Participants:
Series Code: UBR
Program Code: UBR210018S
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00:01 Are you or a loved one crippled by sin?
00:03 Are you struggling with the stronghold 00:05 of same-sex attraction or sexual immorality? 00:09 Well, stay tuned to meet someone 00:10 who has some strategies to defeat the strongholds. 00:14 My name is Jason Bradley, 00:16 and you're watching Urban Report. 00:40 Hello, and welcome to Urban Report. 00:42 My guest today is Michael Carducci, 00:45 co-founder and speaker For Coming Out Ministries. 00:48 Welcome to Urban Report, Michael. 00:51 It's good to be here. It's great to have you here. 00:54 I wish you were here with me in person. 00:56 So we could talk about this incredible topic. 01:00 This is a powerful thing 01:01 we're going to be discussing today. 01:03 Yeah, I'm grateful for the opportunity, Jason. 01:05 Yes. 01:07 And I'm grateful for you stepping out 01:08 and taking this on. 01:10 So why don't you tell us about who is Coming Out Ministries? 01:15 Sure, thank you. 01:17 Coming Out Ministry started 11 years ago by five 01:20 individuals that all had testimonies 01:22 of coming out of sexual sin. 01:24 Specifically some of us were coming out of bisexuality, 01:29 transgenderism, lesbianism, bisexual addiction, 01:34 porn addiction, everything. 01:36 And as we realize that each one of us had a ministry, 01:39 we thought, you know, if one of us told a story, 01:42 that would be a good thing, but what if five people got 01:44 together and formed a ministry to tell their stories? 01:47 So that's how it started since then we now have six speakers. 01:50 We have 10 people on our board. 01:52 We have probably 25 volunteers, a volunteer behind the scenes. 01:57 So Coming Out Ministries has evolved into something 01:59 much greater than even what we anticipated 02:01 11 years ago. 02:03 Wow. Wow. 02:04 And it seems like 02:06 the climate is right for it right now 02:10 with all that's going on. 02:12 Well, do you know Jason? 02:13 I think, yeah, I think that our popularity hasn't necessarily 02:16 been because we're strong speakers 02:17 or incredible celebrities, I think is because of the... 02:21 It's the issue of the day. 02:22 As a matter of fact, Dwayne Lemon even calls us 02:24 the present truth ministry, because we're dealing about 02:28 the issues that contemporary society 02:30 is dealing with from a biblical perspective. 02:33 Yes. Yes. 02:35 What have been some of your triumphs? 02:39 Some of our triumphs? 02:40 I, well, it really, it really kind of goes back. 02:43 I think, to some of the ministry 02:45 opportunities that we've had in the past 02:47 where we've met people, 02:48 we've encouraged people along the way, 02:50 and they've chosen to walk away from their LGBT identities. 02:54 And as we were working with them, 02:56 we were studying with them and promoting them. 02:59 They were telling their stories, 03:01 their incredible stories and you know, 03:03 something, it's interesting that you bring it up 03:04 so early in the interview 03:06 and I really want to unpack this. 03:08 But one of the things that we started to realize 03:10 is that God gives us this incredible gift 03:13 and that's the gift of the will. 03:15 We have the choice of the will each and every day 03:18 and several times in a day. 03:20 And sometimes because of that precious gift, 03:23 that there's also a huge risk that goes to that gift 03:26 is that I can choose at any time to walk away. 03:30 And it's not a gay thing. 03:31 It's not a straight thing. 03:33 It's basically God's respecting of the will. 03:36 So in the last 11 years, we've had individuals 03:39 that chose to go back into the gay culture 03:42 or they fell back into addictions, 03:45 and Coming Out Ministries had to really assess ourselves 03:48 and say, wait a minute, you know, 03:50 is this what kind of a ministry do we have? 03:52 Do we just turn and walk away from these individuals 03:54 and act as if they never existed? 03:57 We don't talk about it. We don't mention it anymore. 03:59 But instead what we did is we started to establish 04:02 on Wednesday mornings, we started to pray 04:05 and fast for individuals that we have lost 04:07 for individuals that are in the ministry, 04:10 that we are encouraging relationships with. 04:13 And through that process, and I can't even, 04:17 I mean, we've had opportunities where we've spoken 04:19 around the world, but I think the greatest, 04:22 the greatest events that have happened in Coming Out 04:24 Ministries is when two of those individuals 04:26 have actually come back. 04:27 One of them was actually a founding member 04:29 of Coming Out Ministries. 