Your Story ISN'T OVER // Relationships (part 5) // Pastor Lee Martin

I want to take a second and I want to I

want to get some expectation ready in

this room cuz I don't believe the faith

is at where it yet needs to be according

to what God is wanting to do. Do you

think God's done moving?

>> Are you ready for God to move?

>> Are you ready for his voice to speak?

I'll tell you what, it was a little over

16 years ago

that I was under the leadership of one

of the most impactful

pastors I've ever served under. And I

was only under his leadership for about

a year.

And it has been a dream of mine

to be able to see him come back and to

minister to this this this flock and

this obedience that I feel like God has

called Morgan and I into to be able to

receive something that he carries. not

just a ministry, not just a message, but

a a spirit that he carries that I'm so

eager for. And so I want Can we Can we

welcome Pastor Lee up onto the stage.

I'm I mean this I mean this you have

impacted me more than you know.

You have changed so much in the way

watching you minister, watching you

repent, watching you walk through your

journey, watching your family. It has

been one of the most impactful things I

have ever experienced in my life. And I

cannot wait for the word that God's

going to be speaking through you. Are we

ready? We need to raise the faith in

this room. Come on, let's give a hand to

the Lord and expectation. God's going to

move.

Wow, you're too kind, man. I I don't

deserve all that. I really don't. But it

is awesome to be with Collective Church.

How are How are we today? Good. You guys

sounded awesome in worship, man. Like

ready to go. And while in that first

song, Michael was up here just getting

after it. And I I was getting after it,

too, cuz he was making me get after it.

And I I I turned to my wife Shannon down

here and I said, "Look." And my watch

said, "It looks like you're starting an

elliptical workout."

So, you know, you're getting good

worship whenever your watch is telling

you you're you're getting after it. So,

anyway, so glad to be here. Like Drew

said, my name's Lee. My wife Shannon is

down there on the front row. Our

youngest son, Isaac, our oldest son is

actually in a year-long uh residency

internship kind of a thing over at

Calvary Church in Belleview. And so, uh,

yeah, it's good to see him while we're

up here. And here's the deal. We are

Okeis. All right. We're we're boomer

Sooners, but I lived in Omaha for five

years. So, I kind of I'm a little bit uh

grandfathered in here. I I was I was a

Husker for for a season and and I'm

going to talk a little bit about that

today. Um this is going to be a slightly

different kind of a sermon. I mean,

often whenever I'm preaching, I I'll

take a text, you know, and I'll I'll

preach through a text, but we're going

to look at a couple of stories in

scripture, but this is really me sharing

my testimony of what God has done in my

life. And did you know, maybe this will

be helpful for you to know this. Did you

know that Jesus has expressly said he

will work in power through your

testimony? He said that. He said, "And I

will send you and you will be my

witnesses

to Jerusalem and to Judea and Samaria

and to the ends of the earth." I think

it's interesting that he uses the word

witnesses. It's like a courtroom word. A

witness in in a courtroom. I think we we

mess it up as humans. We still think

courtroom, but we get it wrong

sometimes. We're like, we're going to be

the judges, right? We say, I'm going to

be a judge. And we look at other people

and we decide whether they're good or

whether they're not good. And rarely

does any good come out of that. Or

sometimes we'd rather be the lawyer,

right? The lawyer in the courtroom

that's just like, you know, I'm I'm

going to argue for God. I'm going to get

everybody straightened out. I'm going to

tell people why they should believe or

what they should believe about God. And

we think that's the way we're going to

serve him. And Jesus never said, you

will be my judges. He never said, you

will be my lawyers, right? He said, you

will be witnesses. And what does a

witness do? They just get up and say,

"This is the way I saw it. This is what

happened to me. This is how I

experienced it." Did you know that

there's power in that when you just

share it with people? Because I think a

lot of people go, "I don't know how to

share my faith." You don't have to share

what God has done in your life.

And God has done something significant

in my life and in the life of my family.

And I want to share it today. And I

believe that God's going to work in it.

