Resolutions | Ron + Hope: Unfiltered

Foreign.

Hey, everybody, it's Ron and Hope. Unfiltered, real raw and relevant. This is season four. Season four. We've been doing this four years, Ron.

Seems like it.

Seems like it. Time flies when you're having fun. This is a lot of content.

It is season four. I'm in horrific pain right now.

I know you are. Okay. We have overcome the leg obstacle. The obstacle. Y' all know Ron had his knee surgery. Now he's walking fine.

Four weeks. We gotta give Jesus praise because four weeks into it. Actually, let me tell my little story.

Uh oh.

I take two medicines and one of them is a statin. Everybody in my family said high cholesterol, tried with everything in the natural to break it and still believe by the power of God it can be broken. But decided about a little over a year ago I'd let my doctor put me on statin. I never had ridiculously high numbers, but just more than they wanted. And with the doctor and with everything I found online, your joints and your muscles going to feel terrible. And that was pretty much true. And this knee was coming along so slow. I even told you one time, I said, I'm a little concerned because it wasn't getting any better. And I kept reading these things online and seeing these doctors fuss back and forth about cholesterol versus statin. And is cholesterol really bad for you? These are medical experts. These aren't just, you know, podcasters. And so I just said, I'm going to try something. I haven't gone back to check my cholesterol yet, but I said, I'm not going to take my statins, see if it makes a difference in my joint. Four days after I quit, remember I told you I felt like I had a brand new leg?

You said, I feel like I could run up this hill and back.

I mean, to tell you, it was transformational. So I don't know what I'm going to do. I just need to believe God to pull my. And I'm not advocating everybody go out there and stop taking medicine so that you feel I'm not talking. But I decided to do it. I'm going to see what my next numbers are.

Big controversy about cholesterol, about cholesterol, whether or not there's.

Yeah, that number's really high.

That number started higher and then they lower it, then they lower it. Now it's down to where it's almost unrealistic.

Unrealistic. So only. And they got it down so low, only medicine can take it there.

Right? Well, ding dong.

Yeah. So There you go. Anyway, long and short of it is. I mean, literally four days after not taking it, I could not believe. And I'm not advocating anything. I'm just telling you. Ferran carpentry. Oh. It felt like. It felt normal again. I'm like, well, man, has that been slowing the progress of it.

So anyway, then you got healed of that, and then you started having a week ago Monday.

Week ago Monday. Week ago Monday. The Monday after Christmas. I'm sitting there. We had great church on Sunday, and Monday's our day off. So we're sitting there. Literally, one of my most beloved times, my time with you in the morning when we drink coffee. Especially on my day off, we don't have nothing pressing. And I went there because usually a bad tooth is a deterioration and you can feel it coming out. I didn't feel nothing. I was fine. And I was looking there at you. I took my first sip of coffee and that hot hit it and I went, ooh. I remember looking at you like, I wonder what that was. By that night.

Yes. You were walking the floor.

Oh, my goodness.

Thankfully, we have a dentist friend in our neighborhood who called you in an antibiotic, but it still took over 24 hours for that pain.

That was terrible.

Still in pain, but it had eased.

Off 10 times the pain of my knee.

Yeah, it's crazy, that little tooth in.

Your head all up in here and get.

So then we come back to California Sunday afternoon, you go the dentist two days ago on Monday.

So in other words, I put my round of antibiotics because they said, it's confected. We can't get it dead confected, it's infected, and we can't get it dead unless you take a round of antibiotics. So here I go, taking more Advil than I've taken in 10 years combined, trying to just manage that pain and take that round of antibiotics, get rid of the infection. So I couldn't wait. Got back to California and went to the endodontist, and he got in there, and as soon as he drilled and opened it up, he said it was actually so infected. He said, I can't even finish it. He said, I got to pack it and medicate it and let you come back in a couple of weeks. Let me try to finish it. So here I'm sitting. Look now with an infected tooth that's been drilled on.

Yeah. And you're in worse pain than you were.