04:30 If you go to our February newsletter, 04:32 you can read all about it because one of the things 04:36 that I'm the most proud about this ministry 04:39 is that everybody has the right to choose. 04:42 And the consequences of those decisions are always there. 04:45 And we face them every day, but there are many ministry 04:48 leaders that have fallen away because of not only 04:51 sexual sin, but because of other sins 04:54 or other reasons that they walk away from ministry. 04:57 So does that mean that the Bible 04:59 is still not the truth? 05:00 Does that mean that the word doesn't have any value? 05:02 No. 05:04 It just means that we're human beings 05:05 that are frail and fall into temptations. 05:07 So as we were talking about how to bring these people back, 05:13 we felt that we had an opportunity 05:15 and an honor to talk about how God still 05:17 is in the business of restoration. 05:20 One of the examples that I want to use 05:22 is my colleague Wayne Blakely, 05:24 who walked away from our ministry before years ago. 05:27 And he really had to assess some things 05:28 that were going on in his life. 05:30 He had to really assess the power of temptation 05:34 and what that was doing not only in his representation 05:38 of the ministry, but was that even 05:40 the goal of what he wanted as far as you know, 05:43 his eternal salvation. 05:45 And through that process, we didn't drop him. 05:47 We didn't let him go and pretend like 05:48 he never existed. 05:50 But instead what we did is we rallied around him. 05:52 We loved him. 05:53 And in that process, 05:55 not that it had anything to do with us, 05:56 but as the Lord was ministering to his soul, 05:59 he began to start writing again. 06:01 He began to really start praying again, 06:03 and he started to pursue Jesus Christ in a whole different way 06:07 that I believe made it an even better part of his testimony. 06:11 So just because somebody falls, 06:13 you know, the Bible is very clear. 06:15 Mary had to be healed the demon seven times. 06:17 And we know that in the Bible, in Proverbs, 06:19 it talks about the righteous man and the wicked man, 06:21 they both fall. 06:23 And the righteous man falls seven times. 06:24 And what that means is that he falls until he gets it right. 06:28 And so just because somebody falls, 06:30 it doesn't mean that their ministry is over. 06:32 It just means that they're human 06:34 and that the power of Jesus Christ 06:36 can still be manifested in their life. 06:37 So not only did that happen for Wayne, 06:39 but it also happened for another colleague 06:41 that we spoke with internationally. 06:43 And she had come out of transgenderism and lesbianism. 06:47 And while she was speaking for us these, 06:49 the temptation again got overwhelming. 06:52 She said, you know, I can't represent 06:53 the ministry anymore. 06:54 She went back into the gay life. 06:56 And then while she was in the gay life, 06:58 we were praying and fasting. 06:59 Again, her mother was with us. 07:01 We were all desperately pleading 07:03 for the Holy Spirit to work in her life. 07:05 And you know, miraculously, two weekends ago, 07:08 she got baptized again, coming back into a relationship 07:11 with Jesus Christ. 07:12 She has a podcast, 07:14 she's got a ministry that she's starting as well. 07:16 And so, those are the most powerful things 07:19 I think that has happened to Coming Out Ministry. 07:21 I can't believe you asked that as the second question. 07:23 It's like, we've so much more to cover. 07:25 I was hoping we'd save that for the last, but it's good. 07:28 Let it get out. 07:29 That's right. That's right. 07:31 And we want to hear even more stories. 07:32 So we've got, we've got this whole time to hear 07:34 some powerful stories about how God is moving. 07:38 What are some of your greatest challenges that you face? 07:42 Some of the greatest challenges that we face are really 07:45 not with the world so much 07:47 and what the world's attitudes are about LGBT promotion 07:51 and acceptance. 07:53 I'm just gonna put it out there. 07:54 Jason, 'cause you asked is the acceptance 07:57 of our own church inside. 07:59 There is a huge polarization going on in our church that, 08:04 that when I came back into the church, 08:07 you know, 20 years ago, the issue was that, 08:10 you know, gays can't change and that God hates them. 08:12 And now all of a sudden it's, there's this complete opposite 08:16 side that, you know, that gays can change, 08:19 but God loves them. 08:20 So what's amazing to me is that the message is the same 08:23 saying that God, gays can't change, 08:25 but we either hate them or we love them. 08:27 And you know what? 08:28 Did anybody read 1 Corinthians Chapter 6? 