Living As God’s Representatives | Ron + Hope: Unfiltered

Foreign.

Hello, everybody. This is Ron and Hope Unfiltered. We are so glad you're here, Ron. Why do you do that every single time?

You're a better opener than I am.

When I say something, you get that and go.

I just watched the guys on the morning shows and it looks so professional. I just wanted to look a little bit. I don't have many professional things about me. I just wanted to look professional here for a moment.

Okay. Awesome.

We have had an outcry since our last podcast.

An outcry?

Oh, about your comments about my glutes?

About your butt.

Yep, we've had an outcry your rear end. And the public has come back and defended me via money.

They have not defended me.

Yes, they have. They have defended me. And I think most people want a public apology is what they want.

I'm not giving one.

You need a public apology.

I said you need to stop doing squats because they've not paid off for you.

They have. Baby, over the years, I told you my glutes were borderline perfection in that last podcast.

The truth is you don't recognize think that your glutes are not even glutes. I think they might just be tendons, baby.

Not hurtful. That is at this age. You've been with me 30 years and you're just not telling me you feel that way.

I said they look like two bananas, your butt cheeks.

And people were angry.

Remember, they were dying, laughing. They thought it was so funny.

They were angry with you.

But, you know, that would take off some time of your workout. You wouldn't even have to do that.

Part because it doesn't work well. I had the operation on my leg and I lost some mass in my glutes because I ain't been able to work out like I normally do. Okay, what are we talking about?

I think that's a stronghold. What in your mind that the call it by.

Call it body dysmorphia.

To believe the truth.

When I look at true, but it's a lie. When I look at them, I can see the work that's been done. So, you know, if everybody else can't, then must be something in the eye of the beholder here. The tr.

But I think it's cute.

Okay.

You don't want no big old. Big old bubble butt as a man. It's kind of gross.

No, I don't want a big one. I don't want to muscle.

You just want one to fill up your jeans.

Mostly one. No, I'm wearing baggies now. Oh, no more tight jeans. I'm done.

Okay?

I'm done with the tight jeans.

Let's don't talk about I've been delivered from them.

I've been delivered from the tight skinny jean day is over. When they started coming out with baggies, I went full force. Yeah, I've almost changed my whole closet. Now you're fussing about them. Send it to baggy.

I said they were just like two sizes too big.

I thought me perfect in my waist.

They supposed he was dragging them. They were dragging behind you the other day when you was preaching.

Baby, you're just slow on fashion.

Slow on fashion.

I'm trying to set a swag bar here.

Oh my God.

Like that. Yep. So you check my thread on Sundays. Everybody can tell.

Check your thread.

No, I'm talking about my my social media thread.

You can tell everybody likes it.

Yeah, they like it.

Okay.

You only want to fusses you still.

But I'm skinny jeans who matters.

Yeah, but you still locked in skinny jeans.

No, that is not true, Ron. I just want what you wear to fit like these. These are great.

These are in between skinny. No, these are in between. But I don't want to do skinny jeans no more. I did everything I needed to appease everybody. I don't want to do it no more.

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We actually want to shift to something a little Bit serious, you know, for those of you that don't, I think you do. Now, we spent almost 27, 28 years solely on the east coast, and our fellowship spanned it across the nation, of course, but our home church was on the east coast. For years in Greenville, South Carolina. And then latter part of 2018, we felt like the Lord was calling us west to minister here. And I told Hope, I said, I got another good run left in me. Let's try it. Let's do it. And a lot of challenges here, but a lot of rewards.

It is.

And on the east coast, you know, we had the hurricanes. I can't tell you in South Carolina how many hurricanes came through. And we learned how to live with them. But in the west coast, it's wildfires. And for those of you who don't understand the nature of it, the context, it don't rain California, especially Southern California. But you can go 10 months here. I've not attracted 10 months. And every day, spring.

Yeah, it's perfect.