And so I came in. I walked in here at the podcast. I was going. My eyes were squinting. She said, you take something. I'M like, yeah, I did, but I need Jesus, only Jesus, in the name of Jesus, you know, I slept last night, though. Last night was one of the first nights I didn't wake up three times and walk the floors. And so I'm grateful for that. But they didn't get on the podcast to hear about my bicuspid.

Your molar?

No, it's a bicuspid. I thought it was a molar.

Yeah, okay.

I don't know what that means, but I said it was a bicuspid, it wasn't a molar.

You studied teeth, Honey, in the elementary.

School we just got through at a staff meeting talking about what we're embracing for New Year's. Me and you're going to talk a little bit about New Year's, New Year's resolutions and things like that. Do they work?

Who?

New Year's resolutions. For some, I've never been big on them.

For some people, I'm sure they do. People who have follow through.

I can't tell you any time where I've gone into a certain year and I'm. I'm going to start. I just kind of.

You're a discipline.

I just kind of do what I do. I just kind of do what I do in general. Now, that don't mean I don't believe God. I'm not talking about that. We'll get spiritual. I'm just talking about, you know, these practical things we want to implement. This is supposed to make our quality of life better. I know that there are people that kind of live and die by that stuff every new year, but I believe.

That you have to have a vision slash dream, but then you have to put legs to it. You know, we all have visions and dreams. We want to be out of debt, we want to lose £20. We want to make more money, we want to save more money, we want to travel more, we want to have a better marriage. We. All these dreams and hopes and plans, but do we do what it takes to have it? I think that's where the rubber meets the road. And I think that's what we really should talk about is who are the people who actually do it and who are the ones who never see it come to pass? And those are the people who focus on being rather than doing.

Well, there's some doing though it is.

But I think it's a byproduct of being, you know, seek you first the kingdom, then all of these things will be added unto you. You work on your fruit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, Goodness, gentleness, self control, all the. All the fruits of the spirit, then. Then that gives you the constitution to advance and pursue and overtake your goals and dreams.

I do believe that doing flows out of being. Yes, you got to become before you do, and you're a better doer if you have spent more time becoming. And, you know, I've always said, if the prodigal son would have switched his prayers, he'd have been fine. His first prayer was, give me. After he screwed up everything. Give me. He came back and said, make me.

Make me.

And if he'd have come the first time and said, make me, then, you know, the Father could have given him anything because, you know, he would have been everything he needed to be to manage, everything he needed to manage. But let me talk first about doing before I talk about being the doing part. Jesus said, there was a man who built his house upon the sand, a man who built his house upon the rock. And he said, the man that built his house upon the sand, when the storms came, basically it wiped it out. But when the storm came to the man who built his house upon the rock, and the house upon the rock withstood the storm. Couple of things I want to say right there, because this has to do basically with going into a new year and embracing, trying to embrace new things. Basically, both houses, none of them were exempt from storms. A lot of times we think if we're Christians, you know, we should be exempt from all that stuff. The house that was built right had a storm, and the house that was built wrong had a storm. Storms are a part of a fallen world. Storms are a part of life. It's not whether or not you're going to have a storm. It's have you built yourself to be able to withstand the storm and make it through the storm. And this is how he defined the guy who built his house upon the rock. He said, the one who held his bows upon the sand is the one who heard the word. He said, but the one who built his house upon the rock is the one who heard it and did what he heard. The power of execution is there's a big gap between want to and executing it. And I don't know why that seems to be the largest gap in the world. But turning a delight into a discipline. Excuse me, a desire into a discipline. You know, I don't know what YouTube to tell you to go watch to shorten that gap. There has to be a time. You just say, I'm going to do it.

Yeah, gonna get up and do It.

I'm going to do it, Okay? I want to lose 20 pounds. I'm pushing the sweet potato fries back. I'm going to do it.

Why are you trying to dog on sweet potato fries?

No exercise.

Good veggie.

You know, I just. I have to push it back. Well, you can eat them, but you're not going to eat them and lose 20 pounds.

