[SERMON] Surrender to Win: When Moderation Isn't Enough | Vices 3.0

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But today we get to continue our series called Vices.
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Now, uh, a vice is an immoral or wicked behavior, as a reminder, it's a weakness of character or behavior, it's a bad habit, and immoral or wicked personal characteristics.
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So those are what encompass a vice.
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Now, when some of you hear vice, you think Miami Vice, that's why we kind of have the Miami Vice aesthetic.
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For those of you who don't know what it is, I'm sorry, you're not old.
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Um, so but um vice is not a good thing.
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It's not something you should be excited about.
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Yeah, you may be excited if a Miami Vice re run comes on, right, or you're watching it, but like advice is not something you're supposed to be like, yeah, I have a vice, it's supposed to be a bad thing.
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Like, oh, I have a vice, this is bad.
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And a vice is something that's a bad habit, a bad character behavior.
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It's one of those things that we talked about.
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And often what happens with any of our vices, we've talked about them over the last three years, we've talked about a lot of things: sex, drugs, alcohol, pornography, tobacco.
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Uh, then we go into hobbies, then we go into like, so you know, I don't know if you know this, hoarding is hoarding is a vice.
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Some of you, you know, if you've got like trash bags full of stuff all over your house, that's a vice.
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Um, you know, different things can be vices.
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I actually have my vice is on our walls in here every week.
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Uh I, when I was in my early 20s, being right was an addiction to me.
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I wanted to be right and I believed I was right, and I would not apologize to you because if I was right, I didn't need to apologize.
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You need to apologize because I'm right.
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And so it's baked into our culture of honor over here on the wall.
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The fifth one down is you might be right, but is it loving?
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Early on in our marriage, we heard that, someone said that, and we're like, oh, that's pretty transformative.
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And that's true.
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So that's one of the things I've worked on.
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I don't really care if I'm right anymore.
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I've learned that like you've got to let some of those things go, but that was a vice.
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I wouldn't, I lost friendships over being right.
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And I was like, if they come to me and apologize, we'll be we'll be restored because I'm right and you're wrong.
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And I've seen this, you know, even with my own kids.
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Being an adult, like, I don't mind apologizing anymore.
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I'll apologize to you if you think I did something, even though I know I didn't, right?
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And so I'll just I don't care.
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Like being right doesn't matter.
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What matters is do I love people?
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Do I love my God and do I put people before being right?
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And so we have different vices.
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Some of those are the classic things that we think are bad in society, the sins.
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Some of them are just our character weaknesses or character flaws that we have.
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Like, I'm always balancing is my board game collection becoming a vice or not?
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It's a regular conversation.
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So it is.
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In my head with my wife.
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So those things.
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And so what happens with these vices is we often ask the question, how much can I get away with?
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I want to sin, or I want to experience a vice, I want to have a little taste of that, and I want to get as close as I can to it without falling over the cliff edge.
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And some of you, that is how you live life.
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You know, God says, hey, stay all the way back here, read my word, live on this.
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And you're like, well, everybody else seems to be over here having a good time.
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If I just keep rooted on the foundation Jesus, I can just have a little taste.
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The problem is that leads us into sin.
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And so we want to figure out in this series how do I honor God more with my lifestyle and not trying to just get away with as much sin as I can while still being accepted by God.
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That's the danger.
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And there's this popular phrase that gets thrown out in the world, and it's this everything is okay in moderation.
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Anyone ever heard that?
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Oh, everything's okay in moderation if you just have a little bit, not too much.
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I put a question mark on it because is everything okay in moderation?
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I think we got to go back to God's word.
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I don't think everything is.
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Moderation just means that I can have self-control, and I don't have too much, and I don't have too little of something.
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I have just right.
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It's like the Goldilocks thing, right?
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Goldilocks, if we all know the story of Goldilocks of Hope, and like Goldilocks went into this house and bears, and then she went to the bed, and one bed was too hard, and the other was too soft, and then she found one that was just right.
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And so moderation's a little bit of this, a little bit of that, not so much.
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But here's the problem with moderation.
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You don't moderately commit adultery, you don't moderately steal, you don't moderately abuse prescription drugs, and you don't moderately get drugs, drunk.
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Those are those are sins.
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You either do the sin or you don't.
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And guess what?
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God forgives sins.
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So that's the that's the reality of God.
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He loves us in our sin, but we don't moderately sin.
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We don't just sin just a little bit, right?
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It's either you're all the way in or you're all the way out of sin.
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And so when it comes down to it, we have to understand that moderation is not permission to moderately sin.
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Like just because everything's okay in moderation, I can have just a little bit of sin in my life and God still loves me.
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See, biblical moderation, it's bigger than portion control.
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It's not like, well, if I got that pizza, I can eat seven out of eight pieces of pizza, and that's moderation, because I left one.
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Right?
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You probably shouldn't ate seven.
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You probably should have ate two or four, right?
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Depending, right?
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Depending on how big that pizza is.
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So like it's not portion control of sin in your life.
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And some people think that the way that I can love God is I'll just have portion control of the amount of sin that I have, because I if I sin just that, if I just sin a limited amount, God will still love me.
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I'll be a little dirty, but he'll still love me.
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And that's not really the reality.
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Moderation, biblical moderation, it's self-control under the lordship of Jesus.
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That God is in control of my life.
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And I want to, if I want to have moderation in my life, it comes through the filter of this lens, the Bible.
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Like I ask God, hey, should this thing be in my life and how much of this thing should be in my life?
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And then you navigate that thing, that thought, that behavior, that lifestyle, whatever, through God's word, not through culture.
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What culture says is okay.
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And sometimes wisdom says that we should limit things in our lives.
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We should.
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That's why we talk about this series.
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We talk about the big stuff: sex, drugs, rock and roll, alcohol.
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We've talked about politics.
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That's coming up.
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Voting's coming up.
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That's that is for some people, that is a vice.
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They love to talk about the politics all year long.
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They live and they breathe it.
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Like, that's not always a healthy thing.
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You can be active moderately in politics, but it can't drive your whole life.
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Jesus does.
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So sometimes wisdom tells us to limit things in our life.
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And then sometimes wisdom says that we need to leave that thing altogether.
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We don't just need to moderate, we need to abstain from it.
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We need to have nothing to do with that action, that attitude, that behavior, that thought, that lifestyle.
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Because some things require moderation, and some some things require abstinence.
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Absolute absence.
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Now I know in 2026, when we say the word absence, everybody always thinks it has to do with sex, and you don't, like absence just means not having sex.
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Absence is a much bigger word.
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Absence is the voluntary decision to completely refrain from something because you believe not participating is the wisest or most Christ-honoring choice.
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That's what absence is.
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Absence can be with alcohol, it can be with drugs, it can be to politics, it can be with hobbies, it can be with the, you know, um your language, it can be with being right.
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Like I can be abstinent from having to be right all the time.
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That's the thing.
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And so we all have our issue, like that we have to figure out what that looks like.
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I I've shared with you in the series that early on for me when I graduated from Michigan and after playing football for four years, I had a real struggle with football.
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Like I was, I was, I knew everything about every player, I knew what was going on the season.
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I was so ingrained into that to the point of which I was not moderating my connection to my alma mater.
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And it was way too controlling of my life, my behavior, my attitude, and we would lose.
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And we lost a lot then because that was the Rich Rodriguez era, and it was a bad time to be addicted.
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It was like being a Lions fan from the beginning until now of being a Lions fan.
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Um, but when it comes down to it, it was something that was unhealthy that I had to pull back and I had to stop watching games, and I had to stop looking at websites about football, and I start to live my life a different way.
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And so absence can be in any different aspect of our life.
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And I know when people think, well, like, oh, I don't, I don't do the big three, right?
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I don't do drugs, I don't do alcohol, or I'm not living a sexually moral life, so I'm good.
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I don't need to be absent.
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The problem is you could be you need to be absent maybe in your attitude, like your behavior, your lifestyle, your hobbies, those can be issues as well for us.
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And so, really, the question we've been talking about is should this thing have any place in my life at all?
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We always should be evaluating and reevaluating.
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I am always evaluating and reevaluating my life based on God's word in 1 Corinthians 6.
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This, uh this, I think every single Christian, every single person should know this.
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Maybe not memorize it word for word, but you should memorize the three parts of this because we are told over and over again in Scripture, in by Paul, that we need to know this.
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It says this all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful.
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All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything.
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Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food.
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And God will destroy both one and the other.
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The body is not meant for sexual morality, but the body for the Lord and the Lord for the body.
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What was happening in this church in Corinth, which was very similar to us?
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They had everything.
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There are Romans, they be speaking to Roman citizens, both Jewish and um pagan, Gentile.
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And so they're fighting about what is permissible as a Christian because Jews didn't eat or drink the same things that Gentiles drank and ate.
