Camp Galiliee Tuesday Night

Good evening. I want to thank Gary for the invite to Camp Galilee. I have lived in Nevada since the 4th grade and had heard of this camp but had no idea what it was about. What a wonderful blessing right here close to home

Gary asked me a couple months ago to preach here tonight and I quickly accepted

I love camp

i love youth

i love the Gospel

I love to Jesus

I love to preach

I get to put all of those together tonight

When Gary asked me to preach he also said he could use help all week. For the past 5 or 6 summers I have been at a camp somwhere becasue I love seeing what God does during camp

Now I want you to understand that God doesnt just work on you the campers but also us the adults. In fact I was outside until midnight or after last night because God was working on me and in me and changed everything I had planned to talk about tonight in response to the work He has been doing so far this week

I actually told Gary that i had too much going on this summer to be able to come all week to camp. This was early spring and i thought about it off and on but was still planning on just coming to preach

Then a couple weeks ago my wife and i ran into each other in walmart and he said numbers were high and he could really use my help. I told him I would pray about it and we would talk about it. Before we got home my wife and I knew I was to come all week and I let him know that I was in for the week.

As I began to think about and pray about what God wanted me to bring to you tonight a message took shape and in fact then grew into a sermon series at my church.

I felt good about the message and up until God moved the way He moved last night I still felt good about it. God will use it sometime just not tonight

If I am honest I am still not 100% sure where God is taking this message tonight but I am excited to find out!!!!!

Lets pray

God led me to Unashamed to approach the cross broken

Brokeness is seen by the world as weakness but by God exactly where we must be for Him to move in our lives

God led me to 3 verses as the basis for what He wants me to bring to you tonight

Hebrews 4:4–16 ESV

For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.” Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Here in Hebrews Jesus is the great High Priest

Jesus is our great High Priest because of what He did for us

He came to earth

born in a barn

put in a food trough

rejected by the very people He came to save

Beaten beyond recgonition

hung on a cross

and then we find this

2 Corinthians 5:21

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

God because of His great love

because of His desire that none should perish but all come to repentance

because of those things and many more God sent Jesus to be our perfect sacrifice and example

But it goes deeper than that

While Jesus was on the cross we we see here in II Corinthians that GOd made Jesus becaome your sin

become my sin

become the sin of the whole world

Not just see it

not just experience it

He saw every sin

He expereience every sin

the shame

the guilt

the dirtieness

the evil

but HE became that sin

Jesus knows your sin and my sin better than we do

Wow

What a wonderful Savior to willingly to that

He Jesus in

John 1:3

“All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

Jesus....maker of all that was made

became your sin

knows your sin intimately

The enemy, satan, and the world scream at you that you are alone in your sin

you are the only one doing that sin and struggling with that sin

But that is so far from the truth

Jesus was tempted in every way as a human yet never sinned

He became your sin

my sin

the sin of the entire world

He knows it all intimately

He felt it all

expreienced it all

can completely relate to you because He felt exactly what you are feeling

satan screams you are alone and Jesus says I know because I felt it

I became your sin

Come

He is your High Priest and can personally relate to you and your sin

There are many stories....true stories in scripture that relate how to approach God with brokeness

Moses killing an Egyptian

Abraham being drunk

David an adulterer and murderer

but God said tell them what I did in and for you

Tell them how you had to understand brokeness to be delivered and healed

My parents were divorced when I was young

My dad immediately moved to New Hampshire

At some point my brother and I suffered sexual abuse at the hands of my father

I had a lot of pain and anger and hate and resentment

We wound up moving in with my mom’s parents....my granparents on their farm in Lone Jack mo. We stayed there for a while getting on our feet as my mom was a now single parent with two boys

She decided to go to CMSU in warrensburg so we moved to warrensburg

After graduation she got a job at the old state hospital in Nevada so around 4th grade we moved to Nevada

If you have ever moved into a small town you know just how hard that is

All these kids had grown up together to this point and here I was a new kid

new kid with a single mom so we were poor....had all we needed but poor…handme down or garage sale clothes or donations from church folk

I am introvert by nature which also made things worse

I was picked on

I was made fun of

I was bullied relentlessly

All of this added to my anger and hate and resentment

About 9 years old not long after arriving in Nevada I accepted Jesus and was baptized

My mom was, still is a strong Christian woman and raised my little brother and I in a christian home.....one of the biggest blessings of Nevada was my mom meeting my step dad Kenny or Daw as my kids called him and what I still call him today.....Father

I accepted Jesus but I never understood truly the gift that i had in Jesus

I was saved.....my price was paid but I never opened the gift

As time moved on my anger and hatred and resentment continued to build

Then in 7th grade I found pornography, more on that later, and me and one of my mom’s coworkers who played college football convinced her to let me play football

I was good

real good

Football soon became my identity

because of the help I gave my team I had friends all over the place

those same kids who picked on me

made fun of me

bullied me

all lining up to be my friend because of my ability on the football field

My anger and hatred and resentment continued to build

My dad still lived in New Hampshire and I felt abandoned by him and that also added to my anger and hate and resentment

This continued through high school

I was multiple year all conference all district football player

I started my first game at 14 years old and was a three year starter

I wreslted and was a 2 year varsity wrestler

I found the shot put and in my two years in high school I placed 5th in state as a junior and 2nd in state as a senior

I accepted a footbal and track scholarship to William Jewell College

Sounds like a perfect ending but nope

This entire time I had multiple Joshs

school josh

church josh

football/sports josh

home josh

one of the reasons I was so good at football was my anger and hate and resentment

I could hurt people and get awards for it....I enjoyed the violence of football.....didnt matter if I was inflicting the punishment or taking it at least I felt something

