Latest / Life Community Church / Wendell Lynch | From Addiction To Purpose | This Is Life

Transcript

Wendell Lynch | From Addiction To Purpose | This Is Life · Life Community Church

• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Sean Who's uh now this one will be aired in maybe January, so maybe they'll already have a coach by then, but Oh come on, dude.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Is Michigan gonna just I don't know.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: I mean I'll I'll take the job.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: I mean anybody like it's gotta be better.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean I hate to say that.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's just unfortunate, man.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just not happy about it.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Just not happy about it.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, you just ruin a lot of kids' lives.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so and uh I mean not ruined, but you haven't really seen much on who they're gonna earn either.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: I have not either.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: So it'll be interesting.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's probably a whole little shenanigans going on over there.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: What's wrong with your voice, buddy?
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: Get a little cold, a little winter cold?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Outside in the wet in the snow too long?
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: Well, no snow.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: No, I think it's just maybe by this podcast comes out, there will be snow.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: Who knows?
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're in Midwest.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, it's supposed to be 60 degrees on Christmas.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: What are we?
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: 70-year-old men talking about the weather?
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: No, but I guess we did just talk about how Golly, we need to stop this whole weather like channel podcast thing.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: But think about this.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: 60 degrees on Christmas.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Do you would you rather it's this is my opinion.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Go for it.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Not that you care, but I do care, Duncan.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Or the listeners.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if they really care, but who knows?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: They can skip through this if they really want to.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: But it's forward.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think if it's not gonna snow on Christmas, right?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Then I'm fine with it being 60 degrees.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think a a white Christmas is ideal, right?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: But it is.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not gonna have a white Christmas, I mean it is kind of nice to be able to go outside and you know, spend time with your family.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: But I I I obviously grew up in Michigan.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: Most people know that.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe not a lot of people know that, but like obviously you know that.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so for 19 years of my life, I would say at least 16 of them were white Christmases.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: We hardly ever had a Christmas.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: I remember one time having a um not a white Christmas outside side playing basketball, but it didn't stop us when there was snow either.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: We just shoveled it all and played anyways.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're gonna be able to get there in Michigan.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, what you gotta do.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so anyways, we got a great guest today.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: We do.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: He's actually so we do the lifey awards at uh Big Party.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: One big party.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: What is one big party?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're on the production team or the worship team.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Usually in January, I think we've done it three years now.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's uh they call it big party or one big party.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: We probably said it wrong, but Casey will let us know.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, she'll let us know.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh anyways, we do awards.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: So we actually gave we have Wendell on here today, and Wendell, I think two years ago now, got the most likely to tear his ACL while playing the electric guitar award.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_03: AC.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_03: The rock and roll.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's hamstring.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Hamstring.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's what it was.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hamstring.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Tearing hamstrings.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Introduce yourself, Wendell.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_03: Hello, I'm Wendell Lynch, and I uh have been attending LCC for probably a little over five years or close to five years.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_03: I started uh coming during COVID because I couldn't uh that was when I really had been going pretty strong with uh rededicating my life in a positive direction.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I found LCC through a friend, and when I came through the doors, it was really neat because I had uh attended quite a few churches before, but when I walked through the doors, I uh immediately ran into several people that I knew from another church on a worship team that I served on, and that's actually how I got connected with our old worship leader and got put on the team.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_03: It was like uh almost an instant transition.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_03: I really needed that at that point in my life, dude.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: You had no clue, you had no clue those people were attending, coming.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: No claim.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_03: You're like, whoa.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was neat because another friend that had nothing to even do with that whole set of the worship team that I was on in that church I was going to introduced me here, and then when I show up, it was just like it was it it it literally felt like home.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_03: That's awesome.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, especially because I was so welcomed.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's cool.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: How many years ago would that have been?
