SPEAKER_00: This podcast, the Ministry of Graham Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information in our church, please visit grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: Well, it is great to be here with you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And just I'll just right from the get-go let you know I I am not a preacher.
SPEAKER_00: I am uh a baseball player and and just a man now that's retired from baseball that uh when I have the opportunity, I I love to go around and try to share what God has done uh for me in my life.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I'm here today to just try to encourage you, hopefully, with with some things that I can share with y'all.
SPEAKER_00: And uh again, just to let y'all know what God's done uh for me in my life and and um and and the love that I have for him.
SPEAKER_00: Um everywhere I go, you know, uh everybody kind of asks me, you know, what am I doing uh now that I'm retired, and I I just kind of you know like to share that real real quick with people.
SPEAKER_00: Um I am spending an awful lot of time with my family.
SPEAKER_00: I've got uh like your pastor said, I've got four children.
SPEAKER_00: Uh my oldest is about to be 17 years old in a couple of weeks, down to a six-year-old.
SPEAKER_00: I got a 13-year-old boy, a 10-year-old girl, and a six-year-old boy.
SPEAKER_00: So three boys and a girl.
SPEAKER_00: Um my lovely wife, uh Laura, who I have been with since I was 15 years old, and uh we have been together ever since then, and uh just thank so much for her and the blessing that she is in my life.
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, just been spending a lot of time with them.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, took this whole summer off and took a few uh summer vacations and and and something that we've never done before uh since we've been married, have a summer where we could do something with our kids besides be at baseball games and running and flying around the country seeing me uh play baseball.
SPEAKER_00: And uh here over the last six or so weeks I've been doing a lot of speaking, trying to go around and share in my testimony.
SPEAKER_00: Um I've been coaching my kids uh this summer and spending time with them doing that.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, people are saying always ask me, are you are you missing ball?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, you know, yeah, I miss it.
SPEAKER_00: And but but I'm still playing baseball.
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm on the church softball team, uh playing playing playing right field.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's not quite uh it's not quite Yankee Stadium or Minute Made or you know though those moments, but I tell everybody, I said, you know, how do you, you know, the adrenaline rush of making that big pitch when you're in the big leagues or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, well man, when it's two outs and you're playing for Central Baptist Church and the bases are loaded and you come up, I mean it's it's crunch time, the pressure is there.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you've gotta you've gotta get that big hit.
SPEAKER_00: So I still have a little bit of that uh adrenaline going through me uh somewhat through through my uh through my softball playing days now with with our with our church.
SPEAKER_00: But uh it's been fun.
SPEAKER_00: I I don't think I'll ever miss uh not miss you know taking the mound, uh whether it was here in Houston and or or in Yankee Stadium.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I think I'll be 70 years old and still want to go out there and and and and make that pitch one more time, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Um so you know that's what what I've got going on in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Um you know what what I want to just you know share with y'all today a little bit, uh just have been thinking, you know, life life is is is difficult.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we you know there's always you have stuff going on in tough times.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and I mean I love life, but you know, sometimes things go on and you're just like, God, what in the world is going on here?
SPEAKER_00: You know, how can how can and this be going on?
SPEAKER_00: And and difficult times come to us all, whether you've got you know things going great for you in your life, whether you've got money, whether you're a baseball player, you know, no matter who you are, difficult times are gonna come to us.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and and I I I want to read just a couple verses of scripture to you, and then try to tie in a little bit of my testimony with that uh today for you guys.
SPEAKER_00: And the verse I want to read to you uh are the chat the verses are in in Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah uh chapter 29, and it's verse 11 through 13.
SPEAKER_00: And and Jeremiah tells us in here, it says, For I know the plans I have for you.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Lord's declaration, plans for your welfare, not for your disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
SPEAKER_00: You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
SPEAKER_00: You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And when I read that verse there, and you know, I I know, you know, this is Jeremiah talking, I believe he's talking to the country of Israel here, and uh, but I read that and it's telling me there, I believe that God's got a plan for us in our lives, and it's a good plan, it's not a bad one.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and and you know, I I know one thing that God's main plan for us is that we all have a relationship with Him.
SPEAKER_00: And and there, especially in verse 13, when I read, it says, You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And I am so thankful that when I was 11 years old at Central uh Second Baptist Church in Deer Park, Texas, it was the first time that I had ever heard that I needed to have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And I was searching for him that night, and and I found him.
