July 28, 2025 • 56 mins
Today, on Karl and Crew, we kicked off our weekly theme of “Freedom” with a discussion about growing and walking in freedom with Christ. Through Christ, we are no longer bound by sin, and we have victory over it. We turned to Ephesians 3:20 and 2 Timothy 1:7, where it proclaims our strength over sin through Him. To walk with Christ freely, we must be able to identify and eradicate the shame and fear that come with sin. We shared a link to a quiz that helps you identify what’s holding you back. The quiz is based on Karl’s book, “The 7 Resolutions,” and it will show you results that reflect your most significant areas of strength and improvement. We then had Dr. Drew Dickens join us to discuss further updates from the world of AI and how it significantly impacts day-to-day tasks and can be utilized to aid in spiritual growth. Dr. Dickens is a visionary leader, AI expert, and scholar who has made significant contributions to the intersection of technology, spirituality, and faith-based engagement. He is also the founder of the Encountering Peace app and the Encounter Podcast, which provides biblical meditations, resources, and dialogue. Dr. Dickens has also authored the book “Whispers of the Spirit: A 40-Day Guide to Intimate Prayer.” You can hear the highlights of today's program on the Karl and Crew Showcast.
If you're looking to hear a particular segment from the show, look at the following time stamps:
Karl's Wife story [10:59-17:40]
Dr. Drew Dickens Interview (AI and Spirituality) [20:47- 36:41]
Listener Stories (Victory over Sin) [36:44-47:30]
Devotion (Spiritual Growth) [47:33-56:55 ]
Karl and Crew airs live weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. Central Time. Click this link for ways to listen in your area! https://www.moodyradio.org/ways-to-listen/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:00):
Hey, I'm Ali, thanks for checking out the Carl and
Crew show cast. Did you know Carl and crew airs
live weekday mornings from 5 to 9 Central Time. Go
to Carl and crew.org for ways to listen in your area.
Now let's get to today's episode.
S2 (00:15):
Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio.
This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S3 (00:22):
Carl and crew. It's Carl and it's Carl and dude.
S4 (00:29):
It's Carl and dude because.
S3 (00:32):
Carl and dude week.
S4 (00:34):
Where'd the girls go?
S3 (00:36):
Oh, man, I don't know. I'm glad it's not a
partial rapture.
S5 (00:40):
Boys are back in town. The boys are back in town.
S4 (00:48):
It's a boys day.
S3 (00:51):
I didn't know you had that loaded up, but. That
couldn't be better.
S4 (00:57):
That's right.
S3 (01:00):
Yes. You might not have heard that in church and
probably never will. Probably not. It is a great rejoiner here.
It's Carlin dude week here. At least until tomorrow when
we get super dive.
S4 (01:11):
That's right. Super Dive will be coming back tomorrow.
S3 (01:13):
Ali's out getting a week of R&R. Or an hour
or an hour.
S4 (01:18):
Which is good because she's got two basketball kids that
she's driving around and taking to games. And you know,
what is that?
S3 (01:25):
What's going on this week again? Another tournament.
S4 (01:27):
No, no, no, I just.
S3 (01:28):
Mean.
S4 (01:28):
Normal life. Yeah. Normal life. That's just what what she's
always up to. So it's good that her and her
whole family are getting a little rest.
S3 (01:36):
Yeah, plus a four hour morning show.
S4 (01:40):
That's also true.
S3 (01:41):
You forget that?
S4 (01:41):
Well, yeah. Absolutely. But I felt like that was a given.
We all know she's here.
S3 (01:46):
By the way. Don't cry for me, Argentina. But let
me tell you something about a morning show. Let me
tell you something, and I don't. I'm not saying this.
I'm just saying this to give you some perspective, because
some of you think, man, I'd love to host a
morning show. Well, hold on there for a second. So
in my old days, I worked crazy jobs in Alaska.
(02:09):
Did those of you that are new born in Homer, Alaska.
A little two bed hospital. Not two bit hospital. Two
bed hospital, which might have been a two bed hospital.
It was dinky. And it was open for near birth
and near death experiences. And that was it. So they
unlocked the door, let my mama in. And I was
(02:29):
born in Homer, Alaska. And so I was raised in Alaska,
and it was a land of adventure. In fact, who
was it who told me last week? Somebody said, yeah,
you go to Alaska. That's a different group of people
up there. It is. I love that they're very straightforward.
You never have to wonder kind of where they're at
with you because they will tell you. So no veils
(02:54):
over their opinions. Pretty straightforward. is pretty straight shooters and
everybody helps each other because it's survival techniques, especially decades ago.
It was tough. Living in Alaska was tough, man. Hand-dug Wells.
My dad hand-dug as well in Homer, Alaska, and then
we partially, partially hand-dug it, put the pump and everything
(03:17):
down into the well casing and then had a man
I'll never forget the water. Well, guy, that was one
of the coolest things as a little kid to watch
him boom, boom, boom pounding into the ground when they
hit water. Man, it was like they hit oil in
our front yard. I'm like, ah, look at that, man.
S4 (03:36):
I love it.
S3 (03:37):
Fresh water. And that was good water. It had minerals
in it, so it had a bit of a taste.
Nowadays water doesn't taste like anything.
S4 (03:43):
No, it does not. It's so filtered and clean. Which
is a good I mean, I'm not saying I'm against
filtered water.
S3 (03:50):
No, no, you got to have minerals. But it was,
it was, uh, it was, it was good. It was
great living up there, but I did a lot of
different jobs. And I mean, I started with the paper
route and that was tough because we didn't have like,
homes lined up, like it wasn't like a little neighborhood.
(04:11):
Everybody had acreage. So the distance between homes. Man, I
should have gotten travel per diem for this paper route
because it was long walk between homes. Or if I
had my dog team later on, I had my little
dog team and I'd hook them up three dogs and
we'd take off down the neighborhood. And that was crazy
(04:31):
because everybody had loose dogs, so they'd come running out
and try to attack my team. The most hair raising,
dog mushing stories I ever have really.
S4 (04:41):
Are on the newspaper, out.
S3 (04:42):
On on the newspaper.
S4 (04:43):
Route. No, no.
S3 (04:45):
Yeah. Because I'm, I'm, you know, I'm I'm getting my
sled hooked on cars that are on the side of
the road are horrible. And I'm having to put my
snow hook around tires without puncturing tires to get my
team stopped. And and it was crazy. But the tough,
the the amazing thing about jobs in Alaska is that
all of them seem tough. I mean, all of them,
(05:07):
even getting to them seems tough. Weather conditions, you name it.
So I worked commercial fishing in Bristol Bay, Alaska. And
right now, what's the date today?
S4 (05:19):
Uh, it is July 28th.
S3 (05:22):
Yeah, we're getting into the sweet spot right now. The
red salmon return is pouring into millions and millions, like
tens of millions of red salmon are returning to the
Bristol Bay region with all these other offshoots. Amazing. These
fish are called two ocean fish. So go south all, all,
(05:43):
all the way south of the equator. And then they'll
come back to Alaska after being two years in the ocean.
They're called two ocean, two ocean reds. And they will
find the bay. They will find the river. They will
find the tributary, they will find the creek and they
will find the very spot where they were hatched. Don't
tell me there's no God.
S4 (06:03):
Yeah. No kidding.
S3 (06:05):
It's one of the most astounding things. But that work
was intense.
S4 (06:09):
It's like Deadliest Catch boats.
S3 (06:11):
Yeah. It was. Well, we delivered to Deadliest Catch boats.
So high spirits I was on all the time. That's
on Deadliest Catch. High spirits. I was in the galley
and on the deck and up in the captain's quarters and. Yeah. Eight,
eight right there in the galley with. With the boys
off the crabber. Yeah, it was a cool, cool time,
but it was tough, guys. Crazy, crazy hours. And then
(06:33):
the oil fields were tough. 12 hours on minimum, 12
hours off. But usually we wanted to work as much
as we could. So we'd go 14, 18 hours, sometimes
in a day, working. I gotta tell you all this
to say, I've never had a tougher job in my
life than four hours of live radio.
S4 (06:49):
I mean, even doing the radio with you, that's so
hard to imagine because of the jobs you've told me about.
But I believe you because you've done all those jobs.
S3 (06:57):
Well, it's just it's just it's it's tough. But don't again,
don't cry. For me. This is phenomenal. But it is.
If you've ever wondered, boy, wouldn't I love to have
a four hour radio. No you don't. No no no no.
You want to go commercial? Fishing in Alaska is what
you want to do. That's what you want to do.
Coming up here in a moment. We're talking freedom all
week long, guys. Freedom all week long. The question is,
(07:23):
why do I seem to be sinking under the weight
of my own efforts? And we're going to be drilling
down on this this whole week. We're going to have
a quiz for you coming up, an online quiz that
you can take. And no one gets to see the
score but you. I mean, it's we're going to have
a lot of fun here. This is passion the Lord
will provide. You can count on it. We're going to
be not only talking freedom, but pointing you to the
(07:47):
truth of who sets us free and how he does
it this week, No matter what you've been battling, God
can give you victory. Hang on.
S2 (07:56):
She's a choreographer extraordinaire, and everything is Greek to her.
Super di is in the crew. It's Carl and crew
on Moody Radio.
S3 (08:06):
Well, we got a. You know, I never want to
get too much ever self credit, but on this one,
we've got to talk about it here. Somebody just texted in. Uh,
thanks for the reminder that God can give us victory
over our battles. Are you guys really up and on
air this early or is this pre-recorded? No. We're here,
we're here. Oh, yeah. Monday morning. Hello? It's 514 and
(08:28):
49 seconds. I don't know how else to timestamp this.
You know, it's funny. We have to put in this
thing at the top of the hour. Uh, 5:00 central, 6:00,
East coast, 4:00 mountain, 3:00 Pacific. We have to put
in this thing that says some portions of this show
are pre-recorded. I don't what is that in there for?
(08:49):
Because we don't have anything pre-recorded, but they have to
do that. It's an FCC thing.
S4 (08:53):
Yeah. So so if any any part of your show,
if I were to play a little clip like last week,
we played a thing of Hulk Hogan. We didn't actually
interview Hulk Hogan. We played a pre-recorded clip of him.
So we have to play that as.
S3 (09:08):
Our interview with him, but somebody else's?
S4 (09:10):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So anything any little bit that is
a pre-recorded thing. You have to have to give that disclaimer.
But no, we're a live show. We're here right now.
S3 (09:19):
We are here. We are here. Okay. We're talking freedom
this whole week here, guys. And I want you to
imagine that one thing that keeps kicking your tail just
keeps kicking your tail. You should have get that in
your mind right now. And it's like it's a reoccurring
thing and it's not necessarily bad, but it it reminds you, okay,
(09:41):
this is something that I've got to stay focused on.
It could be a, it could be an area of
your life that it's like God has made clear to you?
No question about it. This is something you've got to
get victory in. And you know the secret sauce. Let's
just say you've got it, because we're going to be
talking about that secret sauce for getting victory over things
(10:03):
in our life that are just kicking our hind end,
and we're going to get after it. It's Carl and
Dude today we got no one else here with us
just being Young Thunder. But we're breaking it down for
you coming up here in a moment I'm going to
get real vulnerable. Some of you have heard this before,
but there was a moment, seven years into my marriage
to my bride. Jujubes, babe. Jinan. She. Sometimes that's her
(10:27):
given name. And I want to break it down for you,
because there's a big deal that happened seven years into
our marriage that to this day, my freedom in this area,
my victory in this area, I proved to myself over
and over again, Carl, you can't do it. And that's
the point with spiritual freedom. Hang on. Details coming up.
S2 (10:50):
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.
S3 (10:59):
If I didn't know how much God uses my vulnerability
on the story, I would never share it because it's
too embarrassing. It's threat to manhood and everything else. I
think any of you men, especially dudes that have been
married and you really love your woman and you know
God's calling on your life to have intimacy in your marriage.
Real intimacy. It's yeah, it can be. It can be
(11:23):
tough to tough to hear this or even feel this
from your spouse. Dudes, I know you're with me on
this one. Seven years into our marriage, we had learned
the art of stuffing explosives. You shouldn't do that. Um,
sometimes what happens is you learn how not to kind
of go to the mat and fight all night, deal
(11:45):
with things you learn the art of putting stuff away
that really needs to be dealt with by the Lord.
