CELEBRATE RECOVER
12 Step Recovery Program with Biblical Comparisons
ACTION
Welcome.
Tonight we are going to talk about taking ACTION. By the time we get to
Principle 3, we have worked, with God’s help, the first two principles to the
best of our ability. We admitted our lives were out of control and unmanageable.
Our lives ARE out of control. We came to see that we can’t deal with it. Our
lives ARE impossible, unreal, and crazy. That is why we took up a habit or hang-up in order to be able
to deny that we are out of control or to deal with our unmanageable life. Or at
least to cover it up or make us look and feel better than we really are. We
discovered that doesn’t work very well.
Also,
we came to believe that God could restore us. We believe He can make us whole.
He can get us out of this vicious cycle of failure that seems to wrap us in
guilt, fear, depression and anger. We
came to believe that God is our Higher Power.
Having
worked through the first two principles, we come to Principle 3: CONSCIOUSLY
CHOOSE TO COMMIT ALL MY LIFE AND WILL TO CHRIST’S CARE AND CONTROL. And
Step 3: WE MADE A DECISION TO TURN OUR
LIVES AND OUR WILLS OVER TO THE CARE OF GOD.
Principle
and Step 3 are crucial to our recovery. It would be very easy to read and study
this step and move on to the rest of the program. We can believe our lives are
out of control. We can believe that God is able to make a difference in our
lives. But unless I consciously choose to commit MY life and will to Christ’s
care and control, I have done nothing. If believe all the right things and say
all the right words, and take no action action concerning MY life and will, I am
stuck and there won’t be much that will change for me.
Principle 3 is not only about turning, but about taking action
on our decision to turn toward God. We have decided to make that 180 degree turn
away from our hurt, our particular habit or specific hang-up. Even though
we have turned, we are still pretty close to the mess in our life but now
we can see some light at the end of the tunnel.
At least we are looking in the right direction.
Just because we are looking in the right direction, doesn’t mean we are
walking toward that same direction. Sanity
requires us to do something different, so we don’t keep getting the
same results of failure. Inorder to “get going” we have to take ACTION on
our commitment.
If
we make the decision to follow Christ and we don’t take action, we may become
stuck . If we get stuck here, it is like making another 180 degree turn and go
back to our sin without moving forward. Have you been there? I have. Now, when I
am in that position (of turning toward God but not taking steps in the right
direction) I know the difference between right and wrong. I can carry on a moral
discussion about my sin with any one. Yet if they asked me how MY life was
going, before Celebrate Recovery, I would have to stop and reconsider my
options. I can tell them the truth, that I was out of control and knew what God
wanted me to do but was not obeying Him. Instead I was living my own life the
way I wanted. Or, my other option, I could lie. I often chose to lie. Hey,
I was the poster child for hypocrisy. The pain of lying was MUCH less than the
pain of embarrassment, guilt, and shame. I don’t like the pain from the
consequences of my behavior, but the behavior feels so good.
“I need a couple of beers to unwind... (6 to 24) Hey, it’s my
Birthday! I just browse the internet for enjoyment?! Whatever!! Everybody should
be allowed to eat a brownie once in a while, I don’t know why they are gone
before the day is over.... So I would lead a double life between my public life
and my inner, private life that I thought no one else knew about but me and God.
Of course I did not talk to God much about it because he always said the same
thing. Jim, you’re living in sin. We often take his love and compassion for
granted.
Why do we get stuck at this point? What are the barriers that stand in
our way? Pride is one. Have you ever said “what will people think if.....”.
also, fear, guilt, worry and doubt. Have you ever said things like... or heard
people say... “I have really screwed up my life. I have gone way too far. I
have hurt people to the point they may never forgive me. I have done the
unthinkable. God is not able to set ME straight, why look at all the times I
started and then turned back. Obviously recovery doesn’t work. ”Wouldn’t
it be easier to go away, leave this town, this family, this church and start
over without all my bagage? Wouldn’t it be easier to jump over board on this
‘ship of life’ than to navigate the boat to peace and wholeness? I have said
all these things at one time or another. Do you identify with any of these
statements? 1
John 4:18
There
is no fear in love. But perfect
love drives out fear. Romans
8:1
[
Life Through the Spirit ] Therefore,
there is now no
condemnation for those who are in
Christ Jesus,
1
Peter 5:7
Cast
all your anxiety on him because he cares
for you.