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So they were having these arguments in the church.
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Oh, I'm a better, I'm a better follower of Jesus because I don't eat pork, right?
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Oh, I'm a better follower of Jesus because I don't drink as much alcohol.
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And they were fighting and arguing about lifestyle.
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And so Paul's giving them a way to figure out how do we all live for God?
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How does his word, how does it change us and transform all of us, whether we're Jew, whether we're Gentile.
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And he's giving us this litmus test.
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So much so that he says it in 1 Corinthians 6, and then later in the same letter, he comes back to it in 1 Corinthians 10, and he says this all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful.
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All things are lawful, but not all things build up.
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Let no one seek his own good but the good of his neighbor.
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Now, when a pastor repeats something, we do it intentional because we want you to focus on it, remember it, take that home.
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So Paul is a pastor who is reminding them again and again of the same concepts because he wants them to get it.
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Yes.
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They were Roman citizens.
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That was very like much like being an American in 2026.
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They were the top of the world, they had every authority.
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He's saying, yes, you can do whatever you want to do.
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But should you?
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Is it helpful to you?
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Is it helpful to others?
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Is it helpful to your relationship with God?
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And will it build up, encourage, or will it destroy and dominate and enslave you?
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And if you take it through those filters, you can make decisions about every aspect of your life.
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Whether it's drugs and alcohol, whether it's being right, whether it's politics, whether it's a hobby, you can filter through.
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Is this helpful for me?
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Is this helpful for my marriage?
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Is this helpful for my finances?
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Is this helpful for my time management?
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And then go down and does it dominate and enslave me, or does it build others up?
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And just because I can, doesn't mean I should.
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That's the reality of Scripture.
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And Paul goes on a few verses later, after a second time repeating this, he says, this so whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
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So everything we do should be filtered through, does this bring glory to God?
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If it doesn't, we shouldn't.
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If our attitude, our behavior, our actions, our speech, our lifestyle doesn't bring glory to God, if that thing that you're doing, if that sin that you're trying to squeeze into your life by just having a little taste of sin, if it doesn't bring glory to God, you shouldn't do it.
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You should abstain.
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Now there are things in life that aren't bad that don't detract from the glory of God, but don't bring glory to God.
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Maybe you shouldn't need to moderate them.
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Like sports.
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I don't think sports is by nature bad.
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We tend to make it bad.
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When we skip church for sports, then we tend to we tend to prioritize, right?
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Like I'm a big advocate against that.
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Like I don't, I was Mike was asking me, I was hanging out with Mike yesterday.
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I took a Ohio State fan to a Michigan game, it was great.
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Um I did tell him I was gonna say this.
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He did say go blue accidentally.
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Um mishap, so uh or uh divine providence, one of those two.
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But um but we went to the Michigan game, and like it was just it was fun to go and just do life together.
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But when we think about like the freedom, like he could have said, no, I don't do that.
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Like I would never do that.
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Like, I don't have the freedom to do that as a football fan of a different team.
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He was like, no, I'll go.
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Yeah, I'm sure he was rooting against us the whole time.
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It's okay.
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Uh no, but we had a great time.
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Like when you have to think about it, we have the freedom to do these different things with different people, but freedom is, you know, it also is something that allows us to bring glory to God.
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And for us, like just being there at having that time together, that was something that wasn't good or bad.
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We were just hanging out.
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And I think ultimately we brought glory to God because we were being friends and we were doing life together, but like it could become like it gets tense and the score gets tight, we start arguing and fighting because he likes a different team, I like a different, that doesn't bring glory to God.
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And so when we have these different rivalries and we're frustrated and we can't talk to people or we're mad at people because their team won and our team lost, that doesn't bring glory to God.
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I've realized this, right?
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What brings glory to God is when we love each other no matter what the differences are.
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And so sports by nature isn't bad, but we tend to find ways to create rivalries and dissension.
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We tend to choose those sports and things over God, and that's when it becomes a bad thing.
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We do this over and over again with other things in our lives.
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We do it with drugs, we do it with alcohol, we do it with relationships, we do it with people, we do it with pornography.
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We we choose these things over God, and then we don't bring glory to God, we actually bring destruction upon ourselves.
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And see, Christian freedom includes the freedom to walk away from sin.
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You don't have to, just because everybody can, doesn't mean that you should participate in the behaviors.
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Just because your friend jumped off a bridge doesn't mean you have to jump off a bridge.
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My mom would say this, well, so-and-so would jump off a bridge, would you?
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Well, maybe.
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Depends how fun it would be, right?
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That was always my answer.
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Well, there's always probably a condition of when I would, right?
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Um, but the truth is no.
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The answer is no.
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We shouldn't just do things because someone else does.
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We should do things because it brings glory to God through his word.
00:14:55.759 --> 00:14:58.799
And so I want to introduce you to my friends Mike and Jen Cook.
00:14:58.960 --> 00:15:13.120
Um, just getting to know them over the last few years they've been coming to church here has been profound and amazing to get to hear their story of God has how God has just transformed their life uh in relating to this topic and these devices we've been talking about.
00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:16.159
And I asked them to come share a little bit about their story with you.
00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:18.159
Yeah.
00:15:24.480 --> 00:15:25.039
Thank you.
00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:26.320
Did I get the right one?
00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:28.399
Red for Ohio 8.
00:15:30.720 --> 00:15:32.240
Thank you, Pastor Kyle.
00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:36.399
All right, good morning, Heart of the Lakes.
00:15:36.559 --> 00:15:39.200
We are gonna share our stories with you briefly here.
00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:40.799
Mike's gonna start us off.
00:15:41.679 --> 00:15:45.440
Boy, Cal, you're never gonna love me loved with that one down, are you?
00:15:45.679 --> 00:15:48.159
I make one mistake in my life, right?
00:15:48.320 --> 00:15:50.799
I was the truth of the matter is I'm gonna clarify that.
00:15:50.879 --> 00:15:56.639
I was parking my car and a guy said to me, Go blue, and I thought, I don't want my car scratched.
00:15:56.879 --> 00:15:57.919
Go blue.
00:15:59.840 --> 00:16:03.679
And I and I will regret saying that the rest of my life.
00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:10.399
But anyway, I'm Mike and I'm glad to be here today.
00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:15.759
Um when uh when I was a kid growing up, I grew up kind of a troubled kid.
00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:21.519
I started drinking and doing drugs at a young age, 14, 15 years old.
00:16:21.840 --> 00:16:35.039
And uh I uh I then, you know, when I turned 18, I went to Merchant Marines for three years, and I really learned how to drink good there.
00:16:36.159 --> 00:16:43.919
Uh in the Gulf did the Gulf of Mexico and I did the uh the Great Lakes.
00:16:44.399 --> 00:16:50.080
And um and then um I went on and had other jobs.
00:16:50.240 --> 00:17:05.920
I worked at Jeep and other jobs, and uh you know uh I you know I had a lot of fun when I was drinking and doing drugs, uh, you know, uh early, early on.
00:17:06.079 --> 00:17:08.079
But at the end it wasn't so pretty.
00:17:08.319 --> 00:17:13.359
And uh I just want to sum it up by saying by the time I was 23 I had four DUIs.
00:17:13.759 --> 00:17:18.400
So even though I didn't think I had a problem, other people seem to think I did.
00:17:19.119 --> 00:17:24.799
And uh, you know, I was kind of broken at 22 years old.
00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:27.200
I was I was uh you know kind of broken.
00:17:27.599 --> 00:17:40.319
And um, you know, I was able to find lucky enough to find um the program um of Alcoholics Anonymous and saved my life.
00:17:40.640 --> 00:17:47.359
And uh some of the people that I knew then, I still know now, 45 years later.
00:17:47.759 --> 00:17:51.599
And I've had an amazing life as a result of that.
00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:53.920
I've I've had an incredible life.
00:17:54.240 --> 00:18:00.799
And but I still go to meetings, and the reason I do is is because you know it's like medicine.
00:18:00.880 --> 00:18:03.759
I know that I need to go, and it renews me.
00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:07.519
And I don't this is the this is something I don't want to do right now.
00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:13.119
But uh, but the reason I'm doing it is because I know in order for me to keep what I have I have to give it away.
00:18:14.319 --> 00:18:15.680
Yeah, amen.
00:18:16.480 --> 00:18:26.319
And uh you know, I we Jen started me going to church here a couple years ago, and uh I kind of followed her along.
00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:28.799
First she went, and then I said, Okay, I'll go.
00:18:29.039 --> 00:18:31.119
And I kind of tagged along.
00:18:31.359 --> 00:18:36.319
And you know, a couple weeks ago I got baptized right in front of right in front of my house.
00:18:37.440 --> 00:18:38.079
Yeah.
00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:42.480
Amazing.
