Step 6 and the Rocket That Reaches Escape Velocity – Russell S.

My name is Russell Spatz. I love Jesus. I'm going to talk to you about Jesus. I love Jesus. I love Jesus. I love Jesus. I love Jesus. I love Jesus. I love Jesus. I love Jesus. I love Jesus. I love Jesus. I love Jesus. I love Jesus. I love Jesus. it's probably, prior to getting nervous and upset and scared, I'll bet there's been a whole bunch of thinking. And you probably have an old idea that in order to live on this planet, you need to think. And that's not true. I can tell you that's not true. You need to know when to go to the bathroom. Mostly we can figure that out without a lot of thinking, or if you're hungry, when to eat or go to sleep and everything. The rest of the stuff, it's like you don't need it. You don't need to think. So this is a lesser man. By the way, I haven't found necessarily to have a drink since January 25, 1981, so I'm in my 44th year of sobriety. Now, a lesser man put in the position. I was just asked today at Al's Celebration of Life. I told him I was going to do this thing a few weeks ago, but I couldn't do it because I had problems with my wife or something. I'd forgotten about it. So I'm good. I'm glad I'm here today. So today he said, well, will you do it tonight? I said, sure, I'll do it tonight because I had problems to do it before, and I would have done it anyway, you know, any place where I can go to talk about Jesus. And I did it tonight. So I haven't had a whole long time to prepare. A lesser man, without having any idea what he's going to say, would have some form of anxiety or would be concerned about that. You understand? You know what I'm saying? Have you ever asked a new person, you say, you're chairing the meeting. He says, no, no, I'm not ready. I'm not ready, you know. You want to share? No, I'm not ready, you know. It means that's alcohol code for I'm scared. But a lesser man would be actually concerned about going in front of a group of people and not having a clue as to what he's going to say. But not me. Now, that's only partially true because you see I have a little scripture here, but that has nothing to do with what I'm going to say. I got that's what he said. But I have some scripture here just in case, because then no matter what happens, if I read the scripture, that's like that's the pure stuff. You know what I mean? That's all you need to. But but but so it's not totally true. I have an idea, some sort of idea. And believe me, it's very, very flimsy and it's very, very vague as to what I want to talk about. But the truth is. It's not really solid. It all shifts around, you know what I mean? And it goes here and it goes there. And and I sort of figure out what I'm going to talk about. Well, usually after 10 minutes of talking, you know what I mean? I sort of like get somewhere, but I'm not concerned because even though I've only got 10 percent of this deal down. I love the Lord and I just trust the Holy Spirit and he always comes through. Oh, yeah. And I've noticed. I noticed I do a lot better when I walk in here and trust the Holy Spirit to give me the words than if I plan out stuff, because if I plan out stuff, I got to like remember stuff. And I only have two neurons working and they're waving goodbye to each other. So, you know, I'm like senile. So we're going to see how this thing goes. You know, we're going to see. So I'm I'm thinking, by the way, you know, here's. I just want to throw out, you know, I'm thinking, you know, well, Dr. Bob, the good old timers. It says the books. First of all, it says in the big book written in 1939. Rarely have seen person feel as thoroughly followed our path. Their path, the path of the founders was talked about in Dr. Bob, the good old timers. It says the books they found absolutely essential was First Corinthians 13, Sermon on the Mount, the book of James. It was the Bible. As a matter of fact, Dr. Bob, when describing the first things first, then he said, seek ye first the kingdom of God, his righteousness. All things will be added unto you. As a matter of fact, Dr. Bob, if you asked him a question, he would say because there was no big book. What does it say in the Bible, in the good book? So I want to point out something to you. OK, sometimes it's your perspective because I have a new perspective. I've different perspective. My perspective has changed. From. When I had like one month to, you know, like 44, you know, going on 44 years, my perspective has changed. So. So here's the deal. Look at it this way. I don't know if you ever thought of it this way, because all I'm doing is trying to shine a different light on from a different direction so that I mean, if you walk out of there here and say and the only thing you see is you get one thing you say, man, I never thought of that before. And then that's a slam dunk. That's all. That's a home run. Yeah. You know what I mean? Because that's the deal. And if you walk out here with a resentment because you don't like me, I said something to disagree with you and everything. Well, that's exciting for me because then I know I'll be living rent free in your head for a week. You know what I mean? And I know if you're going to stay sober, the spiritual axiom is, you know, whenever you're disturbing, no matter what the cause, there's something wrong with you. So you're going to have to like at some point in time, either drink or go to your sponsor and start writing this. Russell. He's so arrogant. You know, he hurt my feelings. He thinks he knows me and everything like that hurts my pride, my self-esteem. And you guys say, OK, forgetting what he said. You know, where was I wrong? Well, I judged him. I prejudged. I did all that. Then you got to look at your fear. And then somewhere along the line, you'll say, man, he was right. And then then you come up to me eight years. And I say, you know, I used to hate you. And I love you. And so. So anyway. So one of the books was Sermon on the Mount. Right. Sermon on the Mount. So and and. And do you know, this is something I learned. The the first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous was done by Dr. Bob. And you know what he did? He read Sermon on the Mount. He read Matthew five, six and seven. He read it. That was the first meeting. And I suppose they had a discussion afterwards. So now I was thinking about Sermon on the Mount. I'm thinking. Hey. And. I'm thinking about, you know, so Jesus is doing the Sermon on the Mount, which formed the basis, really, for one of the books. That