Are you ready for some sanity in your life?
Welcome to Step 2 in the Life Recovery Workbook, the second step in a 12-step faith-based recovery program. In this video, I provide a deep dive into this step, which involves acknowledging a higher power and believing it can restore us to sanity in our struggles against addiction.
I am reading stories from the Life Recovery Workbook and reflecting on faith-inspired examples from the Bible. After the scripture reading, I encourage listeners to self-reflect by posing a series of thought-provoking questions and walk with them to contemplate their addictions and work through the recovery process.
Step 2 is Coming to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. The questions from this step are below for you to copy, paste, and work through on your own.
Need help working through some questions or steps? Reach out to me privately or drop a message in the comments. I respond to ALL messages.
STEP 2 QUESTIONS:
Persistent Seeking: Job 14:1-6
How has life seemed unfair to me in the areas of family? Trauma/abuse? Addiction?
What are my objections to trusting God fully with my addiction and my life?
What emotions and questions do I need to be honest with God about?
Am I willing to work through the pain and unfairness in my life in order to find God and be freed from addiction?
What holds me back?
Grandiose Thinking: Daniel 4:19-33
When in my addiction, in what ways did I display the belief that I was only accountable to myself?
How have I tried to have power over the events, outcomes, and people in my life?
In what ways did I show that I forgot that God is ultimately in control?
How have I avoided acceptance of God’s power over my life?
Internal Bondage: Mark 5:1-13
What self-destructive behaviors have I inflicted on myself due to addiction? List and describe them.
How has my addiction kept me from living my own life while finding myself more comfortable in ‘caves’ of isolation, anger, rage, or silent judgment?
Have I begun to drop my insanity of living alone and being trapped in addiction?
Am I ready to have Jesus visit me in my ‘caves’ and cleanse me? If so, write out a prayer to him here.
Healing Faith: Luke 8:43-48
How have I tried to control my problems in my own power? What were the results?
Is there any other way that I would like to try to control and manage it?
Am I ready to do my part, as this woman courageously did, by reaching out for recovery in faith that Jesus’ power will be there?
Write out a statement of readiness to God.
Restoration: Luke 15:11-24
How have my compulsions and addictions led me to compromise my values, convictions, and principles?
How have my compulsions and addictions dehumanized me and brought me to shame?
In light of how my addictions and dependencies have degraded me, am I now open to a deeper level of believing that the power and forgiveness of God will restore me to sanity?
Coming to believe: Romans 1:18-20
How have my experiences shown me that my way of living is not a satisfying or productive way to live?
How have I seen God’s power at work in other people’s lives?
What are the signs that I am on the path and in the process of being restored to sanity?
Hope in Faith: Hebrews 11:1-10
Am I becoming able to believe that God can help me to live sanely? How?
Can I now believe that as I reach out for God’s strength and surrender to him, God’s nature is to be present and ready to help and support sane choices? Why or why not?
Want a Life Recovery Workbook for yourself? Pick one up here:
So this Life Recovery workbookthat we're going through.
This is all about transformationfrom death to life.
From addiction to recovery.
It's about walking with God.
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Humbly accepting and doing His will.
And as you work through each of these12 steps, you're going to discover
some challenging, spiritual lessonsthat are going to allow you to
live your life free from addiction.
And that's what my hope anddesire is for anybody out there.
That's listening to this,that's going through it.
That's maybe just trying to putsome things together in your life.
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That's what this is allabout is just giving you some
tools for the toolbox, right?
So let's go over the 12 steps.
Some of you may not even befamiliar with what these 12 steps
are like, what is step number one?
What step number two that we'regoing to be talking about today.
So the 12 steps.
Number one, we admitted that we werepowerless over our problems and that
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our lives have become unmanageable.
And that's really where we haveto start in order to go anywhere.
Number two, the one that we're on today,we came to believe that a power greater
than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
That's what we're goingto be focusing on today.
This all builds on whatwe talked about last week.
If you haven't seen the video for weeknumber one, please go back and watch that.
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Listen to some of the questions andreally start taking that journey
yourself and seeing where it takes you.
