Sobriety vs True Freedom in Recovery

Episode Transcript

00:00:00:07 – 00:00:18:20
If you could go back to yourself when you were sober for six months. You’ve been clean for six months. Knowing all that you know now at this point of your journey, what would you say to yourself then? I was trying to willpower it. I’m trying to grit my teeth and do my best to obey. Obey the black and white.

00:00:18:20 – 00:00:35:22
I was born on my bootstraps. I was trying to do everything. I can stay clean. Yes, I’ve done six months. And that’s only by your grace, God. But let me never get. The Bible says not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to. And I’m starting to feel pretty good about the six months of sobriety, even looking down on some that aren’t sober yet.

00:00:35:22 – 00:00:53:11
Like. Come on now. I’m doing it. Make sure you really know him. And don’t don’t try to figure out all these theologies or all this other stuff until you just know the basic thing. Jesus loves me. This I know the Bible tells me so. I didn’t really know that he loved me. I knew that that he loved me.

00:00:53:11 – 00:01:12:06
But I didn’t know he. I know he loved people. But you know, come on now. There’s something in my DNA. I’m an average, an addict, you know. Yeah. I felt me and I still had beliefs of this. Once an addict, always an addict. That the myth of this whole you always an addict kind of thing and that. And but now I’ve realized that you should know the truth, and the truth should make you free.

00:01:12:11 – 00:01:30:16
For here the sun sets. Free is free indeed. And I would just tell myself these things. Don’t seek to learn a bunch of amassed knowledge for Bible jeopardy. Seek to know God. Yeah, and use the Bible as an onramp to know him. Not to know knowledge and to to prove everybody I know. Look at me. I know all this stuff.

00:01:30:20 – 00:01:53:06
And that’s where I was at. When you hear addiction stories, you either hear in the church the testimony of the the addict that had the encounter and with the Lord, and they share their testimony. And I met Jesus and all of that. Right. We hear that that conversion moment that I decided to stop using. Now I’m here, or we fast forward and we hear stories of guys like yourself and me who are 15, 20 years out of this whole thing.

00:01:53:06 – 00:02:19:14
You know how long it’s been for you. And I think a lot of times we don’t talk about like that very first year, like from the altar to the testimony, five, 5 or 6 years down the road, I’ve got my family back. My life is good. But their grit and the struggle of that first year. And so I’d be curious to know, Matt, like, what was your what was your first year of this journey of freedom?

00:02:19:16 – 00:02:38:23
My first year, honestly, was learning when I really got free. I had done some grit in the teeth moments where I had stopped using. I’ll say, I’ll say to stop using, but that’s not necessarily freedom. There’s people there’s going to be plenty of of sober people in hell, you know? Yeah. So sobriety is not the key to salvation.

When Sobriety Isn’t Enough: The Bootstrap Trap

00:02:38:23 – 00:02:57:03
Jesus is. It’s not I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I don’t take pills, and I can get to heaven. No, it’s Jesus. Save me, save sinners, because that’s all that there are. And that was me. But my first year of true freedom, it was not instantaneous. It was not wham, bam. I wish, I wish, you know, but I’m thankful for the for the process.

00:02:57:07 – 00:03:15:13
Most of the time in life, it’s never it’s not really the destination that God’s after. It’s more of the journey that we learn through the journey right there. And that was me. But my first year of true freedom, it was not instantaneous. It was not wham, bam, I wish, I wish, you know, but I’m thankful for the for the process.

00:03:15:14 – 00:03:34:15
Most of the time in life, it’s never it’s not really the destination that God’s after. It’s more of the journey that we learn through the journey we get there. But I learned all my life, even Teen Challenge, and maybe I just didn’t have ears to hear it at the time. Even went to Bible college later on and even came out of that and still struggle with pain pills was my thing.

00:03:34:16 – 00:03:58:02
Math, cocaine, a lot of things, but pain pills really gripped me. I mean, they, you know, you can smoke weed and get off of it and go to prison for 30 days and be free, but pain pills. The devil just grabbed me. I could not get free of that opiate addiction. I had known that I knew that Jesus died for my sins, but for some reason I never picked up that he lived for my righteousness, that he died for me.

