[0:00] All right, is it working? Ah, I can hear it. Big echo. All right, we're going to start in 1 Corinthians chapter 6.
[0:13] And look at verse 12. It says, All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
[0:25] Pastor Priest, this last week, Sunday, he talked about the crucified life. Right? He talked about the crucified life on Sunday morning. And so I kind of want to jump off onto that.
[0:37] And, you know, this one, this one, you know, we ought to have chairs like that, maybe that turn. What do you think? If we ever switch out the chairs. But I want to talk a little bit about that, you know, the crucified life.
[0:52] And what I want to look at tonight is addictions in your life. Now, I've titled this message, Some Ways You Might Know That You're an Attic. Some Ways You Might Know That You Are an Attic.
[1:08] Now, addictions in the Bible, I've only mentioned once, and we'll look at that verse in a bit. But, you know, when you think of addictions, how many think of addictions as bad? How many think of addictions as bad?
[1:19] Okay. How many think of addictions as good? Allie. Allie thinks addictions as good. Good. Okay. Well, I know when I think of addictions, I mainly think of them as bad.
[1:32] That's what I've been told all my life is, you know, you're an addict. You're addicted to this. You're addicted to that. You shouldn't be addicted to stuff. And for the most part, you shouldn't. So when I say, when I say, here's what I want you to do.
[1:46] So when I say, are you addicted or are you an addict? I want you to think about that thing that just came to your mind. Because that's usually how it works. That's usually how it works in preaching.
[1:58] When you say the thing, and I don't know about you, but pretty much when I'm sitting there and the preaching starts and they give me the thing, boom, right there.
[2:10] It's right there. And then I spend the next five minutes trying to convince myself it's not. That wasn't really it. I spend the next five minutes telling myself why that's not it.
[2:24] No, no, no, no, it's not that. No, I didn't. Nope. So that whatever just came to your mind, how many got it? How many got it? You got it. You got yours.
[2:35] Okay. Some of you got it. I got some of these right here. I can see that in the low end. For you that, you know, maybe you're saying, maybe you're saying, well, you know, I don't have any addictions.
[2:47] Well, that thing that probably came to your mind was one of them. And if you say, I don't have any addictions, hang on a minute. It's on its way. It's probably on its way. And hopefully we'll get it.
[2:59] We'll get it nailed here in a little bit for you. Because, you know, it's like this, you know, for in our Christianity, you know, the flesh is no good. Right. So you guys got to look at it right up, right, right up.
[3:11] You know, the right way, right away is your flesh is no good. We've gotten to the place now where we're making we're making the flesh part of Christianity. Huh?
[3:24] That's right. That's what we're doing. Because we don't get under conviction about anything. Huh? Right. And when was the last time? I don't know who mentioned it recently.
[3:36] Maybe it was maybe it was Brother Stevenson when I was down there. You know, when was the last time you felt a need to get right with God? When was the last time you felt a need to come down?
[3:48] He was that's what he was talking about. He was talking about the altar. And he was talking about don't ever get rid of the altar. I agree. Don't ever get rid of the altar. But when was the last time you thought you felt a need to God?
[4:00] Think about it. When was the last time you confessed your sin? No. You know, the Bible says the thought of foolishness is sin. I don't know about you, but I try to get a practice to just get right with God every day.
[4:12] Just get it right every day. I just automatically go to the Lord and tell him, forgive me for the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
[4:27] And then show me what that was that I can get right about it in detail. Only by pride cometh contention, right? You heard any of that?
[4:38] Right? You know what the lust of the eyes is? You know what the lust of the eyes is? How many know what the lust of the eyes is? The lust of the eyes is that thing you want to look at. Right? That's that thing that makes you look.
[4:52] That's the lust of the eyes. The lust of the eyes is it's got its own thing. The lust of the flesh, it goes on right in here. It goes on right here. How many ever felt it?
[5:04] You know it. You know what it is. All right. So you can identify those things, and that's good. Just remember, the flesh is not your friend. The flesh is no good. It never was good.
[5:14] It still isn't good. First Corinthians chapter 16. Now, first Corinthians chapter 16 is the only time that addiction is mentioned in the Bible.
