Counseling the Addict Inside of You - Part 6

0:54First, we've talked about identifying addictions. What are my addictions that need to address, identify, that are problematic? Second, we spent some time looking at the cause of addictions. What is the ultimate cause of my addictions? Anyone remember the answer to that? Misplaced worship. Our addictions are fundamentally an addiction. I mean, are fundamentally a worship problem. When we serve our addictions, when we Give in to that which we desire, we supplant God. And so we worship ourselves instead of the Creator.

1:42So then we began looking at confronting addictions. Having identified them, having understood the ultimate and root cause of our addictions, we began to confront them. And how do we confront them? Well, how do we do it in a biblical manner? Number one, we first of all need to develop a repentance plan. We've already looked at that. We must realize that this is a campaign. This is a war. I love how Kevin, and we'll hear from Kevin again tonight, how Kevin said he didn't like the word struggle. And I appreciate that. It's more of a war, a war where you've got two opposing forces and one is out to destroy the other. And so we must recognize that in this war that there are going to be times of failure. And we must develop a repentance plan. And we have a perfect way to do so. We have the perfect sacrifice, Christ. We have the perfect advocate, Christ. The one mediating on our behalf is Christ the righteous. He is. Also, the sin offering. And so we have a solution to our sin. We are cleansed of our sins. We confess them. And so developing that repentance plan involves: okay, what do I do when I fail, when I sin against God?

3:22I confess that sin. I make it right. I move on. And it's important to have seasons and times of repentance. Repentance needs to be part of your daily routine. It's not something that just happens one-off somewhere. Repentance is part of a daily routine. You should begin your morning with repentance. You should end your day with repentance. You should think through repentance through the day. But also seasons of repentance. One of the reasons why we have the Lord's Supper on a very routine schedule: that you can, as we come to the table, we are mindful that we have a perfect sacrifice. We are mindful that we are sinners, that we are in need of His sacrifice and thankful for His sacrifice and His mediation on our behalf.

4:19So, seasons of repentance. We've already talked much about repentance. We began looking at developing a temptation plan. If you're in a war, which you are, You have a strategy. You're going to either defeat your enemy, or your enemy is going to defeat you. And part of the goal of war is to destroy your enemy, and not just the enemy, but the culture that produces the enemy. You want to defeat your enemy. You want to defeat your enemy's ability to even come to the battlefield. And so you're in a war. You're in a war with your own fleshly desires, which seek to supplant the Lord of glory in your life. That's the war we're in. And you must develop a temptation plan.

5:20We began introducing this last time. What are some of the basics of a temptation plan? Well, first of all, putting distance. 1 Peter 2:11, Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul, to abstain. The idea is to put distance. I told the story of being on a boat when a whale surfaced near the boat and saw a captain who wasn't really afraid of anything on the sea become very fearful.

5:56And that such is temptation. Can spring up and its power and its mass can surely devastate your life. But they're predictable. You can think about it, think through it. There is a predictability to where these monsters of temptation surface. Just make sure you're not over there in a little boat. It's pretty predictable, and that's part of a temptation plan, putting distance. And that involves changing your routine to remove temptation's access to you. There's times when it shows up. There's places where it shows up. It's pretty predictable. You're in a war. Your enemy's pretty predictable. And to take that into consideration.

6:54And third, changing your routine to add actions of righteousness. It's not just putting off and avoiding, it is adding to acts of righteousness because what this is about is ultimately worshiping God. He didn't just put you here to live a defensive life, but to go and live freely, serving and bringing honor and glory to Him by putting on acts and deeds of righteousness. So these are the basic. Of a temptation plan. I'll add it forth here in a little bit.

7:35But I'm going to pause for just a minute, and I'm going to bring Kevin back up to the platform and to tell us a little bit about some of the changes in routine. As you know, his war with drunkenness has been very public. He has been very vocal and has shared about his war with drunkenness. And so I'm inviting him back up to the platform to tell us about the changes in his routine and really one of the fundamental triggers that really changed his life in our time of counseling together. So come on up.