What if that's all you eat?

Gang like crazy. If all you ate was a carb.

What if all I ate was 1500 calories of sweet potatoes, but I burned 2000 calories today?

You would lose weight and be unhealthy because you'd lose all of your muscle mass. I know.

I'm just messing with you, but.

You know, I want to get out of debt, okay? Cut up your credit cards. I mean, you know, faith without works is dead. You have the faith image of what you want to be. You can see it in your mind what you want to do. But then you got to go work your faith. You got to execute something. That word faith without works means I've learned this 20 years ago. Faith without a corresponding action. Every faith image has an action that corresponds to it.

Right?

Okay. You see something in your mind in this upcoming year that is an image of a new you in some area, your new marriage, your new career, you know, your new ministry, your new whatever. Okay? Now, what actions have you put in place that take you toward that desired goal? So there is this part of doing hope that there's a gap between the want to and the actual doing of it. And I hadn't prepared for this, and I hadn't prepared you either, but how do you shorten that gap? Is there a. Is there a mental exercise you got to go through, or is it just, I'm going to do it? I know you can have people that hold you accountable. You can get life coaches, you can get trainers. You can do all that.

That's still external.

Yeah, but ultimately, that's exactly what I was going to say. Ultimately, it's got to be inside of you. You can't have external factors being the only reason that you have disciplines.

And I do believe you say, well, I'm just not a naturally patient person, or I'm not a naturally diligent, get up, go getter person. All of. All of that we're talking about is fruit. And that's what we're talking about. This entire year in the inner circle. We started last night, and it was so powerful. And if you have not joined the inner circle and you say, my Life is out of control. You join that inner circle, we are going to get your life in control because we are digging into the fruit of the spirit. Why do I say that? Because the fruit, when we ask Jesus into our life and we start the Christian journey, we don't automatically, just because we're saved, say, wow, I've got tons of patience now. Oh, I just love everybody, I do. Oh, I'm self controlled. No, you didn't. Yeah, no, you didn't.

The moment I got from the altar.

Is that right? Okay.

But I had a radical salvation. I had a radical conversion experience.

You glow in the dark.

Where I came up with patience and kindness and love and joy.

You're just perfect in every way. Anyhow, when you ask Jesus into your heart, the fruit is deposited into you in seed form.

Wait a minute. What if I was one of those people that had miracle fruit?

Oh my God.

Well, God just gave it to me right after I got saved. Can you be saved in such a way? You get up with miracle fruit that don't have to be developed and cultivated. So everybody's got to do the seed crap.

So when you're saved, the fruit is deposited in seed form, but it has to be, it has to be strengthened, it has to grow. And the only way, unfortunately, that fruit is going to be strengthened and grow in your life is that you're put into situations where it's tested. Right. You hear it all the time. Don't pray for patience because you're going to get a trial, a trouble or a person who's going to come and test that.

Well, seed has to be put. For seed to bear fruit, it has to be put into soil. What does soil do? Soil resists the seed.

It resists.

It resists the seed. When you resist the seed, what is inside of the seed comes to the surface.

Right.

Will find out what's inside of you. Anytime resistance comes in life, right?

Every time, anytime you are tested.

So sometimes to bear the fruit, God will plant you in resistance.

Yes. So what we're talking about is accomplishing all these things on the outside. You're just doing that in the flesh. You're doing it with works and it never lasts. When you're doing something in the flesh with ill motive, you're doing it with wrong motive. But when you're doing it, it's with God's help, with the Holy Spirit's help. And you are building your inside, your spiritual muscles on the inside, that is producing fruit that will last. I don't want to just lose five pounds this month and never and not maintain it. You want. We want fruit that will last. And that is when we thought. Why are you laughing at me? I'm gonna slap you. Why are you laughing at me?

I like your pounds, baby. I don't want you to lose no weight.

Okay?

Leave your pounds alone, okay? I do like them.

I know.

What do I tell you when I slide you cheesecake?

Build it.

