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September 10 – Doing the Work · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:03
  Hey guys, this is Corey and we got Pastor Mike on here and today's September 10th doing the work.
• 0:11
  The stone.
• 0:13
  Spiritual growth cannot be borrowed from someone else.
• 0:15
  Now that sucks.
• 0:16
  Now, after my own faithful obedience.
• 0:19
  Practical.
• 0:20
  Today I will resist the temptation to look for the easier ways around difficult work. Lasting change requires humility, honesty, and action.
• 0:30
  The promises of God become real as I faithfully live what he has shown me. Spiritual, as I walk in Christ's footsteps.
• 0:40
  The Holy Spirit strengthens me to do what one sinned impossible.
• 0:44
  The Father does not ask me to earn his love, but he does invite me to cooperate in this transitioning work.
• 0:51
  With every step of obedience, I discover more of the life he has promised.
• 0:57
  And I, uh, I was reading this and I like, well, I'll say, I like the word change that you had so that he does not invite me to cooperate with this transitioning work, you said, which I actually like that word, you know, transforming work is what was written and that's that like from the Bible, but I like transitioning too, because that shows just as much of a change.
• 1:19
  Like we're transitioning away from, you know, so I know you didn't do that on purpose, but I liked it.
• 1:25
  This is what I'm saying.
• 1:26
  Sorry, carry on.
• 1:28
  I was like, what are you talking about, change?
• 1:30
  I'm over here squinting because I think glasses.
• 1:33
  I'm trying to do this all my phone.
• 1:35
  No, I know, I know.
• 1:37
  But I did, my point is, I liked the word.
• 1:39
  Right. That was that was a good that was a good word.
• 1:41
  You know, spiritual obedience and spiritual obedience, obedience, obedience.
• 1:47
  And, uh, page 174 of the 12 and 12.
• 1:51
  Um, and we were kind of just, you know, gossiping about alcoholics, novice as a whole.
• 1:57
  No, we would never do that.
• 1:59
  Corey, what are you talking about?
• 2:00
  Well, we're just talking about, you know, how, and we're not gossiping.
• 2:04
  We're talking about how to be more useful and and yes, and in the groups that we attend.
• 2:09
  Exactly, oh, you know, what's not.
• 2:11
  And that's that's not like, you know, in my day-to-day life, if that's what my day-to-day looks like and what it does, is like, I do talk about. And on the bottom of page or the top of page 20 in the big book, It says, our very loves, Pastor Mike, and that can problem drinkers.
• 2:33
  Depend upon our constant thought of others and how we may help their needs, right?
• 2:40
  So if my constant thought is how to be how to make my approach better, how to be more useful to a group, how to be not part of a group and be more useful somewhere else, it doesn't matter what it is, it's just that's what it is.
• 2:51
  And my thoughts along those lines.
• 2:54
  I'm not going in a wrong direction.
• 2:57
  I'm trying to what we're trying to do, right?
• 2:59
  is align our thoughts to God's will.
• 3:02
  And what God's will is for us to be useful.
• 3:04
  And if wherever I'm useful, if where I'm useful, if where I'm useful, like there needs to be changes to be more useful there, then, you know, and I'm thinking about that.
• 3:15
  That's me trying to be of use.
• 3:17
  And that's a lot of words to use, useful.
• 3:21
  use a lot of the same words anyway, some page 174, the 12 and 12.
• 3:25
  I mean, to be fair, you have, by your own admission, once been a user.
• 3:30
  So, but, uh, you know, I like, uh, you can just ignore that, the old dad joke.
• 3:36
  Okay.
• 3:36
  Back to the 12 and 12.
• 3:39
  It says under each AA member follows to the best of his ability, our suggested 12 steps to recovery.
• 3:47
  He almost certainly signs his own death warrant.
• 3:51
  His drunkenness and delusion are not penalties inflicted by people in authority.
• 3:56
  They are results from his personal disobedience to spiritual principles.
• 4:01
  So, my personal disobedience to spiritual principles.
• 4:05
  Well, people, you know, if we hang out with them, like, hey, I don't like being told what to do.
