (25:29):
Oh goodness sakes. Okay. Coming up. We got a lot
going on. Oh, before we go a step further, it's
almost mom's day.
S4 (25:35):
It is. And we want to make sure you know
about a great giveaway that ends this week with Mother's
Day coming up this Sunday. So make sure you get
your entry form in to win a $550 gift for
your mom. This is going to be a spa gift certificate.
A restaurant gift certificate. You can win it for a
mom in your life. You can win it for yourself.
If you're a mom, just get the entry form. Tell
(25:56):
us what makes your mom so special and unique. Fill
out a couple of lines so we have your information
and we will contact you. If you are the winner.
Just text mom to 800 555 7898. Text mom to
800 555 7898.
S1 (26:12):
He was sharing the gospel on the radio and then
he got saved. Young thunders in the crew. It's Carl
and crew on Moody Radio.
S2 (26:22):
Nothing inspires. Spires. Like seeing someone overcome. Really? But when
it's your mom, it's something special, isn't it, Ali?
S4 (26:33):
It is. And so we asked you, what did you
see your mom overcome that inspired you? 805 55. 7898.
Let's go to Jane calling in this morning from Illinois. Jane.
Tell us.
S9 (26:46):
Hi, there. Well. My mom. Oh, my. Oh, boy. She
was pregnant with my 11th child. Her 11th child. When
my dad died, I was almost three. And she had.
So anyway, she carried the birth, and, um, she raised
all 11 of us. All 11 of us by herself.
(27:08):
No food stamps and all the wonderful programs that they
have nowadays. Just lots of good neighbors in a small
little town. Plus, she took in a gal when she
was in high school at the gal was in high
school that just was having a hard time at home.
She said, Will you come and live with us?
S2 (27:24):
Jane took in a gal. Are you kidding me? Your mom.
What an inspiration, huh, Jane?
S9 (27:31):
Oh my, oh my, oh, my. We all live by
her inspirations today.
S2 (27:36):
What's her. What's her name?
S9 (27:38):
Neva. My mom's name. Neva.
S2 (27:41):
Oh, I gotta tell you, Jane, that is. That is
so beautiful. What a story. My goodness. Hold on the line, sister.
I know you got to hustle. Thanks for calling in,
but I want to get a Carl and crew prize
back into your hand. Can you imagine that?
S3 (27:55):
Listen, guys.
S2 (27:57):
Can you get this? She's with child, her 11th. Wow.
And her husband passes away, and she rears those kids
and takes in. Sorry, but I think we got. Game set.
Match on something like that story.
S3 (28:12):
I mean, that's amazing. I can't imagine.
S2 (28:16):
Oh my goodness. Phillip in Illinois. What's your story, my man?
S10 (28:21):
You know, my mother, Hattie Lou Jean Warren Van Lear.
Handicapped woman. She had her right leg was eight inches
shorter than her left, so she wore a built up shoe.
Single parent. My dad, rolling Stone, was never around. She
raised two boys in the 50s and 60s. Black woman,
handicapped black woman. Worked two and a half jobs, paid
(28:45):
off the house, raised us knuckleheads that we were. And
I never, not once ever saw her without a smile.
Without a gospel song on her lips, without joy. She
would call other people to encourage them. She helped single
moms through their pregnancies. I have never complained. Not at all.
(29:07):
I mean, she's been an inspiration. She was an inspiration
to so many people. She's she's in glory now. She
she passed in 2006, but, uh, I, I, uh, I
wasn't going to call, but man, I had to, I said,
because mama would be saying, boy, what's wrong with you?
Didn't you tell anybody?
S2 (29:26):
Yeah, I got to tell you something, Phillip. That's moving man.
That is absolutely moving. Thanks for calling in this morning.
Those two stories rattle my cage.
S3 (29:38):
Wow. You all day long.
S2 (29:40):
Oh my goodness. Oh, I don't even have words for that.
S3 (29:49):
No.
S2 (29:50):
I don't know what you're up against today, but the
reason we've got the Hall of Fame of faith in
Hebrews 11. It's for one specific reason to keep going,
to keep going. It's why it's there, guys. It's why
it's there. Yeah. I mean, in Hebrews 12 one. I
(30:12):
forget talking about it. Let me open it and read it.
I mean, this is this is what we're called to
do and to be. And sometimes, sometimes we get a
glimpse of this and we go, oh my goodness, a
hall of fame of faith. Therefore, since we are surrounded
by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also
lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely,
(30:35):
and let us run with endurance the race that is
set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter
of our faith, who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is
seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
(30:56):
The reason we have Hebrews 11 is because we've got
a call on our life of Hebrews 12. And that's
to run the race well. Hebrews 11 is there to
inspire us and keep us going when it feels like
we just can't do it anymore. And we had two
stories here, back to back that if that doesn't put
(31:18):
fuel in your belly. Well, of course it does. Of
course it does. God had an appointment here this morning,
didn't he? Guys, God had an appointment.
S8 (31:28):
Always.
S2 (31:29):
This. This just proves that every once in a while,
we keep in step with the Holy Spirit around here
on the topics that we want to tackle. Because the
fruit was born out of that big time 11 11th
child on the way. Husband dies. Raises them all alone.
Are you kidding me? Another mom with a disability? That
(31:55):
would be discouraging to most gospel. Always on her lips.
Raising two boys alone. My goodness, is our God able?
He's able.
S11 (32:11):
Did you ever know that you're my hero? And everything
I would like to be. I can fly higher than
any of. You are the wind beneath my wings.
S2 (32:41):
What'd you see your mom overcome that inspired you? Moms
can be so inspiring. What do you think, Allie?
S4 (32:50):
You know, there's a specific story that stands out in
my memory. My mom. There was a season of time
where she was a home daycare provider. And so we
would welcome anywhere from, like, I don't know, 5 or
6 kids. And they would come and they would spend
the whole day with us while their parents were working.
And that was her way of providing helping provide for
our family. And so there was one particular family that
(33:10):
had made an agreement with my mom that she was
going to watch their son for a period of time,
and at the last minute they kind of bailed and
left my mom in a lurch. And so she tried
to come to an agreement for the payment that she
was owed. And the the dad was, was very dismissive.
