Skip to content Reversing Addiction Consequences Oct 14 · 42 min ...more
October 14, 2022 · 42 min · Reversals
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Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies.
666K followers
0:00 Many of God's children are spiritual POWs, prisoners of war, trapped in a sin0:12 that they have been unable to break. Trapped in a situation that is contrary to the will and word of0:24 God from which they have not been able to escape. Whether it is alcoholism or drugs0:36 or pornography or gluttony or profanity, whether it is lashing out in anger and wrath and0:48 inability to control one's temper, they find themselves caught and unable to get out. There is1:00 a whole addiction industry today to help people get out of the vice grip that is holding them illegitimately1:12 hostage. And what many are discovering is that going to church hadn't solved their problem. Praying hasn't released them from it.1:25 I want to talk about the consequence of addiction that shreds minds, ruins souls, kills relationships1:36 because you find yourself caught. And even if that's not you, there is somebody in your circle of influence who finds themselves addicted.1:51 The biblical word for what the world calls addiction is stronghold. Because the biblical word stronghold is referring to2:03 the spiritual nature of the addiction. A stronghold is a spiritually based addiction, which means2:15 if you try to fix an addiction, which is really a stronghold without the right spiritual connection, you can't be released from it because you haven't dealt with the core issue2:27 that's behind it. So you just deal with the thing itself. In your kitchen, whether you have a refrigerator2:39 or a stove or an electric can opener or a toaster or whatever appliance you have, all of them are different, but they all2:51 find their power from the same source, electricity. Regardless of your addictions, it would take us forever to talk about this addiction and that addiction3:02 and this addiction and that addiction and this other addiction because they are they come in by the dozens. But I would like to submit to you that they all emanate3:14 from a common source. So if we can get to the common source, we can apply that source to the uniqueness of the particular spiritual addiction slash3:25 stronghold that needs to be addressed. We're living in a time when people find themselves stuck.3:37 Now my concern is not for the person who's stuck and wants to be, because I can't help you. If you're in an addiction and you want to stay3:49 addicted, all the facts and figures and truth and bible can't change something you are pursuing. But I am4:01 speaking to those who are or who know someone who is caught in a sin, know they are caught, doesn't wanna be caught,4:13 but doesn't know how to get out. They are trapped in some scenario for which they cannot find release.4:26 And so this issue of illegitimate bondage must have a spiritual understanding underpinning it for full4:38 release to occur. So let's review again what we're referring to as we move forward. We're referring to a spiritually based4:50 trap in some category of life that has been inculcated with negative patterns of thought that, like a snake, has wrapped itself around the5:02 mind, making something seem impossible to break or to fix because you feel handcuffed to it, or it5:14 feels handcuffed to you. It is seeing something as unchangeable that is outside of the will and the5:26 word of God. Most people have run into something in their lives. Sometimes they're big. Sometimes they are5:38 small. That is of less consequence, but yet addictions have a way of growing. They have built into5:49 them gateway potential, the capacity to expand themselves in our lives and in our circumstances.6:01 When you are in an addiction or better yet a spiritual addiction or stronghold, you feel like you're in a tomb, a prison, and somebody has6:13 thrown away the key. What many people seek to do with this stronghold that they're battling is to6:25 accept it as an inevitable reality, and the best they hope to do with it is to decorate their cell. Since6:37 it's never gonna change, at least let me make my addiction as pleasant as possible. Other people settle for what we might6:49 call sin management. Since I'm never gonna get rid of it, let me do like a trash masher. Let me just press it down and pretend it's not7:01 there, which only creates room for more trash. And so they just try to manage it the best way they can. But today,7:14 I want to try to give a biblical mechanism for deliverance predicated on an understanding7:26 that Christians can find themselves in strongholds like non Christians. You don't have to be saved for long to know7:38 that when you got saved, your flesh didn't disappear. Some of our flesh was so well trained when we weren't saved.7:50 That when we got saved, the flesh looked at that as a new opportunity to show how strong it really is.8:03 Even the most spiritual person in the New Testament, the apostle Paul, struggled with something he couldn't shake. In Romans chapter 78:14 verses 14 to 24, Paul says he was doing things he did not want to do. He said he told himself, you shouldn't do it. He said8:26 the willing was there. I was really serious, but the ability to pull it off wasn't. I kept promising God I'm not gonna do it again. I kept promising