HOPE
Celebrate Recovery Lessons • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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HOPE
HOPE
today we’re going to concentrate on the two most important principles and steps in celebrate recovery
Why have we came?
To share the hope of Jesus Christ with you.
Principle 2: Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that He has the power to help me recover.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.
Step 2: We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
Principle 3:
Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control.
5 Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth.
Step 3:
We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God.
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
Illustration of hands wide open in the air.
I used to think people were crazy.
Until Jesus delivered me.
Shane Pruitt said you’ll always feel like something is missing in your life as long as Someone is missing. His name is Jesus.
I’ve got one verse that I want to give to you today!
37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
Who’s thirsty today?
Let us pray!
I spent my entire life thirsty for something. I just didn’t know what it was.
molested
drugs
women
pornography
bully
which led to 20 years of addiction
homeless, hopeless, needle junkie
4 felonies
show my paperwork.
I was quenching my thirst with all the wrong things.
What are you quenching your thirst with?
You might say Clay why are you telling us this.
15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;
My hope today is to point you to the One that can quench your thirst and radically change your life.
One of my very favorite parables is in Luke 15, the story of the prodigal son. Though the story is about a father’s love for his lost son, it is really a picture of God the Father’s love for you. God’s love is looking for you, no matter how lost you feel. God’s searching love can find you, no matter how many times you may have fallen into sin. God’s hands of mercy are reaching out to pick you up and to love and forgive you.
H stands for HIGHER Power.
H stands for HIGHER Power.
Our Higher Power is the one and only true Higher Power and He has a name: Jesus Christ!
In the past you may have believed in Jesus’ existence and you may have even attended church. But what you will find in Principle 2 is a personal relationship with Christ. You will see that Jesus desires a hands-on, day-to-day, moment-to-moment relationship with us. For He can do for us what we have never been able to do for ourselves. Romans 11:36 (TLB) says, “Everything comes from God alone. Everything lives by his power.”
Many people today believe their doubts and doubt their beliefs! Have you ever seen an idea? Have you ever seen love? Have you ever seen faith? Of course not. You may have seen acts of faith and love, but the real things —the lasting things — in the world are the invisible spiritual realities.
This leads us to the first four words of the second step: “We came to believe ...” Saying that we “came to believe” in anything describes a process. Belief is a result of consideration, doubt, reasoning, and concluding.
In 2 Corinthians 12:9 (PH), Jesus tells us, “My grace is enough for you: for where there is weakness, my power is shown the more completely.”
The next letter in hope is O, which stands for OPENNESS to change.
The next letter in hope is O, which stands for OPENNESS to change.
What is the process that leads to solid belief, which leads you to change your life? Let’s look at the first four words in Step 2 again: “We came to believe . . .”
• “We came ...” We took the first step when we attended our first recovery meeting!
• “We came to ...” We stopped denying our hurts, hang-ups, and habits!
91 / Lesson 3: Hope
• “We came to believe . . .” We started to believe and receive God’s power to help us recover.
Hope is openness to change. Sometimes we are afraid to change, even if our past was painful. We resist change because of our fear of the unknown, or, in our despair, we think we don’t deserve anything better.
Here’s the good news: Hope opens doors where despair closes them! Hope discovers what can be done instead of grumbling about what can’t be done.
Throughout your life you will continue to encounter hurts and trials that you are powerless to change, but with God’s help you can be open to allow those circumstances and situations to change you —to make you better — not bitter.
Ephesians 4:23 (TLB) gives us a challenge to that end: “Now your attitudes and thoughts must all be constantly changing for the better.... You must be a new and different person.”
How will you do that?
The letter P tells us about POWER to change.
The letter P tells us about POWER to change.
In the past, we may have wanted to change and were unable to do so; we could not free ourselves from our hurts, hang-ups, or habits. In Principle 2, we understand that God’s power can change us and our situation. Philippians 4:13 (TLB) confirms it: “For I can do everything God asks me to with the help of Christ who gives me the strength and power.”