SPEAKER_00: And that has been the absolute greatest day of my life.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, people might say, I mean, greater day, I mean, greater than, you know, winning a World Series, you know, greater than the day you got married, greater than the day you get your children were born, and and it it has been.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason why that's been the the greatest day of my life is because that day my life was changed.
SPEAKER_00: All these other days, my life wasn't changed by them.
SPEAKER_00: I was still the same person that I was before.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I was still the same person uh that that Laura married, you know.
SPEAKER_00: That the day we got married, it didn't change things.
SPEAKER_00: But the day I accepted Jesus Christ, everything changed.
SPEAKER_00: Everything inside of me changed, things that I wanted to do.
SPEAKER_00: When I did do something wrong, the Holy Spirit would convict me.
SPEAKER_00: And and my life has been changing.
SPEAKER_00: That's been the absolute greatest day of my life.
SPEAKER_00: And when I read those verses, I realize that uh that that God's plan sometimes has different things in it.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I believe it has delays in it, and sometimes I believe it has defeats.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, uh sometimes God's timing isn't our timing on things.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, a couple weeks ago I was I was heading down uh to my ranch down in South Texas.
SPEAKER_00: We've got a ranch down there that we go to.
SPEAKER_00: We love to go hunting down there, and I'm I'm heading down there, and uh we have church uh on Wednesday nights at our church in Deer Park where I go to.
SPEAKER_00: And I had stayed, we went to church, and and I was driving down to the ranch and needed to do some things down there, so I'm heading down and I stop and get a cup of coffee and uh you know fill fill up with gas.
SPEAKER_00: I was running low on gas, get back on the road and heading down to South Texas.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm driving, and like immediately when I get on the highway, my truck starts like, you know, just like kind of bogging out.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what in the world is going on?
SPEAKER_00: It's like 12 o'clock, one o'clock in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: And so I immediately pull off the road and I get to the red light, and I mean my truck's like literally like I'm about to die, you know, it's just not gonna make it, I don't think.
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to get to this gas station.
SPEAKER_00: Thank goodness there's a gas station right there.
SPEAKER_00: So I as I'm pulling up to the gas station, my truck's dying, and I literally, you know, it my truck goes dead as I'm pulling in, you know, right next there to one of the gas pumps.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm sitting there and I'm like, you've got to be kidding me.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I realized that I had put regular gas in a diesel pickup truck.
SPEAKER_00: So please, somebody raise their hand and say someone else has done that here.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone, anybody else?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, thank you back there.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you feel sorry for me or what, but I don't think I'll do it again for a long, long time, but I may do it again.
SPEAKER_00: But, you know, I'm thinking, are you kidding me, God?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I went to church tonight.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, I mean, so anyhow, it's safe to say uh I spent the night in Sagine, Texas.
SPEAKER_00: I ended up about five o'clock in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: I'm siphoning uh with a I got one of a buddy of mine that lives on my ranch, bring me a ended up having to bring me a water hose and I'm siphoning gas out at five o'clock in the morning in Sagine, Texas, and then people are probably thinking I'm nuts out there.
SPEAKER_00: But anyhow, I got it going, got down there.
SPEAKER_00: So I mean, just sometimes things, you know, we don't understand why things happen.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, God, what in the world?
SPEAKER_00: But on uh on a serious note, um I've had a uh a lot of delays in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Um you know, when when I was in uh the minor leagues, uh I was drafted out of uh high school here at Deer Park.
SPEAKER_00: I played and drafted in 1990, went to one year of junior college, and then ended up going ahead and going and playing Pro Ball and uh you know was really successful.
SPEAKER_00: I had you know great, you know, senior year in high school.
SPEAKER_00: I did great in junior college.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'd signed with the University of Texas, but ended up going ahead and going pro and playing uh uh going ahead and going with the Yankees there and playing Pro Ball and just doing extremely well at every level that I was at.
SPEAKER_00: And and man, just feeling like I should be getting moved up.
SPEAKER_00: Guys around me that were a little bit older than me weren't doing as well as I.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, in baseball, I'll look at the numbers and you're like, man, it the stats don't lie.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm doing better than these guys, but they were moving other people up ahead of me.
