What 35 Years Has Taught Us | Ron + Hope: Unfiltered

Hey everybody, it's Ron and Hope Carpenter. Have you missed us?

We missed last week.

No. Yes. Did we? I don't know. We've been on vacation. So yeah, we did miss one.

Been doing two things that we've been mixing it. I've been doing vacation mixed in with special speaking engagements.

Yep.

So, I've had a little bit of both. It's been a little bit of work and a little bit of pleasure. But we did take our kids, grandkids on a camping trip. Then we left for a few days for our anniversary.

Yep.

36. Then I had some speaking engagements.

36 years.

And now we've been working all along remotely, where we never stopped working, but we're back in the office now, thank the Lord. 36 years, 3 years, 3 full years we dated, almost 4 decades together.

That's a long time.

That is a long time.

But it's a good life.

It's a good life. 4 decades, I mean, that's hard to— 4 decades, that's hard to wrap your mind around. But anyway.

I like your little brown shirt.

It's a birthday present. I just turned—

It's a little velourish.

While we were gone, I turned 58.

You got on a little velour. Makes me wanna just— Rub your little arm.

Rub me publicly, baby. Do that. So I got— and we had like— I told them, I said, it's hard. I hated on the church, they want to celebrate, but like Father's Day, our anniversary, and my birthday's all within like 3 or 4 weeks of each other combined.

So, well, that ain't never going to change.

So I had a lot going on, but I did turn 58. Had a lot of people on social media and things, wish me a happy birthday. Thank you for all that, that's meaningful. I tend to be, my love language tends to be a little bit more words of affirmation. So just saying a little something kind to me goes a long way. Just a little note on a card or a thank you.

That's what I was talking about, your velour shirt, I was saying something kind.

Yeah, but you want something when you do that, so it's different. No, I don't. Anyway, I appreciate all the happy birthdays.

So my birthday, an anniversary we've celebrated, We're about to celebrate our 35th year in ministry.

Let me tell everybody to be watching what we've talked about doing. These are not planned, but this one is going to be. We're not going to draw out each day, but the topic is planned. And a lot of times, one of the things that is unique about this is literally there are times 2 minutes before they say, "Roll," We say, "What are you gonna talk about?" We do that because usually a lot of real non-ministry Ron and Hope comes out that hopefully is entertaining. Some of it may be informational. But I really felt like I told Hope a little while ago, I said this morning I was having a little prayer meditation time in my car on the way here. I have a long drive in and I was praying and I felt like God said, "Take about 6 weeks." So that we would have to start this Early September, right? No, anniversary's not in August. I gotta do that. We gotta start it probably next week then. We'll start it about next week. And I was thinking about the LXP. I'm sorry.

You keep telling people that our anniversary is the 17th. It's not, it's August 18th.

August 18th. I was thinking it was August 17th. August 18th. And I was thinking anniversary's in August, but that's our LXP conference. Apologize, my fault.

Baby, you just got that wrong again. Our anniversary is August.

Is August. LXP is October. October. What'd I say?

You said, "I was thinking that our anniversary was August, but that's LXP." No, anniversary is August.

LXP is October. Did I get that right?

Yes.

All right, don't wanna confuse anybody. And I'm gonna take 3 or 4 weeks and I wanna talk about miracles. Ron and Hope/Redemption miracles. I mean, bona fide miracles.

35 years ago?

I'm not really talking about breakthroughs. I'm not really talking about blessings. I'm talking about divine intervention in our life, in Redemption's life, that was nothing more than God doing something that we could not do ourselves.

Plenty of them.

And oh my gosh, if we ever sit down and started listening to them, it'd be too much for 4 weeks. But we just wanna share some of them with you because we want to encourage you in your faith. The Bible says that they overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony and loving not their life to the death. So the blood of Jesus, self-sacrifice, and then hearing the testimony of others helps you to overcome. Why? Because God's no respecter of persons.

Build your faith.

If God's done it for you, he will also be faithful to me as well. And so, just some things, some of these things are financial, some of them are relational, some of them are health, some of them are our children. There's so many things that we've seen that all of it would pertain to your life whether you're in ministry or not. So, be looking for those podcasts. We may start that as early as next week. But today, tell them what you want to talk about.

We're going to talk about some—

Pardon me.

Baby, what is wrong with your throat? Here.

I just had one. I don't want another one. I don't want another one. I just had one.

You need one though.

'Cause I'll start chewing it.

So, today, we're gonna talk about God lessons. God lessons. We're gonna talk about the miracles of God over the last 35 years. But what are some of the things that God has taught you over the last 35 years? God lessons. So, my first question, Ron, what are some of the things—

So, you get to ask the questions and I gotta answer them?

