Christian Recovery - 5 - Celebrate Freedom - Sanity - M.T. Clark

Welcome to the M.t. for Christ 24/7 podcast. I am M.t. Clark, but this is not my normal podcast. This is our, our new series basically that we're doing for Christian recovery called Christian Recovery Celebrate Freedom. And in it, we're going through the recovery material that we normally do at our support group that we do once a week at Starpoint Church. If you're in Upstate New York, you can join us at 6:30 PM Wednesdays. But we're doing this online because not everyone has a Christian Recovery Program available to them. And we thought we'd take our offering and throw it out there for anyone who doesn't have access or for those who come to our group but miss the lesson. So tonight we'll be doing Lesson Number 4. Um, this will be video number 5. However, um, if this is your first, first time watching, we, we point you to lesson video number 1, uh, the ABCs of Celebrate Freedom, to give you an idea what we do on a normal, uh, a normal meeting evening, uh, basically in terms of our ABCs, um, you know, our appreciation and quieting, uh, our beliefs and our community and our connections. And, um, we, we do introduction basically to give you some tools to help you in your recovery to do— how do you do one day at a time? Well, you practice the ABCs. You learn to practice appreciation and learn to quiet yourself, and that would help you basically keep a positive outlook on life and to stop you from relapsing. And the B is obviously has a lot to do with what we think about. And not only that, the story we tell about ourselves. Who are we now that we've come to recovery? We're a Christian. Are we going to be a real Christian and try to walk in freedom? We hope so. We hope that's why you're here, because that'll be your story. I'm no longer enslaved to the hurts, habits of my past, or those hang-ups. Instead, I'm going to walk in freedom. And it's about being, you know, celebrating it. And telling people, you know, the Lord set me free and now I don't do what I used to do. Now I'm experiencing my freedom in Christ and my life is good. And so the last thing, of course, is connections. The thing we foster the most is your connection to God. As much as I want you to think of me as your Christian recovery coach, I'm just a guy on a screen, so you want to be able to connect to your local church and, you know, basically connect with people there. And most importantly, of course, is our connection with the Lord. You know, when we walk in recovery, we might feel like God doesn't like us or he's punishing us, but that's not the truth. And when you develop a deep spiritual relationship with the Lord, you'll realize that he wants to help you. Your recovery is not a mistake, and he wants to set you free, and he'll give you the strength and wisdom and guidance to do that. Ask me how I know. I went to recovery in 2015 at my local church, a program that started out with Celebrate Recovery, but we had to come up with a different name because we didn't follow everything just so. And so we came up with Celebrate Freedom, and I've been doing that ministry more or less on and off ever since., that and Community Freedom Ministry, where I teach the Freedom in Christ course, or, you know, that lesson basically by Neil Anderson, that material. Anyway, those are on the podcast too. So if you wanted to check out our YouTube playlist page, you'll be able to find A Victor Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, Freedom in Christ. That could be, you know, helpful in your recovery. But that's another story. And for tonight, we're, we're going to jump right in. What we do is we do a PowerPoint presentation of the material. It might be slightly edited from the original source material. You know, I take license to do that, and, but I do quote my sources. And so without further ado, we should jump into the PowerPoint and, you know, give credit where credit is due. And so we're going to start to share the screen and go to presentation mode. And there it is, Celebrate Freedom Lesson 4, uh, Sanity, presented by who? Me, M.t. Clark, of course. And, um, I'm just gonna hide the toolbar that no one can see but me, uh, because it distracts me. And we're going to move along. Uh, our source material, of course, is, uh, John Baker's Stepping Out of Denial into God's Grace Participant's Guide Number 1. And obviously we're using the Leader's Guide to teach this lesson. If you have the Participant's Guide, you'll see it's not, you know, it has a few things in it, but mostly questions. And so we recommend if you're following this program to get those books, number 1 through 4, and you'll be able to go through all the lessons and do all the work in your recovery in the privacy of your own home. Like I said, I went through this material when I went into recovery in 2015, and I did all the work, and I showed up all the meetings, things I could. I think I had perfect attendance, but I'm not— honestly, I don't remember. I think I might have missed one, but maybe not. Anyway, we recommend you get those books and, you know, basically do the work in them. You want to, you know, do the work of prayer, do the work