Because this is not a an exact formulaand like, it works the same for everybody.
Everybody's journey is goingto be a little bit different.
So I encourage you to listento some of those questions.
I even put them down in the descriptionso you can copy and paste them,
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dump them over into a word doc,and maybe chew on them a little
bit more after the video's over.
That's really what this is allabout is trying to get you in tune
with what's going on right here.
Right?
Why are we powerless over those things?
Why have our lives become unmanageable?
Why did we allow our lifeto get to that point?
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Right?
Those are the questions that youget to start asking yourself.
Are you uncomfortable withwhere you're at right now?
Do you want something different?
That's what this is about too.
Step number two, the one thatwe're going to be working on today.
We came to believe that a power greaterthan ourselves could restore us to sanity.
So we believe that a power greater thanourselves could restore us to sanity.
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All right now we're reading outof the Life Recovery Workbook.
This is exactly what you would get.
I found this Life Recovery Bibleonline, and there happened to be a Life
Recovery workbook that went along withit so I thought I'd give it a shot.
I've been through AA, N A CelebrateRecovery, all of those are great programs.
And I was just curiousto be honest with you.
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I mean, I have 13 years of sobriety.
That doesn't mean Ihave it all figured out.
It just means I have gonethat many days without putting
crazy substances in my body.
But I found this life recovery workbook.
It's been sitting on my desk for the lastfew months and I've been looking at it.
And finally something'sjust said, you know what?
Just get out, start readingthis thing, going through it.
There's other people that aregoing through the same exact thing.
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And I appreciate the messages that I get.
I've gotten some really greatmessages from some people.
So thank you for following along,and hopefully we can do this journey
together and learn a little bitmore about what brought us here and
how to get out of where we're at.
So here's the story for thestep number two, that's inside
of the Life Recovery Workbook.
Allie was always overweightas a child and a teenager.
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Her weight was a very soresubject in her family.
But food was her main concernfor anxiety and depression.
She never felt as thoughshe fit in with others.
And her friends seem to beuntrustworthy and two faced.
Food became her comfort,companion excitement.
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And even her recreation.
Over the years, her weight continuedto climb until she was hopeless about
the possibility of having a slim body.
She would have fleeting periodsof weight loss, but was never
able to make a lasting difference.
Years of self hatred and feelingmarginalized by life made her disbelieve
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that God could or would help herwith her food and eating problems.
She struggled for self-esteem and triedmany self-help strategies for learning to
like herself, despite her extra pounds.
When she walked into Overeaters Anonymous,a 12 step group for compulsive eaters.
She knew that she was powerless over food.
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Step one was obvious to her, but step two.
Coming to believe that a powergreater than her could restore her
to sanity was a huge roadblock.
The challenge of step two was to gainenough faith to believe that God could
accomplish what she could never do.
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As with all of us, Allie's faith hadto grow as she opened her mind to the
possibility that God could actuallyhelp her with her specific problem.
By talking to a sponsor andother people in the program.
She learned to simply believethat God's power was there.
And that he was reallyinterested in her food issues.
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She began with hesitant faith toask God to remove the insanity.
The obsessive thoughts about food.
The time spent bingeing thenegative thoughts about herself
and the damaging effects that allof this was having on her body.
Over time, her trustand belief in God grew.
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As she learned to let go of food one dayat a time, follow a food plan and trust
God to help her act sanely around food.
The surrender of her dependency, aswe all must learn, came by taking
opposite action around food, evenwhen she didn't feel like it.
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By surrendering daily, Allie feltcloser to God without the food fog.
She regained wholenessand sanity around food.
As we have faced our powerlessnessto stop the deadly progression
of addiction in step one.
We have admitted our completedefeat because there is no hope
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available within ourselves.
Our sinful human condition.
There's no hope there.
Step number two describes the processby which we look outside of ourselves
to develop hope that there is a powerthat can stop the addiction process.
This step begins with recognizing thataddiction is a season of insanity.
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What usually begins innocently as seekingpleasure, maybe relief or comfort.
