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Meditate Don't Medicate
Ken Graves

Ken Graves (N/A–N/A) is an American preacher and the founding pastor of Calvary Chapel Bangor in Orrington, Maine, known for his bold preaching and commitment to ministry despite personal and legal challenges. Born in one of the poorest parts of Maine, Graves grew up in a tumultuous household with an alcoholic father whose violence left deep scars, eventually abandoning the family. At age 16, inspired by David Wilkerson’s The Cross and the Switchblade, he dropped out of high school and joined a Teen Challenge facility, not as an addict but to train under Christian leaders. By 22, he returned to Bangor, starting a home Bible study in 1991 that grew into Calvary Chapel, marrying Jeanette (marriage date unavailable) and raising a family that remains involved in the church. Graves’s preaching career has centered on Calvary Chapel Bangor, where he has led a congregation of over 1,200—among Maine’s largest—since its founding, emphasizing verse-by-verse Bible teaching and maintaining a yearlong residential recovery program for addicts, reflecting his early calling to minister to broken lives. His ministry expanded with WJCX 99.5 FM in 1996 and frequent speaking at Calvary Chapel conferences nationwide, including a notable 2020 stand against Maine Governor Janet Mills’s COVID-19 church closure orders, risking jail to keep services open, a fight supported by Liberty Counsel. Known for his gravelly voice and masculine style, Graves has preached on embracing persecution and biblical manhood, leaving a legacy as a resilient evangelist whose influence spans his church, radio, and recovery programs.
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Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the speaker reflects on a stormy experience on a boat with Jesus and his disciples. He describes the fear and panic that consumed them as the waves grew stronger. However, amidst the chaos, Jesus remained calm and slept peacefully, showing his unwavering trust in God's plan. The speaker questions Jesus, expressing doubt and fear of death. Ultimately, the sermon emphasizes the importance of following Jesus and trusting in his guidance, even in the midst of life's storms.
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Let it go, all of this hell and pain. Let it go, all of this hell and pain. Well good evening. Does anybody here have troubles? Apparently. Does it rain on you every now and then? Thought so. And every now and then it's not just raining, it's storming. And will be. I do believe the Lord has something to say to us tonight. Would you just pray a prayer with me real quick, the Lord will open up our understanding just a little more. Father you know how we are, we miss a lot of things. We misunderstand a lot of things, a lot of things we don't get, don't see. Give us, please, ears to hear, eyes to see, and a heart to receive. Because there is a purpose to all of our trouble. And I pray that tonight everyone in this room leaves with a greater sense that there is a purpose, that it's not all just chance, random happenings. That you truly are able to cause everything to work together for the good of those who love you. Please, Lord, if there be anyone here tonight whose relationship with you is not right, they're not yet surrendered to your Lordship, please help them to see all the more the need for them to do so because you care for yours. We all have trouble, but we don't all have the anchor, and we don't all have the shelter that you provide. There's not purpose to everyone's troubles. Lord, please open up the understanding of the unbeliever if he's here tonight. This we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. Alright, let's look at 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. Life is a mix. Storms happen. Troubles come. Right here in 1 Peter chapter 1, I think that there is sort of a hint at the recipe of life. 1 Peter chapter 1. Written to you who have been born again, you who, verse 5 says, are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations. That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Whom having not seen you love, in whom though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Receiving the end of your salvation, even the salvation of your soul. Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your soul. There's a mix that is hinted to right there. I don't know if you've noticed it, but there's a mix. A mix of joy and trouble. Greatly rejoicing. We greatly rejoice in the keeping power of God. And we greatly rejoice in his kindness. But like it says in verse 6, though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations. For a season. And everything is seasonal. And there is trouble that comes and it comes for a season. Sometimes a season is a whole lot longer than we wish it was. But there's that mix of what is described here. Trials in verse 7, and at the same time in verse 8, joy unspeakable. And you would agree that that is really sort of a description of your life in general, wouldn't you? Trials, you get all kinds of trials, but at the same time you get all kinds of reasons to be happy and to rejoice. And joy isn't necessarily the kind of thing that's affected by troubles. It's unaffected, you know, really