of journaling. You know, these are spiritual disciplines that the Lord likes to see you do. So we encourage you to do the book work. You know, be serious about it. And, you know, while you're at it, you can grab a Bible. And we recommend Bible study too. If you don't know where to begin, I'd say stay in the New Testament until you know who Jesus is and who you are in Christ. Anyway, we move along with tonight's lesson, Sanity. And that's based on Principle 2 of the 8 Principles of Celebrate Recovery, which says earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to him, and that he has the power to help me recover.. And the Bible verse they give you along with that is Matthew 5:4, which says, "Happy are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." And that parallels with step number 2 of the 12-step program. We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. And we do believe that. And Philippians 2:13 tells us, "For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." So God wants to work in you and to help you to act according to his good purposes. So we come into him and we earnestly believe that he exists, that we matter to him, and that he has the power to help us recover, and he'll get us back to a place of sanity. And so we move along. You know, Jesus can restore us. You know, we spent our first month doing these lessons. Basically, it takes— we're in the fourth week, so I guess that would be a month. We finally were able to face our denial and admit that we are powerless to control our tendency to do the wrong thing and that our lives had become unmanageable or out of control. And, you know, that was sort of huge. It was a big admission, you know, denial. Yeah, I finally admit I have a problem. And for me, the admission of powerless was a little tough, to be honest, you know, basically. But when I saw the wording there to control our tendency to do the wrong thing, I could admit, like, yeah, that was sort of unmanageable because I always had that— no matter how well I walked, I always eventually would have that tendency to do the wrong thing until, well, until I went into recovery. And then, you know, God, God changed all of that, you know. And but after you admit you're powerless, you may wonder, what do we do now? Well, how and where do we get the— where do we get the control? You know, where do we get that self-control? The answer is to take the second step on our journey of recovery. The second step tells us that we have come to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. And you might say, wait a minute, are you saying I spent an entire month hearing, uh, that to begin my recovery I had to face and admit my denial, and now you're saying I must be crazy, that I need to be restored to sanity? Give me a break. Well, no, we're not saying you're insane, but we'll see what the definition of sanity is according to the lesson, and we'll make a little sense of that. As a result of admitting our powerlessness in Principle 1, we can move from the chaos to hope in Principle 2. We talked about that in our last teaching session. Hope comes when we believe that a power greater than ourselves, our higher power, Jesus Christ, can and will restore us. Jesus can provide that power where we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors. He alone can restore order and meaning to our lives. He alone can restore us to sanity. And sanity— insanity has been defined as doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result each time. Sanity has been defined as wholeness of mind, making decisions based on truth. And so we're, we're, we want to have a whole mind on the whole gospel and make decisions based on the truth of God's word. Jesus is the only higher power who offers the truth, the power, and the way, and the life. You know, the following acrostic using the word sanity shows some of the gifts we receive when we believe that our true higher power. Jesus Christ is the power and will, uh, and will restore us to sanity, you know. And, you know, Jesus is— I think it's John 14:6, you know, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And so he really is the only higher power who offers the truth, uh, because he is the truth, and he gives you the power in his way of life. And, um, you know, I shared my, uh, vicious cycle of enemy tactics, basically what cycle we were in before. This is the insanity that we believed. At the core of it, there's deception or lies. And so the enemy comes in and tells you, you don't have to listen to what God's words say. You can do anything you like. You're free. You can drink, you can smoke, you can, you know, do whatever drugs you want, you can sleep with whoever you want. But, you know, God's word doesn't say that. And so even though we can do those things, the fact that they, you know, the fact that they're offered as a way for us to be happy, that's the big lie. They'll give us pleasure, but that's not what'll satisfy our souls. You know, the Lord made us, and he knows that these things aren't good for us, and that's why It's Ralphaword. There's injunctions against sexual immorality and drunkenness. And, you know, that's where I used to live my