 and they will break down. Fear and guilt to shackle me. Get the ground, talk the prison doors, gave me home, life worth living for. More than a muscle set free. My God's alive. Christ didn't pull me back from the four line. Mustn't go breakin' through like the daylight. Your love has rescued me. Singing about freedom. Singing about my... On this Labor Day, welcome to Hope Today. I hope you have rested from your labors today. It's great God rested from his labors and we get an extra day to do that. So thank you for being with us. Tell us about our guests coming up. Yeah, we're so glad that you're with us. And I tell you what, our guest, his name is Nathan Sheridan. I had the privilege recently to sit down and hear his story. I was so moved by his heart. So this young man was born into incredible hardship. Like from the time he was so little, he was trying to navigate through hell. And he's such an example of what God can do with a life that is surrendered to him. Like truly, Tom, our lives are hidden in Christ and it's amazing to see that no matter what has been in our past that God can make us a miracle for this world to make such a difference. I don't know any better definition of Christianity than God intervening, Christ intervening, intercepting our lives as we're traveling along that lifespan and God intersects with us and changes things, draws us after himself. That's right. He's always pursuing you. From the time you were born, God is going after your heart to bring you close to him. So today I want you to just press in to the story because it will be one of hope, one of encouragement that no matter how much of a mess you feel like your life is in, that this will be your opportunity to see and hear what God wants to speak to your heart and what he wants to do in your life. Absolutely. And as always, we have prayer partners available. They're standing by to pray with you 24-7. They want to pray with you. You need the prayer. They're glad to take you by the hand and go to the throne room together. So avail yourself of the prayer partners if you find yourself in need of prayer today. Yeah, that's right. Well, stay tuned because my conversation with Nathan Sheridan is next. You'll get to hear his story, his message about hope, and hear more of his uplifting music. Stay with us. We know how much our CTVN family loves Arlene Williams. I'm Amanda Brocker, one of the hosts on Hope Today. Deidra shared, I just recently saw at home with Arlene who reminded me of my mom. I watched her every day along with many other programs. God bless you all for your time. It's our generous partners like you who help us stay on 24-7. Thank you. Hope happens here. Our next guest has been uplifting others with his gift of music and gives God all the praise and glory. Nathan Sheridan is a Christian singer, songwriter, and recording artist and he joins us now to share his story of how he overcame insurmountable odds to get to where he is today. So Nathan, thank you so much for being here with us. So your story is so inspiring because you truly did just have a very difficult start like right from the beginning of life. Can you share with us a bit about those early years? Yeah, it was a really, really difficult like you said, a difficult start because me and my sister, our parents really weren't in a great place in life to raise us. They were very, very heavily addicted to drugs and it was one of those situations where they kind of wanted us when it was convenient but when the drugs kind of came back into their life it was inconvenient for them. So it was really, really tough for us. I was only four years old. My sister was five or six whenever and my mom had sold everything in our house and we were always back and forth anyways. So it was always this thing where we were back and forth, back and forth between my grandparents and my parents. Like I said, it was only when they wanted us and this was kind of the final time my mom had sold everything in the home for drug money and she called my grandparents in the middle of the night and said, hey, come get the kids right now. I can't raise them anymore and if you don't come get them tonight whatever happens happens. If we went into the system or something like that. So it was a big shock to us and there was that abandonment there and after that night I didn't see my mother again for well over 10 years. So it was a really, really difficult start and feeling even at that young age, even when I didn't know it people don't even realize the trauma they've experienced and I think I was, you know, I was putting it out there in different ways and maybe didn't even know that was the reason but, you know, even at a young age I was feeling that trauma, feeling that insecurity and that abandonment, things like that and just trying to navigate through all that. Absolutely, because yeah, you're so young that's all you knew was the environment that you were growing up in and trying to process that. I just can't even imagine. The shift went into living with your grandparents so how was that for you to make such a transition into their home? Well, you know, fortunately they had been, you know, taking us in and like keeping us for weeks at a time so the transition itself wasn't necessarily the hardest part as it was never seeing my mom again after that. It's like there was no revisiting that part of my life and I think for me and my sister both it was just a huge... I think there was a generational gap, you know, I think there was a generational gap. My grandparents, they weren't prepared really to take us in full time. Their whole life was, you know, they were starting over more or less. I mean, whenever a four-year-old and a six-year-old come into your home and, hey, you've got to raise them now and the cards fall where they may and I think for them it was a big shock so there was a lot of grief and a lot of re-navigating life and, you know, throwing a wrench in the fire, so to speak, and for both of us. So for me, my sister and my grandparents. And then to add on to that, your sister got very sick. What happened? My sister got sick. They took her into, you know, different specialists and things like that. She was getting headaches and what not. Just something wasn't right and she ended up getting diagnosed with a very rare form of brain cancer. So this is right after, more or less, right after being with my grandparents and living in their home. She, you know, got sick and, man, it was a pretty rapid decline. It was something that could have never been foreseen. It wasn't genetic. It wasn't anything. The doctors really couldn't explain it. It was a very, very rare form of cancer that only, I think, four or five children in the world had ever been documented to have it at that point because it was an adult form of cancer, but in a child, if that makes sense. So for us, it was a huge, obviously upsetting. For me, it was devastating, you know, because my sister at that point was the only friend I had ever known, the only person I had ever played with. And obviously she was looking at for me in ways that I didn't even realize then. So to see her sick and, you know, for her to go into a coma and then for her to pass away from that was ultimately just another huge hit for me. It was a huge hit for me. And something that it took me a long time to recover from that. Again, in ways I didn't even realize. I mean, there was trauma there that I didn't even deal with till I was older. So it was trauma layered on