Episode Transcript
Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, Go, therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Welcome to Go Teach all nations, bringing you Christ's teachings through Australian and international speakers.
And here is today's presenter, Cheri Peters. Everybody knows the transformation of a butterfly. I mean, he starts out in this cocoon and starts out as a caterpillar first thing in this cocoon, and cocoon, and then it literally has to tear it open and then come out transformed. And if anybody helps it along the process, it actually will kill the butterfly. If you say to that butterfly, this is too much work for you, I'm just going to tear it open for you, The butterfly will not survive. And so that pain and that stuff that a butterfly goes through has to happen. I mean, it just has to happen. That's— we don't survive, the butterfly doesn't survive. Another thing that I didn't know about butterflies is they can't fly in a storm. They have to rest. If they fly in a storm, it damages their wings and they will die. Right? Did anybody know that? No. I didn't know that. So when you're in a storm in your life, rest. Go back to God and just rest, because we don't fly well in storms either. All the things hit us, our trauma hits us, we end up spinning in ways that we don't spin normally. And so what God says is rest. Those are times that you go to your mates, you go back to God, you literally try to find what will bring you comfort, what will bring you through this. And don't beat yourself up. A lot of times we didn't cause the storm, but we have to relate to it. We have to stop. So last night I talked about— I'm sorry for some of you that were not there. I was homeless for 10 years and came out of all that struggle. And at one point, I got diagnosed with hepatitis A, B, and C. People prayed with me. Wow. At one point I knew I was healed. I went back to the doctor. The doctor said, you don't get healed from this. And I thought, well, you gotta tell God that, because at the time I wasn't happy about it myself. But anyhow, so I— it took me forever to get him to retest me. And once he retested me, he said, you don't have any of it. Like, you don't have any hepatitis A, B, or C. And they were ready to treat me and so totally heal from that. And it was amazing to me to constantly come. Like, I get saved from 10 years of homelessness. My dad dies in a crack house. He was so unrecognizable when he died that literally his nails were growing out. He was a perpetrator his whole life and a drug addict. And so when he died, even the family really hardly recognized him. My mom is a mess. My stepdad, my stepdad who I love, he came into my life when I was 4. Wow. And does anybody, raise your hand if you teach your little kids like some songs when they were growing up. Anybody? My dad did too, my stepdad. And the first song he taught me was, raise your hand if you know this song. Trailers for sale or rent, rooms to let, 50 cents. And it was about a bum looking for a cigarette. Ain't got no cigarettes, aw bud. And so when I was little, the first song that I learned was about a bum looking for a cigarette butt. And so, So when my dad, my stepdad, or my mom's boyfriend ends up in the hospital, I remember thinking, he's the only dad I know, and I just don't want him to die in his addictions. I've never seen him clean. I've never seen him sober. I have never seen him when he wasn't lost in his addictions. And now his whole esophagus is closing in, collapsing in on itself because of cancers. He's got— he's 6'1. Less than 100 pounds. I don't know what that is in kilograms. I don't, but it, huh? 50 kilos. He's like 50, he's skinny, like skinny. You could see bones. And he ends up in the hospital and they say that you can't swallow. He couldn't eat and he couldn't swallow because all the cancer's in his esophagus. And so he just couldn't do anything. So they put a stent in his throat to last him just a few days until he dies, right? And so I fly in because I just wanna say, man, I just want you to know that you matter to me. And I know that I've never seen you outside of addictions, but you matter to me. And I go in there and he's laying in a hospital bed. And sometimes if you haven't seen somebody for a long time and they're in a hospital bed in that condition, they look so tiny. I mean, just this massive man just looked so tiny. And I just came in and I crawled in the bed with him and I just held him. And the nurse was coming in and out and they said, we're gonna discharge you to hospice care. And I thought, no. And all my mom's boyfriend said, or my stepdad, all he said was, well, what about my morphine? 'Cause an addict doesn't care about anything else, but what about my drugs? And they said, well, you can have as much as you want. 'Cause when you're dying, they don't care if you get addicted. Do you know what I mean? They just don't care, so you can have as much as you want. And he said, any way I want? Yeah. You mean I can have a shot right now? Yeah. Well, I'd like one, he said. So she takes off to get him a shot, and he looks at me like, do you want some? Like, no, I'm in recovery. My family, they just don't understand that concept. No, no, I really am in recovery. So I realized when the nurse comes back and they're gonna send him home with hospice just to die, right? And he says, as soon as they said you can have whatever you want, as much as you want, he just started celebrating. Woohoo! Are you kidding me? And he— it was like all I had to do was die to get someone to say that to me. And he was so full of joy about having as much drugs as he wanted, is we still couldn't say goodbye to him hardly. We get home and, um, anyhow, so that's the journey that I've come through, like finding Christ. And I told you last night, the moment I found Christ and was so, so loved— I found out the moment I found Christ, I'm in a drug house, I'm a mess, I've