they found absolutely essential. And. But so here's what. First of all. And I do this. I take. Just remind me. Remind me. Sermon on the Mount. What I'm going to come back. So what happens is. They studied for four or five years. And probably, let's face it, for like five, six, ten years after that. Before it got all worded down. They studied. You got the founders. They're all based on the Bible. And then. So they study. A book called the Holy Bible. Scripture. I got some scripture here. And the Holy Bible is written over a period of fifteen hundred years. You understand? Not three and a half years. Bill Wilson wrote the big book. After he had three and a half years. You know what I mean? And. It was written by one guy. Maybe with a little help and input of a few alcoholics. And, you know. You know. Can you imagine? That's why we know it's divinely inspired. Obviously. But. But. So he writes this book. A book. We all follow. And worship. I worship. The book Outlaw Sonamas. Which was written over three and a half years. By a crazy flipping alcoholic. You know what I mean? And Bill Wilson was crazy. I'm not putting him down. He would have told you that. You know what I mean? If he was. You know. You know. But I'm not going to go into that whole stuff about Billy. I used to be really enamored with Bill. Now I'm more like enamored with Bob Smith. For different reasons. I won't go into it. But. Anyway. So. Here. Here we are. The founders are starting. Are studying a book that was written over 1500 years. By 40 different authors. That has survived over 2000 years. Of men of wisdom that were following God. And after reading that book. And studying that book. An alcoholic. Writes a book for three and a half years. That says really have we seen a person feel. It was thoroughly followed our path. And we. We quote. And study. And just. Just. Basically. Lift up. That big book about Boston. But nobody studies the Bible. Nobody studies the Bible. And when we say well. And we're. Open minded. We're open minded. So. So here. See my deal is. I'm a member of AA. And the only reason. The only way. And all that means is that I have a desire to stop drinking. Doesn't even have to be an honest desire. That was good. That. You know. I had a bad Saturday night. I'll go in. I'm a member of AA. Some member of the fellowship of the problem. Because the fellowship is all about not drinking and going to meetings. I know you say it's more. It's not more. People go to meetings because they've been told. If you don't go to me and she'll drink. People go to me and say, say, I needed this meeting. People go to the means is to make sure they're not going to drink. People go to means to help other people. I drink. That's the main thrust. The means. And thank God they're there. I have nothing against that. They go to meetings. But the problem is, is that if the problem centers in your mind, not your body. And if drinking is but a symptom of the disease and the real disease centers in your mind. The problem is, is that not drinking and going to meetings. Not drinking even if your ass falls off. All the stuff we hear in here. Doing the four steps. All the steps and everything. May not rocket you into the fourth dimension of existence and solve the problem. The problem of the alcoholic mind. So you may actually get to a point like it says in the big book. Here and there once in a while. A former drinker says feel better, look better, having a better time. We laugh at that kind of stuff. We know he's going to try the old game again because he's not happy with sobriety. Soon he'll know loneliness is few do. So what do you do when you got ten years like I had ten years and you're sponsoring ten million people and you're speaking at conventions and you're doing the fourth step, fifth step, tenth step, every step of the way. You're doing the fourth step, fifth step, tenth step, every step of the way. You're doing the fourth step of the book. You know what I mean? And you're the banquet chairman for two years. You know, and you're eight years on relay. And you hold every position and you go to three meetings a day. What happens when you got ten years and you're not happy with your sobriety? And you're trying to look for an answer and you go to a meeting and they say don't drink. Go to, just sponsor one more people. Just go to more meetings. Go to four meetings. You know something like that. And you know something? Here's the deal. It actually works. You know that thing that Bill Wilson said, not so much insurance, sobriety is intense work. And when I, at 18 months I was all sorts of crazy and everything like that. I went to, I went to the, down to the hospital. I spoke to a new man there. I was amazingly lifted up on my feet. It's a design for a living that works. And it works. It absolutely works. But what happens when it works and you're propped up like a, like you took a shot of scotch or whatever. What happens when it works and then the next day you want to kill yourself again? What happens when you, I mean it's good for like two, three, four, five, six years. But what happens when you notice that you're not doing it right? You're not drinking, but you're not getting any better. In other words, what happens when you, when you're an alcoholic and you need more, more, more? What happens when you got 10 years and you're not drinking, but you're not getting better and it's gotten to the point where now, believe it or not, you realize you're not getting better because we're self-willed and right. So we really don't think so. So a lot of times we think we're doing well because they're handing us a medallion. I mean, I got double digit sobriety. I got 20 and you're not getting better. And that could actually happen at 10 years. That could happen at 20 years, 25 years, 30 years. That's why they say there will come a time in every alcohol life that he'll have no defense against the first rank. I mean, if you believe the big book, you got to believe every part of it. He'll have no defense. They'll come a time in every person's life. And you know something? It says every person is going to come to this point and there's going to come a time and it doesn't necessarily say it's for guys with three months. It could be for somebody with like five years. It could be for somebody with 10 years. Come a time and every person like that will have no, unless the only solution he has is it's got to come from God. But what if you don't know God? And the reason you don't know God is because you were told that it's