SPEAKER_00: Um my second year in Pro Bowl, me and my wife ended up getting married, and uh, she was pregnant.
SPEAKER_00: I'm still in the minor leagues, we don't make we got no money, and I'm thinking, God, what is going on here?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm I'm doing things, I'm serving you, and uh just being delayed, you know, getting to the big leagues.
SPEAKER_00: And I I believe that, you know, when you look back that that God delays things in your life, I really believe that God was trying to mold and shape me and Laura at that time of having difficult times and struggles.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we had our first child um when I was in the minor leagues, and uh, you know, uh and and just just a good time for us to be able to grow together.
SPEAKER_00: And even though I wanted something differently, I know God was trying to shape us and mold us and our relationship exactly how he wanted it.
SPEAKER_00: I know me and Laura look back now and we're like, man, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: When we were in Albany, New York, and we had a couch and a kitchen table, and the rest of our furniture was boxes that we moved up there with, and she was sleeping on an air mattress.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, those were some of the greatest times of our lives when we look back on it.
SPEAKER_00: And I, you know, I think that God just kind of molds you and shapes us through through those things.
SPEAKER_00: So I mean, he delayed uh there for four years, and me and her going through the minor league deal, and and I felt like I should have been up a lot quicker.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he delayed that, and and it I think it's just been awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Uh my retirement, I believe that that he's delayed that, and and it has been his absolute perfect timing.
SPEAKER_00: And I've been talking about retiring for probably the last four or five years.
SPEAKER_00: And just I would get home in the offseason, pray about it, and I just it didn't seem right.
SPEAKER_00: I I didn't, you know, part of me wanted to be home, but I just when I got on my knees to God, it was like, Andy, let's go ahead.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like we ought to do this one more year, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't ever know why, you know, but I just I feel like it was the right thing to do.
SPEAKER_00: My family supported it and were behind me, and uh so you know kept playing.
SPEAKER_00: But this year, um, you know, my family wanted me to play another year, my kids wanted me to play.
SPEAKER_00: The Yankees were begging me to come back and to play another year.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, the the Rangers uh were asking me to come and play up there and just to be close to home and it would be an ideal situation and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00: But when I got on my knees and I'd asked God, what do you want me to do?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I could never pick up the phone and call anybody and say, I'm gonna play.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell you, I mean, just people ask me, how's it been?
SPEAKER_00: You know, how are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, man, I mean, God has just given me the most unbelievable piece.
SPEAKER_00: And when you know God is in something, he can give you the most unbelievable piece.
SPEAKER_00: Had the opportunity, you know, I've gone back up to New York a few times this year, but we went back and my wife got to sing the national anthem before one of the playoff games, and I threw out the first pitch.
SPEAKER_00: And I was kind of worried because, like, man, you know, you just don't want to do that all again, you know, and maybe start second guessing it.
SPEAKER_00: And hey, a huge part of me wanted to stay out on that mountain pitch game too, you know, and just like, I'm ready, you know, even though I hadn't thrown the ball at all, but I'm like, I can get through this, you know.
SPEAKER_00: But just to get away from it and to know, I mean, I'm just good with it.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know what God's gonna do in my life, I don't know where he's gonna lead me.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm in the process, me and my wife are in the process of trying to pray and say, God, what do you want us to do?
SPEAKER_00: You know, where do you want us to go from here?
SPEAKER_00: And uh so I don't know what he's gonna do, but I just know right now that he's given me an unbelievable piece uh in my life about being retired, and I just thank God for that.
SPEAKER_00: Umother thing I think he delays us with uh is is I mean, and I know for me, and I'm sure everybody else is in the same boat in here, sometimes God delays uh friends of ours, family members of ours, um people we run into, except in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And I mean that's a a huge burden.
SPEAKER_00: I know that I always have, but you uh you know, he delays that sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I just I want to share, uh I've had a couple of guys that I just want to share a few little quick stories with y'all.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and you wonder why God's got you in certain places.
SPEAKER_00: Well, when I signed back with the the New York Yankees when I left the Houston Astros, um, right when I got the spring training that first year, uh one of the guys on the team that we had picked up, and he wasn't on the team before, I didn't know him, um, just started talking with me and sharing some things with me, and immediately, you know, just sharing a lot of things that he's done wrong in his life, and and and just you know, talking to me about an emptiness that he has in his life and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, man, this is unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna have an opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: Because when I went back there, I was like, Lord, I want to go back, baseball side, I want to win a World Series.
