Step 3 Toward Recovery | Make a Decision

Speaker 1 00:00:02 Well, hey everybody. Welcome to the Pursue God podcast. I’m Pastor Brian. I’m joined in the studio by pastors, Eric and Mark. And guys, uh, today we’re in week number three of our Steps to Recovery series, where we’re going through the 12 steps of recovery. Now, before we get into step three and the wording of it and some scripture and our, I’m sure, lively conversation around it, why don’t we talk about where we’ve been? What was step number one? What was step number two?

Speaker 2 00:00:33 Yeah, step number one was, uh, we admitted we were powerless over our addictions and that our lives had become unmanageable. And it was kind of coming to this awareness of, uh, just really how lost we are. Um, and so we come to step number two, uh, which is, uh, came to believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity. And as we got into step number two there, we really, we cut through, you know, everything and, and came to the conclusion that our higher power is the god of the Bible. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, our higher power is Jesus. And so that’s, that’s what we talked about in, in step number two. And, and that’s what brings us to step number three today.

Speaker 1 00:01:14 Okay. So let me get this, let me get this straight cuz I, I don’t go to AA groups. I’m not as familiar with the steps as you guys are. So it sounds to me like step one and two was about more how you think. It’s more about your awareness of your problem. It’s more about your beliefs, your belief system. But it’s not until step three, am I getting this right, it’s not until step three that we’re actually going to do something about it. Is that, is that a fair assessment?

Speaker 3 00:01:43 Yeah. Yeah. I would say so. I think going back again, step number one’s about being honest with people around you, but most, most most importantly, honest with yourself and with God. That you’re broken. That you’re broken. And then steps two says that, um, I can’t, I can’t help myself, but there’s a power out there that can mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So you’re being honest and then you’re being open-minded. And then step three then would lead us to being willing to surrender our will and lives over to the care of God. That’s actually what Step three says. It says, we make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God. And again, the first three steps are the most important, and they have kind of a flow to ’em. Um, they used to say in the secular groups, one of the sayings was, this is how you say steps one, two, and three. One is, I can’t, two is or wait. One is, um,

Speaker 2 00:02:45 I think you got it right. One is, I can’t, step two is he can,

Speaker 3 00:02:50 And then three is let him, right? Yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that’s what it is. Exactly. I can’t, he can. And then, okay, we gotta let him then mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Exactly.

Speaker 1 00:02:57 All right. So here it is again. We make step number three, we make the decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God. Now, before we kind of jump into this, and of course, like we said last week, we’re talking about this from a distinctly biblical point of view, right? Because we believe that the God of the Bible is the solution. He is the higher power. Tell your story from this, from the vantage point of this step.

Speaker 2 00:03:23 Um, yeah, for me, this, this step was huge. Um, and it, it, it came through a lot of brokenness, a lot of heartache. And I just, um, I came to a point where I ended up actually choosing God over everything else, including, um, my family. So with my, with my sexual addiction and, and, you know, pornography and all these things that I’d been hiding for so many years. And, you know, they would, I was thinking I was hiding them. They would come out and, you know, I would, I would try to overcome it. I would try. That’s what I first tried to do, was just overcome it on my own through my own sheer willpower

Speaker 1 00:04:08 So that nobody needed to know about it.

Speaker 2 00:04:10 Right. Right. I didn’t <laugh> I didn’t want anybody to know about it. Sure. And, and e you know, even my wife Sharice didn’t. Right. We wanted it to kind of be, you know, something that we just kind of dealt with and, and fixed. And, and as that failed, um, that’s where I kind of, the, the, the step, step one kind of came into play where I realized, man, I am messed up. I can’t fix this. Um, and so that’s where I started to search, um, for God. And we started coming to church, started to learn a little bit. Um, but really, it, it took more than that. It took more than just gaining a little bit of knowledge. Um, it, it took this, this step three where, um, after I had failed again, got back into my addiction, and it all, it all came around again.

