Answering the Hard Questions | Ron + Hope: Unfiltered

Foreign. Hello, everybody. It's Ron and Hope. Unfiltered, real, raw, relevant.

We got the same clothes on as the last one.

Yeah.

Because we've done two back to back.

Yeah, we did.

So this is not a rerun. This is a new one. I just didn't feel like changing clothes.

Me either.

Because when we do tv, I have to go change clothes and all that. So I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna keep the same clothes on. The last one was Heav. Hope is. This ain't gonna be heavy.

No, this is gonna be fun. You know what we're doing today? I know you don't.

There's a whole thing that's happening on Instagram now where they have this card game, and these men and women build this tremendous connection by answering these questions in this card thing. I don't know.

I hadn't seen it.

Yeah, I saw it. They're like. They'll take the card and they'll say, what is the greatest pain in me you wish you could take away?

Oh, I don't know.

And they sit there, and all of a sudden you got these men and women that maybe barely conversing, and all of a sudden they break and all these. Well, I don't know that that's coming out. What is this?

This is called talking point Cards for Christians. And it's just a bunch of.

So if I went on a date with a Christian and don't know what to say.

Yes. Or you got a life group or, you know, you just something to have.

Fun instead of playing the Holy Ghost in here.

Holy Ghost? Yeah. I'm gonna ask you one first.

Some people. It's real wrong. Tell me.

We already did.

Tell them again. I didn't hear you.

I just want y' all to know that this week that you're listening to right now, we're one week away from not even a whole week. Next week would be our anniversary. Our 35th wedding anniversary.

Say, like you're disgusted.

No, I'm talking about how good it is to be married.

Yeah.

Oh, my gosh. 35th wedding anniversary.

Greatest 35 years you've ever had.

Yes, it is. But we've been together almost 40.

We have three years. Was the great tribulation.

That's a long time, right?

Great tribulation.

We are old.

You know, Old.

We're getting older.

I'm not. Oh, my church is filling up with, like, 20 year olds.

I know. Because you know why? It's your drip.

It's my drip.

It is.

It is.

The.

And the Spirit is the anointing on my life in the natural.

It's the drip.

It's the drip. It's the drip. It is. It is. The drip has been so hard. It is. We've been talking about adding to our maintenance team.

Ron, I'm done with you. That's enough.

Well, this is a cleanup.

Wherever I walk, is it? Well, the last time we had a podcast, you were talking about that. It's just a cross you gotta carry.

It's a cross you have to bear that.

What?

Me and John G. You and John G. What? Yep.

You know, all the women.

You have to deal with that now. When I was young. And now he's young.

You were young.

I was giving him some advice. They were talking about all the women.

You said all the.

It's just a cross you have to bear.

And now. John. Oh, my God. Anyhow.

Hey, when I started dating you, I was single.

Point cards.

I was single.

You are telling a story.

I started dating you.

Oh, when we were dating, yes. But when you started talking to me, you were not single.

I was not. I didn't have a girlfriend. I had a date.

Ron, that's not true.

I told you.

Why did you have to break up?

I told you this morning. The dynamics of that relationship.

Why'd you have to break up with her?

I didn't have to break it with her. I had to tell her while you were driving my car.

Oh, my gosh. Okay.

I didn't go to break up with her, but she did inquire is, why was this blonde riding down the road driving your car? And I didn't have a good explanation for that because you told me so. The relationship ceased to exist, basically, after you drove my car.

Saved you, in other words. So, Ron, here's the first card. Da, da. What is one thing you are very excited about right now?

Like personally or in ministry?

I can say, what is one thing that you're very excited about right now?

Can I say two things?

Yeah.

