Drying Out

Well, brethren, if you turned on a television set during the year 2013, you would have been hard-pressed not to come across a news story regarding the very public addictions of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. How many of you are not familiar with Rob Ford? Anybody at all? Never heard of Rob Ford? Okay, let me—just for those that may be unfamiliar, I'll provide just a brief recap for the sake of understanding generally where we're headed today.

Rob Ford is currently actually at this moment a City Counsellor in Toronto. However, just prior to becoming City Counsellor, he served as the Mayor from 2010 to 2014. He found himself embroiled in a number of controversies during his time in the public eye.

However, most notable was a 2013 scandal which involved accusations of and criminal charges for public drunkenness, drinking and driving, and illicit drug use. He admitted to all of the charges. He came clean. He said, yep, I did. Absolutely, I did. But then it got interesting.

He refused to leave office. He said, yes, I did, but I'm not going anywhere. And, interestingly enough, Toronto had no legal options to be able to remove him from power. And so he had no choice but to finish out his term. They removed some of his powers. They removed some of the things that he was able to do. But for the most part, he continued to be mayor up until 2014. So he actually went through when it was done. He finished out the end of his term in a complete media circus.

He went on late night television shows and the news reports. And there were a number of things that occurred. Well, he entered rehab. And he was gearing up for a run for reelection when he was hospitalized for an abdominal tumor. As a result, he withdrew from the mayoral race. Instead, he ran for and won his old city councilor seat, which he now holds to this day. But as in many of these situations with high-profile addicts, there were warning signs. He had a 1999 arrest for DUI in Miami.

He had a 2006 incident at a hockey match in Canada, where he was visibly intoxicated and belligerent, in fact, verbally abusive to the couple who was seated next to him. But in 2013, his life began to spiral out of control as he continued to give himself over to his addiction. He began abusing alcohol, cocaine, heroin, and just about any other illicit substance that he could get his hands on. The last bit of news that I heard regarding Rob Ford, other than his hospitalization, was that he had completed a rehab program, and I sincerely hope he's able to regain control of his life through recovery.

You know, it's been said there's a number of conversations that you just don't have. Religion and politics, for example, you've heard, are two topics that tend to, in mixed company in particular, tend to have a way of exploding and have a way of becoming a little bit fiery sometimes, because you really don't know exactly where people lie on those two spectrums. And sometimes, you know, even within the church, we're not 100% sure where people are at. But another of those topics that we don't often talk about, that we sweep under the rug and we don't discuss, because it's uncomfortable, because it's difficult, is the topic of addiction. Yet there are a number of people in the United States, in our own neighborhoods, and to be perfectly frank, even within the church itself, struggling daily with this very real problem.

I'll give you a few statistics here, just to put into perspective the scope of this issue. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, it's a mouthful, government agency, you've got to make them sound really long. They sound more official the longer they are. But they did a survey on drug use and health. And here's the number.

23.5 million people, 23.5 million people, aged 12 and older, sought treatment for an illicit drug or alcohol abuse problem in the U.S. in 2009. Now, those aren't updated statistics, but from 2009. To put that into perspective, the census for 2009, when you take all of those 12 and older and you do the math, 23.5 million is a little over 9% of the total U.S. population of people older than age 12.

In other words, just shy of 1 in 10 Americans sought treatment for an addiction to illicit drugs or alcohol in 2009. Now, keep in mind, that does not include individuals that did not seek treatment. That does not include individuals who are suffering from addictions that are not alcohol or drug-related. And it also doesn't speak to the rates of success in those individuals in conquering their addictions. For the addict, the deck seems to be stacked against them. And the statistics on actually defeating the addiction in their lives is really grim. According to the statistics, the percentage of individuals who relapse after recovery range anywhere from 50 to 90%.

And as you might imagine, getting accurate reporting can sometimes be difficult. Many people are not necessarily willing to admit that they have fallen short, that they have not followed through on the commitment that they've made with regards to their recovery. But what the data does show is that a large majority of those individuals who do kick the habit eventually return to it. In fact, only 16 to 20 percent of individuals experience a true, lasting, long-term recovery.

Now, it's not just substances. There's a whole other branch of addiction known as behavioral addiction. And included in this category are gambling, sex and pornography, internet addiction, shopping addictions, video games, food addictions. Even fitness can have addictive properties. You hear of adrenaline junkies, those who are like, just, I have to climb that rock, I have to hang glide off of this really tall building, or I have to, you know, free, uh, base jump this giant structure. You know, they're addicted to the adrenaline and what they get from that jump.

Well, regardless of what it is, whether it's behavioral or whether it's substance, the mechanics of the addiction itself are more or less the same. It involves the brain's pleasure center. I'd like to read to you just a second, a couple of excerpts out of an article that discusses some of the chemistry behind addiction, because it turns out it is a very chemically driven thing. It says, the brain registers all pleasures in the same way, whether they originate with a psychoactive drug, a monetary reward, a sexual encounter, or a satisfying meal.

In the brain, pleasure has a distinct signature, the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which many of us have probably heard of.

It's that kind of pleasure compound in our brain that our brain gives up when we are doing something that's pleasurable to us. We interpret that and we receive that, but it's a release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in what's called the nucleus of humans, which is a fancy term for the brain's pleasure center. The likelihood that the use of a drug or the participation in a rewarding activity will lead to addiction is directly linked to the speed with which it promotes dopamine release.

