Participants: Cheri Peters (Host), Connie Gilbert
Series Code: CLR
Program Code: CLR000127A
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00:01 The following program discusses sensitive issues
00:03 related to addictive behavior. 00:05 Parents are cautioned that some material 00:06 may be too candid for younger children. 00:10 You know for some of us we have believe lies 00:12 from the very beginning, our entire life, 00:16 not sure who is safe and who is not safe. 00:18 Our guest today Connie, that's true for her. 00:21 But when she heard the truth, it changed everything, 00:25 so welcome to Celebrating Life in Recovery. 00:27 My name is Cheri. 00:29 Please join us on the cafe today. 00:30 You are gonna be wowed. 00:59 Welcome to Celebrating Life in Recovery. 01:01 You know today we're gonna be talking about lies and truth 01:05 and how do we get free and what's amazing to me 01:08 is our whole season right now 01:10 is going to be covered in a book called 01:12 Victory in Jesus by Bill Liversidge. 01:14 And the book is amazing 01:16 'cause the whole thing is about grace. 01:18 How do we come out from lies that we believed 01:22 maybe from the time we've come out of the womb to the truth 01:25 and I'm serious, 01:27 we have an enemy that strategically says, 01:28 I'm gonna set you up for every lie. 01:30 If you think you got strong on your feet right now, 01:33 tomorrow I'm gonna knock your feet out 01:35 from underneath you, 01:36 and God says, don't believe him anymore, 01:38 you've got to keep looking at me. 01:40 And when I say that for some of us, 01:45 the lies that we're being told become our truth. 01:50 We start acting out, we're using, you know, 01:53 people lost in addiction all the way 01:56 from not only lost in addiction drugs, 01:57 alcohol, workaholism, spending, lying, 02:00 religious addictions, all of that kind of stuff, 02:03 we get lost in that 02:04 so when the enemy comes over to tell us lies, 02:06 man, we can check off. 02:08 Yeah, I did that, did that, did that and God says stop 02:11 'cause the truth is, you are redeemed. 02:13 The truth is you're loved. 02:15 The truth is I've got your back and we're gonna make it. 02:17 And so the scripture for today 02:19 which I think is an amazing scripture is Romans 2:4, 02:23 and it says do you not, 02:26 like don't you have that regard for... 02:29 I'm gonna say it in my own words, 02:31 I'm just not good at this. 02:32 I'm just gonna say that it's like you know, 02:34 somebody says do you despise the kindness of God, 02:38 the goodness of God, 02:39 the fact that God in the midst of our junk 02:43 and our craziness and acting out 02:45 as soon as I literally say "help" 02:48 he's gonna walk with me, 02:50 and he's gonna walk with me until I get it. 02:52 And I want to tell you, I went to Alaska one time 02:55 and it was just a crazy trip. 02:56 It was the first time somebody ever asked me 02:59 to come and talk and I'm new with this 03:01 and I'm just barely, you know, out of, 03:03 you know, 10 years on the street, 03:05 heroin addictions and all that kind of stuff 03:07 and somebody asked me to come do Alaska and talk, 03:09 and I was so excited, I was so excited. 03:13 I thought are you kidding me? 03:14 You want me to talk about God and who I am in Christ 03:17 and what he's done in my life? 03:19 Could you imagine, Connie, I'm like, 03:21 I'm jumping up and down and then they said, 03:23 well how much do you charge? 03:24 And I'm like shut up! Are you gonna pay me? 03:27 And I couldn't even get over myself, 03:29 I said like a 100 bucks, you know, and somebody said, 03:32 well how much you can talk for 100 bucks? 03:34 I said I never shut up. 03:35 It's always like, it was like they said 03:37 we got to sign something, you know, 03:39 so I went to Alaska 16 presentations in four days, 03:42 ridiculous, but I get to this small village, 03:45 a small village and I'm in a school 03:48 and presenting in a school and this little kid comes up, 03:52 she's tiny, malnourished, she looked nine, 03:56 she was actually 12, and she came up when she said, 03:59 "you know what my life is just like yours" 04:02 and I thought what? 04:04 Your life is just like mine? And she said yeah. 04:07 And I'm talking about early molest 04:11 and drug addiction and being on the street, 04:13 I was funneled into a $32 million industry 04:15 at 13 years old, and this little kid is saying, 04:19 "Yeah, I get it." 04:21 And so I didn't know what to say to her, 04:23 I couldn't breathe. 04:24 And finally I said to her, you know what, 04:28 I don't have an assistant, would you be my assistant? 04:31 And she said, "What?" 04:33 I said I don't know anybody, would you help me? 04:36 And she said, "Yeah." 04:37 You know, and she's so cocky, you know, I love damaged kids, 04:41 they're like, "Yeah, I can do that" no problem, 04:44 and so she became my assistant 04:45 which meant that we could hang out, 04:47 that we could be friends, 04:49 that we could talk about those personal things 04:51 that she doesn't have to stay damaged, 04:54 that would ever God is gonna give me 04:56 to say to her I'm saying it, 04:58 and by the end of the time I was there, 05:00 I could see her healing, 05:01 I could see her start to relax in her own skin 05:04 and sort to have hope that maybe someday 05:08 I'm gonna actually be out of that 05:09 and she's a molested kid, her parents are on rehab, 05:12 grandparents have Alzheimer's. 05:14 She's a lost a ton of people in her family with alcoholism 05:17 and liver disease and all that kind of stuff. 