Participants: Cheri Peters (Host), Barry Steed, Mike Stone
Series Code: CLR
Program Code: CLR00060B
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00:14 Welcome back!
00:15 So we heard from Mike, for one before God his wife just drugged 00:21 him to church. 00:22 I love that, I want to say to her, if you are watching, 00:25 good job, but the wife drug him to church and at Teen Challenge 00:30 and he said if You are real, have somebody on the stage 00:34 come down and talk to me, and watch the person leave the 00:38 singing group and come down to talk to him. 00:40 I just think that is amazing and it really is so God. 00:43 So now I have his pastor here and we are going to talk to 00:45 pastor Barry now. 00:48 Now I want to ask you, that you met him, is it pretty early 00:52 into recovery, or? 00:54 No, no, no, I met Mike about seven or eight years ago. 00:57 He started coming to the church 00:59 I was serving at. 01:00 We've gotten involved in a Ministry that he said awhile 01:04 ago that he still talks to addicts on a regular basis. 01:08 One of the ministries we have with our church is with NASCAR. 01:12 We take music in and do music in front of the fans. 01:16 You know I laugh, because I'm thinking they are 01:20 partying and screaming, so you have a crowd that is not 01:24 necessarily at the point where they are even thinking about it. 01:28 Absolutely not, that is the whole point of the Ministry. 01:31 Is we go into the Lions den and we set up and tell them to bring 01:36 their kids, their coolers, their chairs. 01:37 Not to ruin their weekend, but we take people, and Mike is one 01:43 of our great ones that he has such a report with those people. 01:45 Just like our God, when He comes into our life, whenever He 01:49 convicts, He didn't convict Mike that you are going to hell. 01:53 Your life is a wreck and if you don't come to Me, it's all over. 01:57 There is a real embracing and commonality he has 02:02 endured in suffering. 02:03 So what we are able to do with Mike and them is go into these 02:07 areas and we put on concerts and the crowds will go anywhere 02:10 from three to 7000 people. 02:11 We set up everything, but when the people come in we meet 02:15 them on their level, where they are at. 02:17 The street corners of their life. 02:18 Some of them are drinking and partying because they want to 02:21 had a good time. 02:23 Mom has sent them to the track with their drinks and they have 02:26 worked hard and you deserve it. 02:28 But a lot of people in the middle of that, 02:30 their wife has left them. 02:31 They are a broken person, so they are just roaming around 02:35 and the reason they are drinking is to try to fill the hole that 02:39 is in their life. 02:40 Their trying to use it as a super glue to put their 02:42 life back, or to forget about the broken life. 02:44 When we are taking people like Mike, that have their story 02:48 and Mike looks at one of these people, he is not looking 02:51 at them through religious eyes. 02:53 He is really looking at them through eyes of grace that God 02:55 has given all of us, through His Son Christ. 02:57 So we are able to just... 03:00 Well you know I have to say Barry, what is amazing about 03:02 that, it is amazing to me to watch somebody when they 03:05 look at you and you can see that they are looking at you. 03:08 They are not looking at your behavior, disgust them, or your 03:11 addictions are disgusting, but they are looking at you 03:14 and you know it is with compassion. 03:15 You know that they have been there. 03:17 Not necessarily that they have been there and been addicts, 03:19 they just have that grace in their eyes. 03:21 I've seen that were somebody is looking at me like that, 03:24 or looking at me with judgment. 03:25 With judgment I will shut off, it sounds like you guys 03:28 don't do that? 03:29 You definitely... Absolutely not! 03:31 Mike and the crew from River, what they do is they are able 03:35 to reach out and touch. 03:36 One of the old Saints said, heart to God and hand to man. 03:41 Even addicts, people who are hurting, they know very quick 03:46 if you are there to help them or if you are looking at them down 03:49 your nose at them. 03:51 Looking at them through eyes of religion, and it is one of 03:55 things that we find a lot in society. 03:57 Lot of people out there, Mike was talking about not being 04:01 able to read. 04:02 Mike is not going to be one who is going to quote 04:04 scripture at them like some people can. 04:06 What the world needs to know, is people want to know you care. 04:10 If you have heard the word of God and it is hidden in your 04:14 heart, it will come out. 04:15 out of the abundance of our heart, our mouth will speak. 