OVERCOMING ADDICTION

OVERCOMMING ADDICTION

I think we have a church full of addicts.  Wait, hear me out.

Usually when we think of “addiction” we think of someone who is abusing alcohol, marijuana, prescribed medication or some other substance. We think of young people who are hooked on meth, crack, heroin or some of the other trash that is flooding our streets.  We think of old guys with a bottle of wine in their hands, wondering the street, sleeping under the bridges or in the ally’s.  We think of someone who can’t stop gambling or someone who is hung up in the grips of pornography. But as I thought about it this week and I hope as you think about it in the coming days, you will realize that addiction is much more and reaches far more people than just the drunks and drug addicts.

I don’t want to discount the affect that alcohol and drugs has on our society.  I am not ignoring the millions of lives that are ruined each year because of these substances. We can’t look past the deaths, the families that are broken apart and destroyed.  It is a major problem.  But I think there are some other addictions that need to be addressed.  Let’s forget for a moment about our ideas and positions on alcohol and drugs and focus on those millions of Christians who wake up on Monday morning and are hooked on habits.

I. HOOKED ON HABITS:  First let’s look at some definitions of addiction. 

·        Compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli, despite adverse consequences.  (In Chilton County verbiage we would say “It’s a habit that feels good even though it is hurting us.” )

·        A powerful need to have something or do something on a regular basis that is harmful.

So if we are not talking about drugs, alcohol or tobacco addictions, what are the stimuli or the something’s that Christians do on a regular basis, which defeat them in their efforts to be Christ-like?  Let me present just a few. Christians are addicted to:

1. ARGUABLE ATTITUDES:  Do you remember Charlie Brown?  I love Charlie Brown.  Well Charlie Brown had a friend named “Pig pen”.  Now Pig Pen was a little guy who was always dirty.  As a matter of fact when Charles Schulz drew Pig Pen he always depicted him as having a large cloud of dirt and dust over him. 

There are some Christians who remind me of Pig Pen.  Instead of being followed by a cloud of dirt and dust they are always surrounded by a cloud of “rotten attitudes”.  I’m not sure how Schulz would draw that.  But you get the picture.

I worked with a lady a few years back and I swear it seemed that when you walked into her office, no matter how beautiful a day it was, how great things were going, how bright an attitude you tried to display…she had a cloud of gloom over her.  Oh, she claimed to love the Lord, be a Christian, go to church but you would never know it by the way she interacted with others.  I came to call her “Eeyore”.

The conversation would go something like this:  “Good morning, how are you today?  Wonderful day isn’t it?”

“Well, I guess so, if you like all this sunshine.  Myself, I think all this sun is going to dry out my skin and cause sunburn.  It’s also bad for my garden.  I’m going to have to haul water from the creek”. 

“Well, the temperature is fine though isn’t it”. 

“I’m from up north.  I love the cold weather.  This heat is killing me.”

No matter what the topic, no matter how great things were going, this lady was always able to find the bad in it. 

·        If someone bragged on their job, she would complain about hers. 

·        If someone talked about what a great family they had, she talked about how awful hers was. 

·        If someone talked about how much they enjoyed the church service yesterday…. you got it….something negative happened at her church. 

She had an ARGUABLE ATTITUDE. It was an addiction to her.  Somehow she found a powerful need, a rewarding stimulus, in being addicted to her bad attitude. She had developed a negative attitude and it had become a habit to her, and it was harmful to her Christian witness.

Christians if you find that you are addicted to an arguable attitude get help. Stop talking about all the bad stuff.  Find something wonderful to talk about.  Find something good to speak of.  Find something positive in your life with Christ and talk about the good stuff. Focus on the good gifts that God has given you.

2. SATISFIED SPIRIT:  The second addiction I want to mention is the addiction of a SATISIFIED SPIRIT.  But wait, you might say, “Isn’t being satisfied with where you are and what you are doing a positive thing?” Well, I would say yes IF, IF, you are being the best you can be.  But if you are being satisfied with mediocre, run of the mill, like everyone else Christianity, then I say a resounding NO! 

If a ball team loses a lot of games, often they become content with losing.  They become satisfied with the status of being the underdogs, the bad team, the losers.  And they continue to lose. When that happens with a team it takes a motivated and inspirational coach to move that team from the losing bracket to the winning bracket. They need to see what “winning” actually feels like.  When they see that winning is much more enjoyable and rewarding than losing they will actually want to win.

I’m afraid that too many Christians have become accustom to losing.  We are satisfied with reading a Bible verse, saying a little “God is great, God is good” prayer, and sitting in church and expecting s no movement and excitement or sense of the Spirit of God in our gathering.  We think that’s just normal.  We think that’s what Christians are supposed to do. That’s the way being a Christian is supposed to feel.  We have developed a habit, an addiction of being losers.

