Protest & Medication

Again, I looked at that dog, and tears came up to my eyes as the Lord said to me, “You know, that’s the people. That’s my people. My people, they really don’t understand.”

I want to talk a minute about the dog. When the dog was caught, the dog we later found out lived on the streets, and never ever ever had been in a home. The dog lived on the streets, had never been washed, the dog ate scraps, the dog barely survived. Do you think that was a great life for the dog? The dog was always in terror, always wondering … Had to look out for cars, had to look out for this, had to look out for people, was mistreated because people didn’t really understand, and didn’t want to do anything. It needed people to come to it, the dog did, that really cared. There are caring people, so the dog never knew that he could actually be cared for. The dog never knew that he could live in a home, that he could eat dog food that was really good, and he could, most importantly be loved, loved, loved.

The people of God are just like the dog. That’s what the Lord showed me. I teared up when I saw that, because that’s the way I was. See, when I came to know Christ, and this is probably your story too, if you can relate, when I came to know Christ, I thought this is going to be a good deal. This is going to be great. It was. There was a honeymoon time in which everything I prayed came to pass, everything happened. It was all good. Then I guess what I have to look back on now, after I’ve been a Christian for 35 years, I’ve been doing this a long time, what I look back on now is I realize that God was just stroking me, feeding me, taking care of me, but then he wanted me to go out and walk with him on a leash. You know what? I didn’t like that.

First of all, I didn’t like being on a leash at all, because I had never had love. I didn’t know how to be loved. Nobody had ever loved me. My parents couldn’t love me, my dad couldn’t love a post. It wasn’t his fault, it was the way he was raised. I never received love. I had been looking for love in all the wrong places. I had been married, my ex-wife divorced me because I didn’t make enough money. Imagine that. What ended up happening is I banged around, I for about ten years, I didn’t know what I was doing, I really didn’t know God very well, I knew him, I accepted Jesus as Lord. I was … Had the spirit, and it should have been a better life, but it wasn’t, and the reason it wasn’t was because [inaudible 00:04:59], I was afraid.

I was afraid because of the way that I was raised, and my father was so abusive, so incredibly abusive psychologically, and even physically. I didn’t think that God was any different than my father. See, psychologists and behavioral scientists tell us that we put the face of our father on God. What I want you to know is that I did that, and you may have done that. I’m sure you have. Everybody does that. We can’t help it. That’s the way God has designed it. We’re supposed to have the face of our fathers on God, because our fathers are supposed to be kind and gentle and loving like God, but they can’t be, and so God has a problem, and the problem is that we are … He wants to put us on a leash, and we don’t want to be on the leash. What do we do? We bite the leash, just like I did. I kept biting it. I bite it and I bite it. 15 years I’m biting the leash, going around and around the mountain. That may be your story, because I was afraid that God was going to hurt me.

I got worn out finally. I told God, you know, you started off this thing really well, but you failed miserably, so I don’t know if I really want to be doing whatever you want my to do. I can’t trust you. What ended up happening was he kept trying, he kept working, and eventually, you know what happened? I ran out of gas, and I finally started doing it his way. I let him take the leash, I let him stroke me, I let him prove to me again that he was for real, and that I could begin to let him do that. Now God wants to take me on a walk, but I don’t know how to walk. I run, and I get held up. Some of those times are painful. Now, is God wanting to take care of me, just because he has me on the leash. I need to say this quickly, but here’s what he really wants. Get this. This is really what he wants. He wants me to obey him, so that I can be on the leash, so he can take me on a walk and let me off the leash and know that I won’t run off and into some bad situation, and he’ll have to bail me out of.

What happens if you did what I did for 15 years? You know what? I resisted, I resisted, I resisted. I was in such pain because of what happened to me as a child, that I was doing drugs. Now, I didn’t do too much drugs. I did that in college some, but I was into alcohol. I was into very much [inaudible 00:07:37]. The subject of that really illustrating today is the protest. When I bite the leash, when I don’t submit, when I don’t believe that God is really for me, when I don’t believe that he’s not going to hurt me … That was a double not, actually. When I believe that God is really going to hurt me, then what I do is I resist. That’s protest. I protest God’s plan for my life. That’s not going to work. It didn’t work for me. I don’t think it’s going to work for you.

Then the other thing we do is we medicate. You know what, I did medicate. I did medicate. I medicated with hard work. I tried to work my way into God’s approval, and it didn’t work. Other people try chocolate, food, sex, drugs, alcohol, they try any type of adrenaline. I was [inaudible 00:08:34]. I didn’t know … Do you feel dead sometimes? I feel dead. You know when you don’t have life and have it more abundantly, it’s a deadness we feel, not satisfaction. There’s no joy. I kept reading in the Bible that there was supposed to be joy. You know what? I didn’t have any joy. I had no joy, because why? I wouldn’t do it God’s way. I couldn’t trust him to eventually let me off the leash. Even if I had to [inaudible 00:09:00] with him for the rest of my life, that would have been better than what I was doing, because I only trusted myself. I couldn’t trust any authority, so the truth of the matter is is that the reason we all medicate is because we don’t trust God.

Medication, it’s like I drank and I drank, and what ended up happening? I woke up the next morning and had a hangover. That’s not good. If a woman or a man sleeps with somebody, they get up the next morning and they don’t feel good about it, unless they’re not have any conscience left. If I eat too much, and I gain a lot of weight, and I’m obese, I don’t feel good about myself. I don’t feel good about any medication that I do. Why? It never ever ever, get this, never ever solves the problem. I always wake up the same as I was before.

I have worked with people that have been on heroine. I helped a man in our church’s son get off of heroine. Let me tell you something, nobody wants to be on heroine. Nobody wants to be on meth. Nobody wants to be on cocaine. Nobody. Why? Because it starts losing it’s … The way God has designed our cell structure is that it dampens down the results. That’s why you need … When you do adrenaline rush activities, you need more and more adrenaline. You need more and more drugs. You need more and more sex. We have a lot of marriages and people are sex addicted. We have a lot of people that are not marries that are sex addicted. What ends up happening … Or alcohol. Got lots of alcohol people that are trying to get off alcohol going to Alcoholics Anonymous. The truth of the matter is is medication doesn’t work and we’re not going to have joy.

I didn’t have any joy. I had no peace. I was struggling. I was trying to prove that I was valuable, important, and worthy, and I hated myself. Well, guess what? God was trying to help me to not hate myself, to tell me I was important, I was worthy of his love, he sent his only begotten son, so everything I was believing was a lie. I worked so hard to prove my value, my importance, and my worth, and guess what, I was important. I was valuable. What I really wanted to introduce you to today, and you can find out more, just I have a much more information on medication, I have much more information on protests, there’s lots of information that you can find on our website joystones.org. If you’re on the website, just go to the different places. Leave your e-mail address if you want to know more specifically about protests, and you’re tired of being that dog.

I’ve got tired. You get tired. Life will change. We will help you. We can help you. We want to help you. That’s why we’re here is we have discovered ways to be able to help you. Medication isn’t going to work. Protest isn’t going to work. What we want to do is we want your life to work, and you can have a life that works, and be … Have a great relationship with God. Just leave us your e-mail. Let us know you want a life that works. Let us know you’re tired of protests. Let us know that you’re tired of medicating, and we’ll help you.