8:21Good evening. Last time I spoke a little bit about the general times of temptation for me to drink. Tonight I'd like to talk a little bit about my routine change. Excuse me. Those temptation times were pretty much all the time for me. And I think I mentioned that last time, but the biggest time of day, temptation-wise, for me to drink was when I got home from work. And simply put, one of the things I did is instead of cracking a beer and sitting Down in my chair, I would crack a root beer and sit down in my chair.

9:06But there's a lot more to it. At the time that God called me to repentance, I was meeting with two of our pastors, Thomas and Matthew, twice a week. We focused on the root of what was inside of me. And you could really summarize that root in between three topics. One being a wrong identity, basically an identity in worldly things and not Christ. Two was unforgiveness, which Thomas mentioned a minute ago. And three, a lack of love.

9:49And it wasn't just that I wasn't displaying forgiveness and love and have myself in the right identity in Christ. Part of it was I didn't fully understand those things. And Scripture tells us that all three of these things are sin. Having our identity in worldly things, living in unforgiveness, and a lack of love. Part of my temptation plan was realizing and admitting that I was dead in my trespasses and sin. Ephesians 2. Speaks of that. The first verse says a lot, but I would encourage you to read the whole chapter.

10:36It gets better after that first verse. I was not just displeasing God. I wasn't just messing up here and there. I was dead. I was not dying. I was dead. And it took me to get to that point to really understand everything involved in it. The thing about addictions, whether it's alcohol, drugs, sexual immorality, pornography, money, food, social media, video games, or any other form of idolatry you may choose, it gets worse. That's what sin does, it destroys.

11:22The journey for me becoming a drunk didn't excuse me. The journey for me becoming a drunk started with one beer. Didn't start with a truckload. No one goes from not living in sin to waking up as a drunk, an adulterer, or a glutton in one day. It starts with one small compromise to sin that leads to another compromise, and so on and so forth. I can't stress enough. That sin was the problem. So, my temptation plan. And please understand that this is not a plan that's been written out for the last two years. This is something that I did, but I didn't have written down on paper and say, okay, day one, I'm going to do this, day two, I'm going to do this. This is really looking back on what did help and what did work, and actually documenting it to share with others.

12:36So, you could say the first step in my temptation plan was: one, humbly admitting and realizing that I'm dead. Really, none of the rest of this can happen until that happens first. Two, repenting and submitting to Christ and His church. And I'll speak a little bit more on that in a second. In fact, I'll jump ahead. What I mean by that, submitting to Christ and His church. In a funny way, in fact, you may even say that God used a little bit of my pride to help His agenda in my life.

13:20My wife and I, Joelle, are members of this church. We had become members of this church about two years before this came to a head. Of y'all that are members know that one of the requirements of membership is submitting to the church and to the elders and leaders of this church. The way I guess you could say God used my pride to get through to me, if we weren't members of this church at the moment that Thomas and Matthew and Russell first confronted me, lovingly confronted me, and wrapped their arms around me, I would have left this church with my family. And I would probably still be living in sin at this point. Part of it was my pride that I'm a man, I made a commitment, I became a member, and that was part of what I agreed to. I didn't like it at the time, but I said, you know what?

14:23I'll submit to the leadership and see what they have to say. Lo and behold, they were giving me biblical advice, and so far I haven't found any biblical advice that's bad. Scripture's pretty good. So, that's what I mean by submitting to Christ and his church through repentance. The third point, and I have some sub-points on this, is to change my routine. I mentioned the root beer, but really the routine changes that made a difference were A, to read God's Word and pray daily. I read and pray alone each morning, and I mean each and every morning.

15:18Two, I read to and pray with my family every evening. And we mentioned this in young families. There are some... Some evenings that I pull out, was it Psalm 117? About once every week or two. Psalm 17 is what we go to, 117, excuse me, because it's short and sweet. And you know what? My children need God's word on a daily basis. I need God's word on a daily basis. The second sub-point under changing my routine is submitting to teaching.

