Sex & Drugs & Rock 'n Roll

Facing Addiction

This is the third part of our series dealing with Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll. How Christians can face up to contemporary issues.

My task is to talk about a Christian response to the problems of facing addiction – which includes drugs but also so much more. In many ways it builds directly upon Mikes excellent talk last week, and I recommend that you get hold of the tape of his talk, or read it on the Crabtree Church web site. The best way of avoiding the problem of addiction is not to get addicted in the first place, and in a very real sense this means not falling to temptation. Unfortunately we often do fall into temptation, and we get involved with something that isn’t good for us. The difficulty then becomes escaping from that trap, seeking freedom from the slavery that addiction of any kind brings.

And if there is one thing I’d like you to remember from this morning, it is this: Jesus sets you free!

The slavery of Sin

For our reading, I chose this well known passage from Romans 7v15-24. Strictly speaking, the context here is part of Paul’s developing theme of the law not being sufficient for salvation. However, doesn’t it capture so well the way we can sometimes feel? I know it does for me.

The Bible is full of precious promises, that tell us that we are now free from sin, no longer under its dominion – but so often our daily experience appears to belie this fact. You and I know that sin often reigns in our life. It can show up in anger, in selfishness, in lawbreaking (broken the speed limit lately?). It has clearly always been the experience of the church too – the NT letters are full of exhortation and correction on matters of sinful behaviour and attitudes.

Judicially, every Christian who is trusting upon Jesus as their Lord and Saviour is free from the penalty of sin, but only when we are with the Lord in glory will be fully delivered from its presence, and the power sin can have in our lives.

In John 8v34 Jesus warns “whoever commits sin is a slave of sin”.

In Titus 3v3 Paul reminds Titus (and us) that “at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.”

2 Peter 2v19 Peter says “…a man is slave to whatever has mastered him”

Slavery, bondage. Evocative words, and nowhere do we see them manifested more clearly than in the issue of addiction, probably the strongest and most degrading form of bondage which mankind experiences today. So lets look at the despair of addiction.

The despair of addiction

As most of you know, I work for the Royal College of Physicians, and last year we released a very comprehensive book about the impact of nicotine addiction. Nicotine, like heroin and many other drugs is physically addictive. Our body gets hooked on the sensations and wants more, craves more. This is why people find it so hard to kick addictions – they are fighting against very basic needs in their body. Even the caffeine in tea or coffee can be addictive. Do you know how many cups of coffee you need to drink a day in order to get a mild addiction to coffee? Would you believe just 5?

I found this out the hard way myself about a year ago… I was drinking about six cups of coffee a day, and hearing this news I thought I ought to cut down, so that Friday I decided to have no coffee at all. By early afternoon I found myself hanging around in the kitchen area, looking at the machine. I WANTED a cup of coffee. REALLY WANTED it!. I could almost feel my body calling out to it! This bothered me a somewhat, and as a result of that experience switched entirely to decaffeinated coffee (as well as cut down on my consumption considerably!).

For those who have become addicted to nicotine, giving up smoking is much more difficult. For those who have become addicted to alcohol, even more so. And the additional tragedy is that addiction is not a private affliction. It can have a terrible effect on relationships within the family, and even in the wider community. It is not news to learn that much of todays burglary and street crime is driven by the need to meet cravings for drugs. It is also not news to learn of alcoholics who attack other members of their family – or drink away all their income.

As well as physical forms of addiction, there are psychological addictions which we can fall prey to as well. Gambling has ruined many people who just couldn’t stop themselves from taking one more wager. Who can forget Nick Leeson who brought down Barings Bank because he couldn’t stop gambling the firms money? How many people would find if impossibly difficult to stop their weekly flutter on the national lottery I wonder? How many people have found themselves in the tragic situation of that policeman last week who was exposed to horrible pornography as part of his work – and then found that he couldn’t stop seeking it out, gripped by a horrible fascination, until at last he has been shamefully arrested on a child pornography charge?

We might laughingly describe someone as a workaholic or a shopaholic – but some of these traits are being classified as serious problems now… moving from the realm of obsession and into addictive behaviour. The term “workaholic” was coined in the 1960s by WE Oates to parallel the compulsive behaviour of alcoholics. I have an article from the business pages of the telegraph a couple of weeks ago that describes how some successful business people start to neglect their family, personal relationships and other responsibilities. They also live in a state of denial, failing to see the impact of the behaviour on family and colleagues, often trying to hide their addictive behaviour. Just the same as an alcoholic would. The BMJ reported a study that showed this kind of people were more than twice as likely to die of heart disease.

This is the life of an addict. Desperate for something which is destroying them, hiding it from family and friends, living a secret life of deceit. In slavery to a habit which rules our lives.

Faced with this kind of situation, we can understand how someone might cry out, in Paul’s words, “Who will save me from this body of sin?”

It is easy for us to point the finger at the drunken derelict, the hollow-eyed drug addict, those people who have an obvious addiction. But we must never lose sight of the fact that we face a pervasive and horrible addiction which permeates our entire bodies – every one of us – the addiction to sin.

Our old nature still exists, and is in constant conflict with the new nature we receive when we are born again. Our conscience is awakened to God, and yet we still struggle to do what is right, rather than what is wrong.

And the answer? Jesus sets you free!

Jesus sets you free!

Jesus came to give us freedom – and the freedom that he brings can include freedom from slavery to those things that addict us. Gal 5v1 says “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

And in v13 “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.”

How can Jesus do this? By his power, working through the Holy Spirit. The Christian life is not one merely of words and theology, but a life lived with the living God dwelling within. The Holy Spirit desires to work powerfully in each of our lives, enabling us to walk the Christian walk, freeing us from bondage to sin, empowering us for Gods service.

Can you prove it? Have you read Chasing the Dragon? The autobiography of Jackie Pullinger working in what was the Walled City in Hong Kong? Unlike many Christian biographies which tell of the wondrous working of God in the lives of contemporary Christians, this one is easily verifiable… and time and time again you can read here of people who are saved from heroin, and saved for Christ. Those who, by the power of God’s Spirit have been rescued from slavery to a drug which was killing them, and they have been able to go on and grow as Christians. Some where not saved, some where not healed, it is true. But the stunning testimony is that a squalid city which was known as “darkness” became famous for its light as all over Hong Kong people were drawn to it because that’s where they found Jesus who heals, feeds, houses, delivers and forgives.

How about something closer to home? Jo’s testimony of life until 1996. <details ommitted online>

Again, we see the importance of the action of the Holy Spirit in breaking a stronghold of sin in our lives.

Although the Christian is set free from sin, it is a freedom which we have to grasp and live out, it is a freedom that requires us to be sold out to God. As it says in Gal 5v16 – “walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature”.

So I have to ask. What has got hold of you? Are you sold out for God? Or are you addicted to anything? Whether you have a physical or a psychological addiction I believe it is possible for Jesus to set you free. It may not be easy, but it is possible.

We need help to walk by the Spirit, and we must ask for that help in prayer. Pray for the Spirit to fill you with his power, and by all means speak to the leaders of the church who would love to pray with you and for you. In particular, if God has been speaking to you today, don’t put off the opportunity to do something about it. You don’t have to do something public, but you do have to do something, so give one of the leadership a call and ask to talk it over.

Never forget. Jesus sets you free!

Alex White