It's not real hot. It's not real. I mean, we're in the dead of winter now. It's what, 62 outside? I mean, it's like winter. It just. The weather is amazing. It's beautiful, but it's dry. It is extremely dry by June here. They call it the Golden State. All the mountains look beautiful, gold. But what it is, is dead grass. Everything's just Dr. And so it is. It's like you got a whole state full of what you'd call like kindling for a fire. I mean, it's. It's. It's sitting there waiting for the wrong things to happen, and then once it starts moving. And right after Covid, when the fires were burning in Northern California, you know, in paradise, the whole town was burned. Burned the whole town down.

It's terrible.

We did get evacuated where we were. We live on the side of a mountain, and the fire was coming up the backside, but they stopped it before it came down, like, miles from us. But you remember how eerie it was. I was. Thank you. You remember how eerie it was when we were going in there and just grabbing some personal items? I like.

It's amazing. What you find out is important.

Yeah, we didn't grab a lot.

I didn't grab. We didn't grab clothes or shoes or pocketbooks. We grabbed photographs.

We grabbed photographs, bibles, keepsake, little, My dad, I mean, you know, things like that. But I remember pulling out the driveway because we were going to stay somewhere. I think we were going to Tahoe or Something because there weren't any hotels anywhere local. So we had to drive on out a ways. And I remember just like, man, this thing can be gone when I get back, you know? And that was a really weird feeling. And so for a lot of people in Southern California, our brothers and sisters to the south of us, it's not a feeling, it's a reality.

It is.

And I've seen a lot of takes on the fire, you know, hope. I'm not a scholar. I've given my whole adult life to the word of God and preaching and teaching the word of God, but I'm not a scholar. You know the guys that go out in the apologetics and they debate and this and that, you know, I'm not built for that. I'm not made for that.

Yeah, but you know, that word backwards and forwards.

I do feel like I have a good feel for what God said, what God is trying to communicate to his people and what he's trying to do in the earth. And. And the first thing I just wanted to address is people's take on it. You kind of got California and then you got 49 other states that don't understand it.

Right.

Okay.

It's true.

I remember when I went to Bishop Jakes when I came out here, I said, when I told him I was considering coming out here, he looked at me and said, don't think because you've done a few conferences in California that you know, California and songs have been written about it. It is different.

It is very different.

I think it comes from the pioneering spirit of the people that had to settle the. Watched some movies and some series about what it took to settle the Western world. And it was the wild, wild. You had to be built a certain way to leave and go west.

Almost apostolic.

Yeah, Pioneering apostolic. And then you come out here and a lot of that spirit generationally still exists of extremely free thinkers. And that's not always a good thing. It leads to inventions like your Elon Musk and your Zuckerbergs and your Bezos. I mean, but it also leads to some craziness.

If it's God centered, it's good.

It also leads to craziness and insanity if it's not based out of some type of Christian conviction. If it's just humanism, if it's people, every man unto himself and everybody does what is right in his own eyes. The Bible talked about that back before the flood. That is not a great society to live in where you have free thinkers with no Christian core.

Right.

And honestly, a Lot of California is that we are in the Bay Area. They call it the Bay area of California. 97% unchurched. The 3%, for people that wonder what kind of challenge we're up against, is Catholic. So Evangelical Protestant Christians do not even register as a percentage in the Bay Area of California, which, depending on how big you see the bay area is 6 to 12 million people, and we don't even register 1%.

So you feel like a needle in a haystack.

Yes. When I came out here, I've never felt more separated, more on an island.

Different.

Yep. Than I did when I was out here. You know, when you're back in the east, you got your buddies, you got, you know, they'll all meet and go golfing, they'll all meet and go on a trip.

And they've all been raised the same way.

And there's a lot of. There's a lot of Christian culture just in the cult.

Right.

