Addict, Part 3: INVENTORY

Am I an addict?  How much of a mess have I made?  Jesus will bring full and complete healing to our lives…but we’ve got some “house-cleaning” to do.  Can we admit and acknowledge our trash…why we are the source of our trash…and that we are ready to quit making more trash?

James 4:1-10 (from www.biblegateway.com)

¹ What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? ² You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. ³ And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.

⁴ You adulterers!^[a] Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. ⁵ Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him.^{[b] 6} And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say,

⁷ So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.⁸ Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.⁹ Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor

 

Key Definitions & Ideas

Addicted to ME: Compulsive disowning of God so I can be my own god

Step 4.  Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Step 5.  Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact  nature of our wrongs.

Step 6.  Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character

Step 7.  Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Clean House: 

(1) Character creates clutter.  Underlying motives make the messes.

(2) God only elevates the humble.  My faith will clunk when there is junk in my trunk.

 

Audio from Sunday, July 30 Message “Addict, Part 3: INVENTORY”

Click below to listen

For Further Conversation

1. How did you experience God this week?
2. Would you say you are a clean or messy person?  Why?  Where did you learn this behavior?
3. Read 1 John 1:5-10  Why do you think anyone would claim to be “without sin”?  How is John is describing darkness in comparison to light?  How might John define “practicing the truth”?
4. Steps 4 – 7 address character defects not incidents.  Why is it vital to address character?  Why is confession to another human being essential?  Why do you think Step 6 is a separate step?
5. What does ”My faith will clunk when there is junk in my trunk” mean to you?  What is some junk in your trunk that it is time to confess and give God permission to remove?
6. “Only light removes darkness”  Are you entirely ready?  Who will you invite to help you through these steps?  How can Christ Church help you with your NEXT STEP with Jesus?