Matthew Perry And The Cost Of Fame…

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Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to Fight For Truth. In this video, we're going to talk about Matthew Perry.

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Matthew is best known for his role in the hit TV show Friends, where he portrayed a character named Chandler Bing. As a result,

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Matthew made tons and tons of money, and was probably a household name for quite some time. However, after Friends was over, people began to notice changes in Matthew's appearance over the years.

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And after some additional time had passed, it became clear that these changes were not merely the result of the normal process of aging.

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Rather, they were the result of Matthew's longtime struggle with drugs and alcohol. And ultimately, Matthew's story ended as he was found dead in his hot tub on October 28th.

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Officials have reported that there were no signs of foul play. But whether or not drug or alcohol use was involved remains to be seen.

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And in the wake of all this, many people have been asking the fundamental question, was Matthew Perry a

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Christian, and what exactly was his relationship with God? And in my opinion, the best person to answer this question is

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Matthew himself. So here's a video in which Matthew talks about one of his first encounters with God in prayer.

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Watch this. Well it was interesting, the first time I prayed, and it was the first time, it was like a prayer of like a 14 year old.

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And I was 24 or something like that. And I just read that some celebrity, I don't remember, who was in trouble, and I thought to myself, he doesn't care, he's famous, what difference does that make?

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He's famous, he has it all. And then I knelt down and said, God, you can do whatever you want to me, just please make me famous.

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And two weeks later I got friends, and God didn't forget about the first part of it. Hmm, what do

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I want to do to him? That kind of Faustian bargain. Very bad disease at the same time.

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So Matthew says that he prayed for fame at all costs, it didn't matter what God did to him after that, just make me famous, he said.

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And God granted this to him by giving him his role in the show Friends. But he half -jokingly, half -seriously follows this up by saying that God did not forget the first part of his prayer either.

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And this seems to be a reference to the rampant drug and alcohol use that came alongside his time on the show.

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So let's answer a few questions. First, was this God answering Matthew's prayer? Well, in a sense, yes.

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God is sovereign over all things that happen, including Matthew Perry getting that part — Ephesians 1 .11.

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But does this mean that God approved of everything Matthew Perry did with his fame and his money and his time on the show?

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Of course not. There are clear warnings in Scripture against drunkenness — Ephesians 5 .18,

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for example. But this pseudo -warning from Matthew Perry is one that we should all pay attention to.

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You see, in a world full of TikTok and Instagram models and all that kind of thing, there are thousands if not millions of young people who would probably say that they want to get famous by any means necessary — exactly what

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Matthew said himself. But as the old saying goes, sometimes money costs too much. Here's what

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Matthew had to say at the Friends reunion event that happened recently, in which he talks about his time performing in front of a live studio audience.

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Watch this. At least to me, I felt like I was going to die if they didn't laugh.

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And it's not healthy, for sure. But I would sometimes say a line and they wouldn't laugh and I would sweat and just like go into convulsions.

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If I didn't get the laugh I was supposed to get, I would freak out. It would take you down. You didn't tell us that then. No? No.

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I don't remember you ever saying that. Oh yeah. I felt like that every single night. This was the ultimate outcome of Matthew's prayer for fame.

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He was 100 % beholden to what the audience thought about his performance.

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This was the source of security in his life, and really the only one. But as is the case for all people who obsess over fame, they will find that this is a pitiful, anxious, and frankly terrible state to live in.

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And this happened to the point that Matthew would feel like he was, quote, going to die if the audience didn't give him the praise that he so desired.

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And more than this, he felt that way every single performance, consistently. And he never told the rest of his castmates.

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So he went through all of this constant anxiety, basically alone. This is why it's so important to be fulfilled in Christ as a

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Christian. If you live for man, you will never truly be at rest. But in Jesus, and in true faith, there is genuine peace.

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As Jesus says in Matthew 11, 28, quote, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

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These are sobering words, true words. But additionally, Matthew Perry once told comedian Bill Maher about his relationship with God later in life.

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Watch this. Um, but they call that a Hail Mary. That's what they do when, uh, they put you on an

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ECMO machine when it's a Hail Mary. And five people were on ECMO that night, and the other four died, and I somehow made it.

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Well, um, what, God is a, is a fan. Yeah. I mean, I know your feeling about that, um, but I, I...

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Well, I'm a fan. Maybe I'm not. Okay. I know that, uh, once you've referred to it as a force, and, you know,

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I believe, I believe that. I believe that a higher power, there is a higher power. Right. I believe that I've had a very close relationship with him that's helped me a lot.

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And... Somebody's on your side. Yeah. So Matthew tells Bill about how he almost died because of his drug problems, and he believes that a higher power, or higher force, as he says, saved him, and that he has a relation ship with this higher power.

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Interestingly, Matthew calls this higher power a him rather than an it, which would indicate that he's talking about a singular personal

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God. And this echoes what he wrote in his memoir. Let me read it for you. Quote, God, please help me,

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I whispered. Show me that you are here. God, please help me. As I kneeled, the light began to get bigger and bigger until it was so big that it encompassed the entire room.

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What was happening? And why was I starting to feel better? I started to cry. I mean, really started to cry.

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That shoulder -shaking, kind of uncontrollable weeping. I wasn't crying because I was sad. I was crying because for the first time in my life,

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I felt okay. I felt safe, taken care of. Decades of struggling with God and wrestling with life and sadness all was being washed away, like a river of pain gone into oblivion.

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I had been in the presence of God, I was certain of it, and this time I had prayed for the right thing. Help. God had shown me a sliver of what life could be, and He saved me that day, and for all days, no matter what.

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He turned me into a seeker, not only of sobriety and truth, but also of Him. End quote.

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Matthew goes on to say that he stayed sober for two years on the basis of this encounter alone.

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And these examples paint a very interesting picture. But unfortunately, in all of my research for this video,

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I was not able to find any place where he gave specifics about these experiences. For example, is he referring to the

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Christian God? Was he saved by Jesus Christ? Did he repent of his sin? Did he read the Bible?

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Did he go to church? I have absolutely no idea what the answers are. And frankly, unless more evidence comes to light,

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I don't think any of us will ever know if he was truly a Christian. But what I do know is this.

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There are deep, real, and pressing spiritual lessons that can be learned from his life and his death.

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For one thing, we live in a culture that is obsessed with fame. People will literally give up their peace, their sanity, their bodies, their innocence, their very soul, to become a famous influencer of some kind.

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And yet no amount of fame will ever bring peace to your soul. We can also learn that the warnings in Scripture about drunkenness and substance abuse are not there because God is a cosmic killjoy, but rather because there are very real consequences to misusing these substances that, unfortunately,

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Matthew Perry had to suffer through for virtually his whole adult life. And ultimately, we should all be asking this question.

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Where are we going to go when we die? Have we been made right with God? The good news is that though we are all guilty of grave sin against God, we can be made new in Christ Jesus through faith and trust in His sacrificial death.

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And no amount of fame and fortune can replace that. No temporary high can replace the ultimate joy of knowing

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Christ. Please, pray for this channel and for those affected by Matthew Perry's death. Check out the ministries linked in the description, like, subscribe, hit the bell, and subscribe to our

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