The National Center for Family Integrated Churches welcomes Rob Tartt with the following message entitled, Evangelizing addicts. I was thinking when I was first asked to do this subject, you know, what do you talk about? I mean, I don't want to try to encourage anybody to start quote unquote an addictions program in the church per se. So what do you do? What do you talk about here?

And you know a lot of times at a facility, at an event like this, we're trying to encourage people to do the right thing. And you know we're encouraged into family worship, encouraged into evangelism or whatever it is that you're trying to do. But the problem with this subject is with the addict and it's kind of a hard thing to deal with. So what I want to do is to try to give you some things to talk about when you're dealing with an addict Because I think that when it becomes, when it comes to evangelizing, knowing what to talk about, knowing what to say to someone is half the problem. Not long ago I was with a colleague, we were in a legal seminar in Nashville, and on the way back we were going to the airport.

We had a rented car. We were going back to the airport and I actually walked in to the airport and I looked at him and I said, you know a lot of times when I come into an airport like this for whatever reason the Lord allows me to see someone that I know. I wonder who the Lord's going to let me see tonight, today, tonight. And I kind of said that halfway joking. Lo and behold, just walking down the hall in the airport, a gentleman came walking out of the restroom, and it was a man that I have known for probably 12 years or more.

I haven't seen him lately but he volunteers at the rescue mission where I work. He volunteers and has done a lot for the rescue mission. He's actually probably the instigator for the phone system being donated from Cisco to us and I don't know Jim you think that phone system is worth about $100, 000 or more? And a state-of-the-art phone system, and they've kept it up to date. And it's just amazing how much over the years that he has actually done for the rescue mission.

But I know that he doesn't know the Lord. Why he's doing these things for their mission, I don't know. He probably thinks the Lord finds favor in what he's doing, giving him favor, but for his goodness I don't know what he's thinking. But I asked him, I said, Paul would you like to join us for some dinner? We're gonna go find some dinner.

He said, I just ate, but I'd love to just sit with you. We just happened to be on the same flight, going back to the same town. And he sat down and we went and got our food and he came and we came and we sat with him and he was sitting watching the television And there was something going on about the election. I can't remember everything that was going on there. I was sitting there the whole time kind of praying, Lord, you've let me meet this gentleman today for a reason.

I probably need to give him the gospel today and I feel pretty confident he doesn't know the Lord, know you Lord, but I didn't know what to say. I was sitting there struggling, what do I say? How do I bring this up? How do I break this up? I don't want to offend him, I don't want to come on too strong, but I felt like the Lord really would have me to say something to him.

And we were talking, and they were talking about the election on television, he was paying attention to it, and I was pretending like I was paying attention to it and he said something about Barack Obama and Romney and blah blah blah and and he said he just didn't know so much about Romney you know he was kind of kind of concerned about a Mormon. And then he made the comment, he said, but Obama's a good Christian. He said, Obama's a good Christian. I thought, thank you, Lord, I know what to say. If you know what I'm saying, I know where I can, I see an inroad here?

Thank you, Lord. I see an inroad. And I really was able to have a real good conversation with him. We did get to the Gospel and he did not profess the Lord, but I think he really did understand. He even said, I see your point.

I understand. And so I wish he would pray for him. His name is Paul and a great, great guy and I hope that the Lord will use that conversation and maybe send him another witness. But if you live and move in this world, if you have friends, if you have family, you have co-workers, you probably know someone that has an addiction problem. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands, but you probably have run into someone and you've probably, maybe your sister, your brother, you've got a niece or nephew that, You know, they just don't know what to do.

And they ask you, you're a Christian, and you don't know where to start. You don't know what to say. And I want to, that's what I want to try to do today, is just try to give you something to get started with, something to talk about. There's no way we could settle the subject of addictions in one lesson. But I want to define a few things before I get into what I want to talk about.

First off, the word addiction. I'm going to use this term. I really don't like this term, but I'm going to use it because of the understanding that most of us have about it is a description of the behavior. But what I mean by an addiction is a life dominating sin. And I reject the idea of a disease model addiction.

The second thing I'd like to point out is the doctrine of election. I believe in the doctrine of election, so I do not think that I can tell you how to evangelize someone that the Lord is not already drawing to himself. If the Lord saves someone's soul, that is glory to the Lord. And if he uses us, praise the Lord. If he doesn't use us, praise the Lord.

But the point I want to make is that I'm not trying to give you some gimmick or some trick that you can use to get someone to stop drinking. Thirdly, I'm not even going to try to tell you how to get someone to stop drinking or using drugs. That's not my objective. Hopefully that would happen for the person that you love. However, if our goal is only to see them stop drinking or to stop using drugs or to somehow trade one vice for another vice, then our goal is too low.

