 joining us on this Friday on Hope Today and you are part of our family and today we're gonna take a moment to dive into a really important conversation because we know that someone in your family is suffering from something that is really that is like crushing in your heart and we're gonna talk about it today I'm here with Matt and Anna and Matt tell us about our guest that's coming up today. Yeah our guest is very special his name is Andy Partington he writes his book Hope and Addiction understanding and helping those cuts and it's gripping and like you were saying said like this one's a little bit personal you know because I think like any of us whether you yourself or you know somebody personally deals with an addiction of some sort and I think it's important to get to the root of it recognize it but also know how to successfully restore and recover an addiction so today's gonna be a great conversation I think that we're all gonna be able to benefit here in the studio and for those watching at home. Yeah absolutely we're just so thankful for the different guests that we have here on our show because they do bring that expert voice where as so many of us have the experiences of a loved one that is caught in addiction and to be able to have someone who has worked in that arena for so many years and is seeing the hearts of those addicted the seeing the hearts of the family and the friends who so love that person and that they can speak hope they can speak solutions recovery freedom this will be a conversation that we just believe is gonna touch everyone who tunes in today and you know as we're going about to go into this conversation one thing we just want to say is that whether you are one that is suffering with addiction there's no condemnation and there's no judgment so if you're watching right now and maybe you had a relapse maybe you're thinking about it right now we just want to say that we love you and we're here for you and just because you're in it doesn't mean that you are so far from god and remove no god has a plan for you and also to the families that are struggling the mothers the fathers the spouses the children everyone that is around this is an important conversation because we know that the problem addiction is the one that is in the midst and in the middle of the struggle it is not the person it is the addiction and is what the enemy uses to divide and to separate and to kill and to destroy and today we are putting our foot in the ground here at hope today here at cornerstone so wherever you're watching from we're worth putting out like a there's a line in the sand we're saying enough is enough and that we're all coming together as one that we are going to fight this together through the power of jesus matt before we introduce our guests do us a favor you know share this episode wherever you might be watching this from get somebody because because again you might know somebody personally that could benefit from what we're going to talk about here today so it's super important for you to get this message and this show out to somebody that you know but hey let's welcome our guests it's no surprise that addiction is a worldwide epidemic and according to the cdc drug overdoses are the leading cause of death among americans under the age of 50 addiction can manifest in many different forms and it can leave those who are struggling with feelings of depression loneliness failure and shame so international treatment ministry leader andy partington is our next guest and he's written a book called hope in addiction he joins us now to oversight or to insights on how we can better understand how to help those that are caught in this grip andy welcome to hope today good morning guys it's good to be with you yes you know andy this again this is a personal topic and i know it's an important one but before we dive in to a little bit of a deeper maybe you can introduce yourself to our viewers you know who you are and how you got to this point here today yep so my name is andy i lead the work of novo communities which is an international ministry we come alongside those in the developing world who've got a heart to to work with those who struggling with addiction in their communities and alongside that we write up right we operate a motorcycle tourism business called novel adventures that that generates their income or some of the income for that for the work but really i guess my story with addiction started in childhood i say i went into rehab at the age of three and i didn't leave until i was 18 and the reality is what my parents worked in that ministry throughout my childhood and really that was where i think i just saw how clearly recovery is possible it happens best in community and and christ is is that just the the most significant beneficial bedrock for any kind of recovery yeah well you know a few of us were talking earlier before the show started while most of us can talk about a typical household or neighborhood you know that we grew up in like you said you kind of grew up in a rehab community at such a young age you know so with that experience was there a defining moment or moments that you've encountered that really kind of either helped you with addiction personally or really defines you know where it led you to today i think for me the most profound thing i never expected to end up in this world myself i think the thing that really shaped me most profoundly and was the sort of seed then for a longer term involvement was my journey with addiction and recovery began immersed in a recovery community and so for me i had to learn the back stories of the guys i'd come to know as intelligent capable loving passionate purposeful people you know and i think it's always left me with just this profound confidence that recovery is absolutely possible you know and and that there's the seed bed for me is just the realization hey this is totally a possible thing so you know your profession has really led you around the world you know not just here in the united states but everywhere globally and in your experience what's one thing that you've witnessed that is really a commonality with addiction you know across the globe yeah addiction around the world all the features change but but but it's stealing lives around the world you know it costs the global community twice as much as cancer to deal with addiction it's a global thing what's the commonality what underlines that everywhere you go underneath the addiction itself is a set of problems and and the addiction takes root and it grows because it's solving an underlying set of problems you know i think one of the most important questions we can ask ourselves when it comes to addiction is not why the addiction but actually why the pain that underlies this addiction and it doesn't whether you