Principle 4 / Step 5 Confess

Introduction
If you’re like me, there have been some addictions in your life, some idols you’ve worshipped.  I’m not talking about idols of wood, stone, or marble; an idol is anything we love or worship more than God.  Some common idols today are money, pleasure, pride, physical appearance, relationships, entertainment, etc…  We become addicted to the worship of these idols through gambling, lust, self-indulgence, materialism, co-dependency, and certainly drug and alcohol use.  My desire is to tear the idols down, forsake them, and worship God instead.  Now, I can totally beat myself up trying to do that on my own.  In fact, I’ve tried the “normal” recommendations…physically removing the object of my addiction from me, restricting my access to it.  That works for about 45 minutes, but it doesn’t get to the real problem…me – my desires, my thoughts, my misguided worship. 

I have found that Celebrate Recovery is critical to our success at overcoming our addictions, tearing down our idols, and getting to the worship of the One True God.  I’m constantly reminded that I desperately need God, His Son Jesus Christ, and His Holy Spirit, to give me the wisdom, strength and stamina to make the changes I need to make and stay on the right path.  Through CR I’ve learned much about how sin and addiction work – no matter what the sin or addiction is.  I’ve seen the reality of God’s Word played out because it is truth.

Tonight we continue with CR’s Principle 4: Openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust.  “Happy are the pure in heart” Matthew 5:8.  But we move onto Step 5: We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed” (James 5:16).

Before we can do principle 4, step 5 or any that follow, we must first understand & embrace principles and steps 1-3:
Step 1 is understanding that I cannot deal with my hurt or habit on my own.
Step 2 is understanding that God cares about me and He has the power and desire to help me deal with them.
Step 3 is choosing to commit all of my life and will to Christ’s care and control.

We must understand and embrace these first 3 steps and make the choice of step 3…to commit my life and will to Christ.  We simply cannot move on successfully without them.  Many have tried, some even seem to be successful, but the reality is that you don’t want a recovery where everyday feels like it could be the day it starts all over again and like any moment the addiction could step in and retake control.  You don’t want to feel like that hurt or habit has just been buried and covered over as it waits to explode back into your life.  I’m guessing that you would rather know and experience true freedom from the hurts and habits.  I want that for you too, but the simple truth is this: you won’t have that freedom unless you understand and embrace steps 1-3 and make the commitment to Christ of step 3.  That is the start.  The process then moves forward with the spiritual inventory of step 4 and continues through the remaining steps. 

Confess
I want to start tonight by telling you a true story about a guy with an addiction.  Even as a young man he had it all – wealth, power, influence.  He had a godly father and he had a good upbringing from what we know.  But along the way he got tangled up in pride, lust, and rebelliousness.  His name was Manasseh and you can read about him in 2 Chronicles 33 of the Bible which says he was one of the most evil kings in Judah (the two southern tribes of divided Israel).  He was warned that his actions, words, and leading were an offence to God, but he did not listen.  He continued down the path of pursuing his addictions.  No doubt God warned him many times, but he only went deeper into rebellion.  Finally God moved against him using the armies of Assyria.  Manasseh was taken prisoner, had a hook placed through his nose, and was dragged off to captivity.  There in his prison, Manasseh cried out to God and humbled himself.  Because he humbled himself and confessed, God restored him to his throne in Jerusalem, and Manasseh “knew that the Lord is God.”  Then Manasseh tore down the idols and began to worship the Lord.  His remaining years were full of peace, contentment, strength, and he was a godly influence among the people of Judah. 

I love this account of Manasseh.  It is an amazing story of God’s mercy and grace.  Manasseh knew the truth, but rebelled and fell into addictions to all kids of idols.  Those addictions brought him to ruin and despair.  Then he humbled himself and cried out to God.  Did God tell him, “You got what you deserved?”  No.  Did God say, “Tough for you, I warned you?”  No.  God heard the humble cry of Manasseh’s heart and answered him, restoring him and giving him peace and joy as Manasseh gave himself to worshiping God. 

That’s what God does.  The Bible is loaded with such stories, and He is still running the same kind of rehab today.  Now the account of Manasseh may or may not strike a cord with you.  Maybe you had good parents and a good upbringing…maybe not.  Maybe your parents taught you to love the Lord…maybe not.  Maybe you remember developing habits that drove you further away from God, or maybe you remember deep hurts that drove you away.  Maybe you can remember times when the Lord used the words of people around you to warn you that you were choosing a difficult and harmful path…and you ignored them.  Maybe, like Manasseh, you came to, or have come to, the place where all your efforts have landed you in some kind of prison.  Perhaps an actual prison, or a prison of memories, of hurt, of unstoppable behavior, of guilt; there are many prisons.

The One True Higher Power, the Lord God, is a God of compassion, mercy, forgiveness, strength, love.  Your desire to put away the addictions, the idols, the misplaced love is the place to start…to start trusting God.  He opens His recovery house to you when you commit to trust, commit, worship, and love Him.

One of the first tests of your commitment to give your life and will to Christ’s care and control is the spiritual inventory, the second major test is to confess.  Below is Celebrate Recovery’s acronym for c.o.n.f.e.s.s.

Come Clean
Come clean with our failures and resentments, take responsibility for sins discovered in our inventory.  Proverbs 28:13 says, “He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”

Obey God’s Command
It’s not just a helpful suggestion.  One of the first commands is to humble yourself and confess…to myself, to Him, and to someone I trust.  READ Psalm 32:3-5.  James 5:16 says, “Confess your sins to one another, and pray for each other, that you may be healed.”

No more guilt

Talk about freedom!  The reality is that openness, truth, and honesty bring freedom.  Romans 3:23-24 says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified (declared not guilty) freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

These last 4 are four areas of your life that will improve by doing Principle 4/Step 5…
Face the truth
Face the reality of your sin, the reality of forgiveness, the reality of restoring relationships…with God and people.  Today people try to tell us that we determine our own truth; it is a huge lie.  God’s Word is truth, and we need continual interaction with it.  John 8:32 says, “And you shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free.”

Ease the pain

Our addictions, hurts and habits keep us sick and in pain.  Confessing them removes the burden of guilt and gets things into the light so we can deal with them instead of hiding them.  Psalm 32:1-2 says, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.”

Stop the blame
We blame others for what we’ve done and blame ourselves for what others have done.  Blaming solves nothing, it’s nothing more than a form of escape which solves nothing.  Instead we need to know and deal with our additions in truth.  Matthew 7:3 says, “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?

Start accepting God
Accept His forgiveness, His taking away the guilt and burden, His love for us, and His compassion or others.  1 John 4:11 says, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.