October 19, 2025 • 64 mins
đź’Ą Addiction. Redemption. Real Community.
In this powerful Sunday message, Chaplain Heidi Woldhuis doesn’t just preach—she testifies. Sharing her personal journey through addiction and into redemption, she invites us to take a real look at what healing in community actually looks like.
“I’m here because I didn’t want to live anymore. But God wasn’t done with me yet.”
Heidi walks us through the pain of brokenness, the power of humility, and the beauty of helping others once we've been healed ourselves. She doesn’t sugarcoat the struggle—but she shines a spotlight on the hope.
“You might feel like you’re the only one. But you’re not. There’s a seat here with your name on it.”
This message is raw, real, and relevant for anyone who’s ever wrestled with shame, questioned their worth, or wondered if it’s too late to change.
🎧 Listen to the full message on our podcast: http://www.sobernotboring.comÂ
00:00 Introduction and Opening Remarks 01:11 Personal Stories and Prayer Requests 02:50 Expressions of Gratitude and Community Support 05:39 A Message on Finding Freedom 11:38 Humility and the Prodigal Son 21:11 Healing and Embracing Recovery 32:56 The Path to Healing and Acceptance 34:09 The Importance of Selfless Service 35:34 Jesus' Example of Humility 39:45 Embracing and Sharing Your Story 47:08 The Power of Community and Recovery 01:01:20 Choosing to Leave the Past Behind
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
[Mic bleed] Yes.
my friend
So much cancer.
Yes.
(00:20):
I pray that my kids keep going
wanna pray that
I love that
Anybody else?
grandfather
(00:43):
oh.
what is
his
firefighter?
Oh.
Um, that
job
exposes to a lot of things.
A lot of firefighters end up with cancer.
What is his name?
A lot of my firefighter friends have had
little situations with cancer.
(01:05):
yes.
My son David, struggling with
We need to go to someprayer war over that.
Boy.
Freedom.
Yes.
Your mom's Lori.
Lori,
(01:32):
Yes.
Thank you for remembering Jared.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He
sliced his
arm
with, yeah, I was at,
yeah, I
was back at the
hospital with
somebody yesterday, so
I I have
decided, I am
the
Outreach four 19
(01:53):
paramedic,
so
if
you have any
medical needs, just give me a
call.
I
am
there
for you.
So
it allows me to do
the stuff that I used to do,
but not as a job.
So
he will be, he will be okay.
We just have
to make
sure he's he's gotta keep
it
covered
and clean
because it was
very, very,
very deep.
But of all
the places
for it to hit
(02:13):
in his arm,
it.
um,
he either
little
bit this direction,
he would've
lost
permanent use of his
thumb.
Anything in the other,
he would've lost
other fingers and
playing music would've been done for
him, which would've been
devastating for
him.
So, thank you God,
that even though it was
a very deep.
wound,
(02:34):
it did not strike
any tendons or the
bone.
So
it didn't need a specialist.
He was incredibly blessedand thank you God for
that.
So,
Anybody else?
If I could
ask for prayers me, I would also
Yes,
I'm on that.
Yeah,
(02:57):
yes,
it's scary
for my, for myself too, becauseI'm doing the same thing.
Safety.
I just got on
the shot last
month.
I'm having my
second one.
I'm hoping to be off
months.
Oh,
we're here for you guys.
Yes.
Keeps
(03:18):
all
right.
Anybody else?
training
board.
Oh,
you're
just
eating back there.
Is that
it?
I
got busted.
in mid chew.
I'm eating hiding behind that eating.
Yeah,
just a platter of goodies over there.
It's
all good.
So God
doesn't care.
It's okay.
in the middle.
that very good.
(03:39):
You keep close eyes.
Yes.
Robin,
just
have a phrase report.
a phrase report.
Um, yes.
I
thank everybody.
When I said it was sterling
last month, literally
the whole outreach family cametogether helped with food, whatever.
People don't wanna be named but likehelp with food, help with my phone bill.
(03:59):
Like
really carried me through this month.
And,
know, I was in a really dark place.
I didn't know what I was going to do.
Um, my mother
over last night and, um, took
took care of worth
bills that were holding me
back
month.
And so going
forward,
my
(04:19):
is going to be
okay
for,
so I will be able to pay those back.
That helped it is allbudgeted, so really wanna,
I
wouldn't have month the help
I love
(04:41):
you.
We love you.
Robin.
Love.
I
love you.
We
love you
You
Soul.
Feels
like
today,
Robin.
you.
pour
the most
beautiful love and support into this
community around you
Without
hesitation, There is not an
individual that
(05:01):
would
walk
through the door, that
you wouldn't
step up and greet with a hug and
love and support.
You are a mentor and
a sponsor
like none
other,
and.
it is
a privilege
for those of us
who
love
you so much to havethe opportunity to care
for you when you need
(05:21):
it, because you have been
there for
us.
So thank you.
thank you.
for allowing
us.
Yay.
I love that.
All right, take this to God.
Oh,
father God, thank you
again.
for
a beautiful day.
Thank you for bringingus all together here.
(05:43):
My heart
is full.
Being in this
space with my friends,
I pray
Father, special blessingsover each one of them.
And again, today,
so
many have
come in here burdened and caring with
them, fears and worries over peoplethat they care about and they love,
and we wanna bring them to you.
Father,
(06:03):
I
pray a
special
protection over my son,
Parker.
Father, you know exactly where he is.
You know what he'scalled to do and I pray,
father, that above all,
he keeps his heartsubmitted to you, that he
looks
to you, for direction and for support.
I know
Father, that my child is a believer inyou and I pray that he right now feels you
(06:27):
all around him as he's calledto do these hard things.
We pray for Fred
Father, we are so grateful foranswered prayers and that he is
in a place where he can get thehelp for his mental situations.
And we
pray for
further clarity forhim in continuing help.
We pray for Mike and pray forhealing over him and as he works
(06:51):
to stopping some medications.
We pray Father, thatthat is a smooth road for
him.
We bring to you John,who had surgery and has
some complications.
Father, he needs healing andwe pray that that happens.
We
pray for Michael in thiscancer that he's facing.
There's so much cancer in this world,and father, if it's your will, I
(07:13):
pray that you just
destroy it all.
We
pray for those kids downstairs.
I just pray that they are
blessed
playing,
playing with Miss Katie down there.
I know they're gonna have a good timeand we sure love having them there.
I'm
so grateful for individualsthat come here and
just wanted to bring to you thedesire that we all have a good day.
(07:37):
I think that's beautiful.
and we bring to you
Robert,
who we hear also is dealing with cancer.
Father,
be close
to him and heal him.
If it be your will be withall those who love him.
We
pray for
David.
We pray,
Father freedom from addiction.
(07:58):
I pray freedom from the bondagethat has held him for so long,
And pray blessings
over the family that loves him
and longs for the freedom for him.
I Pray for
Lori who is struggling with
addictions and man, thebondage to that is just so
(08:19):
heavy.
So many of
us sitting
here understand what that is and we all
pray for freedom from that,
that they can experiencethe joy that we do.
Father,
I pray, I
pray
to you,
Jared, I'm so
grateful that you
protected even
through that situation and while there was
an injury, father, it was one that was
(08:40):
easily managed
and addressed, and I justpray that that heals with no
complication.
I
pray for our
dear friend Stacy and for Christina whoboth are walking this road of coming
off Suboxone and God,
I
pray that whatever that medication
Was needed for
can now be filled with you and
(09:01):
that
this transition goes well and smoothly.
And Father, may we be a supportto them as they need through this
journey.
And God, can we just say agreat big thank you to you
for.
Man,
Robin's praise report.
Your
family shows up big when there's a
need.
I'm
grateful father for thisdemonstration of what
(09:24):
community
is supposed to be.
I'm grateful for those
who willingly show
to us their needs, and I'm gratefulfor a community that immediately
responds because that is your will.
And what a beautiful example of family.
I'm
so
thankful for your son Jesus.
It is through him
(09:45):
and Him only
that we
even
come together,
that we have
hope for our
future because we
know that our
eternity is with you.
Father,
be with us today
through this message as I
hope we can
just talk about finding freedom.
And Father may it be
you
that is heard and you.
(10:05):
Only
get myself completely out of
the
way.
I pray
these things.
Father in your son's
name.
Amen.
Amen.
Okay, got a bunch of notes going on here.
I gave
away my personal Bible to somebody
and it happened to have been one of thoselarger print things, and I'm now finding
(10:28):
that small print is difficult, so my
Bible has
to be on
here
so I can better
read
for you
But I
wanted to
talk to you today
about finding
freedom.
This is a
message that I've beenthinking about for a while now.
Like
I
guess the
main points of it have something that have
been sitting on my mind, butit didn't fully come together
(10:52):
until this past week, and thenit became this easy thing, and
that's
when I know
it's
time to talk about it.
So.
finding
freedom
both from
our
addictions
and
all of those
things
that just kind of hold us
down.
And where
that's found,
it can easily be found
(11:14):
in God.
But
the first thing
that
is
required,
if you
truly want freedom,
this
is
step
one.
And
it is
the one
step that often
derails
many people because humanly speaking,
how
many of us
enjoy
having
to
humble ourself?
I've had to
humble myself
(11:35):
many, many
times and uh, eating crow is
never fun.
I don't care how
many times you've done it, it's
not something you look
forward to.
It isn't something
that you're excited to
do.
Having
to,
once
again, humble yourself.
But
freedom
begins when you take
that
first step.
(11:55):
I
can remember
the first
time I did my biggest
humbling
and
it was like, okay, I'mjumping in I'm gonna do it And
I
found myself
talking about the
things
that were my deepest shame,
And
I
just felt
wave after
wave after wave
of God
just washing over
me.
Like I've got that.
(12:16):
I've got
that.
and
the more I shared, the
less shame I
felt.
There was
just a freedom
in it, but it meant being willing toface those things and saying, do it, by
myself.
So the verses that we're using
are James four, verse 10.
I have 'em written up there too in
(12:37):
Philippians two, five through eight.
But I'm just
gonna read.
Pieces of
each verse because it says
the
main
points that I wanna get to.
And in James four
verse 10,
it says, get down
on
your knees
before the master.
It's the only way you'll
get on
your
(12:57):
feet.
And
in
Philippians
two
in verse five,
think of
yourself the
way
Christ Jesus
thought of
himself and
the rest of
Philippians talks about how he
came as a servant and humbled
himself before us.
This
God
who was
everything with without
(13:19):
boundaries
became
somebody
that walked
on earth in a human body.
So
God was
contained in his
human form.
Talk about
humbling,
humbling
ourselves.
He's
our
example.
So
in talking
about
that humility,
(13:41):
an
example from the
Bible
would be
the prodigal
son,
and if you're
not
familiar
with the
story
of the
prodigal son, there was a
father and
his two sons, the older and the
younger,
and
the younger
son decides that, you know
what?
I'm sick and tired
of
working
on
the farm.
I'm
over it
enslaving it.
(14:01):
There's
fun things to be had out there, dad.