15:55The biggest thing that I did was submit to biblical counseling. We started off with twice-a-week meetings, eventually got to once a week, and then once every other week. And the key in all of that, like Thomas mentioned before, was an understanding of forgiveness, learning to forgive, and then practicing forgiveness. God's word and God's people taught me how to forgive. I did not understand how to do it before. For submitting to the teaching of wise men around me in the church.

16:38Secondly, Sunday service and not just attending, but actually being involved by engaging my mind into the service, not just being present. I mean, my wife can attest to this. I have a whole notebook full of notes over the last two years of sermons. You won't be able to find my notes from the two years prior to that. They don't exist because I wasn't engaged. I'd hear things here and there, but I wasn't engaged. And just so you know, I'm a horrible student.

17:13You won't find any notes from my high school career either because those don't exist. But this stuff's good. Third point under changing my routine is fellowship. I started having lunch with Russell McGee once a week. This facilitated accountability, but it was also one more avenue for wisdom in my life, biblical wisdom in my life. I engaged in the young families group, whereas before I'd make every excuse in the book not to attend. And again, engaged, learning and soaking up, taking notes, all that kind of stuff. And then the third thing, this sounds kind of Funny, but sticking around after church and visiting with people. You can't build relationships if you don't have face-to-face time with people and have words and conversations with people.

18:12And when I say face-to-face, I don't mean Facebook either. I mean face-to-face, you can reach out and touch them if you want to, shake their hand. That's how we as people build relationships. The fourth point in changing my routine was avoiding places and things. So I will not go to bars or sit in a bar in the restaurant. I'll never sit in a bar in a restaurant ever again. My wife and I have waited 20, 30 minutes for a table watching six empty tables in a bar in a restaurant because I just don't need to sit in there.

18:54And of course, I won't go to the liquor store either. Alcohol is not allowed in my home, and that's a little bit tricky with some of my family members, but if they want to come visit, that's the rule. And I will not purchase alcohol for anybody. I'll tell you an interesting story. We had a staff member at my company that we had suspicion had bought alcohol for another staff member on the clock. We have GPS on our trucks, so we looked it up. And he sat in a particular parking lot in front of a liquor store for 20 minutes.

19:37And we had a meeting, and it was decided that I would investigate and go talk to the liquor store and see if confirmed whether he went in there or not. I didn't go in the liquor store. And in fact, I had turmoil over the thought of going to that liquor store, not because of I was afraid I'd buy a bottle, not because of what one of y'all may think of seeing me coming out, but really the thought of what it might do to my ministry if someone were to see me come out and hear this kind of thing and say, wait a minute, I saw you come out of the liquor store last month. Fortunately, God provided a way. I didn't have to go in. I got the answer I needed, and we took care of business and the company. But that's just one of the things that I decided not to do.

20:38That last category, so the four categories of changing my routine: stay in God's word, submit to teaching, fellowship, and avoiding places. That last category of avoiding places is really a non-issue, or has been a non-issue for me. Partly because with the first three, my life and my lifestyle revolves around God, God's Word, and God's people. But also, when I repented of my drinking and I cried out to the Lord, literally on my knees, he removed the temptation from me.

21:32And I don't want to discount anything that anybody else in this room or anywhere in the world has gone through with an addiction because I've been there before in my life. You know, the world likes to use the word struggle. I was in combat with this sin in my life for 16, 17 years. But God really did remove the desire, the temptation. I can't really describe it more than that. It's through God's power that this all happened in my life.

22:18Not through this checklist of things that I, me, did to make it work. The only thing I can take credit for is submitting to the Lord and what he's instructed me to do. And, you know, he's given me the strength to go through all of it, including forgiving people. Man, I had a hardened heart, big hardened heart. Those of you that know my wife, I have a conversation with you. She'll tell you the truth. She will tell you the nitty-gritty, ugly things that went on in our home before I came to repentance.

