April 29, 2025 • 33 mins
Today, on Karl and Crew, we discussed the goodness of God and how, when we submit to Him, all things happen for good. There is nothing we can do that can keep us from God when we truly lay before His throne, because He can take the bad and turn it for good. Romans 8:28 affirms this as Paul tells us that if we love God and are called according to His purpose, all things will work for good. We also had Mark Jobe join us to talk about Giving Day. Mark is the current President of the Moody Bible Institute and the Senior Pastor at New Life Community Church. We also had Phillip VanLear join us to share his testimony. Phillip is a 2021 graduate of Moody Theological Seminary and a well-known actor. He spent 40 years acting and played in well-known movies such as Prison Break, Chicago Code, Meet the Browns, Holiday Heist, and many others. You can hear the highlights of today’s program on Karl and Crew Showcast.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:00):
Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio.
This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2 (00:08):
If you've lived any length of time at all, you
know that you're going to hit some bad patches in life, right, guys? Yes.
S3 (00:14):
Of course.
S2 (00:15):
Choices that you make for yourself. Um, I have those.
Ali doesn't have those.
S4 (00:22):
Of course not.
S2 (00:25):
Ali. Uh, we had a live audience in studio yesterday,
and she said, uh, you know, I was the kind
of the goody two shoes kid. But it's true, Ali.
Even the goody two shoes kids, their their problems, their
messes that they make for themselves are sometimes even more complex. Oh, yeah.
They're in secret.
S4 (00:43):
Yeah. Because it's it's quiet. Because there's it's quiet. There's
an outward, real high level of compliance with rules. There's
a high level of performing for people, but inside all
kind of things can be going on.
S2 (00:57):
And that must be pressure, huh?
S4 (00:59):
Oh, yeah. I mean, when you when you put the
pressure on yourself to always be good. And I use
that in air quotes because we know that Scripture says
no one is good. But if you feel that pressure
to always be the good kid, to not get in trouble,
to not disappoint teachers or parents, well, then you just
start hiding stuff.
S2 (01:19):
Yeah. I, on the other hand, am out there. There
was no pretense of goody two shoes for me. I
think I wanted to put on a good front with
Mom and Dad.
S3 (01:29):
Sure. Yeah.
S2 (01:30):
By and large, I was out there kind of living it.
But whether you make the bad yourself and you'll understand
why I'm using the word bad. I mean, that can
be a pretty generic term. Whether the bad that you're
experiencing is self-inflicted or if it's others inflicted. And those happen. Man,
we live in a world right now that I was,
I was telling a group of men in Arizona over
(01:51):
the weekend when you're breaking free from sin. I said,
listen to me. Make sure that you find people that
you can trust. I even told them I said, doesn't
mean that you go into a small group and tell
everyone in that group, this is what I'm battling with.
I sometimes that's okay because you can trust everyone in
the group. You got to find people you can trust,
(02:11):
because sometimes things that you share with people today can
be used as a knife hanging out of your back tomorrow.
So be wise even in how you do that. But
pain from others is real. Sometimes you're in the bad
suit because of something that someone did. It could be
from childhood. Those things ravage our soul. And the question is,
(02:32):
can God turn it around? And that's what we're focused
on today. And I just want you to I'm going
to give you the payoff punchline right now. According to
Romans 828. And this is why context is so important.
I was talking to my right hand man at 180 Chicago, Christopher,
and I said, man, we need to the the epistles.
We need to read the entire book and have full
(02:53):
context to understand what's going on, he said. Carl. Every
book of the Bible, you can really only understand these letters,
these works, when you understand the broader perspective and the
broader perspective of Romans. Quick flyby is we're on this
highway to hell, and apart from God intervening, who knows
what we're going to do? Romans one lays it all
(03:15):
out that creation is screaming at us, but we got
our backs to God and we're going a new way.
But by faith, the father of all who believe Abraham
displayed that we put our full faith and trust in
God with no assurance of what's going to happen. And
then Paul moves into, but we got this problem called
sin in our life. We do bad stuff, we create messes.
(03:38):
And then he says, but praise be to the Lord
Jesus Christ. So all of that leads up to Romans eight,
where we find these words, and we know that for
those who love God, all things work together for good
for those who are called according to his purpose. We're
(03:59):
going to illustrate that this hour. But this you need
to know right now. Whatever bad you're going through, God
can turn to good. I've seen it. Ali seen it.
Super die, young thunder. We've all seen it. Yeah, it's
not saying that it's all roses, but it's redeemed. God
does that. So I'm asking you today to love God.
(04:22):
Those are not words. Those are not little, you know,
hallmark sentiments. This is an abandonment of yourself to the
lordship of Jesus Christ. Give him control of everything. Our
God will turn it to good. And someone needed to
hear that today. And we go right to the foot
(04:43):
of the cross.
S1 (04:44):
He's a sports fanatic with a stat for anything you
can think of. Young Thunder is in the crew. It's
Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2 (04:55):
Every time I have found myself in the soup of
bad stuff, wanting to see God turn it to the good.
Every time there is no help and healing in Carl,
wringing his hands and trying to get fancy with his footwork.
I'm here to admit it today.
S4 (05:11):
And the hope that we have as Christ followers that
that Jesus can redeem and does. I mean, that's a
powerful hope, O ally.
S2 (05:22):
It is. And it's a hope based. It's not some
fanciful notion like, oh yeah, butterflies for Jesus memes. This
is about our God took to the cross, our sin.
The tomb is empty. We're living in resurrection power till
still today. Do you know Easter? Still going on?
S4 (05:44):
Yes.
S3 (05:44):
Amen. Amen.
S2 (05:46):
Come on man. So our guy can turn it all around. Well,
every now and then I get fired up about something
around here, boy. But there has to be a certain
reason why I get fired up about this thing.
S4 (06:01):
Okay.
S3 (06:02):
Is there a good reason?
S2 (06:03):
Thinks I'm nuts. She does. She don't you? You think
I'm certifiably nuts?
S4 (06:08):
Not every day.
S2 (06:11):
I don't even know what that means.
S3 (06:13):
We'll just let that one sit as is, I think.
S2 (06:17):
Hang on. Three minutes. You'll find out why.
S1 (06:20):
She was trying to earn her way to God. But
God showed her she didn't have to. Ali is in
the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2 (06:30):
What a golden opportunity we have today. And I just
got some info that I'm so giddy about. Ali kind
of knows what I'm giddy about here. I gotta tell you,
there's going to be a lot of people out there
today that are beckoning you. Come on. Own. I have
not realized how big the uptick is, Ali, on this.
(06:51):
There's a lot of people leveraging a day like today
in a powerful way, and we've got some juice for
incentive that is unparalleled. Rarely will you find this. There's
my setup. I'm going to let you take it away. Ali.
S4 (07:06):
Okay. Well, before I tell you what it is, let
me tell you what it is. It's giving day here
at Moody Bible Institute. 139 years of God's faithfulness to
Moody Bible Institute. Yeah. We are inviting you to partner
with us, but I want to bring in doctor job
giving day 139 years. Connect the dots. What is this?
S5 (07:27):
Well, you know, it's a great idea. I didn't really
realize it until I started here. That it's a really
a day of celebration of the faithfulness of God. You know,
Moody Bible Institute next year will be 140 years.
S2 (07:41):
Yeah.
