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When rock bottom becomes the beginning (October 12, 2025)

• Organic Church • Season 2 • Episode 49

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If the ground under your life gave way tomorrow, what would still hold? We open with Psalm 40 and follow its path—waiting, being heard, lifted from the pit, set on solid ground, given a new song—into a conversation that’s painfully honest and stubbornly hopeful. I share a raw story from my lowest moment and trace how God met me there, not to shame me, but to trade my burdens for His steady grip. That exchange, at the altar and in everyday choices, is where despair gives way to direction and where a new beginning takes root.

We unpack why rock bottom can be holy ground: the place where illusions fall, the ego quiets, and the only foundation that doesn’t shift—Jesus—comes into view. We talk about prayers that feel empty and the courage to move beyond lip service toward real surrender. We press into discernment, whose voices we allow to shape us, and what healthy submission and spiritual authority look like when integrity leads the way. Through Matthew 7, Romans 8:28, 2 Corinthians 4, and Revelation 12:11, we build a theology of storms and bedrock: you will be pressed, but you won’t be crushed; knocked down, but not destroyed; opposed, yet still held inside a purpose that works all things toward good.

Along the way, we name how misery becomes ministry, how testimony fights back against despair, and how a church can learn to stand when money is thin and questions are loud. From pit to pulpit isn’t a slogan—it’s a slow, honest walk where God wastes nothing and even the darkest soil becomes a nursery for joy. If you need a reason to get up, a way to stand, or words to sing when you can’t find any, this conversation offers a firm place to plant your feet and a new song for your next step.

If this spoke to you, follow the show, share it with someone who needs solid ground, and leave a review with one line about your “new song” this week. Your story might become someone else’s first step.

SPEAKER_00:

Hallelujah. You are worthy of our praise. Thank you, Jesus. Glory, hallelujah. Glory, hallelujah. Father, we thank you and we praise you for your presence in this place today. And Lord, for the message that's going to be delivered. Lord, I thank you for the anointing that rests. Father, I pray that as the message is delivered, that it comes directly from you, Lord, and not from me. Father, that every word that is spoken falls upon ears that are prepared to hear, hearts that have been cultivated and ready to absorb the word today, Father God. Lord, I just thank you for calling us to this season in this house. Lord, for every person that you've appointed to this building, I thank you. I thank you for their position and their authority in Christ, Lord. Father, that there is no person here who is a spectator today, but Father, there is an army of your people preparing their hearts to go out and pour into the world today, Father God. We are not here for selfish reasons. We are not here for self-gain, Father. We are here to prepare our hearts for spiritual warfare, to defend you, Father God, in this world that has fallen to the enemy. Lord, I thank you. I give you honor and glory in the mighty name of Jesus. And the church says, Amen. Amen. We'll give the kids a few minutes to head to the other side. Can we just stand together? I just want to read a passage of scripture. Um, if you can. I want to read this passage of scripture together, or I'll read it, but standing and honoring the word. And it's Psalms 40 and it's one through three. And it says, I waited patiently for the Lord to help me. Amen. I waited patiently for the Lord to help me. And he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair and out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. He has given me a new song to sing. You went too fast. A new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. You can be seated. And I know that like last week, I was as I was writing this, I started getting excited and I made a Facebook post and kind of gave a spoiler to what we were talking about. But can I tell you that rock bottom is not a bad place to be? Amen. It might feel like it, but rock bottom is not a bad place to be because all God is doing is stripping away all of the things that have held you back from his goodness and his glory. Amen. And I've thought about it and I've prayed about it. And I said to myself, Lord, there have been many times in my life, a couple in particular, where I felt like I had truly hit rock bottom. That there was nothing left to live for, that everything that I had thought that God had called me to, or everything that I thought the world owed me, had been stripped away. And I was so angry about it. And I wasn't just angry at God, I was angry at the world. Amen. Because at the time I knew who Jesus was, I knew what it meant to be a disciple, I knew all of those things. But God was not the center of my life. Do you know what was the center of my life? Me. Right? I was more worried about me than I was about what Jesus wanted for me. I'm gonna ask a question. And this this question, if if you don't raise your hand, I'm gonna have to ask some questions about you. Have you ever seen rock bottom? Have you ever seen rock? Listen, I saw rock bottom two weeks ago. Seriously, what I felt was rock bottom too, and I thought, Lord, why? What are you doing? And then I stopped and I thought, is rock bottom really a bad place to be? If I hit that spot, all I'm doing is giving God the opportunity to strip away the things that I don't need to give me the things that I do need. Amen. He set my feet on solid ground, he steadied me as I walked along. I am standing here today telling you that my feet are on solid ground. The foundation of this church is on solid ground. Amen. That place where you feel like everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. We've been there, we've seen that. We've seen that as a church. We have had times where we didn't have two nickels to rub together, and Alyssa and I were scrounging every night to figure out how we kept the lights on so we could come back the following week. And now look at us, God is doing something big, right? Amen. But we had to be obedient in that time. We had to be willing to strip away all of the things that God did not want for us. This is a glorious spot to stand. There is air blowing on me from somewhere, and it is glorious. Thank you, Jesus. It's the wind of change. The wind of change. Hallelujah. Have you ever prayed and your prayers felt empty? Can I tell you that's not God? That's you? Are you okay with that? Are you okay hearing that? Listen, I get on my knees and I will pray, God, whatever it is, Lord, do it quickly. Lord, whatever it is, I want you to have glory. But I'm saying those things so that he thinks that that's what I really want. What I really want is for him to crush my enemy. