(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, so in Romans chapter 8 here we see a description of being in the flesh versus being in the spirit. And right off the bat he tells us that if you are in Christ, if you have put your faith in Christ, basically you are in Christ. And of course the law has no more control over you. You're not bound by the law unto death and hell because Christ is of course atoned for our sins and paid for that. And that there's a great liberty that you receive when you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, when you get saved. It's a great liberty. It sets you free. You are free from that bondage of sin. You are free from the bondage of the world. And that is the great news of receiving salvation. Now what I'm going to be preaching about this morning is dealing with addictions. Now hopefully I believe probably almost everyone in this church or hopefully everybody in this church is saved. We're believers in God. You're in Christ. And that's who the message is to. Don't think for a second that just because you're saved that you no longer have to deal with addictions. Because we still have this mortal flesh. We still have this mortal body. And as we were reading there in Romans chapter 8, we groan and we're waiting for the points where we can get rid of this sinful fleshly body. Because as we live day to day, there is a battle going on between the Spirit and the flesh. The Spirit wants to do those things that are good. The Spirit that's the new creature, the new man that was born again inside of you when you put your faith in Christ. That new creature is without sin. That new creature wants to serve God. That new creature wants to do everything that's right. But we haven't been delivered from this flesh. We still have the flesh that's going to want to drive us into sin. That's going to want us to lead us astray and do the things that we shouldn't be doing. Especially the things maybe that you used to like to do. What your flesh has already received and has enjoyed, it's going to want to continue to do those things. So for me for example, I used to like drinking quite a bit. Drinking alcohol, drinking booze. That was one of the sins that I really got into in my life. So as a result of that, now my flesh knows what that's like. My flesh is going to want to do that way more than say for example, doing heroin which I've never done in my life. That's something that I've never quite experienced. So the draw to do something like that from my flesh isn't going to be as large as a draw of something else that I've already done in the past that's sinful. It's going to be even worse. As believers in God, we need to make sure that we're on guard to avoid the pitfalls of addiction. And if there are addictions that we have, that we can get rid of them. Because my first point here is addiction is bondage. I mean just by the definition of addiction, it's something that you are doing where you feel like you just have to do it. It's no longer, you know it's the difference between someone who is a drunk or just a total full blown alcoholic. They wake up in the morning and they get a drink. And it's not even necessarily because they want to take a drink. It's just they've gotten to the point where they just need to take a drink. Or smoking cigarettes another great example. The vast majority of people out there that smoke cigarettes today, they know they shouldn't be. They know it's bad for them. They know there's nothing good at all that they receive from smoking cigarettes. But they're addicted to it. They're in bondage to that sin. They're in bondage to doing those things that they know they ought not to be doing. But they've gotten themselves in bondage. And look at verse number 12. Because we don't want to bring ourselves back into that bondage. If you've been delivered from sins, hey keep yourselves clean from them. We don't need to go back and return unto bondage again. Look at verse number 12. The Bible says, Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh you shall die. But if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. The Bible says don't live after the flesh. And that's what these addictions do. They'll cause you to just live after the flesh. What you're doing is you're satisfying a drive or a lust of your own flesh. That's all you're doing is you're obeying what your fleshly body is telling you to do. And the Bible is saying if you live after the flesh you're going to die. But if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. You don't have the spirit of bondage. That's not what God has given you. But ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba, Father. Now I just want to make this real clear. I think everybody probably already knows this. When we're talking here about living after the flesh and saying you're going to die, you're not going to lose your salvation. Okay, you weren't good enough to earn salvation. You had to receive it as a free gift. You're still a sinner after you get saved. You still will commit sins. Christ has paid for all of your sins. So even if you are living after the flesh, you could die physically. God has done that. There's many examples of people where God has just, you know what? He's just taken their life away from them. No more opportunities for you. And you know, that's a big deal. People say, oh, well, that's a great thing. You get to go to heaven. Yeah, it is a great thing that you get to go to heaven. But you lose out on all of your opportunities to earn rewards, to help other people out, to help your loved ones, to help your family, your friends, to receive Christ as their Savior. You lose out on a lot. It's a really, really shallow mentality to just think that, oh, I'm going to heaven. This is great. So I'm just going to kill myself or whatever just to get there. No, no, no, no. You are missing out on way more than you even realize. Losing your physical life here can definitely be a punishment. But once you're saved, you are always saved. You have eternal life and nothing can change. And that's why even in this chapter, at the very end, he says, nothing can separate us from the love of God. No man, not even yourself, can pluck you out of the Father's hand. So no matter what you do, and it's important to keep that in mind because think about the hopelessness you might have. If you did have an addiction, you're thinking like, man, I'm trying to get victory over this addiction. I can't do it. And you're just thinking that like you've lost your salvation. I mean, it's real easy to give up then. But see, we always have hope. There's always hope. I mean, you know that God loves you. And once you're saved, I mean, you're in His family. We've got the spirit of adoption whereby we cry unto God as our Father. We cry, Abba, Father, God, the Father help me. You know, Dad, help me out. I need some help here. And He can help get you through that. I'm going to get through dealing with addictions and how we can get the victory over them a little bit later in the sermon so I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself. But we need to make sure that we are not getting back involved under bondage of sin. Now, some addictions are extremely sinful. And even if it's not an addiction for you, they ought not to be done even once. Right? Addiction is something that you're just doing over and over. As I mentioned, the difference between, you know, maybe someone who goes out every once in a while will have a drink or have some booze or whatever. They go to some party or some gathering versus the alcoholic that wakes up every day and is completely addicted. But see, drinking is one example of a sin that I don't think you should ever do even one time. And we'll get into some of the lesser addictions that