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He Loved The High Better Than Family · Get The Hell Out of Your Life with Ron Meyers

• 0:31
  Ron Meyers: Real stories, real struggles, and real hope.
• 0:34
  Ron Meyers: My guess today is Pastor Mike McClough.
• 0:36
  Ron Meyers: Before he became a pastor, before ministry, before restoration, in his new identity, there was addiction.
• 0:44
  Ron Meyers: There were drug runs across state lines.
• 0:47
  Ron Meyers: There were broken relationships.
• 0:49
  Ron Meyers: There was loneliness so deep that even the high couldn't cover it anymore.
• 0:55
  Ron Meyers: And here's what I love most about Mike story.
• 0:59
  Ron Meyers: It reminds us that sometimes God meets us at the end of ourselves, not always in a church service, but sometimes while cleaning your house, sometimes staring at a picture of Jesus, sometimes in the simple, desperate prayer.
• 1:17
  Ron Meyers: God, I need help.
• 1:20
  Ron Meyers: Friend, maybe that's where you are today.
• 1:23
  Ron Meyers: Well, that's good because honest prayers change everything.
• 1:27
  Ron Meyers: Let's jump into this powerful conversation with Pastor Mike McLeod.
• 1:33
  Mike McLeod: I am Mike McLeod, and I do pastor in Hurley, Mississippi, Magnolia Springs Assembly of God.
• 1:39
  Mike McLeod: But my story began at an early age of trying different things, following the wrong crowds at around 13, 14 years old, my first try of marijuana.
• 1:52
  Mike McLeod: And, you know, that's the gateway drug they call to other things.
• 1:56
  Mike McLeod: And of course, it it led me down a pretty dark path, um be knowing that that it was dark.
• 2:02
  Mike McLeod: You know, the Bible teaches there's pleasure in sin for a season, and I would lie to you and to all the listeners if I didn't say that there was joy in some of that lifestyle that I lived.
• 2:15
  Mike McLeod: And throughout the years of of growing up in high school, started trying other types of drugs, started drinking real, real heavily in my high school years.
• 2:25
  Mike McLeod: About the eleventh grade, I tried uh cocaine and um enjoyed it and liked the feeling.
• 2:32
  Mike McLeod: Of course, you know, y you have to to keep doing it.
• 2:36
  Mike McLeod: And so I became an addict.
• 2:38
  Mike McLeod: I would snort it, shoot it, smoke it, however, to get high.
• 2:43
  Mike McLeod: And in my guess around 20, I started uh running drugs out of another state through uh father and son that that hid behind a construction business and uh literally would take flatbed trucks that looked like would haul welding machines on it, would have a false bottom in it, and I would I would run a hundred, two hundred pounds of cocaine across state lines, delivering it.
• 3:09
  Mike McLeod: Got married, got married to to my wife, and and we had a daughter and did she know you were doing this?
• 3:15
  Mike McLeod: Oh, absolutely not.
• 3:17
  Mike McLeod: You know, I I worked a job at a full-time job at Chevron, oil refinery in Pashcagoula, and worked every day with the help of of drugs kept me going.
• 3:27
  Mike McLeod: And she would find things around the house that would cause her to question, and of course I would lie and uh convince her.
• 3:36
  Mike McLeod: I guess I would convince her somewhat that I wasn't doing anything.
• 3:40
  Mike McLeod: Like I said, I lived I lived practically a normal life, and I started really making lots of money, running the drugs, the coke, some marijuana, and our life spiraled out of control.
• 3:54
  Mike McLeod: My marriage, I was more focused on my pleasures, my desire than my wife and daughter.
• 4:00
  Mike McLeod: I started a book sometime back, and the title of it was I love the high better.
• 4:05
  Mike McLeod: And it it it's sad, it's sad now looking back, but the reality of it is that I love the high better than I love my wife.
• 4:15
  Mike McLeod: I love the high better than I love my daughter because I put it before them.
• 4:19
  Mike McLeod: It causes me to choke up now to think that I was so selfish.
• 4:24
  Mike McLeod: It was all about me and never about them.
• 4:26
  Mike McLeod: And so we divorced.
• 4:28
  Mike McLeod: She left me and uh she divorced me and and I ended up in some pretty bad, dark situations.