it's anchored in something that doesn't change, even though circumstances change. Trouble. Trials. There's some aspects of life that many of us would, if we could, leave out of the recipe. Speaking of recipes, you ever break into your granny's pantry, trying to find the wellspring of all those goodies, the place, the very source where it all comes from? You ever break into your grandma's or sneak in there and just kind of look around and find things? Like pure baker's chocolate. Did you ever find that and think you found a gold mine and just rip into it? You ever bite a mouthful of that stuff when you were a little kid and experience the great distance between the height of your expectation and the low of your horrible reality? With a mouthful of that bitter, isn't it? Very few things were as bitter and nasty and chalky as a mouthful of baker's chocolate. One occasion, I thought I'd scored big. When I went into my grandma's pantry and I thought I'd found this huge tub of this white frosting. I ripped the top off and I found me a soup ladle, not a little spoon, a soup ladle. I looked this way, I looked that way, and I scooped out a mouthful of that lard. And I was a great while wiping it off the roof of my mouth with a towel, trying to get free from it. But these are elements, these are necessary elements to the things that grandma's baking. By themselves they're not so good, but they're important. Without them, without the bitter and the sweet, you don't have a chocolate cake. Without those elements of pain in life, without getting in danger, there's no adventure. There's a purpose to trouble. There's a purpose to our pain. You're all familiar with the phrase, in fact I'll say the first half and I bet you can finish it. No pain, oh you know that one, don't you? Now is this something you know experientially or is it something you know theoretically? No pain, no gain, I'm convinced it's a law in God's universe. It isn't just a law down at the gym, it is the way it is in life. And that's what's being hinted at here in 1st Peter chapter 1, that the trial of your faith, it has a purpose to it. Pain is not without purpose. No pain, no gain. Pain is the very chisel that your maker wants to use to shape you. You know something, let me ask you this, whose workmanship are you? I've probably asked you this before and I'll ask you again. Whose workmanship are you? We all say that we're God's workmanship. And we do understand certainly that we're under construction, that God's working on us, He's making us. We're not done, we're so far from, we're all half-baked. None of us are very far from it. We say we are His workmanship and we were created for good works in Christ Jesus which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. Created, we are created, we are not the products of chance, random processes and lucky accidents. We did not evolve. Evolution is a stupid lie. Evolution is the original lie. Evolution is the original lie. Satan is according to the Lord Jesus in John chapter 8 the father of lies. That means he's the first liar. He started it when evil first began in this universe, it began with evolution as a thought. You know who he lied to first? He lied to himself first. Before he ever sold his lie to anyone else in this universe, he sold it to himself first. He bought his own bill of goods. Convinced himself that he could ascend, that he could become like the Most High. How many Most Highs can you have after all? He said I'll become like the Most High. The only way he could convince himself that he could become like the Most High, the only way he could have convinced himself that he could ascend was to first convince himself that he had ascended to there. That he wasn't created or limited by his creator. He had convinced himself without a doubt that he evolved and could. He sold that lie to earth. It's his first lie to the human race. It is that whole theory of evolution. Long before Charlie Darwin ever put some kind of mechanism to it in his little fairy tales, it was the foundation of all false religious beliefs, still is. Most of you have seen through that. Most of you know. You know what, still to my, in my life, one of the dearest people in my entire life was my middle school science teacher. I probably spoke to you about him before, Mr. Larry Innocency. It wasn't that long ago. I called him hey, hey, hey. It wasn't that long ago that I had him over. I asked him to come up to the church. I called him. He lives some distance away, but I've stayed in touch with him. He was my middle school science teacher, and he taught us the theory of evolution. As a, you know, a guy freshly out of the University of Maine, a zoology major who went to that school as an atheist, was confronted by the complexity of life and living things, and the more he learned, the more he couldn't escape the truth that there's a maker and a designer, and he came to our school having been born again. And he, and listen, that guy taught us the theory of evolution. He taught it right. He taught it like a theory. The reason, he taught it why it's not the fact of evolution or the law of evolution. It's a theory, a dumb theory of that. And when he got done teaching it to us, you couldn't possibly believe that fairy tale. He taught it well. Mr. Larry Eustacy was the best witness to me. The best, he's