I want my inheritance and I want it
right now
in that culture.
And even
today,
what
disrespect
like, dad, you're not deadyet, but I want what's
yours?
So
give it to
me.
That's basically what he
was asking for.
That would be like you today,
going to your living fathersaying, I don't wanna wait
(14:24):
till your dad
just give
it to me.
now.
And his dad did.
He gave him
his portion
and
his
son promptly
sat off
to town.
And those of us in
addiction,
when we
sat
off to town, what did
we
do?
Ooh.
It
was squandered And blown like
he was
wealthy.
And
then he
went
off
into the world
(14:44):
for
his
grand
adventures.
And I
imagine
if it was set in modern
day,
we would've
found
this child of
his on skid row,
destitute,
homeless, living in theworst of the worst in the
gutters
And
this son
knowing the whole time.
(15:05):
But I had
an amazing
home.
I had a safe place.
I had,
I'm just gonna go home and be a servant.
'cause my servants have it better than I
do here
in this
gutter.
I
don't deserve anything.
but this prodigal
humbled
himself
(15:25):
and
said, I got, I have to go back
home.
And took himself as he was
back home, prepared
speech and all,
just asking,
please,
dad, can I
just be a
servant?
Dad didn't
take him as a
servant.
There's a lot more, butwe'll get to that later.
So this
prodigal,
(15:46):
that's our
example in the
Bible of humbling.
'cause
that ultimate of
disrespect and
off
he trots with
all this
stuff.
We had to come
home
with
nothing.
Having lived and fought
with the pigs for
their food.
And you feed
those
pigs
over there on the
farm,
Can
you
imagine
being in there,
fighting
with
them for their scraps of
(16:07):
food?
And then I
think of
that
humility when
it comes to
us
today,
And we
think about people, those of
us in
recovery, and
we
talk about that
here because most of us
sitting
in
here are,
And truly I
believe
everybody on
this
planet
is in
(16:27):
recovery
because addiction is not
just drugs and
alcohol.
Every
single
person
in here has
an addiction.
We talked
before
in
a message
that the ultimate
first addiction
was
sin itself.
Because
if
you break it down, that's what sin
is.
It's in
your
head.
Like, we know what
we should
(16:47):
do,
but our
mind, oh,
but
sin
is fun, sin
is great.
It's,
you know, we enjoy it.
So
all of us here are
addicts
in
that sense of the word,
but in
this humbling
ourselves,
it
means.
Humbling
yourself now saying, God,I'm coming as I am now.
(17:11):
Not, I'm gonna clean myself
up first.
I'm gonna do this first.
Um, I'll stop
drinking and, you know,
wing
it and see how it
goes.
Like,
you
know,
we're
gonna clean ourself up
and,
and then
That's not
humbling.
That's still saying, well, I
got
this.
I can do
it all
by
myself.
I don't need
(17:31):
anything.
Humbling ourselves
means
I can't do
this.
It's
impossible for me to do
and I'm gonna humble myself right now in
the mess that I'm in and bring
that to God.
And that can be difficult for us
(17:52):
as
humans to
do
the big
old
messes that we
are.
And
then we
get to that church corporate and being
humble.
So you have
people like
broken us
coming
to church and our brokennessand what do they find there?
Because what they shouldfind in church is an eager
(18:13):
readiness
to
welcome
them because
isn't
that the first place they
should
be free to
come and
be.
and
often
it's not.
Churches
sometimes, and again this
isn't church bashing, but
it's
so vitally important that church
gets
(18:35):
caring for and loving thosewho walk into the doors.
is
far more
important
as to, is technology going right?
Is our
building great?
Does everything
look good,
Is our branding good,
Is
our timing
good?
The production and
the
newsfeed and the live
feed
and, and all these things
which
are good,
(18:57):
but
sometimes almost becomes a priority
over.
getting
in the dirt with
people
who need somebody to walk
alongside.
So
our
church is embracing and looking
for those
people who, in their
humility, have
walked
in
as they are,
(19:17):
I think
for
a
long time,
you
know,
I
was
like, that prodigal going to war
with,
uh, I'm
not worthy of coming
back.
I'm
not
good enough.
And I tried
to
clean myself up and get it right
and
I
didn't.
I
couldn't.
(19:37):
So then
you.
Try to
come
back.
and I can
remember
the idea
of
going back
to
a church
building with people sitting in
church was terrifying to me
because in
my
mind I'm
like,
but that's where I'm going to get
judgment for where
I've
been and how sad is
that?
But
that was
(19:58):
ingrained in to me because of where I
came from and it colored
everything I thought about thosethat sat in those buildings.
And that's wrong.
They're
not
all like that.
Some.
Yes.
And I wouldn't be afraid
to have that conversation 'causejust, you know, turn it around
and get
back to
love
welcoming
(20:18):
those
people who have
taken the step
to become humble.
We,
as
church, and I believe fully in my heart,
we kind of
have
an advantage
as
the
church sitting
here.
in the
(20:38):
community
that we
are
we are wired
that
way.
Those of us
who are
in
recovery are already wired to
be
the
family of God the
way that he calls usto you readily welcome
people in?
You readily
sit
with them
where they're
at.
The stories, their warstories don't rattle
you
at
all.
(20:59):
They inspire you.
you
encourage
them.
And it's beautiful
that we have this here and it's myprayer that that continues always.
But after we've humbled ourselves,
this has
to
happen.
If you want to find freedom
in recovery, this
has to
happen.
And the
problem
(21:21):
comes when
we
get
here and we still try to
avoid
So
Isaiah 61 verse
one,
God
sent
me to preach good news to the
poor, to heal
the broke, the
(21:42):
heartbroken, and to announcefreedom to all captives.
In two Corinthians oneverses three through four,
God
of all
mercy,
the God
who
soos and comforts us in all our troubles
So
that
we are
enabled to soothe and comfort
others in the
troubles that
might come their way.
(22:04):
This is where healing
happens.
You've come
back
in your
humbleness
and you
want
more.
You want closer to Jesus.
And again,
sitting
with the Bible
and thinking
of examples of this.
(22:29):
there was a woman in the Bible who had
an issue with bleeding
and we're
talking for
over a decade.
What this meant for her
in this
culture
and context is that
she has been banished
to
live in a
tent cap outside of the
city.
She couldn't
come to the temple.
she
couldn't
come and worship.
She's been considered
unclean this
entire
(22:49):
time, like it
was
Shameful for
her.
She was
kept
from
community.
It
was an
awful,
awful way to
live.
But this
woman practiced number
one, and she
humbled
herself
enough
where she's
like,
Jesus is coming.
Jesus
is
coming, and I need healing.
(23:10):
I need
healing
from this, and I believe that he
can heal.
I don't know
how, I can't imagine
what
she
was feeling like as She was
walking into
town
because she wasn't
allowed to be there.
She was
not allowed to be
there.
But she
had
one thing on her mind healing,
(23:31):
and she went to the
one source knew it, would happen.
She didn't
call out
to him, she didn't
get in
her
face.
It wasn't all
about her.
She's like, if
his
robe,
if I could just
touch it, I just
know.
And that's exactly what happened.
And if you know the story,
(23:53):
you'll know
that
even in that
crowd of
people,
people
on all sides, we've all been in a
crowd.
Jesus
recognized
immediately that
something had happenedAnd immediately stopped
and said,
who
touched
me?
And can you
imagine
the fear
she must have felt
in that moment?
(24:14):
Here's
this woman who everybody
knew shouldn't
be
there,
and
she
dared
to approach And touch
Jesus.
And what Jesus did is show
such
love
for her faith
that brought
her there
and healing
was found in
him.
So what does that mean for us?
Jesus didn't ask us to
(24:35):
have it
all
figured out in all
right.
Jesus didn't ask
us to have
full understanding
of him before
we had
faith that he
could heal us,
so
we can
bring to him
all
our messy
recovery's
hard
because
we're
not
recovered when
stop using, right?
(24:57):
That's
kind of
been
step one, because recovery
means healing.
It means
going
right
to
the heart.
It means
going
to the
cause,
and we don't like doing
that.
We just
don't because
shame,
(25:18):
fear.
Guilt.
What
if people
knew
I'm
not good
enough?
Oh, what does
God think of
me?
faith,
believe
what God
says that he thinks about
you.
believe when
he
says that
(25:39):
he can
heal.
You.
Believe
when
he says, I am the answer.
Believe
when he says,
that
there is
freedom
to
be found in
me because we often get
caught up in
this
because in
the process of healing,
we
can get
caught up on the rails
of
I was
horrible.
(25:59):
I've done
Awful things
awful
things.
have been done
to me.
I can't
get beyond it.
Then
you need
to go
back to step
one.
If you can't
bring
that to God because, oh, the shame and the
guilt and all of this,
(26:21):
go back
to step one and
humble
yourself in that.
Because
isn't that humanly speaking still?
You saying, oh,
but this
is
too much.
And I
didn't
like thinking
about it that
way because I very much lived my
life.
Like,
I don't
wanna
talk
to God
about this.
I don't wanna
look at this.
I don't
(26:41):
want to.
Well, Jesus already died
for it.
What
kind of ego do I
have to say?
I'm too
much?
Because
nobody
in here is too
much.
nobody's
issues, nobody's
addiction, nobody's
pain, nobody's
trauma.
nobody's
suffering is too much.
(27:02):
That's
enemy talk.
That's our humanness gettingin the way of our freedom.
Humble
yourself
and
give up
what you're
hanging onto.
And I don't mean to beharsh when I say that.
My heart
(27:22):
breaks for people sitting in this phase of
things
holding on tightly to their
labels.
I'm a
sexual
abuse
victim.
I'll talk
about
those pants there too before we're done.
I wore
that label
for a
long
time.
And guess what?
(27:43):
It hindered my
healing
because
look at
my label.
this is who I
am,
This is
me.
And
along with that, I
hung onto all the
feelings and
emotions
wrapped up with that,
a clung to
it.
and
I
liked it because I had a
right
to be
angry, and I got
(28:03):
caught
up in that for a
while.
Do you think any healing
happened?
None.
It
got
worse.
If we
only
wear the label
of I'm
an
alcoholic
or I'm an
addict, but we never add the in recovery,
(28:28):
we
can get
caught in
that
label.
We
are far
more
than
just that
word
or
just that label.
It's
part of who we
are, But why
don't
we.
want to
move onto what God.
can do with
it?
(28:48):
I
wish
that
I had,
when I
talk
to people that are caught
in
this, that are
just
suffering because of
life and
experiences and traumas
and hurt and
pain,
I so
wish.
I
knew
the
right words that would help
(29:09):
them just,
but
give
that to God.
I
don't know sometimes
why
we feel
so
much the
need
to
hang onto it
Nope.
Not
handing
that
to God.
I'm gonna hang
onto it
even as we, yep.
I'm gonna bring this
in prayer and I'm
gonna set it.
down.
(29:30):
Nobody's looking.
I'm picking that up andit's going home with
me.
I'm
not
done
yet.