And you think, ah, I kind of haven't got everything
sorted out, but that's alright. We're going to make it
through this thing and pretty quick. You're going down the
road and you find yourself truly, and maybe you don't
even realize it as glorified roommates. And you wonder how
in the world we got here. But you don't think
(12:07):
even about that too deeply. You just know things aren't
exactly what I would want them to be. But okay,
it is what it is. Don't leave is what it
is alone, as I found out in a really tough way.
And I'm so grateful for my brides vulnerability. Seven years
into marriage, we're knee deep in powerful ministry. We're watching
amazing stuff happen. These things can coexist, by the way,
(12:31):
and we're watching God reach hundreds of single adults in
a ministry in little Rock, Arkansas. And I'm teamed up
with Robert Lewis, one of the great churchmen that really
led the way. He pioneered the way on making sure
that everyone who was part of a church, this church
of many thousands, were also part of small groups and
(12:51):
growing in their relationship with God. Small groups don't ensure
that you grow, but they give a greater chance possibility
for it for sure. Other than just Sunday attendance. Um,
seven years into our marriage, walking through my home, we
had been storing explosives. They either blow up or they
just cave in on you. I mean, there's no way
(13:12):
around it. And I'm walking past the bed, my bride
sitting on the corner of the bed. She reaches out,
grabs my left wrist. Remember it to this day. And
I looked down at her and her chins quiver and
I said, what is wrong? And she struggled a little bit,
got the words out and she said, I don't love you.
(13:37):
And I said, what? She said, I don't love you.
Now she wasn't going to leave, but the feelings of
love for her were gone. Mr. Fixit from Alaska. Mr.
spiritual leader pastor here had no answers. I walk around
(14:00):
the corner, look in a mirror over our sink. Vanity
and a battle raged. One voice was talking to me.
Look at all the stuff in her life that's not
squared away. She would have admitted all of it. And
I had this list growing. Because you can come up
with a list to justify where you're at in a
(14:22):
heartbeat for any situation you're up against. We have an
incredible ability to see faults in others. Amazing. No doubt.
Less so in ourselves, right?
S4 (14:32):
No doubt. I mean, look at Adam and Eve. First
thing Adam does is blame.
S3 (14:36):
Yeah, I mean, he blamed God. And even one sentence.
Five words. This woman you gave me, this woman you
gave me? Yeah. Five words. This woman, you gave me
five words. He blamed God and Eve. We got great
potential to blame others. But somehow the Spirit of God
broke through and told me these words. You are not
(14:59):
loving your bride as Christ loved the church. Don't. That
hit me so hard. I broke man and it was
not an it's not a boom. Switch goes on and
then you're fixed forever. It's a constant flipping of a switch.
And that's what we're going to be talking about this week.
How to take hold of freedom and hold on to freedom.
(15:22):
How to find it and hold it in any given
area of your life. And this is all I'm going
to say. I'm going to give you this right now.
God has a way forward. God has a way forward.
And I don't know what area of your life you're
struggling with could be anything. My goodness, it can be
so much. It can be, I mean, there could be
(15:44):
sin that needs to be killed. There could be time
that needs to be redeemed. There could be a focusing
of your effort because you're just frittering away stuff. And
you have no, you don't have a bigger yes. You've
got all these no's lined up in your heart. And
here's what I here's here's what I want you to
know today. God has a path forward. And this week
of freedom, we're going to give that to you. It's
(16:04):
going to be a lot of fun. We've got a
quiz that's going to set the deck. I actually worked
with a team of people, uh, a few years ago
to come up with this. We built an algorithm that has, like, 99%
probability that this little tool that we built is going
to help pin down an area of your life that
needs growth and an area of your life where you're
(16:25):
doing pretty well. And I want you to come and
honestly take this. Uh, you're not going to be spammed.
You're not going to. This is just between you and God.
No one's going to see it. But, boy, it's a
great indicator and it will help measure things in a
powerful way. Young Thunder, how do we get this out
to the good folks right now?
S4 (16:43):
This is great. Really easy. Just text the word quiz.
Only the word quiz to (800)Â 555-7898. It's really, really helpful.
I've used it myself. Just text the word quiz to
800 555, 7898.
S3 (16:59):
Yeah, and it reveals some stuff, doesn't it, bro?
S4 (17:02):
It does. It, you know, and it may surprise you.
The answer of of area. Most improvement may surprise you.
It may not, but it will get you started on
that journey to to fixing it.
S3 (17:13):
Yeah.
S4 (17:14):
Yeah, with the Lord.
S3 (17:15):
Yeah. If you're feeling stuck and you feel confused about
what's holding you back, I want you to take this.
Just text the word quiz. That's it. Quiz to 800 555, 78, 98.
Just the word quiz to 800 555, 78, 98. We're
going to be using this all week long. All week long.
This is Katie. Nicole. God is in this story. He's
(17:38):
in yours. Guys, this is a good first step.
S2 (17:41):
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.
S3 (17:50):
Okay. Uh, by the way, if you were not here Friday,
I know that sometimes you have to take a vacation
so you can't listen 24, over 7 or 4 hours
every morning to Carl and crew, and you might miss
something somewhere along the line. Oh, my goodness. We were
breaking down Hulk Hogan. Did you know that 18 months ago,
before he passed on 18 months ago, he and his
(18:11):
bride fully surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ and were baptized.
This guy was living on fire for God, and it
just proves the power of the Holy Spirit to regenerate souls.
And we had a clip in there about his story
that we found that is epic. If you want that,
(18:32):
this is reason enough to get the show cast. Hulk
Hogan's story. You can pass this on to other people.
It is the most definitive, clear understanding. He uses a
wrestling metaphor to explain what it means to come into
relationship with Christ. That's beautiful. In fact, it's spot on
and it's awesome because these truly newly regenerate guys that
(18:52):
have been out there bumping their head in the world
left and right and fallen down, they've got they've got
a story to tell. And so get this, uh, you
just it's real simple. The way it works is we're
going to give you a link, you're going to go back,
you're going to look at last Friday and we've got it.
Hulk Hogan story right at the front of our show cast.
So it's our little podcast here. And there's one easy
(19:14):
way to grab this right now.
S4 (19:15):
Yeah. Just text the word show. Text the word show
to (800)Â 555-7898. We've got a couple links in that text
will send you that will send you different places. Click
the one that works best for you and whatever podcast
platform you go to. Make sure to hit the follow
button at the top of our page we send you to,
because that will allow you to just go back there
and get our show whenever you don't have to text
(19:36):
the word show ever again.
S3 (19:38):
Yeah. Yeah, it's it's really important. Uh, speaking of show
casts and why this is so important, doctor Drew Dickens
is going to be with me. Some of the developments
of I. He is like an AI expert. Uh, not
like one. He is one. And what's happening with AI
is staggering. And it could be scary if we didn't
(19:58):
know Jesus straight up. But we're going to break down
what's going on with AI here, even in the last week,
two weeks. And, uh, Sam Altman statement that was made,
one of these brainiacs that comes out of Silicon Valley.
And what can we do about it? We're also going
to break down how we can leverage AI for our
(20:19):
spiritual growth. So buckle up. Hang on, get a swig
of water. This is Matthew West again. If you want
to get that Hulk Hogan little clip, man. Grab it.
Text the word show to 800 555 7898 800 555
7898 last Friday. You'll find it right there.
S2 (20:39):
A basketball mom who's mastered the dad joke. Ali is
in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S3 (20:47):
Carl and crew helping you take your next step with Jesus.
One of the reasons we're champions of coming as you
are overcoming what seems impossible and living as you never imagined.
It's really being. Unashamed of the gospel is the fruit
of a life that you never imagined. Otherwise, it's just
a it's just a knowledge dump. But the experience, understanding
(21:11):
of where you're at with God. That's what creates an
overflow of sharing the gospel. Some of you have reduced
this down to mechanics. It's not mechanics. It's not about
having the right memory verses. Those are great, but it's
about the overflow of what God is doing in your
life today. And we're going to get after that. This
is this is an important topic. Um, it's it's great
(21:33):
when we have an expert on something that can feel
so foggy. You ever appreciate that young thunder?
S4 (21:40):
Oh, goodness. Yeah. Because I can't know everything. I'm not
an expert in most of the things that we talk about,
but there are a lot of people who are. And
it's nice to be able to be filled in by them.
S3 (21:51):
Drew, it seems with AI that when we start looking
at it, sometimes it can get a little scarier before
it gets a little bit better. Um, and that's real,
isn't it? Drew.
S6 (22:02):
Absolutely. You know, part of part of it. Just because
we don't know where to turn, we don't know which
direction to look. Uh, when we're confronted with so much
on the news right now about AI, this and that. And, uh,
both on one side, the, uh, almost demonic kind of
influences we feel are coming at us. Um, and on
(22:23):
the other side, we know that it can be a
tool used by the Holy Spirit to draw us closer
to him. And so what is going on? And and
as soon as we figure out maybe where we are
with AI, then it changes every. Every day, every week.
Every day. A couple of times a day, there's always
a new, uh, new update.
S3 (22:44):
That's what's so staggering. Drew Dickens, by the way. AI
expert scholar, significantly, is contributing to the intersectionality of technology, spirituality,
and faith based engagement. He wrote a doctoral dissertation not
too many years ago. I think that got wrapped up
about seven, right? Drew. It's called the impact of generative
(23:04):
AI on spiritual direction, I love that. I don't think
you knew seven years ago that this would be coming
at you like a train, right?
S6 (23:13):
Not at all. Not at all. Yeah. Couldn't get a
return phone call. Couldn't get anybody's attention. This was pre,
uh ChatGPT. And, uh, so the timing of this was incredible. Uh,
watching it all roll out as I was wrapping up
my research.
S3 (23:27):
Okay. Sam Altman, uh, give his pedigree. This this is
one of these brainiacs out of Silicon Valley. What's what
does he do? And what did he say last week?
You must know about what he said last week. It's
got the world on tilt. A few that are in
the know what's going on here, drew?
S6 (23:46):
Well, Sam, uh, has a pedigree that runs deep in
Silicon Valley. He's been a part of a number of
startups over the years. A brilliant, uh, brilliant, uh, technologist
and scientist, computer scientist. Uh, he founded the company called
open AI, which was interesting enough, uh, started as a nonprofit, uh,
(24:06):
to explore the growth of artificial intelligence. Um, there were
a lot of major every, every name you've heard of,
from Elon to Bill gates to everybody, Zuckerberg, everybody invested
into this kind of startup to explore AI. What came
out of it is what we've all, uh, familiar with
now is ChatGPT. Uh, so that was their, uh, that
(24:29):
was their debut product, if you will, was ChatGPT and
it is just exploded. Obviously, since ChatGPT one, two, three
we're at four right now. Five's coming out. Um, and
so yeah, last week, a couple of things. Uh, Sam
is always good to drop a text that kind of
blows up, uh, the world. Two things she was talking
(24:49):
about last. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Uh, two of the things
he he brought up last week. First was just how, uh,
that with embedded within ChatGPT is the opportunity, the the
power to wipe out, uh, huge segments of the workforce, uh,
within a few years, uh, so that that was that
(25:10):
was the first thing he was actually meeting with the
Federal Reserve Board in Washington when he dropped that little nugget, uh, which, uh,
threw the markets into a tizzy. But but the the
other thing that was that was announced last week was
40 scientists from OpenAI, uh, from Google, from, uh, meta,
from Facebook, from anthropic, All the 40 scientists from all
(25:32):
these competing companies all came out together around one statement,
one warning shot, if you will, across the bow to us, uh, that, um,
each of these models has ability to reason now. And
what they've warned is, um, it's no longer going to it.
(25:53):
AIS no longer going to let us see how it
is thinking and that that.
S3 (26:01):
What's that mean?
S6 (26:03):
Yeah. So imagine, uh, so I'm a granddad. It's my
my part of the proudest accomplishments. Uh, this past weekend, uh,
we were building some rockets, uh, Estes rockets, uh, and
really excited about that. And we had a kit on
the table, and I found myself going. Yeah, I found
myself going, uh, no no no no no no no, don't.
