Addiction and recovery

“say no those first few times, our body kind of freaks out. You know, when we struggle or suffer for the very first time, we're Americans, we're pretty soft, we don't have to struggle like the rest of the world. But when we struggle for the first time, oftentimes we wig out, we freak out because we don't, we don't know how to suffer and struggle. But when you make a practice of fasting, you're practicing suffering with steadfastness and joy. And I'm telling you, as I've made that”

“It's the place where brokenness and bondage sink its teeth. And it's where despair and defeat attempt to take hold and enslave and to destroy us. If you've ever tangled with the flesh, which every one of you have, you know, you know the struggle. I love this definition of the flesh.”

“enjoyed and participated in. I think of an analogy of this is for an alcoholic. There might be an alcoholic who is, you know, they're just addicted to to drinking to the bottle and at the end of the day they they maybe they're even a believer and they have remorse and they they hate it, but they keep going back over and over again. In that case, they're confessing their sin maybe because they hate it and they loathe it, but they're not forsaking it. And God is saying, "I desire the extra step in your life, in our lives, you wouldn't just”

“Not always because she's absent in body, but often because she's absent in mind. Many are orphaned due to the unhealthy addiction to drugs and alcohol plaguing so many single moms. These moms lose the ability to care for their children when their addictions take over their lives. And because of this self-destructive behavior, the defenseless babies are left orphaned on the streets. This is a very sad and short ending to the life story of so many children.”

“You know, part of discipleship is getting support. Maybe it's a sin that you need to be putting to death or a habit that you need to put to death. Perhaps it's just help in a certain area of life if you're dealing with like anxiety and depression or those sorts of things. And across our four campuses, we pretty much have you covered on all those bases. Specifically here at Grovetown, we've got a new one. It's a freedom recovery group for substance abuse that's going to be kicking off here soon.”

“with the work of the blood of Jesus R.G. Lee says it this way he said the blood of Christ is the key and the center of redemption it has power to redeem everything concerning salvation depends on it just as there is no life for the arm severed from the body so there is no redemption of sin apart from the blood the soul is bought from sin's bondage and brought into freedom from the dominion of sinful habits and from the penal consequences of sin and the purchasing power is the blood of”

“just prove again and again the truth of God in your life it happens every day to people who abuse alcohol it happens every day to people who have substance abuse to people who begin to gamble for the fun of it in just a little use of my money and then they become a compulsive or are ultimately an addicted Gambler it's true of people with envy and jealousy it's true of people who are greedy for money any of these things in our lives we don't become the exception we become the rule in fact first we rule it and then it rules us”

“reality is many times it's nothing more than love being lived out as a parent I there's no way I could watch a child that I love or a grandchild in my life begin to abuse alcohol and drugs and become an addict and that not provoke me to do everything that I could to try to deliver them and to get them out of that because they're living a lie it's going to destroy everything in their lives”

“You hear so many stories about rock stars. Well, you know, we were like rock stars. And we were traveling like rock stars. Not all over the United States alone, but England, Iron, Germany, France, all over Europe. Now by the grace of God I was never addicted to drugs or alcohol. But if I had a problem in my life it was women. And God has a way of, well His timing is always perfect, He's God.”

“our dependency on God we can see that that Paul ends this little part of our passage today he says for the sake of Christ then I am content with weaknesses I'm content with insults and hardships persecutions and calamities for when I am weak then I am strong you know oftentimes people think that something like fasting and confession it would make me weaker but actually in the spirit”

“prolonged financial pressures it can be a loved one in a crisis it can be war it can be an injustice it can be a child in trouble it can be suffering it can be a marriage on the ropes it can be loneliness it can be addiction it can be depression it can be terminal disease it can be aging it can be our struggles with sin it can be even death but what we understand”

“flesh first of all practically we need to crucify the flesh in Paul's world crucifixion was the most brutal visceral and emotional form of execution known to man and so this is strong language but what that means is that this is the kind of extreme and strong measures that we need to take”

