Latest / Intentional Guy / Why You Fall Into the Same Sin When You're Doing Good
Transcript
- Michael Chestnut: I used to work at a federal halfway house. Men in their last months of a prison sentence, getting ready to go home. Some weekends they earned a pass home, and I would show up with a breathalyzer. It was my job. One weekend I walked into a man's kitchen and had him blow into the breathalyzer. The numbers started going up. I asked him what he'd been drinking. He said, he just rinsed with mouthwash. I looked over his shoulder at the counter and said Are you sure it's not the Jim Bean that's open behind you? His head dropped. His little girls thought they were getting a weekend with their dad, but instead, the rules sent him back to the facility. You see, he should have gone back to prison, but the Bureau of Prisons did something my boss and I had never seen. They gave him a warning. Grace. He promised he would not be a problem the rest of the time. And they believed him. Welcome to the intentional guy. I'm Michael Cheston. Brother, maybe you're right where that man was. You got a second chance. You've been doing good. 30 days, 90 days, back in church, your wife is starting to trust you again. And then out of nowhere, you fall. Same sin. Same place, and the fall after you've been doing good hurts worse than the first one. Because now you're wondering if any of it was real. A lot of men are asking that exact same question. Why do I keep falling into the same sin? Right when I'm doing better. Well, here's what I've learned. The danger is not only in your worst week, but it is also in your best ones. Now hear me, your progress is real. Don't let anybody, including that voice that's in your own head, tell you those good days were fake. But there's a moment I call a false positive. It's the day you think, I've got this now. I wrote about it in my book, Expose. An addiction likes to play possum. You poke at it, nothing. It's plain dead. So you get a little braver. You get a little closer. You poke it again. Nothing. Then you turn your head for just a moment and crunch. It bit you. You didn't get weaker, you got comfortable. And comfortable men quit doing the things that made them strong. Paul saw this coming 2,000 years ago. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 12. So if you think you are standing firm, Be careful that you don't fall. Now Paul didn't write that to the man face down in the mud. He wrote it to the man standing up. And right behind the warning comes the promise. Verse thirteen. No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. There is always a way out, but here's what I've seen. The way out is easiest to see before you get to the edge, not after. Back to the guy from the halfway house. Later on, the Bureau of Prisons came through for an inspection. Same man asks to talk to them. He thanked them for not sending him back to prison. In fact, he was doing such a good job that they told me he only has two weeks left, and they were gonna let him go home on a visit. I told them it was a bad idea, but they overrode me and said let him go, but I had to breathlise him. Before he left, I told him to be careful because I might show up again. Then I said it again. I was telling him without telling him, and two hours after he left, I pulled into his driveway. He was sitting on the back of his truck with a friend, drinking a beer. He cried and he begged. He said, Think about my girls. Well, the director was with me and he said. You should have thought about your girls before you grabbed that beer. He went back to prison for eighteen months, then six more months back with us. A two week choice turned into a two year consequence. And brother, I'd love to tell you I was always the guy holding the breathalyzer. I wasn't. Almost a year later, I was picking up the pieces of my life. I felt like I was doing good. I had it all handle. And I fell again. I lost contact with my mentor and my church. Same possum, same bite. Here's what I see now. Looking back, my mentor, Mike Collins, had me build a strategy. If I was ever about to fall and couldn't get the words out, all I had to do was call. So one day I had something lined up. That I knew would wreck me. I picked up the phone and I called him. And when he answered, I couldn't say a word. My silence told him everything, and he guided me back to safety. That call worked because we decided what it meant before I ever needed it. The plan worked every time I used it. The day I fell was a day I felt like I had it all handled. So here are three things to take with you. Number one, watch your good weeks. When you catch yourself thinking, I've got this, that's your cue to call somebody, not to coast. Number two, build the plan while you're strong. Pick your man, pick your signal, a call, one word by text. Anything he'll know means come. get me. Number three, close the door you found. Every time I slip, there was a new way in. Confess the door, not just the fall, so it can get locked. If your door is your phone, put accountability on it. I have covenant eyes on mine. The link for it is in the description. Here's my challenge today. While you're standing, text one man this. If I ever call you and don't say anything, that means I need you. Then ask him, is that okay? Today, if this meant something to you, I want you to put guard so I know you set yours up. That's really why I wrote Are You Ready? A practical plan for Christian Men. You don't write a battle plan in the middle of the battle. The link is in the description. And if you're fighting this by yourself right now, find a Celebrate Recovery Group near you at crlocator.com. Let's get coffee. Let me be your brother Let me walk beside you. And until next time, just keep being intentional.