Turning It Over

Every man and woman who has joined Celebrate Recovery and intends to stick has, without realizing it, made beginning on Step 3. Isn’t it true that in all matters touching upon addictions, each of them has decided to turn his or her life over to the care, protection, and guidance of their one and only Higher Power, Jesus Christ, and Celebrate Recovery? Any willing newcomer feels sure that Celebrate Recovery is the only safe harbor for the foundering vessel he has become. Now if this is not turning one’s will in life over to a newfound Providence, then what is it?

Submission to God was the 1^st step to my recovery. I believe our fellowship seeks a spiritual openness to a new relationship with God. As I exert myself to following the path of the steps, I sense a freedom that gives me the ability to think for myself. My addiction confined me without any release and hindered my ability to be released from my self – confinement, but Celebrate Recovery assures me of a way to go forward. Mutual sharing, concern and caring for others is our natural gift to each other and mine is strengthened as my attitude towards God changes. I learn to submit to God’s will with in all my life, to have self-respect, and to keep both of these attitudes by giving away what I receive.

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Rest And Peace

Bible reading: Philippians 4:4 – 7

Step 3: We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Romans 12:1)

Principle 3: Consciously choose to commit all of my life and will to Christ care and control.

“Happy are the meek.” (Matthew 5:8)

The world doesn’t get any better just because we are in recovery! We still have to pay our bills, deal with people, and face the stressful changes that recovery can bring. There are pressures outside of our control that will tend to wear us down if we aren’t careful to protect ourselves from the world’s onslaught of anxiety.

The apostle Paul gave us a strategy to help guard against the troubles of daily life. He wrote, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything: tell God your needs, and don’t forget to thank Him for His answers. If you do this you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will keep your thoughts and your hearts quiet and at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6 – 7)

The word translated “keep” is a military term that means to keep under guard, like one protected by a sentry. The image is one of a guard marching around the border of our hearts and minds to keep out the pressing anxieties of life. This is only promised if we routinely turn every worry and need over to God and develop an attitude of gratitude. When we turn our worries over to the care of God, we will discover the protection of inner peace that passes all understanding.

The key to God’s peace is found in continually turning our lives over to him!

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Unconditional Love

Bible reading: 1 John 4:7 – 10

Step 3: We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Romans 12:1)

Principle 3: Consciously choose to commit all of my life and will to Christ care and control.

“Happy are the meek.” (Matthew 5:8)

Real love bring security into our lives. For many of us, feelings of insecurity contribute to the power of our addictions. Trusting that love can bring lasting security is hard for those of us who’ve been abandoned. Maybe someone we love betrayed our trust. Perhaps someone turned away from us when we betrayed theirs. It could be that someone we needed died, permanently leaving us.

Jesus promised, “I will not abandon you or leave you as orphans in the storm – I will come to you” (John 14:18). We may ask, “How can I trust in God’s love when it feels like all I’ve ever known is a love that disappoints?” Here’s the difference: Jesus is the only one who entered our lives through the “one-way” door of death. God showed how much He loved us by sending His only Son into this wicked world to bring us eternal life through His death. In this act we see what real love is: it is not our love for God, but His love for us when He sent his Son to satisfy God’s anger against our sins” (1 John 4:9 – 10).  The psalmist wrote, “For He [God] knows we are but dust, and that our days are few and brief.  But the loving kindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting to those who reverence Him.” (Psalms 103:14-17).

God’s love is unconditional and always waiting for us.  Turning our lives over to God involves opening the door of our hearts to His love.  Filling up on God’s love helps us to avoid relapse.  It meets us at our deepest needs and eases our most powerful insecurities.

As we give our lives over to God’s care, He brings healing and love to our hurts and pains.

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The Key Is Willingness

Once we have placed the key of willingness in the lock and have the door ever so slightly open, we find that we can always open it some more.

The willingness to give up my pride and self – will to Jesus Christ, the One and only Higher Power that is greater than myself has proved to be the only ingredient absolutely necessary to solve all of my problems today.  Even the smallest amount of willingness, if sincere, is sufficient to allow God to enter and take control over any problem, pain, or obsession. My level of comfort is in direct relation to the degree of willingness I possess at any given moment to give up my self – will, and allow God’s will to be manifested in my life. With the key of willingness, my worries and fears are powerfully transformed into serenity.