08:31 If you will look at verse 11, 08:32 it says such worse some of you after explained all 08:35 of the abominations that won't be in heaven. 08:38 And yes, homosexuality is just one of many. 08:41 Did you know that even gossips are listed as an abomination, 08:45 that won't be in heaven. 08:47 So isn't that interesting that God puts gossips 08:49 and homosexuals right on the same level. 08:50 There's not one that's better than the other. 08:52 They're the same. 08:53 It's the same with fornication, adultery, murder stealing. 08:58 So, all right. 08:59 So if we're going to pick on one group of people, 09:02 we have to at least be inclusive 09:05 of all the other issues that, 09:07 that the Bible is very clear about. 09:09 So if we're going to be inclusive, 09:11 then that means that we shouldn't be exclusive either 09:13 and allow the LGBT community to identify 09:16 themselves in their temptations or their simple behaviors. 09:20 So, so again, we don't, 09:21 we don't isolate one from the other. 09:23 We put them all in the same level, 09:24 the same category, 09:25 which may actually bring you to another question 09:28 about Coming Out Ministries. 09:29 We're not about LGBT issues anymore, Jason. 09:32 And while we all had that in common, 09:34 we had many other things that were in common as well. 09:37 And we found that people as they were coming to us 09:40 and listening to us, they thought, oh, 09:42 I thought this was all about the gay issue. 09:44 But really I realized that you're talking about me. 09:47 And even though I never struggled with, 09:49 with homosexuality, they, people would say 09:52 that they struggle with porn addiction or they struggled 09:54 with masturbation or premarital sex, 09:56 or these other things started coming up. 09:58 And they were realizing that the victory over sin 10:02 was really our message. 10:04 And so we started to be more inclusive about Coming Out 10:07 Ministries is not just about coming out 10:10 of the closet or going back into the closet as LGBT, 10:13 but instead it's about restoring all men 10:15 and women back to the image of our Creator God, 10:18 which isn't a gay thing or a straight thing, 10:20 it's about holiness. 10:22 You know, Jesus says be holy, even as I am holy. 10:24 So what does that look like in our world 10:27 today with all of these social constructs about being 10:29 who you are and identifying as who you are being 10:32 comfortable with who you are? 10:33 Well, the Bible says I have to die daily. 10:36 And what does that mean? How do I get there? 10:38 And how do I learn the process of embracing something 10:42 other than what did define me other than the things 10:45 that I was attracted to, 10:46 that I was allowing to define me 10:48 and to find identity in something 10:50 that gave me something better 10:52 than what the world is giving me? 10:53 And that may seem like going around my elbow 10:56 to get to my wrist, Jason. 10:57 But I think that that's the biggest challenge 10:59 that we have right now is convincing the church 11:02 that they've really dropped the ball. 11:03 They dropped the ball because what they've done 11:06 now is, is they've given up the biblical evidence 11:08 that God can restore and redeem. 11:11 And, and what we've done is 11:12 we sold into these social constructs, 11:13 whether it's because schools are accepting, 11:17 you know, government funding, whether it's our universities, 11:20 whether they're just trying to meet, you know, 11:22 these different social constructs halfway, 11:24 I don't know. 11:26 But unfortunately we have lost the fact 11:28 that Jesus still has the power to redeem and to restore lives. 11:32 And 2 Timothy 3:5 is very clear. 11:34 It says, there's a form. 11:36 There's a people that have a form of godliness, 11:38 but they deny the power thereof, from such stay away. 11:42 So when you do not have the power of Jesus Christ 11:44 to restore what you're doing, you're basically saying 11:47 that the, that the, that the example 11:50 of what Jesus gave us on the cross is impotent, 11:52 that everything that Jesus accomplished for us 11:54 is basically null and void. 11:56 And, of course, you would say that that's only 11:58 some people that's not all the church. 12:00 That's not all the universities. 12:02 That's not all the, yeah. 12:04 We want to make that, that clear. 12:06 Yeah. 12:07 Well, you know, Jason it's tough. 