23:01We're open about it because that reveals more of God's power and what He can do. I'd like to share some scripture with y'all. I would imagine most of y'all have heard this before. 1 Corinthians 10:13. No temptation has overtaken you, but such as in common to man. And God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able. But with the temptation, he will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

23:43I have God, His Word, and His people as my escape. I've never really looked at this verse in that way until now. But that's what Christ has left. God has left on this earth as my escape. And I just put this note in a second ago: that's my big boat. I'm not in a little tiny boat with a whale jumping out of the water anymore. I'm on a freight liner with a minnow trying to, you know, roll me over. I don't know C terms, but capsize me. There you go. That's just not going to happen.

24:31And that's just really cool for me to look at. This verse in 1 Corinthians 10 just got a little deeper for me going through this experience. And I want to emphasize another thing as well. These points of being in God's Word and submitting to teaching and being in fellowship, these men in our church, that's what they were telling me to do from day one. I've also heard them tell others to do the same thing over and over and over. And I've actually had the privilege of kind of watching a little bit over the last couple of years, and I've seen the positive effect that it has on individuals that follow the church's teaching. And I've also seen the disparity of those individuals that refuse to follow the Teaching is of the church. And as long as our church is teaching God's word, it's going to ring true.

25:39I appreciate you letting me talk. That's all I have tonight. Thank you. Temptation, it's there. And so putting distance involves putting off and putting on. And when you put on, there's little room left. You just heard a testimony on that. I want to continue talking about a strategy for developing your own temptation plan. It's out there. And I briefly mentioned this last time, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this first couple points. Still review. Number one, become familiar with the pattern and routine of your addictions by asking yourself the following questions. What is my addiction? We've already talked about that.

26:34When, time of day, week, month, whenever this temptation typically hits you the strongest, when does it show up? Where? Where's the physical location? The typical places where you are tempted. Who, who are some of the people that may be involved in this temptation? How? The means of the temptation, the identity of objects, instruments that are involved, you know, computers, alcohol, what are some of the instruments, money trail, just look at where the money is spending. You can figure it out pretty easily.

27:20And change your routine that puts distance between you and the temptation. Cut off temptation's access points. That's what you do in war. Cut off those access points that your enemy has to you, your vulnerable access points. As Kevin said, coming home, you know, a root beer. It's a simple change. But it's important because that's a time when that temptation is going to show up and to have and to be ready to deal with that. And so, Matthew 5:29, Jesus says, if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out, throw it from you, for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

28:12You are in a real war. And change your routine that cuts off these access points, temptation. That's where we've been. I want to spend a little bit more time just going a little bit deeper into this temptation plan and giving you some counsel for how to develop your own. Some other questions that may be helpful when you're in your unique situation, don't know exactly what you're dealing with, but other questions that can help you. What specific failures on my part contribute to my addiction? There are some failures that lead up to this. It doesn't just show up. I appreciate what Kevin said. You don't go from one beer to a truckload of beer in one sitting.

29:13It takes time. There's a series of decisions, a series of failures. I like what John MacArthur said one time: when a man falls into sin, speaking of adultery, he doesn't fall far. You can see a pattern of decline into sexual immorality, and it starts. In other words, what other ways did I sin in the process of serving my sin? This is that sin of commission. You sin many ways in getting to your sin. There's a series involved, lying, maybe a number of things, crossing some other boundaries.

30:01What are acts of righteousness that I was neglecting that allowed me room to serve my addiction? So, you're looking at the one hand on the sin of commission, what you were doing wrong, the many things that many boundaries you crossed in pursuing your addiction. But then there's another kind of sin, that's the sin of omission. What acts of righteousness was I neglecting that allowed me room to be able to pursue my sin? And it's interesting to note, and I appreciate what Kevin's saying. When I started filling my life with what is good, started stopping sinning in the area of omission and started doing what I should be doing, there was little room left for sins of commission.

31:08What have I done in the past about each failure? What are some of the successes? What are some of the things that haven't been successful? What other areas of my life have been affected by my addiction? Who else has my addiction affected? What are some scriptures? That relates to each of the above. Be thinking biblically, getting your mind thinking in the realm of truth. See your addiction, see these sins, what sins of omission, sins of commission, and the people that you are affecting, and other areas that are being, and what scriptures speak to these. I'll give you some examples in a moment. How is my view of God skewed when I choose to serve my addiction? Fundamentally, addiction goes back to a worship problem. And anytime you partake in a sin and routinely let that sin master you, you are you have a skewed view of your Creator. In what ways are you saying that God is not sufficient? That you have to pursue this addiction? Fundamentally, you have a wrong view of God if you're addicted to any sinful activity or thought pattern. Study your own heart for study your own heart. Psalm 139 is a good psalm to pray through to get acquainted with yourself.