“Well, good morning, church. Welcome to this place on a chilly fall morning. How many of you are glad it was a little chilly today? How many of you were a little surprised it was a little chilly today? I had to triple check and rethink my wardrobe as I was getting up this morning. But man, I'm glad it finally feels like fall again. And as we've been grateful this morning already, I have so many things to be grateful for. A lot going on in the life of our church and a few things that I want to make sure that you're aware of and you know”

“And so fasting is something that allows us to wage war on our flesh. How does it work? Well, when I talk about fasting, I want you to know I'm talking about fasting from food. You know, oftentimes people will say that they're fasting from social media and fasting from other things. That's actually a little bit more like abstinence, which is a good thing. It has its place. But historically, fasting is fasting from food. And I understand not everyone can do that.”

“around us. We say things like be true to yourself. Live your truth. Do you guys know where that saying be true to yourself came from? It was a Shakespeare play. He said it this way, to thine own self be true do you know who said it in his play it was polonius the fool do you see what's happening satan has handed us a saying we tout it like it's true and we learned”

“It says, basically, it's our base, primal, animalistic drives for self-gratification. especially pertaining to sensuality but also to pleasure in general as well as our instincts for survival domination and the need for control acceptance and love it permeates our attitudes our appetites our ambitions and these desires are desires that are in all of us and in spite of the”

“and so you've you've got to be careful don't be fooled by your flesh first corinthians 9 27 gives us some very different advice from the world paul says but i discipline my body and i make it my slave rather than letting it enslave us by the power of the Holy Spirit we're to discipline our body and we are to make it our slave and so we've got to make sure that we understand our enemy”

“There may be medical issues. But this is something that we need to practice. And let me tell you why it's beneficial. Because when we fast, we are practicing saying no to our flesh. When we fast, we are practicing saying no to our strongest desire so that we can pursue our deepest desire. Does that make sense? Did you know that your strongest desires are not always your deepest desires?”

“you feed it every time you give into your flesh you're not satisfying it you're building a stronger bigger monster and so we've got to be very careful the flesh it always demands to be satisfied but it absolutely never can be Romans 8 says for to set the mind on the flesh is death why because our bodies were not made for endless capacity and when we keep chasing the endless”

“desires of the flesh, we string ourselves out and we ruin, we destroy our own minds and our hearts and our bodies. There's a recent study about well-being in America and it traced well-being from the 1960s when we were liberated, when we became free, all the way to today. And you know what happened? Happiness, satisfaction, they've been on a downward plummet ever since we were free”

“church, whatever you reap, whatever you sow, you reap. And when you sow to the flesh, you reap destruction. And so we've got to crucify the flesh. The second thing that we see in Galatians is that not only do we need to crucify the flesh, but we also need to keep in step with the Spirit. He says, for if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. This solution is uniquely Christian.”

“we've got to understand that we know what we are facing but then the question becomes how then are we to make war on the flesh if we know what the flesh is and we know that the flesh is strong and it's i mean in a moment it's real it feels real it feels right how are we supposed”

“Holy Spirit. And so we've got to keep in step with the Spirit. What are some of the ways that we can do that? Well, one of the key ways that we do that is through the spiritual disciplines. When we practice the spiritual disciplines, it begins to open our eyes and our hearts and our minds to the Holy Spirit. And as we practice those spiritual disciplines, the spirit in us is getting stronger.”

“It's making the flesh weak and it's making our spirit strong. And so we're able to make our flesh submit to us as we practice the spiritual disciplines. What I need you to understand is that the spiritual disciplines are warfare. They're not just something that you should do because you're a Christian. They are an exercise in warfare.”

“Think about it. If Jesus had to get away to pray, if Jesus had to fast, if Jesus needed silence and solitude, where do we get off thinking that we're okay without it? Do you think he was just doing that out of obligation? No, that's how he was the sinless son of man. He was God, but he practiced the disciplines. And so I want to highlight two spiritual disciplines that I want you to know about,”