You know, I know our kids went to school, and this has been outlawed across America for years, but our kids went to school. They did the pledge of Allegiance and a prayer on the loudspeaker. And this was, you know, in the early 2000s. Well, that would be unheard of here. I mean, you know, they'd have lawyers on the streets of the school if you did that here. And so when it comes to a Christian influence in this area, I'm not complaining. I wouldn't trade places with anybody in the world. But it is very different than our other campus in Greenville, S.C. and the church usually only grows by evangelism. You don't come here and have an ocean of Christians waiting to find the best church. And a lot of people grow churches that way. And preachers don't want to admit that. But if they can come into a city and out church, everybody, you know, the people will go to that place.

For instance, the other day, I was. One of my friends here in the church took me out for my birthday, which is next week, by the way. Don't forget it. So she took me out and we went to the spa. And I was laying there getting a facial, and the girl was saying, okay, you're. I sense an accent. Where are you from?

So I had to do the whole thing.

And she said, so you call it what you do a church? She said, what? So tell me about that. What is a church?

First guy we ever invited. Remember our realtor?

Yeah.

He said, what is a church? And I had to back up for 20 minutes and explain to him consistently.

Even the concept of what is a church.

He didn't know what I was inviting him to. And he sat on the back row. Good, precious man. But he was Persian gentleman. Never. Never even heard the word church. And he sat in the back. When he saw everybody raise their hands, he was back there, like, I mean, he didn't even know. Yeah, yeah, I'm enjoying this, you know? And then he went outside to the booth after it was over with and started pulling out his wallet and said, how much are my dues to come here?

He said, I'd like to join.

He said, I want to join. What are my dues?

I said, 10%. That's all.

And. But, you know, where we're from in the Bible belt, that's unheard of. Yes, because even if people are. Even if people are unchurched, they could get saved and start at about a 4, because they've had some level of influence just in the culture around them. I remember in Greenville, South Carolina, they didn't even open up the stores in the malls until after church.

No? No.

You know, they had blue laws on Sunday. No alcohol in Greenville could be sold. That's changed. But that was up until, like, eight or 10 years ago. You couldn't even. Restaurants couldn't even serve alcohol on Sunday. Why? Because even though they may not have been Christian, they respected Christian culture. So we are in a world that. That is not the case at all. And they don't mind making laws that really inhibit Christians because it's not enough of a voting bloc that they care. So they're not worried about you. I'm going to vent right here. I'm going to vent right here. You know, everybody knew me as a gunslinger. I'd say anything. I said what other people thought, and bold, brash, wide open, 30s and 40s. And can you believe what Ron Carpenter just said? And I did that. That was me when I moved out here. You got to dial that back a little bit, because you got so much diverse thought. And I had a lot of people, you know, not in a really mean way, but, man, you've changed. And what happened to that gun and this and that and other. And what people got to understand is I didn't come out here to pick a fight. Right. You know, when I shut down for Covid, don't. You shut down?

Yeah. They wanted you to, like, to go against the government.

Exactly. They don't understand, like. And I have been here, what, 14 months, and I'm like, I'm gonna move from South Carolina to the bay area of California, and Pick a fight with the government. Yeah.

You know, and we're operating with people who have no understanding. Just like what is a church.

Exactly right.

We're trying to come in and love people.

If you look at the apostle Paul like that, when the apostle Paul, you know, if he wrote Hebrews, the Jews, he spoke to them differently. He spoke to the churches that he had cultivated differently. But when he went and stood before Herod, he started all the way back in Abraham.

He did it different.

He understood his audience.

That's right.

And so when I came out here, I didn't change.

No.

But the fact is I got a different hearer.

Yeah.

And they're in a different place called Wine and Wineskins.

We're getting the same message out, but we're doing it with a different vehicle.

Exactly right. They're at a different place. They start at a different place. They hear things differently. Their understanding is differently. And so you have to use what I just call wisdom. For instance, when Roe v. Wade was overturned, I was getting bullied. Why haven't you made a social media statement? Why hadn't you said any? And, I mean, I was getting pressure.

This is from our preacher.

Yeah, I was getting pressure and I had just done a big conference. If I said the name, everybody would know it. I did a big conference and he grabbed Mike a few days after Roe v. Wade and he said, the curse has been lifted. And the place went bananas.