been beat up by bikers, I had teeth missing, I'm fairly illiterate, and, um, he didn't see any of that. Wow. What he saw was a beautiful child of God that he's been waiting for for a long time. And I was just overwhelmed by all that. And so I started the journey with coming from the background I have. I've got family members that are struggling just to survive. And I'm learning Jeremiah 29:11, that God has thoughts about me, his plans for me. He has a future for me. Wow. not to harm me, but to give me life. And I thought, nobody has cared about me in that way ever. Like, I can't even understand what it feels like to have a father that actually cares about what happens to me next. He taught me to read, I believe. I got in school. I ended up— addicts are a little grandiose. I don't know if you know any addicts, but I took a nursing program. I barely learned how to read and I get in a nursing program. And I found out in that program that I actually wasn't stupid, I just wasn't very literate. And I pretty much made straight A's and did my state boards, passed my state boards, ended up working in hospitals. And so all of that journey was just so rich. And every day I felt like God said, every day, I can't wait for you to get up. Yeah. I wanna kiss you on the face. I am crazy about you. And I felt that every day. I didn't feel that a lot by the people around me 'cause I was just such a mess. Like, I was a mess and I was in a very conservative church. And I would smoke my brains out all the way to church, right? Because I was still smoking. I just didn't think that was a drug. And it's a hard habit to quit. Heroin was easy to quit, easier to quit than cigarettes. Yeah. So I'm smoking all the way, and I literally— where's the pastor at? I literally would hide because I thought I'm going to drive by the pastor and he's going to see me smoking. So I would take a hit out, and I would just hide. And then I would get to church, and I don't know how this happened, but I would get to church and I would end up sitting next to a vegan vegetarian who's allergic to the entire planet. And I am sitting next to them and I smell like a cigarette, so their throat's closing up. They're having a hard time. time breathing, and they're scooting away from me. But I'm thinking it's a rejection issue. I'm thinking they don't accept me. And it's like they just couldn't breathe, right? And so what I did is I realized maybe it's the cigarettes. Like after a few weeks, maybe it's the cigarettes. And I thought, hmm, well, I got a plan. I'm a smart girl, right? So I smoke all the way to church, and then I get out of my car and I spray perfume head to toe so you can't smell the cigarettes. And I sit next to that same woman just feeling like I figured it out. And now she can't breathe because of smoke and cheap perfume. So it was just a crazy, a crazy time. But God, I don't know why he loves us enough to get us through those times. I was loved enough, but I was ridiculous. I had so many issues and still have some, but it was like I never felt like God said, you know what, It's just too much. I just never felt like he ever said that. So I, I really felt blessed on that journey. The pastor one time said, can you help me out? And I said, what's up? And he said, well, there's a girl in our church that is a mess, and she's strung out on meth. And I thought, so you thought of me to help you out? I'm thinking I look pretty normal. Why would you think of me? Like, look at everybody everybody else, you know? And he's like, no, I think you can handle this one. So he said, could you go over and talk with her? Her mom just went in the hospital. She moved into her mom's house. She's turned her house into a drug den. She's selling drugs out of her mom's house. It's filthy. She's moved her kids in there. And her mom can't even come home from the hospital and move back into her own home. And so, can you come over? Yeah. And I said, yeah, yeah, of course I can, acting like I don't know what I would say. But I would come over. So I end up going over there and I knock on the door and she is, she's a mess. I mean, I don't know if you've seen a meth addict, but they, you know, they're just paranoid and, you know, she's a mess and the place is filthy dirty and the kids are so starved for, she has 4 kids, and they're so starved for attention from somebody normal, and they thought I was, but so starved for attention that they wanted to talk with me, right? And so I walk in and they're telling me everything about like school or what's happening, and they can't all reach me sitting on the couch. Like I sat down, but they're all trying to be next to me and they couldn't do it, so I sat on the floor with them. The floor was filthy, I had khaki pants on, And I stood up and my pants were dirty. I mean, it was filthy. They just trashed that house. But when I sat on the floor, then everybody has access. And so I realized they don't have any bedding. And for some reason, she had taped all of the windows closed with duct tape. And she put towels rolled up around the door, and she taped most of the doors to the other rooms to tape them off. So the only access they had to the rooms was the kitchen, the living room, and the bathroom. Wow. Everything else was taped off, literally taped off with duct tape. And, and, and so I thought this was a mess. And she's chain smoking in this room that everything is taped off. So you just— the smoke is crazy. And the 5-year-old kept coughing because of all the smoke. And she was spoon feeding him Tylenol cough syrup and calling him an idiot. Like, are you always sick? You're such an idiot. And, and I'm, I'm wanting to scream. stop. Somebody's gotta stop this. And these kids were so damaged. So I, I, the next time I came over, I had sleeping bags for everybody because they had no really blankets. And I, I got them some cute little kids' sleeping bags. The next time I came over, she had sold