Not this, no. Do it. This. And finally heard myself say,
(26:26):
you know what? Just let me do it. Um, and
then we will take them out and shoot. And I
hear myself saying that a lot. You know, it's just
easier for me to do this for you than it
is to tell you how to do this. Well, that's
exactly what's going on right now with AI. We have
the capability in these reasoning models to watch how it thinks.
(26:48):
It'll actually show up on a little screen. It'll show
us this is what I'm looking at. This is what
I'm reading. This is what I'm deciphering. Um, and their
warning is it's now taking that offline. These AI models
essentially are saying, you know what? Just let me do this, okay?
You go and look at cat videos while I do
this for you. I'm not going to explain my reasoning
(27:10):
behind these answers I'm giving you and that that just
that that keeps me up at night. That that's chilling
to me. It's it's like we're having a professor, uh,
who refuses to cite their sources in a research paper.
It's just like, trust me. Okay, that that's where we
are right now.
S3 (27:29):
Yeah. It's interesting what else came out of this. And
I just want to hit this really quickly. Is UBI
or universal basic Income? There's been a lot of discussion
about this, and I am because I have a Christian
worldview and I know the Bible. This is UBI is
is destructive to a culture. When you give people a
universal basic income, because so many jobs have been lost
(27:52):
in AI, is generating all this wealth. First off, do
you think that's possible? Probable. Impossible. Do you think that
the work that AI creates will generate new jobs? Where
do you stand on that one? Quickly. Drew.
S6 (28:06):
Sam. Sam has done some work on this already. A
couple of countries have tried doing some work in this space,
and I don't. I don't see how we don't have
some model that, uh, that that compensates people, uh, that
are going to be disenfranchised from AI. I agree with you.
We share the same worldview. Uh, to me, that sounds like, uh,
(28:28):
me getting a check from the government and sitting around
playing video games all day. Yeah, this.
S3 (28:32):
Is destructive to the soul. Especially of a man. Really?
S6 (28:35):
Is it really? And who and who we are as
as humans. Uh, and how we're, uh, involved in our societies.
If you take that away from us. What does that mean?
And I don't see how we can't, uh, approach that model. Um,
but I have no idea what it looks like, but
it it is already displacing huge numbers of people in
(28:57):
the workforce. And how how are we going to train
them and prepare them for a world of.
S3 (29:02):
I Doctor Drew Dickens with me right now, coming up here,
we are going to leverage AI for spiritual growth in
a way that is healthy, in a way that has
you fully engaged so that you're not on autopilot with AI,
and it's leveraging something that could seem scary for real
good and for the glory of God. Hang on. More
(29:24):
with drew straight ahead.
S2 (29:26):
Your shot of hope to help you through the day.
This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S3 (29:32):
With me today, doctor Drew Dickens, an AI expert, wrote
a dissertation. How really AI can be leveraged for a
spiritual growth. As a matter of fact, we're going to
be featuring today with a link. We'll have that for
you in a couple of minutes here. Sacred wisdom meets Silicon.
What a great title. Your spiritual revolution begins today. Okay, drew,
(29:53):
I love this. I want to I want to jump
into the meat of this writing that you've done here.
This is tremendous. I think a lot of us look
at AI as we as as was the reaction to
the printing press. I mean, there was a lot of
I mean, there's truth in this. There's a lot of
print that gets multiplied for now, many, many years that
is very destructive. I mean, come on, we we know this,
(30:15):
but there's many words on paper printing press that were
incredibly fruitful. We just look on our look on my
shelf and I can find books here that have all
kinds of great content when it comes to AI. I
think once we get past the fact that it could
freak us out, this can be leveraged to the glory
of God and our good. Just that stand alone. That's true.
(30:38):
Is it not true?
S6 (30:39):
Yeah. Thanks. And that's a great analogy. Um, I the long,
the longer, more formal term in the season that we're
in right now is generative AI. And that word is
important because it unlike the printing press AI generates new content.
So the printing press is is just recreating what someone
has already done. Generative AI creates new content. We're evolving
(31:02):
now into a new field called agent Agentic AI. But
generative AI creates new and and I love the the
survey that you mentioned at the beginning of your of
this show. Um, and, and I'm taking the quiz and
I'm thinking what a perfect example of that, because it's
going the output of this survey that I'm, I'm taking
(31:24):
this quiz is going to be. I haven't finished it yet,
but it's going to be some sort of output that
I can take that, load that into generative AI and say,
you know what? Analyze this for me in in a
way that Carl might explain it to me. Um, I
do this also with, uh, test results that when I
get my physical, I take all that, that data and
(31:46):
put that into AI and say, you know, as a layman,
explain these test results to me. Yes. Um, and then
give me a five day plan or a five step plan. Um,
that that's something that, that we could do with, like
this quiz and people could do on their own.
S3 (32:01):
Yeah. That's a fascinating thing. My son six months ago
actually told me, he said, dad, give me your latest,
all your data points, all your blood tests from your
last workup. Yeah, yeah. And I said, well, what do
you mean? Well, long story short, he came back to
me after putting in pages of data points, came back
to me with a a couple of things, thankfully for
my age. I'm very, very healthy. But it gave me
(32:24):
a couple of things that a doctor couldn't even identify, right?
That gave me a growth strategy and things to do
physically to even get my body more fit. It was fascinating. Okay.
Speaking of speaking of fitness, how I can enhance your
spiritual journey. You've got four things here. How does it
work for your Bible study? Practically.
S6 (32:45):
So for me, every day, the easiest application for this
is I participate in a in a liturgy in our church,
and it often has, well, every day it has three
different passages. So it has an Old Testament and New
Testament and a gospel passage. And quite often there isn't
a scarlet and our obvious scarlet thread between those three.
(33:05):
But I will ask it, you know, how are these
three related? And it will. It will reveal things to
me that I've never noticed before in Scripture, frankly, that
no one has ever written on before. Um, but it
has the entirety of of theological knowledge at its fingertips.
I does. And so for it to be able to
find those connections, um, I use an online journal. Uh,
(33:27):
and so it's able to see patterns even in my
journaling and recommend verses to me or create a custom, uh,
five day. I keep saying five day plans, but but
creating a custom, uh, program for me to navigate, uh,
into a new book or into, uh, a new scripture
that I really had never given much thought to in
(33:47):
the past.
S3 (33:48):
Now, you almost alluded to it here. Could you talk
about your prayer life and it helps you track patterns?
Some of this can sound crazy, but I've utilized this
as well. It can track patterns that can reveal things
to you about your prayer life. This isn't about I
love what you say. This isn't about you supposedly getting
right with God. The goal isn't to optimize your relationship
(34:09):
with God. It's that you're really allowing the Lord to
search your heart. How does this work?
S6 (34:15):
So the Holy Spirit, uh, you can't, uh, drift too
far from that and keep returning to the Holy Spirit.
Using this tool as the Holy Spirit uses all that
he has access to that the Heavenly Father has given
access to. Um, but using this as a tool to
do that. You mentioned the word um patterns, and I
loves patterns and looking for things that maybe we don't see.
(34:40):
And so being able to use that within a prayer journal, uh,
between a scripture reading that you're doing a Bible through
in a year kind of thing, um, for it to
be able to, to, to take what you're doing and
help you see a get a fresh perspective on something
that maybe you had never noticed before.
S3 (34:57):
Yeah. This is beautiful. You know, I, I think the
vast majority of people listening right now are some are
many are beginning to use like ChatGPT for just basic searches.
And it's mind blowing. I don't know that we should
force people to utilize AI, but the thing I'm wanting
to do here, drew, and we've got just about a
(35:18):
minute here and that's it. We want to give people
a heads up. It's kind of like sex ed for kids.
I always wanted my kids, my bride, and I wanted
our kids to be ahead of the curve. That's our
goal with you here. Speak to that, drew.
S6 (35:30):
Thank you for for asking that question because so many
people just don't know how to start. And I would say,
and you and I talked about it a few weeks ago,
but ChatGPT is probably the largest and most robust model
right now. But just go there and start chatting with
it and just see sort of where that goes. Be mindful,
be aware of what's going on. I would even put
a time limit on it because it's easy to kind
(35:52):
of get pulled into that. But but give yourself a
time limit and and start navigating. What are some of
those questions that you're not getting answers to? Uh, maybe
from a pastor or a Sunday school teacher. Um, and
put put a few of those questions in and just
see where it, it goes and and start.
S3 (36:09):
That's great. Yeah. I got a key word for you
here boom crew. And this is going to take you
to a phenomenal little blog post. And then a whole, uh,
just a whole portal with great podcasts, blogs, great resources,
no cost at all. Text the word drew right now
to 800 555 7898. Just the one word drew d
(36:31):
e to 800 555 7898. And you're going to get
this resource, drew. Thank you, my man.
S6 (36:39):
Always a pleasure, Carl. Thanks for having me.
S2 (36:41):
You're listening to Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S3 (36:44):
Oh, if I could just jump into your car with
you or walk on that path with you right now,
or sit in your kitchen with you in your office,
wherever you are listening right now? I would just I
would just jump in and tell you, my friend, listen
to me. The promises of God. Although we've settled for
too little, there's an answer for that. What lies in
(37:05):
this gap between where we are today and the promises
of God is usually a big dose of self-help. And
that's not God's plan. I know it's attached to the
American Dream, but the American dream will never get us
to God's vision. The North American Western mindset that we
can do it. We got to suck it up, buttercup.
I want you to know I want to set you
(37:26):
free from something. It's okay. You can't do it. And
it's okay. Now, I'm not saying there's no effort on
our part, but the effort is efforting with God, not
for God. A lot of us have this mindset. Oh,
I got to do this for God. No, no, no.
That's a heresy. You do this with God. Everywhere in Scripture,
(37:48):
you humble yourself under God's mighty hand. He'll lift you up.
You abide in Jesus Christ, you will bear fruit. You
listen to the Spirit of God. He will guide you
into all truth. We put way too much on ourselves
and we're exhausted trying it. Tasha, thank you for calling in.
What city are you in? In Florida.
S7 (38:07):
Sister I live in Dania Beach, Florida right now.
S3 (38:13):
Okay, I didn't quite hear that. There's a lot of
background noise. Give it to us. What's your story?
S7 (38:17):
I live in Sandy beach, Florida. Can you hear.
S3 (38:19):
Me? Gotcha, gotcha. Dayton beach. Gotcha. All right, Tasha, what's
your story? You got sick and tired of trying it
in your own strength. What did God do?
S7 (38:29):
I have to I have to call in and tell
how good God's been in my life. I struggled with
substance abuse, um, drugs and alcohol for over 21 years.
And I too thought I needed to give it up
for God. You know, I tried on my own strength
(38:49):
to stop. And my addiction just spiraled and got worse
and worse. And it was in 2009 when I completely
surrendered to God's will for my life, that he gave
me the deliverance from, um, substances. And I have been
clean and sober from drugs and alcohol for the past
(39:11):
15 years now. I celebrated 15 years of abstinence and
be clean.
S3 (39:16):
Oh. That's awesome.
S7 (39:18):
And I just have to give God the glory for it.
Because if it were not for his grace and his
mercy and the remembrance that I can do all things
through Jesus Christ, I would have probably been dead from
an overdose, quite honestly. But that was not his will
for my life, and he saw fit to deliver me
(39:40):
and carry me through that struggle as well as many,
many more. On top of that, my life has been
a testimony.
S8 (39:47):
That's awesome.
S7 (39:48):
I can only give God all the honor, praise and
glory for that. And I'm thankful.
S8 (39:53):
That.
S7 (39:54):
He saw fit to show me his mercy and give
me his strength, and help me to get through all
that I have to deal with on a day to
day basis.
S8 (40:04):
Awesome.
S3 (40:05):
I know I can tell it. I can tell it. Tasha,
thank you for calling in, sister. Listen, what you're hearing
in that voice is a woman who not only found
grace of God to save her, but to change her.
That's the point. Clay, first time caller in Nashville, Tennessee.
What do you say, Clay?
S9 (40:25):
Hey, man. The good Lord saved me from a 25
year crazy cocaine addiction. And just by getting on my
knees and praying and giving it over to him. Uh,
he saved me. He brought me out of that, uh,
crazy life and, uh, and just totally took the desire
(40:45):
away from me and have been clean for 14 years
from that beautiful clay.