No, we're both gonna talk about it. So, what are some things that God has taught you about money?

Oh, pfft.

Money.

Money. Hope Carpenter. I could go the rest of the year on that. That's been one of the most revolutionized renewals of my mind.

So true. So true. I mean, if we could just sit down on the couch with people.

Oh man.

And just—

I'm gonna go simple but profound. Okay. I didn't know where all this was going. You did say, let's talk about lessons that we've learned over the years. So we're gonna talk about miracles that we've experienced and lessons we've learned now that we're coming up on an anniversary time. Number 1, that my God is good. There are so many people, Hope, that have a difficult time grasping God is a good God.

And he wants good things for us.

If you being evil, Jesus said, listen to that, you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more does your heavenly Father know how to give good gifts to those that love him? I came up in an atmosphere where if you had anything, we side-eyed you. Yeah, kind of like, "Mm." We side-eyed you because I have sat in services, Hope, where there were testimonies where people were testifying of how poor they were.

Like, giving glory to God.

It was virtue.

Yeah, like virtuous.

It was virtue. How much they had been through, how bad life was. And whenever you think your life is bad, remember mine and you'll feel better. I remember in Wahalla, South Carolina at a church where a guy got up one night when we were preaching and testified that. And I even then at 20 years old, I'm like, boy, that don't sound right. I didn't know theology, but I'm like, that don't even sound right. I was raised among the people in my mom's family that did have money, but hid it in their house. That kind. Literally.

Still almost a poverty.

Yeah, literally.

That's like a poverty mindset.

Literally hid it in the house.

But we gonna hide it because there's never enough.

They didn't invest it, they hid it.

Yeah.

Like somebody's gonna get it. Somebody's gonna take it from me. And then, of course, my dad came from squalor. And— We would—

What's squalor?

Nothing. You saw some of the dysfunction my dad came from.

Yeah, but I just never heard squalor.

My dad came from nothing. Just, I don't even know for sure who raised my dad.

Mm, money.

In his little family tree, I'm not even sure who raised him. And we never had anything. I think, you know, when my dad, when we found out my dad was terminally ill, Me and you went and bought my dad a house, literally, to pass away in. That makes me sad. My dad worked too hard and gave too much to never have anything. And so—

but he was brought up in that church too, that had the mindset of—

absolutely, absolutely.

You know, poverty and that's godly.

A little bit of virtue to it. A little bit of virtue to it. And this is the Scripture. The birds have, you know, nests, foxes have holes, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. And they would use scriptures like that to tout the virtue of their poverty. And I've come later to, you know, that's Mark chapter 8, that whole chapter has to do with authority.

Yeah, it has nothing to do with poverty.

Jesus took authority over a fever, Jesus took authority over demons and cast them out, Jesus took authority over death, the whole thing is about authority, and then when they questioned Jesus, he said, Fox have holes. They have their domain. They have a place where they rule. They exercise their authority and they are in charge. But the foxes can't go to the air. The birds have the air. That's where they rule and have dominion. But the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. Headship. That is authority. So, the Son of Man has nowhere to place his authority, meaning we have got to step up, grow into him who is Christ, and walk in our authority. It does have nothing to do with virtuous being applied to poverty.

Well, there's so much to talk about.

Yeah, I got a lot.

What we've learned about— we could take this whole podcast.

I could take a year. I could take all year.

And talk about what we've learned about money. But before we do, so let's talk about some of our amazing sponsors. And one of them is Green Chef. So, real talk, we've tried our fair share, and this is the one diet. And super strict and hard to keep up with, and honestly, they don't last. They just don't. So, quick fixes are just not sustainable, really, for anybody. It's not. So that's why we love Green Chef. Where fad diets fail, they deliver real food and recipes that make healthy eating feel easy and actually lasting. It's been one of our favorites. It's felt effortless, like we're just eating well without overthinking it. And with Green Chef, every week, every week, you get over 40 recipes made with organic produce, responsibly sourced proteins, and nothing that you cannot pronounce. Meals come pre-portioned, ready in minutes. And if you want guidance beyond the plate, they include free, unlimited, one-on-one nutrition coaching that helps you stay on track. I feel better, Ron feels better. We're eating great meals, and it actually fits into our life without being overwhelming. So head to greenchef.com/50ronandhope and use code 50RONANDHOPE to get 50% off your first month, then 20% off for 2 months. That's code 50RONANDHOPE at greenchef.com/50ronandhope. 50, Ron and Hope. Okay, money.

