New Year, New You
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good morning how is everyone today Happy New Year first of all give yourselves a round of applause you made it you made it to church yes you woke up you're here you're dressed we have strong coffee upstairs and downstairs we've got you covered so whatever your festivities were last night we've got food and coffee so we make sure you're set here most of you know me by now but if you don't my name is Heather I am Pastor Jean's wife and every once in a while he voluntos me volun tells me to get up here and give him a Sunday off so here I am and he can relax in his sandals and shorts while I'm up here so but I'm happy to help it is a brand new year and this phenomenon of having Church on a Sunday on New Year's Day happens but once every six years leap year throws in there and so it throws off our Christmas on a Sunday our New Year's on a Sunday and the whole week in between so I don't know about you guys but this past week it was like am I working am I not what am I supposed to do there's people on the road there's not it was just a really weird week so either way we are starting fresh 2023 out with the old in with the new and hopefully a new you as well and so some of you are probably wondering why in the world is she so happy I haven't even had all of my coffee yet I'll tell you my story later why I'm so chipper on a New Year's Day kind of rocky road to get to where I am today but we are holding the pause button on our normal series which is the rest of the story we've been in it what almost three years now somewhere in the tube it'll probably be forever I don't know we'll just keep repeating so pause repeat um so it's called the rest of the story where we are diving into the details of the Bible what it actually says not what we think it says or what we wanted to say so as you have been following those series those of you who have been with us there have been charts I'm giving you a break today we're going to take it easy I'm going to give you a nice easy ride into the new year and Gene will pick up next week into the rest of the story where he picked off picked up from New Year's Eve and we will continue on through that series yeah you're welcome and easy Bible study questions this week Lonnie loves when I do the Bible study questions so but they're a little hard because they're kind of self-reflective so I'm challenging in a different way so the answers aren't in the book They're inside all right so those of you who are part of our church know that you're not just members here you are part of a family that is what at least has made this journey here different for me than anywhere else that I've been is that once you're here it's not just signing a book and saying you're part of the church you are truly family members here and that is how we roll like I said we've got coffee we get you life happens we're going to feed you after service and if there's any left over we make sure you're fed later this afternoon too so for me I know it's hard to believe another year has gone by it feels like yesterday it was just 2020 we were just like okay can I come out of the house now and now we're at 2023. for me seems like the older you get the faster time goes by and I don't seem to uh exactly that speak any slower regardless of how fast time goes I find it harder to stop and smell the roses that has been one of my problems most of my life however as I get older I'm trying to integrate that into my life more and more as my daughter is about to turn 18 years old in a couple of months I feel like I was just 18 years old and I cannot believe I have an adult child so any of you have adult children realize when did it happen like I was just learning how to drive and I'm teaching them to drive and now they're in their own car it's very strange feeling so I was going to show you a nice and embarrassing video of her this morning we might just submit it to America's Funniest Home Videos where she sings I Wish You a Merry Christmas I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New you she ends it with a whole extra thing but we'll save that for another day she already gets thrown under the bus plenty of times with us up here as the PK or pastor's kid so I'm not gonna dig into much of an embarrassing Factor this morning just being in her seat is enough as it is so this morning that is exactly what I would like to focus on is the new you being born again that opportunity in church and at the top of a new year last week Christmas Eve which already feels like a year ago last year last week Gene brought us the story of the birth of Jesus and he gave us a rundown of Jesus's lineage which is not so squeaky clean when we look at all those details again the rest of the story many undesirable and foreign women were traced through his genealogy before we actually get to Jesus I'm doing a quick summary we are going to go through these Lonnie you'll be ready for the Bible study questions you will nail it I'm sure so we have Judah who is the father of Perez and Zara who is Mother of Tamar Perez who is the father of hezron hezron father of ram ram was a father of the minute aminidad Gene's so much better at this than me admitted to have as a father of Nishan and Sean was a father of salmon salmon was the father of Boaz whose mother was Rahab Boaz the father of Obed who's my mother was Ruth Obed was the father of Jesse Jesse the father of King David David was the father of Solomon whose mother was the Sheba the Widow of Uriah and it is remarkable how this genealogy includes all of these quote-unquote foreign and undesirable women Tamar who played The Prostitute Rahab who actually was a prostitute and Ruth a moabite which if you know that story lot Armageddon there's some details I was reading my daughter the Bible when she was seven I got to that story and I go huh skip skip again we will go into that bible study on Wednesday Gene already went into that last week but it's one of their stories they're like did it really just say that yes it did okay we're going to move on and it doesn't really get any better so we went to the new you just they just they have to