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. We ever been, no? Just me? Okay, that's fine. That's I mean, I just share from my heart, y'all. That's it. Maybe our marriage has fallen apart, our finances have dried up, the doctor's report has come back bad, right? Can I tell you that when those things happen, you feel like you've lost yourself? You don't have any peace or any purpose, you don't feel like there's no power left in your body, there is nothing left to fight for. Can I tell you the same power that rose Jesus from the grave lives in you? Right? So that means that that power is not temporary, right? Jesus was raised from the dead, and that same power lives in each and every one of us. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. We often talk about being in the waiting and what that looks like and what that feels like, but I want to share that there is a truth in believing and in knowing that God does some of his best work in those deepest and darkest places. Because when you hit them, you're willing to submit. You're willing to surrender. Amen. That's hard to say, that's hard to believe, but let me tell you. When you come to the altar and you truly surrender, I don't mean come to the altar and give God lip service, right? I mean come here and truly surrender. Lay down the things that are burdening your heart, lay down the things that are holding you back from the goodness of God. When you truly do that, change and transformation takes place. Jenny sent me a video of a lady preaching, and it was timely. She didn't know that when she sent it to me. But it said, the altar is a place of exchange. Right? When we come to the altar of God, we come to exchange the burdens that we carry for the fullness and the goodness of God. Amen. Now my question is, is how many people truly come to the altar for change and transformation? Right? Oftentimes we come to the altar because we feel guilty about something that's happened in our lives. We come to the altar because we feel like we owe God that moment in time. But what you owe him is faithfulness. You owe him transformation. Because the God who will change you from glory to glory does not call you to that moment of repentance so that you can pick it back up and carry it back out of the building. Amen. And so this morning, we're gonna try to break through that, okay? I'm hoping that your hearts are prepared and that your ears are ready to hear because I believe that as we explore this passage of scripture, we will truly understand just how good God is and what he can do in those darkest places. I want to go back to Psalm 40 for just a second. Um, and we're gonna work through this slowly. So um it says Psalms 40, he lifted me out of the pit of despair. Amen. Any of us ever been in the pit of despair? Every time I hear that, I think of the Princess Bride. Anybody else? Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. When I put it in there, I'm like, I'm hoping that somebody will get it. I'll be honest, I've done enough weddings that at one of those weddings I just want to do the mowage. Mawage is what brings us together today. Well, but there are so many people that don't get it and they don't think it's funny, but anyhow, that's just me. That's just me. It says he lifted me out of the pit of despair. That means David wasn't just down, right? When he was writing this, he wasn't just down, he was stuck. Have we ever felt stuck? Have you ever worked a job you felt stuck at because if you left, you didn't know if you could make enough money, or if you left, you didn't, right? Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus. You feel stuck. I'm gonna tell you something. God does not want us stuck. God did not avoid the pit. Instead, he came into the pit. See, God doesn't sit on his throne and wait for you to reach it. He's not waiting on you to achieve perfection. He is coming to you where you are, he's finding you in the pit. He's looking for you in those places of brokenness, and he's giving you encouragement. He's lifting you up, he's telling you that there are better things in store, but the choice is ours to accept and believe it. See, we don't have to climb our way to God. Amen. I joke oftentimes that people who think that they've reached perfection, they don't understand how high the ladder is, right? They stop on the third rung and they think that they've achieved perfection, right? I'm better than you because I can do or I can say. Listen, I'll never forget the very first time somebody said to me, Well, do you have your heavenly language? Can you speak in tongues? And at the time I couldn't. And I thought to myself, well, how does that make you better than me? Like I thought it, but I didn't say it. I should have said it. That's what I should have done, but I didn't. And when I thought it, I'm thinking to myself, like, how does that determine how loved I am by the Almighty? It doesn't determine how loved I am. Amen. Because those gifts come in time and in season, right? And we have to learn when to use them. See, the problem is, is I did not have a good discerning of spirits then. Amen. So I would let anybody speak into my life. I would allow people to criticize me and I would take it seriously, and I would feel like because they've criticized me, I've got to do something about it. I've got to change the way that I am or change the way that I think or change the way that I feel. Can I promise you something? This is my go-to statement. Write this one down. Get out your worksheets. There are no worksheets. I'm kidding. For those of you who are like, there was a worksheet, I forgot to there's no worksheet. There is a pop quiz afterwards. I have always said that I will not accept criticism from a person that I will