• 4:35
  Mike McLeod: Neither was criminals, you know, and I was a criminal.
• 4:38
  Mike McLeod: And I was hauling quite a bit of drugs across state line, and I was in Louisiana and uh got pulled over.
• 4:46
  Mike McLeod: The cops run my license, and my license was suspended.
• 4:50
  Mike McLeod: A few other charges, so they took me to jail in Louisiana, and I had a I had a a hundred plus pounds of cocaine in this vehicle.
• 4:58
  Mike McLeod: I called the guys they connected with, and in my mind the the phones would were bugged, I would think, in a jail, and I wouldn't let them say nothing.
• 5:08
  Mike McLeod: I just told them that I'd got pulled over.
• 5:10
  Mike McLeod: I'm in jail.
• 5:11
  Mike McLeod: This is address.
• 5:12
  Mike McLeod: I need somebody to bring fine money, bond money, and get the truck and get me out of jail so I can, you know, my thing was because it looked like a welded truck, because I know we need this welding truck on the job to haul some welding machines.
• 5:26
  Mike McLeod: And they came, two guys came, paid in the in the compound that held the truck was right next door to the jailhouse, and they drove the cops, drove the truck out, and and uh we were walking out, and two cops come out behind us and hollered, hold up.
• 5:41
  Mike McLeod: And uh we spun around my heart.
• 5:43
  Mike McLeod: Oh wow completely stopped, spun around, and they said, Make sure he don't drive because his license is still suspended.
• 5:50
  Mike McLeod: And we drove away with over a hundred something pounds of coke in a truck.
• 5:54
  Mike McLeod: Wow.
• 5:55
  Mike McLeod: Three or four weeks later, of course I'm divorced now, and I done a lot of coke one night, drank a lot of alcohol right by myself, and uh woke up the next morning stuck to the carpet where I'd vomit.
• 6:08
  Mike McLeod: I hate to sound sound like that, but uh where I I throw it up and and threw up and and laid in it and all night long.
• 6:16
  Mike McLeod: My fists were all swollen, busted blood on my hands.
• 6:21
  Mike McLeod: I looked and blood was on the door facing between the living room and kitchen area where I I undoubtedly stood and punched the wall.
• 6:29
  Mike McLeod: There was a shotgun loaded with buckshot laying on the floor where I contemplated committing suicide.
• 6:36
  Mike McLeod: And uh I got up and went to the bathroom, got sick again.
• 6:39
  Mike McLeod: Got a towel, wet it, went into the living room, went to cleaning the floor up, and um I'm sitting here, Ron, and I this is the thought I had in my mind.
• 6:49
  Mike McLeod: Not quit drugs, not quit alcohol, but quit drinking so much and quit doing drugs so much.
• 6:54
  Mike McLeod: You know, that was the thought in my mind, you know, kind of back off.
• 6:58
  Mike McLeod: And my little girl, I never when my wife left, I locked my daughter's door in her bedroom because it was just too hard for me to go in there and see, you know, her room, her toys.
• 7:09
  Mike McLeod: Some of her toys were left.
• 7:10
  Mike McLeod: And I went in our bedroom and I said, I'm gonna clean the house up, you know, I'm gonna start doing better.
• 7:15
  Mike McLeod: And I had shoeboxes in the floor of the bedroom, and I stacked them up by the closet door.
• 7:20
  Mike McLeod: We had a big closet.
• 7:22
  Mike McLeod: And I sat down in the door facing of the closet went to stacking shoe boxes in the closet.
• 7:27
  Mike McLeod: And at the end of the closet was a picture about, I don't know, two foot by two foot uh framed facing the wall.
• 7:34
  Mike McLeod: And I didn't uh I didn't recognize the frame, and I crawled down and grabbed it, crawled back out, sputtered around.
• 7:40
  Mike McLeod: It was a picture of Jesus holding a sheep and a flock of sheep following him by the river.
• 7:45
  Mike McLeod: To this day, my wife or I, either one, know where that picture came from.
• 7:51
  Mike McLeod: And I broke down right there and said, God, I need help.
• 7:55
  Mike McLeod: Wow.
• 7:55
  Mike McLeod: And uh that's where I prayed through to salvation.
