164. Andy Ponstein's Story: Porn, Affairs, Polygraphs, and a NASCAR career

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Welcome to episode #164! This week, Matt and Braden chat with former NASCAR driver, Andy Ponstein. Andy talks about his life, battling addiction to pornography, and how with God's help his life was changed.Andy relates addiction to when he would watch other drivers on the track.When you are the one watching the other drivers, you can see how fast they are going; but when you’re driving the car, it doesn’t feel that fast. Until you crash, you don’t feel the speed at which you’re going. Seeing someone battling an addiction, it’s extreme to everyone around as they can see the reality of what the addict is doing/going through. However, when you’re in it, you don’t really realize how far gone you might be. 
Hiddenness is how the devil likes to trap us. Don’t allow yourself to be isolated. We get caught in lies thinking that we are alone or that we aren’t hurting anyone, and that even if everything is found out, I’ll be okay and anyone else affected will be okay. If you don’t value yourself, it can be easy to believe the lie that others don’t value you either. We have to combat the lies with the truth - God says you do have value to him and you do have value to those around you. God loves us too much to let us sit in the darkness. When sin stays in darkness it grows and festers and gets worse. When sin is brought to light, it loses power. God leads us on a journey to break free from those lies and darkness that sin and addiction try to trap us into. 
The Bloody Club: Everytime we do something wrong, we mentally smack ourselves on the head with a club. We don’t accept the goodness, grace and forgiveness of God. If we fully walk in His grace, we would accept what he offers to us. It can be a process to accept God’s grace and forgiveness. We have to go to God with our bloody club and put it at the foot of the cross. We have to acknowledge everything to God and surrender those parts that we beat ourselves up over so that we can begin that journey of accepting his forgiveness and grace. 
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