Good morning.

Welcome to real life with Mike and Jason.

We're in episode three of season two talking all about diction.

And the audience wouldn't know this, but this is take two because we got through 50% of our podcast and somebody didn't hit the record button.

I'm so sorry, but I feel like I've been here before.

Good to see you, Pastor Mike.

Thanks for joining us.

My pleasure.

Last week we talked about the root causes of addiction and looking beyond the surface to understand the just the deeper really struggles that that addiction really is.

Cycles of addiction.

We talked about just a couple of things to talk about biological, psychological, spiritual factors.

And we looked at genetics and obviously that's something that, that you and I both, that's out of our wheelhouse.

But certainly we spent a lot of time with people talking about trauma and unresolved pain, emotional wounds, that longing for purpose that really anybody, because we're created for fellowship with God.

So when we're outside of that, there's a void there obviously.

But we, we talked about how addiction is more than just a bad habit.

Oftentimes there's that stigma, if you will, with some addictions that you just develop bad habits, but it's really, it's a lot deeper than that.

Oftentimes it's a coping mechanism for issues that people can't see as you're just walking by them.

And it manifests in substance abuse, pornography, gambling, working social media, so many different things that in many of which society deems as good or acceptable but are just as destructive as the bad ones we think of substance abus use.

Understanding that root cause is important and also knowing that we're trying to fill these voids or this void that only God can truly satisfy.

So bringing it all back to just the importance of relying on God and understanding that he's the solution, that he's the answer.

So today on episode three, our focus really is talking about how can someone break free from that addictive cycle or how can we break free from addiction?

Talking about some practical steps and then obviously always taking it back to what does God's word say?

I like this quote that I was reading as I was studying for this week.

It says if addiction is more than just a behavior, then freedom requires more than just willpower.

And so true, lasting freedom in addiction and in anything comes from a holistic approach, one that addresses obviously the mind and the body, but also the spirit and probably most importantly, the spiritual side of it as well.

We're going to talk about the importance of acknowledging a Problem.

I know that's one that you'll spend some time on how faith in Christ plays a central role.

And a couple other things too.

So one scripture reference that I would love to just reference as we start today is Romans 12:2, and it says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

And so I think one of the biggest battles in addiction really is in the mind.

It's addictive behaviors creating patterns that make it feel impossible to break.

But God here is calling us to renew our minds through him, through his truth.

And then that's the first one of the first steps, obviously, in starting that process of addiction is understanding that he, again, is.

Is the answer.

He's a creator.

He's the author of life.

Obviously, he's the answer there.

So I was thinking about questions that I asked specifically for this episode.

And there's about seven answers that were common amongst the people that had answered.

And the question is, what is the hardest step to take when starting the recovery process?

And the number one answer was admitting that I had a problem because I didn't want to believe it.

And number two would be realizing that no one else can fix it.

For me, the thought that I will fail is number three.

I don't want to address the past.

Was another one.

I can't stop just very abruptly or very to the point.

I just can't do it.

I can't.

I don't have the strength to do it.

Or even I will always be this way, or I just don't see a way out.

But obviously scripture teaches us, as we were just talking about, that transformation is possible, but it's God who has to reshape our thinking and addiction.

Another quote that I read is addiction loses its power when we replace lies with God's truth and allow the Holy Spirit to transform us from the inside out.

So I was reading there was a testimony of a guy named John.

I was reading that really it'll trans.

I think it transitions beautifully into this next section of just acknowledging there's a problem.

But John grew up, like many people, he was in a Christian home and in his early 20s, graduated, went to college and just walked away.

Did his own thing.

Enjoyed the kind of the whole vibe, I guess you will, that goes along with college life.

Loved to party, love to hang out.

And so he said he strayed from his faith in his early 20s, but after a few difficult life events and he didn't say what they were.

He just, he said some really difficult times in his life.

He turned to alcohol as a way to cope because he was hurting, he was in pain.

And he said what started as occasional drinking became a daily escape.

And before he knew it, he was completely dependent on alcohol to function.

And I think you can take that alcohol and put anything in there, whether it's work, whether it's sex addiction, pornography, drug abuse.

Oftentimes they all start out simply enough or innocently enough, if you will.

Just one drink turns to two, turns to four.

And so he said for years he hid his addiction.

He tried to stop on his own, but always ended up failing back tend to the same pattern.

And he felt hopeless, convinced that the world would never change.

And he said, but one night after.

It was funny because he's after yet another relapse.

He said that was really where he found himself at the lowest point in his life.

And in desperation, he cried out and he said, lord, if you're real, if you still have a purpose for me, I need you to save this.

