Well, we'll get started and see if we can get anybody more else in. But let me, first of all, give you a little brief introduction of myself so you know where I'm coming from. I pastor at Colchester Bible Baptist Church in Connecticut. And one of our ministries of our church is, we call it the Pines Ministry. It's Lebanon Pines. It's a drug and alcohol rehabilitation place that's about five minutes from our church. And it's run by, I always thought it ran by the state, but it takes state aid, but it's a private entity. And they let us come there. And on Friday nights, I have a Bible study there. So on Friday nights, I have a Bible study of which we, there's a handout right back there if you want to grab a handout. Well, we have a Bible study there. They allow us to come in for an hour or so and have a Bible study. Also, we send our, a van and folks to the place there and volunteer for a Sunday morning service. They, it's a place that has, it's a, they're pretty strict. Handouts right back there. They're pretty strict. In other words, if you don't do the, go by the rules that they have, you're out. And it's a voluntary place that you, they come for 60 to 90 days. They will come there and it holds about 110. You can't leave there. I mean, if you have a cell phone and you do this and you go out and you go even to a different store, you're out. So, which is unusual in today's day and age to have that. And we go there on Friday with a Bible study and then on Sunday mornings we send a van there. We've had as many, we've averaged as many as between 15 and 25 men come to our services. But it's one of these things, you know, it depends on the group there and who's really promoted. We've had as many as 16, 15, 16, as many as zero, you know, in the Bible study. And so we, We, right now, are probably averaging around 10 to 12, with just our one van. What we would do is we'd send our van, and then people from our church would take their cars and go bring them in. So we have a heart for it, and we've seen God's done a wonderful work in a lot of hearts and lives, and we've seen a lot of professions of faith, and then of those that have been saved, really trying to help them. And right now, about two weeks ago, I led a man to the Lord, and his name's Sammy. and he's going out to, he's going to be leaving pretty soon. And he says, pastor, I hope you don't bother, are bothered now when I keep calling you. And so what we've seen, we've seen a lot of, a lot of great blessings and a lot of disappointments. To let you know, there's so much that I have for you on the handout. I'm going to try to go quick on some of it and try to sit on others, but I want to show you the, The situation here that we have, we understand that substance abuse would be sin. Really, as you see in your introduction there, really, substance abuse is a lordship problem. It is ultimately a disorder of worship. In other words, will we worship ourselves or our own desires, or will we worship the true God? See, whatever wins our affection will control our lives. So we're gonna look at several insights concerning substance abuse in order for one to break its bondage. And let me say, it is a bondage. And it is a lordship situation. It is a control situation. One man sat there, this was in October, it was about three, four years ago. A man sat there on a Friday night that I was at the Bible study with him, and he told me, and they had probably, maybe there was six or seven there that night, or eight for the Bible study. And he sat me and said, Pastor, since January, people that have come here, 37 have either died or taken their, overdosed or taken their own life. It's a real issue. And without Christ, we know that there's no hope. And there's some that are in Christ, and it's an awful habit. So I'd like to go through really quickly with you. So please bear with me if I just start reading and going, and then I'll try to stop and comment on some things. But understand that it's a ministry that I think every church needs to get involved in. It's a ministry that you'll see some great things happen for God. And really, it's just about lives. They are amazed at us even coming. They're thanking us all the time. And remember, I don't ever have to worry. One thing about them that I never have to worry about? Convincing them that they're sinners. I never have to. Whereas the people in our church, they've been saved for so long, yeah, I've got to convince them. Oh no, I don't do anything wrong. So let's look at the Lord in prayer, and then we'll get into this. Lord Jesus, thank you so much for loving us, for dying on the cross for our sins, and just letting us live today. In Jesus' name, amen. So first of all, what is substance abuse? Its interpretation I have down there for you, different secular ones. Substance abuse refers to a set of related conditions associated with the assumption of mind and behavior altered substance that have negative and behavioral and health outcomes. Substance abuse also is known as drug abuse. It's a pattern use of a drug in which the user consumes the substance in amounts or with methods which are harmful to themselves or others and is a form of substance related disorder. Down there you see addictions. Addiction. It is a bondage to the rule of substance. activity or state of mind which then becomes the center of life, defending itself from the truth so that even bad consequences don't bring repentance and leading to further estrangements from God. It is a voluntary slavery, showing signs of both purposefulness and victimization. What unites these substances described as addictions is that they deliver a bodily experience, and with them we feel more alert, more calm, less shy, and more powerful. It is an enslavement. Let me just quickly mention to you, before I forget, we'll run out of time, that there's three books