S5 (07:42):
It's amazing that students have been coming to the campus
of in Chicago at Moody Bible Institute, being trained and
sent all over the world. And so this is one
day where the entire institute sort of celebrates God's faithfulness,
his resources. Because Moody is tuition sponsored. Students that come,
(08:03):
they they pay for their room and board if you're
full time on campus, but the tuition is paid by
generous people, really, from all over the world that say,
I believe in the mission that we need to train
the next generation. So it's a day of celebration.
S2 (08:17):
That's beautiful. Mark, one of the things that we hear
constantly from our boom crew is that they're so grateful
that we're not weak in the knees, we're not wobbly
on the gospel. We're going gospel. We're not going to
start getting weak on this. I want you to pour
out your heart. Why, as the leader of MBI, this
is so important to you. And what are we doing
(08:38):
to stay strong in a culture that can sometimes get
weak in the knees? About what the truth really is?
S5 (08:44):
Yeah. You know, a week ago this past Monday, we
celebrated 170 years of the conversion of a 17 year
old boy whose father was an alcoholic, who grew up
in poverty, who people would have just discarded this guy.
He's comes from a broken family, toxic poor, was working
(09:09):
at a shoe store, and a Sunday school teacher came
in and shared the gospel with him. His life was
forever changed his night. His name was D.L. Moody and
he became a passionate evangelist. And and really, the school
was started because the gospel does change everything. Out of
(09:31):
a passion to get the gospel to the nations. And
I don't know why specifically, but in a very supernatural way,
God has had his hand on this institute and kept
it anchored in the truth, grounded in the Word of God.
In spite of how culture has changed, because I look
around the landscape of America and so many schools started
(09:53):
sort of like moody, but they have gone way off course.
God has had his hand on this place in a unique,
powerful way and kept this place grounded. So every student
that comes here is going to get Bible courses, no
matter what their degree is. They're going to get Bible courses,
systematic theology, survey of the New Testament. They're going to
(10:13):
be in chapels. They're going to be going they're going
out into Chicago doing practical Christian ministry. In fact, I
was taking a walk yesterday. Uh, it was a nice night.
I was downtown on Michigan Avenue and there was some
street preachers there, so I went up to encourage them. Hey,
thanks for sharing the gospel. That's great. And you know what?
And and I found out two things. One of the guys,
(10:36):
he said, hey, uh, I go to one of your campuses. So.
So he was one of, uh, goes to one of
our campuses, one of our new life. But a young
guy came up to me and says, I'm a moody student.
And here it was out in Chicago sharing the gospel.
And I thought, wow, I love that that I ran
into Moody Student out in the streets of Chicago sharing
the gospel.
S4 (10:56):
With this tuition sponsored model. Whenever you give to something,
you like to know where that money goes. And obviously
it goes to help sponsor the education of a moody student.
But talk about some of the alumni. Where does that
money ultimately go in terms of where these students are sent,
what they do after they graduate?
S5 (11:13):
Yeah. So we have 50,000 living alumni. And as I
travel around the world speaking in different places, I'm always
amazed to run into people. Some of them that lead great,
you know, big ministries and some of them that are
in faithful spots. You would never know their name, but
(11:34):
they are just faithfully serving in very difficult parts of
the world. And I'm talking about close countries. I'm talking about, um,
inner cities. I'm talking about, uh, just every nook and
cranny that you can imagine. There's moody students that are
serving God. I'm so encouraged when, uh, people come back
(11:54):
to campus and they tell me, hey, for 50 years,
I've been pastoring a little rural town in, you know, Montana.
Or they come back and say, I've been leading an
orphanage in Africa or I've been, uh, you know, leading
a non-for-profit. That's that's helping to mentor inner city youth
in Detroit. Uh, it's just amazing that these alumni go
(12:18):
all over the place. Um, some of them end up
in other places outside of what we would call traditional
vocational ministry. Like there's a congressman that, you know, I
talked to recently that's a moody grad. And I said,
are you sort of sad that you went to Moody?
I don't know how that equipped you. He said, no,
the best thing I did in my life was get
biblically grounded. And he said, I view my position in
(12:41):
Washington as a ministry to people in Washington, and I thought,
I love it. Wow.
S2 (12:47):
That's beautiful. Okay. Huge news when I heard this, this
this will put fuel in your belly. Mark, I'm going
to let you share this. We've got either a person
or persons who stepped together and have done something pretty extraordinary.
We've got a do I have this right? A dollar
for dollar match until 9 a.m. on any gift given today.
S5 (13:07):
On any gift given. Any gift given until 9:00. We've
had some, um, generous donors that really believe in what
we're doing here, and and they're willing to double whatever
you give. $100, it turns into 200. Give 500, turns
into 1000. And, you know, yesterday I was with some
students talking to them about their story, and two of
(13:33):
them happened to be international. One was from Portugal and
the other one was from Kyrgyzstan. And they came here
to get trained and have a passion to go back
to their nations as well. And, um, we have a
thousand students that live here on the campus. We train
a lot more than that, but a thousand that live
(13:55):
in the heart of Chicago, coming from all over the world.
Sit down and hear their story. And how some of
them got here is literally a miracle. I talked to
one student a little while back. He's from Pakistan and
his dad's a pastor there, and he was telling me
how people pelt their building. And his dad, pretty much.
(14:16):
He was telling me his dad pretty much scraped up
everything he could get to to send him to Moody
Bible Institute. And I thought, wow, that is who you're
investing in those kind of students.
S4 (14:27):
You know, I met a young man on just on
Easter Sunday. We were singing in the choir together. I'd
never met him, I said, and I asked him his name.
He said, my name is Tom. I said, where are
you from? He said, I'm from Kenya. And I said,
how did you get here to Chicago? He goes, well,
I wanted to come to Chicago and I wanted to
come to a Bible college. So I looked online and
I found Moody Bible Institute. So I came here to
(14:48):
go to Moody Bible Institute to be trained up. Young
man from Kenya. Tom. Carl. Go ahead.
S2 (14:54):
Yeah. This is big guys. I'm asking you to jump
in right now. Every gift of any size is doubled
right now. And we're asking you to do this. Do
this for the Tom's from Kenya. Do this for those
from that have come from all around the globe, some
of them overcoming huge obstacles to put it all on
the line. And some of them are standing on street
(15:16):
corners preaching the gospel. Would you be a part of
this today? Text the word give right now to 805, 55, 78, 98.
Just text the word give. Every gift of every amount
is doubled.
S4 (15:31):
What do you love that.
S2 (15:33):
I love that. Well, the reason I love that is
it's every part in God's greater family that's doing their
what they can handle. And we've got some folks that
have stepped up and said, let's, let's make this a
phenomenal day. Text the word give to 800 555 7898.
Give to 800 555 7898. Mark, thanks for ducking in here, man.
(15:58):
We appreciate you doing this today.
S5 (16:00):
Absolutely. Thank you again and God bless you. And again,
thank you, listeners, for praying for us and for your generosity.
God bless.
S2 (16:08):
It's a beautiful thing. Text that word. Give to 800
555 7898. Give to 800 555 7898.
S1 (16:19):
You're listening to Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2 (16:23):
Crazy questions, because that's what I do.
S3 (16:26):
You're good at those.
S2 (16:27):
Have you ever had a detergent or cleaner that you
just bragged about to someone?
S4 (16:33):
A detergent.
S2 (16:34):
Detergent or cleaner? Think about it right now. Super dry. Obviously.
Her default is Windex. I mean, come on.
S4 (16:40):
Yes.
S6 (16:40):
Come on. Duh.
S2 (16:42):
She's Greek. Don't you know?
S6 (16:44):
Of course.
