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September 22 – Giving Away the Treasure · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome back, everybody, to the Daily Ripples podcast.
• 0:07
  Today is Tuesday, September the 22nd.
• 0:10
  I'm Pastor Mike.
• 0:11
  I've got Corey here with me.
• 0:13
  Is our your regular host or co-host or whatever you want to call us.
• 0:17
  Just don't call us late for dinner.
• 0:19
  Anyway, the devotional today is titled Giving away the treasure.
• 0:22
  The stone.
• 0:24
  The gifts God gives me, become richer as I freely share them with others.
• 0:29
  Ripple one is practical.
• 0:31
  Today, I will look for someone who needs encouragement, hope, or simply someone to listen.
• 0:35
  Healing is not something I keep to myself.
• 0:38
  As I give away what God has given me.
• 0:40
  I often discover that my own heart is strengthened as well.
• 0:43
  Ripple 2 is spiritual.
• 0:45
  As I follow Christ's example of pouring himself out for others, the Holy Spirit multiplies what I offer in ways I cannot measure.
• 0:53
  The Father's grace is never diminished by being shared.
• 0:56
  Instead, it becomes a well that continues to overflow.
• 1:00
  As always, we'll have a prayer at the end of the episode.
• 1:05
  I start to say end of the message like I'm given a sermon here, Corey.
• 1:09
  But anyway, you know, some of these episodes of mine sound like I'm giving a sermon during part of it, but I digress.
• 1:14
  Well, I think, and I've used this scripture before, Nina, related to some of these, especially this month, as we're talking about amends and all of those kind of things, but the one that I was thinking of, you know, for this today is, you know, in Luke 6 and verse 38.
• 1:30
  And it's part of, and I know that you know the Sermon on the Mount, right?
• 1:34
  And that's generally starts in Matthew 5 and 6 and has some carryover.
• 1:39
  Well, this in Luke 6 is a comparable sermon in the gospel of Luke, but it's often called the sermon on the plane.
• 1:46
  And the reason it's called the sermon on the plane is because the author describes it is Jesus came down off the mountain and gave the sermon.
• 1:52
  So that's why it's described a little bit differently.
• 1:55
  But in that one, Luke 6 and verse 38.
• 1:59
  You know, Jesus says, give and it will be given to you.
• 2:01
  And they says, press down, shaken together, and running over.
• 2:04
  So in other words, that what I have, the good gifts that I have from God, they don't diminish when I give them away.
• 2:12
  They grow.
• 2:13
  They get richer, they get deeper.
• 2:16
  I mean, that's exactly what this is talking about.
• 2:18
  And, you know, I've experienced that even just recently, you know, uh, a week ago, I was sitting down with uh, with a spawn C, you know, Tuesday of last week.
• 2:28
  And, you know, taking his 5th step, you know, and that's given of my time, but what I received from that is just a sense of peace, you know, a sense of being exactly where in that moment, you know, with that other man sitting there listening to him, talking through these steps with him.
• 2:47
  I was exactly where I needed to be at that time.
• 2:51
  I had no care or concern for how am I going to pay my mortgage this month.
• 2:56
  I wasn't thinking about, you know, is my wife going to come home and fuss about this, that, or the other that I haven't gotten done around the house or are there people in the churches that that are waiting on something from me?
• 3:07
  Do I have unread emails?
• 3:08
  No, because I was committed and I was in the moment, you know, with that other man helping. And just sharing my experience, strength and hope and just given that gift of presence and time.
• 3:22
  Through that process, you know, it helps me stay sober.
• 3:27
  You know, and it also just reaffirms, like I said, that God telling me, hey, you're right where you need to be at this moment. You know, you were talking about fist up, and I think it's really cool.
• 3:39
  Uh
• 3:42
  There's some other things, but I think it says,
• 3:45
  On page, it says on, on, there's a lot of other things in the 12 and 12 on it, but like kind of, on page 75, it says, we explained to her partner what we were about to do and what we had to do.