that I've brought that are great because what I use there with the men and what I also use with others, and it's basically having to do with breaking stubborn habits. That's what really the issue is. And so when I go with the men, what they really appreciate, I think, is when I'm there, I'm sitting down with them and I'm saying, guys, I struggle with the same thing, habits, just not your habit. It might be something else that you might think, oh man, I would never. And so it's really getting down on that level and realizing that we're not talking down to them. We're talking to the same level to them. We are all sinners and we've all come short of the glory of God. And so what I've done is the one book when it comes to having some excellent books, what I do is I, when there's a group that I can tell are going to be here, keep our faithful to the Bible study every night, I go through and I have a, handouts for a 12-week series on Winning the Inner War. Maybe you've seen this. I think it's a different name today. This is an older book. It's by Erwin Lutzer. No, I don't have the name in here. You'd have to write this down. I do not have room to put it in there. And it's Winning the Inner War, How to Say No to a Stubborn Habit. We all have habits, don't we? What a great book. This has helped me immensely. if I will let it. By who? It's by Lutzer. Erwin W. Lutzer. And I see that name there. There you go. You can see it right there. Okay, thank you. The other one I have, as you might have heard of it, it's from Resources for Changing Lives. It's Addictions, A Banquet in the Grave, Finding Hope in the Power of the Gospel. A lot of my information here is from this. Edward Welch. Excellent book on addiction. And it is an excellent book on help there. And then the other one that isn't really one on addiction, it's called The Bondage Breaker by Neil T. Anderson. And it's overcoming negative thoughts, irrational feelings, and habitual sins. Now, remember, not everything in these books would I agree with. Here, his principles are wonderful, but I think he goes a little bit further into darkness and battling the demons or whatever and demon possessed. It's real but I think it goes a little farther where I think scripturally I wouldn't go with him on how far he goes. But he more implies it in this book than he does say it. It's more of an implication. So I just wanted that little asterisk about this because he is excellent. If I found other readings on him, he is an excellent writer and I've got some wonderful things. And there's things out of this book that I have in your handout that I give to the men at the pines. I give to our people, of course, at the same time. And so those are three books that I think will really help. And probably the practical, the most practical of all those is the Winning the Inner War by Lutzer. and you'll see some of that in here. But look what first of all, not only we saw that interpretation, but the identification, both legal and illegal drugs have chemicals that can change how your body and mind work. I put those definitions in because notice again, at the very top of your handout, I put substance abuse is a what? It's a Lordship problem. It's ultimately a disorder of worship We will worship ourselves and our own desires, or will we worship the true God? You know, it's been said, I think it was the first one that I heard maybe came up with, and he probably got it from someone else, was King Collier at the Wiles of North Carolina. There's two choices on the shelf. And what is it? Either going to please who? Yourself or God? It really is. You and I are either going to please God, or we're going to please ourselves. And there was one man that said something that sort of led this to me. One preacher was preaching and teaching, or I heard this and it just grabbed me. It says, when I choose, for instance, my own life, I choose to disobey God. Or let's say that I look at the wrong thing as that as an example. At that moment, I'm looking at the wrong thing. I'm choosing to love that thing myself more than I love God. I choose to be angry. I choose to love myself and that anger more than I love God. You know, when I put it that way, the sin really comes before me. And I realize who I really am. And I want to love God. And remember this, which later on you'll see that I did put this in here. What we do is our priority. What we do is our priority. So we go further and see that I have an identification there and just a list of the different drugs that I'll call prescription and the over-counter medicine, heroin, and I have different things that I would just suggest that you read if you're interested in different things of like what heroin is involved. This illegal drug, heroin for instance, an illegal drug in the natural version of mankind, prescription, Opioid, narcotics, it gives you a rush of good feeling at first, but then when it wears off, it slows you way down. In other words, a control again. Who's controlling yourself, your bodies, yourself? And so, then you have cocaine, marijuana, and cigarettes, and other tobacco products. You may not think that cigarettes are drugs, but the nicotine that gives you a little rush of pleasure and energy. And so we've got to realize these different things that really are included in it. Are they controlling me as we think of 1 Corinthians 6, 12? I will not be brought under the what? The power, the authority of anything. If it's controlling me, you say, well, it doesn't control me. Well then do without it and find out. Watching television doesn't control me. Okay, don't watch it for a month and see what happens. You'll find out if it controls you or not. No problem, then hey, And so you'll see the principle about control. So we think, is substance abuse a problem? Well, look at the impact. Substance abuse has caused teenage pregnancy, human