read it for what it is that's why we're here so no candy coding it is what it is and so I find that it's such an amazing story for us giving us the opportunity for a new beginning and no better time for a new you than today January 1st and that brings about the question did you make a New Year's resolution no anyone thought of it today have you ever made a New Year's resolution yes okay did anyone make one last year yes no no see ya there we go why it did did you stick to it if you've ever made a great New Year's resolution have you actually been able to stick to it no everyone's shaking their heads up why it did see he's our Superstar this morning all right excellent it seems like we love to give ourselves challenges that are too hard to tackle making it much easier to give up so although most of you you didn't participate did not make New Year's resolutions the rest of the world out there when they do I did some Googling and it seems like 23 of people give up in the first week they don't even make it to January 8th they're like I'm done this is too much 64 of people within the first month give it up and only 19 actually make it a part of their daily lives and stick to it that's about 20 we call that the Pareto Principle 80 20. so usually 20 in human nature whatever organization you're in that participate and 80 they try they do their best but that's really the Pareto Principle you can Google that so and I had to continue looking so why is it that most people don't stick to their New Year's resolutions or those commitments one they weren't ready for change they didn't really look at what it was that they wanted to change they go okay I want to change it but then they actually do it and they're like hmm this isn't what I really wanted and so they end up just giving it up two no self-monitoring they have so many apps whatever it is that you want to work on there is an app for everything if not ask my daughter she can probably find it for you or anyone under the age of 21 they can help you but journaling finding it keeping track finding accountability which brings us to number three accountability bringing other people in letting them know what that change is that you're trying to make if you keep it to yourself it's so much easier to break but if other people notice what you're doing they can encourage you and help you along the way number four overconfidence they thought it was easier than it was going to be I'm going to lose 50 pounds in one month that little bottled advertisement is not real that just just ignore it swipe it skip ad that doesn't happen it actually takes a longer time than that so nothing there's no miracle for anything in the world that you want to change overnight except for being saved when you surrender outside of that it takes work so number five lack of planning again you gotta make those changes if you're going to get up early work out whatever the case is you have to plan it in because if you weren't doing it before it wasn't part of your schedule and so you don't plan for it and again you give up so five reasons why people give up on their New Year's resolution and while I was looking at all this and having been in church we were not always Christians we were not always pastors or leading a church so whatever you've been through we've been through it or seen it ourselves and so looking at the New Year's resolution and people committing to Christ I found it very interesting that it's generally kind of the same where people get very excited at first they buy every Bible I'm talking about myself jewelry t-shirt bumper stickers I have scripture I'm like decked out in like job shirts and all kinds of crazy stuff and they're like wow that girl just like dove into the deep end Christianity and I scare everyone around me then a month later I'm like hmm okay this is a little harder than I thought it was and things are a little bit I gotta work a little harder so but that fire we that said accountability that again working on keeping track of yourselves and keeping that fire ignited whether it's becoming a Christian or any other commitment you make in your life it takes work so again I talk about myself I drove into Christianity went to the Christian store and bought literally everything that could fit me that had to do with Christianity including the Jesus fish but I got rid of the car because you know whatever I didn't want everyone to know I was cutting them off I thought Christian just cut me off so now that's another story I'll put that as my New Year's resolution being a better driver and not saying so many bad words while I'm doing it anyway I do a lot of throwing myself under the bus again New Year's resolution I'll buy a gym membership all of the outfits that go with it and then a month later the shoes are collecting dust the mat that I bought is no longer in use and then I hope I can sell on Poshmark or eBay for what I actually pay for it and then it sits in a box that eventually gets donated to Goodwill or sits in our back office eventually to do nothing so anyway that's my own Journey as it comes to trying to keep to my New Year's resolution but what is different about your overall change in Salvation is you have a church family whatever Journey you're on that is going to help you stick to that commitment and so before I move too much further into this I would like to tell you even more about myself than I just did completely bearing all of my faults to you I have another one but I'm going to give you a quick summary of my childhood and how we got here I grew up in California people stopped asking me why I moved away from California not too long ago so my parents were teenagers when they had me they were married that didn't work my dad married my stepmother from next door Cinderella Story younger half Brothers fast forward she was from New York After High School we moved to New York and again I'll get I'll tell you how we got to Naples like California New York that's a whole other story all right and so I guess College meet Jean sister meet Gene love at first sight what can I say we start dating and we have a very similar story in the fact that we're both out on our own