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Pastor Bennett & Melody dive into a bit of their testimonies.
The Mid-Week Podcast is our on-the-go version of our Mid-Week Gathering that happens at 6pm Wednesday nights at Temple Church in New Bern, NC. This is where we unpack some of life's challenges and learn to overcome them through God's process of life transformation.
Melody Davenport 0:17
Hey, everyone, thanks for listening to the midweek podcast. In this show we strive to open a dialogue of how life recovery and God's work go hand in hand. Every week, our speaker will be going through the biblical process of life transformation. And now another episode of The midweek podcast.
Bennett Holloway 0:41
We jump into second Corinthians chapter five. We'll be starting in verse number two. And as you guys are getting there, in your Bibles, just wanted to reiterate something that will be flowing throughout this time, over the next few weeks. It's this concept behind the temporal, our bodies, the temporary the things of the world, the brokenness that we live in, but also the eternal the hope, the earthly tent, the house that has been built, the one that Christ said he's going to prepare for us, and what we have hope for really, once we die, so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna jump in to verse two. And, and just to give you guys a little bit of a framework for today, we're also going to do some Testimony Time, where Miss melody is going to come up here, and she's going to share some of her story. Because what is important about this scripture, in my mind, is what I struggle the way that I struggle with it the most. And so I want to bring Mel up for her to hear not yet you just be patient, and then we're going to work through it. Okay, so let's jump in. Send Corinthians chapter five, verse two, for indeed, in this house, we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, in as much as we having put it on, will not be found naked, for indeed, while we are still in this tent, we groan, being bounded, or being burdened because we do not want to be unclosed, but to be closed, so that what is mortal, will be swallowed up by life. These passages, he's just talking about clothing in the tent that we're in, and the house that we are in, but he weaves through it through each of the verses, the reality that of which we grown, were struggling. And so what I want to do real quick, before we start working through this with male is I want to set up something that I have struggled with, with a really long time. And I would argue that a lot of us struggle with, I believe it is partially in our nature, Adam and Eve revealed that whenever they ran in, they hit Okay, so let's talk about it. For indeed, in this house, we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven. what he's talking about there is in this house in our temporary in the one that is bound to the world in our body, right? We we desire to be clothed with what is prepared for us in the kingdom of God in heaven. Okay, the same thing that Jesus said he was going to prepare a place for us. We know that our bodies are temporary, but our spirits are eternal. We are both human beings. But we're also those that have put their faith in Jesus Christ, they are members of another kingdom, we are citizens of another kingdom. We We are here temporarily sojourning we talked about that last week, we are here for an extended period of time, but for a short season and the spectrum of all of eternity, walking through life, side by side with one another, those that have put their faith in Jesus Christ, we have a hope for the resurrected body that we will have after death, the body that is promised in Scripture. So he says For indeed, in this house, we groan, we struggle, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, we have a desire, an inward desire to be there. For some of us, we want to be there. Now. For others, it's not as intense of a desire. But for some, honestly, there's nothing we're gonna talk about that we're gonna talk about that. In as much as we having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened because we do not want to be unclosed but to be close, so that What is mortal will be swallowed up by life, we haven't put it on will not be found naked, we will always have a body. It either is resurrected or it is in the physical, it is in the temporal or it is in the eternal. Deep down, we don't desire to be absent of our bodies. We desire to be absent of our temporal of our physical of what we walk in and in and go through life with right now as we age, like did these things that we walk around in, okay, these bodies, you know, we have a desire one day to no longer have these, but we do not have a desire not to have one.