12:10 It's really tough. 12:11 There's very few of our universities that will actually 12:15 embrace biblical evidence of biblical truth on sexuality. 12:18 And while in every school, in every conference 12:21 and in every union, there are people that, 12:23 that support our ministry that support our message. 12:26 But unfortunately there's enough strong 12:29 leadership that certain countries will not allow 12:31 Coming Out Ministries to even enter into their country 12:34 or speaking to their churches. 12:36 And sometimes we've even been escorted off 12:39 the campuses because they didn't want Coming 12:41 Out Ministries to talk about the biblical evidence 12:44 of God's restoration. 12:47 You touched on something earlier 12:49 that I want to revisit it, 12:50 you know, in terms of putting sin on a pedestal, 12:55 why is it do you think that people put particular 13:00 sins up on a pedestal when the Bible says, 13:03 you know, for the wages of sin is death? 13:07 You know, I like the way you put that, 13:10 because I didn't say that they put it on a pedestal, 13:12 they kind of separated. 13:13 They kind of made, you know, like years ago, 13:15 years ago, like homosexuality was this horrible thing. 13:19 And that there was just no way that God could redeem it 13:21 so that wasn't putting it up on a pedestal. 13:23 It was really kind of separating it out. 13:24 Meaning, if you send like that, that's really bad. 13:28 Like that's so bad that God can't even help you. 13:30 But now I think you're right. 13:32 I think they put that on a pedestal because now 13:34 things have switched around. 13:35 Isaiah 5:20 says, 13:37 "Woe to them that make evil good and good evil." 13:40 So now we've taken LGBT issue 13:43 and we put it up on this pedestal and said, 13:45 yeah, you know, what is hateful to tell 13:47 gays that they can change. 13:48 And if the gays can't change that they were 13:50 born that way and that we should love them 13:53 because God loves them. 13:55 So we've completely thrown away by the gospel. 13:58 We've thrown away the power of God to redeem 14:00 and to restore. 14:01 So now, if, if, if I've got same-sex attraction, Jason, 14:04 and then if I understand that the Adventist Church 14:07 now says that it's okay to identify as a gay Christian, 14:11 then what that means is that 14:13 I don't have anything to confess. 14:14 Remember, 1 John 1:9 says, that 14:16 "If we confess our sins, 14:18 He is faithful and just not only to forgive our sins, 14:20 but to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 14:22 But if I don't believe that I have to confess 14:26 that I have same-sex attraction. 14:28 Then if I don't confess that, then I have cut myself off 14:31 from the cleansing, forgiveness and restoration 14:33 that Jesus has provided for me. 14:36 So again, when we take a sin temptation 14:38 and to attach it on our identity in Christ, 14:41 we're making that sinful behavior or that identity, 14:45 we're making that exclusive from all the other identities 14:48 that haven't got a chance, you know, 14:49 that God says in Chapter 6, 14:51 that these are the abominations that won't be in heaven. 14:54 So I don't get that. 14:56 And you know, a very prominent pastor told me, he said, 14:59 we don't want to be exclusive here. 15:01 And we want to allow LGBT people to be put in the same 15:06 group as everybody else. 15:07 And I said to this person, then why would you allow 15:10 a gay person to identify as a gay Christian unless 15:13 you're willing to identify as a lying Christian 15:16 or an adulterating Christian or a fornicating Christian. 15:20 You get my point. It doesn't make sense. 15:22 But if you're going to allow someone to identify 15:23 as a gay Christian, which is a sinful temptation, 15:27 and let me be clear, 15:28 God does not condemn the person that has same sex attraction. 15:31 He condemns the behavior. 15:33 And that also applies to transgenderism as well. 15:36 But I can't continue to identify as a gay Christian, 15:41 if God is asking me to walk away from that identity that I, 15:44 that I lived in for over 20 years. 15:47 Why would I continue to call myself something 15:50 when God says I'm a new creature, 15:52 in Christ, I'm a new creature. 15:53 All things have passed away. 15:54 Behold, everything becomes new. 15:56 Well, even though everything is becoming new 15:58 over the last 20 years that I've been walking this walk, 16:00 Jason, it doesn't mean that God took away my history 16:03 or my memory. 16:04 And we know that that Paul prayed to be relieved 16:07 of this thorn in the flesh. 