Celebrating Life in Recovery

Feed The Baby

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Cheri Peters (Host), Kenneth Cox

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Series Code: CLR

Program Code: CLR00070B


00:14 Welcome back, this is my favorite part of the program
00:16 because I get to meet friends of mine,
00:18 different people that come on
00:19 the program to share
00:20 their testimony.
00:21 Most of them I walk away from here just wanting to
00:26 kiss God on the face.
00:27 What an incredible God we have that says it doesn't
00:29 matter where you come from, what you have,
00:31 He delights in our healing.
00:34 That is just amazing to me.
00:36 Today we are going to meet somebody with an incredible
00:39 testimony, and also is an incredible teacher.
00:42 So Ken I just want to say,
00:43 I was going to say the reason I asked you on the program,
00:48 but actually I just cornered you.
00:51 Well I didn't feel that way
00:53 at all because I thought you
00:54 were just inviting me to set
00:56 down here on the set and to
00:58 watch the program, I didn't know I was going to be
01:01 in this position.
01:02 That's funny, because when I was at that meeting of yours,
01:05 I was sitting there and you were teaching this very thing.
01:08 I was most the time full of tears.
01:11 Another time I was laughing, I thought you taught
01:14 it with so much grace and so much compassion that I thought
01:18 he's got to be on the program.
01:19 When I asked you, and you said yes, I was just thrilled.
01:23 Then I realized that you thought you were going to sit
01:26 there, I thought I cannot have Ken Cox on the show just
01:30 sitting in the café.
01:31 So I said no, no I want you to speak.
01:35 You are so humble, it was funny because you said,
01:38 well I don't know.
01:39 I look at you and thought you look pretty normal,
01:42 can you get a Mohawk and some ear rings first?
01:49 So for people that know you there is no introduction
01:51 needed, but for people that don't can you tell us a
01:54 little bit about Who you are? and How God lead you?
01:57 Then we will talk about what you taught the other night.
02:00 Well to begin with I'm a addict.
02:05 No way! Yeah! I'm like shut up!
02:09 I'm an addict, I'm an addict of Jesus Christ.
02:12 And that I am, and that is my whole life.
02:15 It has been that for years.
02:18 I started working in evangelism winning souls full-time
02:27 in 1970, I've done it full-time ever since then.
02:31 I've been on the road 10 months out of the year
02:35 since that time.
02:38 With such a desire to teach someone how to get free?
02:41 That's right! That's huge!
02:44 Teach people about what Christ has to offer.
02:47 He is absolutely so wonderful in all, and all that He does.
02:54 Just like with yourself, you sit here and said I'm an
02:57 addict and all this and that, but Christ also said,
03:01 you are a Pearl of great price.
03:03 It says that He would have come and died
03:07 if it had only been you.
03:08 The first time I heard you say that,
03:10 I was just coming out of homelessness and drug addiction
03:14 and you were talking to a church and you said
03:18 those things and I wept.
03:22 I was 100 pounds and strung out on heroine.
03:24 If I would have came up to you,
03:26 I would have scared you, I think.
03:28 You know those truths are so amazing,
03:32 are you talking about me?
03:34 What I hear you saying is absolutely.
03:38 You see you are totally unique, there is not another person
03:41 like you anywhere in all of God's universe.
03:44 There is not any other person like each one of us.
03:47 God does not clone, God creates.
03:51 The only people that clone are people who can't create.
03:56 But God creates and God makes each one of us distinctly
03:59 different, so there's not another person like us anywhere.
04:03 So I do not care what a person's background is.
04:05 I do not care where they have been.
04:07 I do not care what they have done, they are still unique.
04:10 They are still special, there is not another
04:13 individual like them.
04:15 That is why it is so important that they are not lost.
04:18 That they are in God's kingdom, because if they are lost
04:22 throughout eternity there will never be another
04:25 person like them.
04:26 It is so important that they understand.
04:29 So when you heard that at the beginning of the program
04:32 talking about righteousness by faith and what does all that
04:36 means, imputed righteousness, imparted righteousness,
04:39 and sanctification, words that for a lot of us coming
04:42 into a relationship with God.
04:45 Those are huge, I was literate when I first came to
04:48 church and somebody would say, we are going to study
04:51 Revelation and I would have a Bible because I knew that
04:53 I had to have one.
04:54 I would go like this and say go ahead.
04:58 They would look at me and say no Revelation.