not important or it's not stressed. What happens? What do you do then? And you may not learn that kind of thing. And some people, the way they learn it is they drink again. And some people don't just do what Bill Wilson did at 20 years. They drink again. You just start taking LSD. I got a lot of guys in AA. I had a friend who'd start taking Xanax, start taking L. I'm not putting down Bill Wilson. And you know why I'm not putting down Bill Wilson? Because Bill Wilson wrote all about it in an essay that most people don't even read. He said, this is what happened to me. But they want to put Bill Wilson on this pedestal and he's trying to tell you this is what happened to me at 20 years. By the way, you know what he was doing at 20 years? Right around that time, 19, 20 years? That's when they had the conference. That's when they had the conference approved. That's when they had the conference. Around the time either before or after a door when he was taking the LSD. And he was the guy with the longest time in the conference. You ever been to a business meeting? Okay, forget about that. You know? No, I'm not putting down the conference. I'm not putting down traditions. I'm not putting down everything. I'm not putting down the LSD. I'm not putting down the LSD. But if you're stuck in the traditions, you're stuck in the conference, it says you can't talk about God or you can't say whatever the heck it says about Jesus or something, then you can take Dr. Bob's good old times and what they were doing and just throw it on a bonfire somewhere. So what happened was there came a time where I had to join another fellowship. So I'm not, I'm like in AA, but I'm not really in AA. I'm in six step AA. And for me, what six step AA means is I've joined the fellowship where there's, it's not a fellowship of the promise, a fellowship of the spirit. It's a fellowship where there's spiritual unity on God and the necessity of loving the Lord. And guess what? I'm a member of Alcoholics Anonymous and my real reliance has to be on God and that he even shows me how to create, how to create the fellowship I crave, which is this fellowship and all the zoom fellowship and all the other fellowships where I can talk about the Lord and what he's done for me in my life. That's my fellowship. And, and, and I go to a lot of meetings and that's the one I crave and that's what I feed myself on and the Holy Bible and scripture. I do what the founders did. Now I know Bill Wilson, if you didn't read Dr. Bob said Henrietta Sarbeling, maybe we shouldn't talk too much about God because he came from Manhattan. He was very worried. And as an alcoholic, I understand how you're worried about what people think about you. But if you're worried about what people think about you because of God, you will never leave. You will never realize the promise that you lose fear of people and economic insecurity and fear of people is the worst kind of bondage, almost as bad as the booze thing. And so, and so what happens is, is I have to somehow break free. You know that I got to. It's like a rocket going up. You ever see a rock goes up the first stage, it gets up off the ground, starts moving up and that's not drink. That's where you stop drinking. But then the second stage blasts off and reaches something called escape velocity. It goes fast enough and far enough so that it breaks the gravitational pull of earth. The gravitational pull of alcoholism of you goes past that. And then you're. You're. You're. You're floating free. You're just weightless. You're free. You've gone through the arch, by the way. And if you don't fall float free, you fall back into alcoholism. And by the way, when the second stage breaks away, you know the astronauts call that. They say, we have. Separation. And you know, the sixth step says this is the step that separates the men from the boys. That's why they call AA that we know it. They call it a spiritual kindergarten. But it's not meant to be a coffin. It's meant to blast off. Now, Bill Wilson says to Henrietta Seiberling, you shouldn't talk so much about God. She says, Bill, the only reason you're sober is God. If you don't talk about God, you might as well be the Rotary Club. Don't worry about what alcoholics, don't try to please the alcoholics. They've been pleasing themselves all these years. You think about pleasing God. And finally, she said, Bill Wilson agreed. But that's the disease. Our disease, according to, you know, chapter of Gnostics, is that the hackles in our neck. Of course, if a mere code of morals, do the next right thing, you know, good or really bad, mere code of morals, better for us than that, would have helped us sober a long time ago, but they didn't help us. So that's why we had to find a power by which we could live. Now, we are given free of charge undeservedly for no reason whatsoever other than the Lord gives it to us free of charge. It's like when the Israelites crossed the Red Sea and the Red Sea split, you know, split, you know. There's no evidence that that kind of stuff was happening all the time. He might do it one time here, one time. I'm as big as that. You know, it's split. That's God's way of saying, you see what I can do? You see who you're messing with? You know, don't box with God. Your arms are too short. You're just... I've got the power. I've got the power. I've got the power. I've got the power to do that. Well, if I've got the power, and then one day, without doing nothing, you're sitting there saying, I can't stop drinking. I can't envision a life without drinking. I'm obsessed with drinking. And one day, for no reason whatsoever, as a matter of fact, if I was to quiz you and say, why did you stop drinking? And you gave me an answer, you'd be lying. You have no idea why you stopped drinking. You can't say I stopped drinking because I believe in God. I stopped drinking because I went to AA. I stopped drinking. You have no... All you know is one day, you were blind, the next day, you see. One day, you were drinking. The next day, you can't drink anymore. You know what that is? That's the Red Sea for you. You know what God's telling you? If I could do that for you, what else do you think I can do for you? But you're going to have to work for the other crap. You know what I mean? It ain't going to be a freebie. You're going to have to do some stuff. Because I'm a disciplinarian. And you're not disciplined. So I'm going to discipline you. You know what I mean? So that's the deal. What's going to happen there? So that's it. And we were