And he said, I'm not going to pay you. She
was like, well, what do you mean you're not going
to pay me? You you made this commitment. We had
(33:31):
an agreement. And so it kind of escalated. And he
was very he said, I'm not paying you. And she goes, well,
I'm going to I'm going to have to take you
to court to get the payment. And he said, you're
a home daycare provider. The judge is going to laugh
you out of court. So my mom was like, oh, okay.
So I remember on the day of the court hearing,
(33:51):
I had to go stay at my grandma's house. I
didn't get to go to court, but I remember being
in the backyard. I can picture the swing set, the
little boneyard ditch that ran along the backyard, this little
creek and my grandma's yard. And I remember seeing my
mom walk forward in her suit by the hedges, and
we could see on her face as she emerged. She
had one. We knew it. Yes, she had been victorious.
S3 (34:15):
In small claims court.
S4 (34:17):
Against this man who said, the judge is going to
laugh you out of court and I don't. That for
me was such a core memory. My mom was a fighter.
She stood up for what was right, and she never
let someone diminish her because of her position or what
they thought she lacked. And that stuck with me. My
mom was an overcomer. I was so proud of her.
S8 (34:38):
So many people would.
S2 (34:39):
Have caved at that moment. Yeah, I'd say nine out
of ten would have caved and said, yeah, we'll let
this one go. That's so good. And it was frankly
healthy for the dude who lost.
S8 (34:50):
It was he.
S4 (34:51):
Needed he in that moment. He needed the humbling of going, no,
I can't just treat people any kind of way.
S2 (34:58):
And he put it up in her face.
S8 (35:00):
You're a home daycare provider.
S4 (35:01):
The judge will laugh you out of court.
S2 (35:05):
I'm sorry, but sometimes overcoming stories make you go, yes.
S8 (35:11):
You know what I'm saying?
S3 (35:13):
Yes.
S8 (35:15):
Yes. Yes, mom! Get him! Mom! Of course. You did
so great.
S2 (35:20):
Oh my goodness! What do you got? Super nice. Something
on your heart?
S8 (35:24):
Yeah, I remember my mom especially talking when she was younger.
She really overcame what would probably be decades and ages
of just family culture for her. She was the oldest
of four daughters, yet she was the third one to
get married. And she actually pushed to go to college,
which was I know, sounds like what. But for her,
that was a very huge deal to stand up to
(35:47):
this very Greek family, you know, firstborn daughter should have
been married. This is who you're supposed to be married to.
She said, no, I'm not going to marry. I'm not
going to marry that person, at least right now. And
I want to go to school. And it was it
was a huge fight. It caused a lot of of
walls to go up for a very, very long time.
But she went to school. She got a couple years.
(36:09):
I had talked about her being, you know, a phenomenal
secretary and things like that, and she earned those skills
and even worked in Chicago for a while. But for
her to take that step back then was huge. And
I just thought very brave to do. Very brave to do. Awesome.
It was a very big deal at that time.
S2 (36:28):
Yeah. My my mama kind of broke a tradition. It's funny. Uh,
one of the, you know, there's unspoken traditions. Sometimes it's
like these. This is kind of the code. Well, there
was a Johnson code back in the day. In fact,
I was out at an event here last night talking
with some women that were about my, you know, nearing
(36:49):
my mom's age. She passed on and went with the
Lord here a year and a half ago. Two years ago. Um,
but my mom was raised in Chicago, was down here
on the Moody campus. My grandma sang on air a
lot down here. Live. Isn't that wild, guys? My grandma did.
S3 (37:05):
That. Crazy. That full circle, man.
S2 (37:07):
But what's really interesting is so my mom goes to
Southern Cal because my grandpa couldn't handle the cold of Chicago,
and he went and actually started a whole chain of
gas stations for Atlantic Richfield Company. And so they moved
to Southern Cal. And my dad and mom met at
a rose parade. Lo and behold. And my dad saw
(37:30):
my mom and had the same experience I had with
my bride, Jubes. I'm like, that is God's will for
my life right there. And my dad looked at mom
and he called her Eva. And he said, Eva, I
want to marry you. And they were married, but they
they broke the code. And the code was you stay
near family. But my dad and mom had a real
(37:52):
missionary mindset. And they moved to Alaska before it was
a state. So they were breaking codes. Kind of like
your mama, super dad. They were breaking a code. And
and for years as a young boy and then into
my teen years growing up, my mom would get cards
that my family. I'll go ahead and say it. My
(38:13):
grandma used as an opportunity to take a shot at
the code that was broken. You get what.
S3 (38:18):
I'm saying, I got it.
S8 (38:18):
Exactly. Yes.
S2 (38:20):
And my mom would just cry, and my dad would
put his arm around her. And, I mean, it was
hard for her because she didn't want to break her
mom's heart. Didn't want to break code. But, boy, they
were called to Alaska before it was a state to
be missionaries. Tentmakers my dad had his teaching degree, ultimately
became a principal. The state became a state and it
(38:42):
was a mission field. My dad did great work across
the state of Alaska. My mom paid a price for
it and full circle on that one. Guys is my
my dad. As you can imagine, he was the chief
villain because he broke the he ultimately.
S3 (39:00):
Broke the.
S2 (39:00):
Code, right?
S3 (39:01):
Exactly. He stole her. Yeah.
S8 (39:03):
You're the problem.
S2 (39:04):
Took her away. And? they had to be fair with
my grandma and grandpa. They had a mixed feeling because
they they loved God and they understood missions. But it's like.
But not my kid, you know?
S3 (39:17):
Yeah, sure.
S2 (39:18):
Here am I send someone else from another family structure.
S8 (39:21):
Especially the daughter. Like you're taking.
S3 (39:23):
Her? Yeah.
S2 (39:23):
You know, and and she was the firstborn. And so it's, like,
really breaking the code. Yeah. Uh, but what an amazing
thing to see in my own dad. Mom. The inspiration
that they were to me. My grandma was ultimately bad.
Health at a time in her life. Lay in latter years.
(39:43):
My grandpa had passed away. And none, none of the
other siblings could take my grandma. So guess where grandma
had to move.
S3 (39:51):
Alaska to Alaska.
S2 (39:52):
She had to move to Alaska.
S3 (39:53):
Wow.
S4 (39:54):
Wow.
S2 (39:55):
The very place that she probably loathed for all those years.