as teenagers and aside from that love at first sight we both had a drive to succeed and prove everyone wrong in our past that we could make it regardless of our circumstances and for me it meant breaking lots of chains in my family I was the first one in decades to get through high school without getting pregnant to get into college to finish college to get a career buy a house and then have a kid like it was kind of that typical order and I was so proud of myself I'm like look at what I did and God was like no no that was not you that was me I found that out later that my ego was not my amigo God had done it for me not myself and so Gene and I set out to conquer the world together and while we're Conquering the world in Hudson Valley running a martial arts school I found alcohol what I did not know is that alcohol is a disease and I thought that some of the crazy things that I was doing was a result of just being young and crazy that's just what you do when you're in your 1920s 30s no not anymore um and then there was a New Year's night that there was a New Year's Eve night there was a snowstorm Gene and I got into a fight if you can believe that and he left the house in the argument I decided to swallow a bottle of whatever pills I could find Gene was out walking and ran into somebody who told him you need to go back to your girl it's like no he's like no you need to go back now he insisted and before Gene left he insists he asked what's your name the guy answered angel New Year's Eve and so Gene turned back and luckily found me and went through the process of being taken to the ER going through the whole process of that I only was 19 20 years old I don't I don't really remember but not every New Year's Eve was one of a celebration and far too many of them were followed the next day by apologies shame and regret and my New Year's resolution would be you know I'm going to try and control my drinking I kid you not those of you who know me I made like an Excel chart of checking off how many drinks I could have and then I'd make one glass and that would be one and that's really like if you see the memes like one bottle and one big glass that was me and it was just two and so I constantly struggled with that for years and years but despite my drinking we continue to be successful which only enabled me to continue my behavior and there were so many people around me not only who continued to enable me but who weren't as worse who I thought was worse than I was and I was like well I'm not as bad as them so I'm okay and So eventually we sold part of our business moved down to Sunny Naples where I thought I'm in Paradise now no more depression I've got this and I was rear ended only a month into moving down here and so everything that I had put on my far too many page resume to try and fit into the world was stripped from me and everything that I thought made me was gone and so God said you got to focus on this and I could not stop drinking no matter how successful being semi-retired I was still suicidal and so I figured okay I need help where do I go when I need help a therapist yeah they're going to fix everything I've got insurance we're going to go to therapy G needs help he's struggling with Suburbia you know we went from being kind of in the woods to real neighbors knocking on the door so I needed to fix him you know that's how that works so we go and then she pulls me aside and says I want to meet with you alone whenever that happens just bear with the person they're probably right so she sits me down and says Heather do you think you have a drinking problem nope I have a consumption problem if I could learn to control my drinking like I control eating ice cream I will be just fine I kid you not that's literally what I said to her and I never went back I was like there's a heather-shaped cloud of smoke on my way out that is probably still there and so okay therapy didn't work we start thinking where else do you go for community and help church so we did some Googling and we found C3 and we have been here for 10 years since and so we came in and I found one thing about C3 at the time we are not changing this but it was 11 15 a.m mind you I need to give myself enough time to wake up nurse my hangover so I could get to church on time so 11 15 was the latest service I could find in all of Collier County So Perfect Fit excellent let's go so but it didn't take very long for the pastor there too volin told us to be in various Ministries right out the gate and so it was much harder to balance my alcoholism along with trying to serve and make myself a better person and so I met some sober women who brought me into recovery it took me a while and eventually after some time April 30th 2014 I had finally disappointed everyone I knew again and finally in the middle of the night got on my knees surrendered to God and asked him to remove it I just couldn't do it anymore every single time I tried to control it it just ended up in miserable failure so thought God finally just said okay I'll take it from you but I had to surrender to him and ask him for help and for me asking for help those of you who know me that is literally one of the hardest things you see me running around I'm like the Road Runner asking for help is just I don't I don't know why that's one of my Character defects it's just something I'm constantly working on but asking God for help when I thought I had gotten everywhere in my life on my own was a huge struggle but it was one of the best things that I ever did and so now last night was the ninth sober New Year's Eve I celebrated I know when I went to bed I got a full night of sleep I'm happy this morning thank you Gene's talking to me it's what a miracle in in and of itself and and then we're on the roads we're like oh yeah it's New Year's Eve it's New Year's Day morning everyone's sleeping in this is usually if it's not on a Sunday my shopping day because everyone's home nursing hangover and all the sales are out so that's usually when I go and enjoy my day out from work so just a little tip for those of you next year when church is not on a Sunday all right or it's New Year's let's not on a