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Promised Joy

Bible Reading: 1 Peter 1:3-6

Step 3: We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Romans 12:1)

Principle 3: Consciously choose to commit all of my life and will to Christ care and control.

“Happy are the meek.” (Matthew 5:8)

Life is rough.  We must constantly struggle against the sin inherent in our mortal bodies.  We live with the realities of pain, sickness, and death.  We live in a world that is constantly decaying.  Even if we turn our lives over to God, what is there to look forward to?

Peter tells us, “Now we live in the hope of eternal life because Christ rose again from the dead.  And God has reserved for His children the priceless gift of eternal life; it is kept in heaven for you. …And God, in His mighty power, will make sure that you get there safely to receive it, because you are trusting Him.  It will be yours in that coming last day for all to see.  So be truly glad!  There is wonderful joy ahead, even though the going is rough for a while down here” (1 Peter 1:3-6)

Paul encourages us with this, “And since we are His children, we will share His treasures-for all God gives to His Son Jesus is now ours, too.  But, if we are to share His glory, we must also share His suffering.  Yet what we suffer now, is nothing compared to the glory He will give us later.  For all creation is waiting patiently and hopefully for that future day when God will resurrect His Children.  For on that day thorns and thistles, sin, death, and decay- the things that overcame the world against its will at God’s command-will all disappear, and the world around us will share in the glorious freedom from sin which God’s children enjoy” (Romans 8:17-21).  These promises are for us!

Our trust in God’s work on our behalf allows us to live in hope and joy.

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The Idea Of Faith

Do not let any prejudice you may have against spiritual terms deter you from honestly asking yourself what they mean to you.

The idea of faith is a very large chunk to swallow when fear, doubt and anger abound in and around me. Sometimes just the idea of doing something different, something I am not accustomed to doing, can eventually become an act of faith if I do it regularly, and do it without debating whether it’s the right thing to do. When a bad day comes along and everything is going wrong, a meeting or a talk with another addict often distracts me just enough to persuade me that everything is not quite as impossible, or as overwhelming as I had thought. In the same way, going to a Celebrate Recovery meeting or talking to a fellow addict are acts of faith: I believe I’m arresting my disease. These are ways I slowly move toward faith in Jesus Christ, my one and only Higher Power.

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Rise Up, and Evangelize!

What is the difference between evangelism and discipleship? I have often wondered. A disciple is a student of a master teacher. As in a Christian, we are students of Jesus Christ, learning His way, and His will for our lives. Discipleship then is taking a new believer and teaching them to become students themselves. It is showing the new believer how to study and discern the Word of God, so that his mustard seed of belief turns into hope, and then his hope turns into faith. Romans 10:17 "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." 

Evangelism is totally different. Evangelism is reaching out to those who have never heard of Jesus Christ, and telling them about the good news. It is going out into the hostile environment that our world has become, and leading the unbelievers to Jesus Christ. We must evangelize before we make disciples. Going into the world, and making disciples of all nations is the second step. We must first tell the world about Jesus, and the sacrifice that was made on the cross for everyone. 

Here is a little story... if you go to someone and tell them that Jesus Christ has paid their ticket for running a red light, chances are they will not truly understand the what or why, if they don't know that they ever had the ticket in the first place. In fact, you may offend them by insinuating that they broke the law. You may be shut out before you ever get to tell them what it means to be forgiven of their sins. But, if you first explain to someone that the City had a traffic camera, and that it caught them, without a doubt, running a red light, you have shown them to be guilty, a sinner, because you have presented them with the facts. Now, when you explain that someone has graciously paid for their transgression, their ticket, they become grateful and want to know more about who would do such a thing for them. 

When presented with the fact that all men are sinners, Romans 3:22-25. "the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins", and by presenting them with the facts of their sins, "Thou shalt not steal," "Thou shalt not bear false witness (lying)" "Thou shalt not covet" "Thou shalt not commit adultry", etc, and by their own admission that they have not upheld these commandments, even just violating one, when you explain that Jesus Christ died and shed His blood to not only cover those sins, but to completely blot them out, never to remember them again, they can then begin to graciously accept the free gift of salvation. 