[5:29] And it happens to be in a good context. There are some things you should be addicted to. But that's not where I'm going tonight. First Corinthians 16 and verse 15, it says, I beseech you, brethren, you know the house of Stephanas, that it is the first fruits of Micaiah, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints.
[5:56] They addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints. So when somebody goes, say, yeah, you know, you know, you know, Brian and Lucy and Marie there in the house of Stephanas.
[6:07] Right? You know, you know, Brother Stephanas' wife, you know, they just can't get enough of it. They just beside themselves about it.
[6:18] They're addicted to the ministry of the saints. Now, I'm not saying I don't think they're junkies. Right?
[6:29] So I don't want addiction to get too far away from you where you can't get a hold of it for your own life. So you think about the house of Stephanas, and they were addicted to ministry of the saints.
[6:40] So they're just always in it. They're not junkies. You know, they're that kind of thing. So I don't want addiction to get too far away from you where you can't grab it.
[6:54] You're addicted to something? Listen, that flesh is nasty. And you know what? If you are, you may very well be soon.
[7:08] And you may just, and you may have gotten past some of it. You may have gotten over some of it. You may have gotten victory. But I guarantee you, that flesh is nasty.
[7:25] And what Paul says, all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. I will not be brought under the power of any. That's what that addiction is. That's that thing that's got power.
[7:38] It's got the power of you on it. Whatever it is. And there's all kinds of things, and I'm sure there's plenty of them. I can't even think about it. You give me some of them. What are addictions? Some addictions that a Christian might do.
[7:49] Somebody give me one. A cell phone. Huh? A cell phone. That's good. Cell phone. Yeah. You know, I, yeah.
[8:00] Oh. You know, for me, it's mainly work, but still, I just, I'm like, man, this thing is everywhere with me. I don't even like it. I want to leave it alone, but then, you know, all them things come to my mind, you know, about, oh, well, what if somebody's trying to go, what if somebody breaks down, what if we did just before, before pagers?
[8:23] How many know what a pager is? All right. Cell phone. All right. Yeah. I guess sugar comes through. What? Sugar comes through.
[8:34] Yeah. I mean, you eat. Yeah. Hey. You know, I'm serious. I wrote down. What did I write down? I wrote down a few. I don't, you know, I like for you to incriminate yourself rather than me, but I wrote down, I wrote down sports, food, flowers.
[8:54] Sex. Those are, those are addictions people have. Those are real addiction people have. My dad was addicted to sports.
[9:05] I think about the way I got saved at a boy's home and my dad happened to be, he was, I think he was watching two, two sports games on TV and listening to one on the radio.
[9:17] That's the way he did. You talk about, you talk about something really into it. He happened to be flipping channels and came upon 60 minutes to talk about this home that I needed to go to. And I ended up getting there eventually and got saved.
[9:31] But he was, he was an addict. He was also an alcoholic. So, you know, I had plenty of things, plenty of things that, that he was addicted to.
[9:42] And I don't know what your thing is that came to your mind, but I want to give you some signs that you may be an addict. I don't want, I don't want to, you know, this is not, I'm not talking about habits.
[9:54] I'm not talking about habits. Habits are things like, you know, I go home and I have a habit. I have to, I have to turn on my tanks. I do gray water now. So it's a habit.
[10:05] I'm not addicted to doing it. If I don't do it, my tank for, my, my, the motor, I have to destroy the house and replace the motor.
[10:17] I don't want to do that. So I make sure I turn this thing on every day to do what I need to do. But I'm addicted to it. I have a habit.
[10:30] I get up early in the morning, I read my Bible. I would like to think I was addicted to it. But it may just be a habit. So the habit is that thing that you just do all the time.
[10:43] The addiction. That thing that, that thing that, that gets you right here.
[11:02] That's the one I'm talking about. Or the two or the three or the four. I remember some things I used to do as a lost man. And I remember.
[11:14] I remember, man, I had to have it. I had to have it. And addict, you know, the, the word that, uh, came to my mind was, um, I just happened to be coming to my mind when I was doing the, when I was doing this happens to be, this just happens to be the next message in line for me.
[11:36] You know, I, I don't know. You know, it, it wasn't the last 40 sermon titles. It just happened to be. So hopefully for somebody, it works tonight and it's a blessing to somebody.