04:18 When we speak to these people and we can speak to them 04:22 with our scars, that we can speak to them with experience. 04:25 They do not have to have the same testimony I have. 04:28 You know Mike's acid was his drug of choice. 04:33 His mind was the polifera of everything from cocaine to Meth. 04:36 So our scars are common. 04:40 It doesn't matter if they have just been abused, it doesn't 04:44 matter if they have been rejected. 04:45 We are dealing with a lot of people right now in the world 04:49 that probably if we will go back and check it, the source 04:52 of their hurt might have come sitting in the pews of 04:56 a church somewhere. 04:57 When they walk into the church that they are looked at 05:01 differently because we want them conformed before 05:05 they come in and that is not how our God, or Christ has set 05:09 this thing up. 05:10 He is the one that said come to Me as you are. 05:14 He'll change us, He washes us, He takes our sin and removes 05:18 it from us as far as the east is from the west, which is just 05:21 unbelievable thought. 05:23 To throw it into a sea of forgetfulness. 05:25 That is something that is supernatural because 05:28 we can't do it. 05:29 Now you was tell me about how long you had been sober 05:32 and clean and celebrating recovery. 05:34 I'm 18 years into it, but you know I can still remember 05:38 those things. 05:39 You can still remember the pain of being lost, of being stuck 05:42 and all that? 05:43 Absolutely! I tried in 1990, I decided I did not want to 05:47 live anymore. 05:48 So I decided in my life through a suicide attempt. 05:52 The whole reason now, looking back was never because of the 05:56 alcohol, it was never because of the drugs, mine was loneliness. 06:00 I tried it with alcohol, drugs, I traveled and played music. 06:03 I've been a professional musician my whole life. 06:06 Chasing the dreams of the world because in all honesty I grew 06:12 up singing gospel music as a young man. 06:15 I got to sing with some of the great gospel singers 06:18 in the country. 06:20 What the world seem to be offering was a lot more 06:24 accepting to me and how I was then what the church seem 06:28 to be offering me. 06:29 So whenever I found that place of alcohol and drugs, I was 06:34 trying to bring to myself this hole that people have talked 06:39 through the ages about, the God hole that you try to fill in 06:43 That's what our life is striving for. 06:45 This trying it with alcohol or drugs, a cigarette, 06:49 a relationship, and on March 1, 1990 06:52 whenever I woke up and I put aside all my drugs, 06:56 I decided that today that life had to change. 06:58 So after a suicide attempt you come out of that and that's 07:03 what your decision was? 07:04 I come out on that day, is Lord here I am. 07:09 If You are real, You are going to change this life, 07:11 or I'm going to end it because it wasn't that I wanted to die. 07:14 It was that I just did not want to wake up tomorrow the same way 07:18 I think that many people out there in churches, in religion, 07:23 good people without habits, many of them do not want to 07:26 wake up tomorrow with things the same. 07:28 The great thing about God I and what I have found out in my 07:32 relationship, and He is my friend, I am a Jesus 07:34 freak to the hilt. 07:36 I don't have, He is my friend. 07:42 That's as close to wrestling as we get. 07:43 I came to a conclusion where I have a relationship with Him 07:48 and talk to Him about my frustrations, how aggravated I 07:52 get at life being the same. 07:54 But with Christ my contentment is this, is that today, where I 07:59 am at, He is sitting here meeting new people and being 08:03 able to share and talk about Jesus. 08:05 Which is the whole point is talking about Jesus. 08:08 I can sit here and I know where He is and where I am at 08:15 right now is okay. 08:16 But I do not want to stay here. 08:18 Tomorrow has better things. 08:21 If I take up my cross daily and I follow Him, I'm not stuck. 08:26 It is a continuous evolution, like Mike said, it's knowing 08:29 Him more today, and not knowing about tomorrow, walking blindly 08:33 into it. We have heard great testimonies 08:35 today about that blind faith. 08:38 It is I can look into the eyes of Jesus, trust Him with all of 08:42 my desires that He put inside of me. 08:44 All of the things I was trying to meet with the toys and 08:47 the things of the world, is I have found out He put all 08:51 those desires in my heart, and He has an answer for all of them 08:54 The first time I read in the Bible when it says I actually 08:57 will give you the desires of your heart. 