pod 3 - pt 2

The conversation starts with a discussion about the speaker's personal experiences, including getting expelled from school and finding faith in Christ. They then transition into a conversation about addictions, specifically focusing on lust and how it can lead people away from God. The speakers discuss the importance of running away from temptation and combating the devil's influence. They also emphasize the need for accountability and taking practical steps, such as blocking certain apps on their phones. Overall, the conversation revolves around personal experiences with addiction and the importance of staying faithful to God. up close on to like a wide dot on one of these. You are my son. Alright, everything's rolling. Do you remember what we were talking about? Um... We'll start the actual recording soon. It is. Um, it was... What was it? I think we should just go into the first section maybe now. I'm not done. I haven't even encountered Jesus yet. Well, we were saying something about um, you're waiting for God, but you won't take action in your own life. Yeah, um, and then we cut to... After I got expelled. Okay, we'll just say it. Clap when you're ready. Yeah, so, got expelled from school, and then got to the point where I just had to go back home. Um, after I stayed at my grandparents' for three months. And then um... You had another school after that? Yeah, I went to... I didn't say it. I technically did. I'll go again. Yeah, so then, um, got expelled and then, uh, just had to go home because there was nowhere else to go. Um, and then I went to another school. So I was off school fully for about three months. Oh no, months, sorry. Well, technically it was three because it was like end of the year, like term four. And, uh, went back to school in term one of year ten. What are you laughing about? No, there was like a stroke in the mic. Yeah, there was like some hollowness. It felt like I was in a cave for a second. Who, me? You had this mic off, like ambient. Yeah, it was like... It was like... Yeah, anyway. And then... And then, um, yeah, so, went to this school. Um, and then about this was um, about halfway through the year, um, I, you know, fully decided to follow Christ. Um, so did the, you know, put your hand up in youth thing. Um, started going to church regularly, reading my Bible. So good. Yeah. It was about then, wasn't it, when I started coming regularly? Yeah, I would say so. I remember it was like you got more involved into youth and then... Like volunteering and stuff. Yeah, and then you wanted to do church. And then I remember you started going to church. Yeah. But then, you know, I volunteered. I think I did first two weeks I actually came to church, like, because I was coming to church. Um, was because of volunteering. Because like, I'd come a couple times, but it was very staggered. You know, I'd come like a month and then it'd be two months until I went again. Um, first two weeks I was volunteering, doing stuff. And then I think that's what, you know, because I was like, oh, this is actually cool. Yeah, yeah. Because I had been in church, like, not all my life, but most of my childhood. Yeah. Um, and well, I went to um, I went to a Baptist church and it just wasn't, it wasn't my thing. I have nothing against Baptists, by the way. I'm just, it wasn't, it wasn't my thing, right? Yeah. I do. Oh, no. Jesus. I went to a Baptist church. I went to a Baptist church. So did I. I went to a Baptist church. Anglican. I didn't go Catholic, thankfully. Did you go to Jehovah? Jehovah Witness. Or Mormon. Mormon. No, right? Yeah, I was that guy at your door, do you want to hear about Jesus Christ? Alright, keep going, keep going. Um, and um, yeah, so then, you know, I came to church. Um, so I come in, you know, gave my life to Christ, and then, um, it took me a long time to realize that I went through what I went through, because God put me through that. Because then people started coming into my life that were dealing with similar stuff that I was. Um, and um, so like, for example, vaping, and I still struggle with vaping. Should we go into the addiction session now? We'll leave this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll leave this. So we'll go into our first session now, um, speaking on addictions. Um, I might bring a little bit of my addictions. But my addictions, my addictions are like, weird. They're not like, like, drugs, or like, alcohol. You guys are like, I'm going to say something quacky as hell. Like, I have an addiction to eating paint, or something like that. I don't know. No, my, I, we'll get into it in a second. But um, how do you think addictions like, led you away from God? Well, because any addiction you do, like, you know, watching porn, vaping, smoking, drinking, um, even swearing. I know a lot of people that are Christian that swear. Like, okay, okay, yeah, this isn't, this isn't, I'd say it's, it can be an addiction. Um, but also, um, I feel like for some people it's also, if you've been a non-Christian, and you've been swearing and stuff, because your mind, your mind after, especially, this is how porn addictions work. You, what happens is, um, I don't know if people have seen that video where that bird thing, um, it goes up to this like, blob on the floor, you know, sucks it up, that's what the addiction is, and then, you know, it has a high, falls down, hits the ground pretty hard, and then, um, it finds another one again, keeps doing it, keeps