Sunday I should say so the one thing I've learned about my alcoholism is I can turn anything into in ISM in recovery we call that I self and me ISM so if you're stuck in that it's not good and so I joke if you find me at Staples more than you find me in my office I have a problem that means I'm not actually doing my job I'm addicted to Staples and or paper clips I gave someone a giant paper clip I mean I have every color just about every shape Heather don't you have enough someone even recognized you're the one with the pretty paper clips okay well better that than you know my previous problem so I I guess one's better than the other but again I have to be careful to catch myself same root different branch I can turn anything into an ism so working through those vices turning over to God over and over again like I do with my drinking that is what God does for us he gives us the holy spirit that helper inside of us to continue to grow and change and that is the advantage we have as Christians with a New Year's resolution or any change you're trying to make when God takes that Heart of Stone out of you and puts in the heart of Flesh anything is possible he just you I mean the changes that have happened although Pro you know progress not perfection his just people see us from our past life and they're like Gene it's like Heather is that even you we're completely different people and we couldn't even see that change until other people did but not by our own power by any means and so our motto here if you've seen it says come as you are but we have like that little like Santa Claus like little tiny letters that you can't see that says don't stay as you are and so it's kind of the important half part of when you come as you are there's no judgment we love you for whatever Walk of Life you came from but we encourage you not to stay as you did when you walk through that door and let us help you get there again asking for help I know it's not easy and so for me I'm so grateful for my church family and that final come to Jesus moment when I let him finally do that heavy lifting and every time I hit a brick wall of something in my life it reminds me to let go and let God like okay fine again somehow you've got this every time I worry I lose sleep he knows what's gonna happen and so that what an advantage as Christians that we can just go oh all right God you got it and I can roll over and go right back to sleep when I'm losing sleep over just worldly trivial things that when you look back at them they're so much smaller because he's got it and again we here as your church family we have got you and in Galatians 6 1-10 it says it so well dear bro imagine the Bible knows you know more than me imagine that so dear brothers and sisters if any believer is overcome by sin you who are Godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path and be careful not to fall into the same Temptation yourself share each other's burdens in a way in this way obey the law of Christ if you think you are too important to help someone you are only fooling yourself you are not that important pay attention to your own work for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done and you won't need to compare yourself to anyone else for we are each responsible for our own conduct and those who are taught the word of God should provide for their teachers sharing all good things with them don't be misled you cannot mock the justice of God you will always Harvest what you plant and those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest Decay and death from that sinful nature but those who live to please the spirit will harvest Everlast lasting life from the spirit so let's not get tired of doing what is good at just the right time we will reap a harvest a blessing if we don't give up therefore whenever we have the opportunity we should do good to everyone especially to those in the family of faith and so wherever you are at you can rebuild your life you can hit that reset button I know exactly what that feels like hitting bottom my early 30s thinking I had it all hitting about him but one thing that I found about hitting a bottom there's really only way out and that's up if you've really hit that Rock Bottom unless you want to grab a shovel and keep digging you're welcome to do that but honestly the best thing to do is get back up and we as your church family in Christ are there to hold a hand out to help you up out of that pit you do not have to do it alone and so here we are at the beginning of a new year and you can make that resolution to yourself and to Christ whatever that is that you want to work on and it's such a good time to start again but one thing I would encourage everyone with just for my own personal experience is to make a tangible and manageable resolution and change how often do we run out the gate super fast and then run out of gas and then we're like this is too much work and so I have a couple of suggestions to make them more manageable and so we want to make sure that we don't make and break these promises disappointing those around us or ourselves and create that cycle of Shame and guilt remorse I know I've done that so many times just I'm gonna do this and then I don't and the person around me is like I thought you were doing this and so it's just amazing how we kind of put ourselves in that situation so making it tangible and manageable and I find the cycle is very similar when people become new Christians and the parable of the sower goes through this if being the right kind of Christian and fertile soil making sure that those seeds that are planted have Deep Roots so that we can grow and Bloom in Christ and that holy spirit inside of us don't be the seeds that get plucked away that by the birds or the rocks or get eaten up by the weeds that choke out the Sun and allow us to grow if you have fertile soil and all of the right tools with your church a good reading plan accountability and most of all Christ above and beyond anything else you're going to be able to be that person in that fertile soil that truly blossoms and so for me and this time of the year I find that it's a great time to self-analyze