That is not what we're about. And Mark chapter 8 verse 36 says, For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? That is not what we're here for. And fourthly, I want to say that sanctification is the goal in dealing with anyone like this. Obviously, seeing them come to know the Lord is the beginning of it all, but I wish I had time to get to the doctrine of sanctification.

I don't know that you can really deal with the subject of addictions fully without going into the doctrine of sanctification, but I would encourage you to look at things by Jay Adams, things by John MacArthur and that outfit out there. They've got a lot of great things to say about the subject of sanctification. Now let me tell you about myself briefly. I wanna let you know that I am not an addict, nor have I ever been an addict, at least not in the clinical sense of the word addict. And I say this to you because many of you maybe had an opportunity, maybe would like to, maybe you know someone that you'd like to minister on the subject of addiction and you feel like you may be a little bit disqualified because you've never been down that road and you may have heard someone say, how can you, you don't understand, how can you help me if you've never been down this road?

And I wanna suggest that that is something you should reject wholeheartedly. As a matter of fact, does a cancer doctor have to have had cancer to help someone who now has cancer? And the answer is no. As a matter of fact, I lean on Galatians chapter six in verse one where it says, "'Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. So the scripture tells us that if you want to help someone who's been overtaken in a fault, or in this case, in an addiction, the best one to help them is the one who is spiritual, not necessarily the one who's been overtaken in that same fault before.

And I want to say, frankly, that if only, the idea that only a former addict can help an addict is a very dangerous thing to say. And there's two reasons I say that. I want you to notice the last part of that passage I just read in Galatians 6, 1. It says, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. It's not a wise thing to sit around all day talking about addictions all day for anyone, especially someone who was formerly an addict.

It's not a good idea to be sitting around there and doing that. And secondly, it's been my experience that those who have been through addictions in the past are less compassionate than those who have not been. And when I say I mean less compassionate to the addicted, you say what do you mean by that? That goes contrary to everything I've ever heard about that. I understand, it does go contrary.

I'm just telling you my personal experience, But I believe it to be true and the reason I think that they're less compassionate is because they do see the thing the signs So clearly they do see the sin coming before it gets there sometimes And they tend to be real quick and it seems like sometimes Their objective becomes more to be the prophet and the one who gets it right than it is to actually help people sometimes. We all fall in that point of pride. And another problem they have is they're right about what they predict about seven times out of ten. If they were right ten times out of ten, they'd be great. But when you're only seven times out of ten, it's the other three that you can destroy needlessly.

And again, I know this is contrary to popular thinking to say that the non-addict is probably the one best qualified, but I believe that to be true. And again, it's my experience having worked now for 17 years formally with the addicted. And I realize that my opinion, my experience, and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee at McDonald's, and that's about all you can get with it. But I want to suggest that ye which are spiritual are the best ones to help these folks. Now let me also say that I'm sharing these things that I've read, these things that I have learned, these things that I have experienced.

I'm not trying to give you a bunch of science today. I'm not trying to, a lot of the things that I'm telling you I grant are anecdotal, I'm not going to just overload you with a lot of whatever that I think really isn't profitable. But let me say this about the science of an addiction. In my meager understanding of the science of addiction and the science of the mind, I should say, there's a portion of the mind, and I may not correct this, pronounce this term correctly, but in the ventral tegmental part of the brain, and I'm sure I'm not pronouncing that right because I've heard others pronounce it and that doesn't sound correct, but there's a part of your brain, in the brain stem that consists of where the dopamine pathways happen and it seems to be responsible for that point of the brain where one experiences pleasure. Now there's another part where you experience caution and things like that.

But from what I understand, just to put it in my kind of a way to wrap it around my mind, that Let's say that you've got a portion of your brain that experiences pleasure. And under normal circumstances, say it's a scale from one to ten. You play with your children, it may be a three. You do some other experience, it may be a five. The greatest experience of your life may be a ten, and some people may never get to a ten.

Some people may never experience that. However, when someone takes these intoxicants, and frankly this process is not only true for people that take intoxicants, it's true for others that can be addicted to gambling, to videos, to gaming, whatever different kind of things. But what happens is that it stimulates this portion of the brain. And so that it can feel these pleasurable feelings without the natural experiences that normally bring about these pleasurable feelings. The problem that happens with these is that you can over stimulate this portion of the brain so that on a scale from one to ten you can feel a thirty and And the problem then comes when your body begins up to build tolerance As it does to any chemical you put in your body, your body begins to build up a tolerance to it, and so to get back to a 30, it takes a little more of the chemical or whatever stimulation it is that's giving you that pleasure.

And So you just build up a tolerance to it and that's when people start feeding into it more. The problem you now have is that, say you're playing with your children was a three in your world, now playing with your children is still a three but it's on a scale from one to 30 and not a scale from one to 10 and they become without natural affection I believe this is an explanation of how we lose the net it's amazing to watch the Attic who does not have affection for the things that You were thinking normally or she normally would so that's about all I'm going to say about the idea of the science, and it's not my objective to say that this is something that we need. I just wanted to point out that there is a physical aspect to the idea of addiction. It does affect us in a physical sense, in a physical way that cannot be ignored, that cannot be pretended that doesn't happen. And I think sometimes we as conservative Christians want to pretend that that's never there.

