We are excited to have Pastor Zach Bauer preaching this weekend as we continue our CounterCultural 2024 series.
The Rescue Church
Addiction
Well, good morning. How's everyone doing? I'm great. Thank you for having me. Like he said, my name is Zach Bauer, and was part of the leadership team here a few years back and no Sam a long time and privileged to be able to be here with you guys to share and share a message with you this morning. Just to give you a little bit of who is this guy and just give you a little bit of an introduction. Like I said, my name is Zach, my wife Sarah, we have three kids. We moved actually to South Dakota a little over 12 years ago to plant a church in Sioux Falls called Red Door Church. We were pastors in Montana for 10 years and then picked up and moved to Sioux Falls. I always tell the story. It was one of those things we knew nobody in Sioux Falls. And we literally, I flew out here, interviewed for a job, found a job, found a house, went back home, loaded up, moved our family out here. My wife was pregnant with our youngest son at the time and moved here and for the first like four or five months, just tried to meet people, get to know people. We had a team kind of coming from Montana a few months, about six months later to help us plant Red Door Church and launch it. We launched it in 2013 and it was awesome to see what God would do through that over those years. And then this last year, we decided to close the doors and step down as lead pastor and kind of wait for God to see what our next assignment is and what God has for us. But I've been pastoring for over 20 years in ministry. Love the church. I love what God is doing through the church. And like I said, excited to share with you guys this morning. And I always kind of share this a little bit as we kind of get into the word today, as we kind of get into a message. We're kind of all accustomed to church. We sit, we stand, we say good morning, we open our Bibles. But I always want to challenge us as we kind of dig into a Sunday message, as we kind of prepare ourselves. What I love about the Scripture and what it says in the Bible is that the Bible is living and active, right? And you can read a Scripture every single day, every single month for an entire life. And that Scripture says is living and active and it can actually draw things out of you. I used to tell our people at our church, the Bible almost reads you and applies its word to us. The Holy Spirit and God speaks to us. And so this morning, I want to encourage you that we have loads of things on our mind. I know if you're like me, you have a laundry list of things in the back of your head, probably even this morning, you were thinking, well, I got to go to this and we got to pick up this and don't forget this. And we already are planning our week. And sometimes what happens is when we come into church, those things kind of sit in our mind. This morning, what I do is I want to encourage you to set them aside, allow God's word to speak to you, to read you, and leave here that God would do something in you. And my heart is that we would leave here with God's words in us that we would apply it throughout the day, that we would see moments throughout our week that we could recall back to God speaking to us. Or maybe there's a certain scripture today that God will kind of highlight in your life. And you'll be back, you know, I remember what God was pressing us on my heart. And now I know why because I'm encountering this moment. And so this morning, what I want to do is I want to pray and then we're going to jump in the scripture today as you guys are in a series called controversial. And we're going to jump into that this morning. So would you guys pray with me as we jump in? Heavenly Father, we come here this morning, God. And I know most of us in this room probably have things on our mind. There's probably stress. There's pressure. There may be even some pain and some worry and some things that we're wrestling through. And God, I'm so thankful that we would come here today, that we would sit here and we would open our hearts, God's for you to speak, that we would come here and we would set aside those things. We would look to you. We would listen to you this morning. God, as your scripture is read, as things are applied and pointed out that you would speak to our hearts. God, whatever it is, maybe it's a phrase, maybe it's a scripture, maybe it's a passage that you want to speak to each and every person here this morning. And so God, I ask that you would use my words, God, your scripture, God to speak into the lives of all of us. God, that you would work in us. We love you. We thank you. Your name, we pray. Amen. Well, I want to start with the first controversial topic in our house. And I hope that maybe some of you would say an amen and agree with me. And the topic in our house that's very controversial is the topic of cleaning, right? You kind of know where I'm going with this. Cleaning, picking up your room, putting things away. I think there are really two different types of people when it comes to cleaning, okay? There are those who are very neat and tidy. Everything has a place. Everything has a purpose. If it's not being used, we get rid of it. And then there are those of us, like myself, that are the type out of sight, out of mind. Can anyone relate with that this morning that you've fallen into one of these two categories? In our house, we have a pretty split house in this. My wife and my oldest are very neat and tidy. When we clean, and their definition is, we're going to clean every square inch, every corner of this house. And if we're not using it, if we don't need it, we're getting rid of it. Me and my younger two are in the type