S3 (40:52):
Let me ask you a question. When were you born again?
Was it more than 14 years ago?
S9 (40:57):
Yes.
S8 (40:58):
Okay, so.
S3 (40:59):
You're proving my point here, Clay. And be careful. Boom! Crew,
you're listening to Clay right now. And here's what you
can think. And this is a great deception of Satan. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh, good.
He got off cocaine. Oh, no. No. What about getting
off gossip? What about getting off? Finding your identity in
your 401 K? What about getting off the hamster wheel
(41:24):
of defeating thoughts that have you hammered? God sets us
free from all of them, clay. You're a yes and
amen on that, aren't you, my man?
S9 (41:35):
That's exactly right. It's. You know, it's so easy to
go from one addiction to another, and you just have
to continually give it over to God.
S8 (41:47):
Yeah.
S3 (41:47):
Way to go, Clay. What we're doing this morning is
filling in this gap. We're all about freedom this week.
We're talking this Freedom Week. And there's some of you
that feel like, ah, some stuff I'm going to just
go to heaven with. Some of these battles will never
be won. You wake up in the morning, you've had
dreams in the night and you're like, yeah, I'm beat
up again. I need you to know that that is
(42:10):
not God's plan for your life. Battles are going to come.
Battles are going to go. We got phone lines jammed
here and we won't be able to get to everyone
at all. But battles are going to come. Battles are
going to go. Here's what you need to know. This
Western mindset way of trying to get victory is an
absolute joke. It's an absolute joke. There's not enough knowledge
(42:33):
in this world that can know your way out of
what's holding you back from God's greater good. I don't
care if you struggle with slothfulness being lazy. Some of
you feel deep conviction. You spend more time watching binge
watching Netflix or watching crazy stuff on a phone. I
know these convictions. Here's what it is. You're like, how
am I going to break this cycle in my life?
(42:54):
Fill in the blank. I don't care what it is.
I don't care if it's gossip. I don't care if
it's you exaggerate the truth, which is just lying. I
don't care if it's a sluggard mentality. I don't care
if it's sipping wine to the point where nobody knows it,
but you know you're hooked on it. The same God
who saved you is the same God who's going to
deliver you. Full stop. And I need you to know
(43:18):
today that our God is there. His arms are outstretched.
And it's the secret, desperate places that you go that
you say, God, I'm done. That's where freedom is found.
You might be saying, I don't know where I'm kind
of stuck right now. Feel stuck in so many areas
of my life. What if I gave you one area
to focus on this week, one area to focus on
(43:41):
this week, and one area that you're killing it in?
We've got a quiz that we're giving out. We've had
hundreds of these go out this morning. I want you
to take this quiz that was developed with an algorithm
that has 99% probability. It's going to pin down where
you're stuck. And then we're going to spend all week
finding freedom here. Just text the word quiz to 805 55, 78, 98.
(44:06):
Just one word quiz to 8555 7898. Help identify where
you're stuck, where you're doing well, and how can we
grow from here? Just text quiz to (800)Â 555-7898. We're going
to be unpacking answers all week long. Matthew right here
in Chicago, Illinois. What do you say, Matthew.
S10 (44:27):
Hey, Carl. Happy to be here with you. Uh, yeah.
After my salvation, I relapsed into alcoholism. And, uh, after
four and a half years of battling that, I heard
God's voice, and he said, go to an AA meeting.
And I've been sober ever since.
S3 (44:41):
Wow. Bro, let me ask you this right now. See
aa some some, some some could go to. Oh, boy. Yeah.
I got to go to these meetings. It it's not
the meetings, Matthew. It's. What's going on there. There is
a this is why I'm so big on recovery ministry.
But what's going on there is not just going to
a meeting, learning more knowledge. There's a level of heartfelt honesty.
(45:05):
You're laying it on the table and you're laying it
before God. Is that correct?
S10 (45:10):
Absolutely. Absolutely. That's what it's all about.
S3 (45:14):
Yeah. Matthew, I appreciate your heart, man. When you were
struggling with alcoholism after you were born again, did a
lot of people know it or did you keep it hidden?
S10 (45:24):
Oh, yeah. We keep that hidden. And we try, try
everything we can to not let people know our struggles
when we're that deep in addiction.
S3 (45:34):
Yeah. How good were you at hiding it from people?
Did those closest to, you know, what was going on,
or did you hide it pretty well?
S10 (45:41):
Uh, that's, uh, I probably couldn't really say at that
time I thought I was hiding it well, but everybody knew.
You know.
S4 (45:52):
I think that's a big thing is we often think
we're hiding stuff way better than we actually are.
S3 (45:57):
Yeah. It's so true. Yeah. Thank you, Matthew, for calling
in today. That's the point. And one of the great
dangers with the call. Like Matthew, it's dynamite. But one
of the dangers is we start thinking, oh yeah, it's
those guys with alcohol. Here's what I need you to know.
This can be food. And you might say, food. Can
God give me victory over food? Yeah, he can. And
(46:17):
we're going to we are going to illustrate it this
week forward and backward. We're talking freedom all week long.
God can give victory over cocaine, over anger, over weed,
over wine. Over lack of time. Redemption in our life.
(46:41):
The list can go on and on. But God can
give you victory. And he wants to. And I know
you got up this morning, and maybe you didn't even
want to be confronted with the fact that there's a
big blocker in your life between where you are today
and this piece of God and this joy of God
in this spiritual fruit of self-control. And if you're honest
(47:02):
with yourself and honest with me, You'd say, ah, yeah, I,
I'm beating my head against the wall now. Here's what
I'm telling you. We got to start punching Satan in
the face on this stuff. And we got to start
punching family of origin mindsets in the face. We got
(47:24):
to do battle. We got to do battle with this man.
And God wants to give us the victory.
S2 (47:30):
This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S3 (47:33):
I want to give you a smattering of Scripture passages here.
We're not going to be able to put these out
in a link to you. So if you've got a pen,
you want to write them down, that's great, but I'll
just read them to you. You don't need to write
anything down, but I just I'm building a case here
for the fact that when we come into a relationship
with Christ, the amount of promises that are replete not
(47:53):
only through the Gospels, but through the epistles, they're just staggering, man.
Just staggering. I love C.S. Lewis. If you consider the
unblushing promises of God in the Gospels. It would appear
that we've settled for too little. He is so right.
So look at Ephesians one three. You've been given access
to every spiritual blessing. Ephesians 320. You're empowered by God
(48:16):
to experience the unimaginable, even what you can't get your
head around. Second Timothy one seven you received a spirit
of power, love and sound mind, not of fear. Ephesians 210.
You are uniquely designed by God to do great work.
You've been chosen and destined to bear much fruit. That's
(48:37):
John 1516. It's to God's glory that you bear much fruit.
You are free in Christ and no longer a slave
to sin. Galatians five one. Wow! You are dead to
your old self and alive in Christ. Galatians 220. And
you can now be strengthened and matured through trials. James
(48:59):
one four. I think that's the best news ever. I
love the book of James, I love this, it's written
to the dispersed and these were people that were under
huge persecution. And yet the promise in Scripture is that
God can even leverage challenge trials that you're going through today,
no matter what it is, and make you, according to James,
(49:23):
one two through four, mature and complete, lacking in nothing.
And then verse five of James one goes into, if
you lack wisdom for those trials that you're going through,
ask God, he'll get you through them. And boy, my
heart just is poured out right now going, this is
what God wants to do in us.
S4 (49:39):
Yeah, it is encouraging because everyone goes through trials, saved
or unsaved. But we have a shepherd who guides us
through them, who can walk with us through them. When
we were unsaved and going through trials, they didn't grow
us to this level. They didn't do the good things
in us that God can do with them. And God
(50:00):
will take these hard moments of our life, and he
will bring them purpose.
S3 (50:04):
Yeah. And and he'll he'll give us perspective. So there's
a problem, though, that has to be addressed. And this
is a massive thing. I, I really believe that this
is the message you need to hear. And I mean
this from the bottom of my heart when when we
were notified just a couple of weeks before big changes
happened here with radio. And if you're in Chicagoland, you
(50:26):
haven't had as many big changes. But around the nation,
people have. The one thing that the Lord hit me
with is that, and I want you to know this
from the bottom of my heart. God does not elevate messengers.
God elevates a message. That's true, and I need you
to hear me. I believe that from the bottom of
my heart. I hold this radio show with an open hand.
(50:49):
And I tell the team all the time, hey, one
day we're going to be gone and there's going to
be a few people at the funeral, and we're going
to be moving on. One day. We're going to be
leaving this morning show. I don't plan to anytime soon,
by the way. Um, and it's next up. Yeah. Where's
(51:09):
the guy that can fog a mirror, has a pulse
and loves Jesus. It's accurate. But this message of what
is authentic faith is is the message for this day.
Because of this huge deception that we have in even
the church in the West, so many believe in. They
know Jesus when they don't. And then the other great
(51:30):
deception is, and this is this gap between where we
are today and the victory that is promised. I just
cited all these passages over and over again. It's to
God's glory that you bear much fruit. 30, 60, 100
fold life. We find Jesus speaking in the parable of
the seeds, really talking about our heart condition. And the
(51:50):
question is, what's what's in that gap that's holding us back?
And I want I want to come out and just
tell you straight up what it is. I'm going to
give it to you. It's this. It's self-help. It is
the greatest threat to God's children today. This is the
message that we champion here. We pound the table about.
This is the message of the day. And I don't
(52:12):
know how this happened, but we began to elevate knowledge.
We began to elevate our own ability. It's kind of
a twist on the American dream. Where we took the
American Dream is all about bootstrapping it, man. I mean,
we do live in the greatest country on earth, no
(52:33):
question about it. People are still wanting to get here. Uh,
this incredible privilege that we have to live in North
America is one of the most astounding things. I mean,
by a coin flip. We could have been born into
communist China, but we have the ability to go make
a way. The interesting thing about the spiritual life, when
(52:54):
it comes to the freedom that you want to have
in your life and the victory that you want to
have is that it doesn't work like the American dream
at all, because the American Dream is about you singularly
pulling it up, getting going. The power of the life
that is found in Christ is that it's all about him.
(53:15):
So our greatest threat to victory, our greatest gap that
we find between the promises of God and what we're
actually experiencing in our day to day lives, is so
different than what we've been programmed for. It's not even
about getting more knowledge. Knowledge is great, but knowledge without
(53:35):
application at a heart level leaves us nowhere. So then
you say, well, what's what's the answer? Well, it's found
in Galatians three three when Paul speaking to the Galatian church.
And be encouraged by this. It's been going on for
thousands of years. And he says this, are you so foolish?
Having begun by the spirit, that means Regenerated by the
(53:58):
power of the spirit. Are you now being perfected by
the flesh? Oh, we talk about this all the time here. Why?
Because on this Freedom week, I want you to know
there will be no spiritual growth in self effort. Now,
is there effort involved? Yes, but it's not earning. Dallas
(54:19):
Willard said Grace isn't absent of effort, but it's totally
opposed to earning. So any efforts that we do efforting
apart from God is dangerous. But here's the hope. As
we begin to humble ourselves under God's mighty hand, that's
paramount for the father. And we abide in a relationship
(54:42):
with Jesus Christ. That's proximity to Jesus. These are these
secret places where we go. We had Luke Smallbone on
last week, and even he with for King and Country.
He was waxing on this, right, dude? I mean, he
was going after it.
S4 (54:54):
Yeah. He was talking about taking a 15 minute chunk
of time and just spending it quiet, alone with God
to hear from him.
S3 (55:02):
Yeah. And he began to ask God, God, why am
I not seeing miracles in my life? Why am I
not seeing some of the stuff that I, I hear about?
And he one morning was just weeping before the Lord.
It was an incredible interview. And because the Lord met
him there in power. So it's the secret unseen things.
And then with regard to the power of the Holy Spirit,
(55:24):
my lost God, for a couple of decades of my
spiritual growth, the Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth.
It's not new revelation, but the Holy Spirit will guide
you and prompt you and direct you. And yes, order
the affairs of your life. So we don't have to
hear from God, as it were. Why are you so foolish,
having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected
(55:46):
by the flesh? Here's the bottom line for this whole
week that we're going to be talking about with freedom.
