Addiction Is Idolatry w/ Joe Stan of Warpath Ministries | The JD Denham Podcast 92
The JD Denham PodcastShow Notes
In this episode of The JD Denham Podcast, JD Denham sits down with Joe Stan, author, pastor, recovery advocate, and co-founder of Warpath Ministries, for one of the most spiritually rich conversations this show has had. Two men from completely different worlds who ended up in the exact same war.
Joe grew up on one of the oldest farms in North Carolina, raised in extremes by a father who made him feel unwanted and a mother who overcompensated with too much love. His first suicide attempt was at six years old. By nineteen he found drugs and went zero to one hundred on every substance he touched. His journey through addiction, trauma, imprisonment, and eventually full surrender to God became the foundation for Warpath Ministries, which started as addiction outreach and grew into something much bigger: getting to the root of whatever we use to escape.
Joe drops one of the most reframed ideas JD has heard on this show: addiction is not a disease and it is not just a choice. Addiction is idolatry. We are all created to worship something. The question is what. And when God finally gets his hands on the people who worshipped a substance with that kind of intensity, they become some of the most extraordinary worshippers of the Most High that the world has ever seen.
JD and Joe also dig into Ephesians 6, the invisible war that every man is fighting whether he knows it or not, why putting on the full armor of God every single day is not optional for men like them, and why the pocket of bliss you feel helping someone with zero expectation of return is better than any high either of them has ever chased.
Chapters: 00:00 – Cold Open: "If You Die, I Want to Bury You by My Window" 01:03 – Intro 01:11 – Welcome Back & Meeting Joe Stan 02:57 – Warpath Ministries: Finding the Real Enemy 04:54 – Putting on the Armor of God Daily 07:08 – Why Addicts Share the Same Wiring 10:54 – Who Is Joe Stan Today? 13:45 – The Father Wound That Started It All 19:04 – The Three Kinds of Forgiveness 21:28 – Finding a Sponsor & Learning Accountability 26:22 – JD's Sponsor: Integrity & Doing Hard Things 30:38 – Did JD's Dad Change Because of Him? 35:17 – Relapse, Fentanyl & a Near-Fatal Crash 47:17 – Finding a New Family in Sobriety 57:04 – Mentors, a Movement of Broken Men & Rededication
Follow Joe Stan: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joestan44 TikTok/Facebook: Joe Stan Website: warpathministries.org Books: The War Within Handbook and Letters from a Dead Man on Amazon
JD's Socials: https://hoo.be/jddenhamofficial Join My Community: https://www.skool.com/peptideoftheweekcommunity/about
Intro Music: Pennywise – Let Us Hear Your Voice
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