life. But it was a big lie because no matter what I did, those things didn't really make me happy. In fact, they left a big hole in my life where, you know, I had to satisfy myself continually. And so the enemy would come in with his temptations. He'd lie to us. He comes in with a temptation. He makes us sin. And then he, you know, right after your sin, he comes comes around and he says, hey, what do you think you're doing? You know, you think you're a Christian? You're not a Christian. You're a joke. And then he'll come down and he'll condemn us and say we're no good, you know, and there's no hope for us. We'll never change. That, you know, we're just an evil, evil person or a bad seed or something like that. And as soon as we're down low enough, the enemy comes back and he tempts us again. And he says, you know, It'll make you feel better. Let's go do that thing again. And, you know, this vicious cycle continues and we stay in it and we maybe hope for a different result, but that's the insanity. We think maybe finally we'll be happy if we play with the formula, you know, basically change the amount of the thing we do or, you know, do it in moderation or something like that. Well, that's the big lie is that we couldn't do it. That's why we're here to admit we have a problem. Problem and to admit that we're powerless over it. And that's why we need Jesus to save us, not just for eternity, but for a good and righteous life. And that's what Recovery, Christian Recovery, is all about, is recognizing where the power really comes from. And so we start that acrostic. You know, S stands for strength. When we accept Jesus as our higher power, we receive strength to face the fears that in the past have caused us to fight, flee, or freeze. Now we can say, like in Psalm 46:1, God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear. Or in Psalm 73:26, which says, my mind and my body may grow weak, but God is my strength. He is all I ever need. That's all. Relying on our own power, our own strength is what got us here in the first place. We believed we didn't need God's help, strength, or power. It's almost like we were disconnected from our true heart, our true power source, God. And we were. Choosing to allow my life to finally run on God's power, not my own limited power, weakness, and helplessness, or sense of inferiority, has turned out to be my greatest strength. God came in where my helplessness began, and he will do the same for you. And then we move on to A, acceptance. Romans 15:7 says, accept one another then for the glory of God as Christ has accepted you. When we take step 2, we learn to have realistic expectations of ourselves and others. We learn not to relate to others in the same old way, expecting a different response or insult than they have given us time and time again. We begin to find the sanity we have been searching for. We remember to pray and ask God to give us the courage to change the things we can, can, and accept the things we cannot change. As our faith grows and we get to know our higher power better, it becomes easier for us to accept others as they really are. Not as we would have them be. With acceptance, however, comes responsibility. We stop placing all the blame on others from our past actions and hurts. So yeah, the buck stops here. We take responsibility. We accept things the way they are. I have a problem. I am powerless. I need help and I'm getting it. And I know what those people who were in my life were like before. And I know who I can count on and who I can't. And I know some people aren't happy about my recovery, and I don't know if they're going to be a part of my life afterwards. Because if they're toxic, they might have to go. And maybe I was the toxic one, but now it's, it's got to change. And we take responsibility. We accept people for what they are, and we expect— accept ourselves for what we are. And we ask God to change, change us. And we'll be responsible for doing our part of our recovery with the Lord to walk into the newness of life that that he has for us. And there's the new life. That's a new life. In the pit of our hurts, habits, and hangups, we were, we were at our very bottom. You ever hear of rock bottom? Yeah, I was there. That's why I went to recovery. We know the feelings expressed in 2 Corinthians 1:8-9, which says we were really crushed and overwhelmed and feared we would never live through We felt we were doomed to die and saw how powerless we were to help ourselves. But that was good, for then we put everything into the hands of God, who alone could save us, for he can even raise the dead. Amen. You know, God can raise us from the dead. He can set us free from drugs and alcohol and, you know, depression, anger, sexual immorality. Whatever your, your hurt habit and hangup is, the Lord's a healer and a redeemer, and he can give you a new life. You know, God alone can save us, and he has the power to change and heal us. The penalty for our sins was paid in full by Jesus on the cross. The hope of a new life is freedom from bondage. That's what freedom is about. We don't have to do this anymore, and We don't want to do it anymore. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says it: when someone becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same anymore. A new life has begun. Um, yeah, that's, that's the promise of our faith— new life. And I, um, stands for integrity.. And so we gain integrity as we begin to follow through on our promises. Integrity means basically doing the right thing without having to, you know, without looking over our shoulder, or, you know, basically we're doing the right thing on our own. We're doing, we're finally beginning to follow through on our promises. You know, others can start trusting what we say, although they might not, and then we might, they might not have any reason to trust us because of our track record. And so we have to start sowing the good seed of a life of integrity. Put those integrity seeds in that I'm going to do what I say, I'm going to do what I can to make things right, and I'm going to follow the Lord because that's who I am now. I am a new, new creation in Christ. I'm a Christian. I'm going to live like it. And, you know, this is how we walk and we do what we're supposed to do. And, uh, we We, we're accountable for what we're supposed to do. The Apostle John, uh, placed great value on integrity. In 3 John 4, he wrote, nothing brings me greater joy than hearing that, than hearing that my children are living in truth, you know. And that gives us joy. When you're finally getting it right, you give people joy, and you get to experience it too, because you can say, wow, I'm— maybe I'm actually a Christian. I'm doing what's right for a change. And this is a new life. You know, remember, a half-truth is a whole lie. And so we stop lying. And a lie is a result of weakness and fear. We usually lie to, you know, cover our tracks. We don't want to get caught, you know, we want to get in trouble, so we lie. Or we don't want to hurt anybody, so we lie. But that's not how it's supposed to be. Truth fears nothing, nothing but concealment. The truth often hurts, but it's the lie that leaves the scars. And so we go with the hard truth rather than the soft white lie to cover, you know, to cover things. A man or woman of integrity and courage is not afraid to tell the truth. Number one rule of discipleship, guys, Christian discipleship. Maybe it's the number one rule of Christian recovery. Stop lying, start telling the truth. You know, number one rule, you know, I'm going to stop lying so I can stop looking over my shoulders, stop having to remember all the lies I told to keep my story straight. My story now is I'm telling the truth, and, um, I won't, I won't use the truth to hurt people, but, uh, I'm not going to conceal it any longer. Um, you know, we're, we're a true man or woman of integrity and courage is not afraid to tell the truth, and that courage comes from a power greater than ourselves, Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, and the life. Christ was sinless. He never told a lie. And so we're trying to be like Jesus and tell the truth in all the things we do. And that moves us on to trust and the letter T. As we work Step 2, we begin to trust in our relationships with others and our higher power. You know, we got to start trusting people and we got to be smart and, you know, trust the trustworthy people and people who aren't worthy of our trust, we don't trust. Proverbs 29:25 says, it is dangerous to be concerned with what others think of you, but if you trust the Lord, you are safe. And that's the thing, we make God the primary relationship in our life. He's the one who's going to welcome us into eternity, so we should get to know him, because we're going to be with him forever. As Proverbs 29:25 says, it's dangerous, dangerous to be concerned with what others think of you. So stop You know, let's lose the pride and let's confide, you know, that we are in recovery. I'm not doing it anymore. I'm a Christian. I've been born again, and I want a new life, and we're not doing what we used to do. And I don't care what you think of me because I trust the Lord, and I know in him I'm safe. As we let go and let God and admit that our lives are unmanageable and we are powerless to do anything about it, we learn to trust others and ourselves for that matter. You know, when we, you know, we don't have to worry if we're going to go south if we're just going to follow God's plan. You know, that's, I give up, I surrender, and I'm following the Jesus way now. That's what we're going to do. You don't have to worry about me screwing up anymore because I'm trusting the Lord and I'm here to represent his kingdom. You know, I'm going to walk free. We give it, and when we do that, when we start trusting, we can, we begin to make real friends in recovery, in our groups and in our church. You know, these are not mere acquaintances and fair-weather friends we knew while we were active in our addictions and compulsions. In recovery, you can find real friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, to walk beside you on your journey through the principles. Friends whom you can trust, with whom you can share, with whom you can grow in Christ. And that's it. You need some— you had some pretty sketchy friends before. Now it's time