Men's Breakfast - 2025-08-30

Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.

If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.

Thank you for joining us today.

We're going to be blessed today.

Sean O'Donnell is going to speak with us here.

Sean has an amazing story of really God's faithfulness to him.

Sean was in various kinds of addiction for many years,

but God's brought him out of that.

Sean has an awesome heart, a heart for just helping disciple people.

Maybe they've gone through similar situations to him in very practical ways.

I think you're going to really find it very interesting what he's going to share.

People need hands-on skills as well, and Sean is good at developing that,

so we'll hear about his ministries.

He's the founder of Facing Addiction Ministries and D-Town Vocational Program,

and a lot of other programs as well.

He's the father of six kids and attends Covenant Fellowship or Covenant Church.

All right, so let's give a hand for Sean.

I met Sean about three years ago.

I don't know if he remembers it, but we were at a picnic, same picnic,

and I was talking with him, and I was just amazed at his story,

and came back and told Pastor Chris,

hey, here's a guy who has some really practical ideas for helping people

that are having various addiction problems, so looking forward to hearing from you.

All right.

I appreciate that, Doug.

I'm probably going to read a lot of this.

I don't feel like I'm a good speaker, although I have to do it often.

I'm more hands-on.

I want to disciple people, care for people,

but I know it's encouraging for us to hear about how we're working

and how God's using us and what's possible.

With that said, I'd just like to pray.

Father, I thank you, Lord, for all these men.

I ask you to speak through me.

Give us something we can use practically in our lives

to honor you and to help others.

I pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Yep, my name's Sean O'Donnell.

Doug kind of covered my first little section here.

I'm the founder of Facing Addiction Ministries.

We help start addiction meetings in churches,

local churches in Bucks County.

I also have a home remodeling company,

Doylestown Carpentry, and through that business,

we have a program called Doylestown Vocational Training Program.

We hire two to three individuals per quarter,

and we disciple them while training them in a skill.

I just wanted to start with my personal testimony.

Give some backdrop to what God's done

and the changes he can do in people's lives.

For about 20 years, I didn't go a single day without drugs.

I never believed I would be without drugs until 2016.

I thought that was just going to be my life.

I remember standing in line at the methadone clinic

eight years ago thinking this is my life.

I'll be coming here forever.

So standing here today seven years sober,

completely off of everything,

is nothing short of a miracle from God.

I'm thankful for the chance to share my testimony

and I pray it glorifies God.

I'll start at the beginning.

When I was two, my father left.

My mother was left to raise me as a single parent.

We were on food stamps and living in the city.

My mother battled addiction throughout most of my childhood.

She was physically and mentally abusive,

yet my mother was also a deacon at our church.

That really confused me as a kid,

that we were part of a church

and my mother had a role as a deacon.

Yet no one saw the abuse.

No one called her out on her drug addiction

or tried to help us.

So that's just to give you some backdrop

to why I wasn't a Christian through most of my life.

I grew up hearing things like,

you're the reason your dad left while being physically abused.

I absorbed my mother's rage and pain.

When I wasn't at home,

I faced violence in my neighborhood,

getting in fights, being jumped,

and even having my bike stolen at gunpoint at eight years old.

By the age of 10, I had so much pain inside

that I tried to end my life.

I was placed in a psychiatric hospital.

That was the first of 13 mental hospitals I was in

by the time I was 15 years old.

By 15, I had given up hope life would ever improve.

I ran away and lived on my own.

I lived in parks, sheds, and on couches of friends

I barely knew.

I jumped into relationships with women.

I was looking for something to fill me up,

to fill that void inside of me.

I never knew back then, but it was a God-sized void.

No drugs, no alcohol.

No women were going to fill that.

Sex, porn, and drugs was things I got into very early.

And so I started to use it to self-medicate,

to deal with the insecurities and depression.

And as drugs became a big part of my life,

I knew it was a problem.

But alleviation from the reality of who I was becoming

was more important to me.

It helped me to be blind to what I was doing,

blind to my sin.

By the time I was 18, I started selling drugs,

stealing, and robbing.