S2 (16:44):
That was the best flick ever. I laughed so.
S6 (16:48):
Hard. You know, it's one of your favorites. My big
fat Greek wedding. Yeah, you got it.
S2 (16:53):
If you. If you. Part one, the other ones leave
them out. They tried to churn some dollars off the
first good one. That was.
S3 (17:00):
Disappointing.
S2 (17:01):
But back to my cleaners thing. You ever had a
cleaner product? House product. Counter. Scrubber. Granite washer. Stainless steel buffer.
Some kind of cleaning product that you're like, um. Are
you guys gonna leave me high and dry here? No
one has a product.
S3 (17:16):
I mean, okay, what do you got? I don't think
a lot about.
S4 (17:18):
Mine is a laundry product.
S6 (17:20):
Okay.
S3 (17:21):
Okay.
S2 (17:21):
Or you're not willing to.
S6 (17:22):
Say.
S4 (17:22):
Well, okay, so it's a laundry bar. It looks like
a bar of soap. It's called Fels-naptha. It's it's very
random looking, but it looks like a long bar of soap.
But this thing can get stains out of anything. I mean,
like grass stained baseball stained pants. You take it and
you scrub it into the fabric. It gets anything out?
(17:45):
It is not. Failed me once.
S6 (17:47):
What's it called again?
S2 (17:48):
You know what you have to do right now, or
else we're going to get texts out the wazoo.
S6 (17:52):
I know.
S4 (17:52):
I am. This is a product that I love. I
want to be careful. Fels-naptha is what it's called. It's a, uh.
It's a laundry bar.
S6 (18:04):
I'm going to try it. Thank you. There you go. Yeah.
S2 (18:06):
Good grief. That's not even my department in my life.
But I think I'm going to go get one.
S6 (18:11):
Like, maybe I got sold pants. I can go out
and play.
S4 (18:14):
In the grass.
S6 (18:15):
Today just to try it out.
S2 (18:16):
Yeah, I'm going to go out. Well, here's. You know
why you like that?
S4 (18:21):
Because it.
S6 (18:21):
Works.
S2 (18:22):
It works.
S6 (18:24):
It works really well.
S2 (18:25):
It works. And I I'm going to boil it down.
That is the litmus test for any God you are following.
And I believe there's one true God and that he
can work to good, even the bad. And if it
doesn't work, it's not worth using or following anything. Right, guys?
S6 (18:48):
Yeah, that's true, of course, but.
S4 (18:51):
I think the question is, how do you know? Like,
what's the proof of whether or not it works?
S2 (18:56):
Yeah. That's. Yeah. And and how do we do this
with God. Well, this is the claim that Paul has
in Romans 828. And we know that for those who
love God, all things work together for good, for those
who are called according to his purpose. And it goes
on in verse 29, for those he foreknew, he also
(19:16):
predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son,
in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Here's the point. I am absolutely convinced that some people
aren't convinced that God can work all things together for good,
even the bad stuff. And when I'm talking bad stuff,
I'm talking self-inflicted bad, for which we all have that.
(19:38):
Even ally goody two shoes ally, as she likes to
call herself. But and we talked about that in a
previous hour. But and I'm not making light of that
because one of the great pains of, of people that
are putting their best out front is you live with
some pain inside that.
S6 (19:57):
Oh, yeah.
S2 (19:58):
It's hard. Right?
S6 (19:58):
Sure.
S4 (19:59):
And that's true for every. No one escapes it.
S2 (20:02):
No one escapes it. So the question is, can God
turn what is bad? Self-inflicted. Others inflicted. Inflicted for good.
That's the acid test of the gospel. Because if he can't,
why follow him? Bottom line. Now the secret sauce is
a full blown abandonment of self to the Lordship of
(20:26):
Jesus Christ. It's Paul crying out, foolish man, that I
am that which I want to do, I don't do,
and that which I do, I don't want to do.
Who will rescue me from this body of sin and death?
Praise be to the Lord Jesus Christ. Coming up here
in a moment, we're going to do it right. We
are going to illustrate it by way of story. Hang on.
He's in the boom crew.
S1 (20:48):
She's a choreographer extraordinaire, and everything is Greek to her.
Super die is in the crew. It's Carl and crew
on Moody Radio.
S2 (20:58):
Well, you're the boom crew, and this is your show,
and we're going to prove it to you right now.
Little show prep. Yesterday, I was pouring my heart out
to my bride, and I said, Romans 828 God taken
bad stuff and turning it to good. Self inflicted. Others inflicted.
Some of you going through some tough things right now
and you're like, how in the world is God going
to turn this around? I don't care how many locusts
(21:23):
came to the years or seasons of your life, that
is the promise of God. And sometimes you got to
hear a story to just bank it. Somebody in the
boom crew that we love have actually had a chance
to go out and get a bite of breakfast with.
This man is Phillip, and he has got a walking
banner ad for God turning bad stuff into good. How
(21:44):
you doing, Phillip?
S7 (21:46):
Good morning, my brother. I'm blessed beyond measure. How are you, man?
S2 (21:49):
Doing great. Um, I gotta tell you, Phillip, I. We're
going to cut you loose here. Give us your story.
High level. What? What? This thing got off the rails here,
my man. Let's get honest. Your life was a train
wreck on steroids, right, Phillip?
S7 (22:05):
Absolutely. It was. I mean, I was lost, I was
chasing my tail. I was so lost in sin. But
you know something? During all that time, oftentimes our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ will allow you to go just
as far as he needs you to go in order
for you to reach what is going to be your end,
the end of yourself. And that's what happened to me.
S4 (22:24):
Philip Van Lier is our guest right now, a part
of the boom crew. He's a graduate of Moody Theological Seminary.
He has a 40 year career as a professional actor director, presenter.
We know him as Philip from Aurora.
S6 (22:35):
Which is a suburb of Chicago.
S2 (22:38):
You've probably seen him on small screen or big screen
because he's done a lot of stuff, right?
S6 (22:42):
Yes, he has.
S4 (22:42):
He most prominent roles in Prison Break, Chicago Code, Meet
the Browns, Holiday Heist, My Dog, The Space Traveler. That
sounds interesting. He's appeared regularly on stage here in the
Chicago area as well. Philip, you you got into acting?
Was that what you thought this was going to spend?
I'm going to spend my whole life on the stage
(23:03):
in front of the screen. Was that your passion?
S7 (23:06):
Oh, from the time I was in seventh grade, I was,
as you can imagine, a rambunctious child. I guess I
can just say it that way. I had a teacher,
Vincent Popolizio. God bless him. And he said, you know,
young man, we've got to find an outlet for you.
So you use that energy in a positive fashion. He
turned me on to theater and that's all it took.
S2 (23:26):
You know, Philip, I want to get as as honest.
You're very honest guy. But what led to this spiral
downhill that God ultimately pulled you out of? And give
us some of the give us some of the low points.
And let's just pour it out here right now.
S7 (23:44):
The greatest sin, as we know, is pride and believing
that we are our own gods. And I, I grab
hold of that with both hands. I had made it
a determination back in the early 70s that I was
going to be the greatest actor to come out of Aurora, Illinois.
And I was going to do whatever it took. And
I went for it with all the gusto. But it
also meant I went for all the things that the
(24:06):
world had to offer regarding that business. Uh, women, drugs, alcohol, Home. Uh,
just the most, uh. The most, uh, Colonel, uh, segment
of that business that I could find. And as oftentimes
the enemy does, he latched on to those weaknesses in me.