• 4:10
  Well, hey man, that's how everybody is.
• 4:13
  Exactly. Right.
• 4:15
  Yeah, yeah.
• 4:15
  Oh, trust me, church people, they don't like being told what to do either.
• 4:19
  People think we're different.
• 4:20
  You know, we're just humans.
• 4:21
  And, you know, for me to say like, oh, well, you know, I got a character defect.
• 4:25
  I don't like being told what to do.
• 4:26
  Don't tell me what to do.
• 4:27
  No, that's going as an excuse.
• 4:30
  Yeah, it's you is making, you know, giving good excuses.
• 4:32
  Not even good.
• 4:33
  I was about to say it wasn't even that good.
• 4:35
  And this goes back to the rooms right here, and this is where it comes together.
• 4:40
  It says the stains, the same stern threat applies to the group itself.
• 4:44
  unless there's an approximate conformity to AA's 12 traditions.
• 4:49
  The group 2 can deteriorate and die.
• 4:53
  So we have AA duo-based spiritual principles 1st because we must.
• 4:59
  And and ultimately, because we love the kind of life, such obedience brings.
• 5:05
  So when I look at that as me, or a group, or me, whichever one, doesn't matter.
• 5:11
  Like, if I, obedience brings, you know, ultimate, you know, it gives me this luck.
• 5:16
  But obedience to spiritual principles, and that's the whole deal.
• 5:20
  And like if, you know, I can tell you from my own experience, you know, in my previous tenure in this deal, I've cheated on women.
• 5:29
  You know what I mean?
• 5:31
  Like sober, you know, and I've done that, not in AA too, but like what am I talking about?
• 5:36
  But I'll tell you, there's a feeling that is a core, goes with that and it is a feeling to discuss because it's morally not right.
• 5:43
  Right. And living with those not spiritual principles, it's hard to do. And over time, it goes on to say in our big book, in our literature, over time, if I do not feel sorry for that and I do not make it right, I will drink.
• 5:57
  And that is on any moral spiritual principle to me.
• 6:00
  If I'm living in dishonesty, It's a lot to live in when you're sober and feeling these things that I'm doing, right?
• 6:07
  And it becomes more, then it becomes more, then it becomes more, and it's not right, man.
• 6:11
  And it sucks that like, you know, now I got to live by spiritual principles, but or I sicken and die.
• 6:17
  That what the literature says.
• 6:18
  So can you be at peace, Corey?
• 6:20
  Because I know that you live with your significant other and you have a child, you know, and all that kind of stuff.
• 6:25
  Can you be at peace with your significant other? She is continually telling you, uh, that she values honesty and truth and that don't lie to me, don't lie to me, don't lie to me.
• 6:40
  Can you be at peace if you continue to lie to her if that were the case?
• 6:43
  No.
• 6:43
  Exactly, right?
• 6:44
  Because... But why not?
• 6:48
  Because you've been hearing about being honest, isn't hearing about being honest enough?
• 6:52
  Well, I mean, why do you have to actually be honest?
• 6:56
  What you just hear about being off?
• 6:57
  funny.
• 6:58
  So if someone tells me, go to a meeting every day.
• 7:01
  Yeah, no, I think that's principally right, which it's not.
• 7:05
  So if anybody's listening to it, that does say that anywhere.
• 7:08
  And I don't believe in that and go to 2 or 3 and you'll be fine. And do the, but you know what I mean?
• 7:13
  So, but if somebody... what you do in between the meetings, it's just, or is, or is more important.
• 7:18
  Somebody says that I think that is spiritually correct and right, gut of meeting every day and going to be right.
• 7:25
  If I if someone says that, what if I fall out a lot?
• 7:28
  Yeah.
• 7:30
  What I believe to be true because someone what is the person telling you that does not actually go to a meeting every day?
• 7:35
  What's that do?
• 7:36
  Doesn't matter.
• 7:37
  If they tell you to do it, and I don't do it.
• 7:41
  Morally in my in my field.
• 7:45
  like what I what I have deep down within.
• 7:47
  I feel like I've messed up.
