Episode 035 || Strength to Walk Away

Well, hey there, Pando family, welcome to the SE Online Pando exclusive podcast, where every week we come to you and talk through the weekend's message. And we're just so, my name is Brandon. I'm part of the SE Online team, and we just want you to know that wherever you're at, we're so glad that you're joining us. We're so glad to have you as part of our SE Online family. But today I am not alone. I have Matt Robison here with me. You guys know Matt. We've had him with us a couple of times here in the past. So Matt, just in case someone's jumping in for the first time, if you don't mind, introduce yourself. Kind of let everybody know what you do around here. Yeah. Love it. Yeah. So Pando, so good to be back with you guys. So my name is Matt Robison. I'm a pastor here at Southeast. I lead our Southeast recovery team. I'm a person in long-term recovery. I'm a recovering alcoholic and drug addict. And in our recovery team, we support treatment centers, jails, prisons, and sex trafficking stabilization shelters with worship gatherings and discipleship curriculum, and really just focus on how do we help connect people to Jesus as part of their long-term recovery. Very cool. Very cool. Well, Matt, I know one of the things you guys have been working on, and I think the last time you were on here, you were talking through the Pathways curriculum that you guys have recently launched through SE Recovery.

And I was just wondering if you could share a little bit about that. Yeah. And I know it's been out about a month, two months now? Yeah, a couple of months now. Yeah. We were really, really excited for that to be available on Pando. And so hopefully you guys have been able to check that out. If you haven't, this would be a great time to jump into it. You know, our Pathways was really centered around people that are trying to connect to Jesus and they want to get sober, and they've tried to do that, and they've had a hard time with that. And they want to look at what long-term recovery looks like, and also bridging the gap between some of the recovery-based resources and what's the Bible say about things. And so we created Pathways. It's lessons video-based with a worksheet that you can follow along with. All of the episodes are up on the app right now on our Southeast channel. Would love for you to check those out. Like if you're looking for a next step, if you're looking for something like, hey, I love the worship services, it's really good, I enjoy the podcast, you know, learn more about the thing. But now I'd love to dig into something a little bit deeper. Would love for you to jump on and check that out. We answer questions like, you know, is God real? Like does God love me? If God loves me, why is there hard things in this life? And then there's really one question that we really lock in on in the Pathways stuff, and is that we want you to know that God is interested in more than just your behaviors. You know, that there's a desire. He created all of us, and so we unpack a lot of that stuff too. So it's a great next step.

It's not meant to replace anybody's Bible study. It's not meant to replace anybody's recovery program. But if you're a person who struggled with addiction in the past, or you're somebody who is in, you know, facing substance abuse issues at all, like it's a great thing to jump into and learn a little bit more about yourself and about what God's plan for you is. Yeah, I love that. I love it. And so as you guys have launched that study, what's been some of the feedback you've got on it? What's been some of the stories you guys have heard as that's been released? It's been really, really cool. We had somebody write to us from up in Ohio that was like, hey, I love it. Can I start leading some groups up here? And I started leading some pathway stuff. So we got to be able to send them some resources. Had some other folks. It was a really cool thing, said he's in the process of learning how to read and communicate in English. Spanish is his primary language. And so he reached out to us and was like, hey, can I get a printed copy of this so that I can work on my reading, capable comprehension, and also be able to help facilitate it, you know? So with love for you, like we have some certificates when you complete it, man. If you go through it and you get all the lessons done, please write us, let us know you finished them. We'll have something. We'll mail back to you a certificate with your name on it that was completed. And also just something a little bit from the recovery team, just to say, man, we're really glad you're on this journey with us.

