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May 26, 2019

Addiction

Passage: Romans 7:21-24

Preacher: Tim Badal

Series:Landmines

Detail:

This morning we’re dealing with the landmine of addiction. This is something the church doesn’t talk too much about. Many times it’s easy for the church to simply demonize these wrongs. We see someone addicted to a certain behavior or substance, and it’s easy for us to think that’s just their problem. “You got yourself into that; now you’re paying for it.”

If we’re honest with ourselves and really understand who we are before we come to know Christ—sinners with depraved thoughts and actions—we’ll realize we are just as prone to all kinds of additions ourselves. At its heart, addiction is a form of idolatry. It takes something of the world and raises it to the level of God. There are all sorts of idols that we use as substitutes for God in our lives.

When we come to know Christ, we might think our life of addiction would be over. Now that we have Christ, we are to be “addicted” to Him. We are to be devoted to and in love with Him, which means we don’t have time, energy or space in our life to be addicted to anything else. But that type of thinking is simplistic at best. Although we have been set free from the punishment for sin, sin’s power still can hold sway in our lives. It’s up to us to say no to sin on a daily basis—and if we’re honest, we don’t always do this. When we start saying yes to certain sins, they can become habits. As we feed these habits, they can easily grow into addictions.

With each of these landmine topics, I need to give you a disclaimer. These are big issues and if you think I can address them adequately, you don’t really have a grasp on these topics. This morning I have only a limited amount of time to address a very deep and sensitive subject. My goal is not to cover this in a general sense, but rather to look at it from a spiritual and pastoral perspective. If you believe you have an addiction that has a physiological source, you’ll need to talk to a doctor. If you need ongoing help, I would encourage you to find a good Christian counselor who can help you walk through this. What I want to do this morning is to talk to the people I love—the church I’m called to serve—and say that God wants you to find victory from your addictions. Jesus wants to set you free from the addictions that are warring against you,  but in order to find that victory, you need to understand what you’re dealing with.

The Bible doesn’t talk a lot about addictions. I’ll show you where it does use the expression one time in the New Testament. There’s a passage in Scripture where the Apostle Paul speaks of not doing the things we want to do and doing the things we don’t want to do. To me that sounds like the predicament of the addict. The things he doesn’t want to do he finds himself doing, and the things he wants to do are difficult for him.

Let’s turn to Romans 7 as our springboard for this discussion, after which we’ll look at Luke 4:18 where we’ll learn that we can be set free by the power of Jesus Christ. In Romans 7, we’ll start at verse 18 where Paul says this:

18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

This prayer could be prayed by so many addicts all over the world. Aren’t you glad that Paul doesn’t just explain the problem, but he also gives the answer? In verse 25 he says, “But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” He’s the answer. He’s the One Who can rescue us from our addictions. Whatever you’re struggling with this morning—whether you want to call it an addiction or maybe just a pet sin—Jesus is the ultimate answer to that problem. He’s the One Who came. We’re going to learn in Luke 4:18 that He’s the One Who sets the prisoners free.

My goal this morning is to understand addiction through the lens of Scripture, to identify what it is and is not, to discern how we got there, then finally to figure out how we can find deliverance from it. Let’s turn our attention to that now. I’ll start with a story.

One day a man walked into a doctor’s office in incredible pain. He said, “Doctor, I’m hurting all over.” The doctor responded, “Really? All over?” He said, “Yes, from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet.” The doctor said, “Show me.” He replied, “My head hurts all the time. Look.” He touches his head and goes, “Ow!” He said, “My chest hurts—look. Ow!” The doctor asked, “What about your side?” “Yeah, when I touch here, man, it hurts so bad.” “How about your knee?” “Oh, yeah, ow—it hurts!” “Even your feet?” He bent down, touched his feet, and he gave a big yelp.

He said, “Doctor, it’s terrible, isn’t it? It’s terminal. I hurt all over. My body must be dying. What is it, doctor? What’s causing me so much pain that my entire body would hurt?” The doctor responded, “Your body is fine. It’s your broken finger we need to fix.”   

