Sunday November 3rd 2013/ Exodus Group announcement and testimony
I became a true disciple of Jesus Christ about 4 years ago, not a lot of people know that before that I was an addict. I did it all! I was out of control. The gods that I believed in were drugs, alcohol, and sexual desires. That is where I looked for security, comfort and rest, but all I received from them was temporary relief. I was spinning out of control and it got to be too much. I had a drug habit that would break anyone. Legal issues, personal troubles, and financial worries they all existed because of what and how I chose to worship. I look back at when I was using and wonder how am I still alive? The last two years before finding God were scary. I got in to 2 accidents that I probably should not have survived much less walked away from, all drug and alcohol related. That was a speed bump for me it slowed me down for a few months but then it was off to the races again. I started using drugs to an extreme and I knew that it could kill me and would kill me if I kept it up. I had a $700 a week drug habit. I remember a few times where I contemplated suicide or just ODing on purpose so that I would not have to deal with that life any longer. I remember lying in bed one night after taking a lot of heavy pain medication thinking that the amount that I just took should kill me, and my next thought was that I would be high when I died so that would make it worth it. Sick isn’t it? I also found that sexual sin had run ramped in my life as a secondary addiction. Drugs, alcohol and sex, I worshiped all of these things. And I still can struggle with them sometimes. I started to look back at everything that happened to me and thought that if there was a God why would he give me such bad luck? If I would have just done this a little differently went a different way home I should not have gotten in to an accident or had a run in with the police, and my life would have been different. Then I started a journey with God he began to make me see that he was real and he was working for me not against me. I began to see what he had done as opposed to not done in all my situations God had changed my perspective and opened my eyes. I believe he had his hands in my life even before I had come to believe. I had walked away from 2 bad accidents in 3 months; he was using these experiences to molding me into what I am today and what he will have me be tomorrow. One of the other things he has made me see is that we have a redeeming God and our redemption is Jesus. Our EXODUS if you will; God taking us out of slavery. He can and will deliver us from the idols that we worship, after all, at the core of our problem is worship. So here is what Exodus Group is.
It is a meeting of men that have struggles with primarily drugs, alcohol, and sexual sin. We will be looking at the book of Exodus and how God brought the Israelites up out of Egypt, out of slavery. And how they still did not always follow God to the point where they were willing to go back to Egypt and accept slavery and yet he still kept redeeming them and he provided for them. We will also look at worship distortion after all this is a core issue we have. We worship all the time, but what are the things that we worship? In the group we want to get our focus back on Jesus not the idols we carry. So we invite men who are currently struggling and who have struggled in the past with drugs, alcohol or sexual sin of any kind. We will start meeting on the Tuesday the 12th in the education building. If you have any questions or think you may want to get involved please contact me by email, phone or pull me to the side.