00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:46.400
There's uh amazing, really a really amazing story.
00:18:46.640 --> 00:18:54.799
Um I uh I was talking to a guy that I sponsored in the program that's the day before I got baptized.
00:18:55.119 --> 00:18:58.240
And um I helped him early on.
00:18:58.559 --> 00:19:06.400
We was in Sarasota, Florida, and I helped him, and for like a year we we went to we went to breakfast almost every day.
00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:08.960
And he couldn't afford to buy his own breakfast.
00:19:09.440 --> 00:19:20.559
And uh three years later, him being sober himself almost three years, uh he's running three car dealerships, you know, and he's married and he's happy and he's doing well.
00:19:20.960 --> 00:19:22.799
Oh, and he got baptized, right?
00:19:22.880 --> 00:19:24.079
Of course, right?
00:19:24.720 --> 00:19:26.480
And so he's doing really well.
00:19:26.640 --> 00:19:37.039
And I was talking to him on the phone, I hung up the phone, and he got on the plane and flew from North Carolina that night to be there so he could be there the next day.
00:19:37.519 --> 00:19:42.720
And that's the kind of people, you know, that I've come to know in the program.
00:19:43.359 --> 00:19:46.079
Yeah, amazing friends, amazing people.
00:19:46.799 --> 00:19:52.319
And uh uh trying to think, am I leaving something out?
00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:54.960
Oh, yeah.
00:19:55.200 --> 00:19:58.720
We uh we Jen and I do our devotional every single morning.
00:19:58.799 --> 00:20:04.160
We we get up, we have our coffee hour, and we read a devotional every single morning of our life.
00:20:04.400 --> 00:20:06.880
We spend an hour before we do everything else.
00:20:07.200 --> 00:20:09.200
And I was so lucky, you know.
00:20:09.279 --> 00:20:17.519
Ten years ago, I met this amazing woman, and and and uh five years together, we've been together five years and married almost three.
00:20:17.839 --> 00:20:24.480
You know, and I was yeah, and I was I mean, I wouldn't have none of that if I wasn't sober, so I was really lucky.
00:20:24.720 --> 00:20:33.759
But uh, you know, we're here today willing to reach out to anybody who might think they have a problem or want to talk about it, you know.
00:20:34.160 --> 00:20:35.920
And I got bad news for you.
00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:37.759
If you think you have a problem, you probably do.
00:20:39.440 --> 00:20:49.359
But uh, but anyways, we're not here to judge, and and if you think you've had, you know, like you've ashamed or whatever, I promise you I got a story that'll go lower than yours.
00:20:49.680 --> 00:20:52.319
So that's all I'm gonna give you to my wife here.
00:20:53.279 --> 00:20:54.079
Thank you, Mike.
00:20:59.599 --> 00:21:01.759
That's what a fantastic story.
00:21:01.920 --> 00:21:15.920
Um, I was doing my Bible study this morning, and it was uh it was the story of Jesus callering calling Lazarus out of the tomb, and I was thinking about addiction and how similar it is to being dead.
00:21:16.319 --> 00:21:20.880
I mean, you can't think about anything else, and you can't focus on anything else.
00:21:20.960 --> 00:21:24.240
You're just dead to everything but that one thing.
00:21:24.559 --> 00:21:29.279
And to be set free from that is just I can't even describe it.
00:21:29.440 --> 00:21:31.839
If you haven't lived it, you cannot possibly know.
00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:38.000
But I started drinking and doing drugs when I was in high school and continued on through college.
00:21:38.480 --> 00:21:43.119
Now I I believed in God, but more of a isn't that nice?
00:21:43.680 --> 00:21:49.839
There's some kind of God over there, and I know he doesn't want anything to do with me because I'm making some pretty poor choices.
00:21:50.160 --> 00:21:52.880
So I'm just gonna pretend that he doesn't exist for a while.
00:21:53.279 --> 00:21:54.559
But that worked for a little while.
00:21:55.119 --> 00:22:02.559
Um, my drinking career was brief compared to a lot of people, and I wound up in In rehab in my senior year of college.
00:22:03.680 --> 00:22:07.519
When I got out, Alcoholics Anonymous was there to pick me up.
00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:17.359
One of the best things they told me was, hey, not only is there a God, he's real and he's personal and he loves you.
00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:23.359
And I kind of went, okay, but you don't really know how unlovable I really am.
00:22:24.079 --> 00:22:45.359
And I was very fortunate to get sober with a lot of young people, and I will never, as long as I live, forget sitting in a circle of a bunch of people, and the young woman directly across from me looked me in the eyes, and she just had this oh, just the compassion of God in her, and she said, We will love you until you can love yourself.
00:22:47.759 --> 00:22:49.920
And boy, that took me a while.
00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:53.359
But she was extending the grace of God to me.
00:22:54.799 --> 00:22:56.640
The next thing they told me was to go to church.
00:22:57.359 --> 00:23:00.960
And I went ahead and I went to church and I found a God who loves me.
00:23:01.680 --> 00:23:03.839
Oh, he loves me right where I'm at.
00:23:04.720 --> 00:23:08.720
And he loves me so much that he sent his only son to die for my sins.
00:23:10.799 --> 00:23:14.480
I've been sober by the grace of God for 31 years.
00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:23.599
That is absolutely the grace of God and not my doing.
00:23:23.920 --> 00:23:28.640
Um, since I was 23 years old, and I've been following Jesus since then.
00:23:28.799 --> 00:23:37.039
And following Jesus is way, way more of an adventure and way more fun than any drug or any drink has ever been.
00:23:37.279 --> 00:23:39.279
I live an amazing life.
00:23:39.440 --> 00:23:45.839
I have this wonderful church, I have the best husband in the world, family and friends, and I'm free.
00:23:46.079 --> 00:23:47.680
I'm free in Jesus.
00:23:49.759 --> 00:23:51.519
Still a sinner saved by grace.
00:23:52.640 --> 00:23:54.880
But I know that that God is there for me.
00:23:55.119 --> 00:23:55.920
He loves me.
00:23:56.799 --> 00:23:58.960
And he wants the same for you.
00:23:59.200 --> 00:24:02.799
And maybe this is you, like like Mike said, maybe this is you this morning.
00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:07.519
Maybe you're you're thinking, maybe I drink a little too much.
00:24:08.559 --> 00:24:09.759
I have bad news.
00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:11.920
Normal people don't ever think that.
00:24:13.759 --> 00:24:19.680
Maybe you're caught up in something else and you're thinking it's taking over my life, and I don't like the way I feel.
00:24:21.680 --> 00:24:22.400
God is here.
00:24:22.559 --> 00:24:24.400
He is ready to meet you this morning.
00:24:24.559 --> 00:24:28.799
He is ready to give you the freedom in Jesus that we have found.
00:24:29.680 --> 00:24:31.519
Please come find us after the service.
00:24:32.160 --> 00:24:33.039
We can help you.
00:24:33.279 --> 00:24:34.480
We can support you.
00:24:34.880 --> 00:24:39.680
If you love or support somebody who is going through this, we can support you too.
00:24:39.839 --> 00:24:41.440
We can help you find resources.
00:24:42.640 --> 00:24:47.759
You know, Psalm 103 says that God is ready to help us out of the pit.
00:24:48.480 --> 00:24:50.559
And addiction is a pit.
00:24:51.119 --> 00:24:53.839
You cannot get out alone.
00:24:54.720 --> 00:24:56.000
Please don't try.
00:24:56.960 --> 00:25:00.160
But he is ready to pull you out of it.
00:25:00.400 --> 00:25:06.319
And then it goes further and it says that he crowns us with compassion and love.
00:25:07.440 --> 00:25:12.480
Well, when I was drinking and doing drugs, I absolutely didn't feel like I was worthy of compassion or love.
00:25:13.759 --> 00:25:16.960
But it's based on who he is, not who I am, thankfully.
00:25:17.759 --> 00:25:24.640
He is a good God and he loves us and he wants us to come alongside you and rescue you.
00:25:26.160 --> 00:25:28.880
If you can't talk to us today, give Kyle a call.
00:25:29.039 --> 00:25:32.640
He will give you our phone numbers, call us at any time.
00:25:35.519 --> 00:25:45.119
And just the last thought I want to leave you with is that over and over in the Psalms, God tells us that He is our very strong tower.
00:25:47.039 --> 00:25:55.680
He is He longs to gather us up like chicks under His wings so that He can shield us from the storms of life.
00:25:56.480 --> 00:25:59.279
He wants to do that for you today.
00:26:00.319 --> 00:26:01.039
Come to Him.
00:26:02.319 --> 00:26:03.119
God bless.
00:26:11.039 --> 00:26:19.119
I think it was over three years ago I met Jenna Mike, and Jen's like, I really have this passion um to share basically this with people.