we all know where we want to be in our lives to improve we want to choose something that will change in a direction and find something that can be one degree at a time those of you who know me I didn't share this in my story I used to be history teacher seventh grade again no one asks me why I'm not teaching anymore and my specialty that I would have to teach was US history and something that they don't necessarily tell you is the pilgrims everyone knows who the pilgrims are right that's what we have Thanksgiving right they come they eat they don't starve the Native Americans help them out one thing that most people don't know about the pilgrims they were supposed to go to Virginia they ended up where Plymouth Massachusetts kind of kind of far off I mean that's a long drive by today's standards and because they didn't check their navigation along the way that one degree off sent them to a place where they weren't prepared they didn't have support and they had to go through hardships just because they didn't follow their navigated route and so in life it's very important if you're going to make a change do it one degree at a time and check it along the way because in your life at least in recovery they tell us you can be one step closer to a drink or one step further away from it and that's in any sin or anything that you're working towards every choice that you make every single day is it moving you closer to that sin that you're working towards or further away from it to be closer to Christ and it's just that self-checking that accountability your church family letting you in and so we have a couple of suggestions or at least I do that manageable intangible goals we have those of you who have been here for a while a proverb of the day Gene wakes up bright and early before the sun is even out he texts everyone on his list one by one and sends out the proverb of the day Monday through Friday he takes the weekends off because he's here on Sunday and so what he did is he compiled it into a book yes I'm going to do a Shameless plug this morning we have a proverb of the day keeps the devil away book in the front you can take one on your way out so if you want to make sure you have the proverb on his days off they're all there 1 through 31. and for me in my early walk that was a great beginning because there's one for every day of the month and so if you want to get in the word more or just have that wisdom wash over you first thing in the morning one a day and it's easy is it the first it's the first you start on the first and then say and you follow it along and Gene would be very happy to add you to the list and you can get that proverb and that accountability first thing in the morning again we're here to help you wherever you are maybe you're already done that you're like okay Heather got that done proverb of the day let me get to the next step I want to read my Bible more how do I do that if you drive it's amazing with technology you can turn on your Bible app on audio choose the whichever translation of your choice and just play while you're driving half hour you have a longer commute great you can go through longer and again Gene has a nice reading plan whatever your timeline is so that's why he's a pastor but again tangible so it's a great way to just hear the word and wash over it and just it helps keep that world and all those things you know from making that unnecessary noise in your mind okay Heather I'm already doing those maybe I want to get a little more fit maybe park your car a little further 20 minute walk I want to be a morning person no this is a funny story about being a morning person I was not always a morning person still kind of am not which is why I drink very strong coffee and share it with you upstairs in the cafe Ed can't even smell it he'll be up for a week um is I got into recovery and my sponsor at the time said Heather you need to go to an 8 am meeting I said I'm not a morning person she says now you are I said Okay so for me it was a matter of just okay if I'm going to get up earlier I'm going to go to bed five minutes early set my alarm clock back five minutes every day again those tangible little baby steps that get you to your eventual goal because again through my own experience when I try and Sprint to the Finish Line I get there give up and go right back to my old habits as opposed to making it a tiny daily change that makes it a part of my life throughout and so the amazing thing about this is that we serve a god who knows what it feels like to be human God coming in the flesh becoming like us he has compassion for the human state he is one who was willing to make a Sacrifice by making himself like us and being born into vulnerability he was good he was there he's God he's up there before Abraham was I am he was there and he came down decided to become a human and sacrifice himself for us it's unbelievable and so this is an amazing God that we serve who understands our weaknesses our fears our pain our betrayal our love our grief happiness sadness everything that we go through as humans he gets us can't find that anywhere else that is truly amazing and so here at C3 no matter what you've done no matter where you have come from no matter what family you were born into you have a new family here at C3 and one thing about being a part of a family and changing and I'd like to talk about just a little bit in the key to freedom I find and this is a good time to work on this is forgiveness no during the holidays everyone's we call it like an emotional hangover you go to your parents house there's arguing there's politics whose house are you going to it's just it can be emotionally exhausting but what I find in that at least in my own journey is that forgiveness and in the Lord's Prayer there's an extra line and Gene joked this is never going to be on a mug until somebody put it on a mug and gave it to him as a gift the last part Matthew 6 14. if you forgive those who sin against you your heavenly father will forgive you but if you refuse to forgive others your father will not forgive your sins and so with forgiveness and I found like if we're going to start something