The intensity of that release and the reliability of that release. Addictive drugs provide a shortcut to the brain's reward system by flooding that pleasure center with dopamine. The hippocampus, which is a part of the brain that is associated with memory and with learning, remembers this rapid sense of satisfaction and the amygdala and the hippocampus work together to create a conditioned response to certain stimuli. Most of you are probably familiar with Pavlov and what Pavlov did. Pavlov worked with animals and he would ring a bell and then he'd feed the animal. He'd ring a bell and he'd feed the animal. He'd ring a bell and he'd feed the animal. Eventually he'd just ring a bell and not feed the animal and the dog would begin to salivate. They'd begin to anticipate the reward. Well, it works the same way in this case with the dopamine release. They see certain triggers, certain things, and they think brain starts immediately releasing dopamine, even though the trigger has not necessarily or even though the substance itself has not been used. Dopamine not only contributes to the experience of pleasure, but it also plays a role in learning and memory, which are two key elements in the transition from simply liking something to becoming addicted to it. According to the current theory of addiction, dopamine interacts with another neurotransmitter, glutamate, to take over the brain system of reward-related learning. Repeated exposure to an addictive substance or behavior causes nerve cells in that pleasure center in the prefrontal cortex as part of the brain that's involved in planning and executing tasks to communicate in a way that now couples simply liking something with wanting it. Liking something with wanting it, in turn, driving us to go after it. And that is what, in basic terms, the process motivates us to take action to seek out the source of that pleasure. In nature, rewards only come with time and effort.

Addictive drugs and behaviors, however, provide a shortcut. Addictive drugs and behaviors can release two to ten times the amount of dopamine that natural rewards do, and they do it more quickly and more reliably. In a person who becomes addicted, brain receptors become overwhelmed. The brain responds by producing less dopamine or reducing the receptors to pick it up, which is an adaptation similar to kind of turning down the volume on a loudspeaker, reducing its ability to pick up that dopamine if the brain is flooded by it. As a result, people who develop an addiction typically find that in time, the desired substance no longer gives them much pleasure. But at this point, compulsion takes over. The pleasure associated with the addictive drug or the behavior subsides, yet the memory of the desired effect and the need to recreate it, the wanting of that, persists. These memories help to create a conditioned response, and that conditioned response is likened to intense craving whenever the person encounters that environmental cue. So, for example, a person who is addicted to heroin may be in danger of relapse when they see a hypodermic needle that starts that remembrance system going and starts them down that road towards compulsion, while another person may start to drink again after just seeing a bottle of whiskey. Conditioned learning helps to explain why people who develop an addiction risk relapse even after years of abstinence. Now, the generalized cycle of addiction begins with an emotional trigger. It begins with something, whatever it may be, that makes you feel bad. It's difficult to deal with. It's stressful. It's frustrating. And the stress of that situation triggers a craving for something that will make you feel good, whatever it may be, whether it's a substance, whether it's a behavior. Regardless of the form that it takes, it makes that individual feel better temporarily. The brain associates that with pleasure. It registers it upstairs so that the next time you don't feel so good, the next time you're struggling, the next time that you're stressed, you're frustrated, well, you start looking for something that made you feel good.

And your brain remembers, hey, remember that last time that you really felt lousy? Remember how good that made you feel? You should do that again. That made you feel really good. Your brain is definitely very powerful with that regard. But you start to think about it. You start to crave it. You start to obsess over it. And often there's a degree of ceremony. There's a degree of ritual that goes along with it. And immediately following, giving in intense amounts of guilt, which then start that trigger process right back over again. You feel bad about yourself. Now you have to feel good about yourself. In the addict's brain, the neural pathways of pleasure and of pain developed in concert with the substance or the behavior. And as a result, the individual never learned to process the difficulties of life without it. They developed in tandem with one another. Every time they felt bad, every time they felt stressed, every time they struggled, every time life got difficult, they turned to the substance or they turned to the behavior for the fix. If you think about it, it's a little bit like a path in the woods. You guys have all gone hiking before. You've seen switchbacks, right? And what do you see in between those switchbacks sometimes right up the side of the mountain? Oftentimes trails, where people have short-cutted it. They don't want to go the whole switchback. That's really far! They don't even realize really, really far. So I'm just going to cut right here. And the reason that we see them is because they're noticeable. You know, if one person did it, it wouldn't be noticeable, right? But over repeated times of going to that same pathway again and again and again and again. Eventually there is a worn path in that location. And in the brain, it's much like that. Go back to that same behavior. Go back to that same substance. It wears a path. It creates a pathway. It creates what we call a neural pathway. You can dry out an alcoholic in a relatively short period of time in a rehab clinic. It really only takes a couple of days, two to three days, to remove the alcohol from the system. You can dry them out in two to three days, but you cannot cure their alcoholism by simply removing the alcohol. You can dry them out. You can take away the substance. You can prevent the behavior. You can completely shut down any of the behaviors.

But you cannot easily erase that mental pathway, that path through the woods. There's a term for this concept in substance abuse recovery circles. Individuals dealing with this particular situation are referred to as dry drunks. They're referred to as dry drunks. And a dry drunk is someone who no longer drinks. They're dry. They haven't had a drop! They are completely dried out. But in every other aspect of their life, they still act like an alcoholic. They're harboring incredible amounts of rage and anger. They point the finger everywhere else as to why life is such a mess.