Addiction is a lot like that. One little thing, like a broken finger, can cause your whole body—even your whole life—to suffer. Some of you are dealing with an addiction and you’ve given excuses for why you need it. You’re living a hard life. You need it to cope with the daily grind. Maybe you’re doing it in isolation, and nobody knows that a Christian like you would be engaged in that activity. I want you to know that God knows about it and what He desires is for us to find freedom from it. While addictions advertise fulfillment, contentment, peace and joy, they always leave us hungry for more. What begins in a small way gradually brings more shame and more dysfunction and more disarray in our everyday lives.

How do we fix this problem of addiction?

Let’s define addiction. 

We speak of being addicted to something. I remember as a young teenager listening to Robert Palmer tell us, “You might as well face it; you’re addicted to love.” Some of you listened to good music back in the day. Being addicted to love can’t be a bad thing. That sounds wonderful and worth pursuing. Sometimes we speak of our addictions a bit tongue-in-cheek. Are they really that bad? I mean, the things we find ourselves addicted to aren’t causing any trouble. The dictionary defines addiction as “a surrender of oneself to something habitually and obsessively.”

That’s a great definition, because at the heart of every addiction is surrender. When you and I are addicted to something, we have essentially said to that thing, whatever it is, “I give you ownership of my life. I’m putting up a white flag and saying, ‘You’re in charge now.’”  We can’t blame our addictions on someone or something else. It is a surrender of ourselves, a cognizant decision to give something else the reins in our lives.

Second, this is something that becomes habitual; something we repeat over and over again. It’s not a one-off activity. It’s not something we fall into once but never do it again. It’s also something that when we’re not doing it, we are obsessing about doing it again. We’ll dream about it and arrange our schedules around it, wanting to return to it as soon as possible.

Again, we haven’t defined specific types of addictions, but this is a good general definition. Addiction can also be defined biblically. The word “addicted” in the King James Version of the Bible happens once in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 16:15. That’s where we’re told that Stephanas and his household were “addicted” to the ministry of the saints. What an addiction to have! They loved serving people. “Look at those addicts. They care and minister. They address the needs of those around them. They are service addicts.” What a great thing. Here is the Bible speaking about being addicted in a positive sense. A “kissing cousin” word to the term used here is the word translated “devotion.” What we’re going to see is the spiritual reality that comes into play.

At the heart of it, God wants you to be addicted to something; to be devoted to something. The issue is when we become addicted to something that’s opposed to God. What are some things God does want us to be addicted to? First, of course, we need to be devoted to Him, to His Word and prayer. We are also called to be addicted to holiness, ministry and the fellowship of the body. We’re to be devoted to one another out of brotherly love.

If we put these things into our general definition, we’ll see that these are the things we should surrender ourselves to habitually and obsessively. It should be an integral part of our lives that we are devoted to the person and purposes of God. That’s what He desires for us. When we become addicted to Him, we’re not going to have a hangover. In fact, the psalmist tells us, “Taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Psalm 34:8). God wants us to feast on Him, to meditate on Him. He wants us to have an obsessive habit of loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. That’s the addiction God wants us to have.

But because we’re sinners, because we “all like sheep have gone astray” (Isaiah 53:6), with each of us going our own way, we’re essentially saying, “No, God, I don’t want to be addicted to the omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent God of the universe. I don’t want a relationship with the Creator of this world. Instead of seeing You as my supreme treasure that I would pursue, I’d rather find happiness in the bottom of a bottle. I would rather find happiness with the puff off a cigarette. I would rather find my contentment in a bottle of pills, technology or entertainment. I’d rather find it in sex and lust.”

In other words, in its essence an addiction is the devotion of our heart to something. God wants our devotion and, quite frankly, He has every right to demand it. But we turn to other things.

The Bible also describes addiction negatively. It doesn’t directly use the word addiction, but it uses words that are similar.

·         According to 2 Timothy 2:26, when we pursue the appetites of our flesh, we’re actually being taken captive by sin. We become bound up and are no longer free to do what we want. We’ve become a prisoner of the sinful pursuit we’re indulging in and craving .

·         First Corinthians 6:12 speaks of our being enslaved. We’re no longer in charge of our own lives, but we’ve given control to this appetite.