AIDS and HIV, other sexual transmitted diseases, domestic violence, child abuse, motor vehicle crashes, physical fights. Crime and homicide and suicide. A few weeks ago, I was out golfing. My pastime is I enjoy golf. So on my day off, I'll go golfing on a Monday or something like that. And this time I was going and it was backed up because of, anyways, we were going and they put me with two other men. And so we were golfing and I always say to those men, I ask them, what do you do for a living? Hoping that then they'll ask me. as I build a relationship. It was funny, when I asked them, and I told them I was a pastor, he says, boy, thanks for giving us a warning. I've never not sworn so much in my life. He says, I didn't drink as much alcohol as I wanted to drink. And it was just a, but had a good time with them, building up rapport, guess what they were? correction officers at a prison. You know what they said to me? I'll never forget this. And maybe not the exact word, but I'll never forget the position. We were on this one hole. I can even tell you it was a par-5. It was a par-5 hole. And we were in the fairway, I believe it was. And I was, I turned to him and I was asking him a question. Well, what do you see different? What is it? And he told me some different things. And he turned to me and said, In essence, he said this, we would be without a job if there were no drugs. Every person incarcerated has to do with drugs, alcohol. Every single one. Later on, I started thinking, and you drank alcohol a little later. Everything. By the way, these weren't just guards that were there for a year. One was there for 12 to 14 years. The other one was there for 16 years. And he said every place that drives. So do we have a problem? Is it real? It really is. And in your churches, you have a ministry that you don't even realize what you can have and do. You can see folks saved. You can see people that have made a profession to strengthen them, but be ready too, you're going to be awfully disappointed. There's a man that right now, my heart is so heavy. He was at the Pines ministry years ago. He got saved about three, four years ago. He was a multimillionaire, lost it all in drugs and alcohol and gambling. Lost the dog. He came back, got saved. He started, and he, when he was at the Pines, he came to it. He didn't come to our Bible study as much as that, but he came to church. He got saved and he liked the, he says, boy, I've never heard the word preached like this and actually preached and taught. And he kept coming and kept coming, got saved. Long story short, I baptized him. I've been disciple of him for two years, every Tuesday. And now for the last month, I've not seen him. He will not return my calls. Here's a guy that would stand up and say, thank you folks for how you've been and pastor, you have been in your teaching and the word of God and how you've taught me the word of God and the different things. He says, I'm richer now than I've ever been. This is the kind of guy that's happened. And for the last month, he's not darkened the door. I would call him and text him and he would call me and text me right away. I have not heard from him. I found out his brother's number and I called him the other day because his brother is a Pentecostal pastor in Louisiana. And I went and called him. I said, listen, he won't answer any of my... I'm sure he will, his brother. Not heard. Nobody knows where he is? We know where he is. I know exactly where he is. He just went again to the dungeon? I believe so. I know some things. I'm not saying, but I'm saying I Just be ready for disappointments at the same time, is my point. At the same time, God's a powerful God. The other night, I stopped in the middle of our services. I said, at the beginning of our services, and I said, okay, I want two men to pray for Dan. We're gonna stop right now. And we're gonna pour our hearts out for Dan. He's got a choice. And I believe the Spirit of God, why he's not answering me is the Spirit of God is convicted in his heart. So we've got to realize it really is a problem. And you'll see the statistics down there that you can read for yourself. But let's look, when does substance abuse come? Secularly, we see its risk factors. This is taken out of the complete book of everyday Christianity. Those who are angry, impulsive, or depressed, or who have achievement problems, personality problems, are more apt to abuse drugs. Individuals whose family relationships are distant, hostile, or conflicted, whose parents use abuse drugs, or whose parents are permissive, ignoring, or rejecting, will more often abuse drugs. And by the way, I went over it quickly, but some of the most abused drugs are over-the-counter, alright drugs that you get addicted to. Whether it's pain medicine, those are some of the biggest ones that are misused. A person is more apt to see drugs with a transition or crisis, experience problems in school or family, relationships, or questioning values or religious commitment. It's contributing influences, circumstances, ways in which we were sinned against by others, what someone else is doing to us, and so they just go right back to it. I ask these men all the time, I ask them, And it is consistent. Most of them go to that habit, the drug abuse, the alcohol abuse, every one of them, they always come back with, it was a depression, it was a discouragement. In other words, it was a pain. There was some pain in their life. And you know what's the problem is, they're in the AA, okay? And they say this higher being, that's why I'm still surprised they let us in there indifferently, because they know that I'm talking about God. And when the people come, I say, that chair's not a higher being, God. It's the God of the Bible, the God of the universe. And we go and we see, and there are very many truths in the AA. There