aren't necessarily inherently sin. But let's start off. We're going to look at some of the verses here. Turn, if you would, to 1 Peter chapter 4. We're going to deal a little bit with some of the more serious addictions. They're not quite as common as the ones I'm going to get to in a little bit. But these ones, they're still real common. They're still prevalent in society with alcohol and drugs. And, you know, when I say drugs, I'm not just talking about street drugs. Because there are a lot of people, there's probably way more people, in fact, that get addicted to prescription drugs than get addicted to the street drugs. And you've got to watch out for that. Just because something is legal according to the government doesn't make it right. I mean, alcohol is a perfect example of that. Alcohol is legal. If you're over the age of 21, it's legal for you to drink. But that does not mean it's moral or right or according to God's word or God's will. Now, I'm going to read for you from Proverbs chapter 23. It's a very famous passage on alcohol. The Bible says, Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women and thine heart shall utter perverse things. This is some of the warnings. And there's, you know, the passage goes on. But I just want to point this out. The Bible is saying, look, don't even look at the wine. Let alone drink it. Let alone consume it and have that drink with friends or whatever. Don't even look upon the wine when it's red. It says, at the last, because this is why. He gives you an example of why. He says, this is exactly why you shouldn't even be looking at it. Because how does all sin start? It all starts with you looking upon it. It all starts with you kind of gazing upon it and then thinking about it. And then you get involved in it. That's what happened with Lot. Remember Lot, when he separated from Abraham, he pitched his tent toward Sodom. Oh, I think I just, I'm going to set, I'm just going to look this way, far off at that, at that, that wonderful city that's out there, full of wicked people that hate God. And before you know it, the next thing you know, the next verses you're reading in the Bible, in Genesis, he's in Sodom. He went from pitching his tent toward Sodom to being right in Sodom. And when you set your eyes upon sins, you know, sins, the next thing you're going to be doing is doing them. Because what you like to do, you know, sin always works. And I think everybody here could probably testify to this. You kind of gradually start moving into sin a little bit closer, a little bit closer. That's not going to bother me. It's okay. And you start, you start making boundaries for yourself. And then, oops, I crossed that boundary. Oh, well, I already crossed that, so I might as well keep crossing that. But I won't go here. I won't do that. And see the way sin works, it's always going to drag you further and deeper than you want to go. And the best way is to just avoid it all together. And just completely, as the Bible says, don't even look at it. Don't even look at it. You say, but I'm not going to have a drink. Don't even look at it. Don't even put it in front of your face. There's no reason to. And the Bible says very clearly, look, at the last, when alcohol is done with you, you think you might be done with that, but when alcohol is done with you, it bites like a serpent. It's like a snake bite. It stings like an adder. It's a poison. Alcohol literally is a poison. It goes through your blood. It goes through your body. And the Bible is likening it to like a snake bite. And it says, thine eyes shall behold strange women and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Now as a Christian this morning, can anyone stand up and say, I want my eyes to just look on strange women and lust after them in my heart, and I want my heart to just utter perverted things. It's so backwards. Nobody wants that. Who would consciously say, yeah, I just want to be looking on strange women and just utter perverted things out of my own heart. But that's what alcohol will do to you, my friends. That is the warning that the Bible, the Scripture is giving about drinking wine, about drinking booze. I had you turn to 1 Peter, chapter 4. Now you could say, oh, but that's just talking about wine. What about, you know, what about marijuana? What about, you know, whatever and these other drugs? Well, the Bible deals with that too. I think we can apply the Scriptures regarding alcohol to other mind-altering substances. I don't think there's a big leap of logic to just include those when you can see the things that are done under the influence of alcohol versus these other mind-altering drugs that will cause you to do the same things. But if that's not good enough for you, look at 1 Peter, chapter 4, verse number 7. The Bible reads, but the end of all things is at hand. Be, therefore, sober and watch unto prayer. Now, if you get high on drugs, is a person that's high on drugs considered sober? Of course not. Sober? What is sobriety, being sober? Now there's a couple meanings, but I think it's always tied together. You know, a lot of times in the Bible there's extra meaning, there's kind of enhanced meaning. Sober means being serious and being, you know, of a sound mind and not screwing around. But you can see how that's still tied in with being sober, of being free from drugs and influence of alcohol or any other substance on your mind because you're not thinking quite clearly. You're not thinking straight when you're high on drugs. And that drug could be anything. I mean, there's drugs like the pot, cocaine, heroin, whatever you name all the street drugs. But then what about like the, even, I'm against the anti-depressants. To be honest with you, those are psychotropic drugs. They mess with your head. They literally, they cause you to feel good. And anyone that knows anything about those a little bit, I know a little bit about Prozac. I did an entire research article while I was going to school and the way that it works. And I'm not going to bore you with some of the facts about the way it works. But basically, it helps your, you know, in your brain to release like a dopamine like so you could feel better. Because the whole point is to treat depression, right? To help people from feeling bad, feeling down, feeling depressed. So the way that they say, oh, well, we can fix that chemically, which is the complete wrong solution anyways. I mean, what do you tell someone who's going through a hard time? Well, just pick up a bottle of booze and it'll just make everything feel better. Of course not. That's a foolish answer to a problem. The real response is let's deal with the problems, get to the root of the issue and solve that and help you if something's really bringing you down, right? But this society that says, nope, we'll just treat it with a drug. And even the world would say, oh, yeah, don't give someone booze, but give them this pill. And in essence, I mean, in every other aspect, you're doing the same exact thing. I mean, what does it really matter if it's alcohol or if it's marijuana or if it's Prozac? The side effects are different. Yeah, the side effects are different because, you know what, Prozac actually has a side effect of committing suicide. Suicide is listed as one of the side effects of taking anti-oppressant. You say you're worried about someone who's depressed killing themselves, so let's give them a drug where one of the side effects is killing yourself. It's madness. But in 1 Peter 4.7, it says, be therefore sober. 1 Peter 5.8 says the same thing. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Look, the devil's after you. Oh, Christian, he wants to devour you and spit you out. He wants you to stop serving God. He wants you out of the fight altogether. And he's looking around, and he's looking for the easy prey. He's looking for the easy target. And if you're out there not being sober, not being vigilant, because what happens, when you start taking these drugs and alcohol and stuff, you let your guard down. You're not being vigilant. You're just worried about having a good time. You just want, oh, I'm doing great. The devil's going to see that and be like, there's someone who's not paying attention. I believe the Bible. The Bible says that our adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour, and that's why we need to be sober, and that's why we need to be vigilant. I don't care if that's alcohol or any drug. The Bible says to be sober. So there's an example of an addiction that people can have. We should never even get our foot in the door, and never even come close to that addiction, because it's wicked and sinful to even get involved with that the very first time. Another example I believe is gambling. A lot of people have gambling problems. The Bible says in Proverbs 28, 22, he that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considerth not that poverty shall come upon them. People that gamble, there's one motivating factor behind gambling, and that's money. It's making money and making a lot of money quickly. I have gambled plenty of times in my life. I got a thrill out of it. I used to like it, and the whole thing is based around money. You do the same exact game and just remove all the money aspect of it. Almost nobody does that. Now if you do that, go right on ahead. I wouldn't even get involved with it because, again, I wouldn't want to make provision for the flesh to allow myself to even get close to it. Oh, we'll take the next step into gambling. But that's coming up on my next section on things that aren't inherently a sin, but aren't a good idea necessarily anyways. So gambling, I don't think we should get involved with that at all. The Bible says that you have an evil eye if you hast to be rich. Pornography allowed people these days, especially with the ease on the internet of being able to view improper material and looking on things, but Jesus Christ said by saying to you that whosoever looketh on a woman and lusts after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. If you look on a woman and lust after her, you've already committed adultery in your heart. And there is lots of inappropriate things on the internet, and there's lots of people, there's lots of men that struggle with this, of looking on things they shouldn't be looking on. And again, this is one of those things that it always starts off, looking at something much more mild, right? And it builds on itself because with a sin, you never get enough. It's like the love of money where you just always want more and more and more and more and you see these rich people and they have all the money they can ever hope for and they just want more. More and more. They're never satisfied. Because sin will never satisfy you. You're always going to be wanting more. You're always going to have that feeling of wanting more. And getting involved in the sin of pornography will just draw you down real deep into a place where you never want to go, you never thought you'd ever go. And it's just a shame to even get involved in something like that. So that's something, don't even set your eyes upon the mild stuff, whatever people consider mild. And honestly, as far as pornography goes, the Bible talks about nakedness. And I don't have all the references here. We'll go into another sermon because I'm going to be preaching about that soon anyway. Summer's coming up. But nakedness, according to the Bible, is going from the loins down to the thigh. So this whole section from your knees all the way up to your waist, the Bible calls that nakedness. But see, we live in a culture today where people will go to, they'll dig a big hole in the ground and they'll throw water in it. Because normally, you don't see people walking down the street in their underwear. Even today, thank God, for the most part, you don't see people just walking down the street just in their underwear. Why? Because it's embarrassing. That would be a shame. But when it gets hot outside and you go to this big hole in the ground and you put water in it, all of a sudden you think, hey, let's all gather together and strip down to our underwear and go swimming. And people will say that that's okay. Well, I'll tell you what, it's a sin. It's a shame. It's a shame to expose your nakedness. And when you're looking at people that are wearing like, essentially, let's face it, a bikini by women, that's underwear. That's underwear. I don't care if it's made out of a different material. It's covering the same amount as, sometimes even less, than women's underwear does. And I'll tell you what, as a man, I'm not going to put myself in a position where I can put my eyes upon nakedness. You know what's going on in many places. I'm not going to do it. No, am I saying swimming is a sin? No, of course not. There's nothing sinful nearly about swimming. But I'm not going to go to a place where I know there's a bunch of people that are naked according to the biblical definition of the term naked. And when it comes to pornography, I'm not going to be looking upon. You say, oh, but they're clothed. You know, you look at these, you can look at, a good example would be like the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. Right? Oh, that's not pornography. You're looking on women's nakedness. You get these other magazines. And when you're looking at women that have all their thighs exposed and are extremely immodest and they're dressed to allure you, to allure your eyes, to allure to your flesh, you're headed down that road to pornography, my friend. And that is pornography. Because you're looking on nakedness. You've just got to use the Bible's definition of the word and not man's definition of the word. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Now, because I believe also that smoking is a sin. Now, not everyone will come to that conclusion. I do. I think it's a sin. And definitely when you're addicted to it, but not even just when you're addicted to it, you're putting chemicals and poisons into your body. And there's no benefit to it. You could say the same thing about maybe eating something that's not real healthy that might have some type of toxins. We shouldn't be doing that, but at least you have the value of saying, well, I need to eat. Right? If there's something that I can only afford, whatever, and that's what I'm eating and it's not the best for you, I'm not going to say that's necessarily a sin because you are getting some value out of it. Smoking provides no value at all. It's vanity and all it does is harm your body. Now, in 1 Corinthians 6, I'm going to tell you, we're not going to read the whole thing. The context is talking about fornication. Okay? Just so you're aware, when we read these verses, verses 19 and 20, the context is about fornication. But I still think that these verses can apply to more than just fornication. Let's read them. Verses 19. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. See, whether you're talking about fornication or whether you're talking about putting other harmful things into your body, your body is still the temple of God. You still have the Holy Ghost residing inside of you. The application still fits whether you're talking about fornication or anything else saying, look, don't you know that you're not your own? God's bought you. You're His servant. He's paid a hefty price to save your soul. Now you belong to Him. Now you're still at the free will. Go ahead, choose what you're going to do, but keep that in mind that your body is not your own. Are you going to treat your body as a temple of God, as a temple of the Holy Ghost that resides inside of you? And if so, are you going to just defile it and pollute it with chemicals and drugs and whatever else? No, I don't think we should. Amen. Another addiction that people have is watching the television or listening to worldly music. The Bible says in 1 John 2.15, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world. The garbage that this world puts out, people get addicted to that stuff. People get addicted to their favorite TV shows and their dramas and their music. I was addicted to music for a long time and TV shows. There's a lot of things on these lists that I'm going through that I've had in my life. But the point is you need to get victory over them. You need to get rid of the addictions in your life. I understand the draw on these things. I get it. I have the flesh too. But we need to get victory over them. I'm using the Scripture just to prove, look, don't even get involved with them to begin with because that's going to be the first step of avoiding addiction. If you don't have any of these addictions, don't even get started down the path. I'm just trying to prove to you from Scripture why these particular addictions I'm bringing up, you shouldn't even do to begin with. Not even once. Now there's other addictions that people can have and these are probably a lot more prevalent at least among the younger generation. People can be addicted to other things that aren't necessarily inherently wicked or sinful. Now all those other things I mentioned, they are sins. It is a sin to drink. It is a sin to smoke. It is a sin to view pornography. It is a sin to do those things. But people can get wrapped up and caught up in things and just about anything where you just really get a problem where you are addicted to doing something and you have no more control anymore. But I think some of the common ones these days are video games and Facebook and being on your cell phones or devices. These are addictions that people have these days and I think it's going to end up being destructive. So why are addictions based? Well, what's the big deal? Playing a video game, of course depending on what the game is, if it's not some filthy, disgusting video game. Just some simple video game. You say like Space Invaders or something. Whatever. I know it's super old school. Let's think of a better example. I don't know. What was that one? Farmville. You're making a little farm. What's the big deal? That's not inherently sinful. And it's not. I'm not going to stand up here and say that Farmville is a wicked sin. No, it's not. But when you allow these video games and things to become an addiction and it's impacting your life in a negative way, of course, then it becomes a problem. Anything that becomes an addiction is a problem. Because addiction, you are under bondage now to whatever it is that you're doing. So first of all, if you're addicted, you're in bondage. You've given yourself over to doing something fleshly. When you play a video game, there's nothing wrong with a little bit of entertainment, having a little bit of fun. But when you get to the point to where that's what you're always thinking about it, and that's driving you, and it's starting to have an impact in your life that's in other areas. But I'll give you an example. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. So usually in these examples I gave you, like the video games, the Facebook, the cell phones, it usually affects other people than just yourself. When it becomes an addiction, it affects other people. It's no longer just yourself. Now, the younger generation has no concept of what it means to actually be social. Now we've got social media, which allows you to turn to a device or a computer to have your concept of being social with people outside of the actual definition of being social, of like communicating with another person in the flesh and being right there. My wife just told me a story. She was at an event recently where it was a graduation and there was all these kids there. And they're 18 or whatever, just graduating from high school. And it's at the point now where all these kids are at a party. They're all sitting at a table looking at their phones. All of them. Like, you go to a party and you sit down and you just look at your phone. This is where the kids are going these days. Like, interact with each other. You're right there next to each other. Why do you even have to get together at a party to sit down and look at your phones and text each other and giggle and laugh and say, put the phones away. Enjoy each other. Like, that's the whole point of being there. Man, you know, now I'm starting to feel old and out of touch because I remember when answering machines started becoming popular. Okay? When you had a telephone at your house and it was attached to the wall. You can't bring it with you and go out, well I'm going somewhere, let's bring the phone with me. Wherever you went, you would go and that's where you are. And you know what, whatever you're doing, that's where your focus was going to be. And if you go out and visit family, you go out and visit your parents, you go out and visit your cousins, you go out and visit your aunt and uncle and you're at their house, you give them all of your attention. Because you're visiting with them. And whatever happened with your phone at home, it just rang. I remember sitting down to dinner with the phone on the wall and you know if that phone rang? It rang. And it rang. And it rang. It's not that important because right now at this time we're spending time, you know that's the rule of my household right now. There's no devices, there's nothing out there. If someone calls, they can wait. When we sit down with the family and have dinner, see there's some things that are important and you have to decide for yourself what that is. In my family, spending time with my family as a family where we can all sit down at one table together and look at each other in the face, that's way more important than answering some phone call. Which is usually about nothing anyways these days. I mean you used to call someone for a specific, very specific reason, for a good reason in the past. Now it's just so easy and I'll just give someone a call, I'll give someone a call or whatever. And if you do that, I don't care. That's not a sin to just talk to people or whatever. What do you value? What's important to you? Are you so addicted to just when the phone rings I just got to answer it? We get a text message, oh I just got to see who texted me. I mean I go out, you see people now on dates and they go out to these fancy restaurants and they're sitting there on their phones like, talk to each other. Who cares? Don't worry about the person that's texting you. But this is endemic in our society and you know honestly to me it's insulting. It's insulting. When I go out with people and like we're enjoying time together and you're just sitting there on your video game or whatever, it's like oh okay well I guess that's how boring I am to you that you can't have a conversation that you're just going to play a video game instead of communicate and converse with each other while we're out having fellowship and doing something together. And I think it boils down a lot of times to an addiction where people don't even think about it. They get so involved in the habit where every time you sit down you're getting on a game or every time you get into, you know, we need to break the habits. These addictions are a huge waste of time so you wonder why is it simple? You say well I don't agree with you on the lack of respect and whatever. It's disrespectful to people when you just pay more attention to your device than you do to the people