33:08And study as you go through Scripture, you're in the Scripture. Your humanity is in the Scripture. It shows up on every page. And look at your own heart. Think on a deeper level: what are the root attitudes behind your addiction? What's driving this addiction? Is it pleasure? Is it escape? What's driving this at a deeper level? In what other areas of life are you living for yourself? Sometimes we make it all about our big sins, and then we sin all the time in other little ways, little compromises that we don't see as the big problem.

33:59What are some of those other areas of life? Bring these into your temptation plan. They're all connected. It's all about serving self. It's all about a wrong view of God. It all is connected. And so when you start looking at some of these little compromises and identifying these little compromises, and you learn how to walk in truth in the area of these other little compromises, it has a Spillover effect into the bigger areas of compromise. What are some of them? What about your entertainment? What about your laziness?

34:43All of these can be ways that you're living for yourself that affect some of the bigger elements. Addiction is living for self. God wants you to live for Him beyond your addiction. Addiction isn't just about kicking the habit. God has so much more for you just to get by in life. He wants you to live for Him. He wants you to live with Him. This is the joy of life. This is why He created us. Number five, exhaust yourself in imitating the character of God. You want to exhaust yourself in something? Pursue this one. Look at the character of God. Delight in the character of God. And imitate the character of God.

35:56Study His character. Imitate. Him. And one of the key areas, forgiving others. Imitate Him in forgiving others. This is one of the greatest invitations to know your God. Put on forgiveness. Put on a routine of forgiveness. Get in the habit and the discipline of forgiving. Be good at it. And as you do, each time you forgive, guess what? You understand God's forgiveness a little more. You understand how your Heavenly Father deals with you. It's the sweetest place of walking.

36:50Forgiving. Aren't you glad God calls you to forgive? Why does He call you to forgive? Because He is a forgiving God and He forgives you. It's wonderful. Imitate Him in this area. Imitate Him in delighting in the good and noble. Celebrate. Give yourself to celebrating that which is worthy of celebrating and mourn. Give yourself to mourning over that which is to lament. Give yourself and serve. Others. Just exhaust yourself. Feel the physical exhaustion in these things.

37:45Six, I just want to give you an example here of pornography. Let's just work through one of these. Pornography comes from lust, a desire for self. Lust is love for self, a desire to serve self. Love, on the other hand, involves sacrificial service for the well-being of another. So when a person engages in pornography in any form, at any level, whether it's very gross on the spectrum or very mild on the spectrum, pornography comes out of lust, a desire for self. You cannot love a person on screen or print or live. You cannot be loving them if you're looking at them in a pornographic manner. That's using them. That's the opposite. Of love.

39:02There is a whole industry of pornography because there's a market for it. And when you fail to love somebody and you engage in pornography, you are creating the industry. But love is about sacrificial service for the well-being of others. You cannot be loving the person you are lusting over. It's impossible. Lust is about serving yourself. Pray for those who are caught up in this world. And the porn user needs to cut off all access points and busy himself or herself with the sacrificial service to others. You think, seeing how the deep problem is root, a love of self. The opposite of that is loving, giving. And so the porn user needs to cut off certainly the access points, know where this giant whale comes jumping out, to know where that's going to happen, cut off those access points, ruthlessly cut them off. As I said before, your computer is not your lifeline. Your union with God is your lifeline. There is life with God. Computers, there is life without access points, you can do it. And you must do it. You're in a war that will destroy you. You must destroy the enemy's ability to even come to the battlefield and figure it out. Don't tell me you have to hold on to this if it is destroying you.

