Worship Artist Michael Cochren: ‘God’s Timing Is Perfect’

((music playing)) there was this like double life of the good image the nice funny kid that was president of the choir and all this stuff and sang some hymns on Sunday morning and and whatever would help the old lady across the street with her groceries that kid was Michael Cochran but so was this kid the kid that you know would just do whatever to get a laugh on Friday night and would drink way too much to not remember what had happened and there's this double life going on on there was a time that I swore I would never go back I was blind to the truth didn't know what I had I was running I was searching but every place I turned he me more broken the today Michael Cochran is all in for Jesus Christ he's a singer songwriter and worship leader whose music has been getting a lot of AirPlay and exposure lately maybe you've even heard of his band Cochran and Company his story is a fitting one for the start of a new year because it's a story of A New Beginning a life transformed by Jesus Christ this is GPS God people stories an Outreach Of The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association Happy New Year I'm Jim Kirkland a little later in the episode you'll hear Billy Graham talk about the type of New Life transformation that Michael Cochran and countless others have experienced Christ indicated that we do not have the inner resources to face the problems frustrations and crisis of life we need new inner resources which he alone can provide he said you must be born again the new birth brings about a change in disposition in affection in design if you'd like to know more about New Birth in Jesus Christ visit us we're at fine peacewithgod.net that's fine peacewithgod.net if you'd prefer to talk with someone call the 247 Billy Graham prayer line 855255 7729 that's 855255 prey GPS God people stories Michael Cochran grew up in a small town in Indiana with his parents and older brother Tim when I say Indiana everybody thinks like that's a Northern State but where I lived it really felt country and it felt Southern and it just felt warm and I had a great upbringing had great parents great grandparents in my life I was fortunate enough to grow up with both sets of my grandparents and saw them often and that was just a huge blessing Michael spent much of his childhood playing with his cousins who lived a couple of streets down from him and going to church his family had deep roots in church for example his grandfather was a minister for over 50 years and his grandmother was the organist at his family's Church my earliest memories are from singing hymns with my family on Sunday mornings and having potluck dinners after church and all that stuff but music was a big part of my upbringing as well my aunt was a fantastic piano player my grandfather was a great singer my dad played the guitar and I have a lot of fond memories of sitting out on the front porch of our home we were out there we would sit on the front porch and the spiders would be building cobwebs up in the corner in the evenings and my dad would have his old acoustic guitar out and we'd be singing songs together out there surrounded by both music and church Michael knew about Jesus from a young age when he was eight or nine he responded to an altar call invitation that his Pastor gave and I was like I I want to do that you know I want to get baptized and I went to the front but my life didn't really change you know looking back that decision wasn't one that I think I was prepared for the implications of what it means to follow Jesus I like the way it sounded and I liked being in the club so to speak you know my grandparents were Christians my mom my dad my family I was raised in a Christian household so I wanted to be a Christian I wanted Jesus in my heart I wanted to be like that and I wasn't prepared for what it meant to follow what it meant to pick up your cross what it meant to die to yourself Michael would eventually learn what that meant but not before he he suffered some hard blows and made some bad decisions the first blow came when he was in fourth grade that's when his parents told Michael and his brother that they were getting a divorce I remember the morning they sat us down and it was a shock we were on the couch in the living room and there's a lot of tears and a lot of not understanding Michael felt like he had done something wrong but his parents assured the boys that their decision had nothing to do with them still Michael's heart hurt divorce didn't feel normal to him we didn't have family members at that time that had and so this just felt like something that happens to other people other families like not us you know and it was Earth shattering so there was a lot of struggle with that of dealing and and pointing blame and all these things the boys continued to live with their mom but their dad remained very present in their lives he coached them in sports and attended all their games despite that Michael couldn't ignore the instability in his life and that led to his making some bad decisions the reality is is that I wasn't coping well and I was turning to other things besides the Lord even though the Lord was right there waiting for me to run into his arms I was running into the arms of other things I started drinking alcohol when I was probably 12 or 13 years old I just had some friends that had it available Michael had a lot of friends he says he loved being liked by people and making them laugh he was the class clown he looks back and