My sense of right and wrong had become more distorted.

At this time, I was a womanizer.

I would always have a few women as options

that I was talking to.

And that was normal to me.

Looking back, I see how much pain and hurt I caused.

Even now, I know some of the women I used

and treated poorly.

I know my actions of cheating, demeaning,

and sexually mistreating them

has contributed to dysfunction in their relationships,

marriages, and families to this day.

We perpetuate the sins of this world

and we minimize its effect.

But those acts of taking advantage of women by misleading,

having a one-night stand, or watching porn,

that creates revenue for the porn industry,

which entices women and coerces them

to be victimly exploited.

Our sin in these areas as leaders, protectors, and men

distorts Gods and men of God,

distorts and diminishes the power and authority

we are supposed to walk in as blood-bought men of God.

At 19 years old, I was given my first prescription of Percocets,

and that was the start of a lifelong addiction.

That was when it was solidified.

I had a steady supply of drugs every month

by just going to get a prescription.

I moved from Percocets to Oxycontin to fentanyl patches.

These are all different degrees of pain medications,

stronger and stronger.

I was in and out of jail.

I spent many nights on the streets.

I was depressed and hopeless.

I survived by lying, cheating, and stealing.

During that time, I was involved in drive-by shootings,

robberies, attempted murders, bank robbery, assaults, and overdoses.

The life I had run from at 15 was now my reality as an adult.

At the age of 20, I had my first child.

I was a part of her life on and off from 2020, or from 2000 to 2008.

I was trying hard not to walk away like my dad did,

but I could see the damage with me in and out of her life.

I couldn't stop using drugs,

so I ended up deciding to leave her at eight years old,

just like my dad did.

I didn't become part of her life again

until I found Christ seven years ago,

and that is a restored relationship that I'm so thankful for.

I didn't think was possible.

In 2008, I overdosed twice in the same year.

The first time I was found unresponsive in a trailer,

an officer cleared my throat and performed CPR, saving my life.

The second time I was found unresponsive in an apartment,

and it was one month later.

Both times, I was in a coma for over a week.

I had a pick line stitched into my neck.

That's where they put an IV directly in your neck,

because you'll need emergency medications.

They only do that with people who are going to be out for a while.

You wouldn't have that if you're conscious.

It was very serious, and I shouldn't have survived.

I'll never forget waking up in the hospital.

They told me that they pulled 60 fragments of Xanax out of my lungs.

It was something I realized I probably committed suicide.

I just don't remember how it happened or what happened,

but you don't take that many pills

without intent to die.

From 2008 to 2016, I was in and out of jail,

continue the same cycle.

I was in dozens of toxic relationships,

mostly for my doing.

I was always on drugs and living on social security disability.

I was using street drugs and going to methadone clinics.

It was a slow burn version of hell.

It was just very slow burn.

Not obvious, but obvious enough.

2016 to 2017, at the age of 36, my second daughter was born.

That should have been enough to get me clean, but it wasn't.

I was still stuck on methadone.

I was still using heroin and fentanyl.

I was adding testosterone to the mix to get energy back.

But it only made me more impulsive and angry.

It only made me more demanding of my girlfriend for sex.

It only increased my porn addiction.

So I coerced and mentally beat down

to get my sexual desires filled by my girlfriend.

At that time, it was the mother of my child.

To put things into perspective, this is in 2017.

2016 to 2017, I would tie a string to my belt

and I would tie it to my seven-month-old daughter

while she's sleeping so that I could do heroin

and dip out and know if she got too far away

or know if she would roll off to bed.

So that's the type of person I was just eight years ago.

That was normal to me.

That was okay.

This is one of the countless ways I was living in sin.

In 2017, the mother of my child went for a restraining order

and I was only able to see my little girl twice a week

at the Georgetown Library with supervised visits.

This lasted for about seven months.

During that time, I was broken.

I didn't want to live anymore.

I felt suicidal.

I reached out to one of our mutual friends,

hoping to get information.

Not to talk to this guy or anything,

but just to get information about my family

because I couldn't see them.