00:26:19.359 --> 00:26:28.799
So she actually started women's AA group, and um that led to the transformation of Sarah, uh, who then got free from that, came here.
00:26:28.960 --> 00:26:41.119
Uh so it is awesome to see how God puts the right people at the right place together, and he's doing all this amazing stuff behind the scenes that we never see until we start connecting the stories of like, wow, look at what God does.
00:26:41.279 --> 00:26:45.200
And then just getting to know them and getting to be part of their wedding and then getting to Mike's baptism.
00:26:45.359 --> 00:26:47.759
It's like life transformations happening.
00:26:47.839 --> 00:26:51.200
And if you're not invested in people, you're missing it.
00:26:51.440 --> 00:26:53.119
Yesterday we were driving back from the game.
00:26:53.359 --> 00:26:55.359
Mike is the guy that has a lot of micisms.
00:26:55.680 --> 00:27:00.079
If you have coffee with him, like it just just this knowledge just kind of pours from him.
00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:04.640
He's like a humble guy, doesn't really understand it, but he's like, you know, you just gotta surrender to win.
00:27:04.720 --> 00:27:06.240
And I'm like, oh, he said that when we were driving.
00:27:06.319 --> 00:27:08.799
I'm like, yeah, I'll put that in my message, it works perfect.
00:27:08.960 --> 00:27:12.480
Um it's in the message, it's a micism.
00:27:12.960 --> 00:27:15.759
And so uh, you know, you do have to surrender to win.
00:27:15.839 --> 00:27:17.279
That's this whole thing about abstinence.
00:27:17.440 --> 00:27:23.440
Sometimes the best thing for you is not to try to squeeze as much sin as you can into your life.
00:27:23.519 --> 00:27:27.920
Sometimes I've surrendered to that thing, I'm done with that thing because I want to win.
00:27:28.079 --> 00:27:30.559
I mean, you hear their testimony, they're winning.
00:27:30.720 --> 00:27:31.279
They're winning.
00:27:31.359 --> 00:27:34.400
They got each other, life is good, it was it was bad and broken.
00:27:34.640 --> 00:27:36.640
And then surrender to that and say no more.
00:27:36.880 --> 00:27:39.279
And so absence can be an act of freedom.
00:27:39.519 --> 00:27:46.880
Saying I don't need that thing in my life anymore because it's tearing my life apart, it's tearing my relationships apart, it's destroying who I want to be.
00:27:47.119 --> 00:27:50.640
Letting go of that thing forever is an act of freedom.
00:27:50.880 --> 00:27:53.839
So you don't have to prove you can handle something you don't need.
00:27:54.079 --> 00:27:56.240
We don't have to say, well, I can handle it, right?
00:27:56.319 --> 00:27:57.359
I can hold my liquor.
00:27:57.440 --> 00:28:02.079
I can look we don't have to try to win someone's favor by saying I can have I can handle the sin.
00:28:02.319 --> 00:28:04.240
We can literally just say, I'm done with it.
00:28:04.319 --> 00:28:06.720
Like I don't need that, like I don't want that in my life.
00:28:06.880 --> 00:28:19.519
The Bible tells us in Galatians 5, 22 and 23, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
00:28:19.839 --> 00:28:22.000
Against such things, there is no law.
00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:23.599
We can have self-control.
00:28:23.759 --> 00:28:26.240
We can say, I don't need that thing in my life.
00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:28.880
I want to choose God.
00:28:29.200 --> 00:28:30.319
I want to have a better life.
00:28:30.480 --> 00:28:38.559
Whatever that addiction may be, sex, drugs, alcohol, rock and roll, pornography, politics, sports, hobbies, whatever may be food, right?
00:28:38.880 --> 00:28:42.480
Tobacco, whatever it may be, you can just say, I'm done.
00:28:42.720 --> 00:28:43.440
I'm done.
00:28:43.599 --> 00:28:47.680
Self-control means my desires don't get the final vote in my life.
00:28:47.920 --> 00:28:50.000
There's reasons why I don't do things in my life.
00:28:50.240 --> 00:28:53.200
I'm I'm abstent from from I'm absent from cursing.
00:28:53.359 --> 00:28:54.240
I don't curse.
00:28:54.400 --> 00:28:57.680
Not because I don't think the Bible prohibits all those words.
00:28:57.839 --> 00:29:02.799
Like what I'm absent is because I I have I'm a I'm a known person in the community.
00:29:02.960 --> 00:29:07.759
If I'm out saying a bunch of nonsense, it gives people permission and becomes a stumbling block.
00:29:07.920 --> 00:29:09.599
I don't drink for the same reason.
00:29:09.839 --> 00:29:10.720
Jesus drank.
00:29:10.799 --> 00:29:11.839
Like, I don't know if you know this.
00:29:11.920 --> 00:29:17.119
Like there's drinking in the Bible, and there's a whole bunch of different non-alcoholicism, we're not going to make those arguments.
00:29:17.279 --> 00:29:20.240
But the issue is, I don't believe that the Bible bans that.
00:29:20.400 --> 00:29:26.400
I believe when people see me drink, it would give them a permission and lead them down a path of destruction potentially.
00:29:26.559 --> 00:29:27.920
And so I can abstain from it.
00:29:28.000 --> 00:29:29.440
I don't need that in my life.
00:29:29.680 --> 00:29:31.279
My life is good without it.
00:29:31.440 --> 00:29:34.319
I don't need to try to mess it up with those things.
00:29:34.400 --> 00:29:42.960
And so when it comes down to it, I don't want, you know, for self-control, I don't think it means that my desires get the final vote in my life.
00:29:43.200 --> 00:29:43.680
I do.
00:29:43.920 --> 00:29:44.799
My God does.
00:29:44.960 --> 00:29:50.640
I get to make my own choices through filter through this, and this is what gets the final vote in my life.
00:29:50.799 --> 00:29:57.359
And so I want to share with you another friend, Michael Walters, who I've just watched his life be transformed by Jesus over the last few years.
00:29:57.519 --> 00:29:59.440
And I've his story is powerful.
00:29:59.519 --> 00:30:02.400
And I hope you listen and just let him share with you.
00:30:05.279 --> 00:30:06.079
Thanks.
00:30:13.920 --> 00:30:16.240
So I'm getting old, so I need my readers.
00:30:16.960 --> 00:30:19.359
It's uh those times, right?
00:30:20.559 --> 00:30:21.519
So good morning.
00:30:21.599 --> 00:30:22.880
My name is Michael Walters.
00:30:22.960 --> 00:30:26.240
Um my story has taken me a while to put into words.
00:30:26.720 --> 00:30:32.319
You know, I grew up in a middle class household, um, gave me everything, taught me how to be a good person.
00:30:32.640 --> 00:30:36.799
My father, he was an episode priest for 25 years, for that actually.
00:30:37.039 --> 00:30:40.000
Um, but I didn't have a relationship with God.
00:30:40.799 --> 00:30:47.119
My mom was an accountant and a stay-at-home mom, and I'm truly grateful they adopted me when I was five.
00:30:49.119 --> 00:31:00.960
At the Episcopal Church, we always went to potlucks or functions, and the one thing I look back on and remember is that people are always having a good time, and there was always alcohol involved.
00:31:01.519 --> 00:31:04.000
That's why I love our church at Heart of the Lakes.
00:31:04.240 --> 00:31:09.279
Because we don't bring alcohol around our children at events, especially.
00:31:09.839 --> 00:31:12.480
I was always taught that moderation is a key.
00:31:12.640 --> 00:31:14.720
That's what blew me away when he started this sermon.
00:31:14.799 --> 00:31:18.480
And I was like, you haven't even read my testimony, and like you're pulling at it.
00:31:18.559 --> 00:31:21.599
And I was like, This is a sign, a sign from God.
00:31:22.319 --> 00:31:27.599
Um I was always taught that moderation is a key, that you don't that you could try anything in life.
00:31:27.920 --> 00:31:29.680
Well, that that's half true.
00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.319
But going through the hard times I went through, it has changed my mind.
00:31:35.119 --> 00:31:39.039
I fell on my face multiple times throughout my life, over 20 years.
00:31:39.279 --> 00:31:43.359
Um when I had too much to drink, I had always wanted something to make me feel sober.
00:31:43.759 --> 00:31:45.279
So I do some cocaine.
00:31:45.440 --> 00:31:53.359
You know, that's it's ironic to think that I would drink something, then I would smoke something, then I would snort something to make me feel b sober.
00:31:54.240 --> 00:31:58.880
I'd probably risk my life five to or ten times due to alcohol or drugs.
00:31:59.519 --> 00:32:00.799
But I didn't stop.
00:32:02.160 --> 00:32:06.240
I'd always get up in the morning, dust myself off, and go to work.
00:32:07.200 --> 00:32:10.799
That's how we were raised in the 80s, you know, just do what you gotta do.