• 7:52
  Well, especially if that is a sponsor telling you that, because that is somebody that you have decided to work with, somebody that is attempting to kind of mentor and guide you through the steps, and if that sponsor is telling you, you have to adding more rules than what the big book has, right?
• 8:09
  So they add more rules than what the big book has.
• 8:11
  And then you fail on one of those rules, yes, you're going to feel like a failure.
• 8:15
  Absolutely, you're going to get discouraged and you're very likely going to go back out and relapse.
• 8:18
  It's like if I can't do it right anyway, it's that perfectionism that comes back in, right?
• 8:22
  If I can't do it right anyway, then I'm just gonna give up.
• 8:25
  But I was making the point about, if somebody, if I'm telling you, Corey, hey, go to a meeting every day, but I don't go to a meeting every day, are you going to place any value in that, right?
• 8:36
  If, uh, flipping the example I gave earlier, if, you know, your significant other is telling, you know, I'm almost messed up, said her name.
• 8:43
  If your significant other is telling you to be honest with her that she values honesty, but then you know that she herself is lying to you about something, then you're not going to value her opinion.
• 8:55
  And the point is that the spiritual growth, you know, you can't be borrowed from somebody else.
• 9:00
  You can't just hear about it, and then all of a sudden you're fixed, right?
• 9:03
  You have to actually go about doing what you've been taught.
• 9:08
  And that, you know, this is one of your uh, favorite, you know, books of the of the Bible and the New Testament in James, uh, chapter one, verse 22 says, but be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
• 9:21
  That's really what I was building toward and where I was going to with that is that we can't just talk about these things.
• 9:27
  We can't just talk about spiritual growth.
• 9:29
  We have to actually do the work that's going to allow God to grow our spirit.
• 9:33
  And, you know, for you and I, because we're so heavily involved in the recovery community, part of that doers of the word, and not heroes only, is that we don't just attend meetings and then do nothing else.
• 9:46
  We have to actually go do the work.
• 9:48
  You have to wake up every day and pray.
• 9:50
  You have to get up and read recovery materials, you know, every day, read your Bible every day, you know, and work, talk to other people that are struggling with the same things that we're struggling with.
• 10:00
  Now, you know, my work and my calling takes me outside of the rooms of recovery and into, you know, wider rooms, you know, whatever problems and issues people within the church have on any given, you know, day or week, but it's the same concept, right?
• 10:13
  I mean, the tools that I gain through recovery are absolutely used in my work in ministry, you know?
• 10:20
  And so they they cross over. I mean, that's one of the reasons why I like this whole podcast project is that I get to talk about Jesus and recovery, and those are the, you know, 2 most important things in my life today, you know, is staying.
• 10:32
  Well, I have to throw in my wife as well, you know, but I think that's a given.
• 10:36
  Well, yeah, I don't I don't know if I talked about this.
• 10:40
  I definitely talked about it in a talk.
• 10:41
  I did.
• 10:42
  Uh, a friend of mine.
• 10:44
  She, she had asked me to go tall at that thing that, that church I told you about not too long ago.
• 10:51
  Maybe I talked about, because maybe I just talked about to you.
• 10:55
  I don't know, but it don't matter.
• 10:56
  Oh.
• 10:57
  But man, like, you know, I had got some things from her at one and she gave me too much.
• 11:09
  And, you know, she, she, kind of said, hey, I think you, she's ripped me off footing or anyways.
• 11:18
  So I decided I need to make that right before I go talk at this thing, right?
• 11:24
  For sure.
• 11:24
  So I want to talk about amends, you know, if we're going to talk about everything, you know, I got to live this thing.
• 11:31
  And, you know, if that's the only way, that's the way that that made me make amends.
• 11:34
  That's yeah.
• 11:35
  Yeah, you were about to go do some good work, but you still had something unresolved.
• 11:39
  Right.
• 11:39
  And a year previous to that, she came up to me and goes, I know what you did.
• 11:43
  And I forgive you.
• 11:46
  And so for a year, I've been sitting on this.
• 11:50
  That's funny, right?
• 11:52
  So she almost like gave you the opportunity to make amends that you weren't able to take it.