You know, our team is full of people who got sober, who Jesus is helping to keep them sober. And just knowing you're a part of that wherever you are. And then our goal is like for you to be able to like help maybe gather some people around, like in a small setting and be like, once you get through it, we'd love for you to help somebody else go through it. So help facilitate it for us. Oh, that's amazing, man. And I love to hear that you guys have those completion certificates to send out. So that is if you are a part of that and you finish it up right into us, let us know in the description box of this video, you'll see the address for SeOnline. We'd love to have you write into us. We'd love to hear your story. We'd love to hear how Pathways is affecting you and what it's leading you through. So please, please be sure to send that in if you're able to finish through that. So well, Matt, we had Trip Lee with us this past weekend walking through. We're going through the story of Joseph and you talk about your roller coaster stories. I think Trip had the line that if somebody told you the story of Joseph, like it happened to them, you wouldn't believe it, right? There's just so many crazy things that happened to him. And the first week we left off with Joseph being sold in. to slavery and being taken into Egypt. And in Genesis chapter 39, we kind of open up where he's arrived in Egypt. He's bought by a man named Potiphar, who's a high-ranking official in Pharaoh's court. And Joseph actually thrives in Potiphar's house. He does great work. Potiphar is very pleased with him. He puts him in charge of everything. In fact, Joseph says, I think the only thing he doesn't worry about, or Potiphar doesn't worry about, is what he's gonna eat, the only thing he does worry about is what he's gonna eat, because Joseph is taking care of everything in the house. But in the midst of everything going well for Joseph, he runs into this struggle with temptation. Things are going great, things are going well, and Potiphar's wife, Joseph catches her eye, and she tries to seduce him very blatantly, tells him to come and sleep with her. And Joseph, again and again, as Trip talked about,

bites that temptation off. He's able to say no, and we'll talk about where that ends up with him. But as you think through temptation, as you think of what that looks like for us in the Christian life, I think Trip defined it as an invitation to go in the wrong direction, that when we are tempted, we're just being pulled in a way we know we ought not go. When you think about temptation, when you maybe even think about some of the temptations our Pando family faces, what comes to mind for you? Yeah, I love the story. I thought Trip did a great job. I love listening to Trip preach. And I think the thing that I connected most with it was when the temptation showed up, that was something that really landed with me, because in my own journey of long-term recovery, there was a way... It was almost easier for me when stuff was going bad to stay locked in. When stuff is hard and I've got a lot of eyes on me, and there's a lot of pressure, and things are bad, things are quote-unquote bad around me, staying locked in, being really disciplined, doing what I need to do, that was almost like it was easier. For me, most of my relapses came when things started going really well. Interesting. And so what I love, that's the first thing that I connected with as Trip was preaching and unpacking this text was, man, what it was like. He'd come out of a really unfortunate... He didn't have a lot to do with the situation with his brothers, you know what I mean? Is he a little bit running his mouth? Could he have talked about the dream? Probably not. But who of us that didn't have a little younger sibling that don't... That's just how we get that. They know how to run their mouth. Whatever he did did not warrant where he ended up. So you find yourself in that place, and everything starts to go really good. Man, this is... As far as a person that doesn't have your own rights goes, he's in about as good a spot as you can possibly get, apart from just being in charge of your own life, and that's when the temptation shows up. You know what I mean? And it's almost like everything starts to go good. And I'll tell you another thing that I connected with was it was that it had been really easy for me to have the mindset of, you know what, I deserve this. Yeah, yeah. I deserve this. They did me dirty. I was in prison, you know what I mean? Man, and I'm not the one that's initiating it. No, no. I'm not trying to manipulate and make it happen. This is not something I caused.

No girl is just after me. So that was another piece that I'm like... That I was like, man, that was pretty significant. Yeah. I love how you bring that out, because I think we kind of fool ourselves. Whenever things are bad, we think, oh, if things would be good, I wouldn't be tempted. Or when things are good, we think, well, if it was bad, the temptation would go away, when really temptation meets us on either side of those things, right? That sometimes when things are bad, we look at it, and we have that mindset of, oh, I deserve this. This is some measure of release. It's some measure of relief. I'm here in this low spot. I need something. And then when things are going well, we think, well, this door's opened up for me. This is something I should pursue. And I think the thing that really just sticks out to me, the older I get in thinking about temptation, it's like it never really goes away. It just changes, right? It's just always a different journey. What was tempting at 21, 25 isn't tempting at 45, but it's something different, right? It's something different that is like, okay, well, there's this temptation to cut corners or to think, oh, I can be lazy or whatever, because I've done my part. Let these young guys do it or whatever. But temptation doesn't go away. It just changes over time. For sure. Yeah. And I think that's why I love the way Tripp defined it. It's an opportunity to go in the wrong direction. You know what I mean? Because that's really what's showing up for Joseph. And I think something else that popped to me that I don't know if I didn't know it, or if it just was a reminder to me, but Joseph's age in that setting. Yeah. You know, I think he said at the beginning of the story, he's probably around 17, is that what you're saying? He's like 17 years old, been through a lot of stuff at 17, which I feel like, you know, a lot of us right now on this listening to this right now can relate with like going through a lot of stuff when we're young. And then it's like, okay, stuff is finally getting good. Right. And then man, the temptation shows up and it's just an opportunity to go in the wrong direction. Right. It's opportunity to say, okay, this God's plan is not gonna satisfy me. This, this, my own idea, this is really what I'm missing. Yeah. You know, and it's that, that's that, that chance to go in the wrong direction again. Yeah. You know, I, I had completely forgot the trip brought that up, but I, I think it's so true. It's significant. 17 years old and you know, Potiphar ain't marrying no girl that ain't good looking. Like, I mean, you know what I mean? Like if you're at that level, I don't see many celebrities that are

