Participants: Cheri Peters (Host), Kenneth Cox
Series Code: CLR
Program Code: CLR00070A
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00:10 Welcome to Celebrating Life in Recovery!
00:12 Can we just behave? I don't think so. 00:15 Before you disagree join us in the café, 00:17 and you will see what we are talking about. 00:44 At the start of every season I ask God to bring together 00:47 a truth that we can 00:48 weave into every program. 00:49 In previous seasons we have talked about things like 00:53 just basic foundational truths. 00:55 We went through Steps to Christ, 00:56 we talked about repentance, we talked about prayer, 00:59 we talked about, Who is God? 01:01 The God who created the universe how does 01:04 He interact with me? What does that mean to me? 01:07 So we have talked about that and about the Holy Spirit, 01:09 what an incredible gift that is. 01:11 That was a great show. 01:12 We used a friend of mine's book, Exalting His Word. 01:15 We talked about, How do you get into the word of God? 01:18 How do I open up the Bible and everything that is written 01:20 in that, How do I bring it into my life? 01:22 As an addict, I'm telling you, I need the whole thing. 01:26 I need to know all that stuff. 01:28 We did another program on prayer, communication with God. 01:32 If He knows everything, Why do I pray? 01:36 What is that all about? Is He my friend? 01:40 Is He my counselor? Is He all that stuff? 01:44 We get a whole season on that so I am praying and 01:46 thinking, What is this season going to be about? 01:48 I can't even tell you that it scared me, 01:52 because God said Poof, and I thought no way. 01:55 No way! I am not a theologian. 01:59 I never went to school, that is huge. 02:02 I cannot teach that, there is no way. 02:05 I remember telling God, Do you remember who I am? 02:07 Heroine addict in recovery, homeless at the age of 13, 02:11 I didn't even go to high school. 02:13 Don't ask me to do this. 02:15 I remember saying, let's just do something else. 02:17 I would pick up another book, another thing to study. 02:21 As weird as it is, I love to study the Bible. 02:25 I love to get into things. 02:26 I have five or six different books in front of me, 02:30 I'll want to know what the Greeks says, Hebrew says. 02:33 I'm an addict, and when we want to know something, 02:36 we want to know it. 02:37 We did drugs and we did drugs well. 02:38 When we become Christians, we do that well. 02:41 But I'm afraid of this one thing and so God keeps bringing 02:46 it back to me, bring it back to me, Cheri please trust Me. 02:51 I said no! No! No, I can't do it. 02:57 Then I thought, Do you know how I will try to do it? 03:00 I'll ask different people what they think. 03:03 I'll ask really smart people and I got different 03:08 answers from everybody. 03:11 So I'm thinking, God, they don't even know. 03:15 If you're one of the ones I asked, sorry. 03:18 I got different answers from everybody. 03:20 So I thought I'm not going to do that one, 03:23 let's do something simple, because I'm pretty simple. 03:27 Prayer is simple, repentance, not simple in that it 03:31 doesn't have depth to it, it's simple to understand. 03:35 With repentance, I need to understand what my sin has done. 03:39 People know that I was homeless and was a heroine addict. 03:42 I lived on the streets and manipulated and lied my way 03:46 through 10 years of junk. 03:48 I saw stuff that was so ugly, so ugly. 03:50 I've learned to live in that world. 03:53 When I get into repentance, God didn't say I just want 03:56 you to understand what lying is about, 03:57 I want you to understand the ramifications of 04:00 every lie you told, everyone you seduced. 04:03 I want you to understand the ramifications to what happened 04:06 in their life, with their addictions and all that stuff. 04:10 As my being sorry enough comes up, I'm sorry enough that I 04:14 am repulsed by this sin. 04:16 So I can understand that stuff. 04:19 But this one was huge, it's huge. 04:23 I said, God, He said please, please. 04:28 I kept coming back to it. 04:30 So what we are going to cover this season is 04:34 righteousness by faith. 04:37 What does that mean exactly? 04:39 There is words that people have used for ever. 04:42 Well it's a forensic term, I'm like, What does that mean? 04:48 It's a legal term, it's an imputed righteousness. 04:52 No, it's different than an imparted righteousness. 04:56 I'm thinking stop, I'm a drug addict. 04:59 I don't even know what you are saying. 05:01 So we are going to cover righteousness by faith 05:03 and don't tune me out because what is amazing about this 05:07 concept, we are going to cover it in testimonies, 05:10 we are going to cover it in people's lives. 05:12 We are going to be covering it in a way that we will let 05:15 it unfold without using typical terms hear everyday. 05:18 If you get this truth, man. 05:22 I'm going to tell you a dream, and please when I tell you 05:26 this dream, you may have a tendency to think badly of me. 05:31 Just know that God loves me and He's working on me. 05:35 I go to sleep one night. 05:36 My husband is a professional musician. 05:40 He is really good, he is producing right now the 05:44 Special Olympics, doing all the music for the 05:47 Special Olympics. 05:48 He's done special events that are huge. 05:50 He plays in the orchestra. 05:51 He teaches at the University. 05:53 When they do events for fund raising is going on, 05:57 and people that are donating millions of dollars to 06:01 the archer there. 06:02 I tell you people dress up for those things. 06:05 But I'm in ministry, I don't have a dress. 