them. I should have taken them out of the package. I didn't realize that she was gonna immediately sell them. So now I'm angry. She sold the sleeping bags. The kids are still starved. And the little girl says something to me to the effect of, Well, last night, my mom's friend raped me. She was 8 years old. Do you believe that she was telling the truth? Yes. She was. But she's so traumatized and so injured that it was no big deal for her. Like, I mean, she'll deal with that later on in her life, but at that moment, she was trying to get my attention, right? And that was heartbreaking to me, that this little 8-year-old can tell me that story, and it was no big deal at this moment to her. And so I looked at the mom and I just wanted to grab her by the throat, Carrie. I literally, I wanted to grab her by the throat and just scream, but I just didn't think that was very Christian. So I said to her, excuse me, what's all the duct tape about? And she said, what? You want to know about the duct tape? I'll tell you about the duct tape. And she just got crazier. I mean, literally crazier. Yeah. And she said, I put the duct tape up because demons are trying to get in. Oh. And I said, and duct tape works? My husband said duct tape worked for everything. I didn't know it worked for demons. I just had to— we have to market that. And so, so she was just telling me now about this duct tape that just works about keeping these demons out. And I said to her, you've got to stop. You've got to stop. I gave her my testimony. We talked for a bit. She started crying. My church was so amazing. raised money to put all of those kids in Christian schools while she went to rehab. I thought, are you kidding me? And so that was my first step towards God saying, I think I could use you. Why does God use people like me? Like, I would— it was just insane to me that God would take someone that was so messed up. People wouldn't even invite me to potlucks. I mean, I'm just not somebody you invite to potluck. To this day, I don't get invited to potluck as much as someone else because I just am a mess, right? So it's like, but, you know, does God use us? And that was crazy to me that God just says, absolutely. And as I'm using you, I will transform your life every day. And I thought, who does that? I mean, why does he do that for us? And I'm amazed. So when I think about the butterfly and the transformation that happens in and all that kind of stuff. I feel like I have felt that, and I feel that every day. Let me see if I can do this right. So we're going to talk about setting the captives free. Remember, remember, 4 o'clock in the morning, so if it doesn't look right to you, you know. And then my photo program that I get photos from when I do PowerPoints said, oh, somebody's using your account in Australia, so we locked it up. That someone is me. So setting the captives free, an incredible commission. So not only does he ask us to be free, to accept his forgiveness, to accept the blood of Christ, to know that he's going to totally transform our lives, but he says, now I want you to tell someone. You know who I'm going to be friends with in heaven? The woman at the well, for sure. I can't wait to hug her. The demoniac. Mary Magdalene, you know, all those people that nobody in that society would even talk to, even after they were saved. Lazarus coming from the tomb, as soon as he rose from the tomb, they wanted to kill him. I mean, it was like, I can't wait to meet those people because they weren't accepted anywhere around them. The leper, even though he was totally clean, he was still not accepted in his society, and the priests were trying to kill him. So it was like, I just can't wait to see somebody totally transformed by God, and still saying, I don't know where to put my feet because I'm not sure I'm acceptable to normal people. And so setting the captives free is something he's asked us to do. Heal the brokenhearted. When God said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me, do you think the Lord anoints someone like me, someone like you? My sister, who's a stripper and deals drugs for a living, she's so I love her so much. She's so funny and she's so inappropriate. But she ends up turning 50. And I don't know if you've ever seen a 50-year-old stripper, but it's just, it's just not attractive. And, and so she doesn't get as many tips. She's losing her job. She's getting too old. Somebody gave her a house on the beach, a beautiful home on the beach. The IRS wants to know how she got that home, 'cause she really doesn't have income, right? And so the IRS is after her. And she's had 3 drunk driving tickets. I don't know what you call them in Australia, but in the US it's DUIs, 3. And in California, there's a 3-strikes-you're-out law. You can go to prison for the rest of your life. So, she tries to kill herself. When she tries to kill herself, she takes an overdose of a bunch of stuff. It burns a hole in her stomach. That acid from her stomach fills up her abdominal cavity and burns both of her lungs. Oh my God. She's on life support for the— life support. I sat with her for 15 days, but they don't know if she's going to survive. And so I said to somebody, we have to anoint her for healing. Where is the pastor at? And so I say, I'm going to pretend you're the pastor. I said, can you anoint my sister? And they said, is she Christian? Well, she's a stripper right now, but she might be Christian. So, I mean, how do you say that? And then the pastor's like, I think I'll wait on this. And so, I couldn't find anyone to anoint her. And I said, I think somebody's got to come and pray over her. And so, I said, God, can I anoint her? What do you think God said? Yes, you can. Absolutely. And so, I wanted to get a gallon of oil because I didn't know a little drop would do it. So, I was just going to like pour it everywhere. And so, I literally, we did the anointing. Within a few days, if they