SPEAKER_00: I want to try to help the New York Yankees win another World Series, you know.
SPEAKER_00: But then in the big picture of it, me and my wife were like, God's got us going back here for a reason, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And for me, you know, you're usually thinking it's always for you know players on the team to and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00: And in this case, it was this guy, you know, long story short, had a chance to talk to him, had a chance to continue to pray with him through the the last uh the few years that I was there in New York, and it was just awesome.
SPEAKER_00: And I would just think that this guy, he, you know, God's working on his heart so hard.
SPEAKER_00: This guy is gonna accept Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And he never, he never did.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he never did while I was playing with the New York Yankees.
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I ended up uh getting him a Bible after that first year, and I'd given him a Bible, so he has had it, you know, three and a half, four years now.
SPEAKER_00: Well, me and my wife were in uh Orange Beach, Alabama.
SPEAKER_00: Uh this past summer, we were able to go with our church, uh, with our youth group uh on a youth trip, and we were in Orange Beach, uh Alabama, and I get home from one of our services real late at night, and and I get a text message from him, uh, this this guy that I played with, and he says, Can you call me when you get a chance?
SPEAKER_00: And so obviously I immediately go in the room and call him.
SPEAKER_00: And he had just been released from like his second team that he was playing for.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't with the with the Yankees anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And it just he would hit rock bottom, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And I had known a lot of stuff that had been going on in his life.
SPEAKER_00: He he would share with me all the stuff, things, the struggles that he was going through, and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00: And so, anyhow, he calls me, tells me that he had been released, he was home with his family, he was just, you know, real down.
SPEAKER_00: He was, you know, kind of sobbing whenever we were talking.
SPEAKER_00: And he said his son had come into his bedroom and said, Dad, will you come play PlayStation with me?
SPEAKER_00: And so he's like, Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So he walks in uh to the little game room area they got there, and he goes to turn the PlayStation on.
SPEAKER_00: He said, The Bible that I gave him was sitting on top of the PlayStation.
SPEAKER_00: And he had just said, Man, I just all over me, God was just saying, You gotta call Andy.
SPEAKER_00: So, anyhow, just again, long story short, calls me, uh, says he knew he needed to call me, he ends up accepting Christ that night over the phone with me.
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, for me, it didn't happen.
SPEAKER_00: I thought it was gonna happen within the first week of the season, the the way this guy was and where he was at and the way he was searching for God.
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, three, three and a half years later, just uh to be able to do that, and I'm telling you, uh, without a shadow of a doubt, other than the day that I accepted Christ, that's one of the greatest days in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Just because I'd continued to pray for this guy, and and and and you know, it was just something that was a burden on my heart.
SPEAKER_00: And then just just here recently, I told you I've been sharing my testimony.
SPEAKER_00: I had uh I flew back to New York and I spoke at a few events in New York, and my wife was uh like, hey, we had some neighbors up in New York that that we had met when I went back to New York.
SPEAKER_00: And again, we knew there was a reason why they were in our life.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't know you know why.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I was speaking at this church, and I we invited them to come and and uh hear her sing and me give my testimony.
SPEAKER_00: And just the other day, uh ever since we spoke to this church, this man just called me and he said, Andy, he's like something's missing in my life, you know?
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, I just I just thank God for that.
SPEAKER_00: He's given me an opportunity to to talk to this guy, to share the gospel with this guy, to get him hopefully involved in a church that's gonna preach the Bible and preach the word up there in New York and uh try to get him and his family involved in that.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that God's gonna work a miracle there.
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, just sometimes you think, you know, you're going places for a certain reason, and and it's it ain't, you know, you we we all have a platform, we all we all have an opportunity to impact someone's life.
SPEAKER_00: You stand where I don't stand in people's lives, and you know, I just want you to remember that, and I think that's a a perfect example of the impact that you can have on somebody.
SPEAKER_00: And I I'll tell you uh, you know, uh God's plans also you know has some defeats in it.
SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, I know you'll be you might look up at here and you might say, and I don't know if you guys even know anything about baseball or whatever, but you might say, What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00: You know, how do you know what do you know about defeats?
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, you've played in eight World Series, you won five of them, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I I've been able to have the opportunity, I've won more playoff games in than anybody in in the history of baseball.
SPEAKER_00: Um and and and God has just has blessed me and has given me an opportunity to do a whole lot of great things.
SPEAKER_00: Um but I but you know I I believe that you know that we all are gonna have defeats, and I know I have, and and and uh and some of my defeats, uh I've had them in in in baseball, not only in professional baseball, but in in high school baseball.
SPEAKER_00: Um you know, if you're a high school kid in here or whatever, I mean like I said, I I was always a very good pitcher.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I wasn't able to make my high school varsity or or JB team as a sophomore.
SPEAKER_00: You know, my freshman year, I was on the sophomore team.
SPEAKER_00: Well, my sophomore year, all my buddies, everybody around me that I played ball with growing up, they were either on JV or on varsity.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I was still on the sophomore team.
SPEAKER_00: And you talk about a defeated time for me in my life as a high school kid, I I wanted I wanted to quit baseball.
SPEAKER_00: Because I felt like, well, man, if I ain't good enough to make it on varsity when all my buddies are up there, and and I, you know, then then why in the world am I even doing this?
SPEAKER_00: So just a defeated time in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I want to encourage you, you know, God's, you know, just stand strong, stay faithful to God, and He's gonna He's gonna pull you through things.
SPEAKER_00: Um like I said, I've done a lot of winning, but I've had defeats uh 1996, the first year, second year I was in the big leagues with the New York Yankees.
SPEAKER_00: We made it to the World Series, and uh God gave me the opportunity to start game one of the World Series in 1996.
SPEAKER_00: I was 24 years old.
SPEAKER_00: Joe Torrey calls me in his office and said, Hey buddy, I want you to start game one for me.
SPEAKER_00: How do you feel like that?
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh man, I mean that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to, you know.
SPEAKER_00: We'll go out there.
SPEAKER_00: Um I think in the third inning we were losing seven to nothing already.
SPEAKER_00: First game of the game one of the World Series.
SPEAKER_00: I felt like I had blown the World Series for us that year.
SPEAKER_00: The bullpen had to come in.
SPEAKER_00: I felt like everybody was gonna be tired that we weren't gonna be able to pull it off.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I was down, I was defeated.
SPEAKER_00: There's no doubt.
SPEAKER_00: I was beat up for a few days.
SPEAKER_00: But I mean, God lifted me up, encouraged me, had great people surrounding me to encourage me.
SPEAKER_00: And my sometimes you you think about how you gotta do things and God, I gotta do this, I gotta do that, instead of just turning it over to God and just say, God, just use me.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna turn everything over to you and you just use me.
SPEAKER_00: And gave me the opportunity to pitch game five in Atlanta and was able to throw almost a complete game shutout.
SPEAKER_00: We were able to win that game one to nothing in Atlanta and then go back and night and play game six in New York and win a World Series there in New York, and it had been a while.
SPEAKER_00: And uh just uh, you know, so just uh, you know, that was a defeated time for me.
SPEAKER_00: In 2001, right after September 11, we were playing the Arizona Diamondbacks.
SPEAKER_00: I started two of the games in the World Series that year and lost both of them.
SPEAKER_00: And after everything that went on September 11th in New York, and I was, you know, I felt like I'd lost the World Series for us that year.
SPEAKER_00: Um we didn't we you know we didn't win that year, and just it was just a tough time because our team was we were wanted to win so bad for the city after everything that had happened there on September 11th, and just a defeated time.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, times in my career where I've lost six games in a row, that's going almost two months without winning a game.
SPEAKER_00: And Houston's pretty easy.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when you use here the fans here are pretty good.
SPEAKER_00: You guys are super nice, the fans here in Houston.
SPEAKER_00: When you lose six games in a row in New York on the back page, I don't know if you've ever been up to New York, but their newspapers, they're not like our newspapers, they're like, uh, I don't even know how to explain it.
SPEAKER_00: It's like your face is plastered on the back page, and they find you in the worst, like, you know, your head down, scratching your head, I mean, these funny looking faces, and they put you around the back page.