05:00 I couldn't read anything so I'm thinking okay I'm smart
05:03 enough to realize I must be in the wrong place so I
05:06 go like okay now I am ready.
05:08 For some of us, we come in not only illiterate as far as
05:12 our own ability to read, but illiterate definitely as far
05:16 as Christian terms and concepts.
05:18 So the other night you took this very truth that could be
05:22 very complicated and made it so assessable, so simple.
05:26 So unfold that for us.
05:28 You talked a little bit about it here and referred to it
05:33 in the sense that when we come to Christ and we reach out
05:38 in faith and accept Him, except what He did for us.
05:42 Accept His death, His perfect life in our behalf,
05:47 and we accept that, we become a new person.
05:50 Right! So when you say accept that, all the sins I ever
05:53 committed, all the things that have been done to me,
05:56 or that I have done.
05:57 Christ said I'm going to take that guilt for you.
06:01 I'm going to take that sin upon Myself for you.
06:05 So you are saying when I accept that truth,
06:08 that Christ not only took it but died and paid
06:12 the penalty for all that.
06:13 Well there is a scripture that says exactly that.
06:16 It is found here in 2 Corinthians 5:21.
06:20 I know where that is at now. Okay!
06:24 It just simply says, "for he made him,"
06:28 that's Jesus Christ, "made him who knew no sin. "
06:32 He didn't know any sin.
06:34 He never sinned, He knew no sin to be sin for us.
06:38 That means He took our sins and then it says,
06:42 "that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. "
06:45 That in essence is exactly what you talked about.
06:49 That is what He does, when I come to Christ,
06:52 and I accept Him, then He paid the debt for my sins,
06:58 all my sins.
07:00 I do not care what they are, from the day I was born
07:03 to the day I accept Christ are paid for by His death.
07:06 That's all paid for.
07:08 It's already done, it's a done deal.
07:09 That is a gift for me, freely given by God, saying I want to
07:13 give you this and you haven't done a thing, and cannot
07:17 do a thing for this incredible gift.
07:20 I want someone to think about it as a gift which really
07:24 it's interesting, is no matter how big the gift is,
07:27 no matter how incredible it is, when somebody gives you
07:30 that from the moment it is in your hands,
07:33 Who does it belong to?
07:35 Completely it is mine.
07:37 So it is like being able to say that it is then for ever
07:42 my property and God says it is completely yours.
07:46 It's not a gift with strings.
07:48 It is not a gift that has anything attached to it,
07:52 because you do not have the ability to pay.
07:54 As an heroine addict that is illiterate and strung out,
07:57 when I understood that I was thinking,
07:59 Why did You do that?
08:00 I don't understand that?
08:01 I don't understand it either, why would God take His name
08:06 who is righteous, who is holy and all that, excuse me.
08:11 I don't mean this in the wrong way.
08:12 But why in the world would He take all that and give it to
08:16 you, a drug addict and say I'm not just giving it to you,
08:19 I'm giving you My name?
08:21 Why? I'm giving you My life!
08:24 You can call Me, Father and say, I'm your child.
08:28 I'll take that responsibility, why? Love!
08:34 That is huge, it really is.
08:36 Nothing like you or I understand, but that is love.
08:41 That is what God does with His grace and so there
08:46 is nothing about it, in any way, in which I earn it.
08:51 Or I deserve it, never throughout eternity,
08:56 I will never deserve it.
08:57 When I was trying to kill myself in the drug house,
09:01 I was illiterate and strung out and my parents were
09:06 strung out, I remember Him giving me that impression
09:10 that sense that God so loves me.
09:13 I couldn't even receive it, but it changed everything.
09:19 Then somebody showed me Jeremiah 29:11,
09:23 "I have a plan for you, a future. "
09:25 Not even my parents had a plan for me.
09:28 No one on this planet has a plan for me and God said,
09:30 don't ever think that I don't have a plan for you.
09:34 So He just takes us, as it says we are born again.
09:41 He gives you a new life.
09:44 He gives you a spiritual nature which you do not have
09:49 before then, it is a spiritual nature that is given to you
09:52 and that spiritual nature is handed to you and me.
09:56 It is given to us totally and completely as a babe.
10:00 It is not given to us full grown, it is given to us
10:03 just as a babe and God hands that to us, that's a gift.
10:08 Like you said it is mine, now I need to do something
10:12 with the gift.
10:13 A little baby, yet just a little baby.
10:15 So what do I need to do?
10:17 Well I've got to feed it, because it has got to eat.
10:22 If it doesn't it will die, so I have to feed the baby.