Now in high school I never partied

I was so focused on football and sports no one even invited me to parties

I legitametly didnt know there was parties until after high school

God working in my life as you will see later

When I got to college I felt like I had lost time to make up for and party hard

really hard

Joined a frat and my drinking expolded

My pride and anger and hatred and resentment grew and grew and in fact drinking and attitude cost me that opportunity at Jewell

I transfered to SMSU, now Missouri State on a track scholarship

I partied more than school....i did just enough first semester to stay eligible for track season

i was out of control

My mom and I went to springfield to sign on an appartment for my junior year and I looked at her and said mom it is cheaper to dring beer in Nevada because that is all I do here and I did not return to school, at that time

I am now early 20’s living in my mom and stepdads basement a complete mess

drunk most nights

partying

chasing women

running bars

little experimenting with weed

complete train wreck

God moved again

Melody......My sweet beautiful Melody.....my beautiful bride was brought into my life

I still partied hard but stopped the woman chasing because I was in love with Melody and her young son Trenton

She attended church so because I was chasing her I attended church

I would be hot and cold but everytime I was ready to be all in again with Jesus satan brought up the porn which was a full blown addiction at this point

anger and hate and resentment continued to build

My porn addiction was hidden.....no one not even Mel knew about it....i think she knew I had seen porn and maybe looked occasionally but she had no idea it was destorying me from the inside out

It went further than a dating relationship when in December of 2000 I married Melody and Trenton

Since we were now married and I had a son i cleaned up some....drinkning slowed down to acceptable levels but porn still hidden and pretty constant part of my life

I knew my salary at the state hospital would not support three of us so I reached out to a friend in the pay day loan industry and got hired

I worked my way up to supervisor having 35 people and about 7 million dollars of the company’s money as my responsibility

That brought drinking back and accelarated the porn addiciton as it was what I used to center myself

how disgusting is that????

Melody still had no idea

About 2007 God moved again and laid teaching and coaching on my heart

I left the loan buisness and all of its money to go to school

I graduated from MSSU the day before the tornado in Joplin in 2011 and got hired at Nevada where i taught and coached varsity football and wrestling

Again during this time I would be hot and cold....everytime I would be broken I would hear satan yell She will leave you

Since I came from a broken home I refused to have a broken home....We had Logan in 2004 so now I have two boys but anger and hatred and resentment continued to grow

Move to 2015 my little brother went to Men’s Encounter and came back different

He loved Jesus different

He loved his Bride different

he loved his kids different

he loved me different

He asked me to attend in November and I said yes as long as it doesnt fall on competition weekend

He was shocked he asked why so quick answer yes

I said because you are different either you found a cult or the real deal I had to know

In 2015 when I attended encounter God broke me

dropped me to my knees

I knew His love and I knew that for 30 years I had this power inside of me and ignored it.....I intimately knew Jesus

God took the porn

my 18 year tobacco addiction

took the alcohol all that weekend

I havent touched porn since

I still dont drink or chew

Gone

Psalm 103:11–14

“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.”

Some of you gave God some very big stuff last night....some of you are close to doing that right now

Understand that you will never ever go east if you go west or vice versa

If you go North you will reach the north pole and go south

if you go south you will reach the south pole and go north

if you go east you will always go east

if you go west you will always go west

that is how far your sin is removed from you when you are saved........stop taking your nasty blood stained sin off of the cross and back into your life it is gone

Now I gave those things to Jesus and I knew that I need to tell Melody about the porn thing as I committed adutlery as Jesus says in you think about sex with someone you have committed adultery

I refused

Again I would not risk my family and my boys having the anger and hate and resentment that I had in my life growing up

It was all gone now.....competley gone....i was even able to be reconciled back to my real dad who now lives several blocks from me and is a wonderful grandfather to my boys

But I refused to talk to Melody about it

I grew leaps and bounds in Christ thorugh my mens group and secret place time but God got me to a point He refused to move more until I did

I went back to encounter in March of 2016 to serve and God completely broke me

The first thing he used to break me was the video you are about to see.....i was the girl

i was being beaten and attacked and destoryed by my sin

Jesus waited patiently for me for 30 years to turn to Him and say I am yours and he jumped in and destoryed my sin all while protecting me and loving me

PLAY THE VIDEO LIFEHOUSE

then after the video

We were singing the stand and I literally felt God wrap His arms around me

I dropped to my knees

He said son I love you

i love melody

I love trenton

I love Logan

You have to tell her

You have to be reconciled to her

Even if she leaves I have you.....you have to talk to her

I knew it was nonegotiable at this point.......

When we got it the car to go home and my boys but thier headphones on and fell asleep I had a case of word vomit.....i puked up all about my porn addiction......then silence....then she laughed and I thought oh boy here it comes

SHe looks at me and says I love you

I forgive you

Dont ever do it again but it is dead and gone

Freedom

Galatians 5:1

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

I knew the power of being free in Christ the moment I allowed myself to be broken enough to do what God wanted me to do but was unwilling to do

My life since has been hard but I am closer to Jesus than I ever have been

This week He has softened my heart and shown me several things I need to bring to him and I am doing that

We ask you to move in response to God here at camp......adults are no different

Last night Mark talked about being ashamed as a result of fear

I have played the bass for 20 years

I have played guitar for about 7 years

I sing with my praise band at church

But because of fear I have never played and sang to a group by myself

I do all the time at church in personal worship time but never in a setting like this

Last night God said while Mark was preaching you are doing invitation tomorrow

You are going to grab your guitar and you are going to sing

So that is what I am going to do

If you need Jesus reach out to an adult

If you need prayer

you need to be prayed with or over

you need to give God a burden find an adult

I would love to pray with you after invitation

come

the ball is in your court

James tells us to be a doer not a hearer

You have heard in a real way how God will move when you approach the throne room broken.....wont you come tonight