 I hope you're burning hell. You're the worst Christian ever. They should put you away forever. You're the worst kind of person. That's what was told to me. Sweet little old adorable me. And I probably deserved it. I'd always been the kind of person who said that I'm gonna do whatever I have to do. I'm gonna make it. There's nothing that's gonna stop me. I can make it happen no matter what. And I'd gone through some things in life, grew up in some bad neighborhoods. My mother used drugs. My father sold drugs. My father actually went to prison. We had death threats put out on us. We even had to lead the city for a while because someone was trying to kill us. It was homeless, put myself back in college. And so I was always, in my mind, I knew that no matter what the situation was, I can make it through. I can fix it. Well, that kind of thinking gets you in trouble because you begin to lean on yourself instead of God. And so when things were going good and when I say good, things were going pretty good. I had a good house. I definitely had a good wife, good kids. I even had good dogs. I had built a business, an investment business with a couple offices and several financial advisors. And by all accounts, things were going well. But when you lean on yourself and you feel like that there's nothing can stop you, you start detaching yourself from God. You start finding yourself, unbeknownst to yourself, further and further away from Him. And that's what happened to me. I'm doing things for the ministry. I'm doing things in this business and for my family. But I wasn't doing anything with God. I wasn't spending time with Him. Wasn't around Him. I wasn't reading like I used to read. I wasn't studying and praying like I knew to study and pray. And so I found myself in the situation. I want to get too far into details, but I found myself doing things that I never would have thought in a million years that I would do. Things that I used to look down on other people for doing. Being unfaithful in the marriage. And because of that, as things slowed down in the business, I didn't focus on things the way I should have. And of course, being detached from God didn't help. Although I looked like I was godly, as a matter of fact, I had actually won Man of the Year in our church for the level of service and commitment to the ministry. But little did they know. Sometimes you can be what I call a sheep in wolf's clothing. You can on the inside be a sheep, but outwardly act or have traits or attributes that a wolf would have. And so I was farther and farther away from God than I expected to be. And so as the business began to slow down and that attitude that I can make anything happen, I can fix it, that's what I tried to do. And my idea was I would just take money from different clients and put it into the business and make sure things were going well. And then when fees or commissions come in, I put it back in the client's account and in the meantime I'd give them a statement. Well, that's not legal, the government doesn't like that. And so when it all came crashing down, and when I say came crashing down, it came crashing down hard. I didn't think that I was gonna be facing too much time. I figured, you know, since this is my first time and I was cooperating and pleading guilty that I'm looking at no more than two, three, the most four years because that's what people in my same category would get. Possibly even probation, 20 years. That was the sentence. I was so shocked that when the judge said 240 months, I'm thinking, how much is 240 weeks? I didn't hear him correctly. But yeah, he said 240 months. That is a long time. And in the federal system, there is no parole. You're doing 85% of that time unless you win something in the courts or some sort of pardon or clemency comes. You know the sad part about that? At my worst, when I needed people the most, no one was there. Can you imagine going through something through your darkest day, your darkest moment, and not having the people that you thought would be there to support you, none of them being there? People that I would have swore that no matter what, they'd be by my side. Funny thing is, people don't like being around when you start falling down. People don't like being around chaos and tragedy and danger and bad things. People don't like that at all. Especially people who don't love you like you thought. People love you when you can do things for them or when you've got a good name or it seems like everything is going well. But when things are dark and when things are down, nobody wants to be, that's when you find out who your real friends are who really loves you. But what ended up happening is, I didn't realize at the time, but what God did was He moved people out of my life who otherwise should not have been in my life, who I would not have moved out of my life. God knows what He's doing and so I'm doing things that I shouldn't be doing and God just said, okay, I'll fix that. And boy did He. You have no idea what it's like in prison. Let me just say this, if you don't know, prison is not a good place. Horrible. I've seen some things, I've got some stories to tell. I'm not gonna say them here, but maybe it later, but some bad things happen in prison. There's some bad folks. I mean, literally around killers. People who have hurt children, who have hurt old people, who've done some horrible things. And these are the people that God has me around and it took me a minute to realize, God, why do you have me here around all these people? Well, because Corey, you deserve to be around these people. These are your kind. Birds of a feather flock together especially in prison. These are not the best that society has to offer. And I had to realize that while I was in prison, I had to let God show me who I was. God basically gave me one of those two-sided mirrors, the mirror that shows you the good side that you'd like to see, but then the other side that shows you all your blemishes and pores and things like that. And that's the side that I saw. I saw the kind of person that I was, the kind of person who would act one way, look one way, but end up hurting his family more than anybody else on this planet could. That's the kind of person that I was. But now there's some good things that came out of that. Because for the first time in a long time, I was able to spend time with God. The benefit of having all that time was that I had that time to learn God and to get closer to God and to have him to take out of me the things that I didn't need to have in me in the first place. And for him to show me that this is not what you want to do, you're gonna do what I want to do. And so I studied and I got closer to God and I learned where I was wrong, the kind of person that I should not be and let God build me up. And so though I would never ever wish to have this happen to me again for all the experiences and all the things that have taught me, I wouldn't trade those things in for the world because it made me out to be a better person. I'm better physically. I'm better mentally and emotionally. Things don't bother me the way they bother other people. People ask me, well, what do you want for dinner? Whatever. Because when you're used to eating horrible prison food, whatever's on the menu tonight is okay. When someone says something mean or cruel or ugly to me, that doesn't bother me. You mean to tell me, you taught me a name. How does your name calling compare to the judge saying 240 months? They don't even compare, do they? Or someone's got a bad attitude towards me. I was literally around killers. So you getting an attitude or saying something or being in a funny mood, that doesn't do anything to me. And so God had used these things to show me, to grow me and to teach me, even using me to minister to people who needed it the most, people who were hurting who didn't know God. But then also that God prepared me to be the person that he wanted me to be, the person that he wanted to use, that I wasn't gonna be. I had my own agenda before I went in prison. Coming out, I've got his agenda. Because what he showed me the most was how to trust him. So why am I here in front of this camera? Why am I on your computer screen, your phone screen? Because God knows what he's doing. Because God is a deliverer. Now I know this isn't quite what he meant, but I'm gonna say it anyway. Who the Son says free is free indeed. And when God is the one that knocks you down, no one else is gonna bring you back up. When God is the one that's blocking things, when God is the one that's closing doors, I don't care who you know. The door's not getting open. But when God sets you up and sets you on a course, and when God opens the door, nobody's closing that door. And I know some guys in prison who can testify of the goodness of the Lord. But how it's amazing how you can be in a dark place, literally in shackles, in chains, and still able to praise God. So, how am I today? Well, I know who I am, but this time I know who I am in Christ. I know that I can do nothing apart from him. Anything else is gonna be futile. May leave me back to the same place. Because I thought about, what if I would have gotten a year, two, three years? Maybe that wasn't enough to change me. Maybe that wasn't enough to set in. But one, when you're a minister, when you're in ministry, like I was, he's not going to tolerate you messing up his name. He's not gonna tolerate you sullying and soiling his name. But he also cares enough about you that he's going to, if it takes you being drugged through the mud for him to be with you, and he'll do that, that's fine because he knows what's more important. I'm a living witness to what God can do. Do I think that anything can stop what God is doing in me or with me? No, because it's his agenda this time. It's not mine. My confidence used to be in me. It's in him now, because now I know who I am in him.