10:27 That's were it comes in, it doesn't mean that I gave birth
10:32 to the baby, I didn't, God gave that to us.
10:35 But I must feed it, I must let it breathe, I must let it
10:39 grow, those are things that I have to do to the
10:43 new nature and that is why it says in Hebrews 5:13,
10:47 "it is as a babe. "
10:49 It is given to us as a babe.
10:52 I love what you, what I have heard you say is that baby
10:57 is so much there and so thrilled and happy like any baby.
11:02 It is waiting to be fed and cared for,
11:06 but the nature that I told you about in my dream
11:08 that wants to manipulate and go out and do that stuff,
11:11 that nature is still there too.
11:14 That's what the Scripture calls the "old nature".
11:18 That's the old man of sin and unfortunately too many
11:22 people think that they have to dress up the old man.
11:25 I think that! Not that I do anymore, but I thought that.
11:30 Somehow as soon as I got in church,
11:32 I looked around and thought, I don't fit with anybody.
11:34 I don't belong here.
11:35 I looked at every one of these women and thought,
11:37 if I dress like that I'll fit.
11:40 So I just dressed it up.
11:41 Dress up the old man, it is like saying, it's like me going
11:49 and setting in the garage, that's what it's like.
11:54 I think if I sit in the garage that will make me
11:59 an automobile, it just doesn't do that you see.
12:03 I thought if I set the garage and to make me a mechanic.
12:07 It doesn't do that so we get the idea if I act like a
12:10 Christian, and I speak like Christian, I do this it
12:13 makes me a Christian.
12:14 No! That does not make you a Christian.
12:17 You know why I know that is true?
12:18 I'm sitting in church and I have the right clothes on,
12:21 every single time the offering plate went by,
12:23 I wanted to rip it off.
12:25 I kept thinking why do people keep putting money in that.
12:28 I need that money, you know I am a thief so to me that was
12:32 my first instinct, and I literally had to fight that
12:35 because I kept thinking I could probably do it,
12:37 as it goes by, I can figure out a way.
12:39 That old nature is still very much there, unless what?
12:44 Unless I take the old nature and I crucify it.
12:49 That is what Paul said, he said I am crucified with Christ.
12:53 It says that we have to put the old man to death and
12:58 unless I do then he is going to, how should I say it?
13:02 Take the baby and rule over it.
13:05 He doesn't like the baby and is opposed to it.
13:08 He will fight it and do anything he can so I had this
13:12 tremendous conflict going on in my soul because the
13:15 baby is crying to be fed, and the old man of sin is
13:19 trying to kick it and so I have this conflict
13:22 that is taking place.
13:23 That is where you and I must learn that when it comes to
13:28 the old nature, sinful nature, I have to crucify it.
13:33 I have to put it to death, and I have to do that everyday.
13:36 What is really interesting to me is that
13:39 I've known addicts, sexual addicts, drug addicts,
13:44 and rage-aholics, work-aholics, and we can behave for a
13:47 short period of time, but we can't change this nature.
13:51 God has finally convinced me this nature is not
13:55 changeable, I can't put a Band-Aid on it.
13:57 I'm not going to come and fix it.
13:58 I actually am going to come and make all things new.
14:02 You were in Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 5.
14:05 If you go back to 17, 17 says you are a new creature.
14:09 New heart and a new mind and all those kind of things.
14:12 I think we have to wrap our minds around that.
14:14 I'm not going to be an addict that learns not to lie.
14:19 I'm going to be a Christian that is new and in Christ.
14:22 He is going to show me how it feels not to be a liar.
14:26 I'm not a liar anymore.
14:27 In other words I've got to take this new nature He has
14:34 given me, as I take day by day I surrender myself.
14:40 I surrender myself to the Lord.
14:42 You know that addicts hate to do anything day by day.
14:45 Yeah! Right!
14:47 But you are saying day by day, that I can't let up
14:52 because this old man is still trying to kill the baby off.
14:55 That is right, and the old man is going to be there
14:57 until the resurrection, I'm sorry.
15:00 The old man is there, he may not be in very good shape
15:03 I may have crucified him enough that he has had it,
15:07 but nevertheless the old sinful nature is there and I
15:11 have to day by day surrender myself to the Lord.
15:16 I have to surrender and then the Holy Spirit can come
15:20 into my life and begin to change me and make me different.
15:26 How do you feed the baby?
15:28 What do you mean by that?
15:29 Well it says we feed it by the word,
15:31 the milk of the word is what Scripture says.