matter whether you go to Bolivia to South Africa to Nicaragua to the UK to the US and across the country underneath there's that same thing going on there's there's a set of questions that the addictive behavior is answering so how would one begin you know i'm thinking about me personally so i've had a close family member who honestly maybe in these past couple years i've only realized why he's struggled with his addiction and it's because of like you're saying some past pain right whether it's from a family or an experience of some sorts whatever it might be you know how does one begin to kind of start answering some of those questions to help them you know to come to a solution yeah yeah i think you know every story is different and this is a really personal thing that's happening you know and the reality is that that that takes time but is as we're looking at addiction the recovery there's for me the key question is okay what it what are we recovering from and there's both the actual addictive behavior whether that's to gambling to porn to drugs or alcohol it doesn't matter what it is there's a habit that's developed there's there's a there's a track of thinking that's really become very strongly embedded so the first question is okay how do you recover from that because that's the first recovery and what's needed you know what's needed in terms of counseling what's needed in terms of community what's needed in terms of spiritual renewal in terms of healing from past hurts um and so that's that's the relationship but then there is this relationship with the underlying issue what what was driving this you know and i think at a national level we sort of talk a lot there's a there's a scottish proverb that says they speak of my drinking but not of my thirst and i think we tend to talk a lot about the drinking about the drugs about the porn the question really is okay what why the thirst you know and at a social level as we look around us there's some key features you know we're hopeless there's a lot of hopelessness there's a lot of people who are a very personal level think i don't know what the future holds i don't really know what i'm all about when you talk to people who are in recovery so often they will say emptiness was was the feature of of their lives prior to addiction they felt something was missing there was a whole hopelessness emptiness this sense is a massive correlation between adverse childhood experiences and addiction and so you know why the pain from the trauma of perhaps abuse perhaps addiction in the family perhaps divorce lots of things that drive us and then you know socially we're a very isolated society these many of us especially post pandemic are deeply disconnected and all of that feeds into our vulnerability creates a seedbed for addiction maybe we can dive into that a little bit you know because we're we're just thinking about yeah out of this post pandemic i mean we've i think we just seen you know even in our city itself you know addiction skyrocket right i mean what's something that you're just noticing like in the day and age that we're in that we should really be aware of there's some big red flags uh you know that we can either watch out for for those around us or maybe somebody themselves need to be aware of today you know i think when you look at the when you look at the pandemic it drew to the surface a set of things that were already there it made present and manifest to us a set of things that have always been there and so yeah there's this i think particularly the way we live today and we the whole sense of you go it alone the whole sense of you live independently the whole sense of i don't need anyone actually at a fundamental level that makes us incredibly vulnerable to addiction incredibly vulnerable similarly you know again if there's a you we're very religious society in many respects and yet actually i think many still struggle with there's a deep emptiness you know and there's a there can be a superficiality to to some of the ways that we live and some of the ways that even as christians that we do church that actually don't allow people to develop that deep depth of relationship and connection with with god and i think the pandemic's flagged stuff up to us that was already there um it's flagged up the issues we've got with yeah family breakdown with addiction in families with abuse um and for me the heart really a big driver with the book is really to say to us hey we need to step back and and take a look at this because the pain that we're all experiencing and some are really manifesting worse than others is really telling us something about how we're living as individuals and as a community more broadly you know one part in your book that i found interesting is use the term false gods and i think that's so good right because really these addictions whether it's a substance of some sort or addictions can be in all types of different forms right you know but they're all false gods trying to find the sense of strength or hope or whatever that might look like maybe you can expound on that a little bit you know your experience what are these false gods that lead to addiction yeah we're looking for escape you know we're looking for healing we're looking for comfort we're looking for for connection and again i think one of the most important things we need to understand that is addiction doesn't develop overnight you know you don't you're not addicted the first time you look at porn you're not addicted the first time you you even yeah whack up heroin you know it takes time but um what's what's driving that is is a real a real need for solutions to real problems and i think if we can come at this compassionately and say hey why do you need to escape so much what is it why why why do you lack so much for community that the community you're finding in your using and in your addiction is so powerful i think we can we can begin to find solutions and help one another you know and as we're having this conversation one thing i'm just thinking about the family member that's watching right now is that when you see your loved one spiraling out of control the one thing that i know is very common is how you have to say the whole thing about codependency and manipulation so can you speak to that for a moment and there has to when there has to be a certain point where we it's like you have to let them hit rock bottom yeah there's yeah it's it's it's so difficult you know i used to work in the uk in a rehab and had a far more direct contact personally with the families of those dealing with addiction and that challenge of what's the thing that i can do that's going to help the person i love is is is really really really tough um there is this this difference between caregiving and caretaking and and i think one of the keys