FREEDOM FROM ADDICTION #3

TEXT: - II Peter 2:19-22 TOPIC: - DO YOU REALLY WAN TO CHANGE?

Because today we are going to put to rest this issue of ‘Freedom From Addiction’ that we started sometime ago, I see the importance of us re-visiting the text that launched us into this series for us to better understand where we were come from and how far we have gone.

We have been talking about ‘Freedom From Addictions’ and last Sunday, the Lord spoke to us about ‘Idolatry’ and I believe we defined what idolatry is which is anything or anyone you put before you, other than God and that person could be your husband/wife/children or a particular child, money/home/cars/jewelries and so on that we might like to worship and God hates Idolatrous life and there is nothing we can do about it, He hates it period! He is a jealous God the Bible says; so whatever is that may be standing between you and God, between you and your victory has become your idol.

The problem is too often, we are like teenagers settling for a bag of stale chips when there is a gourmet meal sitting on the table behind us, we feed our appetites with shopping, relationships, TV, drugs or alcohol when God Himself is ready to meet the deepest desires of our hearts.

The Book of Romans gives us a little clip into what we are talking about concerning this problem of addiction; Rom.7:21, 22, 23, 24, [Someone to read]. Vs.21, Talks about a law; that is the law of the mind, which consents to the law of God if you look in vs.16, “If then I do that which I would not;” in other words, “if I am forced to do what I do not want to do, then it is not I, but sin that enslaves by its indwelling power;” sin actually has an indwelling power that forces you if you are one of those without self control.

Paul is telling us that “although he was a slave to sin but he was not a willing slave, it was as a result of a compelling force, an indwelling power;” and to better understand what he is talking about lets look at vs.19 & 20, of Romans 7; “even when I know the good that I should do, I don’t do it; “I have a will, to do and to serve my God, but it is so overpowered by the lusts of sin that I am helpless. My passion is stronger than my reason; my will, my reason, my understanding and my conscience are on God’s side and consent to His will and law; but my slave master will not consent for me to serve God or his law.

Vs.22, “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man;” he loves the Lord; he wants to do the things of God just like this other law as in vs.1-16 of this same Romans 7 the law of Moses; and-the-inward man in the sense referring to the spirit of man which knows I Cor.2:11, “For what knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.”

Vs.23, He says, “But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” This is the law of sin; that law is stronger than the law of the mind, for it captures man regardless of the protest of the law of the mind; vs.24, listen to this, “O wretched man that I am!” let us stop here and consider this statement; sincerely, this is not a picture of a redeemed soul, but of a captive of sin.

Every statement in this chapter proves that this was Paul’s experience while bound by sin under the law and before he was freed from the law of sin and death as in Rom.8:1-4, [read].

II Peter 2:19 the apostle says, “A man is a slave to whatever has mastered him,” now after reading this verse, does anything come to your mind that may have “mastered” you? Spending [shopping], TV, Internet [teenagers], drunkenness [alcoholism], sex, pornography, drug, parties and worldly activities, cheating, lying the list could go on and on; addictions; we are addicted to this, we are addicted to that; has anything ‘mastered’ you? That is the question you need to ask yourself/myself in order to move past the slavery and out of the bondage into the freedom that comes from being a worshiper of God the Father.

Last Sunday, we dealt with many practical aspects of how we get into those addictions and now how we can experience deliverance which is the pill that takes away all our problems; what do I mean? You go to a deliverance service or somebody prays over you or casts out that demon of addictions, you say what do you mean ‘cast out, the only answer to that question is to remind you of what I said on the first day of this message that addiction is a spiritual issue and it is demonic; and so you say “I’m going to be free from this problem of alcoholic, drunkenness, sexual lusts or whatever your addictions might be, but a brief visit to a place of deliverance does not guarantee your deliverance. Or what good is it for someone who struggles with addictions, and his frustration is, ‘here I am, I have been sober for one, two, three or five years, and I still struggle with these desires day in day out. What difference does it make to be a Christian?’

But God prizes the process of trusting in Him during the difficult times; and in the end, it really brings glory to God which is our whole purpose in life: not just that we could get this immediate fix or this immediate deliverance but that, day after day we have to look to Him, to cry to Him, to need Him and that very act of humbling yourself becomes a means of God pouring more of His grace into your life which of course is what you need, don’t just pay a brief visit, in and out of the church; that is not that you’re willing to get off the hook, because you must be willing.