(24:29):
I did find fame. I found fortune, but unfortunately, what
tripped me up is that I didn't recognize the folly
when it fell into my lap.
S4 (24:39):
So, Philip, did you reach a a breaking point was
obviously there's the fleeting pleasures of sin, or else we
wouldn't go back to it. As you're seeing success in
your acting career, you're living the life and the pleasures
of sin. What brought you to a point where you go,
this is this can't continue. Did you make that decision
(25:00):
on your own, or did God absolutely break you?
S7 (25:04):
The decisions I made on my own allies, but got
me into that place. So absolutely. You know, I was
I made my own mess. But but, you know, as
as the fame increased and I was, you know, doing
show after show on stage here in Chicago, you know,
I was doing television and film. I was working with
three major corporations and presenting all over the world. But,
(25:28):
you know, there was this as we know, Pascal told us,
this God sized hole in my heart where I knew
that I had walked away from the faith of my family.
You know, I was raised in the church. You know,
my my family footprint fingerprint was all over the church
that I grew up in. But I had turned my
back on it. But, you know, even though you may
walk away the Holy Spirit, once you've given yourself to Christ,
(25:51):
once you've received Christ into your heart, the Holy Spirit
is dwelling in you. And as much as you try
to push it away, it's still going to be pulling
you back. And so I knew that. I knew how
far I had fallen, and that what I was doing was,
was killing myself, killing those around me. I had already
torpedoed two marriages. I was on my third, and I
(26:14):
had started to detonate that marriage as well. Um. But. But, God. Yeah,
but God, finally. You know. Yes. Turned me around.
S2 (26:24):
Coming up, Phillip is going to share with us here,
and we get to all take it in together. How?
God takes the bad sometimes the mess we've made ourselves.
And I'm talking ugly stuff and can turn this for
good to those who love God. And that's the point.
More with Phillip Van Lear straight ahead.
S1 (26:44):
You can take him out of Alaska, but you can't
take Alaska out of him. Carl is in the crew.
It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2 (26:53):
Can God take what is bad? Self-inflicted. Brought on by others.
And I mean ugly. Bad and turn it for good.
That's the promise in Romans 828. But the key is
for those who love him. It's that formation of the soul.
That's everything. He was high flying, low living, blew up
two marriages fixing to ruin a third. And God got
(27:15):
a hold of him. His name is Philip, and we
love him a bunch here. He's one of the boom crew. Philip,
tell us what happened. I want you to take us
to that moment. Moment of, I mean, snot blowing brokenness
where you're like, this has got to end.
S7 (27:28):
No. Amen. Amen. You know, because rehab didn't work. Carl,
I like rehab so much. I went three times.
S2 (27:37):
You and me, buddy. We must have gone to the
same dive.
S7 (27:40):
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. We have. Somehow we got the same reference.
You know, I, you know, I wanted to get that
that 90 and 90 chip. And then once I got one,
I said, well let me go back and get two more. Yeah.
But you know, but you know, that's the madness. That's
the insanity of sin. But what really got it for me?
Praise God for my lovely wife. You know, Heather, such
a strong woman, been through so much. I so all
(28:03):
kicked my coverage, but I remember it was May. It
was May of 2012, and and I had just been
on a bit of a bender. It had been five
days of constant drug use. And Heather looked at me
and she said, that's it, I'm done. Either you're going
to get help or you're leaving. Now notice she didn't
say she was leaving. She said no. She said she
(28:24):
and the kids were going to stay in the house
that we had just bought. She said, she said, but you,
you are going to leave. And it was that moment,
and maybe it was something in the tone of her
voice or the look in her eye where I knew
that she was serious, you know? And all this time
I had been playing a church card and I had
been going to church. And of course, it was a
church that was a mess, you know, with the rainbow
flag hanging over the altar and everything. So I was
(28:46):
just going there because it itched my ears, you know.
But finally I went and got help. And I remember
the day sitting in that psychiatrist's office when she did
an assessment of me, and she said after her assessment,
she said, you are you're suffering from severe depression and
severe anxiety. And the dam broke right there. The tears
just flowed. Not because I had a miraculous conversion. No.
(29:09):
I had already been saved by the grace and mercy
of God. But at that point, I realized that all
of this machismo, this macho thing, especially as a black man,
that I could handle it, that I was going to
be okay. That wall broke down. Praise be to God. Yeah.
And I realized it was all right for me to
ask for help, to seek help. I got help right then.
(29:31):
The last day I used Praise Be to God was
the 24th of May, 2012. Now, things were not all
unicorns and rainbows after that because as we often know,
as as as addicts, we'll replace one addiction for another.
S2 (29:46):
Yes.
S7 (29:47):
And even though I was freed, praise God from that
one addiction of cocaine and marijuana, I was freed from that.
But yet the enemy said, okay, well, I got you
over here. Come on over here, buddy. I got something
for you. Yeah. And so then those other addictions, the, uh,
the infidelity and the, uh, like the deceit, uh, those
(30:10):
addictions kicked in. Now, praise be to God, man. I
got connected with a great church out in Aurora, harvest
Bible Chapel, the Aurora campus. And for the first time,
first time in my life. And I've been a Christian
since 19. What, 65? When I walked that aisle. But
for the first time in my life, I had men,
godly men who came around me that didn't shame me
(30:33):
as much as I felt that shame from an absentee father.
You know, as much as I felt that shame from
other men that thought that I felt I was lesser
in their eyes, seeking the glory of man, not of God.
But for the first time I had men that loved
me and held me to account, put my feet to
the fire, and held me there and said, no, bro,
(30:55):
we love you. But but you, you claim to be
a child of God. But what are you doing? Yeah.
You know, what fruit are you bearing right now? You know,
and that that is when it began to change is
when I. I realized that I was hurting my bride,
the woman that had stayed with me through all of
this mess. You know, she I was hurting her to
(31:18):
the point where she was desperate.
S6 (31:20):
Yeah.
S4 (31:21):
Philip, tell me, how have you seen this? In about
a minute left. How have you seen Romans 828? In
your own life? We know that for those who love God,
all things work together for good, for those who are
called according to his purpose. You have walked a difficult road.
Some of it, by your own admission, has been your
own doing. But how have you seen God work things
together for your good as one who loves him?
S7 (31:44):
You know when you come out of it and you
start to realize that that God actually does love you
and it's okay for you to love yourself. And and
what I've seen is that even in the when we
say we, we often misquote that verse and verse, and
we think everything's going to be fine. You know how
many coaches have told us, yo, all things can work.
We're going to do this. No, no, that means that
means that means everything. That means the good and the bad.
(32:06):
That means my my glaucoma. You know, as I've lost
my sight, it means, you know, my journey with cancer.
When I had three tumors in my on my tongue
and my throat and on my neck, you know, it
means spinal fusion therapy. It means losing my agent, you know,
and my professional career basically ending all of that worked
(32:26):
for his good because what he did, he gave me
opportunities to be a spokesperson for the Glaucoma Research Foundation.
He gave me an opportunity to lead a men's ministry,
to create a creative arts ministry at my old church
city line. He he's given me opportunities to be able
to speak to men on a real level because, as
(32:48):
you know, the best witnesses are those witnesses who have
who have been in the trenches or I should say,
have been stuck in the muck and the mire because
once God brings us out of that. Our story has
much more validity to it, you know? It's because it's genuine,
because we've lived it. And people can see in us
the power of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Yes.
(33:11):
And for those who love, you know, and when, when
we profess, boldly profess Christ, proclaim Christ, and when people
can see the love of Christ in us and in
our eyes. Yes. Amen.