is to understand you know when am i stepping in to do something for my loved one that they can be doing for themselves that's that's not helpful when are i helping to create conditions that indirectly help my loved one give them a sort of recovery capital to build on um i but but more broadly i i like to use and think about there's a phrase in a which is which is so helpful for those in addiction which is no one can do it for you but you can't do it alone no one can do it for you but you can't do it alone and i think for the loved ones for those of us who walk alongside that is every bit as true and my my kind of heart cry for everyone who's walking closely with someone in addiction is that they have their allies they have their people around them who'll support them um because they love their value they don't exist simply to serve the the recovery of their loved one but they're passionately committed to try to find solutions and find help and and that's not something you can do in your own strength you need god's presence and you need the presence of good people in your life that's powerful yeah i'm thinking about okay we're on this topic of what you know a loved one our family can do but maybe even as the church in a community a church that's wanting to somehow you know help in this way shape or form but they might not know where to start you know with me being in full-time ministry i've sadly seen people recover but then i've also seen a great percentage not be able to recover you know so how how can a church help in that manner we go contend with the fact that the recovery is a long-term process and and people will relapse and that is reality and i think the sooner we get our heads around that the better but but as as the church yeah what we can what can we what can we do i think two things one we can bring those who've got recovery experience right into the heart of our church and its leadership so i talk about the need for recovery champions in in every church community and and that's vital that those who actually get this stuff and have the experience are shaping the way we do everything and are connecting us with all the external services and are just creating a visibility for addiction and creating a a sort of shame-free environment where actually because this isn't just about those who are deep into addiction so it's about those of us who are on the slide in so you know talk about the different about the need to be addiction preventing recovery promoting communities and actually we need both sides so that's the really practical thing i think the other thing we can do is really just ensure that as church communities we all understand what we're dealing with here and there tends to be a lean one way or the other there tends to either be a lean towards saying okay this is all about therapy this is all about 12 step groups this is all about relapse prevention planning and and what i call the strategies and the tactics of recovery but actually there's another side to it i talk a bit about in the book about batman and spider man and the difference between how batman does what batman does which is through those tools is through the batarang is through the batmobile it's through robin at his side and how spider man does what spider man does spider man's ability to do all that he does comes from that bite from the toxic spider it comes from an inner transformation that flows out and i think is the church what we need to really recognize is it's not all about the batman side it's not also all about the spider man side yes we need folks to encounter christ a relationship with father son holy spirit is going to be the transformational x-factor for recovery but actually if a person encounters that but doesn't connect with others in recovery doesn't deal with the underlying drivers of their addiction doesn't establish healthy patterns of relationship or handling finance or whatever it might be they're always going to be vulnerable and so i think as a church it's about coming alongside with that kind of understanding to say hey there's a balance there's batman stuff here there's spider man stuff we need it all and we need to support one another in a really powerful kind of sense of community rugged hands-on community thank you so much for your time and you know we're wrapping up here short but we just want to encourage everyone of you again if you know somebody or this could encourage you to get his book hope and addiction understanding helping those caught in its grip and he was so great to have you on the show i know this is going to benefit so many more people that maybe we never will encounter but thank you for your wisdom for what you're doing across the globe i know it's it's not going unnoticed and it's doing valuable things for the kingdom of god actually thank you my pleasure well hey don't go anywhere we're going to come right back with a powerful scripture and talk a little bit more on this topic we'll see you soon no matter your age or circumstances god wants you to move forward join best-selling author and teacher Dr David Jeremiah in a master class revealing how to live fearlessly you'll discover that it's never too late to find your purpose Dr David Jeremiah reveals powerful ways for people of any age to live a life that's meaningful inside forward you'll uncover strong bible teaching coupled with incredible real life stories and practical biblical insight learn how god wants to expand your dreams give you divine direction equip you with tools to overcome fear and much more request your copy of this life changing book when you support cornerstone television call 888-665-4483 or give online at ctvn.org slash donate find air times for a turning point with Dr David Jeremiah at ctvn.org donate and request his book forward thank you for your partnership with cornerstone tv we're so glad you're joining us this friday on hope today and we just wrapped up a powerful conversation with andy talking about addiction and i know as a lot of you're watching maybe you are the one that is the addict or the addict that is in recovery or you're the family member maybe you're in the throes of it or maybe you're on the other side of it no matter where you are i just want to share a quote from one of our dear ministry partners and friends it's called light of life rescue mission that's here in the pittsburgh area and they really helped the homeless the hurting and the addicted they helped so many men women and children in our area and i'll never forget a quote i heard the executive director daryl gilliam say once when i had an opportunity to do some work with them and he said you know the opposite of addiction is not sobriety the opposite of addiction is community and that is so true i think a lot of times we get so focused on the problem of the issues that