Turn: the story of two addicts

The first of our addicts had money.  She was surely a beautiful young woman and well known around town.  She wasn’t a thief, or a gossip, or a liar, not that we know of anyway.  But she had an addiction, one that led her to the self abuse of prostitution.  One day she heard Jesus speaking to the crowd in her town and her life was changed forever by what He said.

The second of our addicts was also well known in town.  He had prestige, respect, and authority.  People moved out of his way when he passed through the markets.  When he spoke, people listened.  He had the best seat in the synagogues and public gatherings, but he had an addiction, one that is very common: pride.  He had heard Jesus speak too, but he didn’t believe what Jesus said and was instead offended by Him.  READ Luke 7:36-50.

Who was involved here?

First and foremost we have Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  We also have the woman, “a sinner” (most likely meaning a prostitute).  Then there is the man, a Pharisee, a respected religious leader who saw Jesus as a threat.

What was each one doing?

Jesus was passing through town, teaching, healing, and rescuing those who where willing to follow Him.  The woman was repenting, humbling herself, and turning to her only Hope; she was being rescued.  The Pharisee, named Simon, invited Jesus to his house to eat but with bad intentions. 

Remember last week?  We talked about another woman with an addiction problem, we met her in John 8.  Jesus told her, “I do not condemn you, go and sin no more.”  But we don’t know if she turned or not.  Did she in fact repent, go and sin no more, or did she really try hard for awhile on her own only to soon find herself back in her addiction?  We just don’t know.

We do know more about the prostitute and Pharisee in Luke 7.  We know that her life was changed the day she heard Jesus teaching the Truth.  She was moved to a place of sorrow over the things she had done and the life she was living.  She decided to TURN away from they things that led to her hurts and habits and TURN toward her only Hope and Help: Jesus Christ.  The Pharisee, by contrast, had too much pride to listen to what Jesus said.  He did not believe that Jesus was the Christ, not did he believe the evidence of Jesus’ authoritative teaching and miracles.  The Pharisee turned away from his only Hope and Help and remained in his addictions.

Jesus addressed the Pharisee first in Luke 7:40-43.  His point is that this sinful woman would be forgiven because she believed in Him, turned from her sin to Jesus, and her actions revealed her love for her Saviour.  Simon, the Pharisee, would not be forgiven and would remain in his sin and addictions because he did not believe, did not turn, and did not love the One and only Saviour who is Jesus Christ the Lord. 

Jesus then addressed the woman in Luke 7:44-47.  His point here is that your actions show where your heart is.  We see this very plainly in 1 John as well, and throughout the entire Bible for that matter.  Jesus, God the Son, loved them both.  The Pharisee loved only himself and thought he was a pretty good guy who didn’t need Jesus, but the woman realized she was trapped in addiction, that Jesus was the only One who could save her and she turned to Him.  As a result, she showed her gratitude and love by what she did.  As a result of her humility and repentance, Jesus said to her, “your sins are forgiven,” and “your faith has saved you, go in peace.” 

This is exactly the reality we find in Ephesians 2:8-9 “for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast.”  That’s exactly what we see in Celebrate Recovery’s first two steps: that we are powerless over our addictions and that only God has the power to restore us.  But before He will do that, we must believe on His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we must repent – TURN from our sin and TURN to Jesus.

So here is our acrostic for Step 3: TURN

The woman in Luke 7:36-50 no doubt had heard Jesus speaking to the crowds and she Trusted what He said.  Some of you may say you can’t trust anymore, you’ve been hurt too many times by people and empty religions that tell you you have to earn salvation.  You say, “I’ve been hurt before and if anyone knew the truth about me they would use that information against me.”  With people that is often the sad truth, we are often hurt by people in this way.  Yet we trust the waitress not to steal the info off our credit card when she takes it.  We trust total strangers who are coming to the red light to stop as we pass through the green.   We trust people we don’t know very well at school to properly care for and teach our kids.  But we wonder if we can trust God?  God made you, He loves you; you can trust Him.  The simple truth is that if you don’t decide to trust God, you’ll keep trying to win your own victory over your addictive, compulsive and dysfunctional behaviors, words and thoughts, which is utter failure.  Like the Pharisee, doing life on your own is what got you into most of the hurts and habits in the first place.