I'm not
done
being the
victim.
Healing
happens when you
say I'm done
I'm
not
gonna claim that
I'm a victim anymore
Because
if
we have
faith in our God,
(29:50):
we're not a victim
We're a
victor.
There's a
big
difference in that,
and
when your
mind
starts
to see yourself from that
other perspective,
it's
remarkable what
happens.
And I've seen that
in
many people here.
When you
face that trauma,
you face that
ugliness and instead of
(30:11):
sitting here looking at it
from underneath the boulder
that it
is,
get out
from under
it.
Get
out from under
it.
because you don't have to stay
there.
(30:38):
We
need to
stop playing the
victim role
because if you
belong to God,
why are
you claiming
that?
God knows the
fallout in your
life.
If you don't
give
that
up to him, and that's why he says,
it
is finished,
my son covered it, let it go.
(31:01):
And as a church,
we need
to be
that
family
that
doesn't hold that
over people's heads.
Then
when
when people
have come to
us
in
their
messiness
and
they've
found their
healing and they've let
go of those
labels, why so often
(31:21):
does
the
church
stick
it right back on?
I
don't know
if
anybody's had experience with Christians
like
that,
but
they
love to
resick the labels.
Oh yeah, an
addict.
Hold their purse
closer.
(31:42):
Don't let their
kids
around
them.
They
have to be in our
church.
We need to be a
church that
celebrates,
that healing
happens
here.
We
need
to be
church
that
welcomes that
and
celebrates that
(32:02):
Not that
designates
a
special row for all the
addicts in recovery.
'cause I heard that that happened at a
church and I wanted to vomit.
Literally
like we
designated a
section for those kind of sinners.
Now
'keep
'em all
together
so we know where they're
at,
kind of a
(32:22):
thing.
It doesn't feel
good, you
know?
It
doesn't because it's
family.
We're all
family.
No
wonder
so many broken people
don't want to
go
back
to
church.
Why
would
you?
Why would you?
If that's what's
(32:43):
gonna happen?
My
church held
my past
over
my
head,
and to this day, I
wouldn't
be allowed to
walk
into those
doors.
The
pathway for me
to
go
back in those
doors would
be to
divorce
Robert
and then
go to
the church and confess
my
(33:03):
sin of divorcing a violent man,
and
I
would have
to do that publicly on thesteps and hope that they
would
forgive
me.
It's
nonsense.
It
is
utter nonsense.
We
can't
be like that in a church family.
(33:26):
People
that are
working actively
to heal
their lives
need to be
welcomed with open
arms into the church family,
and encouraged on
their
way.
So healing
continues.
Because
if
they come
to
church, if I come to
church,
and you stick a label
right back on me, I'm no longer healing.
(33:46):
I'm
right back to where I
have
to
humble myself all
over.
And do you
think I'll willingly
keep going back?
So that
healing
has to happen?
And
then my favorite part of it
all
(34:11):
help
through
serving.
But
we
need to remember that it has
to be selfless.
'cause
it's really easy to servewhen you get something
for it.
I've done all this forpeople and what do I get?
Nothing.
Nobody's there for
me.
we need to go
back
to step one,
Right?
(34:33):
Because you didn't get the lesson
of step
one.
Humble yourself
because
read
verses.
It's the selfless partthat we need to remember.
(34:56):
Galatians
six verse two,
stoop
down
and reach out
to those who
are oppressed, share
their
burdens and sow
complete Christ's
law in one John three 18.
My dear children.
Let's
not just talk about love.
(35:18):
Let's
practice real love.
We
have a
pretty good example
of this
in Jesus obviously.
Jesus,
before they had the final supper,
(35:41):
met everybody
at the door with
a
basin and a
towel,
and
he washed
feet
and it,
you
understood
what feet were like
in
those times.
People
walked everywhere they went.
Not
a
nice paved
sidewalks and nice
paved roads.
Dust and dirt and animals
and stuff.
(36:01):
They
walked
everywhere.
It was
custom
When people were to
enter
a home or a place,
the lowest servant would be given the
job
of having to wash
everybody's
dirty feet.
And
as somebody who's just, notfond of feet, I would not have
liked
to have
had that
job.
people
that do pedicures
(36:22):
more power to you.
I just, no thank you, podiatrist.
God bless
you, but no
thank you,
but
Jesus, God,
Nobody asked him
to
got that basin
and a towel
and kneeled on the ground
and picked up dirty feet and
washed them
(36:47):
as he's preparing to go to the cross.
That's
the
example.
What was
in
that
for Jesus?
Nothing.
He didn't expect anything
to
come of that.
And in
fact, people are pro, no, no, no, you
can't wash my
feet.
Let me serve
you.
(37:08):
Let
me
serve
you.
If
you wanna be the greatest,then you need to be last.
If you wanna
be
first, you
will be last.
That's how it
works with
God is backwards
then.
(37:28):
you.
know, winner gets it all here.
It's gonna
be a
real
surprise
when?
What do you mean?
God?
Look at
me.
I'm
here.
Went to church everySunday, twice a Sunday.
I was an elder.
I was a deacon.
I Made sure all the rules werefollowed and things were good.
I paid the church budget.
(37:49):
I put a
few bucks in the benevolent fund,
took
care of my
family,
did all these great things.
I'm so blessed.
Here I am God and
God's like
I don't know
you
what
do you
mean
you didn't
That's really
(38:10):
honestly,
the reality of
it.
if
it's done without
love, God doesn't know
you.
So
if you're doing with
expectation in
return,
you're
not
loving.
And
I don't
wanna hear God say, Heidi,
I don't know
you.
(38:33):
So
Jesus
modeled to
us
what
serving is.
What
in that time
was
assuming the
lowest
I'm gonna
wash
those feet
for
the
people that I'm gonna
serve a meal
to
all service.
Before
(38:54):
he went to the cross,
uh,
we have to remember he
was
fully
human
in all of
these
things.
He had
emotions the
same as
us.
He had
feelings.
He had
fear.
Now
imagine the fear his human brain
thought of,
because
he
is also
(39:14):
God.
So he has an understanding
of what
he's
gonna go through far beyond what we do
because he created
us.
He understands a
human body.
So as
that, obviously it had
to
be
on his mind, He knew,
(39:35):
but his
driving
thing was, how can
I
love people and serve
them?
How
can I go to
this
demonstrating to
people love each
other
like
this
Because that's what he was showing,
that
God
himself
is
serving
you.
you.
(39:56):
So we're called to use
our towels.
Think of it as
your
story.
Think of it as all the
experiences
you've been
through
that we
often use to
stop us in our
tracks.
I'm a
victim.
I
am
a victim.
(40:16):
You are
not
helping anybody by wearing thattitle and only wearing that title.
But
what
happens when you say,
been
where you're
at?
I
would love to just
listen.
Can I
tell you
about Jesus and what he
is done for
me?
How
different
is
(40:36):
that
when
somebody has been
through it and find
somebody who's been throughit and says, I understand
and I've been there.
Let
me tell
you about Jesus.
Let me tell
you how we healed me.
But
we
often
keep those
things to ourself.
(40:56):
We don't share
with
others
the ugliness of
our
lives.
We
keep those
hidden because of
shame.
God
didn't
allow.
That experience
to happen
in
your life, to become a title to wear.
He allowed the
(41:17):
experiences in our
life
to
become the
way of love,
and
that
doesn't make
sense
humanly either,
because when
unfairness comes
to
us, when
cruelty and abuse
happens to us, the last
thing we wanna
do
is turn
(41:37):
around and love people
because of
it.
But that's
what
happens when you heal
through
him.
That's
what happens when you hand it
to him and
say, God, use this
Because
I have found that I'm specially
equipped to
help certain people because I share
similar experiences.
(41:58):
I'm deeply grateful for that.
I'm so grateful that I can
understand
it's why there is
a co tree of red pants hanging here.
It is why I am not ashamed in
my church to leave
it
here.
For anybody
who
has
experienced abuse like
that,
write a
(42:19):
a message on
'em.
Claim
your
healing,
Say whatever
you need to say
because we don't
hide from the ugliness
in
life.
In fact, we use it
to
celebrate
who God is and who our healing
comes from.
We
use
it to pour into other
people who are
(42:39):
suffering and feel like
it's
impossible,
like it'll
never be better.
Yes, it
will.
Yes,
it will.
It will be beautifully
better.
Don't
be ashamed
of it
though.
(43:04):
God
allows
In our lives,
even the
hardest of the
hard things because he knows what
he can
do with it.
He
did
not say
Heidi's gonna
have
these experiences
because
she is so wicked and she needs to be
refined
(43:25):
and
shame
on any church that would say that
God
is love
and cannot be the opposite of love.
But
he gave
us our free will as we
talk about, And because this
world is
broken,
evil and sinful.
Horrible things
(43:46):
happen,
but it
doesn't mean
it's all lost.
What it means is
God's going to
show who he is
by
taking
the ugliest experience and making it
something beautiful.
But
unless you've
humbled
yourself.
(44:07):
And
then
healed
yourself,
you
will never experience the joy
of
using the experiences in your
life serve
other
people.
If you thought that I
would ever
use abuse
in
my
life
to
be
(44:27):
there
for people in a way that mayhelp, I would've thought you were
ridiculous.
How could
such
pain
and hurt
be good in any
way, shape or form?
And I'll
say it
again.
I pray God,
never
ask me to
experience it
again.
Please, God,
don't
allow
that to happen
(44:48):
in my life
again.
But
thank
you,
God, for bringing me
through
this.
thank you,
for calling
me
to a
path that
will allow me to
love people better.
And he is
calling
every single one of
us
sitting in here
to do the same with
whatever.
you come here
with,
those
experiences that you
(45:08):
are
the
most
ashamed of
that cause you the most
agony
and
hurt.
That's
where you need to
go.
Humble yourself and take thatlabel off and say, I'm ready
to heal.
Don't
be
a victim, be a
victor
because
there's people
that need
you to
be a
victor
(45:29):
so they can
have
hope.
Life
isn't
always going to be this
and people need to hear
that
when they're
stuck in
that
healing
part.
It's not
(45:50):
always gonna be
this way.
And
if
we don't talk.
If
we just
show up,
like isn't things
so,
you know, life is so good.
I'm
so glad to know Jesus,
and I'm so
blessed and this is greatand the songs are wonderful
and I hope you all have a good
(46:10):
day.
What are the hurting
people doing?
sure wish life was good like that.
When will my
life be good.
like that.
Church
needs to
be a place where real talk
Real
life happens
where we
don't pretend we're always good
(46:31):
Life is
great
having a good
day.
You know what?
I had a really hard week
struggled
through
this.
I've had experiences
in
my
life that were really, really,
really hard.
I've been through
something
similar.
Would you like
to talk about
(46:52):
it?
That's
what
church needs to
be
because beautiful
things happen.
and again, we're
privileged to see that
here because
people
in recovery,
and I'm
not saying
sobriety, I'm
saying recovery.
Sobriety is
beautiful.
Not
using is a
good
thing, but recovery
(47:13):
is where it's at.