have you on life support, after about 15 days, they take They take the tubes out of your throat because it damages your esophagus. I mean, it damages, and they put a trach in. And so then they put the stuff through the trach. So they're pulling that out and she starts breathing. Then she starts breathing and, and, and they just think, well, okay. So they don't have to put her back on life support. They bring her out. She was actually in an induced coma because of the lungs. So they bring her out of the coma. She's now in a regular room and she'll be on oxygen for the rest of her life. My sister is younger than me. She's very beautiful, but now she's turning 50. She can't do her job and she's pulling oxygen behind her. So I mean, it's just a whole different story. So now she's depressed. I stay with her a little bit trying to teach her how to eat right. And Carrie, it's embarrassing because I don't know how to eat right. So I mean, you know what I mean? But I'm giving her oatmeal and nuts. So we're gonna have this for breakfast. And so we're doing the best I can, and I'm hanging out with her. And as I'm leaving, after a while she's decided to quit smoking, which is really good when you don't have your lungs and you're on oxygen, 'cause it could just blow up. But anyhow, she had an oxygen thing in her house now, and she's hooked up to a 52-foot cord that she has to have to this oxygen machine or tank. And she, gets it caught everywhere. Like, she has to walk around the house with this tube and these oxygen things on, and she's depressed. And so I'm afraid to leave her because I think she's gonna just try to kill herself again. And I'm like, God. And so I'm, I'm getting ready and putting my stuff in the rental car, and I'm, I'm saying, you know, I love you, and, you know, this is gonna— we're gonna be okay. And, and she's like, you know, I'm afraid to have you leave. And I thought, I'm afraid to leave. And I turn around and she just looks scared to death. And I said, what? And she said, are you going to pray for me? And I just started crying. I said, can I? And she said, yes. I don't even know what I said, but I prayed for her and she allowed me to pray for her. I thought, God, how do you do this? It was so amazing to me, that moment of knowing not only did he heal her, brought her out of that, she didn't die. And did you know that God heals Heals strippers? Like, I just want you to think about that, is we think we judge. Like, who does God put his hand on? The pastor was a 14-year-old druggie, and God comes in his life, right, and changes everything because of somebody's testimony. It's just ridiculous to me that we have a God that's so compassionate. So anyhow, so, so, you know, I leave and, um, go home. And she calls me and she said, you know, about a week later, and she said, guess what? The doctor said I don't need to have oxygen on that much at night. I think God might be still healing me. And I said, that's amazing. That really is amazing. And then a little while later, she says, I don't have to have oxygen at night at all. How amazing is that? And I said, that's amazing. And I'm thinking, God, thank you so much. And then they cut down the oxygen even during the day. She said they don't have— she doesn't have to have it up so high. I said, that's amazing. And she calls me again and she said, um, can I ask you something seriously? Yeah. Are you still praying? I said, yeah, why? Because it sounded terrible, like— and she said, well, I'm trying to get on Social Security, and if you keep praying and I keep getting well, they're not going to give me a check. I said, I said, what? Like, I just wanted to say, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? How much money are they going to give you for your lungs? And it was like $600 a month. It was nothing. And I thought, you know, God, please forgive her, because druggies, we talk like that, we think like that. There's no common sense to how we respond. And yet God Is crazy about us. It's just ridiculous to me. So my sister actually survived, just totally off oxygen, and took up vaping. I just want to shake her like, I love you, but I don't think you should be vaping. Your lungs are— but anyhow, so, so when it says the Spirit of the— of God is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, 2 addicts, 2 strippers, 2 people that are so lost in their trauma that they're doing things that are so hurtful to themselves and everybody around them. And they may never break free unless somebody tells them, right? It's amazing to me that he doesn't say back away from them. He says love them, love them through that. Don't look at all the stuff. Don't look at the craziness, whatever, and don't get hurt yourself. But man, love them, because we're not going to get— they're not going to get it if you don't. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and opening of prisons to the bound. There's people in my family that are saved, going to church, and raising Christian children because of my decisions to follow God. Just watching that, I mean, it's such a big deal. We are the light of the world. We bring salt, we bring God colors to the people around us. And even though at the moment they will hate you, they will call you closed-minded, they will call you all kinds of stuff, they will say you are not hip, you are— that is old-fashioned, nobody thinks like that anymore. God says, please think like that. I want you to know that you are changing the world. To proclaim liberty to the captives and opening up a prison to those who are bound. I do prison ministries all the time. Anybody from New Zealand? I go to New Zealand and I loved it. I mean, just what a beautiful place. I think they should invite me to live there. But, but I go to New Zealand and I do this prison ministry and I go in and 40 guys from like a federal penitentiary, these are hardcore prisoners, 40 guys get up and do a haka. Whoo! I'm