the guy that really pushed me over the edge, and I started reading the scripture because of his influence, because of his witness, and at 13, reading the scripture, there, discovered where I came from, and discovered that I had a maker, and heard the voice of one calling me, saying, follow me, and I will make you. Follow me, and I will make you, I heard. And Lord Jesus, he calls and says, you follow me, and I'll make you. Well, you, alright, so you know that you didn't evolve as a life form, as a species, but psychology has sold you another bill of goods. It's the other form of evolution, that basically you, as an individual, as a person, are the product of all the chance random processes, your environment, and all the things that have been done to you. We find ourselves explaining who we are right now by what we've been through, and where we came from, as if we're not his workmanship. See, I believe we do have a choice. Turn around over to 2 Peter, just a few pages over, chapter 1. The one who made us, knows us. He knows us, and he loves us, and he is the one who is remaking us. Christian. You're not limited, you are not bound by the things you've been through. You cannot allow all of your circumstances, and all of your pains, to make you. Because if you do, you're just going to be one horrible, wrecked, banged up version of humanity, with all kinds of justification for being stupid. One of millions of victims. But if in fact, you follow him, if in fact you are his workmanship, that's not the case. Look at this, the one who made you says, 2 Peter, chapter 1, verse 3. According as his divine power, hath given unto us all things that pertain unto him, pertain unto life. That's kind of a big subject, isn't it? That he has given unto us all things that pertain unto life. He's given us everything we need to live life, and godliness. He has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness, that is, being the people that he wants us to be. You know what it takes to be the people that God wants us to be? It takes faith. And faith, really synonymous with trust. It's not just intellectually agreeing that something is true, it's actually being willing to bet your life on it. Trust. It takes faith to please God. It's the one thing he's looking for. His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, and don't stop right there, it says, by the knowledge of him who has called us to glory and virtue. Everything that we need to live life and be the people that God has called us to be is found in a person, in a right relationship with the one who called us. Everything that we need. Now, do you guys believe that? Everything. Everything that we need. And I'm asking you this for a reason. What about in the storm? What about during times of great storm? What about in the middle of your pain? Does he know about your pain? Has he felt your pain? Is there a purpose to your pain? All of those questions are answered in just knowing him. In knowing him you discover man he's been here, he's walked in our shoes, he knows all about pain. He knows about the pain of obedience. Man, he obeyed to death. Philippians chapter 2. Everything that we need. It's all found in him. Just knowing him. Verse 4 says, whereby are given unto us exceeding grace and precious promises. Now those are some sweet adjectives. My fellow Christians, we have overused the word neat. We've overused the words cool. We at Calvary Chapel need to expand our vocabulary, our adjectives. Get a thesaurus. When it comes to God and all that he's done for us, the adjectives like this, exceeding, great and precious. What kind of promises are there that are exceeding great and precious promises? Do you hold to those? Exceeding, great and precious promises. That by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that's in the world through lust. This is something I want to show you. Would you turn over to Matthew chapter 27? Some of you will receive this. Some of you will close your ears as soon as you hear where I'm going. Telling you ahead, so you won't be shocked when you find yourself doing it. I love the story of Joseph. Love the story of Abraham. The story of David. The story of Moses. Those few people that the scripture actually gives us like their whole life story. And in those occasions where God gives us the whole life story, we see there is a pattern in God's dealing with those people. There is birth, there is death, and there is resurrection. Have you seen it in your life? Maybe you haven't seen it because you haven't lived long enough to see the resurrection, but you know something about death. A dream will be born. As a result of a call from God, whether it's Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, a dream is born. Before the dream is ever going to be realized, he's going to die a thousand times. And it's during that time, during the death of that dream, during the death of a vision, during the suffering that you've got to go through on your way to it being realized, it's there that God is shaping the guy. It's there that pain is doing something. Pain has a purpose that is in the hands of God. If you really actually do believe Romans 8, 28, that He is able to cause all things to work together for the good of them that love Him and are called according to His purpose. Do you believe