Then, and only then, can we "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations," Matthew 28:19. How do we do that? The next verse tells us, "teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." Rise up, as Jeff Hinshaw told us yesterday in his sermon. Rise up, and overcome the paralysis of the Spirit that so many of us have fallen into . 

Rise Up, and evangelize!

A Lifelong Task

“But just how, in the circumstances, does a fellow ‘take it easy?’ That’s what I want to know.”

I was never known for my patients. How many times have I asked, “why should I wait, when I can have it all right now?” Indeed, when I was 1^st presented with his 12 steps of Celebrate Recovery, I was like the proverbial “kid in the candy store.” I couldn’t wait to get to Step 12; it was surely just a few months work, or so I thought! I realize now that living the 12 steps of Celebrate Recovery is a lifelong undertaking.

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Glorious Victory

Bible reading: Zechariah 9:9 – 12

Step 3: We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Romans 12:1)

Principle 3: Consciously choose to commit all of my life and will to Christ care and control.

“Happy are the meek.” (Matthew 5:8)

Our lives may be a battlefield. We may have been taken captive in the ongoing war between good and evil. When we turn our lives over to God, will He rescue us and keep us safe?

500 years before the birth of Jesus, the prophet Zechariah wrote these words: "Rejoice greatly, O my people! Shout with joy! For look – your King is coming! He is the Righteous One, the Victor! Yet He is lowly, riding on a donkey’s colt! [This prophecy was fulfilled by the coming of Jesus (see Matthew 21:4 – 11).] I will disarm all peoples of the earth, including my people in Israel and He shall bring peace among the nations. His realm shall stretch from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth. I have delivered you from death in a waterless pit because of the covenant I made with you, sealed with blood. Come to the place of safety, all you prisoners, for there is yet help! I promise right now, I will repay you two mercies for each of your woes!" (Zechariah 9:9 – 12).

Jesus fulfilled part of these prophecies when he came the 1^st time. He did deliver us from death by shedding His own blood to seal our pardon. When He comes again, as He promised, He will bring peace on earth. For now, we can take cover in Jesus as our refuge. When the war is over and Jesus is crowned King of Kings, He will repay all those who are His, to mercies for every woe suffered in the war! In the battles of life we can turn our lives over to God and have a strong, sure hope.

When we give ourselves to God, He always gives back more than we gave.

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Weeding The Garden

The essence of all growth is a willingness to make a change for the better and then an unremitting willingness to shoulder whatever responsibility this entails.

By the time I had reached step 3, I had been freed of my dependence on my addiction, but bitter experiences show me that continuous sobriety requires continuous effort.

Every now and then I pause to take a good look at my progress. More and more of my garden is weeded each time I looked, but each time I also find new weeds sprouting where I thought I had made my final pass with the blade. As I head back to get the newly sprouted weeds, (it’s easier when they are young), I take a moment to admire how lush the growing vegetables and flowers are, and my labors are rewarded. My sobriety grows and bears fruit.

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God's Faithfulness

Bible reading: Lamentations 3:17 – 26

Step 3: We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Romans 12:1)

Principle 3: Consciously choose to commit all of my life and will to Christ care and control.

“Happy are the meek.” (Matthew 5:8)

Perhaps were brokenhearted because of the bitter suffering in our family. Maybe our once good reputations have been ruined and now we’re ashamed. Our lives have been taken captive and destroyed before the watchful eyes of friend and foe alike.

Jeremiah watch this happened to his beloved nation, Israel. It’s no wonder he’s known as the weeping prophet. The people of God refused to listen to Jeremiah’s warnings and were taken captive by a heathen nation as a result. Lamentations is a record of Jeremiah’s lament over the shameful fate of God’s people. He weeps, “O Lord, all peace and all prosperity have long since gone, for you have taken them away. I have forgotten what enjoyment is. All hope is gone; my strength is turned to water, for the Lord has left me. Oh, remember the bitterness and suffering you have dealt to me! For I can never forget these awful years, always my soul will live in utter shame. Yet there is a ray of hope: His compassion never ends. It is only the Lord’s mercies that have kept us from complete destruction. Great is His faithfulness: His loving kindness begins afresh each day. My soul claims the Lord as my inheritance; therefore I will hope in Him. It is good both to hope and to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” (Lamentations 3:17 – 26).