around you. And it should be the rare circumstance where you have some real emergency that you have to deal with. You're not having emergencies on a daily basis. I hope not. You've got some serious problems. You probably shouldn't even be going out and spending time with other people if you've got emergencies happening that frequently. Besides it just kind of being disrespectful and hurting other people. One more point too. For those of us that are married, this could be very detrimental to your marriage. Make sure that this doesn't creep in, this looking at your phone. It could get to the point to where you're going to bed or going to bed and just sitting on your phone. Look, for marriages to work you need to be able to spend time together and talk to each other and care about each other. And I know in my life, and this just, I'll share this with you, that's fine. I'm not embarrassed or ashamed about it. I don't get on to stuff too much but when I do, because I'm real busy, I work a full time job, I do all this stuff, and I come home and sometimes you have a long day, you're like, I just kind of want to veg out just for a few minutes, just for a little bit, and just relax. Right? Just, you've had a real long day, done. I'm going to sit down, I'm going to play this stupid little game that's completely mindless and just relax for a little bit. And you know, there's nothing wrong with that, but when I get to the end of my day and I haven't said anything to my wife and we haven't really had a conversation, we haven't really talked a whole lot and had any relationship together just in general from being so busy, it will be, it is detrimental to her, for me then, to when I finally have some time to get on some game and not spend time with her because what that's saying, even if you don't mean it, what that's saying is that's more important than spending time with me. And I know, I know this because when it was brought to my attention, I wasn't thinking this is more important. That's not the thought that you have, but you have to realize where, I mean, where are your values? Where is your importance? And you start to think about it like that, you ought to spend time with it, especially with your spouse. I mean, someone that you love, like, you want to play games every once in a while, fine. You know, there's a time and a place for that. It's not sinful inherently, but don't let that time and place start expanding into all these other areas of your life that has taken over and getting in places where it shouldn't be. But not only that, and when you have an addiction, because this is what I'm talking about, when you have an addiction to these things, you have an addiction to these games, they're a huge waste of time. Turn to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. Let's say you had an addiction to Farmville. You say, okay, well it's nothing inherently sinful about Farmville. And it's not. And that's fine. But you start saying, oh, but my crops are coming up and I got to reap them, and I got to plant more, and I got to do this, and I got to keep building and growing more. You say, okay, well it's not inherently sinful, but how are you spending your time? I mean, Ephesians 5, verse 14, the Bible reads, Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. We need to redeem the time that we have. The time that we have is short. I mean, more and more, and the older I've been getting, the more things I've added to my plate, the more things I'm doing, I'm just thinking like, man, if I could just have like four more hours in the day, you know, before I go to bed, I've already cut back on sleep and cut back on other things. It's like, I still need more time. Hopefully, you can get to the point where I don't have time for this stuff. We don't have time to just waste, you know, building virtual gardens and doing all this stuff. Look, if you truly want to do something, think about it, and you know what it is? It's thinking about the prize, thinking about the goal, having that faith where you say, you know what? There's going to be a judgment seat of Christ. I guarantee you that however big of a farm that you created at the judgment seat of Christ is going to be burned up as wood, hay, and stubble. It's gone. It's not going with you. Okay? If you could take that time and do something constructive. And look, I know people that, Pastor Anderson, for example, he's someone that I've always been amazed at. How does he get so much stuff done? How does he get so much accomplished? I mean, he's putting out documentaries, he's learning languages, he's learning instruments, he's doing all these different things with his life. And you look at him and it's like, do you ever sleep? Because he's accomplishing so much, but you know what it is? He's just using, he's redeeming his time. Look, he's just a man. And you look at the men in the Bible, they were just men. The Bible says that Elijah was a like man, a man just like us, like passions, like temptations. You know what? Goes through the same thing. None of them are supermen, but they're using their time wisely. And you can accomplish a lot when you set your mind to it. You've got to have discipline. You've got to be able to force yourself to do certain things. But look, get rid of the wastes of time. Get them out. You don't need it. Don't let it become an addiction to where now you're at the point where, and look, guilty as charged. I've been addicted to video games. All right? This is something that I've dealt with in my life. And it leaves you with such an empty feeling because it's so vain and worthless and stupid. So yes, I finally conquered the game. Okay. So you look back and like, how much time did I invest in that? I mean, how many countless hours went in, you know, and now it's over. It's all done. And I've got nothing to show for it, but it's a bunch of wasted time. Figure out what's important for you. Now look, I'm not against a little entertainment. I'm not against, you know, being able to de-stress from a day. I'm not against that at all. So don't take it the wrong way. This sermon is about addictions. It's about when you let things become too important to you, when you let these things just start to rule over your life. And see, the first point of dealing with an addiction, I believe this makes sound cliche, but I believe it's the truth, is being able to recognize the problem. If you don't understand that you have a problem with something that's an addiction, you're not going to be able to fix it. You're never going to think it's a problem. I never thought that I had a drinking problem. I thought, you know what, I'm just doing it because I want to do it. I like doing this. Didn't think it was a problem. Didn't think it was a problem until it actually impacted my life. Until I actually get a DUI. Until now all of a sudden, how am I going to get to work? Now how am I going to do this? And it all resulted from the poor choices from the boost. I mean, if I would have just not looked upon it to begin with, I wouldn't have any of those problems. But when it starts to impact your life, that is a great point to recognize, hey, maybe I've got a problem with this. And I think this is the hardest part of battling an addiction, is just being able to say, I recognize that I have an addiction here. Because once you can do that, because people make so many justifications for their sins or for their addictions. They say, oh well, it's just this and it's just that. And downplaying and minimizing and oh, it's not that bad. Well, I've got a test for you. If you think that it's not that bad, one way to tell if you have an addiction, see if you can go without whatever it is for a month. Just do it. Try it. Say, you know what, I think what I'm hearing this morning, this may