To
get moving in the right direction, we must not procrastinate. It’s easier to
simply not decide to commit our life to Christ’s care and control. But did you
know that not deciding is to decide NOT to allow His control? Committing my life
and will to Christ’s control is literally handing the keys over to Him. In
Revelation 3:20 he says Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hear his
voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him.
OK,
you might say. I KNOW MY life is out of control. I have tried to fix it and I
have proven that I am only good at messing it up.
And I also know that only God can fix it. I want him to do that, but I
seem to get stuck and I am still just treading water.
What kind of ‘rocket science’ do I have to understand in order to get
this process going on my behalf?
Let’s
start with tonight’s acrostic A C T I O N .
Accept:
Jesus Christ as your Higher Power. Higher than what? you might ask. The bible
will tell us just how high our Higher Power really is. I searched for names and
references to God and came up with 14 pages of simple, dynamic statements of or
about God. Here are a few:... I will read some to bless and inspire a sense of
this God we are trusting to get us out of our hurts and hang-ups......(Read some
of the names of God)......so we have a God who is more than just Higher, but totally
able and extremely available.
In
making the commitment to our higher power, we must be sure that who we are
giving our very lives over to is absolutely capable of taking care of us. Our
Higher Power is not a powerful person, or someone with close divine connections,
or some one who is great by all men's standards that we are trusting in. It is
not the act of giving commitment to my Higher Power that is significant on my
behalf
;.
Just because I commit myself to God does not some how produce a better person in
me. It is because the One that I am now committed to is completely and utterly
able to make a significant and permanent change in me.
Make that once in a life time decision to ask Jesus into your heart. Make
the decision to establish that personal relationship with your higher power that
He so desires. Now is the time to choose to commit your life. God is saying make
it today! Satan says maybe tomorrow. Romans 10:9 says, That
if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your
heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
The
next letter in our accrostic is C for
Commit. At this point I would like to introduce someone who I admire as one who
understands what ACTION is all about. I find him in Luke 15:11 11Jesus
continued: "There was a man who had two sons. 12The
younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he
divided his property between them.
13"Not
long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant
country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14After
he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he
began to be in need. (But, he was resourceful, and tried to fix his life
himself) 15So
he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his
fields to feed pigs. 16He
longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one
gave him anything. (He discovered that his life was unmanageble)17"When
he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to
spare, and here I am starving to death! 18I
will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned
against heaven and against you. 19I
am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.'
(It is at this point that he chose to commit his life to his father’s care and
control.) At first he took his inheritance, and by his own choosing, he
destroyed it all. He left for a foreign country. Far away from the familiar. He
‘got out of Dodge’. Like so many of us he said there is nothing here for me.
Let me go and live my life the way I want to. But it did not turn out the way he
had planned. And then he remembered his Father’s house and chose to come under
his care and control. He made a commitment to return to where he knew he would
be cared for. This young man happily committed himself to being a servant in his
father’s house. 20So
he got up and went to his father. This
man is demonstrating what action is all about.
We come to the letter T in our
acrostic. Luke 11:21
"The
son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no
longer worthy to be called your son. T is for TURNING IT OVER. He gave it
all to his father’s care and control. This son had a grasp of the humility
that was evidence of a true repentant heart. He was not interested in a
top position at home. He was now completely satisfied with being in his
father’s presence once again. He was not interested in voicing his opinion, he
only wanted to be warmed by his father’s compassion. He wanted peace in his
heart. He wanted to go to bed at night and know that all will be well because
his father is taking care of him.
Turning
it over means untying the strings, transferring control, taking your hands off.
Could you think for a moment about the area of your life
that you are struggling with? Something that seems to defy your best
efforts at changing it. As you think about this problem, imagine yourself giving
it totaly over to God. Imagine yourself releasing your hold on the problem.
Imagine yourself refusing to control it. What is your reaction to it? Are your
hands becoming sweaty? Is your mind racing? Are you short of breath? Is your
body shaking? Are you feeling anxiety? Then you must be thinking about the area
that God wants to take charge of tonight and bring peace into your life.