S2 (33:25):
Philip, I want to thank you from the bottom of
my heart. There's a lot of you listening today. And
your question is, can God do that for me? And
the answer is he can. He absolutely can. Our God
works together for good, even the bad, to those who
love him, those that are called according to his purpose,
(33:47):
those bowed low before God who are being made into
the likeness of Christ. Bank it.
Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio.
This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2 (00:08):
If you've lived any length of time at all, you
know that you're going to hit some bad patches in life, right, guys? Yes.
S3 (00:14):
Of course.
S2 (00:15):
Choices that you make for yourself. Um, I have those.
Ali doesn't have those.
S4 (00:22):
Of course not.
S2 (00:25):
Ali. Uh, we had a live audience in studio yesterday,
and she said, uh, you know, I was the kind
of the goody two shoes kid. But it's true, Ali.
Even the goody two shoes kids, their their problems, their
messes that they make for themselves are sometimes even more complex. Oh, yeah.
They're in secret.
S4 (00:43):
Yeah. Because it's it's quiet. Because there's it's quiet. There's
an outward, real high level of compliance with rules. There's
a high level of performing for people, but inside all
kind of things can be going on.
S2 (00:57):
And that must be pressure, huh?
S4 (00:59):
Oh, yeah. I mean, when you when you put the
pressure on yourself to always be good. And I use
that in air quotes because we know that Scripture says
no one is good. But if you feel that pressure
to always be the good kid, to not get in trouble,
to not disappoint teachers or parents, well, then you just
start hiding stuff.
S2 (01:19):
Yeah. I, on the other hand, am out there. There
was no pretense of goody two shoes for me. I
think I wanted to put on a good front with
Mom and Dad.
S3 (01:29):
Sure. Yeah.
S2 (01:30):
By and large, I was out there kind of living it.
But whether you make the bad yourself and you'll understand
why I'm using the word bad. I mean, that can
be a pretty generic term. Whether the bad that you're
experiencing is self-inflicted or if it's others inflicted. And those happen. Man,
we live in a world right now that I was,
I was telling a group of men in Arizona over
(01:51):
the weekend when you're breaking free from sin. I said,
listen to me. Make sure that you find people that
you can trust. I even told them I said, doesn't
mean that you go into a small group and tell
everyone in that group, this is what I'm battling with.
I sometimes that's okay because you can trust everyone in
the group. You got to find people you can trust,
(02:11):
because sometimes things that you share with people today can
be used as a knife hanging out of your back tomorrow.
So be wise even in how you do that. But
pain from others is real. Sometimes you're in the bad
suit because of something that someone did. It could be
from childhood. Those things ravage our soul. And the question is,
(02:32):
can God turn it around? And that's what we're focused
on today. And I just want you to I'm going
to give you the payoff punchline right now. According to
Romans 828. And this is why context is so important.
I was talking to my right hand man at 180 Chicago, Christopher,
and I said, man, we need to the the epistles.
We need to read the entire book and have full
(02:53):
context to understand what's going on, he said. Carl. Every
book of the Bible, you can really only understand these letters,
these works, when you understand the broader perspective and the
broader perspective of Romans. Quick flyby is we're on this
highway to hell, and apart from God intervening, who knows
what we're going to do? Romans one lays it all
(03:15):
out that creation is screaming at us, but we got
our backs to God and we're going a new way.
But by faith, the father of all who believe Abraham
displayed that we put our full faith and trust in
God with no assurance of what's going to happen. And
then Paul moves into, but we got this problem called
sin in our life. We do bad stuff, we create messes.
(03:38):
And then he says, but praise be to the Lord
Jesus Christ. So all of that leads up to Romans eight,
where we find these words, and we know that for
those who love God, all things work together for good
for those who are called according to his purpose. We're
(03:59):
going to illustrate that this hour. But this you need
to know right now. Whatever bad you're going through, God
can turn to good. I've seen it. Ali seen it.
Super die, young thunder. We've all seen it. Yeah, it's
not saying that it's all roses, but it's redeemed. God
does that. So I'm asking you today to love God.
(04:22):
Those are not words. Those are not little, you know,
hallmark sentiments. This is an abandonment of yourself to the
lordship of Jesus Christ. Give him control of everything. Our
God will turn it to good. And someone needed to
hear that today. And we go right to the foot
(04:43):
of the cross.
S1 (04:44):
He's a sports fanatic with a stat for anything you
can think of. Young Thunder is in the crew. It's
Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2 (04:55):
Every time I have found myself in the soup of
bad stuff, wanting to see God turn it to the good.
Every time there is no help and healing in Carl,
wringing his hands and trying to get fancy with his footwork.
I'm here to admit it today.
S4 (05:11):
And the hope that we have as Christ followers that
that Jesus can redeem and does. I mean, that's a
powerful hope, O ally.
S2 (05:22):
It is. And it's a hope based. It's not some
fanciful notion like, oh yeah, butterflies for Jesus memes. This
is about our God took to the cross, our sin.
The tomb is empty. We're living in resurrection power till
still today. Do you know Easter? Still going on?
S4 (05:44):
Yes.
S3 (05:44):
Amen. Amen.
S2 (05:46):
Come on man. So our guy can turn it all around. Well,
every now and then I get fired up about something
around here, boy. But there has to be a certain
reason why I get fired up about this thing.
S4 (06:01):
Okay.
S3 (06:02):
Is there a good reason?
S2 (06:03):
Thinks I'm nuts. She does. She don't you? You think
I'm certifiably nuts?
S4 (06:08):
Not every day.
S2 (06:11):
I don't even know what that means.
S3 (06:13):
We'll just let that one sit as is, I think.
S2 (06:17):
Hang on. Three minutes. You'll find out why.
S1 (06:20):
She was trying to earn her way to God. But
God showed her she didn't have to. Ali is in
the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2 (06:30):
What a golden opportunity we have today. And I just
got some info that I'm so giddy about. Ali kind
of knows what I'm giddy about here. I gotta tell you,
there's going to be a lot of people out there
today that are beckoning you. Come on. Own. I have
not realized how big the uptick is, Ali, on this.
(06:51):
There's a lot of people leveraging a day like today
in a powerful way, and we've got some juice for
incentive that is unparalleled. Rarely will you find this. There's
my setup. I'm going to let you take it away. Ali.
S4 (07:06):
Okay. Well, before I tell you what it is, let
me tell you what it is. It's giving day here
at Moody Bible Institute. 139 years of God's faithfulness to
Moody Bible Institute. Yeah. We are inviting you to partner
with us, but I want to bring in doctor job
giving day 139 years. Connect the dots. What is this?
S5 (07:27):
Well, you know, it's a great idea. I didn't really
realize it until I started here. That it's a really
a day of celebration of the faithfulness of God. You know,
Moody Bible Institute next year will be 140 years.
S2 (07:41):
Yeah.
S5 (07:42):
It's amazing that students have been coming to the campus
of in Chicago at Moody Bible Institute, being trained and
sent all over the world. And so this is one
day where the entire institute sort of celebrates God's faithfulness,
his resources. Because Moody is tuition sponsored. Students that come,
(08:03):
they they pay for their room and board if you're
full time on campus, but the tuition is paid by
generous people, really, from all over the world that say,
I believe in the mission that we need to train
the next generation. So it's a day of celebration.
