SPEAKER_01: If you're listening to the VFC Sermon Podcast, at the end of this episode, please take a moment to download our free VFC Coastal app where you can access all of our messages, sermon notes, announcements, and smaller playlists.
SPEAKER_01: Our app is the easiest way to keep up with everything going on here at VFC.
SPEAKER_01: We hope that this message helps you in your walk with Jesus and encourages you to belong, believe, and become.
SPEAKER_00: Like Jamie said, I um have been a partner of VFC since about the end of 2023.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to open this sermon up in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to gather here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for waking us up and giving us your breath in our lungs.
SPEAKER_00: Bless us with your presence this morning and allow the story you have written in my life to touch those who need it.
SPEAKER_00: Let my testimony be a testament to your faithfulness, your love, and your ability to bring good out of every situation.
SPEAKER_00: Here I am, Lord, use me in your precious name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So everyone talks about getting the call from Shauna, but no one really talks about getting Jamie's call.
SPEAKER_00: So I was I was in my kitchen, I think I was cooking dinner, but my phone was in another room, and his name flashed across my watch, and I froze.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, why is he calling me?
SPEAKER_00: So I didn't get to the phone in time.
SPEAKER_00: He left a voicemail.
SPEAKER_00: And um he said, Hey, it's Jamie, you're not in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, but give me a call back when you can.
SPEAKER_00: So the rest of the story is history, so that's why I'm standing here.
SPEAKER_00: Um, the title of my story is Silver Jubilee, and I'll explain that um at the end.
SPEAKER_00: Um, this story, our story, mine and God's, is one of redemption, resilience, God's unshakable faithfulness, but most of all, transformation.
SPEAKER_00: My life hasn't been free of battles, but through every trial, I've learned that his strength truly is made perfect in my weakness.
SPEAKER_00: Um I was born and raised in Virer Beach, Florida.
SPEAKER_00: It's a small beach town on the east coast of Florida.
SPEAKER_00: My mom was 18, my dad was 27.
SPEAKER_00: They were not married.
SPEAKER_00: I was told there were questions about who my real father was.
SPEAKER_00: My mom struggled with alcohol for most of my life, which eventually led to serious health issues, primarily diabetes.
SPEAKER_00: She developed COPD and emphysema, which required her to be on oxygen 24 hours a day for many years until she passed away.
SPEAKER_00: My dad struggled with addiction before I was born, but throughout my childhood, my parents' drug of choice was marijuana.
SPEAKER_00: Growing up, all of my grandparents were believers and faithful churchgoers.
SPEAKER_00: My immediate family, however, were what I call Easter and Christmas attendees.
SPEAKER_00: My parents believed in God, but they did not live a biblical lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00: My dad's father was a Gideon.
SPEAKER_00: He traveled all over Florida, giving away Bibles and preaching God's word.
SPEAKER_00: My dad even attended Tabernacle Baptist School through the tenth grade.
SPEAKER_00: My mom's mom was a faithful member of First Baptist Church of Thomasville for more than 30 years.
SPEAKER_00: She attended faithfully until just a few weeks before she passed away.
SPEAKER_00: And she read her Bible every single day.
SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite memories of her was seeing these small rocks she kept in her living room beside her rocking chair.
SPEAKER_00: Each rock had the name of one of her family members written on it.
SPEAKER_00: And she would pick up the rock one by one and pray specifically for that person.
SPEAKER_00: Looking back now, I realized she was my earthly guiding light, the one who faithfully planted the seeds that eventually led me to my heavenly father.
SPEAKER_00: My parents finally got married when I was two years old.
SPEAKER_00: When I was four, my brother was born.
SPEAKER_00: Shortly after that, my parents divorced.
SPEAKER_00: Over the next four years, we moved back and forth between South Florida and Thomasville, Georgia.
SPEAKER_00: When I was eight years old, my sister Joy was born.
SPEAKER_00: My parents had gotten back together, remarried, and finally settled down.
