[00:00:00] Use him as a vessel for you, Lord. Yes. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Keith. Thank you, everyone. Thanks for taking the meeting. God bless you. I am from Brooklyn, New York. I am actually in Harrow, London, with my brother Keith here. We had an incredible Believers in Recovery conference. I was in jail today

[00:00:19] I was speaking at a prison. I'm speaking on the six and seven steps. I got a couple of scriptures I wanna share with you. I'm not gonna preach on these scri- I want... they speak for themselves. These particular scriptures speak for themselves. Matthew 26:41, NIV Translation, "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.

[00:00:38] The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Very... "Watch and pray so that you do not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Genesis 4:7. Genesis 4:7 says, "Sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, but you must rule over it."

[00:01:00] 2 Timothy 2:22, "Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness."

[00:01:08] 1 Peter 5:8, "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion- ... looking for someone to devour." This is a couple of scriptures that are... speak to me. Ephesians 6:11, if you know about the, the spiritual battle the armor of God. "Put on the full armor of God.

[00:01:30] Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes." So these are scriptures that speak to us about temptation, the enemy, temp- di- different things. The battle we're in, we, the, we need the armor of God. We need to rule over sin. We can't let sin rule over us.

[00:01:51] We know... The Bible says that your sin just... If you give into s- sin, you'll be a slave to sin. The one you serve is your master and so forth. And we have some [00:02:00] examples in the Bible. If I was to ask, for those who are able to right now, think about someone that you know in the Bible who fell into temptation, who fell into sin, who ruined their life because of some character defects, because of some shortcomings or some sin.

[00:02:17] Who is the first one that comes to mind when I tell you, when I tell you about who in the Bible has fallen? Who do you say in the... Who do you think of? What's the first one that comes to your mind? Samson. All right. Absolutely. Samson and Delilah. Delilah. David. David and Bathsheba. Okay. Adam. Adam ate forbidden fruit.

[00:02:37] So we all know people in the Bible that have fallen into temptation, who've fallen into sin. None of us... the scripture in 1 Corinthians says, "Yo, be careful that you think you're stronger than you really are." 'Cause you're gonna fall. I'm always worried and nervous when I hear somebody say, "I'll never drink again," or, "I'll never smoke again," or, "I'll [00:03:00] never..."

[00:03:00] I... In the name of Jesus, that's, that could be true, but that can be a cocky attitude, disposition that the devil likes. I don't ever wanna use drugs again, and I don't ever plan to, a- and I know that by the power of the Holy Spirit I don't have to, but I gotta stay in position. I gotta stay in a posture of humility so that the power of God can flow into me.

[00:03:23] Listen to what I said. I gotta stay in a posture of humility so that the power of God can flow into me so that I can live and walk in the promises and the truth of God's word. But it's not in my strength. It's not because I did 12 steps 18 times. It's not because I got the greatest sponsor in the world.

[00:03:41] It's not because I'm the, I'm part of the real

denomination of the Church of Christ that, you know, whether I'm the Baptist or the Reformers or the Pentecost. It's the power of the Holy Spirit. It's the power of God. It's only God. In the sixth and seventh step, it's very important to understand that we were entirely ready to have

[00:04:00] God.

[00:04:01] Not my sponsor, not a 12 step program, not my denomination, not my church, not my vicar, not my pastor. I... we are entirely ready to have God, 'cause nobody else can. My sponsor, he, I love him, he loves the Lord. He has his own character defects. He has his own flesh that he battles against. He has his own demons he gotta, fight against. So he cannot remove my character defects. A program cannot remove my character defects.

[00:04:27] Spiritual principles cannot remove my char- N- the literature cannot re- I need the power of the Holy Ghost. I need the power of the third person in the Trinity, in the God head. I need that. I need the power of God in my life. In the sixth and seventh step, humility is about when, where I end. I've done all that I can do.