The woman quickly came to Understand who she was and who Jesus is.  That she was powerless over her hurts and habits, and that Jesus is God.  She understood that she mattered to Him, and He had the power to help her recover.  She understood that she could cannot do what He did.  She got herself into her habits, and kept herself locked in harmful reactions to hurts.  We need to understand the same thing if we ever what to experience the victory that comes from God.

Her understanding of herself and of Jesus led her to Repent.  She turned from her old self, and turned to Jesus Christ.  She was sorrowful for her actions, but sorrow alone isn’t enough.  She had to turn from her sin and self-reliance.  The desire to turn from our hurts & habits is necessary, but desire isn’t enough.  We, like the woman, must humble ourselves and turn to Jesus.  We may be sorrowful, we may want to turn from our addictions, but without turning to Jesus Christ, nothing will change.  Oh, we may switch over to something else, but what we find is that the new thing is only a temporary distraction and will also become an addiction.  Pretty soon we are in even worse condition because now we have even more addictions to defeat us.  Look, I’ve told God many times, “I’m sorry for what I did, I don’t want to do it anymore,” and I meant it!  But I either switched over and made a new bad habit, or soon went back to the first one, or both!  True repentance is not just turning FROM some hurt or habit…it’s also turning TO our only Hope and Help, Jesus Christ.  That’s what step 3 is all about. 

Conclusion

Step 1 is understanding that you are powerless over your hurts & habits.  Step 2 is acknowledging that Jesus is your only Hope and Help.  Step 3 is turning from our old self to a new self in Jesus Christ.

STEP 3: We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God

Principle 3: Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control

Tonight’s discussion questions:

1.   How has relying on your own understanding caused problems in your life?

2.   Has your response to Jesus been more like the woman’s or the Pharisee’s in Luke 7?

3.   Have you repented in the past and found yourself moving to a different hurt or habit and/or returning to the old one?  How do expect that cycle to end?

Hope: the Story of an Addict

Another story of an addict

We know very little about her; she was a young woman, probably led a pretty normal life (by what’s considered normal today anyway), but she had an addiction.  The hurts and/or habits she struggled with led her into adultery and she was caught in the very act.  She was taken immediately by an hostile crowd through the streets of town and brought before Jesus.  Read John 8:1-9.

Here was the moment of truth; what would Jesus say to her?  What would we say to her: would we hurl insults and accusations at her, would we preach at her, would we say, “Hum, no big deal, everyone else does it”?  What would you say to this young woman as she stood before you, guilty, disgraced, and humiliated?

There is something I say around here all the time, “it makes no difference what I say, it only matters what God says.”  So, what did God say?  Well, He asked her a question: “Woman, where are those accusers of yours?  Has no one condemned you?”  All those who brought her to Jesus, to have her convicted…(actually they brought her to test Him, so they might find a reason to accuse Him of mishandling the situation somehow), were convicted by their own sin and walked away when Jesus said, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her.”  As they pointed out, the punishment for adultery according to Old Testament Law as stoning.  Those people didn’t care about that woman, the guy involved, or for the spouse who had been cheated on for that matter.  They didn’t care what happened to this young woman.  She was just a pawn in their scheme. 

Jesus asked her, “Where are those accusers of yours?  Has no one condemned you?”  We aren’t always so lucky are we…our accusers are all around, right?  There are plenty of people to point out our problems, who try to humiliate us, and bring us low.  She says, “No one, Lord.”  Jesus responds, “Neither do I condemn you…”  Now, neither the woman nor Jesus denied her guilt.  She was caught in the act; she was guilty.  Yet Jesus extended mercy to her. 