not seek out for advice. Amen. If you want to criticize me, you had better be somebody important enough in my life that I can come to you for advice. Because if you're just speaking ill things and you're just saying bad things, why would I want to ever seek advice from you? Amen. Your advice is only going to beat me down, it is not going to lift me up. But see, God does not want us to achieve perfection, it's not what He's asking us for. He's asking us to live like Jesus and continue to seek a life that represents the life of Christ. Amen. He knows that we will fall short of the glory of God every day. How many of us don't fall short of the glory of God? Tricked you, Dave. Listen, I fall short of the glory of God regularly, and I will tell you that anybody who thinks that the church doesn't fall short of the glory of God should be ashamed of themselves because there is no church in this county, in this world, that is perfect. And so we oftentimes we hear that I've been hurt by the church, I've been this, I've been that. Oftentimes, I said this one this morning. You know, sometimes people go through churches and pastors, and they change churches and pastors more than they do their underwear. Right? And the question has to be what's the common denominator? It can't be every pastor, it can't be every church. Sometimes we're not willing to submit to authority. Now, I don't see myself as authority, but I do see myself as responsible for this body, right? And so when I say something and I say, Well, you know, we should really pray about that, or have we really sought God's face in this moment? And your answer is, well, I already know. Then I'm telling you right now, you are not willing to submit to authority. Somebody said to me one time that uh they were thinking about a certain person they should come here and do something in our church. And I said, until they are able to submit to me, that will never happen. I don't mean you have to believe everything that I say. That does not mean that we have to be best friends. It does not mean that I get to decide how you spend your money or how you live your life. All that is is in the spirit, I am responsible for you. And when I when you ask me for advice and I speak into your life, you cannot do the exact opposite and expect me to continue to speak into your life. Amen. Because what's what is the worth of my words, right? And so, unless you are willing to submit to me, we cannot do these things. But I am not just sub, you're not just submitting to me as in authority, I am submitting to Christ Jesus in all things. I am seeking his face. It's my responsibility to do that, right? And so I have to be able to put these things together. Whoo. Hallelujah. God will come to you. Even when you're at your lowest, he remains at his strongest. When you are at your absolute lowest, you know, the the kids aren't in here with the exception of a couple, and so I just want to share. I I knew that I was gonna do this in this message, that I would share a small portion of my testimony, and yet I didn't because I wasn't going to because the kids were gonna be in here, and then God led Connie to take the kids. But I want to tell you about my low and about what that was like for me, because God has never worked in my life like he did in that moment. But I don't I don't ever want him to. Because if he has to work in my life like that again, that means I've reached a low that I don't ever want to see again. Amen. And I'll never forget this as long as I lived. I was going through a relationship problem, and I really thought that there was no way out. And I thought, I'm I'm gonna end my life. That's all that's the only option that I have. I don't know what else to do with myself. And I remember this, it goes sideways, and I called my sister and was talking to my sister, and the next thing I know, there's an explosion in my basement. And I la I can laugh about this now, I want to be honest with you. Like it was not funny when it happened. It was the scariest day of my life. And what had happened was the SWAT team was standing at the top of my basement stairs, trying to get me to come out. And they said a flashbang down the basement stairs, not realizing that there was a can of kerosene at the bottom of the steps. And that flashbang hits the can of kerosene and whoosh, a flame like I have never experienced in my life. And the next thing I know, there are six guys in my basement trying to drag me out. I don't remember the second flashbang that allegedly went off between my legs. The only thing I remember is being shot with a beanbag. And if you've never experienced that, don't ask for it because it is not fun. I thought for sure they had shot me with a real gun and that I was going to die. They pulled my shirt up over my head like they do in hockey, zip-tied my hands behind my back, and they carried me out of that basement. And every moment of that, I was mad and I was angry. And I was not angry at them, I was not angry at God, I was angry at myself for not just doing what I had committed to doing. Right? I was gonna walk into that basement, I was gonna take my own life because it was the only option that I had. Now, it sounds nuclear, right? That sounds crazy to you. If you've never been there, it sounds crazy. And the worst part of this story is that as they were taking me out, they put me in the back of a cop car because I was going to jail, right? They decided that it wasn't a good idea to take me to jail because my heart rate was so high that they had to put me in the back of the ambulance. So they come over with a stretcher, they pull me out of the cop car, put me on the stretcher, and as they're wheeling me to the ambulance, I see behind the SWAT truck, I see my dad, Florence, and Jeff Kearns, and they were standing there, and my dad was laughing, and I was so mad. How could you think this was funny? Right? How dare you laugh at this? And I hated him for that. Hated him for that. And I'll never forget all of the things that I went through. They strapped me to a hospital bed. I mean, I'm strapped to this. You guys don't realize how crazy I was, right? I'm telling you this because you need to understand the changes that God can make in a person's life. Amen. Amen. I'm telling you, I have no right. I have no right to be where I am, but I have God's grace and God's mercy. So they strapped me to this