Speaker 2 00:05:05 And there were, there were just so many things that I hadn’t confronted, um, earlier on, things that I hadn’t admitted to. And when I came to the point where I was desperate enough that I wanted to give everything over to God, that’s when I was finally able to, to come out with all these secrets that I knew I was gonna be sacrificing my family. I knew that there was, there was no way that my wife was going to be able to forgive the things that I was gonna admit to cuz I just, I knew that I needed to get it all off my plate. I needed to give all this over to God. And so that’s what, that’s the point where I made this decision. Um, and it was, it was huge in my life. That’s where everything finally started to change.

Speaker 1 00:05:49 So let me see if I’m understanding you right. Cuz again, I think, I bet you there are people listening to this right now that are just struck by, by your story, cuz they’re probably where you were. So, so what I hear you saying, mark, is you, when you finally got to this point, step three, this was the difference maker for you. This was sort of the, the, the watershed moment for you in your addiction, would you say? Because Yeah. Because you weren’t trying to control it on your terms anymore,

Speaker 2 00:06:19 Right? Yeah. I think the word surrender comes to mind mm-hmm. <affirmative> with this step, because I did, it was, it was finally the point where I, I gave up, I gave up trying to do it, trying to fix it, and I just came to the end of myself, and that’s finally where God could work in me.

Speaker 1 00:06:40 Yeah. And I mean, spoiler alert, what ended up happening, mark, maybe you could speak to this for a minute here, is you didn’t actually lose your wife.

Speaker 2 00:06:49 No, no, I didn’t. And I mean, that’s by the, that’s by the grace of God. Right. And, and she knows that, and I know that. And, and so we share that because, um, it wasn’t just, um, the the new life that he and the new heart that he gave me, but he gave her the strength to forgive what she could never forgive on her own.

Speaker 1 00:07:14 But you were, but, but at what, if I heard you right, you said, but you were willing to choose God. God,

Speaker 2 00:07:22 I chose God over my family.

Speaker 1 00:07:24 Yeah. Yeah. And I, at fir at first I thought I maybe misheard you, but No, I think that’s exactly what you did, is you said it is kind of relates to last week’s topic. Right. He’s the only one that can help me. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so, even, even if it does, not that you wanted it to cost you your family, but you, but you were is the word desperate? You were desperate enough Yeah. To say, this is my only chance, I’ve gotta do this. And, and it doesn’t always work out like your story where the marriage is saved, your marriage is better than it’s ever been. Your wife’s amazing, and she’s a godly woman, and your and your marriage is restored, thank God. But that, that’s not how it usually works.

Speaker 2 00:08:04 No. And, and that’s, you know, like, that’s why I say, I mean, that’s just, that’s the grace of God. You know, he, he, he, that he, he gifted me with that. Um, but that’s not what I ever expected, and it’s not what I deserve. Hmm.

Speaker 1 00:08:18 Yeah.

Speaker 3 00:08:19 Well, I think that it, it can work that way. Um, if we believe that God has, uh, our best in in mind, um, if, if our best interest is his, his will for our lives, then certainly he wants to come into our lives and tr and repair all the stuff that we’ve gone through. But we just have to get the order right. Okay. So we can’t be worried about all the things going on in our lives, the things, the trouble. We’ve got ourselves into the broken relationships and try to solve this problem that we have between us and him, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and, and this addiction, we’ve gotta take care of the, the biggest problem first. And then as a, as a result of that, healing can come and recovery happens, and through that lives change and people forgive and, and things can be better. Now, there are some, some circumstances in which, uh, the consequences of the decisions that we’ve made, um, we have to deal with those, right?

Speaker 3 00:09:27 And, and, and kind of in my story with this is that there were a lot of consequences in my life from, from me, you know, using drugs. Um, uh, they turned into legal problems, getting arrested, having to go through programs, and I just was stubborn and I didn’t want to give over my will. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I didn’t want to give over my will in life. I wanted to, um, I wanted to get clean, but I wanted to do it my way. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I didn’t want to surrendered or anything. I didn’t want to give up control. I’m a control freak. Ask my wife, <laugh> <laugh>. I’m still, I’m still being renewed day by day. But, um, but that’s the wonderful thing about addicts, uh, people who have struggled with addiction. Uh, we just, I just talked about this with my group last week, and we, I just said, you know what?

