Hebrews 11:6 “ And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
Did you read that story last week? Up in the North East with all the rain there was a portion of town was flooded, and a man named, Glenn lives down in one of these kind of low areas. The County Register sent a reporter out there and he found Joann, Glenn’s wife, sitting on the roof as things were floating by. He climbed up on the roof and the first thing he saw was a chicken coop floating by and then he saw this horse and then he saw this VW bug floating by. Then after a few minutes he saw this hat float by, but after it got about twenty feet past the house the hat started floating back upstream. Then it got about twenty feet on the other side of the house it started floating back down again. He watched this seven or eight times and finally he said, “Mrs.—Do you have any idea what that hat is?” She said, “That’s just my crazy husband, Glenn. He said he was going to mow the lawn come hell or high water.”
The problem we have today is that a lot of us are still focusing on the lawn, while the home is floating downstream.
Last week we said, all of us need recovery because none of us is perfect. The world is imperfect, we’ve all been hurt, we all have hang-ups, we all have habits we’d like to change. Everybody needs recovery. The steps are the same regardless of what your problem is whether it’s a hurt, a hang-up, or a habit. Pastor Ron spoke to us last week about the root cause of all this is our desire is to control things. The more insecure you are, the more you want to control things: you want to control your life, you want to control other people’s life, control your environment—You want to be God. You want to be at the center of your universe. When we try to control everything it ends up with fatigue, frustration, and failure.
How do you break out of that? How do you break out of those things?
You have to get past denial. Denial is what keeps us from moving into recovery. We excuse ourselves: “Really, it’s no problem … Really, I’m fine … It’s not a problem, I can handle it.” We excuse ourselves and we accuse others: “If my wife would just get her act together then our marriage would be just fine.” And we play the blame game. And we accuse and excuse and we’re very shortsighted.
Have you seen the Lost and Found AD in the paper? It illustrated denial. It said, “Lost, a three-legged dog. Blind in right eye. Left ear missing. Broken tail. Recently castrated. Answers to the name ‘Lucky.’” Now that’s what I call denial.
What makes me finally face up to my problems?
God’s antidote for denial is pain. We rarely change when we see the light. We change when we feel the heat. We don’t change until our fear of change is exceeded by the pain. Most people never really move into recovery until they’re forced to move into it, because there is no other option.
God uses three denial busters, things to get your attention, to force you to move into recovery from things that have messed up your life.
1. Crisis. Illness, stress, lose your job.
2. Confrontation. Somebody cares enough to say, “You’re blowing it.” Somebody loves you enough to confront you in truth and love and say, “You are missing out. You’re about to lose your family. You’re about to lose your health. You’re about to lose your job.” Somebody confronts you.
Pain is like a fire alarm. It goes off, warning you something is wrong in your life. If you had a fire alarm go off in your house, what would you do? “Oh, that stupid fire alarm! Somebody throw a rock at it and make it stop.” No, you would do something about it. But often in our life when we hear the pain come out, the fire alarm of pain, instead of just dealing with the source, we just try to cover up the sound. We cover it up with food, alcohol, sex, many, many different things. But it doesn’t deal with it. God will use these things to get our attention.
3. Catastrophe. I hope He doesn’t have to use that in your life. When the bottom falls out, physically, emotionally, spiritually, financially, relationally—when the bottom falls out and you hit bottom, what happens is often that He just has to step back and let us feel the full impact of our own stupid decisions. “You want to be God? O.K.” And He’ll just step back and let you be God. And then you reap what you sow, and you feel the full impact that causes a catastrophe in your life.
We said last week that the FIRST STEP IN RECOVERY IS TO FIRST REALIZE I’M NOT GOD, ADMIT I’M POWERLESS TO CONTROL MY TENDENCY TO DO THE WRONG THING AND MY LIFE IS UNMANAGEABLE. That is the first step, the reality step.
The second step is what I call the Hope step. Step 1 says, I admit it. I’m helpless. I’m powerless. Step 2 says, There is a power. That’s the good news. There is a power you can plug into to handle things that you can’t handle on your own.
EARNESTLY BELIEVE THAT GOD EXISTS, THAT I MATTER TO HIM, AND THAT HE HAS THE POWER TO HELP ME RECOVER. This second step is based on Hebrews 11:6—”Anyone who comes to God, must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
There are three parts to taking Step 2 in this road to recovery.