talking about that thing, Martha and Mary. Remember at the home of Martha and Mary? And Mary's... For you that don't read the Bible and don't know that story, well, you got to read it. But they go to the home of Martha and Mary. And Jesus is doing like a step meeting or something over there. And he's there. And Mary's sitting there staring at him. Just staring at him. You know? She can't take her... And Martha's like making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or whatever the hell. She's doing for the folks and everything like that. And she's looking at Mary saying, why aren't you up here helping me? What are you doing? You're just sitting there looking at this guy. And she runs up to Jesus during a break and says, you got to talk to my sister there. She's not helping me. I'm sitting there sleeping over in the kitchen. She's got to do that. And he says, Jesus, instead of saying, you're right, I'll talk to her. He says, Martha, Martha, you're upset about a lot of things. But there's only one thing that's important. There's only one thing. He didn't say there's 12 things, 25 things. There's only one thing that's important. Mary has found that. It will not be taken away from her. And what Mary found is she was staring at Jesus. Doesn't even say she was understanding him. She was staring at him. So here's the deal. So the Sermon on the Mount, let's talk about that for a second. So the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is doing the Sermon on the Mount. I think it's the only sermon in the Bible, Sermon on the Mount. And it's three chapters, Matthew 5, 6, and 7. And I'm thinking, I'm going to read a little something from it. I'm thinking that he was probably talking, he probably wasn't reading it like fast or reading it off paper. He was like just doing it with the Holy Spirit, you know, just talking. It was probably, I'm thinking he was talking slow because somebody was writing this thing down verbatim. You know what I mean? And I think he was talking calmly and slow to the crowd and they were watching him. So, you know, and he said a lot in the Sermon on the Mount. And you know what it says at the very last line of Sermon on the Mount? This is 2,000 years ago. And 2,000 years ago, the men and women that were watching him, just like you guys, there's been no actual change. Crazy like you, crazy like me, okay? So they're watching, they're staring at Jesus. And it says, this is what it says in the Bible. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, but I'm thinking that this is what the Holy Spirit gave me. And it says, and the people were amazed because he's, you know, he didn't speak like the, he spoke with authority, not like the scribes. But personally, I believe there was at least one guy in the audience that said, I think this guy's gonna speak for more than an hour. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, I think this guy's going to speak for more than an hour. You know? At least one guy. Don't you think it's maybe one guy? I'm just saying. Now listen, when Jesus spoke to 3,000 people, I think it was 3,000 people, and said, you need to eat my flesh and drink my blood, it sort of implies this. I think there was at least a few guys that were saying, this guy's killing newcomers. There's no question about it. He's killing newcomers. He's killing newcomers. And this ain't going to work out real well, you know? As a matter of fact, when it says they all thought that, they ran, he turned to the 12 guys there, the 12 sponsees, you know, said, are you leaving? He says, where are we going to go? Where are we going to go? We've given everything to you. And that kind of thing. So here's what the Lord does for me. Okay? So let me tell you how I do this thing. I'm going to read this stuff for you. Because none of that is, whatever I said just now, I didn't even want to talk to you about that. But that's just stuff. You know? But here's what I want to talk to you about. And I'm not even sure what it is. But I'm going to read you some scripture. Because the Bible says, scripture says, Jesus says, my word will not come back to wait. In other words, and I believe that. I not only believe in God, I believe God. I believe if I can somehow put myself in a position at a regular meeting to quote scripture, whoever's out there who's meant to do this, it's like, bam. It's like instant coffee. You know what I mean? I believe that. Because I've seen it happen. I know it's true. So I don't have to do much. I just have to quote scripture. My job is done. Yeah, I got that in there. You know? You know? I mean, Stevie B was at a meeting. I'm sure I said a lot of stuff. Then I pulled out the Bible. And I said, like, one thing out of the Bible. I read one thing out of the Bible. And now we're all here today. You know, that one thing. You know? You know what I mean? So what happens is I'm like a scriptureaholic. And because the 10 years, well, I'll go through this in a second. I hope some of this makes sense. So one of the things the Lord does, so I'm like a scriptureaholic. Because what happens is I start reading scripture. And what happens to me is I'll read scripture. Because I have a workshop every Saturday where I do this. And I have a live meeting on Friday where I do this. And I'll read scripture. And I'm done reading scripture. I may not even. Now, listen to me. I may not even understand what I'm reading. I'm telling you. All this, I don't necessarily understand all this. It doesn't matter. Because I read it. And it, like, it grabs me. There's something in there that I need to know. And I'm intrigued by it. And then I read that. And that leads me to another scripture. And I read that. And I say, whoa, that blows my mind. So I think, that leads me to another scripture. And I read that. And that leads me to another. And the next thing that happens is I got 20 scriptures. And I could go on for another three hours. But I say to myself, I'm pretty knowledgeable about this. I said, I can't get up there and read them. I can't read them the Bible, the entire Bible. So I have to pick out three. And I pick out three. And I don't even know why I picked them out. I said, these are the three scriptures I've got to read. But I know these are the three scriptures I have to read. Because my mind, I believe the Holy Spirit says, read these three scriptures. These three scriptures are very important. And they're going to tell you and them something. And then I'm trying to figure out, well, what are they going to tell them? What am I