[00:04:47] In Ephesians, "After you've done all that you can do, stand therefore." So I've been to church, I've prayed, I read my scriptures, I've fasted I'm serving. I'm doing everything I need to do as a Christian who's

[00:05:00] pursuing God. In fact, I've gotten deeper and more mature. I'm doing everything I need to do as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

[00:05:06] I'm d- I've devoted my life, I've committed my life. Everything I have is his. I lay everything that I have at his feet, and I s- and I need the power of God in my life to, to give me the strength to overcome my flesh. Amen. You understand? A- and these scriptures I gave you, anyone... Look at what Paul the Apostle said- Paul the Apostle said, who, the guy who wrote most of the New Testament, the guy who was, he had a encounter with God that no other apostle had.

[00:05:33] They had... You, there was a special, a powerful encounter with God. And for some of us who read the scriptures and understand that many times in the Bible when God is gonna use you, he, there needs to be an encounter. There needs to be an experience. There needs to be... You need a touch from God. You need the power of God to fill you and consume you, to stop you, to disrupt your life, to redirect you.

[00:05:54] And so we need the power of God in six and seven. If we don't have the power of God, we'll [00:06:00] fail. I know Christians don't understand this. They're overconfident. The Bible says that during a season when kings go off to war, David was home chilling.

[00:06:12] He wasn't where he needed to be. He wasn't in the battle where God had- where he was supposed to be. He was overconfident. He was cocky and prideful, and he fell because he wasn't where God called him to be. And there's Christians that are overconfident and cocky. You understand? I... So it, it's important that you get this, that I need the power of God.

[00:06:35] I need... Think about the drink or the drug or the codependency or the food. Whatever thing brought you to your knees, your bottom, I needed God, the power of God, to remove the obsession, or I would still be messed up. Only God... Th- there's some things, listen to me, six and seven step, humility, there's some things that a vicar can do, a pastor can do a discipler can do. There's some things a [00:07:00] fellow Christian can do. There's some things a church can do. There's some things 12 steps can do. There's 12... There's some things a coach can do. There's some things and there's so- there's, there are those things that only God can do.

[00:07:12] Amen. It's important that you understand that i- that if God doesn't do it, it won't get done. It's not gonna happen. And in the sixth and seventh step is where we need God. If we don't have God, Paul the Apostle said, "After preaching, me, myself, I don't wanna be disqualified." And if you don't, if you don't grow and continue and stay humble, 'cause sometimes we learn a couple of scriptures, and the devil a- and the world and our flesh will get puffed up.

[00:07:41] The Bible says knowledge puffs up. Happens to a lot of Chris- they learn a couple of scriptures and they get puffed up. So it's very... You don't wanna get puffed up. You wanna be built up, not puffed up. So you might get a year clean, two years sober, five years. You might get three sponsees, you might buy, get a house.

[00:07:57] You might, God might use you in ministry. God might give you a [00:08:00] wife or a husband. You might get your children. Like the blessings of God might come into your life- ... and the devil will try to use those blessings that God gives you to put a wedge between you and God, make you prideful, arrogant, self-righteous.

[00:08:14] So these are things we gotta be concerned about and be on, be a, be sober-minded. Be alert. The enemy, the devil, is like a pr- he's prowling lion. He's a, like a roaring lion seeking who can he devour. I've been clean 34 and a half years, I've been a Christian 30 years, I've been in ministry 30 year s - since I got saved, I hit the ground running.

[00:08:36] I've been in ministry since I got saved. I started a ministry in New York. The ministry has expanded all over the world, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The devil could try to use all that against me and make me think that I'm someplace I'm not. I'm not self-made. I'm here by the grace of God.

[00:08:53] You understand? So that, these are the scriptures. So now what does it mean to be enti- Now, this is a big situation.