16:08 So maybe his thorn in the flesh was, 16:10 you know, his old thoughts and his old behaviors. 16:14 And while God doesn't promise to take away my temptations, 16:17 what he does promise is to give me strength 16:19 and grace to overcome those temptations. 16:21 And I believe that that's what every single one of us 16:24 is learning to do. 16:25 Whether you are same-sex attracted, 16:27 whether you were addicted to pornography 16:29 and masturbation, whether you were in premarital sexual 16:33 relationships or whatever that was, 16:35 God doesn't take away the memory of that. 16:37 But He does promise to give us power to overcome 16:39 those temptations and behaviors. 16:40 Yes. 16:42 Right now, how about you give us some tips 16:44 and some strategies to overcome some of those strongholds, 16:47 like, what do you tell people when you're counseling them 16:49 or when you're speaking with them? 16:53 Well, this is really interesting. 16:55 I've had some recent conversations with a few people 16:58 that really alarmed me. 17:00 And I think that when 40 years ago 17:03 when I was 20 years old 17:05 and I was struggling with same-sex attraction, 17:08 I hadn't actually gone into the gay life or anything. 17:10 But I remember that I had two thoughts. 17:12 I had two decisions that I could make. 17:14 Number one, I could either be gay 17:17 or I could be a Christian, but I couldn't be both. 17:20 And now what I hear is that people have this kind 17:25 of warped sense of the gospel, meaning that that cheap grace 17:28 basically says that I can be addicted to porn 17:31 and I could be fornicating 17:33 and still have a place in heaven. 17:35 And some of them are preachers and teachers 17:37 and people that are getting baptized. 17:40 And, and here's the big misunderstanding is, 17:43 yes, God loves us just as we are, 17:47 but He's not going to leave us where we are. 17:49 And so while He does love us, even though we're sinful, 17:52 He's willing for us to accept Him 17:54 as He is and walk according to, to, to the foundation 18:00 of what He established that He said is good for you. 18:02 You know, people get caught up in this thing that 18:04 if I give up my, my life, according to what the Bible 18:08 says is simple, then, then I'm losing something 18:11 like I'm not being true to myself. 18:12 Well, the Bible says that everything is permissible, 18:15 but not everything is beneficial. 18:17 And while God allows us to make the choice 18:19 and to live by those choices, 18:21 our choices have become perverted because we've 18:24 indulged in the things that come naturally, 18:26 God isn't going to take perverted characters to heaven. 18:29 And while I come to Him, as I am polluted and, 18:32 and perverted, He says, take hold of my strength. 18:36 In Philippians 2:5, "Let this mind be in you 18:39 so that you can have my thoughts and my feelings. 18:42 Let me take your perverted thoughts and feelings 18:44 and heal them and give you holy thoughts and feelings." 18:48 And that is a process. 18:49 One of the things that have recently come to my mind, 18:53 which is really powerfully convicting 18:55 is that my sister was in church 18:58 and this little old lady in her 90s said that for three, 19:02 for three generations her family has been Adventist, 19:05 and now I said, oh, Jesus is coming soon. 19:07 Jesus is coming soon. 19:08 And she said that, this woman said, 19:10 I'm not saying that anymore. 19:11 Once I've seen the pandemic take over the world 19:14 and I've seen LGBT acceptance and these laws 19:17 and everything that's happening in the church today, 19:20 she said, Jesus isn't coming soon. 19:22 Jesus is just playing coming. 19:24 And when she said that, my sister had her mouth dropped 19:26 open when she realized that. 19:28 And I thought, wow, that's right. 19:29 Jesus really is coming soon if you're watching the way 19:32 march in the prophecy, you can tell what's on the horizon. 19:35 And I was sharing that with a brother in Switzerland 19:38 and we were just walking one night and he said, wow, Mike. 19:40 He said, when you think about that, 19:42 if Jesus is coming soon, he said, 19:45 that means not very long from now, 19:47 there won't be any more sin. 19:48 And that absolutely grabbed my attention. 19:51 And my reaction was the same as mine. 19:53 I thought, wait a minute. 19:54 If sin won't be any more than as a Christian, 19:57 I need to make sure that my sins are in the sanctuary 20:00 and that daily, I am asking God to help me to hate 20:03 sin perfectly. 20:05 That's my new prayer, Jason. 