SPEAKER_00: Joy was born prematurely and faced significant health issues.
SPEAKER_00: I believe my mom had been drinking before she knew she was pregnant, and I believe that contributed to many of Joy's health issues.
SPEAKER_00: Because of my sister's medical needs, our family moved in with my dad's parents for a short period of time.
SPEAKER_00: Eric spoke last week on how our life sometimes takes detours, and those detours are sometimes because of our choices or things done to us that we have no control over.
SPEAKER_00: This season of my life that I could this is a season of my life that I considered a tremendous detour.
SPEAKER_00: But I wanted to remind you of Romans 8.28.
SPEAKER_00: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
SPEAKER_00: This verse states all things, including the detours.
SPEAKER_00: My parents were working a lot to get our own home, and we were stuck at the babysitters quite often.
SPEAKER_00: This is when my babysitter's 14-year-old son sexually assaulted me at only eight years old.
SPEAKER_00: I'll spare you the details.
SPEAKER_00: It was bad.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't consensual, but it was life-shattering.
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't tell a soul.
SPEAKER_00: You see, my dad had a reputation of being crazy.
SPEAKER_00: He had a really bad temper.
SPEAKER_00: I was a daddy's girl, and I was afraid if I told him about the sexual assault, he would do something stupid and he would go to prison and I'd never see him again.
SPEAKER_00: So we moved out of my grandparents' home rather quickly.
SPEAKER_00: I don't believe we were there longer than a year.
SPEAKER_00: But because of the sexual assault, during that time, I didn't trust any males except my father.
SPEAKER_00: Fast forward to the year 2000, I was 13 years old when I came out as a bisexual and shortly after that as a lesbian.
SPEAKER_00: My parents didn't really seem to care.
SPEAKER_00: My dad's response was basically, at least you will not come home pregnant.
SPEAKER_00: And my mom didn't really have an opinion.
SPEAKER_00: My mother and I had a very rocky relationship growing up.
SPEAKER_00: My dad was a business owner and he worked incredibly hard.
SPEAKER_00: He cooked, he cleaned, and he seemed to do everything he could to provide for our family.
SPEAKER_00: My mom worked as much as she was able, but because of her health problems and her alcohol addiction, she couldn't hold a job for very long.
SPEAKER_00: She struggled every day, and she went to rehab a several times, but it never seemed to last.
SPEAKER_00: As a teenager, I watched all of this unfold, and I assumed she was just lazy and unmotivated.
SPEAKER_00: I saw the stress it put on my dad, and because of that, I resented my mom for a long time.
SPEAKER_00: She did have a few years of sobriety after my dad gave her the ultimatum.
SPEAKER_00: Either she got sober or he would leave her and take us with him.
SPEAKER_00: So I dated girls all through high school.
SPEAKER_00: I graduated in 2005, and I had a few serious relationships over the years.
SPEAKER_00: Then in 2010, I met the person who would become my wife.
SPEAKER_00: We were married in 2011 and we were together for 14 years.
SPEAKER_00: Over the next 10 years, I would lose 95% of my family to either cancer or old age.
SPEAKER_00: It started with my dad, who passed away from lung cancer in 2014.
SPEAKER_00: After my dad passed away, we moved to Colorado, and my mom and siblings moved to Thomasville.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't deal with the grief.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, I worked more.
SPEAKER_00: I filled my schedule with busyness, or I ate my feelings.
SPEAKER_00: After my father's death, I shared with my mom about the sexual assault I experienced as a child.
SPEAKER_00: In that conversation, she shared with me about her own childhood sexual assault.
SPEAKER_00: In that moment, I finally understood the reason behind her addiction.
SPEAKER_00: She had been carrying and trying to cope with her own pain all those years.
SPEAKER_00: Right before my grandfather passed away, I announced that I was pregnant.
SPEAKER_00: When I returned home for his funeral, I was met with an intervention from my family about my lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00: I was given a choice: be a single mother, live with them, and get back on my feet so my son wouldn't be raised by two moms.
