Latest / The Daily Ripples Podcast / July 20 – God Does the Work

Transcript

July 20 – God Does the Work · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:06
  And welcome back to the Daily Ripples. My name is Paris, and I want to thank
• 0:11
  you for spending part of your day with me.
• 0:15
  I also would like to thank Pastor Mike and Corey for an awesome job they do.
• 0:23
  Today is a solo day for me. Is this a first time?
• 0:29
  And I'm very honored to be in this position today.
• 0:33
  So bear with me.
• 0:36
  But we're going to get this stuff started. And if this is your first time listening,
• 0:42
  you want to ask, what is this daily ripple?
• 0:45
  Well, we are normal men and women who have been through recovery.
• 0:54
  And we're just giving something back.
• 0:57
  Every episode begins with one stone of truth that creates ripples into practical
• 1:02
  living and spiritual growth. We end it with a prayer.
• 1:06
  You know, our hope is to, that whenever you are in recovery or faith journey,
• 1:12
  you'll leave encouraged to take on my step forward towards God.
• 1:17
  So, we're going to get the day started. Today is July 20th.
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  God does the work. The stone.
• 1:26
  My role is not to fix myself, but to humbly ask and trust God to do the work.
• 1:34
  Reparant, practical. Today, I will stop trying to manage my own transformation.
• 1:41
  I will be honest about my shortcomings and bring them to God without trying to control the outcome.
• 1:48
  My responsibility is willingness and not profession.
• 1:53
  Repertitude, spiritual. The Father is the one who changes me.
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  Jesus shows what it looks like to live in complete dependence,
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  trusting the Father in everything.
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  The Holy Spirit works within me, removing what I cannot remove on my own.
• 2:13
  As I humbly ask, I begin to see that real change is not something I achieve,
• 2:21
  but something that accomplish in me.
• 2:24
  And, you know, when I look at the story, it says my role is not to fix myself,
• 2:31
  but to humbly ask and trust God to do the work.
• 2:35
  You know, it made me think about.
• 2:40
  A lot of things, you know. You know, it's almost like, you know,
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  it changes one of the biggest lives I still battle with.
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  You know, the belief that I have to change myself before God can use me.
• 2:55
  But when I do those, when I realize today that practically, if I just keep practicing,
• 3:06
  what I do every morning with meditation and prayer as I wake up, you know,
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  just keep working on being an next better person.
• 3:17
  You know, God can change.
• 3:19
  It will change me.
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  You know, recovery taught me something different.
• 3:25
  God ain't waiting. He's not wanting or waiting for that perfect, you know, version of me.
• 3:32
  He's just asking if I'm willing to seek the version.
• 3:37
  And there's something I can really relate to. You know, I read this every morning,
• 3:43
  I wake up and I'm doing some 12-step work right now. I'm working in 12 and 12.
• 3:50
  It's called 12 Steps and 12 Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous.
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  And when I read one page a day and write my thoughts on it, today I was in step five, right?
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  And, you know, it kind of connects to this ripple today, you know,
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  because, you know, it's been times where,
• 4:15
  you know, as the page says, it talks about, I'm on page 56.
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  I believe, and it talks about, you know, hiding our deeper secrets,
• 4:27
  keeping them hidden, and they'll stay buried forever, you know.
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  But as I look, you know, AA teaches opposite.
• 4:35
  You know, it tells us that that's the only, if I keep my secrets hidden,
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  then that's the way for a relapse.
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  So the way to hide and shame, you know, often comes, becomes the way that pushes
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  people back towards relapse.
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  And Step 5 teaches that healing begins when we honestly admit our wrongs to
• 5:00
  God, to ourself, or to another heaven being.
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  And, you know, it doesn't say we heal ourselves.
• 5:09
  It says we become honest enough for healing to begin.
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  You know, that's a huge difference. And I have to look at that today.
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  You know, this book connects us to, And when I read the AA book,
• 5:23
  it talks about that on page where it says, we pocket our pride.
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  Corey, I know you're probably listening to this and like, oh,
• 5:33
  don't you screw up, you know.
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  And I'm going to do my best, but, you know, on page 75, so we park our pride
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  and go to it. Eliminate every twist of character, every dark cranny of the past.
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  Once we have taken this step, withholding nothing, we are delighted.
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  And, you know, this little statement reminds me of a military nation.
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  You know, I have to know that God removes what I cannot remove.
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  My responsibility is just be willing.