08:59 I wondered what that meant because in my depression I 09:01 didn't know what that was. 09:02 In my addiction I didn't know, I never had enough courage to 09:06 allow those desires to even develop. 09:09 God said don't even worry about that, I know what they are. 09:11 So it sounds with your testimony with your background, with your 09:15 love for Christ, you are in front of those folks at a NASCAR 09:19 race, or what ever because you know there are people sitting 09:22 there that if they could they would take themselves out? Sure! 09:26 That is what you speak about? 09:27 Sure! Well we give opportunities to be able to talk to someone. 09:33 You know many people truly put up the blinds in their life. 09:37 Even the ones sitting there right now, they have kept the 09:40 TV between them and church. 09:41 They can watch these programs through a TV, but as far as in 09:46 person they can't do it. 09:47 At these tracks when you stand up in front of people, you are 09:50 talking to people literally. 09:52 They have been to vacation Bible schools, they have heard 09:55 Bible studies, the stories of old and the great Bible stories 10:01 that maybe grandma told. 10:02 Or a sermon that mom had taken them to. 10:05 They have heard all that. 10:06 They have grown up in it, but something has happened to make 10:09 then put up that barrier, that they do not want to 10:12 hear it no more. 10:13 We come in, all the sudden standing in the middle. 10:16 The amazing thing, we had a great moment not long ago 10:21 in Talladega Alabama, when a man literally walked up, 10:25 with a beer in his hand, and he knew that he was walking 10:30 into 30 believers. 10:31 He had got beer on his shirt. 10:36 He might have a Budweiser, or beer hat on. 10:40 He came in there and what he'd done was he asked for prayer. 10:43 He said my family is falling apart, and my son is sick. 10:48 I need prayer. 10:50 What reached him was not, and I think we all know that it 10:54 is not the desire for a heart to see that is where they stay. 10:57 But I think that is probably how they came to Jesus. 11:02 Is I am not strong enough to change me, but if I can get 11:09 close enough to you, maybe you can. 11:12 So I think as believers in every walk, not even having the 11:19 testimony that me and you have, of the sobriety, and the clean. 11:23 But being delivered out of religion. 11:26 Being delivered out of depression. 11:27 There are people that are going to be, that are going to have 11:31 that armor on, that are going to come into our lives 11:33 and they are going to risk, if we do not condemn them, 11:36 and just say how do you come close to me, the Bible tells 11:40 me to shun this. 11:42 You know we have to be very careful. 11:44 I want to be what Jesus said. 11:48 Jesus was accused of something that was not heard of now 11:54 that the church is being accused of. 11:55 They said look at this friend of sinners. 12:01 He is eating with sinners, and tax collectors. 12:04 Look at Him, this friend of sinners. 12:06 Not friend of former sinners, this friend of sinners. 12:10 That is the identity I want. 12:13 I am sure enough that He is able to keep me. 12:16 He is able to keep me, and I'm covered. 12:19 You know there are some areas whenever it is sin. 12:23 Sodom and Gomorrah, I am not going. 12:26 It is whenever God speaks to us and says there's hurting people 12:29 that need Me. 12:32 That's when we can risk loving each other. 12:37 That I can risk loving you, you can risk loving me. 12:40 Not knowing that our churches our filled with people whose 12:44 hearts are just as dark as those people at the tracks 12:47 that never go to a church anywhere. 12:49 Theirs is just as dark, what we want to do is we want to get 12:54 in the way of their destination that they have set for 12:58 themselves, aren't we all in life's destination toward hell? 13:02 That's the destination that we have. 13:05 But the cross, and our Christ has stopped that and has 13:10 gotten in the way that if we do this right, we would have 13:13 to go around the cross. Right! 13:15 Now what God has done, He has allowed us through life and 13:19 relationships and ministries is to be able to get in the way. 13:22 Mike, he has done a wonderful job of getting in the way of 13:27 people who know about the cross, they know about church, 13:31 Be say I am not going. 13:32 I'm never going to go, the roof will fall in if I walk-in. 13:36 Even with that I have this woman that came up, she is in her 13:41 30s and she was so hurt, she would have killed herself at 13:47 the drop of a hat and had tried many times. 13:50 So she is finally brave enough to walk up to me, because I 13:54 tell my testimony freely and she, it gave her enough 13:57 courage to come up. 13:58 The only thing that she was able to say was 14:00 I'm still smoking. 