From Bondage to Freedom

The God who set me free became the God who sent me.

I was raised in church. My mother, Joan, made sure that church was part of my life, and I grew up knowing about God. But knowing about God and surrendering your life to Him are two very different things.

When I was seventeen years old, I sensed God speak something into my heart that I have never forgotten:

“I will make you a preacher of My Word, and you will go around the world preaching.”

But I didn't want it.

What I had seen of ministry had left me afraid of becoming judgmental and bitter. So instead of running toward God's call, I ran from it.

And I ran hard.

By the time I was twenty-one, alcohol had become part of my life. What began as drinking became bondage. By twenty-three, from the outside, it looked like I had everything a young man could want. I had a house, land, cars, boats and financial security.

But inside, I was miserable.

I had possessions, but I didn't have peace.

I had things, but I didn't have life.

Alcohol and partying had taken control, and I reached a place where I felt hopeless. I didn't want to keep living the way I was living.

Finally, I cried out to God.

“God, if You're real, help me.”

I didn't realize it then, but God was already answering that prayer.

Then I Met Serenia

God brought a young woman named Serenia into my life.

And Serenia had a condition.

If I was going to be with her, I was going to church.

That church was Centerville Assembly of God in Centerville, Missouri.

I walked into that church carrying chains that nobody could see.

But I encountered a Jesus who could see every one of them.

And Jesus radically changed my life.

The alcohol that had controlled me lost its hold. The partying that had defined my life no longer had the same attraction.

Jesus set me free.

“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”
— John 8:36

My transformation didn't mean I instantly understood everything God wanted to do with my life. For a while, Serenia was faithful to church while my attendance was inconsistent.

But God kept working on me.

Something inside me was changing.

I began to hunger for His Word. I began to love the church. I began to love people. And the call I had tried to bury when I was seventeen years old had never gone away.

Seventeen Years Later

Seventeen years after God first told that teenage boy He would make him a preacher, something happened during a church business meeting.

I stood up and said:

“I must join the church tonight.”

It might not sound like a dramatic moment to everyone else.

But something had changed in me.

I was done running.

The man who once wanted nothing to do with God's call began pursuing God.

And God began fulfilling the promise He had spoken years before.

He called me to preach.

He gave me the privilege of serving His church.

Eventually, He allowed me to pastor.

And then God did something I could never have imagined when I was that twenty-three-year-old alcoholic crying out for help.

He called us to missions.

The God who told me at seventeen that I would go around the world preaching His Word began making those words a reality.

I have now had the privilege of preaching the Gospel in multiple nations and hundreds of churches.

And eventually, God's call brought Serenia and me all the way to the islands of French Polynesia.

The Chains Became Part of the Calling

Today, when I look at someone struggling with alcohol or drugs, I don't see a hopeless case.

I remember me.

I know what it feels like to be controlled by something you cannot seem to overcome.

But I also know something else.

I know what Jesus can do.

The freedom I preach isn't something I learned only from a book.

I've lived it.

That's one reason the burden to reach people struggling with addiction has become such an important part of SuttonMissions.

God took an area that once brought destruction into my life and turned it into a burden to see other captives set free.

That's what God does.

He redeems.

He restores.

He calls.

And He sends.

I once ran from God's call.

Today, Serenia and I have crossed an ocean because of it.

I once lived bound by alcohol.

Today, I preach that Jesus still breaks chains.

I once told God no.

Today, our lives belong to His mission.

And after everything God has done, everything we have left behind, and everywhere obedience has taken us, I can say this with confidence:

Jesus is worth the cost.

And if He can take my life, set me free, call me, and send me—

there is no life beyond the transforming power of Jesus Christ.