• 7:58
  Mike McLeod: Started going to church, and about three months later, my wife got saved and God restored our marriage.
• 8:05
  Mike McLeod: We got remarried and we started that journey.
• 8:09
  Mike McLeod: I will say this, you know, to me I don't have a testimony.
• 8:13
  Mike McLeod: I know people may think that I do, and but to me, you know what a great testimony is, Ron?
• 8:18
  Mike McLeod: It's someone that can say, I got saved when I was 10, 11, 12, 13 years old and hung on all those years and faithfully lived for God because they wasn't weak.
• 8:27
  Mike McLeod: They didn't give in like I did.
• 8:30
  Mike McLeod: They they stood the test of time and and they lived for the Lord.
• 8:34
  Mike McLeod: But when me and my wife was divorced, and this is what I'd like for people to hear because it's important, she got saved and we just started talking casually talking.
• 8:44
  Mike McLeod: And because I put Christ first in my life.
• 8:46
  Mike McLeod: I didn't put her or my child, I put him first.
• 8:49
  Mike McLeod: She asked me one day, she said, Do you think we'll ever get remarried?
• 8:53
  Mike McLeod: And I said, Carrie, not until I know Jesus Christ is your best friend.
• 8:59
  Mike McLeod: He's my best friend, and second to that, I'm your best friend, and you're my best friend.
• 9:05
  Mike McLeod: You know, we talk about love, and love, the agape love is the greatest love of all.
• 9:10
  Mike McLeod: That's the Jesus love.
• 9:12
  Mike McLeod: But then we talk about love, but true love is never really created unless there's a true friendship first.
• 9:18
  Mike McLeod: And we began to work on that.
• 9:20
  Mike McLeod: And 33 years later, I can honestly tell you, besides Jesus Christ, she's my best friend and I'm hers.
• 9:28
  Mike McLeod: And God just radically turned our lives around.
• 9:31
  Mike McLeod: A year later, after being saved, the Lord called me to evangelize.
• 9:35
  Mike McLeod: One of the scaredest moments in my life, I started to evangelize and then pastoring along the way.
• 9:41
  Mike McLeod: I pastored some churches along the way, and of course, the one that you spoke at up in Lisdale years ago.
• 9:48
  Mike McLeod: But now I'm in Hurley, Pastor Magnus Springs, and it to me is the greatest church in the world.
• 9:54
  Mike McLeod: And uh we own a restaurant in Tanner Williams, and God is it's out in the country, and God has just amazingly blessed our business, and uh we pastor a great church, and every day I wake up I I realize that if it had not been for the Lord who was on my side, where would I have been?
• 10:13
  Ron Meyers: So, Mike, do you regret the past?
• 10:18
  Mike McLeod: There's there's certain things, Ron, that you look back that you regret.
• 10:22
  Mike McLeod: I mean, everybody has things in their past that they regret that they've done.
• 10:26
  Mike McLeod: I regret hurting my family, putting them through of the things that I did in my early childhood, my mom, then of course my wife and my child.
• 10:36
  Mike McLeod: But I I'll say this out of that past that I lived, I I did make connections with people that I wouldn't have if I hadn't to live that lifestyle.
• 10:47
  Mike McLeod: And one particular story is uh is a guy that I had met growing up that we indulged in a lot of wrong, a lot of sin.
• 10:55
  Mike McLeod: That after I got saved and was ministering, pastoring, I got a phone call from him one day and he was crying.
• 11:03
  Mike McLeod: He owned a he owned a company and he was crying on the phone.
• 11:07
  Mike McLeod: He was crying so hard that I couldn't hardly understand what he was saying.
• 11:10
  Mike McLeod: And he asked me what I was doing, and I I told him what I was doing.
• 11:14
  Mike McLeod: I was at home, and he said, I want to come see you.
• 11:17
  Mike McLeod: So I invited him, and a few hours later he showed up at my house and walked in, tears running down his face, and I said, You know, what's going on?
• 11:26
  Mike McLeod: What's what's wrong?
• 11:27
  Mike McLeod: And he looked at me and he said, with tears in his eyes, he said, I want what you've got.
• 11:34
  Mike McLeod: He said, I've been watching I've seen how the Lord's radically changed you, and he said, I I want what you got.