Remember the first line of the Serenity Prayer? God grant me the serenity to
accept the things I cannot change. If we had the ability to change it, we would
have the courage to do so. In CR we are realizing we are powerless over most
things. Even the things we have control of, we have discovered we must do them
God’s way or we end up royally messing them up. I have control over myself,
but I have successfully made a shambles of my own life. Just because I have
control over something doesn’t mean I am smart enough to take care of it
myself. I need God’s wisdom, grace, and power to make good decisions even
about myself.
Our next letter is I. It’s only the beginning. This is a lifelong
process of growing as a Christian. Phil 1:6being
confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to
completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 2Cor 3:18And
we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the
Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing
glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. That is something
you can only get from turning your life over to Christ’s care and control, we
are being changed into HIS image. You won’t get HIS image anywhere else except
in HIM. There are many things that must happen in us. It doesn’t get done all
at once. It is much like anything we do, there are often many steps that need to
take place before we enjoy the finished product. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman,
working where he is allowed and convicting us to where He would like to work in
us. He never over rides our willingness.
O
is the next letter of ACTION. Our recovery happens ONE day at a time. The letter
O stands for ONE. We can never change the past. It has become history. It is
done. It can not be redone, remodeled, refinished, refitted, refaced, or
refurbished. It cannot be demolished or destroyed. It is what it is. If we
constantly worry about tomorrow, we will waste precious time that we could be
spending on today. 2Cor 6:2 I
tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day
of salvation.
Psalm
118:24
This
is the day the LORD
has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Matt6:34
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Finally,
the last letter of ACTION is N. N stands for NEXT. The next step is to ask Jesus
into your life to be your Higher Power. How? It’s very simple. We can follow
yet another acrostic! B A S E
Believe
Jesus Christ died on the cross for me and showed He was God by coming back to
life. 1 Cor 15:2By
this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.
Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3
For
what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for
our sins according to the Scriptures, 4
that
he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
ACCEPT
God’s free forgiveness for my sins. Romans 3:22This
righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
There is no difference, 23for
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and
are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ
Jesus.
SWITCH
to God’s plan for my life.
Mark
1:16As
Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew
casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17"Come,
follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." 18At
once they left their nets and followed him.
Romans
12:2 2Do
not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will
is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
EXPRESS
my desire for Christ to be the director of my life.
Romans
10:9That
if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your
heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Here
comes the best part and it is a very important part. I do not know how you
perceive God. But how you turn your life over to someone and let him have total
control of your life has a great deal to do with who you see this person to be.
Can you trust him? Will he hurt you? What will life be like if you turn it over
to him? Did you trust your earthly father? Did he love and care for you? These
questions are more important than we often want to admit. What ever our past has
been, we must let it be the past. It is over. What ever kind of father or mother
we are and what ever kind of father we have had, it does not compare to the
character of our Heavenly Father. Lay it all aside for the true father to
express his love to you. This is what I Iove most about the younger son and his
relationship with his father. Here is the heart of his father and how our
heavenly father responds to you and me. Luke 15 "But
while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with
compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
This is exactly what our father does for us when we make that commitment
and begin our walk toward him! He does not do it when we turn and say we
believe, but when we take those first steps of acting on our commitment to him,
He runs to us and loves on us.
21"The
son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no
longer worthy to be called your son.'
22"But
the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him.
Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23Bring
the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. 24For
this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they
began to celebrate.
This
is what Celebrate Recovery is all about. I was dead and now I am alive. I was
lost and now I am found. Every week Gina kills the fattened calf and we have a
blow out celebration. Yes! If it weren’t for what God has done in my life
through Celebrate Recovery, I would be back there wondering how I was going to
be spiritually alive once again.
If
you are ready to take this step, in a minute we will pray together. If you have
already taken this step, use this prayer to recommit to continue to seek and
follow God’s will.
Dear God, there are some her this
evening that need to make the decision to commit their lives into Your hands, to
ask You into their hearts as their Lord and savior. Give them the courage to
silently do so right now in this moment. It is the most important decision that
they will ever make.
Pray
with me. I’ll say a phrase and you
repeat it in your heart.
Dear
God, I believe You sent your Son, Jesus, to die for my sins so I can be
forgiven. I’m sorry for my sins, and I want to live the rest of my life the
way You want me to. Please put your Spirit in my life to direct me. Amen.