are some scriptural truths in that. There are just some things that are, interpreted in a way that probably in the original didn't mean. And so we see that every one of it, and until you can correct, you can see that they get victory over that pain, they're always going to come back. Or when they start tasting it again. Because we all know what? We have to get the root before the plant, the weed's going to stop growing. Always pick those dandelions. When I was little, my dad had me pick those dandelions. And I just wanted to wipe them out. And when you had to go pick them, unless you got the root, they just kept coming. And even when you did, it seemed like it, they still came. So you see that others, of course, turn to chemical substances as means to cope with or ease the pain, a pain that can either be physical or emotional. And so we see that secularly, that opportunity. Then scripturally, when does substance abuse come? Well, here's something that I have given you that can help. And I'll go quickly over it. I first heard it from Dr. Les Ola. And I'm always one that wants to give credit where credit's due. And so look at what it has here. I called it the contrasting cycle. It's not what Les called it, but I call it the contrasting cycle. And here's a little quote or different things that I got from Dr. Ola. We are a people in need of security. Isn't that true with you? So is it any true with anybody else? Of course, we're all in need of security. And when we're not accepted in a certain group, because we want to be secure, we're going to go someplace where what? We are accepted. Even if we know that group to be wicked, are wrong, we're still going to, because we're accepted by them. They don't realize they're really not, but we think they are. And the same thing with this substance abuse. And so you see that our focus brings us security. Security is based on acceptance. Frustration in the present causes fear of the future, which is usually based on focusing on a failure of the past, how you need to deal with folks. We see the example in Genesis 32 and Jacob. He was fearful and frustrated because of his past deceptions. He had no peace because of an unsettled past, so he feared the future in his meeting with Esau. We can only be secure if we focus our circumstances on the cross, which never changes. And so the insecurity cycle, and I'll just read it for you quickly, and then we can go further. And we see that the insecurity cycle is this. There's insecurity. I think I have this there for you on it. And then there's, what that is focusing on past failures, which bring about feelings of insecurity, which leads to habits. Now, once you have habits, bad habits, that's the covering of guilt one feels due to focusing on past failures. The guilt brings frustration of the present, and then the fear of the future, which leads to rejecting self. We're rejecting self because of the failure to break bad habits, which leads to insecurity, and guess what happens? You go back to focusing on past failures about feelings, and you just get the vicious cycle. That's what we call the insecurity cycle. the contrasting cycles as this is what must be happened as you focus them on the cross. Security is focusing on the cross, which will bring repentance, which will give security instead of insecurity and cause you to have a renewed mind, because you all knew you were gonna get there. The renewed mind will replace bad habits, which in return will cause you to accept God's forgiveness. God's forgiveness will then be placed of a guilt, which will cause you to accept God's love, of which when you accept God's love, this will cause one to rejoice in what God will do with them in the future, rather than living in fear and getting caught up in the insecurity cycle. And I think this is a real help when you start to have them show them and see that in our own lives, let alone those that... So what are our conflicting desires? When our desires conflict with scripture, human beings do not always live according to what we say we believe. We all know many things about God, but we suppress those truths when they interfere with our wants and our desires. Romans chapter one. So how can you detect these false beliefs? look what you do in private, look what you do in private, because what you do is your priority. And so why do these substance abuses come? And we'll just quickly go over this, the personal sin. I have some verses there for you, which you're very familiar with. And then there's that personal sin. You know, one of the things that I, that we do that we don't realize is we don't, we don't think that the biggies we think we don't do the big sins. And so we're not humbling ourselves and realizing, wait a second, there's a good book by Jerry Bridges on respectable sins, anger. different things that we might think, well, no, that's not the biggie, so I don't have to worry about that. And so what you have to do is get them back, and anyone you're working with, that it's sin and it's personal sin. Even among Christians, and I don't know if I have this in your handout or not, but it says, even among Christians, sin is not always seen as our deepest primary problem. Sin by its very nature is more than quiet and secretive than loud and public. If sin is not our primary problem, then the gospel of Jesus is no longer the most important event in all history. If sin isn't the problem, if we don't need it, then what do we need Christ for? And so the cravings and desires at the core of the addictive experience are not quite the same as an invading virus. Why am I saying that? Because what does everyone say that the drug abuse and the alcohol is? disease, a virus. And, uh, that is one thing that I've been able to be, uh, clear with in a certain point in dealing with these folks. They realize it is their choice because look, I