[11:46] But, um, look at first Thessalonians chapter four, first Thessalonians chapter four. I thought of the word concupiscence. Evil concupiscence. Yeah.
[11:57] That word just came to my mind as I was doing that. And, um, concupiscence is an ardent, uh, usually sensual longing.
[12:09] It's, uh, gratifies the senses. That's what that is. And in first Thessalonians chapter four, first Thessalonians chapter four and verse five, it says not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles, which know not God talking about, uh, concupiscence there.
[12:37] It's that ardent, uh, sensual longing gratifying the senses. That's what, that's what they do. That's what, that's what the attic does.
[12:48] That attic is, it's, it's an ardent, it's, uh, it's, it's, you know, when I say sensual longing, um, the, unfortunately this world is sex crazy.
[13:01] Okay. This world is sex crazy and it's, it's, it's far reached into the church. You know, um, a purity has no longer been, uh, been, been a priority.
[13:15] Huh? Evil concupiscence. You may have heard that the church stays one step behind the world.
[13:27] Anybody ever heard that? All right. The church stays one step behind the world as the world progresses down. The church, it's slide right in there with it. You know what I'm talking about?
[13:39] I'm talking about us. I mean, I got to think we're the best there is. But I'll guarantee you the Bible believing Baptist a hundred years ago, walking here.
[13:56] And get the fellowship with us. Amen. They would be mortified. Because that's the way they do it.
[14:09] They just kind of say one step, one step, one step. World progressed is downward. The church progresses downward. Purity.
[14:22] Is not a priority. Addiction. Some are good. Some are bad. All right. Um. So, you ought to do a checkup on your addictions.
[14:36] If, if, if you find that it's a good one, keep it. If it's a bad one, get rid of it. It's that simple. No, it's not. Right? It's an addiction.
[14:48] It's a whole idea. It's an addiction. It isn't easy. It's easy. But you still got to get it. You still got to get victory. You still got to get victory. Still got to get victory.
[15:06] All right. I wrote some things down. Some signs. You may be an addict. And the first one is, uh. You lust for it. First John chapter two, verse, uh. 15 and 16. Says all that is in the world.
[15:18] The lust of the flesh. The lust of the eye. And the pride of life. Is not of the father. But of the world. It's not good. It's not your friend. The lust of the flesh is not good.
[15:29] So. The lust of the flesh is that thing. Your flesh wants to do bad. Just really wants to do it, man. That's the lust of the flesh.
[15:43] It's not good. So. One of the signs. You may be an addict. Is you lust for it. So that thing that came to your mind. Or that thing that was on its way. And maybe it got here by now.
[15:54] Is. Take a look at it. You may want to write. You may want to jot some of these things down. You know. These will be good for. Bad or good. You know. I want to preach a message on.
[16:06] How to be coming at it. That would be a good idea. How to be coming at it. We. We do well to get addicted to some good things. But you lust for it.
[16:17] You love it. Here's. Here's one of the ways you can tell something. You know. Do you ever said. Do you ever say. You ever say. Man. I just love that. I love that. You ever catch.
[16:27] Anybody ever. Anybody ever done that. Sure. Yeah. Right. I love that. I actually caught myself doing it the other day. Oh. I know better than that. I remember my father-in-law.
[16:39] I heard him tell me one time. I don't know. I must have said. Probably 10 years ago. And I. I must have said. I love. He goes. He goes. Love not the world. Neither the things that are in the world. And I was like.
[16:52] You're right. But you know. That's the easy one. Do you get that one?
[17:05] Do you get that one? Or do you still love it anyway? That's the easy one.
[17:16] If you can't get the easy one. Don't expect yourself to get the hard one. You know what? I'm talking to everybody within the sound of my voice.
[17:30] That can hear me. You may have some addictions. As young as you are. They lust for it.
[17:44] They love it. If you catch yourself saying. Man. I love that. I love this entertainer. Entertainer. I love. You. You need to.
[17:55] First off. You need to realize what you do. See. The Bible says that. Be sure your sinner finds you out. Right?
[18:06] So. I. When he said that. When my father-in-law said that. I kind of got victory over. Saying that. It's the only thing I got victory over. I got the talking part done.