Becomes over time, a coping mechanismfor avoiding reality and responsibility.
The pain of dealing with upsets hardshipsand disappointments of life can wear
down our faith and our confidence in God.
Substances and addictive behaviorscan be a way of managing our stress
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and our sense of being out of control.
As time goes on,
unfortunately, this copingmechanism turns against us.
Instead of relief and comfort, wefind more difficulties and troubles.
We multiply our problems.
Instead of solving them.
When we face the fact that wehave been in a sense, insane to
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think that we could make life workby acting out in our addiction.
We see that our belief in God and inhis son, Jesus has been nullified.
Our faith has been overthrown by ouraddictive thoughts and behaviors.
And we are headed towardsspiritual disaster.
Surrendering the reinsof our life is not easy.
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We have to face our arrogant thinkingand realize that, although we believe
in God, We have not allowed him intoour lives in a real and practical way.
We have not fully understood how desperatewe are for his restoration and healing.
When we can honestly accept that we arenot God and that he must have more room in
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our lives than we have previously allowed.
We will come closer toreleasing our arrogance.
We have been trying to bendlife to our will and have not
considered God's will at all.
In the meditations on this step, we lookat scriptures that describe what happens
when we try to live in our own power.
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First, we begin to thinkthat God is unfair.
We begin to question him and wonderif he is really with us as Job did.
Our insanity in this case is having thearrogance to think that we could actually
see the whole picture as God does.
And know what is fair or unfair.
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Coming to believe for Job meantaccepting that he was a finite
human and that God is omniscient.
We may become grandiose likeNebuchadnezzar and think that
we have the right to declare howlife should revolve around us.
Our needs and our wishes.
This king looked at his success and beganto claim the credit all for himself.
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He lost the humility of rememberingthat God rules and gives power
and success to anyone he chooses.
His grandiosity of thought andattitude was revealed by the dream
that he had Daniel interpret.
Daniel pleaded with him to turnfrom his sin of grandiose thinking.
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But his ego was hooked bythe pride of accomplishment.
By my own mighty power I have built thisbeautiful city as my Royal residence
to display my majestic splendor.
Daniel four verse 30.
God did not allow Nebuchadnezzarto continue in that way.
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He was humbled by God with a seasonof insanity and grazed aimlessly
with the cattle in the fields
until he acknowledged God'ssovereignty and power.
The King's grandiose thinking issimilar to the grandiosity of addiction.
We try to make life work bymedicating, avoiding, or filling
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ourselves with more and more sex,food relationships, substances.
All of it.
What eventually happens is similarto what happened with Nebuchadnezzar.
We end up wandering aimlesslyhumiliated and not accomplishing much.
His season of insanity waslike our season of addiction.
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After his pointless drifting, thisking came to his senses by looking up
to heaven and realizing that life didnot revolve around him, but around God.
In the same way to berelieved of addiction.
We realized that our way ofdealing with life has not worked.
Our years of medicating our emotionswith substances or compulsive
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behaviors have not brought the senseof comfort that we were seeking.
As we face the insanity of choosingto cope with life in these ways.
We look up to heaven tofind the all powerful God.
Addiction is also a type ofinsanity in the way that it
affects our internal world.
Jesus came upon a man who wascalled Legion because he had so
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many demons living inside of him.
Addiction is like that.
We become consumed with demonsof envy, jealousy, fear and hate.
That drive us away from relationshipsand toward the tombs of isolation,
bitterness, and hopelessness.
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We need Jesus to restoreus to our right minds.
Put us back on our feet and healour hearts as he did for this man.
If our addiction goes on foryears, we can become outcasts
from society like the woman in thegospels with the issue of blood.
We are cut off from relationships and areunable to find acceptance from people.
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Isolation and loneliness areterribly painful and they are
not what God intended for us.
It is essential for us to restore ourrelationships and connections with
people, if we are going to emerge from ouraddictions and make a successful recovery.
Our insanity must be healed by ourreaching out for God as this woman did.
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She hesitantly and feebly sawJesus in the crowd thinking.
If I can just touch his robe.
