Twelve Steps To Recovery Part 3
Scripture: Psalms 118:8-9; Numbers 23:19; Hebrews 6:17-18; Isaiah 54:4-8
Introduction
So far in this series we have discussed the first two steps in the twelve step process. We began by admitting that we were powerless over our dependencies and that there was a God greater than ourselves who could restore us to sanity. In this message we will examine step 3: “We made a decision to turn our lives over to the care of God.” In this step we make the decision to give up our rights to live however we want and choose to allow God the full control over us. At this point we are choosing to stop fighting against God because we know and understand that it is only He that can restore us to sanity and bring us to a point where we are addiction free. When we consciously choose to commit all of our lives to Christ care and control, we cease trying to do it all ourselves.
Have you ever considered what it is like to yield your control, your decision rights over to someone else? Let me approach this from a medical viewpoint. Until the time that a person turns 18 (in most cases) their parents have the say so as to what can and cannot be done for their care when they go to the doctor. There are exceptions to this, but I am talking in general here. Once a person turns 18, even though they may be on their parents’ insurance program, they now have the rights to make their decisions. I remember several years ago when my daughter turned 18 and our pharmacy benefit provider started calling for her. They would not even talk with Nikki without Clarissa’s approval. That represented a conflict for me because we were still responsible for the bills and her care and I wanted to be informed. I quickly found out that I can only be informed about what my then 18 year old daughter wanted me informed about – even though I was still responsible for paying the bill. She had come to the age of taking control of her rights. Let’s move forward to adulthood, specifically an elderly person. As it pertains to an elderly person’s medical care, there may come a time when they may have to have someone making decisions for them. This is normally done when a person is not able to make their decisions on their own and they put in place what is called a “medical power of attorney or living will.” The medical power of attorney gives someone else the power to make decisions about the person’s healthcare needs when they become unable to do so. This person has the authority, based on their understanding of the person’s desires, to make life and death decisions on their behalf. This is what we are doing when we come to step 3, we are choosing to give up our rights to decide what is best for our lives over to God. We still have our individual will and can make any decision that we choose, but we choose not to exercise it. In step 3 we relinquish our right to do what we want and choose to allow God to act as our Power of Attorney in ALL things pertaining to us.
I. Why Trust God?
In order for us to take the plunge of step 3, we must come to trust God. Saying we trust God and actually doing it are two different things. Or maybe I should say it this way; we may trust God with some things but not all things. In order for us to make the decision to release our will and allow God to completely care for us, we must trust Him in all things. It is not uncommon to link our perceptions about God to our childhood experiences with people who played powerful roles in our life. I have shared with you on a number of occasions that it is easier for someone to see God as a good, loving Father if they had a good loving father when they were a child. Likewise, the opposite is true. If they had a bad father it is easier for them to see God as this being waiting to destroy them the first chance He gets. If we have been victimized in the past by people who were abusive, distant, uncaring or incompetent, we may now anticipate these same qualities in God. Just because God is a power greater than we are and the people who victimized us represented a power greater than we were, we must not conclude that God will harm us if we entrust our life to Him. Although we may have learned in the past that putting confidence in people brings only pain and disappointment, we cannot let this keep us from trusting God and allowing Him full control over our lives. David said “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.” Psalm 118:8-9
Let’s consider for a moment what David said. I’ve already conceded to you that we could have experienced hurt and disappointment placing our trust in man, but David proves the point. In verse eight he said it is better to trust in the Lord than trusting in a man. Everyone could think about someone who had disappointed them when it comes to trusting in a man. You see, this individual could be a family member, a friend, a supervisor or any of a number of individuals. By using this reference “man” David showed that it was all inclusive. So if verse eight was all inclusive, why do you think he repeated himself in verse nine, but changed “man” to “princes”? I believe this was very intentional. The term “man” implies everyone, but the term “princes” calls out those individual in power. This term focused on those in authority and had the power to fulfill whatever was promised to us, yet they did not. You see, it is a different story when a “normal person” promises something and they are not able to fulfill it because maybe they over promised what they could actually do. However, when you consider the prince, especially in David’s time, this person had the authority and the finances to do whatever needed to be done. So, if they made a promise to you and they did not fulfill it you can assume that it was by choice. What David was telling us was that regardless, if we put our trust in man, even one with means, we can be disappointed. However, he encourages us that the Lord is not that way. In verse ten of this same chapter David explains that when all the nations surrounded him, God would bring him through. This is trust. When your life is on the line and you choose to stand alone with God versus standing with a multitude of people; that is trust. We know that once God has committed to something, He fulfills it. Look at Numbers 23:19.
“God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man that He should repent; has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”
The book of Numbers was written by Moses – someone who had a lot of experience trusting God. Moses did not start off trusting God; he grew to trust God explicitly. Once Moses knew God, he confidently stated that God was not a man that he should lie. God cannot lie – it is impossible for Him to do so! Moses also stated that God is not man and is not in need of repenting – what He said He will He did it. You see, if God says He is going to do something and He does not do it, then He has lied and that cannot happen. When God commits to something, you can take it to the bank – it will be done. It is impossible for God to lie. Paul reiterates this points in Hebrews 6:17-18 which says: “In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, in order that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us.”