we take our eyes off the fact that we need people around us we need those to love on us we need those to pull us out of the doldrums we need those when we're in the pit of it and we're crying out for help or maybe you're right now and you're like i'm so i know like there's like you're so tired of having that drink you're so tired of taking that bump you're so tired you don't want to shoot up you don't want to snort you don't want to do it you're so tired of it but it's so important that you're able to lean on someone when you're feeling those vulnerable moments it's important for you to call someone when you hear those voices speaking to you saying just take another hit it's so important for you as the mom or as the husband or the wife to call on someone when you're like things are so out of control the money is that flowing out of the house i don't know what to do we need to lean on each other it is so important that we do so anna right yeah so appreciate the holistic approach that andy takes because as he said jesus the relationship with the father son and the holy spirit is the x factor that ultimately leads to victory over addiction but we cannot ignore the power of community the power of relationship because addiction lies to you constantly is constantly whispering in your ear that you can never be free that you aren't worthy of anything that this world has that god has that your purpose is so far gone like you've messed up so much and to have people around you who love you who accept where you're at who wants to listen to your story and they can speak that encouragement that hope that truth that will speak louder than the addiction and it will begin to give you hope and freedom and be able to move you forward yeah you know i'm thinking about what you're talking about and what we're saying here about community in general and someone speaking into your life the importance of the right words being spoken into your life though matters right you know it's good to have good relationships but it's even better to have godly relationships and so being a part of your local church or somebody that you know is a believer and reaching out to them you know or maybe you're even that believer and you need to reach out to somebody that you know that's struggling because the word of god is alive breathing and active so it's one thing to just have words spoken to you but it's another thing to have the word of god breathe into you spoken into you that's what takes root the word of god is what changes everything and heals all things in our lives so i think it's important you know the type of people that we're reaching out i shouldn't say type but who we're reaching out to can really matter at the same time because we want those to be able to stand in faith with us right we want those to be able to believe with us but we also want somebody to speak the word of god said over our lives when we're going through something like that yeah when we're going through it i just like what we're having this conversation just even god just like really reminded me is like i feel like there's such a shame there's so much shame attached to addiction i feel like even for the attic i feel like there's sometimes in churches we push them aside like oh my gosh you're not a christian not that can we stop that because there's a lot of christians that believe in god they read their bible they love jesus but they're struggling and i think sometimes we put that sin and we just put this like x on them and we try to us communicate them but that is not the case and then i feel like there's so much shame attached to that that like if you're dealing with that shame if you feel like i have relapsed again this is the tenth time i've been in rehab so many times whatever it may be know that there is no shame there's no condemnation for those who are in christ jesus and for the family member that you are just in over your head and you're overwhelmed and you don't know how to like open up or share because you're so embarrassed because it's it hits addiction if we're real it hits every color every background every social economic status it hits everyone and i think the moment that we begin to speak and break our silence and say you know what i'm going through this this is what i'm happening we expose the enemy and so right now we want to just take a moment to like pray for you if you are in a if you're an addict if you're in recovery wherever you may be we just want to take a moment and to pray so father god right now in the name of jesus we just lift up those father god that are hurting from this demonic stronghold father god in the name of jesus father god we just bind the spirit of addiction right now god we bind the spirit of manipulation and the code of pendency father god for it to exist oh god and lord jesus we just pray that right now for that person right now that i really sense is that struggling to you would arrest them in the spirit oh god that lord god even in when they try to take that next hit oh god that she would block the high oh god father god in the name of jesus we pray for that person that's watching right now that may be thinking about shooting a that has it on the table oh god that the spoon and the needle is right there father god we bind it right now in the name of jesus and we father god we declare they shall live and not die and lord god we pray for the family members that have been on the front lines that are weary that are broken father god jesus we know father god that you're coming and did you give them rest father god that you give them wisdom father god and you'd also give them strategy lord god we just pray in the mighty name of jesus that this epidemic would be destroyed father god that we declare and decree that we're declaring a war on drugs father god in the spirit of it that is destroying families and loved ones and father god we just pray that your hand would be upon your people like never before so we thank you jesus in your name we pray amen and know that we're always here for you at our prayer line at 888-665-4483 final yeah so i just i just have the person who is addicted on my heart today as andy said you are a person of compassion you are a loving person someone with purpose and kindness and so much to give to this world don't let your addiction tell you that you're someone other than god's masterpiece god is calling you to himself today where you can find rest where he can put his wings over you and protect you and love on you and whisper that love into your heart he is the master over all the pieces of your broken heart and it is god your creator who will build you up and put you back together again he will lift you out of that pit of addiction and stand you on the solid rock of jesus christ friend there is hope for you today reach out have a great weekend