either, either gender that are, that are connected to somebody that's not a very beautiful human being just to be, to be real about it. So you're 17 years old in the house. So, you know, Potiphar's wife is probably pretty, pretty good looking lady and she's coming after it like that. Like, it really shows the level I think of like, of Joseph, like of who this is, who God called me to be. Yeah. Who, who would have said like 17 to 20 years old in that age would have been like, looking at it when you get a little older, you're like, okay, well he knows what he's doing. But at that age, you're like, no, you like, I mean, he definitely has an idea of. Well, they say the prefrontal cortex doesn't develop till we're 25. You know what I mean? So that's where you actually are thinking through and making rational decisions. So 17 years old, man, like you're still just kind of like, you're still figuring some stuff out. Yeah. I was not, I was not making great decisions at 17. So it's debatable how I'm doing at 48 or 47. I don't even know how old I am anymore. But at any rate, so, so Joseph is, is faced with this temptation and, and, you know, Trip kind of hinted at this, at how he deals with it. In verse 10, it says, she keeps putting pressure on Joseph day after day, but he refused to sleep with her and he kept her out of, he kept out of her way as much as possible. One day, however, no one else was around when he went in to do his work. She came, grabbed him by his cloak, demanding, come on, sleep with me. Joseph tore himself away, but left her cloak in his hands. And I love that progression that Trip talked about, how Joseph goes from just kind of resisting to avoiding to just running, to getting out of there. And I think, you know, one of the things that I really appreciated out of Trip's message is that he talked about how we tend to overestimate how we can handle temptation, right? That we think, oh, like I can, I can put myself in that spot. I can handle it. I can deal with it. And so often we overestimate our ability to handle temptation. So as you kind of think about that, how do you see that playing out? What does Joseph's strategy teach us about handling the temptations we face? Yeah. I think what I love is how he highlighted the subtlety of it. You know what I mean? Like it doesn't show up. Like, you know, the enemy is a created being. I don't wanna give him... I think sometimes we give too much credence to the enemy. You know what I mean? Like he can't read my mind. He's not everywhere all the time. You know what I mean? Like he's a created being, so he can be one place at one time, just like the rest of their created beings can. But he has thousands of years of knowing how to push people's buttons. Oh, yeah.

You know, thousands of years of that. You know what I mean? And so like temptation, it'd be pretty easy, right? If I'm sitting in my house and all of a sudden red smoke comes flying under the door, and then some character that walks through looks like the Hellraiser character, you know, like with the stuff coming out of his face, it was like, hey, Matt, you should do this. Well, it's gonna be pretty easy for me to be like, no, man, stranger danger, I'm out of here. I'm not gonna mess with this guy. But like, I love that the progression of the story with Joseph, the subtlety of it, it was just like, probably started with a look, you know what I mean? It probably started with like, okay, wait, did she just touch my hand? Like, why did she leave her hand there that long? Two, it went to the next level, to the next level, to the next level. And so I like that, that's at least how temptation has shown up in my life. Because it starts out slow. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know anybody that struggles with substance abuse that goes, hey, when I'm this old, you know what I hope? I hope I'm a strung out crackhead. Right. I hope I'm a needle junkie. You know what I mean? Like, I wasn't saying, hey, you know what, when I'm 39 years old, I hope I've blown my life up so much, I've got to go to inpatient rehab. That's really what I hope happens with myself. Man, but the temptation of it, it's like, well, just this little bit. It's not that bad. Right. Okay, well, that didn't go that bad. I got this, it could have been better. But it just slowly wears you down. It's almost like the quicksand thing. It's like the more that you just let it, the worse that it gets, it just slowly pulls you down. And Joseph's response in all of those is what I take away from the message I needed to get from that, right? It's like, okay, wait a minute. I know, no, this old girl giving me a look that's a little... bit longer than the last time, you know what I mean? Or this, I gotta stay away from her. Yeah. I gotta stay away from her. And then multiple levels of like, no, I gotta stay away from this. Because it's just a core belief of like, my way is not gonna work. Right. God's way is what is best, and I'm committed to trying to figure that out. Yeah, yeah. And I think that picture that you painted is so vivid of quicksand, because I think temptation so often works like that. You also have... I've heard people kind