·         Matthew 6:24 tells us that addiction means we’re serving a master. Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” In other words, we must choose whether we are going to allow the addictions of this world to rule over us or we going to serve and honor God, seeking Him and His Kingdom, thereby allowing Him to fill us with the good things we desire.

·         Finally, the Bible speaks of addiction as debauchery or dissipation in Ephesians 5:18. The image is of our not ever getting enough, but instead gorging ourselves, trying to fill ourselves with something that never satisfies. “Just one more drink. This will be the last time I go to that website. This will be the last time I fall into that harmful behavior. Once I’m done with it, I won’t need it anymore. I’m going to turn over a new leaf and do what is right.”

The Bible tells us this kind of thinking is foolishness. Instead, this kind of lifestyle brings bondage, stealing our joy and providing no peace. It even drives us to doubt the existence of God, because we can’t find Him in our daily patterns. But God says we’re to flee from this sort of life. If we’re honest, that’s much easier to say than to do. Paul seems to have that struggle when he says, “I don’t want to be taken captive. I don’t want to serve another master. I don’t want to live in debauchery. But the very things I try so hard not to do, those are I find myself gravitating toward.” I love his transparency. Paul truly wants to be devoted to God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength, but he’s not able to get there on his own. His response is simply, “What a wretched man I am!”

Brothers and sisters, we are a wretched people. We are broken and foolish. We need God in our lives. Without Him, we’re in trouble. I really like how Eugene Peterson paraphrases these verses in The Message:

For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.

It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge. I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?

Don’t you hear the heart of an addict? “I don’t want to do this. It’s ruining my life, but I don’t seem to get anywhere.”

Let’s dissect addiction. 

Now that we’ve defined addiction, let’s dissect it for a moment. As we begin to understand what it is, where it comes from and the role it plays in our lives, what exactly does it involve? What do we get addicted to? I’ve already mentioned some things, but like idolatry, addiction can be directed toward anything. We are really good at becoming addicted to all sorts of things.

The Substances

Let’s bring up some of the big ones.

·         Probably the largest addiction in our country today is alcoholism—an addiction to beer, wine or liquor. How about drugs? We have an illicit drug problem in our society right now. They’re on the streets and in our schools. What about prescription drugs? We begin using them to ease the symptoms of an injury or illness, then we become dependent on them. Then there are cigarettes or vaping. Those are more socially acceptable addictions, but they’re still a problem.

·         How about television and other forms of entertainment? About five or six years ago, a phrase was added to our vernacular: “binge watching.” We’ve created an addictive term that describes how we live. “What are you going to do at home tonight?” “I’m going to binge on Netflix. I’m going to sit for hours and consume entertainment, numbing myself in a fantasy world.” What about shopping?

·         How about our cell phones or other technology? I recently was in the grocery store where a teenager had his phone taken away.  The young person said, “Mom, I can’t live without it!” That teenager was literally shaking. “I-I-I can’t live without it.” The withdrawal was already starting to kick in. You might laugh and think that’s just a teen problem, but how often have you backtracked miles, taken however long you needed to, because you left your phone on the counter? You can’t live without it either. We are lost without this technology. Studies reveal the amount of screen time in a day almost matches the time we sleep. We’ve got a problem.

·         What about food? We find ourselves binging on food for comfort or to ease our pain.

·         On the flip side, there are those who say, “I don’t binge on food,” but you binge on exercise. That becomes your god, so if you don’t get it, you’re stressed out. Not that exercise or food are bad in and of themselves, but they can become habits that are obsessive and control your life.

·         Then there’s work. Some of us fall in love with a certain project to the extent that we ignore our family and friends. I even have friends who have poured themselves into ministry and have nearly lost their families.

·         This next one will get me fired, but some of you are addicted to coffee. Think about what we spend on it and how much we have to consume. We’ll tell people, “Don’t talk to me until I’ve had my coffee.” That’s a problem.

·         What about gambling? There’s something about watching a baseball game when you’ve got some money on it. There’s a thrill, almost as if you’re actually playing the game yourself.

·         Then there is the issue of sex and pornography. One in four internet searches—25% with billions of searches every day—are to view pornography. Do you think we’re addicted to the stuff?