SPEAKER_00: So, but just, you know, it's sometimes it can get uh uh overwhelming and and uh the pressure and and just defeated times.
SPEAKER_00: So I've but one thing I know about the defeats, my defeats, they've always made me work harder.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe that God wants us to do that in our feet in it.
SPEAKER_00: And in my personal life, I've had a lot of defeats.
SPEAKER_00: Um, there was a time in my baseball career, and again, if any of you guys followed my career, you know that dealt with a lot of arm problems, a lot of arm injuries, that I didn't trust God to handle some of my arm situations, my arm problems.
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't trust God to take care of it.
SPEAKER_00: I was I was saying, God, you're your your timing's not my timing.
SPEAKER_00: You're not healing me up fast enough.
SPEAKER_00: You're taking too long to get my elbow healthy.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I gotta get back, I gotta pitch, I gotta do this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm making a lot of money.
SPEAKER_00: I need to be here.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of just realizing, just turn stuff over to God, God may not have wanted me to be in the big leagues at that time.
SPEAKER_00: He maybe wanted me to be on the DL where I would be in in Tampa, Florida, where I was rehabbing to maybe try to make an impact on somebody else's life.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes we get too worried, we get too caught up in our own world, we don't worry about what everybody else around us, things are going on in their lives, we get hung up on ours.
SPEAKER_00: And so that was just a defeated time, and I was beat down.
SPEAKER_00: And again, any of you that have paid attention to my career know that you know, over the last few years it's just been uh kind of a roller coaster ride.
SPEAKER_00: And there's been some days uh where I was just defeated going through all that stuff.
SPEAKER_00: The situation has drawn a lot of attention, a lot of obviously media coverage and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00: And and I get, you know, I've been down, and it takes an awful lot to get me down.
SPEAKER_00: I can tell you that much right now.
SPEAKER_00: I'm as positive as they come.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes, you know, Satan he wants to beat us down, and and he wants to he wants to keep us down.
SPEAKER_00: Um but and and I'll just tell you, and it's just I was sitting in in Pastor Neil's office getting ready to come up here and just trying to get my thoughts together and what I wanted to share with y'all.
SPEAKER_00: And and you know, I I this just and I'm not very good at stuff popping off my head, but this just came to me.
SPEAKER_00: He's got a picture in his office, and I was sitting there and I looked up and I looked at this picture, and it's this picture of this, I think it's a I don't even know, I think it's a light tower.
SPEAKER_00: And obviously there's a storm coming in, and there's these waves wrapping around this light tower, and and and you can barely see it, but if you look close, there's a there's a man standing uh in this light tower, and the waves are coming in behind him, and he's right in the doorway, and you can tell that that light tower is protecting him.
SPEAKER_00: And and and the verse there uh on the bottom of that is in Psalms, and it's uh it's Psalms 18, too, is what I believe it is, but I just want to read it to you, and I don't want to bore y'all to death.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not trying to drag this out or anything, but it says, it says the verse is the Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my mountain, where I will seek refuge.
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, just when I saw that, it immediately just flashed back to me that that you know, for me in my life, that I mean, that's during that time, that's where God was for me.
SPEAKER_00: And and I also just you know realized it was one of the worst times in my life, but it ended up being one of the greatest blessings in my life from the standpoint that I know I I believe with all my heart, and I've always tried to live for the Lord, and and I know his power, but God can turn some of our greatest defeats into some of the greatest blessings in our life if we'll completely turn them over to him.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, with with the stuff that went on in my life, um, the attention that it got, the playing in New York, um, it has been absolutely amazing to see how everywhere I go, every city I went to, and as I continued to play baseball, almost every manager from any other team that I ran into would say, Andy, I got more respect for you now than I've ever had.
SPEAKER_00: And there's only one way in the world that can happen, and I'm telling you, and it's from God.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'll stand, I'm telling you, I mean, my children have been protected.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I mean, God is just, when I saw that picture, it for me it was just the perfect picture of the way God just surrounded me and protected me through that whole situation.
SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, it's just it's just been an absolute blessing for me.
SPEAKER_00: I I've I've been defeated in in my family life.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I get down sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: I I want to be the greatest dad that there possibly is.
SPEAKER_00: Um I want my children to love me.