00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:18.720
But, you know, after I graduated, after I had some time at, you know, I took some time off in 2012 from the University of Kansas.
00:32:18.960 --> 00:32:20.640
Um finally graduated.
00:32:20.960 --> 00:32:23.359
I took off like eight or nine years from college.
00:32:23.440 --> 00:32:27.359
And so I graduated in 2012.
00:32:27.920 --> 00:32:31.279
Um it's because I partied and I drank the entire time.
00:32:31.440 --> 00:32:34.880
You know, it's a bartender downtown at one of the best bars there is.
00:32:35.200 --> 00:32:38.559
Um and the national championship happened for KU.
00:32:38.880 --> 00:32:45.200
And I'm a huge college basketball fan, and when we won, I looked around and was like, man, I gotta graduate and get out of here.
00:32:45.519 --> 00:32:47.200
You know, I've been here too long.
00:32:49.119 --> 00:32:56.160
So then I moved to Michigan after I graduated, and I started working for Verizon on Brown Street in Jackson, which is no longer longer there, sadly.
00:32:56.400 --> 00:32:58.880
Um this is where I met Sarah, my wife.
00:32:59.839 --> 00:33:03.039
Uh we started dating a year later, and we moved in together.
00:33:03.279 --> 00:33:04.480
It was just Sarah.
00:33:08.960 --> 00:33:10.160
Carter and I.
00:33:17.920 --> 00:33:19.920
At the time, Carter was just five.
00:33:21.279 --> 00:33:22.720
And now he's 18.
00:33:25.759 --> 00:33:27.279
We were happy as can be.
00:33:28.079 --> 00:33:32.640
We started going out on the weekends and we found the wrong group of people.
00:33:33.200 --> 00:33:34.880
And we just wanted a party.
00:33:35.519 --> 00:33:40.160
At first I'd only drink and I'd smoke weed, which I thought wasn't bad.
00:33:41.039 --> 00:33:43.599
Then it was more consistent everyday drinking.
00:33:44.319 --> 00:33:52.319
We would both get up for work on a normal day, and we come home, and we have two or three drinks.
00:33:52.799 --> 00:33:54.160
Work hard, play hard.
00:33:54.319 --> 00:33:55.519
That was our motto.
00:33:56.960 --> 00:34:00.640
We didn't realize where that that was gonna take us over the years.
00:34:01.119 --> 00:34:05.839
We knew that we wanted to be together and we wanted to get married, and we found our person.
00:34:08.480 --> 00:34:14.239
Coming from Lawrence, Kansas, where marijuana was decriminalized, I thought I was a playboy.
00:34:14.559 --> 00:34:19.199
Not only did I smoke marijuana, but I also sold it and a lot of it too.
00:34:20.079 --> 00:34:24.480
So when I moved to Michigan, you know, I was selling weed and growing weed in our basement.
00:34:24.800 --> 00:34:28.960
Which I look back on now and I was like, wow, that is crazy.
00:34:29.119 --> 00:34:31.440
Why would I put my kids around that?
00:34:32.639 --> 00:34:37.039
I was becoming cocky and cold-hearted and on edge all the time.
00:34:37.760 --> 00:34:42.559
Sarah knew that it wasn't me, and she knew that I was a kind, loving man.
00:34:43.039 --> 00:34:46.480
We tried going to church occasionally, and we just couldn't find our fit.
00:34:46.719 --> 00:34:48.159
It wasn't our time.
00:34:49.119 --> 00:34:53.199
I guess we just weren't ready to listen to God and we weren't ready to stop partying.
00:34:54.639 --> 00:34:59.840
Things got bad when we switched from beer to liquor because beer just wasn't cutting it anymore.
00:35:00.559 --> 00:35:07.360
I can't believe that I would drink and smoke and do cocaine and thought that it was the best thing in the world.
00:35:07.920 --> 00:35:10.400
It was horrible what I was putting into my body.
00:35:10.639 --> 00:35:14.239
And in 2021, Sarah and I separated.
00:35:14.880 --> 00:35:20.239
And when we separated, I didn't I didn't take that as a sign from God to knock it off.
00:35:21.519 --> 00:35:27.679
I ended up rolling my 1994 25th anniversary transam right in front of Sarah and Carter.
00:35:28.159 --> 00:35:30.480
After a heated argument at her house.
00:35:34.880 --> 00:35:36.000
We separated.
00:35:36.239 --> 00:35:42.719
Um I didn't want to kill myself though, even though I felt like my world was just crashing around me.
00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:48.719
I literally lost control of my car because I had just finished my third margarita.
00:35:49.199 --> 00:35:50.559
What an idiot, right?
00:35:52.239 --> 00:35:55.119
I got thrown from the car out through the T-tops of my Trans Am.
00:35:55.440 --> 00:36:13.519
You know, I broke my my collarbone and shoulder and I fractured my leg and broke all my ribs on my left side, and I also fractured my C5 and C6 vertebrae in my neck, which, you know, now years later, I'm still struggling with feeling in my fingers and going through that right now.
00:36:13.840 --> 00:36:19.920
I remember lying on the ground and I'm looking up at the car, it's crashing down on me, and I just turned my head right at the last moment.
00:36:21.440 --> 00:36:22.719
Why I would not be here.
00:36:23.840 --> 00:36:29.920
I got up, I walked around the car and before, and I collapsed.
00:36:30.159 --> 00:36:39.920
And Sarah knew what to do because she was a medical assistant at the time, and she knew that my lung had been punctured by my fractured ribs, and I couldn't breathe.
00:36:40.880 --> 00:36:47.440
I ended up in the hospital for two weeks in a coma, and that was probably a sign from God that sent me.
00:36:48.960 --> 00:36:56.639
Kyle even showed up and prayed over me while I was in on a ventilator with weaning off the anesthesia, you know.
00:36:56.880 --> 00:37:02.880
Um I vaguely remember because anesthesia, you know, you're in and out.
00:37:03.039 --> 00:37:07.920
And we had a conversation later, and I looked back and I was like, yeah, that's right, you were there.
00:37:08.800 --> 00:37:11.119
So I healed very quickly, you know, I got out of the hospital.
00:37:11.199 --> 00:37:13.039
I was determined to get out of the hospital.
00:37:13.360 --> 00:37:15.920
There were some crutches in my leg.
00:37:16.079 --> 00:37:19.679
I lost like 30 pounds and three days of water weight.
00:37:19.760 --> 00:37:24.000
It's insane because I was just wanted to walk around the whole hospital to get out of there.
00:37:25.599 --> 00:37:28.960
Um, so when I got out of the hospital, I didn't learn from it.
00:37:29.599 --> 00:37:36.000
I continued to drink and do drugs now, even more, because we were in the middle of getting a divorce.
00:37:37.039 --> 00:37:42.559
We realized six months later, after living in separate homes, that we just couldn't do this on our own.
00:37:43.440 --> 00:37:47.280
We needed to get rid of the bad influences who are always hanging around us.
00:37:47.360 --> 00:37:49.440
You know, they're like leeches, they just will not leave.
00:37:49.519 --> 00:37:55.519
They they just they know what you're doing and that you want to have a good time, and you'll probably pay for it.
00:37:57.280 --> 00:38:10.960
So we we humbled ourselves, and Sarah and I, you know, we we talked over many weeks, and she finally she sold her home and she moved back into with me and the kids, and we tried to make things better.
00:38:11.280 --> 00:38:16.079
We started going to IOP treatment, which is out uh intensive outpatient treatment.
00:38:16.320 --> 00:38:21.679
Um we also started therapy individually and together because we truly wanted to heal.
00:38:22.559 --> 00:38:27.519
But several months went by and we started to drink and do drugs again.
00:38:28.880 --> 00:38:34.079
This time it wasn't as bad, but we still went down that path.
00:38:35.199 --> 00:38:38.480
We just couldn't seem to find a way to get away from it.
00:38:38.639 --> 00:38:40.000
We were stuck.
00:38:40.400 --> 00:38:44.719
The devil had a grip on us, and we were just trying to keep our family together.
00:38:46.239 --> 00:38:49.920
There was a moment when things started to change.
00:38:50.800 --> 00:39:02.239
I remember the day of Lauren's birthday, September 4th, very clearly because it was the first day we got sober from drugs.
00:39:03.679 --> 00:39:05.920
We just could not do it anymore.
00:39:06.320 --> 00:39:10.239
We could not continue getting high and ruining our kids' lives.
00:39:10.960 --> 00:39:16.239
The next morning we got up like normal, and Sarah said, Do you want to go to church this morning?
00:39:17.199 --> 00:39:22.960
She told me about how she prayed the night before, and she woke up and her cravings were gone.
00:39:23.840 --> 00:39:26.880
And how she thinks that we need to go to church.