S2 (08:17):
That's beautiful. Mark, one of the things that we hear
constantly from our boom crew is that they're so grateful
that we're not weak in the knees, we're not wobbly
on the gospel. We're going gospel. We're not going to
start getting weak on this. I want you to pour
out your heart. Why, as the leader of MBI, this
is so important to you. And what are we doing
(08:38):
to stay strong in a culture that can sometimes get
weak in the knees? About what the truth really is?
S5 (08:44):
Yeah. You know, a week ago this past Monday, we
celebrated 170 years of the conversion of a 17 year
old boy whose father was an alcoholic, who grew up
in poverty, who people would have just discarded this guy.
He's comes from a broken family, toxic poor, was working
(09:09):
at a shoe store, and a Sunday school teacher came
in and shared the gospel with him. His life was
forever changed his night. His name was D.L. Moody and
he became a passionate evangelist. And and really, the school
was started because the gospel does change everything. Out of
(09:31):
a passion to get the gospel to the nations. And
I don't know why specifically, but in a very supernatural way,
God has had his hand on this institute and kept
it anchored in the truth, grounded in the Word of God.
In spite of how culture has changed, because I look
around the landscape of America and so many schools started
(09:53):
sort of like moody, but they have gone way off course.
God has had his hand on this place in a unique,
powerful way and kept this place grounded. So every student
that comes here is going to get Bible courses, no
matter what their degree is. They're going to get Bible courses,
systematic theology, survey of the New Testament. They're going to
(10:13):
be in chapels. They're going to be going they're going
out into Chicago doing practical Christian ministry. In fact, I
was taking a walk yesterday. Uh, it was a nice night.
I was downtown on Michigan Avenue and there was some
street preachers there, so I went up to encourage them. Hey,
thanks for sharing the gospel. That's great. And you know what?
And and I found out two things. One of the guys,
(10:36):
he said, hey, uh, I go to one of your campuses. So.
So he was one of, uh, goes to one of
our campuses, one of our new life. But a young
guy came up to me and says, I'm a moody student.
And here it was out in Chicago sharing the gospel.
And I thought, wow, I love that that I ran
into Moody Student out in the streets of Chicago sharing
the gospel.
S4 (10:56):
With this tuition sponsored model. Whenever you give to something,
you like to know where that money goes. And obviously
it goes to help sponsor the education of a moody student.
But talk about some of the alumni. Where does that
money ultimately go in terms of where these students are sent,
what they do after they graduate?
S5 (11:13):
Yeah. So we have 50,000 living alumni. And as I
travel around the world speaking in different places, I'm always
amazed to run into people. Some of them that lead great,
you know, big ministries and some of them that are
in faithful spots. You would never know their name, but
(11:34):
they are just faithfully serving in very difficult parts of
the world. And I'm talking about close countries. I'm talking about, um,
inner cities. I'm talking about, uh, just every nook and
cranny that you can imagine. There's moody students that are
serving God. I'm so encouraged when, uh, people come back
(11:54):
to campus and they tell me, hey, for 50 years,
I've been pastoring a little rural town in, you know, Montana.
Or they come back and say, I've been leading an
orphanage in Africa or I've been, uh, you know, leading
a non-for-profit. That's that's helping to mentor inner city youth
in Detroit. Uh, it's just amazing that these alumni go
(12:18):
all over the place. Um, some of them end up
in other places outside of what we would call traditional
vocational ministry. Like there's a congressman that, you know, I
talked to recently that's a moody grad. And I said,
are you sort of sad that you went to Moody?
I don't know how that equipped you. He said, no,
the best thing I did in my life was get
biblically grounded. And he said, I view my position in
(12:41):
Washington as a ministry to people in Washington, and I thought,
I love it. Wow.
S2 (12:47):
That's beautiful. Okay. Huge news when I heard this, this
this will put fuel in your belly. Mark, I'm going
to let you share this. We've got either a person
or persons who stepped together and have done something pretty extraordinary.
We've got a do I have this right? A dollar
for dollar match until 9 a.m. on any gift given today.
S5 (13:07):
On any gift given. Any gift given until 9:00. We've
had some, um, generous donors that really believe in what
we're doing here, and and they're willing to double whatever
you give. $100, it turns into 200. Give 500, turns
into 1000. And, you know, yesterday I was with some
students talking to them about their story, and two of
(13:33):
them happened to be international. One was from Portugal and
the other one was from Kyrgyzstan. And they came here
to get trained and have a passion to go back
to their nations as well. And, um, we have a
thousand students that live here on the campus. We train
a lot more than that, but a thousand that live
(13:55):
in the heart of Chicago, coming from all over the world.
Sit down and hear their story. And how some of
them got here is literally a miracle. I talked to
one student a little while back. He's from Pakistan and
his dad's a pastor there, and he was telling me
how people pelt their building. And his dad, pretty much.
(14:16):
He was telling me his dad pretty much scraped up
everything he could get to to send him to Moody
Bible Institute. And I thought, wow, that is who you're
investing in those kind of students.
S4 (14:27):
You know, I met a young man on just on
Easter Sunday. We were singing in the choir together. I'd
never met him, I said, and I asked him his name.
He said, my name is Tom. I said, where are
you from? He said, I'm from Kenya. And I said,
how did you get here to Chicago? He goes, well,
I wanted to come to Chicago and I wanted to
come to a Bible college. So I looked online and
I found Moody Bible Institute. So I came here to
(14:48):
go to Moody Bible Institute to be trained up. Young
man from Kenya. Tom. Carl. Go ahead.
S2 (14:54):
Yeah. This is big guys. I'm asking you to jump
in right now. Every gift of any size is doubled
right now. And we're asking you to do this. Do
this for the Tom's from Kenya. Do this for those
from that have come from all around the globe, some
of them overcoming huge obstacles to put it all on
the line. And some of them are standing on street
(15:16):
corners preaching the gospel. Would you be a part of
this today? Text the word give right now to 805, 55, 78, 98.
Just text the word give. Every gift of every amount
is doubled.
S4 (15:31):
What do you love that.
S2 (15:33):
I love that. Well, the reason I love that is
it's every part in God's greater family that's doing their
what they can handle. And we've got some folks that
have stepped up and said, let's, let's make this a
phenomenal day. Text the word give to 800 555 7898.
Give to 800 555 7898. Mark, thanks for ducking in here, man.
(15:58):
We appreciate you doing this today.
S5 (16:00):
Absolutely. Thank you again and God bless you. And again,
thank you, listeners, for praying for us and for your generosity.
God bless.
S2 (16:08):
It's a beautiful thing. Text that word. Give to 800
555 7898. Give to 800 555 7898.
S1 (16:19):
You're listening to Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2 (16:23):
Crazy questions, because that's what I do.
S3 (16:26):
You're good at those.
S2 (16:27):
Have you ever had a detergent or cleaner that you
just bragged about to someone?
S4 (16:33):
A detergent.
S2 (16:34):
Detergent or cleaner? Think about it right now. Super dry. Obviously.
Her default is Windex. I mean, come on.
S4 (16:40):
Yes.
S6 (16:40):
Come on. Duh.
S2 (16:42):
She's Greek. Don't you know?
S6 (16:44):
Of course.
S2 (16:44):
That was the best flick ever. I laughed so.
S6 (16:48):
Hard. You know, it's one of your favorites. My big
fat Greek wedding. Yeah, you got it.
S2 (16:53):
If you. If you. Part one, the other ones leave
them out. They tried to churn some dollars off the
first good one. That was.
S3 (17:00):
Disappointing.
S2 (17:01):
But back to my cleaners thing. You ever had a
cleaner product? House product. Counter. Scrubber. Granite washer. Stainless steel buffer.