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Five ish years ago, yes.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_03: So I guess sorry to interrupt, but the uh the new building is five years old.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_03: Five, so uh a little over five years.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_03: So we were in the old sanctuary.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_03: In the old sanctuary.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_03: I served a few times at the in the old building.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: In the old building before we got the new.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, yes.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_03: And when I got to help with the uh youth running sound a couple times.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_03: And even though I've only been over there a a few times serving, I still have a connection to that space.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_03: And it's neat when I get to help with the youth like that because of that connection with me.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_03: It really I I'm y you know how emotional I get.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_03: It's a uh Do you it just feels really fulfilling.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: You get to serve the youth.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: Did you know since we left that space up there five years ago, uh since we left that room and built the new room, we've grown uh over six hundred people.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_03: That is just um amazing.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's crazy.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: I know.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: I remember we were in that room and thought I mean it feels like we were in that room, it felt like it feels like forever ago in that room upstairs.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it really to me feel feels the same because so much has taken place since and a lot took place in my life before that, and I never imagined that God had what's been happening to me in store for me.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_03: It's like a whole I mean, you always hear that life's like chapters, and I'm definitely in some really good chapters, right?
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_03: Cool.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well, tell us how tell us what happened.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: Where did it where do you want to start, where do you want to go?
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like tell us about obviously before Christ, Christ, you know, there's a transition that happened five years ago.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_03: What's strange with me is I've always my I grew up in church.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_03: A really pretty, I guess you could say, heavily influenced Pentecostal church, the uh the really, really intense Pentecostal.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_03: A blast.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I I think back to those times and I didn't even realize that I needed those I needed that in in my life back then.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_03: If I was wise enough to make that connection, uh I may not have gone as far in my sin uh as I did, maybe, because uh looking back I feel like I was always a lot of people feel like they don't fit in in certain situations, but uh uh this is a different feeling I I'm describing.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_03: It's feeling like I'm not not necessarily an outcast in all situations, but feeling like I don't fit in with my my family and things like that.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_03: I when when I was younger and not even though I went to church, I didn't have that full commitment and that relationship with God, in which I now as I get older identify as a purpose in life that's really, really worth pursuing.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_03: Um and since I didn't have that, I was grasping at things.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_03: And I played a lot of sports when I was younger.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_03: You were an athlete?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_03: Uh yes, sir.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_03: Wendell was an athlete.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_03: Tell us what sports you play, Wendell.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I played soccer for about 15 years.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_03: That's why you like this church.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_03: When I heard Jamie was a big football fan, I don't I wanna don't want to get in trouble with him.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_03: Uh you know, it was it was it was another thing that just another thing that was familiar with.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_03: Were you always a musician then too?
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_03: Um no, but that was like uh in my family.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_03: Uh uh it was always, always present.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_03: There's a very, very uh high number of musicians on the mom's side of the phone.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_03: So you were just born with it.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_03: Base basically.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_03: And that but that was another thing that never really I wasn't pursuing once I got into the music thing though, I I wasn't even using that properly.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_03: So I wasn't even advancing musically until I started using my gifts like I was supposed to I was supposed to.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_03: Well, yes, yes.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: Well, tell us a little bit about like so you're you grew up in a Christian home, great, sounds like a great church that you it's not that you didn't enjoy it, but it obviously never became personal.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so was it like your high school, college, young adult's life?
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: You were kind of living the Levita Loca, or what was going on?
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_03: No, I was still what was strange was that even though my parents were in the church, and I mean they were really heavily involved.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_03: Uh not necessarily involved with the with the higher up parts of church, but that that's what we did.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: Church, you were there.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_03: It was you know what I mean, and just I something happened where my parents ended up getting divorced later is what and then I didn't even have the guidance of my father anymore.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_03: How old were you when you first got divorced?
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_03: Around 14 years old.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_03: Now I have an older brother, he never got into drugs, but he was three years older than me, so maybe that influence of that three extra years for him may have had I I I don't know.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not a that's way out of my pay grade to even figure something out out like that.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_03: But uh it's that type of stuff is really difficult to pin pinpoint for me, but just not having that purpose and to always just trying to grasp onto something.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_03: But after after I'm sorry, after they got divorced, that's when I was I started really hanging out more and more with friends.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_03: And then trying out the right ones.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_03: Oh no, no, I wasn't I was I didn't I I wanted to hang out with all the bad friends because I wasn't pursuing God.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_03: I I I 100% was I I not necessarily running from God, but I was just grasping onto anything to feel like I was part of something.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: So filled your life probably with drugs, alcohol, sex, alcohol.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_03: Uh pretty much you can ever been in jail?
