Show Opening And Promise Of Hope

Announcer 0:01

It's time now to get the hell out of your life. A weekly broadcast with real people, sharing real struggles, and offering real hope. Today's show will encourage, inspire, and empower you to face life's challenges with a bold confidence and renewed hope. Now let's join our host, Ron Myers, the promoter.

Jared’s Early Addiction And Control Issues

Ron Meyers 0:22

Are you feeling stuck, overwhelmed, and wondering if your life could ever really change? Well, today it can. Hello, my friends. I'm Ron Myers, and the show is called Get the Hell Out of Your Life: Real Stories, Real Struggles, and Real Hope. This show is for the non-churchgoer, for those who've been hurt. Or maybe you just don't trust Christians anymore. I'm so blessed and privileged to share these stories of God's amazing grace because every story we hear, it validates his love, his mercy, and his forgiveness. And after talking with hundreds of guests, I can tell you this with confidence. When you're in the middle of the worst moments of your life, God is right there. His grace far exceeds our sins. And today's story is living proof of that. We're talking about a man who went from drug addiction, multiple felonies, manufacturing meth, and hurting the people closest to him to building a free rehabilitation ministry and stepping into the role of pastor in one of the toughest and poorest communities on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Let me say that again. My guest went from drug dealer to ministry leader. So wherever you are right now, driving, working, or just taking a moment to breathe, lean in because this story might just be the one that changes yours. Let's jump into my conversation with Jared.

Jared Emerson 1:54

I couldn't just hit the off button once I turned it on. So where that rave would go on for a night or a weekend, you know, for me the the bender would keep going for weeks.

Ron Meyers 2:05

Where were your parents with all this going on? They didn't recognize something was wrong.

Jared Emerson 2:09

So it was again in the 90s and early 2000s, it was more free-range parenting. They were starting a business, and at the time they were pretty consumed with that business. You know, they were around, no doubt. They were there. But me and my brother were slick. We were manipulators. And so my brother was so slick that by the time they started realizing my addiction was popping up, they really tried to clamp down and control. And and but the more that they would try to control my rebellious spirit would flare up and it would rebel out even worse. So the more they would try to get a grip on the situation, the worse it would be.

Felonies And The First Rehab Door

Ron Meyers 2:44

Wow. Well, what was the breaking point?

Jared Emerson 2:47

By the time I was 17, I got my first four felonies. That was not the breaking point, but the for it it started it. The um my attorney told me you can either go to read program at parchment or you can go to rehab, you know. Okay, well, 18 years old, I picked up another felony of sale charge for three and a half grams of marijuana. And so that's when he's the judge said you can go to read program or you go to parchment. So I went to rehab, secular rehab for the first time in my life. Um I didn't want to change, but I went to a 30-day rehab and a seed was planted in me that I could never go back and get high unashamed again after that. So from 18 to 22, I got out, you know, I started using intravenously. And next thing you know, I got me and my brother get linked up in Hattiesburg with these this criminal organization, I'll say. And these guys were some really bad people, some uh importers of a lot of drugs, and they were giving them to us on the front for next to nothing. So it was a a recipe for disaster for somebody with an addiction like mine. The amount of money and drugs and damage I did to my brain and and damage I caused in other people's lives, and this this four-year window was just incredible. So by the time I was 22 years old, I'd had enough. I was done selling drugs. I only wanted really to destroy myself, and I was really done doing that. I was really tired, sick and tired of being sick and tired of that old cliche. So I called my mom and I said, Mom, I need help. Help me find a place. And this was genuine. I really wanted out at 22 years old. And she found this place in California through Dr. Dobson's focus on the family.

Ron Meyers 4:20

Yeah, yeah.

