Celebrate Recovery

Nov 21–23, 2007 - comments: 3 -

he world is full of unhappy people. As Christians we are taught and believe that true happiness can only be found in Jesus Christ. But if we are truly honest, we have to admit that sometimes even believers struggle in areas of their lives, and “happiness” is just as elusive for them. What then is the solution? Can true happiness ever be found? God cares about our happiness. Jesus, in one of his best known public discourses-the Sermon on the Mount-told us what it takes to be happy. That discourse has come to be known as the Beatitudes, and every statement begins with, “Happy is he. . .”

Today’s guests have taken these words of Jesus to heart. Rick Warren is the Senior Pastor of Saddleback Valley Community Church. He did an in depth study of the Beatitudes and developed 8 principles that it teaches people about how to be happy. He preached an 8 week series on these principles to his entire congregation back in 1993 which he titled, “The Road to Recovery.”

Our next guest is John Baker. He is presently Pastor of Ministry at Saddleback, but back when Pastor Rick was first preaching this series, he was, despite much success in his career, an unhappy, nominal Christian – a functioning alcoholic whose marriage was in ruin and whose life was a mess. Under Rick’s preaching, John took these principles from the Beatitudes to heart and incorporated them into his life. It worked. Out of this victory came a vision to help other unhappy people-even unhappy Christians-find the success he had found in following the principles in God’s word. That vision resulted the development of a program called Celebrate Recovery.

Rick Warren has said, “God never wastes a hurt.” John Baker is truly a living, breathing, walking talking proof of that. There is no more persuasive evidence of the power of God than a dramatically changed life. God not only helps us overcome the hurts and pain in our lives, but He uses them to help bring recovery to others and glory to Himself. John Baker is only one of thousands who have discovered and yielded to the life-changing power of Jesus Christ – and found true happiness. His life is a testament to the reality of hope for anyone who is hurting.

Click on an above link to listen, or right-click to download the mp3 file. You are welcome to burn programs to CD for personal use or to share with friends and family.

topic(s): Faith, Bible, Family, Addictions, Substance Abuse,

3 comments

1 On Sep 12th, 2007, at 1:21am, Peter Thomas wrote:

My wife and I are missionaries with youth With a Mission in Fortaleza, Brasil . . . we run a project called Urban Missions where, amongst other things we live in and direct a home for ex street boys and run a youth prison ministry in the 6 youth prisons in the city . . .  I have been using your celebrating recovery material for the last few years and it is invaluable in our discipleship programs as the boys seek to discover true restoration in Christ Jesus - We cannot however use the material in it`s published formats - the boys are often 16 years old+ and cannot read or write, have difficulties of a variety of natures and are unable to trust or build relationships in the beginning - is their anyone around the world who has encountered similar difficulties or who has already been able to transpose this God given program into material which could be used with kids like ours?  Or even to be used within a youth prison setting?

2 On Jul 28th, 2008, at 5:51pm, Jan Thomas wrote:

Peter, please email me and I will give you some pointers on CR.  We have been doing prisons/jails for about 10 years now with CR and I work with John Baker.

I may be coming to Sao Paulo in the near future as well.


Grace and blessing,

Jan Thomas, National Director
Celebrate Recovery Inside

3 On Jul 29th, 2008, at 12:56am, Peter Thomas wrote:

Dear Jan,
Thanks for your response - I had forgotten that i had written to you!  We are also members of IBC (Central Baptist Church) in Fortaleza where CR is flourishing in a variety of settings - As I said, our challenge is to take it in a quality form to the yoiuth prisons and also in our work with street kids in restoration - I would love to hear from you or anyone indeed who has the scope to help us!  And if you can come and visit us that would be fantastic - though I should warn you that Fortaleza is about 4 hours flight time north of São Paulo!

God bless you

Waiting futher ideas!

In Christ

Peter

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