SPEAKER_00: I declined.
SPEAKER_00: During that time, my mom shared something with me that I had never known.
SPEAKER_00: After I came out at 13, a family member suggested that my dad kick me out of the house until I changed my ways.
SPEAKER_00: He refused.
SPEAKER_00: Life could have looked a lot different if I had been homeless at 13 years old.
SPEAKER_00: If you are a parent with a child who is struggling with this lifestyle, I want to encourage you with this.
SPEAKER_00: The answer is not to abandon them.
SPEAKER_00: Do not be replaced.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot be replaced as their parent.
SPEAKER_00: Never trade your role as their parent for that of a preacher, a teacher, or a judge.
SPEAKER_00: God will place people with those roles in their life.
SPEAKER_00: No one else can be their biological mom or dad.
SPEAKER_00: Be their parent and love them.
SPEAKER_00: Every day I'm thankful that my dad loved me unconditionally.
SPEAKER_00: After my mom passed away, we decided to relocate to the East Coast and settled in Thomasville.
SPEAKER_00: Eventually, I would need to help care for my sister, and we also wanted to raise our son in a small town.
SPEAKER_00: I want to go back to my grandpa's funeral intervention.
SPEAKER_00: Looking back now, I realize they did what they did out of love.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't understand that at the time, but I do now.
SPEAKER_00: It was a seed planting moment.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't ready to receive God's gift of unconditional love.
SPEAKER_00: Before my grandma passed away, she had a conversation I'll never forget.
SPEAKER_00: She told me she loved me, God loved me, and although she didn't understand my lifestyle, I was still her granddaughter.
SPEAKER_00: That was another seed planting moment.
SPEAKER_00: Shortly after having my son, I started questioning my sexuality.
SPEAKER_00: Deep down I always knew I was committing a sin, but I didn't know how to deal with the sexual trauma from my childhood.
SPEAKER_00: I could never get past the idea of being with a man.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of 2023, I started attending Victory Fellowship Church.
SPEAKER_00: I would go periodically on Sundays.
SPEAKER_00: I already had friends who attended VFC, and that made it easier to walk through the doors, knowing there were people there who knew I was in a same-six relationship, but I didn't feel judged or looked down on.
SPEAKER_00: VFC's motto is belong, believe, become.
SPEAKER_00: It's a church that makes you feel like you belong.
SPEAKER_00: They welcome you with open arms.
SPEAKER_00: They teach you the word of God and help you believe it.
SPEAKER_00: And through that process, you become who God has called you to be.
SPEAKER_00: After just a few sermons, I was hooked.
SPEAKER_00: During that same season, I decided to open my own real estate office.
SPEAKER_00: I had started my real estate career in Colorado, and the company I worked for didn't have a location in South Georgia.
SPEAKER_00: It had always been my goal to open an office here in Thomasville.
SPEAKER_00: I began the process and officially opened my doors on March 1st, 2024.
SPEAKER_00: Just two weeks later, my grandmother, who had been battling lung cancer, became very sick with pneumonia.
SPEAKER_00: She couldn't recover, and we lost her on March 17th.
SPEAKER_00: She was the last of my living elders, the matriarch of our family.
SPEAKER_00: I often say that I'm still here today because of my grandma's prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Losing her was my breaking point.
SPEAKER_00: After she passed, a huge conflict broke out among the remaining members of my family over the trust she had created to care for my sister, over my sister's care and over my sister's income.
SPEAKER_00: The loss of my grandma was incredibly difficult.
SPEAKER_00: I was so close to her that I would call her for advice before I would call my own mother.
SPEAKER_00: At that point, I was battling unprocessed grief, the stress of starting a new business, family conflict, questions about my sexuality, a marriage that was falling apart, and I was contemplating divorce.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to get out of bed.
SPEAKER_00: But some of you know that I'm also a Thomas County school bus driver, and staying in bed wasn't an option.