I really do. And so I want to start with

this though because um th this has been

key to my life and it's just crazy the

way the Holy Spirit works. Um we had a

little huddle out here with with the

volunteers before the service started

just to pray over what's happening here

this morning and uh Deb L who's been a

friend of mine for 20 years um 20 plus

years actually uh she kind of led it and

she said this is the verse that I want

to talk about John 10:10. I was like

John 10:10

that's the verse I'm going to start with

in my message. We hadn't even talked

about that. This is my favorite verse in

all of scripture. And I got a lot of

favorite verses. But you know what it

says? It says Jesus is speaking and it

says there is an enemy and he comes to

steal and to kill and to destroy.

And you don't have to live very long to

learn that he's gotten pretty good at

that.

He's had thousands of years to kind of

perfect ways to steal things from you,

but to destroy things that you care

about, but to kill that which you love.

You You don't have to live long to

experience that. But then Jesus says, if

that's his mission statement, this is

mine. I have come that you might have

life. And if you would have stopped

right there, WE COULD SAY, "PRAISE GOD,

WE GOT LIFE. LIKE WHEN I DIE, I DON'T

REALLY DIE. HEY, I GET TO BE IN HEAVEN

WITH THE FATHER. I GET LIFE EVEN THOUGH

I DIE. RIGHT? But he did not stop there.

He said, I have come that you might have

life and have it to the full. Some

translations say, I say, I I have come

that you might have life and have it

abundantly. I call this the capital L

life. This is more than just breathing

and your heart beating. That's like

being alive. No, no, that's not what

Jesus was talking about. Jesus was

talking about this this life that is

really life. this life that animates you

from the inside out that that pours out

into other people's lives that it's not

just a blessing for you, but it's a

blessing for everybody that knows you.

And when you let Jesus take the driver's

seat in your life, that's the life he

leads you to.

And what I learned is what maybe a lot

of you learned that is when you take the

wheel yourself, it rarely leads to that

place. I'm going to talk about three

statements and three realities today.

These are three literal statements that

I said in my life. I remember saying

these statements and you're probably

going to relate to a lot of them. And

the three realities that relate to that.

And here's the first one. And it's kind

of actually a question that I want to

ask. Have you ever been in a spot where

you said something like this? How did I

get here? You ever been there? You're

just like, "How did I get here?" I was

thinking about in high school there was

a guy named Ryan Humphrey that went to

my high school. He was 68. Uh and he was

a phenomenal basketball player. went to

OU, then went to Notre Dame his last

year of college, got drafted into the

NBA. I mean, he was a star at Memphis

and Orlando, and then played a bunch of

years in Europe before he ended his

career. We were in high school together,

and we had we both had a class called

individual sports, and all that meant

was hang out in the fieldhouse while the

football coach works on film. That's all

it meant. That's all we did, right? And

so we hung out in the fieldhouse and we

would play pickup basketball. And you

can see me and then there's Ryan. Okay,

he's really good at basketball. You're

probably not surprised I wasn't on the

basketball team at at at my high school,

but I could play. I was okay. And so we

were playing a game of pickup and I

mostly shot threes cuz I didn't want to

go underneath with all the big guys. And

so I hit a three when Ryan was coming

out on me and I made it. And I made the

mistake of saying, "How about that,

Ryan?" Right? You like that? Right. So

he got the ball and when he came down he

said clear out and it was just me and

him and that dude came straight at me

went right over the top of me ball back

here like dunked on top of me. I felt

when he was in the air,

I was looking at his thighs as he was

going over me and I thought, "How did I

get here?" Right? Like, I should have

kept my mouth shut.

And whether it's something you said,

something you've done, something that's

happened to you, a lot of us find

ourselves in a spot we're like, "How did

I get here?" It's it's a it's a tough

spot to be in. And I think maybe some of

you, maybe it's in your job,

maybe it's maybe it's kind of where you

find yourself in your marriage

and you're going like, "How did how did

we get here?" Maybe you've been under

financial strain for a very long time

and you're like, "What choices could we

made that were different? How how did we

find ourselves in this spot?"

The the worst time in my life where I

said, "How did I get here?" was a little

over 16 years ago.

I was a failure.

I had bombed out of ministry. I had

shipwrecked my life.