·         Or there’s the problem of self-harm.

I could go on and on. There are 31 flavors, my friend. It’s like walking into Baskin-Robbins. You’ll find a flavor you like—just give it time. They’ll offer it to you. There are addictions of every kind and if we’re really honest, each of us has our go-to addiction. Where does it come from? At the heart of it, Paul says it comes from the flesh, that is, the remnants of the unregenerate man that longs to be number one, making its appetites and desires our priority. Essentially our flesh says, “Feed me! Take care of me! Please me!”

But God says, “No, I’m number one, not you.” Even as redeemed individuals, we still have these bodies of flesh. What’s more, the human heart continues to be deceitful; who can understand it? Everything about us cries for us to take care of it, to give it pleasure. So when the opportunity to fill those longings presents itself, we go after them.

The Sources

Now let’s talk even more specifically. How did I get the addiction I have? How did I fall into it? Let me introduce some friends to you today.

First, meet “Born-with-it Bernie.” I tried to come up with names that wouldn’t refer to specific people here, but if they do, I’m sorry—it wasn’t intentional.

As we study human anatomy, as we’re exploring the brain, we’re learning that people respond differently to the word “stop.” A recent lab study hooked people up to a brain scan so they could see how the brain functioned. Bernie was one of the people who got hooked up to the scanner. Then they started offering them different things, such as food or cigarettes or drinks. The people enjoyed these things, until the researcher said, “Okay, we’re done.” Most of the brains then lit up in a certain way—but Bernie’s was different. He said, “More. I want more. I need more.” For whatever reason, God has allowed some of us to have brains that are not able to live within bounds all that well.

I have a wife who lives in the fences. No problem—she doesn’t even get near the fences. I plow through fences. When Amanda and I are enjoying a good time and someone tells us it’s time to be done, she says, “Okay. That was great. What a wonderful time.” I’m saying, “More. I need more.” She doesn’t understand what my problem is. She’s thinking, “Just stop.” I’m thinking, “I don’t know what stop means.” Can I tell you as a pastor that I’ll never get in trouble for playing it safe? “Well, Tim, you know you really need to take some risks.” No, I’m always ahead of my skis—and maybe some of you are there as well.

What I want you to know is this doesn’t take away your culpability. Rather, it means you and I need to be all the more aware that we will want to do things we know we shouldn’t. For me, there are things I just don’t do. It’s not that I think drinking is a sin when done in moderation, but I don’t touch drinks. Why not? Because I don’t understand the concept of having just one. That’s why I stay away from it altogether. I have a hard enough time saying no to food, let alone an intoxicating drink. When things are good, I don’t want to have to say, “I’m going to stop.” So I just don’t start in the first place. The same applies to movies I might watch. I know how my mind and body thinks. I’m not going to allow myself to go to movies or get into situations where it’s going to be an appetizer leading me to a place I don’t want to go. I stop it at the gate.

Bernie realizes that he has a proclivity to certain addictions, so he determines to do everything he can to steer clear of them. That’s “Born-with-it Bernie.” Some of you don’t struggle with that and I’m thankful you don’t. When you hear “stop,” you’re able to stop. It’s a great grace that you have and you need to appreciate it. Also, don’t judge people too harshly when they aren’t able to respond as you do.

Number two, there’s “Observe-it Oliver.” Oliver learned about addiction at a very young age. It might have been smoking, drinking, drugs or eating, but he watched Mom and Dad do these things. As a little boy, he learned that’s how to deal with life. I have a friend who struggles with alcoholism because he watched his granddad drink when he got home. Whether it was a good day or bad day, Granddad drank. Then he watched his Dad drink. Whether in times of triumph or tragedy, Dad would go to the bottle. My friend has been taught that the way to deal with life is through drinking.

Some of you have addictions that fall into the category of “generational sins.” These are habits that are passed from one generation to the next to the next. Whether we like it or not, as parents we’re teaching our children by our examples. Listen to me. The addictions we play with will be the addictions that plague our children. Did you hear me? The addictions you play with will be the addictions that plague your children. We have a great responsibility. The Bible says the man is cursed who leads a little one astray; it would be better to tie a millstone around his neck and throw him into the deepest sea (Matthew 18:5–6). So “Observe-it Oliver” learned these habits from someone. Maybe you’ve learned something from someone else. It doesn’t take away your culpability.

