So tonight we get to finish up with our Addiction series ...
So tonight we get to finish up with our Addiction series and I get to talk abut how we get to break the cycle….How do we step out of the cul-de-sac? So let me start by saying there is no magic formula to this. The things I say tonight are not going to cause you to quit whatever addiction you may have or pain in your life that you desperately want to forget. I WILL tell you however, how to get to the heart of it. What you do from there is up to you…..
PRAYER
So the other day I was goofing around on the internet when on one of the websites I was at it had a nice little ad that caught my eye. What did this Ad say you ask? “Click to view the World’s Wackiest additions”. So what did I do? You bet! I clicked it…..and in my head I was already playing out crazy scenarios like “What if there’s an addiction to Justin Beiber music? Or pretending you’re Smeagol in Lord of the Rings?” That last one would be awesome THE PRECIOUSSSSSSSSSSS. I’d kept that dude around me just to call me Master and watch the debates between his split personalities. Course he’d probably try and kill me for a ring in the long run, but it’d be amusing to see him run around in a loin cloth.
What I found instead were additions far, far crazier addictions. Let me give you a list of them and then explain the crazy and maybe some of you HAVE these:
1. Tanorexia: addiction to Tannings
2. Crackberry: addiction to Your Blackberry/iPhone/phone in general. I’m willing to bet some of you in this room might have this, especially if you get a text during this talk and physically CANNOT resist the urge to check it. If that’s you, you MIGHT have a problem.
3. Here’s one that’s crazy. Some dude in Brazil is addicted to going to funerals. Like quit his job to feed his addiction.
Okay let’s move into maybe something more teenage realm and these are no joke addictions:
FACEBOOK ADDICTION: Not joking. Some mother of 2 has gotten so enwrapped in facebook she’s actually neglected her own children. They asked for help on homework, she was too busy IM chatting her internet friends to help out. In a USA Today report, some estimates have put people that are wickedly addicted to it at 20 hours a week spent on it. Some of you are like “I’VE DONE THAT IN A DAY! I CLICK THE FACEBOOK BUTTON 100 TIMES JUST TO SEE IF I GOT NEW NOTIFICTIONS!” Apparently it’s becoming the new epidemic because people are forgetting how to actually interact with REAL people. Let’s be honest, if your talking to some dude in Arizona who you’ve never met that poked you via FB ad you’re talking about intimate stories and your stupid cat Muffins and these are things you don’t tell your own friends……you MIGHT have a problem. And as a little aside, I LOVE the people who post something intimate on their status, then EVERYONE comments on it, and then they respond back “HOW DARE YOU TELL ME AND COMMENT ABOUT MY PERSONAL BUSINESS. JUST WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!?”
YOU POSTED IT FOR THE ENTIRE WORLD TO READ!!! YOU’RE A MORON!
One of the other things they said, is that if you cannot go an entire day without checking FB then it could potentially becoming an addiction.
Now here’s the final and my favorite crazy addiction I found:
TWILIGHT ADDICTION: In a report by the LA Times it has caused serious strains in marriages because some wives have becomes obsessed with some golden eyed, glittering 17 year old vampire. One girl said "I have to read it or I break down crying. It's awful. I don't want to tell anyone about it. But I fear it's unhealthy." And for the record, that just nasty…..Like, the report talked about mom’s who are obsessed with Twilight and get their daughters all involved in it and hold little weird meetings and scream for Edward and faint and obsess over it, and have caused separations in their marriage cause they’re obsessing over a 17 year old FICTIONAL character! Let me put this in perspective for you. If me, a 29 year old male, gathered up a bunch of the middle school boys and started a Hanna Montana fan club, where all we constantly talked about how awesome she was and I would melt over her tweets and facebook posts and encourage the middle schoolers to chat about who’s hotter Hanna Montana or Lizzy McGuire, would that bother you? Yeah, cause it’s nasty…..it extra nasty with a special side of nasty.
TRANSITION:
The simplistic truth of the matter I that anyone can take something and turn it into an addiction or an unhealthy obsession. The problem is the majority of the time we refuse to break out of our destructive cycles and admit to ourselves there a problem. Many of you have heard me call it “The Cul-De-Sac of Stupidity” Somehow we all manage to get stuck in our own cul-de-sac and whine and complain about how we can’t seem to get out of it when the exit is right over there. It’s a silly game we play, because if we take a deep heart level look, we really DON’T want to get out of it. It’s become a source of comfort and somehow defines us even though we know it’s absolutely killing us, our relationships, our families, friends, co-workers, whatever.