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: Not you know no, you don't answer any of my questions.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_03: I I'm an open book.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: You'd be like, Sean, I don't think so.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: We're not going there on the podcast.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_03: I somehow have have managed to stay out, other than like uh being there for a couple hours or something like that.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I got.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, yeah, yeah.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_03: I knew I didn't pass go.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_03: But I never had any like long stents, or I don't have some big crazy like criminal history.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_03: The only type of trouble I've been in is I I used to have a tattoo shop and I left I left I had one of those for seven and a half years and I left uh my uh it was in kind of a sketchy area, so I would have a gun.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_03: Right because I dealt in cash.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_03: All c all cash.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, gotcha.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_03: So when I would leave, I would need prof or while I was there, I needed protection.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_03: Well, one night I bought a motorcycle and forgot that the gun was loaded and got pulled over because the man who sold me the motorcycle had been outrunning the pool the police on the motorcycle.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: Gotcha.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I have loved it.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_03: Because I've done plenty to to get in trouble because when you're not everybody, but most people who do drugs, they will sell drugs and not even realizing that they're a drug dealer per se because they're getting it for their friend, or yeah, you know what I mean.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_03: They're going to buy$200 worth because they know they can sell.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you know, it never works out.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_03: But I mean, uh pretty much if when when the chips fall, I've uh you could label me an ex drug dealer.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_03: You could you know what I mean?
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_03: You can label me a uh pretty much almost anything I used to fit that mold, and there's times that that will come back and haunt me because people think I'm still that person.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_03: If you if you if I haven't been doing drugs for 10 years and I haven't seen you in 12, yeah.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_03: What am I?
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, sir.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: I know oftentimes, Wendell, like I I can tell that you get pretty emotional about what the Lord has done in your life.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Can you describe that?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what is that?
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like why is that like so tender to your heart?
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, like you, it's obvious to me that you like have had a real encounter with Christ.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: You understand, you know, that you are a sinner and that you need to be saved and that God made that way through Jesus Christ.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: And like it's very evident in your life.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: So tell us about that.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_03: I was a uh hard case, I guess you could say.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_03: So looking back at all the things that I've done for someone who has always been, and when I say someone, I mean my our God has always been there for me.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um it it it's been a constant for me, but I would always turn my back on God.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_03: So therefore, when you see me uh up on stage with the worship team and I'm bawling, and you think, Why it it's obvious not because I've been doing things I'm not supposed to do anymore.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I'm I might slip up with a cuss word and traffic every now and then.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_03: But that's a joke.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, you know, I I I'm by far not some perfect human being.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_03: None of us are, but I'm I'm working on it.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I'm a work in progress.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_03: But when you see me up there and you see those tears, those are 100% tears of joy.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_03: I'll see someone getting baptized.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I will just know everything that that God has done for me.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_03: And I will know that they don't have to go through those things.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they don't have to go through those things.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_03: They just have to find their purpose in life and that's one true purpose, and just pursue that instead of all those other things that they're gonna be searching for.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because you know that stuff obviously left you empty.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, 100%.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_03: Always, always looking for another thing because I was never fulfilled in that particular area.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_03: Always emotionally searching for something, never really truly knowing what love is.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: And always feeling Did you lose like when your dad left, when your mom and I divorced and your dad did you have a relationship with your dad?
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: You had a relationship with your mom, or kind of both?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: Are you back and forth, or what did that look like?
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_03: That was um I had a relationship with both of them.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_03: But it was also one of those deals where we weren't a real lovey type of family and and things like that.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_03: It was more if you got in trouble.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're hearing about it.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_03: You're really hearing about it.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_03: Otherwise, as long as you were just passing in school, as long as you were not not getting in trouble and things like that, you were pretty much not gonna hear from them.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_03: But I also remember times that my dad would worked on the railroad and he worked strained chip sometimes, and uh he would sneak me to work with him, and we were not supposed to listen to secular music back then.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: But then on the way to work, he had to ulti station on.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_03: So there were things that that I didn't understand back then until I got older.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that's the area that my father was working in his life, and there was other areas where he didn't know how to discipline me either.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_03: That he needed to work on.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm sure that when things like that happened, it broke his heart.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_03: Because he was a godly man.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_03: He too he was just had some things he learned how to be a father.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, he one 100%, because I can tell you he he never came out and told me that he those things happened to him, but that stuff usually re repeats itself.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_03: And somehow I was fortunate enough to break that cycle because Amy and I, the Amy's my wife, but we we don't handle our kids in that way.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_03: And I that I've I I can't say I guarantee, but I feel that I wouldn't have been able to overcome that if I never would have gotten God back into my my life because that would have been another thing that I just dealt with in the wrong in the the wrong way, also.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: So were you like finally when you like made a commitment?