doing it, and it doesn't have the same effect. And what porn does, is you will, um, He's smiling at me! He's told me, he's told me. Are we seriously laughing about this right now? No, no, no, I'm not. Um, Do you go on? Yeah, so what happens is, and then your brain starts to be like, oh, it's okay, because I feel good about it. That's any addiction, you know, any of the ones I just named, because you start to feel good about it, and like, because you know, um, every Christian deals with lust. That's one of the biggest struggles. Well, look at, like, even, like, the most, like, like, like, important people in the Bible, deal with lust. David? Oh my god. Alright, half the guys in the Bible, like, you know. And it's the one thing in the Bible where it doesn't say fight it, it says run from it. Yeah. I've done enough in preparation. It says, like, dip. It doesn't say, oh yeah, fight it. It says, nah, get the heck out of that one. Yeah. Run away. Because it's so, it full, like, it just governs you, because it's your flesh. It's like, oh, I need it, I want that. Which sucks, because I've seen in, like, relationships in my life, when lust gets into it, it ruins it. Oh yeah, it falls apart. Because then you're not doing it out of love, you're doing it out of this thirst that your flesh is wanting. You get what we were talking about earlier, Jesse has a very short attention span. Oh my days. Yeah. Dopamine. Yeah, dopamine. Just, you know, doing something that makes you feel good, puts dopamine into your head. But flee youthful lust and follow after righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of pure heart and aversion. And it's like, all of those things are, like, lust is, like, the opposite of all of those. Like, righteousness, where you're looking at, like, a woman, somebody made in the image of God with, like, your own, like, worldly intent. And that is, like, so convicting when you're, like, it's a person that was made in the image of God and you're, like, legit porting them down to, like, a piece of trash when you look at them in a lustfully way. It's legit, like, looking at someone as, like, plastic. It's, like, you're not actually respecting, which is hard, and it's super convicting, and I'm not saying that, like, yeah, don't be like that. Like, that's something for me as well. I still battle with lust and I feel like every person does in their own different ways and forms. But the one thing God has reminded me in that is to get away from lust is, like, you legit, it's run away from the lust but fight the devil, you know? Like, say to the devil, I'm not doing this, you know? Like, you're not going to take me on. But with the lustfulness, like, if it's on TikTok, delete it. If it's on, even if it's on your phone, like, legit, just, like, drop it for a couple seconds. Or even if it's at night, just go to bed. Like, no matter what the time is. Like, you need to run away from it, but also combat yourself against the devil. But whatever the devil is using to get to you, just get rid of it. Yeah, like, if you're scrolling before you go to bed, you're asking for it, bro. Yeah, you're literally asking for it. If some, you know, sus TikTok or Instagram reel comes up, not ours, watch ours before then. Yeah, yeah. Watch Cliff and, um, like, George and all those other guys. Um, yeah, like, because I know probably some of us here have struggled with this before, you know? Something comes up and then you're like, yeah, that dopamine hit. And, you know, you feel good for a bit because you've just seen something that is appealing to our flesh. And then, um, you know, that leads to other things. And I think that's why it's really good to, one, have, you know, I have blocks on my phone for certain apps. Yeah. Um, and also, even if you don't struggle with porn addictions or anything, have, like, something that blocks it completely that you can't turn off, because like, you never know. Like, you seriously never know. If you're like, oh, I'm never gonna watch it, blah, blah, blah. Like, I used to say, I'll never drink, I'll never smoke, I'll never, you know, blah, blah, blah. What have I done? I've done all those things back in the past. Yeah. I think... Oh, you go, you go. I'll be quick. I'll be quick. Um, I feel like it's so important to, like, take, um, realize that the enemy is actually, like, speaking, like, attacking you through these things. It's so easy to think, oh, these are my thoughts. Like, I'm, like, my flesh wants to do this. But, like, the devil is, like, prompting you to do this. He's working through these things. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, I'm so glad I actually talked about this because I feel like this is the one topic that, especially with guys, we're just, like, bro, like, why are we talking about this? Yeah, we get scared to talk about it. Yeah, because it's, it's, like, it's so convicting. Like, it's, it's legit to, it's, like, it honestly puts you, it, it gets you and puts, it, it, like, shows your lowest level. Yeah. It's, like, looking at yourself because when you go out in public, you're not gonna be, like, showing yourself at that level. And when you go out to your friends, your family, you're not gonna be showing yourself at that level. But to be open about it, which I'm happy we're talking about it, because I feel like through this, a lot of people have the encouragement to confess about it. Yeah. As we said last week, confessing your sins is so important. And