Rock Bottom to Redemption: Jeff's Journey of Purpose in Recovery

Understanding the Heart Issue

It has to do with who I am in and am I going to be convicted by the Holy Spirit when I'm wrong? The bottom line is that it's a heart issue. Yeah, everything's a heart issue. What's the intent behind it? Is the intent to get the glory? Or is the intent to give God the glory? The best thing that you can do when you are going through something is serve.

Rebuilding Life After Addiction

Well, Jeff, man, thanks so much for sitting down and chatting. It's always fun to get back together after the years of working together and then having you come out tonight for the Teen Challenge Freedom Knights here at our church. We were chatting and connecting ahead of time, and maybe you can feel free to share a little bit of your story as we kind of intro into it. But really, the whole purpose of the podcast and what we've been doing is focusing on rebuilding life after addiction, right? You and I have both been in the recovery space for a while, helping people with addiction.

One of the things that's always troubled me is to watch people, especially go through long-term programs, and then get out. It's like everything that they have to do after rehab hits them in the face. And a hard amount with this podcast to really just talk about the rebuild. I think specifically we were going to talk a little bit about, you know, what does it take to kind of mine underneath all those layers of addiction and find that purpose that exists inside of somebody. But before we get into all that, why don't you take a moment, just introduce yourself and then we'll jump into the conversation.

Making Poor Choices

That's a lot. It's great to be here. I appreciate it, man. The time spent together was invaluable. It's funny because I remember when I was in Southern California, I was in Long Beach, California and never thought I'd leave. I sent a resume and you lost it. You lost it for three weeks. So I thought, of course, well, I'm never going to make it to Virginia. And then it must have been God's will, so on and so forth. But it's funny how you found that resume. My story is long and short, really. It's long because it's still going. But I was really good at one thing when I graduated high school, and first, the first poor choice I made was instead of going to the music college and doing all that, I went into the military.

Probably not the wisest thing for someone who might be predisposed, you know, because my whole birth family was predisposed; they were alcoholics and drug addicts. You take somebody and put them in the military and then send them to Germany, next to Holland, where past was legal, alcohol was a reward in the military to drink. So that was the first poor choice. What I was really good at after that is I was really good at making poor choices. Great at making poor choices. I could probably give lessons on how to make poor choices. If you wanted to know how to make a poor choice, I'm your guy, right?

The Truth About Self-Worth

What led up to some of that, I mean, but the, you know, going into the military, you said you're really good at making poor choices. Was it kind of just carryover for maybe, not like, maybe the word is maturing, right? Into that place where you kind of learned to course correct. You know, as you were younger and but I really consequence, you know what I'm saying, and make a new choice. Like, what was the level there?

I didn't feel any consequences. I felt them, but there was so much apathy in my life; I just didn't care. I didn't care about anything. Obviously, I didn't care about myself, but or others, you know, that's evident when you don't care about someone else. Right. But when I, I just didn't care, I could care less about what the—I knew what the consequences were. I didn't care. And I think the didn't care part has to do with the low self-esteem. It didn't matter that I was all state for the 10 or 16 and all state jazz on some of it; it didn't matter that I was the quickest to learn international Morse code and whatever class that was. It didn't matter that I had these little gift things here in their little pockets of gifting. I didn't care. It didn't matter because I was comparing myself to others.

The Role of the Holy Spirit in Transformation

I really think that boils down to that. I was comparing myself to others, saying that he's got this, he's taller, he's in better shape, he's got a better girl, whatever, the girlfriend or wife or whatever. And it came down to me not appreciating who I really was. The bottom line is that I grew up Lutheran and I grew up not really knowing who Jesus was. I had no clue who the Holy Spirit was. It wasn't until I entered the doors of Teen Challenge many years later, in 2005, in Southern California in San Diego. That's when I was introduced to the Holy Spirit. That's when there was an initial change. It wasn't a permanent change because there was still floundering after that for probably another four years or so. But then I went into, finally, in 2009, is when the Holy Spirit really got a hold of me.