of describe it too as like the lobster or the frog or whatever in a boiling pot, right? You just kind of gradually turn up the temperature until you finally realize like, no, I'm getting cooked in here. And I think about so many people... I mean, you and I have both been doing ministry, I think, about the same amount of time. And just you think about the people that we've known along the way who have had moral failures or have done things that have disqualified them from ministry. And you think about, man, those guys, they didn't start out to do those things, right? No. They didn't start out to be like, hey, like you said, I wanna be addicted to this, or I wanna have an affair that's gonna blow up my marriage and my ministry and things like that. They don't start out with that, but it starts out with that very gradual, like one step, and then one step, and then one step, and then pretty soon you're caught up in something you can't control. Yeah. They stuck a video camera in our face at Bible College, right? Say, hey, where do you wanna be in 10 years? And it's like, 10 years, you know what I hope? I hope I'm so disenfranchised with my wife and I'm so disillusioned with my identity as a pastor that I'm gonna start sleeping with the person from church. That's what I hope happens in 10 years, you know what I mean? And I think probably a lot, like it's like, hey, what do you want? When you were a kid, nobody stuck a microphone and a camera in your face and said, hey, what do you hope? Hey, I hope when I'm this old, I hope I'm caught this much time and I'm in jail for this, this, this, and this. Like we end up in places where a lot, I landed, mine was at the detox in a homeless shelter here in Louisville, where I landed there and I'm like, bro, this is where I got me. Like, this is where I got me, you know? And it was like subtle along the way. Again, it wasn't like, because if it showed me the end result of this, right? You know what I mean? Just one drink, man. It's just a prescription pill. It's not like, you know, come on, it is what it is like. It just seems so little. And if you'd have fast forwarded from the time I was 18, the first time I took opiates to 38, you want to see your life at 39? And they just showed me sitting in a homeless shelter. You know what I mean? It'd be like, hey, it'd been real easy for me to be like, nope, I'm out of this. But it was just a little bit that led to a little bit that led to a little bit. And then it was like the pitiful, I think in recovery, they call it the pitiful, immoral dehumanization of ourselves. It just slowly moves us away. And it all starts for me with that thought of God's way is not going to satisfy me. You know, I've got to get this on my

own. And for a lot of us, man, especially like, you know, if you grew up and you've got experiences where, you know, your experiences in life have shown you that people are not trustworthy, that they don't have your best interest at heart. And, you know, hyper-independence is something that's celebrated across our society, but really hyper-independence is a trauma response. It's that I cannot trust somebody to do this. And so we take that same mindset with God, like that it's like, okay, you're telling me God's way is best. You're telling me that God has a way to set up for me to do it. If I follow God's plan, it's best for me. And especially initially, if you start trying to follow God's plan and you start meeting some difficulty and the hardship into that, and it's like, man, I'm trying to do it God's way. Maybe what you're experiencing right now, you're trying to do it God's way. And it's like one thing hits after another, after another. It's like, man, I have to really try to start following God. That's some of the letters that I respond to. It's like, hey, I started trying to follow God, and then I get the letter that my spouse wants a divorce. You know, I'm trying to follow God right now, and my appeal just got denied. You know, and it's like the hardship reinforces that, see, you can't trust that. You can only trust yourself. And then I get back in this mindset where it's like, it's on me to get mine, and then it leaves me in places where I end up in a bad spot. Wow. So you talked about this a little, and I'm just kind of curious. I know you talked about the kind of picturing that gradual step. So when you find yourself tempted, when you find yourself in those places where you kind of think, well, maybe taking that first step wouldn't be so bad. Like, I could probably pull back after I did that. How do we mentally combat that in ourselves? Like, what are some strategies for dealing with that temptation? Like, how do you kind of mentally or spiritually process through that? Yeah, yeah. You know, I think for me, I know how this story ends. You know what I mean? It's the belief, the core belief of myself that there is no such thing as a little bit for me. You know what I mean? I do everything alcoholically. I do alcohol like an alcoholic. I do opiates like an alcoholic. I do benzodiazepines like an alcoholic. I do Reese cups like an alcoholic. Bro, I do laundry detergent like an alcoholic. Like I was washing my clothes the other day