And one day I walk into the home I'm working
in the oil fields of Alaska. Came down for a break,
walked into the home and said, hey, where's, uh, where's dad?
Mom said, oh, he's around the corner taking care of grandma.
I walk around the corner, my dad's changing my grandma's
diaper and I mean cleaning up a mess. And by
(40:16):
this time, she didn't have her faculties at all. And
I thought, wow, what an inspirational thing. That's my dad
and mom overcoming. But it's inspiring when people overcome. It's
a beautiful thing, man, and that's forever etched in my mind.
The tears of my mom, the servanthood of my dad
and mom, and the love that they showed, even when
(40:39):
maybe reasonable people would have said, you don't have to
do that. They said, yeah, because of Christ in us,
we we do and we will. And it's just a
beautiful thing. I don't know what that does for you,
but the book of Hebrews illustrates that it's inspiration in
the Hall of Fame of faith are overcomers, and we
(41:02):
can as well today.
Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio.
This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2 (00:08):
At Carl and crew. What we try to do is
go right to the heart of the matter. So let
me give this to you. Cogitating on this a lot.
And I've thought about this for years. Even when I
ran track and field back in high school. There's a
common thread through all of life. There's things that we
(00:29):
either feel called to do innately, or things that we
aspire to personally. And with all those things, we can
get a grand vision of what could be. But if
you don't have a strategy to get there, you you're
you get your proverbial cookie in a Squisher took us
in a squishes. You weren't going to get there. Fair enough, guys. Fair. Absolutely.
(00:50):
So and this is what I love about life. Because
if you look at life and then you open up
the Word of God, you go, oh my goodness. There's
vision and strategy. That's the cool thing. So I want
to make this so practical. Now the number of years
(01:12):
ago I guess that's a fair way to put it
over 40 something like that. I ran a dog sled
race across Alaska. If you're new listening here, I ran
a dog sled race called the Iditarod. It's 1100 miles
from Anchorage, Alaska to Nome, Alaska. I still can't believe
I made it. 21 days, eight hours, 12 minutes, 32 seconds.
(01:32):
I mean.
S3 (01:32):
That's a feat, man.
S2 (01:34):
It was, it was, and I. Its history feels like
someone else. You know what? Have you ever done something
that feels like somebody else did that?
S3 (01:43):
Yes. Yes, absolutely.
S2 (01:44):
So I give all credit to my dogs. They were
the athletes. In fact, I told people after the race
was over, my team could have gotten there quicker if
they'd had a better musher. I was a good musher
for 18, but 18 is young. I had a lot
to learn, and I knew that intuitively. But I learned
something from my dogs that was just fascinating. So let
(02:04):
me tell you about what it's like to have 50
dogs in your kennel. 50 huskies. And what happens over
a couple of years time. You go out on these
training runs, and I would get some that would get
on some, maybe get some laceration on their pad, a
little bit of blood coming out of their pad, and
I'd load them up in the sled and take care
of them and put some ointment on them and bandage
(02:26):
them up. And it was almost like they'd look at
me like, thanks. Thanks so much, friend. I so appreciate
that we're dogs, that we get tired at times and
I'd load them in the sled because we're training, you know,
and some of them just didn't have the stamina, and
some of them felt the pressure and the shame of
not being able to make it. I kid you not,
they had shame in their eyes. And I would tell them, no,
(02:46):
you're doing all right, buddy. You're you're all right. It's okay.
We're going to get you back in the team tomorrow,
and we're going to get some more wind in you.
We're going to get a little more strength in you.
Everything's going to be all right. And we'd go through overflow,
open water, and I'd get out of the water and
I'd dry myself off, and then I'd quickly dry off
(03:07):
the team. Well, after a while, you start to build
some real rapport with your dogs, and it's a sweet thing.
Those dogs are born to run. They're born and bred
to run. If you don't run an Alaskan Husky that's
born this way, you're selling them short. And the way
that I knew this best is when I'd walk into
the dog lot and I'd start the cooker cooking for
(03:29):
the feed, they'd get excited. But when I walked into
the dog lot and I opened the door to the
harness shed where the harnesses were that they put on there,
I put on their body and then hook them into
the gang lines. They went bananas, I mean bananas. Neighbors
way down the lake could hear my dogs.
S3 (03:52):
That's so great.
S2 (03:53):
No way down the lake.
S3 (03:54):
That's why you got.
S2 (03:55):
There was a friend of mine had a had a kennel.
He called it the, um, the Howling Dog Farm because
that's a great descriptor of what happens when these dogs
see a harness come out of a shed.
S3 (04:07):
And it's 50, 50 dogs all at one time, just
losing their minds. Very vocal animals. Yes.
S2 (04:12):
It's one of the coolest things. It's one of the
coolest sounds you can hear when you're standing in the
middle of 50 dogs, and they're going bananas with the
dog harness on, and you've got someone standing right next
to you, you have to get in their ear and
go grab that one right there, the one with the
white coat and the piercing blue eyes. Grab him. Put
this harness. You're yelling at them like that because that
(04:35):
that is how loud the dogs are. You know, you've
got a. You've got a God sized vision in front
of you to be the man that God wants you
to be. And you might think, boy, I know I do.
You know it innately. You know it. When you were
born again, God stamped on your heart. You're a new
(04:58):
man and you just need someone with a strategy to
get you there so that when they pull out the harnesses,
you go, oh, I know how to get there. And
coming up here in a moment, I want you to
know that this innate sense that there is more for
men is real. But what if you had someone on
(05:18):
the back of the sled that had a strategy for
how to get there? So there might be some serious
howling going on here in a moment. And that's for
good reason, because we got a good friend coming in here.
S4 (05:32):
Doctor Robert Lewis with Better Man Ministries, with not just
a vision, but a strategy for helping you as a
man and the men in your life to really become
what God's called you to be.
S1 (05:44):
You can take him out of Alaska, but you can't
take Alaska out of him. Carl is in the crew.
It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2 (05:53):
You know, I had a man tell me one time
to know the will of God. You can read the
book to know the way of God, to get to
the will of God. You got to read a little deeper.
The same thing is true with vision. You can get
a vision of manhood and you can hear it talked about.
You can have a grand idea of what could be
out there, but without a strategy, we're never going to
(06:15):
get there. What if the better man that God has
designed you to be was within reach? It is. Doctor
Robert Lewis is with us right now. It's fascinating, isn't it, Robert? We.