I. ACKNOWLEDGE GOD’S EXISTENCE.
Most of you have no problem in this. There aren’t that many atheists left anymore. George Gallup did a survey last year said 96% of the people in America say, “I believe in God”; less than 2% of the people say, “I’m an atheist.” Far fewer atheists today than there were fifty years ago. Why? Because we know more about the universe today than we did fifty years ago. The more scientific discoveries we have, the more we find out about this universe, fewer people are willing to stick their neck out and say, “I believe it all just happened by random accident.” The more we know about this universe, and now we have computers that are able to compute the odds of all these things just happening in place, very few people say, “I believe it happened by random accident.”
Where there is a Creation there should be a Creator. Where there is an effect there must be a cause. Where there is design there must be a designer.
Acknowledge His existence.
Romans 1:20 “Since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power, and his divine nature have been clearly seen.”
Ps. 19 “The heavens declare the glory of God.”
In fact, the Bible says it’s foolish not to believe in God. Irrational. Illogical, not to believe in God. If you have problems with that I have a book right here that I will loan you, read it, it’s called “The Case for a Creator” written by an ex Athiest, Lee Stroble… and see if you can overcome the evidence for a Creator….
The point is, God changes lives today. God exists.
The real issue for most is not, Is there a God? That’s a given for most people. The real issue, What kind of God is He? What is He really like? Does it matter? The problem is, we have some very strange ideas about what God is like.
Unfortunately most of you get your ideas about God by thinking He’s like a parent. Your father or your mother. Tragic. Because if your father was aloof and unloving then you tend to think God the Father is aloof and unloving. If your parent was somebody to be feared, then you tend to think, “I need to be afraid of God.” If your father was abusive, then you tend to think God is abusive. If your parent was uncaring, then you transfer it over to God. Instead of God making you in His image, you make God in your image.
The Question we need to be asking…. What’s He really like?
II. UNDERSTAND GOD’S CHARACTER
The second step in this recovery is not just to acknowledge His existence, but to understand His character. What is He really like? Until I know what God is really like, I can’t trust Him. Does that make sense? I’m not going to trust something or someone that I don’t know about. Fortunately God wants us to know about what He’s like. So He came to earth 2000 years ago and came in the form of a human being. He came as Jesus Christ. And he said this is what God is like. We can know what God is like. That’s why we celebrate Christmas and Easter.
Notice this verse. Colossians 1: “Christ is the visible expression of the invisible God.” If you want to know what God is like just look at Jesus, because He’s the visible expression of the invisible God.
If you’re reading about Jesus and studying His life You’ll learn a whole lot about God. Specifically three things, what we learn about God from Jesus, that helps me get over my habits, hurts, and hang-ups:
(1) God knows all about my situation.
I learn that God knows all about my situation, because He knows my habits, hurts, and hang-ups. He knows the good and bad. Some of you have had a tough week, or month, or life.
Look at what the Bible says, Psalm 56: “You know how troubled I am. You’ve kept a record of my tears.” Isn’t that incredible? The Bible says that God knows you up-close and personal. He’s kept a record of your tears. “Nobody knows the hell I’m going through in this marriage.” You’re wrong, God does. “Nobody knows how I’m struggling to break this habit, but I can’t get it out of my mind.” God does. “Nobody knows the depression and the fear that I’m going through.” God does. And He’s kept a record of your tears.
He knows it all. Nothing escapes His notice. Psalm 31: “You’ve seen the crisis in my soul.” Psalm 69: “You know how foolish I’ve been.” Sometimes we want to forget this part. We don’t want God to know all the dumb stuff we do. The fact is, there is nothing off the record with God. You always have an audience twenty-four hours a day. He knows the good days, the bad days, the dumb stunts pulled, the foolish decisions, and amazingly He still loves you. The fact is God is not shocked by your sin. You do something wrong God doesn’t go, “Oh, no, how did I miss that?” He knew it was coming, long before you did. He even knows why you did it, what motivated you, even when you don’t even know your own motivation. He’s not shocked, He’s not surprised, He knows you.
(2) God cares about my situation.
Psalm 103: “He is like a Father to us, tender and sympathetic for he knows what we are made of dust.” God knows what we’re made of—molecules—we’re frail, we’re not super human. Tender and sympathetic. That’s the kind of God you serve, Who knows you.