I I was about to lose my family.

And I thought my story was over. I

really did. And maybe some of you,

you're like, I don't think things are

going to get better for me. I I think my

story is over.

But my story wasn't over.

And and your story, it isn't over

either. Let me tell you a little bit

about this story. For the first 30 years

of my life, it was fantastic, man. I

lived like a Leave it to Beaver life.

Some of you won't even get that

reference, but like I lived this just

like mom and dad loved each other. My

dad was a pastor. Grew up in Tulsa. And

I mean just my parents loved each other.

They loved me. I I I did okay in school.

I was a decent athlete. not basketball,

soccer. Don't have to be tall for that.

I I play, you know, like I I had a great

life. I had good friends. I had a great

church. I felt the call of God on my

life to go into ministry when I was 16

years old. And so I ended up at a Bible

college right after high school. And I

got a 5-year degree in theology and

preaching and New Testament. And I met

my wife there. My wife and I got

married. I mean, like everything in my

life was going up and to the right.

Everything was good. And I want to say

this to you.

How many of you know

that when things are really, really

going well in your life, that's when

you're most vulnerable to forget your

need of God?

I went back to my dad's church after uh

college and I got to serve with my dad.

It was awesome. My dad and I have this

great relationship to this day. Like he

was letting me preach all the time. I

was just really young, green, learning

how to do it. It was awesome. But but

after about four or five years there

with my dad, I was like, I think I'm

ready to to to go on and kind of pursue

a dream of of being a senior pastor in a

church. And I got a call from a church

right here in Omaha, right down the

street, Kingsway Christian Church, right

down here on Pacific. And they said,

"Hey, we're at a spot in our church

where our senior pastor is retiring. We

want you to come. We want you to come

and be the senior pastor of our church."

And man, I was I was jazzed about it. I

was so excited. Like, yeah, this is my

opportunity. It was a bigger church than

I was coming from. bigger church than my

dad had ever pastored before. And I was

like, "Yes, this is what I want to do.

This is my calling." And when I came,

man, it went well. Everything went

great. The church started to grow. This

was in 2004.

The church started to grow. We built a

staff. I mean, I mean, everything was

just moving up and to the right in my

life. But as the church grow grew,

so did my young ego

at 27 years old.

Making a name for myself

became as important to me as making his

name known.

Building my own kingdom crept in to

working on building his kingdom.

And here's what happened. Because I was

so excited about my work and my calling.

Men, we do that, don't we?

We kind of It's a place where maybe we

can thrive, a place where we can be

successful. So, I was just leaning in at

work. My wife was home with a toddler

and a newborn and we didn't really know

anybody in Omaha and her life was not

that easy and I was working late almost

every single night

and tension arose in our marriage as it

does. It was a difficult season and and

I found that I wanted to lean in more at

work because when I was at work,

everybody was patting me on the back.

Everybody was talking about how great a

pastor I was a good communicator. You're

you're growing our church. you're

leading our church. And when I went

home, it was like, you're late again. I

thought you were going to be home in

time for dinner.

And so I leaned in with passion and

energy at the church. And you know what

I brought home to my family? Leftovers.

I didn't have much energy. Didn't want

to engage very much.

And as the enemy always does

into that difficult situation, he

brought up an opportunity that would

ruin and shipwreck my life. You know, he

does that.

What opportunities are you giving him

right now to come in and to steal and to

kill and to destroy in your life? Think

about that. Cuz all the warning uh

signals were going off in my life. all

the bells and whistles saying your

marriage is not in good shape. You're

not being a very good dad. But I wanted

to hide all that. I didn't want the

church to know that things weren't going

good at home. That would impact my

influence. That would impact my

leadership. That would reflect poorly on

me. And I didn't want to do that. And so

I just kept right on going.

And so what do you think happened

into that horrible set of circumstances?

into that recipe for disaster.

A young single woman showed up at our

church.

She was fired up about Jesus. I baptized

her.

She was she was a fun person. Like she

she pretty soon started volunteering in

a lot of different areas of our church.

But before long, we hired her part-time

on our staff to to do some design stuff

for us and to serve in different areas.

