Enforcing the Law Like a Christian!

Hey, this is Mike Zwick from If Not For God Podcast. Our show, Stories of Hopelessness, Turned into Hope. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds.

Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. He's the sheriff of Davidson County, right? Which is the largest, I guess, city is Lexington, North Carolina. Is that right?

Yes, Lexington, Thomasville, and Denton in the county. So it's possible to be a Christian and a sheriff at the same time? Oh, it's amazing. You know, I feel like the Lord has put me, he raised me to do this, and that's what we're doing now. Because here's what's interesting. So you could, you know, if you're a Christian plumber, well, you're going to look for opportunities to share Christ as you're plumbing, as you're going into people's homes and looking at their pipes, and you're going to be sensitive to what's going on, and say, Lord, help me with my co-workers here, Lord. When you're a sheriff, like, you're putting people in handcuffs, you're breaking up drug deals, you're giving tickets.

I mean, how does the faith of Jesus incorporate into that whole culture in that world? Well, a lot of people are looking for a leader. They're looking for a savior, and they're looking for that in man.

I'm not. I'm the sheriff, and it's a title, but it does lead me, but I'm led by higher power, and that power is Jesus Christ. And that's what I demonstrate in my sheriff's office.

That's what I demonstrate to the people I serve, the 170,000-plus people I serve in Davidson County, to lead them, to give them hope. But the hope doesn't come from a man. It's not going to come from the president.

It's not going to come from any man. It's going to come from what comes through that man, and what comes through this man, the sheriff of Davidson County, is Jesus Christ. Sheriff, how did you come to know the Lord? It was about 17.

Well, I'll go back to seven years old. I was saved at seven, and I got around some bad influences, and that's where my program of taint come from. I took my first drink of alcohol in the seventh grade, and as much as I was saved at seven years old, I gave it away. And everything I wanted to be, I was letting it slip away just by the bad influences in my life.

And I got caught stealing at 17. Who would want their sheriff to be a thief? But that's what I was. And someone had mercy on me, let me pay my bill off. I walked out of the Pizza Hut in Mount Airy without paying, and I went back the next day, paid that off. And I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I was sick of my life and searching. And because at seven years old, my mother taught me about Jesus, I came back to know Him and ask Him in my life, and I've never looked back.

Wow, that's something. So he really did change your life, but that idea of a seventh grader drinking alcohol. I mean, a lot of parents of seventh graders are sitting there thinking, my kid would never do that.

But those kids are, from the sheriff's temple, you see what kids are facing, huh? It's every day. And if you think back, the roughest time of your life was seventh grade. It was for me. You're changing, your hormones are changing, you're wanting to fit in.

So many. But that's what a program we have called TAME, and it stands for Teenage Alcohol and Marijuana Education. It's not heroin and cocaine in the seventh grade. It is letting down your disciplines.

They call them gateways, I call them disciplines, and letting down the things that Satan wants you to do. And that's what we address with the TAME program with a lot of other things. Now, we sat down with the principals of the middle schools and the administrators in Davidson County, and they allowed us to do this.

And we patented it, not to sell it, but just that it wouldn't change. But it deals with vaping, it deals with character building, it deals with harming yourself, it deals with relationships, it deals with social media. We teach, it's a seven month program, and we have different people from the community.

I have a judge, Judge Mary Covington, and one of my DAs comes in and they teach the social media part. Different facets and different people come together to help this seventh grade. Because if we don't do something for the next generation, if we have a generation like this generation, just go ahead and send us off. Sheriff, I know your heart breaks for these young people. And by the way, I'm Stu Everson, this is Truth Talk. And you're thinking, why would a national show like Truth Talk on hundreds of stations have a local sheriff on? Well, let me tell you why. Because law enforcement needs our prayers.

You know, we've got a guy watching who's a member of the government, who works in law enforcement in a different whole area. But he's a believer in Jesus, and God's got you guys. And you're going to be in front of dozens and dozens and hundreds and hundreds of people that maybe a preacher is not going to be in front of. But you love Jesus, and you're trying to share Christ. Tell me about your burden for young people, and how can we reach them with Jesus?

You're doing it through your TAME program. Never sell yourself short for whatever you do. I mean, yeah, everybody looks a sheriff is a big deal, or a local sheriff, you know, but I'm just a man like anybody else. I decided that I wanted my heart to break for these kids. So I asked the Lord to send them to me, to send me anybody that is living for this world.

And I get it. I've almost been the sheriff almost three years, and it's been the toughest three years, but you can see that coming. Well, what's it like being a Christian, but having to put your, because a lot of folks mix up, you know, the role of Jesus, you know, you said turn the other cheek, right?