SPEAKER_00: I often say that the kids on my bus saved me.
SPEAKER_00: If I didn't have to get up every morning to take those rug rats to school, I honestly believe my depression would have won.
SPEAKER_00: There were moments when I thought ending my life would take away the pain, the grief, the guilt, and the shame of bringing my son into this world in a same-sex marriage and confusing him for the first eight years of his life.
SPEAKER_00: And how was I supposed to wake up one day and tell my wife of 14 years that I thought I was actually straight?
SPEAKER_00: So I had lunch with a few work friends.
SPEAKER_00: One of those friends attends VFC, and I opened up to him about everything I was going through.
SPEAKER_00: He validated my feelings, but more importantly, he kept reminding me that I didn't have to carry all of this alone.
SPEAKER_00: He encouraged me to get plugged into VFC.
SPEAKER_00: He told me to talk to my pastor for guidance, to join a house church, attend celebrate recovery, to work through my grief, childhood sexual trauma, and depression.
SPEAKER_00: I also began attending Friday night fires.
SPEAKER_00: One Friday night, the lyrics to the song Make Room by Kim Walter Smith really resonated with my current situation.
SPEAKER_00: It was during that season that I decided to fully surrender every part of my life to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I had been struggling so badly, and I realized the only thing I hadn't truly done was surrender completely to God.
SPEAKER_00: 1 John 1 9 says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse, cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Over time, God opened my eyes to see that many of my struggles weren't just physical or emotional, they were spiritual.
SPEAKER_00: That realization led me to seek Him more deeply.
SPEAKER_00: I learned that victory doesn't come from striving harder, it comes from surrendering fully.
SPEAKER_00: I surrendered my grief.
SPEAKER_00: I surrendered the battle with my family over my sister.
SPEAKER_00: I surrendered my new business.
SPEAKER_00: But there was still one thing I couldn't surrender: my marriage.
SPEAKER_00: I finally met with Pastor Jamie.
SPEAKER_00: He explained everything to me in the simplest way.
SPEAKER_00: He told me that sin, the sin committed against me when I was eight years old had dramatically changed the trajectory of my life because I didn't have a firm foundation in Jesus growing up.
SPEAKER_00: I had turned to the world's ways instead of God's way.
SPEAKER_00: But he reminded me that God could move mountains, completely transform my life, and that I needed to have faith and trust in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I went home that day and I made the hardest decision of my life.
SPEAKER_00: I prepared to ask my wife for a divorce.
SPEAKER_00: The moment I stopped fighting in my own strength and started standing in his, everything began to change.
SPEAKER_00: I realized that our son deserved two happy moms and we were miserable.
SPEAKER_00: We were living as roommates, and that wasn't fair to her.
SPEAKER_00: She deserved to love and be loved by someone who could reciprocate that love.
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't.
SPEAKER_00: And I deserved that too.
SPEAKER_00: It took me a while to work up the courage to ask her for a divorce.
SPEAKER_00: I thought the easiest way to say everything I needed to say was to write it all down.
SPEAKER_00: So I gave her a three-page letter explaining everything, my everything, my feelings, what had led me to the decision to ask for the divorce.
SPEAKER_00: There were some tears, but she shared something with me I wasn't expecting.
SPEAKER_00: She told me she had been having many of the same feelings about four years earlier.
SPEAKER_00: She had questioned her own sexuality, but chose not to act on it.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, she stayed because of our son.
SPEAKER_00: So we began the process of separating and eventually we finalized our divorce.
SPEAKER_00: Overall, it was an uncontested divorce.
SPEAKER_00: We agreed on everything.
SPEAKER_00: She was essentially my best friend.
SPEAKER_00: We just had a child together.
SPEAKER_00: Over the next few months, I struggled with shame, guilt, and worry.
SPEAKER_00: All our son had ever known his whole life was his two moms.
SPEAKER_00: And we were about to turn his world upside down.
SPEAKER_00: I felt horrible for raising him in a same-sex household for the first eight years of his life.