sees now that a lot of his behavior was an attempt to numb the pain he was feeling so was the drinking he had started one particular evening of heavy drinking at a party stands out in his memory I just remember being in my friend's basement and my heart beating so fast I was like I'm going to do this thing that I know is wrong but I'm just hoping that it makes me feel better and that started just a lot of binge drinking started a lot of other mild substance abuses those kind of things it was just anything to try to make me feel better and like kind of self-medicating you know but not everyone knew this side of Michael he was from a family with a good reputation and continued to do well in school most people had no idea that he was spiraling there was this like good image the nice funny kid that was the president of the choir and you know all this stuff and sang some hymns on Sunday morning and and whatever would help the old lady across the street with her groceries and and then there was the kid that would just do whatever to get a laugh on Friday night and would drink way too much to not remember what had happened there's this double life going on and as God began to just show me the emptiness of one I started to see hope in in the other of like okay my way is not working but I would keep going back to it and I would hear something or I would see something or I read something in a moment of desperation and I would be like okay I'm I'm going to qu get my life together that resolve would only last until the next time his buddies would ask him to hang out and he was tempted again then he'd go right back to his old habits while he was struggling Michael's love of music was growing and he started his own band right as he was graduating from high school when I first started playing music my main motivation was I just want girls to like me you know like I just want to be cool I want to be a rock star I want to move to Nashville I want to have a rock band or a Country van or whatever you know whatever it takes just to be cool and to be loved and that started to change towards the end of high school the first part of college and there was this desire to know the Lord like I knew I should but there was also this fear of the implications of what that would mean for my life Michael and his band played shows all throughout his freshman year at vinen University in Indiana and God was at work I went there for audio engineering I just wanted free studio time I didn't really want to learn how to record stuff I just wanted to be recorded because I wanted to make music you know so I paid a lot of money to go in there and use the studio and knowing what I know now I could have spent a little less and went to Nashville and use a better Studio but I I did enjoy it and it played an integral part in my life because it put me around the people that God wanted me to be around and Michael liked being around those people Christians but he still wasn't ready to be one himself he was not ready to commit to Jesus Christ I knew enough to know that I wasn't living like if I follow Christ that means I have to die to these things over here and I just couldn't because I thought those were saving me and and it was that idea was slowly moving but it was this just this blending period of these things aren't satisfying me but I can't quite seem to grasp that this will satisfy me one night at a lake party with some friends Michael drowned his struggles in alcohol and as he woke up the next morning with the sun in his eyes he saw something he didn't like like the person he never wanted to be that night I realized that that part of my life had overtaken the other and I become something I never wanted to be and truly Looking Back Now I see from the word sin does take you farther than you ever want to go and it costs you more than you ever think you're going to have to pay and you don't realize it it's a slow creep until you just you look one day and you're like I've become somebody that I never wanted to be Michael knew that he had a choice to make I can keep doing this and I'm going to be miserable my whole life or I can actually surrender and I choose to surrender now when I started to see that I started to see all of it for what it was and that one night by the lake was just this Veil came off my eyes and I was like I've turned into a wicked person and that's never what I wanted nobody sets out to be that way you nobody sets out to find themselves just completely Shackled by sin but it happens in his sophomore year of college Michael made the decision to transfer to to a community college it was a move that took him away from the friends he used to party with and put him closer to friends who were serious about their faith in Jesus they had walked through a faith journey and a trial and they had come out knowing the Lord and they were taking their faith really seriously and I noticed that and I knew enough about the Lord I knew enough scripture to know that Jesus was what was giving them their peace and their happiness and I wanted that that sounds cliche but I saw what they had and I wanted it you know and so I had two sets of friends in those years I had my friends that I could go and be wild with and I had my friends that I could sit down with and have a conversation about Jesus and I became increasingly more hungry for that set of friends I just wanted to be around them more and so they invited me to start coming with them to this bible study on Tuesday nights attending those Bible studies and being around Christians