I think we can get a vision for biblical, authentic
manhood and get a rousing sense in our heart. But
then we got to do something with that. We need
(06:36):
a strategy, don't we, my friend?
S5 (06:38):
Absolutely. Because I think today, because of the breakdown of
the home, most young men moving into young adulthood walk
into a big fog and guess their way through manhood.
S4 (06:52):
Robert Lewis with us right now he is a pastor, speaker, author,
founding partner of Better Man Ministries. You know, you you
have a quote on your website. You cannot become what
you cannot define. For so many men, the messages are
very mixed as to what even it looks like to
be a strong man. You don't want toxic masculinity, but
(07:12):
you don't want to be passive. You want to pursue
a woman, but you don't want to be intimidating, or
make her think that she's diminished in some in some way.
It's a it's a tough landscape to navigate.
S5 (07:24):
Well, it's gotten tougher in our day because when we
remove more traditional roles and that kind of thing, and
it's kind of every man for himself. Uh, a lot
of men do not look to other men for help
in their manhood. They think they should know it. So
they try to guess their life and their manhood into
the future. And oftentimes those hit tragic, hurtful, and sometimes
(07:47):
even deadly dead ends.
S2 (07:49):
Yeah. You know, it's interesting, Robert. I was with 500
men in Arizona, and I saw a common thread again
that I see over and over. Sometimes those tragic dead
ends are God's dinner bell to redeem something that has
been wasted. Tell us about that.
S5 (08:05):
One of the things that I'm so excited about, what
I'm doing and working with younger men, is the fact
that there's a huge hunger out there. But you have
to have someone that a younger man respects that starts
speaking into his life. And if he takes the time
to do that and he's genuine in his outreach. One
(08:26):
of the great things about the day in which we
live is younger men want to learn, but they need
older men just to initiate towards them. And that's what
we've seen with better man using older men to reach
younger men. But there's a tremendous hunger of young men
to help me think through this, because inside they know
(08:46):
that they don't know, but they just don't want other
men to know that they don't know.
S2 (08:51):
Yeah.
S4 (08:52):
You know, there's an insecurity, I think, in this generation
of men. I saw this I saw this funny video, Robert,
and it was it was talking about toxic masculinity. And
they said the difference from, like, my dad's toxic masculinity
was that my dad and this is they were just
being honest. They said my dad could punch a wall,
but he could fix it. They said this generation's toxic
(09:13):
masculinity punches a wall in anger, but then has to
call somebody else to fix it because they never learned how.
So there's this sense of like, I want to break
this cycle. I don't want this anger, I don't want
this rage. But at the same time, I don't feel
equipped to do some of the things that my dad's
generation could do. So I feel less of a man
because I can't do some of those things. You get
(09:34):
where I'm going with this.
S5 (09:35):
Just think how imprisoning that is. If you don't know
what to do, and you don't even know how to
fight your way out of it, just kind of sit there.
And that's why we see mental health issues, depression, addiction,
all kinds of those things just skyrocketing among young men.
I mean, we used the George Barna Barna organization to
(09:57):
do a national survey with young men just to see
where they are. Men under 40. And I remember they
came back and said, this is the loneliest, most disconnected
generation of young men in history. And it's very it's
not just toxic to society. It's very toxic to them.
(10:18):
And a lot of health issues are escalating with young
men because they don't know what to do. They're just
in I call it the manhood fog.
S3 (10:28):
Yeah.
S2 (10:29):
You might be in this fog right now or wanting
to help someone get out. You're in a good place.
Coming up with doctor Robert Lewis. Credible author, great mentor,
a mentor of mine for a number of years and
still to this day. And we're going to tackle this.
How do we know we're in the fog. And how
do we get out? Straight ahead with Robert Lewis.
S1 (10:50):
She's a choreographer extraordinaire and everything is Greek to her.
Super die is in the crew. It's Karl and crew
on Moody Radio.
S2 (11:00):
It's called The Fog. So says Robert Lewis. We get
into this fog of real manhood, wondering what is it?
How do we walk forward? A lot of what we
learned in manhood, Robert was learned in the locker room.
That didn't work. And a lot of what we're learning
today is even less than that. There's so much as
you just cited loneliness and despair. And I want to
(11:21):
give you a scenario here and just speak to this scenario.
I've been mentoring a man at one of our campuses
here in Chicago, and it's been fascinating because he is
on the proverbial treadmill. Sin, shame. Repent, repeat. And there's
a voice going on in his head that says, I
can't do it. What do you say to that man?
S5 (11:41):
Well, one of the kind of Openings for young men
that I do a lot is to get a group
of young men together and just sit down for an evening,
and we ask them to tell their story. And by
telling their story, what I mean by that is to
draw out a picture of the family you grew up in,
not necessarily the one you were born into, because a
(12:04):
lot of families change in those early days. But the
one you grew up in and then tell us what
role you played in that family, and then tell us
about the relationship with your dad and what was something
you really learned that helps you today? But what's interesting,
most men have never opened up and told other men
their story. And they start realizing how lost they are,
(12:28):
and many of them with no dad or no instruction
from dad. But the big winner is they're being honest
with one another, and they're in a community of young
men where they can talk about it, and all of
a sudden they realized, this feels good. This feels good.
And it's the start of that community. That is the
(12:53):
opening to a healthy manhood. Because healthy manhood requires first
a safe community and then biblical clarity.
S2 (13:02):
Okay, let's spike that for a second here. So you're
saying a lot of the solution for this isolation and
these cycles of despair and wanting to get out, can't
get out, is just the lack of others to walk
this road with.
S5 (13:16):
That's right. To open up and just talk about what's
going on inside of me. It's just a huge pressure
relief valve when you're with other safe men. It could
be two. It could be three. It could be like
in the case of the other night with my group
of young men, it was ten of us. We're teaching.
We're just talking and sharing where we came from to
try to connect the dots of where we are and
(13:38):
then talk about what do you need? So it's unveiling
the past, cracking the lid, being honest and in that community,
being open to say, okay, here's where I am. I've
never had a relationship with my dad or just went
through a divorce, or I'm in this addiction or I'm
struggling with this issue. But I've discovered tonight there are
(13:59):
other guys around the table who have similar stories who
can identify with me. And so it sets the table
to what do we do? And I always say, hey,
the best thing to do is look for some enduring
wisdom in the Bible is the greatest source of enduring wisdom.