and it was like one pod and I'm looking at it going, nah, it needs at least two or three of those. You know what I mean? And it's like, no, no, no, that the people that made the detergent know exactly how much is needed. They don't know like I know. You know what I mean? It's gonna take more than that. And so for me, there's just this core belief of like, there's no such thing as a little bit for me. And so that directly is in my long-term recovery. But for me, like I can't separate my recovery from my relationship with God. They're the same thing. You know what I mean? And so like I have enough proven experience that if Matt is running the show, I end up in a really bad spot. And so there's a lived experience piece of this. Whatever I give to God has the potential that God has attached to him. What I keep in Matt's hand is limited to the potential that I've got. I can only fix, manage, and control so much. I can only manipulate a situation so much. And then that's all I've got. You know? Oh, that's good. You know, and I love the other thing you shared

in the midst of your journey, just how everything starts with that core belief that God's ways are not enough. Yeah. Or that even like God himself is not enough. Because when I think about, you know, we've been through this series in Genesis. When I think all the way back to Genesis chapter three, right, you think about Adam and Eve being literally in paradise, you know, in the Garden of Eden, standing there, having everything you could possibly ever want. And the serpent comes to them. And basically his temptation is like, what God's given you isn't enough. You're missing out. Like you're missing out. His ways aren't great. His will's not great. His heart's not great. You can go, you should go do this. You deserve this. He's holding out on you. And I think that's such a powerful, I mean, it's such a powerful way to think about temptation, right? That whenever I'm tempted to go in the wrong direction, whether that be, you know, sex or drugs or power or whatever, whatever our particular temptation is, basically what we're saying, well, what God has for me,

well, it's not enough. And what his will for me is, it's not enough. And his heart for me, it's not enough. That I have to go get this by myself. So, you know, James in his letter to the church later on in the New Testament, he kind of talks about this same sort of idea when he talks about temptation in the beginning of James. I think it's James one, beginning of verse 12, he talks about how temptation comes from our own desires. Right? That these things that we want, that we think we deserve, that we think that we need, they pull us away into sinful actions. And then when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. And I think that's what you're talking about, is picturing that final outcome, right? Is that so often we just think about that initial pleasure or that initial high or that initial feeling of accomplishment, as opposed to, this is where this is ultimately gonna lead. So when James talks about, you know, sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. Obviously, you know, we can think about that in terms of physical death or spiritual death. But what are some ways that we can keep that in mind, how sin kills things, how it kills relationships, how it kills intimacy and all that? Yeah, I think, you know, for me,

like when I talk about my story, you know, if I relapse, physical death will be a relief. Because there'll be a lot of death before an overdose death. Yeah. You know, there'll be the death of my peace. There'll be the death of my friendships. There'll be the death of my marriage. There'll be the death of my place as a father. Wow. There'll be the death of a lot of things to the point I feel like, in a lot of ways, physical death would be somewhat of a relief. You know, and a lot of people that I run with will talk about that. Like, you know what I mean? That at the end, they were so hopeless that it was like, I hope I don't wanna wake up. Wow. I'm taking this shot and I hope I don't wake up. Yeah. You know, and so I think that the death that we lock onto automatically is like, oh, I'm physically dead or I'm spiritual. I'm in hell. You know what I mean? Like, and I don't know, we don't understand really all that means, but it's like, hell is bad. You know what I mean? I don't wanna go there, you know?