going to tell them? And he says, don't you worry about it. He says, I'll give you the words. Because that's what Moses said. Moses said, I'll give you the words. All through the Bible, he says, don't worry. I'll give you the words. You know? You know, to Samuel. He says, I'll tell you. One of the scriptures is about Samuel. He says, I'll tell you. I'll let you know. Okay? It's all about guys trusting in God. Because faith is the victory. So here's the game that God plays for me. He gives me the three things to read to you. And then I've got to talk about the three things and what it means to my life and why it's important to me. What it has to do with the sixth step and all that sort of stuff. And I have no idea what I'm going to say. But God, this is the thing. He gives this thing. I'm in front of like 50, 100 people. Whatever the heck. It is. And then I just start talking about it and see whether I can weave a tapestry of the gospel and my testimony that makes sense and you learn something and I learn something. So let me read these three things. I actually have them in order, but I mixed them up so it doesn't matter. So the first one is Samuel from the book of Samuel, Old Testament stuff. Now, let me tell you what the deal is. Saul is king. Bad king. Bad king. They need a new king. So Samuel's the prophet. So God says to Samuel, he says, Samuel, he says, we need to have a new king. We need to have a new king. We need to have a new king. But let me explain something to you. If Saul gets wind that Samuel's going to pick a new king, it ain't going to make Saul happy. He's going to kill Samuel. So that's where we start off. So let me read Samuel. There's something in Samuel. There's something in Samuel. That has something to do with you. There's something in Samuel that has to do with your life and who you are and everything that's going to happen to you. And your job is to figure it out. Okay? Because he wrote this book for you. So you might want to figure this out, what this means. Maybe you'll figure it out. Maybe you'll tell me. Maybe you'll call me up. Yeah, I figured it out. So the Lord said to Samuel. How long will you mourn for Saul? Since I have rejected him as king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil. Be on your way. I'm sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons. He had eight sons. One of his sons to be king. So Samuel, not wanting to follow God, not caring about his own life, because he's imbued with the Holy Spirit, says. But how can I do that? Saul's going to kill me. He will kill me. So the Lord says. Take a heifer with you and say, I have come to sacrifice for the Lord. Tell him you just come there to sacrifice. Invite Jesse to the sacrifice and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate. Now let's get past the fact that the Lord told them the lie. You understand what I'm saying? There's probably a reason for that. Well, when the Lord tells you to do it, I guess. But here we go. Samuel replied. Samuel did what the Lord said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, do you come in peace? Samuel replied, yes. He does what the Lord says. Does exactly what the Lord says. Yes, in peace. I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me. Then he consecrated. Consecrated Jesus and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. So now he's got Jesse there. And supposedly with the eight sons and everything like that, the God's going to show him which one to pick out. That's a big deal, you know. Because the one he picks out that he anoints, that's the one who's going to be the king of Israel. But the Lord said to Samuel, he says, so when he arrived, Samuel saw Eliab. Eliab, big, strong, muscle bound, you know, like Vin Diesel. You know what I mean? And so he thought, surely the Lord's anointed stands here before the Lord. You know, it's like Vin Diesel. Surely this is the guy. But the Lord said to Samuel, now I want you to understand this is a very interesting thing. You're going to run into this when you get involved in inspirational thinking. He absolutely said, this is definitely the guy. This is the guy. That's what Samuel said. But he heard a voice. Something said to him. This is not. The guy. Because you're going to come to a time in your life where you're going to say, this is what I have to do. And a voice is going to come to you and says, no. This is not what you have to do. So, but the Lord said to Samuel, do not consider. This is what he said. And this is something you want to think about. I'm pointing out to you the thing that's important to you. You got to think about this. A lot. But the Lord said to Samuel, do not consider. Would you like to know how, how the Lord, how many of you would like to know how the Lord thinks? You know, you're supposed to think after the Lord. You know, that's what you're supposed to do. You're going to think after the Lord. You know, how, how, how many here would like to know the mind of Christ? Let me tell you something. That's a big deal. That's a big deal. You got, you have the mind of you want the mind of you want the mind of Christ. You got to think how Christ thinks. Has anybody ever growing up or whatever it ever said? Do you sell ever? You know, I used to look at people. I'd say, uh, I never saw a human being who looked as sensitive as I felt. I never saw a human being that looked like they felt as lonely as I felt lonely or felt as disconnected as I felt disconnected. You ever look at people on the outside and you sort of feel like. They got it together or do they doing well and you're such a loser. I mean, you don't tell anybody that and you try to look like them and act. You try to act like, you know what you're doing, but you know, you're a loser, but they all look like somebody gave him the secret. Yeah. You ever think that just by looking at him. So listen to this, listen to this. That's the way you think. That's the way you think for ever, for ever. You don't have to go to meetings to think that way. You don't need a sponsor. Yeah. To think that way. There's no book that tells you things like that. You think that way naturally. You know why? Because you're an alcohol and you're crazy. You're insane. And that's the way you think. And listen, you can't solve that with your thinking. You know, you're like a dead chicken. You can't fix that. How many people like it? So here's what, here's what the law here's, here's what the mind of Jesus is. The Lord is what he says. This is what he told the Lord. It says, do not consider his appearance. His height or his height for I have rejected him. You have no idea what's going on in the mind of these people at three o'clock in the morning. You have no idea. And this is what he says. The Lord does not look at the thing, at the things people look at. Listen to me. You've been making judgments about yourself in this world based upon what you see with your eyes. The Lord doesn't see that. Jesus doesn't see what you see with your eyes. You know, you see a whore. You see a woman at the well, a loser. He sees somebody that's worthy of salvation that he loves. See, he doesn't see what you see. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance. People look at the outward appearance. People look at the outward appearance. People look at the outward appearance. But the Lord looks at, you know what the Lord looks at? The heart. The heart. Somebody, I think it was Cody mentioned up here about the heart. The Lord looks at your heart. Then Jesus called Abba Nabdabab, whatever, had him pass in front of Samuel. Had him pass in front of Samuel, but Samuel said the Lord is not, but Samuel said the Lord has not chosen this one. Jesse then had Shammah pass by. Shammah said, nor has the Lord chosen this one. Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said, Lord hasn't chosen this guy. So he asked Jesse, are these all the sons you have? He says, well, there's, I got the kid, the youngest guy. He's out there. He's like a shepherd. He's with the sheep. He's tending the sheep. Shammah said, send them for him. Send for him. We're not going to sit down and eat dinner or do anything until he gets here. So he said for him, he had him brought in. He was going with health and had a fine appearance and handsome. He had all the features. Then the Lord said, rise and anoint him. This is the one. He had the Holy Spirit with him. You want to have the mind of Christ. You want to have that spirit. You want to get out of thinking about things. You want to stop thinking about stuff. So the next one I'm going to read to you is apparently there's something about all these things that have something in common or some sort of connection. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Here's one. What did that talk about? Talk about the Lord looks at the heart, right? Oh, well, here's Sermon on the Mount, which is the book they found absolutely essential. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Don't look at worldly things. Where moths and vermin do not destroy. But it says, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Where moths and vermin do not destroy. And where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And you know who looks at your heart? The Lord looks at your heart. The Lord looks at your heart. So is Jesus sitting on the throne of your heart or a new car? Is Jesus sitting on the throne of your heart or some man or some woman or money? Who's sitting on the throne of your heart? Who's sitting on the throne of your heart? Who's sitting on the throne of your heart? You know, you know. You know the Lord. You know the Lord. You know the Lord. You know the Lord. You know the Lord. You know the Lord. You know the Lord. And then the last one I'm going to read you is this, and I'm just going to briefly say something about all these things and what happened to me. Okay. This is first Corinthians two. This is from Paul's message of wisdom, Paul's message of wisdom. Before we read this, I just want to say one thing I'm going to one of the books they found absolutely essential was the book of James. The book of James says if you want wisdom. How many of you would like to learn that? Yes. to have the wisdom of God. Wisdom. Okay. There you go. Okay. If you want wisdom, he says, all you have to do, you ready for this? All you got to do is ask. And he'll generously give it to you. He says, but when you ask, you can't have any doubt. You can't have any doubt. He says, you know what it says? The man who has doubt or the woman who has doubt is like a wave in the ocean. He's unstable in every way. That man cannot expect to receive anything. Now that sounds a little rough, but you know, you see, that just sounds a little bit rough. But if you read that and then you read the big book of alcohol synopsis, it says half measures of LS, nothing. It says you got to get rid of the old ideas or the result is nil. You understand what I'm saying? All of a sudden you start saying, wait a second, that's what they said in the Bible. Nothing's going to change. No defect is going to go. You know, if I try to get on that second stage, I want God to remove all my, listen, what is the sixth step that we want? The sixth step is supposedly when we become willing to have God remove all of the things that we want. And that's what we want. And that's what we want. And that's why we're free. God says, I want to remove these defects of character. That's when we become willing, right? So who removes the defects? Well, how do we know that? Well, we know that because in the seventh step it says we humbly ask him to remove it. We don't say I want to get my gossip removed. I want to get this because we don't have the power to stop drinking and we don't have the power to remove these defects. We don't have the power to remove any defect. So yeah, we're powerless. So you're asking, well, we don't asking God, but here's the problem. But on the throne of your heart, you got a new car. On the throne of your heart, you get down and you say the words, but he knows on the throne of your heart. You know, you got a girl, you got a boy, you got love, you got romance, you got your house. You know what you get to receive? Nothing. Nothing. Nada. So here's 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians. When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn't use lofty words. I love this stuff. It just kills me when you read it slow and you read it over and over again. When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn't use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God's secret plan. You know, I didn't use lofty words or impressive wisdom sort of like what I'm doing right now. No, nothing impressive, okay? Just reading stuff and talking. He says, because this is what he says, he says, for I decided that while I was with you, I would forget everything I know except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. Now I don't know what that means to you. Maybe I should do further research. But he wasn't a theologian. He wasn't talking