Recovery is where it's
at.
Because sobriety, we still have the junk.
You
know,
the junk is there.
White
knuckling
eh,
white knuckling
isn't fun and we don't
have to let
go,
let
(47:33):
go.
and
trust him enough to just
touch his
robe.
God, help me
It's been so
long.
Just it and
see what
happens.
And let him use that mess.
S to heal.
Not
(47:53):
just
yourself because you'll found endless
healing.
You will
find it through serving,
but allow others to be healed
because of
you.
Can you
think of anything
better from your
pain
honestly, than your
own healing, but
also
others?
I talk
about a win-win.
That's
(48:13):
why
God
calls
messy
people.
We
often think it's thosecleaned up people that
are the
church
people.
They're cleaned and
polished
and doing it good.
No, God
likes the messy
ones
because
that's what really
shows people who
he is.
Not
polished up and
everything's
good.
It's a good
day.
(48:34):
Have a good
week.
Glad
you're doing
good.
God's
not asking surface.
because
if
it's all surface, what
happens when the big old
heavy
rains
come,
all
gets
washed
away.
Doesn't
hold tight when things get
(48:56):
hard,
but the things
rooted
deep.
The relationships
that go below the
surface,
conversations that aren't superficial, but
because we want
to know you
and
we
wanna be
known, those hold,
those
are the things that aregonna show people who
(49:17):
God is.
That's
what's going to
show people hope.
When it seems
hopeless,
this group of
people talking aboutwhat they've been through
and they're living
these happy lives.
I'm
like, makes
no
sense.
I think
it's why people get
overwhelmed
at times when they
(49:37):
come
here on a Friday
night.
oh my goodness, They're
laughing and having fun.
What?
But
we're
addicts
and I'm
struggling and I wanna
use, and I want,
and
eh,
and
you are right.
We've all been there.
(49:57):
We still struggle with it,
what?
Life
is wonderful in
recovery.
It's
wonderful.
Even on those days when wemay have struggles because
our community comes around us.
Ask
Robin
what happens.
She selflessly serves so many
(50:21):
people
Nobody
here I think has any
idea.
The people whose lives Robin has touched,
always
there to
love you you and serve you andtake care of you in any way she
came to her community because she trusted
and
had
(50:41):
faith in us that we
wouldn't
judge her in
What happened?
Look,
the
blessings that
God
has
done since just last
week.
I'm
grateful that
Robin shared that
because
it's a perfect example
for today.
She was overwhelmed and burdened
and
overcome,
(51:03):
and
she
didn't
let pride
get in the
way.
Robin, I hope you're
okay
with
me sharing it like this.
She
modeled
for us what humility
is.
Openly,
right?
She
faced it,
owned it, looked at it,
and healed
it,
and
she
brought it
(51:23):
to
us,
And
there
is
a freedom in there because
look what God has done.
Her
needs have been
met.
Her spirit is not burdenedanymore, and that's
church.
What happened in these seven
days since she brought it to us until
now,
all those
days,
that was Church
(51:44):
Church at work.
It didn't happen here at,
happened
all around
her.
And I love
that
example.
I've been sitting
with that, the
whole
message
like,
what a
perfect
example of
all
those phases.
That's recovery,
that's healing, freedom.
(52:06):
Church needs
to be
that way, And you know,
it's not that
building, you
know?
Mm-hmm.
It's
all of us.
We
need to be far
more concerned
with serving
(52:26):
with
no expectation in
return.
If
somebody
has a
need
and
you
can help with
that you help with that and don't
expect them to repay the favor.
Because I can never repay what Jesus did
for me.
I can't
even
touch that debt.
(52:47):
And he didn't
ask
me.
to repay it.
All
he asked for
was love.
And
last week
when we talked, rememberthe sheep and the goats,
but when did we
see
you
hungry and
thirsty and
cold
and in prison,
they're asking
Jesus that.
When
did
we see you
(53:08):
that way?
In the biggest
lesson, I think
of
All
he said, well, when you
helped other
people,
you were doing
that to me.
So that's what we need to
remember.
you
are not
doing it for the one you may
hand money
to
or
food to or clothing to.
(53:32):
We're
doing
it
him.
That's
us saying, thank you for what you
paid
for
me.
It's that whole paying it
forward
thing.
I'm
doing this because what he did for me.
I don't need nothing
in return.
Just
being
able
to serve you is more than
enough
(53:53):
and
if you
don't believe that selfless serving is
worth
it, I'm gonna double dog
dare
you
to just do
it
for
a
week.
Just a
a week, and you
can go
back to
expectation.
I
don't
care.
That's
fine.
That's up to
you.
But I will
double dog dare you.
One week of serving and no
(54:14):
expectation in return.
I don't need nothing.
If I give you a loan
and don't give it back, so
be
it.
it.
So
be
it.
It's okay.
I don't need
it back.
God's
good
clothing,
food,
what I
have
to
offer, I will offer freely.
(54:36):
If it's
my
time, I will give my
time.
I will
notice
people who have
a
need
and
it can
be needs of all kind.
But I'm telling you the numberone most overlooked need
is a gift of your
time.
And
listening
Society is getting
(54:56):
away from that rapidly.
So
let's be
the church that, that's the first thing we
wanna do.
And I
say that
because it's through listening that, we
learn how to love theone we're listening to.
How will we
know how
to love,
somebody
if
we do not know what
they are
going through?
(55:17):
Mm-hmm.
I don't want
this to be a
family,
the church
that does it
superficially.
I
want to
be known
as this crazy,
odd
group of
people,
(55:37):
druggies and drunks
that
just really love,
people deep,
like
they just
love,
they take
care
of
people.
They don't
go
after people.
I
think the
greatest
gift I gave myself
is not caring that I didn't get
my cash
(55:57):
I
got
my
ID and my
social security card that I know
don't keep
it in your purse.
and
my
nonprofit
card is
back.
that is
all I
asked
to
get back
and that was
answered.
I got it back.
Right.
The money's just money.
And
then tell what
(56:21):
Oh, that I forgot about.
Oh
my goodness.
Um,
you
know,
God,
the way that he
works, you know, I literally, I have no
anger about
it.
So
if anybody
here
feels angry
on my behalf,
you can let it go because I'm not,
I
have so handed that to God andGod's at work in that situation
(56:43):
too.
I'm not angry and I
got back what I asked for,
but God did me one betterbecause you know what
came in the
mail
the
day
after it was
taken
check
from a
funeral I
did in August that
they had forgotten.
They hadn't paid me
for yet.
Oh, nice
(57:03):
temple.
God
is good.
That's
God saying.
I
asked
you to love and you
did.
I asked
you to trust
me and you did.
I asked
you to
not
be angry and
let
it go, and you
did
(57:24):
Oh, I'm not sure.
Trust me.
I wared with my
emotions.
I dealt with some
anger and
frustration and
That's okay.
God doesn't judge me for
that because I did
that
with God.
I
was
upset.
I'm like, really?
God?
The one time like I never have cash.
I might have
a
dollar
and
some change.
I
never
ever
(57:44):
have
cash.
Like really
the one time there was
money because I did awedding, all that that Really?
good and God's like, yep.
Yeah,
because There's a
lesson, but it
wasn't
just for me, it was for the
other
person involved
too.
And God's at work in that.
I know He
(58:05):
It
feels
a
lot
better to not be angry.
I have
let go of
so much
anger over the past couple
I've just
let it go Amen.
You know,
I, I even
tried
for a
while
to have
the
whole, you know, righteous anger,
you know,
like Jesus
flipping
tables,
that kind of anger
(58:25):
and
I'm
like,
Heidi, humble
yourself.
That's
not
what it is.
It was
selfish
anger.
You
know,
I'm
gonna practice harder
on my
anger
because I'm
realizing how much of mylife It affects, and then It
causes this cycle ofhumbling healing and then
(58:49):
helping,
I
wanna stay in phase
It
helps
keep me humble
and it
brings me
healing
Our
God
Is so
good.
He has
clearly
laid out the
path to healing.
But our
(59:09):
human natures get in the
way.
Humble
yourself,
and know enough
to know
you
can
take yourself
right now as you are to
him and give it to
him.
Say, God, I'm
done trying to do it on
my own.
I'm done trying to
improve myself on my
own.
(59:29):
I'm done
trying to do
it
on
my own.
God,
I'm handling the
whole big ball of mess that I
am,
and I'm dumping myself at your
feet.
help me.
This is
it.
Tell him
everything.
Because remember that
whole, he already
knows.
(59:49):
We,
I
think we, we like to believe we have
these secrets,
you
know,
this secret part
of
us
that God doesn't
know.
So
he looks at us and
just
pats us on
the head, and
what a good kid you are.
No, God says that one is
mine.
Isn't
she amazing?
She's beautiful and I love
her.
(01:00:10):
thinks that when he looks at
me,
Stacey, He thinks that when he looks at
you
and Dave
and everybody in
here,
wonderful?
Isn't he
amazing?
And
we're
like,
but God,
what?
know what
you're talking
about.
(01:00:33):
He
knows
all,
but that's not how he sees us.
And that's
our
example.
That's how we're
supposed
to see
each
other.
That's how we
selflessly
serve.
I don't
see your past.
I
love
you here and
now.
Mm-hmm.
You're amazing.
(01:00:54):
It's
covered
because
he said
it
was,
And I trust him And I
believe
him.
So I
wanna walk
alongside people so they
can set it
down at his feet
and
not feel like they have to carry it
back out when they go home.
And
that's your
choice.
It's
what it comes down to.
(01:01:14):
Today we're gonna wrap
up with this.
You
can make the choice
today to leave it
right
here.
You can leave it
at the
foot of the electric
cross.
You
can
literally leave it here.
but it's
up to you if you wanna walk outwith your labels and your past
(01:01:35):
today.
You
can
choose today
to say, God,
I trust you and I'm
gonna do it.
I'm
taking a step in faith.
I
don't know how this is
gonna work,
but
I'm
sick
and tired of carrying this
with me,
and today
I am
handing
it to you because you know what to do with
it
And then you
have a
decision to make.
(01:01:56):
Are
you gonna take some of it back with
you
and
choose to hang onto it?
And that's your choice
and
God still loves
you
and
he is
still gonna
say, just
So leave it
and
don't pick it up
and then
help other
people
(01:02:16):
to do the
same by serving.
The more I do this, the more Ijust want all of you to be free.
Hmm.
There's a
a lot of
bondage because we live in this
world.
(01:02:37):
It
keeps
us
hurting
and
sad and broken,
but it
doesn't
have to.
And
it really is
that
simple.
Even though it's
hard,
humble
yourself,
because
sometimes
(01:02:58):
we think
we're being
humble
and
we're not.
Oh,
I'm so
broken.
Such a victim.
Been through so
much.
Still
going though.
But are you going?
You're
Not
Not if
that's all you see
yourself as.
It's
my prayer
always.
It is every
(01:03:19):
day.
It's what I
pray over all of
you.