And physical death is the end of all things. We lock onto the finality of that. But man, there's a lot of death along the way. And one of the phrases we use, you ask for like kind of strategies. It's really like we say in recovery a lot is play the tape out. Like, you know, we've watched the movie before. You know what I mean? And in Joseph's scenario, 17 years old, I don't know how many hot ladies have been trying to tear his clothes off. It's probably not a ton. But like for those of us that have been in this for a while, like this is not our first time we've watched this episode. Like we've seen this thing. play the tape out, right? Like if, cause you know, the reason that I struggled with things is cause I like them. You know what I mean? Like one time when I was eight, my grandmother was trying to get me to take an aspirin because she was old school and there was no such thing as Tylenol aspirin. Right. Only aspirin. And I was like, I've never swallowed a pill before. She goes, it's easy. You just throw it in the back of your mouth,

take a big drink of Pepsi, swallow it, it'll be good. Well, I threw the pill in my mouth, took a big drink of Pepsi, swallowed the Pepsi, the pill stayed in my mouth, starts to dissolve. It was the worst taste ever, right? You know how many times I've done that since then? Never. I have never done that again. Because the negative consequence was enough for me to go, I'm never doing that again. You know what I mean? I gotta figure this out. And it's like, but the reality, like for other, you know how many negative consequences I've caught because of my substance abuse? And I still go back to, you know how many negative consequences you may have caught because of illicit relationships or chasing after something that feels good, that you want, that you think you deserve? You know what I mean? Like how many times we've caught negative consequences after negative consequence for those things, but we continue in those, it's because we like them. But those of us, man, we play the tape out. Like, okay, if I do this, what's the next thing that could happen? Then what's the next thing that could happen? What's the next thing that could happen? You know what I mean?

So, yeah. Okay, yeah. And you know, I think so often we fail to think that through, right? We fail to think like, oh, this is, because I guess we assume, do we assume we're gonna get away with it? I don't know what it is, but we don't play that tape out. We don't think, well, what's the worst that could happen? And actually kind of game that through. And I think, you know, maybe there's an element of Joseph doing that, of thinking like, hey, not only is this going to be a sin against God, which he very clearly tells her at one point, but he also at one point says, this is a sin against Potiphar. Like, I'm gonna sin against my master. And that, you know, there is an element. He's giving me everything in his house. Yeah, like this is a bad idea. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, like this, I mean, this is gonna, if he gives into that temptation, it will probably land him in worse than prison. I imagine Potiphar seems like the sort of guy who would have the ability to have him executed for something like that. Yeah, yeah. So Joseph has the strategy where he ultimately runs

from the temptation. And we see that throughout scripture. You know, Trip quoted, I think it's Paul in one of his letters talks about flee from sexual immorality and run away from sin. And I'm just kind of thinking through, you know, some of the situations our Pando family faces where it's difficult for them to run from some things, being surrounded by some influences, being surrounded by some things that they can't necessarily get away from. What are some encouragements that you would have as they face temptation, as they face maybe some people or situations they can't run away like Joseph did? Yeah, yeah, I mean, I love that mindset of like, we don't want you to run. And we would love having you on Pando, but it would be really, really cool if you got to just be here with us in person. You know what I mean? So please don't run. Like, it'd be a good idea to not run. Yeah, I think it would be like, I think there's some self-awareness to this a little bit. For me, it's like, I find myself in situations, it'd be like, do like the prep work, like prep work. I'm not putting myself in a position where that's gonna be there. Cause like the reality for the amount of drugs

that is available in prison, people's like, well, you get sober in your prison. It was like, well, you don't have to because it is very much available. So it's like, if that is something that I'm struggling with, if substance abuse is my thing and like, man, trying to find some type of relief for the baggage and the pain, the struggle that it is to be incarcerated, I can very much imagine that it would be like, you know what? This will take my mind off of it. This will bring some relief. That's something that's real. And I respect the desire to find relief from that. But to me, it would be about trying to do some prep work of that stuff. Like, okay, if I go here and I participate in this, then it's gonna lead to this, this, we're gonna be around this. And then it's gonna, it could possibly lead to this. It's like trying to find yourself, put yourself in a position where you're not even in it, right? Like the thing, like if I sit in the barbershop long enough, I'm gonna get a haircut. You know what I mean? So it's like, I don't even need to go into the barbershop. Right. You know what I mean? So, and I do, I think, and there is sometimes where like, it's like,