Yeah. And we believe. Yes.

And I am certainly pro life. And for years we had an unwed, pregnant mother's home.

Yeah.

And we would try to take people from the clinic and say, we got an alternative for you. And we would take the girls in our home and pay their bills.

Yeah. House them, feed them.

So, you know, we put our money and our resources where our mouth was. So we're certainly pro life people. But they were pushing me to get. Grab a mic and make some big statement.

Were they pushing you to do that or to be? I think you really have to examine what is the root and where's this coming from? Is it that, oh, we won, you lost? Is it, you know, you were wrong. We're right. You know, and that's just.

That's going to lead me into where I want to go.

It's just so hard sometime to figure out what is the root, what is that coming from? He really loved these people who have had abortions and who are hurting.

The person that I preached for was one of the ones I was feeling pressure from. And when I got him by himself and he's a person that's had a great impact on my life. He's my elder in the faith and I have immense respect for him. But I told him, I said, permission to speak freely? And he said, go ahead. I said, pastor, I said, when you grabbed that mic and you said that tonight, I said, you knew exactly who was in that room and you knew exactly what kind of response.

There was no diverse crowd, really.

I said, you knew exactly the response you was going to get. I said, you got to understand. I said, I have women in my church that love Jesus. I mean, they love Jesus and they think Roe v. Wade being overturned was the worst day for women in history.

Yeah.

I said, that's what I'm dealing with.

The word long enough and taught long enough.

So I said, I can grab my mic and say the curse has been. I said, and they'll leave. And what have I accomplished? Yeah, I made you happy.

But we lost them.

But I didn't have time to take them.

Who God sent us here to minister.

I didn't have time. So it was only a few weeks in my message that a part of my series. I started preaching Jeremiah before you in your mother's womb, I knew you. I went to Ephesians 2. All of your days were ordained for you before one of them came to be. You are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for God's work that he prepared beforehand. Beforehand. And I started preaching those things, talking about life. Republicans and Democrats were both wrong about conception. Life begins in heaven.

God knew us.

Life doesn't even begin in the earth. God had a meeting in heaven. The Father, Son and the Spirit. And in that meeting, you and I were in that meeting. And all the acts of God were completed in that meeting. And the Lamb was slain in that meeting. I'm chosen from the foundations. Yes, he was the Lamb that was slain before the found. So this stuff was done. So what are we doing? I'm in the earth all. I'm in the earth every day, becoming what I already am.

God, that's so good.

You know, I'm. I'm. I'm wondering out in time what God has already created me to be in eternity. And so I started preaching that. Well, I had one of those ladies meet me out in the hallway. And her. She wasn't weeping, but her eyes were teary. I'll get. You'll cry because this means a lot to me.

I know.

She looked at me, she said, I've always been pro choice, she said, in women's rights, she said, but you have really challenged me today. And she said, I've got to go back and I got to rethink this.

And you didn't do it by screaming.

That's what I'm after.

You did it by teaching the word.

I thought about the word of God. So you do not in this area. You do not move forward by attaching things to political victories.

Right.

You do it by the word of God. Because the word of God has a sanctum sanctifying agent.

It does.

And if you just preach the word, it will take them there. And so anyway, I learned a lot that brings us to the fires.

We went all the way around this table to get back to the table.

Well, we got a little bit of time left, but I think we laid a good context for it. We're helping people understand that this is a different place with a different mindset and a different thought. And though I don't agree with all the mindsets, I do know a lot of them, how they arrived there. And so I have been seeing a lot of God's going. God, these fires. God's finally getting them. God's finally getting them.

It's the judgment of God.

Yeah. And here's what I want to say. And I'm probably going to have a million scholars want to get in my messages and have debates with me. I'm not going to debate you because I'm not a scholar. But I will tell you I'm familiar with the word.

Very familiar.

