Dr. Michael Youssef, beginning today's Leading the Way Audio.

Christians are supposed to uphold the vision of swimming upstream of culture,

of swimming upstream of the pressure of the world.

But so many Christians are floating downstream on a yacht.

And when the chips are down, integrity and biblical

principles will get sold, not the yacht. Welcome to leading the way with Dr. Michael Yousaf,

celebrating more than three decades of passionately proclaiming the uncompromising truth of the gospel

across six continents and 28 languages and growing. We all understand how decisions of today

can lead to misery tomorrow. And next on leading the way, a biblical example of the path from disobedience

to destruction. You'll look at the life choices of Lot, Abraham's nephew, and through it,

be encouraged to live a life of obedience and faith. Here's Dr. Michael Yousaf, beginning this

episode of Leading the Way.

It was about two years after I have committed my life to the Lord that I went through what theologians call backsliding experience.

I really like the word backsliding because truly if you're not going up,

you're going down. It's that simple. There is no standing still in the Christian life.

And I hate to say it, I had to learn it the very hard way, the very difficult way. But through that experience, God taught me a lot of things.

Oh yes, oh, oh, during that time, I kept going to church. But my heart was called toward God.

My heart was called toward God's word. My heart was called toward Christians.

My heart was called toward God's Word. My heart was called toward Christians. My heart was called towards spiritual walk of any type.

And that is why I know there are many Christians backslide right in the pews in the church.

And for a period of 18 months, I sought to do my own thing. I got angry with God when my mother died,

and so I blamed God for all kinds of things. Oh, I've never despised God. No, I've never done that,

...