And he didn't give me any information.

He invited me to a picnic.

I ended up going to the picnic in hopes of getting information.

And when I got there was a Christian in picnic

and still didn't get any information.

But they actually talked to me.

They cared, prayed for me.

And I remember still to this day,

they put their hands on me in a circle

and prayed for me at the end of the picnic.

And I just kept thinking in my head

that I'm going to hit them

and that they should get off of me.

But I didn't show that

because I knew it was genuine.

It was real.

So I let them do it.

But I completely rejected it in my head and in my heart.

When I went home that week,

I was still suicidal.

I was still hearing phantom cries of my daughter upstairs

even though she wasn't there.

But the memory of her hearing her cry was there

and it was torturing me.

And so when they invited me to church on Sunday,

I had nothing to do.

And I went.

I went high, broken, still living in all my sin.

And they wanted to sit up front.

I made them sit in the back.

This is not sit up front.

They were putting their hands up during worship.

And I was making fun of them in my mind

thinking it's ridiculous.

These people are crazy.

And so I vowed I'd never go again.

I left again.

They kept inviting me.

I think a week or two weeks later,

I went again because I was still dealing with depression

at home and hearing my daughter.

And I went.

I let them take me up closer to the front.

And during worship, I just felt the wholeness of God

fill my being.

It happened on its own.

Nobody prompted it.

Nobody structured it, planned it.

But that void for like one minute was completely filled.

The void that I was trying to get in porn,

sex, drugs, alcohol,

all the wounds that I was trying to fill

were completely filled for one minute.

And from that point on, I knew God was real.

So what do I do with that?

I'm living in sin.

I know God's real.

I know he can fill all those voids and make you whole again.

But it was still a process after that.

One time I called the church.

They had those little cards

like fill this out with a problem.

So I called the church.

It was on that card.

And I explained my situation.

And the person, I think, felt overwhelmed

by what I was saying.

And they said, I'm gonna have someone else call you back.

And then someone else called me back within a minute.

And after talking for about 20 minutes,

we said the sinner's prayer together on the phone.

And I'll never forget, I was leaning over my dryer

in my apartment crying and saying the prayer.

I mean, like full-on crying, you know,

like you got the quivers going and all that.

I was seeing all the pain and hurt

I had caused and was done to me.

I was crying so hard my nose started to bleed.

The red drops kept landing on the white dryer one by one.

And I remember looking down full of tears,

seeing them hit the white, the red blood hitting the white.

And I finally stood up and took a breath

after leaning over the dryer after I said the prayer.

And I felt his spirit fill me with grace

like he did in worship.

And as I exhaled with the shivering breath,

I let go of the weight.

I just felt, I remember feeling it just go,

the weight with one breath out.

And he came in with one breath in.

And he took it so I could do the work

of restoration led by him.

And I'm still working on that restoration

of my past relationships and refinement

of the man I am today.

But I was fully restored to my relationship with Jesus.

So all things have been possible.

That year in 2017, I gave my life to Jesus Christ.

He moved in miraculous ways,

helping me to overcome pornography addiction,

drug addiction, and so many unhealthy habits.

I spent so much time in prayer and scripture.

I would go to the lake in the morning and at night

and seek him.

There was a restraining order.

So I really didn't have anything else to do.

I'd go to multiple churches and just find him

and seek him.

And he structured that on purpose.

I had nowhere to go but him.

He transformed this heart of stone into a heart of flesh.

He wrote his commandments on my heart and renewed my mind.

I now have six kids.

My wife and I have our own home

and I am able to be a husband,

a father, a provider, and a protector.

I never knew how rewarding, challenging,

and beautiful it is to devote your life selflessly

to your family.

And all those attributes you get,

they start to get solidified in your heart

by God's work through your obedience.

And you become stable to not just do those things in your home

but to do them outside of your home and disciple others.

It is a beautiful and difficult plan of sanctification

and growth but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

In 2017, I was still having a hard time

not seeing my daughter.