Everybody loved her

and she really loved being there and she

really loved the work that I was doing

and there was a connection that started

to be made there and every time I was

around this woman I just felt like you

know she had me up on a pedestal and my

ego was enjoying and loving all that and

when I went home I didn't feel the same

thing.

Now, what I know now so clearly that I

couldn't see then was that all this was

a disaster of my own making.

A partnership with the enemy to steal

and to kill and to destroy from me. You

know why? Here's why. Because God had

not and had never primarily called me to

that congregation before he had first

called me to the little threeperson

congregation in my home.

He would never ask me to prioritize the

church over my family. And that's what I

did. And what happened was the things in

my life got out of order. I like the the

late comedian Mitch Hedberg. He says,

uh, if you see an escalator that isn't

working, it should never have a sign

that says out of order. It should have a

sign that says stairs.

You ever see an out of order sign? You

automatically know what that means. But

did you ever think about the words?

You go up to a vending machine and it

says out of order. What what you go is

it's not it's not working. But what the

words actually mean is there is an order

to how this is supposed to work and it

is out of order.

What are the areas in your life that are

out of order?

Not working the way they're designed to

work. You see, God in his word and in

his good fellowship of the church has

given us the signals and the and the

ways to know the order of our life.

But we choose things that are out of

order and then nothing works.

Over the course of almost two years,

I made one tiny little compromise

and then one tiny little compromise and

then one tiny little compromise. And

before I knew it, I was having an affair

with this woman at my church. I was

preaching on Sunday morning about

obedience and allegiance to God. And all

the while I was living a double life.

Listen. Listen. The steps that you are

taking now. No matter how small or

seemingly in innocent they may be, they

are leading you somewhere. Stop and make

sure they are leading you where you hope

to be.

You're taking steps right now and

they're leading you down a path. Where

does that path lead? because I didn't

have enough maturity.

I didn't have a close enough

relationship with God to really

recognize it.

And so on Labor Day of 2009,

not far from here,

I got up. I didn't work that day. I got

in my car. I went to grab some coffee

and I got a call from Shannon that

morning and she said, "Come back. I know

what's going on. It's over."

And I remember turning around in my car

and the thing that I knew was eventually

going to come out, the thing that I've

been trying to avoid, the thing that

I've been trying to fix without anybody

finding out about it, it was it was

coming into the light. And I remember

driving back and finding Shannon and our

two little boys at the time, six and

four, in the driveway, all of them

crying. Our boys not knowing what was

going on. Shannon throwing them in the

van and ripping out of the driveway.

And I didn't know if I would even see

them again.

And I remember that morning standing in

the living room of our house and saying,

"How did I get here?

How did I get here?"

In Luke the 24th chapter, there's these

two guys. They had been followers of

Jesus. They they had they had been a

part of his ministry. They had seen him

do miracles. But now they had watched

the Jews hand Jesus over to the Romans.

They had watched the Romans crucify

Jesus. They had seen it with their own

eyes. They had seen that he had died.

And now they find themselves completely

despondent walking back to their

hometown, a place called Emmas. And

they're completely devastated because

they thought that Jesus was the Messiah,

that he was the savior. But what they

didn't know, but what we know is that it

was Sunday morning and Jesus had already

risen from the dead. And I don't know

why he chooses these two guys, but he

chases these guys down on the road and

he doesn't reveal who he is yet. And he

says, "What are you guys all bummed out

about?" And they say, "What are you new

around here? Haven't you heard Jesus of

Nazareth? He was a prophet. He had power

in word and deed. AND NOW HE'S DEAD.

THEY KILLED HIM. IT'S OVER."

They were disappointed

because they thought that Jesus would

mean something more than what he was in

the moment.

Can I tell you this one reality?

When we say, "How did I get here?" Here,

here's a reality that follows it. Life

rarely works out exactly how we had

hoped.

Disappointment is a reality that you

can't escape. You can't escape it

because of the decisions that you make.

You make decisions

that are disappointing. But you know

what's even harder than that? Sometimes

other people make decisions that hurt

you, that damage you, that you had no

control over, and you were disappointed.