They desire to return to the days when they were happy, when they felt whole. And in most cases, without a drastic change, they don't fully achieve recovery. They may have left the bottle, but the bottle never really left them. Let's turn over to Exodus. Let's go over to the book of Exodus. Exodus 16. We're going to go over to Exodus 16. We're going to take a look at a couple examples here in Exodus and Numbers and throughout the first couple of books of the Bible here today to get an account of the Israelites as they moved through the wilderness following God after He's delivered them from Egypt. At this point in Exodus 16, God has worked an incredible series of miracles. He's provided plagues upon Egypt. He's gone through and killed the firstborn of Egypt. He's delivered His children from Egypt. And yet we see their response. Exodus 16. We'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 1. Exodus 16 verse 1. And they journeyed from Elom, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of sin, which is between Elom and Sinai on the 15th day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt. Not long out of Egypt at this point. Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread. Oh, do you remember bread? When we ate bread to the full when we had all the food that we could eat. For you brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. This whole entire assembly with hunger. The Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will reign bread from heaven for you, and the people should go out every day and gather a certain quota every day that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not. Notice there is no mention of the fact that they were slaves. There's none whatsoever.

No mention that God had redeemed them from their bondage, that they were now free, that they were redeemed, that the same God who killed the firstborn of Egypt had worked an incredible miracle to part the Red Sea and bring them out of Egypt. No, the focus was, we're hungry and we had lots of food where we came from and we haven't had bread in a really long time. And so we're going to get upset about that. We're going to complain about that. So God provides a miracle. He reigns down manna, bread from heaven, upon them that they may eat bread in the wilderness. Let's go over to Numbers 11. Numbers 11. Numbers 11, we'll pick it up in verse 4. Numbers 11 and verse 4. Under a heading in my Bible and about yours of the people complain.

Much of the book of Numbers should have that heading. But Numbers 11, the people complain. We'll read through verses 4 through 6. So 11 verse 4. Now the mixed multitude, which by the way, Carl mentioned the Bible reading program thing that we're doing right now, the chronological. You know, we did this last year. It was the second time through for me and I'm planning on this becoming a yearly thing. But I noticed this this year, I hadn't noticed it last year. Notice where it's at 11.4. Now the mixed multitude. In fact, some of the translations actually put the foreigners among them. The foreigners among them. I'd never noticed that before. That someone else started it this time. But the Israelites were quick to jump on board. They were quick to go, oh yeah, what he said. Yeah, he's right. We haven't had that in a long time. 11 verse 4. Now the mixed multitude were among them yielded to intense craving. Intense craving. So the children of Israel also wept. Now they've listened to the foreigners. They also wept and said, who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, which p.s. are not that good, the onions, maybe they're good if you haven't had anything to eat in a while, and the garlic. But now, and this sounds so much like your kids when they just, I'm so hungry I could die!

If you're not gonna die, you can go three days without food. You'll be fine. But I mean, look at them. But now our whole being is dried up. Our whole being is dried up. And there's nothing at all except this manna before our eyes. Later they scoffed even at the miracle of the manna that God had provided for them. They longed for what they remembered in Egypt. They longed for the life that they led before they had been redeemed. They were addicted to Egypt. They were addicted to the life that they used to lead. At every turn, you read this section, they attempted to replicate it. They brought back the false gods that they worshipped. They tried to get the creature comforts that they got to experience. The food, the drink, they tried to replicate and drug along Egypt with them through the wilderness. They took it with them. They'd left Egypt. But Egypt had never really left them. Ancient Israel was wandering around the deserts of Sinai as a bunch of dry drunks. They quit Egypt cold turkey. They were dried out. They were out of Egypt at that point. But they couldn't let it go. The neural pathways that they had developed had developed in Egypt's culture. It developed in their gods, in their food, in their sin, in their slavery.

And all of it, all of those experiences, contributed to who and what they were fundamentally. Despite being free of Egypt, their minds wanted it again. They couldn't be happy without it. They couldn't be complete. It was Moses's fault. It was God's fault. They just couldn't let it go. The scope of Numbers 14. Numbers 14, we see the complaining reach a peak. Numbers 14, we see the complaining reach a zenith, if you will. I guess it becomes, really gets to the point where God finally just steps in and says, we're done here. Yeah, we're done here. This group, you're just not gonna, you're not gonna go. We're sorry, but we're done. We see their complaints have actually escalated a bit in Numbers 14. We'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 1. But now they've gone from just complaining to now actually suggesting action. We've gone from complaining, which I'm not gonna say is okay. I'm not saying that at all. But they've gone from a complaint now to, we're gonna follow through on our complaint now. So we see this come in after they sent the spies in to go check out Canaan, to come back 10 out of the 12 spies, lie to them and tell them, oh, we can't possibly beat these people. They're giants! We're like grasshoppers to them. We can't do it! Of course, the two faithful spies say, no, we got this. We've got God. We can get in there. We can do this. But Numbers 14, we'll pick it up in verse 1. It says, So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron. And the whole congregation said to them, once again, If only we had died in the land of Egypt or if we had died in this wilderness, why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, then our wives and our children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? And now there's a moment where everyone goes, oh, hey, that's not a bad idea. Yeah, yeah, Egypt, we should go back. Absolute! Make that man our captain, perhaps. Take a look at the next section. Verse 4. So they said to one another, let us select a leader, let us select a captain, and return to Egypt. We are at the point now, it is no longer complaining, we now have mutiny. We now have mutiny. They have gone directly against God's chosen. Their words have evolved to action. They want to make a captain, and they want to go back. Not only do they want to go back, they have to go back. They can't live without it. Egypt is the only thing that will make us complete. It's the only thing that will make us happy. Once again, Moses is wrong. God is wrong. We have to go back. We have to go back.

