Latest / Intentional Guy / Am I Beyond Repair? God Is Not Done With You
Transcript
- Michael Chestnut: In 2006, I started an online journal. It needed a screen name. So I typed in Pornhurt. One word. And I wrote in my book that this one name described my whole identity as a human being. Not Michael, not a man God made. I named myself after the thing that wrecked my life. If you have ever let your worst moment name you, stay with me. Because today I want to tell you who this podcast is for. Welcome to the show. I'm Michael Chestnut. People ask me a lot, what is the Intentional Guy podcast about? So let me say it plainly. Every week I go looking for men with a story. Not experts, not men who have it all figured out, but rather men who have personally come through something that would destroy. Most people. And I sit down with one of them and let him tell it. But here's the man I'm really thinking about when I hit record. He's not the one on the show. He's the one listening. Maybe he's in his truck. Maybe he's the one with one earbud in his ear, so nobody else can hear what he's listening to. He lives in silence. He's afraid he's beyond repair. He believes his failures are who he is. Brother, if that's you, this podcast is for you. And I want to be careful here. Most men didn't come up with this on their own. Somebody handed it to him. You know, when I was going through the worst moment of my life, and I fell into pornography and lust, was going through a major divorce. A minister friend told me that God was done with me, that he could not use me anymore. It felt like God was throwing me away. And I believed that for about twenty years. I'm not saying this to run him down. A lot of churches just didn't know what to do with a man who fell like me. And the honest truth is, there's a lot who still don't know what to do. But that is not the whole church. Not long after that, another church did the opposite. One night, the pastor didn't even have a sermon. They brought me to the front. They all gathered around me. Placed her hands on me and prayed over me. Nobody had ever done that for me. Same failure, two different answers. One said, You're done. The other said, Come here. This show is trying to be the second one. Paul wrote this in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 7. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us. A jar of clay is nothing special. It's chipped, it cracks, and Paul says that is where God chooses to put the treasure on purpose so that nobody can mistake the jar for the power. Yesterday my guest Brian Gray said it his way. Brian was homeless, he was an addict, he went to jail. Today he and his wife have spent more than twenty years serving inmates and addicts. And he said we have seen that the blessing really is in the brokenness. The broken place is not what disqualifies you. In fact, it's where light comes. gets out. Here's what believing that label cost me. Hope. I wrote this in my book Expose. If you take away a man's hope, you can defeat him. And I was a defeated man for a long time. There were times it almost cost me my life. Then God put a man in front of me I would have never picked. I was teaching a class In prison. I had a teacher aide who was an inmate, and he had been a pastor. He was actually in prison, serving a long sentence for a horrific crime. He knew the scriptures better than any teacher I had ever had. He was humble. He had a servant's heart. He told me he used to pray that God would make him a trophy of his grace. He said he never knew how God would answer that prayer. Everybody else saw an inmate, but he was still a man. And God used that man in that place, a prison to show me Jesus. I wrote this line about him. We see labels where God sees warriors. Near the end of my book Expose, I wrote this I have chosen to break away from the shackles that bound me. FROM an identity created by failure and others. And this I no longer listen to the enemy tell me God is done with me. That is the whole reason this shall exist. On Wednesday, you will hear from men who have been where you are and telling you how God met them there. On Thursday, it will just be me and you. Nobody here is trying to fix you. We're going to tell you the truth and walk with you. So here are three things to take with you. Number one, stop answering to the name your worst moment gave you. It's not your name. Number two, go hear one man's story this week. Start with Brian's from yesterday. It's called Your Blessing is Your Brokenness. Number three, you thought of someone while I was talking. Send him this episode. You don't even have to say a word. Here's my challenge. Say this out loud today, even if no one hears it but you and God. I am not my worst moment. Then comment light, so I know you're here. You don't have to tell me your story. Just let me know you're listening. And when you're ready to do something about it, that's why I wrote my book, Are You Ready? A practical battle plan for Christian Men. The link is in the description. If you're walking through something heavy right now, find a celebrate recovery group near you. And if you're where I was, without hope and thinking about ending it, please call or text 988-282. right now because God is not done with you. Let's get coffee. Let me be your brother. Let me walk beside you. And until next time, just keep being intentional.