One thing personally, is some great things are happening in my kids. Chaz just got married. All three of them have recently taken new positions within the ministry. See them stepping into things. I see God bringing stuff out of them I hadn't seen. I see them mature and I see them growing, and I see legacy. I wanted so bad as a dad to put stuff in them that life can't take away. And now that they're really coming into their adulthood, you're starting to see some of those things that you put in them manifest. And that is very, very rewarding. As a father, I don't know the feeling a mother gets. But as a father it does make you feel as a man, you rehearse your screw ups and so when something in your kids go right, it does make you that feeling. You know, amongst all my boneheaded mistakes, I did something right and they're getting it. Yeah. So personally, family and stuff, that is one thing. In ministry right now, Gen Z, the Gen Z generation is piling that John G. Piling. I'm not sure how old Gen Z, I'm not sure how old John G. Is. Okay, but Gen Z, throw a picture.

Up right now of John G. On.

The podcast, it would shut down. It would shut it down. It would shut it down.

It show his Instagram. It would shut it down.

It would shut it down.

I mean all the clicks we would get from all the girls all over.

The world to be the end of our podcast.

Well, it'd be the end of his singleness.

Well, what were we even talking about?

What you're excited about.

And their pursuit of God and the way they're packing up The Church Society 242 has been created just for them. The transfer conference, everything that I'm seeing, statistics were bearing out that Gen Z was going to come after God in a different kind of way.

And they are.

And they are. And I am just jacked.

Yes.

It's exciting to see a generation pursue God on this level. So I get to ask you one now.

Yeah.

Okay. How in the world could you love your husband anymore?

That is not on that card. How could I love you more? I don't know how I could love you more than I love you right now. I'm just completely and overwhelmingly in love with you. What are you doing?

Why is it that you say your husband is better looking now than he's ever been? Oh God.

Because you have matured an amazing.

How does your faith influence what you watch on TV or look at on the Internet? That's a good one.

How does your faith influence it?

What you watch on TV or what you look at on the Internet?

Well, I think my faith. Faith influences everything I do, where I go.

Faith is not compartmentalized. You cannot compartmentalize.

Question.

I saw a teaching moment. I saw a teaching in your lane.

Question. My faith drives every decision that I make. Hopefully. I mean I'm, I don't glow in the dark. Yeah, I make some bad ones. My faith does not influence my French fry eating at times.

But you don't make many bad decision. Just maybe spending decisions.

Ron what you watch on TV and look at on the Internet. Someone do these two on tv. I don't watch a lot of tv. I don't.

We really don't.

I don't even really enjoy tv. I feel like it's a time waster. I went through a time in my life where I really, for a couple of years dug into the topic consecration. And in that I found that so many things like tv, Internet, just things that you would put under the label of time wasters. And I tried to eliminate them as much as possible. Now I went through a while where I didn't watch any tv, but now we watch little bits of tv.

We'll watch a series. Well, somebody will say, have you seen such and such series? No. And as long as it ain't crazy, we don't want to watch a bunch of crazy mess. But when we do finally sit down together and don't have a night with anything to do, which is rare, we'll turn on the series. But just clicking through and watching tv.

Watch TV or to look out on the Internet, not for me necessarily. I don't go on like search, go on Google or go on safari.

Let me interject.

Lost in.

Can I interject? Let me tell you the difference though. Tv, you got to go find it. Internet, it comes to you. That's the difference.

But however, let me just say it, things come to you. What is your habit? What is what you're looking at? It has tracked you so much that if you've ever looked at porn, you're going to have porn pop up. If you've looked typed in girls in thongs, stuff's gonna pop up. If you typed in leggings, it's gonna pop up. But if you type in recipes, you're gonna get recipes. If you type in home searches, it's gonna be home. It knows what you are bent, but it will.

It is tracked to follow you. It is and it brings it to you.

But on the Internet. I even try to limit my time on the Internet every single day just because, again, it's a time waster. But my faith does influence what I watch on tv. And look. So let me ask you, in the past, how have you known what God wanted you to do?