So he's sitting here saying that, you know, in as much having put it on, we will not be found naked, we're not going to be without a body. For indeed, while we are in this tent, while we are in the temporal, why we are in the world, why are we are so journeying here, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclose, but to be closed. So what is inevitable, that the mortal, what the temporary, that the temporary, it will be swallowed up. By life here. It's accepting the reality that we are both struggling, there is going to be an end date, we are going to die. But we have a desire to be there. So when you read this, you read about the groaning, there's there's two types of groaning that we deal with that I deal with. It's either groaning because of the body that I'm in, and the mistakes that I make, or the ways that I've been hurt, or the things that I struggle with, or the state of our country, the state of our world, it's those things that I groan about the negative things of this world. But then there's also another camp of people that grown, where we grown, because of a deep, deep desire of the perfection that God intended in the beginning of creation. It's a groaning because we're not perfect. It's a struggle. Because we don't have control. It's this, it's this lack of perfection in ourselves, that causes us to be miserable. because deep down, we all want to be we want to be blameless. We want to stand before him and know that our prices paid. We want that deep, deep down. We want to be seen in the eyes of the people that were with us respectable. We don't we honestly, if we're really honest, we don't walk around wanting to be seen as the mess up. We don't walk around, wanting to see the person wanting to be seen as the person that struggles with that addiction. We do everything we can to avoid that. We do. And sometimes guys, sometimes what we do, is you just put on the face. We put on the mask, and we act like everything's fine. And we hide it and we hide it. And we fake it till we make it hopefully. So we're either groaning because of our lack of perfection and the self awareness that we have overgrown and because of all the other stuff that's happening in this life. But you're usually fall into one of those two things. The struggle is real to most people. Okay? So as we're going through life, and we're seeing that we're burdened because we do not want to be clothed, but to be unclothed, but to be clothed, so that we that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life itself. The time that we have on this earth is so temporary, it is so quick. It is pleading. And we do everything we can to avoid being seen as broken. To avoid being seen as naked, to be avoid being seen. As messed up. So we mask it, we hide it, we try to avoid it or we run from it. And there are things and pressures in your life and there's a game that you are playing in your mind where you constantly beat yourself up or Are you constantly stress? What if they find out? Are you struggling your relationships because in your mind, you say, if they only knew, they really knew what I dealt with, they really knew what goes on in my mind. If they really knew the state of my marriage, if they really heard me parent My child, if they really knew me see, all of us grown. But most of us do it silently. groaning silently, that doesn't really make sense. All of us grow. I'll go with it. But most of us do it silently.
We do it in the corners of our mind. On the corners of this earth, we do everything we can to make sure no one hears it. A few years ago, I came on the scene. A few years ago, I did a sermon on how messed up I am. And you are, and I bought two vases, from Hobby Lobby, big fan, and we were celebrating their grand opening. So I bought two vases. And I had them up here and I smashed one of them. And then I had previously smashed it and then slowly over a span of six months, put the puzzle back together and glued it all back together. And I brought it up in front of them, I said this is a broken vase, then mostly this broken vase and see it as unusable, which honestly, it is, it's unusable. I can't pour water in it. I can't, I can put flowers in it. But it won't keep the plants alive. And it's kind of ugly. It's a disqualified from its original purpose. And if this was on the shelf, I'm pretty sure none of us would buy it. And I explained to them that this is us. And this is you. Each one of these cracks represents a way in which you groan, each one of these cracks represents a way that you are going through life and things happen to you. Or the way you see yourself. This right here. And I I promise you, Ah man, students hear me. Every single one of us struggle with our image. Every single one of us, you don't outgrow that. So as we try to figure out who we are, and what we're all going to be when we grow up, okay, who we're going to be if we are honest with ourselves, this is what we are. And if you were at the sermon, if you're at the message, you remember that I took the light, that is Christ and and I placed it in the jar and and yes, the jar doesn't work to hold water, but the jar does fulfill its purpose, its purpose was to glorify the light. And it is our natural reaction, to hide, to run or to groan in silence. And yet all that I'm asking you to do is the opposite. I want you to accept the way that you are broken. Share it with someone that you trust. But I want you to tell the story of what God is doing in the midst of it. The Gospel wouldn't be spread. If we didn't all acknowledge that we were weak. The Gospel wouldn't be spread if we didn't acknowledge that we were broken that we needed saving that we were drowning. The good news dies when our mouths stay shut. That's just how it is. That's the way that it is and it is when we are quiet. That's when we are poor stewards because I believe each and every single one of us have the opportunity to steward one of these cracks. Because what happens is The vase that was broken, when it knows it can be restored, and still be seen as beautiful.