I need you to save me from this.

He said at that point, he realized that he just doesn't have what it takes.

He can't do this on his own, and he just needs God's help.

And so he said that prayer for him at least marked the beginning of his journey to freedom.

And.

And so there's things that he did, obviously got connected with the support group and found somebody that he could be accountable with and, and got back into church and.

And we're going to talk about some of those.

But really, he said it was.

It was that moment where he realized that, I've got to humble myself.

I can't do this on my own.

I need help.

And so he said it wasn't an overnight change.

We love when it is.

Obviously there's people have testimonies that, you know, they had this deep addiction and just God healed them instantly from it.

But this certainly wasn't his experience.

And that's really not the common experience, at least I don't think, you know, some.

It takes time.

And it was a case for him.

He said he learned that true freedom came when he surrendered to Jesus daily.

And he's several years sober now.

So it's.

It's obviously a great testimony.

But he goes on to say that overcoming addiction isn't just about stopping a destructive habit, but it's.

And it's so true.

It's about replacing it with a healthier option.

It's replacing it with a healthier way of living.

And.

And obviously God is central to that.

Is.

Is replacing it with your faith and open trust in him and relying on his strength.

So it's a journey.

And so with that said, I think it starts obviously with, you know, that first step of recovery is you hear is acknowledging that there's a problem.

So what can you tell our audience about that?

Acknowledging the problem of addiction?

Is it something that people struggle with in your experience?

Is it a difficult thing to do?

Yeah, I think you found it in just asking the question to people.

And you remind me of that old statement that says the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

But it's that first step that's the hardest in.

Takes faith in order to accomplish that.

And as I was listening to you and reading that story about John, it reminded me just my own journey, faith.

And when I came to Christ.

And I just remember the place of despair, feeling that and two not cliche statements, but two things really came to mind that through the years and I've shared them a lot with our own church family, that I didn't realize Jesus was all I needed until Jesus was all I had.

And sometimes that's what it takes is you gotta come to the next one, which was, I didn't realize Jesus was rock solid until I hit rock bottom.

And when people, when they start to.

To see that there's light at the end of the tunnel and that that comes from obviously other people in Christ that are sharing their own testimony and especially those that have suffered from addiction and to deal with it openly and honestly.

That's the great blessing of living in community.

That the Bible says we're all sinners.

We've all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

I like that expression, says we're just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.

And yeah, so true.

And there's a comfort in that, that people.

It's not you're better than me or I'm not as good as this person.

We're all in this together.

We just, as the Bible says we all struggle with different things.

But place we have to come to is first and foremost is to recognize that anything that we're.

When we think about addiction, you don't always think of addiction from the standpoint of being a chronic or compulsive pattern, whether it be substance abuse or behavior, that it.

It always results in harm to ourself or to others.

And sin is, you know, the Bible defines it as missing the mark.

It's.

God has a Mark of perfection.

And we've fallen short of that.

And it's hard for people to wrap their mind around that.

And I, I always think of Romans 13:10.

It says, Love does no wrong to others.

So love fulfills the requirements of God's law.

And the problem with addiction is it starts with usually something that we're just doing ourself.

And the lie is that we say that it's not hurting anybody else or won't hurt anybody else, and we forget that the Bible teaches that in 1 Corinthians 12 that we're all part of the body of Christ and every person plays a role.

And when we don't understand that, it's easy to get into situations where we find it in our culture, victimization, that I, I just look at everything through the lens and what about me?

Right?

And that's, it's a terrible place to end up at.

And I think what I try to do with people, when I think about freedom is to help people realize how we got to the place, not how they got to the place, but humanity as a whole.

That this goes all the way back to the Genesis account that God created man and woman.

He says, in the image of God, male and female.

God created them and placed them in a garden, gave them instructions.

And the Bible says that Adam and Eve, they disobeyed God.

They went against God's law and his standard.

And God said something would happen in that moment.

And he said, in the day that you disobey me, that day you will surely die.

They didn't die a physical death.

They died.

What we would say is a spiritual death.

That, you know, when God created us, he created us in his image, spirit, soul and body.

And whether some people want to say, well, it just got reversed, the spirit doesn't really die, I probably wouldn't hold to that position.

But, but even so, if you just reversed it, you go that now we're dominant by our flesh.

So addictive behavior to me is just the natural result of life without God.

You're going to, as you said, you're going to try to fill that void that God himself, I love that statement that there's a God shape void in all of our hearts that only God himself can fill.

So when Adam and Eve sinned against God and sin entered into the world, it touched all of our lives.

And so we've got it.

