Years ago, I went to Bible College with the present Pastor of First Baptist Church of West Seneca, Pastor Dana Cline! It is always great to be with a classmate from years ago. We had a wonderful week. The team appreciated the great support from the faculty and staff and the good response from the students in the Christian school.
Austin, the Mighty Marine Captain, was able to counsel one of his guys who responded on the second war night. He was bitter at God because his mom died, and thought that since he was angry at God, God was also angry at him and would no longer accept him. He was so broken over his bitterness and that night, he got assurance of his salvation!
On Friday, Violet, the Mighty Marine co-captain got to counsel a girl on friday night about immorality. She was hopping between coping mechanisms becuase she wasn’t finding fullfillment in God. Violet told her that God pursues in His love and He was waiting for her to turn back to him. She already knew what she needed to do and was planning to confess to her parents. Violet counseled her to talk to her boyfriend, confess to him and put specific boundaries in place. She testified on friday night,
I was raised in a Christian household…But I didn’t accept the Lord Jesus Christ until I was 15 years old. I’ve been hearing the gospel for 15 years and never once did I believe. For all my life, I have hopped from sin to sin to sin, and each time I was getting caught. I’ve always thought to the verse…your sin will find you out and that just never sunk to me….before I got saved, I was struggling with sin like homosexuality and transgender. Then I got out of that because I got caught. And then I hopped to self-harm and then I hopped to an eating. And every single time God met me where I was and I cleared that up. But then I was just hopping to the next thing. And when I was hopping to the next thing, that’s when I stopped emotion. That’s when I stopped believing in God. And now even here, I’m still struggling in sin. I mean, I’m dealing with sexual immorality, especially thoughts and desires. And God met me where I was on Friday and he was like, what are you doing? I mean, what are you doing? Like you’ve been raised in a Christian household since birth your entire life. And I was hearing messages and I just decided to ignore it. I decided to twist scripture into thinking of what I believe was right. And you can’t do that. God’s word says exactly what is true. You can’t twist scripture; it doesn’t work like that. So… today especially, I just decided to go forward and be like, God, I can’t do this without you. All my life I’ve done this without you. I am so weak. We’re all so weak. Everyone in this room is weak. You can’t do this without God. So, I just wanted to give an encouragement. You need to lean on Jesus. You need to spend time with him. You need to spend time in prayer. Or else you’re just going to be hopping from sin to sin to sin.
Annie, the Incredible Ranger’s co-captain was able to talk to a girl on Friday. She had already been counseled by Violet, but was struggling with a lot of awful things that had happened in her life. This week she learned to trust in the Lord to fulfill her every need and trust God in her circumstances. She testified on Friday,
I have been struggling with depression since I was eight years old. It all started when my mom told me I was a mistake because I wasn’t a boy because she wanted all boys. And I was like, okay, that’s not right. But for the first like two years, I was like, okay, maybe she didn’t mean it, maybe she was just mad. But no, after time went on, she kept saying I was a mistake and the abortion should have worked because she took a shot. And that my biological father, he tried to kill me before I was out of the womb. And I never really had a relationship with my biological father because when I was four, he went to prison…And ever since I was like 10, I had been bullied severely to the point where I started cutting myself. And that went on for about three years…And then…I got with the wrong crowd and I started feeling like I wasn’t wanted, so I started going on dating apps…And I thought that was the only way to be loved, so I did it. And I was like, this isn’t right. I can’t do this anymore, So I stopped doing that…if you’re dealing with like anything like depression, anxiety, anger issues, God’s with you.
On Monday out recruiting, the co-captains found a whole group of kids in a neighborhood. They came out Wednesday, and three got saved. They brought back friends the next day, and more got saved! It was such an answer to prayer because we prayed that we would find kids outside, and there they were! There is even a possibility that the church will start a bus route because of that connection.
Hyles, the captain of the Incredible Rangers, was burdened about a guy on his team the whole week. He raised his hand after almost every message but never responded. Finally, on Friday, he responded to the invitation and he was able to counsel him. He was struggling with immoral viewing and had been struggling for years. He kept trying in his own strength to get rid of the addiction, but failed every time. This week the Lord changed his perspective that he had not been depending on Jesus to rescue him from his sin in his Christian life.