Speaker 3 00:10:16 I love you guys. And, and because you all know that you have this need that you can’t take care of on your own. Hmm. You, that’s why you’re here. That’s why we all gather. That’s why we, you know, we’re pursuing God and, and listening to these podcasts and in groups and mentoring conversations because we need help. We can’t do this on their own. And, um, it, it reminds me of when, when Jesus talks about the, the woman, you know, the Pharisees were, were, were questioning him saying, you know, why are do, if you knew who was touching you, if you knew who you were hanging out with, you wouldn’t be, you know, talking to her. And he says, this woman, this woman, um, knows how much she needs me. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So she’s serving me. She’s doing all these things, wiping, wiping my feet with her hair and, and with her tears and, you know, anointing me with oil.

Speaker 3 00:11:08 And he says, he says, because those who have been forgiven, much love much mm-hmm. <affirmative> and those who’ve been forgiven, little love little. And so part of what this, you know, this, this lifestyle that, that we’ve lived, um, it’s certainly bad. And it, and it has been a curse in a lot of ways, but it also has been a huge blessing to be able to see how much I need God, how much I need him, um, to direct my path, to guide me, to, um, show me where to go and how to live and ultimately to forgive me. And, and so that is kind of where we’re at with this step where we need to come to this place where we’re willing to surrender to him. And, and what does that look like? And, and going back to my story, what it looked like for me is because I was so stubborn, I had to deal with all the consequences, you know, being, um, in isolation, you know, getting in trouble and, and being in jail, and finally just getting to the point of, um, sick and tired of being sick and tired, <laugh>.

Speaker 3 00:12:17 Mm. And so finally saying, throwing my hands up, like you said, mark, just giving in and, and surrendering, right. Giving over control, saying, okay, God, I’ve tried it every way possible to try to get clean, to try to fix my own life. What do you want me to do? Uh, I, I, I’m finally at the point where I’m, I’m ready to quit digging a hole. I’m gonna put down the shovel, <laugh> <laugh>, and I’m gonna say, what do you want me to do? And so, you know, as we looked at last, last week’s step or step two is open, I opened the Bible and started discover to discover the God of the Bible. And what the Bible has to say is that God loves me, and he sent his son Jesus Christ to come down and die for me, forgive me. And that is who I need to surrender my life to. Hmm.

Speaker 1 00:13:06 So, but you two guys are looking at it from, from this perspective now, right? From the new life perspective. And it’s obvious it was worth it. You guys have great marriages, great careers, God’s using you in huge ways, but there are some people who are on the other side of it that are, that are still teetering that you haven’t convinced them yet. Right? And so it makes me think of this passage in the Bible, second Corinthians five 17. It says, anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone. A new life has begun. But do you think that some addicts who are stuck in their addiction are afraid of leaving their old life? What, what do you think? If so, what are, what are they afraid of?

Speaker 2 00:13:52 Well, I, I think I, I can speak for me, I, I was afraid of that. I, <laugh> I think we’re, and it’s might not just be addicts. I think it’s anybody who, who decides to give their life to Christ. It’s, it’s wondering, well, what is this really gonna take? Is, you know, what am I really gonna have to give up here? And that’s why I think, you know, when, when Eric’s talking about this kind of desperation that we come to is almost a blessing. I, I really feel that way. There’s, there’s no way I would’ve gotten to the point where I was desperate enough to be willing to give up my old, all of my old life, all of it. Hmm. I was never gonna get to that point on my own. And in fact, you know, even before I finally made this decision, um, and I was, but I was seeking faith. I was, you know, trying to, it was, was almost like I wanted to sprinkle a little Jesus dust in my life, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and he’d fix this problem, but I could go on living the selfish life that I was used to living.

Speaker 1 00:14:58 Like you wanted to add Jesus Yeah. To you. Yeah. Like maybe he would be part of the solution here instead of really what, what what we learned from the Bible is that Jesus is central to our identity. He’s not an add-on. Right.