20:06 Lord, help me to hate sin perfectly because honestly 20:10 on our own, Jason, none of us can do that. 20:12 None of us can hate sin perfectly. 20:14 So how do we get to that process 20:15 of learning the character of Jesus Christ, 20:18 learning the process of getting those sins in the sanctuary? 20:22 And I was reading well, actually, 20:23 I've been reading for probably the last month, 20:26 the book, Mind, Character and Personality, Chapter 15. 20:29 And that is a very startling chapter when you read it, 20:33 because it talks about the will. 20:36 And that is the bottom line for people 20:37 who are addicted, for people who have 20:39 fallen in the temptations, for people 20:41 who are stuck with certain behaviors 20:45 that they don't like anymore. 20:46 You read that chapter, and it tells you exactly 20:49 how to overcome sin by, by surrendering the will. 20:54 And I think that that we've made that kind 20:56 of a cavalier statement, we're all, yes, 20:58 when you will surrender your will, 21:00 but what does that really mean? 21:01 And what I'm finding in my own pursuit 21:04 is that asking the Lord to give me His will. 21:08 And as simple as that sounds, 21:10 it just means that I'm acquiescing. 21:12 That means that I'm giving Jesus permission. 21:14 I just give Him permission because you know what? 21:16 Oh, this is so cool. 21:18 Jason, listen to me, listen, 21:20 I'm going to preach it for just a minute 21:21 that you're gonna love this. 21:22 Hey preach, take your time. 21:25 All right. Right. All right. 21:26 I'm going to, but there was this young woman 21:28 that accidentally came on our reformer's line 21:30 and it was my fault. 21:31 It was my fault. 21:33 Let me just, let me just be honest about that. 21:34 She was, she was a lesbian woman 21:36 that I'd met in Switzerland 21:38 and I was speaking there and she came up 21:39 and she was really kind of, you know, 21:41 dismissed by my presentation. 21:43 And she said, if I was ever to pray again, 21:46 I would never ask God to take away my relationship. 21:49 And so we exchanged phone numbers, 21:51 we dialogue a little bit. 21:52 She was a beautiful woman in her mid 30s. 21:54 And so I was scrolling. 21:56 I was, look, I was scrolling through my phone 21:59 and I'm trying to find these people 22:00 to invite to our reformer's line. 22:02 And we have an international reformer's line 22:04 which is really incredible. 22:05 Ask me, ask me about that later on. 22:07 So I was asking all these people that come in 22:09 and I was inviting people from South Africa, 22:12 New Zealand Zimbabwe, you know, 22:16 all around Europe, Sweden, Denmark. 22:18 So I found her name and I go, oh, lesbian from Switzerland. 22:22 Boop. I invited her. 22:23 So when I opened up the zoom line 22:25 and I looked and I see this young woman, 22:27 she goes, Hey, Mike, remember me? 22:28 And I'm like, no, not really. 22:30 She said, I'm from Zurich, Switzerland. 22:32 And then it hit me. 22:34 And I thought, oh, I've made a huge mistake. 22:35 I've invited this woman to an ex, 22:38 you know, to an ex-gay zoom chat, prayer line. 22:42 And so she said, well, she goes, that's okay. 22:45 She said, I was curious about what you had to say. 22:47 And the Holy Spirit said, do not let her go, 22:50 do not let her go. 22:51 And I thought, well, how am I going to incorporate 22:52 her into this group? 22:54 And we had like 20 some people in this group 22:55 all over the world. 22:57 And so I thought, okay. 22:58 I said, would you be willing to share what your reaction 23:01 was when I gave my testimony in your church? 23:03 And she said, I'd be happy to. 23:06 And so it was a, with a little bit of fear and trepidation, 23:09 but I brought her into the group 23:11 and she was very plain. 23:13 And she said, Mike, you're old. 23:14 You know, you don't have any sexual attractions anymore. 23:17 She said, but I'm young. 23:18 And I like sex and it feels good. 23:20 And as we were talking or whatever, 23:22 she basically dismissed me. 23:23 But what was so incredible, Jason is she started to hear 23:27 20 other people around the world talking about 23:30 how they had given God their identities and sexuality 23:34 and their addictions and their drives. 23:36 And there was a 20 year old man that had been walking 23:39 with Jesus for three years, talking about it was difficult, 23:42 but that he realized that God was offering him something 23:44 so much better. 23:45 And then other people started to share. 23:47 By the end of that two hour zoom call, 23:49 she was in tears and she continues to come back. 23:53 Jason, that's what I'm talking about. 