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 a way to escape the flaws and failures that keep us trapped. But only if you continue in His Word. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, 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. Many Christians live their lives like spiritual POWs, unable to break free from the sins that hold them hostage. But there's an escape route in place, and it comes straight from Scripture.

Let's join Dr. Evans as he tells us about it. 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, 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.

In your kitchen, whether you have a refrigerator or a stove or an electric can opener or a toaster or whatever appliance you have, all of them are different, but they all find their power from the same source—electricity. Regardless of your addictions, it would take us forever to talk about this addiction and that addiction and this addiction and that addiction and 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 slash stronghold that needs to be addressed. We're living in a time when people find themselves stuck. Now, my concern is not for the person who's stuck and wants to be, because I can't help you.

If you're in an addiction and you want to stay addicted, all the facts and figures and truth 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, know they are 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. And so this issue of illegitimate bondage must have a spiritual understanding underpinning it for full release to occur.

So let's review again what we're referring to as we move forward. We're referring to a spiritually based trap in some category of life that has been inculcated with negative patterns of thought that, like a snake, has wrapped itself around the mind, making something seem impossible to break or to fix because you feel handcuffed to it or it feels handcuffed to you. It is seeing something as unchangeable that is outside of the will and the Word of God. Most people have run into something in their lives. Sometimes they're big, sometimes they are small, that is of less consequence, but yet addictions have a way of growing.

They have built into them gateway potential, the capacity to expand themselves in our lives and in our circumstances. When you are in an addiction or, better yet, a spiritual addiction or stronghold, you feel like you're in a tomb, a prison, and somebody has thrown away the key. What many people seek to do with this stronghold that they're battling is to accept it as an inevitable reality, and the best they hope to do with it is to decorate their cell.

Since it's never going to change, at least let me make my addiction as pleasant as possible. To understand this, stay with me here, I want you to follow me to 2 Corinthians 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 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. 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 have victory one moment and defeat another moment. Now the biblical word for this lofty thing is double-mindedness. 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 if that's the problem, how do we do this? 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 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, okay?

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 folks 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. The truth refers to an absolute standard by which reality is measured. It is an absolute standard by which reality is measured and the truth always sits outside of you. 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. Here is one of the biggest falsehoods that keep us in custody and locked up spiritually in a stronghold of spiritual addiction, and that is trying to get the flesh to fix the flesh. Paul said in the scripture we just read in Second Corinthians 10, we do not war according to the flesh. The flesh can't fix the flesh. You can try to manage it. You can try to force it down. You can try to make a New Year's resolution. You can promise you're never gonna do it again. You can talk to yourself. You can go to the counselor.

You can take medication. But if it's a spiritual sin issue, what we do is go to the thing that's the problem to fix the problem. He says no. What you must do first and foremost is continue in my truth. Look, the word continue means to hang out, abide, stay there, to loiter. That's what to continue or abide is. You must abide in the truth. We don't abide in the truth we visited. We've come, we're listening to the Word of God. Most of us won't know next Sunday what we heard this Sunday, because we don't abide in it, we visit it.

No, he says no, no, no, no, no, no. 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 6, 7, and 8, those three chapters. Romans 6, 7, and 8.

Why? Because Romans 6, 7, and 8 is gonna tell you the truth about the master called sin, whatever that sin is. In chapter 6, Paul is gonna tell you about your new identity in Christ. He's gonna tell you, you've been baptized with Christ and you are not who you used to be because you were buried with him in baptism, raised with him into a new life, so that sin is lying to you. Paul's gonna tell you to shift your identification in your newness in Christ and therefore, verse 11 of chapter 6, consider your old person dead. He's gonna tell you, you must now identify yourself as Jesus Christ identifies you. Then he's gonna come to chapter 7 and Paul's gonna tell you, I struggled like you struggled.

I had some things in my life. He doesn't tell us what it is, which is good, because then you can put your stuff in that chapter. He says, and I struggled, and the things I didn't want to do, the things I did, I didn't want it, and it kept coming back, and I resisted it, but it showed up again until I got to chapter 8 and understood the power of the Holy Spirit, and that the law of the Spirit is greater than the law of sin and death. So that in verse 13, he says, therefore, I have no longer any obligation to the flesh, when I understood that I got this supernatural peace when it's tied to the truth.

Dr. Evans will come back with advice for believers who read the Bible but have a hard time understanding its message. That's coming up after these thoughts from Tony on 40 years of faithfulness. There are so many ways that God has demonstrated His faithfulness to me and to this ministry over these 40 years. You know, there were times when we just weren't sure we were gonna make it.

