Sermon Transcripts (Celebrate Recovery)

THE FIRST STEP TO FREEDOMThe Road to Recovery--Part 1Isaiah 57:18Recently a father was trying to take an afternoon nap on a Sunday afternoon in his living room and his little boy kept bugging him saying, "Daddy, I''m bored." So his father, trying to make up a game, found a picture of a globe in the newspaper, a picture of the world. He ripped it up in about fifty pieces and he said, "Son this is a puzzle. I want you to put it all back together." He laid down to finish his nap, thinking he would get at least another hour and a half to two hours of sleep. In about 15 minutes the little boy woke him up saying, "Daddy, I''ve got it finished. It''s all put together." "You''re kidding." He knew his son didn''t know all the positions of the nations and things like that. He said, "How did you do that?" He said, "Dad, there was a picture of a person on the back page of that newspaper and when I got my person put together the world looked just fine."We''re beginning a new series today I''m calling the "Road to Recovery"; it''s going to work on your person. It''s amazing how much better the world looks when your person is put together in the right way. We''re going to talk in this series about how to handle and how to overcome the hurts in your life, the habits that are messing up your life and the hang-ups that have cause pain in your life. Hurts, habits, and hang-ups.The verse I''ve chosen for our theme verse in our series "The Road to Recovery" is Isaiah 57:18, God speaking, "I have seen how they acted but I will heal them, I will lead them and help them and I will comfort those who mourn. I offer peace to all near and far." This is a great promise of God. Notice there are five parts to recovery that God wants to do in your life.First, if you have been hurt, God says "I want to heal you."If you''re confused, "I want to lead you."If you''ve ever felt you were helpless to change anything, "I want to help you change that."If you''ve ever felt no one understands your problem, "I want to comfort you."If you feel anxious and worried and afraid, "I want to offer peace to you."The fact is, life is tough. We live in a imperfect world. We''re hurt by other people and we hurt ourselves and we hurt other people. The Bible says, "All have sinned." That means none of us are perfect, we''ve all blown it, we''ve all made mistakes. We hurt and we hurt others.This series is for everybody. Everyone in this room needs recovery, unless you''ve lived a perfect life. But if you haven''t lived a perfect life, if you''ve ever been hurt, if you''ve ever had a hang-up or a habit that you''d like to get rid of, you need recovery.WHAT DO YOU NEED RECOVERY FROM?The good news is this: regardless of the problem you need recovery from, whether it''s emotional, financial, relational, spiritual, sexual or whatever, regardless of what you need recovery from, the steps to recovery are always the same. They are always the same.The principles for recovery are found in the Bible. It''s the original recovery manual. In 1935 a couple of guys formulated, based on the Scriptures, what are now known as the classic twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and used by hundreds of other recovery groups. Twenty million Americans are in a recovery group every week and there are 500,000 different recovery groups. The basis is God''s Word.I have summarized these principles of recovery around the word "Recovery." We''ll take a letter each week and look at eight summarized steps on the road to recovery.THE FIRST STEP: THE "R" IN RECOVERY STANDS FOR REALIZERealize I''m not God. I admit I am powerless to control my tendency to do wrong things and my life is unmanageable.Do you ever stay up late when you know you need sleep?Do you ever eat or drink more calories than your body needs?Do you ever feel you ought to exercise but you don''t?Do you ever know the right thing to do but you don''t do it?Do you ever know something is wrong but you do it anyway?Have you ever known you should be unselfish but you''re selfish instead?HaBaker, Warren is the author of 'Sermon Transcripts (Celebrate Recovery)', published 1998 under ISBN 9780310221463 and ISBN 0310221463.