14:01 I wanted to say are you kidding me? 14:03 But she was like I know this is going to get in my way 14:08 to even get in the building, yet if I don't get in the 14:11 building, I'm going to kill myself. 14:12 I'm thinking that somebody has to yell from the top 14:15 of the tallest church. 14:16 We have got to stop that. 14:18 Because people are dying and little things are stopping them 14:22 from getting help because they feel so judged. 14:24 They don't even get to the core hurt yet. 14:26 We stand, we have a tendency to stand across from the 14:31 sinners on this chasm. 14:34 This canyon, and we have a tendency to shout, 14:37 we have the answer. 14:38 Come to this side. 14:39 It is great whenever they describe our Jesus. 14:43 He describes himself as a shepherd. 14:44 Shepherds do not drive sheep, they lead sheep. 14:48 I think it is going to take, not everyone can do this, 14:51 whenever I became a believer March 1, 1990, there were places 14:56 I could not go that served alcohol. 14:58 I could not, for my sobriety, for my walk with the Lord. 15:03 I could not be around it whatsoever. 15:05 There came a day, there is not a time, it's when ever God 15:09 makes known in your heart that you can be, you're safe now. 15:13 That you are prepared, but now it is going to take some of us 15:18 to be able to cross the chasm to where these people are, and lead 15:22 them to Christ. 15:24 There is a reason why. 15:25 We have to do it, everyone can fish for men. 15:29 What we have talked about with our group, is I am an Evangelist 15:34 by heart, by call. 15:36 That is what I am now. 15:38 Saved by grace, I am, but I don't want to fish with 15:43 a cane pole, and I don't want to fish with a net. 15:47 I really do want to fish with dynamite. 15:50 What do you mean by that? 15:54 You know as an Evangelist, is that I heard you say awhile 15:58 ago, He's coming! He's coming! 16:01 The end could be now. 16:05 This show may never air. 16:08 If that is the case I have brothers and sisters who are not 16:14 believers and if I wait on just the opportunity to have the 16:19 one-on-one, which many people do that, and we have to do that. 16:25 I embrace those moments, still there is times I feel like going 16:29 out to make a big splash to get as many, and inform people. 16:33 I can't make their decisions, but we want to tell people that 16:37 Jesus saves them, He is crazy about you. 16:39 He knows every desire you have in your heart. 16:42 All those things that make you to, things that you do, He has 16:45 got the answer, He is the one that put them in there. 16:48 I didn't put that in there wrong. 16:50 I put it in there so you could find Me, know Me. 16:53 Look in my eyes and know that I love you. 16:55 Trust Me, hear My small voice, yet hear Me whenever I thunder. 17:01 So the thought of fishing with dynamite is going to be probably 17:06 more along the line of controversial ways of getting 17:09 into the face of lost people. 17:11 If I wait for them all to come to our church, if that is the 17:15 way that this is going to happen then I'm afraid that there are 17:19 going to be a lot of people not make it. 17:22 What is really interesting is I have a friend that is an 17:26 ex-stripper, and you will love this, I don't know how many 17:29 people can even understand this story. 17:32 She is getting ready to do a dance for someone, and she had 17:35 been studying the Bible with someone who had enough grace 17:38 to just say, let me show you some stuff. 17:41 She is getting ready to do a dance for someone and she said 17:45 God revealed to her who she was and she said all of a sudden 17:50 I feel like I did not belong there. 17:52 He did not shame her, He didn't do any of that. 17:54 He said you are a child of God, and you are beautiful, and I 17:57 love you and she walked out and never worked again. 17:59 But she was driving by a strip club one time, and she said 18:02 there are still people in bondage there. 18:05 I can't just drive by, so she made little gifts and put them 18:08 on every car, just saying you are a treasure of God. 18:11 She does 1700 gift bags a month now in Los Angeles to different 18:16 clubs, she doesn't go in. 18:18 She doesn't get tempted in all those ways again, but you are 18:20 right in that none of those girls are going to come 18:23 to a church, but now they do. 18:25 They leave the club and they are in the building, so there 18:27 are some people that are called to go out and say. 18:30 There are ones that are called to go out and do that. 18:34 The hands-on part of it, called to do what I do. 18:37 All of us are called to pray for those going out. 18:39 Or do Bible studies when they get in the building. 