SPEAKER_00: I thought I had confused his understanding of a biblical family unit during the years that that foundation mattered most.
SPEAKER_00: But one night at the Wallace House Church, with the help of our co-founders Anne and Larry Nunley, along with the other house church members, I gave my life to Jesus Christ again.
SPEAKER_00: And as I drew closer to God, he began peeling back the layers of my life.
SPEAKER_00: He showed me the masks I had worn, the roles I had played, and the illusions I had believed.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't easy to face those truths, but every layer he removed brought more freedom.
SPEAKER_00: Through prayer, studying his word, and his refining grace, I began to understand what it truly means to walk authentically before him.
SPEAKER_00: To live not for the world's approval, but from the security of his acceptance.
SPEAKER_00: After my wife and I separated, I slowly worked up the courage to start dating again.
SPEAKER_00: Through trial and error and a ton of prayers, I finally met the man who would become my husband.
SPEAKER_00: We met on Facebook of all places.
SPEAKER_00: His name is Will, and he has turned out to be everything I prayed for in a godly man.
SPEAKER_00: He's a provider, a believer, a protector, he's patient, an amazing father, but most of all, he's gentle with me.
SPEAKER_00: From the moment I met him, I had an unexplainable feeling of trust.
SPEAKER_00: I started attending he started attending VFC with me, and before long we became inseparable.
SPEAKER_00: I wish I could say it was easy in the beginning, but it wasn't.
SPEAKER_00: Who would have thought that dating women and dating men were totally different?
SPEAKER_00: I've learned that sometimes the greatest resistance comes right before the greatest breakthrough.
SPEAKER_00: The stronger my relationship with the Lord becomes, and the more obedient I am, the louder the enemy tries to become.
SPEAKER_00: But God's voice is still greater.
SPEAKER_00: I was, and sometimes I still am, a very dominant female.
SPEAKER_00: I don't understand men, how they think, why they do the things they do.
SPEAKER_00: It was definitely a learning curve.
SPEAKER_00: On top of learning different parenting styles and navigating what would likely become a blended family, I also needed to learn how to step aside and let my husband lead, essentially submitting to him as the Bible teaches in Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: Well, let me tell you, that was a God thing because it couldn't have happened without him being in the middle of it all.
SPEAKER_00: Will always said that the moment he laid eyes on me, he knew he was going to marry me.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what he did.
SPEAKER_00: We were married on September 27th, 2025, at VFC, the church where it all started.
SPEAKER_00: The church where I surrendered my life to the Lord, the church where I was baptized, became the church where I was married.
SPEAKER_00: My life did a complete 180 in just a year and a half.
SPEAKER_00: And about six weeks ago, we welcomed our beautiful baby girl, Winter Rain Randall, into the world.
SPEAKER_00: 2025 marked the 25th year of living in a sinful lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00: Silver represents A 25th year celebration of an anniversary or a significant event.
SPEAKER_00: Jubilee comes from the Hebrew word yobel, meaning restoration.
SPEAKER_00: God's grace restored what I thought sin had destroyed my life.
SPEAKER_00: It was the year God restored my faith and trust in him.
SPEAKER_00: The year he gave me the courage to close a chapter of my life that had been filled with sin, shame, guilt, grief, and trauma.
SPEAKER_00: The year he brought will and two amazing bonus sons into my life.
SPEAKER_00: The year he brought peace to my son's heart and gave him a father figure he could trust, look up to, and learn all the manly things from.
SPEAKER_00: But most of all, it was the year he brought me closer to him.
SPEAKER_00: Even though my earthly father has passed away, I now know I can always turn to my heavenly father.
SPEAKER_00: I've learned that sometimes God doesn't change the situation.
SPEAKER_00: My trauma was and still is real, but I was using it as an excuse to stay stuck in sin.
SPEAKER_00: God gave me the strength to heal and to rise.
SPEAKER_00: I was one way and now I'm different, and everything that happened in between was all God.
