Introduction:
A. A man stood at a podium and said four short and simple words, “Don’t be like me.”
1. His name was Mickey Mantle.
2. When he graduated from a high school in Oklahoma, he signed with the Yankees.
3. This began a rapid assent to super stardom.
4. Mantle was on 7 world series winning teams. Three time MVP. 500 homeruns. Enshrined in Cooperstown at the Hall of Fame. And Mickey Mantle was an alcoholic.
5. At 60 years of age he was dying of liver cancer. His health eroded from years of alcohol abuse.
6. So, he stood at the podium and said to all the fathers and sons who had looked up to him for so long…“Don’t be like me.”
B. I don’t think that any addict wants the people they love the most to become like them.
1. So, if we don’t want the people we love to become like us, then why not change and become someone they can emulate?
2. Why not experience a God-given extreme makeover and become someone others can follow step by step.
C. As you know, we are in a series called Extreme Makeover – God Edition, and we are addressing some of the hardest character issues we all face.
1. Today we are going to talk about addiction.
2. And whether or not you or I struggle with chemical substance abuse, we can learn something from today’s lesson.
3. If we allow the Holy Spirit to teach us today, He will help us apply today’s principles to building our character.
D. This morning we are in a church and not in some secular institution, so we are going to talk about addiction in ways that they will not.
1. Addiction to alcohol and other kinds of drugs has physical and emotional connections, but it is first and foremost a spiritual problem.
2. Overcoming physical and emotional addiction involves spiritual conviction.
3. Addicts know what it is like to experience the inadequacy of mere will power.
4. All of us can relate to Paul’s words in Romans 7:15 as we struggle with all kinds of sins, but addicts can especially relate as they have said these words in their own way many times.
5. Paul wrote, “I do not know what I am doing. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (Rom. 7:15)
E. Can you relate to those words?
1. We need more than mere willpower to overcome the things that hold us in bondage.
2. We tell ourselves and others to pull ourselves together. To grit our teeth and try harder.
3. We try to live under the illusion that we are in control and that we don’t need anything or anybody.
4. But the truth of the matter is we live in a fallen world. Sin is a powerful force – one that we cannot defeat on our own.
5. We are broken by sin and we do not have the power within ourselves to fix ourselves.
6. Until we surrender to God and allow him to bring about our transformation, we will remain stuck.
7. And God will not force himself upon us. He will let us remain stuck until we ask for his help.
8. Sometimes we call that hitting bottom. For many people until they hit bottom, they won’t look up.
9. Pain is sometimes God’s way of helping us face the truth about ourselves.
10. God allows us to suffer to expose our myth of self-sufficiency.
F. Paul learned these lessons as he journeyed in his service to the Lord.
1. At one point he was under so much persecution that he thought he was going to die.
2. He uttered words that everyone of us on the way to wholeness understands, “Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” (2 Cor. 1:9)
G. Some of us here this morning may be struggling with alcohol or drugs, but the real problem is not that you are powerless over alcohol or drugs.
1. The real problem is that you are powerless over self and sin, and it just happens to be manifested in alcohol or drug abuse.
2. For others the powerlessness over self and sin is manifested in over-eating, over-working, over-spending, or in too much TV watching or video game playing, or in lust and immoral sexual indulgence.
3. To overcome any of these things requires spiritual conviction and a decision to finally give up control of our lives to God.
4. Look at Ephesians 5:15-18, “Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”
5. How truly foolish it is to allow alcohol or other drugs to control our lives.
6. Prov. 20:1 says, “Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise.”
7. It truly does lead to debauchery which is defined as excessive indulgence of the appetites.
8. Look at Prov. 23:29-35, It so very well describes the life dominated by alcohol, “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Those who linger over wine, who go to sample bowls of mixed wine. Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly! In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper. Your eyes will see strange sights and your mind imagine confusing things. You will be like one sleeping on the high seas, lying on top of the rigging. "They hit me," you will say, "but I'm not hurt! They beat me, but I don't feel it! When will I wake up so I can find another drink?"
9. I don’t read this to shame anyone, but to help us see how dominating and controlling sin can be.
H. Most of us here this morning recognize Jesus as our Savior, but it is so important that we take the next step and continue to recognize him as our Solution.