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: Was it just like commitment full in?
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm all in for Christ, I finally get it.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: Was it five years ago or was it previous to that?
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_03: About three and a half or four years before that, I'd say.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_03: Right about three years.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_03: What happened then?
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: What happened then?
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like so you're talking seven, eight years ago.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: What was the was he just at the end of your rope or like you know that's that's another thing.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's difficult to finally just uh tired of chasing everything that didn't fulfill you.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if it was necessarily being tired.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_03: It was just one day I was home and I just we've been to church maybe within a dude, I mean we were going pretty regularly, and uh I was probably in a uh in some sort of program, some sort of outpatient program maybe at that particular time or something like that, because I've been to several of those.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_03: But uh I quit being embarrassed and I stopped in the hallway at my house, and I didn't care if my kids saw me.
• 19:01
  unknown: Let's go.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't care if my uh if my wife saw me, I just didn't care anymore.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_03: And I decided to stop right then and raise my hands to the Lord and this and and to be honest with you with that too, is I have a friend named Ricky, Ricky Ruman.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_03: Um when I used to see the way he we would uh went to church a few times together.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_03: I actually knew him since he was a child, but uh I would see the way that he would lift his hands.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_03: And I was I had was so close with him, and I thought if Ricky could come from where he has come from and outwardly not be have any types of feelings of who's looking at him and who's and if he decides he wants to praise God right on the spot in the middle of a store, that's what he he'll do.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_03: And I just To draw influence from as many people that were around me that I could look to and take an area from their life and pluck it from there and just somehow apply it to my life.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_03: So in other words, uh I'm not perfect in this area either.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_03: With with my wife, I look to my uncle Terry Feasel, who was is a real godly man, helps in his church, but above all of that he did that he does really well.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_03: He really treats his wife and his family well.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_03: So I try to draw and apply it in that area of of my life.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I don't want you to get too big of a head here.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_03: You are with your family.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_03: And I and the influence that you have put into Nathaniel, because uh you obviously know I I have a self-speaker.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_03: No, he loves you.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like I would do just about anything for that one.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate that.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: No, I and he's it's mutual.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_03: And I I really appreciate Nathaniel, even being a young man, I look up to him because he's very graceful in areas.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_03: He's guided me in areas where um if you come from the background that I've come from, sometimes you're abrasive at times where maybe you shouldn't be because of your past.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_03: And he's kind of gracefully said things to me and in the perfect way to get me to realize that maybe I need to handle business a little bit different in in that category.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_03: And it wasn't a type of preaching holier than now type of thing.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_03: He just said the perfect sentence that made me realize.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_03: So then I figured I better a couple people that I made feel uncomfortable before I met I should reach out to them and say, hey, I'm not gonna do that anymore.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: So that's in that just shows the nature of your heart surrendered to Christ.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's incredible.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's incredible, man.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_03: I think uh we can learn a lot from the younger generation.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I totally agree.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: And the more that we feed into them, the What would you say to the 14-year-old kid or the parent that has a 14-year-old kid where you were at when you were 14?
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know?
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: What would you say to that 14-year-old kid?
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I know young people like you know, that's something that waste like you deeply care about, you know.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: And uh what would you say to that teenager, or even what would you say to that mom and mom or dad that has that teenager where you were at when you were fourteen?