• 11:41
  Mike McLeod: So we made the coffee table out of an altar and knelt down and said the sinner's prayer with this guy.
• 11:47
  Mike McLeod: So to say I regret everything, I can't say that because there's a lot of things that I lived through that when God changed my life and I began to be a Jesus follower, and people seen the change that the Lord because when I lived in sin, I was one of the best.
• 12:03
  Mike McLeod: And um so yeah, there's things that I regret, but there's there's things that I don't regret because I see how God used it for his glory.
• 12:14
  Mike McLeod: God does not, does not have a plan.
• 12:17
  Mike McLeod: God has a perfect plan.
• 12:19
  Announcer: Amen.
• 12:19
  Mike McLeod: We make plans.
• 12:20
  Mike McLeod: We make plans, our plans succeed and our plans fail.
• 12:23
  Mike McLeod: God's perfect plan does not.
• 12:25
  Mike McLeod: Get in the will of his perfect plan and life will be great.
• 12:29
  Ron Meyers: You know what?
• 12:30
  Ron Meyers: And and that's why I wanted to ask you that.
• 12:32
  Ron Meyers: I had a feeling that would be your answer because I tell people that a lot of people that have this walk and they're going through things, they think because of their past that God could never use them.
• 12:43
  Ron Meyers: They're just terrible.
• 12:44
  Ron Meyers: And I try to tell them that, hey, I have a shady past too.
• 12:48
  Ron Meyers: But God takes that old.
• 12:50
  Ron Meyers: And when we come to him, we have a relatable story now to other people that are going through the same thing and we can say he did it for me, he'll do it for you.
• 13:00
  Ron Meyers: And it's it's, you know, if there's somebody that walked into your church on Sunday morning and said, Hey, I'm an addict, I uh I'm doing drugs and I need help, man, you're the one that could help him and talk to him because you're going to talk his language.
• 13:15
  Mike McLeod: Right.
• 13:16
  Mike McLeod: We have a uh a rehab, it's called the Mercy House here, the community that's that's houses men that are going through bad past drugs, alcohol abuse, whatever criminal charges.
• 13:27
  Mike McLeod: If they come every Wednesday night to our services, and there's 20, 35 men ever every Wednesday night that show up here, and you know, every now and then I'll interject a little bit of my past in those services to let them know that they're not looking at an angel.
• 13:44
  Ron Meyers: Amen.
• 13:44
  Mike McLeod: He's got his wings while he's preaching and something.
• 13:47
  Mike McLeod: They open up.
• 13:49
  Mike McLeod: There's these guys, you know, they'll come and after service and just thank me for being real with them, transparent.
• 13:56
  Mike McLeod: Our past, our past can be used for the glory of God, I agree.
• 14:00
  Ron Meyers: Absolutely.
• 14:01
  Ron Meyers: And you know, you said something a minute ago, and I'm finding this because I talk to everybody when I'm out and about.
• 14:07
  Ron Meyers: People that don't go to a church or they are turned off by a church.
• 14:10
  Ron Meyers: They said, Well, we just we want some authentic Jesus.
• 14:14
  Ron Meyers: We want some real Jesus.
• 14:15
  Ron Meyers: It's it's like we go to church and we're signing up for committees and we're doing all this kind of stuff.
• 14:20
  Ron Meyers: But you know, I I I need to know more about Jesus.
• 14:24
  Ron Meyers: They want that real, you know, because they've already started going to church to think of who's gonna fall in on them.
• 14:30
  Ron Meyers: And and when we can be just authentic and real and transparent.
• 14:36
  Ron Meyers: That's the whole point of this show.
• 14:38
  Ron Meyers: Is to kill people, that's all people, we all have issues, all of us have problems that finds this world and we can come to him and have a new heart, a new life, and now look at this.
• 14:50
  Ron Meyers: I had I remember the Mercy House now.
• 14:53
  Ron Meyers: I'm so glad you brought that up.
• 14:54
  Ron Meyers: Yeah, the Mercy House, that's an incredible program over in Jackson County.
• 14:59
  Mike McLeod: Jackson County or George County Jackson County, yeah, right here early.
• 15:03
  Ron Meyers: Yeah, I remember that's where I think I came and spoke at the Mercy House.