Some of you might have been saying, I'm. I don't know if I want to watch this podcast. That's actually a really good question. I'm going to admit something. I am. I am not a person that tends to get a lot of words from the Lord. If I. I'm not Talking about preaching. I'm talking about, like, God came. God came down and told me we're supposed to move to bupa. If I walk in and tell you we're supposed to move to West Coast, I remember you stopped dead in your tracks. Because I don't come and say that every day. There are people that I have been around that God told me, and they say that 28 times a day. So when they say it, it has no meaning.

And I only say stuff like that.

Maybe it has no meaning. When I came to you and said, I feel like God is calling us to do something on the west coast when Ron Carpenter comes, and even with my staff, that's true. If I say, I sense the Lord is saying you can, because I don't. That's not my normal.

So even when God is not speaking to you, how do you know what God wants you.

I'm led by my peace.

Right. That. That yucky feeling on the inside.

Every time I have or not, every time I have denied my peace, it always comes back and bites me on my fanny.

Yeah.

But instead of, you know, God giving me signs and fleeces and speaking to me and I had a dream last night, all that is legit. And if that's the way God speaks to you, praise the Lord. But mine is, do I have a peace about it or have I lost my peace?

That's great. So you're led by.

Yeah. Let your peace. Let the peace of God rule. Rule in your heart. The word rule, I tell people, is the word in the Greek from which we get the word umpire. Umpires call it safe or out. And so I try to let my peace say, this is safe, a yucky.

Feeling or a good feeling. That's great, Ron. Before the next question, we have an ad, and it is hello Fresh. Summer is all about soaking up the sunshine, making memories and saying yes to more fun. Whether that's beach days, road trips, backyard barbecues, and with hellofresh, you can enjoy every bit of it without being stuck in the kitchen or wandering to the grocery store aisles, which I hate. From home improvement to self care to just having some fun in the sun, summer is the season to enjoy and to do all the things that you've been waiting for. So the last thing you want to be doing is spending more time in the kitchen or worse, the supermarket. Make your summer both enjoyable and delicious by getting the number one meal kit as voted by USA Today readers.

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That's right.

That's what it means.

Good for you.

Okay, I get to ask you one, right?

Oh good.

What was the last one? Me. No. How was I led?

That's what you told I ask you so new you asked me.

As a Christian.

As a Christian, yes. I'm a Christian.

How do you interact with people of other cultures? This is easy for us.

I know. But I wonder if they mean cultures that's not Christian.

I think they would mean. I think they would mean ethnicities and nationalities.

Oh, we do it all the time. I mean especially here on the west coast.

Oh my gosh.

I think a lot of people, that's our brand.

That's what we're known for.

But Ron, people, even Christians sometimes get stuck and they run back to their corners and they only go to churches. But I'm, it's my question.

I go there.

My question, not your question. They go to white people go to white churches, black people go to black churches, Asians go to and so on, so forth. And I'm just so grateful that we have opened our arms and love people, love all people. And we have so many ethnicities, nationalities.

Absolutely love it.

I do too. Because it just seems to add such a flavor to your life.

Oh my God.

And it, and it takes your brain, it takes your mind, it takes your. It Expands you.

I love it when we go to.

The farm because I like to grow.

And we eat their food.

And I do, too.

We go to an Indian couple's house and eat their food. A lot of them are vegetarians, and what they can do with a vegetable has blown my mind. And. And then, you know, we go. We got another couple quite spicy. We got lots of Nigerians in our church, and they're close to spicy. And when we get around them, we usually end up just asking questions. Tell me about. Tell me about. Tell me about it. Grow. It's fascinating. And then, of course, your worldview. We have tons and tons out here in California, especially of Mexicans, and a lot of them that work close to us. And they're hilarious with what they tell us. They are about Mexican culture and everything else, man, you just sit there and laugh and hearing that. And that, to me, makes life rich. The diversity in the kingdom. I knew I had to get out of my denomination and do something.

I thought this was my question outside.

Of it, because we do everything together.

Oh, okay.