I was watching, are we allowed to talk about movies and stuff on here? Okay, cool. I didn't know if it was copyright crap. They're gonna freak out. But I was watching Maverick, the new Top Gun. It's not new now, but it's not the 1986 Top Gun, but I was watching that. Yeah, dude, it's great, great, great movie. If you grew up watching, I like it. But anyway, like the end of the movie, like Maverick has done everything they can do in this old worn out plane, trying to escape this fighter jet, this way worse, way more advanced than him. And he's with Goose's son, and so it's like, you know, it's this real dramatic emotional moment that I may or may not have gotten a little teary-eyed at. And, like, he does everything he can do, and then it's like, that's it. Pull the eject handle. You know what I mean? It's like, pull the eject handle. And so I do believe there's just some times in us when it's like, I know if I cross that line, it's going to get me into a place where I don't want to be. But you know why I know why I don't want to be there? Because I've been over there before. I've been far away from God. I have run the show for as long as I can run it. And if I cross that line, I don't want to be over there again. Yeah. And it's like, man, just pull the eject button. Like, pull the eject button. Go get somewhere. Get to a different pot of people. I mean, sit with the different people. You know, when you go out to the yard, do whatever you do in the yard. Get around some different people that are around there. Surround yourself. Spend more time in the chapel. You know what I mean? In treatment, it was like, I'm going to sit in here.

I'm going to sit right here in this place because if I step out of here, then there's a real good chance I'm going to get back in the same thing. Because what I'm being tempted with is stuff that I like. You know what I mean? He's not tempting me with things that are not appealing to me. Right. You know what I mean? Sometimes it is. It's just, man, hitting that eject button. It's like, I got to pull the eject lever. Yeah, got to get out of here. Got to get new people. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So Joseph, he does all of this. And it doesn't quite turn out the way you would expect, right? She did him dirty, bro. Yeah, for real. Look. We tend to think, and I think Tripp kind of hinted at this, that we think like, oh, if I stand firm under temptation, then there's going to be like a reward or something on the other side of that. Well, that's the opposite of what he experiences, because Potiphar's wife ends up turning him in, says that he tried to assault her, and Potiphar has him thrown in prison. But like I said earlier, there's also that side point. If Joseph would have given in to the temptation, he probably would have been executed. There's an element of, yes, his time in prison is undoubtedly hard, and he's there for, I think it's over a decade. Yeah, a long time. By the time everything is done. But this path is still better than the other path he could have been walking on, had he actually kind of gone through that. But there's this great note of grace, I think, at the end of verse 23, is that Joseph goes into prison and things continue to go well for him, even in the midst of it, that he proves himself as trustworthy. He proves himself as someone who the warden of the prison can look at and know that he's taking care of things. But it says, the warden put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners over everything that had happened in the prison. The warden had no more worries because Joseph took care of everything. So he proves himself as, he is serving God in prison, he's serving God out of prison, he's being the sort of person that God has called him to be. But there's the great note there at the end of verse 23, and I'm finally getting to, is the Lord was with him and caused everything he did to succeed. Whether Joseph is at his father's house, or whether he's in Egypt, or whether he's in slavery, whether he's in prison, whether he's in Potiphar's house, the Lord is always with him.

How does that affect the way we face temptation? How does that affect the way we speak through to our identity in those times when we feel tempted? I love how you brought that out because there is this like, well, I did the right thing, I should get the reward. I did the right thing, they should get blessed, I should be blessed by this. I think some of that is from a church concept, we kind of have been brought this mindset of like, good equals I'm walking with God, hard equals I'm not. And if things are going hard, it's because you're sinning. Kind of their health and wealth is kind of how it's framed, that's how it's labeled. And the reality for that is like, if good is you're doing right, and hard is you're doing wrong, then the Apostle Paul was a very ungodly human. You know what I mean? Because he went through a lot of hardship. He did a lot of hard things happen to him. And what I'm hopeful is that we can lock into or lock onto is there's just some, I don't know exactly how to describe it, but there's like an inner peace or I'm okay. Like I did the right thing, because it was the right thing. I'm not doing the right thing, trying to control the outcome. Because nothing makes me more miserable than my expectations. When I put expectations on something, I get miserable real quick because they don't meet them. And if I'm doing the right thing with the expectation that I'm going to get X, Y, and Z out of this. Then man, like it's not it never delivers the expectation is just as much as the 10 foot given into the temptation But man, there is something that happens like when even if like when I go to make an amends Or I'm like that I at the end of the day when I lay down at night, right? I mean because that's what I was searching for. I wanted to be okay every time I got high I was just trying to feel okay There's there's something to when I lay my head down at night and go, you know what man? I I did what I was supposed to do today. Yeah, and the rest that is available or the rest that comes You know from that internally, you know yeah, and so it is like locking in like with the belief that even if like he did ten more years he caught ten more Years for doing the right thing, right? You know, I mean cuz she said that was shady, bro Like you ripped the shirt off me and then tried out. They look you left his cloak here It's like man, that's that is shady stuff, right? And how does that like have like there's there's a the reality to that like no matter what comes at you the appeal gets denied