like, what the heck is that? Like, I'm like wondering what that is. And somebody said to me, if they do something like a dance, and they don't tell me that they stick their tongue out and do some crazy stuff, like if they do something like a dance, it's an honor, right? So I thought, okay, so if it's an honor, I better stand up. So I stood up, and I didn't realize what these particular 40 guys were just trying to scare me. So they were gonna do a haka until they saw fear. 45 minutes later, they're still dancing and they're exhausted. I mean, they are so tired. And I'm standing there, even my girlfriend, Joanne Davies is a friend of mine, she stood up and she held my hand. I said, Joanne, we're in a federal penitentiary, we're not little girls. Don't hold my hand right now, right? And so they did the haka over and over and over. Pretty soon they're exhausted. And one of the men said to me, that they were actually trying to do that. You have a powerful God because I didn't see fear in your eyes at all. And I thought, you know, I wanted to kind of get you a glass of water. You have to be thirsty after all of that. But anyhow, so then even saying that opening up prison to those that are bound, we have a responsibility with our salvation to take it somewhere, to say something, to do something. And some of us like like, Marsha, you're an incredible vocalist, and I've seen you do ministry with your voice. You know, there's people that do ministry in different ways, but God says, do something. Do something. That for us to sit passively in a church, we just have to repent of that. This world is dying. Half— not half— age 25 or younger is changing their neurochemistry with their devices to such an extent that they may never feel joy. That their pleasure centers are flatlined. And this is all over the world. It's not one country, it's not one issue. And we are passively sitting there saying, isn't that terrible? Yes, do something. And God is asking us to do something. When it says God forgives repentance, I'm just going to read this. God says, rebuild the road, clear away the rocks and the stones so that my people can come back from captivity. So whatever is in the way of them coming back into a right relationship, clear that away. And if it is our judgment, if it is our anger, if it is our bitterness, if it is something that we are holding against them, against somebody that has— I worked with a family that has 5 strip clubs, right? And they all came to Christ. And when you make a living with strip clubs, they make multimillion dollars with these these businesses, when you make a living with that, it's really tough. Now you're Christians, what do you do? And I said, one day, one of these clubs is gonna be a church. And I believed that with everything in me. So they sold the businesses except for one club. And in a town that that club has injured girls and men for years and years and years is now a beautiful church, right? So it says, clear away the stones. When we stay angry at somebody because of their acting out, because Satan has kept them in such strong bondage, bondage. It interferes with us, it interferes with them. And it's so like being able to, as a body of Christ, is to come into repentance and say, this is not a time where we can stay angry. People actually need the Lord. Is that a song? I could sing. But, you know, people need the Lord, that it is, it is up to us to bring that light to the world. The High and the Lofty One who lives in eternity, the Holy One says this: I live in a high place, a holy place, for those whose spirits are contrite and humble. I restore the crushed in spirit. I just am so grateful for that. And revive the courage of those repentant hearts. So when we are crushed, God not only revives our spirit, not only brings us around, but he delights in that, that the healing that we go through in the hands of God, he delights in. For I will not fight against you forever. I will not always be angry If I were, all the people would pass away. How many people? All. All the people would pass away, all the souls I have made. I was angry, so I punished these greedy people. I withdrew from them, but they kept going their own stubborn way. So there's people that no matter what God does, they still run their own stubborn way. But there's eventually they hit a wall, and when they hit that wall, I want them to see the Christian Church. As a place to go, right? Not only God as a place to go. And right now some churches are not. If your church is at all struggle with that, repent. Make it a place where somebody could go when they hit that wall. I have seen what they do. I have seen it, says God. I will heal them anyway. In Romans two, it's I think it's two four. It says, don't be angry at the kindness of God, 'cause the kindness of God brings people to repentance. So even with that, I've seen what they do. I know what they do. I work with a girl right now, and I adore her. And she's from, I think, I can't remember what country she's from. We work on Zoom, but she said at one point, I was so angry at this guy, I went in the house, got a knife, and stabbed him in the forehead. Oh my God. And I started laughing. Who does that? So somebody else might not laugh about that, but I could not stop laughing. I thought that was the funniest thing I ever heard. And I said, I'd like you to be my friend, and if I give you the sign— No, but it's like, you know, being able to say is, he says, I see what they do, I know what they do, I know what they've done, but his job is to get us home. I will heal them anyway, not because it was no big deal, and not because I don't respect you, and not because I don't understand the trauma they caused you, But I heal them because they are my children, and they've been deceived by the enemy. So I will heal them anyway. I will comfort those who mourn, bring words of praise to their lips. May they have abundant peace, both near and far, says