So let's talk about what the Bible has to say.
So into that community of chaos, we bring biblical clarity
(14:22):
that suddenly brings these aha's that I've seen change men's lives.
As you know, Carl, for now, 35 years.
S4 (14:30):
Doctor Robert Lewis, our guest right now. Now, you have
a passion to make this more accessible than ever. What
you're talking about to actually become a reality. You've had
now 500,000 men, 10,000 churches taking part in these better
man teachings. Explain what you're offering up for free.
S5 (14:48):
Well, what we did is about four years ago, some
men that I was close to down in Dallas, Texas,
asked me if I would do some series where we
could reach young men and they were willing to fund everything,
and I said I would do it if you could
offer it all for free. So we got together, formed
better man. Uh, we did video series. We did what
(15:10):
I call the ten Fundamentals of Manhood, and it's all online.
We've got multiple teachers teaching those ten weeks. So we
have different ethnicities, different age groups. But you can go
online and see each one of those teachers teach those
ten weeks and then off your phone or computer, you
(15:31):
can download for free those ten weeks and the workbook,
and then just get with a small group of guys.
That's what we recommend. Usually having at least one older
man in the group and go through the series together,
and it has really connected with young men, and it's
great to bring older men into it. And a listener
(15:52):
today could download anything he wanted off our website for free.
S2 (15:57):
Today's the day, guys. I'm telling you right now, I
got a boiling passion inside of me. This is real. Uh,
it's desperately needed. You know it. And most I would
say Ali. I mean, it's anecdotal, but we get how
much feedback here about how do I get my way
out of this thing now, we've got something here, don't we?
S4 (16:17):
Absolutely. And this is going to be content that you
can do with the small group that you can bring
to your church to help them get on board with it.
We've got it for you. Just text man to 855
five 7898. If you want to explore more of this
free content. This video teaching. This is very much a
plug and play option where it has been prepared for
you so that you can engage with some brothers in Christ.
(16:40):
Go ahead and text man to 800 555 7898. Man
to (800)Â 555-7898.
S2 (16:48):
Robert, before we let you go, give us a story.
Give us a story that's fresh on your heart about somebody,
a young man. He may not have arrived, but he's
got some breakthrough right now.
S5 (16:58):
Well, it's funny you said that because the other day
I got a text from a young man in Saudi Arabia,
and somehow he had gotten hold of the better man material,
downloaded it with another guy and walked through it. Because
you're not going to fix your manhood by just a coffee.
You've got to have some time where you sit and
(17:19):
soak in the truths of the scriptures made relevant through
this kind of video technology. And he had done that
by himself with another guy, and they had just talked
through it and he wanted to contact me, didn't know
how he had worked through our better man resources. But
basically what he said, He said, I grew up a Buddhist.
I didn't know anything about manhood. I went through the series,
(17:43):
I was introduced to Jesus with my friend, and we
talked about it through the series. And he said, I
wanted you to know at the end of that time,
I gave my life to Jesus.
S2 (17:55):
Oh my goodness.
S5 (17:56):
Now that's a guy who is as far out from
my ability to influence him as you can possibly get
another country, a different religion. He's using technology, but the
truths of the Scripture made relevant to his manhood in
community with one other guy. They came to Christ just
(18:20):
by listening to the Bible made relevant to their manhood,
and they went from a foggy manhood to Jesus's life
giving manhood. And that ended up with them walking with
Jesus himself. That's why I'm in the game, Carl. Because
I've seen that happen thousands of times.
S2 (18:38):
Wow. You know, I've always known you to be a
passionate man. From the time when we sat down, I
was in your small group when you were writing this
core curriculum, when it all began. And yet, Robert, that
fire's not gone out. I feel like it's building here,
my friend. God's doing something.
S5 (18:53):
He is doing something. And we've got a lot of
great speakers on board who do our video series. But
these guys really connect with younger men, and we use
older men just to sit at the table as table guides,
just sharing honestly their life, going through these experiences. I mean,
we have multiple curriculums, but the basic curriculum on the
(19:14):
fundamentals of of manhood, called core, is the one we're
offering today for free. And just telling you some time
in that soaking in that curriculum with a community of men,
just talking and being real, it brings you out of
the cultural fog, the woke culture that we're in. That's.
Offering dead ends. And it will provide for you an
(19:37):
escape hatch to life giving manhood.
S2 (19:39):
Love it. Robert Louis is his name. He's a good man,
and he's got some phenomenal content again. Ali. What's that link, sister?
S4 (19:47):
Just text man to 800 555 78, 98. Man. Man (800)Â 555-7898.
S1 (19:55):
A basketball mom who's mastered the dad joke. Ali is
in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2 (20:04):
It's Wednesday. It's the bottom of the hour.
S1 (20:07):
It's time making herself laugh. No matter who joins her,
it's time for Ali thinks it's funny.
S4 (20:16):
Today's been a good day of jokes.
S3 (20:18):
We do?
S2 (20:18):
Yes. It has.
S4 (20:19):
Let's hope I don't mess it up.
S3 (20:21):
Finish strong, finish strong. Come on, come on.
S6 (20:25):
I shouldn't have set myself up.
S2 (20:27):
Oh, yeah.
S3 (20:27):
You did.
S4 (20:28):
All right. What do you call a fly without wings?
This is not philosophical. What do you call a fly
without wings? Anyone? Anyone?
S3 (20:39):
What do you believe? He can't.
S7 (20:40):
I believe he can't fly. I don't know.
S4 (20:42):
Oh, wow. Carl's coming with the alternative punch lines today.
A fly without wings is called a walk. It's called
a walk. Ladies and gentlemen.
S2 (20:55):
Pretty straightforward.
S3 (20:56):
Pretty good.
S4 (20:57):
Yes, yes. And then we like to give soar around here.
So I would like to give a bit of a PSA.
I think that my account was hacked.
S3 (21:05):
Oh, no.
S4 (21:05):
Unfortunate when that.
S3 (21:06):
Happens.
S4 (21:07):
So if you receive a message from me about investing
in canned meat, investing in canned meat, don't open.
S3 (21:15):
It. Ignore it. I already opened it.