Even after all of this,

I would still hear my daughter upstairs

randomly trying to watch a show,

trying to watch a podcast, trying to read the Bible.

I would hear her crying upstairs.

And it was still trying to pull that old spirit

of depression out of me.

Depression of lonely,

the feeling of the spirit of loneliness

out of me.

It was trying to draw those old things back.

And I shared this at a men's Bible study

and along with being prayed for,

they told me to start a Bible study in my house

to have those spirits be done

and have new memories, good memories in my home.

And we started that meeting at my house.

It was like two or three people

who didn't know what we were doing.

One of the pastors showed up one time.

One of the elders showed up.

They tried to show support,

help guide us how to have a Bible study.

It ended up turning into a small group

where it was a small Bible study dinner

and it kept growing.

It went from two to three people

to five people to 10 people,

multiple churches,

different people from my neighborhood.

And when it started to push like 30, 40 people,

I approached Covenant Church,

the church I was at and I said,

we need a place to meet.

We can't do it here.

And we prayed about it

and we started the Facing Addiction Ministries

first meeting,

addiction-related meeting in a church.

And our first meeting was 60 people.

We started calling it Facing Addiction Ministries.

This meeting still meets every Thursday

for over seven years

and I haven't ran it once in five plus years.

So that's amazing.

We don't have to be involved

if God's involved.

It's a blessing.

By the end of 2017,

I found it Facing Addiction Ministries,

501c3.

This nonprofit ministry grew

from the needs of the addiction meeting.

I was leading in Covenant

every Thursday night.

We were in need of funding

for step recovery books,

Uber rides,

and recovery treatment scholarships.

So everything that happened

happened organically.

Like the meeting came about on its own,

the needs grew.

So then we needed some way

that people could give

and help us provide for the needs.

And it's just been a beautiful journey.

FAM is dedicated

to equipping churches

to serve their communities

with addiction-focused support.

We work with a number of companies

to provide work training

while mentoring and discipling.

We start and develop leaders.

We help develop leaders

for recovery meetings

and ministries within local churches.

We don't go run the meetings

or ministries.

We want to bring people

from the community

to be developed

as a leader for that community.

As of now,

there are six meetings

in Bucks County.

The churches fully support the meetings

and help with the needs

that arise from the participants.

Our volunteers provide rides

to treatment,

recovery meetings,

church,

work,

and if volunteers aren't available,

we use Uber cards.

And we know what's up.

We don't give them an Uber card.

We order the ride

from point A to point B,

make sure it's going to a church,

a meeting,

a doctor's office,

work.

And we offer one-on-one

mentorship and training.

And we train church volunteers

to do that as well.

We offer recovery house

and treatment scholarships.

We help with groceries for work

with local food pantries.

We work with local food pantries as well.

And if we ever order someone food,

we do the same thing.

We order the food,

send it to their door.

I used to actually,

six years ago, go shopping with them.

That, once it grew,

that wasn't possible anymore.

So thank goodness I can deliver food.

And we provide job training

and job placement.

Our first way that we help

in job placement

is we offer a work readiness assessment

in our office in Doylestown.

It's 199 North Broad Street

in Doylestown,

right across from the courthouse.

That was God's providence as well

because people can walk

from the probation department

or court and be near the transportation,

public transportation,

and come right over.

So that's been great.

We get referrals from churches,

safe families,

probation departments,

recovery houses,

and recovery meetings.

I usually have an opportunity

to share some of my story,

which allows the person to open up

and feel like they're not sitting

with someone that's sitting

in judgment of them,

but they can open up

and I can figure out how I can help

them best with the truth.

Over the last seven years,

we've helped 62 individuals

in the work mentorship program

with a 60% success rate,

meaning they haven't returned

to jail or long-term relapse,

but we also have lost people.

I've been to too many funerals.

I'd rather not ever lose

somebody I care about

and working within a deep way,

but we are in a fallen world

and these things happen.

And I pray for a day where

that won't be the case anymore

and I know that's coming.

And through the meetings,

we've calculated that we've helped about

or reached about a thousand people

that have heard about Christ

and heard about recovery and hope.