hospital bed, and this officer, he's standing next to me. He's like, dude, what is going on? And I'm like, I ain't talking to you. Because if I talk to you, it's only gonna make things worse, right? You have the right to remain silent. Anything you can say, anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. I knew where this was going. I've watched cops a time or two. All right. So I knew that this was not ending well for me. And so they take me out of the hospital, they take me to jail for three days, they leave me in the suicide tank for three days. I'm not talking to anybody, I have no idea what's going on. My life is in complete and total chaos for those three days. They come in and they say they're gonna release me on my own recognition, they're gonna send me home after a mental health evaluation. So I go through the mental health evaluation, and while I'm sitting there, the guy asks me a question about the at the time police chief. Now, I did not say nice things. I and I need to be clear, I knew Jesus at this time, right? I'd been coming to church on Wednesday nights, I knew Jesus, but I did not know Jesus, okay? So give me some grace in this story. And I said some not so nice things about that police chief, and because I said those not so nice things, they decided that I was still a risk to society. And they sent me to a mental health facility in Cleveland for three days. Now, this is a Friday. They don't tell you when they say three days, the weekend doesn't count. So now it's five days. I'm witnessing while I'm there some of the craziest things I've ever seen in my life. I'm watching people get tackled and I'm watching people get into fights, and this is not me, right? Like this is not the kind of person that I am and not the place that I want to be. But all of this is happening around me, and I remember if I want to walk away from this, I have to be able to process what happened. And so I went over to the phone and I called my dad's phone number because back then we still remembered phone numbers, right? I dialed his phone number and he didn't answer. And I knew he wouldn't because he doesn't recognize the number. How many of us do that? We avoid those numbers, we don't write. So I immediately dialed it again, knowing that if the call came a second time, back to back, that he would answer. And he answered, and I said to him, I said, I am so upset with you because of this. And he said, Do you think that I was laughing because you had been in that situation? I was happy that you were safe. Jesus. Because I was holding on to this hate and this anger for, I mean, and it felt like months, right? Because this is five days at this point, and I was so frustrated that I was living in this place and that I had done this to myself. And I thought, I don't know what I would have done had I not followed through on that phone call, right? Can I tell you that rock bottom will change a person? Because, see, when he put me in that place, he stripped away all of the things that I thought and replaced them with things that were the truth. Amen. And it is scary to think that every day we walk around believing things that are not, in fact, the truth, because it's what the world has convinced us matters. And I say that because when I ended up at that rock bottom, I was able to look back and strip away all of the things that didn't matter and focus on the things that really did matter. And that was no longer a broken relationship. That was no longer all of the things that that felt like hurt and like pain. It was the things that truly mattered. Now, I did not get it right. I want to be clear. I became obsessed with work, so much so that I didn't have time for my kids. I became obsessed with other things, with doing, leading worship at the church, whatever I could get myself into in order to find a way to fill the void from the pain that I was feeling from that situation. Because at the time I still had not accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I knew him, and I would, if you would have asked me that, I would have told you, yes, I was saved. But I didn't understand what being saved truly was. I realized, not instinctually, by the way, that God was coming for me in a way that He doesn't come for everyone. Right? There are some people who don't experience that pain in life, who live their life in this comfortable circle, in this bubble. And God was so willing to come to me in that place to bring me to a higher place. And I didn't understand it at the time, and I'll be honest with you, I still don't maybe fully understand it today. I know he did it, but I can't figure out why he did it. What was I worth to him? But apparently everything, because he was so willing. He lifted me out of the pit of despair. He doesn't just come and pull us somewhere, he brings us to holy places. Amen. He doesn't just bring us out of those low places into high places, he brings us into holy places. And sometimes that holiest place is on our knees at the foot of the cross. You know, I'm standing here thinking about all of the things that happened then, and I don't know that I have ever truly given God the glory for that. I know that I know that it was him, like I've always known that it was him, and I've always thanked him for being there, but I don't know that I have ever stopped and said, without him, I would have been dead. I would have been nothing, I would have been forgotten. And not that being remembered is important, but can you imagine such a tragedy for really no reason? Because our minds had lied to us for so long. Psalm 34, 18. It says, the Lord is close to the brokenhearted, he rescues those whose spirits are crushed. And can I tell you that every day when I wake up and I see how the world is functioning and the things that people are saying to and about one another, the world is brokenhearted. Our spirits have been crushed, but the Lord is close to each and every one of us. Amen. To each and every one of us. In their righteousness, he will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory. Festive praise instead of despair. Do you hear what I'm saying to you? We have no reason to be brokenhearted. We have no reason to be in despair. We have a reason to praise in all things. In all things. God is already working on your new beginning today. Right now, in this moment, God is working on your new beginning. And