Speaker 2 00:15:12 Essential.

Speaker 1 00:15:12 Exactly.

Speaker 2 00:15:13 Right. Yeah. That was that, and that was the difference right there. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> is I <laugh>. And I think that’s what, that’s what everyone’s afraid of. What does that look like? Mm-hmm. We, we don’t really know, uh, you know, when you, before, um, making this decision, I had no idea what that was gonna look like. Um, but God brought me to such a desperate place that I was finally willing to make that decision to do it. So, I don’t know, did you kind of have that Eric, where you just, you weren’t sure about leaving behind certain things? Or, or,
Speaker 1 00:15:46 And when you say that, mark, by the way, before you answer that, Eric, are you talking about not just leaving be, because I’m sure most addicts are like, I would be happy to leave behind my addiction. Oh, yeah. Although maybe some wouldn’t, maybe some are like, no, I kinda like my addiction <laugh>, I like drugs, or I like alcohol, or, I like the, the feeling I get, or whatever. Or I like pornography. I, I don’t know if I could ever be satisfied without it at this point, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So you’re not just talking about leaving behind the bad stuff. You’re talking about even the fear of maybe, does this mean I’m leaving behind some good stuff? Like, like you said, you might have lost your marriage.

Speaker 2 00:16:24 Yeah, yeah. Well, it’s, it’s leaving behind you. You don’t know what all you, you feel like you need to end up leaving behind. That’s, that’s, you know, some of the stuff that, that God reveals to us later as we go through the, you know, further steps. But yeah, you just, there’s so much that you’re used to living, you know, you’re used to living a certain way. You’re used to enjoying certain things that might not necessarily be bad, but maybe they are things that you have to give up if you’re gonna live this new life. So,

Speaker 3 00:16:55 Yeah. And that, I mean, we’ll get to that idea in, in the lesson we talk about living or, or moving towards and making a decision to move towards a new way of life. And, um, that means to evaluate the way that we’re living and say, what am I willing to sacrifice for the sake of following Christ? And again, if you go and read his word, he says, you know, uh, take up your cross and follow me. You know, that means to like die to yourself daily. He says, die to yourself. All these passions, all these desires, these dreams, these goals, uh, these ambitions that you had in life. And, and, and again, like some of them were good, right? Like, maybe it was a career thing. Maybe you were wanting to build a just this amazing empire, or, uh, maybe you had these aspirations in, in sports or, or, or whatever it is.

Speaker 3 00:17:51 And, but you, but on the way of trying to get there, it would cause you to have to self-medicate just to be able to get there. Maybe you have to rethink your life completely. The question is, how radical will you be to get rid of this issue? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, and, and again, even in with people that aren’t struggling with addiction, it’s the same thing. Putting your faith in Jesus is not just some one time mystical thing that you do. And then every, all your problems are solved. It is, it is a radical, um, changing of your life. It’s a radical acceptance of allowing this higher power, God, who, who has done so much for us who, who who created the world, and saying, I am willing for you to have the throne in my heart and in my mind, and, and I will answer to you, and I will follow your commands. I will follow you where you tell me to go. And so if my ambitions and aspirations and my dreams don’t line up with where you want me to go, then those can die off of me. Yeah.

Speaker 1 00:19:01 Yeah. Yeah. Last week we talked about the teaching of the Apostle Peter in Acts chapter 10 in the New Testament, and five teachings about Jesus. So for those who missed that, go back and listen to that. But, but today, actually, I wanna look at, um, his very first sermon ever, at least after Jesus ascended in, in Acts chapter two, um, Peter preaches his sermon starting at verse 14. People can go read it for themselves, but basically he, he covers life, death, and resurrection. He puts it in the context of the story of Israel. But at the end of that whole thing, the people who were listening to him, in Acts chapter two, verse verse 37, it says that Peter’s words, this is really interesting. It says that Peter’s words pierced their hearts. And I wonder, guys, if some of your words right now are piercing the hearts of people who are listening, you know, they hear your story marker, Eric, your story, and they say, that’s just how I’ve been, but I’m, but I don’t really know Jesus.