All right, number 1, God is good. Number 2, he wants to bless us.

He does, because if, if us being evil want to give good gifts to our kids and grandkids, and I had to use your $300 to do that, remember I took money out of your Apple Pay.

So she's laying in bed last night and I walk in there to kiss her good night and she said, I just moved $300 from your Apple Pay.

I said, "I forgot to tell you, I took $300." And I said, "Why?" And reimbursed myself.

So our grandkids were going to Disney World and she wanted to give them all $100 apiece spending money. I don't mind that, but Hope—

What could they get for $100 at Disney?

Hope is blessed.

One ice cream.

Hope's blessed and is doing quite well in this day and time. And I reminded her what she made last year. And I said, "But you had to go reimburse yourself $300. So you gave the kids a gift and I had to reimburse you for the gift you gave." "Yesss." And I just started laughing and walked out the room, basically.

So, if we want to give our kids—

Did you laugh too? You covered your face.

I did. I giggled. If we wanna give our kids and grandkids good gifts, right? How much more does he want to give us?

I don't wanna spend all my time there, but that is fundamental. There's a lot of people just don't see God that way.

Right, they think that he's mean.

It's a fundamental flaw.

He wants to slay us.

"God's out to get me.

God wants to crush me." He's trying to hold something back.

Yeah, God, you know, and the fact is, is his people— that are to eat of the fat of the land. And it's— remember the Lord thy God, who has given thee the power to get wealth. The power to get wealth is a power called the blessing. The word blessing means empowered to prosper. God, what did he do? He blessed Adam and Eve and then said, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue, have dominion." But the empowerment was from the blessing, or he never could have asked them to multiply.

Right, right. I think people get all janky when it comes to this because they see a lot of people being super blessed and other people aren't, and they're like, "That's not fair." No, the blessing comes, the empowerment, God gives the power to get wet.

Where did the empowerment come? It comes from the tithe. That word blessing, when you bring the tithe, it pours out the blessing. Hope Carpenter, to my knowledge, Since before we met, when we were dating, you and I have never missed a tithe. No. Recession, downturn, no groceries, no gas, we never missed tithe. We never missed tithe. And it is just hard to get people there. I don't understand it. I would— I have too much fear of God not to.

Right.

Because I have seen how far God has brought a never shoulda, coulda been Ron Carpenter. And I attribute all of that to trying to find out what does God say and obey it. Because God rules the earth through laws and God rules my finances through laws. If I apply, learn and apply these laws, God will rule in that area of my life. Another thing, the power of investment. God did not say those that have authority in the kingdom have— are people that save. He did not say they're the people that earn. He gave one 5, one 2, and one 1. And he said, "Put this to work." Put it in the bank. Work.

Investment.

'til I come back. And then he called them back to see what they had gained or what interest they had gained with what he had given them.

Well, they certainly didn't put it in the bank. 'Cause you don't get any interest—

The long and short of it is— —from the bank. Warren Buffett, this was a couple of years ago since I saw this, the CEO of Coca-Cola made a $7 million salary. Warren Buffett made $33 million off Coca-Cola from investments. Wow. The rich do not tie their wealth to earning. They tie their wealth to their investment. And when Jesus taught the laws of, "You've been faithful in little, now take authority over—" Oh, that's huge. So, when you are faithful, "Well, you know, we only make such and such. We can't do—" We can't do— we did a $25 college fund when we were scraping together pinto beans. We made nothing. We had a college fund. And so, what happens?

We applied and could get government funds. That's absolutely right. Absolutely. And we were still putting $25 a month in a college fund per child.

And there's just a lot of people, you know, "Well, we can't." Well, we can.

Yes, you can.

You put your money where your mouth is. You just, you know, that's a couple of Starbucks trips. Right? And so, I see tons and tons of money that could be invested that's going to entertainment and comfort things. There are people who are totally and completely strapped with expenses, but not most. Let me tell you.

Let me just give you one. Let me tell you. Ugh. Yesterday, I was on a call with somebody. Who wanted life insurance. And so I was like, absolutely. They were in their 60s, had never gotten life insurance.

In their 60s? In their 60s. That's tough.

Had never gotten life insurance. It's doable, but it's going to be more expensive because you're older, so you don't have much of life left. So it's a bigger risk for the insurance company. So they wanted life insurance. She said, I've been convicted. I know we need to prepare in this area. And so I said, well, what's your budget? What do you want? To spend each month. She said, "Well, could we get anything for $100,000 a month?" And I said, "At your age—" Not at 60, no. You could, but it's— you probably wouldn't get but maybe $40,000, maybe pay for your funeral. And I said, "Let me just do some more research." And I came back and I found a policy, a $100,000 policy, which isn't going to pay off a mortgage, isn't going to let you live anymore.