Sounds a little like withdrawal, doesn't it? I don't know how many of you have had the opportunity, I say opportunity somewhat loosely, but I don't know how many of you have had the opportunity to spend some time with someone who is undergoing withdrawal symptoms, but it is truly an experience. It's really an interesting thing to look at the strength of some of these things in hooking. Many of you know I grew up in an alcoholic household. My dad struggled with addiction to both alcohol as well as tobacco. I remember there were a number of times throughout the years where he would have something happen and he would be convinced of the need to quit one or the other. He would make a very valiant effort. He really would. He'd put everything away. He'd try to quit cold turkey, try to do this. I remember, especially with cigarettes, I remember the times that he tried working on quitting just how irritable he got. He was really miserable to be around during those time frames, at least those first few days and often into the weeks. He'd get stressed out really easily, become really irritable. He'd get little tremblers, little, I don't know what you'd call them, little ticks to a degree as he was coming off of the tobacco. But he would struggle against that hold on him. He tried chewing gum. He tried wearing patches. Sometimes he did all three, wore patches, he'd chew gum and he continued smoking. But unfortunately he lost that battle more than he won. Eventually he'd give back right into the pull of the drug again. He'd be right back into it again. While he was able to, to be honest, greatly reduce his usage over time, he couldn't let it go. He couldn't get rid of it completely. In fact, for him, it was hard for him, and I think his brain kind of got in the way to an extent, to admit that his life was better without it. His brain wouldn't let him recognize that his life was better without it. To him, the way he looked at the world, it was better with the tobacco. It was better with the alcohol. But ancient Israel was addicted to what Egypt had to offer, and their withdrawal wasn't easy. I don't know if you've ever thought about it this way or not. When we went back through it again, this go-around, I hadn't really ever thought of it this way.

Israel was in slavery in Egypt for 400 years. 200 years. In contrast, America's been a country for 238. 238 years. The United States has been a country. Israel's been slaved, or were slaves, in Egypt almost twice as long as the United States has been a country. They developed generation after generation after generation as slaves. They knew nothing else. And sure, their lives were difficult, and they cried out for their deliverance. But you can imagine they developed a sense of normalcy, kind of a thing of, well, this is our lot in life. This is what it is. And, you know, I'm gonna be a slave. You're gonna be a slave. Your kids are gonna be slaves. There's no getting out of it. And to a degree, they come to an understanding or an acceptance of that particular lifestyle. They had developed within the culture of Egypt that neural pathway in their brain had developed amongst these things. And now that they've been forced to let it go, that they were made to walk away from what it offered, they found themselves desperately wanting it again. When we look at the symbolism of the holy days with which we just came out of, Days of Unleavened Bread, and we take a look at that, when we examine what those days picture in God's plan for mankind, we see the focus on coming out of sin. We see the focus on leaving sin behind, coming out of Egypt, removing that sin from our lives. But as we go forward from these days, and as we go forward from the Days of Unleavened Bread, there's a danger. Much like the addicts mentioned above, we can't just simply remove the sin. We can't just simply remove the sin. If we remove the sin and we do nothing more, we'll never actually fully recover. We may become a dry drunk. We may never get to the core of the reasons why we sin. Those holes in our life that just keep sending us back to whatever we're going back to to try to fill those holes. We just can't stop sinning and expect that everything is going to be okay. It takes a little bit more. It takes filling in those holes. There are certain stages that occur during recovery. There are actually five of them that are kind of recognized stages of recovery. And so, with the time that we have left today, I'd like to briefly explore these stages as they relate to the life of us as overcoming Christians. So, for those that like titles, I've titled the message today, Drying Out. The five stages, for those that are taking notes, I'll list them off real quick and then repeat them so you can get them down. They are awareness and early acknowledgement. They're awareness and early acknowledgement. The second stage is consideration. The third stage is exploring recovery. The fourth stage is early recovery.

And then the fifth stage is active recovery. We have awareness and early acknowledgement, consideration, exploring recovery, early recovery, and active recovery. And so, where we're going to begin today is we're going to begin at the beginning of the process. It's always good to start at the beginning, I find. But all of these things, all five of these stages, actually, played out kind of symbolically as a type to a degree in the deliverance of Israel and to us as Christians in our life as we attempt to overcome the sins in our own lives. But it goes along with the correspondence with the Holy Day that we all just kind of came out of. So, step one, we're going to take a look at awareness and early acknowledgement. And I know the very first step in this process is going to sound really cliche. It does. It sounds totally cliche.