Through Dolestown Carpentry,

my business,

we provide paid hands-on training

in a trade with wraparound care

provided by Facing Addiction Ministries.

And we help men who've come

out of addiction or incarceration.

We have helped one woman.

It's rare, but that's in there

if we can and it fits.

The heart of the work

is building integrity,

hope, and purpose

through biblical values

and community care.

Everything we do

through our business,

our ministry, and our partnerships

is about helping people

stand on their own two feet

and experiencing the love of God.

That's been the goal.

It was done for me

and I'm trying to reproduce

what God's done in my life

for others.

This isn't an easy operation.

This is an intense process

of walking with people day to day

through good and bad.

How can we all walk?

So this is my question to everyone.

How can we all walk with people

in our day to day lives

through our businesses,

our jobs, our neighbor,

someone we see that's struggling.

Do you see the struggle

of your neighbor

or do you walk right by?

That's my question.

I mean, we all get busy

and we just keep doing

what we need to do.

And sometimes that has to be the case

and other times we need to pray

about where we can step in

and help.

The truth of the matter is

is many of us look through others

instead of seeing them.

And sometimes it's not even

about the action

of doing something.

It's about letting them know

they're seen

and that they're cared about.

When we are preoccupied

with our own concerns,

much of the world

is simply invisible to us.

Service is rooted in seeing

and seeing others as God does

as seeing the image of God

in others.

The rhythm of missional encounter

has to do with anticipating

and planning to share

the love of God with others

who we encounter in society.

Encounter could be an accident,

but missional encounter

has some thought

and intention behind it.

A missional encounter

might happen through conversations,

through a conversation,

through witnessing

or by praying for others.

But one of the most effective

missional encounters

is when we serve

those in great need

and alleviate hurt, harm

and suffering.

I want to ask

every man in this room

where you can evaluate

and give up some of your time

and energy to help someone.

I really want to challenge you guys

if God can use me

all these years.

I haven't even graduated high school

and he's equipped me

to do things for his will

and to be obedient to it.

And he's blessed it

and provided for me

every step of the way

in ways that don't make sense.

A business should not

be able to take on

a bunch of trainees

all the time

and then send them out

to have their own businesses

or do well somewhere else.

You would keep that asset

you trained in a business

for it to do well.

So he does bless

the hands of the things

that we're doing

for his will, for his kingdom.

And if we can't sacrifice

after Jesus sacrificed himself

for us, then we're lost.

I don't want to waste

the single breath

of his new life

on selfish exploits.

I want to be kingdom-minded.

I want to see his church

move in power

and work together

in united prayerful ways.

It can be as simple

as taking someone out

weekly for coffee

and going over scripture

or as complex

as creating a new position

in your business

just for training

someone who desperately

needs a chance.

You can't force the care.

Don't do it reluctantly.

Don't give reluctantly

because sincere

God-led action

is not fake

and the power of God

only moves

in an obedient heart.

So that's so important

to be moved,

to be called to do it,

not to force it.

Ultimately, we have to let go

of everything

to receive the gift of eternity.

So I encourage you

to stretch, give,

and invest in others.

In John 21,

verse 15 through 17,

when Peter failed

and denied Jesus three times,

the Lord came to him

for redemption through action.

That action was simple.

Do you love me?

Yes.

If you do, feed my sheep.

Shepherd my people.

Feed my lambs.

It's very clear

how redemption works

and how restoration works.

He wants us to be used

for his will

to help others.

Jesus is clear in Matthew,

chapter 25,

verse 31 through 46.

We will be judged.

And one crucial test

of a man who serves

the Lord is this.

Did you show love

and compassion

by serving the hungry,

the thirsty,

the sick,

the imprisoned,

and the needy?

Because in serving

the least of these,

we are serving him.

Those who neglected

such acts of mercy

will face eternal separation

while the righteous

will inherit eternal life.

And in John chapter 13,

verse 33 through 35,

we're left with a call to action.

He says,

little children,

I shall be with you no longer.

I shall be with you

a little while longer.