• 15:08
  Ron Meyers: There are a lot of people listening right now on, and I buy time on non-Christian radio, and they're saying, Man, that man sounds like me.
• 15:17
  Ron Meyers: But you know, yeah, God just loved him more.
• 15:20
  Ron Meyers: What would you tell that person that thinks that?
• 15:22
  Mike McLeod: Well, you know, first of all, God's no respected person.
• 15:25
  Mike McLeod: When he looks at us, he sees something that he created, not man.
• 15:30
  Mike McLeod: Man didn't create no one, God created.
• 15:33
  Mike McLeod: Just Easter Sunday, stood in the pulpit by the worship team.
• 15:38
  Mike McLeod: I stopped the worship team from singing, and I stood in the pulpit, and I I said, somebody needs to hear this.
• 15:44
  Mike McLeod: That God is not against you, God is for you.
• 15:47
  Mike McLeod: No matter where you're at in life's walk, God's for you.
• 15:52
  Mike McLeod: And God's not throwing you away.
• 15:54
  Mike McLeod: You may be throwing yourself away, but God stands with open arms, with love, compassion, and mercy and grace, ready to help you, ready to turn your life around, ready to show you that agape love, that God love.
• 16:07
  Mike McLeod: The same love that he showed me.
• 16:09
  Mike McLeod: I'm counseling a 20-year-old young guy right now that is really growing in the Lord, but but you know, a 20-year-old young man he struggles.
• 16:17
  Mike McLeod: And and just met with him yesterday and carried him out to eat at Bozos.
• 16:22
  Mike McLeod: I gave them a plug.
• 16:24
  Mike McLeod: And um, we we set out and I just I told him the same thing.
• 16:28
  Mike McLeod: I said, you know, the Bible says the righteous man falls seven times, but he keeps getting back up.
• 16:34
  Mike McLeod: The key to him not being declared a cripple is he keeps getting back up.
• 16:38
  Mike McLeod: And that's the key to success in our walk with Christ is when we do fail, because we will fail, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
• 16:47
  Mike McLeod: Just get back up, dust yourself off, forgive yourself.
• 16:50
  Mike McLeod: Forgive yourself.
• 16:52
  Ron Meyers: I'm gonna ask you one other thing.
• 16:53
  Ron Meyers: I always like to ask my guests this.
• 16:55
  Ron Meyers: The title of this show is called Get the Hell Out of Your Life.
• 16:59
  Ron Meyers: So, Pastor, how do you get the hell out of your life?
• 17:03
  Mike McLeod: Number one, by submitting.
• 17:05
  Mike McLeod: The Bible says in James 4 and 7, it says, Submit yourself, therefore, unto God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
• 17:14
  Mike McLeod: Submit.
• 17:15
  Mike McLeod: Submit to the Lord, surrender.
• 17:18
  Mike McLeod: That's one of the hardest things for people to do because we're so self-sufficient.
• 17:23
  Mike McLeod: We think we know it all, we can do it all, but at the end, everyone was created to rely on God.
• 17:29
  Mike McLeod: Amen.
• 17:30
  Mike McLeod: Trust God.
• 17:31
  Mike McLeod: And so submitting to the Lord and put up a resistance that I'm not gonna live like this no more, I'm not gonna walk this path no more.
• 17:39
  Mike McLeod: I'm gonna find that path in Christ, and I'm gonna walk that path.
• 17:43
  Ron Meyers: Amen.
• 17:43
  Ron Meyers: Amen.
• 17:44
  Ron Meyers: Your congregation is a very blessed congregation to have a leader like you, your past, your authenticity, and your just love for the fellow human out there, and and and God bless you.
• 17:57
  Ron Meyers: And before we go, will you pray for our listeners?
• 18:02
  Mike McLeod: Amen.
• 18:02
  Mike McLeod: Father, in the name of Jesus, I come to you as humbly as I know how.
• 18:08
  Mike McLeod: As Paul made the statement that I feel that I'm the least among the least, but I am so blessed and so thankful to be able to worship you, to have a relationship with you.
• 18:21
  Mike McLeod: And I send up the highest praise that's ever been given to you.
• 18:25
  Mike McLeod: Hallelujah.