They the false accusation all this to all that stuff that happens that I have no idea the weight and pain and Fear that that scribe so I'm not trying to project like I do but no matter what you and God can figure it out yeah, like no matter what you and God can figure it out and That there there is nothing that feels better There's no there's no immediate gratification of its temptation. There's nothing that satisfies us more Than God Was with us. It's a good word. You know, I mean God was with us so when it says God with I like I think trip kind of unpacked that a little bit like what does it mean because sometimes like, you know, I think what he used illustration about like if he Was in a fight and his mom come out there so much They're watching was like well, you didn't really help me a lot with me. No, I mean you are with me but man the Internally to be able to be done at the end of the day go man. I did the right thing. Yeah, you know, so Yeah, I love that nothing nothing will make you more miserable than your own expectations, but nothing will make you more satisfied Yeah, then knowing that you did something with God. Yeah, that's that's a good word. That is a good word. No Pando family I just I just want to close with a verse that came to my mind as we've been talking about temptation and Matt you can you Can chime in here if anything comes to mind? But first Corinthians 1013 talks to us kind of about temptation and how God meets us in it Paul is writing to this church. That's Got all sorts of trouble going on Everybody says the temptations in your life are no different from what others experience and God is faithful He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand when you were tempted He will show you a way out so that you can endure and I think even in the midst of our temptations Like it's an incredible thing to think that God meets us there Right that he meets us in that moment and says, you know as Paul tells us like there's a way out like there's there's a way You don't you don't have to give in to this. You don't have to do this thing You don't have to let it define you instead rely on me trust in me And you know that that can be hard to do I'm not saying that's an easy thing to do But if there's still a promise there in the word that hey even in the midst of our temptations even in the midst of those struggles That we wish we didn't have no God can meet us there show us a way out and help us to see what he has for

Us even in the midst of it. Yeah, I love it Cuz you know Jane says we're tempted by our own evil desires, right that our evil desires don't run God away from us That's good. You know what? I mean? Like God will meet us in temptation If my temptation is a coming from an evil desire I don't have to manage the evil desires and then ask God for help Like that he he is he did doesn't doesn't scare God away from us and so like to be able to say that he we would you know and you not be attempted beyond what you can bear like and then like to know also I love the other piece of that is it like fact Guarantee, you know matter where you are, whatever you're being tempted with There's other people who are facing the same temptation and the strength of this I feel like we miss sometimes is that we think that it's my because we baptize people and say that except him as my personal Lord And Savior, right? We miss the community connection piece of this I don't I'm not capable of walking this thing out by myself like walking out following God by myself Like I have to be with other people like I need help from I need that that that relationship that peace and so like to know that there's other people that are facing the same temptations that you that are that are trying to Walk in the ways that God has put in front of them to walk man Know that they're there and look for that like connect with that, you know And to know that no matter what he told it tells us That he will provide a way out. There's a way out of this. Yeah Well, Matt, thanks so much for joining us this week on the Pando podcast We love having you with us and in Pando family We want you to know that you know in the midst of whatever temptations your face, whatever You're you're struggling with we want to meet you in that and pray for you through that You can always write into us share your story with us share your your pathways journey with us We would love to hear from you to know where you're at how we can continue to pray for you and support you along the way So look in the description box for the video find your address. You can write in to the SE online team. We'd love to talk to you. But guys from Matt, thank you guys so much for joining us this week on the Pando podcast and we will see you next week.

See you.