God wants to be the Father many of you never had. Tender and sympathetic. God says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” How can that be? How can God love me and His love never quit? He loves me on good days, bad days, when I serve Him and when I don’t, when I’m right, when I’m wrong. How does He keep on loving? Because His love is unconditional. It’s not based on your performance. Your parents ’love was. God’s Love is based on God’s character. The Bible says God is love. And He says I’ve loved you with an everlasting love. He not only knows about your situation, He cares about it. “God showed His great love for us, by sending Christ to die for us” (Romans 5:8).
Many of you who’ve been working the Twelve Steps know that this Step 2 is the Higher Power Step. I’d like to introduce you to your Higher Power today. His name is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is that power you can plug into, because He knows about your situation, He cares. The best news of all, He’s got the power to change it.
(3) God can change me and my situation.
That’s good news. God can change me and my situation. Sometimes He changes me, sometimes He changes the situation. Sometimes He changes both. But He’s waiting on you to do it. And He’s got the power.
Notice Paul says “I pray that you will begin to understand how incredibly great his power is to help those who believe him”—the same power that raise Jesus Christ from the dead.
Do you ever find yourself paralyzed by procrastination? “I know I need to do this but I just can’t get started!” Do you ever feel like “I just can’t get on top of things”? He says, “I’ve got the power.” If God can raise Jesus Christ from the dead, He can raise a dead relationship. He can raise a person back to health. He can set you free from an addiction. He can help you close the door on the past so those memories stop haunting you, if you trust Him.
Luke 18: “What is impossible for me, is possible with God.” The Bible says nothing is too hard for God. You say, “You don’t understand my situation. I’ve tried to change but I can’t.” Nothing is impossible with God. And that situation that seems hopeless, isn’t.
In fact, New Hope family, I can give you examples of people in this church who were in impossible situations six months, a year, a year and a half ago, and God turned them around. And I can give you examples of people you thought never in a million years would they change, but they did. Because of the power of God.
Listen to this testimony from Dana, a young lady who was lost in addiction, but she found true hope when she turned to the One who could give her true Help…
Dana: I’m Dana and I’m a believer who struggles with addiction. I’m also a leader in the women’s chemical dependency group in Celebrate Recovery. We meet on Friday night. I never dreamed that I’d be doing God’s work in this way or that I’d be standing up here in front of all you. But that is what happens when we step from behind the driver’s seat and let God manage our lives.
I believe I’ve been an addict all my life. When I was younger my addiction only surfaced under times of duress. I remember feeling like I had a good angel on one shoulder and a bad angel on the other and guess who always won. I had lots of normal times in my life, too. I was a good student, swimmer, runner, but I could be heavily influenced by my peers. I started smoking in junior high, and then I had pot and alcohol in high school and still managed a 3.75 grade average. My drinking increased toward the end of my high school year and after I graduated.
Then I had a seven-year dry period where I didn’t drink at all. When I say that I’m an addict, I mean I can be addicted to all kinds of things. Anything would fix me or make me feel better and take away the emptiness in my life. In that seven-year dry period I used sewing. For example, I would go out and buy one project and come home with ten. Another example, exercise. I would go out and exercise five or six days a week, three hours a day. I thought it was normal to be 5’8” and be a size 3. One day none of that seemed to help me any more. I turned to alcohol again. Then I was introduced to cocaine. Cocaine helped numb the pain.
My marriage fell apart and I lost my children in a nasty custody battle. You would think that after all that I would give it all up. I tried. I just couldn’t do it. I thought I was in control but I was in a vicious circle. I used because I felt guilty about the loss of my children, and the pain was really unbearable. And then I’d try to quit because I was feeling guilty about using. I guess, you would say I had a problem with guilt. This went on for nine years. I finally realized I could not do it on my own.
It was through a Twelve Step meeting that I instantly identified with a woman who was speaking and I remember thinking, “That’s me up there. She’s talking about me.” I finally admitted that I was an addict and I remember feeling this great weight being lifted off my shoulders. I didn’t have to play God anymore. Now I expect God to help me manage my life when I humbly ask Him and I know He will take away all the insanity and pain in my life if I just let Him. My recovery has led me to be a member here . I’ve been baptized. I also attend class 201 on Spiritual Maturity, 301 on Ministry, and I’m a small group leader in Celebrate Recovery, where every Friday night we get together and celebrate the fact we don’t have to live under the power of our addiction.