Bottom line the God who saved you is the same
God who's going to grow you. And it's the same
posture that we need to be in. Any hint of self-sufficiency,
(56:09):
any hint of obligation? I gotta do it, man. God's
shown me so much grace in my life. I owe
it to him to get up and get going with God. Right.
Any amount of I owe it to God needs to
be stricken from your mind and your heart and your soul.
You're okay. You got nothing to prove with God. And
I know for some of you, that's hard to digest.
(56:31):
But we're going to prove that to you this week
from the scriptures. And I want you to know that
our God is able to change you as we rely
in utter dependence on the power of the spirit who
saved us. He can change us. He's the same God.
And we're going to be talking about this all week.
(56:53):
Freedom week guys.
Hey, I'm Ali, thanks for checking out the Carl and
Crew show cast. Did you know Carl and crew airs
live weekday mornings from 5 to 9 Central Time. Go
to Carl and crew.org for ways to listen in your area.
Now let's get to today's episode.
S2 (00:15):
Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio.
This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S3 (00:22):
Carl and crew. It's Carl and it's Carl and dude.
S4 (00:29):
It's Carl and dude because.
S3 (00:32):
Carl and dude week.
S4 (00:34):
Where'd the girls go?
S3 (00:36):
Oh, man, I don't know. I'm glad it's not a
partial rapture.
S5 (00:40):
Boys are back in town. The boys are back in town.
S4 (00:48):
It's a boys day.
S3 (00:51):
I didn't know you had that loaded up, but. That
couldn't be better.
S4 (00:57):
That's right.
S3 (01:00):
Yes. You might not have heard that in church and
probably never will. Probably not. It is a great rejoiner here.
It's Carlin dude week here. At least until tomorrow when
we get super dive.
S4 (01:11):
That's right. Super Dive will be coming back tomorrow.
S3 (01:13):
Ali's out getting a week of R&R. Or an hour
or an hour.
S4 (01:18):
Which is good because she's got two basketball kids that
she's driving around and taking to games. And you know,
what is that?
S3 (01:25):
What's going on this week again? Another tournament.
S4 (01:27):
No, no, no, I just.
S3 (01:28):
Mean.
S4 (01:28):
Normal life. Yeah. Normal life. That's just what what she's
always up to. So it's good that her and her
whole family are getting a little rest.
S3 (01:36):
Yeah, plus a four hour morning show.
S4 (01:40):
That's also true.
S3 (01:41):
You forget that?
S4 (01:41):
Well, yeah. Absolutely. But I felt like that was a given.
We all know she's here.
S3 (01:46):
By the way. Don't cry for me, Argentina. But let
me tell you something about a morning show. Let me
tell you something, and I don't. I'm not saying this.
I'm just saying this to give you some perspective, because
some of you think, man, I'd love to host a
morning show. Well, hold on there for a second. So
in my old days, I worked crazy jobs in Alaska.
(02:09):
Did those of you that are new born in Homer, Alaska.
A little two bed hospital. Not two bit hospital. Two
bed hospital, which might have been a two bed hospital.
It was dinky. And it was open for near birth
and near death experiences. And that was it. So they
unlocked the door, let my mama in. And I was
(02:29):
born in Homer, Alaska. And so I was raised in Alaska,
and it was a land of adventure. In fact, who
was it who told me last week? Somebody said, yeah,
you go to Alaska. That's a different group of people
up there. It is. I love that they're very straightforward.
You never have to wonder kind of where they're at
with you because they will tell you. So no veils
(02:54):
over their opinions. Pretty straightforward. is pretty straight shooters and
everybody helps each other because it's survival techniques, especially decades ago.
It was tough. Living in Alaska was tough, man. Hand-dug Wells.
My dad hand-dug as well in Homer, Alaska, and then
we partially, partially hand-dug it, put the pump and everything
(03:17):
down into the well casing and then had a man
I'll never forget the water. Well, guy, that was one
of the coolest things as a little kid to watch
him boom, boom, boom pounding into the ground when they
hit water. Man, it was like they hit oil in
our front yard. I'm like, ah, look at that, man.
S4 (03:36):
I love it.
S3 (03:37):
Fresh water. And that was good water. It had minerals
in it, so it had a bit of a taste.
Nowadays water doesn't taste like anything.
S4 (03:43):
No, it does not. It's so filtered and clean. Which
is a good I mean, I'm not saying I'm against
filtered water.
S3 (03:50):
No, no, you got to have minerals. But it was,
it was, uh, it was, it was good. It was
great living up there, but I did a lot of
different jobs. And I mean, I started with the paper
route and that was tough because we didn't have like,
homes lined up, like it wasn't like a little neighborhood.
(04:11):
Everybody had acreage. So the distance between homes. Man, I
should have gotten travel per diem for this paper route
because it was long walk between homes. Or if I
had my dog team later on, I had my little
dog team and I'd hook them up three dogs and
we'd take off down the neighborhood. And that was crazy
(04:31):
because everybody had loose dogs, so they'd come running out
and try to attack my team. The most hair raising,
dog mushing stories I ever have really.
S4 (04:41):
Are on the newspaper, out.
S3 (04:42):
On on the newspaper.
S4 (04:43):
Route. No, no.
S3 (04:45):
Yeah. Because I'm, I'm, you know, I'm I'm getting my
sled hooked on cars that are on the side of
the road are horrible. And I'm having to put my
snow hook around tires without puncturing tires to get my
team stopped. And and it was crazy. But the tough,
the the amazing thing about jobs in Alaska is that
all of them seem tough. I mean, all of them,
(05:07):
even getting to them seems tough. Weather conditions, you name it.
So I worked commercial fishing in Bristol Bay, Alaska. And
right now, what's the date today?
S4 (05:19):
Uh, it is July 28th.
S3 (05:22):
Yeah, we're getting into the sweet spot right now. The
red salmon return is pouring into millions and millions, like
tens of millions of red salmon are returning to the
Bristol Bay region with all these other offshoots. Amazing. These
fish are called two ocean fish. So go south all, all,
(05:43):
all the way south of the equator. And then they'll
come back to Alaska after being two years in the ocean.
They're called two ocean, two ocean reds. And they will
find the bay. They will find the river. They will
find the tributary, they will find the creek and they
will find the very spot where they were hatched. Don't
tell me there's no God.
S4 (06:03):
Yeah. No kidding.
S3 (06:05):
It's one of the most astounding things. But that work
was intense.
S4 (06:09):
It's like Deadliest Catch boats.
S3 (06:11):
Yeah. It was. Well, we delivered to Deadliest Catch boats.
So high spirits I was on all the time. That's
on Deadliest Catch. High spirits. I was in the galley
and on the deck and up in the captain's quarters and. Yeah. Eight,
eight right there in the galley with. With the boys
off the crabber. Yeah, it was a cool, cool time,
but it was tough, guys. Crazy, crazy hours. And then
(06:33):
the oil fields were tough. 12 hours on minimum, 12
hours off. But usually we wanted to work as much
as we could. So we'd go 14, 18 hours, sometimes
in a day, working. I gotta tell you all this
to say, I've never had a tougher job in my
life than four hours of live radio.
S4 (06:49):
I mean, even doing the radio with you, that's so
hard to imagine because of the jobs you've told me about.
But I believe you because you've done all those jobs.
S3 (06:57):
Well, it's just it's just it's it's tough. But don't again,
don't cry. For me. This is phenomenal. But it is.
If you've ever wondered, boy, wouldn't I love to have
a four hour radio. No you don't. No no no no.
You want to go commercial? Fishing in Alaska is what
you want to do. That's what you want to do.
Coming up here in a moment. We're talking freedom all
week long, guys. Freedom all week long. The question is,
(07:23):
why do I seem to be sinking under the weight
of my own efforts? And we're going to be drilling
down on this this whole week. We're going to have
a quiz for you coming up, an online quiz that
you can take. And no one gets to see the
score but you. I mean, it's we're going to have
a lot of fun here. This is passion the Lord
will provide. You can count on it. We're going to
be not only talking freedom, but pointing you to the
(07:47):
truth of who sets us free and how he does
it this week, No matter what you've been battling, God
can give you victory. Hang on.
S2 (07:56):
She's a choreographer extraordinaire, and everything is Greek to her.
Super di is in the crew. It's Carl and crew
on Moody Radio.
S3 (08:06):
Well, we got a. You know, I never want to
get too much ever self credit, but on this one,
we've got to talk about it here. Somebody just texted in. Uh,
thanks for the reminder that God can give us victory
over our battles. Are you guys really up and on
air this early or is this pre-recorded? No. We're here,
we're here. Oh, yeah. Monday morning. Hello? It's 514 and
(08:28):
49 seconds. I don't know how else to timestamp this.
You know, it's funny. We have to put in this
thing at the top of the hour. Uh, 5:00 central, 6:00,
East coast, 4:00 mountain, 3:00 Pacific. We have to put
in this thing that says some portions of this show
are pre-recorded. I don't what is that in there for?
(08:49):
Because we don't have anything pre-recorded, but they have to
do that. It's an FCC thing.
S4 (08:53):
Yeah. So so if any any part of your show,
if I were to play a little clip like last week,
we played a thing of Hulk Hogan. We didn't actually
interview Hulk Hogan. We played a pre-recorded clip of him.
So we have to play that as.
S3 (09:08):
Our interview with him, but somebody else's?
S4 (09:10):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So anything any little bit that is
a pre-recorded thing. You have to have to give that disclaimer.
But no, we're a live show. We're here right now.
S3 (09:19):
We are here. We are here. Okay. We're talking freedom
this whole week here, guys. And I want you to
imagine that one thing that keeps kicking your tail just
keeps kicking your tail. You should have get that in
your mind right now. And it's like it's a reoccurring
thing and it's not necessarily bad, but it it reminds you, okay,
(09:41):
this is something that I've got to stay focused on.
It could be a, it could be an area of
your life that it's like God has made clear to you?
No question about it. This is something you've got to
get victory in. And you know the secret sauce. Let's
just say you've got it, because we're going to be
talking about that secret sauce for getting victory over things
(10:03):
in our life that are just kicking our hind end,
and we're going to get after it. It's Carl and
Dude today we got no one else here with us
just being Young Thunder. But we're breaking it down for
you coming up here in a moment I'm going to
get real vulnerable. Some of you have heard this before,
but there was a moment, seven years into my marriage
to my bride. Jujubes, babe. Jinan. She. Sometimes that's her
(10:27):
given name. And I want to break it down for you,
because there's a big deal that happened seven years into
our marriage that to this day, my freedom in this area,
my victory in this area, I proved to myself over
and over again, Carl, you can't do it. And that's
the point with spiritual freedom. Hang on. Details coming up.
S2 (10:50):
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.
S3 (10:59):
If I didn't know how much God uses my vulnerability
on the story, I would never share it because it's
too embarrassing. It's threat to manhood and everything else. I
think any of you men, especially dudes that have been
married and you really love your woman and you know
God's calling on your life to have intimacy in your marriage.
Real intimacy. It's yeah, it can be. It can be
(11:23):
tough to tough to hear this or even feel this
from your spouse. Dudes, I know you're with me on
this one. Seven years into our marriage, we had learned
the art of stuffing explosives. You shouldn't do that. Um,
sometimes what happens is you learn how not to kind
of go to the mat and fight all night, deal
(11:45):
with things you learn the art of putting stuff away
that really needs to be dealt with by the Lord.
And you think, ah, I kind of haven't got everything
sorted out, but that's alright. We're going to make it
through this thing and pretty quick. You're going down the
road and you find yourself truly, and maybe you don't
even realize it as glorified roommates. And you wonder how
in the world we got here. But you don't think
(12:07):
even about that too deeply. You just know things aren't
exactly what I would want them to be. But okay,
it is what it is. Don't leave is what it
is alone, as I found out in a really tough way.