it helps other believers. Like, I think it says in Romans, or Acts, I don't know. Yeah, because you can relate to it. Yeah. Because that's what's helped me, is, like, having someone that you can relate to makes it so easy to, to talk about the battles. Yeah. And I know we're on a podcast somewhere, you know, kind of being a bit vulnerable, but you don't have to be on a podcast or up on a platform or, or in front of a bunch of people to be vulnerable. You can even just be vulnerable with God. Because even though He knows, you know, what you're struggling with, you, you can still be vulnerable with Him. Even just to say it. Yeah. Like, it puts you down to a level. So after you do that kind of stuff, you, like, the temptation is to want to hide. Yeah. Like, out of any, like, um... Yeah, like, hiding in the bushes and stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh my God. Like, oh, like, I feel like the enemy tells me so often after I, after I fall into temptation, it's like, oh, God's, like, you're worthless. God, God doesn't, like, He's not going to forgive you for this. Like, you've done it one too many times, but... Yeah. It's such a lie. Bro, I used to, like, when I made a mistake when I was a kid, I was like, I used to, like, tell myself, like, I used to have this thing in my head, I was like, tomorrow's not going to be a good day. Oh, God, he'll get so angry at me. He was like, I was like, oh, no. I used to... I messed up. Yeah, I used to think, I used to think he gave me headaches from doing... Really? Yeah, I used to actually think that. That headache for Trent? Yeah. No, I actually used to think that. He's done it more, two times, headache. But, yeah. No, just don't drink enough water. But, going off of porn and lust addictions, I haven't dabbled with addictions with alcohol and smoking. Can you speak on that? Sure. Yeah, yeah. If you don't want to speak about it. The main way that people get into this stuff is because you get influenced by the people you're around. So, the world. Yeah. So, look at who you hang around. I'm not saying, like, especially once you turn 18, there's nothing wrong with going down to the pub and having a beer. But, you've got to you've got to limit it. Because what happens is when you get drunk or you, you know, get high, stuff like that, why do you think people do stupid stuff? It's because the devil's... you're in a vulnerable spot, so the devil, you know, gets at you. You get caught lacking. Huh? You get caught lacking by the devil. Yeah, you get caught lacking by the devil. So, I'm not going to say if you're at a party, don't drink, because I understand how hard it is, especially if everybody else is doing it. That peer pressure. Yeah. I'm not going to say don't drink, but I'd say you know, limit it to how much you have. I think it's like a snowball effect. Yeah. You start off small and then you get more and more and more. But if you know you have that self-control, like, yeah, I know there's a lot of people that are going to be like, you shouldn't drink at all before you turn 18. But, there's some, you know, you're at a party, right? You're getting peer pressured by everyone to, oh, just one drink, just one drink. And if they do keep saying, oh, just another drink, and they keep doing that, obviously, you can stand up and be like, no, I'll just have one, that's all right. I've got a verse for this. And also, while you look for it, I was thinking also, as a Christian, we should be like, obviously, at that point, you weren't. Obviously, we're not perfect. I could easily do that. I'm not saying I wouldn't, but I think it's important that you recognise that you're not being around the people that you want to be around as a Christian. And then, obviously, excluding yourself from that environment. Obviously, it's good to have non-Christian believers, but don't let their habits and stuff influence you and draw you away from God. One thing that I've dealt with the world, like the complex of being Christian in the world, is not with alcohol and smoking stuff. But the one verse that speaks about this is in Romans, chapter 12, verse 2, it says, And I feel like for me, I've had addictions. It's a weird addiction. I had an addiction of just doing what would help me get more friends and helping me relate to people and also belong. I had a lot of things growing up like belonging with people and finding the group for me. Yeah, yeah, definitely fitting in. And this verse is legit saying I feel like everyone has a longing to fit in, and it's good to fit in, but make sure you're fitting in with a group that will build you up in a relationship with God. Because I feel like to fit in a group with that, you don't have to have the requirements or absolutely anything in your life needed to fit in because we all are imperfect and we all are sinners, and we all want to go to God. And with this, it says, then you will learn to know God's will for you because it says that He will transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. We're only transformed when we change the way we think. When we go into a situation of lust, if we go into, like, maybe just one more time, I've already seen this woman, I'm already done, I'm already in the depths, I can't do it anymore. If you tell yourself that, you're done. It's like, um, Simon Peter, when he was in the water, when he was walking over, he was like, I have faith in God. But as soon as he saw the waves, and he shifted his