Here’s the point. The longer you postpone your pain, the further recovery gets away. The longer you deny it, postpone it, say, “It’s no problem, it’s not a big issue, I can deal with it, I can handle it,” the fewer days you have on this earth being all God meant for you to be. Some people, when they have pain that is intense because of some present problem, get stuck in the past and instead of dealing with the current problem, focus all their life on the past. They get into what I call the Paralysis of Analysis, always saying What was wrong with me back then. That’s like driving a car looking in the rearview mirror all the time. A rearview mirror is helpful, because it gives you perspective, and looking at your past does give you perspective, but if you only look at your past you don’t get into the present. Can you imagine driving a car where the rearview mirror was bigger than the windshield? A lot of people are like that. They’re stuck in the past and can’t get on with the present. Whatever you focus on tends to repeat. If you just keep living in the past, you tend to repeat it.
This recovery series is on spiritual growth. Spiritual growth is the process of expanding that windshield and shrinking the rearview mirror, so you can get on with the present. How do you do that? You acknowledge that God exists. You realize what He’s like; that He cares, understands, He loves you and wants to help you.
III. ACCEPT GOD’S OFFER TO HELP ME.
It’s not enough just to believe in God. Most of you believe in God. But that hasn’t wiped away the hurt. You’ve got to plug in to the power and that’s more than just believing. Here’s what God has to offer.
Phil. 2:13: “For God is at work within you, giving the will and the power to achieve his purpose.” God says, “Willpower on your own is not enough. Good intentions are not enough. What you need is My will and My power to help you change. I will give you the willpower.” So you say, “I don’t even know if I want to change. I’m scared to death of change.”
Then you say, “God, I’m willing to be made willing. I don’t even know if I want to change.” You probably don’t until the pain exceeds your fear of change. But you say, “God make me willing to be willing to change” and then He will give you the will and the power to plug into Him.
What happens when I open up my life to God’s power? When I ask God to put the Spirit of Jesus Christ in my life? What does it do? Does it turn me into some kind of religious nut?
The Bible tells us exactly what happens when we invite God’s Spirit into our lives. “The Spirit that God gives us fills us with power, love and self-control.” That’s what I want in my life. First, I want power in my life. I want power to break habits I can’t break. I want power to do the things that I know are right to do but I can’t seem to do them on my own. I want power to break free from the past and let those memories go. I want power to get on with the kind of life God wants me to live.
Then I want love. I want real love. I want to be able to love people and have them love me and let go of hurts so I don’t build up all these walls and have fake intimacy, but have genuine intimacy because I’m not afraid of really loving and I’m not afraid of really being loved.
That’s the kind of power and love that God gives. It says self-control. Obviously, I want that. You want that. You’re not really in control until Christ is in control of your life and the Master, masters the circumstances of your life. And then you understand what it means to get it all together for the first time in your life because you’re not trying to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. Power, love and self-control.
There is a principle in the universe. This may sound real simple, but this is profound. I have learned that things work best when plugged in. Toasters, blenders, televisions, radios, things work best when they’re plugged in and God meant for you and me to be plugged in to Him.
How do I plug into God’s power?
Real simple. Believe and receive. First, I believe that God exists and I believe that He does know and care and have the power to help me and then I receive Him into my life—Jesus Christ put Your Spirit in me. You do that by using a four-letter word. The second step of recovery involves a four-letter word, and I want to challenge you to use this four-letter word today. It takes courage to say this word: HELP. I need help.
God I need Your help in my life. The Road to Recovery is not easy. It means facing up to some real problems you haven’t wanted to deal with. It means taking some risks. It means being honest, trusting God. But when you take this second step all of a sudden your recovery is no longer simply a matter of will power, God says I will be with you.
Isaiah 43: “When you go through deep waters and great troubles I will be with you. You won’t drown. When you walk through the fires of oppression, you won’t be burned up.” God says, “I will be with you this next week, month, year as you face those issues you’ve been afraid to face in your life.”
Where are you hurting today? Are you going through some deep waters? Do you feel like you’re going under for the last time? Are you going through the fire right now and the heat’s on in your life? You think I’m going to get burned up or burned out? Do you feel like you’re stuck in a rut and say, “I just can’t get the power to change; I feel powerless”? There is a higher power you can plug in to. His name is Jesus Christ. The name above all names. I invite you to open your heart and life to Him today. Take this second step.