We do everything together because it was mainly made up of white people. And that was so not me and not what I wanted. And so our whole life, with the exception of the few years getting started, has been this amazingly beautiful group of people from all over the world called Redemption. And because at the end of the day, it's the same thing that holds them up, holds me up. It's the grace of God. And I just. Absolutely. I'm telling you, I just love people. I adore it.

Yes. Okay, Your question. How have you seen God answer prayer?

Oh, my goodness. Which. Which hundred do you want me to start talking about?

How have you seen God answer prayer? Just start now.

I've seen God answer prayer through a process, and I've seen God's immediately. And those are the two dividing points. There have been things that I prayed and prayed and prayed, declared, confessed, everything sowed, and then after much time and process and faith and perseverance and everything that God talks about and about testing everything, I've seen God bring it to pass. Then there's been other things I've asked for it, and it almost showed up in the mail the next day. And only God is in charge of that timing. God's in charge. Pardon me. I think that's my first sneeze ever on podcast. God is in charge of the times and seasons of our life. And so there's some things God knows. He needs to bring it into your life quickly. And there's other things, but I will tell you something that has never worked for me. What has never worked for me is here. I.

Bless you.

What is happening?

It is happening. Okay.

Let me make sure. I think I'm okay. One thing I was kind of always taught to do, even from my youth, is don't put a time on God. And so I don't know. There's just a reverence to that, that I've just prayed. I'll let him know when I'm in a hurry.

He knows when you're in a hurry.

But, you know, God, I need you to do this by Tuesday. I don't know. There's something about Amaran and he's God, and let him handle that. But that's the two major ways. The immediate of God and the process. And look, both of them are an answer to prayer.

Yeah.

But if God took you through a process, that means there was something he needed to do in you before.

One thing is God hears and he answers prayer.

Who is the one person you think God put into your life for a reason? And what is that reason? One person.

One. I got a lot of people, but I could. I'm just going to highlight one, and I think it would be you for many reasons. You're the love of my life. You're my husband. You're my soulmate. Look at you, grinning like a possum. Lord have mercy.

I was waiting to see if he's going to answer correctly. He said. When I read that, I'm like, okay, let me see where she has. She answered.

I do believe the main one would be you. And what is that reason? There's many reasons why not just a husband. It's not just a husband. A soulmate, a father of my kids. And you. You are my baby's daddy. But I think being married to you has shown me what true unconditional love looks like. Really? You've loved me at my best, but you've loved me at my worst. You didn't give up on me. He threw all the other cards down. You ready to go? All right, let me ask you one.

I want to answer that one. That's a question.

That was my question.

I think. Anybody.

Ron, you still.

But it was a good one.

God. You want to answer the same one?

Yeah. And I want to answer it the same way because I would have said the same thing. I don't think I have as many people as you. I thought your circle's a little bigger than mine. And that's my choice. That's by design. I'm not. Not Whining, that's by my choice. There are more people that would be my friend if I allowed it, But, Hope, I'm a good guy, and I'm a gentle man, and I love and long for peace, but I don't think anybody could have lived with me. I really don't. I don't think anybody could just live with me. And. And I think my calling and the way I lived and the dysfunction of my calling, the way I viewed it, was crushing, even to you. I just don't believe any old woman could have walked this journey with me. I don't believe they could have. And I believe you were brought not just to be my amazing wife and lover and mother of my kids, and the list goes on of the myriad of things you are to me. But I think there was a Kingdom dynamic that could only happen when Ron and Hope came together.

I believe that.

And when we were on the brink of breaking up, I was lost.

It was an assignment.