As we're doing
the
songs in here,
I'm literally praying for freedomfrom the bondage that we're all in.
That's
my prayer and that's the prayer we
should
all be praying over each other
because then it gets to the good stuffwhere we're just the hands and feet
(01:03:39):
of Jesus
and we're serving other
people.
And that's
what I want to see
our
church model
always, because you
do,
I
am blessed
to serve people who are feet
washers.
Not everybody is blessed that way.
(01:03:59):
That does what I do and it's beautiful.
I just ask
you to lean
more into it.
I can't
even begin to fathom
what's gonna happen
all around
each one of
you
when you
lean into that and serve that way.
when
That grows,
when you
become known
for that, when this community
(01:04:20):
becomes known for that,
trust them enough to do it.
[Mic bleed] Yes.
my friend
So much cancer.
Yes.
(00:20):
I pray that my kids keep going
wanna pray that
I love that
Anybody else?
grandfather
(00:43):
oh.
what is
his
firefighter?
Oh.
Um, that
job
exposes to a lot of things.
A lot of firefighters end up with cancer.
What is his name?
A lot of my firefighter friends have had
little situations with cancer.
(01:05):
yes.
My son David, struggling with
We need to go to someprayer war over that.
Boy.
Freedom.
Yes.
Your mom's Lori.
Lori,
(01:32):
Yes.
Thank you for remembering Jared.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He
sliced his
arm
with, yeah, I was at,
yeah, I
was back at the
hospital with
somebody yesterday, so
I I have
decided, I am
the
Outreach four 19
(01:53):
paramedic,
so
if
you have any
medical needs, just give me a
call.
I
am
there
for you.
So
it allows me to do
the stuff that I used to do,
but not as a job.
So
he will be, he will be okay.
We just have
to make
sure he's he's gotta keep
it
covered
and clean
because it was
very, very,
very deep.
But of all
the places
for it to hit
(02:13):
in his arm,
it.
um,
he either
little
bit this direction,
he would've
lost
permanent use of his
thumb.
Anything in the other,
he would've lost
other fingers and
playing music would've been done for
him, which would've been
devastating for
him.
So, thank you God,
that even though it was
a very deep.
wound,
(02:34):
it did not strike
any tendons or the
bone.
So
it didn't need a specialist.
He was incredibly blessedand thank you God for
that.
So,
Anybody else?
If I could
ask for prayers me, I would also
Yes,
I'm on that.
Yeah,
(02:57):
yes,
it's scary
for my, for myself too, becauseI'm doing the same thing.
Safety.
I just got on
the shot last
month.
I'm having my
second one.
I'm hoping to be off
months.
Oh,
we're here for you guys.
Yes.
Keeps
(03:18):
all
right.
Anybody else?
training
board.
Oh,
you're
just
eating back there.
Is that
it?
I
got busted.
in mid chew.
I'm eating hiding behind that eating.
Yeah,
just a platter of goodies over there.
It's
all good.
So God
doesn't care.
It's okay.
in the middle.
that very good.
(03:39):
You keep close eyes.
Yes.
Robin,
just
have a phrase report.
a phrase report.
Um, yes.
I
thank everybody.
When I said it was sterling
last month, literally
the whole outreach family cametogether helped with food, whatever.
People don't wanna be named but likehelp with food, help with my phone bill.
(03:59):
Like
really carried me through this month.
And,
know, I was in a really dark place.
I didn't know what I was going to do.
Um, my mother
over last night and, um, took
took care of worth
bills that were holding me
back
month.
And so going
forward,
my
(04:19):
is going to be
okay
for,
so I will be able to pay those back.
That helped it is allbudgeted, so really wanna,
I
wouldn't have month the help
I love
(04:41):
you.
We love you.
Robin.
Love.
I
love you.
We
love you
You
Soul.
Feels
like
today,
Robin.
you.
pour
the most
beautiful love and support into this
community around you
Without
hesitation, There is not an
individual that
(05:01):
would
walk
through the door, that
you wouldn't
step up and greet with a hug and
love and support.
You are a mentor and
a sponsor
like none
other,
and.
it is
a privilege
for those of us
who
love
you so much to havethe opportunity to care
for you when you need
(05:21):
it, because you have been
there for
us.
So thank you.
thank you.
for allowing
us.
Yay.
I love that.
All right, take this to God.
Oh,
father God, thank you
again.
for
a beautiful day.
Thank you for bringingus all together here.
(05:43):
My heart
is full.
Being in this
space with my friends,
I pray
Father, special blessingsover each one of them.
And again, today,
so
many have
come in here burdened and caring with
them, fears and worries over peoplethat they care about and they love,
and we wanna bring them to you.
Father,
(06:03):
I
pray a
special
protection over my son,
Parker.
Father, you know exactly where he is.
You know what he'scalled to do and I pray,
father, that above all,
he keeps his heartsubmitted to you, that he
looks
to you, for direction and for support.
I know
Father, that my child is a believer inyou and I pray that he right now feels you
(06:27):
all around him as he's calledto do these hard things.
We pray for Fred
Father, we are so grateful foranswered prayers and that he is
in a place where he can get thehelp for his mental situations.
And we
pray for
further clarity forhim in continuing help.
We pray for Mike and pray forhealing over him and as he works
(06:51):
to stopping some medications.
We pray Father, thatthat is a smooth road for
him.
We bring to you John,who had surgery and has
some complications.
Father, he needs healing andwe pray that that happens.
We
pray for Michael in thiscancer that he's facing.
There's so much cancer in this world,and father, if it's your will, I
(07:13):
pray that you just
destroy it all.
We
pray for those kids downstairs.
I just pray that they are
blessed
playing,
playing with Miss Katie down there.
I know they're gonna have a good timeand we sure love having them there.
I'm
so grateful for individualsthat come here and
just wanted to bring to you thedesire that we all have a good day.
(07:37):
I think that's beautiful.
and we bring to you
Robert,
who we hear also is dealing with cancer.
Father,
be close
to him and heal him.
If it be your will be withall those who love him.
We
pray for
David.
We pray,
Father freedom from addiction.
(07:58):
I pray freedom from the bondagethat has held him for so long,
And pray blessings
over the family that loves him
and longs for the freedom for him.
I Pray for
Lori who is struggling with
addictions and man, thebondage to that is just so
(08:19):
heavy.
So many of
us sitting
here understand what that is and we all
pray for freedom from that,
that they can experiencethe joy that we do.
Father,
I pray, I
pray
to you,
Jared, I'm so
grateful that you
protected even
through that situation and while there was
an injury, father, it was one that was
(08:40):
easily managed
and addressed, and I justpray that that heals with no
complication.
I
pray for our
dear friend Stacy and for Christina whoboth are walking this road of coming
off Suboxone and God,
I
pray that whatever that medication
Was needed for
can now be filled with you and
(09:01):
that
this transition goes well and smoothly.
And Father, may we be a supportto them as they need through this
journey.
And God, can we just say agreat big thank you to you
for.
Man,
Robin's praise report.
Your
family shows up big when there's a
need.
I'm
grateful father for thisdemonstration of what
(09:24):
community
is supposed to be.
I'm grateful for those
who willingly show
to us their needs, and I'm gratefulfor a community that immediately
responds because that is your will.
And what a beautiful example of family.
I'm
so
thankful for your son Jesus.
It is through him
(09:45):
and Him only
that we
even
come together,
that we have
hope for our
future because we
know that our
eternity is with you.
Father,
be with us today
through this message as I
hope we can
just talk about finding freedom.
And Father may it be
you
that is heard and you.
(10:05):
Only
get myself completely out of
the
way.
I pray
these things.
Father in your son's
name.
Amen.
Amen.
Okay, got a bunch of notes going on here.
I gave
away my personal Bible to somebody
and it happened to have been one of thoselarger print things, and I'm now finding
(10:28):
that small print is difficult, so my
Bible has
to be on
here
so I can better
read
for you
But I
wanted to
talk to you today
about finding
freedom.
This is a
message that I've beenthinking about for a while now.
Like
I
guess the
main points of it have something that have
been sitting on my mind, butit didn't fully come together
(10:52):
until this past week, and thenit became this easy thing, and
that's
when I know
it's
time to talk about it.
So.
finding
freedom
both from
our
addictions
and
all of those
things
that just kind of hold us
down.
And where
that's found,
it can easily be found
(11:14):
in God.
But
the first thing
that
is
required,
if you
truly want freedom,
this
is
step
one.
And
it is
the one
step that often
derails
many people because humanly speaking,
how
many of us
enjoy
having
to
humble ourself?
I've had to
humble myself
(11:35):
many, many
times and uh, eating crow is
never fun.
I don't care how
many times you've done it, it's
not something you look
forward to.
It isn't something
that you're excited to
do.
Having
to,
once
again, humble yourself.
But
freedom
begins when you take
that
first step.
(11:55):
I
can remember
the first
time I did my biggest
humbling
and
it was like, okay, I'mjumping in I'm gonna do it And
I
found myself
talking about the
things
that were my deepest shame,
And
I
just felt
wave after
wave after wave
of God
just washing over
me.
Like I've got that.
(12:16):
I've got
that.
and
the more I shared, the
less shame I
felt.
There was
just a freedom
in it, but it meant being willing toface those things and saying, do it, by
myself.
So the verses that we're using
are James four, verse 10.
I have 'em written up there too in
(12:37):
Philippians two, five through eight.
But I'm just
gonna read.
Pieces of
each verse because it says
the
main
points that I wanna get to.
And in James four
verse 10,
it says, get down
on
your knees
before the master.
It's the only way you'll
get on
your
(12:57):
feet.
And
in
Philippians
two
in verse five,
think of
yourself the
way
Christ Jesus
thought of
himself and
the rest of
Philippians talks about how he
came as a servant and humbled
himself before us.
This
God
who was
everything with without
(13:19):
boundaries
became
somebody
that walked
on earth in a human body.
So
God was
contained in his
human form.
Talk about
humbling,
humbling
ourselves.
He's
our
example.
So
in talking
about
that humility,
(13:41):
an
example from the
Bible
would be
the prodigal
son,
and if you're
not
familiar
with the
story
of the
prodigal son, there was a
father and
his two sons, the older and the
younger,
and
the younger
son decides that, you know
what?
I'm sick and tired
of
working
on
the farm.
I'm
over it
enslaving it.
(14:01):
There's
fun things to be had out there, dad.
I want my inheritance and I want it
right now
in that culture.
And even
today,
what
disrespect
like, dad, you're not deadyet, but I want what's
yours?
So
give it to
me.
That's basically what he
was asking for.
That would be like you today,
going to your living fathersaying, I don't wanna wait
(14:24):
till your dad
just give
it to me.
now.
And his dad did.
He gave him
his portion
and
his
son promptly
sat off
to town.
And those of us in
addiction,
when we
sat
off to town, what did
we
do?
Ooh.
It
was squandered And blown like
he was
wealthy.
And
then he
went
off
into the world
(14:44):
for
his
grand
adventures.