15:33 So this is food for the baby, that is what it is.
15:38 I may not understand it very well.
15:41 I may say, okay I'm ready, like you did.
15:44 I may not understand this but what it is,
15:48 is I take it and it says that some of us,
15:51 to start off with, have to drink milk.
15:53 So we start with milk, but later on I pick it up
15:58 and begin to get more into it and you will find it happens
16:01 as you understand one part of it, it opens that up
16:06 for another part and it just keeps expanding and expanding.
16:09 Sometimes when people can't read or if they have trouble
16:12 with understanding, find somebody they can read to you,
16:16 or speak to you. Absolutely!
16:17 The first time I read in Zephaniah, where it says,
16:20 God sings over us, I thought no way.
16:24 Then I just imagined myself, because I never had a mother
16:27 that sang to me or even wanted me to sit next to her.
16:30 But God of the universe sings over us to comfort us.
16:34 I thought if I would have never learned that by the word,
16:38 this baby would never have been comforted by the
16:41 thought of God singing.
16:42 Once you have faith in the word that it is true,
16:45 you can almost hear His voice,
16:47 which is an incredible thing.
16:49 Absolutely, it is marvelous.
16:52 So this is what begins to change the life.
16:56 Each one of us are different.
16:59 Each one of us have weaknesses and each one has strengths.
17:06 That is in all of us, but those weaknesses,
17:10 those begin to change as the Holy Spirit works in our life.
17:16 That's where fruits of the Spirit come in.
17:18 That is where love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
17:21 all those fruits come into my life and begin to work.
17:27 As you were saying, as they happen I see things that I
17:33 said, was I doing that?
17:36 Was I really acting that way and doing that?
17:40 Because that is the work of the Holy Spirit.
17:45 You begin to see it, like it says, oh that God would give
17:49 us the gift to see ourselves as others see us.
17:52 Old God give us the gift to see ourselves as You see us.
17:55 As God sees us.
17:56 With a lot of addicts it is really funny that somebody
18:00 will, and I work with primarily with addicts in recovery.
18:03 Someone will say how can you tell it if an addict is lying?
18:06 Well is their mouth moving?
18:08 We have learned to lie to so much that we do not even know
18:12 when not to, or what is the truth.
18:14 So with the nature like that and the automatic instincts
18:19 like that, don't trust yourself.
18:21 Ask God through the Holy Spirit, show me what it feels like
18:25 to live a victorious life.
18:27 Show me what it feels like not to lie and
18:29 to live in integrity.
18:30 Once He starts doing that,
18:31 you start to be able to recognize the lies.
18:34 It is so much fun to say, you know what,
18:36 Today, I don't have to lie.
18:38 Some people may have to say, this five minutes...
18:42 I haven't lied! It may not be a whole day.
18:46 It is amazing that God said, people may get frustrated
18:50 with your daily walk, or with your stage at feeding the
18:54 baby, or nurturing this baby, but God never does.
18:59 Never does, God is proud of you and
19:01 wants to be right there.
19:02 I want to teach you to stand up.
19:04 I want to teach you to walk.
19:06 I want to teach you to get over requiring milk.
19:10 I want to teach you to do all that.
19:12 I think all of heaven delights, and I want to say
19:15 one more thing, because I read the Desire of Ages,
19:18 no Ministry of Healing, it is a book that I love
19:20 by a woman named Ellen White.
19:22 There is a chapter called, Saved To Serve.
19:25 There is a scene where there is Angels around God.
19:30 I'm not sure what they were doing,
19:32 because I was new in recovery,
19:33 and the Angels were saying,
19:35 Can I have that one?
19:38 Because that one is going to fall a billion times.
19:41 I want to be there to comfort them and stand them back up.
19:45 I thought no way, that Angel is pleading with God
19:49 to have this addict, this one that nobody wants,
19:52 but the angels of heaven want us and God Himself
19:56 wants our victory.
19:57 It is amazing to say that as a child stands up and falls
20:00 down and stands up and falls down that God says,
20:03 I'm so proud of you.
20:05 The marvelous thing that you have to understand is as
20:09 I grow, I get this five minutes that we were just
20:13 talking about, in which I didn't lie.
20:15 I didn't lie for five minutes, that five minutes as far
20:20 as righteousness is concerned, in making you acceptable
20:24 before God does not count.
20:27 In what sense? Because we want to celebrate.
20:31 We want to say to all of heaven, did you see that?
