What To Do When You Are Struggling With An Addiction Or Controlling Behaviour by Reverend Christie Bature: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The lie behind the struggle

Romans 7:15 - "I love God, but what I find myself doing is not what I want. I don't know what to do." Satan says: they have prayed for you, you have fasted, nothing has changed, just live with it, it cannot go away.

It's a lie. You made attempts to change, it didn't work, you struggled and then broke. That's probably an addiction.

Pointers that you have an addiction

4. Negative consequences

   You've lost friends because of your hunger. You've lost job opportunities because of your lying. You went for a drug test and failed and didn't get the job because they found what shouldn't be in your system. Any negative consequence is indicative of an addiction.

5. Lost opportunities

   A man went for a six-figure interview at a Fortune 500 company. The owner sat unseen in a corner, watching, and zeroed in on one man doing well: "If he does well in the test, even if he's not the best, I'll give him the job." Final test - go to the restaurant and pay for your own food. The man he chose pocketed a 10-cent tub of butter when he thought no one was watching, then paid for everything else. It cost him the job. "If he can steal a tub of butter, he will steal the company blind."

   • Every addict lives on borrowed time. Time will be up and exposure will come. The devil leads you into addiction, then sets you up for exposure.

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6. Ineffective prayer

   Your volume goes down, your zest goes down, your zeal goes down. You become a prayerless Christian.

7. Your heart knows

   You may cover your sins so no one knows, but you cannot hide it from yourself. A father brought his son to rehab insisting, "Nothing contaminated can come from my loins." Sent outside, the boy confessed: "I'm not only an addict, I'm the dealer." Nine substances were in his body.

   • Proverbs 20:27 - the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord; it searches the inward parts. You can deceive everybody else, but you cannot hide it from the Lord or from you.

Scoring: if you scored even two, you are an addict. Even if you scored one, it's time to work on yourself and take a stand.

The purpose of addiction: to strip you of the power of witness

For years I raged, especially in traffic. One day I raged at a man who only looked back at me and, when I was done, lifted his hand: "Good afternoon, Reverend Christie." He knew my name and my title. My time was up that day.

One purpose of addiction is to strip you of the power of witness, so you have no confidence to open your mouth and speak your identity boldly. This is one reason Satan afflicts Christians with addictions.

How addictions come - the doorways

1. Ingratitude

   Romans 1:21 - when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were they thankful. The moment ingratitude entered, addictions crept in - seven levels of degeneration.

   • It's an ungrateful heart that says, "Lord, I know You paid for me, but take my time, take my money - don't touch my anger." "The spouse You gave me is not enough, so I need a side chick."
   • God "gave them up" three times in that chapter. When God gives you up, He simply withdraws His grace - and you don't know what grace was covering you until it's gone.
   • Practice gratitude. It will keep addictions at bay.

2. An addictive society

   Society attempts to shape our thinking, shift the ancient landmarks, and reshape our faith and how we live it.

   • A pastor asked me to write a 10-point piece on masturbation and the Christian for a billboard with a helpline. Not a single day passed without five to ten calls from Christians struggling exactly like Romans 7.
   • Society redefines "men will be men" to mean a man is a mindless jigolo. It's a lie - there are good, honest, God-fearing, faithful men, and many of them. For every one dirty one, there are 7,000 who have not bowed the knee. That's the arithmetic of God.
   • Philippians 2:9 - God has given Him a name above every name, that at that name every knee bows and every tongue confesses. There is nothing the name of Jesus cannot overcome; you only need to know your strategies.

3. Trauma

   Personal trauma is the most potent doorway through which addictions come. Trauma is any experience so painful that your soul needs to find a way to cope.

   • It can be physical, emotional, psychological, financial, sexual, religious or spiritual; instant or prolonged; acute or chronic.
   • I grew up in a chronically traumatic atmosphere - an alcoholic father who came home drunk and raged. The fear of him was stronger than the desire to finish a movie.
   • Trauma isn't only a blow. When David wrote about the betrayal of Ahithophel - Ahithophel never beat him or cursed him to his face; he just did something, and David broke.

   Satan says: hide it, cover it, if you tell anyone they will reject you. But if you hide, you won't heal. God told me when I was hiding after horrifying trauma: "You are not the one who committed the shameful sin. Hold your head high. My calling is still on you. Go out." God's word must be stronger than your feelings, your emotions, your fear.

   Shame the shame. Hebrews 12:2 - Jesus, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame. Despisement is the believer's only response to shame. Once my white dress stained in public and people ran around me in a panic. "Who doesn't know that women bleed every month? What is your problem?" I walked to my car, went home and changed. Shame the shame.