The judgment of God in the New Testament. The only place I see the judgment of God is in Romans chapter one. And it says, although they knew God, they would not serve him. Although they knew God, they would not worship him. And three times in Romans 1, it says, so he gave them over to themselves. He gave them over to a depraved mind. He gave them over to a seared conscience. He gave them over. He gave them over. I don't know any place in the New Testament outside of the culmination of all things in the end times where God is zapping people.

Right.

Okay. But I do see a place where God. The wrath of God until the end of time. God turning us over to ourselves.

Yeah. Letting us go. That's the worst thing God could ever do.

God don't have to do anything. All he's got to do is turn you over to yourself.

Yeah. And then the scripture in Romans 1 said, the people who knew God, how many people in California, we just said it, don't know God.

They don't know.

They don't know They've never heard.

And people also have to understand the melting pot, especially of the Silicon Valley, which we are. This church actually sits in the middle of it. You know, people fly in from all over the world to get those jobs. For instance, the Hindus, the Hindus believe in Jesus, but the Hindus don't believe that he is the only way to God. He is one of many.

Right. They have like 400.

So I have Indians, we have Indians on our staff. We have Indians all over people from India, all over this church that come in here for these tech jobs. So when you stand up, this wouldn't do. This wouldn't move people at all in Greenville, South Carolina. But when I get up here and say there is no other name given among men by which you can be saved except the name Jesus, you can see it on their faces because I just confronted everything their culture has taught them in one statement. Well, I'd say that in Greenville, South Carolina, everybody goes amen. I say that here.

And they're like.

And I can. And I can see the looks on their faces.

Yeah.

You know, and these are wonderful people.

Right.

So I do believe there, there is an element where God can step back and let you manage the own affairs of your life. And then you get what's coming. Because you are rebellious. Like he told Israel, you are stiff necked people. And then he says, okay, you do it, I'm going to step out of it. Are we seeing some of that? Maybe, Maybe. Because it is.

I think we're seeing that all over.

Yeah. It ain't just located in Hollywood. It's not just located in Hollywood. But there is a willful rejection of the things of God amongst many who are in power in those places. So has God stepped back and said, you know, especially in California, if you want to be master of your own world, then master it, you know. But is God up there shooting fire missiles and burning everybody's subject? No. No. And, and the Bible says every good and perfect gift, you know, the let them burn, they deserve it. I really want to challenge that because let me tell you, those of you that are saying let it burn. God loves the God mockers on the streets of San Francisco as much as he loves you.

If I could take your mic and drop it right now, I would take.

He doesn't love you more than he loves them. Jesus didn't die for you when you got right right. He died for you when you were wrong. He came to seek and save that which was lost, not that which was righteous.

That's right.

And so I Want you to know something. We have a responsibility.

Yeah.

To pray, to believe God.

Shine the light.

Shine the light. Be merciful, be gracious and represent our God in this earth. And there is no greater time to do it than in tragedy and pain.

That's right.

More people come to God out of tragedy and pain than any other time. And I'm going to tell you, there are some bewildered people. The insurance companies, because of the wildfire situation, 2.8 million houses were uninsured this year in California. Not because they didn't pay it, but because they can't get it. So you're looking at. There are people, Hope, that have lost their entire net worth, everything, with no means of getting it back.

Not to mention their memories.

Yes.

Raising their kids, everything.

And so I got to believe that God is not up there zapping balls of fire down and. And laughing. I believe the heart of God hurts just like our heart hurts. If I look on it with compassion and it hurts me. Can you imagine the heart of God? And I would like to see the people of God understand that when you have a people that just because they're rebellious, just because they're sinful, even if they're the mockers of God, they were mocking Jesus at the bottom of the cross, mocking him, making fun of Father, forgive them. They don't know.

They don't know. They don't know.

They don't know. And a lot of what you see happening, they don't know. And, and who's going to show them? Where's the grace and where's the compassion from?

Where is the church?

So I would ask people across America to believe with me. And you. I'm. I moved here, hope, believing not to have a great church. And we have a great church. I believed here, I came here believing for a move. Yeah, A radical, a radical Azusa street type move. There is too much history of moves of God starting west and going east.

That's right.