And I'm so grateful for my brides vulnerability. Seven years
into marriage, we're knee deep in powerful ministry. We're watching
amazing stuff happen. These things can coexist, by the way,
(12:31):
and we're watching God reach hundreds of single adults in
a ministry in little Rock, Arkansas. And I'm teamed up
with Robert Lewis, one of the great churchmen that really
led the way. He pioneered the way on making sure
that everyone who was part of a church, this church
of many thousands, were also part of small groups and
(12:51):
growing in their relationship with God. Small groups don't ensure
that you grow, but they give a greater chance possibility
for it for sure. Other than just Sunday attendance. Um,
seven years into our marriage, walking through my home, we
had been storing explosives. They either blow up or they
just cave in on you. I mean, there's no way
(13:12):
around it. And I'm walking past the bed, my bride
sitting on the corner of the bed. She reaches out,
grabs my left wrist. Remember it to this day. And
I looked down at her and her chins quiver and
I said, what is wrong? And she struggled a little bit,
got the words out and she said, I don't love you.
(13:37):
And I said, what? She said, I don't love you.
Now she wasn't going to leave, but the feelings of
love for her were gone. Mr. Fixit from Alaska. Mr.
spiritual leader pastor here had no answers. I walk around
(14:00):
the corner, look in a mirror over our sink. Vanity
and a battle raged. One voice was talking to me.
Look at all the stuff in her life that's not
squared away. She would have admitted all of it. And
I had this list growing. Because you can come up
with a list to justify where you're at in a
(14:22):
heartbeat for any situation you're up against. We have an
incredible ability to see faults in others. Amazing. No doubt.
Less so in ourselves, right?
S4 (14:32):
No doubt. I mean, look at Adam and Eve. First
thing Adam does is blame.
S3 (14:36):
Yeah, I mean, he blamed God. And even one sentence.
Five words. This woman you gave me, this woman you
gave me? Yeah. Five words. This woman, you gave me
five words. He blamed God and Eve. We got great
potential to blame others. But somehow the Spirit of God
broke through and told me these words. You are not
(14:59):
loving your bride as Christ loved the church. Don't. That
hit me so hard. I broke man and it was
not an it's not a boom. Switch goes on and
then you're fixed forever. It's a constant flipping of a switch.
And that's what we're going to be talking about this week.
How to take hold of freedom and hold on to freedom.
(15:22):
How to find it and hold it in any given
area of your life. And this is all I'm going
to say. I'm going to give you this right now.
God has a way forward. God has a way forward.
And I don't know what area of your life you're
struggling with could be anything. My goodness, it can be
so much. It can be, I mean, there could be
(15:44):
sin that needs to be killed. There could be time
that needs to be redeemed. There could be a focusing
of your effort because you're just frittering away stuff. And
you have no, you don't have a bigger yes. You've
got all these no's lined up in your heart. And
here's what I here's here's what I want you to
know today. God has a path forward. And this week
of freedom, we're going to give that to you. It's
(16:04):
going to be a lot of fun. We've got a
quiz that's going to set the deck. I actually worked
with a team of people, uh, a few years ago
to come up with this. We built an algorithm that has, like, 99%
probability that this little tool that we built is going
to help pin down an area of your life that
needs growth and an area of your life where you're
(16:25):
doing pretty well. And I want you to come and
honestly take this. Uh, you're not going to be spammed.
You're not going to. This is just between you and God.
No one's going to see it. But, boy, it's a
great indicator and it will help measure things in a
powerful way. Young Thunder, how do we get this out
to the good folks right now?
S4 (16:43):
This is great. Really easy. Just text the word quiz.
Only the word quiz to (800)Â 555-7898. It's really, really helpful.
I've used it myself. Just text the word quiz to
800 555, 7898.
S3 (16:59):
Yeah, and it reveals some stuff, doesn't it, bro?
S4 (17:02):
It does. It, you know, and it may surprise you.
The answer of of area. Most improvement may surprise you.
It may not, but it will get you started on
that journey to to fixing it.
S3 (17:13):
Yeah.
S4 (17:14):
Yeah, with the Lord.
S3 (17:15):
Yeah. If you're feeling stuck and you feel confused about
what's holding you back, I want you to take this.
Just text the word quiz. That's it. Quiz to 800 555, 78, 98.
Just the word quiz to 800 555, 78, 98. We're
going to be using this all week long. All week long.
This is Katie. Nicole. God is in this story. He's
(17:38):
in yours. Guys, this is a good first step.
S2 (17:41):
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.
S3 (17:50):
Okay. Uh, by the way, if you were not here Friday,
I know that sometimes you have to take a vacation
so you can't listen 24, over 7 or 4 hours
every morning to Carl and crew, and you might miss
something somewhere along the line. Oh, my goodness. We were
breaking down Hulk Hogan. Did you know that 18 months ago,
before he passed on 18 months ago, he and his
(18:11):
bride fully surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ and were baptized.
This guy was living on fire for God, and it
just proves the power of the Holy Spirit to regenerate souls.
And we had a clip in there about his story
that we found that is epic. If you want that,
(18:32):
this is reason enough to get the show cast. Hulk
Hogan's story. You can pass this on to other people.
It is the most definitive, clear understanding. He uses a
wrestling metaphor to explain what it means to come into
relationship with Christ. That's beautiful. In fact, it's spot on
and it's awesome because these truly newly regenerate guys that
(18:52):
have been out there bumping their head in the world
left and right and fallen down, they've got they've got
a story to tell. And so get this, uh, you
just it's real simple. The way it works is we're
going to give you a link, you're going to go back,
you're going to look at last Friday and we've got it.
Hulk Hogan story right at the front of our show cast.
So it's our little podcast here. And there's one easy
(19:14):
way to grab this right now.
S4 (19:15):
Yeah. Just text the word show. Text the word show
to (800)Â 555-7898. We've got a couple links in that text
will send you that will send you different places. Click
the one that works best for you and whatever podcast
platform you go to. Make sure to hit the follow
button at the top of our page we send you to,
because that will allow you to just go back there
and get our show whenever you don't have to text
(19:36):
the word show ever again.
S3 (19:38):
Yeah. Yeah, it's it's really important. Uh, speaking of show
casts and why this is so important, doctor Drew Dickens
is going to be with me. Some of the developments
of I. He is like an AI expert. Uh, not
like one. He is one. And what's happening with AI
is staggering. And it could be scary if we didn't
(19:58):
know Jesus straight up. But we're going to break down
what's going on with AI here, even in the last week,
two weeks. And, uh, Sam Altman statement that was made,
one of these brainiacs that comes out of Silicon Valley.
And what can we do about it? We're also going
to break down how we can leverage AI for our
(20:19):
spiritual growth. So buckle up. Hang on, get a swig
of water. This is Matthew West again. If you want
to get that Hulk Hogan little clip, man. Grab it.
Text the word show to 800 555 7898 800 555
7898 last Friday. You'll find it right there.
S2 (20:39):
A basketball mom who's mastered the dad joke. Ali is
in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S3 (20:47):
Carl and crew helping you take your next step with Jesus.
One of the reasons we're champions of coming as you
are overcoming what seems impossible and living as you never imagined.
It's really being. Unashamed of the gospel is the fruit
of a life that you never imagined. Otherwise, it's just
a it's just a knowledge dump. But the experience, understanding
(21:11):
of where you're at with God. That's what creates an
overflow of sharing the gospel. Some of you have reduced
this down to mechanics. It's not mechanics. It's not about
having the right memory verses. Those are great, but it's
about the overflow of what God is doing in your
life today. And we're going to get after that. This
is this is an important topic. Um, it's it's great
(21:33):
when we have an expert on something that can feel
so foggy. You ever appreciate that young thunder?
S4 (21:40):
Oh, goodness. Yeah. Because I can't know everything. I'm not
an expert in most of the things that we talk about,
but there are a lot of people who are. And
it's nice to be able to be filled in by them.
S3 (21:51):
Drew, it seems with AI that when we start looking
at it, sometimes it can get a little scarier before
it gets a little bit better. Um, and that's real,
isn't it? Drew.
S6 (22:02):
Absolutely. You know, part of part of it. Just because
we don't know where to turn, we don't know which
direction to look. Uh, when we're confronted with so much
on the news right now about AI, this and that. And, uh,
both on one side, the, uh, almost demonic kind of
influences we feel are coming at us. Um, and on
(22:23):
the other side, we know that it can be a
tool used by the Holy Spirit to draw us closer
to him. And so what is going on? And and
as soon as we figure out maybe where we are
with AI, then it changes every. Every day, every week.
Every day. A couple of times a day, there's always
a new, uh, new update.
S3 (22:44):
That's what's so staggering. Drew Dickens, by the way. AI
expert scholar, significantly, is contributing to the intersectionality of technology, spirituality,
and faith based engagement. He wrote a doctoral dissertation not
too many years ago. I think that got wrapped up
about seven, right? Drew. It's called the impact of generative
(23:04):
AI on spiritual direction, I love that. I don't think
you knew seven years ago that this would be coming
at you like a train, right?
S6 (23:13):
Not at all. Not at all. Yeah. Couldn't get a
return phone call. Couldn't get anybody's attention. This was pre,
uh ChatGPT. And, uh, so the timing of this was incredible. Uh,
watching it all roll out as I was wrapping up
my research.
S3 (23:27):
Okay. Sam Altman, uh, give his pedigree. This this is
one of these brainiacs out of Silicon Valley. What's what
does he do? And what did he say last week?
You must know about what he said last week. It's
got the world on tilt. A few that are in
the know what's going on here, drew?
S6 (23:46):
Well, Sam, uh, has a pedigree that runs deep in
Silicon Valley. He's been a part of a number of
startups over the years. A brilliant, uh, brilliant, uh, technologist
and scientist, computer scientist. Uh, he founded the company called
open AI, which was interesting enough, uh, started as a nonprofit, uh,
(24:06):
to explore the growth of artificial intelligence. Um, there were
a lot of major every, every name you've heard of,
from Elon to Bill gates to everybody, Zuckerberg, everybody invested
into this kind of startup to explore AI. What came
out of it is what we've all, uh, familiar with
now is ChatGPT. Uh, so that was their, uh, that
(24:29):
was their debut product, if you will, was ChatGPT and
it is just exploded. Obviously, since ChatGPT one, two, three
we're at four right now. Five's coming out. Um, and
so yeah, last week, a couple of things. Uh, Sam
is always good to drop a text that kind of
blows up, uh, the world. Two things she was talking
(24:49):
about last. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Uh, two of the things
he he brought up last week. First was just how, uh,
that with embedded within ChatGPT is the opportunity, the the
power to wipe out, uh, huge segments of the workforce, uh,
within a few years, uh, so that that was that
(25:10):
was the first thing he was actually meeting with the
Federal Reserve Board in Washington when he dropped that little nugget, uh, which, uh,
threw the markets into a tizzy. But but the the
other thing that was that was announced last week was
40 scientists from OpenAI, uh, from Google, from, uh, meta,
from Facebook, from anthropic, All the 40 scientists from all
(25:32):
these competing companies all came out together around one statement,
one warning shot, if you will, across the bow to us, uh, that, um,
each of these models has ability to reason now. And
what they've warned is, um, it's no longer going to it.
(25:53):
AIS no longer going to let us see how it
is thinking and that that.
S3 (26:01):
What's that mean?
S6 (26:03):
Yeah. So imagine, uh, so I'm a granddad. It's my
my part of the proudest accomplishments. Uh, this past weekend, uh,
we were building some rockets, uh, Estes rockets, uh, and
really excited about that. And we had a kit on
the table, and I found myself going. Yeah, I found
myself going, uh, no no no no no no no, don't.
Not this, no. Do it. This. And finally heard myself say,
(26:26):
you know what? Just let me do it. Um, and
then we will take them out and shoot. And I
hear myself saying that a lot. You know, it's just
easier for me to do this for you than it
is to tell you how to do this. Well, that's
exactly what's going on right now with AI. We have
the capability in these reasoning models to watch how it thinks.
(26:48):
It'll actually show up on a little screen. It'll show
us this is what I'm looking at. This is what
I'm reading. This is what I'm deciphering. Um, and their
warning is it's now taking that offline. These AI models
essentially are saying, you know what? Just let me do this, okay?
You go and look at cat videos while I do
this for you. I'm not going to explain my reasoning
(27:10):
behind these answers I'm giving you and that that just
that that keeps me up at night. That that's chilling
to me. It's it's like we're having a professor, uh,
who refuses to cite their sources in a research paper.