the question is, is what is it? And what does it look like? Oftentimes we see the beginning as a fresh start. It's not always a fresh start, it's not always a new job. Sometimes it's a new attitude towards the job. Sometimes the accountability rests on us and not on others, right? See, you can complain about all of the churches you've been to and all of the pastors and all of the people who have hurt you, but sometimes the accountability rests on you. So if we know that Christ's church is built on the solid rock, then we understand that when we get to rock bottom, that that is a firm foundation for God to start building. And when you hit rock bottom, you find out what life is really built on. Amen. So oftentimes we get to the bottom, and all of the things that we have loved and all of the things that we have coveted, we have lost, and we have to realize that the only thing that matters in that foundation is Christ Jesus. There are some of us sitting here today who don't know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Amen? It's a fair statement, it's true. And I don't want you to feel bad if you don't really understand what the love of Christ is like. What I want you to hear and what I want you to understand, though, is that when Jesus pursues you, you also have to pursue him. Right? And so if you've shown up here today, let this be your awakening, let this be your call to pursue Jesus through the word. Listen, I I I signed the church is now sponsoring K-Love. And I know that sounds crazy, but do you realize what a big deal that is for us? Because we are not going to reach every person in our community. That's a fair statement, right? But there are people who are turning the dial on their radio right now who should be in a church and they are lost and they are broken and they are crying in their car and they hit K-Love. We are a part of that now, right? And it sounds silly, but I know that that's the only way that we are going to reach people beyond us. Listen, we have to pursue God's people just the way that God is pursuing them, but sometimes we have to pursue God ourselves. Once God starts to chase after us, we have to be willing to chase after him. Matthew 7, 24 and 25. Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Amen. Turn to your neighbor and say solid rock. Solid rock. Hallelujah. Though the rains come and torrents and flood waters rise, the winds beat against that house. It won't collapse because it is built on the bedrock. Thank you, Jesus. I was just watching a Netflix documentary about Hurricane Katrina. Have any of you watched it? Is it on Hulu? Maybe it is. I don't know. But I'll tell you this, it's devastating. Because I thought, I'm not socially aware, I'll be honest with you. I thought when that hurricane came through, that's what destroyed the city. It's not. The hurricane passed, and people were okay. And then they started noticing that the floodwaters were starting to rise back into the city. And it turned out that the levees had broken, and all of the water that they were trying to keep out was now coming back in. So much so that people were punching holes through their roof to sit on the roof through their attic to be safe. And I I there was my heart broke for this one family. They're sitting on the roof and they're waiting on somebody to come and rescue them, and the house comes up from the foundation and starts floating down the road. The only foundation that they had had come loose and started floating down the road. Think about that. When you build your life on Jesus Christ, you don't have to worry about your foundation floating away. It is built on solid rock. Jesus Christ, the saying yesterday, today, and forever. That solid rock will be there in a hundred years. We will die. Should the Lord tarry, we will all taste of death, but that foundation will remain. Amen. If you look at our sign as you come in, it says, foundation laid, 1982, Florence Fellers McNutt. And somebody said to me once, why is her name on the sign? I said, it doesn't matter why her name is on the sign. This building was built by her family with their sweat and their blood, right? And so it's not that she laid the foundation on Jesus Christ, which is what has allowed this ministry to continue to evolve and to grow the way that it has. See, we don't get to decide how God operates. God will work through one person, and when that mantle is passed to the next, he will continue to work and to grow. He does not simply give up. He doesn't simply walk away. Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds their house on solid rock. I just want to tell you that the storm will always come. There is not a time that the storm will not come, right? The winds will blow. You will see others fall. But those who are built on Christ Jesus, the foundation is laid on Jesus Christ, they will not falter. Can I tell you today that organic church will not falter? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I am telling you right now, your pastor is not going to falter. Amen. I am going to lead, guide, and direct with integrity because that's what God has called me to do. Will I fall short of the glory of God? Absolutely, I will. Will I drop to my knees and repent? You better believe it. Amen. I will not lead my people astray because I will not answer for that. I will not answer for that. I will believe what God has called us to. Listen, when God called us to this place, there was a great deal of doubt. I listened to the podcast, by the way, Nick. Next week's episode. I listened in advance. And he said to he said on the podcast, I'm going to give this away. It's a little spoiler. They were talking about this space. And he said, I never questioned that it wouldn't be beautiful. I never questioned that it wouldn't function well. He said, but I asked questions like, well, when we have a meal, what are we going to do? Right? Those are all fair questions, but can I tell you, I am worried about us being able to worship in a place that God can call home as well. I'm not saying he couldn't do it over there, but we had outgrown it. Right? And we had to be willing to grow with the body. Listen, I promise you guys are gonna eat and eat well in this building. It's the one thing. I can't promise a lot, but I can promise that. Hallelujah. I will not let you go hungry, I promise. I promise. The storms will always come, but