Alcoholism: Quitting Tomorrow Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Like quicksand, alcohol draws in its victims until they can no longer free themselves. The temptation to drink is best handled by never taking that first sip.

Today, why it's almost impossible to say, I'm quitting tomorrow. Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, it's clear in the Bible, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.

Dave, you're absolutely right. And by the way, I love that imagery that you spoke about when you said that alcoholism is like quicksand. It draws people in, and they can't get out, and they can't get out alone. I hope that these messages really become a warning to people, understanding the depths of addiction. I've written a book entitled Seven Snares of the Enemy. Now, it is based essentially on this series of messages. Would you like to have a copy? I think it would be of tremendous benefit. Seven Snares of the Enemy, Breaking Free from the Devil's Grip.

For a gift of any amount, it can be yours. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com.

That's rtwoffer.com, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. In an age in which there are so many views about various addictions, let's turn to the Scriptures to try to understand what God has to say. So let us listen carefully, both with a warning in mind as well as instruction for those who might already be ensnared. Now listen to this accurate description. Again, we admire the Scriptures. We admire God's word for its accurate description of what alcoholism is like.

Just listen to this. Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife?

Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Who will linger over wine? Who will go to sample bowls of mixed wine? Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly. In the end, it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper. Your eyes will see strange sights and your mind imagine confusing things.

You will be one like sleeping on the high seas, lying on top of the rigging. They hit me, you will say, but I'm not hurt. They beat me. I don't feel it. And when I wake up, I will ask, where can I find another drink?

Wow. I think of Mel Trotter, who walked into a funeral parlor and saw there the dead body, the dead body of his little daughter. And he gently pulled back the blankets when no one was watching and slipped off her shoes and put them into his pocket so that he could go sell them for a few cents just to get another drink. You wake up and say, where, where can I find another drink? Proverbs chapter 23.

Why these warnings? I say to those of you who struggle in a culture where drinking is so common, where everybody does it, where everyone in the office thinks it should be done. I know that the Bible does not condemn drinking wine as such. It was drank during the time of Christ.

Some of us from time to time might have a sip of wine at a wedding when we're having a toast to the bride. But I say to you that abstinence undoubtedly is the best policy because there is one way to make sure you will never be an alcoholic. Don't drink. Don't drink. It's wonderful for some of us to be able to walk past alcoholism and drugs and not even feel a twinge of desire to know what, what kind of a euphoric experience we could have. Because you see, reality with God is manageable.

It's manageable. And you don't need that stuff. Those are the warnings.

But now warnings don't deliver you, do they? Some of you struggling with alcoholism and I know that there are many of us, many among us here who do because some of you have come to me and said I can hardly wait until you preach on my snare, alcoholism and drugs. What is the means of perseverance? It's one thing to condemn, but how do you help?

How do you get through? How do you minister to? What does the Bible have to say to those who struggle with addiction? Well, I want you to know today I believe that the scriptures have help because the scriptures have God. Take, for example, and we could turn to many passages. Even last night I was debating what passage to turn to because I had three or four that would have accomplished what I intend to, but take, for example, Psalm 40.

Psalm 40, and if you wish to, you may turn to that Psalm where the Psalmist is talking about God's deliverance and it won't be the only passage I use, but what a marvelous, marvelous Psalm of deliverance. The pathway for help involves two words or two phrases, and at this point they are so simple. You've heard all this before. You don't even have to take notes. If you haven't been taking notes up to this point, don't take notes now. You don't need to. You're going to remember this. The first word is God. You think you can remember that?

I think you can. Psalm 40. I waited patiently for the Lord and he turned to me and he heard my cry. He lifted me up out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and the mire, and he set my feet on a rock and he gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see in fear and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. Blessed is the person who doesn't turn to his substance.

That's far enough. When the psalmist said, I came to the Lord and he heard my cry, what do you think the psalmist cried? I wish he'd have told us, but the text doesn't tell us, but I have some very good suspicions as to what he cried to God about. I'll tell you why you need God, why you need God to get out of your addiction.

I know that Alcoholics Anonymous has success and I'll comment on that in a moment, even though they talk just simply about the higher power because they don't want to get too specific theologically, but I want you to know that when you talk about the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, you have an awesome power that you can access that is not just any higher power, it is God. Why do you need God so desperately, those of you who are hiding drink from your families and your co-workers and who still take drugs on weekends? First of all, I believe that the psalmist's cry must have involved a cry for forgiveness. It involved a cry, oh God, I am in this miry clay, I am in the slimy pit, the mud and the mire, God, forgive me. Because you see, unless you are forgiven, it stands as a great barrier between you and your deliverance for obvious reasons.