I'm not talking about, where does she keep the mixer and where's the check? I ain't talking about that kind of lost. I'm talking about I was lost. And it made me realize there was something much deeper to the connection than even the marriage covenant. You say, well, that's the deepest connection in the world. I don't know. When you're a Kingdom couple, it means that what you are going to do together cannot happen unless you're together. It will not happen if you're alone. And I felt that. I don't know if you felt that. I felt that. And so you are the most significant person that God ever brought in my life for the reason, not just of procreation and companionship, of which I would rather be with you than a million people, anybody. But we grind together. Yeah. And it just fits. It just works. And outsiders come to us and seem to marvel at that. Like, how do y' all do that? And the thing is, we ain't even working at it. We just get up.

We both are grinders.

We get up and we come in, we get on this property, and we just do it. And at the end of the day, it did this. It worked. Have me and you ever had to go talk something out? Have we ever been on different sides of an argument? Of course we have, but it still works. And so I had to respond back to that one, because I would have answered it the same way you did.

Okay, Ron, reflecting back, would you change anything in your past.

That I did or that happened to me?

What did you say? It Just said, would you change anything?

Of course I would. I would change the hurt we went through. That's the torment of it.

Even though you know what it's produced.

Yes. That was awful. That was awful. And I asked myself the torment of going through what me and you went through. For the man, a woman, process is different. You'd have to tell what your torment was. My torment was going through everything from dating. Was there anything I could have done to avert this? Did it? Could I. Could I have seen it coming from a distance? Could I have done anything different? Could I have realized you were broken and needed ministry long before it came off the rails? Because it was devastating to everybody. Maybe it was devastating to you.

Yeah, I know.

I mean, it crushed you into a thousand pieces, and you had to pick them all back up one at a time. So, yeah, there's no way, without being honest, I would do that period of our life differently where, you know, there was so much hurt and so much heartbreak in our lives. Do you feel like you're a part of a church community? And if so, what draws you to it?

Well, of course I am. We lead one.

That ain't a good question for us. That's all we do. That's our life as church. What has given the most meaning and purpose to your life so far?

So far the most meaning.

Oh, that would be a hard one for me. Outside of Jesus. Jesus is obvious. He's number one and two is a long way from it. But outside of Jesus.

Hmm. I think just. Just in natural sense, just my family, having. Having children, the joys of them, how they fulfilled me, the joy of just being a mother, birthing, seeing that miracle happen. But I think most people would say that because it is truly purpose as a woman. But I think on a bigger scale, on a more spiritual scale, I think it would be pouring into the lives of women intimately in these come higher retreats and in healing the hearts. And I mean, just not preaching, but real. Sharing your pain, sharing your journey, allowing people a safe place to get the junk out, and watching them soar, watching them become freer and better.

And that came into focus after your episode? Yeah, I watched that come into focus.

I spend the last five years, actually. I mean, you know, our downfall was when it all fell apart was over 25 years ago. But 2013 was the beginning of my healing journey. And so that's been, you know, 13, 13 years. And. But just in the last five years, I would say God's really taken my life into focus and sharpened my skill and My love for people and the ability to pour into people. I gotta ask you.

Stop. This has gotta be the last one.

This is the last one, Ron. Make it good. Do you trust the Bible? Why or why not?

That's not a good one for me. I live on every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Hey, sh. No, that's not good either.

Hold on. What's wrong with these cards?

I'm not doing that one either.

You're trying to be random.

Who taught you most about faith? Not your faith, but faith. Who taught you most about faith? Believing God, having faith.

Mike Murdoch.

Mike Murdoch.

Mike Murdoch. And Tommy Barnett. Tommy Barnett showed me the bigness of God. God, just big Tommy. I can't explain it. I told somebody a while back, I said, He's 86 or 87 now. And I saw him a while back at a conference, sitting on the front row. And I had not seen him in person since the multiplication anointing at our Church in 1999. He was so instrumental in our breakthrough with that night, laying hands on us and imparting that to us, that I had to just go up and see him. And I ran up there, he turned around, he recognized me. I told somebody last night, I said the first thing out of his mo Mouth was, ron, I wish I would have believed God for more.

That's crazy.

And the guy's done everything. And. And then Mike Murdoch.