How about “Coping Carla”? She’s struggling with life. Work stinks. Relationships are on the rocks. She longs to feel good and be happy, but she can’t find these things in life, so she turns to food or television. “Life at work stinks. My love life stinks. So I’ll go to the Hallmark Channel or the Lifetime Channel and watch what real love looks like. I’ll live vicariously through that. I’ll binge on viewing these fake things so I’ll feel better.” Maybe some of you are trying to cope with life by allowing an addiction to take root.

My final friend is “Tried-it-and-liked-it Tito.” Tito’s addiction wasn’t something he was looking for. He was totally happy with life and was minding his own business. But one day he came upon something. Maybe it was when he was young. I can’t tell you how many grown men I’ve talked with who deal with lust and pornography. When I ask them how it started, they’d say, “I was eight years old and  playing hide and seek at my Grandpa’s house. I went into a closet and do you know what I found? A bunch of girly magazines. I wasn’t looking for it, but then I was hooked, and I’ve struggled with it ever since.”

These people didn’t intend to saddle themselves with their addictions, but they fell upon it. Maybe the person was in high school and they were offered a drink. “I tried it, and something hit me when it went down the gullet.” Or maybe they decided, “I’ll just take one sniff of that drug, one swallow of that pill—just once. But I’ll tell you what, it changed my life. Who would have thought I’d get to the place where I felt I would die without it?”

This is what Jesus was referring to when He told us how to pray,  “Lord, lead me not into temptation…” (Matthew 6:13). Our prayer should be, “Lord, You know me. You know my struggles. Can You steer me clear from those things in my life today? I know if I see that or smell that or am around that, I’m going to struggle to stay obedient.”

Last year I participated in a fast for some things I was praying about as a pastor and as a dad. I didn’t eat for quite a long time. I know it’s hard to tell, but it’s true. Do you know what the hardest struggle was? I was driving on Randall Road on a beautiful summer day and I drove by Portillo’s. I was sitting at the stop sign in front of it and I was dying. Every part of me said, “Get it. It’s good.”

There are things in our lives—whether we’re aware of them or not—that can be triggers to addictions that can ruin our lives. So be very careful. The Scripture tells us that all things are lawful, but not all things are beneficial (1 Corinthians 6:12). Just because it’s there doesn’t mean you have to go after it. Just because it’s offered doesn’t mean you need to say yes. Just because everybody else is doing it doesn’t mean you need to experiment with it. God says “don’t” to a lot of things for our good and for His glory.

My four friends are helping you recognize that you came into addictions through a lot of different avenues. Yet no matter how you got there, the end result is the same: you’re enslaved. Little by little, taste by taste, drag by drag, drink by drink, you’re allowing your life to be destroyed. So as wretched men and women, what do we do? We need help. What hope do we have? Jesus is our hope. In Luke 4, Jesus read from the scroll in the temple, then He said to the people, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (verse 21). What was it that was being fulfilled? Verse 18: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.”

Listen, addict. Jesus came to set you and me free from the bondage of sin, addiction and the fleshly appetites of this world. He has come to set us free, give us new desires, new affections and new appetites for the things of Him and His Kingdom. But in order to move from our addiction to His Kingdom living, some things need to take place.

Let’s get delivered from addiction. 

First, you need to ‘fess up to your problem. In Alcoholics Anonymous, you cannot participate in the group discussion until you articulate two truths: your name and that you’re an alcoholic. “Hi, my name is Tim and I’m an alcoholic.” “Hi, Tim. Now you can talk.” I don’t agree with everything that’s done in Alcoholics Anonymous, although I realize it’s been a great help to many. I’m glad they include a desire to pursue a higher power; I just happen to believe in the Highest Power.