And like I said, tonight, I’m not going to sit here and pigeon-hole morality and say thinks like “Break your cycle of drugs, or alcohol, or sex, or bad mouthing others, or destructive relationships…..fill in the blank….” That stuff is by-products of a deeper heart issue we have to explore as to WHY we get stuck in those cycles anyway. Granted, I don’t want you doing any of them, as there is no lasting joy, but what we’re after the most here always and what Jesus is after the most is your heart. And listen, some of us think this addiction stuff and cycles is fairly new with technology and travel, but this stuff dates back to BIBLICAL TIMES. Let me give you an example with a story:
TRASNITION:
Back during the Bronze Age, which was around 1550 to 1200 BC there was a man named Gideon. Gideon is recorded in the Bible as one of the “Judges” that ends up ruling over Israel. Judges were basically intern leaders that ruled over Israel for a short period of time as God appointed them to lead, but they were not Kings. So when we meet Gideon, Israel has been in a cycle of other Judges. Basically what happen is, Israel does something evil in the site of God, basically worshipping statues or something of that nature, God then allows them to continue in this and are thus conquered and oppressed by their neighbors, the people cry out to God, and God sends a Judge to deliver the Israelites. Judge dies, and cycle repeats.
So when we find Gideon, the people of Israel are have forgotten about God and started worshipping an idol named Baal and out of that disobedience, their neighbors the Midianiates conquer and oppress the Israelis. So in order to even eat, Gideon is hiding in a wine press threshing wheat to keep the Midianites from finding his food. Now here’s what happens next:
12And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, "The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor." 13And Gideon said to him, "Please, sir, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian." 14And the LORD turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?" 15And he said to him, "Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house." 16And the LORD said to him, "But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man." 17And he said to him, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me.
So what happens next is Gideon cooks up some food and sets it on a rock in front of the angel, the angel then touches it with his staff and fire consumes the entire meal. Gideon completely flips his freakin mind and says, “OH crap! I just saw an angel of the Lord…sucka is about to smoke me that I doubted”. Now the Lord has to reassure him he’s not going to die because of his doubt, but ENCOURAGES him and tells him “Hey remember that alter of Baal that everyone is worshipping? Yeah, I want that torn DOWN…” There’s also another idol next to it named Ashreah, who is a goddess of sensuality, basically sex, that they would worship. So God instructs Gideon to tear down the idols with his fathers bulls , and then sacrifice the bulls and burn them with the wood from Ashreah’s idol. Basically God is going, “These other dudes? Imposters, so I’m going to have a burnt offering to myself with their charred little idol remains.” Now the men of the city get pissed that this has happened and demand he’s brought before them for punishment. At this point Gideon’s father steps up and says this "Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down." 32Therefore on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, "Let Baal contend against him," because he broke down his altar.
Basically what that’s saying is that if Baal is really God, then have him come out and contend against his alter being torn down. He’s mocking him and saying this is a silly statue you’re worshipping.
TRANSITION:
Now before we get too far along in the story, let’s talk about this and how it relates to your life. Often times when we’re stuck in destructive cycles we can always see the way out (think back to the cul-de-sac of stupidity I mentioned), but like Gideon, when we see the exit, we whine and complain and say things like “God why did you let this happen!!! Where are you? Why am I stuck!??” And some of you may not believe in God and that’s cool, so call it your conscience or moral compass or whatever….the voice inside your head that tells you you can overcome this cycle…..so when God beings to show a way out and says “I want you to take care of this area of your life and break this with my help, but you gotta take the first step” we do the same game Gideon did, “but I’m not strong enough….I’m too weak….I can’t possibly overcome this!!!”
Eventually, you’re going to have to make a choice. Am I going to do something about this? Or am I going to stay in the same pattern….stuck forever….and blame everyone else around me or circumstances in my life?
You can choose to do like Gideon did and say, ya know what, I’m going to tear down this idol in my life I’m going to break out of worshipping this thing that owns me. And I know that sounds crazy, but think about it. They were worshipping a sex goddess. A lot of us think sex defines us or we fall into that pattern and even though we don’t want to move from relationship to relationship and keep giving ourselves away, we find ourselves stuck and basically worshipping the very thing we don’t want to. And so you have to make a choice. When God presses you and says “Tear it down” what are you going to do? Are you going to tear it down? Or just think about tearing it down and do nothing?