They just stop drinking, then they ought to be normal, and they're not. They've destroyed their bodies in many respects. And they say it can, as many as two years later, that that portion of the brain will still not work properly because it just has been destroyed like any other portion of your body that can be destroyed. So I'm gonna talk to you now about five things that I think that you need to be talking about whenever you're dealing with an addiction. And the first point is the subject of salvation.

Now you said well that seems so obvious I didn't come here to learn. Yeah I understand. Bear with me though if you will because it's really important but this leads us to a question how does a person come to salvation how does someone get saved and I want to suggest and I heard this from his name escapes him right now he's here this weekend teaching but he said Paul Washer he said this and I think was the best explanation I've ever heard about how a man gets saved he said this quote a man is saved by believing promises a man is saved by believing promises and then if I'm not mistaken he referenced us to Genesis chapter 15 verses 1 through 6. And for the sake of time, I'm not going to read that whole passage, I'll just summarize it to you. Where God is speaking to Abram, who later became Abraham, and Abram is saying, God says to him, I'm thy shield and exceeding great reward.

And Abraham says, but I don't have any children. And you promised me children and I don't have any children. And the Lord took him outside and he said, look up to heaven and try to count the stars. And you know, I don't know, it doesn't say that Abraham said this, but I imagine he looked up to heaven and he said wow That's more there than I can count and then the Lord looks at him and says so shall your children be you're gonna have so Many children that you will not be able to count them all And if you were to look at verse 6 in that passage in Genesis 15, it says, And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted it to him for righteousness. God gave him a promise, he believed the promise of God, and then God imputed righteousness to him.

Paul would then later in Romans chapter 4 and verse 3 quote this same event. For he says, what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And the point we're making is that Paul uses this to illustrate that our salvation is given to us by believing the promises of God and there are promises in Scripture that we are to believe. Particularly when we're speaking of dealing with the addict, I want to suggest that we need to be sharing with them the promises that apply to a life-dominating sin or the promises that apply to an addiction.

It's important to consider this when we say what promises apply to a life-dominating sin. Why do you say that, Brother Tarp, For salvation? Because I want to suggest that the things that stand between one man in God are not the same idols and issues and things that stand between another man in God. There are different promises that are applicable to my life that may not be applicable to yours. Now I'm not saying that you deny them or anything like that, but at the same time there are things that I need to lean on that you don't need to lean on.

I look to the Gospel of John and when John describes to us how Jesus deals with Nicodemus in John chapter 3, he looks at Nicodemus, a man who is the teacher in Israel at the time, a man who probably has the whole Old Testament memorized. He looks at Nicodemus and he says, man, you basically just have to believe what you already know. He said, you just have to believe God so loved the world that he gave his only begone, he just had to give him John 3.16. But you go to the very next chapter in John chapter 4 where Jesus is now dealing with the woman at the well. He doesn't look at the woman at the well and say just believe on my name.

He doesn't say that to her. What does he say to her? He says go and get your husband. Why? I can only speculate, but I imagine this woman had been leaning and trusting on the fact that a man was what she needed, and she was very good at picking bad men.

I got some relatives like that that are very good at picking bad men, if you know what I'm saying. But the point is she's already had five husbands and the man she's with is not, she didn't need just to believe that God was there, she had to come to the point where she trusted in God for her very food, I think, for her very being, for her very existence. The point we're getting to though is that there are different things that stand between us and God. And I want to suggest that for the addict, there are promises that he needs from God that you may not need. But if you were to know them and be able to give them to him, you may be able to help him because there's different things that we need.

So our objective in helping the addict is to look for promises in scripture that apply to the addict. And I want to suggest that this is what faith is. Because what is faith? Hebrews tells us it's the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. You know, I always tell people that I'm dealing with that it takes two things to make faith.

First it takes information and then secondly it takes belief of that information. For example if someone came running in this door right now behind us and started yelling fire fire fire what are you gonna do if you believed his words then you're at least going to investigate you may leave the room you may do something but let's say that they've done this three times already and now here's a fourth time and each time it's been it's been a false alarm And they come in one more time and they start saying, fire, fire, fire, fire. He's giving you the information. But you don't believe him. You don't believe that, you know.

So your faith is now dead. But if you believed his information, you have the evidence of a fire that you don't see, smell, or feel. And that's what faith is, is that when we believe the Bible, when we believe the word of God, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God, when we believe that, we have the evidence that God is there and we also have the evidence of a promise that God has given to us for whatever need there is in our life that he wants to meet in that time. And so I'm pointing out to you that if you want to bring the addict to salvation, I believe one of the things that needs to be addressed is that he needs to learn to trust God for things that he's been trusting in this world about. The next issue that I think that we need to be dealing with, the second issue that we need to be dealing with an addict on, is the subject of selfishness.

