Reversing Addiction Consequences

I'm here to tell you today that He who the Son sets free is free indeed. Dr. Tony Evans says there's only one way to escape the flaws and failures that keep us trapped. But only if you continue in His Word. This is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of The Urban Alternative. Toxic relationships, alcohol, social media, gaming—these are only a few of the things people get addicted to these days. But today, Dr. Evans explains that while people fall into all kinds of different traps, the spiritual issues that keep us stuck are often the same.

Let's join him as he explains. Many of God's children are spiritual POWs, 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. And what many are discovering is that going to church hasn't solved their problem.

Praying hasn't released them from it. Related to being released from consequences, I want to talk about the consequence of addiction that shreds minds, ruins 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 stronghold is referring to the spiritual nature of the addiction. It's 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. We're living in a time when people find themselves stuck. My concern is not for the person who's stuck and wants to be, because I can't help you. 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 willing was there.

I was really serious, but the ability to pull it off wasn't. I kept promising God I'm not going to do it again. I kept promising God I struggle between my flesh and my salvation.

And the two were not getting along. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and gave him life, the Bible says he came up from his tomb tied up in his hands and his feet. Just because he had life didn't mean he was free. Jesus had to say, y'all got to lose him and let him go.

I gave him life, but he needs freedom. 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.

How does this stronghold or spiritual addiction, whatever category it is, occur? Because understanding the cause will lead us to the cure. When you're sick and you go to the doctor, he's going to try to find the cause so he can give you the right cure. Many of us are trying to cure the wrong cause. So we're medicating something that's not the problem and wonder why we're not getting healthier spiritually. To understand this, stay with me here, I want you to follow me to 2 Corinthians chapter 10.

And we all need this, either for ourselves or for someone else. And so it is critical that you understand this. 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 2 says, I ask 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.

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 it is partition. 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 partition. This partition 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, partitioned 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 get through. And because he partials off your thinking, your speculation, and your thought, 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, your mind, he calls that information knowledge and speculation against the knowledge of God. So the lofty thing is contradicting what God says, what God 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 add victory one moment and defeat another moment. This blocking through a lofty thing keeps what he calls, in verse 4, the fortress, prison, or tomb operating. So the moment you think you're getting out, you find out you're still in because it didn't cross over.

The partition made sure it didn't cross over. Now, the biblical word for this lofty thing is double-mindedness. Double-mindedness. Double to 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.

So in order for the penetration of God's truth to bring victory in the area of the stronghold due to the vice 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. Dr. Evans will come back to tell us about that deconstruction process in a moment. Stay with us. I think we can all agree this year has been one for the ages. And while 2020 has been full of challenges, God has remained faithful through every storm. To help you remember that faithfulness as we step into a new year, we want to send you Dr. Evans' 20 most popular messages from 2020, along with his devotional book, Called for a Purpose. These resources are our thanks for your gift to help finish the year strong and reach more people in 2021. Visit TonyEvans.org for details. Remember, you'll get a total of 20 of Tony's most popular messages focusing on the keys to spiritual growth, biblical ways to beat worry and anxiety, how to know God cares about you personally, and much more. So get in touch with us today, make your generous year-end contribution, and let us send you the best of Tony Evans 2020 and his popular devotional book, Called for a Purpose. Make the arrangements at TonyEvans.org or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222.

Team members are standing by to help you day and night. Again, dial 1-800-800-3222. Right now, Dr. Evans is back with more of today's message. 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 by all the speculation that's holding me hostage? Back to our original passage. He says in John chapter 8, verse 31 and 32, If you continue in my word, then 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.

Now, nobody will disagree with that, so let me say it another way. You will only be freed by the truth, not what you believe to be true. We got folk running around here talking about, I know my truth. Yeah, and where has your truth gotten you?

No, no, no. It's not what you believe to be true. He's not talking about a truth, some truth, your truth. He's talking about 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 program's truth, or some cultural truth, and not the truth. The absolute standard by which reality is revealed. Today we live in a world of information but little truth.