But it's really important. It's recognizing that you have a problem. That's step one. That is absolutely step one. It's recognizing and it's admitting that you have a problem. In other words, there is something else in your life that is preventing you from living your life to its fullest potential, to its purpose, for what God has designed for your life. That there's something else in control. That's step one. In fact, if you take a look at the word addiction, if you break it down and you take a look at the etymology of the word addiction, it comes from the Latin adesare. It comes from the Latin word adesare, which translates to deliver oneself to, to award oneself to, to yield oneself to, or to devote or consecrate oneself to. It basically translates out to surrender oneself to whatever or to enslave oneself. Let's go over to John 8. Let's turn over to John 8. We'll see Christ's words to his disciples here in John 8. John 8, we'll pick it up in verse 34. John 8 and verse 34. John 8 and verse 34 says, Jesus answered, then most assuredly I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin, is a slave of sin, and a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore, if the son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. We understand that concept. We understand that concept of being enslaved to sin or being in bondage to sin, but you know what I find? I think about that and I go, you know, I have no direct relatable experience to slavery. It's kind of, I understand academically the concept. I totally do. I get the idea that you aren't in charge of your life, that you are told to do this and told to do that, and you must then go and do this or that. But you know what we do have probably connection to in some way? The concept of addiction. We know someone who is dealing with some form of addiction, somewhere, some somehow out there, maybe in our own families, at the workplace. You know, maybe we know people in the church who might be struggling, but when you take a look at bondage, bondage and addiction are kind of the same thing. They're very similar. You're enslaved to whatever it is, that thing. In fact, by Christ's own words, if we practice sin, we're a slave to sin. We're adiseré to sin. We've enslaved ourselves to this. All of us practice sin. None of us are sinless. We know we all fall short. That if we are slaves to sin, we are therefore, by definition, addicts. We must undergo a form of recovery. We call that recovery within the church. We call it God's plan of salvation, or we call it the process of conversion, understanding that there is a problem. Defeating that enemy in our life requires a confrontation. It requires a confrontation. If we go on business as usual, we will never make a change. It requires a confrontation. It requires, you know, if it's a confrontation that your friends and your family do to you, we call that an intervention. It's where there's, you know, you come in the stereotypical intervention. The person comes home from work, everybody's gathered there, there's a banner, you know, and I mean, that's the stereotypical intervention, but there's a confrontation at that point. Someone says, look, this is a problem. It's affecting you. It's affecting us. It's affecting your life. We need to fix this.

In the case of Egypt, God staged Egypt's intervention. God staged Egypt's intervention. He set it up. For us, maybe we create our own confrontations through our actions. Perhaps something that we do, there's a problem that comes from the sin that we commit. Perhaps something happens. Maybe there's some sort of legal issue that comes into play, but until there's a confrontation, and until the problem is recognized, until we see that the sin in our life has to end, we can go no further in our recovery, until we recognize that we have a problem. We can't go any further. You know, if you take a look at—let's turn over to Acts 7 real quick. We'll take a look at Stephen's sermon in Acts. He talks a little bit about Israel. Talks a little bit about Israel.

Congregation of Israel, while you're turning over there, Acts 7, the congregation of Israel largely remained in this step. They largely remained here. They had a struggle realizing—at least the first generation of Israel—had struggled with realizing their part in this and understanding that they really did have a problem. But Stephen kind of goes back and discusses this just a little bit in his sermon in Acts 7. Acts 7, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 39. But as he's discussing it, you know, they didn't recognize Israel. They didn't recognize their deliverance. And they didn't truly appreciate it. They didn't truly understand what God had really done for them. But Stephen's sermon in Acts, he details the history of ancient Israel. He kind of gets into the idea of all these things that God did, all these miracles that he had wrought. And in Acts 7, verse 39, specifically says, we'll go, let's go 38. Or let's go 37 too. This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren, him you shall hear. This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our fathers, the one who received his living oracles to give to us. Verse 39, whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected. And look where they turned. In their hearts, they turned back to Egypt. In their hearts, they turned back to Egypt.

The congregation of Israel remained in this step. They never really left. They never realized the problem that they have. They didn't appreciate the deliverance that God had given them.

Step two in this process, once you've realized that there's a problem, once you've come to terms with the fact that this is not normal, this is not okay, we reach consideration. Once that problem's been realized, the addicts will begin to look at their lives and they'll consider the problem that they have identified. And really, the biggest occurrence in this stage, the biggest occurrence in the stage of consideration, is that awareness of the problem becomes action. Awareness of the problem becomes action. God staged, again, an intervention in the lives of the Israelites. They didn't—I don't think—you look back over 400 years of slavery—I don't think they really realized the mess that they were really in. I really don't know that they—they cried out, sure they cried out for their deliverance, you know, and I think they were starting to get some inklings of how bad things were starting to get. But God set up the confrontation. He set up this plan that would provide for their deliverance, even if they didn't get it the first time around. Let's go to Exodus 3. Let's go over to Exodus 3. We'll pick it up in verse 7 as we see God outline this intervention a little bit. Exodus 3. And we'll pick it up in verse 7.

Exodus 3 in verse 7. We see that God was watching his people, was aware of what they were dealing with. Exodus 3 verse 7. And the Lord said, I've surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.

So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Parazites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me, and I've also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. God tells Moses, I'm aware of what's going on. I see the problem. I've seen the affliction. I've seen them cry. I've heard their cry. I can see that they're in trouble. I need to intervene. And to do that, you're going to go meet with Pharaoh. That awareness became action on the part, in this case, of God, even though the Israelites didn't set up their own confrontation and the confrontation was set up, God was going to redeem his people, whether they were ready for it or not. Their redemption was coming, whether they were ready for it or not. And as we see, you go through Scripture, at least for that first generation, the one that God decided as of Numbers 14 wouldn't be going in. Unfortunately for them, it didn't take. For us today, it's really important to recognize and to come to the awareness that the sin in our life is a problem, that what we do is in contrary to God's law, and that our sin requires the shed blood of Jesus Christ in order to reconcile us to God, to kind of mend that gap.