Some kind of cleaning product that you're like, um. Are
you guys gonna leave me high and dry here? No
one has a product.
S3 (17:16):
I mean, okay, what do you got? I don't think
a lot about.
S4 (17:18):
Mine is a laundry product.
S6 (17:20):
Okay.
S3 (17:21):
Okay.
S2 (17:21):
Or you're not willing to.
S6 (17:22):
Say.
S4 (17:22):
Well, okay, so it's a laundry bar. It looks like
a bar of soap. It's called Fels-naptha. It's it's very
random looking, but it looks like a long bar of soap.
But this thing can get stains out of anything. I mean,
like grass stained baseball stained pants. You take it and
you scrub it into the fabric. It gets anything out?
(17:45):
It is not. Failed me once.
S6 (17:47):
What's it called again?
S2 (17:48):
You know what you have to do right now, or
else we're going to get texts out the wazoo.
S6 (17:52):
I know.
S4 (17:52):
I am. This is a product that I love. I
want to be careful. Fels-naptha is what it's called. It's a, uh.
It's a laundry bar.
S6 (18:04):
I'm going to try it. Thank you. There you go. Yeah.
S2 (18:06):
Good grief. That's not even my department in my life.
But I think I'm going to go get one.
S6 (18:11):
Like, maybe I got sold pants. I can go out
and play.
S4 (18:14):
In the grass.
S6 (18:15):
Today just to try it out.
S2 (18:16):
Yeah, I'm going to go out. Well, here's. You know
why you like that?
S4 (18:21):
Because it.
S6 (18:21):
Works.
S2 (18:22):
It works.
S6 (18:24):
It works really well.
S2 (18:25):
It works. And I I'm going to boil it down.
That is the litmus test for any God you are following.
And I believe there's one true God and that he
can work to good, even the bad. And if it
doesn't work, it's not worth using or following anything. Right, guys?
S6 (18:48):
Yeah, that's true, of course, but.
S4 (18:51):
I think the question is, how do you know? Like,
what's the proof of whether or not it works?
S2 (18:56):
Yeah. That's. Yeah. And and how do we do this
with God. Well, this is the claim that Paul has
in Romans 828. And we know that for those who
love God, all things work together for good, for those
who are called according to his purpose. And it goes
on in verse 29, for those he foreknew, he also
(19:16):
predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son,
in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Here's the point. I am absolutely convinced that some people
aren't convinced that God can work all things together for good,
even the bad stuff. And when I'm talking bad stuff,
I'm talking self-inflicted bad, for which we all have that.
(19:38):
Even ally goody two shoes ally, as she likes to
call herself. But and we talked about that in a
previous hour. But and I'm not making light of that
because one of the great pains of, of people that
are putting their best out front is you live with
some pain inside that.
S6 (19:57):
Oh, yeah.
S2 (19:58):
It's hard. Right?
S6 (19:58):
Sure.
S4 (19:59):
And that's true for every. No one escapes it.
S2 (20:02):
No one escapes it. So the question is, can God
turn what is bad? Self-inflicted. Others inflicted. Inflicted for good.
That's the acid test of the gospel. Because if he can't,
why follow him? Bottom line. Now the secret sauce is
a full blown abandonment of self to the Lordship of
(20:26):
Jesus Christ. It's Paul crying out, foolish man, that I
am that which I want to do, I don't do,
and that which I do, I don't want to do.
Who will rescue me from this body of sin and death?
Praise be to the Lord Jesus Christ. Coming up here
in a moment, we're going to do it right. We
are going to illustrate it by way of story. Hang on.
He's in the boom crew.
S1 (20:48):
She's a choreographer extraordinaire, and everything is Greek to her.
Super die is in the crew. It's Carl and crew
on Moody Radio.
S2 (20:58):
Well, you're the boom crew, and this is your show,
and we're going to prove it to you right now.
Little show prep. Yesterday, I was pouring my heart out
to my bride, and I said, Romans 828 God taken
bad stuff and turning it to good. Self inflicted. Others inflicted.
Some of you going through some tough things right now
and you're like, how in the world is God going
to turn this around? I don't care how many locusts
(21:23):
came to the years or seasons of your life, that
is the promise of God. And sometimes you got to
hear a story to just bank it. Somebody in the
boom crew that we love have actually had a chance
to go out and get a bite of breakfast with.
This man is Phillip, and he has got a walking
banner ad for God turning bad stuff into good. How
(21:44):
you doing, Phillip?
S7 (21:46):
Good morning, my brother. I'm blessed beyond measure. How are you, man?
S2 (21:49):
Doing great. Um, I gotta tell you, Phillip, I. We're
going to cut you loose here. Give us your story.
High level. What? What? This thing got off the rails here,
my man. Let's get honest. Your life was a train
wreck on steroids, right, Phillip?
S7 (22:05):
Absolutely. It was. I mean, I was lost, I was
chasing my tail. I was so lost in sin. But
you know something? During all that time, oftentimes our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ will allow you to go just
as far as he needs you to go in order
for you to reach what is going to be your end,
the end of yourself. And that's what happened to me.
S4 (22:24):
Philip Van Lier is our guest right now, a part
of the boom crew. He's a graduate of Moody Theological Seminary.
He has a 40 year career as a professional actor director, presenter.
We know him as Philip from Aurora.
S6 (22:35):
Which is a suburb of Chicago.
S2 (22:38):
You've probably seen him on small screen or big screen
because he's done a lot of stuff, right?
S6 (22:42):
Yes, he has.
S4 (22:42):
He most prominent roles in Prison Break, Chicago Code, Meet
the Browns, Holiday Heist, My Dog, The Space Traveler. That
sounds interesting. He's appeared regularly on stage here in the
Chicago area as well. Philip, you you got into acting?
Was that what you thought this was going to spend?
I'm going to spend my whole life on the stage
(23:03):
in front of the screen. Was that your passion?
S7 (23:06):
Oh, from the time I was in seventh grade, I was,
as you can imagine, a rambunctious child. I guess I
can just say it that way. I had a teacher,
Vincent Popolizio. God bless him. And he said, you know,
young man, we've got to find an outlet for you.
So you use that energy in a positive fashion. He
turned me on to theater and that's all it took.
S2 (23:26):
You know, Philip, I want to get as as honest.
You're very honest guy. But what led to this spiral
downhill that God ultimately pulled you out of? And give
us some of the give us some of the low points.
And let's just pour it out here right now.
S7 (23:44):
The greatest sin, as we know, is pride and believing
that we are our own gods. And I, I grab
hold of that with both hands. I had made it
a determination back in the early 70s that I was
going to be the greatest actor to come out of Aurora, Illinois.
And I was going to do whatever it took. And
I went for it with all the gusto. But it
also meant I went for all the things that the
(24:06):
world had to offer regarding that business. Uh, women, drugs, alcohol, Home. Uh,
just the most, uh. The most, uh, Colonel, uh, segment
of that business that I could find. And as oftentimes
the enemy does, he latched on to those weaknesses in me.
(24:29):
I did find fame. I found fortune, but unfortunately, what
tripped me up is that I didn't recognize the folly
when it fell into my lap.
S4 (24:39):
So, Philip, did you reach a a breaking point was
obviously there's the fleeting pleasures of sin, or else we
wouldn't go back to it. As you're seeing success in
your acting career, you're living the life and the pleasures
of sin. What brought you to a point where you go,
this is this can't continue. Did you make that decision
(25:00):
on your own, or did God absolutely break you?