I'll be healed.
Reaching out to others as a tangiblesign that we are reaching out
for God's healing in our lives.
Once we can face and accept thatwe have been insane and these ways.
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We are closer to recognizinghow desperately we need
God's touch to restore us.
Coming to believe in step two isa process of becoming aware of
a greater reality than anythingthat we can see with our eyes.
God is willing at any moment tohelp us overcome our addictive
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behaviors and unmanageable emotions.
By engaging in this process, we allowGod to restore us to right thinking.
And to clear faith in His power.
Then we can be free from the isolation,the grandiosity, and the tortured thoughts
and feelings that accompany addiction.
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The first scripture that we're goingto be talking about today is Job
chapter 14 verses one through six.
How frail is humanity.
How short is life.
How full of trouble.
We blossom like a flowerand then with her.
Like a passing shadow.
We quickly disappear.
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Must you keep an eye on such a frailcreature and demand an accounting for me.
Who can bring purityout of an impure person?
No one.
You have decided the length of our lives.
You know how many months we will liveand we are not given a minute longer
So leave us alone and let us rest.
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We are like hired hands So letus finish our work in peace
So, how has life seemed unfair to you?
In the areas of family?
So think about your family.
How has life seemed unfair to you?
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How has life seemed unfairto you in regards to trauma?
That may have happened to youin your life, in the past.
Maybe abuse.
Are there ways that life has reallyseemed unfair to you because of something
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that someone else has done to you?
What about addiction?
Do you ever feel that life is unfairbecause you have this addiction
because you have something inyour life that's unmanageable?
Something that makes you powerless.
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Do you feel resentment becauseyou have that thing in your life?
How has life seemed unfair toyou in those areas of family?
Trauma.
Abuse.
Or even addiction that's in your life.
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What areas can you define?
That just seem unfair.
What are your objections to trusting Godfully with your addiction and your life?
So what areas do you find yourselfobjecting to just trusting God?
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Are you trying to have thewhole faith thing figured out
maybe before you say yes to God?
What about saying yes toGod and just showing up?
Nobody requires you to bephysically fit and perfectly healthy
before you walk into a hospital.
Just saying.
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So before you start trusting God,what are some objections that
you have with your addiction?
And also your life.
What emotions and questions do youneed to be honest with God about?
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So, are there things, maybe emotionsthat you have about things that may
have happened to you in the past?
What emotions are those,and can you identify those
in order to be honest with Godabout right where you're at?
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Are you willing to work throughthe pain and the unfairness
of life in order to find God?
And maybe be freed from your addiction?
There's a lot of things that happen tous as we go through life that are unfair
things that we didn't ask for thingsthat other people have done to us.
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And sometimes those can be thehardest things to get over.
We feel shame.
Or rejection or any of those things.
Are you willing to work throughthe pain of those items in your
life and the unfairness of it all?
No one's saying that the thingsthat happened to you or that were
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involved in your life are all yourfault or all your responsibility.
There's definitely unfairness I'm sure
in all of our lives.
So are you willing though to work throughthat pain and that unfairness in order to
find God and be freed from that addiction?
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What holds you back frommaking that decision?
So what holds you back?
This next section is Daniel chapter.
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Four verse 19 through 33,Daniel explains the dream that
was given to him by the king.
So upon hearing this Daniel, also knownas Belteshazzar was overcome for a time
frightened by the meaning of the dream.
Then the king said to him,Belteshazzar, don't be alarmed
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by the dream and what it means.
Belteshazzar replied, man.
I hope I'm getting this right.
I wish the events for shadowed in thisdream would happen to your enemies.
My Lord, and not you, the treethat you saw was growing very tall
and strong, reaching high into theheavens for all the world to see.
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It had fresh green leavesand was loaded with fruit.
Fruit for all to eat.
Wild animals lived in its shadeand birds nested in its branches.
That tree, your majesty.
Is you.
For you have grown strong and great.
Your greatness reaches up to heaven.
And your rule to the ends of the earth.
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Then you saw a messenger, a holy onecoming down from heaven and saying,
cut down the tree and destroy it.