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_03: I would definitely tell them every day that they're loved.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_03: It's awesome.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and um do what you can to uh spend as much time as you can with your children because that that's the age where they're really gonna start doing what I did, I would think.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_03: And if they don't have that the right areas in their life to pursue in that way, and uh I I I label it as purpose uh now, and without because I didn't have that purpose as I stated earlier.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_03: And just when I help out with the youth, I see all those young kids over there and get them involved with things like that.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_03: Don't uh when you have those few minutes to give to your children, yeah.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_03: It could be something as simple as making a sacrifice to drop your child off at school because of that conversation.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_03: That's time you won't.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_03: This is what I learned from my wife also.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_03: My wife's four years younger than me, but I will 100%.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_03: She's a very wise woman.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_03: You won't get that time back.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_03: Think about the conversations you've had in a vehicle.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_03: Riding with your family.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_03: There is very teachable, yeah, a lot of teachable time in those moments.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_03: There's a lot of time that you won't get back to.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_03: That's a lot of quiet time that's sacred.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_03: Turn the radio off.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_03: Listen to those your kids and just don't respond sometimes too quickly.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_03: Uh let them acknowledge that they're speaking to you, but listen to your kids because they're telling you things.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: Wendell, you know, it's one of my people think it think people think this is crazy when I say this, but like, you know, on our family vacations, we take one every summer for the most part, you know, the Lord willing.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: And um we uh always travel in a vehicle.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: And we've gone as far as as far as you can get in Florida, south, as far as you can get to the East Maine.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: We've gone to California, we've gone to the Upper Peninsula, and people are like, You're crazy, man.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: Why in the world would you drive?
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: Because of car time.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: My I the car time to me is one of my favorite mo favorite times on vacation.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_03: That's car time.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: Because we have conversations that we do not have anywhere else.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: So true.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_03: You won't get it back.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_03: You and what's crazy with that is you you're in such a close confinement.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_03: If you're in that vehicle long enough, some things are gonna come out.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: I've learned a lot of things about myself.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of things about myself in that car.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's so good.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: What would you say to the individual uh like yourself that has had come to the end of the rope and they were questioning whether or not like they're they're really battling, like they're torn.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: They know that they need to get on their knees and be literally like uh not ashamed, not embarrassed, to raise their hands and give everything to God.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: They know that, but they're just struggling with that thought.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: They're struggling and doing that.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: What would you tell that person?
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_03: I would tell them to exp uh not just women, but men, especially because I'm a man.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_03: You always in your mind, you're always acting how tough you are.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_02: That's good.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_03: You're always trying to display that on on the streets when someone cuts you off or whatever.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_03: It's time where the rubber meets the road.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_03: You it's good.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_03: Let's see how tough you are.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_03: Let's see if you really don't care what someone else thinks about you.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah and that coming from someone who's been down and out before and and and you're you're talking to someone who has, I mean, been pretty bad on drugs.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: Have you been close to like moments where you were like, didn't even think you were gonna live?
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_03: Uh Amy, yeah, there's there's been times that I woke up on my back after doing drugs with the apparatus that I used to inject those drugs still in my hand, laying on my back.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_03: Lord the Lord is the only thing that kept you alive.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_03: Breathing then.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_03: Because most of the time when you're in that state, your breathing just slows so much that you stop breathing and you cease to exist.
• 27:40
  unknown: Wow.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, yes, and there's there's quite a few times, and I used to do this stuff.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, uh, and when when you need those drugs because you're so sick, you your your kids are in your house when you're doing them.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_03: Your wife has to be at work at times.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I mean, I have done that stuff with my kids.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: And how did how did it all go?
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, Wendell, obviously, it's not anything a part of your life.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: Now, how did it all go away?
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: Was it like, you know, these rehab centers, or did God miraculously do something?
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: Or has it been a combination?
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_03: It had nothing to do with the rehab.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_03: I went to the rehab, probably some sort of program.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_03: I lost I was in a vehicle riding with my wife speaking, and we we stopped counting at eleven programs because I was actually starting to get uncomfortable because financially it puts you in a bind and everything.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_03: I said, we just we just we'll just leave it right there.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_03: So I always make a joke about it probably being about 16.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_03: So what how do the drugs stop?
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_03: It they stopped from over the years of just I'm glad you asked me that because I was actually thinking about this earlier because I knew that we'd be speaking.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_03: The drugs stopped from the faith of others.
• 29:02
  unknown: Wow.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_03: What do you mean by that?