[00:09:00] What does it mean to be entirely ready? What does it mean to be entirely ready? Now, a lot of people don't get this, right? If I am entirely ready, if Keith is entirely ready, that means that we are absolutely prepared now to take whatever action is necessary- Yeah

[00:09:16] to do what God says. There's not, there's no... I don't need a conversation. I don't need, I don't need another counseling session. I don't need, I don't need to make another meeting. I don't need another pre- When you're entirely ready, you are 100% prepared now to take whatever action is necessary for the freedom that you desire.

[00:09:37] If you're not, if you go wait, I need five minutes." Oh, I was thinking, I was talking to somebody. This guy comes to Jesus, and this guy says, "Yo, I'll follow you, but my f- let me go bury my father who's, he's dying. Let me bury my father." And Jesus says something crazy. He says, "Yo, let the dead bury the dead."

[00:09:57] Amen. That's a rough s- you gotta... What does he say?

[00:10:00] Listen. If you're entirely ready, you're entirely ready. You're not gonna say, "Yeah, but I need to do this. Yeah, but I gotta... Yeah, but I gotta..." There's no yeah, but, and. You understand? When you're entirely ready... I was at a retreat at in Marrakech and this guy from Sweden came to the retreat.

[00:10:16] And he was smoking cigarettes, and he was like a little bit emotional. He said, "Listen I'm tired of smoking cigarettes. I'm tired of this stuff. I'm tired." And I asked him are you right now entirely ready to stop?" He said, "Yes," with his tears. I said, "Give me the cigarettes." And he gave me his cigarettes, and we crushed them right there.

[00:10:35] That's what it means to be entirely ready, to be willing to take action. Get... Stop. Delete and block that phone number. You know- Okay ... stay away from people, places, and things. Bad company corrupts good character, all right? So stay away. Stay away. The, th- so when you're entirely ready, you are now prepared to take whatever action is necessary for my freedom.

[00:10:58] And so that look like staying away [00:11:00] from people in recovery. There's people in recovery that, that... It's not that they're sick, it's that I'm sick. And when I get around them, instead of me influencing them, they influence me. So I need to stay. Who are the people, places, and things tied to my, to my sixth step?

[00:11:15] If you look at Samson and Delilah he should have ran away from Delilah. Three different time s. He had three opportunities where the enemy showed him who was always having a... God showed him. This is what... He's still, he's codependent. He's stuck in a fantasy. He's stuck in his, lust.

[00:11:32] Lust means love under Satan's terms. He didn't want God's love. He was in lust, love under Satan's terms. And he got caught up, and they plucked his eyes out. And he lost a call, and it was sad for Samson, right? You think about David. Lust. The, his, the exact nature is overconfidence, for those who don't know.

[00:11:53] He wasn't where he was supposed to be. He was chilling. Instead of making meetings, he was chilling. Instead of going to church, he was doing [00:12:00] laundry. Instead of... you can become overconfident, and you can become cocky and arrogant. And the devil looks. What does the Bible say? Pride comes before what?

[00:12:07] Anybody know what pride... Pride comes before the fall. And so if you're proud, if you think you're, you think you arrived, you might... That's a sign that you might be in trouble. Okay, so there's the being entirely ready. There's humility, okay? There, there's being willing to take whatever action is necessary. I teach the people.

[00:12:26] I teach my... Now, I'm from Brooklyn, New York. I deal with ex-prostitutes, ex-gang members, people with tattoos, been in jail, armed robberies, gang members, ex... And these are just the women in Brooklyn. These are just... I'm talking about the women first, then the guys. A-and so I deal with all these, d- and I tell them, "Listen, when you're dating, when you're Christian dating listen.

[00:12:45] No open-mouth kissing." Adults who've had sex with hundreds of people. You're Christian now. No open-mouth kissing Oh, it's okay. That's crazy, that's corny. I, this is a 2025. What do you mean no...

[00:13:00] No, no kissing. No, i- if you wanna stay pure, you want love, you want God to bless your relationship, put six-step boundaries and say, "Oh that's old-fashioned."