We got down to our last paycheck. After that, there was no money to pay anyone, and I remember us having a special prayer time and asking God to intervene. And then, out of nowhere, a donor's heart was touched, and they wrote us a note and said, God placed it on my heart to send you this gift, and it was able to sustain us until we were able to rebuild. So I am not a doubter about the greatness of God nor His faithfulness, and I'm certainly grateful for all the friends He's given us who have been faithful to. And I'm very grateful that for 40 years, we've seen His kind hand of favor on this ministry.

The Urban Alternative is celebrating 40 years of God's faithfulness, and we look forward to seeing where He leads us in the future. Right now, I wanted to let you know that today's message is part of Tony's powerful series, U-Turn, Reversing Spiritual Consequences. This series has proven to be a valuable resource to help undo the negative results of bad choices, and that's why he's written a new book to further illuminate the matter.

It's called U-Turns, Reversing the Consequences in Your Life, and it's the perfect complement to what we've been learning about today. The book and 12-message series focus on parts of your life where you may have taken wrong turns, areas like fear and anxiety, financial challenges, addiction issues, sins that pass down through generations, and more. Regardless of where you've been and where you're currently heading, these powerful lessons can get you moving in God's direction. So we're offering them as our gift to you when you make a donation to help us keep Tony's teaching on the air. Give us a call at 1-800-800-3222, or visit tonyevans.org today to make your contribution and request. And if you want to learn even more or equip yourself to lead others in these life-changing truths, check out the U-Turns Bible Study Kit and DVD lessons Dr. Evans has put together.

Again, you can get all the details when you call 1-800-800-3222 or visit tonyevans.org. I'll have our contact information for you again after part two of today's lesson and this. It's beyond a Sunday sermon, a chance to really dig into the Bible and the kingdom in a new way anytime and anywhere because it's all online. The Tony Evans Training Center, in-depth courses on all kinds of topics, cultural transformation, intro to expository preaching, Jude, John, Hebrews, Old Testament, New Testament, and so much more. These aren't sermons. They're teaching courses to help you engage, understand Scripture, and not just to hear about, but to explore the kingdom of God on your own.

Find out more at tonyevanstraining.org, tonyevanstraining.org. Now I know what some of you are saying. You're saying, well, I may know it, but a lot of that Bible stuff, I'm reading it, but I don't understand it. I don't understand it. Do you take medicine?

You don't understand. You go to the doctor, you say, I'm hurting. He writes a prescription.

You don't know what he wrote. You go to the pharmacist, you get the medicine. You don't know all the stuff that's in that medicine, but what you do is you ingest it, you take it, you swallow it, and it does its work even when you don't understand it. Now sure, we ought to seek to understand the Word of God, but while you are taking the time to seek it, if you just keep taking it in and continue it, it has the ability to do its work if you continue in it. So if you are struggling with something, if you are a believer, every day for this week, read chapter 6, 7, and 8 of the book of Romans over and over again, and let the medicine seep down and abide in you, because when you continue in my Word, you will then know the truth, and the truth will set you free. It becomes part of your soul.

It's been ingested, and we don't do that. We listen to a sermon on Sunday. That's Diet Church. But there's something else. He just said, if you will continue in my Word, if you hang out there, the truth will make you free. 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. 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's the difference here? 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. But then they got to do paperwork.

They got to 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 lock.

The bail makes you free. The Son sets you free. 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. Hebrews chapter 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.

So we didn't got 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 bail. There's a whole bunch of other stuff when folks see you walk out of the jailhouse and see that you are free. Jesus made his freedom visible on Sunday morning. 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 legal freedom and the experience of freedom, 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. 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. 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. If you haven't experienced the freedom that comes from having your sins forgiven and your life turned completely around, drop by tonyevans.org today and click on the link that says Jesus. There, Tony will explain to you exactly what it means to become a real Christian and connect you with information and free resources you can use to start your new life. Don't wait, drop by tonyevans.org today. And while you're there, be sure to request your copy of that special package I mentioned earlier, Tony's brand-new U-turns book and 12-message teaching series on CD and digital download. They're yours as our thank-you gift when you make a donation to help support Tony's ministry. Just visit tonyevans.org before this special limited-time offer runs out or call our 24-hour resource center at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members help you. And don't forget Dr. Evans has also put together a companion U-turns Bible study kit complete with custom video sessions on two DVD discs. You can find out more from one of our resource team members at 1-800-800-3222 or go online to tonyevans.org. Well, next time Dr. Evans will tell us about the biblical cure for the epidemic of debt that cripples families, ruins marriages, and threatens our economy. I hope you'll join us. The alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is celebrating 40 years of faithfulness thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you.