But what if the church was to do that? What if the church were to say, “Hi, welcome to Village Bible Church; My name is Tim and we are articulating our addictions”? Well, number one, any hypocrisy would be gone. There’s no hypocrisy in an AA meeting. They are all a bunch of alcoholics there. In the church, we’re all a bunch of sinners here. If we would own up that we’re sinners and we’re addicted to our sin, then and only then might the Spirit of the living God have some sway in our lives.

You cannot be set free, Jesus says in Luke 4:18, until you recognize that you’re a captive. So what’s your addiction this morning? What is it that you’re habitually obsessing over that keeps you from a right relationship with God? Name it. Declare it. Then stop making excuses for it.

Second, if that addiction is keeping you from true satisfaction, then seek satisfaction in your Savior. Jesus wants to set you free and He wants to give you the things you’ve been looking for; He wants to fill you with the things you find lacking in your life. Turn to Him and tell Him, “God, I don’t want to find it in the bottle anymore. I want to find it in You and You alone.” Far too many of us are trying to reduce our addictions by ourselves. Try hard—fail. Try hard—fail. We’ve never given it to Jesus, saying, “Jesus, You are the One Who sets me free. I cannot free myself.”

Three, turn to a faithful friend who knows about your addiction. Addictions are things we hold on the inside, things we keep quiet about. But the New Testament tells us that real Christian friendship is a person who’s able to bear your burden and carry it with you. It’s someone who can pray with you, encourage you and hold you accountable. It’s someone and who will rescue you when you fall. Who is that person in your life? Do you want to find victory over your sin? You can’t do it alone.

Four, get ready for a fight. I love stories in which someone comes to know Jesus, then whatever they were struggling with, whatever their addiction was, it miraculously and instantaneously was gone. I got her permission to share this, so I don’t want you to think I’m a bad husband. When I started dating Amanda, we were 18 and she was a nonbeliever. I fell in love with her and we started dating. One thing I didn’t like about her—you’re not going to believe this, but you’ll have to take my word for it—was that she cursed like a sailor. Every word was a bad word in her vocabulary. They were nouns, adjectives, verbs, pronouns—you name it. I remember thinking, “This drives me nuts”—a lot of times because she would use those with me. But I still loved her and was a glutton for punishment. Then she came to know Jesus and I kid you not. From that moment, I have not heard her utter a bad word. She was set free.

Maybe you, by the power of God and the Holy Spirit, have given something to Jesus and can praise God that He’s set you free. The Bible tells us that what God has set free is free indeed (John 8:34–36). Praise God!

But let’s also be realistic. The power of sin is strong. Some of us today have been walking with Jesus for a long time. As your pastor, I confess that I have walked with Jesus for a long, long time and I know better. However, the things I don’t want to do are the things I find myself doing. We all have to fight it.

The way you destroy an addiction is  to strangle it. Stop playing with it; strangle it. It’s a snake in your life. What do you do with a snake? You stomp on it. You do everything in your power to keep that snake from getting out from under your heel. So be ready for a fight—a fight that may go for the entirety of your life. Just remember that greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4-6). You can find victory.

Finally—and I would be remiss not to say this—we need to be continually filled with the Spirit. This is the greatest antidote. Paul says, “Don’t get drunk on wine, but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). There is a direct correlation. Instead of being addicted to drink, be addicted to the Spirit of God. Allow yourself to be habitual and obsessive about being continually filled with the Spirit. When we are filling ourselves with the good things, we begin to push out any capacity we have for the addicting things in our lives.

I go back to the concept of devotion to God. When we are fully devoted to the things of God, then the addictions of this world will gradually be strangled out. The songwriter put it this way: When we look into the face of Jesus, “The things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.” As we fill ourselves with the glory and grace of almighty God, the desires, appetites and addictions of this world will grow strangely dim in comparison to Jesus.

Fill yourself with good things and give yourself wholly to the things of God. Will it eradicate your addiction immediately? Probably not. But little by little, step by step, moment by moment, you will see victory come instead of defeat, despair and destruction.

 

Village Bible Church  |  847 North State Route 47, Sugar Grove, IL 60554  |  (630) 466-7198  |  www.villagebible.org/sugar-grove
All Scriptures quoted directly from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted. 
Note: This transcription has been provided by Sermon Transcribers (www.sermontranscribers.com).