1. God has saved us from our sins, His grace covers us.
2. But God also wants to carry us through the sanctification and transformation process.
3. Those are big words, but what I mean by them is that God wants to help us be like him.
4. He wants to give us a makeover, freeing us from that which has, and is, destroying us or making us ineffective or unproductive in our knowledge of Christ.
5. So how does Jesus become our SOLUTION?
I. First, we must step to Freedom on the basis of Jesus’ Victory.
A. As we have said in this series, we must have a change of thinking, a renewing of the mind.
1. We have to learn to think straight before we can live right.
2. Freedom must first be gained in the spiritual realm before it can be claimed in the physical and emotional realm.
B. At the cross Jesus died to sin once for all.
1. Sin, therefore, has no moral authority over us any longer. It’s penalty has been paid. Justice has been done. We are free.
2. Look with me at Romans 6. “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” (Rom. 6:1-14)
3. Those verses clearly describe our freedom and victory in Christ.
C. We all have heard of Harry Houdini, the famous magician and escapologist.
1. He claimed that in one hour he could get out of any jail cell ever built.
2. All he asked is that his clothing not be checked and that no one could watch him work.
3. So a little town in the British Isles took him up on his claim.
4. They said that they had built an escape proof jail.
5. Houdini walked into the cell and they shut the door. He got some of his tools out of his coat and went to work.
6. He worked for that one hour and still had not picked the lock.
7. He worked for one more hour, and finally gave up in frustration.
8. Those in charge walked up to the cell door, turned the handle and the door opened.
9. They had tricked the master, he could not unlock the door, because the door had never been locked.
10. The entire time he thought that he had been locked in, but he was not.
D. Many of us feel enslaved by self and sin, but we are not.
1. There is no incarceration beyond the liberation of the blood of Christ.
2. Sometimes we even become arrogant about our sin saying, “I have sinned to such depths that even the grace of God cannot reach me.”
3. As long as we try to fight the problem with our own strength and willpower we will lose.
4. Satan can get around willpower, but he cannot get around what happened at Calvary.
5. So, what we must do is infuse our minds with the truth that Jesus has set us free.
6. We must believe in what he has accomplished for us at Calvary.
II. Second, We must step with other Pilgrims on the Journey.
A. Self-help is really no help at all. We need each other.
1. We have this control myth that keeps us from admitting our weaknesses.
2. We feel the need to put up a front that says that everything is okay and that we have it under control.
3. And do you know where we feel we must keep up this front the most? In the church!
4. We can go to any church in the country and ask someone in the foyer, “How are you doing today?” Do you know what the official church answer is? “Fine!”
5. Church is for “fine” people, right?
6. If you are not fine, then you stay at home, and get yourself fine and then come back and tell us.
B. Here is the truth: “A good way to ruin your life is to live to protect your image.”
1. Isolation is the way of the fool, but connection is the way of God.
2. Here’s what the Wise Man said in the OT, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” (Eccl. 4:9-12)
3. Have you ever heard anyone say, “I don’t need anyone, I just need God!”?
4. There’s only one human being who ever lived that had a right to say that, and he was Jesus.
5. He’s the only one who could say that, (He was God!), but he intentionally chose to live in community.
6. Real life-change always has a relational component.
7. I don’t think we will ever hear a testimony of someone who will say that they went through a radical life change that did not mention the people God put in their life that helped them with that change.
C. Like Bill Wilson.
1. He was a W.W.I. veteran. He came home and became involved in the stock market.
2. He became very successful and made lots of money. That is until the 1929 crash.
3. Like a lot of people, Bill lost everything.
4. Some committed suicide by jumping out of buildings, but Bill chose a slower method – alcohol
5. He began to drink so obsessively that he found himself in a hospital with a doctor saying, “Bill, if you don’t stop drinking, you are going to die.”
6. Bill responded to that news the only way he knew how, he went out and got drunk.
7. One day he received a call from an old drinking friend named Eddie.
8. Bill was delighted to hear from Eddie, and envisioned a day of getting plastered together at bars all over NYC.
9. Eddie came to Bill’s door and the second Bill saw him, he knew Eddie was different.
10. Bill offered him a drink, but Eddie said, “I don’t do that anymore.”
11. “Why?” asked Bill. Eddie said, “I got religion.”
12. Eddie took Bill to a little group there in town that met with a Lutheran minister, named Frank Buchman (pictured here). They called themselves the Oxford Group.