God I8:38 struggled between my flesh and my salvation, and the 2 were not getting along. When8:49 Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and gave him life, the bible says he came up from his tomb tied up in his hands and his feet. Just because9:01 he had life didn't mean he was free. Jesus had to say, y'all gotta lose him and let him go. I gave him life, but he needs freedom. So it is possible9:13 to have come to Christ, have eternal life, and still not yet be free from whatever the stronghold or spiritual addiction happens to be.9:26 And so this thing called stronghold, spiritual addictions, is spiritual slavery in some category of life, which is why he calls9:38 it, in verse 14, a slave to sin. If you're a slave, that means you have a master. He calls the master sin. He9:50 doesn't call it a bad habit. He doesn't call it a mistake. He doesn't call it something that, you know, you need to just get over. He calls it something that is in antithesis to the will and word10:02 of God. So let's call the addiction, whatever category it is, what it is. No. You don't just10:13 have a struggle. You got a sin master. No. You don't you didn't just make a mistake over and over and over again. You had a master10:25 called sin. Because if you don't know who your master is, then you won't address it for what it is. He calls it slavery10:37 being under the whip of an entity that he calls sin. How does this10:49 stronghold or spiritual addiction, whatever category it is, occur. Because understanding the cause will lead us to the cure.11:02 When you're sick and you go to the doctor, he's gonna try to find the cause so he can give you the right cure. Many of us are trying to cure the wrong cause. So we're we're11:14 medicating something that's not the problem and wonder why we're not getting healthier spiritually. To understand this, stay11:26 with me here, I want you to follow me to second Corinthians chapter 10. And we all need this either for ourselves or for someone else. And so it is critical that you11:38 understand this. Second Corinthians chapter 10 verse 2 says, I ask that when I am present, I need not to be bold with the confidence11:50 with which I propose to be courageous against some who regard us as if we walk according to the flesh.12:01 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not the flesh, but divinely12:13 powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the12:25 knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. The problem of12:36 addiction, a sin that has mastered you or us or me. The problem of addiction has to do with a12:48 lofty thing. You see that phrase? He says, this lofty thing, in verse 5, has been raised up13:00 against the knowledge of God. So let me define the lofty thing. The Greek word lofty, a synonym for it is partition.13:12 You go to a room. We have classrooms that have a partition down the middle. You can open it or you can close13:24 it. If we want to have 2 classrooms in the same space, we close the petition. This petition is lofty. It goes from the13:35 floor to the ceiling, and we close it to divide the room so that we can have 2 separate classes as opposed to having 1 bigger class. So we divide it13:48 through a lofty thing. Now the reason we divide the room is so the information in this half of the room13:59 doesn't cross over to the meeting in that half of the room. We want the content to be separated so that 1 room is not interfering14:11 with another room. What Paul is saying is the reason why we stay defeated is because of our partition in the mind. There14:24 is a blockage in the mind. He says speculations and thoughts raised up, petitioned out against the knowledge of God.14:35 So what the enemy does is he sets up a partition in the mind so that the truth of God can't get14:47 through. And because he partials off your thinking, your speculation, and your thought, no matter how many sermons you hear, it14:58 can't cross over to the other room because the other room is filled with contradictory information that the enemy15:10 doesn't want the knowledge of God to cross over into. He calls this other information in the other half of the room, your mind, he15:22 calls that information knowledge and speculation against the knowledge of God. So the lofty thing is contradicting what15:34 God says, what God thinks so that it doesn't go all the way through. So what happens is that the enemy is able to keep the truth of15:45 God from fully infiltrating your thought patterns so that you have victory 1 moment and defeat another moment. This blocking15:57 through a lofty thing keeps what he calls, in verse 4, the fortress, prison, or tomb operating. So the moment you think16:09 you're getting out, you find out you're still in because it didn't cross over. It it did the partition made sure it didn't cross over. Now the16:20 biblical word for this lofty thing is double mindedness. Double mindedness. Double to mind thought,16:32 thinking in 2 different directions at the same time. Partition. It is the job of Satan to keep you thinking in 216:44 ways at the same time. He doesn't mind you getting God's thoughts on Sunday as long as in the other room,16:57 you have his thoughts on Monday. Because if he can get you to have God's thoughts on Sunday, but get his thoughts on Monday, he can keep God's thoughts17:09 from penetrating the whole of you. Therefore, God's