00:39:27.920 --> 00:39:34.800
So we did, and man, I don't think either one of us was ready for what was about to hit us.
00:39:36.159 --> 00:39:40.159
God was about to show off and give us another sign.
00:39:41.760 --> 00:39:47.360
Kyle preached about drugs in his Vices' series, being one day sober from drugs.
00:39:48.639 --> 00:39:53.199
And then Chris Moffat, he gets up and tells his testimony, changed our lives.
00:40:00.400 --> 00:40:02.239
This is like a ton of bricks just hit us.
00:40:02.320 --> 00:40:04.800
And we went up to Chris and Anna right away after the church.
00:40:05.119 --> 00:40:07.519
Just thank Chris for sharing.
00:40:08.079 --> 00:40:11.199
I soon found out, you know, it's a small world after all.
00:40:11.440 --> 00:40:15.920
I found out that Anna and Sarah used to work together 10 years previously.
00:40:16.320 --> 00:40:19.599
And Chris, he was like an uncle to Carter.
00:40:22.719 --> 00:40:25.920
That was truly God working in amazing ways.
00:40:27.920 --> 00:40:32.400
We left there on a great note, but again, we the week was just dragging.
00:40:33.199 --> 00:40:37.039
We had a couple drinks, and we thought, okay, we can kick the drugs.
00:40:37.519 --> 00:40:40.159
Maybe alcohol we can control too.
00:40:41.760 --> 00:40:47.280
We ended up skipping the next week at church and we watched it online, but it just wasn't the same.
00:40:48.000 --> 00:40:55.519
The next week was Haley's birthday on the 20th, and we had a huge conviction.
00:40:55.760 --> 00:41:00.159
And four days later, on Saturday, together we quit drinking alcohol.
00:41:01.519 --> 00:41:08.559
The next day, we came back to Heart of Lakes, and Kyle, his sermon was on alcohol.
00:41:14.800 --> 00:41:18.960
We left the day in just tears of happiness.
00:41:19.199 --> 00:41:23.440
We both looked at each other and yelled out, okay, God, we're listening.
00:41:24.960 --> 00:41:33.760
About a month later, I went out to breakfast with Kyle and he told me that normally he does drugs and alcohol back to back.
00:41:34.559 --> 00:41:39.920
But God told him to hold off, do something else, and do alcohol the next week.
00:41:40.159 --> 00:41:48.239
It was as if God had knew we wouldn't be there the second Sunday and we needed to hear what he had to say.
00:41:49.519 --> 00:41:50.639
Another sign.
00:41:52.000 --> 00:41:57.760
It blew him away when he saw us walking in the door, knowing that we had struggled.
00:41:58.239 --> 00:42:03.920
After that, Sarah and I wanted to be more active and just part of this awesome community.
00:42:04.880 --> 00:42:09.039
We actually end up getting remarried here a couple months later by Pascal.
00:42:16.800 --> 00:42:17.760
Thank you.
00:42:18.880 --> 00:42:25.519
I started going to the men's discipleship group that winter, and I realized that I am not alone.
00:42:26.559 --> 00:42:32.320
So many of us in this church struggle in one way or another.
00:42:32.639 --> 00:42:37.280
And one thing I've I love about our church is that we don't feel ashamed of our past.
00:42:37.440 --> 00:42:42.320
We've all been there, we've done that, and there is absolutely no judgment.
00:42:44.400 --> 00:42:48.239
We all just want to love each other, as we say every Sunday.
00:42:48.559 --> 00:42:49.360
Love God.
00:42:51.679 --> 00:42:56.480
In the fall of 2025, I decided to make Jesus my Lord of my life.
00:42:57.440 --> 00:42:59.519
I got baptized, thank you.
00:43:04.159 --> 00:43:08.880
I got baptized at Clark Lake, and I was the first one in my family.
00:43:09.519 --> 00:43:11.679
Um, on September 24th.
00:43:12.400 --> 00:43:15.760
In four days, I will be sober three years.
00:43:26.559 --> 00:43:28.079
And my wife, man.
00:43:34.800 --> 00:43:35.440
Amen.
00:43:37.360 --> 00:43:42.719
She is, she's truly just blown me away by how much she's grown.
00:43:45.760 --> 00:43:54.480
I could not be happier to see my amazing wife just tackle this demon that just took a hold of us for so many years.
00:43:55.760 --> 00:43:59.760
God simply just took that want and that need for alcohol and drugs.
00:44:00.400 --> 00:44:04.559
Away from us gave us a better purpose in life.
00:44:06.880 --> 00:44:14.880
So last week when I was out in our yard, just in Brooklyn, I was putting up a vinyl fence in our backyard and every hole.
00:44:16.000 --> 00:44:21.199
I was hitting the tree roots and rocks and hitting that clay at the bottom.
00:44:22.320 --> 00:44:24.719
Man, it was a struggle for sure.
00:44:25.280 --> 00:44:27.119
My son knows he was out there helping me.
00:44:30.400 --> 00:44:31.760
But I didn't give up.
00:44:33.360 --> 00:44:35.039
This is the second to last post.
00:44:35.519 --> 00:44:40.880
I hit a tree root so hard that my auger smacked me right in my knees.
00:44:42.719 --> 00:44:43.760
It was bruised.
00:44:44.079 --> 00:44:44.639
Not broken.
00:44:45.199 --> 00:44:46.960
It still hurts a little bit, it's a little tender.
00:44:47.679 --> 00:44:56.880
Um it took me a minute to close myself and I uh I started on that the last hole.
00:44:57.440 --> 00:44:59.199
Just pray and it goes well.
00:45:01.440 --> 00:45:03.519
I started slow and it was going easy.
00:45:03.760 --> 00:45:06.400
No rocks, no roots, nothing.
00:45:07.440 --> 00:45:08.239
Shocking, man.
00:45:09.840 --> 00:45:12.000
And then I hit that hard spot of the clay.
00:45:12.159 --> 00:45:14.079
And I was like, okay, I'll go a little bit harder.
00:45:14.320 --> 00:45:16.000
And all of a sudden the motor revs up.
00:45:17.199 --> 00:45:25.119
So I pulled off the auger and I looked down and the blade is detached, it's sticking right in the dirt, and I'm like, and the cotter pin is just it's gone.
00:45:25.280 --> 00:45:27.199
Like shirt off or whatever.
00:45:27.280 --> 00:45:27.599
I don't know.
00:45:27.679 --> 00:45:28.800
I don't know what it went.
00:45:28.960 --> 00:45:32.480
So I just started shoveling and laughing at just what happened.
00:45:32.639 --> 00:45:35.679
I was like, okay, God, I'm listening.
00:45:36.960 --> 00:45:43.679
God let me get the last post, and before I broke my auger and I didn't know if I it was even deep enough, you know.
00:45:43.760 --> 00:45:45.840
Like I'm like, man.
00:45:46.400 --> 00:45:47.920
So I went and got the post.
00:45:48.480 --> 00:45:52.800
I'm telling myself the entire time I'm walking back into the garage, and I was like, you know, this fits perfect.
00:45:54.960 --> 00:45:57.280
I know God is trying to talk to me.
00:45:58.079 --> 00:46:02.800
So I put the post in the hole and I just started smiling from ear to ear.
00:46:03.760 --> 00:46:05.360
It was perfect.
00:46:06.320 --> 00:46:10.400
I was done with the fence, and I stopped right there.
00:46:12.079 --> 00:46:17.599
And I realized that God has been trying to show me signs like this my entire life.
00:46:18.480 --> 00:46:20.000
I just wasn't paying attention.
00:46:22.079 --> 00:46:33.519
You know, so God gives us signs in our entire life, you know, and in those times when you get that smack on the back of your head, and God wants us to know that He loves us and He's going to take care of us.
00:46:33.760 --> 00:46:39.280
And when we fall out of line, He's gonna straighten us back up with no judgment.
00:46:40.639 --> 00:46:45.519
So today, just start looking for signs of how God is working in your life.
00:46:47.679 --> 00:46:54.800
Think about your past and try to notice the signs because God has a way of talking to us.
00:46:55.039 --> 00:46:59.119
You know, put God first and make good choices for yourself and your family.
00:46:59.840 --> 00:47:04.159
You know, you've got a loving family here at this church, and who's got your back?
00:47:05.599 --> 00:47:11.280
You know, and if anybody wants to talk to me afterwards, get a cup of coffee or breakfast, just get a hold of me.
00:47:11.840 --> 00:47:23.039
I've got way more stories that will just blow your mind because it just I God has truly saved me and my family, and I couldn't be happier.
00:47:23.679 --> 00:47:25.920
And I want to thank you for your time today.
00:47:38.719 --> 00:47:40.239
These stories matter.
00:47:40.800 --> 00:47:44.159
The reason they matter is because God has transformed their lives completely.