• 3:56
  He should realize that we are engaged upon life and death, Aaron.
• 4:02
  So having the privilege to be sitting in on the life and death errand, right?
• 4:05
  Yeah, I think that's cool.
• 4:07
  Most people, cursed by this, will be glad to help. They will be honored by our conference.
• 4:11
  And I think that's cool too.
• 4:12
  Like, you know, the privilege to be able to do that stuff, uh, but I know we're talking about helping others and I don't always bring this book with me, but this book's really important to me because, uh, There's the 1st look I went through the work end.
• 4:29
  Um, But on page 88, it's, uh, in my, in my book, So have you always been blind?
• 4:38
  Yeah.
• 4:39
  Oh, okay.
• 4:40
  I was just making sure because you said the 1st book ever went through it.
• 4:43
  You got the old man, large print of the, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 4:46
  I mean, you got bigger print than I do, and I'm 20 years older than you.
• 4:49
  anyway, go ahead.
• 4:50
  Go ahead.
• 4:50
  Yeah, so going back from yesterday's episode in today's episode, I was thinking about this because you were talking about Faith Without Works is dead.
• 4:58
  Yeah, right.
• 4:59
  And we weren't talking about that specifically, but we were talking that on that in terms of doing the making the amends.
• 5:07
  So on page 77 and on page 88, it says Faith Without Works is dead.
• 5:11
  And so on 88, it says, we alcoholics are on discipline.
• 5:15
  So we let God discipline us in the simple way we have just outlined.
• 5:19
  But this is not all.
• 5:20
  There's action and more action.
• 5:22
  Faith without works is dead.
• 5:24
  And it says the next chapter is entirely divided to step 12.
• 5:28
  And so this was one of the 1st books I went through the work in.
• 5:31
  And so it's kind of important to me and I don't always bring it around.
• 5:34
  But, uh, I have written under the last sentence of that that says the miracle of step 11 happens when I get off my knees and carry the message out into the world.
• 5:46
  And it's not talking about carrying the message into a meeting so I could sound cool.
• 5:51
  No.
• 5:52
  And like, you know, that's interesting, the thought that I just was thinking about.
• 5:56
  Um, man, this, a friend of mine, he was like, uh, man, where you been lately at this, at the our meeting?
• 6:03
  Because we're needing people.
• 6:05
  Anyways.
• 6:06
  So, um, you know, I was talking to my significant other about that.
• 6:11
  I was like, look, like I'm I'm in the book deep with 5 different dudes right now.
• 6:15
  I don't even have time to meet with them.
• 6:19
  Hardly make it to some meetings for some leisure little fellowship.
• 6:24
  You know what I mean?
• 6:24
  Because that's what that's what meetings are, right?
• 6:26
  I mean, if you on the next page over, right?
• 6:30
  The definition of what a meeting is to me is, Right here on page 89.
• 6:38
  frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is the bright spot of our loves.
• 6:43
  That's what a meeting is.
• 6:45
  You know, so, I mean, and I can find new, you know, new, you pretty much gave a definition of what a media is, frequent contact with newcomers and huffers.
• 6:53
  Yeah, exactly.
• 6:54
  I mean, that's that's what makes AA meetings work.
• 6:59
  And Bill and Bill's story tells me another thing on page 15, it says we meet frequently so that newcomers may find the fellowship.
• 7:08
  They seek.
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  And so and there's one other spot we're not going to keep on going into what AA is because that's what AA is.
• 7:16
  It's for people to me.
• 7:18
  And, you know, for the fellowship and new people to come, not for old people that have been coming around there and express how miserable their life is because they won't do the work of alcoholics anonymous.
• 7:28
  And it's sad to watch.
• 7:29
  And it really is.
• 7:30
  I mean, that is probably another.
• 7:32
  I mean, now we're getting into opinion, but well, I mean, we share opinions on this thing all the time, so why stop now?
• 7:39
  Right, but you know, that's that's what's happening, right?