thoughts don't last long because they're in competition. It's like if17:21 you go to sweet Georgia Browns because you want some soul food, you go to sweet Georgia Brown. You come to the end of the line and order a diet17:32 coke, hoping that somehow that will cancel out all the sugar and grease17:44 at Sweet Georgia Browns. You just you just feel better because you ordered a diet coke. After greens and fried chicken17:56 and fried ribs and mac and cheese and potato salad and sweet potato pie. But give me a Diet Coke.18:09 What a lot of folk think is having Diet Church on Sunday after having incorporated18:21 the other world view all week long, somehow that diet worship will override and give you victory. He says,18:33 no. You're operating with a partition, And that partition cancels out the knowledge of God, making it incapable18:44 of your mind being able to take every thought captive to the obedience to Christ. So the prison, the fortress18:57 doesn't get dismantled, and after a while, we get too tired of trying to dismantle it. We get too tired of trying to get I'm too tired of fighting this thing. So the best I can do is put19:09 pictures on the wall of myself. I'm in this. I'm gonna die like this. It's gonna always be like this. So I'm just gonna I'll do the best I can.19:21 I'll manage it the best I can. So in order for the penetration of God's truth19:32 to bring victory in the area of the stronghold due to the vice grip of sin that has been amplified by Satan and demons, in order for that to be overcome, that19:44 wall must be taken down in order that the fortress, the prison, might be destroyed, not remodeled.19:58 And the tricky part of this, the tricky part is that the other part of the room, the part that's not from20:09 God feels right a lot of the time. It reminds me of Matthew 16, beginning verse 21.20:22 Jesus Jesus is telling the disciples, look. He says, look. I I gotta go die, rise from the dead. Peter says, come here. Come here, Jesus. You and I gotta have a conversation. Peter20:34 takes Jesus to the side and says, God forbid it, Lord. What you just said, Jesus, you're all wrong.20:46 You're off. And you're off, watch this, in the name of God. He says, I'm gonna use God on you, Jesus. You really got to be good20:58 to use God on Jesus. He said, I'm a use God on you, Jesus. God forbid what you just said. What you just said is not gonna happen, and just to keep it spiritual, Lord.21:11 But you just said, it's not gonna happen, Lord. Jesus said, get thee behind me, Satan. Wait a minute. How can you just call Peter Satan when he used21:22 God's name? So just because you use God's name says, God bless you. Say, hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Does not make it legit. Does21:34 not make it legit. He says, get me behind me, devil. Now what was devilish about his statement? He meant well. He was trying to keep Jesus from the cross. He was trying to keep Jesus from being killed. He meant well. He21:46 even used God's name in it. He called Jesus Lord. He meant well. But Jesus says, no. Your mind is on man's view, not on God's view21:58 because you didn't like the view. See, the reason why Satan can keep us trapped is when we don't like what God wants and come22:10 to some logical conclusion about it that we can toss a little Jesus name on top of it, we think then then it must be okay when it's the devil controlling the22:22 other side of the room of our minds. And when we understand this and grasp this,22:36 it becomes a transforming truth that, wait a minute, I have a divided mind, and that's why it doesn't stick. It stays there for a day or a week,22:48 but it doesn't stick. And even when it comes back, I don't have victory over it. It has victory over me. So if that's the problem, how do we do this?23:01 How do we how do we do this? How do we begin now to remove the petition so there is no longer a division in the mind so that now23:13 God's knowledge flows through and the fortress is destroyed, and all the speculation that's holding me hostage. Back to our original23:25 passage, John 8. He says in John chapter 8 verse 31 and 32, if you continue in my word, then you are truly my23:37 disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. You only are going to be freed by the truth. K?23:49 Now nobody will disagree with that, so let me say it another way. You will only be free by the truth, not what you believe to be true. We got folk running24:01 around here talking about, I know my truth. Yeah. And where has your truth gotten you? No. No. No. It's not what you believe to be true. He's not talking about24:13 a truth, some truth, your truth. He's talking about the truth. The truth refers to an absolute standard by which24:25 reality is measured. It is an absolute standard by which reality is measured, and the truth always sits outside of you. No. 1 in 1 is24:36 2, 1 in 1 has always been 2, and 1 in 1 will always be 2 because it is a mathematical truth. Now you can feel 324:48 ish all you want. You can be in the 1 and 1 being 3 all day long. But because it is a fact that sits outside25:00 of you, you have to adjust yourself to 1 and 1 being 2 no matter how many people tell you it's 3, no matter how deeply you feel it's 3, no matter how much you want it to be25:12 3. You must conform to that truth, not turn it into your truth. And 1 of the reasons people stay in