Give you some breathing room, though.

Give you some breathing room. But it was $140. And they said, "Could you get it down cheaper?" I said, "Can I ask you a question?" I said, "What do you pay for your car insurance every month?" And it was significantly higher. I said— she said, "Well, could we get our money back?" It's called return of premium. I said, "Not if you're 60 years old." I said, "That's only available for 50-year-olds and under." I said, "60-year-olds, you can't get return of premium." She was like, "Ah." I said, "Do you get return of premium for your car insurance?" All this car insurance you pay that you really never, ever, ever, ever use. But see, we've got money going places. We just don't have it going to the right place.

Hope, it's learning what the Bible says about money. A guy told me the other day, they didn't have a mortgage. They had their house paid off, but he wanted to start a business. And he said, "I just don't have the capital. I just don't have the capital." I said, "Sure you do." He looked at me and said, "What?" I said, "You're living in it." He just got quiet. You gotta understand, you know, you got a ton of capital. You understand money. Yeah, you got a ton of it, but you're living in it. So I understand that you got the richest people make money off dividends. Income tax is the highest taxed. Dividends is taxed less than income. So these guys don't work to earn, they don't pay themselves salaries, they live off the dividends from their investments and pay less tax. I mean, you know, and these are the things that I've learned. So God wants you to invest. God wants you to invest and God wants you to invest long-term. The fact is, no time's too late, but in your 60s is probably not the best time to start. Right. But even a little bit over a long period of time, there's a power called compounded interest that is almost miraculous. And it's when your interest, you've done it so long, your interest starts making interest.

I was so proud. I have this other client who is only 22 years old, and he has $10,000 saved up. And he said, "I know it's not a lot of money." He said, "But I want to take this $10,000 and put it into an investment. What would you recommend?" I said, "Well, we have a company who allows you the least amount is $5,000 for an annuity, which $5,000 is unheard of, but most of them are $20,000 you have to start with. He said, "I wanna put all this $10,000 into this annuity, and I'm gonna commit to put $500 a month until I retire." Oh, wow.

Wow. Oh, hell— But that's starting out little. He'll retire a millionaire. He'll be a millionaire.

He'll be a millionaire. And that is guaranteed lifetime income.

But it's not because of how much he's putting in there. It's because of when he started. When he started, 'cause he's starting now. It's because of when he's starting. And there was another big one that I wanted to put in there. Oh yeah, to not put money in diminishing assets, okay? I would never pay cash for a car. I've heard people do it. I say never. If I got more money, I know what to do with, I might go pay cash for it. But I— An average person should never take their liquid cash and pay for a car that depreciates. You put it in things that upvalue. Appreciate. And these are just little things. You said, "What have I learned about money?" Like I said, I could go on and on and on and on. But I've also learned— I'll stop with this one. And this was gonna be in our miracle segment. I won't tell them the story, but with miracles— I've also learned that, especially financially, what you make happen for others, God will make happen for you. And— That's a spiritual principle. That's a spiritual law. Yeah. And there have been so many times we saw where we were in position to meet somebody's need, fulfill a dream, help them break through, get them to the other side, be a bridge, whatever it was. And God immediately turned around. And in the same way and in the same area of our life, boom! Just a absolute— miracle explode in our life. And so, you know, what have you learned from money? We're radical givers. We are. We're radical givers. I'm just not talking about church. We're radical givers all the time. We're radical givers when we tip. We're radical givers— just the other day, I valeted a car. The valet was $10. I gave the guy a $30 tip. Why? I heard him talking about being a college student. I remember being a college student and not having anything. And so, I just, "Hey, next burger's on me, here." Big old smile comes on the guy's face because it's more blessed to— Give. Than to— Receive. Man, to know that you are a part in making somebody's day better because you are in a position to do that, I get so much out of that.

All right, one more question. What's something that God has taught you about failure?

Failure is your greatest teacher and never waste a good failure. Mm, never waste a good failure. Never waste a good— I can answer you quickly on that one 'cause I've had so many of 'em. Never waste a good failure. And I'll just flip it over this, success is a lousy teacher. True. Success teaches you that you can't fail. And then so when you fail, you don't know what to do. And I will tell you, we had a long time where we won. And then failure hit us like a baseball bat in the face. And I was in unfamiliar territory because— and I told— I was laughing one time. I said, "God, I blame it on you." I said, "But you gave us so many victories." And we got used to winning. But don't ever win so much that you think you can't fail. Because I have not learned a lot, Hope, on the heels of my successes. I have learned life-changing lessons on the heels of a failure.