Speaker 1 00:19:58 I don’t really, what’s exactly the answer? What are you guys saying? The answer is, the last thing we want to do is leave it nebulous. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, we want to be really clear with what it means to, uh, make, what is the wording? Make a decision, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, because that’s what Peter does at the end of this sermon, back to X chapter two, verse 37. The Bible says, the words pierce their hearts. And they said to Peter into the other apostles, I love this. They said, brothers, what should we do? And I love that. Th cuz to me, this is like getting to step three. I, I’ve come to an awareness, I’ve, I believe now there’s a, the god of the Bible can help me, but I’m sure some people after last week’s episode were saying, so what do I do? Tell me what get, let’s get to the solution here. What do I do? And, and I, I want to just camp out of that for a second. To me, that’s the heart. The biblical word for this is that’s the heart of repentance. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Now that’s kind of a churchy word, but repentance just simply means that you have made a decision. Right? When I first read step three, I said, oh, you guys are just talking about repentance here, right? Mark? And I think you said, well, yeah, I guess that’s true.

Speaker 2 00:21:07 Yeah. No, that’s exactly what it is. You know, this step is all about y um, repentance also means to change our minds. Right? Right. And that’s what this is. This is a changing, changing my mind about the life that I want to live. I don’t wanna live this old life anymore. I want a new life. And it, it, and it, it is, it’s a, it’s a decision. And, and there’s this level of, you know, we kind of talk about this desperation, but you, right. But, but there’s the, you feel accountable at some point, right? You feel accountable to, to really live this new life. And in fact, there’s something, you know, one of the things that, you know, the secular programs do kind of get right sometimes is sometimes you’ll go to a, you know, a, a new person might come into some of these AA groups or something, and they’ll ask them, are you willing to do whatever it takes? Mm-hmm. And I think that really does align with what we’re talking about here. Am I really willing to do whatever it takes to give my will and my life over to God, to really be willing to give up my, my old life, whatever that might entail.

Speaker 1 00:22:19 Yeah. And, and Peter Peter’s answer to that question again, just so that we’re crystal clear with our listeners today. Brothers, what should we do? Was there question which showed an attitude of repentance, like a willingness, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And his answer was really simple. He says, each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God. Now, he wasn’t talking to just a bunch of addicts. I’m sure there were some addicts in the crowd. This is a, this is a blanket, this is an umbrella answer for every person who wants, who wants to live in freedom, who wants to live a new life. Not the, and wants to leave their old life. But, but I think it really speaks to addicts, because I think it’s the language of this, you know, the AA language, it’s make a decision. You can make a decision now to repent, which you’re right, mark means to change your mind.

Speaker 1 00:23:12 I would, I would add to that it means to change your will, cuz your mind, um, it’s almost like your mind has been changed in the first two steps, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, yeah. You came to an awareness, okay, you got it. And then you came to believe in God. Okay? So that a lot of that’s going on in the, in the mind. And repentance. Repentance is certainly speaking to that. Cuz you need that first, you need to, you need to think right first, but it has to move beyond your thinking, beyond your intellect. And it has to move to a, to a place that theologians call the will, the, your volition. It has to move. Now, it doesn’t mean you’ve done anything yet, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, because Peter, they didn’t do anything yet. They just, he just says, you need to repent. What? That, that’s the, the visual I like to have is you used to be facing north, or you used to be facing south, and now you’re facing north.

Speaker 1 00:24:01 You used to be heading in the direction of your own sin and your own life and your own way, your old way, which includes addiction, but it includes a bunch of other stuff. And now, now that you’ve met Jesus, now that you’ve seen that Jesus can save you, now you’ve reoriented your life, you’ve done a complete 180, and now you’re, you’re orienting north, you’re facing north, you’re facing toward God. That to me, that’s the best picture I have of repentance. It’s facing toward God, saying, I’ve changed my mind, I’ve changed my will. Now you’re gonna have to help me to actually start taking some steps, which I would guess is what we’re getting to in the, in the next steps after this.