Yeah, build it. Build it for me. Build me a house so y' all.

See what I deal with.

So usually you're the one bringing the funny to it. I'm having to bring the funny day because you're in preach mode, trying to help somebody preach. You want to hit a pulpit trying.

To help them obtain their goals, live out their dreams, and it not just be a pie in the sky.

The fact is, all fruit of the spirit is developed.

It is.

And a part of getting your goals will mean you gotta be extremely self disciplined and self controlled. And what a lot of people may have never heard is that is a fruit of spirit.

Self control.

Self control. The ability to tell yourself what yourself is going to do. And not let your feelings, not let what you're going through, not let your tiredness not let. Tell you. You got to tell it. And that's not it Sounds easy to say right here on a podcast, but it's a hard thing to develop. And like I've told you lately, I said, as I get older, I can almost find more and more things wanting to talk me out of those workouts. Those workouts in my 20s and my 30s, they came easy. In my 40s, they became a little bit more of a challenge. In my 50s, for the first time in my life, I can find myself almost talking myself out of them. Why? Because they're harder to do. Because the fact is, I don't have no trainer. I don't have nobody around me. I don't work out with anybody. So it's all got to come from inside. In other words, I want to live a long time. I want to live a healthy life. I want to have an impact for God while I'm here. So it is important as I age that I continue to do this. And when I've been traveling and we're in a hotel now look at you and say, man, talk me out of this workout. And you're like, well, I got to do some work right here in this book. And I'm like, ugh. That means I got to go work out. So I don't want to do it. I don't feel like doing it. But do what is best for you in spite of how you feel.

That's right.

That is what a lot of New Year's resolutions are. A New Year's resolution needs to be something about making yourself better.

Right.

And so I would just tell some.

People right now, everybody wants that. I think everybody wants to be better, but they don't have the internal structure that helps them get on the path and stay on the path. And when we focus on our relationship with the Lord and growing our fruit, maturing our fruit, that's what keeps us on the path.

What's something you want to see in 2025?

I have a lot I want to see in 2025.

We'll see in me.

In you? No toothaches and no knee problems.

I don't know my operations. I had two operations last year.

Yeah.

I want you how you go your whole life and not have any and have two in one year.

My body starts talking to you on.

That face that was much more involved than anybody thought it would be. And then had to get set down on that. So I enjoyed all 55 years of never even having to be cut on. Then twice in one year, I got set back. And so let me tell you something now is rehabbing a knee and getting that knee strong again here again, it'd be better to sit there with a pack on it or sit there with a heating pad on it or go get in a hot tub or something like that. But the fact is, what did my doctor say? Motion is Lotion.

Lotion.

So ride up to that gym and go get on that stationary bike. God, I hate that. I can't stand it. I can't stand treadmills and stationary anything.

You don't like staying in one place doing anything.

And I certainly don't like things like treadmills and stationary bikes, because I think how far I could have gotten if I wasn't on that cycle.

Oh, my goodness.

And so I don't like cycles that spend my energy, but don't take me anywhere. That's a sermon right there. How far I could have gotten if I wasn't on this cycle. And so, you know, here again, the first time I've ever had to rehab anything to start over and get it strong and strengthened again. So you know a guy who used to do squats?

Yep.

And now I sent you a video in there the other day. I had the little straps like the ladies do, and I was just squatting down, baby. I was so proud of myself.

All them years you did squats it didn't do nothing for your rear end.

My.

It did nothing. You wasted so many years. My glutes doing squats.

My glutes are borderline perfection.

Ron, if I could describe your glutes right now.

Borderline perfection. On one to ten, it's like two little bananas on a one to ten. Where are my glutes? It's like two little bananas on one to ten scale.

Oh, God. In cuteness or in muscularness just over our traps? Well, I think they're cute. I mean, they're not going to change, clearly, because you did.

Yes, they are.

30 years of squats and they didn't change.

Well, I've changed some things.

No, you haven't.

I've changed some things. Going to really get in there now, God. Now that I'm in my 50s, I'm going to get in there.