I have found that there's only been successes after failures. Mm-hmm. Really. I mean, You fall down, "Though a righteous man fall 7 times, you get back up." There's always gonna be— I think people get all like— it's like an identity crisis, like you just said, or an insecurity thing about being afraid to fail, or, "What will people think about me if this happens, or I don't make this, or the business doesn't work?" There's gonna be tons of businesses that don't work. There's going to be tons of relationships that don't work. There's going to be tons of times you get up and try and you fail, but you got to keep going or you'll never win.

My— I think my— I've told you every blessing cuts both ways. You've heard me say that. There's a double-edged sword to everything. My challenge was never the fear of failure. I really didn't give a flip if people had an opinion about me failing. You know, some people are so scared of what people think if it don't work. Mine was impetuousness. I would roll the dice too quickly.

And that's not wisdom.

Yeah, I would roll the dice too quickly. And you know, people, they say, "Man, Ron, you seem very incalculated." But I am a risk taker. I am a risk taker. We're sitting in California. That was the biggest risk of my life.

What we— But was it? Yes.

Because God said, "Do it." Well, it's never a risk, but on a practical level. And I got all the texts from pastors around America to prove everybody else thought it was my biggest risk as well. And you came and rolled the dice with me. And now look at all the— ways God's expanded our world to be able to touch more people. I wouldn't take anything for it. But I did have some pretty swift kicks in the gut because this is a good idea, let's go. And in all your ways acknowledge him, lean not to your own understanding.

I did a whole teaching on this yesterday on Proverbs 8. That— About waiting, waiting and praying.

That's been my double-edged sword.

Say, wait and pray. Give yourself 24 hours before you make— big decisions.

God never had a problem with me walking on the water. He had a problem with me waiting till he said, "Come." That's probably been the problem with me.

Taking risk is not a problem with you, it's timing.

It's timing. Yeah. What do I tell you now that I've learned myself? I said, "I have to be very careful 'cause I will make this happen." Yeah, you can figure out how. I will make it happen in the arm of the flesh and I'll birth an Ishmael before I know what I've done. And unfortunately, then I end up dragging you and my family through that, and I gotta go take 3 years and clean up what I just created.

So, when we're talking about failure, what have we learned through failure? Not all— Failure's good, but not all failure has to happen either. Oh, no.

So, I still believe this, and we've had train wrecks. I can think of 3 train wrecks. Full-blown trainwrecks. Come off the rail. Where our life could have very easily never recovered. But I still believe this. I do not believe you can sidestep all the bumps in life. But I do not also believe that life has to be a series of train wrecks. Right, right. And take it from me, hear it from us, I don't— I think you can stay near enough to the heartbeat of God, have enough of the Word in you, and be sensitive enough to follow him where— is it gonna be bumpy? Yes. Is it gonna be challenging? Yes. Does it have to be crash after crash after crash? No. No, it does not. And we've experienced the crashes, and hopefully, we've learned from 'em because when you haven't learned is when you repeat the crash. Yeah, yeah. We've had a different crash. I don't think we've ever repeated a crash. But anyway, that's a good talk today. I've learned a lot about money that has changed our life. And you know what? Let me go back to that one, 'cause everybody don't mind you talking about failure, but people don't like you talking about money.

But they all want it.

But I wanna go back to— They all want more of it. There's two things everybody wants more of, but no preacher will talk about, and that's sex and money.

And we talk about both.

Everybody wants more of both of those, whether they admit it or not. And the fact is, the only topic in the Bible that is spoken more about than love— is money. —is money. Why? Because where your treasure is— is where your heart will be. —your heart is. I don't think God gives beans about your money. I think he cares intimately about your heart. And he knows they're tied. So, when God's got your money, to God, he's got your— Heart. And that's all he wants. And people have got to understand, God is going— "Well, God's beyond that. God don't care about—" Oh, he will deal with your money to get to your heart. And I believe if he feels like he ain't got your heart, he can shake your money. Yeah, absolutely. He can do a lot of things to get you with that. God wants our heart. He wants us to follow him with a whole heart. And you cannot separate our heart from our resources. No, never.

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Get the word out. We're talking about God lessons today and some of them that we've learned about money.

We might mix this in with the miracles. This was good, baby. This was good. This was her idea.

This was good. It's awesome. So until next time, it's Runnin' Hope, unfiltered, real, raw, and relevant.

See you guys later.