I want to suggest that the addict is extremely selfish. Now he would deny this and so will his enablers. But I want to make this as clear as I can. The addict, and I'm talking about the guy who's really into his addiction, does not love his children, he does not love his wife, and he does not love his God. I have had many addicts of various vices to look at me when I say this to them and they'll say, oh but I really do love my children.

I really do love my wife and I really do love my Lord. And I believe that the moment that they're saying those words to me, they believe them. But I don't believe them. You say, why not? Well, I've been around them long enough that I've got this opinion.

But take for example with the vice of smoking. Now we can talk about you know people trying to quit smoking. Let me say this, I grew up here in North Carolina. I grew up in a North Carolina family that has lived in North Carolina since before the Revolutionary War. I grew up in a North Carolina family that raised tobacco.

I grew up in a church where the preacher chewed tobacco. And most people there smoked. Most people there raised tobacco. Tobacco was never preached against in my world. I was an adult man before I had any clue that something was not moral about tobacco.

I'm not joking. Yet I never smoked cigarettes in my life. And you say, well, why not? It's really simple. They're too expensive.

I Liked my money more than I want, you know, like the the idea of being cool I thought it was just a waste of money to me It that's always it's never been a righteous thing for me or an unrighteous thing. It's just a waste of money Now I can't tell you how many times I've set dealing with addicts, and most of the addicts that I deal with, they also smoke. And I have dealt with many, many addicts who have had wives and children that are in want. Their wives and children do not have the things that they need. Their wives and children are dependent upon other people, upon government services.

They're dependent upon things. Yet at the same time, this addict will always somehow find a way to get a cigarette I don't know how but they always find a way to get that they have the money to get a cigarette and so I'll look at them a lot of times and I'll say I want you to do me a favor I want you to take whatever money you would have spent on that cigarette and take that money and I want you to give it to your wife. I know you can't provide everything but I want you to give them that money. That's the money I want to go there and I can't tell you how many times people will say, particularly a week or two later, boy this is hard. I couldn't do it.

You know now why could they not do it? And I want to suggest because they love their belly more than they love their wife and children. There may be some affection they have for them, I grant you. But they love themselves more than they love anybody else. And that's a problem.

And I have never heard or seen a man look at his wife and say, honey, I'm going to go get drunk tonight for you. Every time someone goes and gets drunk or high or whatever it is they're doing, they go and do that for their own selfish craving. Matter of fact, what is a craving? We speak of these, oh, he's got these severe, we've made it sound like something, a craving is nothing more than a want. That's all it is, an extreme want.

And as we sit here and we think about these things we need to define it for what it is and Such a man will not suffer for his wife and children. He will not suffer for his God He will not suffer for anybody and he will have a hard time being a follower of Jesus Christ and if these cravings are too strong he has a hard time listening to what the scripture says in John chapter 15 verse 13 greater love hath no man than this that a man may lay down his life for his friends. If he can't lay down some simple pleasure, how do you think he's gonna lay down his life? 1 John 3.16, hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But you see, this is the essence of sin.

It really is. As a matter of fact, I want you to, do you know what the first sin ever committed was? We tend to think Adam and Eve, it really wasn't. It was Lucifer. Isaiah chapter 14, verses 12 through 14, it says this, how art thou fallen from heaven, old Lucifer, son of the morning?

How art thou cut down to the ground, which did say, which did weaken the nations? For thou has said in thine heart, listen to this, I will, first time, ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.

I will be like the most high. Five times, Satan sat there and selfishly usurped the living God, and he has taught his children to be just as selfish. I want you to notice what it says in First Timothy, chapter six and verse 10. For the love of money is the root of all evil. It does not say the money is the root of all evil, it says the love of money.

Why do people love money? It's just a selfish one. And our world has attempted to redefine this and to put the language somewhere other than it is. You see, according to our culture, selfishness is not some, it's not just sin expressed, but rather it is something that cannot be controlled. It's something they inherited, it's something they call, it's something else.

And they have taught our people to walk in darkness. I'll never forget hearing a sermon, I actually heard it twice. And I didn't get it till the second time. And I don't have time to give it to you this afternoon, but I would love to. But it's in 1 John 1, verses five through nine, A wonderful passage for those that are dealing with the selfish idea.

But it says in 1 John chapter 5 verse 9, 1 John chapter 1 verse 5, this then is the message which we have heard of him and declared unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. People are, what does that have to do with anything? The long and short of the message is this, is that in this room, there's dust floating in the air. It's just too dark to see it. When a person walks in the light, I used to think that meant I was being a good boy when I was walking in the light.