18:43 Absolutely there is ways, and we all have our part. 18:46 The one out there standing on the platform preaching the 18:49 gospel is not more important then the one that is backstage 18:54 who is just going to give the smile to an abused young child 18:58 who has never seen a smile. 19:00 You might be called just to work in a bus Ministry that when 19:04 that little girl walks in that has no one at home to run the 19:08 combed through her hair, that no one at home who is going 19:11 to say yes those colors go together. 19:13 That you are going to be able to stand at that door when she 19:16 walk seeing you can run your hands through her hair and say 19:18 baby you are beautiful. 19:19 Your beautiful! Those things, I preach it a lot. 19:23 From where I am at to the body of Christ, you've got to know 19:28 the importance of your words and your smile with a sincere 19:31 heart, getting in the way, rubbing elbows with the lost 19:35 people, listen, He set us free from that part where we can't 19:39 get real close to the Lepers. 19:41 He will keep us, we think that we can't go over and lay hands 19:45 on the dead and see them raised again. 19:47 The Bible tells us this. 19:49 So we can risk loving someone. 19:54 Someone risked loving me and I gave my heart to Lord. 19:58 I walked in and look at my mom and dad and gave up my band. 20:02 I told the band I don't know about being a Christian, but 20:06 I'm getting ready to follow the teachings of Christ. 20:09 I have always been so very of being labeled like some of 20:14 these that claim themselves Christ like when ever me and you 20:17 both know they are not. 20:19 No they are not Christ like, not the one in the Bible. 20:20 I remember that there is Mega churches all over the country. 20:25 On the day that I gave my heart to the Lord, mom said you need 20:30 to make this public profession. 20:32 You need to find a church, you need to do that, yes mom! 20:36 I know of this little church in Indiana and they are going to 20:40 church, just go to that. 20:42 I remember that she said I will call the pastor. 20:44 Whenever I drove up it was a little bitty church, and there 20:51 heavy, greasy haired ugly suited man standing in the back and I 20:58 knew right then that this guy loved Jesus. 21:02 Whenever I got out I had the long hair, trench coat, chains 21:06 and when I walked across that road he looked at me and said 21:10 you must be Berry? 21:11 That day, in that church, I waited for the call to the altar 21:15 and waited until everyone was done, it was empty and he said 21:20 is there anyone else? 21:21 With all consciousness, I stood up and wanted to shout it. 21:26 That is where I shouted it from, is this is my walk and I have 21:32 nothing I want of this world. 21:34 I give it all, I don't just give my sin, this is where a lot 21:37 of people mess up, we give our sin, we are real quick to give 21:41 Him our dirty laundry to clean it you know. 21:43 This is bothering me, this is heavy, that is when 21:47 He became my Savior, but I made Him my Lord 21:49 when I gave Him my trophies. 21:52 All of my talents, all of my good that I have ever done, 21:55 or thought about doing. 21:56 He became my king and I gave Him all the good stuff I had 22:01 because you see what I had good, this cleansed soul, this pure 22:04 white soul that my sins were forgotten by the King of Kings. 22:08 I walk in and said I have nothing else possession wise 22:12 that I need, but this thing that is now pure... 22:15 That you just gave me I'm giving 22:18 back to You. 22:19 That is the relationship. 22:21 As I have looked and get to meet the Mike's that God has 22:28 just radically smoked them, and he has laid his life open. 22:34 Now people that know Mike, people that know me, 22:38 is that it is not about the religion game, the religion 22:42 game is old, it's losing, it has failed. 22:45 Now what we have is this grace, we have this mercy, that 22:50 we get to walk in. 22:51 My number one thing that I preach to the young men and 22:55 ladies, the addicts and the misfits and all these people. 23:00 Which we were. 23:01 Amen! Which I love that. 23:02 even the Bible says, which you guys were. 23:05 So you know, I know how to 23:07 speak to them. Absolutely! 23:08 We get to tell them there is one thing that is unforgivable. 