the Lord who heals them. Somebody, thank you for saying amen. As a group, I want you to say amen right now. So I'm coming out there. All right. So I just think that that's an amazing. Oh, I'm sorry. I don't know how my granddaughter's picture got here, but that's. my little grandbaby, and she is amazing. Somebody said, do you feel loved now? This child loves me beyond what she can imagine. I walk in the room and that's the face I see. I got some chickens because I have a farm, and she just delights in the chickens. I mean, it's just so fun. So I will be like a watered garden, it says in Isaiah 58. And it starts out in Isaiah 58, it says, shout out loud, And tell my people what they're doing wrong. I didn't ask anybody to debate, to do arguments over doctrine. I asked them to love someone, to reach out to someone, to tell people that they can be free, that they can break through. And when you do that— has anybody read Isaiah 58? Yes. There's a writer, Ellen White, that says we should read it every day. When we reach out to each other, we will become like a watered garden. Our darkest depression will become like the noonday. It will lift you. Your bones will, your bones will heal, all that kind of stuff. He said, stop arguing, stop debating, debating, stop doing this as if you're doing the right thing and not loving the people in your community, because I'm asking you to love one another. Love the person sitting next to you. Sometimes that's the hardest one. But so Isaiah 58, we'll become like a watered garden. And I think it's just amazing stuff. Warnings against sin, there's— they're all over the place. The arms— the Lord's arm is not weak to save you, nor is the ear too deaf to hear you. So there are warnings against sin, and the warnings against sin are not to condemn rescue someone. So, you know, we get lost in our sin and sexual addictions and porn addictions and online stuff and spending and eating. And religious addictions are the worst, they're the hardest to heal. But I mean, all of that stuff, we get lost in that. And so there are warnings against those, but not because God is against us, because he knows that we end up in bondage. It is really a tough thing to break away from. C.S. Lewis, I love this book called The Great Divorce. But he says something in The Great Divorce, is in the very front of the book. He says, you can't take all luggage with you on every trip. That makes sense. Like, I just came to Australia. I can only take 50 pounds, right? Or however much that is in Australia, but I can only take 50 pounds. So I have to really think about what I take. And so you can't take all luggage with you on every trip. And the smallest souvenir from hell will keep you from heaven. And I couldn't believe when he said that. I don't know, what's a souvenir? Anybody want to say out loud? Souvenir. So it's a, it's a memento from someplace that I wanted to remember because I liked it. So it says, the smallest souvenir from hell will keep you from heaven. And so know that each of us have to check our pockets. What souvenirs are you carrying with you? Because we think that something else is holding us back when it's actually those souvenirs in our pocket. And even with The Great Divorce, the theory of The Great Divorce when he wrote that book is there was a belief that all good leads to evil and all evil leads to good, right? So sometimes we have crazy thinking, especially damaged folks have crazy thinking. And we've made belief systems from the time we were kids and we're still trying to live by them, right? And but no matter how much we put right behavior on poor belief systems, it's not gonna change it. So I can, I could do the right thing, try to be the right thing, I can even get a cute dress, but it's not gonna change if I have crazy thinking. I have to go back. I literally have to go back. You can't do a math problem and keep working a problem when it's not working out, just keep adding numbers. Right. to hopefully it will work out. You can't do that. You have to go back and find where the error was, correct the error, and then you can go, go on, right? So it's really important to know that when we actually step into recovery, when we, when we get healing from God, when God gives us a privilege of getting back in our own skin, he begs us, you have belief systems that are not working. He says things like, take every thought captive. Not because he's a control freak, right? He knows that the thoughts that we have can hurt us. So think about what you're thinking about. Thoughts are just words, and words can be changed. When words are changed, your life will change. I mean, God just tells us that. Think on good things, pure things, whatever is holy. It's again not because he's a control freak, but he knows that our thoughts sometimes are crazy, they're negative sometimes, they're full of offenses. And he said, just pay attention to that. Oh, is that my little granny again? I'm sorry, I just adore her. Overcoming shame and doubt. Ephesians 1:3-5. I mean, the whole thing, Ephesians is amazing, but 5 says, for he foreordained us Yes. Well, let me read the whole thing. May blessings be to the God our Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing, with every gift that we need. When I learned that God has given me everything I need, I am nothing. I'm a homeless heroin addict that is just grateful to be alive. And he says, wait, wait, wait, I'm giving you everything you need. Every spiritual blessing is yours during this journey. I was overwhelmed even as he chose us. Shut up! How cool is that? That I was chosen by God, that you were chosen by God. It wasn't a mistake. He's not obligated to just accept us as a whole. He chooses us in Christ before the foundations of the world. I have loved you with an everlasting love. We gotta not read those so quick. I have loved you with an everlasting love. I love that. And you are blameless in my sight, even