It’s not part of the Biblical record, but what do you suppose the offended spouse in this whole deal would have said about this (we don’t know if the young woman was married or if the guy was married, we just know it was adultery).  I would imagine that that spouse wouldn’t be to thrilled with Jesus’ offering of mercy.  We often hear people say when they are wronged, “I demand justice, I want restitution!”  A wise man once said, “You don’t want justice, you want mercy.”  That is true all the time, but we only think about mercy when we are the one that needs it, not when we are the ones offended or hurt.  The truth is, however, that mercy is what we all need.  Mercy is what this young woman needed, and Jesus gave her mercy.  Did she deserve it?  No.  Her hurts and habits led to addictions, evil compulsions, and dysfunctional behavior, which led to her being dragged off through the streets to judgment for her crimes. 

I want you to notice something, there is no record of her fighting and screaming; she didn’t try to defend herself and make a bunch of excuses.  Instead, she stood in silence as the accusations and evidence were laid out.  Apparently, she was ready to face the due justice.  Ever felt that way at a low point in your addiction, your hurt, when the burden of guilt was so heavy that you thought some kind of punishment might actually make you feel better?  I think that is where this woman was as she stood before Jesus expecting to be stoned to death.  But He gave mercy rather than justice.  In that moment she was given hope.

Can you imagine her face when He spoke those words to her?  Oh how I would have loved to have seen her reaction, although I would surely have left, being convicted of my own sin too!  Can you imagine the utter amazement and utter disbelief as she heard Jesus, the just Judge say, “Neither do I condemn you”.  Jesus gave her hope, because her sin was being forgiven by God Himself.  The guilt of her sin was removed.  But wait a minute, Jesus didn’t just give her a totally free pass either, did He?

The statement, “Neither do I condemn you” is only part of what Jesus said to her.  The whole things was, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”  Well, that’s the hard part isn’t it?  It’s easy to ask for and receive forgiveness, but the “sinning no more” part…  If she was able to stop sinning on her own she wouldn’t have been there in the first place, right?  If I was able to stop sinning on my own I would too, but I cannot stop on my own.  My guess is that you can’t either because the Bible says that outside of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit we are “slaves of sin” (Romans 6).  We cannot stop on our own; it’s not called an addiction for nothing! 

Like I said last week, we are in a spiritual war, not a physical one.  The real battle is not against our addiction.  The real battle is: are we going to hope in our own power or in God’s!  We cannot win or even fight this spiritual battle on our own.  So how could Jesus say to her, “go and sin no more?”  What chance did she have?  It was only possible if He was not only her Hope, but her Help.  Jesus explains that in His next statement, saying, “I am the light of the world.  He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”  Whoever “follows Me,” He said, “shall not walk in darkness”.  That is the whole thing right there.  We don’t know what this young woman did.  Did she walk away feeling relieved, try to deal with her addiction on her own and by the next week fall into sin again?  Or did she remain as a follower of Jesus and have her life changed, working through her addiction and finding victory?  We don’t know. 

What we do know is that the power to restore sanity to our lives and bring victory over addictive, compulsive and dysfunctional behavior is found in Jesus Christ.  Our hope and our help is in following Him.

This woman was brought Jesus, caught in her addictive, compulsive, dysfunctional behavior.  Jesus showed mercy and gave her hope by forgiving her.  He also told her to “go and sin no more.”  Step #1 of Celebrate Recovery says “I am powerless over my addictions and compulsive behaviors, my life has become unmanageable.”  There is no doubt she was there!  I’m sure if you’d of asked her as the mob dragged her through the streets, she would have confessed that her life had become unmanageable.  Step #2 says, “I came to believe that a power greater than myself could restore me to sanity.”  The young adulteress was given hope, real hope.  Her sin was forgiven by the righteous Judge, she was shown mercy by the one and only true Higher Power.