[18:19] Didn't. Stuff in here. But you know. I. I put your message on. You can't hide. And there's things you can't hide. And your sins. One of them. And you know. I don't know about. I don't know if you can remember.
[18:29] But you know. When you read about. Somebody that's done something bad. You hear about in the news. You know. They. School. Or whatever. And they go. You know. There was something that. There was something wrong.
[18:42] You know. There was something wrong. You know. We could see there was something wrong. When we look back. To be sure. Your sinner finds you out. And that sinner. Was finding them people out.
[18:54] They just. People weren't paying attention. You lust for it. You love it. The love is there. The love is involved in it.
[19:08] Do you love it? Living in denial. Doesn't change it. If you can try to convince yourself.
[19:21] Yeah. But I don't love it. Because that thing that came to your mind. When I said that. That was probably it. That was probably one of them. But you know. You say. You tell yourself. I don't. I don't. I don't really love it. I don't really love it.
[19:33] It's easy to convince yourself of anything. You can convince yourself of anything. Amen. That's right. No. I don't love that. I don't love it. That's the lust for it.
[19:50] Number two. Is. You always make provision for it. Or try to. We're talking about some signs. That you might be an addict. And one is you lust for.
[20:02] Another one is. You always make provision for it. Or you try to. You may not always get it. But you try to. You know. Whatever it is.
[20:13] You know. I have that. I'm just trying to think of one. Say it was. I don't know. Oh. For me. An easy one. I'll give you like. But. It's probably not now. But. Chocolate. You know. I'm.
[20:24] I'm a. What. A chocoholic. I like chocolate. Right. I mean. When it is. When it's dessert time. You know. I'm coming in.
[20:34] That's just what I'm looking for. I'm not looking for a pound cake. And. It's just not. It's just not. I'm just going right for the chocolate. Chocolate chip cookie. Oh. Chocolate cake.
[20:44] Chocolate. Nah. Whatever. And I eat it all the time. I was real big on the chocolate. And I always had. I was. Chocolate. All the time. And then.
[20:55] You know. I got introduced. That my health was not that good. Because of that. So I had to cut back. But. But even now. You look at my lunchbox. It's chocolate.
[21:06] My nights. And by my bed. I have chocolate. Now. I don't eat it. But just in case. Just in case.
[21:16] There's that need. My wife was going to throw away. Some chocolate bars. The other day. You know. With the kids. Chocolate bars. You buy a box. Man. We had a bunch of them sitting in there. I never touched them. But she. When she went to throw them away.
[21:28] I took one of each. Boom. Boom. Boom. Stuck them right in my door. Just in case. I don't know. I'm. I really like it.
[21:41] So you know. You always make provision for it. Something else. It will become a priority. For some of them.
[21:53] So. It'll tend to become a priority. This will be something. You always seeking out. To do. I'll guarantee you. Those that were addicted. To the ministry of the saints.
[22:06] I can't just picture it. They were always looking for a reason. They were always looking for an opportunity. They were just. You know. If. If there was a need.
[22:16] Boom. Like. They were just jumping out there. To get there. It will become a priority. Your schedule. Will show it. Your money.
[22:27] Will show it. Your efforts. Will show it. So when you look at life. What does your. Show. What does your.
[22:40] Checkbook show. What do your everyday efforts show. It'll become a priority. Number four.
[22:52] It'll become what you are known for. It'll become what you're known for. Bible says.
[23:05] He that knoweth to do good. And doeth it not. To him it is sin. And. You know. Some. Some may be able to hide it. But if you're.
[23:17] If you're. If you're able to hide it. It will be. You're known for. To God. To God. To God. Because.
[23:32] You ain't hiding anything from him. The eyes of the Lord are in every place. Beholding. The evil and the good. The evil and the good.
[23:53] Something else. It becomes a habit. And some things need to become a habit. You know. You do well to. To. To have reading your Bible become a habit. But. Recognizing.
[24:06] Your need to witness. To everybody that comes within the walls of you. Those would be good ones to have.
[24:18] Those would be good addictions to have. Is just become addicted to. Witnessing everybody that comes within your walls. You know. That wall is with. Is that person within your reach that is right there.
