Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / February 12, 2019 | Expresso - Chrissy Bolze

Transcript

February 12, 2019 | Expresso - Chrissy Bolze · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, thank you for being here, guys.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh hello to anyone listening online.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: I know that some people get online and listen to these.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um thank you for being here.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: I was very humbled um to be asked to share my story with you all, but I'm honestly I'm really terrified to be up here.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: But I just keep reminding myself I'm here to brag on God, not on myself.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I know that there are many of you here that knew about me before I ever stepped foot on this campus that stood with my parents praying over me during many of my troubled times.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I just want to thank you.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being here.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: And um it's such a cool story that God has done.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: He is so good.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm gonna share several personal experiences that I went through to find Christ and um several times that the Lord had been faithful, especially when I had not.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, some verse and background, I mean, and pictures.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we love those.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I was born to Carrie and Clyde Bowsey.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is uh probably around 1970 or 80.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: And this is in the 90s.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is how they looked.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And this is them in 2000s, and most recently, this is them, you might recognize them.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Anyways, um, I was born in 1984 in the summer.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, there we go.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I had three siblings to welcome me into this world.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Go.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um their names are Michelle, Carrie, and Jamie, 11, 10, and three years older than I.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't have a great memory, so a lot of these pictures trigger some really great memories.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know about you guys, but whenever I'm in the audience, I just love to see a ton of pictures, and I'm always disappointed when I don't get to see a bunch.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I'm giving you guys tonight is a bunch of pictures because as I was going through all the photos that my mom diligently kept up.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, mom.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I just couldn't pick five.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: I had to pick like 30.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: So um I tried to keep it as much in chronological order as I could, but you'll see where I deviate that from for that a little bit.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um I really like pictures because you can see a outfit or an accessory or something, and it just instantly takes you back to that time and that place and those feelings.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: I songs do that to me too.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: I just really love how our minds remember some of those things.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: So um when I think back and reflect on some of these pictures of my younger childhood, I'm reminded of some great memories.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: I was a brownie and Girl Scouts.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I enjoyed maybe if it will go, there we go.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um I enjoyed jumping rope and I loved participating in the jump rope for heart fundraiser when I was a kid.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um I loved riding bikes.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, don't we all?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: When we were kids anyway.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like running riding now.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um I love to climb trees.
• 3:42
  unknown: Go.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's not going.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: I love to climb trees.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And um I loved to read.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I loved actually reading in trees.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: I remember climbing that um that oak tree in the background all the way up as high as I could go.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and just sitting there with a book and reading.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: It was my quiet spot.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: It was my um, how do you stop this slideshow?
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Can you stop it?
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's showing pictures I don't want to be shown yet.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's messing up.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, um I liked climbing the tree and reading, and just it was kind of my hideout.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: It was kind of my spot to get away.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, anytime I had a bad day, I'd climb up in that tree and I just overlook the landscape and enjoy enjoy the beauty of it.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, I don't know.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it felt like hours, but it's probably only like you know, 30 minutes or whatever until I calm down.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um it was also not uncommon uh to find me across the street playing with the kids, the neighbor kids, uh, before we had, you know, lots of screens and everything.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's I was part of that age that got to enjoy childhood.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I also apparently in one of my slides here, I like to pose on the slipping slide and make my mom take pictures.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Don't ask me why.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in some future slides here, you'll see that I loved my family.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I had I love cats, my kitty cats from uh when I was young.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: I loved singing the choir with my mom and playing flute.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: I was even a drum major in my junior year of high school.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: But there was also some not-so-great memories lodged into my brain, even from young elementary age.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why I can so easily recall the bad times, but not as good as the not so easily the good times.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um elementary school brought a lot of teasing comments about my weight, you know.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was always usually pushed picked last for kickball.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: I know, terrible, isn't it?