focus on what is the truth, and what is having that faith and trustfulness in God, that was when he began to sink. When those things come, you have to change your thinking to say, no, I'm a man of God, this isn't who God has made me, I am stronger than this, and that's when you'll say things change. You have to change the way you think, same with alcohol, and same with absolutely any addiction, you have to go into those being like, remembering who God has made you, and knowing that I am, like, um, there was a person that told me recently, like, we are aliens in this world as Christians. We move away from the world. We are like, we are different because we don't follow, and when we talk about the world, we're not talking about people. I think a lot of people messed it up. It's not people. I would say the world is almost like a movement. Like, the world is almost like we wear... Like following the trends. Yeah, it's like, we wear these specific, I wear these specific pants because it's like a trend I like, or I wear this shirt because of a team I support. And there's nothing wrong with, you know, liking fashion. There's nothing wrong with it, yeah. Liking fashion, or, you know, liking movies, or, there's a lot wrong with that. But, um, but, like, there's nothing wrong, like, we were talking about this about two episodes ago, about, um, you know, uh, putting stuff above God's, like, video games. There's nothing wrong with those things. It's, there's something wrong with them when you put them above God's. It's when you're following them. Yeah, like an example is if you're, um, buying clothes, but you're not tithing at church. I'm not saying if you're a Christian you don't have to tithe at church, but if you're a regular at a church, right, and you have the money to tithe, but you'd rather spend that on either, you know, food or clothing, then that's when it becomes a problem, because you're putting it above God. Yeah. And it doesn't just have to be tithing. And also, it, like, changes the way, like, if it's changing who you are, have you ever noticed that esches have the same look? It's because they're all trying to follow a movement. Yeah. What makes them fit in with those things. It's when they've all despawned, though, right? Yeah. No, that is true, that is true. Um, I feel like definitely for me, I've had that with money. I mean, it's been, because I bought a car, and I feel like for a while it was, it took up so much of my brain space, and it's like when you think about it, it's just a worldly thing. It is. I had to change my whole mindset around it. I know a lot of people who really um, good Christian friends who struggle with um, like material stuff. Have you ever noticed, like, people sometimes build their whole personality, I think we spoke about this, like their identity, like laughing over these things. Um, in a world, like, the world will try to make you into things that aren't God. That's what the devil does. When the devil sees you are pursuing God, he'll say, no, maybe you should actually pursue this instead, because then you're moving away from what God has called you, and you're moving into what the world is like. No, I think you would fit into this criteria, and into this area. Um, and for me, I wanted to fit in with everyone, so I was always changing myself, and that was an addiction I got, is I was different in front of every single person, because I was just trying to fit in with the people around me, and that's where I messed up. And then when I was actually myself, and I was a Christian, I saw people leave my life, and I saw people hate me. Um, it says in a verse here, I'll find it really quickly, it actually says in the Bible that the world will actually hate you. Um, and that, and it's in 1 John, it's in 1 John. Well, Christians get persecuted every day. Yeah, all around the world, and they did back then, like, look how the disciples died. Like, they all died for believing that Jesus died and rose again. Um, happy Easter, everyone. Um, but it says in 1 John chapter 3, verse 13, it reads, So don't be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life, but a person who has no love is still dead. Anyone who hates another brother is really a murderer at heart. So that goes into a whole other part about, um, hate and a bunch of other things. Oh, yeah. We can keep going, we've got 5 more minutes. What were you saying, Jesse? So, the world hates us, um, and the world hated Jesus. Look, like, God said he's one and only son. What happened to him? He got persecuted. He got the worst punishment. He was tortured. The building block, the build is rejected, now the building is owned. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's crazy, because, like, a lot of people think that, um, Christianity is like this, like, oh, it's perfect harmony. It's living life to the amazing. It's because life is amazing. Life is amazing as a Christian, but the world isn't going to like you for that. The world isn't going to be like, oh, heck, yeah. They're going to be like, heck, no, I don't want to live like that. I want to govern my life. It's like that, um, that analogy of, of who do you really give as the king of your life? Is it Jesus, or is it you? And I feel like it's always changing, for my life at least, yeah. Yeah, I'm not saying, like, we're not saying everybody that you meet is going to want to, is going to hate you, because you're a Christian. I don't know, you have a lot of good non-Christian friends, and so does Seb, probably. I had such a good experience at work the other day. I was like, um, some random, some random donny, um, and I was like, oh, he was asking me what I wanted to do after school, and I was like, oh, I want to do mission work. And he's like, what's that? I was like, I want to be a missionary. I was like, bro, that's sick. I don't think it's Christian, but still, like, Yeah, like, we all have friends that are non-Christian, but, you know, it's really good if you have non-Christian friends that respect, you know, um, your faith. And you don't even have to, like, it's, the reason why I think it's great to have non-Christian friends is you don't have to be, it doesn't have to be all faith-based with them. It's good to sow into them, but it also means you can just take them out, you know, go grab a coffee or something, and you can just talk about life. You don't have to, you know, talk about church or, you know. Like, with the podcast, I noticed that, like, one thing I've noticed, um, growing up with guys that aren't Christian is a lot of them are looking for something that is Jesus, that we know is Jesus, but to them, like, they still don't know, and sometimes it's just sowing that seed. It's not being like, here's a Bible, here's a Bible, do this, do this, do this, and then you'll find Jesus. It's not being that. It's just being that one representation of what God has done in your life that will influence them, what could happen to theirs as well. They'll see that you're different as well. Yeah, because I've seen a lot of guys that aren't Christian listen to the podcast, which is amazing, because that's exactly what we want to see. And we also want to see Christians watching as well, because this isn't just something made for Christians, this is made for everyone. No matter who you are, or what you're doing, or where you want to go, this is showing what God has done in our lives at our young age, and what God can do in yours as well. But, um, I think it's really important, though, how good it is to have non-Christian friends, because you don't want to be, we were speaking about this recently, in the last episode, you don't want to be sheltered by Christianity. Yeah, it's like, so I was homeschooled for a bit, and then, like, you're very sheltered when you're homeschooled, because you don't see anybody. It's like you're Mormon. But... Is that Mormon? No, that's Amish. Amish, yeah, yeah. Amish Wi-Fi won't be kind of sick, though. Yeah, no Wi-Fi, no nothing. Yeah, they don't un-breathe, anyway. But, um, like, I forgot what I was going to say. It's alright, because we've got to cut anyway. Oh, okay. We'll just cut that whole section. The Mormon. Alright, so what's the next bit? I think we should just do, I feel like addictions and trustfulness in God is both over-going with being a Christian and a non-Christian. So I think this second part, we move into trustfulness with faith, and then we'll just end it there. Trustfulness and faith. Having trustfulness in God, I mean... I feel like we've already talked about that. Isn't that, isn't having trustfulness in God faith? Yeah. We did a whole episode about that. I think we should just keep talking about addiction. I think we should just do a whole episode about addiction. I think, yeah, then maybe cut out the bit where I speak about addiction. I'll ask you how you feel like God helps you, like, what things that he's moved you out of. I think if we just keep asking questions, we'll keep the flow, because that second part, our flow was so much better, we were just asking questions. I'm not going to export it now, but it's on there. Okay. And I'll use this one. Mum said, do you want me to go to Al-Jama and pick up food? Yes, please, mummy. Mummy. I told her we'll pay her back. Tell her everybody's bringing 10 bucks. She's trying to bring 20. I'm just going to run to the toilet real quick. How much freaking days left? Mummy, this stupid fucking thing. I swear to Allah, it's What is it doing? Wrong. I tried uploading that to the internet, and then the audio got copyright striked. Same with that other video. It happens all the time. Because what happens is, the reason why I was upset about doing it, so the reason why I was upset about doing it, is I get these ideas in my head, and if I don't do it, that would just, it won't happen. I have like a full folder on my phone, which is just like, which is just, it's all like edit ideas. I swear. Would you guys rather burgers or chicken and chips? Chicken and chips. Banging. Please mum. Please mum. Please mum. Who's coming? Us three. Um. I know Jack and Oscar. One, two, three, four, five, six. Is Andrew coming? I don't know. Is Nathan? Yeah. Oscar's probably in. I don't know. I don't think Alastair and Jess are coming. I haven't even met Alastair yet. Is it us though? I think I'm going to talk more about the world in the second part. I've got a lot of verses about the world. Steven, could you load up the first clip on my laptop and just show it to me just so I can lay out the camera? What did I just say? You were reading a bible verse and you were saying non-Christian friends and stuff like that. I might just go into a new one. What is it on? It's on my desktop. It's the video on the right. The far right. I'm in my video. I'm in my video. On the far right, Andrew's sick ass. Just click that one. Alright. Guys, we've got seven years today. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...