06:08 Do you have one that is a size 10-12? 06:11 Send it to me, because I don't have one. 06:13 So in this dream I go to sleep and Brad has an event. 06:19 It's huge! I know who is going to be there. 06:22 It is these people that are donating millions 06:24 and they are lovely people. 06:26 They have such cute dresses, so I have to get a dress. 06:30 I know I have to get a dress, and I know I don't have one. 06:33 I have one that I wore for the last eight or 10 years, 06:37 but it is starting to look like that. 06:38 Everybody has seen me in at so I have to get a new one. 06:41 I know if I tell my husband, he'll say you don't have to 06:43 get a new one Hon, you'll look beautiful. 06:45 I'm like shut up, don't even tell me that. 06:47 I want a new dress. 06:49 In the dream I set about getting this dress. 06:56 Could you even understand how good I am at manipulating? 07:01 10 years on the street I got good at it. 07:03 But God has really worked with me, I walk away from stuff. 07:08 He even tries to convince me not to lie, 07:10 that is a hard one for me. 07:11 But I work on it, and the Holy Spirit reminds me when I 07:14 start to lie my head off, the Holy Spirit says, Hon. 07:16 I'm thinking oh man, but I'm working on it. 07:19 In this dream all my old stuff, all my old behaviors, 07:22 all my manipulating self came right out on the table. 07:26 I was trying to find money to get this dress. 07:28 You know that nice dresses like that, 07:31 can cost a lot of money, Right? 07:33 We are not talking about a few hundred dollars, Right? 07:36 So I start manipulating different things. 07:39 In the dream I remember even thinking, 07:41 wow that so doesn't look good on you anymore. 07:44 Manipulative behavior, but it didn't stop me. 07:48 Because why? I wanted a dress. Right? 07:53 I'm doing this event. 07:54 So at the very end of the dream I see myself standing 07:58 there and am in a flirtatious pose. 08:03 I won't show you it. 08:04 But anyhow a flirtatious pose, and I see myself saying 08:08 some words that are old stuff. 08:12 I'm telling myself in my mind, wow, 08:15 I want to wake up because I don't like this. 08:19 All of a sudden, I stopped seeing my face, 08:23 and my pose, and I see who I am talking to. 08:28 I'm talking to one of my past abusers trying to get 08:33 some money and I wake up and I'm sick. 08:37 I'm sick, I want to cry, I want to throw up. 08:41 I thought wow, where did that come from? 08:44 Why would I be in an almost seductive pose in front of 08:49 a past abuser, a past molester to get money for a gown. 08:53 I kept saying, Cheri it was a dream, to stop and let it go. 08:57 I couldn't and finally I got in prayer and said God, 09:02 this is horrible and I can't let it go. 09:05 I keep thinking about this dream. 09:07 I feel like the Holy Spirit said, 09:08 Cheri that's who you are. 09:10 I'm like, shut up, it can not be who I am? 09:13 Because I have done so much, 09:17 I have really come far from that. 09:19 I don't do that anymore, I'm not like that anymore. 09:22 He was clear to me, in Christ, 09:25 you are not like that anymore. 09:29 I am walking you day by day into this new life where 09:33 pretty soon that will not be something you can imagine 09:37 anymore, of yourself. 09:38 But don't lose sight of who you are. 09:40 That is why you need a Savior. 09:43 That is why you need Christ, that is why all 09:46 this stuff is important. 09:47 That is why you need to know this teaching, 09:50 because God says I am not coming back to teach 09:52 this heroine addict, neglected, molested, kid that has 09:57 lied and manipulated her whole life. 09:58 I'm not coming back to teach her to behave, 10:01 I am making you new, totally new. 10:05 When He said that I wanted to weep, 10:09 because I didn't want any part of that person in the dream 10:13 to be what I have to live with the rest of my life. 10:15 He said, you don't. 10:16 That part of yourself is dying day by day and this new 10:21 person, this new life is going to be waking up day by day. 10:25 It is absolutely amazing, it's amazing. 10:27 So we are going to teach some of that. 10:29 I just beg you to stay with me because if you struggle 10:32 with anything, this show is about addiction and people 10:35 think alcohol or drugs, right? 10:37 I mean addiction. 10:39 I have been in my Christian walk long enough to realize that 10:43 we are talking rage, sex addiction, stealing, 10:47 manipulation, and I hate to say this, religious addictions 10:51 because they are horrible, critical spirits. 10:54 Judgment, stealing, gambling, addictions just span the 10:58 gap of behaviors, the Bible calls its sin. 11:01 We don't like that word, I'm not sure why. 11:04 We just call and addiction, we call it recovery, 11:06 the Bible calls it salvation. 11:08 I want to say that we are covering all that stuff. 11:11 So if you deal with any issues, and if you don't, that's 11:15 the biggest issue, stay with us. 11:17 I want to introduce you to a friend of mine. 11:19 He is a theologian and he is gifted man of God that 11:23 teaches and I heard him the other night and he 11:26 was teaching on this very thing. 11:27 Remember, I'm a little bit scared because 11:29 I don't know how to teach. 11:30 I'm sitting in the front row, because I have ADD. 11:32 I can't sit anywhere else. 11:34 I'm sitting in the front row and he won my heart because 11:36 he taught in a way that I thought, even me as an addict, 11:39 I could just understand it. 11:41 I cornered him and made him come on the show. 11:44 So we will be right back, stay with us and you will 11:47 be blessed by this teaching. |
Revised 2014-12-17