That's when He introduced me to what my ministry was, and I had no idea I had any type of ministry, I was going to be a part of a ministry. There was 20 years when Biden played piano—20 years. I took music lessons from the time I was eight years old. I don't think I've heard that before. I didn't realize there was a 20-year gap. That's crazy. Yeah, the last time I played was I played in the military in Germany in a funk band. Then I didn't play until really 2005.

Discovering Identity and Purpose

And then 2009 really was when the director of Teen Challenge of Southern California and San Diego said, okay, we're going to allow students now to be a part of the worship team and to lead worship. But as far as music ministry, I had no clue. I had no clue what that was. I think there's a foundation there. Not that that's identity, because I can get in trouble with that. People have gotten in trouble with that, and you just always see some of that today.

All of the production work that's done on all of these YouTubes and stuff we have here. I mean, no. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. But we were just talking downstairs. And the bottom line is that it's a heart issue. Yeah, complete heart. Everything's a heart issue. What's the intent behind it? Is the intent to get the glory? Or is the intent to give God the glory? And I didn't know any of that. I had no idea what it meant to give God the glory for anything.

The Shift in Understanding Jesus

I grew up Lutheran; it was pretty close to Catholicism. I'll never forget this. I was 13. I think I was just confirmed. We're in the white robe and all that. And I think, see if I lost my train of thought. I probably did. We're in the white robe, got confirmed, 13. So they changed the apostles' creed from holy Christian church to the holy Catholic church. Now, they mean the word universal. But there was something at the age of 13 that hit me, and I said, I don't know what that means. Why are we changing this?

My grandparents understood. Years later, they joined Baptist church, and that was the first time I was introduced to, I guess, who Jesus was. So that mentioned your connection and being introduced to Jesus in the Holy Spirit. Right? And while you were at Teen Challenge and then your journey through all of that, some people calling the gifts out in you and whatnot. But specifically, the connection with the Holy Spirit, I mean, how did that perspective shift and kind of seeing who Jesus was? And then also understanding that there's this power that exists, right, to be a part of my life. Kind of changed some of that. You talked about the self-worth, self-confidence issues you struggled with prior to. But what changed when you were introduced to Jesus and the Holy Spirit for you?

Encounters That Transformed Life

It was 2010, probably. I was in the Ministry Institute, and I was not playing for singing on platform. I was in the congregation entering in, but it was still one of our teams. There was this drummer, and it happened twice. I thought for a second, I can't explain it other than to say, you know, there's tubes that you would stand in and money's floating around, like, there's air pushing money up. It happened twice when he was drumming. There’s no way that that much air was being pushed out of a kick drum, right? I thought for a second. It felt like somebody was going, like, all over me. There was a piece that I absolutely knew that I knew that, okay, now you're real.

Making choices after that. I've made a couple of poor ones. I've had—I'm from Jersey. Sometimes that Jersey Jeff can come out. It’s been tempered a lot, though, over the years as I've grown older. Because I'm only about 32 years old. I was just like that. 30 years old. Yeah, 32. But I also know that my identity has nothing to do with anything I do. One of the comments tonight is my position is where I'm seated. Like where I'm positioned in the kingdom of God now is much more important than the influence that I have on others.

The Danger of Pride in Ministry

There are many ministry opportunities that I see someone don’t take advantage of. Some I do, and there's a conviction there. I have no idea how to answer that question. No, I think that was a good answer, talking about your encounter. And you just set a lot there with the whole position thing. I mean, I touched on that in my sermon on Sunday here. Church was it like, you know, it doesn't matter how many accolades are thrown our way. The position is not going to do a force, you know? It's just not going to push us across the finish line or push us to a place of confidence and commitment. It builds up for a little bit.

But the challenge with pursuing the accolades or having the position is that if that ever goes away, then all the confidence we think we had, we had in it also goes out the door. And so, I mean, actually, it's always me like this when we got married. She said, you know, I didn't need you when I got married; I wanted you. I brought a whole person into this relationship. I think it's the same thing with gifts, talents, a position or whatever. Like that Holy Spirit brought that wholeness into your life. And so, because you were able to be confident in Him, then you were able to step into the positions and actually use them for the glory of the Lord rather than the glory of us, you know, in that process.