The Difference Between Jesus Died FOR Me and Jesus Lives FOR Me

00:03:58:04 – 00:04:12:07
But I didn’t know he lived for me. So therefore, somebody just got to live. He died. Now somebody’s got to live, and that’s going to be me. And I’m going to pull up my bootstraps. I’m going to get my gear on my headband, my workout, like a Rocky movie. I’m going to get fit. I’m gonna get off the drug, I’m going to do this.

00:04:12:07 – 00:04:32:19
I’m going to build up. I’m going to live for him. Yes, I’m going to live for him. And I failed miserably again and again and again that he gives me his righteousness. So it wasn’t until I realized that he gave me his righteousness and that right now, in the sight of God, whether I made a mistake today or I didn’t, I’m seen as spotless, perfect, and clean in his eyes.

00:04:32:21 – 00:04:51:02
But it was that falling the old me would have fell. Well, well, I got a bag, I smoked weed, I’m done. God’s mad at me now. He’s pretty ticked off when I come into a room, he’s pretty much holding his nose like, back out. Come back when you’re clean. Come back when you, you know, what have you done?

00:04:51:02 – 00:05:06:18
And I bought a 20 sack. Might as well finished it now and then. Blew my sobriety. Might as well just finish the 20 sack off about some pills. Manageable. Finish him. I mean, I’m ruined now. God hates me. Yeah. Once I realized he loves me, once I realized that the sins I can’t forget, he can’t remember. Once I realized that when I.

Breaking the Cycle: From Probation Christianity to True Freedom

00:05:06:19 – 00:05:23:04
When I did smoke that weed, I could have, I could have thrown it on the ground and crushed it and said, God forgive me. And he said, yes, come, son, come to me. Come sit in your house, come to me, and I’ll be free. Then I begin to live a consistent life, not a life of I sinned. Now I’m probation.

00:05:23:06 – 00:05:38:16
No Bible. I’m not worthy. No church. I’m not worthy. No Christian friends enough aren’t. Not right now. I’m not worthy of that. I went from that. And so what it. What happened is I’d go for a few weeks in sobriety and in Jesus and yay, everything’s going good. I’d slip up and have a fight with the ax or.

00:05:38:18 – 00:05:57:11
And something would trigger that old memories. I surrender once again to save me. Salvation’s three tenses. It’s you were saved. You’re being saved. And you will be saved. And I’m right now in the process of being saved. And God, I’m thankful that you love me. That you didn’t just die for me. You live for me. Wow. And you still love me.

00:05:57:11 – 00:06:13:09
And when I come into a room, you don’t hold your nose. Wow. I’m putting it down. I can be free. I’ll take one day at a time. God be with me tomorrow like you are today. I submit to you. I surrender. And that’s what I would if I just. Just did a video a few days ago on on.

Your Apology Sucks: Why We Try to Negotiate with Grace

00:06:13:10 – 00:06:39:23
The title was your apology sucks. And it was. It was really. It was really addressing the prodigal and how terrible his apology was because theologically, on its face, it seems right. Right. I’m not worthy to be called your son. Make me like, make me like a hired servant was the part where he blew it up. And the challenge I think a lot of people in recovery is we’re trying to negotiate a payment plan with somebody who’s offering us a pardon.

00:06:40:00 – 00:06:59:01
So it’s like the father’s coming, like I’ve got your pardon right here. And we’re like, no, no, no. Here’s my terms of payment. Like, dude, let me work it off. Let me do 8 hours a day over here. Let me make payments to you. And it’s like you’re refusing the gift. Right? The pardon was the thing and to and to allow that to sink down into our hearts and realize, you know, we want to be humble.

00:06:59:01 – 00:07:20:15
We want to be contrite. We want to be, you know, confessing our wrongs and all of that. That’s good. That’s great. But there comes a point where you’re rejecting the gift and you’re trying to do a works based salvation. And you’re trying to, to and, and really it negates all that’s been done for you at the cross and says, no, no, no, I mean, that’s good and all, but I need to add a little bit of Matthew to this equation.