We had recognized that the Passover had to die and that our sin had to be dealt with in order to be fixed. And God gave an action plan for this. He actually gave an action plan for this that we're aware of. Acts 2. Let's go over to Acts 2 real quick. We see in this second step, Acts 2. We see a sense of awareness here. Acts 2. And we'll pick it up in verse 37. Acts 2 verse 37. Pick it up in the middle of Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost. Acts 2 verse 37.

Acts 2 verse 37 says, Now when they heard this, after he has assured them of Christ and what they've done, that the individuals that were there were responsible for Christ's death, just like we're responsible for Christ's death, it says, Well, now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. They were pained. They understood their part in it.

And they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

They were convicted of their sin. They were pricked to the heart. They were now aware of the sin. And now that awareness demanded action. They'd been convicted of their sin. They were convinced there was a better way to live their life, that this wasn't all there is. And a simple question was asked of the men that were present. What shall we do? What shall we do? What now? What do we do? We see in verse 38, Peter explains, Peter said to them, Repent. Repent! Repent! Let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. The sins that you commit will be forgiven. And then you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. Peter gives them the action plan. The awareness of their sin, understanding that they have lived life contrary to God's law.

That that's not okay. That they have committed sin. But that would get them to the point where they understood the need for Christ's sacrifice in their life. That that would lead them to repentance. That that would lead them to baptism in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of those sins. And that they would then receive the Holy Spirit, which will continue to aid them through the continued processes and continued stages of their recovery.

Once that awareness has become action, we get to step three.

Step three is when the addict, in this case, is really motivated to now overcome their addiction.

As a result, they start to educate themselves. They read every book they can on the subject. They start talking to people who have lived it. Start talking to people who have come out of it. They start trying to figure out everything they possibly can about this. They talk to people who have been there before. They might get a sponsor. Like it's somebody that they can talk to. People who have learned to live a sober life, and they learn to understand what it means.

This is also the period of time where largely detox sets in.

They may still fail. They may go right back to their addiction. They may undergo withdrawal, but they're learning. They're learning to begin navigating through life without their crutch.

To a degree, they're, for the first time in their entire life, feeling life. The difficulties, the struggles. It's hard. It's very hard, but they're trying and they're working through it.

They're learning ways to be successful, ways to cope, ways to deal with all of these different things. In our Christian life, Christ's sacrifice reconciles as to God. We've repented. We're actively working despite falling short. This stage in the attics, as well as us in Christians at this stage, and really for us, we see ourselves and we find ourselves largely in the last three of these stages. We're either in exploring recovery, we're either in early recovery, or we're in active recovery, is where we largely find ourselves post-baptism and post-holy spirit. But this stage is characterized by the old familiar two-step, in which they make two steps forward and one step back.

Two steps forward, one step back. Make a lot of progress and then, oh, I can't believe I did that, why did I do that? What was I thinking? Two steps forward, one step back. They're trying, but they're struggling. They're still having many, many issues dealing with the different things, and despite their understanding, despite their motivation, you know, occasionally they fall back into their old habits. But at this stage, rather than descending into a spiral that they will not come out of, instead now, at stage three, they pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and they recommit themselves to recovery. Let's go over to Romans 7. Let's go over to Romans 7.

Romans 7 is one of those passages we go to a lot, but it describes what the two-step looks like scripturally. Romans 7. Take a look at Paul's life here. We do come here a lot. In fact, it's kind of interesting. I'm getting some data. Some of you guys know Andrew Beatty from over in the Eugene area. He's been doing a 12-year experiment. I think it's so cool. He's done 12 years of keeping track of every scripture used in every sermon he's heard for the last 12 years, and he's written it all down, and he's made like histograms. I mean, he's an engineer. He's a numbers guy, but he loves it, and it's interesting. This one is really up there with the ones that we come to a lot. Romans 7 is a huge one. Romans 7 is a huge one. Come here quite a bit. But let's go to Romans 7. We'll go ahead and pick it up in verses 14 and 15, because we want to see what that two-step looks like in the Christian's life. What is two steps forward, one step back? What does that look like?

Romans 7, verse 14, breaking into Paul's words here, says, For we know the law is spiritual, but I am carnal. I am sold under sin.

I'm enslaved to sin, some translations put it. For what I am doing, I do not understand. I don't get it! I don't understand why what I want to do, in this case what he says, for what I will to do, that I do not practice, but what I hate, that I do.

And he's looking at it, going, I don't want to do these things. I don't get it. I don't understand why. I can't stop. I don't get it. Two steps forward, one step back, two steps forward, one step back, as that process goes. And you know, the interesting thing to think about with this is, you know, Paul, he recognized his carnal limitations. He lamented them. He even makes it, he spells it out. I know better! I know better! He didn't want to do the things that he did. He didn't, he desired to live a godly life. He desired to live according to the law, but he saw that he struggled to do that because of a different law in his members. He was enslaved. He was a slave to this. And you have to think, at this point in Paul's ministry, his conversion had already occurred. He was like two missionary journeys in. In fact, at this point, most scholars say he's already written Galatians at this point. And so you take a look. That's pretty far into Paul's journey. That's quite a ways in. And yet he's still struggling. He's still having that two-step process.