Humility and Serving Others

And that's a hard-fought battle. Because we all get wrong, you know? I know I have more than enough times, you know. The position is where I'm seated in the kingdom, knowing that now. It’s been said, would you still serve me if? And that's what it comes down to as part of tonight's—the apostle Paul, humility, Christ, humility, forgiveness, humility. Everything has to do with, again, it's a heart issue. So is the heart proud? Or is the heart humble? And that's what it boils down to. Am I a proud guy? Yeah, I can be. Men probably a little bit more than women, but we're all prideful people.

Discovering Your Calling After Addiction

So let's talk about getting to that place of really kind of discovering your calling. I mean, I know, you know, Paul talks a lot about love and humility all around the gifts. It just seems to be the reoccurring thread when he starts to talk about the church kind of pulling itself together, right? Anytime the gifts are mentioned, it's like he sandwiches it with love and humility. And so like, there's something to be said there, right? Because I think sometimes our gifts can pull the best or the worst out of us, you know?

If we're not careful, now, I know he's talking about spiritual gifts, but I want to talk a little bit about kind of like; she didn’t play the piano for 20 years. Somebody called that out in you, right? And I mean, how did you discover that path forward, right? I mean, here I am. I'm coming off of addiction. I just got through rehab. What the heck am I going to do with my life? Like, how do I figure that out? You know, and obviously, all situations are different.

The Impact of Humility on Your Journey

But let me just ask you that question, straightened up. We'll see what comes out and go from there. I saw this baby grand piano in San Diego Teen Challenge. I always wanted to play it, but it was never allowed. That was my first trip through Teen Challenge. Because I was one of those guys that went through almost a year of the program. I don't even know if it's six months I thought I had it, but six months I thought, right? No, it's 50% of the commitment that you made. So, you know, I always wanted to play it. And then we had a chance to play it. I didn't know what worship music was. I had absolutely no clue.

When I first heard a very embryonic Christalman song, people were raising their hands. I, of course, thought that y'all were crazy. I had no idea what the concept of surrender was. But when I saw that piano, I just sat down. Finally, I got permission. I can't remember the whole details of it. But I was given permission. Then I went to the second phase. And the second phase, there was a guy there. He was on my team, and he knew—he's the one that really called me out. He said, you’re—because he asked me to play Silent Night at a Christmas function.

The Power of Small Acts of Humility

Okay, one song. One song. It’s that song you get and one song. Not singing, just very light in the background. I really think he wanted to see my heart. I think he wanted to see if I would buck and sit. But I was honored to do it. And the next thing you know, that little act of—and I believe that was an act of humility looking back—that little act of humility of being humble. I’ll play Silent Night for you; turned into now who started to lead worship at what's called The Castle in Riverside, California.

A huge cathedral castle just with hundreds of feet. Again, it was a simple act of humility. That’s when it got called out. But it wasn't until, honestly, I think here, when your mom said to me, she said, Jeff, you are exactly where you're supposed to be. And she walked up to me after she was—and I think that's really almost all she said at that point. You're exactly where you're supposed to be. So good. And I said, okay. That hit me. And we haven't left. We've grown spiritually. We've grown the teams. But more importantly, it's turned into a life group where we are doing our best to do life together.

The Benefits of Community in Recovery

Sometimes we see each other four times a week, depending on the schedule. And you had a gift for that when you were at TC, pulling people together, I mean, especially with the worship team. And of course, taking all that, you just—you know, you’re so good at communicating with the families. But watching you come in, and we really didn't have much going on worship wise. And as you came in and started just kind of rolling with things, man, you ended up being able to—it’s almost like the gift that was given to you, you started to give to other people, seeing the gold and the gift that came to them and pulling it out.