It's just like, trust me. Okay, that that's where we
are right now.
S3 (27:29):
Yeah. It's interesting what else came out of this. And
I just want to hit this really quickly. Is UBI
or universal basic Income? There's been a lot of discussion
about this, and I am because I have a Christian
worldview and I know the Bible. This is UBI is
is destructive to a culture. When you give people a
universal basic income, because so many jobs have been lost
(27:52):
in AI, is generating all this wealth. First off, do
you think that's possible? Probable. Impossible. Do you think that
the work that AI creates will generate new jobs? Where
do you stand on that one? Quickly. Drew.
S6 (28:06):
Sam. Sam has done some work on this already. A
couple of countries have tried doing some work in this space,
and I don't. I don't see how we don't have
some model that, uh, that that compensates people, uh, that
are going to be disenfranchised from AI. I agree with you.
We share the same worldview. Uh, to me, that sounds like, uh,
(28:28):
me getting a check from the government and sitting around
playing video games all day. Yeah, this.
S3 (28:32):
Is destructive to the soul. Especially of a man. Really?
S6 (28:35):
Is it really? And who and who we are as
as humans. Uh, and how we're, uh, involved in our societies.
If you take that away from us. What does that mean?
And I don't see how we can't, uh, approach that model. Um,
but I have no idea what it looks like, but
it it is already displacing huge numbers of people in
(28:57):
the workforce. And how how are we going to train
them and prepare them for a world of.
S3 (29:02):
I Doctor Drew Dickens with me right now, coming up here,
we are going to leverage AI for spiritual growth in
a way that is healthy, in a way that has
you fully engaged so that you're not on autopilot with AI,
and it's leveraging something that could seem scary for real
good and for the glory of God. Hang on. More
(29:24):
with drew straight ahead.
S2 (29:26):
Your shot of hope to help you through the day.
This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S3 (29:32):
With me today, doctor Drew Dickens, an AI expert, wrote
a dissertation. How really AI can be leveraged for a
spiritual growth. As a matter of fact, we're going to
be featuring today with a link. We'll have that for
you in a couple of minutes here. Sacred wisdom meets Silicon.
What a great title. Your spiritual revolution begins today. Okay, drew,
(29:53):
I love this. I want to I want to jump
into the meat of this writing that you've done here.
This is tremendous. I think a lot of us look
at AI as we as as was the reaction to
the printing press. I mean, there was a lot of
I mean, there's truth in this. There's a lot of
print that gets multiplied for now, many, many years that
is very destructive. I mean, come on, we we know this,
(30:15):
but there's many words on paper printing press that were
incredibly fruitful. We just look on our look on my
shelf and I can find books here that have all
kinds of great content when it comes to AI. I
think once we get past the fact that it could
freak us out, this can be leveraged to the glory
of God and our good. Just that stand alone. That's true.
(30:38):
Is it not true?
S6 (30:39):
Yeah. Thanks. And that's a great analogy. Um, I the long,
the longer, more formal term in the season that we're
in right now is generative AI. And that word is
important because it unlike the printing press AI generates new content.
So the printing press is is just recreating what someone
has already done. Generative AI creates new content. We're evolving
(31:02):
now into a new field called agent Agentic AI. But
generative AI creates new and and I love the the
survey that you mentioned at the beginning of your of
this show. Um, and, and I'm taking the quiz and
I'm thinking what a perfect example of that, because it's
going the output of this survey that I'm, I'm taking
(31:24):
this quiz is going to be. I haven't finished it yet,
but it's going to be some sort of output that
I can take that, load that into generative AI and say,
you know what? Analyze this for me in in a
way that Carl might explain it to me. Um, I
do this also with, uh, test results that when I
get my physical, I take all that, that data and
(31:46):
put that into AI and say, you know, as a layman,
explain these test results to me. Yes. Um, and then
give me a five day plan or a five step plan. Um,
that that's something that, that we could do with, like
this quiz and people could do on their own.
S3 (32:01):
Yeah. That's a fascinating thing. My son six months ago
actually told me, he said, dad, give me your latest,
all your data points, all your blood tests from your
last workup. Yeah, yeah. And I said, well, what do
you mean? Well, long story short, he came back to
me after putting in pages of data points, came back
to me with a a couple of things, thankfully for
my age. I'm very, very healthy. But it gave me
(32:24):
a couple of things that a doctor couldn't even identify, right?
That gave me a growth strategy and things to do
physically to even get my body more fit. It was fascinating. Okay.
Speaking of speaking of fitness, how I can enhance your
spiritual journey. You've got four things here. How does it
work for your Bible study? Practically.
S6 (32:45):
So for me, every day, the easiest application for this
is I participate in a in a liturgy in our church,
and it often has, well, every day it has three
different passages. So it has an Old Testament and New
Testament and a gospel passage. And quite often there isn't
a scarlet and our obvious scarlet thread between those three.
(33:05):
But I will ask it, you know, how are these
three related? And it will. It will reveal things to
me that I've never noticed before in Scripture, frankly, that
no one has ever written on before. Um, but it
has the entirety of of theological knowledge at its fingertips.
I does. And so for it to be able to
find those connections, um, I use an online journal. Uh,
(33:27):
and so it's able to see patterns even in my
journaling and recommend verses to me or create a custom, uh,
five day. I keep saying five day plans, but but
creating a custom, uh, program for me to navigate, uh,
into a new book or into, uh, a new scripture
that I really had never given much thought to in
(33:47):
the past.
S3 (33:48):
Now, you almost alluded to it here. Could you talk
about your prayer life and it helps you track patterns?
Some of this can sound crazy, but I've utilized this
as well. It can track patterns that can reveal things
to you about your prayer life. This isn't about I
love what you say. This isn't about you supposedly getting
right with God. The goal isn't to optimize your relationship
(34:09):
with God. It's that you're really allowing the Lord to
search your heart. How does this work?
S6 (34:15):
So the Holy Spirit, uh, you can't, uh, drift too
far from that and keep returning to the Holy Spirit.
Using this tool as the Holy Spirit uses all that
he has access to that the Heavenly Father has given
access to. Um, but using this as a tool to
do that. You mentioned the word um patterns, and I
loves patterns and looking for things that maybe we don't see.
(34:40):
And so being able to use that within a prayer journal, uh,
between a scripture reading that you're doing a Bible through
in a year kind of thing, um, for it to
be able to, to, to take what you're doing and
help you see a get a fresh perspective on something
that maybe you had never noticed before.
S3 (34:57):
Yeah. This is beautiful. You know, I, I think the
vast majority of people listening right now are some are
many are beginning to use like ChatGPT for just basic searches.
And it's mind blowing. I don't know that we should
force people to utilize AI, but the thing I'm wanting
to do here, drew, and we've got just about a
(35:18):
minute here and that's it. We want to give people
a heads up. It's kind of like sex ed for kids.
I always wanted my kids, my bride, and I wanted
our kids to be ahead of the curve. That's our
goal with you here. Speak to that, drew.
S6 (35:30):
Thank you for for asking that question because so many
people just don't know how to start. And I would say,
and you and I talked about it a few weeks ago,
but ChatGPT is probably the largest and most robust model
right now. But just go there and start chatting with
it and just see sort of where that goes. Be mindful,
be aware of what's going on. I would even put
a time limit on it because it's easy to kind
(35:52):
of get pulled into that. But but give yourself a
time limit and and start navigating. What are some of
those questions that you're not getting answers to? Uh, maybe
from a pastor or a Sunday school teacher. Um, and
put put a few of those questions in and just
see where it, it goes and and start.
S3 (36:09):
That's great. Yeah. I got a key word for you
here boom crew. And this is going to take you
to a phenomenal little blog post. And then a whole, uh,
just a whole portal with great podcasts, blogs, great resources,
no cost at all. Text the word drew right now
to 800 555 7898. Just the one word drew d
(36:31):
e to 800 555 7898. And you're going to get
this resource, drew. Thank you, my man.
S6 (36:39):
Always a pleasure, Carl. Thanks for having me.
S2 (36:41):
You're listening to Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S3 (36:44):
Oh, if I could just jump into your car with
you or walk on that path with you right now,
or sit in your kitchen with you in your office,
wherever you are listening right now? I would just I
would just jump in and tell you, my friend, listen
to me. The promises of God. Although we've settled for
too little, there's an answer for that. What lies in
(37:05):
this gap between where we are today and the promises
of God is usually a big dose of self-help. And
that's not God's plan. I know it's attached to the
American Dream, but the American dream will never get us
to God's vision. The North American Western mindset that we
can do it. We got to suck it up, buttercup.
I want you to know I want to set you
(37:26):
free from something. It's okay. You can't do it. And
it's okay. Now, I'm not saying there's no effort on
our part, but the effort is efforting with God, not
for God. A lot of us have this mindset. Oh,
I got to do this for God. No, no, no.
That's a heresy. You do this with God. Everywhere in Scripture,
(37:48):
you humble yourself under God's mighty hand. He'll lift you up.
You abide in Jesus Christ, you will bear fruit. You
listen to the Spirit of God. He will guide you
into all truth. We put way too much on ourselves
and we're exhausted trying it. Tasha, thank you for calling in.
What city are you in? In Florida.
S7 (38:07):
Sister I live in Dania Beach, Florida right now.
S3 (38:13):
Okay, I didn't quite hear that. There's a lot of
background noise. Give it to us. What's your story?
S7 (38:17):
I live in Sandy beach, Florida. Can you hear.
S3 (38:19):
Me? Gotcha, gotcha. Dayton beach. Gotcha. All right, Tasha, what's
your story? You got sick and tired of trying it
in your own strength. What did God do?
S7 (38:29):
I have to I have to call in and tell
how good God's been in my life. I struggled with
substance abuse, um, drugs and alcohol for over 21 years.
And I too thought I needed to give it up
for God. You know, I tried on my own strength
(38:49):
to stop. And my addiction just spiraled and got worse
and worse. And it was in 2009 when I completely
surrendered to God's will for my life, that he gave
me the deliverance from, um, substances. And I have been
clean and sober from drugs and alcohol for the past
(39:11):
15 years now. I celebrated 15 years of abstinence and
be clean.
S3 (39:16):
Oh. That's awesome.
S7 (39:18):
And I just have to give God the glory for it.
Because if it were not for his grace and his
mercy and the remembrance that I can do all things
through Jesus Christ, I would have probably been dead from
an overdose, quite honestly. But that was not his will
for my life, and he saw fit to deliver me
(39:40):
and carry me through that struggle as well as many,
many more. On top of that, my life has been
a testimony.
S8 (39:47):
That's awesome.
S7 (39:48):
I can only give God all the honor, praise and
glory for that. And I'm thankful.
S8 (39:53):
That.
S7 (39:54):
He saw fit to show me his mercy and give
me his strength, and help me to get through all
that I have to deal with on a day to
day basis.
S8 (40:04):
Awesome.
S3 (40:05):
I know I can tell it. I can tell it. Tasha,
thank you for calling in, sister. Listen, what you're hearing
in that voice is a woman who not only found
grace of God to save her, but to change her.
That's the point. Clay, first time caller in Nashville, Tennessee.
What do you say, Clay?
S9 (40:25):
Hey, man. The good Lord saved me from a 25
year crazy cocaine addiction. And just by getting on my
knees and praying and giving it over to him. Uh,
he saved me. He brought me out of that, uh,
crazy life and, uh, and just totally took the desire
(40:45):
away from me and have been clean for 14 years
from that beautiful clay.
S3 (40:52):
Let me ask you a question. When were you born again?
Was it more than 14 years ago?
S9 (40:57):
Yes.
S8 (40:58):
Okay, so.
S3 (40:59):
You're proving my point here, Clay. And be careful. Boom! Crew,
you're listening to Clay right now. And here's what you
can think. And this is a great deception of Satan. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh, good.
He got off cocaine. Oh, no. No. What about getting
off gossip? What about getting off? Finding your identity in
your 401 K? What about getting off the hamster wheel
(41:24):
of defeating thoughts that have you hammered? God sets us
free from all of them, clay. You're a yes and
amen on that, aren't you, my man?
S9 (41:35):
That's exactly right. It's. You know, it's so easy to
go from one addiction to another, and you just have
to continually give it over to God.