Turning our lives over to God includes giving him our pain and suffering. Got a strong and loving enough to lift our burdens and mend a broken hearts.

When all hope is gone we can entrust ourselves to God, remembering his never ending compassion.

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Hope In God

Bible reading: Jeremiah 17:5 – 8

Step 3: We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Romans 12:1)

Principle 3: Consciously choose to commit all of my life and will to Christ care and control.

“Happy are the meek.” (Matthew 5:8)

We may have learned a long time ago that hoping only brings disappointment. Our hopes were dashed. The promises we believed were broken. We were left feeling like fools for ever hoping the 1^st place. But perhaps we were devastated because we put our hope in the wrong place.

“The Lord says: Cursed is a man who puts his trust in mortal man and turns his heart away from God. He is like a stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future; he lives on the self – encrusted plains in the barren wilderness; good times passing by forever. But blessed is the man who trust in the Lord, and has made the Lord his hope and confidence. He is like a tree planted along a river bank, with its roots reaching down into the water – a tree not bothered by the heat nor worried by the long months of drought. Its leaves stay green and it goes right on producing all of its luscious fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:5 – 8)

Turning our lives over to God includes placing our hope in him, even if people have disappointed us. When replace all of our hope in other people, is like expecting a tree to flourish in a barren desert. Our thirst continues, and they are unable to satisfy our deepest needs. Placing our hope in God changes everything. Jesus said “The water I give them… Becomes a perpetual spring within them, watering them forever with eternal life” (John 4:14). When our hope is in God, and our lives in his care, we are sustained when we otherwise would be devastated.

If we put our trust and hope in God, we will never be let down.

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Overcoming Self Will

So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making. They arise out of ourselves, and our addiction is an extreme example of self will run riot, so we usually don’t think so. Above everything, we addicts must be rid of this selfishness. We must, or it will kill us!

For so many years my life revolves solely around myself. I was consumed with self in all forms – self-centeredness, self-pity, self-seeking, all of which stemmed from pride. Today I have been given the gift, through the fellowship of Celebrate Recovery, of preaching the steps in the principles in my daily life, of my group and sponsor, and the capacity – if I so choose – to put my pride aside in all situations which arise in my life.

Until I could honestly look at myself and see that I was the problem in many situations and react appropriately inside and out; until I could discard my expectations and understand that my serenity was directly proportional to them, I could not experience serenity and sound sobriety.

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A God Of Second Chances

Have you ever been fishing, and when you cast your line, it didn't quite hit that sweet spot where you wanted it to go? So, you reel in really quick, and you cast again, until you hit that perfect spot where you know that big one is hiding. 

Or, when you were a kid, and you played marbles. Maybe your shot didn't go where you wanted it to go...so you pick it up, and call a do over. You make your shot again and again, until you hit the other marble you were aiming at. 

When you grew up, and played golf, when your shot didn't go where you wanted it to go, maybe you hooked it, or sliced it, or overshot the green and into the water...you call a mulligan. 

The point is, we always want a second chance when we do something wrong. With alot of people, we don't get a second chance. But my God is a God of second chances, and third chances...in fact, He is a God of another chance... Matthew 18:21-22 ESV "Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven." 

It isn't a coincidence that it was Peter who asked this, when later, Peter tells jesus that he would never betray Him, he would even die with Jesus, yet not even 24 hours later, Peter denies Christ three times. Yet, for each time Peter denied Jesus, he was already forgiven, before Peter even felt remorse and sorrow for abandoning Jesus in his time of need. 

We, too, can be forgiven if we call out to God and confess our sins to HIm. 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 

That's my God, a God who loves me and forgives me...a God who will always give me another chance.

Freedom in Forgiveness

Bible reading: Matthew 6:9 – 15

Step 3: We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Romans 12:1)

Principle 3: Consciously choose to commit all of my life and will to Christ care and control.