The Night He Flushed Meth

Jared Emerson 4:21

And uh, so my mom was the spiritual leader of my house. Not that my dad wasn't a great dad and man, too, but um, but my mom was the one, this true spiritual leader of my house. And so she implanted the word of God in me at a very young age. Um, it just didn't take root till till later on. I you know, I ran from God for a long, long time. Knew of God, but didn't truly know him, you know, knew about him. So I went to this place called a Sunrise Ranch in Riverside, and I got to my first 30 days, and I knew I was just scratching the surface on the work that needed to be done. So I signed up for another seven months of their sober living program. Well, I had FA'd three semesters of college. Well, this pro sober living program offered to take you to college every day and pick you up, bring you and drop you off and pick you back up. And so I chose to do that part of their program. It was called Teach, was the acronym. And um, so I completed my first semester of college and I felt like, wow, I could actually do something. You know, and but I was working the 12 steps. Now I was I was sold out, I was sponsored, 180 meetings, 90 days. I was working the program, and that was it, you know, I had it. And you know, I had seven months in in treatment, and then another three months of sobriety. And me and my I met my wife in rehab out there in California, she's from Canada, and we met out there and we got apartments once we finished treatment. She had an apartment right above mine. I moved in with a roommate, and so and we had three months of sobriety, and then we started hanging around with some of the folks we were in treatment with that relapsed, and we just we went right back to our addiction. Wow. And so I introduced her to intravenous drug use and toted all the shame that came with that. You know, she was there for riddling and alcohol and combining those two, which was a serious addiction for her, but I brought her to to deeper and darker places than she could she had ever been. Of course, my addiction got worse as it all always gets progressively worse. And so we ended up moving back there, back to Mississippi after about two years of running amok. And we're we took a break in the relationship for about a year. Now I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off cooking crystal meth. I gotta back up now. This is this is what happened, and this was a game changer for me. And 20, 22 years old, I'm living in California. We finished rehab, and I'm living, I'm at my wife's apartment, and I I got this meth, and I it scared me so bad it didn't have all the negative side effects. And the negative side effects would keep me away from it for periods of time. So I got this stuff and I put it up one night and I quit and I I got something to eat and I slept, which was incredible to do with that drug in the first place. Woke up the next morning and I heard this voice. And I said, flush it. Flush it. Well, I had like an eight ball left, and I I didn't even think about it. It wasn't even a contemplation being had. I just went and grabbed the bag of dope and I just flushed it. And I went and sat on the couch. And if I would have known what was fixing to happen, I would have flushed that dope years before. But this was this was my time. I sat on the couch and just waves of raw emotion and euphoria just started pulsating through my body, just like over and over, and just tears just started streaming down my face. And I didn't even know why I was crying. And this was about 10 minutes of this. It was the best feeling I've ever felt in my life. And I had been to some very artificial euphoric places before, but this was real, it was genuine. And I looked over at my wife and she she was, I said, I don't know what's happening. She said, I don't I don't know what's going on either. I said, But it feels right, it feels cleansing, it feels like r purifying. And so I went and stood in the kitchen and I was leaning up against the counter and and it was at that moment it dawned on me that I was in the presence of God. And I felt these arms come and hug me, wrap around me, and just the tears started coming down even harder. Like my visions, it was messy, like my visions all blurred up, and and I look down and I'm staring at that tile on the floor, and my tears come together and drip down. And as my vision's clearing up, I'm staring at Jesus. And his face was ambiguous, but it was clear as day in my heart that it was Jesus revealing himself to me, and that I was in his presence. And so I pick up the phone and I call my mom and I said, Mom, you won't believe what just happened. And she said, Son, you're 22 years old. Most people won't have that in their lifetime. She said, What are you gonna do with it? And you think I would have just got it all together and sold it out to the Lord. No, I I tried to run from the Lord for another two and a half years in my addiction, another six years in sobriety. I tried to run for another eight and a half years like Jonah. You can't run from the Lord. He's you can't get He's everywhere. You're not gonna get away from him, and he's gonna He's gonna hawk us down. You know, he'll he's he's not gonna force himself, but he'll woo us, he'll pursue us, and he'll make it very awkward for us to to keep running from him. And so, very uncomfortable, right? And so at this time I got this calling put on my heart, rehab. That's all I knew. And I didn't know that the two were correlated. I thought I was running the show still. You have to have 22 years old, still not even lukewarm with my faith. I had God revealed himself to me, think that I would have sold out. No, not this stubborn, rebellious child. So I I spend I I moved back to Mississippi and I'm I'm I I get into manufacturing methamphetamine and my addiction, you know, the end result. I wasn't even selling it at the time. I was just making it for myself, really.

