Reversing Addiction Consequences - Tony Evans Sermon

let me tell you something God doesn't do miracles just to show off he does the supernatural so that his name will be known and they say see because too many of us still got him in a manger somewhere seventy-two minute of us don't don't know who we dealing with here who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey Him it doesn't work this religious thing this Christian thing it doesn't work that's what the disciples are saying it's not working I'm not getting victory I'm not being delivered I'm not I'm not I'm not it's not working and they want to know why he doesn't just bless you for you he blesses you for his name his glory your impact your testimony your ministry God does not want to do miracles that excludes you he wants to do miracles that include you you are part of the miracle [Music] many of God's children are spiritual POWs prisoners of war trapped in a sin that they have been unable to break trapped in a situation that is contrary to the will and word of God from which they have not been able to escape whether it is alcoholism or drugs or pornography or gluttony or profanity whether it is lashing out in anger and wrath and inability to control one's temper they find themselves caught and unable to get out there is a whole addiction industry today to help people get out of the vice grip that is holding them illegitimately hostage and what many are discovering is that going to church hadn't solved their problem praying hasn't released them from it I want to talk about the consequence of addiction that shreds minds ruin Souls kills relationships because you find yourself caught and even if that's not you there is somebody in your circle of influence who finds themselves addicted the biblical word for what the world calls addiction is stronghold because the biblical word strong hold is referring to the spiritual nature of the addiction a stronghold is a spiritually based addiction which means if you try to fix an addiction which is really a stronghold without the right spiritual connection you can't be released from it because you haven't dealt with the core issue that's behind it so you just deal with the thing itself regardless of your addictions it would take us forever to talk about this addiction in that addiction in this addiction in that addiction in this other addiction because they are they come in by the dozens but I would like to submit to you that they all emanate from a common source so if we can get to the common source we can apply that source to the uniqueness of the particular spiritual addiction / stronghold that needs to be addressed we're living in a time when people find themselves stuck now my concern this morning is not for the person who's stuck and wants to be because I can help you if you're in an addiction and you want to stay addicted all the facts and figures and truths and Bible can't change something you are pursuing but I am speaking to those who are or who know someone who is caught in a sin no they're caught doesn't want to be caught but doesn't know how to get out they are trapped in some scenario for which they cannot find release I want to try to give a biblical mechanism for deliverance predicated on an understanding that Christians can find themselves in strongholds like non-christians you don't have to be saved for long to know that when you got saved your flesh didn't disappear some of our flesh was so well trained when we weren't saved that when we got saved the flesh looked at that as a new opportunity to show how strong it really is even the most spiritual person in the New Testament the Apostle Paul struggled with something he couldn't shake in Romans chapter 7 verses 14 to 24 Paul says he was doing things he did not want to do he said he told himself you shouldn't do it he said the Willie was there I was really serious but the ability to pull it off what I kept promising God I'm not gonna do it again I kept promising God I ruggle between my flesh and my salvation and the two were not getting along so it is possible to have come to Christ have eternal life and still not yet be free from whatever the stronghold or spiritual addiction happens to be and so this thing called stronghold spiritual addictions is spiritual slavery in some category of life which is why he calls it in verse 14 a slave to sin if you a slave that means you could have a master he calls the master sin he doesn't call it a bad habit he doesn't call it a mistake he doesn't call it something that you know you need to just get over he calls it something that is in antithesis to the will and word of God so let's call the addiction whatever category it is what it is no you don't just have a struggle you got a sin master no you know you didn't just make a mistake over and over and over again you had a master called sin because if you don't know who your master is then you won't address it for what it is he calls it slavery being under the whip of an entity that he calls sin how does this stronghold or spiritual addiction whatever category it is occur because understanding the cause will lead us to the cure I want you to follow me to second Corinthians chapter 10 and we all need this either for ourselves or for someone else and so it is critical that you understand their second Corinthians chapter 10 verse 2 says I asked that when I am present I need not to be bold with the confidence with which I propose to be courageous against some who regard us as if we walk according to the flesh for though we walk in the flesh we do not war according to the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not the flesh but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses we are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ the problem of addiction a sin that has mastered you or us or me the problem of addiction has to do with a lofty thing okay you see that phrase he says this lofty thing in verse 5 has been raised up against the knowledge of God so let me define the lofty thing the Greek word lofty a synonym for T's partition I studied the Bible in college for four years I studied the Bible before you as different as master's degree another four years we're gonna let dr. Drake then I've been preaching all of these years and I'm still learning new things from this awesome inexhaustibility a little game that's why I'm so excited about the twenty heaven Study Bible and its accompanying works with Tony Evans Bible commentary it will take all of this training and this teaching and make it available to you to understand utilize and apply God's most powerful [Music] you go to a room we have classrooms that have a partition down the middle you can open it or you can close it if we want to have two classrooms in the same space we close the petition this petition is lofty it goes from the floor to the ceiling and we close it to divide the room so that we can have two separate classes as opposed to having one bigger class so we divide it through a lofty thing now the reason we divide the room is so the information in this half of the room doesn't cross over to the meeting in that half of the room we want the content to be separated so that one room is not interfering with another room what Paul is saying is the reason why we stay defeated is because of our partition in the mind there is a blockage in the mind he says speculations and thoughts raised up petitioned out against the knowledge of God so what the enemy does is he sets up a partition in the mind so that the truth of God can't get through and because he partials off your thinking your speculation and your thoughts no matter how many sermons you hear it can't cross over to the other room because the other room is filled with contradictory information that the enemy doesn't want the knowledge of God to cross over into he calls this other information in the