be an addiction for me. Can you do it for a month? You say, but I don't want to do it. I don't want to go without for a month. Can you even do it? Can you put the Facebook down for a month? Can you do it? If you can't do it, you're addicted. Can you put the game away? Can you put the booze away? Can you put, whatever, fill in the blank with whatever it is that might be an addiction for you? Can you just get rid of it for a month? You'll be amazed if you if you try that on something that you, I'll tell you what, if you got something in your mind right now, you're thinking like this might be an addiction for me. It probably is. Whatever it is that's going on in your mind right now, it probably is. Take the test. Take the Pepsi challenge. Get rid of it for 30 days and see what you end up doing with your time as a result. Actually, don't just see what you're going to do with your time. I take that back. I recant. Make yourself do something profitable with that time. You don't want to be left with idle time. The idle time will leave you just getting into some other thing that you probably shouldn't be doing. Make the decision if you're going to take this challenge and say, I'm going to get rid of this. What am I going to replace it with? And honestly, replacing your addiction with something else will help you to get rid of it anyways. And you want to get rid of an addiction with something that is going to be a benefit to you. Now, you need to be able to do this by making a decision. Say, I want to get past this. I'm going to try this. I'm going to go without whatever this addiction might be for 30 days. I'm getting way ahead of myself, but I'm going to keep going with it. Turn, if you would, to Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5. And look at verse number 16. The Bible says, This I say then walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary to one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would. The Bible says if you're walking in the Spirit, you're not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh. If you're going to get rid of something that you think might be an addiction for you, and you're going to choose, you say, you know what, I recognize this might be a problem for me. I'm going to get rid of this. I'm going to try for 30 days just to not do whatever it is. Whether it's an extremely sinful addiction or not. Whatever the case may be. I'm going to get rid of this, but you're going to need to replace it with something because what happens is with addictions you form habits. For example, smoking is a real simple one. Most smokers, every time after they eat a meal, they'll smoke a cigarette. It's just a real common thing to do. What you're going to have to do then if you're going to get rid of that, you have to replace that with something else because the urge is always going to be you're going to fall into the routine or the habit of just without even thinking about it you've programmed yourself into doing a certain routine. You need to break that cycle. So what I'm saying is you break that cycle, you break down to whatever, you know, your 7 o'clock TV show or whatever it is that you just can't live without. Whatever it is that you're going to think of removing, replace it with something, but replace it with something godly. Replace it with something where you're walking in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Because if you're walking in the Spirit, you're guaranteed not to be doing anything sinful. Replace it with maybe reading some Bible, maybe praying. Praying is a great thing because you could be praying for that strength to overcome your addiction. Every time it pops in your mind, man, I'm going to have a cigarette, you're like, no, I'm going to pray to God. And pray for other people and distract yourself from it and just get to that point where I'm going to pray. I'm going to read. I'm going to, you know, whatever, whatever the case may be, this is what I'm going to do. Maybe if it's like a TV show or something like that, say, you know, I'm going to listen to some preaching. Spend that time just doing something, something profitable. Something where it's going to help you. Something where it's not just vanity. So you walk in the Spirit, you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Now, what I believe with addiction, one of the main problems with addiction is that ultimately it's a problem with being self-centered. It's a problem with focusing on yourself and on your flesh. And on satisfying and gratifying your own flesh. But see, the Bible teaches us to esteem others better than ourselves. Right, we're supposed to be looking at other people as having a higher better than ourselves. Now, here's, and what I mean by this being self-centered, here's an example to illustrate my point. Recently I got, I received a phone call from the church line and oftentimes we get people that will call and they're just asking for money and they're asking for things. It happens all the time. People are just thinking that, well, I'm just going to call a church to solve my problems and whatever mess I got myself into, that's just going to help me. And oftentimes people are just blind, they're lost and they don't get it. They don't even understand the root of their problem. And this lady was a perfect example. So there's a lady I called that says, my son's sixth birthday is coming up and I don't have any gifts for him and I'd like for him to have presents. And you hear that and you could empathize and say, you know what, that stinks. I know what it's like. I have a six-year-old daughter. I would hate to have, you want to be able to provide nice things for him. But the first thing you got to figure out is like, they don't deserve, I mean, you're asking for us to provide you with gifts for your child as if it's entitled. Like you just, well, you're here, you deserve to have gifts. No. You know, having food and raiment let us be there with content. You're not calling me asking for, I can't feed my son. You know, we've been without food for days and I need to feed him. That's a need. Calling for presents is not a need. But that's not even the point of what I'm getting at here. So I talked to her and oftentimes I'll try to use these as opportunities to preach the gospel. They're calling in. So I gave her the gospel and stuff over the phone. And in the time of the conversation, I picked up some things that, she wasn't married but she's living with her fiancé. She smoked cigarettes and she had a job. Now, not even making an effort to come visit the church or whatever, but just wants other people to pay for her son's gifts. Here's my point. Cigarettes have got to be about six packs, six dollars a pack. I mean, I don't know what they are, but I know that's closer to when I was smoking you over a decade ago. Well over a decade ago. Five bucks, six bucks a pack. So it hasn't gotten cheaper as far as I know. You know when your son's birthday is. You know it's coming up. If you really cared about your son having presents, why don't you not smoke for a few days? And then you'll have twenty bucks to go out and buy your son some gifts. I mean, a six year old, what do you need to have more than twenty bucks for? I mean, you could get all kinds of stuff for twenty bucks. Look, my kids don't even get, you know, it's like, you don't spend that much money on this stuff if you really want to do that. But see, it's the, well I can't stop smoking. Focus on feeding your own desires and your own flesh more than, see, and the same people, they'll say, oh you're jerks, you're not helping me out. Why should we pay for the gifts for your son when you're the one that can't even stop your own bad habit of smoking that you don't need to do to pay for your own son's. What does