Ron Meyers 9:33

Well, I just had to pause for a minute. You see in a puddle of tears something that was Jesus, you felt Jesus, and you called your mom to me would stop me, but there was something that was still pulling you to the dark side.

Jared Emerson 9:49

Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Enemy was after me at a very young age. I could never really deny Jesus nor the devil because uh how prevalent he was. I accidentally, about eight or nine years old, messed with a Ouija boy with my neighbor, and I opened up some portals to hell. And I know that now. God revealed that to me in my walk with him, that that's that's really when things got out of hand.

Ron Meyers 10:11

And so, what was the age where you finally said the party's over, Jesus? Let's do life.

Jailhouse Sobriety And A Calling

Counseling Work And The Surrender Point

Jared Emerson 10:17

All right. So 24 years old is when I got sober, and then I was in incarceration for manufacturing methamphetamine. I was in that's what that's where it happened for me, a shift in mentality. Now I didn't sell my heart out to the Lord for another six years after that. I wanted it. I started working out, I started doing Bible study in jail, still lukewarm, but I was doing Bible study, started writing. I didn't know it was beginning in these addiction 101 classes I teach today, life skills, coping skills, and then couple that with the word of God. So I started doing those things and I kept doing those things when I got out. But I knew only a matter of time before I was going to go back out and get high again. I knew it. So we we decided to move to Canada, and that's where I started pursuing this calling that God had put on my heart years before. And so, well, not initially. For the first three years, I got into hockey, boxing, and I was working out five, six days a week. I was just endorphin, I needed endorphins and massive amounts of them. And so I was pretty much addicted to to hockey and boxing and working out. And uh, but it was a, it was, uh, it wasn't destroying my life and my family. So I was, you know, gung-ho with that for three years. And I got three years into my sobriety, and I said, okay, you're you're physically tough, you're physically strong, but you're still emotionally and spiritually weak where it matters. And you need to do something about that calling that God put on you. And and so I said, okay, well, I'm gonna go back to school. I'm gonna go to school for addiction counseling and finish this degree out. So I got my trials college, I went to finish my addiction counseling degree, and then I interned with Salvation Army at a homeless shelter in Oakville, Ontario, and I fell in love with the work. Still lukewarm, gotta imagine. This is hard to imagine that I was still lukewarm through this. But I knew that that it was a calling. I knew it was more than just a nine to five, even though they ended up hiring me on and paying me. So I ended up going to work for them for two and a half, three years, and then we moved back to, we decided to move to Tampa, Florida. And I got a job in Tampa, Florida as an addiction counselor at a um at a at a methadonis of boxing clinic. Now, keep in mind, I never agreed with that philosophy of recovery at all, but I wanted to work with addicts. I wanted to counsel addicts. So it was the first opportunity I could work in the States with addiction, so I jumped on it. The FBI fingerprinted all the employees and decided to let me go. My felony record was expunged. I had 12 or 13 felonies racked up over the years. Um, I was on a run from U.S. Marshals at one point for five months. They didn't like seeing then all those felonies on my FBI record, even though I was very forthright about my past with them. Um and they fired me and it kind of crushed me and devastated me. I was like, I really didn't agree with this philosophy, and now they fired me, you know. I didn't stay defeated though. I got up and I said, okay, I'm gonna go further my education with psychology. You see, this is the this I was still thinking this route. And so I'm glad the Lord was leading me this route for a lot of good reasons that I know now. So I studied, I tried to do all the self-help gurus and the psychological avenues for healing to heal my brain. The world told me that my brain needed healing. And I finally found out when I sold out to the Lord that it was my heart that needed healing and that my brain would follow my heart. And so all the worldly band-aids I was sold my whole life, they never worked. And I had to find that out the long, hard route. I finally surrendered. I finally waved the white flag.

Ron Meyers 13:32

What age was this?

Jared Emerson 13:33

I was 30. You were 30 years old. 30 years old.