You started to engage them and pluck them into different spots of the team. Did a really good job with that, man. That was one of your talents and gifts that I saw in you come alive when you were serving at SVTC. And it was awesome. Because then the sound that's coming out of our Teen Challenge worship team on the mountain—like, you know, when it was for me where we were playing tracks off YouTube.

The Journey of Building a Team

I mean, it was just—it was awesome to watch that. I was being plucked out of, plucked twice, I believe, in my life. I was plucked out of—or that addictive family. I didn't grow up with them. I was adopted when I was almost four. So I believe God literally plucked and pulled me out of that and placed me in the family that enabled me to take music lessons and so on and so forth.

And I also said to you something when I first came to Virginia that I set it on the phone to you. Because we were probably talking about the road to growth, how's your heart, how it's so on and so forth. You don't know me from Adam, thinking about bringing you over, you know, 3,000 miles to—and I said, well, pastor, I lived in the world. And sometimes a little bit of the world gets on you.

The Essentials of Aftercare in Recovery

That's what happened there. I believe God took me out of that situation because I believe that I could have, if left to my own devices at the phrase, I could have, looking back, started to flounder again. Because I believe that some of that identity was going back to the music even after training, even after—but the support really wasn't there. I was left to my own. I ended up getting my own job.

I was leading worship at a church two hours away. They were paying me a ridiculous amount of money to do so. I think some pride started to set into that heart, and I believe that God gave me—because there was just something—I never thought I'd leave Southern California ever. But there was something; there was a tugging, there was something saying, no, it's time. And I'm like, what is going on?

I believe both of those times that I was plucked almost like a saving. God saved me from that family because I would have probably died—no doubt, probably died spiritually or physically. And even left in Southern California by myself, maybe. So I think one of the things when it comes to aftercare is the aftercare. There either is aftercare or there’s not aftercare. And there’s either something set up or there’s not something set up as far as recovery programs.

Keys to Long-Term Recovery Success

Not just Teen Challenge, but anything it's long-term. I'm not talking about 30-day, 90-day programs that barely get the crap out of your system. But if you're in it for six months or so, it's a long term. But what are you doing after that? One of the things that I believe needs to be in place in any program, I call it the either five or six things that are necessary for a successful Christian life. The first one is, you know, a home church, transportation, communication, a place to live, and a job.

And those five things being in place when you leave a program, but then there has to be a support. It is six days because just because you have a home church, doesn't mean there's support. There's support out there, but there has to be some sort of accountability. That's what I’m looking for. If there’s not accountability, you can go to church and be invisible. You can go to your job and be invisible. You can stay at home and be invisible. You can talk on the phone and use your phone to communicate and be invisible with Facebook and everything else that's out there.

The Importance of Accountability

So what's the one thing that addicts and alcoholics do? They hide. I never really—I liked to drink in public, but when I wanted to drink, I drank by myself. Because why? Because there's—I’m not proud of that. I get sitting lay; I know. Instinctively, I know that I'm making a poor choice. But again, apathy is there, so I don’t care. You don't care about the consequences. I'm gonna drink anyway. But why? Because there's something about me, and I just don't like—there's something about my situation, about the choices that I made in the past, guilt, shame. Ooh, I'm telling you, man, that's good.

Building a Strong Foundation

It's terrible. And if that continues, which it did, when that continues, because it will. If there’s no accountability in the beginning, at long term, of course. But especially in that first six-month set, if there’s not something that’s regimented, then floundering is gonna happen. Yes. It has a better chance to happen. So we don’t even get to the walls and the roof and the doors and the window treatments and all of that. No, no, no. Until we build the foundation. And so many are a lot of putting up some framework, baby. Putting up some two-by-fours and studs.

But you might put a trust in, right? But there's no plumbing. But that's where the whole—well, what's the one thing I'm gonna do or what's God got me doing in the ten years, switching down to years down the road or that big idea. But there’s gonna be a lot of time in the dirt and digging and going beyond the non-sexy work, you know? I mean, for lack of a better term. It has just brick by brick. And that's what it is. It's like, hey, you're probably not gonna have your ideal job coming right out of rehab. But go get a job. Get the ball rolling because you can always upgrade.

