RECOVERY part 1
First Steps towards RECOVERY
Last week, we took a look at four principles toward a healthy 2023. If you missed last week, I encourage you to watch it online. The quick version is there are four things we can do to be spiritually healthy, as individual Christians and as a church:
Be devoted to Bible Study
Be devoted to fellowship
Be devoted to the Lord’s Supper
Be devoted to Prayer
Now, I should note those are not in order of importance; they are in order as they appear in Acts 2:42, the passage we studied.
These four things sound wonderful on paper. In fact, you would be hard-pressed to find any Christian who would disagree with these. And yet, each year we decide we want to grow spiritually, and each year we may make some progress, but inevitably many of us will fall back into the same poor habits. Why is that?
Why do we accept the truism of the 80/20 rule, even though 100% of us would say it’s wrong?
Why do we accept the “normalcy” of Christians who fail to evangelize, or fail to give sacrificially, or fail on the daily tasks that God calls us to?
Why do Christians, who know the Lord and know what the Lord expects of us, still struggle with overworking, overeating, alcohol or drugs, anger, lying, or procrastination?
Why do Christians, who know the Lord and know that He is in control and only wants good for us, still struggle with fear, anxiety, grief, guilt, codependency, insecurity, perfectionism, or the need to control?
Why do Christians, who know the Lord and know the forgiveness that He so freely gives, still struggle with hurtful relationships bound in resentment, un-forgiveness, and self-destruction?
The answer is a tale as old as the Garden. We are still battling sin. And many of us, for some reason, believe we can overcome sin, even though the Gospel is very clear, and our experience should be even clearer—there is only One who overcame sin and death, and His Name is Jesus.
Today, we are beginning a series on battling sin that still weighs us down. Whether you have been a Christian for many decades, or you have not yet taken that first step, I hope you stick with this series.
The promise of God’s Word is that we can experience freedom and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. Through this series, we are going to look at how to embrace that promise.
One last thing before we begin. This series is based on the sermon series that accompanies Celebrate Recovery. We have been hosting CR for over a year now, and it has been wonderful for those who come. But, in order to help those of you who have been hesitant about coming, I wanted to offer this series. I believe the material that we cover in CR is beneficial for everyone, and so, you are going to get a version of it on Sundays. And since I actually hate the idea of just preaching someone else’s sermons, you are getting my own spin on it.
A Contrite Heart
Let’s begin by taking a look at God’s promise in Isaiah 57:14-21. Isaiah is speaking for the Lord, he is a prophet after all, and gives us a contrast between two types of people. See if you can pick up the difference between the two.
And it shall be said, “Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction from my people's way.”
For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry; for the spirit would grow faint before me, and the breath of life that I made.
Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry, I struck him; I hid my face and was angry, but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart.
I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners,
creating the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the Lord, “and I will heal him.
But the wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up mire and dirt.
There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”
Isaiah 57:14-21
Now, many times in Scripture, it will contrast the difference between the righteous and the unrighteous, but notice here, no one is actually righteous—except God, of course. So, who is being contrasted? It is two unjust people, two sinners. The difference is one is sorry about their sin. Look again. Verses 14-19 tell us the sinner who seeks healing, who is sorry for their state, will be healed. But the one who is wicked, and willfully so, will never find peace.
Healing is freely available, but only to those who are willing to be honest about their sin.
Sometimes I am asked why God doesn’t just forgive and cleanse everyone automatically. After all, if Jesus died on the cross for everyone, why isn’t everyone automatically saved? While it is true salvation is a free gift, not everyone is willing to accept that gift. Likewise, salvation requires more than just mere understanding of Christ and sin. It requires repentance. “Repentance” is the big theological word for “turning away.” It is the contrite heart who knows they have sinned—their state of disrepair is because of their actions.
Now, it is true that many times in life we suffer because of other people’s sin, but that does not change the fact that we have our own faults and failures to add to the mix. But, if we are to find healing for our destructive habits, we have to begin with understanding that we have a choice in the matter, and the right choice is to go to the One who can actually heal us.
Go back to Isaiah 57:15. God is the One who is high and lifted up. He is the One who can revive our spirits and our hearts. We must go to God for healing.
The first step to RECOVERY is: “Realize I’m not God.”
It is saying, “I admit I’m powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and my life is unmanageable.”
Now, every good Christian will freely admit there is a God, and they are not Him, and yet how many can relate to Paul’s lament in Romans 7?
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Romans 7:15-17
We know what we ought to do, but fail to do it. We know what we ought not to do, but do it. That is the work of sin within us. And we believe that we can control it.