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh never had the attention of any of the boys, which I thought was kind of odd for me to be craving that in elementary school.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then, you know, the friend, the so-called friend, who would um call me all sorts of bad names and be cruel one day and nice the next.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um just just really, I don't know, it was it just really hurt.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um maybe those names were common in her home.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I accepted those words to be truth about myself and allowed them to reverberate in my head for many, many years, uh, shattering my self-esteem and shaping the way I viewed myself for a long, long time.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Those words, they're terrible.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: And we've we learned about those in the Bible too, how bad they are, how bad they can be.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: I just never seemed to fit in anywhere, and it just really made me feel unlovable.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, awkward middle school didn't make it any better.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I tended to err on the quiet side in high school.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Made good grades for the most part, loved science classes, math, and music.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: As far as my church upbringing, my dad grew up Lutheran, so naturally that's how I grew up as well.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: I remember the pews and the lighting.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's so much like our auditorium above us.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: I remember the best hugs a kid could get from Reverend Stodeker after service.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: I remember confirmation class.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: I was confirmed around probably age 13, maybe.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: I remember going to LVR, Lutheran Valley Retreat, out in Colorado.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful camp that teens could go to to experience retreat life, cabins, mess hall, singing around campfire, a lesson or two about God, I'm sure, but I can't remember one.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: I do remember, though, God's flame started to flicker within me during one of those retreats.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: I came home different one time somehow.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: He called me.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: I say it this way because I didn't actually know him, even though I'd attended church a few times a month.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: I hadn't been born again yet.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: But looking back now, I can see that his spirit was placed in me during one of those retreats.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Up to that point, I'd pictured God way up there and not really loving to those of us in these non-biblical days.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, he wasn't really real to me.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Church was just a time to make me wake up early and sing boring songs and sleep or daydream during sermon.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Youth group, I felt was awkward time, just someone talking about something I didn't understand or I couldn't grasp.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I just felt like I never gave the right answers anyway.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, I knew I was called.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: And once you're called, the enemy certainly knows how to get into the life of us.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it wasn't too long afterwards that I started getting into some trouble.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: At an early age, I discovered internet pornography and late-night HBO movies.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: This greatly altered my view of self and of sex and the view of women's sexual roles.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: At 13, 14, I met an older boy at a summer camp that did drugs and was instantly more interested in him and his semisexual attention that he gave me than I was at the pretty expensive summer camp that I was attending.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I also started noticing how many hypocrites there were in church.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Started really hating it.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: From the rude old lady that hated kids to my dad getting mad and cursing and road rage on the way to church on Sunday mornings.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, to, you know, the pastors saying and preaching about one thing and actually doing another.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: At 16, I had an older boyfriend who introduced me to another religion.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: It was a religion that I thought I could do whatever I wanted, whatever I wanted.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: It was Wicca, or better known as witchcraft.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it followed many of the same gods that my high school mythology course talked about, so I thought I knew many of them already.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, I only wanted to practice white magic.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I told my parents, not the black magic.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, they're just different wings of the same very evil bird.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: I stuck with this belief for about six years or so.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: I just wanted to get away from my parents, away from their religion and their church, and um closer to the sky that I'd met.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: You'll catch a theme in my old life, it seems, of involving myself with toxic men and being uninterested in any of the good ones.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: After starting birth control pills, my hormones spiraled, my behavior and my mind out of control.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Did you know that there's such a thing as too much estrogen and the havoc that it can wreak on your emotions?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: After the breakup with this guy that introduced me to Wicca, I went on a destructive pattern of male attention seeking, underage drinking, and many nights not knowing how I got home or who I was with.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: As if drinking weren't bad enough, I met a new man who introduced me to a couple of drugs.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: But hey, not all was lost.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: I learned how to fish and my love for Frank Sinatra with this guy.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Then uh to another man who widened my experiments into a variety of mind-dumbing, mind-numbing and mind-altering drugs.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Many days and nights were lost and very dark.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then, as it all seems to always happen, I got pregnant.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'd been with this man for two years, but shortly finding out after I was pregnant, I found out I was not his one and only woman.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: And he'd not been faithful for quite some time.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: We tried some counseling, but he wasn't interested in making it work.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: It was a crushing blow.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: It was one of the scariest times of my life.