other half of the room you personal mind because that information knowledge and speculation against the knowledge of God so the lofty thing is contradicting what God says what gods thinks so that it doesn't go all the way through so what happens is that the enemy is able to keep the truth of God from fully infiltrating your thought patterns so that you have victory one moment and defeat another moment this blocking through a lofty thing keeps what he calls in verse four the fortress prison or tomb operating so the moment you think you getting out you find out you still in because it didn't cross over it did the partition made sure it didn't cross over now the biblical word for this lofty thing is double mindedness double mindedness double - mind thought thinking in two different directions at the same time partition it is the job of Satan to keep you thinking in two ways at the same time he doesn't mind you getting god's thoughts on sunday as long as in the other room you have his thoughts on Monday because if he can get you to have God's thoughts on Sunday but get his thoughts on Monday he can keep god's thoughts from penetrating the whole of you therefore god's thoughts don't last long because they're in competition what a lot of folks think is having diet church on Sunday after having incorporated the other worldview all week long somehow that diet worship will override and give you victory he says no you're operating with a partition and that partition cancels out the knowledge of God making it in capable of your mind being able to take every thought captive to the obedience to Christ so in order for the penetration of God's truth to bring victory in the area of the stronghold due to the vise grip of sin that has been amplified by Satan and demons in order for that to be overcome that wall must be taken down in order that the fortress the prison might be destroyed not remodeled and the tricky part of this the tricky part is that the other part of the room the part that's not from God feels right a lot of the time see the reason why Satan can keep us trapped is when we don't like what God wants and come to some logical conclusion about it that we can toss a little Jesus name on top of it we think that then it must be ok when it's the devil controlling the other side of the room of our minds when we understand this and grasp this it becomes a transforming truth that wait a minute I have a divided mind and that's why it doesn't stay it stays there for a day or a week but it doesn't stick and even when it comes back I don't have victory over it it has victory over me how do we begin now to remove the petition so there is no longer a division in the mind so that now God's knowledge flows through and the fortress is destroyed and all the speculation that's holding me hostage he says in John chapter 8 verse 31 and 32 if you continue in my word then you will know that you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free you only are going to be freed by the truth and one of the reasons people stay in strongholds is because they're living on a truth or their truth or some TV programs truth or some cultural truth and not the truth the absolute standard by which reality is revealed here is one of the biggest falsehoods that keep us in custody and locked up spiritually and a stronghold a spiritual addiction and that is trying to get the flesh to fix the flesh Paul said in the scripture we just read in 2nd Corinthians 10 we do not war according to the flesh the flesh can't fix the flesh verse 31 he says I want you to continue in my truth and you will know the truth the word continue means to hang out a bide stay there to loiter that's what to continue or abide is you must abide in the truth stay that stay with me we don't abide in the truth we visited to have victory over the master of sin you must abide in the truth so if you are battling something in your life and you're a Christian if you're not a Christian that's a whole nother ballgame because you don't have the spirit to help you but if you are a Christian you have the spirit but the spirit is the spirit of truth so you've got to abide in the truth so here's what I want you to do this week every day I want you to read Romans six seven and eight that those three chapters Romans six seven and eight why cuz Romans six seven and eight is gonna tell you the truth about the master called sin whatever that sin is verse 32 says and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free right that's what it says but in verse 36 it says so if the son makes you free you will be free indeed in the first one the truth will make me free but in the second one the son sets me free in the first one I'm free but in the second one I'm free indeed so what's the difference between being made free and being set free and what's the difference between being free and free indeed what was the difference here it is not merely the knowledge of the Bible it is the relationship with the author that produces the experience of the freedom that you have see Paul was struggling with how not want to do this and do it I'm confused I had a I can't make sense of that he says the Word of God soon cuts between the two so the two are segmented but then after he says that he comes to verse 13 and he says and all things are laid bare before his eyes so in verse 12 he talkin about the Word of God but in verse 13 he talked about his eyes so he takes the word written and God the person and when the Living Word connects with the written word in your heart soul and mind not only is bail posted but Jesus comes with a key and when the Sun sets you free you are free indeed in 1863 Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation but folk in Texas and Louisiana and Arkansas didn't find out about it till June 19 1865 so there was a gap between the legal freedom and there was a gap between the experience of freedom not because the proclamation hadn't been signed it was cuz folk didn't know about it so one reason you can stay a slave is because nobody told you how to be free oh but there's another way you can stay a slave somebody can tell you that you are free but you've gotten so used to living on the plantation that you don't exercise the freedom that you had so a lot of folks stayed in slavery who had been set free because they had gotten so used to being there they didn't want to take the risk of freedom on the cross Jesus signed your emancipation proclamation and everybody who trusts Christ is redeemed but Satan wants you to know that he wants a petition up in your mind so that you don't believe you can walk in freedom but I'm to tell you today that he who the Sun sets free is free indeed but only if you continue in his word you continue in his word you call on the Sun and then you can declare like a great man a few years ago in 1963 in Washington DC free at last free last I thank God Almighty with my stronghold I'm free at last let me tell you something God doesn't do miracles just to show off he doesn't do the supernatural to flex his muscles he does the supernatural so that his name will be though some issues are too big for you to handle by yourself that's why you need community that's why you need people around you to help you move stones you can use that's what church is supposed to be he doesn't just bless you for you he blesses you for his name his glory your impact your testimony your ministry not the redeemed of the Lord say so when you get your supernatural you better open up your mouth then you better declare the greatness of your God because only your God can go into your grave and raise you up and give you life you better give him the glory to his name [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Tony Evans

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Length: 27min 40sec (1660 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 19 2020