S4 (21:17):
Don't open.
S3 (21:18):
It. Oh, no.
S4 (21:19):
You want to know why?
S3 (21:20):
Why? Why?
S4 (21:20):
Because it's spam. It's definitely.
S3 (21:22):
Spam. As soon as you.
S4 (21:25):
Said canned meat, I thought.
S3 (21:26):
That's awesome.
S7 (21:27):
That's great. That's great.
S4 (21:30):
If you want today's jokes, text jokes to 800 555 7898.
Jokes to 800 555 7898. Super die always sees the
punchline coming.
S2 (21:43):
Yeah she does.
S4 (21:44):
She always gets it.
S2 (21:45):
Is that why she grumbles when it lands?
S4 (21:47):
Because she gets like in her mind. She has all
of them answered before I get the get it out.
S2 (21:52):
She does. Can I tell you a quick spam story?
S3 (21:56):
Sure. Yes. All right.
S2 (21:57):
All right, so here's the deal. I was 18.5 years old,
and so I'm still relatively young on a crazy new adventure.
I had bought a 32 foot gillnetter wood plank gillnetter
that had all kinds of problems, not least of which
was the fact that it leaked like a sieve.
S4 (22:16):
Okay, what is it, an eight? Yeah. Back it up.
S2 (22:19):
Gillnetter a wood plank. Gillnetter. It's a 32 foot commercial
fishing vessel. It was kind of old school. It had
a gasoline engine, which is, like very dangerous. They don't
do that at all anymore. It's just for commercial fishing.
It's just not wise. Catch a wood boat on fire
in a heartbeat. So we're. We're fishing in Togiak Bay
(22:40):
on the west coast of Alaska. The ice has just
come off the water, and we're fishing for herring. So
we're putting gillnets down into the water in these herring
schools that come fill it in. Boom. We load it
on board. But the funny thing about spam is that
we we didn't plan food that we needed on this trip,
and we ate up all of our good stuff ahead
of time, and all we had left near the end
(23:02):
of the season was a huge bag of potatoes and
many cans of spam and Grey Poupon mustard. That's it.
That's what we.
S7 (23:11):
Had.
S8 (23:11):
There's a combination.
S2 (23:13):
Yeah, and that's what we had morning, noon and night
for about a week. We had potatoes, spam and Grey
Poupon mustard.
S3 (23:21):
Oh my goodness.
S2 (23:21):
And I found ways to cook spam. Like you can't believe, man.
I mean, I would I was trying to air dry
it to make it jerky.
S3 (23:29):
Frying it in.
S4 (23:30):
Air. Dried spam.
S3 (23:32):
Yeah.
S2 (23:32):
It was. It was outstanding. And and I cooked. There's
gelatin in the spam, you know. So you pull that
out and I'd get that all sizzling, and then I'd
do thin sliced spam, and then I'd, I'd, I'd, I
wrapped it around and put, uh, put little toothpicks in
it to make little potato spam. Little.
S4 (23:52):
That's creative.
S3 (23:53):
Like little sliders.
S2 (23:54):
Little sliders.
S3 (23:55):
You gotta do what you gotta do.
S2 (23:57):
But the the the secret sauce to spam if you
don't like it. I happen to like it. But if
you don't like spam is Grey Poupon mustard man. It
covers over.
S3 (24:06):
A.
S2 (24:07):
Massive amount of iniquities of sin. It's just really good stuff.
S3 (24:10):
So you got some spam?
S2 (24:12):
Do people still buy spam?
S3 (24:14):
Oh yeah, I had spam, I don't know, a couple
months ago. You did? Yeah, for the first time. So
I didn't think it was all that bad. No, it's
pretty good. Not that bad.
S2 (24:24):
Who knows what's in that thing?
S3 (24:25):
That's all. That's also very true.
S2 (24:27):
I don't know what's in that sucker, man. It's like, oh, boy,
you see those mass processed videos of the goop that comes.
S3 (24:35):
Out, and then.
S2 (24:35):
You realize, oh.
S3 (24:36):
Don't ask questions you don't want the answer to. Yeah.
S2 (24:39):
How hot dogs are made. You don't want the answer
to that one.
S3 (24:42):
Nope.
S2 (24:43):
Yeah, there's lots of. You're getting horse innards or cow
innards or whatever it is.
S3 (24:47):
Thank you Carl.
S2 (24:48):
All kinds of stuff.
S4 (24:49):
Thank you.
S2 (24:50):
Carl. I just want to bless your socks off. But
the good news is, Ali, a little Grey Poupon.
S3 (24:58):
Here's the secret.
S4 (25:00):
See my jokes. It's the gift that keeps on giving.
S3 (25:03):
Yeah.
S4 (25:03):
You would not have.
S3 (25:04):
Gotten.
S2 (25:04):
That.
S4 (25:04):
Story had I.
S2 (25:05):
No I wouldn't. Thank you very much.
S3 (25:08):
Come on. Love covers a multitude of sin. And mustard
covers a multitude of spam.
S4 (25:13):
Oh, boy, it's Grey Poupon.
S2 (25:14):
Oh, I got some good news for you, Ali. Your favorite.
One of your favorite stores, Costco, sells mega packs of spam.
S4 (25:20):
Oh, yeah.
S2 (25:22):
Says one of our listeners.
S3 (25:23):
That's gone on over there?
S4 (25:26):
I love Costco, but I don't love spam. Sorry.
S2 (25:29):
Oh goodness sakes. Okay. Coming up. We got a lot
going on. Oh, before we go a step further, it's
almost mom's day.
S4 (25:35):
It is. And we want to make sure you know
about a great giveaway that ends this week with Mother's
Day coming up this Sunday. So make sure you get
your entry form in to win a $550 gift for
your mom. This is going to be a spa gift certificate.
A restaurant gift certificate. You can win it for a
mom in your life. You can win it for yourself.
If you're a mom, just get the entry form. Tell
(25:56):
us what makes your mom so special and unique. Fill
out a couple of lines so we have your information
and we will contact you. If you are the winner.
Just text mom to 800 555 7898. Text mom to
800 555 7898.
S1 (26:12):
He was sharing the gospel on the radio and then
he got saved. Young thunders in the crew. It's Carl
and crew on Moody Radio.