We appeal to our feelings, which are changing all the time, our reason, which is uncertain, and our moral instincts, which are different from person to person. Ah, but there's something else. There's something else that if you miss it, you missed the real deal of victory. He just said, if you will continue in my word, if you hang out there, if you bring your sin you're dealing with, and you lay it before the word, and you lay it before the word, Lord, this is what I'm dealing with, but I'm reading your word, I'm taking this word, I'm taking this word, I'm taking that 15 minutes, that 30 minutes every day, and I'm going to get this thing till you get it down in me, and my soul begins to grab hold of it and wraps itself around it. And when God did, he says, the truth will make you free. But look at another verse, because when you look at verse 36, so if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. Okay, wait a minute, wait a minute, we got a little issue here. Because 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. Wait a minute, 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? If somebody comes and you're in jail and comes up to you and says, someone has just posted bail for you, you're gonna shout, you're gonna applaud. Somebody has paid what you need to get out. You're gonna say, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm free, but you're still in jail. You're free because bail has been posted, but you're not out. But you are free because once you post bail that has been accepted, you're free. But then they gotta do paperwork.

They gotta do the paperwork. So there is often a gap between legally being free and being out. The Word of God posts bail, but the Son has the key to the law.

The bail makes you free. The Son sets you free. In other words, 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. When you spend time in the Word—you know, I love Hebrews 4, verse 12 says, the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword. It says it's alive. The book is alive.

It's a book, but it's alive. Now let me tell you what the book does according to Hebrews 4.12. He says in Hebrews 4.12, the book, the Word of God, when taken in, will divide soul and spirit. The reason why we stay trapped in certain things is because the soul and spirit are not divided. They're all mixed up.

They're all intertwined because things have not been separated. So that which is God is God, and that which is not is not. We didn't get it all mixed together, but he says when the Word of God does its cutting, it separates the soul and the spirit so that they become two distinct realities, and you know what's what. See, Paul was struggling with, how can I not want to do this and do it? I'm confused.

I can't make sense of that. He says the Word of God—shoom—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's talking about the Word of God, but in verse 13, he's talking 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 Baal posted, but Jesus comes with a key. And when the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.

Guess what indeed is? Luke 24 34 says, When Jesus rose from the dead, they said he has risen indeed. Why did they have to say indeed? Because Jesus Christ never stopped living after he died on the cross. After Jesus died on the cross, he was very much alive on Saturday as he was on Friday. In fact, the Scripture says that on Saturday, he went to Sheol to preach victory to the souls that had died. So Jesus Christ was as alive on Saturday as he was on Friday, but his body on Saturday was still laying in the tomb. He was spiritually alive, but he was not physically alive yet. But as the preacher would say, early on Sunday morning, just a little while before day, Jesus got up so that what was already true became visible.

What was already real, you could see it. It's one thing to be in jail and to hear somebody's posted Baal. It's a whole bunch of other stuff when folks see you walk out of the jail house and see that you are free. Jesus made his freedom visible on Sunday morning. While you're there, don't forget to get your copy of Tony's popular devotional book, Called for a Purpose, as well as his brand-new audio compilation, The Best of Tony Evans 2020. This giant collection and the book are available for a limited time as our gift when you make a year-end donation to help us keep Tony's teaching on this station. Get more details and make the arrangements today at tonyevans.org. And be sure to take time to browse through our huge collection of CDs, DVDs, books, Bible studies, and more. We can be your one-stop shop for holiday gift giving. Again, that's tonyevans.org, or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222.

Team members are standing by to help with your resource request, day or night. Again, dial 1-800-800-3222. When you're following someone, you don't get to choose the route or the destination. If you do, it no longer qualifies as following. Tomorrow, Dr. Evans will remind us the same is true for Christ followers.

Right now, though, he's back with a final story to wrap up our time together. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. But folk in Texas and Louisiana and Arkansas didn't find out about it until June 19, 1865.

Not because the proclamation hadn't been signed, it was because 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 have.

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 doesn't want 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 here to tell you today that he who the Son sets free is free indeed, but only if you continue in His Word. If you continue in His Word, you call on the Son, and then you can declare, like a great man a few years ago in 1963 in Washington, D.C., free at last, free at last. I thank God Almighty with my stronghold, I'm free at last. .