Overcoming Challenges in Recovery

With the problem is to have a vacuum; we will find something to fill it if there’s nothing in there. Absolutely. I mean, that’s so good. So what is that key then? Because the recurring theme I’m hearing is this heart of humility. The heart issue, right? That’s kept coming up in our talk the whole time we’ve been talking. Serving, yeah. What are some of the keys to getting to that heart of humility?

I mean, everybody has a different opinion of what bottom looks like and all of that, but for you, man, what did it for you to be able to get to that place that you were able to be humble, you know, and start to kind of accept, you know, whether it be accountability, correction, or just a path that the Lord laid in front of you? Well, there was one essence when we parted ways. There was something there that when you talk about correction, sometimes God will chastise to correct, but for some reason, I was open to correction. And I don't know what—how do I have a heart? What changed? How do I have a heart of humility?

The Power of Serving in Recovery

I do remember when I first got divorced going through that process. That was a terrible, terrible, terrible situation with the kids and the separation and all that. I was good with my drinking. I was good for a while. And then the airplane bottles started to enter my life. I was going to a bachelor's of time, Westfield, New Jersey. The one guy said to me, it was right around Thanksgiving because he said, what are you doing Thanksgiving? And he just said to me, he said, the best thing that you can do when you are going through something, this divorce is something is serve.

He asked me, he said, do you want to help serve Thanksgiving dinner? I didn't want to help serve Thanksgiving dinner. I wanted to drink and get drunk that day. I didn't have the kids. I served Thanksgiving dinner. Man, that was life-changing. Yeah, we were talking about getting to a place in the community, and they mentioned that serving thing, man. That was on. Yeah, yeah, I’m trying to remember. I'm trying to rock my brain here in 2015. I have told people, there's somebody—I won't mention his name. There's somebody that was in our program; he’s now doing radio stuff, like—not DJ, but you know what I'm talking about, right?

The Transformative Power of Service

He wanted this; he wanted this; he wanted this. He said, I’m gonna get this. And I simply said to him, who are you serving? Yeah. I'm helping. So usually you go into a store and the first thing is how can I help you? Right. Nobody hears that. You don’t even hear it. Everybody says it. I simply say, how can I help? Yeah. In whatever the situation is, how can I help? Can I help anything? Can I help? No? Okay, I can’t help. But I’m not telling this guy that because he was homeless. He was going back to being homeless. Everyone was homeless. He was in a terrible situation.

I said, go to the shelter and serve soup. It doesn't matter; you're homeless. What are you gonna do? At least you’d be warm. He ended up working six months there. They ended up giving him a place to live there, a room or a small apartment or whatever. And then I've gotten a part-time job, but he's still serving. There are many moments where I've made a choice to say I got to serve in some capacity. In the beginning of this year, I was getting finances from the church.

The Joy of Giving

All right, for the past however many years. We grow; we get more, you grow, we get so-and-so forth. This year, I guess the Lord told me. It says to do it, giving. That’s also serving. He told me, he said, okay, now why don’t you get rid of your salary? I said. What? All right. What? That's not always really an industry, but to get to the place where you’re paying, like, you know, like to do the work. Yeah. And that was, there’s a generous church, right?

I said, okay, literally like that. I mean, I joke about it. But when I heard that that’s what I was supposed to do, I said, okay, there was no bucking. Do you know a week and a half later? I got an offer for a position that almost doubled my salary. Wow. Again, it's about serving. It's that heart of, okay. In order to give your good earnings that you work hard for, I have to be humble. There has to be a level of humility there.

The Foundation of Humility in Christ

Yeah, because it’s what we just worked for. That’s right. It’s my am. What is that faithful and little, faithful and much, right? I was listening to what God’s talk about this. He’s talking about this process in regards to giving. He said, you plan vision during planning. He means I'm just planning—oh, that’s what I have in my hands. Vision is, okay, now I start to do the thing. Not with what's in my hand, but with what's in the Lord's hand. And then the dream, of course, is where it all starts to come alive. What is the goal?