Speaker 3 00:24:43 Yeah. Yeah. But we first have to get to the point where we say, I’m gonna make this decision, you know, going back to it, um, I’ve gotta have the right information with the right attitude. Right? Um, and so I’m gonna respond to, with the information that I have and the information that we have, that we, we believe in the information is that the God of the Bible is our higher power. And the Bible tells us that, that God of the Bible is Jesus himself who came down to die for our sins. And that by repenting and believing, so by changing what we believe about the world, um, and choosing to change our worldview from the way it was, and to a worldview that says, I believe the Bible is true. And that God sent his son saying, I believe that, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to follow him.

Speaker 3 00:25:38 Right? And, and, and so saving faith, when we talk about saving faith or it, it’s, it’s not, um, something you have to work for or earn. Let’s just make that clear. Right? Right. We’re not saying that you’re gonna get to this place where, okay, you’re gonna start working your way towards salvation, towards redemption from God. No. It’s, uh, repentance is, is just being humble and humble enough to know that you were wrong, you were wrong about what you believed, and you were wrong about the way that you lived. And it’s offended God. And, but he wants to forgive you. And you just being willing to say, okay, Jesus, Jesus is Lord. That’s actually what Romans ten nine says. It’s as easy as declaring. It says, if you openly declare that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Speaker 3 00:26:34 And so that is, uh, a perfect example of Paul in, in the book of Romans, in the New Testament of the Bible saying, this is how easy it can be be A lot of people think it’s so hard to put their trust in Jesus and to become a, a Christian and to start following him. Well, it has to start somewhere. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, there has to be a, an initiating point of your faith starting a relationship, starting, right? It’s like starting a relationship with a friend or a spouse. And then you finally, you like, if you’re gonna get married, you, you’re not married until the day that you actually choose to commit to one another. And then you tell your vows to one another. And then that day forward, you are now together forever in, in a loving relationship. And so when you trust in Jesus, that’s exactly what you’re doing. As you’re saying today, I declare that I believe in you, and I’m gonna follow you until the day that I die. And when I die, I’m gonna go be with you. And I am excited to do that. I don’t know all that’s all that’s gonna, uh, take place. I don’t know the future holds for us, but I trust that you have, uh, my good in your, in your heart and mind. And by trusting in you, I’m, I’m surrendering over everything to see where you’re gonna take me.

Speaker 1 00:27:51 So if there’s someone out there listening to this and they’re saying, you got me. Uh, you convinced me. So what do I do? Kind of like what the guys, what the crowd said to Peter after his first sermon, brothers, what should we do? So someone is saying, okay, I want to do that. What you just read, Eric, Romans 10, nine, if you openly declare Jesus Lord, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So walk us through this, right? There probably are some listeners right now listening to this who say, I’m ready. Walk ’em through it. What do they do?

Speaker 2 00:28:21 Well, I, I think for really, it’s, it, this is a point where we come to our knees, right? I mean, it’s, uh, figuratively and hopefully, literally where we’ll come to our knees and, and just tell that to God. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it’ll be this idea of telling God, I can’t do this anymore. I can’t do this on my own. I I give this to you. I give it all over to you. Um, we’ve got, you know, what we call a sinner’s prayer. Hey. And, and if you wanna make this decision today, maybe you’re listening to this podcast right now and you want to pray this prayer, I’d encourage you to do that. Don’t put it off any longer. Just pray. Jesus, I recognize I’m a sinner. I know that you died on the cross and rose from the dead so that I could have life. I’m turning from my sin now, and I’m turning to you in faith. I trust in you alone to forgive my sin and give me new life. Thank you for this free gift. Amen.