But when I was being a bad boy, I was walking in darkness. That's not what that passage is teaching us. What this passage is telling us is that we're as we're walking through this world and we come before the light of God have you ever been in a place where the sunlight is so bright that you can see the dust fly floating through the air that's what it's teaching us is that when we walk in the light We allow God to reveal to us our sins and we confess them and he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. But when we make excuses for our sins, when we deny that we have sin, When we say that we have no sin, we make him a liar and we're lying to ourselves, it tells us. But the point is that the addict has professional doctors giving him excuses today for his sin, and he lapsed them up.

He needs them to continue in his addiction. So the point we want to make is that he needs to be talked to about this idea of his selfishness because people are constantly excusing their sin. You say well how did they do that well first off they'll say it's a disease and you know it's really important that when we define these things we define them in biblical terms because if we define this as a disease then there's no hope for that guy There's there is no cure there's no no way to do it you know. He'll define this you know as blame-shifting. He'll say yes I did this and then he'll find some reason to excuse why he did it and blame it to someone else.

Have you ever heard someone say, I don't know why I did that. I look at him constantly, I see him constantly like this, but I can't tell you how many times I've looked at someone and said, I can tell you why you went back to your addiction. They'll say, why? The answer is because you wanted to. That's why.

No, I really don't want to. Then why'd you do it? I don't know why. I can tell you why. Because you wanted to.

That's what a craving is. And if we define it any other way, we're just spinning our wheels and we're not doing anything. We're not getting anywhere across, anything across. Which leads us to our next point. The third issue that I think needs to be discussed with the addict is the definition of an addiction.

What is the definition of an addiction? And the definition of an addiction is that it is idolatry. And the reason we need to know the definition of an addiction is because the definition of a problem is the signpost to a solution. You have to define the problem correctly to make a good solution. If your car is broken and you take it to a mechanic, The first thing he's going to try to do is to try to define the problem.

If there's a knock under the hood somewhere and it's a fan belt, you don't want him working on the lifters or something like that. He has to define what the problem is. It's the same way with this. And it's important, as I mentioned a moment ago, that we define this in biblical terms. You see, when the world gives us the definitions for this, which the world wants to do and does and forces them upon us sometimes, then that forces you to a solution.

If you define your problem as the lifters under the hood when the problem was just needed a new fan belt, you're never going to work on the fan belt. And if you define the problem as a disease or you define the problem as something other than what the Bible defines it as, you're never going to work on what the Bible says to work on. And frankly, let me say this, if you define it in secular terms and then look to the scripture for promises to help, the scripture will now be silent to you because the scripture does not speak it does not promise the sick man a cure for his sinful behavior the scripture promises a sinning man deliverance for his sinning behavior This is one reason the modern Christianity is so frustrated with the addict. The church has accepted the definitions this world has given us. And in doing so, we then look to the scriptures.

You know, I had a fella in my church, he's no longer there, him and his family, they've moved on, but His mother was coming up to visit him. She lived out of an RV and he was actually staying at the rescue mission with us while they were attending our church. But his mother would come up and visit him and she was somewhere in the area and She went to a, I don't understand, I didn't understand the whole story completely but this is what she told me and I heard it firsthand from her. She was in her RV where she slept a lot and when she visited him she slept in his RV. And she felt very much under conviction.

It was a Wednesday night. And she knew she needed to be saved. She hadn't been saved, and she knew she needed to be saved. She had heard preaching at various places and with us and with others, I think. And so she got in her RV, and she drove to the first church she could find.

It was a Baptist church. And she went in there and she asked someone how to be saved. And no one could tell her. So she left there, went to a second church. And guess what was going on at the second church on a Wednesday night?

Another AA meeting. They couldn't tell her how to be saved. And someone there suggested that she go to the hospital. I don't know why. Maybe they thought she was crazy.

I don't know why. But she went to Duke University Hospital. I live in Durham. Duke's right there. She went to Duke University Hospital and somewhere there at the university, she told them she wanted to be saved.

They found a chaplain working there at the hospital and someone at the chaplain at the hospital led her to salvation. So, you know, but I found it interesting. She goes to two churches and can't find out how to be saved. But what is a church doing that night? They're not sitting around reading the scripture.

They're using some program that man invented because of their love and affection for men. They really want the help, but the scripture is silent to them, so they have to turn to the wisdom of the world in order to quote-unquote help someone. And I'm telling you that's a sad state of affairs for the modern church. So what is the definition of addiction? As I mentioned a moment ago, it is idolatry or we could say a worship disorder.

It was Ed Welch that I first heard describe this as a worship disorder. And thus, to understand addiction, I think you must understand idolatry. Most people do not understand idolatry. Most Christians do not. For most people, idolatry is something is simply loving something else more than you love God.

And I'm not denying the truthfulness of that statement. I believe that to be a truthful statement, but let's make something very clear. When it comes to idolatry, it is never, never about love. Idolatry is never about love. Idolatry is always about manipulation.