trauma, top of trauma. It took you into your teenage years where a lot of just living out in very rebellious ways, but then you heard about Jesus. Tell us a bit about when the shift happened. Well, you know, I always attribute it to praying grandparents. I love what my grandmother did because I could talk all about that generational gap and how we fought and butted heads and things like that. But man, she was a praying grandmother and I'll never forget when we started going to church. Again, you know, they had stopped going for a while but my grandmother wanted to get back in the church and I started going every Wednesday, every Sunday morning, every Sunday night. And I was under the impression that I was a Christian while my grandmother was a Christian, my grandfather was a Christian. He used to be a deacon in a church and she had volunteered in Sunday school and been at church her whole life. She was a Christian and I heard her pray and sing hymns and all that. They're Christians, I'm a Christian. But man, they took me to a play called Heaven's Gates, House Flames and that still goes on today. I've actually talked with the owner of that play and talked with him about it, but it's amazing. I've never encountered the gospel presented in an artistic way if that makes sense. And I think it makes so much sense for me why it spoke to me so clearly and so powerfully in that moment. Just seeing my eternity on display and seeing, wow, when I leave here, I'm really am going somewhere and my soul really does belong to someone and who do I want it to belong to? And it's like you can't serve two masters and just seeing Jesus presented to me in that way and knowing that his will for me is that I should be saved and that I shouldn't perish. It's not his will for me to die and that I should live in Heaven for all eternity and that he has such a grand purpose for my life and there's a grand destiny for me and that there's so much more than what I've experienced in my life. That was a huge moment for me and it took, I was shy so it was like every ounce of energy and just courage to get up, walk to the front and say, you know what, I want to accept Christ as a mom, that gives me goosebumps to hear about as your grandma listens to you share and to see where you are today and just blesses her so much. Okay, so then from there you picked up a guitar and that starts to bring us into today. Tell us about your passion for guitar and God's calling on your life. Yeah, my sister got me a guitar at a 15 years old. I have a sister named Taniel and she was, you know, she helped almost raise me too, you know, at her house and I told Taniel, I said, you know, I want a guitar and she ended up buying it for me like a $200 guitar and I picked around on it, played on it but I honestly, I never saw myself as a musician. I never thought that I could really do this for a living and even though I'd gotten encouragement for people but it actually took me getting believe it or not, it took me joining the military and really rediscovering my love for music for guitar, for singing you know, having you know, fellow soldiers, my peers you know, man, sing us something, you know, play us something and actually getting opportunities on base to lead worship at Chapel and going overseas in leading worship and when I got to Kuwait and I was deployed to Kuwait I had the opportunity to kind of cut my T of leading worship then and just receive so much encouragement and support from people saying, man, we love your voice we love how you play, we love songs and what you're doing we really want you to, you know after you get out of here, you really need to pursue this and I think just so much encouragement for people is really where all that started to accumulate so much to the point where I'm like, you know, God is speaking to me through this, I really believe that and I had ignored it for so long because again, I wasn't secure in that way, I just was not I did not have that much security to say yeah, I can do this totally I was born for this or something like that it was never like that for me so, man, just encouragement from my fellow soldiers, other Christians my family, my friends and just people that had ever heard me play right, that affirmation from God that this is the path he has for you so we get to listen to you sing now we're going to hear your new single that's called Do You Know can you share a bit about the meaning behind that Do You Know is really about the prodigal coming home I think for so many we get into this mindset that, you know, even as a Christian right, we are walking along the path, God has us on we fall down and we think, well, I got to get up, go all the way back to the starting line and continue on and really it's not like that you know, the father is right there waiting when we're ready to get up and he's got his arms wide open, he wants to throw his best robe on us and, you know, man we are so treasured by him, he really just he loves the fact that we exist you know, and he, like the very sound of our name makes him dance for joy and I truly believe that and I just know that it's not this situation where we always constantly have to go back to the starting line he's taking us right where we're at and saying, you know what, just do the next right thing I love you so much and I'm never going to leave you, I'm never going to forsake you and I think that's the gospel message as a whole you know, we are kept by him, he's our keeper and it's grace that saves us Amen, Nathan so well said thank you so much for being here and for sharing your story and here you get to enjoy the music and worship of Nathan what do you know he rejoices at the sound of your name, what a great song what a great, he loves you, he cares you, God loves you he's crazy about you and he gave his life for you that you might know your purpose in life and you might be reconciled back to God what a great song, Anna yeah, so powerful it just moved me so much to just remember how much God loves me, how much God loves you, that he will come after you and rescue you and take you all the way home my prayer for you friend is that today you will feel that tug of God trying to pull you closer that he's saying to stop running and come to me that he wants to wrap you up in his arms and I pray that you will get to experience the God of the Bible the God who created you and has such an incredible plan for your life and so it's very simple as he calls you as he convinces you that yes, he has a plan for your life then open up the door of your life open up the door of your heart and say Lord come into my life be my savior be my Lord I'm going to follow after you forgive me of my sins we've all done that we've all done things wrong you know that just ask for that forgiveness and that restoration to be everything that you were meant to be everything that God has for you that's the beginning when you say I'm going to follow you and God rushes in he takes up residence in your heart residence in your life he fills you with the Holy Spirit and you begin that journey you begin a journey that is the journey that you were meant for is the journey that you were designed for and so many people they finally come to that place and they're like I know why I was born I know the reason that I'm living and God wants that for you in your life today don't put that off give your life to Christ today we're going to hear a Nathan Sheridan sing for us again and I so enjoy his music and the song is called again