00:07:20:17 – 00:07:39:13
It’s and that’s what we do. It’s like we try to. That’s what legalism and religion do. They try to add themselves to the finished work. And we say it’s, you know, it’s it’s Jesus plus something. And I wrestled with that because I had this mindset. There’s a song and it goes, I’m trading my sorrows. And there was that phrase that it goes, yes, Lord, yes.

00:07:39:13 – 00:08:04:00
Lord, yes, yes. Lord. Yes, Lord. Yes, yes, Lord. And one time my pastor said, stop saying yes so much. And I was like, what do you mean, dude? I’m committed. He’s like, I know. But are you working on earning something or are you accepting the gift? It’s like if I said, hey, Matthew, I got you this hat and I had this really nice, cool hat for you and you just kept saying, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

00:08:04:00 – 00:08:22:05
Instead of taking it and wearing it and enjoying it, you’re just constantly thanking me for it. It’s still in my hands. Right. At some point you got to take it. The father had the robe. He had the ring. He had the sandals. All three those things. The son’s trying to negotiate. And the Bible says the father had servants and they brought the road, put it on him and put the ring on him and sandals on his feet.

00:08:22:10 – 00:08:41:22
In other words, the father ignored his terms and forced the gift on him. That’s what we’re we’re getting at. You can’t earn it. I can’t make it, even if I get saved, even if I do all this great stuff and I do these 12 steps and I join all these groups and I do all these things and I white knuckle it through and I grit and I make it through 18 months sober.

00:08:41:24 – 00:09:00:06
Praise God. But I’m not putting the robe on and the ring on the sandals. I’m still trying to work it off and pay for it. Yeah. Dude, just take the ring. Yeah, just take the robe. Yeah. So you’re talking about, that first year. You’re saying I think there was something you said is important that I caught. You said there’s a difference between true freedom.

00:09:00:08 – 00:09:16:13
And I had some moments of sobriety. And I think this is sometimes I had made the argument. Not the argument. I’ve said this statement, like I was sober multiple times in my journey. But I wasn’t free until 20 years old. Yeah. I had times that I would put the drugs down six months, nine months, 12 months. It went as long as 18 months.

00:09:16:13 – 00:09:34:10
One one bout of sobriety before I ended up at Teen Challenge. And yet that wasn’t freedom. Like I was constantly wrestling and fighting. And I think. And again, even in a lot of church language right now, like. Right. Conversion. Like I got saved. I surrendered. And I think sometimes what happens is we as leaders in the church, we think conversion is the finish line.

00:09:34:15 – 00:09:53:06
Yeah. You know what I mean? And it’s it’s actually only the starting gun. Right. But then we try and take credit for all the things that come after and say, well, if you’re not acting like this, if you’re not doing this, like what type of conversion did you actually have? Well, and we just put people back on the racetrack, back on the treadmill, back in the hamster wheel of performance and trying to earn the things that Jesus did on our behalf.

00:09:53:10 – 00:10:16:13
And we also try to teach a salvation that is a ticket to heaven. You know, it’s a it’s a ticket to bliss for eternity. We try to sell this golden ticket and we say, hey, you should get saved so you can not go to hell. And so there’s nothing in that of I should get saved because I love him and because my spirit man leaps at just his very presence.

00:10:16:13 – 00:10:38:03
And I love him. I want to be his son because I’m after his heart. Now I’m after a ticket. Well, that gets old kind of quick. You know, it’s it’s like I remember being in I, I got the golden ticket. Okay. That’s great. Now what? You know, like, that was good for a weekend. But then like, I still want to smoke weed and or I still want to do these pills or I still, you know, I got my golden ticket, but I’m kind of bored now.

00:10:38:07 – 00:10:54:19
You know, I’m going to still sin because sin is somewhat fun. Enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. But there’s a season where it’s kind of fun and you enjoy it because you’re just like, yeah, you know, this is great. But then the harvest comes from it. Well, yeah, you know, at the moment it seems fun. But then afterward it brings death, you know, and you get all these things.