20:34 Yeah and that is wonderful, but it doesn't count.
20:37 It is the righteousness of Christ that is given to you
20:41 that counts.
20:42 So He is not looking for us to get it, He saying you
20:45 have already got the gift.
20:46 This is just icing on the cake that you get to feel
20:49 what it feels like to be free of all that junk.
20:52 He is saying that I am here to help you and to lead you
20:56 and to guide you and help you to grow and all this,
20:59 but this doesn't make you worthy of heaven.
21:04 This is My righteousness that makes you worthy of heaven.
21:08 That is the marvelous thing about it that I don't have
21:12 to say, I just lost it all.
21:16 No! You are not gaining it all or losing it all,
21:20 it is already done.
21:21 I said the other night, you can't win God's grace,
21:25 it has already been given.
21:27 Since you cannot win God's grace you can't lose it.
21:33 It is given to you. Because He so loves us.
21:36 That's right! And delights in our recovery.
21:38 He wants us to succeed.
21:42 You are so lucky I didn't get up from my chair
21:44 and kiss you on the face when you were speaking,
21:46 because there are things that you said.
21:48 One of the things was about the guy that was smoking.
21:51 I can't come to God because I'm smoking.
21:53 Right! You said.
21:55 I simply said, you come to Christ.
22:00 He said you mean I can come to Christ while I smoke?
22:04 That's what I I'm telling you.
22:06 Go ahead and smoke if you want to.
22:07 That's right! I think eventually he said to him?
22:10 Well he eventually said, what am I going to do about these?
22:14 I said if you want to give them up, give them up.
22:16 He gave them up because he wanted to.
22:20 For me that whole pressure that comes off of us,
22:25 when we realize we are truly saved by the grace of God.
22:29 The righteousness of God and everything else is His love
22:33 that allows us to get out of bondage to all this junk.
22:37 My lies are bondage.
22:39 I'm manipulative, my lying behaviors keeps me disconnected
22:43 from, not only God, but everybody around me.
22:45 I never get a sense of what it feels like to laugh
22:48 in my own skin.
22:49 God says as your Father, I can't wait to show you what
22:53 it feels like to be okay, just to feel at rest.
22:57 When He comes to you and says, neither do I condemn you.
23:01 How cool is that?
23:03 I mean, He is not condemning you, He is just saying
23:07 I'm here, I'm here for you and will give you this
23:10 and you can accept it.
23:12 That is what He is simply asking us to do,
23:14 is just come to Him as we are,
23:17 and accept what He has done.
23:21 Then it says that He will do these things in our lives.
23:25 He says... not that He will encourage you to do them?
23:30 He even says, I'll put them there.
23:33 I'll make you, I'll do this.
23:35 He uses those words, I'll put it there, I'll make you.
23:39 My part over and over again is to keep Kenneth Cox
23:44 surrendered to His will because you do, even though you
23:49 may have abused it, even though you may have done
23:52 a lot of things to it, you do have a will.
23:55 That is your choice and all He is saying is all
24:00 I'm asking you to do is to choose.
24:02 Choose me, choose me. Every day!
24:04 Choose to walk away from the old stuff everyday.
24:07 So this baby, the word of God is what this baby
24:10 gets fed by?
24:11 So how does it breath? Talk about breathing.
24:14 It breathes through prayer. Alright!
24:16 Prayer is the breath of the soul.
24:18 Can I say, preach it brother?
24:19 That is the way it breathes and sometimes folks get so
24:26 wrapped up in the fact that you don't have to say
24:29 special words to pray.
24:31 Most addicts I work with, hard-core addicts that they
24:35 are a mess and had never done any kind of nothing
24:40 for anybody and all of a sudden they get spiritual and
24:43 they get on their knees the first time they'll say,
24:46 God bestow on me, I'm thinking where did you learn that word?
24:51 Isn't that funny because we do think there is a way
24:53 to do it, and if we don't know how to do it then we
24:56 shy away from prayer.
24:58 You're saying right now, no!
25:00 Just talked to Him.
25:01 Don't let the Devil lie to you.
25:02 Don't let the old self lie to you.
25:04 You can say it however you want to say it
25:06 and God will hear you.
25:08 God will hear you.
25:09 The thing that we must do though is, I mustn't, since I'm
25:14 here, as God comes into my life and works in me,
25:21 I must continue to grow.
25:23 That is what He wants to do.
25:26 He's not saying you got to grow to here to get to heaven.
25:30 He is not saying that.