05:19 She's trying to stay in school 05:21 by sleeping with everybody in the village, 05:22 I mean just crazy. 05:24 And so now, I'm getting ready to leave 05:27 and I think I don't want to leave this kid. 05:30 I don't want to leave this kid, I don't want to walk away, 05:32 what do you say 'cause you know what? 05:34 Nobody's coming on a white horse 05:36 and saving us. 05:38 You know, and I want to say that 05:39 'cause people think that 05:40 there are everybody's gonna doing that 05:43 and they're not doing that, 05:44 so I knew that nobody's gonna be on this white horse, 05:47 nobody's gonna be able to rescue this kid. 05:48 We're not gonna be able to just call social services 05:51 and all that kind of stuff that it is really a big deal, 05:54 and so I'm leaving and my heart is breaking. 05:57 My heart is breaking like, you know, 05:59 I want to take her home, you know, 06:02 and I know that that's not a possibility 06:04 and so I start to leave and we're praying in 06:07 and she says, Cheri, don't worry about me, 06:12 you know these, we're so cocky as kids. 06:15 We're just like don't worry about me, 06:17 I'm good and I'm thinking in my mind, 06:19 I'm thinking this is not what good looks like, 06:21 and she said, when I first read your book, 06:26 and I thought what? 06:28 What do you mean read my book? 06:30 She said, "This old guy" and he was, 06:32 he's a 1000 years old, 06:33 he picked me up from the airport, 06:35 this was a old guy, been doing ministry 06:38 in the outback in Alaska his whole life, 06:41 and this guy has just changed everything. 06:43 But anyhow this old guy gave me your book and I read it. 06:46 I read it all the way through in one sitting, 06:48 I've never read a book like that all the way through. 06:51 And she said, but when I was done, 06:53 I said God, if you're real, 06:55 someday I want to meet someone like this. 06:59 And I believe the entire Alaska trip 07:02 was for that moment. 07:04 The entire trip that we think we know God 07:07 and the kindness of God, 07:08 we think we know what he's doing. 07:10 We think it's about the gig that I got at the hospital 07:13 or that church or whatever. 07:14 It was about a girl 07:16 in the midst of nowhere that said "help." 07:20 And so when we talk about the kindness of God, 07:22 the fact that God says, 07:23 I am literally gonna turn everything around 07:26 because I love you, because I love you. 07:29 And I would like to say, you know what, that moment, 07:32 she was changed forever. 07:34 Never acted out, never did anything 07:36 but you know what? 07:38 I didn't see a real change in her life 07:39 till she is 21 years old 07:42 but the kindness of God bore with her every single day, 07:47 every single day. 07:49 And in Romans it says, 07:50 you despise God for being that kind. 07:53 Do you hate Him for overlooking 07:55 or for burying over our sins? 07:58 Do you despise Him every time somebody stumbles 08:00 and God says, you know what, I'm gonna help them up. 08:04 Do we hate God for that? 08:06 Because what we have to know about that 08:08 is every single time I stumble and He stands me back up. 08:13 I actually because of His love want to be different. 08:17 Man, I want to get it. 08:19 I don't want to stumble, I don't want to hurt someone, 08:21 I don't want to manipulate, 08:23 I don't want to do all that kind of stuff, 08:25 but God says until your last breath, 08:27 I'm gonna get you home, and I love you, 08:30 so don't despise His kindness, 08:31 His kindness leads to repentance, 08:33 and repentance is a gift. 08:35 I can't muster up, I can't be sorry enough. 08:38 The only thing that makes me see my sin 08:41 and be sorry is His love 08:44 and I'm not sorry 'cause I'm ashamed, 08:45 I'm sorry because I want to be what He sees in me. 08:49 I just want to be that. 08:51 And so today, I'm gonna introduce you to a woman 08:54 that I fell in love with right way. 08:56 I mean, I like who she is, I feel like 08:59 when she started talking, I thought you know what, 09:01 I'm looking at myself, you know, I get her 09:04 and I can't say hate when someone says 09:07 I know where you're at. 09:08 I mean that's so crazy 09:09 'cause we don't know we're each others out, 09:11 we're so uniquely different, but you know what, 09:13 I get about her as I get her beginning 09:15 and where she came from and all that. 09:17 So we're gonna take a break, we're gonna come back. 09:20 I want to introduce to my guest, 09:21 but I want you to know that if you're out there, 09:23 and you're feeling like you're on this yo-yo thing 09:25 and you're trying to figure out, 09:27 am I enough for God? 09:28 Does He actually see me? Can He get me through this? 09:31 I'm gonna say "yes" in every way that I can yes. 09:36 I don't care who you are. 09:37 I don't care and I know somebody's gonna get mad at me. 09:41 We've had got sexual stuff we're doing, 09:43 same sex identity issues, we've got drugs, 09:45 we've got spending, we've got workaholism, 09:49 we're lost in addictions of all kinds 09:51 and God says, "I will not let you go." 09:55 There's nowhere that I, that you can hide from me, 09:59 not because He's trying to shame us 10:01 'cause He's trying to free us. 10:02 And then the freedom of God is so good. 10:06 Stay with us, we'll be right back. |
Revised 2016-09-26