the house that is built on the rock of Christ will always stand. Sometimes God will let everything crumble so that that foundation can be proven solid. You can lose your job and still have joy. You can lose friends and still have faith. You can lose everything, but you will not lose God. You know, today we sit here always broken. Amen. I think so many of us, we wake up in the morning broken, we don't know what to do with ourselves. But can I tell you that if you still have Jesus, you still have hope? Even whenever you're walking in broken times, when you're when you're lost and confused, if you still have Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you still have hope. There is nothing that will take away from that hope. The pit is temporary. Amen. The pit is always temporary, but the purpose, ready, is eternal. You can fall into the pit of despair. They can use the little machine to suck your soul out. But I promise you this it is eternal. The things that you learn, the purpose, the reason behind it is always going to be eternal. You know, oftentimes we think we're dead and we're buried whenever things don't go our way, but can I tell you that you have not been buried and left for dead. You have been planted and watered so that you might grow. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. You were not buried and forgotten, you were planted and watered to grow. See the pressure, the darkness, the weight, all of that is not the end. It is simply the preparation for the resurrection. Amen. Are you guys awake? It is the preparation for the resurrection. Can I tell you that when Jesus returns, that we will all be resurrected, we will all have new life. Amen. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Listen, I'm not here to get you excited, but I would think if we're gonna get excited about something, that's what we're gonna get excited about. Amen. Because I listen, this life is gonna disappoint. It has proven disappointing time and time again. But I will promise you that when it is time for the resurrection, that we will truly be able to celebrate. Romans 8 28. It says, and we know God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. We need to read this again. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. Now I've been reading this uh self-help book called Let Them. Anybody ever heard of it? Listen, I'm gonna tell you something. You want to change your life? Read that book. Listen to the audiobook, because here's what it comes down to. When somebody wants to come against you, let them. Do you know why? Because God's already got it. Right? Let them say what they're gonna say. Let them behave the way that they're gonna behave. And then let me ignore it. And then let me forget about the things that they've said. Let me be able to stand on the firm foundation, right? Hallelujah. Listen, listen, I don't have to concern myself with the things that are going on in the world. I gotta pray for the world, I gotta pray for the people who are living in the world, but I do not have to, because God causes everything to work together for those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. I am called for something. Maybe I haven't figured it all out yet, right? But each and every one of us are called to something, and we call our God calls us his friend. Amen. But we have to be willing to believe that. Second Corinthians 4, 8 and 9. It says, We, I've got it here. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed, we get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. But we are not destroyed. Listen, he the enemy can come and take whatever he wants, but I'm gonna tell you what, when he does, he has to pay that back, right? He doesn't get to have it for free. There is a cost to what he takes from me. You know, I was thinking this morning, I almost changed our our song that we greeted to. You guys remember that old song? Went to the enemy's camp and I took back what he stole from me. I'm like, every day I wake up now and I'm like, yes, yes, because let me tell you something. What I have isn't cheap, right? My salvation was bought by the blood of the Lamb on Calvary, that's not cheap. And so if the enemy thinks that he gets to take that for free, he's wrong. He's gonna have to come up with a big old stack of money in order to buy me because Jesus has already paid the ultimate price. And listen, when I plant my feet in that, I don't have to worry about what the world thinks. I don't have to worry about what the world says, I don't have to concern myself with all of the negativity that the world tries to bring my way. I simply stand on that foundation and I say, Yes, Lord. Amen, Lord. Thank you, Jesus, for surrounding me. Thank you, Lord, for leading me and guiding me and directing me. Oftentimes people will run the other way when the bad things start to happen. Not me. I like head-on, right? That's what I do because I know that there is always victory in the mighty name of Jesus. There is always victory. You may have fallen, but you did not fail. Right? When you fall short of the glory of God, that means that that does not mean that you failed. It means that you have fallen short. Pick yourself back up. God will pull you from the miry clay. He will pull you from the mud and the muck, and he will set you back on solid ground. Amen. Now you can't swim around in that mud and wallow in self-pity. You can't everything's so awful. You need to say, you know what? God is good. All the time and all the time, God is good. Amen. In all things, God will be glorified. Amen. You're about to come up stronger when you're knocked down into those places. Amen. Stronger, greater, more bold, right? More bold. That's what I'm praying for right now. Lord, let me be bold. Lord, let me be bold. Lord, don't let me cower. Don't let me hide. Lord, let me be bold. Thank you, Jesus. I might be knocked down, but I am not done. I am not out. Amen. There is nothing that will ever put the stamp of done. When I go to heaven, I want to be well done. You know what I mean? Like I want, if you were comparing me to a steak, I want to taste like shoe leather. Right? You ever had one of those steaks that's so tough you just can't eat it? Thank you, Jesus. That's what I want to be like when I get to heaven. I want God to have tested me and tried. Oh, don't say that out loud, Pastor Michael. Don't say that out loud.