[00:13:10] I'm trying to help you. You kiss, you get s- you have sex, you don't have sex, I don't get nothing. I'm trying to help you. Open mouth kissing leads to other things that you... And that leads to other things, that leads to other... You- don't stay in... If you're single and you want God to bless your relation-, don't be alone.

[00:13:27] No woman should be alone with me in this apartment. Don't be alone with another, with the... There's six-step boundaries. Where you guys know I've been coming to England for many years. I come with Jimmy Jam, I come with this one.

[00:13:39] I'm with Haj, I'm with Keith, I'm with Param, I'm with Ralph, I'm with Aaron. I'm always with somebody. You never see, "Ray- where's Ray?" All my time, 34 and a half years, ma- very successful in life, blah, blah, blah, all my time is

accounted for. There's no time where, "Where's Raymond?

[00:13:56] What is he doing?" Not an hour, not... all my time is accounted

[00:14:00] for. That's six-step boundaries. I'm not alone. So you gotta understand, so I don't know how much time I got, I don't wanna go... But in the sixth step, I gotta be able to understand, listen, what I gotta... Where God puts a period, I cannot put a question mark.

[00:14:14] Where if God says flee youthful lust, then flee youthful... If God says, "How would a young man keep his heart pure? By His Word." By His Word. By His Word. And so I gotta be willing to do whatever God says to do, even though I, the, it might sound old-fashioned, it might sound corny. I got the Billy Graham rules.

[00:14:34] In my phones, if I go on a website that's questionable, five men will get a email in the next 10 seconds telling them Raymond is on a questionable website. You understand? Five men in 10 seconds will get a email. I have a level of accountability, I have a lette- a a level... I'm willing to have these things on my phone.

[00:14:54] I'm willing to be accountable. I, my... You guys saw Edwin, Pastor Edwin Colon at the [00:15:00] conference. He do- he doesn't come to England much. He's the co-founder of Recovery House Worship. We started Recovery House Worship in 2001. Edwin and I can take his phone at any time and say, "What's the passcode?"

[00:15:11] And he'll tell me what the passcode is, and I can look through his phone at any time I want. Edwin can say, "Raymond, what's your passcode?" And he can look through my phone at any time I want. Jimmy Jam and other people. I have a, I have six-step people in my life, 'cause I'm entirely ready to have God remove...

[00:15:26] Now, here's the problem. People think g- that I'm just gonna sit here and pray. No, you gotta stay away from people, places, and things. You got James, James 4:7. James 4:7. You know what James 4:7 is? Submit yourself to God. Resist the devil- Flee ... and he will flee. Did you hear what James 4:7 is?

[00:15:52] Submit yourself to God. Resist the devil, and that, that's how we get free in six and [00:16:00] seven. That's that... people wanna make it more complicated. Are you submitted to God? It... God can't heal what you won't reveal. All right? God won't change what you won't confess, all right? And a lot of Christians are struggling, and they're suffering in silence with character defects and shortcomings 'cause they're not humble enough to turn to their brother and say, "Listen, man.

[00:16:23] I'm struggling." "I'm struggling. I messed up. I'm falling short. I need help." They wanna act they wanna be prideful and they don't want nobody to know how much they're struggling. And what they don't know is that the more they fast, and the more they pray, and the more they try to s- do it by themselves, the more digging and digging, and they dig a rut for themselves.

[00:16:42] I know, I, "I'm gonna fast. I'm gonna pray." The Bible says in James, "Confess your sins to one another- ... so that I can heal you." And there's so many Christians that are not confessing their sins, are not telling other people what they're going through. They're not... [00:17:00] Ahead of time, right? If you're close, if you're close to me, I'm gonna tell you something that only people that close to me know.

[00:17:06] You look at my social media, and you look at all the pictures of all the people that I take. I get, I speak all over the world. People take pictures with me all the time, but... All right? My friends know I stay away from redheaded women with freckles, right? I said, I don't have pictures, I don't hang out, I don't w- woman with...