25:31 He is just saying I want you to grow,
25:32 I want your life to change and so He wants to come in.
25:37 That is why I have to surrender.
25:39 Today there are so many people that want to come to the
25:43 Lord but they don't want to grow.
25:44 They just want to stay where they are.
25:46 They want some body to feed them?
25:48 Well yeah, they want somebody to feed them,
25:50 and there is no such thing.
25:55 There is no such thing as repentance in my life
26:00 without Reformation, it just doesn't exist.
26:04 So the words again are going to trip us up.
26:07 What are you talking about?
26:08 Repentance is when I come to the Lord and I see,
26:11 it just becomes
26:12 crystal clear what I am.
26:14 I'm a liar.
26:16 I'm on Internet porn, I'm doing all that.
26:18 I see myself for what I am and I don't like it.
26:22 That is required or you will never change.
26:27 So I see myself as I am.
26:30 Don't protect yourself from that, don't shy away from that.
26:33 I need to come to the Lord just as I am and see myself.
26:36 But as in confession, confession comes in here,
26:40 what confession is what lance's the boil and let's all the
26:46 sin and all the infection and everything out because
26:51 that permits it to heal.
26:53 So that has to take place, but when that happens then
26:57 naturally there should be a change take place.
27:03 In other words I don't like what I was.
27:06 But some people want to stay there, you can't stay there.
27:10 C. S. Lewis wrote a thing that was amazing.
27:12 He said you can't take all luggage with you on every trip.
27:16 Even the smallest souvenir from hell will keep you out of
27:19 heaven, so what you are saying is you can't have things in
27:22 your pocket because those things will eventually
27:25 strengthen the old man and kill off the baby.
27:29 That's right, and as he said you can't take all
27:32 the luggage with you at one time.
27:35 In other words I might get rid of one thing at a ways down
27:39 the road I had to get rid of another.
27:40 As you continue to walk with Christ you'll find there are
27:44 things you have got to get rid of as you go along.
27:46 Not to earn heaven, I want to stress that.
27:50 So we have people at the Café who are going to want to ask
27:55 you questions, so I am going to open that up.
27:56 But we also have a third point,
27:58 the baby needs to eat, breath, and?
28:01 Exercise! Exercise.
28:03 Oh Man, okay so we are going to open it up for questions.
28:07 First Cassidy, you wanted to ask Ken a question.
28:11 Hi my name is Cassidy Bates and I am from Minnesota.
28:16 I'm in eighth grade, so friends are really important to me.
28:21 You said that the Bible is our food and I was wondering
28:26 what friends had to do your spiritual growth?
28:29 I mean because good friends pull you up and could bad
28:34 friends bring you down or could they help you?
28:37 I'm just kind of curious.
28:40 That of course is a very, very important question.
28:43 Friends are something that you have all your life,
28:47 or should have all your life.
28:48 To start out with Christ says He is our friend,
28:53 in fact it says that He is a friend that sticketh closer
28:57 then a brother, so first thing you need to do is to make
29:01 Him your friend, make sure that He is your friend.
29:06 Once you have done that, then you begin to take your
29:11 friends from those that you feel will be helpful in their
29:17 growth, and in their Christian life.
29:19 That doesn't mean Cassidy, that I need to limit my
29:22 friendship to only people that are Christian.
29:26 That is not what I am saying, but it means that I have to
29:31 be very, very close with my friendship with Jesus so that
29:36 my friendship with Him keeps me okay with friendship with others
29:42 who are not.
29:43 I have to jump in and say one thing about that.
29:46 Because of the analogy that Pastor Ken Cox had said,
29:50 about the baby or the old guy.
29:52 The old man!
29:54 Well how can you have an old man inside of you?
29:59 How about the flesh in you, or the baby, so your friends
30:04 are going to like the one or the other,
30:05 do you know what I mean?
30:06 So let's say my friends like the person inside me that is
30:10 conniving and manipulating.
30:12 I have a good sense of humor but it is a little bit on
30:15 the edge, they are going to like that friend or they are
30:18 going to like the baby.
30:20 Do you know what I mean?
30:21 So it depends on who they are coming to visit.
30:23 If they are coming to visit a part of you that is a
30:26 Christian, then that friend is always going to be
30:28 incredible to you.
30:29 If they're going to come to visit the old guy,
30:31 or the old man or the flesh than those friends are always
30:34 going to be looking for you to do something edgy.
30:37 So what will grow is what they are attracted to.
30:43 If I have bad friends or non-Christian friends will I be
30:49 able to bring them closer to God or will they lead me away?