So if you believe as I do that it is impossible for God to lie, then you can also accept the fact that we can trust Him. It is better to trust God than man because God will not lie, He will not promise one thing and not deliver. If you believe that it is impossible for God to lie, then you can believe what Paul records in Hebrews 13:5 when he says “Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.” If God cannot lie, then you know that once you accept Him, He will NEVER leave or forsake you. Not today, not tomorrow, not EVER! Regardless of all the disappointments we may have suffered at the hands of man, God will not disappoint us by failing us. He will not lie to us nor will He ever forsake us. Does this sound like man? Absolutely not! This is why we should trust God, He is not man. In order for us to fulfill step 3, we must decide to trust God with everything, not just the big things or those things we cannot handle, we must trust Him with everything.
II. We Have Been Redeemed: Our Past; Present; & Future
When we make the decision to turn our will and our life over to the care of God, sometimes there is a fear factor that our past will come back to haunt us – that there is too much there for God to wipe away. That is not the case and let me explain it this way. I am not sure how many of you have ever purchased a used car, but I have. When you purchase a used car you accept certain things about that car. First, you accept the fact that the car has miles on it, maybe a lot of miles depending on the age of the car. You accept the fact that there may be scratches on the outside and stains on the inside. You accept the fact that the tires may need to be replaced and some maintenance work may need to be done. All of this comes with buying a used car.
Now if you were purchasing a new car, you would not expect to have the stains on the inside and scratches on the outside. You would not expect the tires to need replacing when there are hardly any miles on it. The expectations are different. The moment we ceased being an infant (new) we became used. Each one of us comes to God with a past. In turning our life over to Him, we give Him our entire self, including our past losses and shame. We hand over to Him every moment of disgrace, every tear we have ever cried, every word we wish we could take back, all the broken promises, the loneliness, all the dreams that died, the dashed hopes, the broken relationships, our successes and failures – all of our yesterdays and the scars they have left in our life. All of our past comes with us when we come to God. And just like us when we purchase that used car, God is happy to have us, past and all. You see, when you purchase that used car, you are not looking at its history, but what it will bring to you in the future. Even if you only expect to have the car a couple of years, you purchased it with that couple of years in mind. When God accepted us, He gladly accepted our past. So, what does this mean?
A few weeks ago we had a discussion in bible study about our being redeemed in Christ. It is important as you decide to give yourself (and your will) totally over to God that you understand what it means to be redeemed. By definition, redeem means to “buy or get back; recover; pay off; to ransom.” God purchased us through the blood of Christ, we understand that, but there is more. Let’s go to the Old Testament so that I may explain fully what it means to be redeemed. Turn to Isaiah 54:4-8.
“Fear not; you will no longer live in shame. Don’t be afraid; there is no more disgrace for you. You will no longer remember the shame of your youth and the sorrows of widowhood. For your creator will be your husband; the Lord of Heaven’s Armies is His name! He is your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of all the earth. For the Lord has called you back from your grief; as though you were a young wife abandoned by her husband, says your God. For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great compassion I will take you back. In a burst of anger I turned my face away for a little while. But with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer.”
In order for you to understand what these verses are saying, you need to know a little about the Old Testament Law. Under the Old testament law, if someone lost freedom, property, or spouse because of a disaster or a debt, the next of kin was looked to as a “redeemer.” If property had been lost because of an inability to pay, the redeemer would pay for it and instead of keeping the property of themselves, they would return it to the original owner. If a woman lost her husband, the redeemer would marry her, providing her with protection and love. God tells us “Fear not; you will no longer live in shame. Don’t be afraid; there is no more disgrace in you. You will no longer remember the shame of your youth and the sorrows of widowhood. For your creator will be your husband; the Lord of Heaven’s Armies is His name. He is your Redeemer.”
In the Old Testament times, the redeemer was the one who restored what was lost. This individual ensured that the property was returned; that the debt was paid. God is our Redeemer, the restorer of our losses. He is Lord of all, even of our days and our dreams of the past. When we give God the past, He can make up for all we have lost. He can rid us of the shame and fill the empty places in our hearts. When we allow God to function as our redeemer, He is able to restore what we lost due to our addictions. He can restore property. He can restore relationships. He can restore jobs. God is our redeemer and He can be trusted to fulfill His job accordingly.
Conclusion Step 3
We began by admitting that we were powerless over our dependencies and that there was a God greater than ourselves who could restore us to sanity. In step 3 “We made a decision to turn our lives over to the care of God.” This is accomplished when we come to trust God and believe that He will fulfill His word. I shared with you that it is impossible for God to lie so you can trust that what He said He will do, He will do. God is our redeemer. He will restore what we have lost when we choose to turn our lives over to Him. I hope that you will join me in doing that and moving forward to step number four.
May God continue to bless and keep you.