strongholds is because they're living on25:24 a truth or their truth or some TV program's truth or some cultural truth and not the truth. The25:35 absolute standard by which reality is revealed. Here is 1 of the biggest25:47 falsehoods that keep us in custody and locked up spiritually in a stronghold, a spiritual addiction. And that is trying to get the25:59 flesh to fix the flesh. Paul said in the scripture we just read in second Corinthians 10, we do not war according26:11 to the flesh. The flesh can't fix the flesh. You can try to manage it. You can try to force it down. You can try to make a New Year's resolution. You can26:22 promise you're never gonna do it again. You can talk to yourself. You can go to the counselor. You can take medication. But if it's a spiritual sin issue,26:35 What we do is go to the thing that's the problem to fix the problem. He says, no. What you must do first and26:47 foremost is continuing my truth. Look. Look. You remember you remember your grandmother, great grandmother, when she was washing clothes, used to washing board? You know, she26:58 pushed the washing board, and she's putting out a lot of energy to clean them clothes. I mean, arms get tired, have to take a break for a while, come back and do it again, and then you got a lot of clothes. You know, it27:09 takes days to do it. A lot of a lot of hard work to clean those clothes with the washing board. But lo and behold, technology, a washing machine.27:21 A washing machine. What would you say if you purchased a washing machine for your grandmother and she was using a washing board?27:32 You would say, grandma, you don't get it. You don't need that when you have this. All you're doing is the best you can, breaking your27:44 neck, getting tired when there has been another provision that's much better than you at getting stuff clean. What27:56 many people want to do is get out of their addiction by their own scrubbing effort. And for a while, it looks like it's clean, but when they look it up, it ain't that clean. And and they try28:08 again, they try again. When God says, no. No. No. What you must do watch this. Verse 31, he says, I want you to continue in my truth,28:20 and you will know the truth. The word continue means to hang out, abide, stay there, to loiter. That's28:32 what to continue or abide is. You must abide in the truth. We don't abide in the truth. We visit it. We've come. We're listening28:44 to the word of God. Most of us won't know next Sunday what we heard this Sunday. Because we don't abide in it. We visit it. No. He said,28:56 no. No. No. No. No. Have victory over the master of sin, you must abide in the truth. So if you are battling something29:08 in your life and you're a Christian, if you're not a Christian, that's a whole another ballgame because you don't have the spirit to help you. But if you are a Christian, you have the spirit. But the spirit is the spirit29:18 of truth, so you've gotta abide in the truth. So here's what I want you to do this week. Every day, I want you to read Romans 6, 7, and 8. The the those 3 chapters. Romans 6, 7, and29:30 8. Why? Because Romans 6, 7, and 8 is gonna tell you the truth about the master called sin, whatever that sin is. In chapter29:41 6, Paul is gonna tell you about your new identity in Christ. He's gonna tell you, you've been baptized with Christ, and you are not who you used to be29:54 because you were buried with him in baptism, raised with him into a new life so that sin is lying to you. Paul's gonna tell you to shift30:06 your identification in your newness in Christ, and therefore, verse 11 of chapter 6, consider your old person dead. He's gonna tell you, you must now30:17 identify yourself as Jesus Christ identifies you. Then he's gonna come to chapter 7, and he's gonna Paul's gonna tell you, I struggled like you struggle. I had some things in my life. He doesn't tell us what it is,30:29 which is good, because then you can put your stuff in that chapter. He says, and I struggled, the things I didn't wanna do, the things I did, and I I didn't want it, and30:41 it kept coming back. And and I resisted it, but it showed up again until I got to chapter 8 and understood the power of the holy spirit and that the law of the spirit30:53 is greater than the law of sin and death. So then in verse 13, he says, therefore, I have no longer any obligation to the flesh.31:06 When I understood that I got this supernatural peace when it's tied to the truth. And you will know the truth. Now I know what some of31:18 you are saying. You're saying, well, I may know it, but but a lot of that bible stuff, I'm reading it, but I don't understand it. I don't understand it. Do you take medicine you don't31:30 understand? You go to the doctor, you say, I'm hurting. He writes a prescription. You don't know what he wrote. In fact, if you can read what he wrote, he ain't a31:42 real doctor. He got scribble stuff going. You'll know what that says. You go to the pharmacist, you get the medicine, you you you don't know all the stuff that's in that medicine. But what you31:53 do is you ingest it, you take it, you swallow it, and it does its work even when you don't understand it. Now, sure, we are to seek to understand the word of God. But while you32:05 are taking the time to seek it, if you just keep taking it in and continue it, it has the ability to do its work if you continue in