We deny the reality of our humanity and try to control things we have no power over. We try to control how people see us. Think about how we greet each other.
“How’s it going?”
“Oh, living the dream!”
“How are you doing today?”
“Oh, I’m fine, and you?”
“Oh, good”
“Hey, I just heard this horrible thing just happened, how are you holding up?” “I’m ok”
No one actually wants to discuss their problems. That’s why we don’t actually mean “How are you” when we ask, because if the person was honest, they would expect us to be honest, too. And how many of us are willing to be that honest, when really all we’re saying is “Hi”?
Or, we control other people. We try to manipulate, guilt, or cajole our kids, co-workers, parents, and everyone else we come across to do what we want in hopes that it will make us feel better about ourselves.
We refuse to ask for help, because if we did, we would be admitting our limitations. Full disclosure, when I started putting together this sermon, I had a strong moment of “I really don’t want to use this guy’s stuff.” And it was less about artistic integrity and more about admitting I needed help. As a teacher, I know it is absolutely foolish to reinvent the wheel. If someone has a lesson that works, a good teacher will use that lesson. They tweak for their own classroom, but they have no problems using it. But most pastors have tremendous trouble using other pastor’s sermons—unless they are one of those guys who get their sermons from online, but that’s a different kind of problem. But I went ahead with this series because the fact is the last few months have left me without the mental and spiritual capacity needed to begin a deep dive into another Bible book series.
We can say “everything is fine” all we want while the house around us burns, but eventually the fire is going to get us. We must be honest about our sin and our situation and seek help.
The Consequences of an unrepentant heart
There are four consequences that occur when we fail to turn away from sin.
The first consequence is fear.
Think back to the story of the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve are in the garden, and everything is perfectly good. They have one rule: stay away from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Of course, being human, they go for the tree. What is the first consequence we see?
And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
Genesis 3:10
The first thing Adam did was hide. He hid from God, and if you look back at verse 7, you’ll see he hid from Eve also. They saw each other for who they were and were ashamed. They had been naked the whole time. Nudity was not the problem. The problem was the shame. They both realized they had sinned, and they both knew they were not right anymore.
When we fail to admit our sins and be honest about ourselves, we will inevitably try to hide them. And that fear of people seeing us for who we really are will always be a problem. That is why our relationships falter, or fail, and that is why Christians struggle to have true fellowship. We are fearful to let others see the reality of our struggles.
The second consequence is frustration.
It is the struggle of Romans 7. We know the things we should be doing, or not doing, and yet we continually fail to do the right thing. We become hamsters on little sin wheels working so hard thinking that if we keep moving one day we’ll overcome sin, but we never go anywhere.
We will never get off the wheel until we stop running and start looking to Jesus.
The third consequence is fatigue.
It is so tiring being on that wheel. Psalm 32 is a great passage to meditate on this week as we consider what it means to find freedom from sin’s hamster wheel. David describes the fatigue from sin this way:
For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
Psalm 32:3-4
His bones wasted away. He groaned all day long. The hand of the Lord was heavy on him—meaning the weight of his guilt was too much. His strength was dried up like a plant in the heat of summer. IT was awful. But, look at what happened when David admitted the truth of his sin.
I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
Psalm 32:5
God forgives David for his sin. As soon as David is honest and contrite, the Lord brings forgiveness. And this is how David is able to end the psalm:
Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.
Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
Psalm 32:10-11
Hiding from God is tiring and frustrating and filled with fear, but when we admit our sin to God—when we are honest with Him and ourselves, we find rest and joy!
The fourth consequence is failure.
Ultimately, we will live our life in failure. Oh, it may appear like we are successful. There are many in this world who have a shiny appearance on the outside, but Jesus called these types of people white-washed tombs. They look great on the outside, but they are dead inside. There is no true success for the one hiding in their sin.
Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.
Proverbs 28:13
Perhaps you feel stuck in this cycle of hiding from sin. You keep trying to hide your fears and failures. Maybe you learned these habits from your family. Perhaps you don’t really know any different, because when you look at your family tree, you see generations of people making sure everything looks good on the outside despite turmoil and heartache in the home.
Today is the day to break that cycle. It starts with full blunt honesty.
We admit we are not God.
We admit that we are powerless to control this life, our past, other people, and least of all the sin that has entangled our hearts and minds.
This type of honesty takes humility. It is abrasive to our pride, but remember what James says,
“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
James 4:6
Being contrite, by its very nature, means letting go of our pride and embracing the reality of the situation.