I love what John Ortberg says about this

word in his book, The Life You've Always

Wanted. He says, "The word

disappointment itself is apt." He says,

"I am in a state of disappointment.

I'm missing the life that I was

appointed by God to live. I'm missing my

calling and I have disappointed

God. I've removed him from the central

role he longs to play in my life and

I've appointed myself in his place.

And so whether it's from your own

failure like me or from the failure

failure failure of others, it's

impossible to escape disappointment in

life. And some of you have felt just

like these disciples on the road. Some

of you are disappointed with God.

You know what they said? And I think I

skipped this on our notes, but this is

what they said in verse 21.

They said to Jesus, "We had hoped," or

so they didn't know it was Jesus, but

they were talking about Jesus. They

said, "We had hoped that he would be the

one who would redeem Israel."

And I think there's some of you in this

room that when it came to your

relationship with God, you you relate to

that and you go, I had hoped that he

would help me find a spouse by this

point. I had hoped that he would help

get us out of this financial trouble. I

had hoped that he would save our

marriage.

I had hoped that he would heal my mom,

but she passed away anyway from the

cancer. I had hoped that God would do

something. And he didn't come through.

And I'm disappointed.

But here's the thing. Those two guys on

the road to Emmas, they didn't realize

that the story wasn't over.

And neither did I when I was standing in

the living room of my house when Shannon

and the boys peeled out and my life was

coming crashing down around me. And your

story isn't over either.

The next weekend, I resigned in

disgrace.

stood up before multiple services and

confessed to what I had done, resigned.

And within just a couple of weeks,

Shannon and our two little boys, uh, we

were headed back to Tulsa. No job in

lined up, totally broken and devastated

and humiliated, both of us, by what had

happened. Just this broken shell of

people.

Shannon in her grace and mercy said, "At

least I will try for a while before I

get a lawyer and divorce you."

We met with some good friends that Mike

and Deb connected us with, Pastor Al,

and he encouraged us, "Give it a shot

and see what God can do." And we did.

But we were in trouble. We were a mess.

And that began what really was three

years of what I call the wilderness. It

was a time of just desert. It was a time

where I wanted to be healed by God. I

wanted God to make me feel better and it

just didn't happen. The consequences of

my sin were coming home to roost. I was

I was feeling the consequences of my sin

and it was devastating. And maybe some

of you know what that's like. Maybe

you're in the middle of a desert of

wilderness season. It seemed like all

the things that mattered most in our

lives had just been swept away by this

violent tempest or torn tornado of my

own making.

And what still remained was barely

hanging on, felt like it was dying. And

I felt further from God than I had ever

felt in my life. And you know what made

things harder, and it sometimes makes it

harder for you, too, is that we were

doing all the right things. I had

completely broken off that relationship.

We were in church every weekend. We were

going to counseling. We were tithing on

our income. We were serving at our

church. We're like doing everything we

knew to do that were the right things to

do. And still it would feel like it

would take monumental effort to just get

a little bit of progress. And then one

memory could just completely wipe it all

away.

And I thought that we would never grow

free

of this hell that we were living in.

God provided me a job with an event

planning company. And so I spent seven

years doing conferences and conventions

and trade shows. I had gone from from

pastoring hundreds of people to now

throwing up pipe and drape for for home

and garden shows at the local

fairgrounds.

And it was devastating to me. And I

remember one day in particular, I was

driving home from that job and you could

turn left to go into our neighborhood,

but you could turn right and there was

this like gravel parking lot behind a

little bar. There's a little tavern

right there. Don't worry, I didn't go in

and start drinking. But I drove back in

that gravel parking lot to the back

corner of that and I remember this so

vividly. I laid my head on the steering

wheel and I just wept and wept and cried

bitter tears. And this is what I said.

This is the second statement that I

remember saying, "God, I can't fix this.

I tried everything." And for most of my

life, if I put in some hard work, I had

some good people around me, maybe a

little bit of talent, a little bit of

intelligence, I could solve my own

problems. And I'd finally hit a problem

THAT NO MATTER WHAT I DID, no matter how

hard I tried, no matter how many good

things we did, I could not fix

this problem.