Speaker 3 00:29:33 Amen. Amen. I hope that if, if that just passed by and you’re like, Hey, what, wait a second. What was going on there? Uh, rewind this and pull over in your car, or whatever you gotta do. Um, and if you’re ready, uh, just believe in faith that what Paul said is true. That if you’d openly declare and confess, and, and I, oftentimes, I’ve led people through a similar prayer, and I say, you’ve gotta, you gotta say it, dude. You gotta say it out loud. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I mean, you’ve gotta, um, own it, basically. And I think when you pray it, when you say it is, is when you’re finally owning it. I, and, and oftentimes, it, it takes people quite a long time. They’re coming to church, they’re searching this thing out, and they’re, they’re trying to decide, is this for, is this for me or not?

Speaker 3 00:30:21 And, uh, you know, we kind of give them a little nudge here and there. Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready yet? Well, if, if that’s you here today listening, and you’re ready, please go back, rewind, pray that prayer or pray something similar, lee to it. And then after that, um, go find a group of people, a Bible believing church to join, to be a part of, so you can continue. So people can conte teach you about more of what the Bible says, so that you can have accountability. And that is all part of, like, the next part of this whole thing is, is now you’re, you’re leaving the old life behind, and now you’re gonna seek to live a new life. And in that new life, you’re gonna be, need to be reminded day by day by day. Um, is this thing that I believe in really true, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, because sometimes we have our doubts. And, and so you have to renew your mind. The Bible says if you’re gonna change your mind, it has to be renewed. And, and we renew our mind as we talked about last week through the word of God. And, and the word of God says things like this in Ephesians two, eight, God saved you by his grace when you believed, and you can’t take credit for this. It’s a gift from God. What does that mean, Brian?

Speaker 1 00:31:41 Well, I guess to me, I think that’s the verse I would share with someone who just prays a prayer like you prayed Mark, and they say, no, it can’t be that easy. Hmm. There’s no way it could be that easy. I, yeah. I’ve lived this life of addiction and sin and, and then all I all I have to, I’ve actually heard people say this, all I have to do is pray some cheap prayer. As in, in other words, what they’re saying is certainly God’s gonna wait to forgive me until after I’ve done some good things. I’ve gotta let my, my bad, my good works at least begin to outweigh my bad works. It seems too easy to just pray a prayer like that. Like it’s some magic, almost like what you said Mark earlier. Like, it’s just Jesus dust. We’re sprinkling this Jesus dust over it.

Speaker 1 00:32:33 But, but again, when you, when you hear some, I would go back to what you just read, Eric. Ephesians two, eight, no, look, this is what the Bible says. God saved you by his grace when you believed. See if you can hear anything about works or actions or making up for all your lost time in this verse. Listen, God saved you by his grace when you believed, period. That’s it. When you believed, and you can’t take credit for this, it’s a gift from God. So it really is, I mean, I wouldn’t say it’s that easy. It wasn’t easy for Jesus, it cost him his life, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it’s easy for you, but it’s not easy for Jesus. Jesus did the, the work, the sacrifice to me. I think the key thing is for people listening or, or maybe for a Christian listening who wants to help their friend or their child or, or someone to come to faith in Christ.

Speaker 1 00:33:19 The key thing is to go back to Acts two, to see is their heart, is their attitude. The attitude that the listeners had in if in Acts two where they said, brothers, what should we do? They were, their hearts were pierced with the truth of the word. And so there was something really going on there, like, kind of like step one and step two, right? And now they say, what do we do? What do we need to do? Now you need to make a decision, right? You need to make a decision. But it’s not just some generic decision about God. No. You need to make a decision to trust in Jesus that what he did on the cross is enough for you. That his resurrection proves his authority over sin and death in the grave. And you need to, you need to, uh, like, like we said, you need to repent.

Speaker 1 00:34:04 That’s important. Again, what does that mean? That means you need to, you need to do a 180 from your old way of life. You need to face God now and say, God, I’m ready to go your way. But I haven’t even taken a step yet. And I, what I like to tell people is He saved you before you even took a step. But you did have to turn, you did have to repent. You did have to change your mind. You did have to change your will. You can’t just say, oh, I want, I want Jesus to save me, but I still want to do whatever I wanna do, and I want to live my own way. I want to come to God on my terms, not on his terms. Nope. Get, nobody can come to God that way. Jesus himself said, only little children can come. You have to come to God like a little child. And part of what that means is you have to recognize you’re powerless. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you have to recognize you’re powerless. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, which which is what we talked about in step one, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. And so it really does have the makings, step one, two, and three so far, have the makings for just a very sound, biblical approach to recovery, to freedom, to forgiveness.