above reproach before him in love. So he clothes us in the righteousness of God. So he just sees that righteousness, doesn't even see my sins, even as I'm stumbling around in this day. He says, we'll get through this. We'll get through this. This is just one of the belief systems you don't even know you have yet, but I'll get you through this because you are everything to me. For he foreordained us, planned us, planned in love for us to be adopted, revealed as his own children through Christ Jesus, in accordance with the purpose of his will. It pleased him to be kind to us. Stop. That is just too good for me. I just, I just— go ahead, say amen right now. Amen. All right. Oh man. So this is my little granny again. This Gifts to Jesus is an animated book that I'm doing about kids in recovery, and it's from a book called Hind's Feet on High Places. but I— God sent me a graphic artist to do the characters. And I had to get permission to do this book. And the book is about a little girl named Much Afraid. I don't know if anybody's read Heinz's Feet on High Places. But Much Afraid, the first time I read it, I cried my eyes out because I've been afraid my whole life. I've been unloved my whole life. And so, I just related to the character in this book. So I said to my friend, let's get it animated. Let's do a thing and bring it up to date and have the little kid have a cell phone. You know, I mean, you know, just have that. And so she said, no, you can't just do that because somebody owns the right to this book. I said, God knows that we need it, so let's find out who owns it. And so it was a group out of Israel that owns the right to that book. And I called them, got their email, then texted them— I mean, sent an email. And I said, I'd like to animate that book, but I have no money. Oh, wow. So I need you to give it to me at no cost. And the guy was so curious who the heck this was that he texted me, he emailed me back and said, why would I do that? You know, why would I do that? And I said, I told him my testimony. I said, nobody can do Much Afraid better than I can. I've been afraid my whole life. I know what it feels like to be her. And I told him the story. He took it to the board of directors and they sold me all rights to animate for a dollar. A dollar. A dollar. It's so ridiculous. And my friend Katie wrote some music for us. I mean, it just is ridiculous how God brings something together. And so when we look at these promises, we have to look at these promises and just say, what if the Bible was true? Whew. Because we look at that so superficially. But look at it deeper. Look at— take a deep dive into the Word of God and don't let just a memory verse Literally understand what he's trying to tell us. Godly grief. And this one right here, this is my little sister. Remember I said that if she ate a Skittle, her jaw would break. She has no teeth. She's strung out on meth, and she's just damaged beyond what I could imagine. I would have put another picture there, but my picture company said I was in Australia and they wouldn't give it to me. So, godly grief. For even though I did grieve you, At the beginning. So even though when you had to see your sin, when you had to look at your stuff, when you were walking in shame because of the sites you're visiting online, even though I had to grieve you, even though it was painful for you, God is fully aware that our sin, our recognition of who we are, sometimes hurts us. Though I did not regret it, I see that the letter caused you pain. And that's Paul writing through the Holy Spirit. Yet I'm glad now, not because you were pained, but because you were pained into repentance. I can't even work with you until you see it. You don't surrender it to me until you see it, right? So God says, I'm sorry that it causes you pain to actually see who we are. All of us are like filthy rags. And God said, even my girlfriend who I love, she was raised in the church and she, she says, you know what, Sherry, I've never done anything wrong. Right. I think the blood of Christ is overkill on my behalf. I said, can you repeat that? She said, what's funny? I think the blood of Christ is overkill on my behalf. And I said, man, I can't even imagine thinking like that, that I don't need the blood of Christ because I'm just so good. I've never felt that. I was envious for a minute of her, and then I realized she's just unaware. Can we pray that God shows you why he had to die for you? And she said, yeah, of course. And I said, it's going to be painful. Oh. And it was the most painful thing I ever saw, with her to understand her condition, to accept Christ for the first time. So it says, I'm glad, but it brings to repentance so that you turn back to God, for you felt grief such as God meant for you to feel, so that is nothing So you felt that. And 10 says, for godly grief and pain is permitted to direct you, is permitted to direct, produce a repentance that leads into contributions to salvation, into deliverance from evil. It will never bring regret if you stay with it. It will never bring regret. You'll get to the other side of that and you will be grateful that I can walk away from the taught me sometimes as a little girl, right? And I can finally surrender that to God and say, okay, I'm done. But I don't even know who I am now. I don't know how to walk forward because I am so lost in all of this stuff that I don't know— I don't know who I am. I felt like mist. If you walked by me too fast, I would just disappear. And God said, you're not going to disappear. That's good. You're going to be okay. And but I didn't feel that way. I felt crazy. I felt like I definitely didn't fit in with somebody that was from a loving family. I, you know, I just, I didn't. And God said, you know what? I promise you deliverance from evil. It will never bring regret. But worldly grief is a whole different thing. And hopelessness, sorrow, that is characteristic