In other words, when there are testimonies in the church, the normal testimony is, “I no longer have this particular struggle; I had it for many, many years, and the Lord delivered me,” good! But have you really been delivered, have you really changed?

The point is, if we are really understanding the problem accurately as a problem of who will you serve, who will you worship and your worship is not misplaced, then the fundamental point of change is growing in the knowledge of God which puts us squarely on all the great prayers of Scripture; and if there is anything that God wants to grant us in exceeding abundance, it is the knowledge of Him.

When a woman’s husband is addicted, she doesn’t have to face her situation alone; the church needs to be there for her; the nature of addictions is that they thrive on secrecy, they thrive in the darkness, and in part, the next step is saying, to the Body of Christ, “ I need help.” The question is; do you really need that help, ‘Do You Really Want To Change?” That is the topic for today. Do You Really Want To Change? And if you know in your mind that there is nothing else you need other than to change; our God is good, and He is ready to give you a new life.

Many women are crying out and saying, “What does God want me to do in this situation?” Sometime ago, I was listening without paying attention to a program on the radio entitled ‘The Midway Connections’ and suddenly, something caught my ears and guess what? It was a discursion on addictions and I said wow; and could you believe it was all of what we have been discussing for the last two Sundays; and I said the spirit of God is one.

So I called about three people immediately to listen to what has been going on in the church for few Sundays now as if they were here with us from the start. And they gave listeners the opportunity to call in; and people began to call in to tell their own stories.

One woman says that for 20 years, without fail her husband has gone out at least once a week to a bar or casino and has not come home sometimes for 24hours, ‘He’s gambled away more money than she can believe,’ she further said that she has banks and credit card companies and casinos calling her almost daily. This has wrecked havoc in her marriage she said.

Another woman said that her husband’s own addiction is pornography and that the hardness of his heart and his self-absorption have nearly destroyed her marriage. Another says ‘my husband has used drugs for most of our 21-year marriage,’ “how do I handle this situation.

The husband may be a professing believer; he may not be a believer at all, but the bottom line is, the wife is crying out and saying, “I’m living with this addicted man. What do I do?” Remember I said something about heroic women who have to deal with the situation that their loved ones, child or husband is struggling with addictions.

A lady says her addiction is cigarette and she can’t do without smoking about two packs daily, another says her problem is sex and she doesn’t care who she sleeps with as long as that person can give her satisfaction and as many times as possible in a day. One day a parent paraded her 14-year old girl on the National TV that her problem is men and the teenager confirmed that she had slept with over 50 men anywhere possible even in classrooms, bathrooms and lonely places.

These are the addictions in the lives of people and everyone who lives with a person who struggles with addiction had better make sure that they know that Jesus Christ forgives sins. They must know that their sins are forgiven if they can only come to Him, that He is faithful and just to forgive their unrighteousness.

Now what’s the big deal there? There are few things there. One is this: There’s probably not one woman who lives with someone who’s struggling with an addiction who doesn’t feel guilty in some way because addicts are world-class experts at excusing their behavior.

And then when they’re really desperate; and they get desperate fairly often, the best defense is a good offense, so the finger turns around, “Well, what about you, what about you, what about you?” they find or put a blame somewhere. The thing today is, if you’re in Christ, you better know that you have a righteousness that comes through faith and that you are thoroughly forgiven. Jesus Christ has not condemned you, neither am I condemning you; you need to know that he came for you, He died on the Cross that you might receive salvation and that you might live.

That frees you to go before your heavenly Father and say, “Lord, search me I feel guilty and, should I feel guilty, are there some ways that I have sinned?” That sounds like a harsh way to move into it, but that’s just a normal procedure biblically for when we begin to consider the sins of other person.

Matt.7:3-5, what does it say? [read] It simply is saying before you look at somebody else’s sin, take a hard look at your own and look at how your own heart ultimately really is not that different from the other person’s. Look for the log in your own eye before you look for the speck in the other person’s eye; which of course is, “what is my own addiction?

Do you want to change; or do you want a change in your situation right now? That is a loving question directed to as many as are in need of God’s intervention to consider their own hearts and make up their minds. Do they really want a change or want to change? It’s a hard one.

Because no matter what you’ve done; no matter where you’ve been, or what is happening with you right now; loneliness or hurts, bitterness and hate; anger and jealousy on the inside; all of the lost hope and emptiness that you’re trying to fill with junks like drug, drunkenness, sex and alcohol. God can fill you and turn your life around and you will never be the same again because there is hope in the power of the gospel; there is hope in Jesus. Let us pray.