S2 (26:22):
Nothing inspires. Spires. Like seeing someone overcome. Really? But when
it's your mom, it's something special, isn't it, Ali?
S4 (26:33):
It is. And so we asked you, what did you
see your mom overcome that inspired you? 805 55. 7898.
Let's go to Jane calling in this morning from Illinois. Jane.
Tell us.
S9 (26:46):
Hi, there. Well. My mom. Oh, my. Oh, boy. She
was pregnant with my 11th child. Her 11th child. When
my dad died, I was almost three. And she had.
So anyway, she carried the birth, and, um, she raised
all 11 of us. All 11 of us by herself.
(27:08):
No food stamps and all the wonderful programs that they
have nowadays. Just lots of good neighbors in a small
little town. Plus, she took in a gal when she
was in high school at the gal was in high
school that just was having a hard time at home.
She said, Will you come and live with us?
S2 (27:24):
Jane took in a gal. Are you kidding me? Your mom.
What an inspiration, huh, Jane?
S9 (27:31):
Oh my, oh my, oh, my. We all live by
her inspirations today.
S2 (27:36):
What's her. What's her name?
S9 (27:38):
Neva. My mom's name. Neva.
S2 (27:41):
Oh, I gotta tell you, Jane, that is. That is
so beautiful. What a story. My goodness. Hold on the line, sister.
I know you got to hustle. Thanks for calling in,
but I want to get a Carl and crew prize
back into your hand. Can you imagine that?
S3 (27:55):
Listen, guys.
S2 (27:57):
Can you get this? She's with child, her 11th. Wow.
And her husband passes away, and she rears those kids
and takes in. Sorry, but I think we got. Game set.
Match on something like that story.
S3 (28:12):
I mean, that's amazing. I can't imagine.
S2 (28:16):
Oh my goodness. Phillip in Illinois. What's your story, my man?
S10 (28:21):
You know, my mother, Hattie Lou Jean Warren Van Lear.
Handicapped woman. She had her right leg was eight inches
shorter than her left, so she wore a built up shoe.
Single parent. My dad, rolling Stone, was never around. She
raised two boys in the 50s and 60s. Black woman,
handicapped black woman. Worked two and a half jobs, paid
(28:45):
off the house, raised us knuckleheads that we were. And
I never, not once ever saw her without a smile.
Without a gospel song on her lips, without joy. She
would call other people to encourage them. She helped single
moms through their pregnancies. I have never complained. Not at all.
(29:07):
I mean, she's been an inspiration. She was an inspiration
to so many people. She's she's in glory now. She
she passed in 2006, but, uh, I, I, uh, I
wasn't going to call, but man, I had to, I said,
because mama would be saying, boy, what's wrong with you?
Didn't you tell anybody?
S2 (29:26):
Yeah, I got to tell you something, Phillip. That's moving man.
That is absolutely moving. Thanks for calling in this morning.
Those two stories rattle my cage.
S3 (29:38):
Wow. You all day long.
S2 (29:40):
Oh my goodness. Oh, I don't even have words for that.
S3 (29:49):
No.
S2 (29:50):
I don't know what you're up against today, but the
reason we've got the Hall of Fame of faith in
Hebrews 11. It's for one specific reason to keep going,
to keep going. It's why it's there, guys. It's why
it's there. Yeah. I mean, in Hebrews 12 one. I
(30:12):
forget talking about it. Let me open it and read it.
I mean, this is this is what we're called to
do and to be. And sometimes, sometimes we get a
glimpse of this and we go, oh my goodness, a
hall of fame of faith. Therefore, since we are surrounded
by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also
lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely,
(30:35):
and let us run with endurance the race that is
set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter
of our faith, who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is
seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
(30:56):
The reason we have Hebrews 11 is because we've got
a call on our life of Hebrews 12. And that's
to run the race well. Hebrews 11 is there to
inspire us and keep us going when it feels like
we just can't do it anymore. And we had two
stories here, back to back that if that doesn't put
(31:18):
fuel in your belly. Well, of course it does. Of
course it does. God had an appointment here this morning,
didn't he? Guys, God had an appointment.
S8 (31:28):
Always.
S2 (31:29):
This. This just proves that every once in a while,
we keep in step with the Holy Spirit around here
on the topics that we want to tackle. Because the
fruit was born out of that big time 11 11th
child on the way. Husband dies. Raises them all alone.
Are you kidding me? Another mom with a disability? That
(31:55):
would be discouraging to most gospel. Always on her lips.
Raising two boys alone. My goodness, is our God able?
He's able.
S11 (32:11):
Did you ever know that you're my hero? And everything
I would like to be. I can fly higher than
any of. You are the wind beneath my wings.
S2 (32:41):
What'd you see your mom overcome that inspired you? Moms
can be so inspiring. What do you think, Allie?
S4 (32:50):
You know, there's a specific story that stands out in
my memory. My mom. There was a season of time
where she was a home daycare provider. And so we
would welcome anywhere from, like, I don't know, 5 or
6 kids. And they would come and they would spend
the whole day with us while their parents were working.
And that was her way of providing helping provide for
our family. And so there was one particular family that
(33:10):
had made an agreement with my mom that she was
going to watch their son for a period of time,
and at the last minute they kind of bailed and
left my mom in a lurch. And so she tried
to come to an agreement for the payment that she
was owed. And the the dad was, was very dismissive.
And he said, I'm not going to pay you. She
was like, well, what do you mean you're not going
to pay me? You you made this commitment. We had
(33:31):
an agreement. And so it kind of escalated. And he
was very he said, I'm not paying you. And she goes, well,
I'm going to I'm going to have to take you
to court to get the payment. And he said, you're
a home daycare provider. The judge is going to laugh
you out of court. So my mom was like, oh, okay.
So I remember on the day of the court hearing,
(33:51):
I had to go stay at my grandma's house. I
didn't get to go to court, but I remember being
in the backyard. I can picture the swing set, the
little boneyard ditch that ran along the backyard, this little
creek and my grandma's yard. And I remember seeing my
mom walk forward in her suit by the hedges, and
we could see on her face as she emerged. She
had one. We knew it. Yes, she had been victorious.
S3 (34:15):
In small claims court.
S4 (34:17):
Against this man who said, the judge is going to
laugh you out of court and I don't. That for
me was such a core memory. My mom was a fighter.