that? Yeah, well, look at this. Matthew 27, it is the record of His crucifixion, the God man. The Son of God, He left heaven, became human, took upon Himself flesh and blood, lived a sinless life, now is dying a sacrificial death. In verse 33, when they were coming to a place called Golgotha, that is to say a place of a skull, they gave Him vinegar to drink mingled with gall and when He tasted thereof, He would not drink. They offered Him a drink. This is the closest thing to mercy you'd ever experienced at the hands of Romans as you're being publicly executed and it was an anesthesia. The effects of a narcotic. Wine mixed with gall, Mark refers to it as wine or vinegar mixed with myrrh. The Lord Jesus, when He tastes it, He identifies it by taste. He spit it out. He wouldn't receive it. Now what is He doing? Is He just trying to be a tough guy? Oh, I think He is the toughest man that ever lived. The man of men indeed. The Son of man. He's the ultimate man. But no, He ain't just trying to be tough. I believe that He understands that there's a purpose to His pain. His pain on the cross was on our account and He wouldn't be numbed from it. You know there's a legitimate place in life for anesthesia. You know this? Why, Proverbs 31. It tells us, and I believe it has application to all of us here. It's not for kings to drink. Oh, Lemuel. You remember those words? Proverbs 31. It's not for us who are going to be leaders to drink, lest we drink and forget. Now the forgetting is not in the sense of a loss of information in our head. Forgetting in the sense of becoming apathetic. Numbed. It's a danger. We could forget. We could forget. We could forget. We're supposed to experience and supposed to know things. Proverbs 31 says, give strong drink to those who are perishing. Let them drink and let them forget. Let them remember their poverty and their misery. No more. There's a legitimate place for anesthesia. Now what is anesthesia? Let's talk about this for just a second. Yeah, I'm going somewhere with this. What is anesthesia? It is a toxin. Alcohol is a toxin that enters your brain and creates brain dysfunction. Alcohol doesn't make you sharper, quicker in thought or in action. Although you certainly have the perception of it. Everybody that gets drunk has the perception that they are like cat-like, man. They're ready to fight them all. They're completely out of touch with reality. They think, man, I'm a stunt driver. I'm the best driver. Drunk man is an obscene thing. I've had the privilege of witnessing it on a few occasions. I've never drank in my life. I've seen what it does to my family. It makes our family's genetics with alcohol and you get something so stupid. I just don't want to be there. Every now and then a family reunion will happen and you can see this various stages of brain dysfunction coming over the place. And if you stay sober and get to watch the whole thing, you see it for what it is. Oh, but the distance between what they perceive and what is, is great. You'll see a guy at one of these family events, wedding reception or something, one of my cousins walking up, in his mind, as he approaches a woman, Hi, I've been noticing you all night. In his mind it's like that, but in reality it's like, I am Bruce Lee. In his mind, everything in reality is happening in slow motion. Pathetic. It's brain dysfunction. Alcohol creates brain dysfunction. We have the technology today to do the same thing with many other substances and it's a good thing. God has given man their capacity to invent, to discover. Yeah. And in its proper context, it's a good thing. I have a daughter that I love so much. She's 17 now. I have a son as well, a stepson. He's 27 and he has made me a grandfather. In fact, I just had the privilege to talk about what an honor, what a blessing, what a setup from God. My stepson is in the war in Iraq. He serves in the United States Army. And he, listen to this, he, Micah, he just won a bronze star for valor. Now this is not like the John Kerry Purple Heart for your boo-boo thing. This is, this is, and please forgive me. I do not mean to disrespect for those of you who earned that medal, but I'm talking about something right now that they just don't give away. You really got to risk your life. You got to do something self-sacrificing and brave and he did. And what a privilege that this last weekend, um, I had an engagement to speak at the men's conference for Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, Anaheim, the convention center. 10,000 men gathered and my stepson just happened to be, um, home on two weeks leave. And he met me there, flew in the same time that I did, and I could bring him up on the stage and 10,000 men told him the story of how he left the safety of the bunker, ran out there to grab his friend. This mortar attack was wounded, drug him into the safety of the bunker at his own risk. And his friend died there in his arms. He's a, he's a, he's a man and his heart was broken and he was weeping in there crying in the bunker with his other buddies. And they wiped the tears out of their eyes and they picked up their weapons and went to work. And they took out the attackers. And for this, a medal. I'm really proud of him. My daughter, I used to, I, I love that little girl and I always hate to see her hurt. When she was a little girl