of a pagan world. It's deadly. Yeah. So, if I get into the grief of that, it is literally deadly. But God says the grief that you will feel with the Holy Spirit revealing who you are is just to bring you to repentance. God says, I will never shame you in front of anyone. He didn't do that with the men surrounding the girl caught in adultery. He wrote their sins in the sand. He said, I will never shame you, but I will never, I will never let you just be lost in this denial. I have to, I want to save you. Admitting your sins. I love this. Psalms 32:3-5. There was a time when I wouldn't admit that I was a sinner. I would have said, you guys are crazy. I'm homeless, strung out on heroin with teeth missing, and I could barely read. And I said, what? I don't have any problems. You know, we're just so crazy about that. All day and night, My hand— your hand was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water on sunny days until I finally had to admit my sins to you and stop trying to hide them. I said to myself, I will confess them to the Lord, and you forgave me, and all my guilt was gone. Crazy. Go ahead. Amen. Go ahead. Amen. All right. I have to go through this. I was bought with a price, and my time is up, so I'm just going to go through the next part of this pretty fast. These are my horses and my friends. God gave me horses to work with kids that their parents are in jail or recovery. He gave me 9 horses. I had to learn to saddle them. But, you know, he gave me 9 horses and a ranch and that kind of thing. Who is a God that says, I bought you with a price not to leave you as orphans? I bought you with a price to bless you, right? And you have to know that God rewards people He rewards us. He blesses us. And I'm not talking prosperity gospel because I've never had a dime to actually save, but God has always met all my needs. So it's like, it's amazing to me that we have a God that says, I'm your Father. I delight in giving you the desires of your heart. I get 9 horses. I'm— I have to hire a trainer because like I said, I didn't even know how to saddle them. And so I'm now working with these kids and I said to God, man, thank you for the horses that you gave to these kids to bless them. And he said, hold up. And I thought, what? You think I just gave them to these kids? I gave them to you. And he reminded me, when I was a little girl, I dreamt of a horse, but I lived in a drug house with druggies, with parents who barely gave us Christmas gifts. And he said, I want you to know that I gave them to you you, to bless you. And I thought, who is this God that just loves us so much? So we are bought with the blood of Christ. So then honor and glorify God with your body. And we do it in such a legalistic way. We, so that we, we like, we, we do it in a way that, okay, I've got to be vegan, or I've got to do this or whatever. And he said, no, honor him, fall in love with Connect with him. This is not legalism. This is not saying that God now has a standard and you've got to meet it even if you're white-knuckling every day of your life. He says, I love you. I love you. Don't make this behavioral. I'm your Father. And so I think that that's another thing. Did I hear an amen? Did I not hear an amen on that? Amen. All right. So these are just overcoming. are other scriptures. I got hired when I came off the street. I'm a heroin addict, came off the street. I could barely do anything. And God said, someday you're gonna be working for the church. Could you imagine that? I just laughed my head off. A few years ago, 6 years ago, I got hired by the General Conference to work for Mission for the Cities. We've been all over the world working in different cities. Everybody I work with has a PhD. I have have like hardly anything, you know what I mean? And all of a sudden I think, God, who are you that you can take a homeless heroin addict and let him work with such incredible folks? Because you're God. It's just, it's absolutely ridiculous. And so as a church, first of all, as individuals, because if God is right, we all got souvenirs in our house, in our pockets, in our luggage. And God says, give those souvenirs up, because the smallest souvenir that you hold will keep you from Heaven. So, give them up. Repent. Surrender to God. I don't care how dark your addictions are or how little they are. Satan will keep you from God because of them. So, surrender them to Him. Not because God has control issues, not because He wants you to check this list, because He's your Father and He knows it will keep you in bondage. When I was talking about bondage today, and he's putting together this thing about bondage today and breaking chains and getting you free, then— and that he just gave me this this morning, right? And then I put my dress on and I looked down and I thought, oh, and I thought, God, you are good, because I didn't know I had a dress with chains all over it. So just know that God does set you free from all of these these chains. He makes my feet to be hinds' feet on high places. Yeah. I have to literally climb through things that are so difficult and so hard that it looks like it's impossible. And He says, I will give you hinds' feet. You will be able to climb every obstacle and every mountain that is in front of you because He's God, not because we're so good. And when you look at a hind do that, They can literally leap from crevice to crevice. And He says, you will do that emotionally because of the Holy Spirit. You will do it. So trust Me in your healing. This message was made available by the Dundas Seventh-day Adventist Church. For more resources like this, visit their YouTube page, Dundas Seventh-day Adventist Church. This program has been brought to you by 3ABN Australia Radio. To listen to our Australian programs on demand, visit both of our YouTube channels, 3ABN Australia Radio and Creation Conversations, or search for us on your favourite podcast directory.
