Spiritual Transition from an Addict

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All right, so for those who are watching live as we're gonna do our spiritual transition game, those who watch the

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Striving Fraternity Academy live get to give me something to transition to, and I have to take from whatever they give me to the gospel.

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And somebody, you think this is a hard one. I've been given the task of transitioning from an addict to the gospel, and I actually think this is really easy.

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This actually isn't hard for me because I used to do addiction counseling. And so I used to talk to drug addicts and sex addicts and alcoholics and the like all the time.

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And so here's the one thing I always would explain to them, because here's the thing, what does the addiction do?

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An addiction takes over your life. The addiction controls a person. You know, we used to always say that the thing about sin is that sin, you know, takes you further than you wanna go, looks better than it really is, and I'm wording it wrong, and holds you longer than you wanna stay.

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But the thing about it though is about addiction is addiction takes over your life.

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We would talk to people who their lives have just been ruined. I mean, marriages ruined, jobs.

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I mean, I have spoken to guys that made millions of dollars a year and because of drugs and alcohol weren't worth a penny because they blew it all, they ruined their life, ruined their marriages, okay, because of an addiction.

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And we typically think of addiction as a bad thing. However, there's one thing that we could be addicted to, that's a good thing, and that's

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God. See, as an addict, we understand what it means to really be a Christian.

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The Christian life is to be addicted to Jesus Christ, to be completely controlled by the

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Holy Spirit, to be living a life in such a way where everything you do is for that addiction, in this case,

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God Almighty. Wanting to live every moment, doing everything, anything, no matter what it takes, you're willing to do for that one thing that you want so badly, and in the case of a

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Christian, it would be Jesus Christ. Why would a person be willing to be addicted to Jesus Christ?

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You know, that's a good question, I'm glad you asked. Let me explain why. Because Jesus Christ, the

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Almighty God of the universe, came to earth as a man, he left heaven and came to earth so he could die for our sin and be the punishment that you and I owe, that he could pay the fine that we owe, that we could be set free.

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He became sin for us, and you know what he gives us? His righteousness. When we have the righteousness of Christ, knowing that we deserve eternity in a lake of fire, we should do nothing more but to want to be with him, we should be praising him, we should be wanting to live every second of every day, to want to be pleasing him.

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That's exactly what happened in Paul's life, to a point where when Paul was close to death, he actually said he'd rather be dead.

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But while he's on earth, he's happy, he's here so he could serve others. But the reality is, is that his desire, his desire was to actually be dead because in death, he gets to be with the one thing he loves more than anything in life.

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And that's true for Christians. As we mature, we get to that point where we love Christ so much we'd actually rather be dead because we can be with the one we love.

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And we as Christians should be addicted to Jesus Christ. Addicted to where he, the

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Holy Spirit, controls every aspect of our life. That's how I would transition from an addict to the gospel.