And I
imagine
if it was set in modern
day,
we would've
found
this child of
his on skid row,
destitute,
homeless, living in theworst of the worst in the
gutters
And
this son
knowing the whole time.
(15:05):
But I had
an amazing
home.
I had a safe place.
I had,
I'm just gonna go home and be a servant.
'cause my servants have it better than I
do here
in this
gutter.
I
don't deserve anything.
but this prodigal
humbled
himself
(15:25):
and
said, I got, I have to go back
home.
And took himself as he was
back home, prepared
speech and all,
just asking,
please,
dad, can I
just be a
servant?
Dad didn't
take him as a
servant.
There's a lot more, butwe'll get to that later.
So this
prodigal,
(15:46):
that's our
example in the
Bible of humbling.
'cause
that ultimate of
disrespect and
off
he trots with
all this
stuff.
We had to come
home
with
nothing.
Having lived and fought
with the pigs for
their food.
And you feed
those
pigs
over there on the
farm,
Can
you
imagine
being in there,
fighting
with
them for their scraps of
(16:07):
food?
And then I
think of
that
humility when
it comes to
us
today,
And we
think about people, those of
us in
recovery, and
we
talk about that
here because most of us
sitting
in
here are,
And truly I
believe
everybody on
this
planet
is in
(16:27):
recovery
because addiction is not
just drugs and
alcohol.
Every
single
person
in here has
an addiction.
We talked
before
in
a message
that the ultimate
first addiction
was
sin itself.
Because
if
you break it down, that's what sin
is.
It's in
your
head.
Like, we know what
we should
(16:47):
do,
but our
mind, oh,
but
sin
is fun, sin
is great.
It's,
you know, we enjoy it.
So
all of us here are
addicts
in
that sense of the word,
but in
this humbling
ourselves,
it
means.
Humbling
yourself now saying, God,I'm coming as I am now.
(17:11):
Not, I'm gonna clean myself
up first.
I'm gonna do this first.
Um, I'll stop
drinking and, you know,
wing
it and see how it
goes.
Like,
you
know,
we're
gonna clean ourself up
and,
and then
That's not
humbling.
That's still saying, well, I
got
this.
I can do
it all
by
myself.
I don't need
(17:31):
anything.
Humbling ourselves
means
I can't do
this.
It's
impossible for me to do
and I'm gonna humble myself right now in
the mess that I'm in and bring
that to God.
And that can be difficult for us
(17:52):
as
humans to
do
the big
old
messes that we
are.
And
then we
get to that church corporate and being
humble.
So you have
people like
broken us
coming
to church and our brokennessand what do they find there?
Because what they shouldfind in church is an eager
(18:13):
readiness
to
welcome
them because
isn't
that the first place they
should
be free to
come and
be.
and
often
it's not.
Churches
sometimes, and again this
isn't church bashing, but
it's
so vitally important that church
gets
(18:35):
caring for and loving thosewho walk into the doors.
is
far more
important
as to, is technology going right?
Is our
building great?
Does everything
look good,
Is our branding good,
Is
our timing
good?
The production and
the
newsfeed and the live
feed
and, and all these things
which
are good,
(18:57):
but
sometimes almost becomes a priority
over.
getting
in the dirt with
people
who need somebody to walk
alongside.
So
our
church is embracing and looking
for those
people who, in their
humility, have
walked
in
as they are,
(19:17):
I think
for
a
long time,
you
know,
I
was
like, that prodigal going to war
with,
uh, I'm
not worthy of coming
back.
I'm
not
good enough.
And I tried
to
clean myself up and get it right
and
I
didn't.
I
couldn't.
(19:37):
So then
you.
Try to
come
back.
and I can
remember
the idea
of
going back
to
a church
building with people sitting in
church was terrifying to me
because in
my
mind I'm
like,
but that's where I'm going to get
judgment for where
I've
been and how sad is
that?
But
that was
(19:58):
ingrained in to me because of where I
came from and it colored
everything I thought about thosethat sat in those buildings.
And that's wrong.
They're
not
all like that.
Some.
Yes.
And I wouldn't be afraid
to have that conversation 'causejust, you know, turn it around
and get
back to
love
welcoming
(20:18):
those
people who have
taken the step
to become humble.
We,
as
church, and I believe fully in my heart,
we kind of
have
an advantage
as
the
church sitting
here.
in the
(20:38):
community
that we
are
we are wired
that
way.
Those of us
who are
in
recovery are already wired to
be
the
family of God the
way that he calls usto you readily welcome
people in?
You readily
sit
with them
where they're
at.
The stories, their warstories don't rattle
you
at
all.
(20:59):
They inspire you.
you
encourage
them.
And it's beautiful
that we have this here and it's myprayer that that continues always.
But after we've humbled ourselves,
this has
to
happen.
If you want to find freedom
in recovery, this
has to
happen.
And the
problem
(21:21):
comes when
we
get
here and we still try to
avoid
So
Isaiah 61 verse
one,
God
sent
me to preach good news to the
poor, to heal
the broke, the
(21:42):
heartbroken, and to announcefreedom to all captives.
In two Corinthians oneverses three through four,
God
of all
mercy,
the God
who
soos and comforts us in all our troubles
So
that
we are
enabled to soothe and comfort
others in the
troubles that
might come their way.
(22:04):
This is where healing
happens.
You've come
back
in your
humbleness
and you
want
more.
You want closer to Jesus.
And again,
sitting
with the Bible
and thinking
of examples of this.
(22:29):
there was a woman in the Bible who had
an issue with bleeding
and we're
talking for
over a decade.
What this meant for her
in this
culture
and context is that
she has been banished
to
live in a
tent cap outside of the
city.
She couldn't
come to the temple.
she
couldn't
come and worship.
She's been considered
unclean this
entire
(22:49):
time, like it
was
Shameful for
her.
She was
kept
from
community.
It
was an
awful,
awful way to
live.
But this
woman practiced number
one, and she
humbled
herself
enough
where she's
like,
Jesus is coming.
Jesus
is
coming, and I need healing.
(23:10):
I need
healing
from this, and I believe that he
can heal.
I don't know
how, I can't imagine
what
she
was feeling like as She was
walking into
town
because she wasn't
allowed to be there.
She was
not allowed to be
there.
But she
had
one thing on her mind healing,
(23:31):
and she went to the
one source knew it, would happen.
She didn't
call out
to him, she didn't
get in
her
face.
It wasn't all
about her.
She's like, if
his
robe,
if I could just
touch it, I just
know.
And that's exactly what happened.
And if you know the story,
(23:53):
you'll know
that
even in that
crowd of
people,
people
on all sides, we've all been in a
crowd.
Jesus
recognized
immediately that
something had happenedAnd immediately stopped
and said,
who
touched
me?
And can you
imagine
the fear
she must have felt
in that moment?
(24:14):
Here's
this woman who everybody
knew shouldn't
be
there,
and
she
dared
to approach And touch
Jesus.
And what Jesus did is show
such
love
for her faith
that brought
her there
and healing
was found in
him.
So what does that mean for us?
Jesus didn't ask us to
(24:35):
have it
all
figured out in all
right.
Jesus didn't ask
us to have
full understanding
of him before
we had
faith that he
could heal us,
so
we can
bring to him
all
our messy
recovery's
hard
because
we're
not
recovered when
stop using, right?
(24:57):
That's
kind of
been
step one, because recovery
means healing.
It means
going
right
to
the heart.
It means
going
to the
cause,
and we don't like doing
that.
We just
don't because
shame,
(25:18):
fear.
Guilt.
What
if people
knew
I'm
not good
enough?
Oh, what does
God think of
me?
faith,
believe
what God
says that he thinks about
you.
believe when
he
says that
(25:39):
he can
heal.
You.
Believe
when
he says, I am the answer.
Believe
when he says,
that
there is
freedom
to
be found in
me because we often get
caught up in
this
because in
the process of healing,
we
can get
caught up on the rails
of
I was
horrible.
(25:59):
I've done
Awful things
awful
things.
have been done
to me.
I can't
get beyond it.
Then
you need
to go
back to step
one.
If you can't
bring
that to God because, oh, the shame and the
guilt and all of this,
(26:21):
go back
to step one and
humble
yourself in that.
Because
isn't that humanly speaking still?
You saying, oh,
but this
is
too much.
And I
didn't
like thinking
about it that
way because I very much lived my
life.
Like,
I don't
wanna
talk
to God
about this.
I don't wanna
look at this.
I don't
(26:41):
want to.
Well, Jesus already died
for it.
What
kind of ego do I
have to say?
I'm too
much?
Because
nobody
in here is too
much.
nobody's
issues, nobody's
addiction, nobody's
pain, nobody's
trauma.
nobody's
suffering is too much.
(27:02):
That's
enemy talk.
That's our humanness gettingin the way of our freedom.
Humble
yourself
and
give up
what you're
hanging onto.
And I don't mean to beharsh when I say that.
My heart
(27:22):
breaks for people sitting in this phase of
things
holding on tightly to their
labels.
I'm a
sexual
abuse
victim.
I'll talk
about
those pants there too before we're done.
I wore
that label
for a
long
time.
And guess what?
(27:43):
It hindered my
healing
because
look at
my label.
this is who I
am,
This is
me.
And
along with that, I
hung onto all the
feelings and
emotions
wrapped up with that,
a clung to
it.
and
I
liked it because I had a
right
to be
angry, and I got
(28:03):
caught
up in that for a
while.
Do you think any healing
happened?
None.
It
got
worse.
If we
only
wear the label
of I'm
an
alcoholic
or I'm an
addict, but we never add the in recovery,
(28:28):
we
can get
caught in
that
label.
We
are far
more
than
just that
word
or
just that label.
It's
part of who we
are, But why
don't
we.
want to
move onto what God.
can do with
it?
(28:48):
I
wish
that
I had,
when I
talk
to people that are caught
in
this, that are
just
suffering because of
life and
experiences and traumas
and hurt and
pain,
I so
wish.
I
knew
the
right words that would help
(29:09):
them just,
but
give
that to God.
I
don't know sometimes
why
we feel
so
much the
need
to
hang onto it
Nope.
Not
handing
that
to God.
I'm gonna hang
onto it
even as we, yep.
I'm gonna bring this
in prayer and I'm
gonna set it.
down.
(29:30):
Nobody's looking.
I'm picking that up andit's going home with
me.
I'm
not
done
yet.
I'm not
done
being the
victim.
Healing
happens when you
say I'm done
I'm
not
gonna claim that
I'm a victim anymore
Because
if
we have
faith in our God,
(29:50):
we're not a victim
We're a
victor.
There's a
big
difference in that,
and
when your
mind
starts
to see yourself from that
other perspective,
it's
remarkable what
happens.
And I've seen that
in
many people here.
When you
face that trauma,
you face that
ugliness and instead of
(30:11):
sitting here looking at it
from underneath the boulder
that it
is,
get out
from under
it.
Get
out from under
it.
because you don't have to stay
there.
(30:38):
We
need to
stop playing the
victim role
because if you
belong to God,
why are
you claiming
that?