The guilt is killing you and you need that substance to deaden the pain. A chaplain was making his rounds in the hospital, came to a young man who was just destroying himself on drugs and he said, why are you doing that? You know that you're absolutely just ruining your life and you're destroying your mind and the kid looked at the chaplain and said, you ought to know the answer to your question.

He said, I shouldn't even have to tell you what the answer is. He says, I'm so guilty because of what I have done, I can't live with myself and even if I destroy myself, that's okay because I can't stand the pain of guilt. My dear friend, there is a God who pardons iniquity. There is a God, we receive letters, you know, from prisoners all the time because of our radio ministries. In fact, this message will be listened to by prisoners and they're going to write to us.

I can tell you that in advance. And they tell terrible stories about lives whom they ruined because of their sins. But what does the scripture say? He has not regarded our sins and he can take those sins and he can cast them into the depths of the sea. He can forgive you even though you have ruined your family. He can forgive you.

He can make up for the years that the substances that you have taken have eaten and destroyed. God can forgive you. It's a great barrier to your deliverance but God is there to pronounce you forgiven. That's one barrier but there's a second barrier that is just as important and that is the barrier of shame. Shame. Shame is an incredibly powerful emotion. Shame tells us that we are fundamentally flawed. We are defective. We are haunted by a sense of loneliness and emptiness, a sense of absence, a sense of feeling so ashamed and we begin to think that the shame I feel has no cure. Some of you feel that way.

And there's that sense of helplessness. In fact, this shame is so important that fundamentally it can cause some people to become criminals because they are overcoming their own sense of shame. That's a whole other story that I will not get into today but except that you can take it. For other people, they are driven into all kinds of perfectionism to try to make up and to assure themselves that they will never be ashamed again. Now what does God do? God says your sin can be taken away through forgiveness and your shame can be taken away by my acceptance of you, my fundamental acceptance of you. Now let's get this business of self-image straight okay. God doesn't love you because you're valuable. That's where many of the people of the world go wrong. I'm so valuable, God has to love me.

No, no, no, no, your friends know better than that. You don't but they do. No, but you are valuable because God loves you. You are valuable because God loves you, because he set his face and his love upon you and therefore he accepts you and the value that you have is God conferred value because his love toward his children who accept his blessed son and as a result of that you see this whole sense of hopelessness, the shame, the sense of darkness and oblivion that you developed in that world of trance, that world of delusion.

It can be taken away. You can look God in the eye and he accepts you. You see without an answer for guilt, without an answer for shame, where are you going to go? But back to that cursed substance.

There's a third barrier that God will help you to overcome and that is the sense of replacement. What are you going to put in the place of your drink? What's going to be there for me when things go wrong? What's going to be there when I have financial pressures? What's going to be there when I'm rejected? What's going to be there when I'm evil spoken about? What's going to be there when I don't have a job?

I'll tell you what's going to be there. Book of Ephesians tells us this, it says, do not be drunk with wine, where is dissipation? And you know dissipation means that chaos, some of you know what chaos is, but do not be drunk with wine wherein is this chaos, dissipation?

What? But instead be filled with the Spirit. God says you need something to rely on because reality is too harsh for you, reality is harsh, but I will walk with you through that and you can be filled with the Spirit singing to yourselves with psalms and praises and hymns and spiritual songs just like the man here in the 40th chapter of the psalms who says he has put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to God. So you need God to overcome guilt, to overcome shame, to overcome that need for something else, that replacement for your addiction. You need God. You know that's the big hang up isn't it with addicts because they won't admit the depth of their need and only until they say I am hopeless, I am an addict, I can't do anything and they surrender to God, it is then he hears their cry and lifts them out of the slimy pit. Mel Trotter, the man that I told you about a moment ago, was delivered instantly from alcohol when he accepted Christ as Savior. Now that doesn't happen to everybody because some of you are Christians and you struggle, but I'm talking about what God sometimes does.

He picks them up from the slimy pit, he cleans them up and he sets their feet upon a rock and he establishes their going and they can sing again. You need God. That's not all you need. You say well you know I always thought that God in me was enough, just me and my God. Well that's not the way the scriptures teach it. You see the average addict thinks to himself my addiction is secret therefore I can take care of this in secret, just God and I. I doubt that you can.

I doubt that you can. Second thing that you need is the body of Christ because what really has to happen is that your closet, you must come out of the closet let me put it that way, your secret must be exposed, your shame must be exposed because as long as it grows there in the darkness of your soul it will stay there and debilitate you until finally it is brought into the light and that can only happen in the presence of other people. Alcoholics Anonymous may have a weak theology but we need to admit the fact that they are quite successful in helping millions perhaps, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions because they are based on two very important scriptural principles namely that what an addict really needs is an environment that is not shame based. All that he's ever lived with is shame and if he shares his need in the presence of some Christians all that he gets is more shame and more condemnation, the very thing that he doesn't need.