23:55 Praise God. Praise God. 23:57 Well, wait, wait, wait, wait, here's the other part, 23:59 here's the other part. 24:01 And I'm sorry, I was just going around my elbow, 24:02 but it's necessary because I called her 24:05 another time and we were having this long conversation 24:08 and she said, you know what? 24:09 I know it's wrong. 24:10 She said, I know being gay is wrong. 24:12 She said, but you know what? 24:14 Fifty percent of me can't help it. 24:16 Fifty percent of me, I just can't do it. 24:19 And she said, and 50% of me doesn't want to. 24:22 Jason, that's it, make a bumper 24:24 sticker because it's not about sexual sin, 24:26 it's about all sin. 24:27 Fifty percent of us, we know we can't. 24:29 And 50% of us doesn't want to. 24:31 And when I put that together with the will, 24:34 surrendering the will, that's exactly what I pray now. 24:37 Lord, 50% of me can't 24:39 and 50% of me doesn't want to, 24:41 but I choose to give You my will. 24:45 And you know what? 24:46 That's when the power and the grace of Jesus Christ 24:49 comes in and swoops in and gives me the strength 24:53 that otherwise on my own, I wouldn't have known 24:56 or what I want to. 24:57 Lord, help me to hate sin perfectly. 25:01 That's powerful. That's powerful. 25:02 Mike, tell us a little bit about 25:04 the prayer line real quick? 25:07 Okay. 25:09 So the prayer line is probably, 25:10 I think the greatest thing that Coming Out Ministries 25:13 has ever done it, if not anything else, 25:15 because we meet three times a week. 25:17 On Monday evenings, 25:19 we have a zoom call at 7 o'clock Eastern Time. 25:21 Also 9:00 AM on Thursdays 25:24 Eastern Standard Time in our phone prayer line 25:27 and also Friday mornings at 6:00 AM. 25:29 So we try to include the East Coast 25:31 and the West Coast, but in these prayer lines 25:34 we mostly have parents, parents that are pleading, 25:38 parents that are fasting and praying on behalf 25:40 of their children and loved ones. 25:42 And you know what? 25:43 Parents, I didn't know this, but parents struggle 25:45 with a deeper sense of guilt and shame 25:48 than even people that are LGBT, because now everyone's 25:50 embracing it and claiming it. 25:52 But when the parents come together, 25:55 woo, some of them now have become best friends. 25:57 They realize that we've created a community now 26:00 where people can come without shame, 26:02 without condemnation, and they can find encouragement 26:05 and support, you know, people that they, 26:09 that know exactly what they're going through, 26:10 things that they can share their, their heartaches 26:13 and also the victories. 26:14 Yeah, and that's extremely important is to have 26:16 that support group, to have that support is, 26:19 is crucial. 26:21 You know, I want to put up your contact information right now. 26:24 And if you would just read that because somebody out 26:26 there that's gonna want to get in touch with you, 26:28 maybe they need help. 26:29 Maybe they're struggling with something 26:30 and they want to reach you, 26:32 or maybe they want to support you. 26:33 So if you could just read your contact information 26:35 that would be great. 26:37 Sure. 26:38 Coming Out Ministries, we're located at PO Box 107, 26:42 Tilly, Arkansas. That's Tilly, Arkansas 72679. 26:48 If you want to email, or if you want to contact us, 26:50 you go to comingoutministries.org 26:52 On our website we have powerful resources. 26:55 We have our movie Journey Interrupted, 26:58 which you can watch for free in 12 different languages. 27:01 At comingoutministries.org 27:02 you can also find powerful testimonies, 27:06 resources, books, videotapes, music, all kinds of things. 27:10 We have a free library there. 27:11 We have different tabs to address the different issues 27:15 that you may want information on as well as 27:18 if you want to email us, you can go to 27:19 admin@comingoutministries.org 27:22 and we can move your prayer requests. 27:24 We can answer your questions and send you any kind 27:27 of resources that you may need. 27:28 Thank you, Jason. You're welcome. 27:30 Thank you, Mike. That is beautiful. 27:32 And I'm so glad that you have those resources 27:35 available to the public and that you're going out, 27:38 you're being transparent and you're sharing with them. 27:41 You know, that they can gain the victory. 27:44 They don't have to be stuck in that lifestyle. 27:46 And so if you're out there 27:48 and you're listening to this right now, 27:49 know that God wants to deliver you 27:51 from whatever you are being held and bondage by. 27:55 Until next time, God bless you. |
Revised 2021-08-30