doctrine. All he was talking about was Jesus Christ and why he was crucified. And he said, I don't know. He came to earth in his crucifixion and resurrection. It was all about Jesus. You know? And you know how he started this thing? You know what I said? I said, I'm going to just tell you about what I have. And what I said, I said, we're going to talk about Jesus. That's what this thing is all about. It's all about Jesus. It's not about being smart or being an intellect. It's all about Jesus. I'm going to talk about Jesus. You know what I mean? This is what the Apostle Paul was. He was spreading the word. He was being a witness for Jesus. Jesus said, if you're ashamed of me, I'll be ashamed. It says, I came to you in weakness, timid and trembling. And my message and my preaching was very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. And you ain't going to get no Holy Spirit power if you don't believe in the Holy Spirit. And if you don't believe in the Lord. And if you doubt him. It says, I did this. So you would trust not in human wisdom, not in me, but in the power of God. So, but then comes the next paragraph. I like this paragraph too. I know how that is. My phone's gone off. I thought I turned it off in my pocket a couple of times. I haven't even touched it. It happens. Yet when I am among mature believers, because in here I actually have some mature believers, I think. You guys are mature believers. You don't freak out when I say the word Jesus. But yet when I am among mature believers, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world or to the rulers of the world who are soon forgotten. No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God. His plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began. But the rulers of the world have not understood it. If they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord. That is what the Holy Spirit is. That is what scriptures mean when they say, no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. But, here we go. But it was to us that God revealed these things by his spirit. For his spirit searches out everything and shows us God's deep secrets. No one can know a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit. And no one can know God's thoughts except God's own spirit, except through the Holy Spirit. And we have received God's spirit, the Holy Spirit, not the world's spirit, so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. So when you have the Holy Spirit, when you have the mind of Christ, you can actually see yourself the way God sees you. Maybe not perfectly, but the way God sees you, you see yourself. You know, 1 Corinthians 13 says, it talks about how we see through a glass darkly, but soon more will be revealed. And the longer we're 10 years sober, we're 20 years sober, we're 30 years sober, we're 40 years sober, as it goes along, we start seeing ourselves and our lives and what it all means clearer and clearer and clearer. And you know what happens when the Holy Spirit works on you so you can see your heart and who you really are? You know what? Sometimes you don't see how great you are. More often than not, you don't see how wonderful you are. Sometimes what it shows you is how decrepit and evil you are. Because a man's heart is evil. Sometimes you realize how evil you are and how evil you were and your sins. What happens is you, more than anything, realize how much you need the Lord. And sometimes when you realize how much you need the Lord, you think about Him all the time. You praise Him all the time. You wake up in the morning thinking about Jesus. Yes. All through the day you think about Jesus. You know, you rejoice in Jesus all the time. Maybe that's what you do. And you know something? You go to A meetings, you go to these meetings, you talk about Jesus. You know what happens? You go to A meetings, you talk about Jesus. You know what I mean? And you know what happens? They don't kick you out. They don't do any of that stuff. You know why? Because you're speaking with authority. Yeah. That's it. Speaking with authority, not like the scribe. I'm almost done. Are you pulling the plug yet? Yes. Oh, okay. Because I just have a little... Yeah. Yeah. When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit's words to explain spiritual truths. It says, Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. Who can know the Lord's thoughts? But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. Okay, so I'm going to end it up by saying this. So what actually happened to me, without going through a drunkard, Scripture. At the same time, at the meetings, I was told, Don't talk about the Bible. Don't talk about Jesus. Don't talk about Scripture. So I was given like... Any Scripture I might have received or anything I received from God was like lukewarm stuff. If you read the book of Revelations, you know what God does with lukewarm stuff? He spits it out of his mouth. I crashed and burned mentally and emotionally. Now, I don't know about you, but I speak English. I don't speak any other language. All I speak is English. You understand what I'm saying? And so when I talk to myself, and I don't know what you did, but during the first 10 years, I spoke to myself a lot. I had conversations with myself all the time in English. Sometimes, sometimes, you know, because I'm like Sybil, I had conversations with four people in my brain at the same time. Five different conversations, and they were all me. He said this, he does. Sometimes I just couldn't even keep track of the conversations. It sets up some sort of nervousness. You know what I mean? But that's who I talk to. And with Christ. So if I'm with a group of people, and they don't know Christ or anything like that, and they just know they're crazy, and they're alcoholic, I may drop a word or do something here where I'm talking the way they're thinking. You understand? And I'm sort of getting to them, and then all of a sudden I throw in Scripture. You know what I mean? So, you know, they're liking me because I'm not talking like a preacher, and then next I throw in Scripture. I throw in Scripture, and by the end of the meeting, they want to know, you know, where can I get a Bible? That's what happened with Stevie, although he won't admit it, okay? But that's what happened with Stevie. He was right off of a crack run, and, you know, I was saying all those words, and dropping F-bombs and everything, and I took off the Bible, and the next day he called me up and says, what kind of Bible should I