• 7:41
  Because you got a bunch of people that are going into AA, that are not willing to help and they sit around and talk about their problems, and then they have other people come in, and they're like, man, these dudes are miserable.
• 7:52
  Why would I ever want to come here and nobody wants to help me anyways?
• 7:56
  I'm going to take myself somewhere else or I'm just going to go back to the bar.
• 7:59
  And that's, you know, I mean, and we look at it and I asked my sponsor today, we were talking about a particular subject of,
• 8:10
  Uh, we're talking about the treatment centers and doing taking meetings through the treatment center structure or, you know, doing it, like how sometimes I do it, like, because I go to, to certain treatment centers because they've asked me to go there.
• 8:24
  And that's not within the service structure.
• 8:27
  And I asked him, I said, so do you think?
• 8:30
  So I said, man, if your son became an alcoholic, that he needed to start going to, he wanted to quit drinking.
• 8:38
  Would you just send him to the service structure of AA, or would you tell him which meeting to go to?
• 8:43
  He said, well, tell me which meeting to go to?
• 8:45
  I said, exactly.
• 8:46
  And that's probably what these other treatment centers have found that they can't trust the service, the structure of AA.
• 8:53
  But so they want to just go to individuals that they know that can carry the message, not just doing a generic AA thing.
• 8:59
  Right.
• 9:00
  Anyways.
• 9:01
  You know, Corey, I'm glad that you brought that up, you know, about the about the meetings and such, but I think about how does a meeting die, right?
• 9:13
  How does a meeting trail off and die?
• 9:15
  And I was relating it to, you know, how does a local congregation of a church dot.
• 9:21
  Right. Well, and it's so funny because just the other day, somebody told me that they heard something very profound and they said that, um, if you go into a church with no, uh, babies crying and no men singing.
• 9:39
  Then that's a church that's about to die.
• 9:42
  Oh, really?
• 9:42
  That makes sense.
• 9:43
  Yeah.
• 9:44
  And so I kind of relate that to if you go into a meeting with no newcomers coming in and no one sponsoring anyone that that meeting is going to die.
• 9:57
  But I don't agree with part of what you said, um, because, you know, there, there's, there's, because I kind of relate kind of the biblical teaching into the, into the recovery community as well, because I think that there's more to the fellowship than just checking the boxes. I've gone to 3 meetings this week, right?
• 10:17
  I think there's more to the fellowship.
• 10:19
  And, you know, in in the Bible, you know, Hebrews 10 in verses 24 and 25, you know, that one is the one that talks about, don't forsake the gathering together, you know, with each other.
• 10:30
  And that's talking about it in church.
• 10:31
  Obviously, don't forsake going to church.
• 10:33
  Now, I mean, so many of us do because other priorities come up at various times.
• 10:38
  Not everybody has a calling and a job that requires them to be there every week like some of us is out here.
• 10:43
  But I kind of relate that same wisdom, that same guidance from the Bible to kind of what happens in recovery meetings.
• 10:52
  And yeah, it's the bright spot, you know, gathering together with newcomers and with other people in the fellowship is indeed a bright spot.
• 10:58
  Seeing people in church every week is a bright spot of my week, you know, but there's more to it than it just being a one fuzzy feeling.
• 11:05
  It's also, when I'm gathered together in a community of people, all trying to accomplish the same things, the results are often more than what any one person could do on their own.
• 11:16
  And so that, that's kind of where I, I, I just, I wouldn't want anyone to, to listen to this and say, oh, well, you know, I listen to that podcast.
• 11:24
  Of course, said, I don't have to go to meetings anymore.
• 11:26
  You know, that is not what you said.
• 11:27
  I know that's not what you said.
• 11:29
  That, you know, but it's, it's, it's just, uh, you know, it, it is important, but it's not, and we've talked about this so many times, just meeting attendance is not a substitute for doing the work that's outlined in the book.
• 11:44
  It's not a substitute for sponsoring people.
