INTRO: My testimony
1. Moved out at the age of 16, dropped out of high school
2. Alcohol, drugs/pcp, parties, Mexico, guns, girls, football, mosh pits
3. Many of my friends are either dead or severely messed up.
I WAS ADDICTED TO PARTYING
1. Revival with visiting evangelist
I BECAME ADDICTED TO GOD
2. Went to bible school, began to pray (youth prayer), fast (30-40 days), slept with bible. Spark heated debates at work about 1 God.
-Did you know that 1 out of 5 deaths are contributed to tobacco products?
- Every 8 seconds someone in the world dies of tobacco.
- Cigarette smoke contains 69 chemicals that are known to cause cancer.
- 1 out of 3 smokers will die from a tobacco related disease.
- 400,040 smokers die each year from smoking.
- 70% of smokers want to quit and only 5% succeed each year.
- 95% of people that want to quit are NOT successful!
- In the US alone smoking causes 445 new cases of lung cancer every day!
- Tobacco kills more Americans than AIDS, drugs, homicides, fire and accidents combined! So why is it that only 5% of smokers succeed on quitting when they already know the horrible outcome? Knowing that your hair, your home, your car, your clothes are going to stink. That your hair, your nails and teeth are going to become discolored.
Because they are addicted!
SETTING:
• Paul was an addict
• His name was originally Saul of Tarsus. He was the leader of the first world wide church persecution. He was a highly educated Jew that hated Christians.
Saul was even a murderer of Christians; he was there on the day Stephen was stoned.
Acts 8: 1-3
But Saul was on his was to Damascus was the Lord temporarily blinds him and commands him to seek out the house of Ananias. And as Saul approaches the house of Ananias fear comes over them because hey know who he is and what he has done but the Lord spake
“Go thy way for he is a chosen vessel ….for I will show him how great of things he must suffer for my names sake” And Ananias brings Saul in and layed his hands on him and he was filled with the Holy Ghost and Baptized in Jesus name! The bible says immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales….his sight was restored!
• God takes an addict named Saul and changes his name to Paul and makes him an addict for the Kingdom.
• And Paul goes on to become one of the most powerful Apostles this world has ever known! He goes on to write 13 books in the New Testament. That’s ,
Romans
1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
1 Thessalonians
2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
Philemon
And some say he possibly wrote Hebrews. If that is true then make it 14!
Paul truly became an addict. He traveled the world teaching and preaching the gospel. He escaped death several times. He was stoned and left for dead but he got up and kept preaching the gospel louder than ever. While he was in prison he sang until an angel of the Lord broke him and Silas out! Men we’re healed under his watch. Men we’re converted under his watch. Lives we’re changed under his watch. Paul finally was persecuted himself and beheaded by Nero. Paul truly was an addict for God!
Don’t say God can ever use you because you think you have sinned too much or your not good enough. Yes you are good enough.
“All have sinned and come short of the glory of God”
BUT
“While we we’re yet sinners Christ died for us”
SUPPORT:
Like Paul addicted him self to the cause of the ministry it’s time to sow a Harvest in this church!
Luk 5:2 And (Jesus) saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets.
Luk 5:3 And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship.
Luk 5:4 Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.
• It is Impossible to sow a seed and not reach a harvest…as long as you obey biblical principles.
• God is no respecter of persons but he is a respecter of principles
For Example…
Duet 28:38 “Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field but shall gather little”
How frustrating….God is listing out all of the curses that come with disobedience and in one of the curses one is gathering much seed and gathering little.
Peter obeyed biblical principle!
Luk 5:5 And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.
You see Peter obeyed the voice of God when he was tired, when he was fatigued, when he was discouraged, when it didn’t make a lick of sense.
The last thing they wanted to do was get their boat back in the water. They had been fishing for hours, the net was already brought in, they we’re ready to call it a day. and why should I cast down my net on the right side when I have been fishing on the left side all day?
Church needs to,
• stop living off of it’s past success
• how things used to be
• stop making excuses on why it’s not this way
• well we only have 8 young people
• we’ve already done this and tried that
• we need this and we need that
You just got to keep doing it, even when it seems like there’s no light at then end of the tunnel. Even when things seem like their dry when your praying, when your fast doesn’t seem to work the first time, when the first person you ask to come to church doesn’t come. YOU NEED TO JUST KEEP ON DOING IT. YOU NEED TO GET ADDICTED!
• Like Peter you can’t get fatigued, you can’t get tired, when things seem redundant and don’t make a lick of sense….don’t get discouraged but GET ADDICTED!
“WHAT SO EVER A MAN SOETH THAT SHALL HE REAP”
Luk 5:6 And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake.
GOD is not going to give us the break through that we dream of until we do the things that seem crazy, until we do the things that are out of our comfort zones, until we do the things that take risks. It’s time to put our reputations on the line…it’s time to get out of the boat and stop playing it so safe. We got to get radical, get crazy, get aggressive….GET ADDICTED!!!
Vs 7 said and God filled both ships that they began to sink.
Vs 8 says Peter was astonished. God took Peter from discouragement to astonishment.
APPLICATION:
• Usually addictions come from our parents.
• 80% of parents that are addicted to smoking or drinking will pass those addictions down to their children.
• Some of you parents we’re party animals, you we’re nuts
• We need to start passing down our Godly addictions and become Soul-Winner-Aholics!!!
• Get addicted to personal evangelism. We don’t need a normal church, normal outreach, normal prayer……GET ADDICTED!!!
•
Psa 41:1 Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.
IF YOU REACH FOR THE PEOPLE THAT NOBODY WANTS GOD WILL SEND YOU THE PEOPLE THAT EVERYONE WANTS.
Let’s start reaching the poor, the homeless, the hurting.
Learn how to serve. The greatest church in any city is the one that serves that city.
Psa 41:2 The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive;
I’ve never met a dead soul winning church ever, some churches are dead because they quit reaching out. God doesn’t want us to be in a safe maintaining, hold the fort mode. God wants us to be nuts…..get addicted!!
Pro 19:17 “He that lends to the poor lends to the Lord”
God has an return on your interest that Wells Fargo, Bank of America can’t touch!
Pro 28:27 He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack:
He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack:!!!!
He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack:!!!!
You need a new drummer give to the poor
You need a new outreach director give to the poor
You need a new music director give to the poor
When you obey biblical principle you begin to reap what you sow!
CONCLUSION:
When is the last time you we’re truly consumed by the power of the Holy Ghost?
Paul said
“ I thank God that I speak in tounges more than you all.”
“I die daily”
Make this a daily decision. Make this a life decision.