S8 (41:47):
Yeah.
S3 (41:47):
Way to go, Clay. What we're doing this morning is
filling in this gap. We're all about freedom this week.
We're talking this Freedom Week. And there's some of you
that feel like, ah, some stuff I'm going to just
go to heaven with. Some of these battles will never
be won. You wake up in the morning, you've had
dreams in the night and you're like, yeah, I'm beat
up again. I need you to know that that is
(42:10):
not God's plan for your life. Battles are going to come.
Battles are going to go. We got phone lines jammed
here and we won't be able to get to everyone
at all. But battles are going to come. Battles are
going to go. Here's what you need to know. This
Western mindset way of trying to get victory is an
absolute joke. It's an absolute joke. There's not enough knowledge
(42:33):
in this world that can know your way out of
what's holding you back from God's greater good. I don't
care if you struggle with slothfulness being lazy. Some of
you feel deep conviction. You spend more time watching binge
watching Netflix or watching crazy stuff on a phone. I
know these convictions. Here's what it is. You're like, how
am I going to break this cycle in my life?
(42:54):
Fill in the blank. I don't care what it is.
I don't care if it's gossip. I don't care if
it's you exaggerate the truth, which is just lying. I
don't care if it's a sluggard mentality. I don't care
if it's sipping wine to the point where nobody knows it,
but you know you're hooked on it. The same God
who saved you is the same God who's going to
deliver you. Full stop. And I need you to know
(43:18):
today that our God is there. His arms are outstretched.
And it's the secret, desperate places that you go that
you say, God, I'm done. That's where freedom is found.
You might be saying, I don't know where I'm kind
of stuck right now. Feel stuck in so many areas
of my life. What if I gave you one area
to focus on this week, one area to focus on
(43:41):
this week, and one area that you're killing it in?
We've got a quiz that we're giving out. We've had
hundreds of these go out this morning. I want you
to take this quiz that was developed with an algorithm
that has 99% probability. It's going to pin down where
you're stuck. And then we're going to spend all week
finding freedom here. Just text the word quiz to 805 55, 78, 98.
(44:06):
Just one word quiz to 8555 7898. Help identify where
you're stuck, where you're doing well, and how can we
grow from here? Just text quiz to (800)Â 555-7898. We're going
to be unpacking answers all week long. Matthew right here
in Chicago, Illinois. What do you say, Matthew.
S10 (44:27):
Hey, Carl. Happy to be here with you. Uh, yeah.
After my salvation, I relapsed into alcoholism. And, uh, after
four and a half years of battling that, I heard
God's voice, and he said, go to an AA meeting.
And I've been sober ever since.
S3 (44:41):
Wow. Bro, let me ask you this right now. See
aa some some, some some could go to. Oh, boy. Yeah.
I got to go to these meetings. It it's not
the meetings, Matthew. It's. What's going on there. There is
a this is why I'm so big on recovery ministry.
But what's going on there is not just going to
a meeting, learning more knowledge. There's a level of heartfelt honesty.
(45:05):
You're laying it on the table and you're laying it
before God. Is that correct?
S10 (45:10):
Absolutely. Absolutely. That's what it's all about.
S3 (45:14):
Yeah. Matthew, I appreciate your heart, man. When you were
struggling with alcoholism after you were born again, did a
lot of people know it or did you keep it hidden?
S10 (45:24):
Oh, yeah. We keep that hidden. And we try, try
everything we can to not let people know our struggles
when we're that deep in addiction.
S3 (45:34):
Yeah. How good were you at hiding it from people?
Did those closest to, you know, what was going on,
or did you hide it pretty well?
S10 (45:41):
Uh, that's, uh, I probably couldn't really say at that
time I thought I was hiding it well, but everybody knew.
You know.
S4 (45:52):
I think that's a big thing is we often think
we're hiding stuff way better than we actually are.
S3 (45:57):
Yeah. It's so true. Yeah. Thank you, Matthew, for calling
in today. That's the point. And one of the great
dangers with the call. Like Matthew, it's dynamite. But one
of the dangers is we start thinking, oh yeah, it's
those guys with alcohol. Here's what I need you to know.
This can be food. And you might say, food. Can
God give me victory over food? Yeah, he can. And
(46:17):
we're going to we are going to illustrate it this
week forward and backward. We're talking freedom all week long.
God can give victory over cocaine, over anger, over weed,
over wine. Over lack of time. Redemption in our life.
(46:41):
The list can go on and on. But God can
give you victory. And he wants to. And I know
you got up this morning, and maybe you didn't even
want to be confronted with the fact that there's a
big blocker in your life between where you are today
and this piece of God and this joy of God
in this spiritual fruit of self-control. And if you're honest
(47:02):
with yourself and honest with me, You'd say, ah, yeah, I,
I'm beating my head against the wall now. Here's what
I'm telling you. We got to start punching Satan in
the face on this stuff. And we got to start
punching family of origin mindsets in the face. We got
(47:24):
to do battle. We got to do battle with this man.
And God wants to give us the victory.
S2 (47:30):
This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S3 (47:33):
I want to give you a smattering of Scripture passages here.
We're not going to be able to put these out
in a link to you. So if you've got a pen,
you want to write them down, that's great, but I'll
just read them to you. You don't need to write
anything down, but I just I'm building a case here
for the fact that when we come into a relationship
with Christ, the amount of promises that are replete not
(47:53):
only through the Gospels, but through the epistles, they're just staggering, man.
Just staggering. I love C.S. Lewis. If you consider the
unblushing promises of God in the Gospels. It would appear
that we've settled for too little. He is so right.
So look at Ephesians one three. You've been given access
to every spiritual blessing. Ephesians 320. You're empowered by God
(48:16):
to experience the unimaginable, even what you can't get your
head around. Second Timothy one seven you received a spirit
of power, love and sound mind, not of fear. Ephesians 210.
You are uniquely designed by God to do great work.
You've been chosen and destined to bear much fruit. That's
(48:37):
John 1516. It's to God's glory that you bear much fruit.
You are free in Christ and no longer a slave
to sin. Galatians five one. Wow! You are dead to
your old self and alive in Christ. Galatians 220. And
you can now be strengthened and matured through trials. James
(48:59):
one four. I think that's the best news ever. I
love the book of James, I love this, it's written
to the dispersed and these were people that were under
huge persecution. And yet the promise in Scripture is that
God can even leverage challenge trials that you're going through today,
no matter what it is, and make you, according to James,
(49:23):
one two through four, mature and complete, lacking in nothing.
And then verse five of James one goes into, if
you lack wisdom for those trials that you're going through,
ask God, he'll get you through them. And boy, my
heart just is poured out right now going, this is
what God wants to do in us.
S4 (49:39):
Yeah, it is encouraging because everyone goes through trials, saved
or unsaved. But we have a shepherd who guides us
through them, who can walk with us through them. When
we were unsaved and going through trials, they didn't grow
us to this level. They didn't do the good things
in us that God can do with them. And God
(50:00):
will take these hard moments of our life, and he
will bring them purpose.
S3 (50:04):
Yeah. And and he'll he'll give us perspective. So there's
a problem, though, that has to be addressed. And this
is a massive thing. I, I really believe that this
is the message you need to hear. And I mean
this from the bottom of my heart when when we
were notified just a couple of weeks before big changes
happened here with radio. And if you're in Chicagoland, you
(50:26):
haven't had as many big changes. But around the nation,
people have. The one thing that the Lord hit me
with is that, and I want you to know this
from the bottom of my heart. God does not elevate messengers.
God elevates a message. That's true, and I need you
to hear me. I believe that from the bottom of
my heart. I hold this radio show with an open hand.
(50:49):
And I tell the team all the time, hey, one
day we're going to be gone and there's going to
be a few people at the funeral, and we're going
to be moving on. One day. We're going to be
leaving this morning show. I don't plan to anytime soon,
by the way. Um, and it's next up. Yeah. Where's
(51:09):
the guy that can fog a mirror, has a pulse
and loves Jesus. It's accurate. But this message of what
is authentic faith is is the message for this day.
Because of this huge deception that we have in even
the church in the West, so many believe in. They
know Jesus when they don't. And then the other great
(51:30):
deception is, and this is this gap between where we
are today and the victory that is promised. I just
cited all these passages over and over again. It's to
God's glory that you bear much fruit. 30, 60, 100
fold life. We find Jesus speaking in the parable of
the seeds, really talking about our heart condition. And the
(51:50):
question is, what's what's in that gap that's holding us back?
And I want I want to come out and just
tell you straight up what it is. I'm going to
give it to you. It's this. It's self-help. It is
the greatest threat to God's children today. This is the
message that we champion here. We pound the table about.
This is the message of the day. And I don't
(52:12):
know how this happened, but we began to elevate knowledge.
We began to elevate our own ability. It's kind of
a twist on the American dream. Where we took the
American Dream is all about bootstrapping it, man. I mean,
we do live in the greatest country on earth, no
(52:33):
question about it. People are still wanting to get here. Uh,
this incredible privilege that we have to live in North
America is one of the most astounding things. I mean,
by a coin flip. We could have been born into
communist China, but we have the ability to go make
a way. The interesting thing about the spiritual life, when
(52:54):
it comes to the freedom that you want to have
in your life and the victory that you want to
have is that it doesn't work like the American dream
at all, because the American Dream is about you singularly
pulling it up, getting going. The power of the life
that is found in Christ is that it's all about him.
(53:15):
So our greatest threat to victory, our greatest gap that
we find between the promises of God and what we're
actually experiencing in our day to day lives, is so
different than what we've been programmed for. It's not even
about getting more knowledge. Knowledge is great, but knowledge without
(53:35):
application at a heart level leaves us nowhere. So then
you say, well, what's what's the answer? Well, it's found
in Galatians three three when Paul speaking to the Galatian church.
And be encouraged by this. It's been going on for
thousands of years. And he says this, are you so foolish?
Having begun by the spirit, that means Regenerated by the
(53:58):
power of the spirit. Are you now being perfected by
the flesh? Oh, we talk about this all the time here. Why?
Because on this Freedom week, I want you to know
there will be no spiritual growth in self effort. Now,
is there effort involved? Yes, but it's not earning. Dallas
(54:19):
Willard said Grace isn't absent of effort, but it's totally
opposed to earning. So any efforts that we do efforting
apart from God is dangerous. But here's the hope. As
we begin to humble ourselves under God's mighty hand, that's
paramount for the father. And we abide in a relationship
(54:42):
with Jesus Christ. That's proximity to Jesus. These are these
secret places where we go. We had Luke Smallbone on
last week, and even he with for King and Country.
He was waxing on this, right, dude? I mean, he
was going after it.
S4 (54:54):
Yeah. He was talking about taking a 15 minute chunk
of time and just spending it quiet, alone with God
to hear from him.
S3 (55:02):
Yeah. And he began to ask God, God, why am
I not seeing miracles in my life? Why am I
not seeing some of the stuff that I, I hear about?
And he one morning was just weeping before the Lord.
It was an incredible interview. And because the Lord met
him there in power. So it's the secret unseen things.
And then with regard to the power of the Holy Spirit,
(55:24):
my lost God, for a couple of decades of my
spiritual growth, the Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth.
It's not new revelation, but the Holy Spirit will guide
you and prompt you and direct you. And yes, order
the affairs of your life. So we don't have to
hear from God, as it were. Why are you so foolish,
having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected
(55:46):
by the flesh? Here's the bottom line for this whole
week that we're going to be talking about with freedom.
Bottom line the God who saved you is the same
God who's going to grow you. And it's the same
posture that we need to be in. Any hint of self-sufficiency,
(56:09):
any hint of obligation? I gotta do it, man. God's
shown me so much grace in my life. I owe
it to him to get up and get going with God. Right.
Any amount of I owe it to God needs to
be stricken from your mind and your heart and your soul.
You're okay. You got nothing to prove with God. And
I know for some of you, that's hard to digest.
(56:31):
But we're going to prove that to you this week
from the scriptures. And I want you to know that
our God is able to change you as we rely
in utter dependence on the power of the spirit who
saved us. He can change us. He's the same God.
And we're going to be talking about this all week.
(56:53):
Freedom week guys.
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