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Hot dog. I just want to know that when I get there, I am prepared, that I have been seasoned and I have been ready to go. Amen. Listen, from the pit to the pulpit, wherever it is that God will call you, your story today is just beginning. Your story today is just beginning. I shared my story because it truly was from pit to pulpit. Now there were lots of bumps in between. It wasn't like I came out of that and went, hey, I'm gonna preach. There was a lot of preparation in my life. And even up to the first time I ever preached, I told God I wasn't gonna do it. We argued and argued and argued. And I learned something the day that I, I very first, the very first time I ever preached, I learned something, and that was that God doesn't play around. Right? You think you've got a plan and you step into the pulpit and he's got another one. And he's gonna stretch you, he's gonna grow you, and he's not gonna let you just walk into that for fun. It's not a hobby, it's a life. It's not a hobby, it's a commitment to the people around you. Psalms 43, it says, He has given me a new song to sing. You see, God doesn't waste the pain, right? When you're going through the pain, he's not wasting it, he's giving you testimony. Amen. He's giving you something to praise about, he is giving something, giving you something to sing about. One of the things that drives my family crazy about me is if you give me a phrase or a word or something, I can usually find a song about it. Right? I'll never forget one time. Uh never mind, I'm not gonna tell that story. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. I it just it boils down to this. There's literally a song for everything. Your pain is no different. Your pain is no different. When you are feeling lost and broken and you turn on K Love and you hear that song that just really ministers to your heart, can I promise you that when that song was written, it was written for you in that moment? God has not set these things into motion for no reason. They are set into motion so that we might be able to find hope in a world that is hopeless. Amen. Your misery becomes your ministry. Your misery, listen, any of us ever been miserable? How many of us are miserable right now? It's true, isn't it? Like sometimes I wake up in the morning, listen, I can I'm gonna tell this story. My wife's gonna listen to this message later. I'm gonna get yelled at for it. She woke up this morning, she's like, my back hurts. I slept funny. And I said, you know what? It's because you're old, right? Because I woke up feeling spry this morning. I was feeling good. So I can say that tomorrow morning it'll be me, right? Like that's but but what I'm saying is that sometimes we wake up feeling old or we feel broken or we feel like we aren't worth anything or God doesn't need us. Can I promise you that that misery that you're wallowing in is gonna be your ministry? Can I promise you that if you are old and you think that God doesn't have a purpose for you, He does? Amen. Old people, can I get a hallelujah or something? Thank you. Thank you. Praise you, Jesus. There is glory in your wisdom, right? He didn't call you to such a time, he didn't just call you to get old. Right? He called you to become wise, right? And it says that we should seek wise counsel. Why do you think whenever I need something, I go to Pastor Roger? He's old, he's got wise counsel. Amen. I would never say that about Pastor Holly. She done look a day over 21. I'm kidding. But that's why I have a church council, right? That church council is made up of a variety of people because when I walk into that room and I'm seeking advice or I'm looking for discernment, I want to go to the people who have the wisdom. Amen. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Okay. Who? Listen, I told you I went to jail, right? You guys know that about me now. You can't ever put that back in the hat, right? You're gonna look at me a little bit differently. That's okay. That's okay. But I need to tell you I went to jail a second time. Same situation, just went a second time. Because, see, they don't explain to you, that's not true, they do, but I was just too stupid to listen. It's my story, I'm gonna tell it how I want. That when you violate a protection order, they don't give you a warning, they just take you back. Right? So they pick me up in the cruiser, they take me back to jail, and the whole time I am in there, I am giving praise and honor to God. This, I'm not joking. Like they were probably sick of me very, very quickly, right? Because thank you, Lord, at the time was my jam. That was the song that was playing when I gave my life to Jesus, and I am just in that cell singing that song. And they're finally like, we gotta get him out of this solitary confinement, we gotta get him down to general population because he sings that song one more time, and he's gonna meet Jesus. They had to be sick of it. So, anyhow, they drag me. Anybody ever been to jail? Okay. Alright, so you guys can enjoy this story with me, right? I say enjoy, none of us really enjoy this, but we can say this. They give you that blue mat that you sleep on on a concrete slab. Best night's sleep I've ever had. I'm kidding. So they give you this mat and you drag it down, and then they put you in a cell and they tell you where you're gonna