You know, it's interesting. I, you know, I don't have a lot of experience with real serious, serious addiction to things like heroin and cocaine and things like that. I don't have, I don't really know anybody who's lived life as a heroin addict. So I did a bunch of reading. I tried to understand where it was coming from and what, and I came across one quote, and I want to make sure and mention this before we go too much further here, but the two-step, this concept, the person had written a single statement of what it meant to be a heroin addict. It was one statement, and this young lady said, in a situation of heroin, you are either clean, you're using, or you're dead. She said there is no in-between. You're clean, you're using, or you're dead. And so when you take a look at how hard you can be enslaved to something, when you take a look at that, you know, that's a very difficult thing to come out of. But Paul was enslaved. He was enslaved. He recognized it. And brethren, so are we. You know, we work so unbelievably hard during these past holy days to put the leavening out of our homes. We go through and we clean up every, you know, every speck of crumb that we can find. We do everything that we can to get everything out of there. And we focus on taking in that unleavened bread during that time frame. And I think sometimes we attack it with this idea that we're going to get everything. I think we sometimes attack it with this idea that we're going to get everything. And you know, inevitably, we always have years where we forget. Somebody brings a box of donuts to work and you're, um, um, um, um, um, um, oh no, what have I done? Oh, what have I, I think I've told you guys my cake pop story before, where it was right in the middle of unleavened bread and somebody gives me this cake pop. And I'm just, I'm so excited. And I get it back to my desk and I'm, you know, I am rapping. Someone loves me enough to give me this beautiful cake pop. And I just about, and I went, no, no, no, no, no, no. And so there's times where I think, you know, inevitably we make a mistake. We forget. We, you know, you clean everything, but you forget the toaster. I mean, some of those obvious things sometimes. Or sometimes it's just small things. Forget the glove box in the car or, you know, something like that, but you accidentally eat this or accidentally eat that. But you know, I think our mistakes are an equally important lesson during this time of the year. Recognizing and a remembrance of the grace of God. The idea that we aren't going to get it all. We're not going to defeat all of our sin in this life. We, it doesn't excuse it. It doesn't say that, you know, we don't try by any means because we absolutely do. God expects that we're going to do everything that we can. But there's going to always be something that we miss. There's going to be a crumb here or there, or we're going to slip up and accidentally eat something, or, you know, something along those lines. But the more important lesson is that we're actively working to get it out of our lives. That we, when we do fall, we get up. We dust ourselves back off and we recommit, and we work hard to try to see if we can do that. And the important lesson there is that we're taking those holes that are now there from removing that sin, and we're making room for Christ to then live in us. We fill those holes in our life that caused those emotional triggers in the first place with the love of God and the teachings of God. And we, to a degree, an understanding of God's purpose for our life.

Once we've gone through the third step, we reach the fourth step. We reach early recovery. And in this stage of recovery, the addict is no longer using. They're clean.

They may have some very, very strong withdrawal symptoms at this point. They may detox even a little bit harder, but the addict is managing at this point to remain sober. However, they are also at this stage, they're most vulnerable to relapse. It's this stage where they are most vulnerable to relapse. What they're doing is they're peeling away the layers of their life and removing the things that are triggers. Remember, we heard earlier how you could see certain things and want to go back. You see this or that and want to go back. For my dad, remember him telling me one time we went into this restaurant, and that was back when restaurants still allowed smoking. And he walked in and he said he had the most intense craving to have a cigarette right at that moment when they came in that door because of the smell. It was just enough to remind him of what it was.

Or for him, it was interesting, too, to try to quit, he would keep toothpicks because for him it was the hand motion. He had to be doing something with his hand. And so he would put a toothpick in his mouth and he'd take the toothpick out, put it back in, and take it out and put it back in. So, I mean, just kind of showing you that at that point, they're peeling this stuff away. They're getting rid of friends. They're getting rid of family members, people that are toxic. They're going through their life and they're working out, being rid of anything that might remind them of their addiction or even remotely trigger that memory system. You know, at this stage, it's not like they're going out with their friends to bars anymore. Bars were a no-go at that point. They recognize, I can't go there. That's a place in my life I just simply cannot go anymore. And so they're peeling away those kinds of things. They're actively changing their lives piece by piece. You know, ancient Israel never really found themselves in this location. They never really got there. To a degree, it's unachievable if you're unwilling to admit that there's a problem. If you're unwilling to take action on your awareness, I mean, if you don't have a problem, what is there to fix, right? If there's no problem, then we're fine. We're all good. I'm okay. You're okay. Everything's fine.

But for those that recognize the problem in their lives, those that repent and those that are baptized, the Holy Spirit then leads you to realize there are other areas of your life that are out of balance. There are other things that are not in line, areas that might be triggers, that might cause additional problems if they're not dealt with. You know, God tells us that Romans 8.14 won't turn there for sake of time, but God tells us those whom he calls, those that he desires as his children, if they'll be led by his Spirit, if he'll allow that Spirit to do that very thing in their life, go through and identify those pieces of their life that need to be fixed than they are his children.

You know, Paul goes on to tell us in Romans 12. Let's jump just a couple pages over to Romans 12. Paul tells us here that the Holy Spirit is what provides us the power to change, and we recognize we can't do any of this on our own. This is not, you know, you overcome a sin. It's not time to pat yourself on the back and go, good job me! You know, God granted you that. God granted you that. God helped you through that with the Holy Spirit.