when I clean, how fast can I get this done? And the quickest way possible is to stuff it somewhere, hide it somewhere, put it somewhere, and it's clean, right? Amen. And I, for years ago, my wife has been teaching me, training me how to do the dishwasher. Anyone else know the dishwasher? For me, it's how much stuff can I put in there, the quickest way possible, and wash. And my wife argues, for some reason, that there's a certain organizing way to put dishes in the dishwasher. And my kids and I have still not, some of it's probably just, I'm pretending to not know how to do the dishwasher, because then I don't get asked to do the dishwasher, right? Cleaning is such an issue of just how we perceive, and the perspective that we go into something, we look at it differently, right? We, in my mind, if it's out of sight, out of mind, there's no stress, there's no thought of it, it's clean. You don't see anything. The hallways are clean, the room is clean, but as soon as you begin to uncover the dressers or underneath the bed or a closet, you begin to see things stuffed away, piled up, put away, and then you have those on the other side that are kind of the, let's go through everything. Let's look at every detail, let's clean everything, let's thoroughly clean the house. Now, there's a TV show years ago, you probably have seen it, and we've watched it a few times at our house. Most of the time, my wife can't handle it because she's so neat and tidy, and so when she watched the show, hoarders, she just begins to sweat and almost break out of like I cannot handle everything, I just want to go in there and clean, and you see the side of the TV show, obviously it's TV, so they're looking at extreme cases. You walk into these homes on this TV show and you just see piles and rooms and things piled up, some extreme cases, some maybe not as extreme, but you see this idea of this piled up mess and you see all these things, and what happens in the show is what's interesting is that you begin to unravel and peel back that these individuals usually have some sort of pain in their life or something that they went through that has caused them to kind of get into the cycle of collecting and holding on to, and you begin to dig into some of the psychological and mental part, and some of these things you begin to see how much disarray their life is and the attachment they have to things that most of us on the outside looking right in is like just throw it away, give it to somebody, but on their side it means so much, it has this attachment that they cannot let go, and you begin to see how those things pile up years and years, and the show essentially attempts to try to break the cycle, this element in their lives, this surrendering control of why they need to collect, why they need to hold on, why they need to pile up, and what's interesting, every single show, every single person you eat in that TV show, in their perspective they see nothing wrong, from their perspective they don't see there's a problem, in their eyes everything is normal, it's fine, some cases obviously I think they begin to recognize that there's some issues, but on the outside we look in and we're thinking how can you not see the trouble, the pain, the cycle you're in, how can you not recognize that, and the show again the key of it is to bring these individuals to a place that they begin to let go and they begin to receive help, and if you've watched the show you know that the greatest struggle is getting them to a place to recognize that they are not in control, they need to let go, and people either cross that bridge or they're stuck on that idea of letting go and breaking the cycle, again this idea that I want to focus on really applies to what we're going to talk about today in this series, as you guys are kind of continuing this series of controversial, we're going to look at the topic of addiction, now I know we have limited time here, okay, 30 minutes I am not going to conquer the topic of addiction, right? I'm not going to, I'm not a doctor, I'm not going to be able to exhaustively break down every possible scenario and concept of the idea of addiction, but I want to focus on really the spiritual side, the perspective of a pastor and the perspective of a follower of Christ, not diving into the medical side any of that, but a lot of times addiction is one of those topics that has not talked a lot about, again we would look at a lot of times in terms of addiction, we would immediately go to drugs and alcohol and kind of put them on the top, and we kind of forget a lot of the other avenues of addiction, things that maybe are socially acceptable, things like phone, sorry to say caffeine, I understand caffeine is a hot button issue, but sugar and food and being on video games and gambling and you could list a laundry list of things that can sometimes creep into that area of addiction that we sometimes overlook because we look at the big topic ideas of what we perceive as addiction, but what I am packed is this idea that addiction can come in all forms, it can affect all different things of our lives, doctors actually say that addiction isn't just a physical, but it can also be an emotional, a mental and even a physical element of that in our lives, that it can affect all different places and the key of this is understanding where that comes from and how do we break it, where do we find freedom in this, again like I said my goal is a disclaimer as here is, I am not looking at the medical side of things and I want to say that if you are dealing with addiction, to seek out doctors, to seek out counselors, to bring in help, but today what I want to do is look at the spiritual side of addiction and really focus on what Jesus can do in our