00:10:54:19 – 00:11:12:12
Well, I wasn’t getting in and understanding a true relationship. I wasn’t getting I wasn’t pursuing a love of him. I was just trying to keep the ticket. I was just trying to get saved. Okay, I’ve made the decision. I walked the aisle. I filled out a card. I said the prayer I believed in my heart. I confessed with my mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and that God raised him from the dead.

00:11:12:17 – 00:11:35:06
There’s an old Appalachian in the West Virginia Mountains. There’s this this saying that we always said trust and obey. For there’s no other way. Right. To be happy in Jesus. But the trust and obey. Okay, I’ll obey. Check, check. And that’s all I got was obey. I obey, obey, obey, obey, obey. I do. I do. I do. I follow your Ten Commandments.

00:11:35:06 – 00:11:54:07
God, I do this and I do that. I obey. I do, I do. But I forget the first word of the of the chorus trust. I didn’t trust him at all. I was trying to obey, but I never trusted him. I was trying to do a bunch of works, but I never got into a relationship. And once you get into a relationship, a wife and a husband, you know, they get into a relationship.

00:11:54:13 – 00:12:13:01
That’s a real deal. What’s up, Doc? That’s what we’re talking about. Not to not to win her favors, not to win her hand in marriage. Not so that you can impress her or get something from her. But because you love her, because you want to love her. I want to love God. I don’t want to do a bunch of things to get stuff from God or to to to get his praise.

00:12:13:01 – 00:12:34:06
Anybody hate. Look at me everybody. I’m awesome. See me serve God. Everybody. Watch. I want to serve him because I love him. I love his presence. And when I close my eyes and I see him crucified on the cross for me, you didn’t. You didn’t have to do that for me. God, you died in my place. You sent your son to die for me.

00:12:34:08 – 00:12:54:23
I love you. So I’m going to live my life in pursuit of you. That’s freedom. That’s freedom. And we get free on the outside. But we never dealt with the inside. And we get the heart transplant, right? The Bible says that he’s circumcised the heart. He’s removed the heart of stone and given us a heart of flesh. And yeah, and we we get this new heart, but we never nurture it.

00:12:54:23 – 00:13:13:13
We never put deposits in it. We never get into the word. We never spend time in prayer. We never. There’s no deposits made. And if there’s no deposits made, you’re not going to have a withdrawal. When you need to make that withdrawal. You’ve never made a deposit. You’re you’re bankrupt in your spirit. Your spirit is starving. You’re not getting fed from the word.

00:13:13:15 – 00:13:34:13
You’re not getting that nourishment that you need. In my case, I was starving because I was never. I spent no time with them. We had no relationship. I didn’t hang with the Lord. I just. I just was trying to be a good boy now. Now I’m trying to be a good boy. That’s great. Be a good boy. But you got to spend time with them first.

00:13:34:15 – 00:13:56:21
Yeah. You know. Yeah. And that’s. And I think that, that grit and that grind, there was two sermons, man, two key sermons for me in my recovery journey that just like, broke me open. One was Andrew Wommack talking about grace and the righteousness of Christ and and legalism and what all of that looked like. I’d heard it a thousand times, but something about the way he said it, it just broke me open.

00:13:56:21 – 00:14:14:21
And it was like, my goodness, like you just you destroyed the theology that I grew up with. Like everything I believe to be true. You just rocked my world with this message. And the message was about how he loved me in my worst state and he couldn’t love me any more today than he did at my worst. And we need to stop trying to go to God with all of this junk and it’s.

00:14:14:21 – 00:14:37:22
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We just we need to walk in that relationship and fellowship and realize that like, there’s nothing you can add to what Christ did for you, but you can enjoy it. You can rest in it. And I think this rest, this idea of resting in the finished work of Christ, not trying to add to it, not trying to, I think one of the things you said earlier on in the conversation, like you try to figure out all your theology.

00:14:37:22 – 00:14:57:03
Right. I you know, the more you study the Bible and you’re in this thing and all of a sudden you feel like, well, I’ve got more Bible knowledge than other people. So obviously I’m holier or I’m more spiritual or, you know, I’m going to get some points or brownie points with God, that I know more theology than the next guy.