He's already stuffed with it. What he needs is a group that can say we love you and we accept you despite what you have done and therefore I'm told that in these in these Alcoholics Anonymous circles you know they go around and say my name is and then they say and I'm a an alcoholic or I'm an addict. There's wisdom in that and there's nobody there to point fingers because what they're doing is they're all saying the same thing because they're all struggling with the same thing. Secondly, you need the body of Christ for accountability.

To be able to look into your eyes and say have you fallen this week? Give me the circumstances and make sure to call me when the temptation is overwhelming and when it seems as if the desire to enter into that delusional world is so strong that you can't take it call me and I will help you. That's what the body of Jesus Christ is for. That's the way we're supposed to function. So you need to tell significant people who are able to help you and hold you accountable.

Whether you join AA or not, you need the body of Christ. John Bradshaw in one of his books tells the story of a man who was in a cave and he was sentenced to die and the agreement was that he would be fed for 30 days through a hole at the top of the cave and after that no more food. But he was also told that there was a way out of the cave if only he were to find it and if he could find his way out he would be free. So what this man did is he looked at the top of the cave and he noticed that that was the one little peephole where the food was brought through every day. It was too small for him to crawl through but he thought this is the only way out and I'm going to try. So he began to lift all of the stones and all of the dirt and to try to build a pile so that he could make it but the problem was that even after he was six feet, the pile was six feet, to build another foot meant that there would be so many more stones and things that were needed that eventually he was running out of things that he could possibly use to build his pile with. And the 30th day was on its way. And one day he was standing up there wondering at least if he could touch the hole, which he wasn't able to do.

And the 30th day came and he fell over in weakness and died. The problem was that when the cave was exposed to the light, right there beneath the hole there was a tunnel and if he had taken that tunnel he could have crawled maybe a hundred feet and been in the sunlight and been free. But the reason he didn't see the tunnel was you see it was in the darkness and he thought that this was the way out.

It never dawned on him that there might be an easier way out even though it would be less visible. Some of you bless you. You've been spending your whole life trying to gather those stones to find a way out of your cave. You've dragged those stones. You've brought all that dirt in and what you want to do is to say, I see a little peephole but it is so far away and so high and I am weary. I want you to know today that there is a tunnel. There's a way out. There's a way out. And it's accessible.

It's accessible. Come on to me all ye who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. It's an accessible tunnel and it may lead you through the darkness in the sense that there's going to be a tremendous amount of struggle with the sin and the addiction and the spirits of this world but in Jesus Christ there is a hand that comes to deliver you and in him there is light and life and forgiveness and if we walk in the light as God is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son cleanses us from all sin. I waited patiently for the Lord. He turned to me and he heard my cry. Some of you have to cry up to God and say I'm helpless. Deliver me. Save me. And he came along and he lifted me out of that slimy pit out of the mud and the mire and he set my feet on a rock and he gave me a firm place to stand and put a song in my mouth.

Listen to you alcoholics, you addicts who don't want to admit that you are but you are. Stuart Hamblin used to sing that song it is no secret what God can do what he's done for others he can do for you with arms wide open he can pardon you. It is no secret what God can do what God did to the meltrotters of this world he can do for you God overcoming guilt and shame and the emptiness and the body of Christ helping you as you come to the light. This is Pastor Lutzer. Let me ask you my friend are you finding these messages a blessing a warning as well as encouragement that's why they were preached.

We here at Running to Win exist in order to edify believers as we frequently say to help them make it all the way to the finish line. These messages can be yours so that you can listen to them again and again or if you prefer you can receive them in book form. The title is Seven Snares of the Enemy Breaking Free from the Devil's Grip. We'd love you to have this because we believe that it would be of benefit not only to you but people whom you know. For a gift of any amount this book or the sermon series can be yours. Here's what you do go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Let me remind you that whenever we get a letter from people and we are encouraged by many people who connect with us it is because others have stood with us financially and with their prayers. So for a gift of any amount you can have seven snares of the enemy either as a book or this sermon series. Once again let me give you that contact information rtwoffer.com or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. Thanks in advance for holding hands with us as we think about the Running to Win family and the many people who are being blessed as a result of this ministry.

You can write to us at Running to Win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard Chicago Illinois 60614. Since we all have sexual desires it's tempting to satisfy those desires outside of God's will. Next time on Running to Win a probing look at the damage done by pornography in our culture. A flood most prevalent these days on the internet. No longer in plain brown wrappers porn is now available at the click of your mouse. Next time don't miss snare number five pornography the soul defiled. Thanks for listening for Dr. Erwin Lutzer this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.