SPEAKER_00: I want to have relationships connecting with them, and sometimes it doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody in here that has a 16, almost 17-year-old kid probably realize sometimes it just it you're just not gonna connect with them.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna get defeated and you're gonna feel down about it.
SPEAKER_00: And and I'll tell you, I mean, you know, I just want to encourage you, you know, to try to uh to not get down.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I want to be the greatest husband that I could be.
SPEAKER_00: That's my desire.
SPEAKER_00: I want to love my wife.
SPEAKER_00: I want her to look at me and and and and think that I'm the greatest thing uh since sliced bread or whatever people you say, you know, and and and um and that's just you know, but sometimes, you know, we don't I don't feel like we see eye to eye or we're not connecting like we should.
SPEAKER_00: And and and Satan wants us to get down about that, and he wants to get us, you know, he wants to beat us up about that, and I want to encourage you not to let him.
SPEAKER_00: You know, 2 Timothy 1.7 says, God doesn't give us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and of sound judgment.
SPEAKER_00: And you may be going through family problems, uh, you know, you may be going through marriage problems.
SPEAKER_00: Um, if you're a teenager, your parents may be going through a divorce, uh, you may be struggling in school.
SPEAKER_00: Um John 14, 27 says, John uh Jesus says, My peace I give you, your heart must not be troubled or feel fearful.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know it's not easy, but I want you to encourage you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let Satan get you down.
SPEAKER_00: You know, turn everything over, all the problems that are going on in your life, turn them over to God, and he will take care of it.
SPEAKER_00: And the last thing I want to leave with you, and I and I'll and I'm done here, um, I want to leave you with this.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm kind of a little bit of a visual person, and uh this right here is my World Series ring uh from 2009 when I was with the with the New York Yankees.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I I I bring this because in my profession, um, if you don't have a World Series ring, um most of the players, uh the media for sure, they they don't consider you a winner.
SPEAKER_00: Um I played with some of the greatest guys that ever played a game of baseball before, and some of them didn't have a World Series ring.
SPEAKER_00: And people would say, well, this guy's not a winner.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he's not a winner because he's not able to get it done on the big stage.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he's not able to have this World Series ring.
SPEAKER_00: Wherever you are, whatever you do, you know, as far as in your job, you might be looking, if you're trying to climb the corporate ladder or whatever it might be, you might say, if I can get right here, if I if I could just get to this place in my job, or if I can have that guy's job or whatever, that's gonna make me be successful.
SPEAKER_00: And I've done an awful lot of winning in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Everywhere I've been, I I've I've won in professional baseball.
SPEAKER_00: I've never had a losing season in all the years that I played in professional baseball.
SPEAKER_00: And people would ask me, Andy, you know, I'm you know, I'm kind of quiet, mild-mannered, you know, come from a small town.
SPEAKER_00: They'd ask me, Andy, how are you able to have, you know, how are you able to have so much success?
SPEAKER_00: You know, how are you able to do it?
SPEAKER_00: And and I'll tell you, I mean, I'd tell them, I'd say, you know, I've had so much success in my career because I'm not scared of losing.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason why I'm not scared of losing is because I know Jesus Christ is my personal Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_00: And I I mean, and if if you're not a Christian today, and I know people when I would share that with the media and stuff like that, they wouldn't understand it, they don't understand it.
SPEAKER_00: But I've had all the success I've had in my life and in baseball for one reason is because I know Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, and I'm gonna spend eternity with him.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the most important thing that I want you to know today, and I want to share with you today, is that that uh that if you don't know him as your Lord and Savior, you know, I hope and pray that today would be that day.
SPEAKER_00: It'll be the greatest decision that you ever make in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Um and that's really, you know, that's it.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray with us real quick.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Lord, I just thank you for this opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I I know I stand up here and I feel like that I just ramble sometimes, dear Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Um but I thank you for giving me the opportunity to stand up here.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that something I might have shared today might have encouraged someone.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, it's all about knowing you as our personal Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that you would just uh be with us today, just uh be with this congregation, be with these group of people.
SPEAKER_00: That Lord, what a privilege it is to just stand up and to share your word and share uh what you have done in my life, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the opportunities, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for the the platform that you have given me.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, even though I'm scared to to walk out on it sometimes, that you'll just uh use maybe what I've said today in some way, dear Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Love you and just pray these things in your holy name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.