lives and so if you have a Bible you can turn with me to John chapter 5, we are going to look at this first passage here and the first few verses here because I think it gives us a great perspective, a great concept of what Jesus is interacting here with, as you are turning there to John chapter 5, it will be on the screen as well that you can follow along, I want to take a moment to define addiction and this is from a medical field and Dr. Gary Collins actually writes and says this, "An addiction is anything or behavior, is any thinking or behavior that is habitual, repetitous and difficult or impossible to control." He goes on to say addiction isn't just tied to a particular substance, it's anything that causes us to exhibit behaviors that erode our self control and attempt to fill a void or cover pain. He goes on again and says that the heart of every addiction is surrender, this is what I think is interesting and we need to understand, he says, "When you and I are addicted to something we have essentially said to that thing, whatever it is, I give you control." Like I said a minute ago, Dr. Collins says that addiction affects all areas of our life, the physical, the social and the mental and the spiritual side of things. I think most of us in this room have probably been around or been involved with someone either struggling with addiction or ourselves struggling with addiction, we see the different sides that addiction can do, the different sides of the pain and the hurt, it kind of even goes back to the illustration of the hoarders where in the midst of addiction those who are struggling don't normally see the effects. They look around and think that everything is fine but those on the outside, just like the TV show, you're thinking how do you not see this, why can't you stop and that's why addiction is so complicated and so nuanced in different avenues is understanding at the core of it, what is it that's happening? Again you know you can look throughout scripture, this is not a new thing to our time, addiction is not something that just started 20, 30 years ago, you can even look back in the scripture, not to have all the time this morning to dig out every scripture, but you can look at some of these stories, remember the story that Jesus said of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and was looking for everything and Jesus says you know go sell everything and he said I can't, my possessions, my materials, my wealth is everything to me, I can't let those go. You think of Samson in the Old Testament, addicted to lust, you have King David, many different things, even addicted to power and control to the point that he even had someone murdered to keep his control and power, you even have a great story that Jesus has interaction with a man named Zacchaeus and if you dig into the story Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus was a very wealthy man that was filled with greed and filled with money that he was pursuing and pursuing and we see in the story Zacchaeus that he eventually comes to the point that he recognizes that none of that matters, he wants to know Jesus and so we can see throughout scripture, we can see in our own personal lives and people that we've interacted with, that we can see the power of addiction, we can see the effects of addiction and we begin to peel back all the different nuances and forms that addiction can take but here's the beauty is that Jesus offers freedom, Jesus offers us an opportunity to find freedom to overcome and to break the addictions in our lives and our family and friends' lives, he provides that freedom. This morning I want to look at three different things out of this scripture in John chapter five, if you're there you can turn with me, John chapter five verse one, it says this, sometime later Jesus went to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals, now there is in Jerusalem near the sheep gate a pool which in Aramaic is called Bethsaida and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades, here a great number of disabled people used to lie, the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed, now I want to just stop here for a second just to give you a little understanding of the context here that we're looking at in this scripture, Jesus says on his way to Jerusalem, it says for one of the Jewish festivals, we don't know which one, it's one of the threes either Passover, Pentecost or Tabernacle festival, the feasts, and so that was something that every Jewish person would make a pilgrimage and travel to this, to be part of this, and it says here that outside or near the Jerusalem tabernacle or the city gates, most cities had different gates that you would come into and enter, again not something that's totally different today, we understand that, but for those who are coming to the festival they would bring sheep with them and lambs to provide us as an offering, and so near Jerusalem there was a gate that was designated for those bringing their offering, and it was the sheep gate, one of those that you wouldn't bring through the main corridor of the city because you're hauling your sheep to the festival, but you would actually take a different side, a different gate, a different entrance into the city as you brought your lambs and your sheep to the festival, and it says here that in this area by the sheep gate was a pool, okay? Its scholars have begun to, over the years have dug up and found the remains of this pool, and the name of this pool was Bethsaida, and this will make sense if we dig into the scripture a little bit more, but the original language, digging out the actual Hebrew term of Bethsaida actually means house of mercy, so you can begin to see some of this correlation