I don’t know what your addiction is.  We’ve all had something, some habit or hurt, something that has dragged us down into terrible decisions, mistakes, and misery.  So here we are, before the Lord who knows our every action, word, and thought!  You know what, He offers you mercy and hope as well…

Here is our H.o.p.e.

Jesus is the only true Higher Power.  Only in being  Open to Him (even if you are dragged in at first) and acknowledging that He is your only Hope do we find victory.  God alone, Father, Spirit, Jesus, has the Power to Change us.  In Him we can Expect Change; it won’t be easy, immediate, automatic, but God does want to free you from your addictions and hurts and lead you into living more like Christ.

Conclusion

True recovery is a process.  It is the process of learning to hope in God and let Him help you, trusting Him enough to do whatever He asks, trusting Him to be your source of strength, Truth, and understanding.  Forgiveness is just the beginning of hope, after that we must Turn to Him, our only source of help, which is step #3…

See you next week.

Powerless: Story of an Addict

          He was wealthy, had any material possession he wanted.  His wealth brought prestige as well, even though he was a young man.  He was a decent guy, no major vices that anyone knew of, not a thief or embezzler, not a slum lord or anything like that.  He wasn’t a womanizer, honored his parents, and he treated neighbors well.  He was very intelligent.  Yet, he had an addiction – an addiction to his wealth.

So, he goes to Jesus and asks Him how he can have it all…meaning eternal life (Mark 10:17-27).  The rich young man wanted to know how to have eternal life and he went to the right place to find it…to the only One who can give eternal life - Jesus Christ.  He went the right way too…in humility.  He ran to Jesus, knelt before Him, called Him “Good Teacher”, and then made his request.

Jesus responded by talking about the 10 Commandments.  Now hang on a second, Jesus knows we are saved by grace through faith in Him alone…not the works of the Law (Ephesians 2:8-10).  So why did Jesus start talking about the 10 Commandments?  Well, because Jesus was modeling the truth later recorded for us in Galatians 3:24 – “The Law is our tutor to bring us to Christ.”  The Law shows us that we are all guilty of sin.  This young man thought he was doing pretty well – “I’ve kept all those things.”  He was a good guy, according to himself (and aren’t we all).  But Jesus knows the heart – He knew there was an addiction problem.  Mark 10:21 records that Jesus told the young man to go and sell all he had and come follow Him.  This comment by Jesus is not the way of salvation.  We don’t earn eternal life by giving away everything we own in this life; that would be salvation by good works.  The Spirit, through the Apostle Paul later wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:3 “and though I give all my goods to feed the poor…but have not love, it profits me nothing.”  Jesus wasn’t telling the young man that the way to eternal life was giving up everything he had; rather, He was revealing this young man’s addiction.  As much as the young man wanted eternal life, he decided that the cost of giving up his addiction to wealth was too high a price to pay to love and follow Christ.  Mark 10:22 says, “he (the young man) was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”

Jesus showed the young man that he had an addiction problem, one that would cost him what was most important – it would cost him his life.  He decided to remain in his addiction and forsake his only source of hope and help.  The young man trusted in riches, not in Jesus.  He was in denial that he had a problem…he thought he was a pretty good guy.  He was powerless to overcome his addiction and he walked away hopelessly trapped. 

I don’t know what your addiction is.  Maybe you don’t even think you have one.  I know what mine is, and I know that we all have something…some habit or hurt that we have struggled against.   It is something that has kept you from your only hope and your only help.  Maybe the lies of that addiction have been luring you into keeping distance between you and Lord Jesus who knows your every word, thought and deed. 

Here is what you need to understand: We are in a spiritual war, not a physical one.  The real battle is not against our addiction.  The real battle is over trusting in our own power to overcome our addition or in God’s power to overcome it.  We cannot win or even fight it on our own; we have no ability to compete against that addiction without our only Hope and only Help because it is a spiritual battle.  “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).  We are powerless on our own.

            If you want to experience victory over your hurts and habits, don’t push Jesus Christ away, don’t walk away like the rich young man.  Join us on Friday nights and run to Him.