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  You know, as long as I have the willingness,
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  you know, and then it's God's responsibility, it's transformation.
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  He can transform me.
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  And, you know, I was reading, and since this is a faith work,
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  I was reading in the Bible, biblical, and it talks about it in the past.
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  I'm like, you know a little bit more about this than I do it,
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  but that's why we progress in our profession.
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  And it talks about this in Philippians 2.13.
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  And 2.13 says, Therefore, my beloved, you have always obeyed.
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  So now, not only as in my present, but much more in my absence,
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  work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
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  For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.",
• 7:06
  And I read verse 12 and 13, by the way.
• 7:10
  But that verse, it kind of stuck out to me today on this episode.
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  It doesn't say I work hard enough to become holy.
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  You know, it says God is already working inside those who surrender to him.
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  They take the pressure off me. You know, I still have the responsibility.
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  I still pray. I still make amends. I still go to my meetings.
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  I still stay accountable. At least I try to, you know.
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  But I'm no longer trying to become my own survivor, Savior, and put that in
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  God's name for his petition.
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  You know, we go through these works every day. I read every day with a friend
• 8:00
  of mine, you know, read with other guys, talk to other guys daily.
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  And that's what this work is about. Doing this podcast is just another lesson
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  that I'm having to share with you guys. And I enjoy it.
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  Like I said, it's my first song. Hopefully, you know, y'all sticking around.
• 8:19
  Let's continue to listen.
• 8:21
  And I still got another verse I want to talk about.
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  I did my homework, so don't, Corey, don't, don't, don't judge me,
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  just because, that's my guy, you know, if y'all don't know, Corey is my,
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  you know, a mentor, my, you know, the way he has came up in his life has shown,
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  you know, various hope, you know, there is proof around his rooms of recovery. Pastor Mike as well.
• 8:51
  But in Ezekiel, it says, And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you,
• 9:01
  and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
• 9:08
  And when I read that, I was like, okay, you notice who's speaking. You know, that's God.
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  He said, I will give you a heart. not me fix myself.
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  You know what I mean? So, and get back into the topic here or the practical part.
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  You know what I'm saying? Today I would stop trying to manage my own transformation.
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  That's what I just read. You know, allow God to come into your life.
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  Just transform you. Stop trying to change before the miracle happens.
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  Or just continue to do the practice of the daily stuff we're doing within faith,
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  within recovery, whichever one you do.
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  Also, I saw that, you know, I had some couple questions. You know,
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  I'm doing a little different.
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  I want to see, for the practical part, I want to ask yourself a couple questions today.
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  You know, where am I trying to control my own transformation?
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  What defects have I been trying to hide instead of surrendering?
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  Am I trusting my own strength more than God's power?
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  And you know when I read those questions I was like hmm,
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  this recovery is about about it ain't but isn't about pretending we're strong
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  you know it's learning where the truth comes from true strength comes from,
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  and you know in the spiritual part of this if I go back into it the spiritual
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  it says the father is the one who changes me and Jesus shows what it What it
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  looks like to live in complete dependency.
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  Trusting the Father in everything. See, today I trust my God more than anything in the world.
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  You know, I have to come to surrender to Him.
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  And when I do those things and just surrender to Him, my life is peaceful.
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  You know, I don't have to think about anything or do anything anymore.
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  I just let life live on lifetimes.
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  Um, you know, Jesus lived in complete dependence on the Father,
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  so if He did that, why can't I?
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  Because if that's my God, then I know that I can do the same.
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  I can have the same trust, you know.
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  You know, it says the Holy Spirit changes us from inside out, not outside in.
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  It don't matter what the surface looks like on the outside.
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  That's what your heart is about.
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  And, you know, a person, you know, one thing Recover has taught me.
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  Every time I tried to manage my own transformation, I became frustrated, you know.
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  And then when I surrendered to God, he started working in ways I couldn't even imagine.
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  Now, life wasn't easy. That don't mean that life is easy, you know.
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  It means I stop carrying a lot of weight, though it's never mine to carry.
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  And closing the day, you know, ask yourself, I want you to ask,
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  God, what do you want to do in me today?
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  You know, that question led me to a lot of freedom. And it really is a blessing
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  to be on this podcast with you guys.
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  And thank you all for listening. And I'm going to close with a prayer.
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  Father God, I only ask you to remove my shortcomings through your Holy Spirit,
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  do the work in me that I cannot do for myself.
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  Save my life through the example of Jesus and teach me to trust from fully. Amen.