You know, you may have had a active part in it, and it is an exciting thing to get through that, but we have to recognize it's God that gives us that. It's God that gives us that. Romans 12. We'll begin in verse 2. Romans 12, verse 2, says, And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith, a concept of thinking soberly, focusing on the good, focusing on the acceptable and that perfect will of God, really finding those triggers, those different things that are going to cause us to slip up and removing them, getting them out.

And when we do that, when we get them out, we then have to replace them with something else. We can't just get rid of them, we have to replace them. But when we can do that, we reach the final stage of recovery in this life. Step five, active recovery and maintenance.

By this point in time in the addict's life, they've made a great deal of progress. They've been successful and remaining clean, but with this stage comes the recognition that this is a lifelong battle. This is a lifelong battle. And as we saw in the last step, it's not simply an overcoming of an addiction, it is a transforming of mind and body. It's not easy, and by this point, the addict can take a look back and realize that they're living a life that they could scarcely imagine at the start of this journey.

I think when we go through the process of conversion and we're into it a few years and we look back, looking back on our life and seeing how far we've come, so to speak, is a good exercise to do now and again. Because I know you get disheartened by dealing with certain things and struggles, and I'm still not there, and I'm still not there.

But when you look how far you've come, when you look back and see where you were before God called you to the point where you are now, it's good to be able to see that and realize that that process will continue. But within this stage comes the recognition in the addict's life that there's always the potential of slipping up, that they'll never fully be cured, and that in this life they will always be an addict.

And so as a result, it's important that they work hard to complete active monitoring of their thoughts, active monitoring of behavior, that they do ongoing practice of new skills, that they maintain a support system, and they stay alert to the triggers and the temptations in their life. In other words, I mean, if you think about it, it's bringing every thought and behavior into captivity, stopping it before it becomes something more serious.

Hearing that little voice in the back of your head that says, hey, remember how fun this used to be? You should... and telling that part of your brain, no. No.

Done. Captive. Gone. Done. No. With active recovery comes the understanding that conquering sin requires us to become a new creation with different thoughts, different actions, and different character. You know, it's not a coincidence that we consider baptism to be a burial. You know, you're putting the old man to death. That person is gone. The person that comes up out of that water is a new creation, and they go forward with different thoughts, different actions, and different character. It requires us letting Christ live in us. It requires us... you know, we think about what are you doing between the days of unleavened bread and Pentecost, you know, you're remaining unleavened. I mean, to a degree, you don't want to just not continue doing that. I mean, it's not something that's just a seven-day thing. So as we go forward, it requires us to give up control and to not fight, to surrender, and to yield our will to God and let go. What it really requires is unconditional surrender. And if you think about it, you know, there is no more faithful or trusting sort of thing in a person's life than to wave the white flag and step up out of that foxhole. I mean, if you think about that, if you're a person on the other side of a battle of any kind and you wave that white flag and you stand up, you are very possibly going to be shot. You really don't know what's going to happen. You have no idea. In theory, they'll honor the surrender.

In theory, they'll just shovel the dirt over the bodies and pretend it never happened. You really don't know. And it requires a surrender. It requires a surrender. Romans 12.1, let's just go back to the beginning of that. Romans 12.1, we read from 2 to 3 because I wanted to come back to 1 here. Romans 12 and verse 1 says, specifically, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service, a living sacrifice set apart, holy to God. Barnes' commentary talks about this. It says, under a living sacrifice, a sacrifice is an offering made to God as an atonement for sin or any offering made to him in his service as an expression of thanksgiving or homage. It implies that he who offers it presents it entirely, releases all claim or right to it, and leaves it to be disposed of for the honor of God. In the case of an animal, it was slain and the blood offered. In the case of any other offering, such as the first fruits, etc., it was set apart to the service of God. And he who offered it released all claim on it, submitting it to God to be disposed of at his will. This is the offering which the apostle entreats the Romans to make, to devote themselves to God as if they no longer had any claim on themselves. To be disposed of by him, to suffer and to bear all that he might appoint, and to promote his honor in any way which he might command. This is the nature of true religion. As we see in 1 Corinthians 6, 19 through 20, we won't turn there, but 1 Corinthians 6, 19 through 20 tells us we're not our own, that we were bought with a price, and so we must glorify God with our actions and with the decisions that we make.

Brethren, the symbolism of the Holy Days that we just recently completed is extremely encouraging. It's a very encouraging Holy Day. It's the assurance that the work which God has begun in us will be finished, and that this whole process in God's plan, you know, in his festival plan, it begins with that first step, removing the sin from our life. But as we saw in the example of the ancient Israelites, it can't end there. It can't end there. God brought them out, he led them, he guided them, he provided them with their needs, and yet they still continued to long for and desire the life that they led before. Figuratively, they were dry. Figuratively, they were dry. God had taken them out of Egypt, he miraculously delivered them from their bondage, but they never really left it behind. They longed for it. They longed for when they were happy, they longed for when they were complete, and to an extent, like Lot's wife, they just kept looking back. They just kept looking back. You know, you can still be an alcoholic without drinking a drop. You can still harbor all the anger, all the resentment, all the desires of your old life, never really getting rid of the disease, even though you're no longer medicating it. God desires us to have that change of heart in our lives that ancient Israel never received. They never achieved it. They never got there. He desires that we reach these later stages of recovery, that we rely on him, that we surrender ourselves, and that we live the way of life that he originally intended for his people. God desires that we come out of our sin, and we never look back.