30:55 Well you should lead them closer to God.
31:02 In other words you should share with them the good things
31:07 and right things and I should not permit the things that are
31:13 bad to pull me their direction, but remember God has called you.
31:18 We are going to be talking about exercise.
31:20 The way you exercise, in a Christian life,
31:23 is by witnessing.
31:25 So you are to be a witness to them.
31:28 You are to show them what a life in Christ is like.
31:32 So you need to help them.
31:36 Let me put it this way.
31:39 You know exercise was the third thing you were talking
31:42 about, the baby needs exercise.
31:44 The baby needs exercise, there has got to be exercise.
31:46 Remember that the Lord calls each of us to serve.
31:52 I must minister to you, or a must minister to the people
31:57 that are around me.
31:58 If I don't minister to you, or to other people,
32:03 then I manipulate, you see?
32:07 That is where that comes in, if I am not serving then I
32:11 have a tendency to manipulate.
32:13 When you start manipulating other people,
32:16 you are in trouble.
32:19 So what is interesting to me is that,
32:21 like any 12 step program.
32:22 In a 12 step programs, or the last part of the journey,
32:27 on your 12 step program, or the step 12, is to take what
32:32 you learn and go teach someone else.
32:34 So that is the part of the exercise.
32:36 Most people in recovery understand that.
32:39 If I don't give back, if I don't live out what I have
32:42 learned, if I don't share it is going to die within me.
32:46 It is really tough, and I love your question Cassidy,
32:49 it is really tough to have friends that if the part of my
32:53 growth is that I have to share what I learned.
32:55 I have to share my new life.
32:57 I have to share the fact that it is so exciting
32:59 not to have to lie.
33:00 To fill up and being taught by God who I am creatively.
33:04 If I can't share that with you because you are not that
33:07 kind of friend, then that part of me is
33:09 going to slowly die away.
33:11 So either I'm going to continue to grow with the people
33:13 in my life, or I'm going to have a part of me die with
33:16 the people in my life.
33:18 So I think that I love her question that friendships
33:20 are important.
33:21 When I stopped doing heroine, it was really interesting,
33:24 I was a good heroine addict.
33:26 I'm telling you, I was good on the streets.
33:29 I survived for 10 years, from 13 years old on.
33:33 So I learned to actually do all that,
33:35 but when I became a Christian, none of the friends
33:38 I had really enjoyed that part of me.
33:41 What do you mean you're trying to be honest?
33:43 What's up with that?
33:45 How can you manipulate with that?
33:47 Then they learn how to do that, that's a good gig.
33:49 I'm not doing it to manipulate, I'm doing it because
33:52 I think it's the right thing.
33:53 Or I'm not going to steal anymore.
33:55 I do not want to manipulate anymore.
33:56 I don't want to do that stuff.
33:58 Some friends will back away just because of your choices.
34:01 Just simply if a friend brings you flowers,
34:04 are they bringing you flowers because they are being nice?
34:11 Because they want to be nice to you?
34:14 Or are they bringing flowers to you so they can get
34:17 some thing from you?
34:18 It makes a great, great difference why they are bringing
34:21 you flowers you see.
34:24 Or why you are bringing flowers to them.
34:26 So friends are important.
34:27 I know we had other questions in the room.
34:30 Daphne I know you had a question.
34:31 Yes sir first I want to introduce myself.
34:34 My name is Daphne Brown and I'm from Fort Lauderdale
34:37 in Florida. We met in Florida? Yes!
34:40 It was a cruise last year, however I like the way
34:44 Pastor Cox put on the subject about growing in the word.
34:50 You know from a child I know about that.
34:53 But it says as a newborn babe is they are sincere
34:57 in the milk of the word.
34:58 No, it was reference to people who are just
35:01 converted to the church.
35:03 As adults, people who are in the church for a long time,
35:07 do they really need the word to grow by?
35:12 Absolutely! It is required of all of us.
35:17 I must spend time in the word.
35:20 It says Faith cometh by hearing
35:23 and hearing by the word of God.
35:25 In the Christian life everything operates by faith,
35:30 everything and therefore I read as an adult I read the
35:34 word of God because that builds faith, in my experience
35:38 it helps me grow.
35:41 So I have to spend time in God's Word.
35:44 I don't know how it is with other people but I am always
35:48 seeing and finding something I didn't know before.
35:52 I am reading it and I may have read that text a half
35:56 a dozen times before and all of a sudden I read it and
36:00 say, oh that's what that's talking about.