it. So if you32:17 are struggling with something, if you are a believer, every day for this week, read chapter 6, 7, and 8 of the book of Romans over and over again, and let the32:29 medicine seep down and abide in you. Because when you continue in my word, you will then know the truth, and the truth will32:41 set you free. It becomes part of your soul. It's it's been ingested, and we don't do that. We32:53 listen to a sermon on Sunday. That's diet church. Today, we live in a world of information but little truth.33:05 We appeal to our feelings, which are changing all the time. Our reason, which is uncertain, and our moral instincts, which are different from person to person.33:20 But there's something else. There's something else that if you miss it, you miss the real deal of victory.33:33 He just said, if you will continue in my word, if you hang out there, if you bring your the master of sin that's you're dealing with, and you lay it before33:45 the word and you lay it before the word. Lord, this is what I'm dealing with, but I'm reading your word. I'm taking this word. I'm taking this word. I'm taking that 15 minutes, that 30 minutes every day, and I'm gonna33:54 get this thing till you get it down in me, and my soul begins to grab hold of it and wraps itself around it. He says, the truth will make you free.34:06 But look at another verse. Because when you look at verse 36, so if the son makes you34:18 free, you will be free indeed. Okay. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. We we we got a little issue here. Because verse 32 says,34:30 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. Right? That's what it says. But in verse 36, it says, so if the son makes you free, you34:42 will be free indeed. Wait a minute. In the first 1, the truth will make me free.34:54 But in the second 1, the son sets me free. In the first 1, I'm free. But35:06 in the second 1, I'm free indeed. So what's the difference between being made free and being set free? And what's the difference between being35:17 free and free indeed? What what what's the difference here? If somebody comes and you're in jail and comes up to you35:29 and says, someone has just posted bail for you, You're gonna shout. You're gonna applaud. Somebody has paid what you need to get out. You're gonna35:41 celebrate. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm free, but you're still in jail. You're free because bail has been posted,35:53 but you're not out. But you are free. Because once you post bail that has been accepted, you're free. But then they gotta do paperwork. That's36:05 right. They gotta do the paperwork. So so there is often a gap between legally being free and being out.36:17 The word of God post bail, but the son has the key to the lock.36:29 The bail makes you free. The sun sets you free. In other words, it is not merely the knowledge of the Bible.36:41 It is the relationship with the author that produces the experience of the freedom that you have. When36:53 you spend time in the word you know, I I love Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 says, the word of God is sharper than any 2 edged sword. It says it's alive. The book is alive. It's37:05 a book, but it's alive. Now let me tell you what the book does according to Hebrews 4 12. He says in Hebrews 4 12, the book, the word of God, when taken in, will divide soul and37:17 spirit. The reason why we stay trapped in certain things is because the soul and spirit are not divided. They're all mixed up. They're all they're all intertwined37:29 because things have not been separated. So that which is God is God, and that which is not is not. So we didn't got it all mixed together. But he says when the word of God does its cutting, it separates the soul and the37:40 spirit so that they become 2 distinct realities, and you know what's what. See, Paul was struggling with, how can I not wanna do this and do it? I37:52 I'm confused. I I I can't make sense of that. He says the word of God, shoo. Cuts between the 2, so the 2 are segmented. But then after he says that, he38:04 comes to verse 13, and he says, and all things are laid bare before his eyes. So in verse 12, he's talking about the word of God, but in verse 13, he's talking about his eyes.38:16 So he takes the word written and God, the person. And when the living word connects with the written word in your heart, soul, and mind,38:28 not only is Baal posted, but Jesus comes with a key. And when the son sets you free, you are free indeed. Guess what38:40 indeed is? Luke 24 34 says, when Jesus rose from the dead, they said he has risen indeed. Why did they have to38:52 say indeed? Because Jesus Christ never stopped living after he died on the cross. After Jesus died on the cross, he was very much alive on39:04 Saturday as he was on Friday. In fact, the scripture says that on Saturday, he went to Sheol to preach victory to the souls that had died. So Jesus Christ39:16 was as alive on Saturday as he was on Friday, but his body on Saturday was still laying in the tomb. He was spiritually alive, but he was not physically39:27 alive yet. But as the preacher would say, early on Sunday morning, just a little while before day, Jesus39:39 got up so that what was already true became visible. What was already real, you could see it. It's 1 thing to be inShow more
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