• 11:57
  Right.
• 11:57
  So I called her the week before I went and talked and I said, hey, I need to make something right with you and whatever I need to do to do that.
• 12:06
  Is it okay for me to do this with you? And she said, yeah.
• 12:10
  And I said, well, this night I did this.
• 12:12
  And whatever I need to do to make that right.
• 12:16
  we were only talking about, you know, three, $400 that night.
• 12:19
  Yeah.
• 12:20
  And she goes, And she goes, no, this is what you did.
• 12:25
  And she talked to me, oh, call me about another night, which that night happened to be up in the, you know, up in the 1000s, uh, in the, in the, in the 100s.
• 12:36
  Oh my goodness, yeah.
• 12:37
  And I had no idea.
• 12:38
  And I told her, I said, yeah, it's so interesting that we're talking about this, you know, because I come in, I come into this conversation.
• 12:45
  This is why it's so important that I let you get, because you know what I mean?
• 12:49
  That you're supposed, you know, but I thought it was this one thing and then we're talking about this other thing.
• 12:53
  But where I was able to do that, right?
• 12:55
  Because it does say, on page 83,
• 12:59
  It says the spiritual life is not a theory.
• 13:01
  We have to live it.
• 13:02
  And have to is an absolute, right?
• 13:05
  Have to do something because if I'm just out here talking about this, if I'm not getting on my needs, if I'm not doing this, I'm not doing this.
• 13:12
  And, you know, however I get to do that, it doesn't matter.
• 13:15
  Right?
• 13:16
  Whatever pushes me to go to those meetings, whatever pushes me to get on my knees, whatever pushes me, because I must have first.
• 13:24
  But after time, right, I really enjoy the way of life at Gismo.
• 13:27
  And I think that's like, you know, when I come bring it all the way back around, I do it because I must at first.
• 13:33
  And however that must is, that must, I must go to meetings.
• 13:38
  That why I love the drug court people because I came through drug court originally and I had to go to meetings.
• 13:43
  And it was such a big argument back then about, we don't want these people in here getting their sheet signed.
• 13:50
  We want real alcohol.
• 13:52
  That was the argument in the business meeting.
• 13:54
  I mean, I think if you've gotten to the point where a court is telling you you've got to go to an AA meeting, you're probably a real life.
• 14:01
  Now that doesn't mean that you're willing yet.
• 14:02
  Right. But that's a different that's a different question.
• 14:05
  I mean, people, I know that their lives changed because of it.
• 14:08
  How many cordons got introduced into it?
• 14:10
  Exactly came by.
• 14:11
  A year or 2 later.
• 14:12
  If they if they make it and live that far.
• 14:14
  Yeah, that's exactly right, though.
• 14:16
  What you just described, though, about your conviction about something that you hadn't said right before you went to do that good work, you know, before you went to talk at that place, that's almost exactly the model of what we are supposed to do as followers of Jesus, right?
• 14:34
  Because it says in Matthew Jesus.
• 14:36
  This is Jesus talking in Matthew 5, 23 and 24, and this is NIV.
• 14:40
  says, therefore, if you're offering your gift at the altar and there, remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.
• 14:49
  First, go and be reconciled to them, then come and offer your gift.
• 14:52
  So reconciliation as part of our spiritual growth needs to proceed offering our gifts, you know, to God.
• 15:00
  And so that was kind of cool.
• 15:02
  to hear you kind of talk through that example, you know, of of doing exactly that.
• 15:06
  But, um, no, this one, you know, it's just a reminder today that whether we're listening to whether people are listening to this as a Christian devotional or whether people are listening to this as a recovery devotional, my advice to all of us is the same.
• 15:23
  Let your feet and your mouth be in alignment, you know?
• 15:29
  You still got our prayer pulled up, Corey?
• 15:32
  Father God, give me the willingness to do the work, you have place before me.
• 15:37
  Through your Holy Spirit, strengthen me to walk in faithful obedience, shape me through the example of Jesus and help me trust your promises.
• 15:46
  Amen.
• 15:46
  Amen.