Like, he was talking about a giving goal that he had set. He asked, told God, he’s like, I want to give an additional $10,000 this year to this specific thing. He said, yes, God, I’ll do it. Just a few months later, he got a call to go do a thing where it was going to pay him exactly $10,000. You know, just those types of stories, man. And being able to—but it is as humility.

The Call to Come and Die

If we look at the cross, what’s the cross based off of? Yeah. Talking about this is based off of humility because if He was—I mean, He was a humble servant. I am lonely; didn’t recognize Him; didn’t stand out in the crowd. That He was the strongest man that ever lived. Yeah. That’s what tonight’s best is too. Yeah. So then the truth is—that might be the key to all of it—maybe not might, but that’s like this heart of humility. Really for freedom and everything, right? Because addiction in and of itself can become this very self-absorbed behavior, right?

Like we—I gotta get the next fix. I gotta—it’s all me, me, me, me. And we've heard that a thousand times, right? The path toward overcoming selfishness is a life of selflessness. And that's why I think traditionally people that finish programs like Teen Challenge that find a place to go and turn serve, they do better. We've said that a million times. I still believe that because I think that if the Lord gets ahold of you and you connect yourself to a purpose, then the chances of freedom and staying free, they go up exponentially.

The Harvest That Comes from Humility

It's not even close. Like the amount of people that end up doing better because they find something to just give their lives to. And yeah, it’s so key, man. So what are you doing with life now? Let’s—well, I have been speaking here tonight and leading worship and quite a bit. It’s been quite the ride. So I’m still a church. Still at the same place. Been eight years this May. And I get a regrowing in as far as the team is concerned. So we have systems in place.

We’d like to get the production value up a little bit, the online presence of—but I do have. We’ve been planning with what we have. But now because of this position, this is where I know He’s got a hold of my heart. The very first thing I say when I got this position was now we’ll be able to give more. We were able to double it. It’s incredible, man. And God doesn’t need it. But there’s something internal about the growth, and it’s a progressive thing.

The Spiritual Growth Through Service

You said, if you don't tie yourself into something with purpose, then you confounder. And that’s exactly the purpose that Hope and I have is this congregation is not the worship team. But it’s the congregation. It’s the pastoral staff. It’s how do we pour into the members of the worship team? Not just growing the worship team, but how do we pour into the members of the worship team? This year, a goal is to write some songs as a team. Nice. I’ve written a couple, but they’ve recorded about in LA. But that was more for fun.

My wife, we’ve been blessed with; she’s finishing her master’s practicum. She’s getting paid as a counselor as she hasn't graduated yet. Yeah, wow. These types of things, a hand of God is just honest right now. Now, could I mess it up? Sure, if I chose to. But I’ve seen so much goodness. Our staple song there is "Goodness of God."

The Spirit of Unity in the Church

Yeah. It’s a jam. We can bust that out at any point in the day. Yeah. So good, man. "The Goodness of God," it really is. It seems to be something stirring in the body of Christ. And I don't know if it's nationwide, but I've seen it in the valley. Like as I've been visiting different places, hanging out with my friends down in Harrisonburg, they’ve got this prayer worship movement they’re doing down there.

The one thing that I think has blown me away about how God’s moving in this season is there’s this spirit of unity across churches and across ministries that I didn’t traditionally see early on in ministry, right? Like people are binding together, but yet God is pouring His Spirit and His blessing out in the middle of it. I’m hearing you guys, your church is growing; our church, other churches are growing. This is a time culture tells us like everybody's pushing the church away.

Embracing the Harvest

But God’s stirring the hunger up in people, and it’s an exciting time, man, to just be in that place where it’s like, I’m just gonna love on God’s leaders. I’m gonna love on His people and just be ready for the harvest that’s coming in, you know? It’s incredible. Yeah. I have to absolutely agree. It is a time of harvest. Being able to pour out into leaders, like you said, is—I think a lot of people don't realize the sacrifice that goes into working in a ministry like Teen Challenge.