Whatever happened to the words from the Bible that says:

·        “You are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ our Lord”

·        “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven”

·        “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness”

·        “Bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me

Whatever happened to the “good tidings of great joy” that was promised by the angels at the birth of Jesus?

We have become complacent, content, satisfied, ADDICTIED with a common place spirit.  We even get pleasure from it and think we are serving the Lord by doing it. God help us!

3. THE FANTASY OF FEAR:  The final addiction I feel that has become such a habit to Christians is the FANTASY OF FEAR.   People are afraid of a number of things.  I always said that there were only three things that I was afraid of.  “Electricity, snakes and women; not necessarily in that order”.

I know that if we were honest, many of us could name a lot of things that frighten us.  But let me use the list that comes from one of Max Lucado’s books.

a. LIFE IS NOT FUTILE: Have you had to deal with this fear?  We fear that our lives don’t matter. Questions like:

·        Who am I doing this for anyway?

·        Who is even going to know what I do?

·        Who cares who I am or what I do?

·        What is the purpose of it all?

I love doing genealogy. I have traced my ancestry back to the 1500’s in Scotland.  But as I worked through all those people and their information just about all I could find was:  Born on this date, died on this date.  Sometime there was a married on this date. 

I wondered, when I die is that all that will be left to show that I was here?  Will my life be defined by two or three dates on a stone?  It’s enough to make you feel that your life is futile, pointless and wasted.  

So what if you clean the church well?  So what if you sing a special and someone gets blessed. So what if you preach a good sermon?  So what if you pray, study the Word, invite people to church, send cards of encouragement?  WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?  We want our lives to matter.

God wants us to know that our life is not futile.  If you are a Christian you have an anchor that should have a firm grasp on the truth that there is TRUTH.  SOMEONE is in control. There is a God and it ain’t me.  Christ Jesus has a plan for you. You have a purpose in Christ Jesus.

b. FAILURE IS NOT FATAL:  No one likes to fail…I guess.  We fear failure.  Is that the reason we don’t attempt great things for God? Is that the reason we don’t try because we are fearful that we will fail? We have all failed (the Word says we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God).

·        You blew it

·        You were wrong

·        You let everyone down

·        Instead of standing tall you fell short

·        Instead of stepping forward you fell back

·        The very thing you swore you would never  do is exactly what you did 

I’m not trying to justify your failure but there is a cure for the fear of failure.  The cure is to remember that God does not love what you did but that He loves who you are.  You are His.  Remember the story  of the woman caught in adultery?  The only one, who had a right to condemn her, didn’t.  He provided a way to forgive her. We make mistakes, God doesn’t and He made you. 

c. DEATH IS NOT FINAL:  People in general are addicted to the FEAR OF DEATH.  Christians fear death. I might understand that if I were not a Christian.  If I knew that when I die I did not have a home in heaven, did not have eternal life was not forgiven by the blood of Jesus and cleaned up by the power of The Holy Spirit then I think I should have a “deadly fear of dying”.  But for Christians to fear death, I honestly don’t get it.  

Lacado also had a quote that says, “The devil will make you so afraid of dying that you never learn to live”.   I would say it this way: ”You will be so afraid of dying that you can’t enjoy living.”

Death for the Christian is not final.  Death is just the beginning of eternity for us. Death is the start of our lives in the most wonderful place that we can imagine.  (Even more than we can imagine)  Wife, let me tell you right now, don’t fear death for me.  Christians do not fear death for yourself.  I don’t dread death I run toward it.

I've heard it said this way: One day you will read in the Clanton Advertiser that Bill died on such and such a day.  Don’t you believe it, because on that day I will be more alive than ever before.  I will be Home with my Father.

So what is the answer to our addictions?  RECOGNITION and COMMITMENT.

There are a lot of other approaches to breaking habits or addictions.  If you look on the internet or in books you will find a 15 step plan, you will find all sorts of methods but it’s about as simple as these two steps.

RECOGNIZE:  You are addicted to these thing we have mentioned (or others)

COMMIT:  Commit them to God.  “God I give you my all INCLUDING these things that have me bound”. 

How many times in the Word are we told that Jesus came to make us free?  Yes, free from the guilt of sin.  Yes, free from the power and chains of sin.  But also free from the habits and addictions and chains that harm and plague and ruin our Christian witness.  He came to break those chains. 

He is willing and able to do it.  He wants to set you free. He wants to use you.  He wants to see us succeed but we have blocked His achievement with our addictions.

Recognize your chains, identify those things that hold you back….and commit them to Him.