00:14:57:05 – 00:15:13:13
And there’s what happens is I think you can become Bible educated and Jesus ignorant, you know, and actually know Scripture and not know Jesus at all, which is wild to think. But, man, we can fall in that trap really easily. And so I love that like you were talking about, like, Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible tells me.

00:15:13:13 – 00:15:30:01
So like, that’s where we need to park it, man. Like you’re like, just know that. That truth if you just sit there and chill in that and the revelation of that and allow that to seep down into your soul so deeply that you can’t go get any further away from it. But so many times we go places that God’s not asking us to go.

00:15:30:03 – 00:15:50:09
Yeah. And I’m not talking about backsliding. I’m talking about like trying to, like, we’re trying to pursue all this knowledge and become Bible knowledge. Bible school. Scholars, you know? Yeah. And, and really what he’s saying is like, dude, can we just hang, you know. Yeah. Can we just be together? Yeah. I want to. I want to walk with you in the cool of the day.

00:15:50:11 – 00:16:08:12
And so I think there’s a lot of that. The second sermon that I think really wrecked me, and it’s to your point about the prodigal and about the father and what you said there, you said the father enforced the gift on the son. Yeah. The father forced the robe, the ring and the sandals on the son, because the son wasn’t going to accept it on his own accord.

00:16:08:12 – 00:16:23:01
And I feel like a lot of times in our recovery, in our Christianity, like, he is desperately trying to force the gift on us, but we’re so desperate to try and earn it that we can’t accept it. And and like, think about the insult that is to the father. Yeah, like, you’re telling me that what I’ve done for you is not enough.

00:16:23:01 – 00:16:42:08
I actually need to have to add my little piece to the puzzle to make this okay. Yeah. And the second sermon I heard was Pastor David Wilkerson, I believe. And it was, it was like the danger of a believer loving their sin more than the Savior. And he went and he was talking about King David. And the. Yeah. The after when?

00:16:42:08 – 00:17:00:08
After Bathsheba and Uriah and the whole mess with Nathan and all of that. And the. The king sat down and he wrote Psalm 51. And the gist of the sermon was, you’re capable of anything. I’m capable of anything, and I need to posture my heart to always stay in the position of repentance, not of returning to my old lifestyle.

00:17:00:08 – 00:17:17:05
But my heart is I have to constantly keep my heart tender to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. And you said something earlier. I want to go back to that. You said you’re sober for six months. I’m feeling pretty good about my six months. And all of a sudden you have that tendency to judge people who are at the very start of their journey because you’re ahead of them.

00:17:17:05 – 00:17:37:24
Yeah. How how do we as people that are walking through a recovery journey or somebody that’s, you know, I got six months, I got a year, I got two years, like what? How do we stay humble in that? How do we not fall into that trap? Because I think it’s so easy to think. Well, I worked this program. I I’ve done this.

00:17:38:01 – 00:17:58:08
I’ve, you know, or I prayed more or I did Bible college or I went to Bible school or all these things, you know, and like, how do we guard our hearts to stay to remain humble in the journey of recovery? I think it’s bowing at the cross daily. I mean, bowing at the cross, whether you feel like whether you want to or not, whether you’re going through a good day or you just relapsed at the cross is where you go.

00:17:58:08 – 00:18:21:06
Back to the cross is we’re freedom. I’m always tell my people, listen, you’ll never get past the cross. It’s in Revelation five, when John was in heaven and he looked and he saw the lamb that had been slain. Now in heaven, there’s there’s Jesus Christ. It’s all done. He’s ascended to the right hand. Why is he still wearing the scars in heaven?

00:18:21:08 – 00:18:47:03
Those scars are eternal. The cross is where we go back to. And I’m not talking about crucifying him every time a fresh, every time you’re going back to the cross to say, I can’t do this. I can’t. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet not. I. But Christ that lives in me. He is living his life in and through me, and I am allowing him to do that because on my own I can’t, if I could stop using, I would have stopped using.