that say about the love for your own child when you can't stop smoking to buy them things when you really want to buy them things? And that's the way it is with all addictions. That's just one example, but, you know, you know, that's just one example, but it's a self-centeredness of you having to gratify whatever that lusty desire is or fleshly sin of your heart. You have to be able to make the decision, once you identify the problem, you have to be able to make the decision and say, I'm going to actively stop doing this. This is how we're going to get a victory over addictions. There's some examples in the Bible. If you remember Daniel, the Bible says that Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's meat nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore, he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. So when the children of Israel were taken captive by Babylon, Daniel was of the children of Israel that got taken captive, and what they were doing is saying, okay, well, the king, he says, this is your food. You're going to drink this wine. You're going to eat this food offered on idols. This is what you're going to eat. This is what we have for you to do. And see, people who don't have it purposely don't have it purposed in their heart. It's easy to sway or to convince or to get involved in this stuff. That's sinful. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he's not going to do it. He said, I'm not going to defile myself with this stuff. He made the conscious, clear decision in his own mind. I'm not going to do this. And if you're going to beat addiction, you have to get to the point where you make that decision in your mind and say, I'm not going to do this anymore. I've identified this wrong. I'm not going to do it. And have the will to not do it. See, God's given us a will. We can, I don't care, one thing you have to understand about addiction is that it's still your own will. You are not, with any addiction, you have the power to overcome that addiction. It's up to you. Don't give up yourself over, completely, unto the bondage. No, there's nothing I can do. I don't care who you are, you can overcome the addiction. It's not a disease. Don't let the world deceive you and say, well, alcoholism is a disease. It's genetic. Oh, it's just inherent in my blood. No, you have free will. If something is wicked or a sin, God did not make you that way. He didn't say that you are just, you just are afflicted with this disease. No, you have the choice. Everybody has the choice. And even in the midst of addiction, you still have the choice, but you have to be able to remain. And don't blame it on someone else. It's no one else's fault but your own. Own up to it, take responsibility for yourself, but purpose in your heart. Purpose that you're going to change it and have that will. Now, I'm not saying you'll never stumble or backside or fall a little bit or go along the way, but you need to have that will present to stop your actions and not have a hopeless attitude, but remain with that hope. 1 Corinthians 10-12 reads, Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it. That's good news when you're fighting addiction. Because the Bible says there is no temptation that's taken you that's not common to man and that he will with any temptation that you face, he'll make a way out for you. There is always a way out. God will not tempt you above that you're able. He's not going to make it. It's never going to get to the point to where it's impossible for you to say no. It'll never happen. As much as the Bible is true, as much as Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid for the sins of the whole world, this verse is true. God will not allow you, you may feel like it's overwhelming, but you need to have the faith and trust in God's word that it won't overwhelm you because you don't have to let it. And God will not allow you to be tempted above what you're able to handle. You say, I don't think I can handle all this. If you couldn't, you wouldn't be there because God wouldn't allow it to happen. Now, God will not allow you to be tempted above what you can handle. It's not impossible. The Bible says I can do all things through Christ with strength and with me. All things, not some things, you can do them all. You could beat addiction. But you still need to be wise in the choices that you make. Don't make things harder on yourself. When you're dealing with addiction, turn to Romans chapter 13. Romans chapter 13. Because too often people dealing with addiction just set themselves up for failure. You just repeat yourself over and over again. You get into these habits or you put yourself in positions to where you are not being wise and allowing for the flesh to just take over. And when you're dealing with beating and addiction, you need to just remove yourself as far away from any of the things that might entice you to go back to that addiction. The Bible says Romans 13 verse 12, the night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envy, but put you on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. If you have a problem with drinking, don't go to places that serve alcohol. Don't go to parties and be hanging around with friends while they're drinking if that's one of your problems. You're making provision for the flesh. You're making it so much easier to slip back into that bad habit. You're just setting yourself up to say, oh well, because then what's the next thing that's going to happen? I'm going to go to the bar, but I'm not going to have anything to drink. And everyone's drinking around you. Well, come on, I'm buying around. Well, just one. And that's where it starts. Don't let yourself get in that position to begin with. You're just making provision for the flesh. You're just allowing for extra temptation to come up when you're dealing with an addiction. If you have a problem with it, don't allow yourself to have a bunch of idle time when you're just alone and you're not accountable to everybody. When you're just in front of a computer screen and there's no one else around, don't even sit down. Say, oh, I'm just going to check my email. Don't even bother. If that's a problem that you have, if it's going to lead you down that path, look, don't even get in it. Don't go on Facebook where you can see whatever images people are putting up anyways that might entice you into looking at more stuff. Just get away from it. Get it out of your hands. Do whatever it is you need to do to help you to overcome that. It's possible for anyone to be an addiction, but it's up to you. I'm going to skip over this point. So with defeating addiction, turn if you would to Psalm 51. It's the last place I'll have you turn. Psalm 51. If you're not saved, you need to get saved. The Bible says the truth shall make you free. You're going to be free from bondage. Obviously that's way more important because right now if you're not saved, you're going to hell and you're going to burn in hell forever for your sins. But accept that free gift of Christ that He will deliver you from that bondage and He will also be able to give you the strength to help you get past other addictions that you have in your life. Don't blame the addiction when you sin. Don't blame it on something else. Blame yourself. Humble yourself. This goes a lot more for if you've got a really serious addiction with one of those big problems, you know, really sinful problems. This is a great Psalm. Psalm 51. Because you need to humble yourself. If you're going to break the addiction, you need to recognize you've got a problem, you need to identify it, you need to confess that sin to God and just say, God, this is a problem for me. I'm sorry. Get yourself sorrowful of heart and have a contrite heart and just call on