Think the Lord has released you from squat men right now?

I'm not doing them at all. I'm just like a lady over there with the little straps, just trying to get my range of motion back. So it's been a little bit humbling over there with the ladies holding onto this trap. But anyway, that's where we are right now. And I got to have discipline to go keep doing it, because I'm not going to advance back to the weight stack if I don't ever get it going right there and here. Again, the discipline to go do that. The driving in the Bay Area is tough.

It is.

And so, you know, they were talking about rehab, and I was thinking about all this driving already. It takes us like an hour to get in, sometime longer than that to get home. And I just. I can't spend half my day driving around the place. I said, no. I said, you know, I'm. I'll push me harder than anybody. I said, just give me a plan. And having to go and do these things to make it strong and here again, intrinsically having to motivate myself, because I just could sit on the couch and say, my knee hurts.

True.

I don't feel like doing nothing, you know, that hurts or that stretches me. But some things I want to see spiritually in me. I kind of want God some. One of the things I've been praying for this year is kind of the restoring the awe and the wonder back in serving him. There were the days when. And I think sometimes need can drive that. The days when we were in need, it was like we would almost see God do something every day. Miracles that make sense. And I have said this before, I don't want to be back to the place where God's got to do a miracle every day. Because I've actually said, I don't think that's highly spiritual. I think that's wilderness living. Wilderness living is when you get up and he's got to give you water out of a rock and think what you're trying to say.

No eye has seen, no ear has heard.

I want the. There was a day where wildness of God. People look at me and you now behind TV cameras and all. They don't see it, baby. We had such primitive beginnings. But I do remember some of the greatest formative moments of our faith were just seeing God show up.

Yeah.

And a guy coming off. A guy coming off the road who owned a pesticide company said, are you Ron Carpenter? Yeah. God told me that you had a medical debt. And we were trying to pay off our son's hospital bill because we had no insurance. Came in off the street.

Yeah.

We saw hundreds. It seems like we did things where we would. We wouldn't have any supper. Me and you would pray that God would provide. And we go open the door and a bag of groceries was laying on the. You know, the concrete. Just craziness. And there was a childlikeness to that.

Of expectation almost too, that once you.

Get established and God has taken you to level to level to level to level to level of blessing, you forget.

He can do it for you.

You forget. Yeah. You almost rely on your own innovation and own ingenuity and your learning and what you've. You know, the knowledge you've got under your belt and God gave you all that for a reason. You need to use it. But I don't want to ever lose.

The expectation of it.

Wow. God. God. And it's been. I know that don't sound like a great goal. That is one of my goals that I don't want to ever get used to God. I don't want to ever get familiar with God. I want to always get up every day and like a child, see the wonder of God. And so I have prepared our staff for some. No eye has seen, no ear has heard. Because we've been plowing and we've been grinding. But something's shifted here in the last two or three weeks. And something's moving and something's changing where things are happening that cannot be done by the hands of men.

That's right.

That's what I want to see in my life. Tell me one thing you want to see.

I wrote two things, two words over my Life this year is advancement and deep roots. I want personally to be strengthened, to grow, to be creative, to know him deeper, to know him better, to know the Word better. I'm reading through the Bible again this year and just deep, deep roots in my relationship.

I believe the Lord wants to teach you to love me more deeply.

Oh, my goodness gracious. If that's what he wants.

Look. To look at me and never lose your.

The wonder of knowing you.

Yeah.

Just like you want that of God. You want me to have that of you.

You see him walking me. Me walking towards you with my coffee. Oh, yeah.

Okay.

That's what you did with Dayton.

I do it still now. I just laugh at you a little bit.

Why?

Called you Lieutenant Dan. Your leg.

See, that ain't encouraging. That ain't a help, mate.

So are you coming down the hall? I say come here, Lieutenant Dan. Go shrimping. I love you.

How many operations have I nursed you through and never made fun of you?

Oh, Ron, here we go. So sensitive. Goodness.