00:47:44.320 --> 00:47:47.679
Like, and as a church, we don't see the sin, we see the people they are now.
00:47:47.840 --> 00:47:51.920
It's awesome to see Sarah up here leading worship and like and just praising the Lord.
00:47:52.000 --> 00:47:57.280
And three years later, from God just totally transforming her life and speaking to her in very big, powerful ways.
00:47:57.440 --> 00:47:59.199
It's awesome if you hear her story.
00:47:59.920 --> 00:48:00.880
God is good.
00:48:01.199 --> 00:48:06.159
And when we we understand this, we understand that like moderation never overrides sobriety.
00:48:06.320 --> 00:48:08.480
Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
00:48:08.719 --> 00:48:08.960
Right?
00:48:09.119 --> 00:48:15.679
The Bible tells us in 1 Peter 5:8, it says this be sober-minded, be watchful.
00:48:15.840 --> 00:48:20.800
Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
00:48:20.880 --> 00:48:21.599
That's you.
00:48:21.840 --> 00:48:23.280
Not someone, you.
00:48:23.760 --> 00:48:29.360
Resist him firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
00:48:29.519 --> 00:48:31.199
We need to understand that we're not alone.
00:48:31.280 --> 00:48:32.480
People struggle.
00:48:32.960 --> 00:48:34.239
That may not be your struggle.
00:48:34.320 --> 00:48:36.880
You might not you might be sitting here saying, I don't struggle with drugs and alcohol.
00:48:37.119 --> 00:48:37.920
This isn't for me.
00:48:38.159 --> 00:48:39.599
Somebody in your life does.
00:48:39.840 --> 00:48:40.719
I've lived long enough.
00:48:40.800 --> 00:48:44.400
I mean, I'm surrounded by Christians all the time, and I know a lot of people who struggle with drugs and alcohol.
00:48:44.559 --> 00:48:48.320
So just imagine what more if you're in the real world, not surrounded by Christians all the time.
00:48:48.400 --> 00:48:50.159
You know people who this is a problem.
00:48:50.400 --> 00:48:56.880
I also know people who struggle with politics, and I know people who struggle with food, and know people who struggle with addiction to these devices.
00:48:57.519 --> 00:49:00.480
We all, some of you might be this one, right?
00:49:00.880 --> 00:49:06.639
Ultimately, we want to be sober-minded, which means we are clear and in control of our mind.
00:49:07.119 --> 00:49:12.800
And what is why we're clear and in control is because we are filtering that control through this God's word.
00:49:13.039 --> 00:49:20.960
Like that's how we're sober-minded, that we are in control, not a substance, not a thing, but we are in control through the power of Jesus Christ.
00:49:21.199 --> 00:49:26.079
So don't surrender the judgment God tells you to guard in your life to something.
00:49:26.400 --> 00:49:33.119
Don't give it to us to a created thing, don't give it to a hobby, don't give it to a sport, don't give it to a substance.
00:49:33.440 --> 00:49:36.559
Give control of your in your judgment over to God.
00:49:36.800 --> 00:49:38.559
See, abstinence may be your conviction.
00:49:38.639 --> 00:49:43.360
You may you may realize I need not to do something because that thing is a bad thing.
00:49:43.519 --> 00:49:44.159
Then good.
00:49:44.320 --> 00:49:44.960
Don't do it.
00:49:45.119 --> 00:49:47.119
Just because you can do it doesn't mean you should.
00:49:47.199 --> 00:49:48.800
Doesn't mean you say, well, maybe I could do it now.
00:49:48.960 --> 00:49:51.119
No, if you know it's bad, just don't do it, right?
00:49:51.199 --> 00:49:51.679
For you.
00:49:51.920 --> 00:49:53.679
Because we we are not all the same.
00:49:53.840 --> 00:49:55.280
Like I am a stubborn person.
00:49:55.440 --> 00:50:00.000
You cannot get me to do a sin or to do a thing unless I want to.
00:50:00.159 --> 00:50:01.360
Not everybody's like that.
00:50:01.599 --> 00:50:06.480
My whole experience in my freshman year college was everybody else came in and there are a lot of Christians when they came in.
00:50:06.639 --> 00:50:08.800
Six months later, I looked around, I was the only one.
00:50:09.039 --> 00:50:13.920
Everybody else was lost in the fray because they weren't as stubborn as I was.
00:50:14.159 --> 00:50:19.039
And so if you're a stubborn person, moderation might be the thing because you're never going to do something you don't want to do.
00:50:19.119 --> 00:50:22.400
But for most people, absence might be the thing.
00:50:22.559 --> 00:50:32.400
You might need to stay away from that thing that's bad or dangerous for you because it's destroying your life, it's destroying your marriage, destroying your relationships, destroying your finances.
00:50:32.880 --> 00:50:36.400
See, conviction should produce humility.
00:50:36.480 --> 00:50:49.760
If you have a conviction of one of those things, conviction to moderation, conviction to abstinence, that should produce a humility in your life where you don't feel you're superior to somebody else because you have you don't have the same struggle or you've had victory of that same struggle.
00:50:49.840 --> 00:50:51.599
We all got struggles, we're all sinners.
00:50:51.840 --> 00:50:58.880
If I if I went through your lives, I could I bet I could find one thing for each of you that you struggle with to the to almost the level of addiction.
00:50:59.119 --> 00:51:00.239
That's the reality of life.
00:51:00.320 --> 00:51:04.159
And it may be very different from each other, but it may be a thing.
00:51:05.519 --> 00:51:07.840
We don't, we shouldn't feel that we're superior.
00:51:08.079 --> 00:51:11.840
When I when I see Mike come in, I I was at the hospital with Mike.
00:51:11.920 --> 00:51:22.559
I had known him because Mark plays, his father-in-law plays the piano, and they told me about it, and I hadn't gotten to know them over the last years trying to help him through things, and you know, hadn't seen him in a long time.
00:51:22.639 --> 00:51:23.920
So I just went and prayed for him.
00:51:24.320 --> 00:51:25.360
He wasn't in good shape.
00:51:25.440 --> 00:51:26.400
I'll just tell you, I was there.
00:51:26.480 --> 00:51:27.519
I didn't know he was gonna make it.
00:51:27.679 --> 00:51:29.679
So um I just went and prayed anyways.
00:51:29.840 --> 00:51:38.480
But then God just transformed his life, and it's so cool to see him come in and seem so excited about being a good dad, a good husband, a good person coming in here.
00:51:38.559 --> 00:51:39.840
Like it's just so transforming.
00:51:39.920 --> 00:51:44.079
I don't see the old mic, I don't I see the mic that brings glory to God.
00:51:44.239 --> 00:51:45.360
That's what's exciting.
00:51:45.599 --> 00:51:47.440
That's who we should be as a church.
00:51:47.599 --> 00:51:48.239
Yeah.
00:51:51.920 --> 00:51:53.840
See, what does this mean for you?
00:51:54.159 --> 00:51:57.519
It really is a question of how close can I walk with Jesus?
00:51:57.679 --> 00:52:02.320
I don't want to be here just teedling over the line, see what I can get away with.
00:52:02.400 --> 00:52:03.760
I want to be, I want to be here.
00:52:03.920 --> 00:52:04.960
I want to be in this.
00:52:05.039 --> 00:52:06.159
I'm gonna be in God's word.
00:52:06.400 --> 00:52:07.840
I want this to transfer my life.
00:52:08.000 --> 00:52:10.239
And Paul tells people that he loves.
00:52:10.480 --> 00:52:14.079
Paul is a pastor who loved the people in the church of Corinth.
00:52:14.159 --> 00:52:14.719
He loved them.
00:52:14.800 --> 00:52:15.440
Those were his people.
00:52:15.840 --> 00:52:18.400
Me telling you guys, we're telling you things to help you.
00:52:18.639 --> 00:52:23.039
And what he wanted them to be left with is is it lawful to do the thing that you're doing?
00:52:23.280 --> 00:52:28.800
Is it helpful to your life, to your marriage, to your relationships, to your finances, to your freedom, whatever it may be?
00:52:29.119 --> 00:52:31.199
Or will it dominate you and enslave you?
00:52:31.360 --> 00:52:32.880
Like just filter everything through.
00:52:33.039 --> 00:52:35.039
I promise you, I do this to everything.
00:52:35.280 --> 00:52:39.599
And there's times I have to say to myself, yeah, I'm probably doing that too much.
00:52:39.760 --> 00:52:42.320
It's starting to dominate me, and I need to cut back.
00:52:42.559 --> 00:52:48.480
I need to understand that my moderation is not a good thing, and the best thing may be abstinence from that thing.
00:52:48.800 --> 00:52:50.320
Because it's becoming a danger.