• 18:26
  Mike McLeod: Lord, I just pray for all those that are listening right now by radio, by whatever means that they have.
• 18:33
  Mike McLeod: And one day, Lord, at the end of this life, they'll hear you say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.
• 19:08
  Mike McLeod: Enter into the joys of the Lord.
• 19:10
  Mike McLeod: Lord, for that individual that's struggled with drugs and alcohol and addictions.
• 19:14
  Mike McLeod: Lord, I pray that you break those addictions from their life.
• 19:18
  Mike McLeod: God, that you transform their mind, their spirit, God, into the newness of life.
• 19:24
  Mike McLeod: Lord, I pray, God, that you help them.
• 19:26
  Mike McLeod: Lord, that family that's dealing with marital problems, children's problems.
• 19:30
  Mike McLeod: God, I pray that the love and the grace and the mercy of God come down and intervene in their lives.
• 19:36
  Mike McLeod: Lord, we give you praise and glory and thanks for what you're going to do.
• 19:40
  Mike McLeod: In Jesus' mighty name we pray.
• 19:43
  Mike McLeod: Amen.
• 19:46
  Ron Meyers: Wow.
• 19:46
  Ron Meyers: That was a rescue story.
• 19:49
  Ron Meyers: What hit me the most in this is that sin will always advertise pleasure, but it never kills you the invoice.
• 19:58
  Ron Meyers: It promises escape, but delivers pain.
• 20:02
  Ron Meyers: It promises confidence but leaves pain.
• 20:06
  Ron Meyers: It promises freedom, but builds prisons.
• 20:10
  Ron Meyers: And Mike said something powerful.
• 20:13
  Ron Meyers: Sometimes the near misses don't wake you up.
• 20:17
  Ron Meyers: And sometimes surviving the overdose or escaping the arrest doesn't change you.
• 20:24
  Ron Meyers: Sometimes it takes looking around at your own house and realizing I have built a life I don't even want.
• 20:36
  Ron Meyers: And maybe that is where some of you are today.
• 20:39
  Ron Meyers: You're functioning and you're smiling, people think you're okay, but inside you know something's not right, you know the addiction, you know the compromise, you know the hidden pain.
• 20:52
  Ron Meyers: And maybe today, God is using Mike's story to tell you this.
• 20:58
  Ron Meyers: It's never too late for a new beginning.
• 21:02
  Ron Meyers: Your past is not stronger than God's grace.
• 21:06
  Ron Meyers: I loved also what Mike said about marriage.
• 21:10
  Ron Meyers: Restoration is not built on feelings.
• 21:14
  Ron Meyers: It's built on friendship, forgiveness, and love.
• 21:19
  Ron Meyers: Love that stays, love that serves, and love that shows up.
• 21:25
  Ron Meyers: Now, friend, that's real transformation.
• 21:28
  Ron Meyers: And that's where freedom lives.
• 21:31
  Ron Meyers: When I returned, I have five action steps to help you get and get the hell out of your life.
• 21:41
  Announcer: You're listening to get the hell out of your life, real host, reality, real stories, real struggles, and real hope.
• 21:49
  Announcer: Your story validates God's love, mercy, restoration, and forgiveness.
• 22:05
  Announcer: We want to help you share your story with the world.
• 22:08
  Announcer: Visit our website thepromoter.org and click on the share your story link and submit your story.
• 22:15
  Announcer: Your testimony of God's amazing grace will change a person's destiny for eternity.
• 22:21
  Announcer: You've failed again.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: You promised yourself you'd do better, but here you are, back in the same place.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: The condemnation feels crushing.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: But grace is available through the sacrifice of Jesus.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Because his love never fails and his grace never runs out.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Second chances aren't just available, they're abundant.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Learn how to start fresh in God's grace through trusting Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Call or text Need Him Global at 888-633-3446.
• 23:12
  Speaker 6: Get the hell out of your life.
• 23:19
  Ron Meyers: So how do you get and keep the hell out of your life?
• 23:23
  Ron Meyers: Well, Pastor Mike gave us the answer straight from God's word.
• 23:27
  Ron Meyers: Submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
• 23:33
  Ron Meyers: Now that's simple to read, but hard to live.
• 23:37
  Ron Meyers: And when you resist temptation, it's freedom.