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: Being alone and responsible for a little one, someone other than myself, I was just devastated.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: I lost my job because of depression, and I couldn't pay the rent by myself.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: My parents made a firm boundary that did not allow me to move back with them.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: It was really hard to take then, but seeing it now, it really was for the best.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I moved into a Topeka ghetto, uh, few, one of the few government housings based on income here in the city.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: It was not a good place.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Shootings were common pretty much every night.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: Break-ins, rapes, murders.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: And here I was, a young pregnant girl, alone, trying to be tough, but scared out of my wits.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: I see it now, the Lord's shielding and protection he provided me during that time.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, during all those years, throughout all of this, occasionally, he would very quietly speak in my heart to remind me that he was still there and that he was real.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I'd stuff it and I'd scoff and I'd swear I'd never be a Christian again.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: I finally sought out the personal counseling that I'd needed for many years, clearly, and started to heal a little.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I was dead set against Christianity.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: I rolled my eyes each time my parents would talk about God and the wonderful church they'd found, or whenever they'd listen to Caleb in the car.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: I told them many to many times I hated Christians, I hated the church, and I hated God.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: But for whatever reason, the church I grew up going to with my parents, they told my parents to look elsewhere when they had a teenager dabbling in witchcraft.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh maybe they were scared, maybe they didn't have the materials to help.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but, or maybe it turns out that God was leading them to be born again through this ordeal because they found TBC.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: They found so many people here who were willing to minister to them and pray with them.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: God has a way of working things out.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: I was able to quit the drugs and alcohol during my pregnancy, but had a hard time quitting smoking.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's terrible, but I was able to cut back drastically and eventually quit for my daughter's first birthday.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: I had my beautiful daughter, and I was determined to be a good mother to her.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: My parents agreed to allow me some healing time in their home for a few months, safe with my baby girl, thankfully, not in the ghetto.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I had worked at Arby's during my pregnancy, but I shortly after my daughter was born, I heard about an opening at the VA.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Funny, uh funny story.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh when I was 16 or 17, I worked at Walgreens and I was in mostly in cosmetics, but I got put back in the pharmacy every once in a while when they were short.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: And it's funny that I had just enough experience at Walgreens to qualify for the VA's minimum work requirement.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it was also a blessing that the boss that I was speaking with was a parent to one of my favorite high school teachers, Smallworld.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: He brought me on part-time, said I was his employee experiment after hearing some of my story, wanting to give me a chance to get out of where I was.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: I was so thankful for him and now the Lord for working that all out.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: I was made able to move out of the ghetto, get a nice, quiet aport apartment, and uh right around then I connected one of with one of my guy friends from long ago, just friendship level, of course.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: He had been transformed by the Lord at that time and started sending me daily texts with scripture.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the time I'd ignore them.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I'd heckle him about his mumbo jumbo.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Little did I realize those seeds were being planted.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: It was really lonely, though.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: I had a strong-willed daughter and I was exhausted.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: I needed interaction, other moms to talk to.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: I needed guidance and advice during this really hard time of parenting.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: I was getting some of it from the Amazing Parents as Teachers program through 501, but it just really wasn't enough.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: At that time, I was desperate enough to step foot in a church.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: My mom told me about a mops group here that would be a resource to my needs.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: I went, making sure everyone knew that I was not a Christian, I didn't want to be a Christian, and really I just kind of hated Christians.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, shake your head, you know.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how many people I scared off then, but there were some amazing women in that group that didn't run away from me.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: They always had a speaker on a parenting topic for the evening, and we'd always have small group discussions.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: It was one of the speakers, probably multiple ones, that introduced the concept of having a personal relationship with God.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: That he wasn't just a God from long, long ago, that he was present, he was real, and he was working through others in amazing ways.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: He knew about my past and still loved me.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't ever remember hearing that.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was said, I'm sure it was probably said in the church that I attended before, but I'd never actually heard it and connected with it.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: It took several meetings before it stuck, and I knew I needed to turn back to the Lord.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: I went with my mumbo jumbo friend to a Christian concert where I heard the song Majesty by Delirious, and it utterly broke me.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: I accepted Jesus finally there.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I started going to church services here with my parents.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: I remember it was February 2008.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: But I was so stubborn still.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't want my parents to know how broken for the God I was.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I was trying to hide my tears during worship service.