40:55And yet, I hear it all the time. But it's not just to cut off those access points. Put on love. That's on the other side of the spectrum of lust. Put on love, exhaust yourself in sacrificial service to others. During those times, those routine times where the creature emerges, be sure you have a sacrificial alternative. Just practical things. Come up with 10 specific ways to show sacrificial love to others. Figure out. Come up with a very practical, straightforward, tangible way. So we're not just talking theory, but something, 10 specific ways that you can put into practice, sacrificial love for others, and let that begin to replace.

41:56Learn to biblically love others. So that would just be one example. And this isn't comprehensive in any way, but just to give you an idea of how to develop your own tension plan. Take, for example, gluttony. Gluttony deals with excessive food intake. Why do we do that? Well, it stems from pleasure sometimes for some people. Remember reading parts of Augustine's Confession or hearing it read? And he talked about how food felt good when it went down. And he struggled with it. But food, he didn't just talk it tasted good, it felt good.

42:53Interesting. But so excess food intake may stem from pleasure for comfort. You're depressed, anxious, make a cake and eat half of it. It's not, it really does happen. But excess food can come from pleasure, comfort, security, or just plain boredom. What do we do? Let's go eat. That's what we do in here in Texas. We don't have like a lot of the mountains and a lot of the green, so what do we do? Let's go out to eat. Let's go eat. And so it can become a just because we're bored. And so there's all kinds of reasons what may move a person to excessive food intake.

43:50But the glutton needs to not only cut off access points, such as the all-you-can-eat buffets, have just having lots of food around the house. You can certainly need to do that, but also learn to find pleasure in what God delights in. Find the pleasure not in the food, but find pleasure in other things that God delights in. Find comfort in that relationship with God. Spiritual comfort in the Word, alone time, whatever it is, but replace that need to be comforted, not with food, with security. We can listen, God, you can delight, absolutely delight in God's provision for you because He knows what you need, He's promised to provide. He's going to meet your needs.

45:00And let your security be there. And find joy in serving others. There's all kinds of things you could put to this. Instead of boredom and eating, go find another avenue. Make a big dish for somebody else and take it to them. Just don't eat it. I don't know. But these are just some examples to get you thinking. And I hope that you will be serious, take this seriously, and identify these addictions. Sometimes we don't identify these sins until they're really major.

45:45But there's all kinds of these in our lives, and learn the skill of confronting them now. And so, really, what it's about is putting on Christ's likeness. Putting on Christ-likeness involves walking circumspectly. That means walking wisely, walking carefully, being mindful of the world around you and your internal propensities, your internal dispositions, the external situation that you're walking. Walk wisely. Be careful. These things are out there. Putting on Christ-likeness involves being controlled by the Spirit. Ephesians 5:8. Do not be drunk with wine, but be controlled. Be filled with the Spirit. Be under His influence. Let the Spirit of God influence you. And that's what Christ-likeness involves. And putting on Christ-likeness inevitably involves confronting our worship disorder. He loved the Father.

47:11He wouldn't trade that for anything. Union with Him. So we want to put our Heavenly Father at the right place in our hearts. And we must recognize it. I'm dead. Separated from God. I need Him. He needs to be first. Confront that. Be honest with yourself. We have a perfect sacrifice. Don't let that keep you from being honest with yourself. We have the perfect advocate. Don't let that keep you from being honest. Honest with yourself. We have the perfect invitation, come to me. I'm not cast anyone out. So don't let that be a reason to be dishonest with yourself. Confront those areas boldly in your life and honestly where you do not worship the true God.

48:23That's what putting Christ-likeness on is about. Putting on Christ-likeness inevitably involves radical amputation and radical addition. The goal is to worship God supremely. Love Him supremely. It's not just about kicking a bad habit. And if in the war with your sinful addictions, you learn these things, then that sinful addiction God has used as a good thing. And He can do that. Learn. Be honest with yourself. And restore the true worship of the true God in your life. It's not just about kicking a bad habit.