And that's the second statement that or

the second reality that I want you to

see. Life's hardest problems can't be

solved on your own.

Life's hardest problems. See, the

culture says if you'll just dig down

deep enough inside of yourself, the

answers are in there. Like that's that's

kind of modern Disney, right? Just look

within yourself. That's who you really

are. And when you really let that come

out, life will be what you plan. That's

not true. That's not true. You don't

have inside yourself what you need most.

And I didn't.

I couldn't heal my deepest hurts.

I couldn't put back together the

shattered and broken pieces of my

family. No matter how hard I tried.

There was a woman like this that Jesus

encountered in Mark the 5th chapter.

This woman had a serious health issue.

She had been bleeding and she had been

bleeding for 12

years.

And it was more than just a physical

problem. It was also an emotional, a

psychological, a relational problem.

Because see, for for the Jews at that

time, this bleeding made her unclean.

And because she was unclean, she

couldn't be around other people. She was

separated. She was alone. And you can

imagine the the pain of the medical

problem, but also the pain of the of the

relational and the community problem.

how difficult this was. She was so

motivated to solve this problem just

like I was. And look at what it says in

Mark 15:26. She had suffered a great

Mark 15:26

deal under the care of many doctors and

had spent all that she had. And look at

this. Yet instead of getting better, she

grew worse.

And she was at the end of a rope. That's

where I That's where I was.

Maybe like you.

She had tried it all. She was exhausted.

She had exhausted all of her resources.

Maybe even done something that she all

the things that she thought God wanted

her to do that the religious leaders had

told her to do. But still, she suffered.

Listen,

it's an incred it's an incredibly

sobering and disheartening thing to come

to the realization that despite all your

best efforts, you can't fix it.

Last year, some friends of ours that we

used to be close to several years ago,

we found out that the dad had died,

three kids, high school age and younger.

And when we found out why, we were

devastated.

He'd killed himself.

He got into such a place of despair. He

was a believer.

He had taken his own life with a young

family. And oh, how I wish I could have

gotten to him before he did that and

said, "Your story isn't over yet."

Mine wasn't.

Working that job thinking that nothing

would ever get better and your story

isn't over either.

I've been climbing mountains since I was

a teenager. It's my main hobby. I just

love climbing big mountains out in

Colorado. And so back in 2012, kind of

when we were in the middle of going

through this horrible season of our

lives, I went and climbed a big mountain

in Colorado. The mountain was called

Creststone. It's the sixth hardest

mountain in Colorado to climb. And I

remember when I left on that trip that

summer, I was going with a best friend

of mine that had been best friends with

me since I was 12. In fact, Brian was

with me the day that I resigned from

Kingsway. He drove up from Tulsa and sat

and supported me in the front row. I

mean, that's the kind of brother this

guy was. And so we go out to climb this

mountain and I remember I was so

desperate. I was so in that place of I

can't fix it that I wrote a letter to

Shannon and I gave it to her before her

before I left and it essentially said

this. If I don't have a breakthrough

with God, I don't want to come back. And

it wasn't a threat. I mean, she was

doing everything that she could do as

well. But it was like, I'm no good to

you, to our kids, to the world the way I

am now. I'm this broken shell of a

person. I've got to HAVE A BREAKTHROUGH

WITH GOD.

And so I went and the night before we

climbed that big mountain, I I fashioned

a cross out of two sticks that I found.

And I said, "I'm going to plant this

cross at the top of that mountain. And

I'm going to desperately cry out to God.

Please God, I need a breakthrough." And

we climbed it. It was the hardest

mountain that we had ever climbed

before. And when I get to when I got to

the top, my best friend Brian and two

other guys that were with us, Brian

looked at me and he said, "I know you

got business to do with God. We're going

to step off the summit. You stay up here

as long as you want." Not to I didn't

know this at the time, but now when my

friend Brian tells the story, he said he

was worried that I might jump off the

mountain. That's how that's how in

despair I was. I didn't know he was

feeling that, and I wasn't planning on

doing that, but I was in pretty bad

shape.

And I had about 15 minutes on the top of

that mountain that changed my life.

Was the defining moment of my life.