And I think it's the beauty of the gospel because it's for everybody.

God's not willing that any would perish, but that all would come to repentance.

So when we can sit with someone and say, you know what?

The place that we start from is understanding that our sin has separated us from God, that addiction is sin, anything that we're doing to replace God, whether you call it idolatry, that you're placing whatever that thing is over, over God or just self, and only focusing on yourself is.

It always becomes sinful behavior.

Because then obviously we're not acting, like I said, in love towards other people.

But when we think about how do we overcome that, how do we overcome denial and take responsibility is we just start agreeing with God, like you said, is that you, as you get into the word of God, it's an amazing thing.

As you shared from Romans 12:2, not being conformed to the world, which the world, then, you know, basically wants to just say, it's not an addiction, it's a habit.

And it's something that if you like it, what does it really matter?

And again, it takes God completely out of the equation.

Or the person that just says, this is who I am.

God.

I like that expression.

It says, God loves us the way we are, but he loves us too much to leave us the way we are.

That we serve a God who.

The concept of sanctification, like John, John didn't change overnight.

Some people do, but the majority of people don't.

But we're justified.

The Bible says once and for all because of what Christ did for us on the cross.

But the process of change is daily.

And the beauty of that is Lamentations 3 tells us his mercies are new every morning.

God will meet you there.

You said it.

Get up and you pray and you read the Word, you step out, you do the things that God's calling you to do in the Word.

And then that day comes to an end.

You start the next day as the Lord tarries in your life, and you go, it's.

It's a wonderful thing.

But we've got to come to the place where we see things through the lens of Scripture.

And if we don't, then the Scripture answers.

It says, the ways of a man seem right in his own eyes, but its end brings forth death.

And, you know, as pastors and counselors, like I said, taking a biblical perspective, we're always going to draw people back to the place where they look to the Lord.

And in that, then that's where they're going to have hope.

You don't have to really, in the truest sense, convince people that they have an addiction.

Because addiction simply for us, we look at it, you go, do you have control over it, or does it have control over you?

And when they come to that place and they go, you know what I can't do without it?

You go, then I've got a problem because something other than God is controlling my life.

And if that's the case, you go, it's going to lead me down a path where it's not going to be good for me or anybody else.

Yeah, amen for sure.

So when we think about seeking help, then I have down here three different buckets of to get help.

And obviously, this is a kind of an overview.

There's much more to this, and this is why it's so important.

And we're going to talk about this next episode is the community piece.

Right.

Getting involved, connecting.

So obviously you have kind of step one here is biblical counseling.

Finding somebody where you can get counseling.

Right.

And not just counseling, but godly counseling, biblical counseling.

And I'm not talking about biblical counseling where the Bible's sitting on the shelf, but somebody who's actually going through God's word and tying it all back to the biblical principles.

I think so.

So important accountability partners would.

So how important then do you think it is to find somebody that you could be accountable with or to in the process of recovery from addiction?

Oh, it's vital.

Like I said, 1 Corinthians 12 says with regard to the believer that for, in fact, the body is not one member, but it's many.

And there were many.

Were one is that no man's an island.

And the thought that, like you said as we started, you go, isn't that the lie?

Is that I can fix this.

The Bible says I can do nothing apart from Jesus.

But Paul would write Philippians, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

And, you know, if we're gonna find the solution, we're always gonna find it in community.

That's what we were created for.

Hell.

If you look at it, hell is complete isolation for all eternity.

Think about how terrible that is that, you know, we always see in the world that says, oh, if I go to hell, I'll be with all my friends there and it'll just be one big party.

No, hell is isolation, and we hate isolation.

Yeah.

You know, the beauty is community.

And then when you find out in the beauty in the body of Christ, is that what we're sinners that have been saved by God's grace?

So it's not like you go, oh, I can't be around these people because they got it all together.

And you go, no, we have a God that's got it all together, not us.

And it's that like kind attracts like kind, that we're all like kind.

We were created by God.

We were created for God.

We were created for one another.

Think about it.

The greatest commandment is love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.

And what's the second one?

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Yeah, community.

Amen.

Yeah.

And so that takes us to the importance of support groups too.

So what are practical support groups?

Well, we think in life of our church, we have our Recovery180 group.

And that's a, that's a support group.

And you have things like celebrate recovery.

Many churches have celebrate Recovery groups or there's other faith based recovery programs.

But getting in touch wherever you're at, no matter if you're in the United States, you're all around the world finding a community of people that like celebrate recovery or like 180 to help.

And so it's going to be so important because oftentimes that's where you'll find people that you can really not only have they live what you're living, they've experienced what you're experiencing, but you'll find when you start showing up to these things and then you're not there one week, people are asking questions or at least if it's a good group, they should be like, hey, how's Chase it?