I had a conversation with a leader after I left TC, and things started going well for us and my job and everything that we were doing. And then Jehovah Sneaky got me back in the ministry. Here we are again. But it’s just different, you know, at this point. Like, but I had a leader as we started to see some success in our life, like—and start to see things finally square up for us financially after 13 years of chaos, you know?

The Journey of Faithfulness Reaps Rewards

I said, I don’t—like, I’m doing well, and he said, well, Justin, you spent all these years sewing seed while you were working in Teen Challenge. The finances, you had to get them, but it was inconsequential, you know, many years. You know, like, there were some struggles along the way. And I mean, but he just, he made that statement to me I’ll never forget it. He’s like, you’re experiencing the blessing now, like it’s like there’s a harvest, like, you know, the fruits growing after all the years of being trying to be faithful to the best I could considering where I was in life.

I think it’s the same. You got served faithfully at TC, you know, during the—dude, man, you are God-sent when you came out from California. I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this since, but dude, you showed up—not just the worship, but the stuff that you've helped put in place with admissions and getting the men's program in order. Like, we went from 10 students to 40 in short order, between the women and the men. Things just exploded, dude. I was so blind, man.

The Power of Team Ministry

But right, but on the house, I look at it and like everybody saw just as ministry exploded, but didn’t—I don’t think realize the sacrifice of people like yourself, Peg, and Colleen, and others were making behind the scenes to be able to see those lives come into the kingdom. And man, I’m grateful for it, you know, because we were all just in it fighting together, and things got dicey at times. But man, the Lord managed to move, and, you know, I lived with a Bluetooth in my ear.

Yeah, I did. It was always in my ear because I was—I knew I had to take the call. I didn’t know what call I was taking, but I knew I had to take a call because the cell phone over was out there. Yeah. And Peg and Colleen, it’s money; you can imagine there. The very first person I brought into the TC there, the very first mom that I prayed with—it’s from over the phone was her mom. Yeah. It’s some good, man.

Creating Lasting Impact Beyond Teen Challenge

Yeah. We’re going to see her next week. We’re going to pray to her. Yeah, National Organism, that was it. Man, I appreciate you sitting out and chatting. That’s a good man to catch up. For those who are local, Pastor Jeff is over at Spirit and Word Fellowship in Steven City, so I would encourage you. If you’re in the area, find their Facebook, check them out.

Hey, if you’re not in the area, find their Facebook because he just said they’re going to be improving the production quality even more online. So, yes, right now, don’t judge. Don’t judge right now, but do worship worship on streaming is incredibly difficult. Yes, it is. Yeah, it’s wild. You have to—yeah, there are so many people that say, oh, I can do this on Facebook and, hey, just a minute. Yeah, you do need equipment.

Final Thoughts and Encouragement

And I did—do you have any parting words, man? Just as we—I am grateful to be here. The Lord taught me all day today. I had half a message. Nice. Half a message this morning. And it sounds like I was every Sunday, right? And all of a sudden, this illustration came into my head, and you’ll see it tonight. Hopefully, it won’t make a mess. Nice. The illustrations in the fridge. So, but this illustration came to me, and He said, this is what happened. So I said, okay, I said, it doesn’t make sense. Then let me start that.

Anyway, it was a blessing to be able to focus because it’s been a minute since I brought a word. And to do the entire service is usually what happens. But for those who are watching, head over to the Teen Challenge Facebook page. The message will be online. As well. So on, this isn’t live right now. So I don’t know. So I would like that. So you’ll be able to scroll back to you and catch the message. But on, man, God bless you guys. Thank you for tuning in and chatting. And on, man, just pray blessings over you. Please take a moment, hit the like button, subscribe to the channel. Leave us a few comments. If you got any questions about stuff we talked about, specifically about finding your purpose, please drop a comment below.

We’d love to connect with you and help you as you rebuild your life after addiction. God bless.