How many operations? And I have one.

Such a baby.

I have one. And you equate me to a Forrest Gump character?

Yeah, actually, Jazlyn came up with that name, but I thought it was very appropriate.

You spoke it. I've been preaching about words. Told me. Lieutenant Dan, I. What do you believe him for? This is the first time we should be catching you in the new year. And they say. I heard. I don't know if this is true. You know, on the Internet, it has to be true. I heard most New Year's resolutions are give up on by the 9th of January.

Wow.

I don't know where the Internet drew that statistic, but I read that on one of my news notifications that most of them by the 9th of January have been given up on.

They don't make it to the 21 days or the 31 days where they're.

But if you develop the fruit. Yeah. It takes 21 days to develop a habit. So anything you can do 21 days, you can develop a habit of.

Caroline Leaf says 31 days breaks a cycle.

Really? I hadn't heard that one. 31 days breaks a cycle. She would know. And so I would just ask you what Hope's talking about on Inner Circle. The fruit of the spirit. The fruit of the spirit is self control. Everything that you want to change is all about how much control you have over yourself, how much discipline you have over yourself. And of course, the love, joy, peace, kindness. That's all a. Patience. That's all a part of it. But that last one dangling out and self control. What is self control in the Greek? The ability to control yourself. You rule over you. We talk about having dominion and ruling over our world. The first part of ruling over your world is ruling you. You can't rule till you've been ruled. And when God has dominion in your life and the final say so. And the marching orders, no matter how you feel that day, any goal that you have set that can be carried out in Jesus name, I believe that. So anyway, I believe that.

And listen, you're under the sound of our voice right now and I know many of you are maybe feeling convicted. You're like, yes, I've got these goals and plans that I want to do. I need to see this happen in my life. Let us help you. I mean, please, take a risk. Take a leap of faith. Join inner circle. Listen, ladies and gentlemen, it's less than a dollar a day. We waste more money on fingernails and coffee and creamers that do not change our life. You need to invest $29 a month. Join the inner circle. Join hundreds of other people across the world. Actually 5, 32 states represented countries. Go to hopesinnercircle.com, join today. Get yourself together. Let us help you get your life together. And I promise you, you'll be better because of it.

Yeah, I got something free I want you to have go to your app store and download Ron Carpenter AI. Ron Carpenter AI. We have computer that have studied everything in my archives. They only pull from what is in my archives. The prayers, the altar calls, the leadership, the staff meetings, all the hundreds and hundreds and thousands and thousands of messages and are there to answer any question you have. When you see that app, download it, it's free. And the feedback we've been getting is unreal because I think this can be one of the greatest discipleship tools. The argument against it is you got this computer speaking on your behalf and God can't anoint a computer. It's not a computer speaking on my behalf. It's a computer spitting back out to what I've already said.

Absolutely, okay.

And I can't be with everybody. It doesn't make up anything. I can only pull what has been programmed from my archives and my content to pull. So you ask that thing to pray for you because you're discouraged or you lost a job or you lost a friend or you got a Bible study coming up. Can you help me with Matthew 16? Can you let any insights on marriage? It's all in there. And I want you to take advantage of it. Ron Carpenter AI Download it. It's free. Ask it any question you want to, as long as you want to. We got one of the questions back the other night and it said on there, it's like 3:30 in the morning, I got to go to bed. I've been talking to you two and a half hours. So it's all there. If you ask it something ridiculous, you know, it'll redirect you like people do with Siri and Alexa. It'll redirect you, you know one. I saw one person on there, I'm just going to say it. Ron Carpenter, can you help me find a hooker? And the response was, you know, I don't participate in that lifestyle, but let me give you some scriptures that may help you out. So it immediately. If you do something ridiculous, it will redirect you to something in the word, something godly, but help for your life and a personal discipleship tool to build your faith and build your relationship with God. I think it can be one of the most innovative things out and I'm grateful for it. Download it. And until next time, it's Ron and.

Hope unfiltered, real, raw and relevant.

Happy New Year.