Is he okay?

Where's he at?

Let me reach out.

And that's just that natural accountability that you form by being involved in a group and so important.

And so my encouragement to anybody listening today is you need to reach out.

You need to find a group that you can get involved in that that can speak into your life.

And you'll oftentimes too find that the Lord uses you to speak into their lives as well.

It's like you were saying, it's how the body operates.

It's a beautiful thing.

You mentioned spending time in God's word.

Obviously that's key is that's how we're going to renew our mind is through the truth of God's word and then building relationships.

Some of that we're gonna talk about next week.

Let me ask you this question then.

How important do you think faith is then?

And I know you've discussed this already, but just to circle back to it, how important is faith itself in the recovery process?

To think of how you stressed it from the very onset of this particular podcast, is that there's only two paths here.

Either addiction is recovery is due to the individual self that, like I said, I've got to find out.

I got myself into this, I get myself out of this.

I, I, and that's destructive in and of itself.

Or you look at it and you go, I can't do this.

I need help.

And it's an amazing thing that God has provided help.

Of all the things.

I think back to one of my favorite Christmas cards.

It's like, if said we needed a entertainer, God would have sent us a comedian.

If we needed money, he would have sent us an economist.

And goes through this whole litany of classifications.

But it said, but because we, we needed a savior, we needed to be saved.

And God sent his son.

And, and when you come to that place and you recognize that, okay, I can't do this on my own, that that's the best place in the world to be, because God will come to you in that moment and he will reveal himself.

You know, Second Corinthians 12 says, you know, Paul said, I prayed three times, you know, that God would take this infirmity from me.

And all God's response to Paul was, he said, my strength is made perfect in weakness.

He goes, and Paul then turned and said, then I'd rather boast in my weaknesses that the power of God would rest upon me.

For when I'm weak, I'm strong.

Amen.

Yeah.

And that ties back to John's testimony that I was talking about earlier today.

Is that was that moment when he, that humility where he just said, God, I can't do it.

I need you.

And that's really where it changed for him.

Because before that point, it was all about, what can I do differently?

What am I doing wrong?

How can I beat this?

And that's just that this is not the answer.

Yeah, pride goes before a fall.

So it's when we're walking in our pride, we're walking in our own strength.

And Scripture's adamantly clear on that.

That's the way of destruction at that point.

There is a way.

The Bible says, that seems right to a man, but its end brings forth death.

Amen.

Yeah.

And so really, if we could encourage you, Anybody listening today, if you're struggling with addiction, know this, that you are not alone.

And it doesn't matter how deep the struggle feels, no matter how many times you failed.

Like John was saying in his testimony, it failed and it failed.

It doesn't matter.

There's hope.

But that freedom is going to be in Jesus Christ.

And we've just talked today Just briefly about some practical steps.

And next week we're really going to focus on the community aspect of it.

And addiction wants to isolate.

It wants to make you feel trapped.

And I think about, just even think about depression, right.

Oftentimes when people are depressed, it makes them pull back, right?

They isolate and then that makes them more depressed and then the depression makes them more isolated, which makes them more depressed.

Is that vicious cycle.

And you know, again, addiction, it isolates.

It makes us feel trapped.

But, but God's calling us to freedom and, and he's going to use other people to help do that as well.

That, that community.

And again, if you're ready to take that first step, there's.

And this thing about a podcast is it would be one thing if we're talking to a room of a group of people here at our church, but people could be listening from all over the world.

So it's so important for you to reach out in the area that you're at and find a place.

And even if you can, you can email us real lifecbakersfield.com and we can do that for you.

We'll try and help do that legwork if that's how we can help you no matter where you're from.

So it's so important though, not to do it alone.

So that, and that's again what we're going to focus on episode four, which is we're only doing four episodes this, this season, but it's going to be the role of community, how important it is.

And it's so important that we're going to develop, we're devoting a whole episode to it.

Isolation, man, it's so terrible and really it fuels the addiction, you know, being isolated.

So definitely important.

So thank you again for joining us today.

I hope you were encouraged and if you were subscribe, share the episode with somebody, leave a review and as always, you can send us your questions or your stories.

We really, we do, it's a blessing to be able to hear from you.

I've.

I heard from somebody this last week that just said, man, thank you guys so much.

Just for the.

It's not too long.

Which is funny because I know we try and be mindful about not doing a three hour podcast, but just the rawness of it.

So if you're encouraged, just let us know.

And again, we thank you guys so much for joining us and know that God loves.