There was a large homeschool presence from the athletic teams in the school. One of them was on the Super Seal team and came to every evening rally. On Wednesday night, he was one of the first to respond to the invitation and was able to talk with Ashton, the captain of the Super Seals. That night, he got gloriously saved. He got saved and testified on Friday.
I was always raised in a Christian household… both my mom, my dad, they’re Christian, everybody in my family’s Christian….I’ve always agreed with what Jesus…had taught and everything…and I lived a great life. I was a great kid until I was about 12 years old…then…a good friend of mine who I thought I could trust…ended up abusing me. And…that really kind of was…a moment where after that point I….kind of stopped. I stopped being good. I stopped going towards what I should. I just started being bad. I fell into…a numerous loads of sins…just terrible things. I became a terrible person and I stopped living for God and I was just running from Him, and I was running away from everything that I knew that was true and everything I knew that I thought I believed, but I knew that it was in my heart I didn’t. I didn’t have that faith. I didn’t have that commitment. And then last night when I came…that sermon hit me so hard and all I could think of was I’m not. I’m not saved. I’ve been going through my life thinking I’m saved, calling myself a Christian, wearing shirts that are Christian and just thinking that, you know…I’m good with God and that God understands me, but the truth is is that it wasn’t because I haven’t accepted His gift. So…when everybody had their heads down and their eyes closed last night, said raise your hand if you think that you would go to hell. And I was thinking about it. I said, I would. So, I raised my hand. And then when I was told that you have to stand up and go to a room if you want to go and accept Jesus, my first reaction was no, no, no, no. Because I have friends, all my teammates are here…some of my good friends, people who know me for years, who have always thought that I was a Christian…I can’t stand up, they’re going to know that about me…and some all consuming feeling, something inside my heart just told me it it said, Gabe, you need to stand up, you need to go. I won’t call it an audible voice, but it was near that. And all I could think of was I need to go, I need to be saved because I know Jesus is true and I want to follow him and I want to accept him. So, I went in that room and I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. So, I want to give encouragement to anybody out there…who has been raised in a Christian home and thinking that they’re Christian, but deep down they know that they’re running from God and they know that they’re not…I want to give encouragement to all of you that you can accept the Lord Jesus Christ for who He is, and you can stop running and with Him you can break all those bad habits that you have, and that you can break every sin and the hold that Satan has in you, You can run into God’s arms because He is your new Father and He loves you.
Carissa, the co-captain of the Super Seals, was burdened about a girl on her team all week. She seemed to be hurting, and she felt like there was something deeper she was dealing with. She never raised her hand or responded to any messages, so on Thursday night, Carissa was surprised to see her come into the counseling room. Right before she was supposed to talk to someone, she asked to tell her parents to wait for her, and then decided that she would just talk to them instead. She prayed for her all Friday, and she still never responded. That evening, the testimony service was about to end when she approached Carissa and asked to talk. She got assurance that night and confessed a lot of immoral sins she was struggling with. The joy on her face was evident and such a change from the girl we met on Monday!
Ashton also got to counsel a young man on his team. He was from a Methodist background, but was saved. His parents had gotten divorced when he was younger, and he was struggling with viewing. He hid it from them for so long, but finally confessed to them his week. He testified on Friday,
My testimony tonight will be discussing about an issue and addiction I had of pornography that no one here knew. I hid it from my parents. I hid it from everyone I knew. It tore me out from the inside. I was saved at a young age, but…during seventh to ninth grade, I was addicted. And Tuesday’s message with Dr. V… just broke me. And I went and talked with Ashton and with Austin about these issues. And just to thank the Lord that people that can help you out and…they told me just confess to the Lord, confess to your parents what you’ve done. And that night I confessed to my mother, I confessed to my stepfather, I confessed to my…biological father. And…I felt the relief, I felt all the stress and everything that was with that go away as the Lord lifted it up and I followed His Word. And I just want to thank the Lord, I just want to thank him so much. He broke the siege that Satan had on me and…it was just relief on me just saving me from impending doom I would have had. And I just wish for anyone here, male or female, if you have the addiction, talk with your parents, talk with your youth pastors, talk with your pastors, talk with anyone who’s a religious leader. I just want to say…it’s not a good secret to hide and it will destroy you from the inside out and just talk with Christ.
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