But leave the stump and the roots andthe ground bound with a band of iron
and bronze, surrounded by tender grass.
Let him be drenchedwith the Dew of heaven.
Let him live with the animals ofthe field for seven periods of time.
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This is what the dream means, yourmajesty and what the most high has
declared will happen to my Lord,
the King.
You will be driven from human society.
and you will live in thefields with the wild animals.
You will eat grass like a cow and youwill be drenched with the Dew of Heaven.
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Seven periods of time will passwhile you live this way, until
you learn that the most high rulesover the kingdoms of the world.
And gives them to anyone he chooses.
But the stump and the roots ofthe tree were left in the ground.
This means that you willreceive your kingdom back again.
When you have learned that heaven rules.
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King Nebuchadnezzar,please accept my advice.
Stop sinning and do what is right.
Break from your wicked pastand be merciful to the poor.
Perhaps then you will continue to prosper.
But all of these things didhappen to king Nebuchadnezzar.
12 months later, he was takinga walk on the flat roof of
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the Royal palace in Babylon.
As he looked out across the city he saidLook at this great city of babylon by
my own mighty power i have built Thisbeautiful city as my My royal residence.
To display.
My majestic splendor While these wordswere still in his mouth A voice called
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down from heaven Oh kingdom, you could,Nuzzer this messages for you you are
no longer The Ruler of this kingdom Youwill be driven from human society you
will live in the fields with the wildanimals and You will eat grass like a cow.
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Southern periods of time will pass whileyou live this way until you learn that
the most high rules over the kingdomsof the world and gives them to anyone
he chooses That same hour the judgmentwas fulfilled and Nebuchadnezzar was
driven from human society he ate grasslike a cow and he was drenched with the
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dew of heaven he lived this way until hishair was as long as the eagles feathers
And his nails were like birds claws.
So think about your addiction whenyou're in your addiction, in what ways
do you display the belief that, you'rereally only accountable to yourself?
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So think about your addiction.
How do you try to convinceyourself that you're really
only accountable to yourself?
How have you tried to maybe have powerover the events and the outcomes and
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even the people that are in your life?
How have you tried tomanipulate those people?
And those things, those outcomes.
In order to
cover up your addiction?
To make excuses for it?
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In what ways do you show that you forgetthat God is ultimately in control?
So in what ways do you show thatreally, you're just choosing to forget
that God is in control of your life?
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And how have you avoided acceptanceof God's power over your life?
So think about how have you tried toavoid that acceptance of God's power
and ultimately His rule in your life?
I mean, think back to the scripturewe just read with Nebuchadnezzar and
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how he was just so certain thateverything he had in his life was
because of something he had done.
Without giving any credit or any.
Really any nod to God, and everythingthat God had done in his life.
So, how have you avoided acceptanceof God's power over your life?
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The next section of scriptureis Mark chapter five.
Jesus heals, a demon possessed man.
So they arrived at the other side ofthe lake in the region of grassiness.
When Jesus climbed out of the boat,a man possessed by an evil spirit
came out of the tombs to meet him.
This man lived in the burialcaves and could no longer be
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restrained even with a chain.
Chain.
Whenever he was put into chains andshackles, as often as he was, he
snapped the chains from his wrists.
And smashed the shackles.
No one was strong enough to subdue.
Subdue him.
Day and night he wanderedamong the burial.
Caves and in the Hills,howling and cutting himself.
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With sharp stones.
When Jesus was still somedistance away, the man saw him.
I ran to meet him.
And.
And bowed low before him.
With a shriek.
He screamed.
Why are you interfering with me?
Jesus, son of the most high God.
In the name of God i beg you don'ttorture me For Jesus had already said to
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the spirit Come out of the man you evilspirit Then jesus demanded what is your
name And he replied my name is legionbecause there are many of us inside of
this man Then the evil spirits beggedhim again and again not to send them
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to some distant place There happened tobe a large herd of pigs feeding on the
hillside nearby Send us into those pigsthe spirits begged let us enter them
So jesus gave them permission The evilspirits came out of The man and entered
The pigs and the entire herd of about 2000pigs I Plunged down the steep hillside
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into the lake And drowned in the water
So let's talk about thoseself-destructive behaviors.