as Jesus works here in a second that lambs were brought in for the offering near the pool that was called the house of mercy, Jesus is going to do something in this midst. This pool that most scholars and scientists and archaeologists have begun to dig out and find is this a pool, they say it was a large pool, wasn't like one of those little kitty waiting pools, okay? They say that most scholars believe this was larger than an Olympic sized pool, okay? Many of them believe that it could have been as deep as 40 feet deep than this pool. This pool by this gate also had basically five porches, five covered awning porches that kind of surrounded the pool, as people would get in and that kind of thing, you see these five different porches, and so we see Jesus come under the scene as he's heading to the festival, again Jesus chooses to make a route to the sheep gate, and at this sheep gate we see that this pool, the house of mercy, was a place where those who were sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed would gather. Now as I read this I see you can almost get a picture, this place was an uncommon location, not a place that those in the city would go to, but it was a place that those who were struggling, those who were hurting, those who were in pain, those who were discarded by society would end up hanging out by the pool. Again this was not a resort pool, this was not a beautiful location, in fact this was a place that was kind of a place that nobody would go, a place that those who were discarded, those who were unlike everybody else, those who were in many religious eyes, sinners and those people, they would gather in this area. So you can begin to imagine as you put these pictures and this idea as Jesus is entering this gate, you begin to see that this place was probably a very disturbing location. A place that you wouldn't take your family to, a place that you would avoid at all possible costs, because that is where those who were hurt and pain and struggling would sit. Again in first century those who were blind, lame and paralyzed, their life was spent begging, begging outside of gates, begging as people passed by and their life was really just a place that they were discarded by society, left alone, out of sight, out of mind. But Jesus finds himself going to this place. As you go on here, we see that verse three, a great number of disabled, those who were gathering there, if you look at your scripture, you probably see that verse four in many translations have been removed or it's down below your scripture. Verse four, many manuscripts, original context said that it wasn't in there, some had it, some didn't, so some translations removed it, some translations added as a little subtext. The reason it was removed and the reason it was added in some scriptures is because it really gives context more to verse seven that we'll read here. But if you have it in your Bible, I'll read verse four here, it says this from time to time, the reason those who would hang out by this pool, the house of mercy, tradition and stories that were told said that some, from time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. And the first one into the pool after such a disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had. So it begins to make sense why those who were struggling, those who were hurt, those who were disabled, those who were discarded, those that I would say were looking for hope gathered there. Again there was no regular bus schedule for the angel arriving at the waters. It says from time to time and so every day, week in, week out, month after month, you would find a way to get there and you would hang out by that pool begging for food and money and waiting for an opportunity for the water to be disturbed so you could be the first one in to be healed. Again you can get this picture. I want to really capture this idea of hopelessness, this idea of feeling that there's nothing you can do in life, you're just hoping for something to change, you're hanging out by this pool, discarded from society, discarded from family and friends. Many of those who were lame and blind would have been disowned by their family. They would have been discarded and so their life was really lived out on a mat sitting outside the gates. But I think six or seven years ago I had an opportunity to go down to San Francisco to be part of a program that was with Francis Chan's church and we are church and they go out into the city and share the gospel and help people and when we were down there they said we want to take you to tent city and again South Dakota boy, not sure what that even meant. They begin to drive us down to an area of the city of San Francisco that was about the size of a Walmart parking lot, kind of down off by the gates or by the bridges and as you approach you begin to see just a sea of tarps, blankets and carts. And this community that lived in this parking lot was those who were homeless, those struggling with mental illness, addiction, hopelessness, they would basically set up these mobile tents on pallets and carts and they would live in this parking lot and we begin to walk through this and begin to see people just out in the open shooting up drugs, people suffering from extreme mental illness, people going to the bathroom everywhere and you almost put yourself like you're in the middle of a third world country like you can't imagine that this is in San Francisco and you begin to just see a sea of people basically very similar to this story, just trying to make it one more day, one more hour, just trying to find an opportunity to find something that they need to get by or food or something that you need to just get through the next day to live. And every day the police would come and they would move them off that parking lot and they would begin to shift and move their place to another location that they would set up again for the next day. So I think we read this scripture, we see this picture of extreme hopelessness, extreme pain and hurt, discarded, people waiting and hoping for something to change in their life and Jesus enters this gate. Verse 5 it says this, "One who was there had been an invalid for 38 years." Again, 38 years he lived a life every single day, discarded, set aside, begging, hoping, just trying to make it another day. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him this, "Do you want to get well?" Verse 7. "Sir," he doesn't even know who he's talking to, "Sir," Lindler replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred." Well, I'm trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me. Again kind of back to that verse 4, we see this man who is struggling and everything he has to get there, he's just there waiting for that moment and he says, "And when the water is stirred I can't get there quick enough and somebody else receives the hope." Again another level of recognizing that this man is stuck, overwhelmed, nothing he can do. There's no hope, he's just, is hoping that he can make it there first. Then Jesus said to him in verse 8, he says, "Get up, pick up your mat and walk. At once the man was cured, he picked up his mat and he walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath, the law forbids you to carry your mat." But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up my mat and walk.'" So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who is breaking the law and told you to pick up and walk? The man who was healed had no idea who it was. For Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there and later Jesus found him at the temple and said to this man, "See you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who made him well. I love this scripture, I love this passage, I love Jesus' interaction and Jesus' moments that he chooses to jump right into the moments and the mess of people's lives. What I love about this scripture is we see something bigger than just him healing the man. We see Jesus' heart, we see the purpose and the passion and the opportunity that Jesus even speaks to us to live out our lives very similar. So speaking with addiction, I think there are three things that I want to draw out here with addiction, with the last remaining of our time here. Three steps that Jesus gives us an illustration of understanding how to overcome addiction. Again like I said, I'm not diagnosing every single addiction out there and the breakdown of everything but just general sense of addiction. We read the description, we know, we understand. There's probably things that I'm going to allow the Holy Spirit to speak into our lives that we could say, you know what, there's probably some things in my life that maybe I've allowed to take control. Like I said, again, a lot of times in Christian life we can kind of segment certain things that we're like, well, I don't have that addiction but then on the other side we kind of overlook and go, you know what, I'm probably on my phone too much, you know what, I'm probably a little bit too driven by materials or money or maybe I, you know, work too much because I get satisfaction with that. The Holy Spirit has a great way of triggering things in our life to kind of bring a little spotlight and say, hey, maybe there's something here. Again, we look back at that description and definition of addiction is anything that could have control or things that we use to cover up. I've looked at my life in passing times where either I'm frustrated or I'm sad or I'm hurting. I had a tendency to not necessarily turn to drugs and alcohol but I, you know, for some of us maybe you relate with this, it's easier to, you know, I'm just going to swing through the fast food line and eat something because there's something in me that just makes me feel better or I used to constantly buy something and, you know, go purchase something new and there was some kind of trigger that was just like, oh, I just enjoy that element, that idea. See, those are things in my own life that I recognize, you know, those are addictive type things that can easily take control or provide opportunity for me to find relief. And we see through Scripture and we know through Jesus that Jesus wants him to be in control and so recognizing that. So three things here as we focus here is number one is this, breaking addiction requires confession. I don't have it on the screen here, but if you're taking notes, breaking addiction requires confession. When Jesus saw this man there and he came up to him, Jesus asked him a very interesting question, kind of a no brainer type question, but he goes, do you want to get well? If you look at it like the NLT translation, I think it says, do you want help? If you ever recognize or been around someone or even yourself going through addictive type things, when you boil it down, it comes to a place, do you want help? I've worked, like I said, 20 years in ministry. I've worked with people who have had extreme addictions and they have to eventually come to a place that they actually want help, that they actually are looking for help. They want to change and that's the key in this is Jesus saying, do you want help? Are you ready to receive help? We see the man, obviously, is like, yeah, everything I'm trying doesn't work. I can't do this and Jesus responds to him and says, get up and take your mat. See, the key in breaking addiction is recognizing that freedom comes through the confession. When you confess that I can't do this anymore, that I am controlled