That's when that person surrenders their life to Christ. That's when that person is willing to give church or Christianity a chance. That's when that person that's willing to hear from you, who admits that you are broken. what you've learned in the midst of it. So what I want us to understand is I'm sitting there reading 234, and I'm reading about how much man we grown. We grown, we grown, and sometimes we grown because you know, the things that are around us, but sometimes we grow them because we wish that we were there. Sometimes we grow and could we beat ourselves up. But we grown all the time, and, and inevitably, life will end. And I don't want to just be someone that groans through it all. And slowly dies. And I don't think you do either. But there is an alternative that is available. If we have time tonight, we're going to unpack that. But before before we can know what his answer is, we got to be honest with ourselves and with others. And we have to let his shine through our cracks. But we keep our mouth shut. It's not going to work. So tonight, I'm asking melati to share with you her story. So melody Cohen grabbed that mic grab that stool. guys give her a round of applause. Male is a man she is Wonder Woman. She is a Amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing. what's crazy is I first met Randy. Okay, Randy was the guy who was screaming in the offices. When I first started working here, sports jokes, talking trash to me about my college teams, whatever it is, right? That's the first part of the Davenport clan that I met. And, and then I met now and getting to hear her teach, pray, challenge inspire has impacted me as well. And so now I love you, Randy, I love you, and thankful for you guys in the ministry that you have here. So tell us where it all went wrong. Please tell us some of your story as we unpack it when you grown in your life.
Melody Davenport 17:52
Well, I probably started groaning in my life. When I was still in middle school and a teenager, I grew up in a dysfunctional home. And I had great parents, they loved me. I never thought that they didn't love me. But my dad was a really good enabler, and my mom was struggling with some prescription drug addiction. And I was an only child. So at about age 12, I really learned that I needed to handle my life and things around me myself. And that included cleaning the house, washing clothes, cooking dinner, I needed to be sure that I made all A's I was very much a perfectionist and life seemed to be okay. If all of that happened. It was manageable at that time. And so went on through high school and it was still pretty manageable. And I seemed you know, I even thought I had it all together, I thought I pretty well got this. I really did not party, I didn't drink. I didn't take any drugs. I was trying to be the good girl. And I had accepted Christ when I was about eight years old. And I was baptized. But there was something missing there. I thought that I needed to please God, I did not understand that it was about a relationship. I didn't understand that I needed to turn my will and my life over to the care of God. I thought I needed to earn bat. So when it really went wrong, was after a lot of years. I was 36 years old when I knew it really went wrong. It was going wrong the whole time. But at 36 years old, I woke up one day and I realized that I could not go through the day without taking a drink or drug and that my life was very unmanageable, and that I had no personal relationship with anyone including God that really knew the real me. And I didn't know what I was going to do to be able to fix that because that's who I was. I was a fixer.
Bennett Holloway 19:49
So my pastor in Houston you saw always say to us I camps. Sin will take you further than you want it to go. Keep you there longer than you want it. Be there and take more than you are willing to give. And there we've, we all wake up and say, How am I here? How am I at this point? So at 36, you realize, for me, a big thing for me guys is control. I'm realizing this more and more actually, as time goes on. But the more control I have over a situation, the more at peace, I feel. It's like a huge issue. For me, it's a huge issue, the more control I have, the more peace I feel, and I do not have that control is when I feel stress. And so, for me, in my relationship with God, you know, when I was 30, really, the the Holy Spirit began to shift my perspective of seeing things and seeing him. And he began to minister to me in that arena, as well. So at 36, for you and 30, for me, you begin to see this pivot, your awareness, your brokenness, how did you respond to it?