23:12 That is giving up. 23:14 He can't forgive giving up. Messing up He is really good 23:19 at forgiving and so as we walk this thing out, perfect 23:24 we are not yet. 23:26 You know what is really interesting to me is 23:29 that surrender where I said God I'm going to give you 23:33 all this stuff and when I finally got overstressing about 23:37 the drugs and alcohol, I almost heard heaven say, I am 23:40 so glad you are finally getting over this because now 23:43 I want to show you how cool everything else is going to be. 23:46 I thought it was all about the work of recovery, He said no, 23:49 I know your talents, I know how it is 23:53 going to feel for you to laugh without using anything. 23:56 When you can stay present in your life with the people 23:59 all around you. 24:00 I didn't know any of that stuff and God said wait until 24:03 I show you that. 24:04 I have, in 1990 I gave my heart to Jesus, in He has worked 24:08 with me and I have been a basket case and Angel after Angel 24:12 probably has quit saying, I don't want to be assigned to him 24:17 Whenever I gave my heart to the Lord, one thing that I said 24:22 well Lord I will do anything for You, but I don't want 24:25 to be a pastor. 24:26 I don't like pastor's, they are pastor's. 24:30 Well I'm a pastor now, and an Evangelist, but since then 24:34 this 28-year-old guy, in the back of a 79 van, 24:40 in White County Illinois, who was deciding I do not want to 24:44 live anymore, that was going to take a pistol and end life, 24:48 as I know it, He has taken that guy who no one counted 24:52 as good for anything. 24:55 I am a pastor at a wonderful church, I serve a wonderful 24:58 congregation, I have a beautiful wife and four daughters. 25:03 I have preached in Nicaragua, I have preached in Amsterdam 25:07 Holland, I have preached in Botswana, South Africa, 25:11 Zimbabwe, I have been all around the world to preach 25:14 this message gospel that has changed my life. 25:16 To a people who do not have any clue about the alcohol 25:20 in the drugs that we talk about. 25:21 I have found in India, what an amazing thing just to 25:26 know this God in my heart. 25:28 To talk to a people that do not believe the Bible. 25:31 But when they look in your eyes and hear your story 25:34 and they hear your passion, all of a sudden they want to 25:37 know who I know. 25:38 They do not want to know what I know, they want to 25:42 know who I know. 25:43 So the reason I can celebrate what we are doing is that 25:49 it is not over yet. 25:50 If the party is over then this would be a let down for now, 25:55 but it is not. 25:57 Tomorrow is another great opportunity to be able to meet 26:02 people we have never met before. 26:03 To preach a gospel to a young person, to a kid tonight. 26:06 I get to go and we've got a bus of kids that we are busting in. 26:11 Tonight I get to go to talk to these little people who do not 26:16 know all of the love that God's giving them. 26:20 We get to do it through a hamburger, or through macaroni 26:24 and cheese or what ever it is. 26:26 That first of all we show them that we care, 26:28 and then they will listen to us. 26:30 Being able to say you know what, I have been scarred. 26:33 I've been hurt, I've been broken and... 26:37 And all of them have been scarred, hurt and broken. 26:40 I don't care where, especially all of them have when they can 26:46 say what happened, how did you get fixed, and that is 26:48 when you share. 26:49 It is truly the surrender. 26:51 You was talking about someone turning on the TV. 26:54 They are scanning the program and tonight they have 26:57 stopped here, and what they have done is they have probably 27:00 already asked the question that Mike asked. 27:03 Okay God, if you are real, say something. 27:07 Maybe right now, in fact I'm going to believe it, 27:10 that right now that someone somewhere is just broken. 27:15 They do not want the religion, they have chased a lot of 27:18 different paths, and they think that they have come 27:22 to the end and there is no hope. 27:23 And they do not want to wake up tomorrow the same. 27:25 They do not have to, they do not have to! 27:30 I hear the preacher coming out. 27:31 They don't have to. They don't have to! 27:34 We are going to be right back, and when we come back I want 27:37 to end this with the pastor, but I also want you to have 27:41 prayer for us, and anybody out there that has just got to 27:44 that point and says I don't want to wake up the same. 27:47 I don't care if you are in the building and everybody around 27:51 you thinks you are fine. 27:53 Everybody around you sees you every week and think you don't 27:55 need prayer and you are fine, but right now you are saying 27:58 I do not want to wake up the same tomorrow. 28:00 We are going to come back for prayer about that. 28:01 And know it that you do not have to. 28:03 It is incredible, the gospel is incredible. 28:06 We will be right back! Stay with us! |
Revised 2014-12-17