by this, I am sucked in, I am addicted to this, I am caught up and I cannot handle this anymore. It's taken over me. When you recognize that and you confess that and you speak that, there's a moment in there that breaks. The scripture talks about bringing things that are in the dark into light. If you ever walked around your house in the middle of night, especially when you have younger kids and they never put away, they're not out of sight, out of mind or get tidy, they just leave stuff out and you're trying to walk through the middle night and you have a picture you think. And I think I can step here, I think, and then you step on something and then you yell at your kids and then that big old thing, right? In the dark, you can't see, you can't bring the light those. And so when you turn on the light, it brings into focus everything. The scripture talks about the things that are hidden, things that are dark in our lives that are held aside when we bring them into light, when we confess them outwardly, when we bring them to the surface, it's at that moment, freedom begins to break through. It's in that moment we begin to receive opportunity to bring things out and to deal with them. A love at Proverbs 28, 13 says this, "Whoever conceals their sin does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces finds mercy, finds mercy and grace in that moment. And dealing with addiction, whether we think we have it under control, whether we think, you know, it's not that big a deal, it's just a cell phone. It's just Snapchat, it's just, you know, I look at it just for a little while or it's just, you know, just a little bit of this sometimes, you know, I work long days, you know, it's just a little bit, but when we bring them and we confess them and we go, you know what? I don't want this to be an issue. I don't want this to control me. I don't want this to be something that takes control of my life and you begin to recognize that and say, I have an issue, it's at that moment, it doesn't have power in your life in mind, it has the opportunity now to break. The Jesus can step in and you go, you know what? I recognize this as an issue. To be honest with ourselves and to speak and to cry out to God, that's when breaking that addiction begins. Number two is this, addiction can be a powerful force, but it does not define us. If you're taking notes, it says addiction can be a powerful force, but it does not define us. Again in verse eight, we see that Jesus says to this man after he asks him if he wants to get well, he says something to him, he says, get up, pick up your mat and walk. And it says at once, immediately, that man picked up his mat and walked. Again that sight, that opportunity, you can imagine in that moment the man trying to stand up. You imagine the strength in his legs begins to come into effect and he begins to stand something he's never done for 38 years, probably most of his life he's never walked and he begins to stand up and you can imagine that moment, right? You can imagine that moment, the excitement, the hope, you can imagine those around watching this man who they've seen for years be carried to this pool for years, try to get in before the next person, for years to ask for food and for money and you begin to see just this man that had nothing, no hope. He begins to stand and he begins to pick up his mat and he begins to walk. You can imagine the individual, that moment, that breaking, that opportunity that he begins to see that this is real, that there's hope, that his life has now changed forever. He began to see this miracle take place. What I love about this is this, is Jesus spoke to the man's true identity, not to his situation. Isn't that interesting? Jesus didn't address his issue, he spoke to him in his true identity which was the son of God, that he was speaking to him as a son and daughter, that he was part of his family, that he now had life in him. Jesus saw this man as someone fully restored and had probably, we don't ever hear about this man again, whatever happened to him, but he saw the future ahead of him and who he really was in Christ, not to the situation or the failures or the mistakes of his life. And I find it interesting that he told the man, pick up your mat, you would have thought just leave the thing, right? Why would you carry this dirty old mat that you've been sitting on for years? Why take that? We don't know, but I can speculate, there's a moment that this man now realized that this mat that he picked up no longer defined his life. You see, for 38 years that mat defined him, that was his identity, a man that begged and hung out by the pool, that was what he was identified as and now this mat no longer defines him, he's fully restored, Jesus miraculously healed him and he now is a part of God's family in a split second in a moment that was broken. See addiction is powerful, we see this in the scripture, this pain and overwhelming, but it doesn't define who you are. So many times addiction, for most of those struggling with it, there's so much shame, so much guilt that it overwhelms them and they're defined by all their mistakes. If you ever talk to someone who's gone through extreme addiction, they remember every failure, every slip up, every relapse, every pain, everything they've done to others, then in their minds, there's nothing they can do to fix that, they're doomed by that. Jesus says, no, you're not defined by those mistakes and those failures and those slip ups, you're defined by what I've done for you and we know this in the scripture through the gospel, that nothing that we do, it's only by what he's done for us that we receive that identity of being his son and daughter. Again, for many, this mat for this man, he was