What are some of the self-destructivebehaviors that you've inflicted
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on yourself due to addiction?
Think about some of thoseself-destructive behaviors.
Let's talk about a few of thosethat may be on your list and
maybe they're not on your list.
Excessive alcohol and drug use.
When you engage in heavydrinking or substance abuse.
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This can all have seriousphysical and mental consequences.
How about reckless driving?
Drunk driving, maybe speeding.
These things can all leadto accidents and injuries.
And you're not only endangeringyourself, but other people.
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Maybe it's other risk takingbehaviors like deliberately putting
yourself in a dangerous situation.
maybe like doing extreme sportswithout proper precautions, you know?
Lot of times people can sayI'm an adrenaline junkie.
That's just who I am.
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What about neglecting physical health?
Really just ignoring your healthand maybe medical conditions
that are starting to creep up.
Not wanting to deal with it.
Just putting your head in the sand.
Not taking medications thatare prescribed to you or maybe
skipping your regular checkups.
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What about binge eating?
Or starving yourself?
These extreme eating behaviors can reallydo some physical and also emotional harm.
So binge eating or starving yourself.
What about, and we may not even thinkof this as a self destructive behavior,
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but what about procrastination?
Do you find yourself constantlydelaying tasks and responsibilities
because all of that, it adds up tostress because it's an unfinished thing
that's still out there in your mind.
So these things can lead tostress, to missed opportunities,
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and even negative consequences.
Here's another one.
How about excessive spending?
Engaging in impulsiveand extravagant shopping.
Can often lead to somefinancial stress and problems.
And is another form ofself-destructive behavior.
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So think about all of these.
Behaviors.
And lastly, and I'm sure thatthere's many more, but this is
just the last one I'll touch on.
How about self-harm?
Intentionally doing things to injureyourself such as maybe cutting or burning.
These are clear examples ofself-destructive behavior.
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Think back what Self-destructivebehaviors have you inflicted on
yourself Due to your addiction?
How has your Addiction kept youfrom living your own life while
finding yourself more comfortablein The caves Of isolation.
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Anger.
Maybe you're in a cave of rage.
What about silent judgment.
So how has your addiction kept youfrom living your own life While
finding yourself more comfortablein those caves of isolation
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anger Rage Or silent judgment?
Have you begun to drop yourinsanity of living alone and
being trapped in addiction?
Have you begun to drop theinsanity of living alone?
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Are you ready to have Jesusvisit you in your cave?
Whatever cave that may be in?
You know when you're hiding outand you're all alone Are you ready
to have Jesus meet you there?
If you are, Take a moment and thinkabout Saying a prayer In regards
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to that If you've copied theseinto a word doc and you're kind of
working through some of the steps
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This next section is out ofLuke chapter eight verses.
Versus 43 to 48.
.
A woman in the crowd had suffered
for 12 years with constant bleeding.
And she could find no cure.
Coming up behind Jesus.
She touched the fringe of his robe.
Immediately.
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The bleeding stopped.
Who touch me?
Jesus asked.
Everyone denied it.
And Peter said, master, this wholecrowd is pressing up against you.
But Jesus said, somebodydeliberately touched me.
For, I felt healing power go out from me.
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When the woman realized that she couldnot stay hidden She began to tremble and
fell to her knees in front of him Thewhole crowd heard her explain why she
had touched him and that she had beenimmediately healed Daughter he said to her
Your faith has made you well go in piece.
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How have you tried to controlyour problems in your own power?
So when you have problems in life andyou try to control them by yourself.
How have you done thatand how has it worked out?
What have the results been?
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So when you try to control yourproblems in your own power.
What happens?
How have you done that?
And what are the results?
From those actions.
Is there any other way thatyou would like to try and
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control and manage those things?
So in your mind, do you maybe havean idea of another way that maybe
you should be handling some ofthose situations when they happen.