God knows the
fallout in your
life.
If you don't
give
that
up to him, and that's why he says,
it
is finished,
my son covered it, let it go.
(31:01):
And as a church,
we need
to be
that
family
that
doesn't hold that
over people's heads.
Then
when
when people
have come to
us
in
their
messiness
and
they've
found their
healing and they've let
go of those
labels, why so often
(31:21):
does
the
church
stick
it right back on?
I
don't know
if
anybody's had experience with Christians
like
that,
but
they
love to
resick the labels.
Oh yeah, an
addict.
Hold their purse
closer.
(31:42):
Don't let their
kids
around
them.
They
have to be in our
church.
We need to be a
church that
celebrates,
that healing
happens
here.
We
need
to be
church
that
welcomes that
and
celebrates that
(32:02):
Not that
designates
a
special row for all the
addicts in recovery.
'cause I heard that that happened at a
church and I wanted to vomit.
Literally
like we
designated a
section for those kind of sinners.
Now
'keep
'em all
together
so we know where they're
at,
kind of a
(32:22):
thing.
It doesn't feel
good, you
know?
It
doesn't because it's
family.
We're all
family.
No
wonder
so many broken people
don't want to
go
back
to
church.
Why
would
you?
Why would you?
If that's what's
(32:43):
gonna happen?
My
church held
my past
over
my
head,
and to this day, I
wouldn't
be allowed to
walk
into those
doors.
The
pathway for me
to
go
back in those
doors would
be to
divorce
Robert
and then
go to
the church and confess
my
(33:03):
sin of divorcing a violent man,
and
I
would have
to do that publicly on thesteps and hope that they
would
forgive
me.
It's
nonsense.
It
is
utter nonsense.
We
can't
be like that in a church family.
(33:26):
People
that are
working actively
to heal
their lives
need to be
welcomed with open
arms into the church family,
and encouraged on
their
way.
So healing
continues.
Because
if
they come
to
church, if I come to
church,
and you stick a label
right back on me, I'm no longer healing.
(33:46):
I'm
right back to where I
have
to
humble myself all
over.
And do you
think I'll willingly
keep going back?
So that
healing
has to happen?
And
then my favorite part of it
all
(34:11):
help
through
serving.
But
we
need to remember that it has
to be selfless.
'cause
it's really easy to servewhen you get something
for it.
I've done all this forpeople and what do I get?
Nothing.
Nobody's there for
me.
we need to go
back
to step one,
Right?
(34:33):
Because you didn't get the lesson
of step
one.
Humble yourself
because
read
verses.
It's the selfless partthat we need to remember.
(34:56):
Galatians
six verse two,
stoop
down
and reach out
to those who
are oppressed, share
their
burdens and sow
complete Christ's
law in one John three 18.
My dear children.
Let's
not just talk about love.
(35:18):
Let's
practice real love.
We
have a
pretty good example
of this
in Jesus obviously.
Jesus,
before they had the final supper,
(35:41):
met everybody
at the door with
a
basin and a
towel,
and
he washed
feet
and it,
you
understood
what feet were like
in
those times.
People
walked everywhere they went.
Not
a
nice paved
sidewalks and nice
paved roads.
Dust and dirt and animals
and stuff.
(36:01):
They
walked
everywhere.
It was
custom
When people were to
enter
a home or a place,
the lowest servant would be given the
job
of having to wash
everybody's
dirty feet.
And
as somebody who's just, notfond of feet, I would not have
liked
to have
had that
job.
people
that do pedicures
(36:22):
more power to you.
I just, no thank you, podiatrist.
God bless
you, but no
thank you,
but
Jesus, God,
Nobody asked him
to
got that basin
and a towel
and kneeled on the ground
and picked up dirty feet and
washed them
(36:47):
as he's preparing to go to the cross.
That's
the
example.
What was
in
that
for Jesus?
Nothing.
He didn't expect anything
to
come of that.
And in
fact, people are pro, no, no, no, you
can't wash my
feet.
Let me serve
you.
(37:08):
Let
me
serve
you.
If
you wanna be the greatest,then you need to be last.
If you wanna
be
first, you
will be last.
That's how it
works with
God is backwards
then.
(37:28):
you.
know, winner gets it all here.
It's gonna
be a
real
surprise
when?
What do you mean?
God?
Look at
me.
I'm
here.
Went to church everySunday, twice a Sunday.
I was an elder.
I was a deacon.
I Made sure all the rules werefollowed and things were good.
I paid the church budget.
(37:49):
I put a
few bucks in the benevolent fund,
took
care of my
family,
did all these great things.
I'm so blessed.
Here I am God and
God's like
I don't know
you
what
do you
mean
you didn't
That's really
(38:10):
honestly,
the reality of
it.
if
it's done without
love, God doesn't know
you.
So
if you're doing with
expectation in
return,
you're
not
loving.
And
I don't
wanna hear God say, Heidi,
I don't know
you.
(38:33):
So
Jesus
modeled to
us
what
serving is.
What
in that time
was
assuming the
lowest
I'm gonna
wash
those feet
for
the
people that I'm gonna
serve a meal
to
all service.
Before
(38:54):
he went to the cross,
uh,
we have to remember he
was
fully
human
in all of
these
things.
He had
emotions the
same as
us.
He had
feelings.
He had
fear.
Now
imagine the fear his human brain
thought of,
because
he
is also
(39:14):
God.
So he has an understanding
of what
he's
gonna go through far beyond what we do
because he created
us.
He understands a
human body.
So as
that, obviously it had
to
be
on his mind, He knew,
(39:35):
but his
driving
thing was, how can
I
love people and serve
them?
How
can I go to
this
demonstrating to
people love each
other
like
this
Because that's what he was showing,
that
God
himself
is
serving
you.
you.
(39:56):
So we're called to use
our towels.
Think of it as
your
story.
Think of it as all the
experiences
you've been
through
that we
often use to
stop us in our
tracks.
I'm a
victim.
I
am
a victim.
(40:16):
You are
not
helping anybody by wearing thattitle and only wearing that title.
But
what
happens when you say,
been
where you're
at?
I
would love to just
listen.
Can I
tell you
about Jesus and what he
is done for
me?
How
different
is
(40:36):
that
when
somebody has been
through it and find
somebody who's been throughit and says, I understand
and I've been there.
Let
me tell
you about Jesus.
Let me tell
you how we healed me.
But
we
often
keep those
things to ourself.
(40:56):
We don't share
with
others
the ugliness of
our
lives.
We
keep those
hidden because of
shame.
God
didn't
allow.
That experience
to happen
in
your life, to become a title to wear.
He allowed the
(41:17):
experiences in our
life
to
become the
way of love,
and
that
doesn't make
sense
humanly either,
because when
unfairness comes
to
us, when
cruelty and abuse
happens to us, the last
thing we wanna
do
is turn
(41:37):
around and love people
because of
it.
But that's
what
happens when you heal
through
him.
That's
what happens when you hand it
to him and
say, God, use this
Because
I have found that I'm specially
equipped to
help certain people because I share
similar experiences.
(41:58):
I'm deeply grateful for that.
I'm so grateful that I can
understand
it's why there is
a co tree of red pants hanging here.
It is why I am not ashamed in
my church to leave
it
here.
For anybody
who
has
experienced abuse like
that,
write a
(42:19):
a message on
'em.
Claim
your
healing,
Say whatever
you need to say
because we don't
hide from the ugliness
in
life.
In fact, we use it
to
celebrate
who God is and who our healing
comes from.
We
use
it to pour into other
people who are
(42:39):
suffering and feel like
it's
impossible,
like it'll
never be better.
Yes, it
will.
Yes,
it will.
It will be beautifully
better.
Don't
be ashamed
of it
though.
(43:04):
God
allows
In our lives,
even the
hardest of the
hard things because he knows what
he can
do with it.
He
did
not say
Heidi's gonna
have
these experiences
because
she is so wicked and she needs to be
refined
(43:25):
and
shame
on any church that would say that
God
is love
and cannot be the opposite of love.
But
he gave
us our free will as we
talk about, And because this
world is
broken,
evil and sinful.
Horrible things
(43:46):
happen,
but it
doesn't mean
it's all lost.
What it means is
God's going to
show who he is
by
taking
the ugliest experience and making it
something beautiful.
But
unless you've
humbled
yourself.
(44:07):
And
then
healed
yourself,
you
will never experience the joy
of
using the experiences in your
life serve
other
people.
If you thought that I
would ever
use abuse
in
my
life
to
be
(44:27):
there
for people in a way that mayhelp, I would've thought you were
ridiculous.
How could
such
pain
and hurt
be good in any
way, shape or form?
And I'll
say it
again.
I pray God,
never
ask me to
experience it
again.
Please, God,
don't
allow
that to happen
(44:48):
in my life
again.
But
thank
you,
God, for bringing me
through
this.
thank you,
for calling
me
to a
path that
will allow me to
love people better.
And he is
calling
every single one of
us
sitting in here
to do the same with
whatever.
you come here
with,
those
experiences that you
(45:08):
are
the
most
ashamed of
that cause you the most
agony
and
hurt.
That's
where you need to
go.
Humble yourself and take thatlabel off and say, I'm ready
to heal.
Don't
be
a victim, be a
victor
because
there's people
that need
you to
be a
victor
(45:29):
so they can
have
hope.
Life
isn't
always going to be this
and people need to hear
that
when they're
stuck in
that
healing
part.
It's not
(45:50):
always gonna be
this way.
And
if
we don't talk.
If
we just
show up,
like isn't things
so,
you know, life is so good.
I'm
so glad to know Jesus,
and I'm so
blessed and this is greatand the songs are wonderful
and I hope you all have a good
(46:10):
day.
What are the hurting
people doing?
sure wish life was good like that.
When will my
life be good.
like that.
Church
needs to
be a place where real talk
Real
life happens
where we
don't pretend we're always good
(46:31):
Life is
great
having a good
day.
You know what?
I had a really hard week
struggled
through
this.
I've had experiences
in
my
life that were really, really,
really hard.
I've been through
something
similar.
Would you like
to talk about
(46:52):
it?
That's
what
church needs to
be
because beautiful
things happen.
and again, we're
privileged to see that
here because
people
in recovery,
and I'm
not saying
sobriety, I'm
saying recovery.
Sobriety is
beautiful.
Not
using is a
good
thing, but recovery
(47:13):
is where it's at.
Recovery is where it's
at.
Because sobriety, we still have the junk.
You
know,
the junk is there.
White
knuckling
eh,
white knuckling
isn't fun and we don't
have to let
go,
let
(47:33):
go.
and
trust him enough to just
touch his
robe.
God, help me
It's been so
long.
Just it and
see what
happens.
And let him use that mess.
S to heal.
Not
(47:53):
just
yourself because you'll found endless
healing.
You will
find it through serving,
but allow others to be healed
because of
you.
Can you
think of anything
better from your
pain
honestly, than your
own healing, but
also
others?
I talk
about a win-win.
That's
(48:13):
why
God
calls
messy
people.