defined by that. And Corinthians 5 says this, "Is anyone in the Christ a new creation? The old is gone, the new is here." I love this because he says, "Any of us, that's your old life, that's no longer who you are. You're now a new creation in me." We find freedom in that. And the last thing is this number three, and this is the one I think is important to remember with dealing with addiction, is that community is essential for overcoming addiction. Community is essential for overcoming addiction. Breaking addiction works much better when done in community. Without it, we become vulnerable. Community is a huge part of those working through the struggle of addiction to find, camaraderie, to find those around us that can walk with us. The scripture talks about caring each other's burdens, walking alongside one another, being there for one another. Community is a key part of overcoming addiction. A loving Ephesians chapter 2 verse 19 says this, "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household." Again, he's Paul speaking to the Gentiles and the Jews, and there's kind of this, "You're not a Jew, you're not a part of our family," and Jesus is saying, "No, no, no. You are no longer foreigners or strangers, but you're now members of God's house." Again, if you look back in first century that there was a big deal being part of a family, a heritage, a legacy, when you were part of a family, you received all the benefits, all the birth rights, all the benefits that comes with that family, and Jesus is saying, "Hey, you're no longer a part of, you're part of my family now." And now you're bestowed all the blessing, all the benefits, and all the great things that come with being in this family, you now have that. You're now adopted into our family, you're now part of us. And that's the beauty that I think if we understand going through addiction in the community, is that the church is the bride of Christ. It's the opportunity for the church to display its pure beauty of welcoming and adopting in people into our family, into part of God's family, to be built up, to be established, to be encouraged, to stand with, to walk alongside, to serve, to care, to love on, to change and challenge to all those things. The church is that opportunity for us. Can you imagine a church, the beauty of a church is seeing people from all walks of life, all situations, all different people joined together, it says, in a part of God's family. So this morning, as we close, I want to just close with one scripture here as we end and I'll close this in prayer. We understand we see the scripture of addiction. We know that it's a bigger issue. There are a lot of complicated layers and things, but when we look at it from a spiritual lens, and we see the opportunity that Jesus provides, an opportunity for freedom, an opportunity to be welcomed into his family, to be given a new identity, to be given other brothers and sisters to stand with us in the midst of that and to walk alongside, we begin to see that there's hope, there's freedom in breaking whatever addiction is in our life. Again, Jesus came to set us free to give us new desires, a new identity, new affections, new appetites for things of his kingdom. In John 10-10, again, a very popular, well-known verse, you probably all know it here, but we see this that says that the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, but Jesus says, "I have come that you may have life and have it to the full." Would you close in prayer with us this morning as we end? How many Father, we are so thankful that you would seek us out, that you would actually step into our mess, into our mistakes, into our failures, into our relapses, into our bad decisions, and our shame, and our guilt, and you would step in the midst of it and you would reach out and say, "You are my son and daughter. You are a new creation, and I have come that you may have life and life to the fullest." God I pray that each and every one of us here, as we go through our day and our weeks, God you know the things in our life that maybe have little hooks, that maybe have big hooks, that maybe you're saying, "Hey, I want you to let go of that. I don't want it to be a control in your life." Maybe for some of us we're here, there are people in our lives that we have been standing with and we've been praying for and we see the addiction in their life, that it's overcome them, and they're overwhelmed and burdened by this addiction that you would use us as an opportunity to speak into their lives, to walk alongside them, to bring hope, to bring help, to bring encouragement, to provide the opportunity that they can meet you and find freedom in it. God I pray that we would live our days and our weeks, God fully dependent upon you to see you in a way, God, that would open our hearts to those around us, that would open our hearts to things in our life that maybe grab a hold of us that you want to deal with. So thankful that you bring freedom, you bring hope, and you bring identity in you, and we love you, we thank you in your name we pray, amen, amen. Well God bless you guys, thank you so much for allowing me to come share with you and encourage you this week to maybe read the scripture some more, dig into it, pull some things out, and hopefully find opportunities to step into God's identity for your life. Amen, thank you. Thank you for listening to this recent message from the Rescue Church. We pray that God will use this message to encourage, challenge, and inspire you in your faith journey. To hear our messages live, head to one of our physical campuses. If you'd like to learn more about the Rescue Church, please visit us online at the Rescue Church.com or email us at office@therescuechurch.com. [BLANK_AUDIO]