[00:17:28] Why is that? Why? 'Cause I'm weak? Yeah, 'cause I'm weak. 'Cause there's some things, a strong man knows his weaknesses. So I said to, I told the Lord, "Lord, I'm weak. Please be made perfect in my weakness." I'm confessing my weakness. I don't go to dances. I don't go to convention parties. I don't go to raves.

[00:17:46] I don't go to clubs. I don't go to... I don't do that. Not, I don't... I go to London Convention every April. I don't go to the dance. They have a boat party, I'm never on the boat party. I don't go to places where the enemy [00:18:00] can snatch me up. Yeah. One, one of the problems with a lot of Chri- with pastors in America, we have a big problem where a lot of pastors are falling.

[00:18:07] You know why they're falling? 'Cause they don't have these boundaries. Jesus. They're not accountable. And I, in the sixth and seventh step, I'm able to go, I say, "I understand, God." The humility in the seventh step as I come in for a landing. I don't know, I've been speaking, I don't know how I've been...

[00:18:21] the humility in the seventh step is comprehending and understanding that unless I submit, surrender, and yield to God, I'm gonna cry. I'm gonna suffer. I know... I've been doing this for a long time, decades. You know how many people say, "I don't need to do, I don't need to do that. I c- I don't need, I..."

[00:18:41] And they've ruined their marriages, they've ruined their jobs, they've ruined their careers, they've ruined their recovery, they relapse. They... Over. The... This is something to understand. Flesh leads to death. Sin leads to death. In recovery we say j- we say jails, institutions- and death.

Everybody

[00:19:00] knows that. Character defects, sin, will take you further than you wanna go, it'll keep you longer than you wanna stay, and will cost you much more than you was willing to pay. And so we, w- we, I don't play with it. I respect... I talk to Christians, they say I have, I don't even get tempted no more.

[00:19:21] I don't even deal with temptation." I know that guy got mental illness. Christians who tell me that, "Oh, I don't even get tempted no more," I know that's mental illness surfacing. I... And trust me, mental illness and religion love to marry each other, all right? I got 30 years experience, okay? Let me explain to you something.

[00:19:40] Jesus Christ, you know who Jesus Christ is? The King of Kings- Oh, true ... and the Lord of Lords, the Lion of Judah. Yeah. You understand? Yes. God in the flesh, He himself was tempted. Wow. The Bible says Jesus Christ was tempted in every [00:20:00] way. I don't know if you know what that means. Jesus Christ was tempted in every way, but yet did not sin, okay?

[00:20:14] So why do, why am I saying that? Because you, Mr. Christian with your study Bible, telling me that you're not getting tempted is a lie- Wow ... 'cause Jesus Christ was tempted. We all get tempted. That's why we pray, "Lead us not-" Into temptation ... into temptation, but deliver us from evil." You gotta understand that sounding hyper-Christian, acting like you're someplace you're not, trying to h- to overcompensate for your flaws.

[00:20:45] When somebody starts talking about homosexuality, homosex- I say, "Oh, that guy's probably struggling with homosexuality." When someone starts saying, "Oh," when somebody is overdoing it on something- True ... that guy's probably struggling with the thing that he's preaching

[00:21:00] against and so I have a little bit of discernment. I've been doing this for a little while. No one... i, let me give you a slogan from New York. I don't know if it's gonna make sense in England, but I tell people, "I am drug-free, but I'm not drug-proof." Okay? What that means, I'm clean today, but I have to work on my recovery every day.

[00:21:21] I am, I'm not recovered, all right? I'm in recovery. The, what that means is every day I'm in the sanctification process. Every day I need to surrender, yield, repent. Surrender, yield, repent. Surrender, yield every day. Every day I wake up with a untreated illness. I wake up with this flesh that's warring against the spirit.