made Michael feel better in one way but inside he still felt miserable and broken soon enough God was using that simple little bible study to break through some walls that I had built up and I started seeing all the holes in my world view and all the holes in the way that I was living and doing life and one night the guy preaching there at the Bible study just laid out the gospel and I had heard it so many times growing up but it was like I'd never heard it that night I was wrecked that's how Michael describes what happened for the first time time in his life at 19 years old Michael felt the walls in his mind fall but he didn't want anyone to see the tears streaming down his face so when the Bible study was over he went right out to his white Buick Regal and sat there as everyone else drove away it was just him and God I just sat there in that parking lot in my car by myself just uncontrollably sobbing and just years of hiding and years of pain just rolling out of my eyes and I'm just crying out to God like God I want this to be real I don't want this to just be like another youth conference that that my parents made me go to when I was in high school that was a a spiritual high or an emotional high and then I come back to the real world and nothing changes my life doesn't change you know I want this to be real tonight and am I too far gone for that you know and he answered my prayer right there as Michael got ready to drive home he turned on the radio and heard a song Come On called east to west by the band Casting Crowns this particular lyric caught his attention I feel like I'm just one mistake away from you leaving me this way Jesus can you show me just how far the East is from the West it refers to Psalm 103:12 in which God promises to remove our sins from us as far as the East is from the West when we give our lives lives to Jesus and that was my prayer come to life and as I heard those words wash over me it really was like God was just speaking directly to me through the radio like he just was reminding me of scriptures that I knew and and even what what the guy said in the Bible study and I just felt this peace and this calm of I can be the Lord's and I can walk with him and I can be forgiven for all the mess that I've made of my life and that night right then and there that was the beginning of a Walk With Jesus and understanding Grace and what was done for me the next year Michael stopped going to community college so that he could pursue a career in Christian music he didn't know how it would all play out but he was going to give it a try my heart was just on fire for the Lord like it was new and I was just so ready to go I was writing Christian music and I was singing in church and I was working in music at a church and I was all L I like I'm gonna give this a year just to see what happens like I'm gonna go after Christian music whatever and then I met a girl that was in July of 2013 Michael's band was headlining a small concert at a college and a young lady named Leah and her sister sang a duet to open the show we were loading in our equipment in the back and I just was young and and still pretty arrogant and I just thought like we're really cool we got this show and I got this van now which was like my dream to have a van to drive around in and so we loading our stuff and I just hear this voice singing and soundchecking and and I just nudged my guitar player just joking and I was like I'm going to marry that girl and then I met her that night and I don't know I guess someone maned my word after this show they connected on Facebook and chatted back and forth all night a few days later Michael mustered up the courage to ask her to lead worship with him at a camp Leah agreed and the two continued playing music together but Leah still wasn't feeling the same romantic feelings that Michael was and I remember going to my pastor at the time at this new church that I was serving at in music and I said hey this girl is so special and she just wants to be friends I don't know what to do he's like well it's really simple be the best friend she's ever had I was like I can do that and so we just became really good friends and I don't even remember how it just slowly turned into more along the way Leah encouraged Michael to finish his degree so he went back to school joining her at Oakland City University a small Christian College in Indiana I went to the guidance counselor there and I laid all my credits on our table and I said tell me what gets me out of here the fastest because I was so done with college I was done with school Leah was going to be out in a year she was just going there to finish up and so I was like what gets me out and she was like well a general studies degree you'd only need to have many credit hours I said done and it's really funny cuz I always tell people I have a bachelor's degree in General Studies and studying is generally the thing I didn't do instead Michael spent his time playing music and hanging out with Leah we would go grab dinner at Denny's which was the only restaurant next to our College we just got to know each other more and more and I sat down and we had a play to zesty nachos and I said Leah Helms I was wondering if you would be my girlfriend and she said yes and we celebrated with the nachos and it was great night within a couple of months Michael and Leah were already talking about getting married what so cool about our story is if I had met her a year and a half earlier it would not have worked I was not who she needed me to be I