Melody Davenport 21:06
At first, I was very angry, my marriage was falling apart, I had three kids looking at me saying, what are we going to do? How we're going to make it through this? And I really didn't have a good answer. The best news that I have is that my mother had been sober for about seven years at this point, and had developed a relationship with Jesus. And she just kept saying to me, you, you really don't have a relationship with God, I know you're a good person, in terms of a good person, you have a good heart, but you don't have a relationship with Jesus. And you're really going to need that, and you're going to need to submit your life, surrender it. And I did not understand that at all. Anger was a big part. I did. Stop drinking, cold turkey, quit drinking, I quit taking any substances. But I did not let go of anger. And I did not let go of the self pity, I really dug up into self pity. Everybody owed me. This was everybody else's fault. There was nothing in this, that was my fault. And I felt like that God owed me he did not do for me what I expected, I expected him to fix my marriage, I expected him to make my kids okay. And I expected him to make my insides and my outsides match up. And they did and everybody knew it.
Bennett Holloway 22:26
So the moment where your mask was taken off. And the moment when you realized, everyone saw what you may be had been trying to mask or hide for so long. I'm assuming that you responded in anger based on what you just said. So as you're walking through life in here, when did when when did it change?
Melody Davenport 22:51
Well, one, I was pretty desperate, I knew that we were going to life was going to change and it was never going to go back to the way it was. And the things that I held most dear in my life, were going to leave. And I was going to be very fortunate if I held on to my children. And I really wanted to do that. So I had been going back to church to my home church, and I really liked the pastor there. And he told me that he would meet me on a Saturday morning, and talk to me for a few minutes. And he did, he and his wife met me and they talked to me for about an hour. They listened to everything I had to say they listened to my anger, disappointment hurt, everything that I felt like was owed to me. And at the end of that, they said, you know, we love you. But more importantly, Jesus really loves you. And he does have a plan for your life. And the good news is, he may not change your circumstances, but he can change you, if you're willing to let that happen. I didn't know for sure that I was willing to let it happen. But I knew I was desperate, I would do anything to live differently than I was living that particular day. And so we started to make a plan of going to some meetings, checking into some things. And he told me about a program that he wanted to bring to our church called Celebrate Recovery. And he said, I think it will help you. And I think it'll help a lot of people around here. But I need to know you're all in. And he mentioned a verse to me that I still kind of live by, he reminded me that step three says that we There comes a time when we turn our wills and our lives over to the care of God. And I had never done that. And he asked was I willing to do that, and that was going to be a daily process. And then he also reminded me of a verse and limitations, its limitations. 340 and it says, examine your ways and test them and then return to the Lord. And he said, You've spent a lot of years test in your ways. Are you willing to return to the Lord because he's willing to receive you right where you are and you don't have to fix it.
Bennett Holloway 25:00
So good Praise God. I'm like, you kidding me?
Melody Davenport 25:03
It was wonderful.
Bennett Holloway 25:06
You articulate so well, you've done this before. But for me, I didn't realize my struggle with control. I did recognize my groaning. But I played the blame game. You know, I blamed once I was aware of my issues, I was ignorant for a season. couple decades, once I was aware, right, once I was honest with myself, once I was aware of things, I began to blame other people, or circumstances or that they may have been, and typically those in the closest proximity had the most direct hit. Right, she will put strain on your relationships that are closest to you. It puts strain on your marriage, it puts strain on your relationship with your kids. It puts strain on your best friend's relationship. It puts strain on your relationship with God. And it did for me. And so for me, when I began to recognize this this theme in my life of control, my counselor said Bennett, where did all this anger come from? I said, we talked about I'm not angry. Okay, wow, a little too much Laughter But I looked at my wife, when I looked at my wife and and she looked at me and she goes, sweetie, you get angry. Alright, so once we begin to realize it and embrace the mess, okay, then we can learn to see God through the mess. But here's the biggest thing that I just want to make sure that we walk away with is knowing that it doesn't end there. We can't go through something and not tell people about it. We can't, because the masses that we are a byproduct of, you got 10 to 15 people every single day that you brush shoulders