“Happy are the meek.” (Matthew 5:8)

We can sometimes get so focused on ourselves during recovery that we don’t spend much time dealing with the way others have sinned against us. Or maybe were totally focused on the way we’ve been mistreated, as an excuse for our behavior. This leaves us with emotional baggage that will hinder our progress. Forgiving others is an important key to turning our will over to God.

James taught his disciples, “Pray along these lines: ‘Our Father in heaven, we honor Your holy name. We ask that Your kingdom will come now. May Your will be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven. Give us our food again today, as usual, and forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. Don’t bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Amen.’ Your heavenly Father will forgive you if you forgive those who sin against you; but if you refuse to forgive them, He will not forgive you’” (Matthew 6:9 – 15).

Forgiveness is a choice of our will. Just as our forgiveness was not based on excusing the wrongs we’ve done, neither does our forgiveness of others call for us to excuse what they’ve done. We must 1^st convicted offender in our minds, then turned the matter of vengeance over to God. This helps his face the truth about our own pain. It also frees us from any excuse to continue our compulsive behavior because of what’s been done to us.

Forgiveness begins as a choice but becomes a process that opens us up to God’s love and forgiveness.

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It Works

It works – it really does!

When I got sober I initially had faith only in the program of Celebrate Recovery. Desperation and fear Me sober (and maybe a caring and/or tough sponsor helped!). Faith in our one and only Higher Power, Jesus Christ, came much later. This faith came slowly at 1^st, after I began listening to others share it meetings about their experiences – experiences that I had never faced sober, but that they were facing with strength from a Higher Power named Jesus Christ. Out of their sharing came hope that I too would – and could – “get” a Higher Power. In time, I learned that a Higher Power named Jesus Christ – a faith in Him that works under all conditions – is possible. Today, this faith in Jesus Christ, plus the honesty, open-mindedness and willingness to work the steps of the program, give me the serenity that I seek. It works – it really does!

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Self-Control

Bible reading: 2^nd Peter 1:2 – 9

Step 3: We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Romans 12:1)

Principle 3: Consciously choose to commit all of my life and will to Christ care and control.

“Happy are the meek.” (Matthew 5:8)

We would love to have self-control! The trying to find it within ourselves can become as much of an obsession as our primary addiction.

According to Peter, self-control is one step in the middle of a larger progression. He said, “Do you want more and more of God’s kindness in peace? Then learn how to know him better and better. For as you know him better, he will give you, through his great power, everything you need for living a truly good life: he that shares his own glory and his own goodness with us! And by that same mighty power he has given us all the other rich and wonderful blessings he promised; for instance, the promise to save us from the lust and rottenness all around us, and to give us his own character. But to obtain these gifts, you need more than faith: you must also work hard to be good, and even that is not enough. For then you must learn how to know God better and discover what he wants you to do. Next, learn to put aside your own desires [self-control] so that you will become patient godly, gladly letting God have his way with you. This will make possible the next step, which is for you to enjoy other people and to like them, and finally you will grow to love them deeply” (2 Peter 1:2 – 7).

Self-control is something that comes as we grow progressively closer to God. Taking one step at a time, one day at a time, God will give us his own character, including self-control.

Our self-control increases as we give increasing control over to God.

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One Celebrate Recovery Miracle

Save for a few brief moments of temptation, the thought of returning to my addiction has never returned; and at such times a great revulsion has risen up in me. Seemingly I could not return to my addiction even if I would. God has restored my sanity.

The word “God” was frightening to me when I 1^st saw it associated with Celebrate Recovery’s 12 steps. Having tried all means I could to stop my addiction, I found that it was not possible for me to sustain that desire over a period of time. Yet, how could I believe in “God” that had allowed me to sink to the deep despair that engulfed me – whether drinking or dry?

The answer was in finally admitting that it might be possible for me to know the mercy of a Power greater than myself who can grant me sobriety contingent on my willingness to “come to believe”. I finally admitting that I was one among many, and by following the example of my sponsor and other Celebrate Recovery members in practicing faith I did not have, my life has been given meaning, direction and purpose.

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