49:30So we looked at the basics of a temptation plan: putting distance, changing your routine to remove temptation's access to you, changing your routine to add actions of righteousness. And I am adding this number four just because, as an emphasis, forgiving others. Forgiving others. That is a trigger point. So often I find that drunkards, addicts of all kinds, blame somebody else and will not forgive somebody else. That's the culture we live in today. It's not your fault, it's somebody else's fault. Somebody, somewhere. It's not you.

50:23And we teach people to be angry at that, the society, the system. And we neglect personal responsibility, personal ownership. It's not other people, it's us. See, forgiving others is fundamentally a part of restoring and elevating God to his proper place in our lives. Those who do not learn forgiveness never really correct the worship disorder. And therefore, are never really free from their primary addiction to self. So, forgiving others is important. So, I'm going to take about another five minutes, so we'll go a little bit later tonight, but I just want to sum up this series. So, confronting addictions, important that you develop a repentance plan and develop a temptation plan.

51:36In 1851, a man by the name of Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy wrote a book called The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World. Of course, it was written in 1851. And at that time, he outlined what he felt was the 15 decisive battles of the world. It's an interesting read. I would encourage you to look it up sometime if you have the time. And but just to give you an idea, there was in 490 the Battle of Marathon. This is the battle that really saved ancient Greece from the Persians, and then, of course, Greece did its thing.

52:32But the Battle of Marathon stopped that Persian destruction of ancient Greece. And I'm just going to give you a few from his book. The Battle of Tours. The Battle of Tours, 732 AD. And this was that decisive moment when the Arab and Muslim expansion into Western Europe was halted there at the Battle of Tours. No more Arab expansion to the West. Joan of Arc at Orleans, 1429, has kept France really in many ways from becoming like an Ireland under the British, but protected its identity and sovereignty. Joan of Arc.

53:34Then there's the defeat of the Spanish Armada, 1588. The naval superpower was defeated by the British forces, the British Navy, and that changed the world there. A new superpower coming on the scene, the British Empire. That happens. Really, with the defeat of the Spanish Armada, their shipping fleet. Then there's the victory at Saratoga, 1777, this decisive moment in the battle for the United States and its sovereignty. There's the Battle of Waterloo, 1850. This puts down Napoleon.

54:33There are, of course, that's the 15. And then history has gone on. Others have tried to add to the list. And then there is, of course, you get a Texan in there. He's got to throw in there the Battle of San Jacinto. And he writes a book, this author wrote a book called the 16th Decisive Battle of the World, the Battle of San Jacinto. And it's an interesting argument that he has. And he bases it on that, okay, that's when Texas won its basically won its independence, but it also led to another war, and that war ended up, the Mexican-American War ended up resulting in the largest transfer of territory. Over a million square miles of territory.

55:35You've got New Mexico, California, Arizona, all basically the Western. And so his argument was got to trace that back to San Jacinto. And others. But here's the point that following Creasy's logic, the world in which we live in has been shaped by these decisive battles. All of us live in the aftermath of these conflicts. The world is shaped. The boundaries are shaped. Where we live and breathe have in some way been shaped by these decisive battles.

56:30And so you think about the way you confront your addictions. The war that you are in with these your personal desires are going to shape your life and the lives of others around you. You are going to live in the aftermath of these conflicts. They do shape worlds. The way you confront your addictions, whether or not you're going to give the true God his rightful place as the one to be worshipped in your life or not is going to be, is definitively going to set up the boundaries, the life, and the territory that you're going to live in, and others around you. So I leave you with that. You are in a war.

57:42Fight to win. You have the perfect sacrifice to win the war. You have the perfect advocate to win the war. You have the perfect promises to win the war. You have God's perfect power to win the war. Do what Kevin did. Get on your knees. Cry out. God, I want to walk in this way. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do lay our hearts before you. We want you, as the true God, to Have the right place in our hearts. Please do whatever it takes to bring that about. And all of us here, bring us to a point of freedom in your name, victory over the things that so easily beset us.

58:51Thank you for your perfect sacrifice. Thank you for the perfect promises. Thank you for your perfect advocacy on our behalf. Thank you that our righteousness is at the right hand of Almighty God. Thank you we're secure in you. Help us to leave here now in your name. Amen.