Sermon Tone Analysis

Principle 7: Reserve a daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and His will for my life and to gain the power to follow His will.

Step 11: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our con­scious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and power to carry that out.

“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly.”

(Colossians 3:16)

Prayer

Your disobedience determines what your relapse looks like!

Illustration backsliding WALKING IN DEFEAT

Emphasis when and various trials

emphasis let patience have its perfect work (don’t rush the growth)

Paul Gotthardt

If God allowed it.

He’s using it.

If He’s using it.

I need it.

If I need it.

I can be grateful for it.

Discuss the valleys, trials, wilderness!

Oswald Chambers

It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will be the choice ones, that most of us turn back.

We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to be battered into shape of the vision to be used by God?

Beware lest you don’t make it out of the wilderness.

Relapse is Rebellion

Let us look at the Israelites in the wilderness

1-2 million enter the wilderness

11 days vs 40 years

The LORD answers with quail and a plaque

They send 12 to the promise land.

10 see giants

2 see milk and honey and plenty of fruit

the Israelites demand to go back to Egypt/bondage

Are we any different?

talk of ways we rebel in everyday life

How can we avoid relapse?

The first letter in relapse stands for Principle 7 itself: RESERVE a daily quiet time with God for self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and His will for my life and gain the power to follow His will.

The first step in preventing a relapse is to admit that you will be tempted, that you are not above temptation.

Jesus wasn’t, why should you be?

Jesus was tempted.

He never sinned, but He was tempted.

Mark 14:38 tells us: “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Remember, being tempted isn’t a sin.

It’s falling into the action of the temptation that gets us into trouble.

You know it’s odd, temptations are different from opportunities.

Temptations will always give you a second chance!

Temptation is not a sin; it is a call to battle.

When we are tempted to fall back into our old hurts, hang-ups, and habits we need to say to Satan as Jesus did in Matthew 4:10 (TLB): “Get out of here ... The Scriptures say, ‘Worship only the Lord God.

Obey only him.’

”

The next word in our acrostic reminds us of Step 10: EVALUATE.

Let me just recap what we have talked about in the last two lessons.

Your evaluation needs to include your physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual health.

As Pastor Rick (Warren) says, don’t forget the value of doing a “H-E-A-R-T” check.

Ask yourself daily if you are

Hurting

Exhausted

Angry

Resentful

Tense

If you answer yes to any of the above, just use the tools you have learned in recovery to help get you back on track.

We find specific instructions for this step in Romans 12:3 – 17 (NLT): “Be honest in your estimate of yourselves. . . .

Hate what is wrong.

Stand on the side of the good.

Love each other.... Be patient in trouble.... Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable.”

Daily practice of Step 10 maintains your honesty and humility.

The L is LISTEN to your Higher Power, Jesus Christ.

We need to take a time-out from the world’s “rat race” long enough to listen to our bodies, our minds, and our souls.

We need to slow down enough to hear the Lord’s directions.

“Test everything that is said to be sure it is true, and if it is, then accept it” (1 Thessalonians 5:21, TLB).

I like that verse in The Message: “Don’t be gullible.

Check out everything, and keep only what’s good.

Throw out anything tainted with evil.”

Let’s look at the letter A, which stands for ALONE and quiet time.

The first part of Step 11 says: “We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God.”

In Principle 3, we made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to God’s care; in Principle 4, we confessed our sins to Him; and in Principle 5, we humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Now, in Principle 7 in order to keep your recovery growing, you need to have a daily quiet time with Jesus.

Even He spent time alone with His Father; you need to do the same.

Set a daily appointment time to be alone with God, so that you can learn to listen carefully, learn how to hear God!

In Psalm 46:10 God tells us to “be still, and know that I am God.”

Step 11 uses the word meditation.

Meditation may be new to you, and you may feel uncomfortable.

The definition of meditation is simply “slowing down long enough to hear God.”

With practice, you will begin to realize the value of spending time alone with God.

The Enemy will use whatever he can to disrupt your quiet time with God.

He will allow you to fill your schedule with so many good things that you burn out or do not have the time to keep your appointment with God.

The Enemy loves it when he keeps us from growing and from working on the most important relationship in our lives —our relationship with Jesus.

Psalm 1:1 –3 (GNT) tells us: “Happy are those who ... find joy in obey­ing the Law of the Lord,... they study it day and night.

They are like trees that grow beside a stream, that bear fruit at the right time.”

The next letter is P: PLUG in to God’s power through prayer.

I can’t tell you the number of people who, in counseling, have asked me, “Why did God allow that to happen to me?”

I reply, “Did you pray and seek His will and guidance before you made the decision to get married, before you made the decision to change jobs?” or whatever their issue might be.

You see, if we don’t daily seek His will for our lives, how can we blame Him when things go wrong?

Some people think their job is to give God instructions.

They have it backward.

Our job is to daily seek His will for our lives.

You see, God’s guid­ance and direction can only start when our demands stop.

Don’t misunderstand me here.

I’m only suggesting that we must stop demanding things of God, not stop asking things of Him.

Specific prayer requests are another way to be plugged in to God’s power.

In Philippians 4:6 (TLB), Paul tells us to pray about everything asking for God’s perfect will in all our decisions: “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs and don’t forget to thank him for his answers.”

The verse says His answers, His perfect will —not mine or yours.

Ours are imperfect and most often self-centered.