to have, you know, real friends, Christians. We have to be careful because they'll be careful of us, but You know, when we're, when we're, the thing we have in common is our faith. You know, that's when we can really come together and grow. We can develop those joy bonds, those connections, ABCs, right? Those connections with other people. And we can have friends that aren't drug addicts, drunks, or, you know, into sexual immorality. We can have good friends and we can be a good friend to somebody else. And we move along to the Y, which is your higher power. Your higher power, Jesus Christ, loves you just the way you are. Um, that's my cat walking out the door. I left the door open for him because he comes and goes in freedom too. Oh yes. Um, anyway, uh, you know, Romans 5:8 says, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And yeah, we didn't earn it. We don't have to earn our salvation. We could never earn it anyway. And you know what, he knew what he was doing. Christ died for us when we were still sinners. No matter what comes your way, together you and God can handle it. And that's it. God will get you through it, or he'll get you around it, or over it, or whatever, but he'll lead you out of the darkness. Darkness, and he's to be trusted with your life. So why not trust him with your sobriety and the new life you want to live? 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, and God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but when you are tempted, he will provide a way out. Another translation says a way of escape. And instead of escaping into our hurts and habits, we're escaping from our hurts and habits and hangups, and we're going to live a new life. And God God will do it if you ask, if you abide in God, you know, if you pray and stay in the presence of the Lord by continually, you know, literally start the conversation by talking to God instead of talking to yourself. Tell him you love him, tell him you thank him for saving you, and tell him that you need him to help you get over these things that you want to walk away from. And he'll be good, you know, and faithful, and he won't let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. And he'll provide a way out. Psalm 68:19 says, praise be to the God, to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. If we have stuff that we can't carry, that's okay. We can give it to the Lord and he'll help us carry it, or he'll take it away from us. But we have to trust him. And so we should give it to him. Let go and let God, as they say. When we accept Jesus Christ as our higher power and Savior, we are not only guaranteed eternal life, but we also have God's protection in times of trials. Naam 1:7 says, the Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him. So we trust in him, he'll care for us, and he'll be a refuge in times of trouble. You know, he'll protect us. He's protected us this far to lead us to salvation, and now to lead us into recovery. Um, he wants you to keep going with him, and he will protect you along the way, and he'll be able to help you to endure and to overcome. We can stop the insanity and start living a good, simple Christian life, uh, where we can have peace, joy, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, patience and self-control. When we walk in the Spirit, we'll experience the fruit of the Spirit and we'll represent our righteous King, Jesus Christ, by not sinning like we used to. And that brings us to the wrap-up. Um, it was a quick lesson. Um, anyway, uh, it tells us that recovery is a daily program. One day at a time. And we need a power greater than ourselves, a higher power who will provide us with strength, acceptance, new life, integrity, and trust to allow us to make sane decisions based on his truth. God's truth is all truth. And whatever's true, you know, basically God put into place, he made it that way. And he collected his truth in a book called the Bible that we highly recommend you read. To get to know God more and to know who you are in Christ. And the first lesson of the ABCs of Celebrate Freedom, that first video we did, we shared the Who I Am in Christ list to tell you who you are in Christ. If you haven't seen it, go watch it. It's also on our playlist page, basically under Daily Spiritual Practice, I believe. So you can check that out where I just sort of read through the list, you know, because it's true about me and it's true about you if if you're in Christ. And so we're looking ahead. We're here, but we're looking forward. If you complete the next principle, Principle 3, your future will be blessed and secure. And you'll have to find out what that is. Matthew 6:34 says, so don't be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time. So, uh, we'll close in prayer. Um, apparently I put a prayer on this, and we're going to go through the Serenity Prayer too, but we'll pray this prayer first. Dear God, I've tried to fix and control my life's hurts, hang-ups, or habits all by myself. I admit that by myself I am powerless to change. I need to begin to believe and receive your power to help me recover. You loved me enough to send your Son to the cross to die for my sins. Help me to be open to the hope that I can only find in him. Please help me to start living my life one day at a time. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. So if you want to take a pause of the video, you can pause that, write that, write that prayer down.. And you can pray it yourself while you go through recovery. So you're constantly asking God for his help and to, you know, to help you recover and to help you to receive his power. And, you know, and you remind yourself that you are a child of God because he died for your sins and that he's going to help you to start living your life one day at a time. And his power. So, um, you know, pause that and write it down, or, you know, play it again and pray it with me, um, next time. But, um, with that said, we love to pray, and so we're going to do the Serenity Prayer, or the Prayer for Serenity, by Reinhold Niebuhr— N-I-E-B-U-H-R, if you can't read that. Anyway, Let's pray. It's right on the screen so you can pray with me. God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, taking as Jesus did the sinful world as it is, not as I would have trusting that you will make all things right if I surrender to your will, so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with you forever in the next. Amen. And yeah, you can take a screenshot of that, have it on your phone, and be able to pray that prayer whenever you want. Um, you know, it's, it's there for you to give you serenity.. And it's a real, you know, it's not some platitude here. It's accepting the hardship as a pathway to peace, for crying out loud. So it recognizes that things might not be perfect, but we can accept the things we can't change and have the courage to change the things we can and get the wisdom from God to know the difference. So that's it for tonight's PowerPoint presentation. I hope you enjoy this series., on Christian recovery, celebrate freedom. If you appreciate it, we would appreciate your support and donations, uh, for the M.t. for Christ Community Freedom Ministry. You can go to our website, mtforchrist.com, go to the donations page, um, to pay, uh, to, to give a donation via PayPal, or you can scan the QR codes for Venmo or the Cash App, uh, to make a donation that way. Um, the proceeds basically go to cover our ministry costs. Uh, we're a part-time Christian, uh, life coach, and, um, because all the pro bono work I do, um, my fees for my clients don't really pay every— pay for all the ministry just yet. And so, um, we'd appreciate your support with that. Um, beyond that, we'll stop the share, I think, and we'll call it a day. There's the cat. I told you he was around. He's free to come and go. You know, got to live in freedom. Anyway, um, it is my prayer that, um, you find your freedom in Christ. Um, I was, I was a drunk and drug user and, you know, somebody who's sexually immoral for, you know, most of my adulthood, from being a teenager onward. And it was only after coming to faith in Jesus Christ that I ever had any chance of changing. And, um, The Lord was faithful. When I entered into recovery, he was there to help me. And I have to highly recommend a daily spiritual practice of prayer and Bible study. And, you know, basically go to church, get connected to a church. If you want, join Bible college. That's what I did. And but other things to do that are highlighted in the ABCs of Celebrate Freedom is the quieting and appreciation exercises. That comes from the book Building Bounce by Dr. Marcus Warner and The Four Habits of Joy-Filled People by Dr. Marcus Warner and Chris Corsi. Stephanie Hinman wrote the other one. But those are good practices to build your resilience, basically your emotional resilience to help you to overcome, do that one day at a time thing. And you can do it with joy and peace. And we recommend John Eldredge's One Minute Pause app. You can use that to do some quieting. You know, basically he has 30 Days of Resilience. You should probably do that. Um, these are spiritual practices that we recommend because your life is spiritual. Your spirit and body, mind and spirit. And, um, you know, basically, um, God wants you to build up your spirit, and, uh, he'll give— that helps you to overcome the flesh. So if you walk in the spirit, you won't given to the flesh, as the word says. So we recommend it. And we also recommend worship. That means Christian music. Listen to it. I believe there's a Christian playlist that we have on YouTube called the Empty for Christ Christian Playlist, or Star Point something, but the link is in the information of this video. So you should check that out and start singing and praising the Lord outside. Out loud, it changes your heart, changes your mind, and puts you in a great frame of mind to walk through the day with joy and peace. Okay, that's it of my insanity, but we're just pointing you to the Lord, and that's the most saint thing you can do. So from me, M.t. Clark, to you, I am your recovery coach, and I'm here to encourage you and, you know, tell you that you can do it. And, um, with God, anything is possible. So keep walking and talking with him, and he will see you through. So good night, God bless, have a good one. Bye.