[00:21:41] And in my flesh is mental illness, in my flesh is narcissism, in my flesh is self-obsession, in my s- flesh is obsession, in my flesh... In my flesh is the worst thing you can imagine. And if I'm not careful, my flesh can take me to the worst pla- places you can imagine. So that's why we have the six and [00:22:00] seven steps.

[00:22:00] So as I come in for a landing, I need, every day I need to say, "Lord, today's a new day." Take my will. "How do I serve you? What do you, what's required of me today?" Every night, if you can, when I go to bed, I say, "God, let this bed be an altar, and as I lay here, a sacrifice to you. Take my life and use it for your glory."

[00:22:25] I still have sinful desires today. I still think about sin. I still think that the... that we tell people, the enemy is always gonna check in to see if you're ready to check out. Wow. And it could be lust, greed, this, that- Wow ... grandiosity. It could be nothing.

[00:22:41] It could be you're doing nothing to help nobody. You're doing nothing to serve. You're doing n- there's so many different, s- sins and ca- defects. And then there's, th- there's different ways to act out in this one. There's 13 ways to act out on this defect. There's 15 ways to act out on this defect.

[00:22:56] How you... There's 18 ways to act... There's so many different levels and [00:23:00] flavors to this. So I need to stay pure. I need God. And I know that my heart needs constant work. I know that above all the heart is deceitful. I need God to work on my heart. What are my motives? What are my desires? Why does that bother me?

[00:23:14] I need to continue to do step work in my life so that the devil doesn't take stage, that the flesh doesn't burn back. I need to continue to do the work. I'm very grateful. And I hope that you understand every day is a new opportunity to grow in the Lord, to be used of the Lord, to live the abundant life that's found in Christ, but you have to be in the right posture.

[00:23:33] There's a posture. There, there's a humble internal posture where I'm not being critical of other people. I'm not being judgmental of other people. I'm not overly concerned what other people do, what other people preach, what other pe- that I have a level of self-acceptance. And when you have a level of self-acceptance, you can understand and have empathy and compassion for others who are struggling out there.

[00:23:52] You don't gotta be judgmental or critical or bashing them. You're not so wor- you know, y- you have a, you have a healthy [00:24:00] spiritual state, a healthy emotional state, and a healthy mental state when you're on the beam. When you're not on the beam, when you're not in alignment, those who've done the work, we can tell.

[00:24:13] We can tell. And so the Bible's real clear. That Jesus came to give the abundant life. You can have the abundant life. I don't live in fear. I respect the enemy. I'm not afraid of the enemy. I understand that I gotta do what I gotta do if I'm gonna... I gotta remain in, re- remain in the body, remain in the body, remain in the body.

[00:24:31] Remain in me. Remain in me. Remain in me. Remain in me. Remain in me. Don't go nowhere. Remain in me. Don't go no- remain in me. Rem- go to church on Sunday. Go, come to Believers in Recovery. Jump on the Zoom. Come, call you. S- do the things that winners do so that you can be a winner. And Hebrews 11 tells you who those winners are.

[00:24:50] Thank you so much for having me, Believers in Recovery. James 4:7 is the scripture. Submit yourself to God first. Submit yourself to God, [00:25:00] and that means something. First six steps, submit yourself to God. Second, the devil's coming. There's no worship, there's no prayer, there's no reading scripture, there's no memorizing scripture.

[00:25:12] There's nothing you can do to stop the devil from coming t- at you. He's gonna come. Now, you can prepare to withstand and to beat and to put the devil on the run if you have the full armor of God, and you're in alignment with the power of God, and you're living from the source, the word of God.

[00:25:31] You win. The Bible's very clear. I don't fight for victory. I fight from victory. I have the victory already. I just, I don't give it up. Don't be dumb, Raymond. Don't be dumb. Stay humble. That's the posture where the grace comes in. Oh, humility, the posture where faith can be increased and grow.

[00:25:54] Humility, the posture where character can be built. Humility, less of me [00:26:00] and more of God Amen. I love you guys. Thank you very much for having me. Wow.