and you know, it was necessary to, and we did, discipline is at times has to be corporal. And I, you know, that whole thing with parents say, you know, this is going to hurt me more than you. Well, it did with me. I'm telling you right now, when it came to spanking that little girl, I'd rather do anything but that. Oh, it hurt me so bad. Now with Micah and him, I go, this is going to hurt you way more than me. Not going to bother me a bit, but one day she broke her arm, my precious little girl. I would save her. I would spare her any pain that I could. And she's out playing in the monkey bars and she broke her wrist, a little tiny little wrist. She's just a little girl just about to start kindergarten. I tried to think about it and I scooped her up and carry her over and got to take her to the hospital. And of all things, all I have is my old Jeep, the old CJ seven. You guys know what the suspension's like in those things. Poor kid, every single bump, every pothole, those main roads just hurt her all the more. It broke my heart to hear her cry. Oh man, I had to take her in here and lay her on this gurney and trust the doctor. Now he's going to set that bone. That's going to hurt. It's going to be painful. Oh, this is going to be so painful. So painful. Her little growth plate was involved. So painful that they said we need to put her to sleep to do this. And was I ever grateful then for the anesthesiologist? That guy's got to, he doesn't get paid enough. And the trust that it took, because, because basically this man is going to come in here and intravenously introduce toxins to the brain of my little girl. Poison. In just the right degree, just the right amount that she is unconscious. Too much more, she'll go into a coma. And a little more beyond that, this toxin could kill her as, as, as is the case with alcohol. I watched as that substance went down that clear tube and into her vein and her little eyes rolled back in her head. And her mother and I, oh the, oh the prayers we prayed. Oh my heart, so moved. They were able to, because of that anesthesia, do something that was so painful, it would have been almost impossible, if not very difficult anyway. There's a place for anesthesia, but it's not a way of life. There is a purpose to pain and Lord Jesus hanging on the cross was offered an anesthesia and he rejected it. Because there was a purpose to his pain. Many, millions of people, we are the most drugged generation in the history of the world. I don't know if you know this, but I'm going to throw a couple of things at you. 1998, the Journal for the American Medical Association published a report that said, the number one cause of death in America was heart disease. The number two cause of death in America was cancer. The number three killer was stroke. Do you know what number four was? Medicine. Now that study only factored in, only counted all those people who died in hospitals under the direct care of a physician or medical staff. Didn't even factor in all the suicides that are the direct result of Prozac or other antidepressants or the people who are crashing their cars because of their, or industrial accidents because of impaired judgment. The result of the anesthesia they're living on. When it's all added up, there are experts like Drs. Bregan and Cohen, who've written extensively on the subject, they actually believe that medicine then becomes the number one killer. Exceeding heart disease or cancer. Now think about how many people you know that have been affected by heart disease or cancer. There are that many people who are dying. And those who are not dying are living less of life than what God has intended for them to live. Man's best attempt to help his fellow man is killing him. The over prescription, the reaction to the wrong drug for the, and yet we have pharmaceutical companies that are producing new so-called psychopharmacological solutions for all your problems. They're trying to give you a pill for a problem for your soul. Not understanding the effect of the real you, not understanding that you are not your brain. Your brain ain't you. Man, that thing is, long after it's worm food, you're still conscious. Very conscious on into eternity. The real you is not your brain, but right now, they see you as a bag of chemicals. They want to manipulate you, chemically, say that they're helping you. They tell you, you've got a disease, you've got a disorder. Do you know they're making these diseases up? Do you know that every time the American Psychiatric Association gets together, they discover new diseases? Just how they do that, talking. The diseases, the disorders that they come up with, you catch them by word of mouth. I don't know how many of you guys here have been told you're bipolar. I got news for you. You are. So am I. We all are. What does that mean to you? The capacity to know great depths of pain? Yes, you're supposed to. And the capacity to know great heights of ecstasy and joy? You're supposed to. You're made that way. And it's from the depths, the depths that we're supposed to experience, that you cry out to God. The psalmist had to be bipolar. Have you read his writings lately? They'd have given him a pill, the fake herd, and they'd have ruined the experience. I want to be merciful. I'm saying for the sake of mercy, there is, for