You will seek me.

And as I said

to the Jews

where I am going,

you cannot come.

So now I say to you

a new commandment.

I give to you

that you love one another.

I have love

as I have loved you

that you also love one another.

By this,

all will know

that you are my disciples

if you have love

for one another.

So he just reiterates

the same thing

in different ways

over and over.

In Matthew 28,

verse 18 through 20.

And Jesus came and spoke to them

saying all authority

has been given to me

in heaven and on earth.

Go therefore

and make disciples

of all nations,

baptizing them

in the name of the Father

and the Son

and the Holy Spirit.

Teaching them to observe

all things

I have commanded you.

And lo,

I am with you

even to the end of the age.

So he commanded us

to love others.

And then he says,

do what I've commanded you

in Matthew.

And I am with you

to the end of the age.

So he is with us

when we are loving

and caring for someone else.

When we see them

as an image bearer of God

instead of as somebody

that's in our way

of our schedule.

Before I finish this,

I'd like to remember

what God has modeled for us

in a big way.

In his perfect, faithful, loving way.

So in Romans chapter 5,

verse 5 through 11,

and hope does not put us to shame

because God's love

has been poured out

into our hearts

through the Holy Spirit

who has been given to us.

You see at just the right time

when we were still powerless,

Christ died for the unGodly.

Very important.

Very rarely in this world

will anyone die

for a righteous person,

though for a good person

someone might possibly

dare to die.

But God demonstrates

his own love for us in this.

While we were still sinners,

Christ died for us.

Since we have now been

justified by his blood,

how much more

shall we be saved

from God's wrath through him?

For while we were

God's enemies,

we were reconciled to him

through the death of his son.

How much more

having been reconciled

shall we be saved

through his life?

Not only in this so,

but we also boast in God

through our Lord Jesus Christ,

through whom we have

now received reconciliation.

So the verse I selected

really focused on us

abiding in him,

doing his will,

helping his people,

seeing his people as him,

as him being with us.

And he promises

in those places

when you're doing

those things,

he is abiding in you,

and with you,

and empowering you.

And I know I want to be

as close to Jesus as possible.

I know the life I led

without him.

And so that's my,

I want to challenge

everyone in here.

This is his call.

He reiterates it

so many times.

It's not a me-centered faith.

It's an outward

expression of faith.

The other thing I'd like

to encourage everyone

with is getting prayer.

We can't,

we can't care for others

if we haven't received

care from God

and his people.

You're not going to

disciple well

if you haven't been discipled.

And being discipled

takes vulnerability.

Going to another man,

someone, a pastor,

a brother in Christ,

with open vulnerability

and honesty

to be cared for.

So today,

if you have anything

you need prayer for,

I would urge you

to find someone

to pray for you

and be open about it.

We all have stuff.

Every single person here

guarantees there's

something you need prayer for.

And so that vulnerable,

that humility,

that's where God fills

that space

and equips you

to do it for someone else later.

It was a little shorter

than I thought,

but did you want to do?

Yeah.

After. Okay.

So for the prayer time,

I'd like to,

yeah, I'm torn between the two,

to the two options.

So I feel like

it would be good

to pray for others

that we know

that are struggling

and how God can use us

to help them.

I also feel

it's really important

for us to actually

pray for one another,

like every person to your left

to be equipped to do that.

That's a lot,

but I think we have

enough time for it.

I'd like to do both.

Please don't use names

of the people

that you want to pray for.

You can just say

my neighbor,

my coworker,

him, her,

you know,

we don't want to throw

everybody's name out there.

But yeah,

if everyone can just go

around their table

and say someone

they would like to pray for

and pray for them

and do that first

and then go around

and pray for the man

to your left

that they be equipped

by the Holy Spirit

to care for those people.

I think that would be

a beautiful exercise.

I'll go to my table

and do that

and then I'll come back up

for a Q&A.

Thanks for joining us

at Lansdale Life Church

as we praise God

and discuss His Word.

Don't forget to join us

for Worship Lives Sunday mornings

at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.

Be blessed

and have a great day!