Ron Meyers 13:36

You know, and I met you last week. Fit man, look good. Never, never thinking a story like that. But you know, it goes to show you that there are people out there walking around that just look like they should be on TV, but there's hurts in them. And and today you are a counselor. Tell tell the listeners what you're doing today. You're helping people become free.

Building Escape Addiction In Mississippi

Freedom Lighthouse Free Transitional Living

Jared Emerson 13:59

Yeah. So all that was, you know, Genesis 50, 20 is one of my favorite scriptures. I say favorite a lot when I talk about the word of God, but I have a lot of favorites in there. But and you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to do what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So you see, God had a plan and why he allowed all that. So he rolled out some things for me. I moved back from Tampa with my wife. That was a miracle of God uh of God in itself that we could agree to move back here to Mississippi. And I started escape addiction. I started doing outpatient counseling. And so that started out very slow and very much, you know, had the enemy in my ear the whole time telling me to quit, and had through people often telling me every reason why I should not be doing that. And if I would have listened, we wouldn't be here talking today. So escape addiction led me to 2020, started to formulate the Freedom Lighthouse, nonprofit. So I was I was charging very low prices for outpatient counseling. But the freedom lighthouse, I the Lord gave me a different vision. We were gonna take guys in for free. And it was gonna be once they we got them job. A second phase is what the Lord led me to do. And I'm I believe in inpatient, that's a necessary step for many, but I'm more concerned about what the Lord led me to a second phase in sober living, transitional living. I'm more concerned about what they're gonna do when they have some freedoms and some money in their pocket and the ability to make a poor choice. What are they gonna do then? Because we're gonna separate, we're not gonna do it. The Lord's gonna separate the wheat from the tares there in the second phase. And so we started setting up the nonprofit of the Freedom Lighthouse, and we took our first official residence in in 21. And so that's been quite the journey, and it's led to all kinds of connections and just bringing God glory all over and just meeting so many amazing people like yourself. So, where is Freedom Lighthouse? Freedom Light House is in Waveland, Mississippi. Six months to a year long program, and most need the year.

Ron Meyers 15:47

Most I'm not very rarely you say you do this for free?

Jared Emerson 15:50

Well, I don't I don't get paid.

Ron Meyers 15:52

No, I mean for the clients out there.

Jared Emerson 15:54

The clients get to come in for free, but once they pass that grace period and they get acclimated and they're ready to start working, then they'll pitch in the pot. But that's just to keep rent and the lights on and and the bills paid. I don't make a dime as the director, nor do I ever want to. The Lord doesn't He's given me other ways to make money with a clear conscience. I don't believe in in uh monetizing the Word of God.

Ron Meyers 16:17

So how has business been in the last few years?

Jared Emerson 16:21

So it it's been awesome. We've had we've had some amazing results. So I'm gonna tell you the guys that stayed and finished the year, they're all doing amazing. And and of course, we've had a lot, you know, we've had some that that haven't stayed and finished the year.

Ron Meyers 16:35

So it's never too late for anybody listening for a whole new beginning, is it?

Jared Emerson 16:40

No. 17 year addiction, the last eight intravenous. I've been in some dark and desperate places. If the Lord could polish me up into something halfway decent, he can do it for anybody.

Ron Meyers 16:49

So right now you have the microphone. Can you give someone hope that may be listening that is in an addiction stage of life?