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't want them to know they were right.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: Still teenage mentality, I think.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: It was a slow process, but I can gladly say now that we're able to talk about godly things and how amazing his grace is.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: As I was asking the Lord what he wanted me to say tonight, I kept hearing the verse that says something like, Let the let the redeemed of the Lord say so.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: I had no idea what this verse was or why it kept going through my mind.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: I just know I'd heard it before.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: He stressed the word redeemed in that verse.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't typically like churchy words like this, but I've learned to follow the Lord's prompting.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I looked up the definition.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: Redeem.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: Dictionary.com defines redeem as to buy off or pay off, clear by payment, to buy back, to recover by restoration from captivity.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, oh gosh, I skipped a bunch there, but to exchange, to convert, to fulfill, they're all listed there.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, they include a theological definition at the end to deliver from sin.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: What an amazing action word.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, the person who does all the buying back and the paying off, the recovering and exchanging and converting, they're called the Redeemer.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: After the Redeemer does all that work, he gets back what he wanted: the redeemed object.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: I love that I am that redeemed object and that Jesus is my redeemer.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: That darkness of my skewed thinking and my blighted past was my captivity.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord had brought me and bought me back from the enemy.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: I've been fulfilled, converted, released, and restored by Jesus.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: He exchanged his life for mine.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: I am amazed and in awe of his sweet love and patience for me, his willingness to wait and to see me through all my rebelliousness.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: The end of Isaiah 43 1 says, Do not fear, for I have redeemed you.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: I have called you by your name.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: You are mine.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: The verse he had brought to my mind originally was Psalm 107 1-2 that says, Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Another great verse on this is Isaiah 44, 22.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: It says, I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like a mist.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Return to me, for I have redeemed you.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, how fitting these verses are in my life.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: For those of you that heard my intro, I am a single mom of two children.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: I also have an amazing son who God blessed me with nine and a half years ago.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to say that just because we make the choice to follow the Lord does not mean that we'll never struggle again in making good choices.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: Temptations are still there, and we still fail and we give in sometimes, but God never, never gives up on you once you've been called.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: God's seal over you and your salvation is never taken away because of your failures.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: I chose God over another toxic relationship with my son's father, and the Lord has blessed me in so many incredible ways because of that choice, beyond measurable.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: He's redeemed that too.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we wonder why in the world were we ever allowed to take those destructive paths in life?
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Why did God allow it?
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: I can see how he's used almost every situation in my past to strengthen my current faith.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: I experienced a lot of spiritual darkness and manifestations while practicing witchcraft.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: That may scare some of you.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually kind of scary to think about now.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: But because all of that, I know without one iota of a doubt, that there is a spiritual world that we cannot see.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: There is a spiritual war of dark versus light fighting for our alliance.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: And because I know this, I can stand firm in my faith in the Lord.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: I want to encourage anyone, maybe here or listening online, that may be stuck in destructive patterns.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: There is something better than that kind of life out there.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: There's a way out.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's a good life to live.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: Destructive patterns, cycles, frames of minds, they can be broken.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: They can be healed.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Or anyone who's turned away from God, if you hate the church because of Christians, please hear me.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: The people in church are broken.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: We aren't always good or perfect representations of who God is.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: We need Him to help us in our brokenness.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we're here.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we go to church.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't understand that then.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: All of our brokenness comes out in different ways, which can be hard to look past at times.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: So please don't judge God by the broken people who come to him for help.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: See how God can heal and forgive and love.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: He is the one that we need to look to for the examples of goodness.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, also, those who have allowed others to speak untruth into their minds, and it stayed there for far too long.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: Seek out a professional to unwrite those words.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: You are more beautiful than you think.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: You are more worthy than someone else has led you to believe.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: They spoke to you out of their brokenness.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: We seek healing when we are sick, whether it's our body or our emotions or our mind that's gotten ill.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: The stigma around mental health counseling needs to end.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: They're there to help.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.