also realized that, um, this virus, um, if you catch a virus, you don't have a choice catching a virus, do you? But, The addict makes choices to pursue their what? Addiction. They'll say they can't help themselves. I'm born with it. I just can't help myself. But they will always admit they still are making choices. There isn't one that I've dealt with that haven't said, yes, we know it's our choice. And they're very open to it. Because you see, we set our affections on ourselves and choose idols, which is anything in which we set our affections and indulge as a excessive and sinful attachment, which includes anything we worship, that we hope will satisfy us and we avoid the worship of the true God. You see, the danger with all desires is not so much what we want, but how much we really want it. It's not so much what we want, but how much we want it. The story of the Bible is really entitled this. One man said, whom will you worship? Think of the Bible. Think of what was preached this morning. In a nutshell, is it saying what? Whom will you worship? So what should we be saying then? Since it's all scripture is given by inspiration, whom will we worship? And when you're coming to the substance abuse, along with any other habitual sin, anything in our lives, you are making a choice. Who am I going to worship? That's why I said at the beginning, it's a lordship problem. It's who we worship. And so we see the mindset. Here's a mindset of an unknown dope addict lost in a dream world of heroin, wrote the following song that was found by a Long Beach, California police officer in a telephone booth. It confirms the despair of sinful bondage and addiction. This was found, is it in a phone booth on a heroin dig. at it. Listen, King Heroin is my shepherd. I shall always want. He maketh me to lie down in the gutters. He leadeth me beside the troubled waters. He destroyeth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of wickedness for the efforts sake. Yea, I shall walk through the valley of poverty. I will fear all evil, for thou, Heroin, art with me. Thy needle and capsule try to comfort me. Thou strippeth the table of groceries in the presence of my family. Thou robbest my head of reason, and my cup of sorrow runneth over. Surely heroin addiction shall stalk me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the damned forever." From the mouth of what? Babes. So what are some ways of substance abuse that we have in self-deception? And we're running out of time here just in a couple minutes. If you knew you were being deceived, then you would no longer be deceived, would you? So what I've done many times, I brought to them this, the subtle ways we deceive ourselves. I'll go on a Friday night and these that I give here, the eight that are right there, they're just scripture. And what I do is I give them the verses because we'll be there all night them trying to find in the Bible. The other night I was so, A few weeks ago, I was so sad, one man couldn't even read. He was in his early 50s. He said, let me end up, and people were helping him. I said, he read one of the verses that I had. And so what I try to do is bring the verses out here so they, because it's the word of God that's gonna do the work in the lives. not Pastor Love. So what we have there is the adversary's deceitful tricks, ways we deceive ourselves. When we hear the word but don't do it, James 1.22. When we say we have no sin, 1 John 1.8. When we think we're something we're not, Galatians 6.3 and Romans 12.3. When we think we are wise in this age, 1 Corinthians 3, 18 and 19. When we think we are religious, but do not bridle our tongue, James 1, 26. When you think we will not reap what we sow, Galatians 6, 7. When we think the unrighteous will inherit the kingdom of God, 1 Corinthians 6, 9 and 10. And when we think we can continually associate with bad company and not be corrupted, 1 Corinthians 15, 33. So how can we break that bondage of substance abuse? The principle is that of self-control. Self-control. A definition that I received recently as I was listening to a message by Dr. Mark Minnick, after he gave the whole definition, he came down to this. Victory over desire is self-control. It's victory over desire. So what is this? It's living within boundaries and thinking before acting. You see that. How do you get it? And we have things, you can see that on your handout. So what's the process of change? Your interest in God's word will be a barometer for how you are growing as you, your own self. But then as you work with people, God changes people and he always does it on his terms. To take steps towards positive change, there must be three basic conditions one must accept. And this is by Edwin Lusser. And I believe I have this there for you. If you doubt God's goodness, you will not want to change. If you doubt God's goodness, you will fear change. And when you doubt God's goodness, you hug sins tightly to yourself. And so you then have different things there, which we're running out of time here. But I want you to, the last seven points there are things done by the bondage breaker that he has where it says, you realize counterfeit versus real. In other words, false worship versus fruitful worship. And you see the different truths there. Deception, truth, bitterness, forgiveness that you're dealing with, rebellion, submission, pride, humility, bondage, freedom. And, Do you have curses versus blessings? And so those things, I trust, can help a little bit with the different aspects. You must realize that you have, as we've given you there, the select truth, stand firm, and solicit helps, and they need a good local church. and we don't have time to go anymore. I have a list of things we don't have time anymore. But I trust that will help a little bit. Lord Jesus, thank You for loving us. In Jesus' name, Amen. So did I.