SPEAKER_00: Today I'm still growing.
SPEAKER_00: I'm still learning to walk by faith and not by sight.
SPEAKER_00: But I know who holds my future.
SPEAKER_00: My life is a daily testimony that God can turn brokenness into beauty, weakness into strength, and surrender into victory.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't give my life to Jesus to become straight.
SPEAKER_00: I gave my life to Jesus because I caught a revelation of what he did for me on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: My identity is no longer rooted in my sexual orientation.
SPEAKER_00: My identity is rooted in Christ and He calls me holy.
SPEAKER_00: If there's one message I want to leave with you today, it's this no matter how fierce the battle or how deep the wound or how far you've wandered, God is still writing your story.
SPEAKER_00: And if you let him, he will turn every chapter into something that glorifies him.
SPEAKER_00: I'm living proof of that.
SPEAKER_00: So let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_00: Are you struggling with sexual immorality?
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's same-sex attraction, infidelity, pornography, or any other sexual sin, you are not your desires.
SPEAKER_00: God is able to transform your heart and help you walk in obedience to him.
SPEAKER_00: Trust him, bring it to the altar.
SPEAKER_00: God already knows what you're struggling with.
SPEAKER_00: He's waiting.
SPEAKER_00: He's ready for you to surrender your burdens to him.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to help you because he's a loving father and he will never leave you.
SPEAKER_00: So, how can we as a church approach the LGBT community?
SPEAKER_00: First, we lead with Christ-like love, not an agenda.
SPEAKER_00: We see people before we see labels.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 127 tells us that God created mankind in his own image.
SPEAKER_00: I'll say that again, his own image, not yours, not mine, not your neighbors.
SPEAKER_00: Love people unconditionally.
SPEAKER_00: God never required people to fix themselves before he embraced them.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus loves us when we are sinners, and he loves us as he sanctifies us into saints.
SPEAKER_00: While Jesus always meets us where we are, he will never leave us there.
SPEAKER_00: Second, remember this: we don't fix people.
SPEAKER_00: God transforms people.
SPEAKER_00: The ultimate question is not how do we fix people, the real question is how do we faithfully show them the love of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The church's calling is not to change people, our calling is to walk with them toward Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He is the one who transforms hearts.
SPEAKER_00: I also want to emphasize that everyone's story of sanctification looks different.
SPEAKER_00: It happens over time.
SPEAKER_00: God is far more committed to our sanctification than he is to our comfort.
SPEAKER_00: So we plant the seeds, God will water them.
SPEAKER_00: People don't grow where they are judged, they grow where they feel safe.
SPEAKER_00: Love them the way Jesus loves them.
SPEAKER_00: Their choices do not affect your life, and you will not answer for their choices when you stand before the gates of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: But you will answer for your own judgment and how you treated them.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, don't try to win the argument.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Jamie once said, when you separate from someone over their opinion, you are obeying your beliefs over Jesus, and your offense just became your idol.
SPEAKER_00: Let Jesus' compassion shape your tone, even when your beliefs differ.
SPEAKER_00: Truth without love pushes people away.
SPEAKER_00: Love without truth leaves people lost.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus understood that we live in a fallen world.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone has weaknesses, everyone struggles with something.
SPEAKER_00: He never told anyone, love is love.
SPEAKER_00: He never said live your truth.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he said in Luke 9 23, If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.
SPEAKER_00: No one is forced to follow Jesus, but if we choose to follow him, he has requirements.
SPEAKER_00: I want to leave you with this verse.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 20, 24 says, But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned to me by the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The work of telling others the good news and the wonderful grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for allowing me to share my story of God's faithfulness and his never-ending love.
SPEAKER_00: All right, Pastor Damon, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening to the BFC Podcast.
SPEAKER_01: If you live in the Thomasville area, we would love for you to connect with us in person.
SPEAKER_01: For more information about our weekly gatherings, including service times and directions, you can visit us at BFC Thomasville.