00:52:50.480 --> 00:52:58.880
The problem is if you can't, if you're not powerful enough of a person inside to say that to yourself, you need to listen to your spouse, you can listen to your friends, you listen to your family.
00:52:59.039 --> 00:53:01.039
The people that are telling you, hey, that enough is enough.
00:53:01.119 --> 00:53:02.239
That's too much.
00:53:02.639 --> 00:53:04.960
See, sometimes faith says yes.
00:53:05.360 --> 00:53:06.559
We can do something.
00:53:06.800 --> 00:53:09.199
Sometimes wisdom says, enough.
00:53:09.360 --> 00:53:10.480
You've had enough.
00:53:10.719 --> 00:53:11.679
This is enough.
00:53:11.840 --> 00:53:14.480
And sometimes our freedom in Christ says no more.
00:53:14.800 --> 00:53:16.000
We're done.
00:53:16.400 --> 00:53:20.639
See, moderation may honor Christ, but abstinence may honor Christ as well.
00:53:20.880 --> 00:53:26.960
You may need to leave here and say, ah, that thing that I think I can moderate that I'm not doing very well moderating, I just need to be done with.
00:53:27.119 --> 00:53:29.440
I need to abstain from it moving forward.
00:53:29.760 --> 00:53:31.920
That may be a hard question.
00:53:32.559 --> 00:53:38.480
I don't think as a just personally, I don't think I need to add more things that I need to try to moderate in my life.
00:53:38.639 --> 00:53:40.400
That's just more danger.
00:53:40.559 --> 00:53:40.960
Right?
00:53:41.199 --> 00:53:46.159
I, as I get older and wiser, I'm adding more things that I abstain from.
00:53:46.639 --> 00:53:48.000
Not moderate.
00:53:48.320 --> 00:53:53.280
So, because I'm recognizing that bondage never honors Christ.
00:53:53.599 --> 00:53:54.239
Never.
00:53:54.880 --> 00:53:57.519
And I want to be a person where I honor Jesus Christ.
00:53:57.679 --> 00:54:03.840
And so this series is really, I know some of you are out there like, well, I don't have any of those big vices, but you probably got one.
00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:05.920
And it's probably in your pocket.
00:54:06.639 --> 00:54:07.199
Right?
00:54:08.719 --> 00:54:10.559
But you know somebody needs help.
00:54:10.719 --> 00:54:11.280
You do.
00:54:11.519 --> 00:54:12.320
We all do.
00:54:12.559 --> 00:54:16.800
And the thing that you could do is if you don't need to seek help for yourself, go seek help for someone else.
00:54:16.960 --> 00:54:18.000
Go have a hard conversation.
00:54:18.079 --> 00:54:19.760
Go say, hey, I love you.
00:54:20.400 --> 00:54:22.000
How can I help you through this?
00:54:22.159 --> 00:54:23.519
How can I point your direction?
00:54:23.760 --> 00:54:26.000
These people are saying they'll give they'll give their phone numbers out.
00:54:26.079 --> 00:54:26.559
They will.
00:54:26.719 --> 00:54:30.639
I know because I rely on them and I I call them and I've already given Mike's number out already.
00:54:30.719 --> 00:54:31.920
Somebody asked me, Can I get that guy's number?
00:54:32.000 --> 00:54:32.639
I said, Yeah, sure.
00:54:32.719 --> 00:54:33.039
I'll do it.
00:54:33.360 --> 00:54:33.920
Gave it to him.
00:54:34.239 --> 00:54:38.960
Um but like they will actually have a coffee and have a conversation and be there for you.
00:54:39.119 --> 00:54:40.880
So what Michael said was Chris Moffat.
00:54:41.039 --> 00:54:45.360
Chris Moffat gave a testimony about how he wanted to come up here and punch me in the face one day.
00:54:45.519 --> 00:54:49.440
And um because I uh you might have called his drug dealer.
00:54:49.599 --> 00:54:51.679
Um so like I did.
00:54:51.840 --> 00:54:56.480
Um so but like he was just super transparent about his life and his struggle.
00:54:56.639 --> 00:54:57.840
I mean, he's right here.
00:54:58.079 --> 00:55:03.039
He is a godly wonderful human being who went through a rough season in life.
00:55:03.199 --> 00:55:06.880
And so he actually met with Mike for coffee, breakfast.
00:55:07.039 --> 00:55:08.400
He called him all the time.
00:55:08.480 --> 00:55:11.440
Uh he drives trucks, so he's just calling all day long.
00:55:11.599 --> 00:55:12.880
Would call me, tell me about it.
00:55:12.960 --> 00:55:16.719
And like he personally mentored Mike through that transformation.
00:55:16.880 --> 00:55:17.679
That's what you do.
00:55:17.840 --> 00:55:19.280
That's what Mike and Jim were saying.
00:55:19.440 --> 00:55:22.480
They go to a group and they go, Mike's been sober since 1980.
00:55:22.639 --> 00:55:23.440
I don't know if you know that.
00:55:23.519 --> 00:55:24.400
That's a long time.
00:55:24.639 --> 00:55:26.159
1980, I was two.
00:55:26.559 --> 00:55:31.119
Uh, so yeah, actually, no, I was one.
00:55:31.280 --> 00:55:33.119
I was one, I was one in 1980.
00:55:33.679 --> 00:55:38.960
But but he's been going, being participant in an Alcoholics Anonymous this entire time.
00:55:39.119 --> 00:55:42.000
Like the one week I think of recently, he was went three times.
00:55:42.239 --> 00:55:46.079
Because he's he believes if you don't give it away, you can't keep it.
00:55:46.800 --> 00:55:50.639
Go give your relationship with the Lord away to people by caring about their life.
00:55:51.199 --> 00:55:52.079
See what they can do.
00:55:52.320 --> 00:55:54.719
How do we don't care about your sins, we care about you.
00:55:54.960 --> 00:55:56.320
We don't live that out.
00:55:56.480 --> 00:56:02.320
And if you're hurt and you're broken and you know you need to do something, do something about it, or go help someone else do something about it.
00:56:02.559 --> 00:56:03.679
Because that's why it matters.
00:56:03.760 --> 00:56:09.280
That's why we're taking time to talk about these struggles and these sins, because these are real problems in the world.
00:56:09.519 --> 00:56:11.679
And we can fix them through Jesus Christ.
00:56:11.840 --> 00:56:13.599
And so as we end today, we're just gonna pray.
00:56:13.679 --> 00:56:16.639
If it's you, if you're sitting here, you're like, I need to do something.
00:56:16.880 --> 00:56:17.440
Do something.
00:56:17.599 --> 00:56:18.559
The prayer is for you.
00:56:18.719 --> 00:56:26.239
If you're sitting here and it's like, hey, this isn't for me today, there's someone in your life who's on your heart, who's in your mind that you need to go out and do something.
00:56:26.400 --> 00:56:28.480
Have the courage to say, Hey, I love you.
00:56:28.639 --> 00:56:29.440
How can I help you?
00:56:29.599 --> 00:56:30.400
This is enough.
00:56:30.559 --> 00:56:31.760
What can we do to get better?
00:56:31.920 --> 00:56:34.800
Maybe I can go somewhere with you, maybe we can point you some help.
00:56:35.119 --> 00:56:36.000
But let's pray.
00:56:36.239 --> 00:56:46.639
Heavenly Father, we want to be a church, Lord, where we understand the need for each other, the need for Jesus, the need that we love each other through our own mess, our own sin.
00:56:47.039 --> 00:56:53.119
Lord, we want to be a church where we moderate when we need to, but we abstain when we see the danger.
00:56:53.599 --> 00:57:01.760
That we that we live our lives in a way that honors you, that builds up this your kingdom, Lord, this church, each other, and the world.
00:57:02.000 --> 00:57:04.639
We want to be helpful, Lord, in the way we live, the way we love.
00:57:04.880 --> 00:57:08.559
Lord, I just pray for anybody here who's struggling, they have the courage to say, I need help.
00:57:09.039 --> 00:57:10.559
I need to do better.
00:57:10.800 --> 00:57:15.679
I need to, I need to choose absence over this thing that's driving my life and ruining it.
00:57:16.000 --> 00:57:27.039
Lord, for the rest of us, I pray that we have the courage to say the hard thing, to do the hard thing, to sacrifice our time to give it to somebody who just has need of just a conversation.
00:57:27.440 --> 00:57:32.719
Maybe a breakfast, maybe a coffee that leads to help.
00:57:33.280 --> 00:57:40.639
Lord, we want to be a church of hurting people, broken people who help heal other hurting and broken people by pointing back to Jesus.
00:57:41.519 --> 00:57:43.360
So you can be glorified.
00:57:43.840 --> 00:57:45.679
Lord, we just pray all this in Jesus' name.
00:57:45.840 --> 00:57:46.239
Amen.