mercy's sake, there's a time for a pill. But I'm telling you, from the Lord, it's not to be a way of life. Some of you, don't misunderstand what I'm saying here. I'm not telling you, as a person who's been prescribed all kinds of medications for supposed mental disorders, that you just need to trust God and go off your pills. That's not my message to you. My message is, you need to live, I believe you can live free from those things, but if you just go off and some of you have done this, you will crash. You know what that's called? That's called DTs. Every drug addict experiences it. You'll experience a greater depression than you ever had before you went on that thing. I'm not a doctor. You can disregard everything I'm saying to you about this right now and go, you know, that guy didn't even graduate high school. And you're absolutely right. I'll tell you what I do know, and I have studied this work, and I know that you're not just a bag of chemicals, and that the experts and your chemicals ignore the most important thing, is that you are a spirit, and most of what is wrong with you and me is directly related to our relationship with God, or lack thereof. You got trouble in your life? Hey, you got trouble? We all have trouble. God uses our troubles. Some of you are struggling with the past, the things that have been done to you, and I'm telling you, look to the scripture. And I don't want to seem insensitive when I say this, but I believe the Lord will say to you tonight, get thee over it. With his help. I'm not trying to believe in your pain. I know your pain is real, but I'm telling you, there's a purpose in the hands of God. It is a good thing. It makes you who you are. It is part of what God uses to shape you, and to shape your dependence upon him. Can you receive it? I don't know. Storms, man, we all got them. But who are you following who is with you in your storm? All right, I'll leave you with this. We really thought we knew him. We answered his call, and we followed him. This man's band of men we were sailing off into tomorrow. You know, I never knew a man to work so hard and spend themselves like him. At last I saw him finally lay down as though light was growing dim. The darkness it came, as did the wind. And that lake became a beast that howled and roared and reached for us thirteen mortals for its feast. Now all I believed seemed like a lie, and nothing made any sense. Waves of terror swept over my soul, each one even more intense. And I felt my way to the back of the boat to where I'd seen him lay. So human was he that in his fatigue, despite the pounding waves, he slept like a man unaware that there was any reason for fear. Like one who knew just where he was going and what he was doing here. One angry thought broke through my fear as my panic reached its peak. It erupted out as a hostile question. I couldn't help but speak. We're going to die, I cried out loud to the one who led us there. You said let's go over, but we're going under. How is it that you don't care? And at first he said nothing, but seemed to be struggling with a mind not fully awakened. Straight from his dream into our nightmare, still he wasn't the least bit shaken. And I stood up suddenly and steadied himself. With one hand he held to the ropes like holding the reins of a stallion he rode that rising and falling boat. One hand in the ropes, one hand in the air as we cowered along the sides. He confronted that beast that caused us to cower, so frightened and so terrified. And the words that he spoke, they were not a request. And they were not a victim's plea. Now his words were not louder than the howl of the wind or the roar of the Galilee, but his words carried power, undeniable power, even the force of the wind had to flee. Mightier than the thunder of great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea. And he spoke to that storm like it was a dog. His command muzzled its jaw. It fled with its tail tucked in its legs as we huddled in silence and awe. Everything was quiet upon hearing those words. The water, the earth, the sky, but none were as silent or speechless as we who just witnessed this with our eyes. A man who took lordship over nature, for whom nature immediately complied, now turned his gaze upon us little men just beginning to slowly rise. Why were you frightened? He asked us. How is it that you have no faith? We had no answer to giving and looking back we could only say that we were afraid of what was against us because we did not realize what manner of man it was that we followed and trusted with our very lives. We had no answer for his question of us. We had many more questions of our own and someone finally spoke those words that still echo in my soul. What manner of man indeed is he? Still more than I can know. The Lord Jesus is with you through your storms. Don't freak out. Don't panic. Let him prove to you in the storm just how powerful he is. I know that without a doubt many of the things I just said to you are going to provoke more questions. Pray about it. Will you talk to God about it? What I'm saying to you is that anesthesia is for a time but it's not to be a way of life. Don't try to always escape your pain. The pain of the soul. I'm talking about the pain of the soul. I'm not talking about your body. People always asking me. You're saying that