S7 (25:04):
The decisions I made on my own allies, but got
me into that place. So absolutely. You know, I was
I made my own mess. But but, you know, as
as the fame increased and I was, you know, doing
show after show on stage here in Chicago, you know,
I was doing television and film. I was working with
three major corporations and presenting all over the world. But,
(25:28):
you know, there was this as we know, Pascal told us,
this God sized hole in my heart where I knew
that I had walked away from the faith of my family.
You know, I was raised in the church. You know,
my my family footprint fingerprint was all over the church
that I grew up in. But I had turned my
back on it. But, you know, even though you may
walk away the Holy Spirit, once you've given yourself to Christ,
(25:51):
once you've received Christ into your heart, the Holy Spirit
is dwelling in you. And as much as you try
to push it away, it's still going to be pulling
you back. And so I knew that. I knew how
far I had fallen, and that what I was doing was,
was killing myself, killing those around me. I had already
torpedoed two marriages. I was on my third, and I
(26:14):
had started to detonate that marriage as well. Um. But. But, God. Yeah,
but God, finally. You know. Yes. Turned me around.
S2 (26:24):
Coming up, Phillip is going to share with us here,
and we get to all take it in together. How?
God takes the bad sometimes the mess we've made ourselves.
And I'm talking ugly stuff and can turn this for
good to those who love God. And that's the point.
More with Phillip Van Lear straight ahead.
S1 (26:44):
You can take him out of Alaska, but you can't
take Alaska out of him. Carl is in the crew.
It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2 (26:53):
Can God take what is bad? Self-inflicted. Brought on by others.
And I mean ugly. Bad and turn it for good.
That's the promise in Romans 828. But the key is
for those who love him. It's that formation of the soul.
That's everything. He was high flying, low living, blew up
two marriages fixing to ruin a third. And God got
(27:15):
a hold of him. His name is Philip, and we
love him a bunch here. He's one of the boom crew. Philip,
tell us what happened. I want you to take us
to that moment. Moment of, I mean, snot blowing brokenness
where you're like, this has got to end.
S7 (27:28):
No. Amen. Amen. You know, because rehab didn't work. Carl,
I like rehab so much. I went three times.
S2 (27:37):
You and me, buddy. We must have gone to the
same dive.
S7 (27:40):
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. We have. Somehow we got the same reference.
You know, I, you know, I wanted to get that
that 90 and 90 chip. And then once I got one,
I said, well let me go back and get two more. Yeah.
But you know, but you know, that's the madness. That's
the insanity of sin. But what really got it for me?
Praise God for my lovely wife. You know, Heather, such
a strong woman, been through so much. I so all
(28:03):
kicked my coverage, but I remember it was May. It
was May of 2012, and and I had just been
on a bit of a bender. It had been five
days of constant drug use. And Heather looked at me
and she said, that's it, I'm done. Either you're going
to get help or you're leaving. Now notice she didn't
say she was leaving. She said no. She said she
(28:24):
and the kids were going to stay in the house
that we had just bought. She said, she said, but you,
you are going to leave. And it was that moment,
and maybe it was something in the tone of her
voice or the look in her eye where I knew
that she was serious, you know? And all this time
I had been playing a church card and I had
been going to church. And of course, it was a
church that was a mess, you know, with the rainbow
flag hanging over the altar and everything. So I was
(28:46):
just going there because it itched my ears, you know.
But finally I went and got help. And I remember
the day sitting in that psychiatrist's office when she did
an assessment of me, and she said after her assessment,
she said, you are you're suffering from severe depression and
severe anxiety. And the dam broke right there. The tears
just flowed. Not because I had a miraculous conversion. No.
(29:09):
I had already been saved by the grace and mercy
of God. But at that point, I realized that all
of this machismo, this macho thing, especially as a black man,
that I could handle it, that I was going to
be okay. That wall broke down. Praise be to God. Yeah.
And I realized it was all right for me to
ask for help, to seek help. I got help right then.
(29:31):
The last day I used Praise Be to God was
the 24th of May, 2012. Now, things were not all
unicorns and rainbows after that because as we often know,
as as as addicts, we'll replace one addiction for another.
S2 (29:46):
Yes.
S7 (29:47):
And even though I was freed, praise God from that
one addiction of cocaine and marijuana, I was freed from that.
But yet the enemy said, okay, well, I got you
over here. Come on over here, buddy. I got something
for you. Yeah. And so then those other addictions, the, uh,
the infidelity and the, uh, like the deceit, uh, those
(30:10):
addictions kicked in. Now, praise be to God, man. I
got connected with a great church out in Aurora, harvest
Bible Chapel, the Aurora campus. And for the first time,
first time in my life. And I've been a Christian
since 19. What, 65? When I walked that aisle. But
for the first time in my life, I had men,
godly men who came around me that didn't shame me
(30:33):
as much as I felt that shame from an absentee father.
You know, as much as I felt that shame from
other men that thought that I felt I was lesser
in their eyes, seeking the glory of man, not of God.
But for the first time I had men that loved
me and held me to account, put my feet to
the fire, and held me there and said, no, bro,
(30:55):
we love you. But but you, you claim to be
a child of God. But what are you doing? Yeah.
You know, what fruit are you bearing right now? You know,
and that that is when it began to change is
when I. I realized that I was hurting my bride,
the woman that had stayed with me through all of
this mess. You know, she I was hurting her to
(31:18):
the point where she was desperate.
S6 (31:20):
Yeah.
S4 (31:21):
Philip, tell me, how have you seen this? In about
a minute left. How have you seen Romans 828? In
your own life? We know that for those who love God,
all things work together for good, for those who are
called according to his purpose. You have walked a difficult road.
Some of it, by your own admission, has been your
own doing. But how have you seen God work things
together for your good as one who loves him?
S7 (31:44):
You know when you come out of it and you
start to realize that that God actually does love you
and it's okay for you to love yourself. And and
what I've seen is that even in the when we
say we, we often misquote that verse and verse, and
we think everything's going to be fine. You know how
many coaches have told us, yo, all things can work.
We're going to do this. No, no, that means that
means that means everything. That means the good and the bad.
(32:06):
That means my my glaucoma. You know, as I've lost
my sight, it means, you know, my journey with cancer.
When I had three tumors in my on my tongue
and my throat and on my neck, you know, it
means spinal fusion therapy. It means losing my agent, you know,
and my professional career basically ending all of that worked
(32:26):
for his good because what he did, he gave me
opportunities to be a spokesperson for the Glaucoma Research Foundation.
He gave me an opportunity to lead a men's ministry,
to create a creative arts ministry at my old church
city line. He he's given me opportunities to be able
to speak to men on a real level because, as
(32:48):
you know, the best witnesses are those witnesses who have
who have been in the trenches or I should say,
have been stuck in the muck and the mire because
once God brings us out of that. Our story has
much more validity to it, you know? It's because it's genuine,
because we've lived it. And people can see in us
the power of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Yes.
(33:11):
And for those who love, you know, and when, when
we profess, boldly profess Christ, proclaim Christ, and when people
can see the love of Christ in us and in
our eyes. Yes. Amen.
S2 (33:25):
Philip, I want to thank you from the bottom of
my heart. There's a lot of you listening today. And
your question is, can God do that for me? And
the answer is he can. He absolutely can. Our God
works together for good, even the bad, to those who
love him, those that are called according to his purpose,
(33:47):
those bowed low before God who are being made into
the likeness of Christ. Bank it.
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