new and this is really weighing you down in your life and your all these other resolutions are just trivial this is one I would encourage you to look at internally is if there's something or someone including yourself that you need to forgive for me with all the things that I've done in my alcoholism that was one of the hardest things was to forgive myself and what I realized was if Christ could forgive me for everything that I had done wrong who am I to not forgive anyone else I'm not God the one difference between God and me is he knows he's not me and relieving that anger that fear that just pit in my stomach against myself or anyone else who I thought had done something wrong to me freed me from that cycle of anger and what happens and again I'm throwing myself under the bus when those feelings of guilt and anger root themselves deep inside of you that's what drives most people especially myself towards those sins they're interconnected and so when God comes in Christ changes your heart to flesh he allows you to just melt those feelings away I mean no one got here on a winning lottery ticket unless you want to tithe we joke about that but I know I certainly didn't and one of the things that was a true healing and transformative process for me was letting go of all of that anger and guilt everyone I was trying to prove wrong I can hear someone's name that used to just make me feel like I was going to throw up and then go huh you know maybe I should pray for them I think they need Christ as much as I do and who am I not to forgive them and so it's no better time of the year at least I find for myself to just let go of that anger and fear that I'm upsetting someone or that they've I've disappointed them or they did something wrong to me God's got it he's the one who's going to judge them he forgave me he will forgive them pray for them to find Christ and have the same transformation that you do that's what this is all about is to love your enemy you don't have to like what they do you don't have to talk to them but you can forgive them and give them the gift of Christ that we got it's one that just isn't measurable and so the New Year again UA are invited to be born again transform that internal Part of Yourself become part of our family come into Jesus's family because he is a god of Grace and he is inviting you to come into his light inviting you to move forward stop living looking in the rearview mirror most of you I'm sure drive you came here in a car what happens if you were going to look in the rear of your mirror instead of looking forward you're in Crash the rear view mirror is like your past if you look at it for too long you're not looking forward in where you're going it's okay to glance remember it learn from it but you need to be driving toward your future not looking in the rear view mirror because that's how you crash in life and so Christ is inviting you in to put away that regret and that shame and live a life of joy in a new family with him vertical relationship and a horizontal relationship and so Philippians says it so well having that have the attitude of Christ 2 5 through 11. is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ any comfort from his love any Fellowship together in the spirit are your hearts tender compassionate they make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other loving one another and working together with one mind and one purpose don't be selfish don't try to impress others be humble thinking of others as better than yourselves don't look out only for your own interests but take interest in others too you must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had though he was God he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to instead he gave up his Divine privileges he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being when he appeared in human form he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross therefore God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names that the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on Earth and under the Earth and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father and so again I want to invite you to join in our church family our purpose to love our neighbors and those around us and those in need in a truly judgment-free Zone we don't need the purple sign this is we're here wherever you are in your walk in life we are here for you one thing that's amazing about your mess is it becomes your message and what you've gone through God inevitably brings someone into your path who has gone through what you've gone through and you can help them walk through it and it's just I mean if you've been here long enough that Miracle appearing just happens so naturally and to be able to give back selflessly what you went through and it for me every time that happens I'm like wow I can't believe I went through that horrific experience so that I can help this person get through it too and come out the other side being that light at the end of the tunnel and pointing to Christ along the way through the whole thing is just it's a miracle that is just hard to find words for and so I want to remind everyone today that you are not alone we don't want you to drown in the dark or whatever you're dealing with that is what we are here for we have that hand out for you with a life preserver you don't have to drown we're going to hand it to you but you have to hold on to it and let us pull you up out of the water and so here with the New Year's resolution new beginnings and no matter what family you came from you get to join the family of faith he wants you to come back maybe it's just making another commitment to Christ and starting over again every day is a new day we get to pray we get to go to church we get to live when you change that mindset to get to do I get to help somebody it's just what a transformation of how that changes your life one day at a time and so to close if no one else tells you this today I'm going to tell you this Jesus loves you Jesus loves you and we love you here at C3 we want you to join our family you do not have to do life alone thank you and God bless