The REAL Life
How do we deal with the real life that happens everyday? Pastor John Elmore discusses how BEING REAL is part of the answer.
Show Notes and Resources
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About the Guest
John Elmore
John Elmore is the senior director of pastoral care and director of recovery at Watermark Community Church in Dallas, Texas. Now, over fifteen sober years later, he leads the world’s largest weekly recovery gathering, called re:generation, where more than 1,200 people with every known sin struggle find healing in Christ. Just months after sobriety, Elmore attended and was discipled at the Kanakuk Institute. He holds a BBA in Marketing from Baylor University, a MA in youth and family ministry from John Brown University and a ThM with honors in systematic theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. John and his wife, Laura, have not had REM sleep since 2013, after having three kids in three years. They survive on coffee, takeout, and lots of prayer.
About the Host
Dave & Ann Wilson
Dave and Ann Wilson are hosts of FamilyLife Today®, FamilyLife’s nationally-syndicated radio program. Dave and Ann have been married for more than 38 years and have spent the last 33 teaching and mentoring couples and parents across the country. They have been featured speakers at FamilyLife’s Weekend to Remember® marriage getaway since 1993 and have also hosted their own marriage conferences across the country. Cofounders of Kensington Church—a national, multicampus church that hosts more than 14,000 visitors every weekend—the Wilsons are the creative force behind DVD teaching series Rock Your Marriage and The Survival Guide To Parenting, as well as authors of the recently released book Vertical Marriage (Zondervan, 2019). Dave is a graduate of the International School of Theology, where he received a Master of Divinity degree. A Ball State University Hall of Fame quarterback, Dave served the Detroit Lions as chaplain for 33 years. Ann attended the University of Kentucky. She has been active alongside Dave in ministry as a speaker, writer, small-group leader, and mentor to countless wives of professional athletes. The Wilsons live in the Detroit area. They have three grown sons, CJ, Austin, and Cody, three daughters-in-law, and a growing number of grandchildren.
Episode Transcript
Bob: The verse that Dave, and Ann, and John were just alluding to/just talking about is James, Chapter 5, verse 16: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.” That’s true in our marriages; it’s true when we are stuck in sinful patterns or addictions, controlling behaviors. We need to enlist the help of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We need to enlist the help of our spouse to get free from these sins that, as the book of Hebrews talks about, “so easily entangle us.”
John Elmore’s book, Freedom Starts Today, is a guidebook to help you on the path to freedom. In fact, we’d love to send you a copy of John’s book today. Whether you’re going through a struggle yourself, or you know someone who is, or you want to be able to help others who are struggling with addictions, you can request your copyof the book, Freedom Starts Today, when you make a donation to help support the ongoing work of FamilyLife Today.
We are entirely listener-dependent here at this ministry. All the work we do—all the people whose lives are being impacted because of this radio program, the podcast, the website that we have, the events that we host, the resources we create—everything we do at FamilyLife happens because listeners, like you, help make it happen. If you can make a donation today, we’d love to send you John Elmore’s book, Freedom Starts Today. Donate online at FamilyLifeToday.com, or call to donate at 1-800-FL-TODAY; that’s 1-800-358-6329; 1-800-“F” as in family, “L” as in life, and then the word, “TODAY.” Thanks, in advance, for your donation. We look forward to sending you a copy of John’s book, Freedom Starts Today.
Now, one other thing I need to let you know about before we wrap up here today. We’ve got an event coming up in October—it’s October 14 and 15, a two-day live event—it’s the FamilyLife Summit on Stepfamily Ministry®. Ron Deal and others are going to be focusing on how to help families prepare for life in a blended family: “What can we do, proactively, as couples are forming a blended family, to help them start better and start stronger?” That’s the focus of this two-day event.
It’s going to be happening at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, Georgia, in the Atlanta area. Make plans to be there. Find out more: go to FamilyLifeToday.com; all the information you need is available there. Join us in the Atlanta area for the upcoming Summit on Stepfamily Ministry, October 14 and 15.
Now, tomorrow, Dave and Ann Wilson are going to talk with John Elmore about what you do in the moment when you’re facing temptation to step back into addictive behavior. You don’t want to, but it’s almost like you can’t help yourself. What do you do in that moment? We’ll talk about that tomorrow; I hope you can be with us for that.
On behalf of our hosts, Dave and Ann Wilson, I’m Bob Lepine. We will see you back next time for another edition of FamilyLife Today.
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