We
often think it's thosecleaned up people that
are the
church
people.
They're cleaned and
polished
and doing it good.
No, God
likes the messy
ones
because
that's what really
shows people who
he is.
Not
polished up and
everything's
good.
It's a good
day.
(48:34):
Have a good
week.
Glad
you're doing
good.
God's
not asking surface.
because
if
it's all surface, what
happens when the big old
heavy
rains
come,
all
gets
washed
away.
Doesn't
hold tight when things get
(48:56):
hard,
but the things
rooted
deep.
The relationships
that go below the
surface,
conversations that aren't superficial, but
because we want
to know you
and
we
wanna be
known, those hold,
those
are the things that aregonna show people who
(49:17):
God is.
That's
what's going to
show people hope.
When it seems
hopeless,
this group of
people talking aboutwhat they've been through
and they're living
these happy lives.
I'm
like, makes
no
sense.
I think
it's why people get
overwhelmed
at times when they
(49:37):
come
here on a Friday
night.
oh my goodness, They're
laughing and having fun.
What?
But
we're
addicts
and I'm
struggling and I wanna
use, and I want,
and
eh,
and
you are right.
We've all been there.
(49:57):
We still struggle with it,
what?
Life
is wonderful in
recovery.
It's
wonderful.
Even on those days when wemay have struggles because
our community comes around us.
Ask
Robin
what happens.
She selflessly serves so many
(50:21):
people
Nobody
here I think has any
idea.
The people whose lives Robin has touched,
always
there to
love you you and serve you andtake care of you in any way she
came to her community because she trusted
and
had
(50:41):
faith in us that we
wouldn't
judge her in
What happened?
Look,
the
blessings that
God
has
done since just last
week.
I'm
grateful that
Robin shared that
because
it's a perfect example
for today.
She was overwhelmed and burdened
and
overcome,
(51:03):
and
she
didn't
let pride
get in the
way.
Robin, I hope you're
okay
with
me sharing it like this.
She
modeled
for us what humility
is.
Openly,
right?
She
faced it,
owned it, looked at it,
and healed
it,
and
she
brought it
(51:23):
to
us,
And
there
is
a freedom in there because
look what God has done.
Her
needs have been
met.
Her spirit is not burdenedanymore, and that's
church.
What happened in these seven
days since she brought it to us until
now,
all those
days,
that was Church
(51:44):
Church at work.
It didn't happen here at,
happened
all around
her.
And I love
that
example.
I've been sitting
with that, the
whole
message
like,
what a
perfect
example of
all
those phases.
That's recovery,
that's healing, freedom.
(52:06):
Church needs
to be
that way, And you know,
it's not that
building, you
know?
Mm-hmm.
It's
all of us.
We
need to be far
more concerned
with serving
(52:26):
with
no expectation in
return.
If
somebody
has a
need
and
you
can help with
that you help with that and don't
expect them to repay the favor.
Because I can never repay what Jesus did
for me.
I can't
even
touch that debt.
(52:47):
And he didn't
ask
me.
to repay it.
All
he asked for
was love.
And
last week
when we talked, rememberthe sheep and the goats,
but when did we
see
you
hungry and
thirsty and
cold
and in prison,
they're asking
Jesus that.
When
did
we see you
(53:08):
that way?
In the biggest
lesson, I think
of
All
he said, well, when you
helped other
people,
you were doing
that to me.
So that's what we need to
remember.
you
are not
doing it for the one you may
hand money
to
or
food to or clothing to.
(53:32):
We're
doing
it
him.
That's
us saying, thank you for what you
paid
for
me.
It's that whole paying it
forward
thing.
I'm
doing this because what he did for me.
I don't need nothing
in return.
Just
being
able
to serve you is more than
enough
(53:53):
and
if you
don't believe that selfless serving is
worth
it, I'm gonna double dog
dare
you
to just do
it
for
a
week.
Just a
a week, and you
can go
back to
expectation.
I
don't
care.
That's
fine.
That's up to
you.
But I will
double dog dare you.
One week of serving and no
(54:14):
expectation in return.
I don't need nothing.
If I give you a loan
and don't give it back, so
be
it.
it.
So
be
it.
It's okay.
I don't need
it back.
God's
good
clothing,
food,
what I
have
to
offer, I will offer freely.
(54:36):
If it's
my
time, I will give my
time.
I will
notice
people who have
a
need
and
it can
be needs of all kind.
But I'm telling you the numberone most overlooked need
is a gift of your
time.
And
listening
Society is getting
(54:56):
away from that rapidly.
So
let's be
the church that, that's the first thing we
wanna do.
And I
say that
because it's through listening that, we
learn how to love theone we're listening to.
How will we
know how
to love,
somebody
if
we do not know what
they are
going through?
(55:17):
Mm-hmm.
I don't want
this to be a
family,
the church
that does it
superficially.
I
want to
be known
as this crazy,
odd
group of
people,
(55:37):
druggies and drunks
that
just really love,
people deep,
like
they just
love,
they take
care
of
people.
They don't
go
after people.
I
think the
greatest
gift I gave myself
is not caring that I didn't get
my cash
(55:57):
I
got
my
ID and my
social security card that I know
don't keep
it in your purse.
and
my
nonprofit
card is
back.
that is
all I
asked
to
get back
and that was
answered.
I got it back.
Right.
The money's just money.
And
then tell what
(56:21):
Oh, that I forgot about.
Oh
my goodness.
Um,
you
know,
God,
the way that he
works, you know, I literally, I have no
anger about
it.
So
if anybody
here
feels angry
on my behalf,
you can let it go because I'm not,
I
have so handed that to God andGod's at work in that situation
(56:43):
too.
I'm not angry and I
got back what I asked for,
but God did me one betterbecause you know what
came in the
the
day
after it was
taken
check
from a
funeral I
did in August that
they had forgotten.
They hadn't paid me
for yet.
Oh, nice
(57:03):
temple.
God
is good.
That's
God saying.
I
asked
you to love and you
did.
I asked
you to trust
me and you did.
I asked
you to
not
be angry and
let
it go, and you
did
(57:24):
Oh, I'm not sure.
Trust me.
I wared with my
emotions.
I dealt with some
anger and
frustration and
That's okay.
God doesn't judge me for
that because I did
that
with God.
I
was
upset.
I'm like, really?
God?
The one time like I never have cash.
I might have
a
dollar
and
some change.
I
never
ever
(57:44):
have
cash.
Like really
the one time there was
money because I did awedding, all that that Really?
good and God's like, yep.
Yeah,
because There's a
lesson, but it
wasn't
just for me, it was for the
other
person involved
too.
And God's at work in that.
I know He
(58:05):
It
feels
a
lot
better to not be angry.
I have
let go of
so much
anger over the past couple
I've just
let it go Amen.
You know,
I, I even
tried
for a
while
to have
the
whole, you know, righteous anger,
you know,
like Jesus
flipping
tables,
that kind of anger
(58:25):
and
I'm
like,
Heidi, humble
yourself.
That's
not
what it is.
It was
selfish
anger.
You
know,
I'm
gonna practice harder
on my
anger
because I'm
realizing how much of mylife It affects, and then It
causes this cycle ofhumbling healing and then
(58:49):
helping,
I
wanna stay in phase
It
helps
keep me humble
and it
brings me
healing
Our
God
Is so
good.
He has
clearly
laid out the
path to healing.
But our
(59:09):
human natures get in the
way.
Humble
yourself,
and know enough
to know
you
can
take yourself
right now as you are to
him and give it to
him.
Say, God, I'm
done trying to do it on
my own.
I'm done trying to
improve myself on my
own.
(59:29):
I'm done
trying to do
it
on
my own.
God,
I'm handling the
whole big ball of mess that I
am,
and I'm dumping myself at your
feet.
help me.
This is
it.
Tell him
everything.
Because remember that
whole, he already
knows.
(59:49):
We,
I
think we, we like to believe we have
these secrets,
you
know,
this secret part
of
us
that God doesn't
know.
So
he looks at us and
just
pats us on
the head, and
what a good kid you are.
No, God says that one is
mine.
Isn't
she amazing?
She's beautiful and I love
her.
(01:00:10):
thinks that when he looks at
me,
Stacey, He thinks that when he looks at
you
and Dave
and everybody in
here,
wonderful?
Isn't he
amazing?
And
we're
like,
but God,
what?
know what
you're talking
about.
(01:00:33):
He
knows
all,
but that's not how he sees us.
And that's
our
example.
That's how we're
supposed
to see
each
other.
That's how we
selflessly
serve.
I don't
see your past.
I
love
you here and
now.
Mm-hmm.
You're amazing.
(01:00:54):
It's
covered
because
he said
it
was,
And I trust him And I
believe
him.
So I
wanna walk
alongside people so they
can set it
down at his feet
and
not feel like they have to carry it
back out when they go home.
And
that's your
choice.
It's
what it comes down to.
(01:01:14):
Today we're gonna wrap
up with this.
You
can make the choice
today to leave it
right
here.
You can leave it
at the
foot of the electric
cross.
You
can
literally leave it here.
but it's
up to you if you wanna walk outwith your labels and your past
(01:01:35):
today.
You
can
choose today
to say, God,
I trust you and I'm
gonna do it.
I'm
taking a step in faith.
I
don't know how this is
gonna work,
but
I'm
sick
and tired of carrying this
with me,
and today
I am
handing
it to you because you know what to do with
it
And then you
have a
decision to make.
(01:01:56):
Are
you gonna take some of it back with
you
and
choose to hang onto it?
And that's your choice
and
God still loves
you
and
he is
still gonna
say, just
So leave it
and
don't pick it up
and then
help other
people
(01:02:16):
to do the
same by serving.
The more I do this, the more Ijust want all of you to be free.
Hmm.
There's a
a lot of
bondage because we live in this
world.
(01:02:37):
It
keeps
us
hurting
and
sad and broken,
but it
doesn't
have to.
And
it really is
that
simple.
Even though it's
hard,
humble
yourself,
because
sometimes
(01:02:58):
we think
we're being
humble
and
we're not.
Oh,
I'm so
broken.
Such a victim.
Been through so
much.
Still
going though.
But are you going?
You're
Not
Not if
that's all you see
yourself as.
It's
my prayer
always.
It is every
(01:03:19):
day.
It's what I
pray over all of
you.
As we're doing
the
songs in here,
I'm literally praying for freedomfrom the bondage that we're all in.
That's
my prayer and that's the prayer we
should
all be praying over each other
because then it gets to the good stuffwhere we're just the hands and feet
(01:03:39):
of Jesus
and we're serving other
people.
And that's
what I want to see
our
church model
always, because you
do,
I
am blessed
to serve people who are feet
washers.
Not everybody is blessed that way.
(01:03:59):
That does what I do and it's beautiful.
I just ask
you to lean
more into it.
I can't
even begin to fathom
what's gonna happen
all around
each one of
you
when you
lean into that and serve that way.
when
That grows,
when you
become known
for that, when this community
(01:04:20):
becomes known for that,
trust them enough to do it.
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