was not looking for someone like her and God knew that and what's crazy so we started dating there in 2013 about a year and a half after that she was already playing in my band with me and we were touring and stuff and we were going to be opening up for skillet which is like Christian rock band and I was like okay I remember seeing Skillet in 2012 in January at our town for Winter Jam they came through and it was just this big concert it was awesome we were in the very top overflow section CU I got there so late and you could feel the pyrot Technics from the stage and she was like yeah I remember that too I was at that concert I was like yeah I was in the top left like right here you a she was like yeah know I was there as well and I was like that's crazy Leah pulled out her phone and showed Michael a panoramic selfie of her and her friend at Winter Jam and I was like oh oh my gosh I take that and I zoom it in and I brighten her phone up a little bit and I keep zooming and it was her friend her two empty chairs and then me I was in the background of her photo that night with my buddy Alex we were there and we didn't meet I don't remember even anybody being next to me it was like God had just put a Blinder up of like you're not going to meet tonight but you're going to meet in a year and a half when your heart's ready and her heart's ready and so like anytime in our life when we're just frustrated and struggling and waiting on God's timing we just look back at that photo of us together and not together and just realize God's timing is perfect and it's always been perfect and in God's perfect timing Michael and Leah married on June 27th 2015 that's when Leah also joined Michael's band taking over as The Pianist and pushing Michael to be more of a frontman her joining the group was this pivotal moment of like expanding what it was we were doing so that was huge and then I just was so hungry to play and I was especially so hungry now to just share this message with like anybody that would listen so I was calling I don't know in those years probably a hundred churches or coffee shops I was looking at other artists like that I respected I was like where do they just play well I'm going call that place see if they'll let me come play there and like well where you know what's Okay so we're going to play in cinc night tomorrow we're going to play in Indianapolis the next day so I need to find a coffee shop somewhere in this region I was just calling all these places and you know for every 100 five people would call me back and one person would say yes or whatever as Michael began to knock on doors God opened them for him people were getting excited that there's this Christian band that's like they're really trying to do something and so they would have us come sing at their Church whatever and finally we built it up enough to where if somebody was going to bring like a national group through the area more often than not they would call us to have us open because they thought that might help the attendance or whatever and so that happened with news boys and some other groups coming through but the turning point for Michael's career occurred when Christian artist Ryan Stevenson was having two shows in Indiana Cochran and Company was booked to play at both events and I didn't know but his management team came with him and I just saw all these guys standing around in all black next to Ryan and I knew like oh they're from Nashville like you know they just looked like they were in the music industry you know and so I just went up to him and I was like hey you don't know me but I'm going to play here in a minute I would love it if you would watch the set I gave him my hard like email me some thoughts anything that you think would help and I didn't think they really would but they did so Monday morning I got an email and they were like hey fantastic here's some things maybe that might help you also would you want to come and and just have a conversation in Nashville sometime like we'd love to know what your goals are what you're you know what you're after Michael said he'd head down to see them immediately I go on I meet with them and there's all these gold records and platinum records on the wall from artists that they've worked with and they were just like like we believe in you and we think that you have what it takes and we've heard your songs we've heard your voice and we've heard what you have to say and what your heart is and what you're about and we would love to work with you if you would work with us that was in 2017 the management team started sending Michael's Music to record labels something that Michael had been doing for years but this time Michael had his foot in the door with a reputable company and so we started taking label meetings with all the big labels in town it just was overwhelming season for me it seemed like it so fast I dreamed of it and dreamed of it and dreamed of it but I'm from a small town in Indiana I serve at a small church but just a lot like how I just felt drawn to Leah and couldn't explain it I just felt drawn to do this I never really thought it would happen at this level but I just couldn't do anything else it's all I ever wanted to do and God just opened those doors when Michael was in talks with one label he ended up writing a song with a producer entitled church he had no idea that the producer was working with Toby Mack at the time nor that he would show Toby Mack his new song but once Toby Mack heard it he wanted to meet Michael Toby just flipped out