00:18:47:06 – 00:19:08:19
If I could be sober and I could do it. I could pull up my bootstraps. I. I have tried. I cannot. And I’ve realized that, and so I need you. I need you daily. And when I’m at six months and I’m feeling good about six months and all of a sudden I see Justin back out. Or I see I see Matthew trying to jump back in, or I see a Matt, he’s not he’s not doing too good right now.

00:19:08:21 – 00:19:27:16
And I’m like, man, I’m just thankful that’s not me. God. And you know what? He knows my heart. I try to trick everybody and trick God, but he knows me. If I’m starting to see like, oh, it’s not me, I’m above that now. Now I’m not like that. Once I start separating myself from the sinner, I have now separated myself from my lifeline.

00:19:27:18 – 00:19:51:08
He came and died for me when I was yet a sinner. So the quicker I admit that I’m a sinner, the quicker I get to my lifeline. I’m not an addict. I just. I’m also not an ex addict. I’m not a recovering addict. I’m just a person that needs God. I’m a sinner. He came and died for me and forgive me and gave me his righteousness. And so you stay the course by getting on your knees, praying, worshiping, singing, giving thanks.

00:19:51:08 – 00:20:12:09
Yes, I got your hand. No matter what. No matter what I’m. I’m a light. Do or die or I’m do or die. And even after that, by the way, when you die, I’m still there. It’s like, wow. So that’s my hope is him, his presence. And so what about for the young man? That may be watching that’s in that stuck place that on, you know, a struggle or not a matter of fact I this a great a great segue.

00:20:12:09 – 00:20:32:16
I had a young man comment on one of our shorts yesterday. He sat on he said specifically he said, you know, I went through this battle of mental illness, had some stuff happen in my life. I used addiction to cope. And then after I gave up the drugs, now I’m wrestling with the mental illness again and and I really I’m struggling with that, you know.

Healing the Holes in Your Soul

00:20:32:18 – 00:20:51:02
What do you say to this young man in the comments? It’s kind of walking through this journey right now because you shared a little bit. You went through a battle of mental illness and whatnot and, and man on and maybe just give it no pressure, but maybe just give a quick word to that young man that. Yeah. Just a real quick, just 22nd thing.

00:20:51:03 – 00:21:17:07
You know, if I were to cut my, cut my arm here, I’d have a gash. And that would actually allow the bacteria and the oxygen and all that to get in there. So what do you do? You close it up to, to to not to decrease infection. Well, in my life. And I’m sure yours is watching if especially if you’re in addiction and addiction itself, even you get these lashes in your soul, these open wounds that are in your soul and these allow depressions, these allow all these things, these thoughts and mental illness and all these things to come in.

00:21:17:12 – 00:21:34:16
And what you need is healing of those inner wounds. You have holes in your soul that you try to take money in, in your fist and you stuff it in the hole. It can’t fill the hole. You try to take action. And maybe if you could just finally achieve this, or get a nicer car, or get the nice rims you like, or even sobriety anything, you stuff it in the hole.

00:21:34:17 – 00:21:54:01
But there’s only one thing that can fill the holes of the soul, and it’s Jesus and His presence and his voice. And when he comes into you, he fills all the souls holes. Everything is filled by him. So my encouragement to you, young man, young woman, whoever you are watching, is to surrender. Give up. Cry uncle. It took me 40 years.

A Word to Those Stuck Between Clean and Free

00:21:54:01 – 00:22:12:19
I’m still learning to just stop. Just give up. And I don’t mean give up as far as go use. I mean give up your your ability. You’re you’re gritting of your teeth, you’re bootstrapping, pulling up. Give up that whole thing and come to Jesus Christ. Many people come to church, but they’ve never come to Christ. Come to Jesus.

00:22:13:00 – 00:22:32:05
Just just come to him. Get in your room. Get alone. Matthew. Sick. Go to your room. Shut the door and say, Jesus, here I am. I don’t want this addiction. You know I don’t want this, I want you take it from me, take it from me. I give you my life. My attempts at trying have failed. My attempts of trying to kick it and white knuckle it and all that has failed.