Everybody thinks God's only in the east. We have the Jesus movement. We have Azusa street and several others. Where it started in the west and it moved to the East. I've come here, I don't believe I'm the only one, but I believe I'm one of the ones that God wants to use. Why? Because the people, the population, the wealth, the resources, the influence with the entertainment capital here and with the tech capital here, much of the music capital here. If you can change California, you can affect the world. You can, you can affect the world. So there's a lot of people Hurting. We. We gave about six figures this past Sunday, divided it between three churches, and we gave a lot of it to the Dream Center. But, yeah, Zoe, Church, Chad Veatch, check them out. They're on the front lines. We gave them some fearless church. Yep, check them out. We're doing everything we can. We know they got beds, supplies, everything. But then the Dream Center. What did Chad Veatch say about Matthew Barnett? He said he's the Mother Teresa of la.

He is.

That's what he said. And here's where they're different. That's why we gave them the most money, is because what most people do, occasionally, he does every day.

He does it every day.

He does every day.

He's given his life at the Dream.

Center, and he does it better than anybody's done it. And so I would just ask some of you, man, if you really want to be boots on the ground and touch some people when they need it. All those houses that burnt down weren't by multimillionaire celebrities, just everyday good people like you and me who spent their whole life paying off their mortgage. And it's schools and it's businesses and it's pizza shops and restaurants and laundromats. It's burned to the ground. And so I would love to see people believe with us that in this time of great pain, that's right, man. There's opportunity for great revival.

But that's the beautiful thing about serving our God, too. He's the one. He's the only true living God. But he also takes tragedy and he takes terrible things. Romans 8, 28. And he works it for our good. So there's no telling what's going to happen out of this mess in California, what God's going to take, because that's who we serve. That's our hope, right? I tell people, you wouldn't take a. You go to bake a cake, you wouldn't take a whole cup of sugar and eat a cup of sugar. That's gross. You wouldn't eat a whole cup of flour. That is disgusting. But you take that and the other ingredients and you work it, and then you put it under the fire, the pressure and the baking of it, and then out comes something beautiful. That is such a picture of our life. God takes the good, the bad, the ugly, the ups, the downs, the good days, the bad days. But when you look back over your life, you say, man, man, he made it beautiful. It all worked out for good. And that's what I am believing that God's going to do. In this situation in California.

Yeah. Some of you are just tremendous givers and you're very generous to our media ministries and our personal ministries and stuff. Don't send the money to us. We are five hours away. Check out those churches. Or maybe you have another someone. I know Pastor Jensen and a lot of others who've got great.

The Dream Center. I mean, you just can't go right.

Humanitarian effort that you can't get any better than the Dream Center. And they're just. Man, the Barnett's just the best people. They're just the best people. And I love their heart and I love what they do. Well, anyway, that wasn't scholarly material, but I just felt like we needed to talk about it because I've seen so many different schools of thought on why what's happening is happening. And do I think God causes everything? No.

He uses everything.

But I do believe he uses everything. And I do sometimes believe if you're stiff necked long enough, he will step out, turn you over to yourself, and then let you drink a little bit of your own pain.

Been there.

Could that be happening? It can be, because I know it's happened in our life. Yeah. And when you just, you know, constantly have opportunities to turn around and you don't, God will say, I'm going to turn you over to yourself a little while and that'll be enough. Baby, we don't need a devil. All we got to do is be turned over to ourselves. Yeah. Our flesh has got the ability to ruin our life before suppertime. And so I just want to encourage people to pray, to believe if you can do something. Because we're living out here and we feel what they feel, we hear what they hear. We have a lot of people whose. Their relatives are here and they're telling us sad stories and everything else. But most of all, let the people of God be a light.

That's right.

And an opportunity that. I don't know how long this window is going to stay open, but I guarantee you some people that have never been open before are searching for answers right now. And so we need to speak. Amen.

Thank you guys for being with us. We love you. Until next time, it's running. Hope unfiltered, real raw, relevant.

Thank you, guys.