She stood up for what was right, and she never
let someone diminish her because of her position or what
they thought she lacked. And that stuck with me. My
mom was an overcomer. I was so proud of her.
S8 (34:38):
So many people would.
S2 (34:39):
Have caved at that moment. Yeah, I'd say nine out
of ten would have caved and said, yeah, we'll let
this one go. That's so good. And it was frankly
healthy for the dude who lost.
S8 (34:50):
It was he.
S4 (34:51):
Needed he in that moment. He needed the humbling of going, no,
I can't just treat people any kind of way.
S2 (34:58):
And he put it up in her face.
S8 (35:00):
You're a home daycare provider.
S4 (35:01):
The judge will laugh you out of court.
S2 (35:05):
I'm sorry, but sometimes overcoming stories make you go, yes.
S8 (35:11):
You know what I'm saying?
S3 (35:13):
Yes.
S8 (35:15):
Yes. Yes, mom! Get him! Mom! Of course. You did
so great.
S2 (35:20):
Oh my goodness! What do you got? Super nice. Something
on your heart?
S8 (35:24):
Yeah, I remember my mom especially talking when she was younger.
She really overcame what would probably be decades and ages
of just family culture for her. She was the oldest
of four daughters, yet she was the third one to
get married. And she actually pushed to go to college,
which was I know, sounds like what. But for her,
that was a very huge deal to stand up to
(35:47):
this very Greek family, you know, firstborn daughter should have
been married. This is who you're supposed to be married to.
She said, no, I'm not going to marry. I'm not
going to marry that person, at least right now. And
I want to go to school. And it was it
was a huge fight. It caused a lot of of
walls to go up for a very, very long time.
But she went to school. She got a couple years.
(36:09):
I had talked about her being, you know, a phenomenal
secretary and things like that, and she earned those skills
and even worked in Chicago for a while. But for
her to take that step back then was huge. And
I just thought very brave to do. Very brave to do. Awesome.
It was a very big deal at that time.
S2 (36:28):
Yeah. My my mama kind of broke a tradition. It's funny. Uh,
one of the, you know, there's unspoken traditions. Sometimes it's
like these. This is kind of the code. Well, there
was a Johnson code back in the day. In fact,
I was out at an event here last night talking
with some women that were about my, you know, nearing
(36:49):
my mom's age. She passed on and went with the
Lord here a year and a half ago. Two years ago. Um,
but my mom was raised in Chicago, was down here
on the Moody campus. My grandma sang on air a
lot down here. Live. Isn't that wild, guys? My grandma did.
S3 (37:05):
That. Crazy. That full circle, man.
S2 (37:07):
But what's really interesting is so my mom goes to
Southern Cal because my grandpa couldn't handle the cold of Chicago,
and he went and actually started a whole chain of
gas stations for Atlantic Richfield Company. And so they moved
to Southern Cal. And my dad and mom met at
a rose parade. Lo and behold. And my dad saw
(37:30):
my mom and had the same experience I had with
my bride, Jubes. I'm like, that is God's will for
my life right there. And my dad looked at mom
and he called her Eva. And he said, Eva, I
want to marry you. And they were married, but they
they broke the code. And the code was you stay
near family. But my dad and mom had a real
(37:52):
missionary mindset. And they moved to Alaska before it was
a state. So they were breaking codes. Kind of like
your mama, super dad. They were breaking a code. And
and for years as a young boy and then into
my teen years growing up, my mom would get cards
that my family. I'll go ahead and say it. My
(38:13):
grandma used as an opportunity to take a shot at
the code that was broken. You get what.
S3 (38:18):
I'm saying, I got it.
S8 (38:18):
Exactly. Yes.
S2 (38:20):
And my mom would just cry, and my dad would
put his arm around her. And, I mean, it was
hard for her because she didn't want to break her
mom's heart. Didn't want to break code. But, boy, they
were called to Alaska before it was a state to
be missionaries. Tentmakers my dad had his teaching degree, ultimately
became a principal. The state became a state and it
(38:42):
was a mission field. My dad did great work across
the state of Alaska. My mom paid a price for
it and full circle on that one. Guys is my
my dad. As you can imagine, he was the chief
villain because he broke the he ultimately.
S3 (39:00):
Broke the.
S2 (39:00):
Code, right?
S3 (39:01):
Exactly. He stole her. Yeah.
S8 (39:03):
You're the problem.
S2 (39:04):
Took her away. And? they had to be fair with
my grandma and grandpa. They had a mixed feeling because
they they loved God and they understood missions. But it's like.
But not my kid, you know?
S3 (39:17):
Yeah, sure.
S2 (39:18):
Here am I send someone else from another family structure.
S8 (39:21):
Especially the daughter. Like you're taking.
S3 (39:23):
Her? Yeah.
S2 (39:23):
You know, and and she was the firstborn. And so it's, like,
really breaking the code. Yeah. Uh, but what an amazing
thing to see in my own dad. Mom. The inspiration
that they were to me. My grandma was ultimately bad.
Health at a time in her life. Lay in latter years.
(39:43):
My grandpa had passed away. And none, none of the
other siblings could take my grandma. So guess where grandma
had to move.
S3 (39:51):
Alaska to Alaska.
S2 (39:52):
She had to move to Alaska.
S3 (39:53):
Wow.
S4 (39:54):
Wow.
S2 (39:55):
The very place that she probably loathed for all those years.
And one day I walk into the home I'm working
in the oil fields of Alaska. Came down for a break,
walked into the home and said, hey, where's, uh, where's dad?
Mom said, oh, he's around the corner taking care of grandma.
I walk around the corner, my dad's changing my grandma's
diaper and I mean cleaning up a mess. And by
(40:16):
this time, she didn't have her faculties at all. And
I thought, wow, what an inspirational thing. That's my dad
and mom overcoming. But it's inspiring when people overcome. It's
a beautiful thing, man, and that's forever etched in my mind.
The tears of my mom, the servanthood of my dad
and mom, and the love that they showed, even when
(40:39):
maybe reasonable people would have said, you don't have to
do that. They said, yeah, because of Christ in us,
we we do and we will. And it's just a
beautiful thing. I don't know what that does for you,
but the book of Hebrews illustrates that it's inspiration in
the Hall of Fame of faith are overcomers, and we
(41:02):
can as well today.
Popular Podcasts
Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.