So, was there any other way thatyou think could work better?
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Are you ready to do your part?
Just as this woman courageouslydid in the scripture that we read.
By reaching out for recovery in faiththat Jesus' power will be there.
So are you ready to take that step?
If you knew that the answer for what'sgoing on in your life right now,
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Was in this crowd of people.
And all you had to do is goand touch the robe of this
person that was in that crowd.
Would you take the steps towards Jesus?
Would you take the riskof touching his robe?
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Would you put yourself out therein front of a crowd of people?
Asking for help.
If you're ready to take those stepstowards God, if you're ready to take those
steps towards him in that busy crowd.
Lots of people around, butyou're ready for recovery.
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Start thinking about what thatsounds like when you get ready to
have that conversation with God.
Maybe write out a statement to God.
Asking him
to fix the things thatyou feel need fixing.
Maybe to uncover some other thingsthat you don't even know about yet.
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So write out that statement to God, ormaybe if you're driving right now or
just out and about maybe think about.
That statement to God.
What does that look like?
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The next scripture reading is Romanschapter one, verse 18 through 20.
This is about God's anger at sin,but God shows his anger from heaven
against all sinful, wicked people whosuppress the truth by their wickedness.
They know the truth about God becauseHe has made it obvious to them.
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For ever since the world was created,people have seen the earth and sky.
Through everything God made, they canclearly see his invisible qualities,
his eternal power, and divine nature.
So they have no excusefor not knowing God.
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How have your experiences shown youthat your way of living is not a
satisfying or productive way to live?
So have you had some experiences inyour life where you have just really
come to the end of yourself whereyou're wondering, like, how did I even
allow myself to get to this point?
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So how have your experience has shownyou that your current way of living is not
a satisfying or productive way to live?
Number two.
How have you seen God's powerat work in other people's lives?
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Have you seen him at workin anyone's life around you?
Maybe somebody that has gotten soberaround you, or maybe somebody that
has fought some type of addiction ora compulsion or something like that.
And they're experiencing some freedom.
What do you see inside of that person?
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Do you see God's power at work there?
And the last question for this section.
What are the signs that you'reon the path and in the process
of being restored to sanity?
What do you think the signs are?
When you're on that path, whatkind of things are going to be
happening in your life do you think?
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You think, maybe the people that you'rehanging around might change a little bit?
Maybe the places that you frequent?
You know, there's that familiar sayinginside of recovery, that in order
to get sober or in order to changesome addictive behaviors in your
life you have to change the people,places and things in your life, right?
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People, places and things.
And that is very, very true.
I mean, there's a lot of triggers andthat's for a whole nother section, but
there's a lot of triggers that comealong with being around some of those
familiar things from our addiction.
In your mind when youstart thinking about this.
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What are some of the signsthat you're on that right path.
That you're on the right path.
You're headed in the right direction.
What are the signs that you'regoing to feel that you are really
that is your confirmation, right.
That you're heading in the right directionand your sanity's getting restored.
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So what kind of things do youthink would be happening in life?
for the last scripture readingfor this section, it is Hebrews
11 verses one through 10.
Great examples of faith.
Faith shows the realityof what we hope for.
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It is the evidence ofthings we cannot see.
Through their faith, the people indays of old earned a good reputation.
By faith, we understand that theentire universe was formed at God's
command, that what we now see did notcome from anything that can be seen.
It was by faith that Abel brought a moreacceptable offering to God than Cain did.
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Abel's offering gave evidence thathe was a righteous man, and God
showed his approval of his gifts.
Although Abel is long dead, he stillspeaks to us by his example of faith.
It was by faith that Enoch wastaken up to heaven without dying.
He disappeared because God took him.
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For before he was taken up, he was knownas a person who pleased God, and it was
impossible to please God without faith.
Anyone who wants to come to him mustbelieve that God exists and that he
rewards those who sincerely seek him.
It was by faith that Noah built a largeboat to save his family from the flood.
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He obeyed God, who warned him aboutthings that had never happened before.
By his faith, Noah condemnedthe rest of the world, and he
received the righteousness.