• 23:40
  Ron Meyers: Now here are some action steps for this week.
• 23:44
  Ron Meyers: Number one, to get brutally honest, stop managing appearances.
• 23:49
  Ron Meyers: Freedom starts where pretending ends.
• 23:53
  Ron Meyers: After all, who cares what people think?
• 23:56
  Ron Meyers: Your life is about you and Jesus.
• 23:59
  Ron Meyers: And maybe your first prayer is simply, Jesus, I give my life to you.
• 24:04
  Ron Meyers: Let's do life together.
• 24:07
  Ron Meyers: I want to discover my purpose.
• 24:10
  Ron Meyers: Number two, identify what keeps pulling you back.
• 24:14
  Ron Meyers: Who?
• 24:14
  Ron Meyers: What and where?
• 24:16
  Ron Meyers: Sometimes deliverance starts with distance, long distance.
• 24:21
  Ron Meyers: You can't keep visiting the same darkness and expect different results.
• 24:26
  Ron Meyers: It's time to cut the cord.
• 24:29
  Ron Meyers: Number three, find your people.
• 24:32
  Ron Meyers: Healing happens in community.
• 24:34
  Ron Meyers: Isolation is the playground of addiction.
• 24:38
  Ron Meyers: The Bible says that idle hands are the devil's workshop.
• 24:42
  Ron Meyers: So find a trusted friend, someone you can talk with, maybe a pastor, maybe a recovery group, a mentor.
• 24:50
  Ron Meyers: And every day I encourage you to have your conversations with Jesus.
• 24:56
  Ron Meyers: Number four, stop letting your past introduce you.
• 25:01
  Ron Meyers: Yes, you did something wrong, and yes, it did happen.
• 25:05
  Ron Meyers: You can't change it.
• 25:06
  Ron Meyers: With Jesus, the old is gone, the new has arrived, and you have a destiny that will absolutely blow your mind.
• 25:16
  Ron Meyers: God is for you and never against you.
• 25:20
  Ron Meyers: Yes, God still uses broken people.
• 25:23
  Ron Meyers: Actually, that's mostly who he uses.
• 25:27
  Ron Meyers: Number five, keep getting back up.
• 25:31
  Ron Meyers: Some people quit because they stumbled.
• 25:34
  Ron Meyers: No, get back up again and again and again.
• 25:39
  Ron Meyers: Progress is not perfection, and God honors persistence.
• 25:44
  Ron Meyers: Friend, don't live on the island of regrets with villages called should've, would have, and could have.
• 25:51
  Ron Meyers: Let me ask you, why do you think you're listening to this today?
• 25:56
  Ron Meyers: I think you're listening to it because God answered my prayers.
• 26:00
  Ron Meyers: My prayers are Lord, let the person you're trying to get a message to hear today's show and to discover who Jesus is.
• 26:11
  Ron Meyers: Because friends, if you don't become you, who will?
• 26:14
  Ron Meyers: Well, I want to thank you for spending some time with me today.
• 26:18
  Ron Meyers: And if this episode touches your heart, send it to someone who's struggling, someone fighting addiction, someone hanging on by a thread.
• 26:26
  Ron Meyers: Because, friends, aren't we all in this together to encourage, empower, and inspire people to discover their plan that God has for them?
• 26:35
  Ron Meyers: I will be back next week with another grace-filled episode of Get the Hell Out of Your Life available wherever you listen to podcasts.
• 26:44
  Ron Meyers: Until next week, this is Ron Myers reminding you that I love you, Jesus loves you, and when you give your heart to Jesus, not only do you get the hell out of your life, life begins to start making sense.
• 27:14
  Announcer: Today's show was produced by Ron Myers Ministries, a listener-supported ministry.
• 27:19
  Announcer: For a copy of today's broadcast, please visit our website, thepromoter.org.
• 27:24
  Announcer: And would you prayerfully consider making a tax-deductible donation so that we may continue to share stories of God's amazing grace with the world?
• 27:32
  Announcer: And join us next week for another broadcast of Get the Hell Out of Your Life.
• 27:37
  Announcer: Real people, sharing real struggles, and offering real hope.
• 27:42
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• 27:46
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• 27:50
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• 27:53
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• 27:59
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• 28:04
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• 28:10
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