But when you got a guy, you know, strung out on heroin coming at you with a knife, you got to react. If you turn your other cheek, then the sheriff's dead, and we got more rampant crime. Talk about the importance of your faith, but also being law enforcement. You have to enforce the law.

You're protecting the citizenry of the United States, specifically Davidson County, which is a big, large county in North Carolina. The book of Jude is kind of my life theme. He speaks of having mercy on some, and some do. You know, a lot of times we go and deliver messages, and people will blame God.

How can a loving God let my loved one die? You know, well, they need mercy. They need prayer, and they need told about Jesus. They've done nothing wrong, but it also talks that sometimes you've got to show tough love. Sometimes I've got to give that tough love to get them to change, but I don't get caught up in their sins to pull me down, so that's my theme. I have no problem with giving mercy. I have no problem with giving tough love. That's what I've been called to do, and just like parents have to discipline their children, or you don't love them, just because I discipline and I give tough love, I think it means I love more.

It's easy to walk away from problems. It's tough to run towards them. Yeah, you know, Proverbs says if you don't discipline your child, you hate them. You're turning them into a derelict.

You've got to define what love is, and loving sometimes is stopping. You probably wish when you were seventh grade drinking that alcohol for the first time, which set you off in the wrong direction, that someone had been tough there, grabbed it away, maybe put you in a squad car, took you to jail so you could see what this is like, and you're trying to wake kids up before they go down a path of addiction, and ultimately you're trying to get them to Christ. You're trying to get them there, and it's spirits, and these spirits come in in the form of drugs, in the form of alcohol, and nothing worse than seeing somebody on crystal meth, amphetamine, and the dangers, the violence that they commit. I mean, they're possessed by wicked demon at that time, and it's for real.

I can't explain. You're talking like someone who's seen this, but I mean, this is... Oh, just yesterday, an 18-year-old. I see it every day. It's out here, and I'm wanting these kids to wake up before they do that to find that right spirit, and we've got to hit them dare. We do dare, but that's fifth grade. They're not seventh grade.

They're getting introduced to these things. It's the alcohol. It's the marijuana. It's the smoking and things. It's little things, but the devil doesn't come in. He doesn't just bust your door down.

He sneaks, and he creeps because he is a creep, and that's what we're trying to stop. Peer pressure. Maybe someone looks like a good kid over here, a neighbor or something, but they're into something, and it's one entryway drug away, and I've heard that vaping is more dangerous than a whole pack of cigarettes.

Oh, you don't know what's in these vaping things, and you said it's that kid. This kid was my pastor's son, and he got away from it, and this is a great story. I tell each dare at graduation.

I tell this. You've got to make decisions, but I was elected sheriff in 2018. Two weeks later, he never got out of it.

I got out of it at 17. The Lord let me get caught. Something bad happened to me, but it was great.

It turned me around. He never got caught. He was there that night. He walked out with me. I got caught.

He got away. I was elected sheriff in 2018. Two weeks later, I buried my friend of a heroin overdose, so it's real to me. It's not just I wanted to be the sheriff. I wanted to be the sheriff to make a difference, and I want to glorify our God. That was the same kid that got you into alcohol in the seventh grade. He gave me my first beer. He was a superstar. He was a great quarterback. He was a great athlete.

I was an athlete. We just got caught in the things that TAME stands for. Tell us what TAME is again. TAME stands for Teenage Alcohol Marijuana Education with so many different things, but it's once a month.

We go into each middle school in the seventh grade where I first got introduced trying to curb these kids and turn them around. He's the sheriff of Davidson County, Sheriff Simmons. He's got a Bible right here in front of him. He came to our Wednesday in the Word.

That's why it's a little loud. We've got a studio audience here, but a bunch of guys are still praying and talking. Look at those guys praying.

Isn't that cool? That priest is the guy that brought us together to do this interview, and he's praying with another guy, Mark, over there. How can we pray for you real quick? We're out of time, but quickly, how can we pray for you and all of our sheriffs out there, all of our law enforcement, police, sheriffs, frontline law enforcement, even of Afghanistan, our soldiers and whatnot, warriors, Marines. How do we pray for you guys?

Pray for the division. We've got a government that is trying to keep people, defund police. They're not just defunding. They're de-dreaming. They're taking the dreams away from our young people of getting into law enforcement, fear of getting into it.

That's probably the number one thing you could pray for. We love you. We appreciate you, and thanks for what you're doing. Sheriff Simmons, Davidson County.

Just Google, I guess, TAME, the TAME program. They can find out about it online, okay? Yes, they can get on our website, our Facebook page, Davidson County Sheriff's Office, and learn all about it, and we can bring this to your county or your city, whatever. We're ready to give it. We want it to spread. We want it to spread for God. Everyone, take a quick minute right now, sometime today, if you see some guys out there, out and about, or at a restaurant, and pray for your law enforcement. This is the Truth Network.