A New Church In Bayside Community

How To Reach Freedom Lighthouse

Jared Emerson 16:56

Yeah, yeah. I'll just add to one latest thing. Just last October, the Lord birthed the church in Bayside Community. It's one of the poorest communities, if not the poorest community in Hancock County, through us, through his body and and what we were doing with the Freedom Light House. He birthed a a new church body for what I call church a church house or Sunday service, right? We are the church body. And so, and in and he made me the pastor of that. I didn't do any of this. How it all came together, I could not claim it. I did not do it, I did not think about it, orchestrate it, it just all came together. So let me tell you, if if somebody, if the Lord can take somebody like like me, just bottom of the barrel junkie, I was a bottom feeder, I was one of the most selfish individuals you'll ever meet, one of the most stubborn, just brawlers, fighters, just nasty individual, very lustful, very much a womanizer, misogynist. I mean, it it whatever negative label the enemy can put on somebody, I owned it. And and you know, owned it proudly. And so if he could take somebody like me and humble me to the point, and that was what the addiction was about, bringing me to my knees. You see, the addiction brought me to my knees, to the humility, but but it was the struggles in my marriage and the pain and my cousin's death that had me truly surrender. And now I have to stay surrendered every day. That's that's that's not a one and done born again, is not something you just do one time and you get dunked in that water and you're clean. As a matter of fact, 1 Peter 4 says, baptism, not the removal of filth from the flesh, but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. And so we have to pledge that every day. We have to die to ourself every day and pick up our cross and follow after him. I know where my will got me. It got me destruction, chaos, misery, and death. Now, I should have been dead numerous times and didn't get in all those stories today, but I was dead inside. I was a dead man walking. And the Lord Christ came by one day and he said, It's time to get up out of that grave you built for yourself. It's time to live. I want to give you life.

Ron Meyers 18:51

Well, how do people get in touch with you or Freedom Lighthouse?

Jared Emerson 18:55

Oh, that's easy. They can email me or they can go to the website freedom dash lighthouse.com.

Ron Meyers 19:01

Freedom Lighthouse.com. We're just about out of time. I would like you to have a nuclear prayer for our listeners out there listening right now.

Jared’s Prayer For Listeners

Jared Emerson 19:10

All right. Well, we invite the Holy Spirit in for that because He He's the one that prays through us. All right, uh, thank you, Ron. Lord Heavenly Father, we just come to your throne boldly to just praise you this morning and thank you for all that you're doing in our lives. I thank you for my brother Ron and you giving him this platform, Lord, and given giving him these gifts that to use to promote your kingdom, Lord, and that he has sold out to his relationship with you, that he can spend the rest of his days lifting you up and glorifying you, magnifying your works, Lord. So I ask you to continue to be the wind behind his sails and ours and everybody in the kingdom, Lord, that you just continue bringing your church body together. We don't care about denominations, Lord. We care about you and living in relationship with you, Lord. That you can just keep freeing people from all forms of captivity and that's addiction, religious bondage, Lord, and legalism, and that you can uh bring them into relation with you and that intimacy, Lord, that close connection and fill them up with your Holy Spirit. Lord, I believe that you are pouring your spirit out on all flesh, Lord, raising up an army right now. And that you have chosen people like me, the least likely suspects, the black sheep, the round pegs and the square holes, Lord. You have chosen people like us to make examples out of us so that people can see your miracle power flowing through our lives. I ask for your will to be done. And for every listener out there today, Lord, that you just bless them. You come and meet them with your Holy Spirit and your presence right now, Lord, and just shower them so that they can just have the most amazing day, Lord, and they can keep having that and living for you from here on out. We love you, Jesus, and we thank you so much for loving us that we could love you and one another. And we lift all this up in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ.

Ron’s Takeaways On Heart Change

Ron Meyers 20:52

Wow, what a story. Thank you, Jared, for being raw and real. And his story wasn't a straight line. This wasn't, oh, I had a moment with God and everything changed overnight. No, his story was messy. Years of running, years of resisting, years of trying everything else first. And maybe that's where you see yourself. But here's the truth: you can't miss a moment with God can change your direction. And giving your life to God is what changes your life. Because Jared tried everything, didn't he? Fix the mind, fix the habits, fix the behavior. But nothing worked. Why? Because the real issue wasn't the brain, it was the heart. And when the heart changed, everything else followed. Now look at the transformation. A man who once took from people, now gives everything away. A man who once destroyed lives now restores them. A man who ran from purpose now walks in it daily. That's not self-help, my friend. That's transformation. And I love this. He doesn't charge for it because when you have been pulled out of that kind of darkness, you don't sell the light. When I return, some final thoughts and a prayer for the week ahead.

Announcer 22:19

You're listening to Get the Hell Out of Your Life with your host, Ron Myers. Real stories, real struggles, and real hope.

Speaker 4 22:29

Here's a refreshing word from the book of Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 8. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.