Speaker 3 00:35:07 Yeah. And I, I would also add to that idea of, you know, God waiting on us to make the decision is, is in reality, um, we can make our lives easier by making the decision sooner rather than later. Um, because in, in my own life situation, I believe that, um, because I was so stubborn, um, although God loved me and He, he wanted me to be his own, he wanted me to be his child, but I was running, um, he said, all right, then I’m gonna give it to you the hard way. And, and forced me, I believe to my knees, by allowing and possibly even causing, uh, a lot of the pain and the trial and the consequences of, of my sin to catch up with me. Right? And, and maybe, maybe that’s you right now. Maybe you’re going through consequences. Maybe you’re struggling with, you know, why is this happening? Why, why am I getting dealt the, you know, the bad hand? And have you ever thought that maybe, you know, you, uh, I don’t believe in coincidences, but have you ever thought that maybe God is trying to pull,

Speaker 2 00:36:18 Pull

Speaker 3 00:36:19 You to himself right now, and you’re just rebelling? You won’t surrender, you won’t give in. And so when are you going to put down the, the shovel, quit digging the hole? Like I said, when are you gonna make the decision to give your life over to the God who cares about you? Because he knows if he created you, if you believe he created you, he knows what’s best for you. He wants you to know the truth about him and his love. And he wants you to direct and guide you and give you a purpose and a, a future and a hope. Um, so give in, give in to him.

Speaker 2 00:36:59 Yeah. I, I agree. This, this step is, is just, it’s crucial. I, I I think we would probably agree that this is the most important mm-hmm. <affirmative> step. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. Um, because this is the way that we can finally have a new life where we can finally see some kind of victory and where we can live this new life. Um, and it says in Romans, uh, chapter three, verse 22, we’re made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. And I think this verse for, for me, and I think for a lot of addicts is powerful because it says that it’s true for everyone who believes no matter what. So if you are out there and you’re thinking, well, I’m, I’m beyond redemption. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> like, I’m beyond saving. I’ve done too much. I’ve gone too far. That’s, that’s contrary to what mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it says in the Bible what God tells us in his word.

Speaker 1 00:38:02 Yeah. It’s really, in essence, it’s a lack of faith. Faith, faith is just trusting that what God says is truer than how I feel. And so, for a lot of, I know how Satan works, is he’s gonna want to get an addict to feel shame and to feel unworthiness. And, and to, and that those things would, would be like walls of a dungeon, keeping you from having freedom and victory. And so the antidote to that is just to go to God’s word. Listen to this podcast again. Listen to all the scripture we shared. Pray that prayer that Mark prayed earlier, if you haven’t ever done that before, and trust that what God says is truer than how you feel, or what the world has told you about your addiction or your ability to be forgiven. You can make a decision to turn your will and your life over to the care of God through Jesus Christ, because Jesus is the solution to every problem, including your problem of addiction. So thanks for listening, guys. Thanks for sharing, and I can’t wait to get into weak number four. Uh, next week we’re gonna talk about step four, which is what, what’s what, what, how would you describe step number four?

Speaker 3 00:39:23 Um, it’s about taking an inventory of our lives. Um, it really follows up, uh, a lot of what we’ve been saying is, so now that we’re gonna have this new life in Christ, what does that look like? How do I get the old out of it? Yeah. So that’ll

Speaker 1 00:39:37 Be good. Well, I can’t wait to talk about it with you guys. And again, if you want to check out these resources, our recovery resources, you can find them at pursue god.org/recovery. There’s a video there. You can find these podcasts there and some discussion questions for your family, for your small group, or even for a one-on-one mentoring relationship or, or maybe a relationship with your sponsor. So we encourage to check all those resources [email protected]. And then we’ll see you next time when we cover step number four.