I am not speaking of the idol manipulating the human. It is the human attempting to manipulate the idol. Although it does turn to where the idol will dominate the human. You say, what do you mean by this? Well, let me ask you this.

Have you ever wondered what is the attraction to these drugs and alcohol to these youth today or to people in general? It's amazing. I know 65 year old men. I know I know of a 65 year old man right now who spent his whole life in church and and I believe a good church who preached the gospel his wife died when he was in 60 60 I don't early 60s and he ended up on cocaine at a rescue mission at 65. You say, what is the attraction to that?

Why does it have such a pull? For many of us who've never experienced that we say, I don't understand. I don't get it. And the answer is, it's the same attraction that Israel had to the idols in her day. It really is.

What do you mean by that? Well, what can an idol do? An idol can really do nothing. It's blind, it's deaf, it's dumb. It's made by men, it looks like men.

But you know what an idol does? It does two things. It makes threats and it makes promises. That's all it can do. Make threats and make promises.

And the reason people are attracted to idols is because of the threats or the promises that it makes. Listen to this what it says in Zechariah chapter 10 and verse 2, for the idols have spoken vanity. That's all I'm gonna read there because I just want to point out that idols speak. Wait a minute, they're blind, deaf, and dumb, aren't they? Well they don't speak, but they have prophets that speak for them.

Listen to this, Psalm 135 verses 15 through 18. What profit the graven image maker? What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof had graven him? The molten image. Here it is.

And a teacher of lies that the maker of his work trusted therein to make dumb idols. The point we're making here, he's saying what what profit does it? The point is it's the lies that it tells. The idol tells lies, it gives promises. And it has a tremendous power if you believe these promises.

Do you remember the story in 1 Kings chapter 18 where we've got Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal coming together in battle. It's a great time, you know, you know, you know, Elijah's, you call out to your God, I'll call out to my God, and, and, and, and, you know, whoever brings down fire, then that's, that's the one who's the true Lord you remember the story right first Kings chapter 18 I want you to listen to what's happening in that story and in verse 26 it says and they took the bullock this is the prophets of Baal They took the bullock which was given to them, and they dressed it and called out the name of Baal from morning until evening, saying, Oh, Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, there was no answer. And they leaped upon the altar which was made, in verse 28, And they cried aloud, and listen to this, and they cut themselves after the manor with knives and lances till the blood glushed out. The point I'm making here is that why are they doing this?

Why are they cutting themselves? Why are they, because they believe they can do something to get that idol to do for them. You see, the attraction to the idol is not that, oh, I love this idol, it's just this affection. It has nothing to do with our, like our affection is to God. We're supposed to love God.

We we really are to love him like you would love another person, you know But with the idol is making a threat you're either trying to keep them off your back You're giving him something or you're trying to give him something to get you something, you know, if you're a farmer living 2, 000 years ago and and you do not have the means of irrigation that we have today and a and a God comes along and says if you'll just give me a little bit of homage I don't have to be the main God in your life just Pay me a little bit of homage and I'll give you some rain." Do you think it would tempt you a little bit? It really, really would tempt you. As a matter of fact, I believe this is why God said in Isaiah chapter 48, He says, For I declared the former things long ago, and they went forth from my mouth and I proclaimed them suddenly I acted and they came to pass because I know that that you are obstinate and your neck is an iron sign you and your forehead bronze therefore I declared them to you long ago before they took place.

I proclaimed them to you so that you would not say, my idol has done them. You know what he's saying there is God said, I told you what I was gonna do so you couldn't give credit to the wrong one. The point is is that these idols are constantly trying to take credit for what God has done in your life. These idols are constantly trying to tell you that we're the ones who brought you the rain, we're the ones who bring this here, and you say, well what else does this have to do with addictions? I want to make a point that alcohol and drugs make promises too.

I want you to turn to the second most misinterpreted passage in Scripture. If you got a Bible turn to Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18. You say the second most misinterpreted, yeah the first most misinterpreted passage in Scripture I believe is Matthew chapter 7, judge not that you be not judged, you know, people always, everybody knows that passage. But when we look at Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18, and maybe others you haven't experienced this, but I can't tell you how many times I've heard people try to justify something to me with this one. But if you look at this, I want you to see this, and it says very clearly, It says, and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.

And many people want to interpret that passage to say this, don't be drunk with wine excessively, but be filled with the Spirit. And that's exactly what that passage does not say. That passage says, be not drunk with wine wherein or inside of wine is excess. What does that mean? What is the excess?

Well, this passage, the same root word is also used in Luke chapter 15 verses 13. I'll just read verse 13, but it's the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15. And it says, in not many days after the young son had gathered all together and took his journey into a far country there he wasted his substance with riotous or excessive living same word same root words not the same word exactly the same root word so excessive living is riotous living Be not drunk with wine because in wine is riotousness, is what Ephesians 5, 18 is saying. You say, well what is riotousness? Well we know what riotousness is from the brother of the prodigal son.