I shouldn't be living on my psych meds. You're saying I should quit. Would you tell a diabetic to stop taking his insulin? My response is always the same. No, I would tell somebody who's not a diabetic to stop taking insulin. Pray with me about this please. Dear Father in heaven, I pray for my brothers and sisters here, people who have suffered in life and will again. And I pray to you Lord Jesus that you help us to understand that there is a purpose to our pain. That there is a God in heaven that is able to cause all things to work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. Lord Jesus, I pray that you help us to put our trust in you, not in the very best intentions of man or his science, lies of man's wisdom, but Jesus please help us to put our complete trust in you. The only one who can save, the one who made us, the one who knows us, the holy name of Jesus our King. Dear Christian while you're praying, while you're silent now, I ask that among you Christians, other people here tonight, whose faith it would seem has been failing. You've gone through and are going through the death of a vision. You've been tempted to look in a lot of directions, you've been trying to explain who you are or even understand who you are based on all the things that have been done to you. Maybe you have resorted to the potions of man, psychopharmacological solution, that's the biggest word in my vocabulary. Maybe you have and I'm asking you tonight, has the Lord touched your heart and talked to you? Would you like prayer? If so, would you just stand up where you sit right now, just stand up, if that's you. I'm not by standing you're not all admitting you're all on drugs, I'm just saying if you're in pain, if you're going through trial and you're trying to make sense of it all and you need to know that the Lord is with you in your storm, please stand and all of us are going to pray for you. We are the body of Christ. Okay, everybody right now who is standing, your family, church, would you stand with them now and put your hands on them, on their shoulders, gently don't weigh them all down, but would you gently put your hand on their shoulder? They may be behind you just turn around and look and see. Maybe you believe the lie or maybe you just begin to suspect that you believe the lie about what is actually wrong with you. I tell you, you know what, you're just as human as all of us and God is able to keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on me. That's one of those exceeding great and precious promises. Isaiah 26.3, He is able, thou wilt keep him in perfect peace. We want to pray that for you. No, it's not an anesthesia, but it is the help of God in your pain. Let's pray together church. Father, these who stand here right now are people who are in trouble in their soul and it's the kind of trouble that is overwhelming. It's the kind of trouble Lord has beaten them down and we stand now with our hands upon them. In united prayer, in agreement that you would please give them peace, give them the faith to believe that you're there and that there's a purpose to it Lord. Lord Jesus, I pray that you'd help them, comfort them by the Holy Spirit, help them to look to you. Father, please help us to be not drunk with wine where in his excess, but be filled with the spirit as a prayer for all who stand here tonight. In the mighty name of the Lord Jesus who is able to take us through the storm and is able to stop the storm. In his name we pray. Amen. Grace and peace to you. Let it go, all the debts have been paid. Let it go, all the pain that's been paid. To the fallen self, the wrathful if he stays, even then.
Meditate Don't Medicate
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Ken Graves (N/A–N/A) is an American preacher and the founding pastor of Calvary Chapel Bangor in Orrington, Maine, known for his bold preaching and commitment to ministry despite personal and legal challenges. Born in one of the poorest parts of Maine, Graves grew up in a tumultuous household with an alcoholic father whose violence left deep scars, eventually abandoning the family. At age 16, inspired by David Wilkerson’s The Cross and the Switchblade, he dropped out of high school and joined a Teen Challenge facility, not as an addict but to train under Christian leaders. By 22, he returned to Bangor, starting a home Bible study in 1991 that grew into Calvary Chapel, marrying Jeanette (marriage date unavailable) and raising a family that remains involved in the church. Graves’s preaching career has centered on Calvary Chapel Bangor, where he has led a congregation of over 1,200—among Maine’s largest—since its founding, emphasizing verse-by-verse Bible teaching and maintaining a yearlong residential recovery program for addicts, reflecting his early calling to minister to broken lives. His ministry expanded with WJCX 99.5 FM in 1996 and frequent speaking at Calvary Chapel conferences nationwide, including a notable 2020 stand against Maine Governor Janet Mills’s COVID-19 church closure orders, risking jail to keep services open, a fight supported by Liberty Counsel. Known for his gravelly voice and masculine style, Graves has preached on embracing persecution and biblical manhood, leaving a legacy as a resilient evangelist whose influence spans his church, radio, and recovery programs.