God and confess and forsake that sin to Him. That's how you're going to be able to beat these bad addictions. You have to make that step. Otherwise, you're going to continue to get the wrath of God upon you. The Bible says a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But if you have the right heart and attitude and spirit, God can show mercy on you. You're going to want that mercy as you're already dealing with an addiction. You don't want to compound your problems and add God's wrath onto what you're already going through. Identify it. Humble yourself. Say, God, I'm sorry. I'm done with this. And Psalm 51. This is a great Psalm to keep in mind. Keep this in mind. This is a great place to turn to when you come to that point and you say, I'm going to confess my sins to God. This is the Psalm of David. The Bible says that when Nathan came and told him that he was in sin for his adultery with Bathsheba and when he was just completely confronted with the fact that what he did was extremely wicked, you know, he just came up right in his face. And instead of hardening his neck and saying, Well, no, I mean, she shouldn't have been out there like that. She should, you know, and making excuses for the sin that he did. This is the right attitude that he had. Look at verse number one. The Bible reads, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions. That's important. Acknowledging them. I am owning up to them. God, I've done wrong. And my sin is ever before me. Verse four. Against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desire is truth in the inward parts and in the hidden parts, thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. So we're being these addictions. We need to have that new heart. We need to start fresh. We need to start over again. We need to be able to just clean up our heart. Get the wicked desires out of our heart and renew a right spirit within me. Verse 11. Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit. No, it's the same. Restore unto me my salvation. So restore unto me the joy of my salvation, because you cannot lose your salvation, but when you get involved in really bad sins like he did with this adultery, you're not going to be joyful. Your joy is gone. You're not going to have the peace of God in your heart. You may know you're saved, but you're going to be grieving and feeling the conviction over that sin and what you've done wrong, and you're not going to be joyful. You say, look, I want to get back to the place where I was in good standing with you. I want to get back to the place where I was happy. When you get involved in these sins, too, it's going to cause you not to preach the gospel. That's how I was after I got saved when I was 20, and for a little while I was excited about it. I was telling people I started to go to church or whatever, and then just fell out, and then it's like I got to the point to where I was a total hypocrite because I knew I believed the Bible, but I was doing all these things that the Bible said not to do, and I kept my mouth shut for years. Even when the topic would come up, I wouldn't want to say anything about it. I wouldn't even want to tell people I'm a Christian. I wouldn't want to tell people anything. Why? Because I was ashamed. Why? Because I knew I was a hypocrite. But, see, getting involved in those addictions and those sins is going to bring you to that point. When you've got the victory of them, hey, it's exciting. It's great. You have no reason not to share. Hey, there's good news out there. But when you're just entrenched in that sin and in bondage, you don't want to talk about that stuff. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation. Verse number 13, then will I teach transgressors thy ways. See, look. It's right there. Restore unto me that joy, then I'll teach other people thy ways. Because he's not doing it right then. He's not doing it when he's in that wicked sin. So restore unto me that joy, then I'll teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God. Thou wilt not despise. Be sad. Be sorrowful for the things that you do in these addictions. You're trying to break them. Get yourself to have godly sorrow which worketh repentance. Be sad about him and go to God. When you have that broken and contrite heart, God's not going to despise that. He likes to see that. That's what he wants. That's the whole point. Even if it's taken you long, God's going to say, you know what, I'm glad you got it now. Now you can move forward and do something for me. But we need to get past it. We need to be able to go to God and confess and forsake our sins. Bible says in verse 18, do good and good pleasure unto Zion. Build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness with burnt offering and whole burnt offering. Then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar. Now, if you want to beat your addictions, stay in church. Don't let it get you out. There's too many people I've found where they get embarrassed over maybe a sin that they've done. It's caused them to leave the church. It's caused them not to go, I'm just too ashamed. I'm too embarrassed. I know what I did is wrong. I can't show my face there anymore. That is the worst thing that you can do. That is the worst thing you can do. One of the points of church, of coming together and congregating with other like-minded believers is to get edification. It's for people to help you along the way. The Bible says in Galatians 6 verse 1, brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault. If you're overtaken in a fault, that sounds a lot like an addiction to me. It's overtaken you. You've gotten involved in sin and it's overtaken you. Ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Your brothers and sisters in Christ are here for you. We're here to help you out with those things and to get you past those things and to help you get that victory. The worst thing that you can do is just get out. Just say, oh, well, I've done this thing. I'm useless. I can't do anything for God. No. Confess and forsake it. Absolutely. But don't be embarrassed or ashamed. Look, if you've done something, you're already embarrassed and ashamed for yourself anyways. Just move past it because I'll tell you what, the brothers and sisters in this church will help you out. You'll receive edification. You'll receive support along the way. Now, if you're just wantonly, willfully sinning and fornicating and doing all these other things, then go ahead. Get out. But when your heart is right, when you're repenting, when you're ready to get back right with God, come back in. Don't feel like you have to just avoid church. Don't feel like you can't show your face there anymore because the church is here to help each other and to be a family. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank You so much for the great wisdom we find in the Bible, dear Lord. Addiction is something that probably everybody has to deal with at some point in their life, dear God, regardless of what it may be. God, I pray that You would please help us all to be very wise and help us not to make provision for our own flesh, dear Lord, to fulfill the lusts thereof, but that we would make smart decisions and to avoid the sins at all costs, dear Lord. And I pray that You would please help us to spend our time wisely and to not get involved in vanity and things that don't really matter, but be able to serve You and to do so diligently, dear Lord. Help us to be diligent and to be sober that we wouldn't allow ourselves to be devoured by Satan, who's like a lion looking to seek and destroy those Christians that are falling behind and getting involved in addictions, dear God. Help us to overcome them through Your spirits. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.