sleep. And it was time for all of us to go back. I don't know how jail works. I've never like been to that part of the jail. I'd only ever been to like the solitary confinement part. So, anyhow, I was in what they would call the drunk tank. Does that resonate with anybody? Dave goes, yeah. Dave. Jesus. Jesus. Anyhow, they give me my blue bat and I drag it down, and I'm in there for about 15 minutes, and I hear this loud buzzing noise. I don't know what that means, right? Again, I will remind you, I've never experienced this. Do it again, and then finally I hear somebody yell, Brindley! And I walk over to the door, and I'm trying to peek out that little tiny window that they give you. I push the door and it opened, and they said, Get your stuff, you're going home. I had been there for less than three hours. To God be the glory. I see, when I went down, I went down singing. I went down praising. Amen. And I knew that God was going to do something good. Now, I deserved much worse than everything that I got. But God was good in all of those things. You see, He brought me through all of that so that I might see the light on the mountaintop. Because, see, when we're in the valley, and I I picture the valley being this like overgrown, tree-covered, like you can't really see what's around you. And so when you're trying to see the mountaintop and you're trying to understand what it is that God is doing, and you're looking forward, you can't truly see the beauty that is the mountaintop, right? And he dragged me through all of that so that I might be able to see the light in everything that was happening in my life. And I was so thankful whenever he finally brought me through it because I was able to get to that rock bottom and able to actually heal. Revelations 12, 11 says, they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. Thank you, Jesus. See, my testimony is defeating everything that the enemy is trying to do, right? Because that's telling somebody that if God can do this for me, he can certainly do anything for you. Amen. Because we remember where he found us, he can use those situations to bring other people to his goodness. Amen. He can use those things to bring other people to his goodness. Guys, I know I'm running over. I've got a few more points and then I'm gonna let you go. When the bottom becomes the beginning, we can start to change our mindset. Right? When we say that I have hit rock bottom, but it's only because it's the beginning of a new season, it's the beginning of a new life. Let me tell you something. You will learn that you don't have to give up. You will learn that you are not in a pit of despair, and you will learn that God has not forgotten you. Amen. You will learn that God has not forgotten you. He is still lifting, he is still building, and he is still turning graves into gardens. Amen. He is still saving every person that is willing to come to the foot of the cross. There is no number, there is no cap, there is no max occupancy. Amen. He will continue to save, he will continue to redeem. Psalm 18, too. It says, The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior. My God is my rock in whom I find protection. When you have nothing left to stand on, stand on the rock. When you can't see the way that you are supposed to travel, trust the rock. And when life breaks you down, fall on the rock. At the foot of the cross, I promise you, Jesus will hold you up. So I just want to, let's just close our eyes. Can you start some prayer music for me? And I just want to I want to pray with you for just a moment, but I also want us to really be honest with ourselves. Are we living in the pit right now? Are any of us feeling lost or broken? Are any of us feeling like we just don't have anything left to live for, nothing left to work towards? I want to tell you something today. That is the enemy trying to stop you from the goodness and the fullness that is promised to you by Jesus Christ. I want you to just find peace in knowing that God is doing something good for you today. Father, I stand here in expectation of renewed hearts. Expectation, Father, of hopeful minds. Father, anything that is weighing us down or holding us from being in submission to you, Lord, I pray that you just remove it from us in this moment. Lord, that is not easy, and I know it. There are many of us sitting in here who have things in our lives that we know that we want to walk away from, and we believe, Lord, that you can help us through that. But sometimes, Lord, we are just too selfish to give it up. Lord, today give us strength. Give us grace and mercy. As we walk into a kingdom mindset, Lord, don't allow us to wrap ourselves up with what the world thinks of us or what the world wants us to be. Father, give us guidance. Touch our hearts today, O Lord. Lift us up from that miry clay, set our feet upon the solid rock of Jesus Christ so that we may have great, great, great revival in our hearts. Revival that we have never experienced before, Father. Lord, I thank you and I praise you. I pray, Lord, that every person in this building has traveling mercies as they move from this place to the next. And Lord, as they come back to the house, that they continue to prepare their hearts for the word that you're bringing. We thank you and we praise you. We give you honor and glory in the mighty name of Jesus. And the church says, Amen.