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_03: It's gonna get me really emotional here because it's all right.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_03: And but also I feel this strength from above confidence.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_03: Say speak this because it will help.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_03: It was the faith of others.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_03: In other words, the um and the the um the lady that touched the hem.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the garment of Jesus.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_03: You know, if she just thought she just touched him.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I had these people who were prayer warriors.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_03: I could start naming names.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_03: Don and Mary Friedrich, um Larry and Julie Riding Ridingau, or Susie Sultw, all my cousins, these are a lot of women.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's all right.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um that's that's not the way it works.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_03: My cousin Lori, my cousin Stephanie, my Aunt Worty, my Aunt Tracy, who's married to Terry that I mentioned earlier.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_03: They were praying for me along with hundreds of other people that were going to bat for me pretty much every day on a prayer routine.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_03: And I would be in the state I was in, and God would reveal to me, or at least this is what it felt like to me, God would reveal to me who was praying for me at the time they were praying for me.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_03: And those people who were praying for me knew that God could heal me.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_03: That's incredible.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_03: And their faith of keeping up those prayers for years, yeah, literally, years on end.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_03: Susie, my cousin's wife, would pray for me as I was her son.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_03: She, that's that's how strong her faith was because in her mind she knew if she prayed for me that God would answer her prayer.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_03: And he did.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: And he did.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: Here we are.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, it's the faith of others, and that made my faith stronger.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_03: And just over time, I was able to I had to, I did have to lean on some sort of problem because of the physical sickness, but also, which I I don't want to get too much into that because those things help, but you also have to be I went to enough of those to realize that they may grab a hold of you in certain a certain way too.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_03: So I it was just a learning experience of over the years, but in my opinion, it was the faith of others that brought me through in the prayer of of others.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_03: It's incredible.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's incredible.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're listening today and you find someone that you love or care about deeply that's in a similar situation that Wendell's been in, don't stop praying.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: Don't stop praying.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: Because here's the proof.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_03: The 100% proof.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_03: Like I said, I could feel when when Donna Mary Friedrich were praying for it.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_03: It's incredible.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_03: It was revealed to me.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_03: And I'll say Susie again because she, I feel that she was revealed to me more than any other person.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_03: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: God pursuing you, pursuing you, pursuing you, pursuing you, not letting you go.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_03: I was on her mind almost constant.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_03: Almost constantly.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_03: Sorry, Timmy.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_03: That's her that's her husband.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's incredible, Wendell.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: Man, it's such an incredible story.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: Which I I knew bits and pieces, but there's so much your story I did not, I'm not aware of.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: And and uh but it's incredible.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_01: I I mean I know I can tell and see that look like you are full of God's spirit, you know, and it's it's obvious, you know, like just how you hold yourself, how you carry yourself when you play, how you respond to what's going on in the room, you know, like it's it's amazing.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: And uh we want to be a church full of people, right, that feel like um uh that God that feel like that maybe they've done too much, but they need to know that like they haven't.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: No, sir.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: They're they're just literally uh a half a step away.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and God's taking a full step toward them.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: For sure.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's an incredible window.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if there's one thing you could leave your uh LCC family with, what would you say?
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_03: I love everybody up here.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_03: I I appreciate the opportunity to serve on the team because again, it gives me more purpose.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_03: And um I'm uh available if anyone needs to speak about anything.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_03: And um my wife doesn't put her she's not as outgoing as I am, but there's a there is a woman in church that she has uh she has I can't remember who sent me the initial message to see if maybe she could help because she has a husband, this lady has a husband where you were dealing with issues.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_01: Your wife would be extremely valuable to someone that's dealing with a son, a husband, a daughter, a loved one that is struggling with drug addiction.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_03: Because this woman I'm speaking about, her husband is still struggling, so uh she tells me that Amy, and when she thinks of me and Amy together, Amy and I together, that she uh it really lifts her spirits.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_03: So we're I I'm willing to uh at any any time of day or night night to uh help anybody in in that area.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_03: Aaron Ross Powell That's incredible.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, and and I'm here if anyone needs anything in other areas, make sure to reach out to me because I could help maybe with any anything else too.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_01: So good.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, uh, would you mind praying this podcast out?
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_03: Uh not at all.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_03: Do it, buddy.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_03: Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for this opportunity to show up and um maybe shed some light on on just your grace and uh to be able to uh accept people when they feel that they're too far gone.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_03: I appreciate the opportunity to um serve any way that I possibly can you and I just love you from the bottom of my heart and appreciate every single thing that you have done for me and the church and every single person around.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_03: And I love you.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_03: In Jesus' name I pray, amen.