Share Your Story Invitation

Announcer 22:43

What's your story? We're looking for stories of hope and overcoming life's struggles with God's grace. Your story validates God's love, mercy, restoration, and forgiveness. We want to help you share your story with the world. Visit our website, thepromoter.org, and click on the share your story link and submit your story. Your testimony of God's amazing grace will change a person's destiny for eternity.

Ron’s Straight Talk About Jesus

Ron Meyers 23:13

If you need something more out of life than what you've already experienced.

Speaker 7 23:17

If you need a new start, a clean slate.

Speaker 4 23:19

If you want to live life forever, you need God in your life. If getting old has you depressed.

Speaker 7 23:23

Growing up sometimes scares the daylights out of you. If you want to know what the future holds, get in touch with the one who holds the future.

Speaker 4 23:30

Stop wasting time and get a hold of God.

Speaker 7 23:32

It's not about earning points by being good. It ain't about some born church.

Speaker 2 23:36

It's not about working your way to heaven.

Speaker 7 23:37

Finding God is not about following some group who claims to be the only way to God. It's not about being religious. It's not about religion. It's all about God's only Son. It's all about Jesus.

Speaker 2 23:47

It's all about Jesus.

Speaker 7 23:48

It's about Jesus Christ.

Speaker 2 23:50

It's all about you. It's all about you, Jesus. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.

Speaker 7 24:03

Well, someday when I stand before God and he asks me, Why should I let you into heaven? All that's gonna matter is if I knew Jesus or not, and that's what it's all about.

Speaker 8 24:30

Get the hell out of your life. Get the hell out of your life.

Ron Meyers 24:38

And maybe you're listening right now thinking, that's powerful, but that could never be me. Yes, it can, my friend. Because the same grace that changed his life is available to you. We've heard it again today. God's love is real, his mercy is real, and his forgiveness is bigger than anything you've done. And when you're in the middle of your worst moment, God is right there with you, and his grace far exceeds your sins. So don't wait. Don't put it off. Don't drift into someday because someday turns into never. And before you know it, you're living on the island of regrets with villages called should have, would have, and could have. Don't live there. Today can be your turning point. Not because you have everything figured out, so why not today? Take the step of faith. Let go. Give your life to Jesus and then trust him. Because what God has for you, no addiction, no pastor, no mistake can stop it. My friends, why do you think you're listening today? This isn't random. God is sending you a message. It's never too late for a new beginning. Let's pray. Father, I lift up the person listening right now. You know where they are and what they're facing, what they've done, and what they're carrying. And maybe they feel too far gone, too broken, too ashamed to even look your way. But today I pray they feel something different. Not pressure, not guilt, but your loving presence. A peace that doesn't make sense, a love that they didn't earn, a grace that covers everything. Remind them. You're not waiting for them to clean themselves up. You're right there in the middle of it. Give them the courage to take that step of faith, to give their life to you, to trust, and to simply say, Jesus, I need you. And for those battling addiction, shame, regret, break the chains, replace the lies with truth, replace the darkness with light, and begin something new today. We thank you that no story is too far gone, no life is too broken, because your grace always has the final word. In Jesus' name, amen. Join me next week for another grace-filled episode of Get the Hell Out of Your Life, available wherever you listen to podcasts. In the meantime, remember this that I love you, Jesus loves you, and when you give Jesus your heart, you not only get the hell out of your life, but life gets good.

Support The Ministry And Sponsors

Announcer 27:36

Today's show was produced by Ron Myers Ministries, a listener-supported ministry. For a copy of today's broadcast, please visit our website, thepromoter.org. And would you prayerfully consider making a tax-deductible donation so that we may continue to share stories of God's amazing grace with the world? And join us next week for another broadcast of Get the Hell Out of Your Life. Real people, sharing real struggles, and offering real hope.

Speaker 3 28:03

We would like to express our gratitude to Coffee News for their support of this program. Are you tired of scrolling through the same old news feeds every morning? Then switch things up with Coffee News. Our publication is filled with interesting stories, brain teasers, and uplifting quotes that are sure to brighten your day. And now you can access Coffee News anytime, anywhere by visiting our website. So whether you're sipping your morning coffee at your favorite cafe or browsing online from your desk, we've got you covered. Start your day off right with Coffee News at readcoffeewsonline.com.