13. The group would meet, read the Bible, pray and hear preaching. Then they would go to the Stuart’s Cafeteria and talk about why they didn’t want to do what they used to do.
D. Bill found that he could stay sober as long as he had someone else to talk to.
1. He was able to be employed again, and in 1935, his company sent him to Akron, Ohio on business.
2. The business meeting did not go well, and Bill was down and discouraged.
3. He was a long way from home and his support group, and the lights from the bar in the hotel were calling to him.
4. Everything in him said, “I need a drink.”
5. Bill walked up to the bar, put a $1.00 bill on the bar and said to the bartender, “I need nickels.”
6. He got 20 nickels and went to the payphone, found a list of area churches and started calling.
7. Finally, he reached a Reverend Walter Tubs and he said, “I need to talk to a drunk.”
8. The Reverend gave him 10 names. He called the first 9 and got no one.
9. When he called the 10th, a woman answered and when he told her what he wanted she said, “Come to our house.”
10. It was the house of Dr. Bob Smith of Akron, Ohio, a well known surgeon, who almost lost his practice because of drinking.
11. Dr. Bob was drunk that night. Bill explained to Dr. Bob, “I’m not here tonight to fix you. I’m here to help me. I’ve got to talk to somebody.
12. Dr. Bob said, “I’ll give you 15 minutes.” They talked for 6 hours.
13. Alcoholics Anonymous was born that night.
E. That’s the power of another pilgrim.
1. Galatians 6:1-2, “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”
2. Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith started meeting with other drunks in Ohio and NYC. Getting together, they talked about their problems, and read Scripture.
3. Bill later said, “We ought to write down what we are learning so we can help other people.”
4. So, Bill would write during the day and bring the stuff to the meetings at night.
5. In early 1939, the fellowship published its basic textbook, Alcoholics Anonymous.
6. By 1950, 100,000 recovered alcoholics could be found in A.A. groups around the world.
7. Membership today is at about 2 Million.
8. 25 Million Copies of A.A.’s Big Book have been distributed.
F. For Jesus to be our solution, we need Him and the victory he provides and we need His people, the church, and other fellow pilgrims on the journey to freedom.
III. Finally, We must work the steps that bring recovery and deliverance.
A. Listen to the 12 steps that Bill and Dr. Bob and the group arrived at through reading God’s Word.
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. We humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. We made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
B. The reason that those steps are powerful, is because they are biblical.
1. Here’s an interesting piece of trivia. Guess what A.A. was almost named?
2. There was a vote between two names, and A.A. won by only one vote.
3. The other name was the “James Club.” The James Club name was proposed because the book of James was their favorite book to study as they battled their addictions.
4. Their favorite verses included the following, and notice how much the 12 steps resemble these verses.
a. James 1:5, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”
b. James 1:22, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
c. James 2:17, “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”
d. James 3:13, “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.”
e. James 4:6-8, “You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
f. James 4:12, “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?”
g. James 5:16, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”
5. These steps work because they are based on the wisdom of God.
6. God knows the solution to our problems and He is the solution.
7. Remember back in Sermon two we said, “Where there is the will, He is the Way!”
Conclusion:
A. Mickey Mantle had 4 sons and they all developed alcohol problems.
1. One died young and chemical abuse was one of the reasons.
2. So, Mickey took off the mask and let go of what little control he had and went and got help.
3. This is what his son, Mickey Mantle, Jr. said about his dad, “Out of all the things he did, the World Series teams he stared on, the home runs he hit, the records he broke and even his induction to the Hall of Fame, what I admired him for the most was getting sober.”
B. Maybe someone here today needs to step up to the plate and let God help you step out of your prison.
1. You might be sitting here in church pretending that you don’t have any problems in the world, but God knows.
2. We are all recovering sinners. Amen! We all have our struggles and issues.
3. Staying out of prison, whatever our prison might be, requires daily GRACE.
4. It requires us to acknowledge our powerlessness and give control over to our God.
5. When we humble ourselves, God gives us strength and grace, and then our humility and openness provides opportunity for the community of God’s people to help us.
6. We don’t presently have a group here at Wetzel Road that meets to help people dealing with addiction, but if we need one then we can start one. Come see one of your elders or ministers if you want a group to get started.
7. I pray that today will be an important beginning for many of us who need an addiction makeover!
Resources:
Based on a sermon series by Rick Atchley.