and came to the studio the next day to our session and this white Tesla pulls up and Toby Mack gets out with his Fedora on you know and I'm like oh my gosh this is Toby Mack and he comes in and he says Hey listen I know you're down the road with some other labels and stuff but we want to throw our hat in the ring and we'd love to work with you he takes his hat off and tosses on the table you know I was like oh wow I love to pray about this this is unreal Michael ended up signing a record deal with Toby Max label goatee records in 2018 after that he began touring with established National artists going solo on the longer tours and coming back to play Summer shows with his band it's been tremendous to know that God used a song in my life to really speak into my heart and tell me what I needed in moment and I hear the exact same story from other people and now it's our music and that's just surreal we actually had a song called parking lot that was about that night in the parking lot when things became real with Christ and people have told me that that song has come on for them in a parking lot and it's been that moment for them Michael's grateful for those stories and the stories of how God has used some of his other songs in people's lives our song one day we would get videos sent to US during the pandemic of hospitals playing that song as they would be releasing patients that were healed and could go home and they play that over the loudspeakers and I don't know how many people have come up to us at shows and have said I was really far from the Lord and I heard your song Church take me back and I decided to go to church that morning or I decided to go to the Bible study that I had been thinking about going to and now I've been going to this church for how many months and God's changing my life and so it's just it's unreal that the Lord uses he doesn't need to use music but he chooses to for whatever reason and he lets us be a part of that it's just it's awesome night like you were right there with me on the passenger side you turned that car into a MP oh I met Jesus in a parking lot Michael cochr found fulfillment and purpose after he asked Jesus Christ to forgive his sins and take control of his life 2025 can be that year for you the year that happens and we can help visit us online at fine peacewithgod.net or call our 24-hour Billy Graham prayer line the number is 855255 pray 855255 pray and our web address again is fine peacewithgod.net in just a few minutes you'll hear one final word from Michael about New Year's resolutions you're listening to GPS God people stories a podcast production of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association all through the scriptures runs the truth that A change is needed Christ indicated that we do not have the inner resources to face the problems frustrations and crisis of life we need new inner resources which he alone can provide he said you must be born again Billy Graham Jesus taught clearly that unless we experience a new birth or conversion we cannot enter the kingdom of God the new birth brings about a change in disposition in affection in design new aims new principles New Dimensions of life can be yours if you put your faith and confidence in Jesus Christ so Jesus said I I am going to be lifted up look unto me and be ye saved Our Generation could be saved by a look of Faith to Jesus Christ science and medicine can help Psychiatry can help but our ultimate salvation is at the Cross of Christ where he died for our sins and where all the possibilities of a new dimension of Life exist if we will look and live are you ready to experience a new dimension of Life by putting your faith and confidence in Jesus Christ if you are visit us at find peacewithgod.net find peacewithgod.net or call us at the 247 Billy gram prayer line the number is 855255 pray both the link and the phone number are in our show notes Our Guest on this episode is Michael Cochran lead singer of the band and Cochran and Company we asked him about New Year's resolutions he says he doesn't make them instead at the start of every year he tries to remind himself of who God is I think sometimes like when you just have all these things of like I'm going to this this this this this it's like you're the main character of that story and it's puts it all on your shoulders and you got to just like muster up the strength and the courage and the whatever and it's like I want to remember what God's doing on my behalf and the ways that I can't see I want to remember that he's fighting and he's already ahead of me in this year he's already been there and he's already laid it out for me and that should give me the confidence to go after whatever goals that I may have we're grateful for Michael Cochran joining us on this episode and sharing his Journey of Faith when he's not traveling with Cochran and Company he's involved with his local church which is in Montgomery Indiana where he lives with his wife Leah and their dog Lucy if if you've enjoyed this podcast would you please leave us a rating or a review and also be sure to subscribe to GPS whereever you find your podcasts that way you'll never miss an episode we post a new episode every other Wednesday I'm Jim Kirkland and this is GPS God people stories it's an Outreach Of The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association always good news it a small on a Tuesday night like you were right there with me on the passenger side turn that car through a mountain top oh I Jesus in the parking l ((music playing))