And I cried out to God in a desperation

that I have never cried out to him

before. God, please. This is the

statement that I remember saying, "God,

if you don't rescue me, I am finished.

I'm done in every way. I'm just done. If

you don't come through, if you don't

rescue me, I'm out of gas. I got nothing

else to try. I I need your help."

And I surrendered to him in a way I'd

never surrendered to him before. And

something happened. I didn't hear an

audible voice. There wasn't like

lightning on the mountain or a dove that

came down and rested on my shoulder,

right? It wasn't that. But I knew for a

fact that God said this to me. It was

the most important question I could have

ever heard. And it will be an important

question for you today. This is what God

said. If I don't go back and fix your

marriage,

if I don't go back and fix your job

where you have a job that you enjoy and

not just some job that you hate, if

nobody ever wants to listen to you

again, if you never have any role of

leadership, if the things don't get

fixed in your life, but you have me,

will that be enough for you?

And this was a huge

question in my life.

Think about it. If God doesn't give you

the things that you expect from him, I

mean, don't we have this relationship

God, right? Like I I I say I believe in

you and you give me life everlasting,

right? We we there's a lot of And and

the thing is that's true. God has

promised us those things.

But in that moment, God said, "If you

can't get my stuff, but you just get me,

is that enough for you?"

And I don't know how, but I mean, I'm

talking about like a moment in my almost

50year-old life. That one moment right

there where I was able to say, "Yes,

I'm convinced that you are all that I

need no matter what happens."

And something happened inside of me.

Something shifted. Something changed.

And I got up from that spot. And every

step I took from that moment forward was

a step out of the wilderness. Every step

I took was a step toward Jesus, which is

the same as taking a step toward life.

That's what it is. And when I got back,

Shannon wasn't like, "Okay, everything's

fine." No. There were several more years

where we were climbing out of it. But I

knew something had changed in me. I had

a hope that I'd never had before. I knew

that God WAS DOING WHAT ONLY GOD CAN DO.

Rescuing me from a place where I could

not rescue myself. And I don't know what

spot you're in. I don't know what you're

going through.

But God specializes in the impossible.

The stuff that you can't fix. He will

redeem. He will save. He will rescue.

And this is what I've said. When Shen

and I tell our story, we rarely say God

restored us because there was nothing to

restore.

Our relationship was dead. Praise God.

His number one trick is resurrection

from the dead. He takes dead things and

he makes them alive again. And that's

what he did. That's what he did in our

marriage. That's what he did with our

family. That's what he did in our lives.

Jesus said this in Matthew 16:2. Whoever

Matthew 16:2

wants to save their life will end up

losing it. But if you lose your life for

me, you'll find it.

You'll find it. Here's the last reality.

The only obstacle between you and life,

the capital L life, is surrender.

Just surrender. Just say, "God, I I I

can't do it. I need you more than I need

anything else. More than I need what you

give me. more than I need your stuff.

More than I need money. More than I need

this kind of relationship. More than I

need you to fix this part of my life. I

just need you. And on the other side of

that is real life.

I mean, think about those dudes in the

story on the road to Emmas. Remember how

that one ended? Jesus revealed himself

and they were like, "WHAT? DIDN'T OUR

HEARTS burn within us whenever he was

talking to us?" And the last thing we

know about those guys is they're running

back to Jerusalem, busting in the door

with the apostles to say, "IT'S TRUE.

HE'S ALIVE. WE JUST SAW HIM. HE'S

ALIVE."

Think about that woman. She She said,

"I've got this issue, this bleeding,

this this separation from my community."

And she goes, "If I could just get to

Jesus, if I could just touch his robe,

if I could if I could just make a

connection with him, I'd find healing in

life." And you know what happened? She

did.

She was healed after 12 years of doing

everything she could. All she had to do

was get a hold of Jesus and power for

healing came into her life.

What about me?

Seven years.

Three and a half. That was horrible.

Three and a half that was coming out of

the wilderness.

I was not at all thinking about going

back into ministry. I thought I had

completely disqualified myself from

that. I had taken that off the table.

And my best friend's wife

one morning said to him, "You know who I

think needs to take that small group's

job at our church?