Back to Luke chapter 15, verse 29 through 30, it says, and he answered his father, saying, this is the older brother, lo, these many years do I serve thee, and neither transgress I at any time thy commandment. Yet thou never gavest me a kid that I might make merry with my friends but as soon as this thy son was come and listen to this which hath devoured thy living with harlots thou has killed for him the fatted calf you see excessive living, or the excess described here, the riotousness, is what we would call today the party life. Be not drunk with wine, because then wine is fast living. I can't tell you how many times I've spoken to mothers on the phone over the years who have said these words to me. Well he just got up with the wrong crowd.

He did not just get up with the wrong crowd. He was attracted to the wrong crowd because he, I didn't say this to him, but he was attracted to the wrong crowd because he probably sat in your living room watching TV all the time getting a taste for the wrong crowd and he realized the memes into the wrong crowd was the wine and the drugs and whatever part of that lifestyle that goes with it. You see, the promise that alcohol makes is not living at a rescue mission or someplace like that someday. The promise that the wine makes is relationships. Have you ever seen a beer commercial with an ugly woman?

Physically speaking. The answer is no. It is constantly promising relationship. You know, it really bothers me sometimes when I hear people say, well I don't drink to get drunk. I just drink Socially.

Social drinking is the problem. When you have to look to the kingdom of idols to build your relationships, you've got a problem with the promises of God that promises us a relationship with God and a relationship with others like no other you've ever known in this world. One last thought on this before we move to our last point. 1 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 4. I'm not gonna read you everything it says for sake of time, my time is fleeting fast.

But it says in verse 4, it says, it's concerning therefore the eating of those things offered in sacrifice to idols. And then he goes on, we know that an idol's are nothing. We know they're blind, we know they're deaf, we know they're stupid, we know they're all these things. There's no other God but one. You get down to verse 7, he says this, howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge not everybody understands that these idols can't deliver That these idols are simply taking credit for what God may well already be doing in your life.

Paul is saying that people still believe these idols. You See, if a man wants to overcome addictions, he has to understand that he can find a wife in the house of God. He can find friends and purpose and direction in the things of the word of God. But if an addict continues to seek these things outside of the promises and the blessings of God then he has I would suggest not a lot of hope but these are things that need to be discussed now my fourth point now I've got 15 minutes to make two more points that are very large the fourth subject that I think needs to be discussed with the addict is the idea is that he is a fool. Foolishness.

When a man does not know God he's not saved. When a man lives for himself he's very selfish. When a man believes the lies of this world and the idols of this world and he habituates himself in that lifestyle, he will eventually become what the Bible calls a fool. Now some would say to me, but Brother Tarr, the Bible says we're not supposed to call someone a fool. And you're right, the Bible does, I think it's Matthew chapter five, speak against calling someone a fool.

But I don't think it's denying what we're talking about here. I think what Jesus is speaking against there is what, how many of you remember the old show Sanford and Son? Remember that old show? My dad used to watch that show all the time. I don't recommend it today.

I mean, I've grown up a little bit since then, but we used to watch it all the time as a child, every afternoon. But the point I'm getting to is that There was a lady on there, I think her name was Esther, she would often look at Fred and look at him and say, you fish-eyed fool. Y'all remember that? In the pejorative sense. And that's the point that I think Jesus is saying.

That's not what we're supposed to do. But that doesn't deny, particularly what is taught in the book of Proverbs, what the Bible calls fools, scorners, or simpletons. And you can summarize a fool, a scorner, or a simpleton as simply as someone who will not learn. Someone who will not learn. Proverbs chapter 10 verse 8 says, The wise in heart will receive commandment, but a pratting fool shall fall.

He doesn't receive commandments. He will not learn. Proverbs chapter 12 Verse 15, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise. He will not hearken unto counsel. He's smart enough.

He knows it all. He will not learn. And the Bible also says that a drunkard is a fool. Proverbs chapter 20 and verse 1, wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. This idea is also connected in the book of Ephesians as we already touched on in Ephesians 5, 18.

But if you were to back up just three verses to verse 15 where it says see them that you walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise redeeming the time for the days are evil wherefore be ye not unwise but rather understanding what the Lord is, the will of the Lord is. And then he goes to that verse 18 that we read, and be not drunk with wine. You see how the Bible connects foolishness and wine together. There is a regular theme throughout scripture that the fool will not learn what he needs to know he will waste his time and resources on things he should not he likes to hang around other fools he is not diligent in his work And if that doesn't describe the addict, I don't know what does. So if foolishness is one of the main problems that an addict is dealing with, then wisdom is at least in part, part of his solution.