Power to change comes from God’s grace. You see, hope draws its power from a deep trust in God, like that of the psalmist, who wrote, “Lead me; teach me; for you are the God who gives me salvation. I have no hope except in you” (Psalm 25:5, TLB).
In Principle 2, we begin to understand that God’s power can change us and our situation. And once we tap into that power, right actions —Christlike actions —will follow naturally as by-products of working the principles and following the one and only Higher Power, Jesus Christ.
The last letter in hope is E: EXPECT to change.
The last letter in hope is E: EXPECT to change.
Remember you are only at the second principle. Don’t quit before the miracle happens! With God’s help, the changes that you have longed for are just steps away. Philippians 1:6 (TLB) expresses my heart: “I am sure that God who began the good work within you will keep right on helping you grow in his grace until his task within you is finally finished on that day when Jesus Christ returns.”
You know, you can’t do anything unless you get started, so how much faith do you need to get started?
Matthew 17:20 tells us, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
It’s reassuring to know that you do not need large amounts of faith to begin the recovery process. You need only a small amount, “as small as a mustard seed,” to effect change, to begin to move your mountains of hurts, hang-ups, and habits.
Are you thirsty ?
Better yet. Maybe you think God is done with you or maybe you don’t have a belief.
July 13 2018 prison
january 10 2019 probation story
emphasis staying clean
July 21 2019 salvation
We are not defined by what we did wrong! We are defined by what Jesus did right!
On July 21st, 2019 God reconciled me to Him!
On that day Jesus radically changed my life.
HE TOOK ALL MY SINS AND NAILED THEM TO THE CROSS!
He gave me a new wife and a new family.
On August 24th 2019 He allowed me to marry Natalie Johnson.
My daughter was the maid of honor.
Fletcher, my son, was the best man.
River was the flower girl.
August of 2020 God allowed Natalie and I to buy our first house. He restored my fiances and my credit.
January 5, 2021 God allowed us to start Cordele’s first and only Celebrate Recovery.
Countless people have found Jesus, been baptized, and discipled through the 12 steps.
Men and women have laid down the needle and picked up a Bible.
In 2021 God allowed me to adopt Fletcher as my only son.
In 2021 God called me to start a men’s residential Christ-centered recovery home and placed a phenomenal team of board members around me.
In January 2022, God called me to go to school.
I now attend the Baptist College of Florida online and I am currently working on an associate of divinity.
April 17th, 2022, God called me to surrender to ministry.
October 2, 2022, God called Ebenezer Baptist to ordain me into ministry.
In December of 2022, God made a way for Peniel Recovery Ministries to get their 501c3 status.
God then allowed a partnership with Thrive Church and the recovery ministry in Omar Heights.
On January 29, 2023, God called Ebenezer Baptist to commission the Johnson family as local missionaries to minister through Thrive Church, Celebrate Recovery, and Peniel Recovery Ministries.
On February 5, 2023, I preached my first sermon at Thrive and my beautiful daughter, Clara Mae, was there. This is the same beautiful daughter I abandoned during my addiction. My daughter told me that that morning she truly forgave me.
On February 10, 2023, I received a letter from probation releasing me from probation 7 years early.
What is the secret to what some would see as success?
His name is Jesus!
100 % sold out obedience.
Jesus wants to do this in and though each of you.
Will you allow Him?
He wants to make you a new creation through reconciliation.
He wants you to be an ambassador for Christ.
4 take a ways for bouncing back and being of value through restoration. (I stole these from the mens conference)
Every past failure is preparation for some future opportunity.
Don’t turn your moment into a monument.
Don’t allow your history to control your destiny!
If you live in the past, you die to your future. BOUNCE BACK!
So we’re back to the original question. How many of you are thirsty?
How many of you are sick and tired of being sick and tired.
Maybe your drinking from the wrong well.
Let me tell you a few facts.
You’re not too lost for God to find
You’re not too dirty for God to cleanse
You’re not too broken for God to fix
You’re not too hurt for God to heal
Your’re not too far for God to reach
You’re not too guilty for God to forgive
you’re not too sinful for God to save
37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
Invitation which well are drinking from