00:22:32:05 – 00:22:48:01
God, it only leaves me in condemnation and hurting God. I give you these things, God, take them from me. By your spirit I give it all. And then I would encourage you, renounce it and begin to forgive those people in your life. One of the things that drugs did for me was it medicated me. It was self-medicating.

00:22:48:03 – 00:23:08:15
And every addiction has a root. And as the Spirit of God, ask Holy Spirit, ask the father to show you the root. Why am I using the using is just a simple symptom. The the the heroin’s just a symptom. The math, the pills, the weed, the bait. It’s just it’s just a symptom of something deeper. So ask God to reveal those wounds in your soul.

00:23:08:17 – 00:23:26:19
Maybe you have to ask forgiveness for the way your dad treated you. Maybe your mother, maybe a friend, maybe a betrayal. Maybe you lost a loved one early on too early. Or maybe you abused whatever that was. Ask God to reveal that to you. And that’s the first step. If I believe that God has sent you right now is first, just go to that root.

00:23:26:19 – 00:23:40:16
Just ask God to give it to you and realize that when you come to him, you’re not there to perform. You’re there to enjoy and just to be with him and your father. You come in on his lap. I don’t knock on my front door. I walk right in. Yeah, you just said I went to the heavens ahead of you before.

00:23:40:16 – 00:23:59:10
Ran us into heaven. He’s passed through the heavens and he gave us boldness and access to enter the throne of God. So I just walk into my house and I’m comfortable there. And it’s the same with the throne of God. Stop looking at your sin. Descend. You can’t forget. He cannot remember you. He’s tossed him away. Stop looking at your sin.

00:23:59:12 – 00:24:21:22
Look to the son. Look at him. Look away from yourself. Your solution’s not in you. Water can’t. You’re drowning. Fire can’t put out fire and you can’t cure you. It takes someone else outside of you. Extra notes. The Latin reformers were called extra notes outside of you. You need him. That flung the stars in a space. Him way past the Milky Way.

00:24:21:22 – 00:24:40:02
The one that has to humble himself to look into heaven. The God-Man, Jesus Christ. You need him, and he’s with you now. You’ll never leave you or forsake you. Romans eight says there’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ. So if you’re in Christ, if you’ve accepted him, rebuke the devil out of your life. Resist him and begin to give a life.

00:24:40:02 – 00:24:58:22
Live a life of surrender. Live a life of secret prayer. Live a life of Bible reading. And don’t get so bogged down with all the Bible, just small doses. The Lord is my shepherd. I’m not going to one today. I’m not going to talk about tomorrow. Being free of drugs today. I’m not going to be. I’m not going to use drugs I should not want.

00:24:58:22 – 00:25:15:00
He’s my shepherd. But yet be encouraged. Young man, young woman. Yeah, that was really good. Matt. Man, thank you so much. And I want to encourage you guys to to watch it. I’m going to link up the, channel for Brookside Church, the YouTube channel and the description here. If you guys want to connect with Matt. And on catch he puts the sermon up every week.

00:25:15:02 – 00:25:30:22
Matt Matt and I have an interesting relationship. He is, we’ve known each other for a while, but he is the pastor where I was pastoring about a year ago, and so it’s excited, man. You know, it’s funny, I was thinking about that. We sat together about a year ago. Exactly. To start talking through your transition into the church.

00:25:30:22 – 00:25:51:16
It was about this time last year. Yeah. And now now we’re a year later sitting down for a podcast conversation. And, I want to encourage you guys, please connect with Brookside Church on YouTube, social media and all that. And you can catch some more Matt sermons and whatnot. And if you’re watching and you enjoyed this or you had some questions, please, like, like the video, leave a comment below.

00:25:51:16 – 00:26:11:15
And, man up in the link. The video that I talked about earlier, your apology sucks. It’s not as harsh as it seems. It’s actually an encouraging message. I believe that video will bless you in this season of your life, so you can access that by clicking right here. And thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of Rebuilding Life After Addiction.

00:26:11:17 – 00:26:13:15
We’ll see you in the next one. God bless.