Lee."

What's crazy about that is she hated me.

She didn't want Brian to have anything

to do with me. I was an unfaithful

husband. I was an adulterer. Right? And

then she's the one. And Brian called me.

He said, "You're never gonna believe

what Jamie just said."

And you know what happened? I went to

Shannon and does he want to hear

something crazy?

Jaime just told Brian that I should

apply for that small group's position at

the church. And Shannon looked at me and

said, "Yeah, no duh.

Of course you should.

This is what you were made to do.

That blew me away. The grace of God, the

mercy and the grace of my wife.

Now I get to pastor at a church of

thousands of people. We get to share our

story with thousands of couples. People

always come up to me and they say, "I I

applaud your courage for your

willingness to talk." I'm like,

"Courage?

I had nowhere else to go, man. This

story doesn't reflect well on me at all,

but it reflects really well on the

goodness and the grace of God that is

available to all of you.

I'm not special.

He loves you the way he loves me. What

he did for me, he'll do for you.

Two two more quick things. After that

day on that mountain, we came back and

we invited another guy to go with us

that that next summer who was going

through a really difficult thing in his

life.

and he had a breakthrough with God kind

of like I did.

And the next summer, two or three more

guys came with us and we just said,

"Hey, just come to the mountains with

us. It's fun. We're going to climb a

mountain, but but you can get up there

in the mountains like Jesus did and you

can pursue listening to the voice of the

father and you may have a breakthrough

spiritually." And so a few more guys

came and they had spiritual

breakthroughs and it wasn't always guys

in crisis. It was just all these guys

that wanted to pursue God together. That

was 12 years ago. This summer, we will

take 41 trips with 330 men to go climb

mountains in Colorado in order to have

an encounter with God.

What the enemy meant for evil, God flips

around and uses for good.

You see, my story wasn't over, and

neither neither is yours.

God is writing a story in my life right

now that no man can take credit for.

Least of all me.

And I want to tell you this. Just

yesterday,

this is the first time I'm getting to

tell this. Just yesterday,

yesterday morning, I was over there in a

classroom of Kingsway Christian Church

with Drew's dad, Rich, who pastors that

church now. and some of the elders that

were there 16 years ago. And it was a

time of rich reconciliation

and forgiveness and love. And it's all

over now. And good has come from it. And

God is on the move. Guys, who gets to do

that?

Only the sons and daughters of God.

And that is what you are. You are the

sons and daughters of God. And so he

invites you. Surrender. Come to me.

Trust me, see if I don't lead you into

capital L life. Your story isn't over.

Not the story of your marriage, not the

story of your health, not the story of

your finances, not the story of your

future. Your story isn't over. Keep

going.

Take a step toward Jesus. It's the same

as taking a step toward that life. And

that's what I want for you because

that's what he's done for me. Would you

bow your heads?

Oh, father, father, father, thank you

for the chance to testify of your

goodness,

to share with others, sons and

daughters, brothers and sisters, what

you're capable of. That this the

promises that you've made in your word,

you're faithful to those promises. that

the that the price that was paid on the

cross is enough for even the ugliest

things that we do, the ways that we

disobey, the ways that we turn our back

on you,

the ways that the enemy meant

destruction

and death.

You have redeemed for life.

And so God, I pray that there's maybe

somebody in this room that can take a

step away from destruction, stealing,

death, and they could come right into a

place of life with you.

Please God,

your desire is to write the story of our

lives in a way that we could never take

credit for. And that's my prayer for

collective church in Jesus name. Amen.

>> Hey, thanks so much for watching today's

message. Our prayer is more than the

words that were spoken in the message

that you would remember the things that

God spoke to your heart.

>> Yeah. And no matter what it was that God

spoke to you, I know that part of your

journey is other people being in a

community because we are better

together. So, if you made a decision to

follow Jesus today, would you click the

link below and fill out the form? This

is going to help us so that we can

celebrate with you and equip you with

some tools so that your next steps are

great steps.

>> Yeah. Thanks so much for watching. We're

praying for you. We're cheering you on.

We believe that the best days are ahead

of you.