• 11:47
  It's not a substitute, for me, myself working through the 12 steps, you know?
• 11:51
  You gotta have all of it together.
• 11:54
  And so, because if I'm just going to a meeting every day of the week.
• 11:58
  I mean, I almost do, but anyway, that's neither here nor there.
• 12:02
  But if I'm just going to a meeting every day of the week and not doing anything else.
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  And that's where I diverge because I'm not doing anything else.
• 12:10
  But if that's all that I'm doing, and I'm calling that, you know, uh, working my program, then that is a very isolated and almost selfish program because I'm not really helping anybody, you know, and am I there in case a newcomer walks in?
• 12:27
  Yeah, but how many times do we see it where, you know, at the end of a meeting?
• 12:32
  And again, not to, this is not a beat up on AA kind of podcast, right?
• 12:36
  Or beat up on recovery meetings, but it's more an encouragement.
• 12:39
  If somebody raises their hand at the end of the meeting when they say who here needs a sponsor and you don't see 10 men, if it's a guy or 10 women, if it's a woman, flock into that person to try to compete to sponsor and work with them, then that's probably a meeting on its way out.
• 12:56
  Right.
• 12:57
  Well, you know, well, you said something that, uh, yeah, I mean, you can agree with that.
• 13:03
  don't either.
• 13:04
  You said, you know, well, you know, is this a counter disagreements, but like what you said something, you're like, well, you know, if that's my program.
• 13:14
  Well, and I've heard my, you know, like, well, that's this is how I do my program.
• 13:19
  That's what we're going to do that way.
• 13:20
  Well, like, what is anybody's pro?
• 13:23
  I mean, there's only if I'm in AA.
• 13:26
  I mean, if I'm in NA, there's, they got a booklet, if I'm in AA, they're using the AA book, if I'm in AA, I'm in the AA program, but there's only, like, there's a, I know, if I'm, there's only AA, there's one program.
• 13:39
  That's right.
• 13:39
  It's a program of alcoholic synonymous.
• 13:42
  I think people say my program because they're trying to...
• 13:46
  I know.
• 13:47
  I've got a more gracious look at that, Corey.
• 13:49
  I think sometimes when people say my program, they're trying to honor that, you know, traditions right wrong or indifferent about that they can only control themselves in their own actions in their own location.
• 14:01
  Like, they can't say, this is what your program has to be, or they're unwilling to, because, so they're just keeping the focus on themselves.
• 14:08
  like when they're sharing in a meeting and stuff.
• 14:10
  You know, that's a more gracious read of that.
• 14:12
  Well, but I know what you're saying.
• 14:14
  There is only one program.
• 14:15
  Well, you know, y'all's big bro.
• 14:16
  Also, right.
• 14:17
  And y'all's big book.
• 14:18
  Did you hear that, Corey?
• 14:19
  I said you're also right.
• 14:20
  I want that on record.
• 14:21
  It is on record.
• 14:22
  It's going to be out here on Tuesday.
• 14:24
  Anyway.
• 14:24
  So on page 160.
• 14:26
  It says, or bottom of page 159, really.
• 14:30
  You know, it's funny.
• 14:32
  I started pulling these things out.
• 14:33
  I'm like, no, you know that's not enough.
• 14:34
  So it says, in addition to these casual get togethers, it became customary to set apart one night a week for a meeting to be attended by anyone or everyone interested in a spiritual way of life.
• 14:47
  Aside from fellowship and social ability.
• 14:51
  The prime object.
• 14:53
  You know, I haven't really thought about this because we have a problem. Finish the sinus first.
• 14:56
  We've been hanging.
• 14:57
  What's a prime object, Corey?
• 14:59
  Bro.
• 15:01
  Aside from fellowship and sociability, the prime object was to provide a time and a place where new people might bring their problems.
• 15:10
  Yep. And so, you know, but what I was thinking about when I read Prime Object, because I've never, because I think about this stuff, right?
• 15:18
  Yeah, you know, so we have a, we have a primary purpose.