And does not the scripture promise us wisdom? James chapter one, verse two. It says, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations or trials. Knowing this that the triangle of your faith has a product and that product is patience and I won't read it all for the sake of time but you go all the way down to verse five, it says if any of you lack wisdom, wisdom to deal with those temptations, wisdom to deal with those trials. As a matter of fact, I would even suggest what it says in Psalm 19, verse seven, that the word of God will make wise the simple.

See, the Bible speaks of discernment and knowledge and understanding that leads to wisdom. You see, I've got to gain knowledge And then I've got to understand that knowledge, that I may discern that knowledge to choose the wise. And as a man will, we all have to do this. It's not just those dealing with addictions. We all have to grow in this.

We all have to receive this. And the point is that if you're dealing with an addict and one of the things you want to talk to him about is this foolishness, and again I think you need to use the biblical terms. If you're going to deal with him, he's got to understand this, but he has to come to the point where he's willing to learn. You say, what if he doesn't come to that point where he's not willing to learn? I don't mean to break your heart.

I don't mean to just, you know, but the point at that point you just need to pray more. You know, you probably don't need to put in a lot of effort at that point. You need to pray that the Lord would open his eyes. And for the sake of time, I'm going to go on to the last and final point of the day. One thing that I see a lot of times in the addict is that he has No purpose, no direction.

Drunkards will often have no hope. They will often fail to succeed in life because they have no purpose in this life. I want to suggest that every man needs to have purpose and direction if he's going to get success in anything he does. If he doesn't have purpose and direction he is a machine. And God gives to every Christian man I believe two purposes in life.

And then he gives him gifts to fulfill those purposes. And the purposes that God gives in life to every Christian man I believe are two categories. One, He gives every Christian man religious purpose. And two, He gives to every Christian man vocational purpose. When we look at the life of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in the book of Genesis, we can see how God had put them in the garden to do certain things.

You know the story, I don't have to relate the story to you. But you can realize as you look at the story, he was not there just to enjoy the surroundings. This was not about him. He was there to do something for God. And the first thing that God told him to do was in verse 15 of Genesis chapter 2, And the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden and addressed it and to keep it.

He said, go over there and keep that garden. That was his vocational purpose. Then God said in the next two verses, and the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest eat thereof, freely eat thereof. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shall not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shall surely die." This was Adam's religious purpose.

We call this the covenant of works today. But it was what Adam had to do to be right with God. Now we do not live under the covenant of works today, we're under the covenant of grace. But we all know what happened. Adam failed in his religious duty before God, And in failing in his religious purpose, his vocational purpose got all messed up, did it not?

So in order for a man to find vocational purpose, I believe, he must first clarify and understand his religious purpose. For if he does not know or nor does he do his religious purpose I'm going to suggest he will never understand God's vocational purpose for his life. I find it interesting at the same time after God gives him the purpose, he then gives him a helper that is meat, which is a great and blessed thing as well. So in summary, if you want to talk to an addict about his addictions, some of the things that he must think about, first off is his salvation and the promise of God for his salvation. Secondly, he must understand that God promises to give him everything he needs if he doesn't worry about himself, if he'll not be so selfish and he'll live for God and live for others.

Thirdly, he must believe the promises of God concerning relationships and friends and ignore everything the idols of this world have to offer him. Fourthly, he must pursue the wisdom of God and reject the foolishness of man. And fourthly, he must seek what God has for him and for purpose and direction and will for this life and not follow his own ideas. With all that being said, I want to close with one more promise for the addict, that again I ask you to turn in your Bibles and look with me at 1st Corinthians chapter 6 verses 9 through 11 says this, Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor feminine, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards.

You see that? Nor revelers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. That passage says that drunkards can go to hell for being drunkards. Couple observations about that. I don't believe God sends any man to hell for being sick He sends a man to hell for his sin But I want you to know the prompt notice the promise of verse 11 and such were some of you They are no longer drunkards And that is not what this world promises.

I had a conversation about a year ago with a gentleman who was telling me about all the programs that he had been through and how they had not worked for him. He wasn't speaking negatively of them. He said they probably worked for some people. He was just saying they hadn't worked for him. But he'd come to understand this passage here that God promised that he did not have to be a drunkard the rest of his life.

And he said this to me, he said, Brother Tarr, you can go to the best program this world has to offer. You can go to the most expensive, the cheapest, you can go to any program this world has to offer. And you be the model student. You be the best one there. You do everything they said for you to do perfectly.

And you complete that program to its fullest. And the day you walk out of that program, you'll still be a drunk. He said, that is depressing. But do you see the promise that God gives to us and to the drunkard today? They don't have to be a drunkard.

They don't have to live this life. But it's between them and God. The National Center for Family Integrated Churches is dedicated to proclaiming the sufficiency of scripture for church and family life and to the establishment of biblically ordered churches. For more information, resources and products, please visit our website at www.ncfic.org. You