with that are going through the same thing, and yet have not received the hope that is in Christ. But we are the ones that get to say these things. We are the ones that get to walk through Hey, this is what I found. This is what I my life was turned around. This is when my perspective shift. This is when I realized there is a God. This is when my marriage start decaying and started healing. This is when I became aware and more confident. This is what I could stand on solid ground and say that with confidence, regardless of what's forecasted in the weather. No matter what storm comes my way I know my house will stand. Man. That is the message that we cannot keep secret, right? And we can't share it. One unless you're aware and have asked to be saved to if you've received and understand the hope that is in Christ. Three if you're willing to just show off your brokenness, and you don't have to have the answers to heal everyone else. But if you're honest about where you're at, guess what that begins the healing process itself. Because the biggest thing that we all think the lie, the biggest lie that we all think is I'm the only one dealing with this. I'm all alone. But we're not. We're not. If we steward Well, the lessons of God. We will see revival in this community. Who are we talking with who I think family ministry, who we're talking with? Alex and even you but when, when when it's so cool to see how intentional God was about commanding his people to stop and build an altar that was at the place when God showed up. And that altar. It told the story of what he did there. It was something that for generations, they could walk by and say this is where his people crossed. This is the first part of the promised land that his people set foot on. This is where his people were delivered. This well. This is where the encounter with God happened. So if you ever doubt, go back to that well. If you ever doubt, reflect on the things that he's done, whether it be in your life or the lives of the stories and the testimonies that you have heard because he is real and your encounter with him is inevitable. So my plea is why not sooner rather than later. Because the revelation will occur. A lot of you feel like you're incapable. A lot of us feel like, we can't say it good. A lot of us are worried and that will botch it, that will mess it up, that will say the wrong thing. I will look like a doofus or will scare people away, because we're the only ones who struggle with it, you know, whatever excuses we come up with. But in verse five, this is the key for me, in my life, this, this is it. Now when now he who prepared us, for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the spirit as a pledge. When I began to understand the role of the Holy Spirit, in my life, in this body, the power of the Holy Spirit, when I began to accept and recognize the purpose that God had given me, not to be in a level of perfection, not to really even be on a level of control, but to be broken, to be vulnerable, and allow him to shine through those things. When when I began to realize that that is possible, through the power of the Holy Spirit, that we were given the Holy Spirit as a downpayment, it gives us a taste of what we all long for. It gives us a taste of that eternal home. It gives us a glimpse of his presence of his power of how he sees you. a taste of what we all long to be a part of someday. a sliver of the hope that as believers in Christ, we hold on tightly to, but even a sliver and a taste from God. There's more than enough for a million lifetimes. So we embrace the mess. We acknowledge where we're at, we surrender control.
We accept that we are not perfect. And we let other people know it. Because he is because he is. So today in your small groups, I would love for you to share stories of how Gods come through, when you have failed. I would love to hear stories of hand guys, our marriage was here. But he took it. When we gave it to him or my child. I didn't do the best I could have. Because I tried to do it all. Then he came back. Those are the stories that we need to share. In my mind, man, that's what church community is all about. Not sitting six feet apart. Not staring up here at two people talking and sharing your stories with one another. Going to the scriptures and be reminded. He's got it. Father, thank you so much. Thank you so much for loving us, pursuing us, for healing us, for powering us for buying us for desiring us. We are desperate for you. We need you. Be the lord of our lives. be in control. We give you all the praise because you have a purpose. In the midst of our groaning you have a purpose in the midst of our brokenness. Let us just surrender it all to you. In Jesus name
Unknown Speaker 35:04
Thanks again for listening to the midweek podcast here at Temple church. If something spoke to your heart today, we'd love to hear from you and walk alongside you. You can reach us at temple@temple.church, or you can send us a text message at 252-521-2093. If you enjoyed this week's episode, we'd love it if you rate and review the show, and share it with your friends. That helps us to get the word out. Again, you can join us weekly for more episodes on how God can transform us and use us for his kingdom. We'll see you next time.