get, you know? But I mean, now, but anyway, so that's what happened the first ten years. The second ten, somebody told me to go to Bible study. I went to Bible study. Well, what am I talking about? I've been going to Bible study ever since then, for 33 years. I go to two, three Bible studies. I join the church. I go to four or five. All I do is study the Bible. And you want to know something? I met these men. And I come to know who Christ was. And I read all this stuff, and I started learning all this stuff, and reading this. And what happened was, over a period of weeks and months and everything, I started thinking of Scripture all the time, thinking of Jesus all the time. And these men, I wondered what they—I wondered what— I may not have completely known Jesus, but I knew people who knew Jesus. And I hung out with people who knew Jesus. And you know what happened? I wondered what they had. Now, listen, when I was drinking in the bars, I'll tell you the truth, and this is the truth. I would see people leave the bar to go home with their wives and family, and they'd say they have to go to church or something like that. They were Christians, you know what I mean? And I would say to myself, in the back of my mind, I'd say, Man, I wish I could be like them. I wish I could believe. But I knew I could never believe, you know, because I was in the bar, and that was my life, and that was my way of thinking. You with me? But I started going to these Bible studies. I started falling in love with these men. I wanted what they had. I was willing to go to Amalek to get it. I hung out with them, and they fed me. And I may not have known Jesus initially, but I knew them, and I knew who they were, and I wanted to be like them. And somewhere along the line, Jesus, like, came. And listen, let me tell you something. I got down on my knees before I stopped drinking, a month before I stopped drinking, and I asked Jesus to come into my life. So I absolutely believe. I believe that the Holy Spirit entered in me, because I did the deal before I even stopped drinking. But you can have the Holy Spirit enter you, and it can be like on hold. It can take a long time, you know, sort of like for that pump to go, you know, to prime the pump. And it wasn't until 10 years I started going to Bible study, and the more I read Scripture, the more I wanted to be like they had, I started having other conversations. All of a sudden, the conversations I had, the conversations I had with myself, I started having conversations with Jesus. You know, all of a sudden, you say something to yourself, and you start quoting Scripture back to yourself. All of a sudden, something happens, and you start thinking about Scripture. You read something in the big book, you think about Scripture. You know, the more you read about Scripture, the more you learn about Scripture, the more you love Scripture, the more Scripture's feeding you, the more you think about Scripture. And it goes more and more and more. And then one day, all you're doing is thinking about Scripture. All you're doing is talking about Scripture. You're in your car, you're playing hymns, it's all Scripture. Everything is Scripture. You know what I mean? You read the big book, you see something, you say, that's Scripture. You know what I mean? And that's the Scripture. And that's the conversation you're having. And then one day, one day, I don't know whether it's five years, ten years, whatever it is, you know, one day, all of a sudden, it comes upon you, and you have the mind of Christ. And you have the mind of Christ. And you're not perfect, just like the Apostle Paul says. When you have the mind of Christ, and when you're talking to yourself about Scripture, and you're reading Scripture, and you're reading the big book in Scripture, let me tell you what happens. The defects, not all of them, not perfectly, they start moving away. Now, you may get some of these defects move away early on, but you know something, it's always the kind of thing, the only thing you get 100% is the fact that the only thing you get 100%, you know, when he parted the river, you get the not drinking thing, 100%. You get the not drinking thing for nothing. That's like a freebie, you know? But the other things, they may go initially, and then they sort of come back. And then they're okay, and then they come back. But they reach a point in time, the more you know Jesus, the more you talk about Jesus, all of a sudden, those things start vanishing, I don't want to say forever, because even the Apostle Paul says, when he says, I don't want to say I reached perfection. Because I understand what he was saying, that guy was an addict from the word go. I do the things I don't want to do, I don't do the things I want to do, what a wretched man am I? I mean, I know what that guy's all about. You know, and they all loved him. They loved the addict, you know, the crazy guy, you know? The guy who says, I love killing Christians, but then again, I don't think it's right. Whatever the heck it is, he was like a little confused until he met Jesus. And what happens is, you find these defects go, and all of a sudden, you're not hating people, you're loving people, and one day, all of a sudden, you find yourself, they read something like, I want to understand rather than be understood. I want to be loved rather than be loved, which is Al, by the way, Al Grossman. That's Al Grossman. He had the, Al Grossman, I can tell you one thing, you want me to tell you about Al Grossman? He had the mind of Christ. He had the mind of Christ, I can tell you that right now. He had the mind of Christ, and the defects go, and they may not go perfectly, because they're not going to go perfectly, you know? Because nobody here is going to get perfect while you're in this flesh and in this world. But I'll tell you something, it could get pretty damn good. You know what I mean? Life can get pretty darn good. And that's when, that's when it's all over. You know how they say, you know, going to A ruins your drinking? You know, knowing Christ ruins your thinking. And then once you know who he is, the heart changes. And once you know your heart, you can discern the heart of other people. And you can discern what's really going on. And you can touch their hearts. You can heal them, which by the way, is what we're supposed to be doing. He's the new employer, he's the father with the children. He's supposed to, we're supposed to be healing people, and carrying this message. That's it for me. My father's done it.