• 15:22
  Yep, we have our real purpose.
• 15:25
  We have, and the way I look at that too.
• 15:28
  We had it on related.
• 15:29
  We have a high mission, you know, and then we have, you know, I kind of, you know, I was thinking about the secondary thing, right?
• 15:37
  And you've heard me talk about this.
• 15:38
  The secondary thing is our next function is to grow an understanding and effectiveness.
• 15:43
  So, but, you know, when I think, then I have that we have prime object was to provide a time and place where new people might bring their problems.
• 15:51
  But anyways, so you were talking about the church and AA following in everything that's, you know, falling apart, right?
• 15:57
  Well, it tells me in the 12s of death, signs of death, it says on page 174 in the 12 and 12, unless there's a approximate conformity, and that doesn't say suggestive to AA's 12 tradition, the group too can deteriorate and die.
• 16:15
  So we have AA do obey spiritual principles 1st because we must.
• 16:19
  And ultimately, because we love the kind of life, such obedience brings.
• 16:24
  Great suffering and great love or age, disciplinaries, we need no others.
• 16:29
  And you know, the reason there's a 12 and 12 and the traditions and the concepts and the steps is because these people went through this stuff, right?
• 16:36
  They had the flying barns that time where they were just out here trying to save the world in it.
• 16:41
  Well, they had the, uh, they had the 6 things from, um, Oxford, Oxford.
• 16:47
  But that's what kind of they were basing it off of.
• 16:50
  And so they were flying blind out here trying everything and anything, and they were failing, and they were doing this, and there was monies, and this, women's, this, this, all these different things, right?
• 17:00
  And they were just, you know, it was, but like they failed at things and over the whole country.
• 17:07
  And so they started putting these traditions in place.
• 17:10
  But anyways, man.
• 17:11
  It's kind of like why we're as recovered as we are today even is because failure is a great teacher.
• 17:18
  Right. You know, they'll teach you exactly what else and so are people.
• 17:22
  And even the, you know, if sometimes we sound like we're harsh on meetings or other individuals that we've heard, just as a reminder, like, we all learn from everybody.
• 17:31
  Some people are teaching me what to do and other people are teaching me what not to do.
• 17:36
  Yeah, I'm harsh on everybody.
• 17:38
  Oh, I know, we all know that. We've been listening to this thing for 6 months.
• 17:42
  I mean, we're fully aware.
• 17:43
  I'm harsh.
• 17:45
  But you know, I'm not really harsh on people.
• 17:47
  I'm more harsh on myself.
• 17:48
  Well, that's what I was going to say.
• 17:49
  You're not any harder on anybody than what you would be on yourself or what you would have some would be on you.
• 17:54
  Yeah, obviously, like in my book.
• 17:56
  I was not your sponsor.
• 17:57
  Right.
• 17:58
  Well, yeah, man, but like, I beat myself up over messing up.
• 18:02
  And I see others do it with impunity.
• 18:04
  And I think that's interesting, you know, and it's just like drinking, right?
• 18:08
  We've gone way too long.
• 18:09
  So why don't you end up with the prayer?
• 18:10
  No, no, no.
• 18:11
  I was also thinking about, you know, because we've been talking about how meetings die and how churches die and all that, and it could sound all doomed and glue.
• 18:18
  And I just want to point out that we serve a resurrectable.
• 18:22
  He's in a resurrection business.
• 18:23
  So even if a meeting's on the way out or a church is on the way out with God as our helper, we can turn these things around.
• 18:29
  Yeah, nothing's falling apart the freely you have received freely, you give.
• 18:34
  Let us pray.
• 18:35
  Father God.
• 18:36
  Thank you for the treasure of your grace. Through your Holy Spirit.
• 18:40
  Help me share it freely with those you place in my path.
• 18:43
  Shape me through the example of Jesus.
• 18:46
  Amen.
• 18:47
  Amen.
• 18:53
  You got a charger over here?