That comes by faith.
It was by faith that Abraham obeyedwhen God called him to leave home
and go to another land that Godwould give him as his inheritance.
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He went without knowingwhere he was going.
And even when he reached theland God promised him, he lived
there, by faith, for he was likea foreigner living in tents.
And so did Isaac and Jacob whoinherited the same promise.
Abraham was confidently looking forwardto a city with eternal foundations,
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a city designed and built by God.
I really loved the heroes offaith section there in Hebrews.
That always puts it into perspective andthese people were believing in something
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long before it was ever even there.
So I'm looking at where you're at now.
Are you becoming able.
To believe that God canhelp you to live sanely?
So are you becoming able to believethat possibly God is able to help
you live a little bit more of a sanelife than what you have been living?
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And if so, how are you becoming able?
So think about that.
How are you becoming able to believethat God can help you live more sanely?
All right.
And for the last question on this section,can you now believe that as you reach out
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for God's strength and surrender to himthat God's nature is to be present and
ready to help in support sane choices?
To believe that God is there to maybehelp direct you on the right path.
If you're not there yet trustingGod to do these things for you.
It's okay.
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I get it.
A lot of us have some baggage maybethat we got to work through with the
whole religion thing, maybe the wholereligion thing is brand new to you.
And guess what.
That's okay.
I'm here to meet youexactly where you're at.
I'm just glad that you're here today.
So, Are you starting to seethrough some of these stories.
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And also looking at some of the 12 steps.
Are you able to see how as youreach out for God's strength and
really surrender to him that he'sreally going to be there to support
some better avenues in your life.
The delusion of power isa deadly lie to live with.
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We try to convince ourselves thatwe have control and that we have
the power within us to change.
Often those around us, fortifythe delusion and hide the evidence
of our powerlessness from us.
Then in a rare moment of clarity,we come to see that we have made
no progress, possess no power,and know of no path to follow.
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The fortunate ones, discover thatin thousands of remarkable ways,
God has been reaching out for us andrevealing that he can help, that he
can heal, and that he can restore.
Finally hearing God'struth and believing it.
Leads every struggler froma place of hopelessness to
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the possibility of a new life
And friends just like that.
Here we are done with step number two.
I mean, it's one step at a time.
You never finish a marathon bylike just starting out and all
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of a sudden your 26 miles in.
No, it doesn't happen like that.
It's one step in front of the other.
Somebody said once, howdo you eat an elephant?
And the answer was one bite at a time.
I mean an elephant is huge, right?
Like you're looking at thisbig insurmountable thing.
But it's really.
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Just one bite at a time.
That's how it all works.
So here we are.
Step number two.
So step number one, just to recap,we admitted that we were powerless
over our problems and that ourlives have become unmanageable.
That was last week.
If you haven't seen that video,there's going to be a link down there.
Make sure you go check that oneout all of the questions and
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stuff are also in the description.
So check those out.
This is really just aboutgetting to figure out like.
How did we get to this placeand how do we get out of it?
Right.
So step number two,
we came to believe that a power greaterthan ourselves could restore us to sanity.
And let me encourage you here.
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If you're not at that point yet whereyou believe that that power greater
than yourself can restore you to sanity.
That's okay.
Keep working through the steps.
Keep an open mind.
Okay.
Ask the universe or whatever youwant to call it to open up your mind.
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To be open to the possibility ofsomething better in different
than where you're at right now.
I encourage you today.
Just keep trying.
I keep plugging away.
Keep an open mind.
And I guarantee you're going tofind what you're looking for.
If you keep knocking.
Knock and the door shall be opened right.
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So friends have a great week.
Thanks for joining in today.
I'm going to have stepthree for next week.
So make sure you stay tuned for that.
But, thank you for joining along.
If you have any comments, if you havemaybe part of your journey that you
want to share down in the commentsmaybe you just want to reach out to me
privately all my contact informationis down there i'm not hard To find.
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But i look forward to seeing you nexttime thanks again For following along.
Be Blessed
and be a blessing wherever you're at