Now the difficult part about this is going to be your friends or people you know or are involved in the same cycle….notice that the townspeople in Gideon’s story come out and say “Why’d you tear it down!?? Are you crazy?” And this is going to be the area where a lot of us falter and fail. We see our friends and value their opinion and so we get right back in the cul-de-sac and stuck in our cycles. But again, you have that choice, you can say like Gideon, “If this thing is the real deal, then let’s test it. If moving out of this cycle brings ME more joy and contentment, but YOURE still stuck hurting and alone, then who can contend against that?”
TRANSITION:
So let’s jump back into Gideon’s story…..Eventually, and I’m paraphrasing and skipping some parts here for time’s sake, after Gideon asks for another sign from God, he finally believes and gathers up an Army to fight the Midianites. Remember, they were the people oppressing the Israelites at the beginning of the story. So Gideon gathers up 22,000 soliders, btu God comes to him and says, “It’s too many….I want this victory for MY glory, so that NO ONE ELSE can boast that they had something to do with it” So God has Gideon weed people out depending on how they drank water out of a lake…it’s weird I know, but just roll with it, God has asked crazier things in scripture, like no joke, he had one of his prophets run through the streets naked for 3 years just as a sign to Egypt. Yeah not joking. Isaiah 20. Look it up. Fun times.
So based on the way they drink water, Gideon has it narrowed down to 300 men to fight the Midianites, so think Sparta and King Leonidas but with a better ending…..but he’s still fearful, until God gives him ANOTHER sign by letting him hear from the enemy camp how one of their guys had a dream that was interpreted as Gideon coming in and straight crushing them. So this strengthens Gideon in his resolve and he gathers his men, has them grab trumpets, jars, and torches and encircle the enemy camp. He then instructs his men to break the jars and blow the trumpets…
What happens next is just awesome “When they blew the 300 trumpets, the LORD set every man’s sword against his comrade and against all the army.”
So God has Gideon’s enemies kill each other in confusion! Now this would have made for an EPIC ending to 300.
TRANSITITION:
So often times, we’ll have a small victory over breaking our cycles and can’t really figure it out, but we know it’s God. We know, there’s no other way we could have possibly overcome breaking this cycle. And God will use those instances, just like he used a small number to defeat a large army, to show us he’s there and wants us to fight and fight hard to break that cycle or whatever is oppressing us, just like Israel was oppressed by the Midianites.
The problem is that, we’re so quick to forget the victories and we fall back into the cycle. Many of you may be saying, I’ve tried to change my behavior, and I can control it for a little while, but in the end I just go back to doing it….the victory is fleeting and small and the end it’s not worth fighting….”
It’s not a behavioral modification. It’s heart issue. A root deep level heart issue. And the only one who can ever change that is Jesus. That’s it. At the end of the day I can sit here and say I can maybe change my behavior, but I can never change my heart……and you guys know that to be true. Any of us can break cycles for a while or even a long time, but the question is “Is your heart changed? Or does it still beat to be stuck in that cycle?” And what Jesus does is break that cycle once and for all. Permately through the cross. And some of you are like, Oh great, the Jesus thing, or how can that possibly help….that’s absurd…..so let me explain the Gospel at a bird’s eye view
GOSPEL AT 30,000 FT. JESUS LIVES PERFECT LIFE. GOD IS JUST. EXAMPLE OF JUDGE AND MURDERER. WEBSITE THAT BLASPHEMES AS EXAMPLE.
So because God is just and merciful, he pours out his wrath on his son, and says if you choose to follow him you can have right standing and a transformed heart. The cycle of sin is broken and no longer has a hold over you…..
And let me give you an example of that with some of the men in this room. Many have decided to follow Jesus and watched their hearts and desires transform and live life to the fullest. Some have come to Andy, Chad, and I and said “I’m addicted to pornography and it’s time to break it….I want to follow Jesus and he’ hanging my desires and my heart” So what do they do? They tear down the idol like Gideon did….then they fight and overcome the oppression.
PORNOGRAPHY FIGHT. X3 Watch. Ladies date a guy like this, not some boy who can shave.
Where the Good news of Jesus Christ has taken root in the heart of these men, they’ve experienced a transformed life and heart that is BREAKING CYCLES…..not staying stuck in them.
TRANSITION:
So let me close with the rest of Gideon’s story.
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