36:03 That wasn't because I just got smart all of a sudden,
36:06 that is because the Holy Spirit opened it up
36:08 and revealed to me.
36:10 You have to talk about going back to the newborn baby.
36:14 I have this baby that is growing and the bones are
36:17 developing, the nerves are developing, the brain is
36:19 developing, but there is not a point that I think,
36:22 okay you are 12 now, you never have to eat again.
36:24 It's like you can stop eating now, so that is a huge thing.
36:29 We have time for one more question.
36:32 I'm sorry.
36:33 As he said about faith, I remember the Baptist say if you
36:37 have the faith of a mustard seed you can say to the mountain
36:41 many of us have mountains in our lives.
36:43 I can draw from that faith when my daughter met the accident
36:48 because that is why I am here today.
36:50 I was going down to the hospital and my church sister,
36:54 Sister Maurice was sitting beside me.
36:56 I looked across at her and said, you know Sister Maurice
37:00 if I go to the hospital and my daughter is still alive
37:04 she is not going to die.
37:05 Amen! Amen! and that's the faith that brought her through.
37:09 So we also have to have faith and exercise,
37:13 not just to love it but exercised it.
37:15 I love that because what you are saying is that if
37:19 I didn't know that was in the word of God.
37:21 If I didn't know what God encouraged me to do that,
37:24 would I have known to hold on to that at that time?
37:27 Because during the time of an accident,
37:28 when you are looking at somebody's life or death,
37:31 if it is not in there, How can I hold on to it?
37:34 How can I pull any strength from it?
37:35 It comes by the word.
37:38 Joe you had a question.
37:41 Pastor Cox, Cheri had said that she was in the bathroom
37:46 about to kill herself,
37:47 and when she received that baby, that gift,
37:53 you said that we can't birth that baby our self.
37:58 How does someone who is about to kill them self even
38:03 desire it, or ask for it, What is it?
38:08 There are two factors to come to play here.
38:10 It says that Christ is the light that lighteth every man
38:13 that cometh into the world.
38:14 So Christ is continually working with every person.
38:17 Secondly, the Holy Spirit is also there as it convicts
38:21 the world of sin, of righteousness, of judgment,
38:24 and so God wanted to save her.
38:26 He's going to do everything He can to her to try to get
38:32 that to take place.
38:33 I love that because at the moment, I'm in a drug house
38:36 trying to kill myself, I meet God and I get all that.
38:40 As I walked in my new life, and as I understand who God is,
38:45 I start seeing Him even when I was a little girl.
38:49 Throughout my life I get the sense of, He was always there.
38:53 When I ask Him that sometimes in devotions,
38:55 Were you always there? He said absolutely,
38:57 I'm always there.
38:59 For each one of us that's true.
39:00 So the new life, the gift that He gives us is waiting
39:04 for us, individually, Eh?
39:06 Absolutely, the new life, totally and completely from that
39:11 point on, like you never known
39:13 or ever dreamed of
39:14 begins to take place.
39:16 If I stumble all of heaven says stand up.
39:19 Like the angel who stands around says that person is
39:21 going to fall a lot and I need to be there and encourage
39:24 them to stand back up.
39:25 Just like a baby you do not learn to walk right away.
39:28 You do not learn how to run right away
39:30 or any of that stuff.
39:31 You are just like a baby, pick them up, pick them up,
39:33 pick them up, that is the same thing you need to do to
39:36 someone who is a new babe in Christ.
39:38 If they fall you need to pick them up.
39:39 Anybody in recovery. Absolutely!
39:42 I wanted to say Ken I am delighted that you have
39:45 been on the program with us.
39:47 Well it has been a pleasure.
39:48 I love what you have to share and I have to say as we say
39:52 goodbye, to you a have to say if anybody is interested
39:55 in this teaching you have a whole series on this.
39:58 Yes! What is the name of that series?
40:00 It's called "Salvation".
40:02 It's amazing.
40:03 We are going to be right back so stay with us.
40:06 I'm hoping you are hearing the whole feel of this is that
40:10 we are saying out loud that there is a part of you that
40:14 will fill still very much alive.
40:15 You turn yourself over to Christ, you turn yourself over
40:18 to recovery and everything is new you will be excited.
40:21 That is all amazing, and there is a part of you that is
40:24 going to try to kick the baby, don't let it happen.
40:27 Okay we will be right back.
40:28 Stay with us!


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Revised 2014-12-17