[24:30] And you're talking. They're talking. And you're giving them a gospel track. You find in some way. You know. I hope that.
[24:41] You know. Typically. People get around me. And I get a chance to witness to them. And you know. People in my office. Or. And when they. I'm hoping that when they leave. I've gotten a chance. I've gotten a chance.
[24:51] To witness to them. Signs. You may be an addict. It becomes a habit.
[25:02] Number six. You don't do well without it.
[25:15] You don't do well without it. You can't function. You got to have it. And I'm not talking about the junkie. But you know. You know if there's something in your life. You got to have.
[25:25] And if something else gets in the way of that. Bad deal. Not going to go well. You know. I got to have morning coffee.
[25:37] You ever hear them say. I can't function without it. You can't. And I like my morning coffee. Don't get me wrong. I like my morning coffee. And I'm going to have.
[25:48] Probably have my morning coffee. Some reason I don't get. Yeah. It bothers me. Don't get me wrong. I'm thinking about going to Starbucks. But I'm probably. Just going to go to work.
[26:01] Deal with the headache. And go about my day. And have a cup of coffee. When I get a chance. That sounds crazy.
[26:14] Doesn't it? Some of you are looking at me like. You're in the headlights. He just committed the unpardonable sin. Yeah. Or.
[26:25] I. My. Got to have my donut today. I know it sounds crazy. And I'm just trying to stay real light hearted. But. That's my daughter.
[26:38] We're driving down the road. We're going to play racquetball. And. There's a line. Coming out of the donut shop. A line on a Saturday morning. I told her. Look at that.
[26:50] There's a line. Coming out of the donut shop. Does that sound crazy. Anybody but me. Oh. Maybe we.
[27:00] Maybe. On there. I used to eat a dozen donuts a night. I like donuts.
[27:12] I try not to eat them anymore. Because they're not good for me. But. I was in the donut shop. And I ate a dozen a night. That's just what I did. Oh. You know. There's a lot of different kinds of donuts.
[27:23] So it's not like I had to eat. It's not like I had to eat ten glaze. I didn't gain a pound. But it's not like I had to eat ten glaze. It was all kinds of glaze. There's a blueberry donut. There's a cake donut here.
[27:33] And there's an apple fritter. Right. Buttermilk. There's. Yeah. Man. There's all kinds of them. Sourdough donut. Man. Romans chapter seven.
[27:50] Romans chapter seven. I'm about done. Just want you to think about some things that you may be addicted. Remember the flesh is not your friend. And when I said earlier about you know we we basically made the flesh part of Christianity.
[28:05] Christianity. So true. We've made it so easy to live in the flesh as a Christian. There's something wrong with that.
[28:19] There's something wrong with that. Romans chapter seven. And verse eighteen. When seven and verse eighteen it says. But how to perform that which is good I find not.
[28:42] Edit. I get it. It's not that easy. We're Christians.
[28:53] I get it. If you want to be the kind of person that walks in the spirit. And does not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Then you got to do it.
[29:06] You got to make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust of. And I'm talking about addictions. I understand you know. We do things all the time. And there's there's things we enjoy in life.
[29:17] I enjoy flowers. And and I I don't think I'm addicted in a way that is crazy. I really like. And you know I'm always thanking God. It's part. And I'm really thankful for.
[29:28] But I'm not going to. Get away from the fact that I know that. In my flesh.
[29:40] Dwelleth no good thing. And Paul says that all things are lawful. But all things are not expedient.
[29:50] And I will not be brought under the power of any. If you're under the power of some. That's what you need to fix. Yeah. You need to try to fix that. And the last one is.
[30:02] You have satisfaction. But it's only for a moment. That's the way that thing works. Is is that lust of the flesh is so strong.
[30:12] That I got to have that thing. And when you have it. You have satisfaction. For just for the moment. Right. What does it say in Proverbs? It talks about the dog. Returns to his body. How does that thing go?
[30:23] Where he. He goes. Seeks it yet again. It was okay. For the minute. It's satisfying. For the moment. And then you got to have it again.
[30:34] So. You know. Take a look at some of them things in your life. And. There are some things in your. In the flesh. That you. Address with the Lord. And. We do well to do that.
[30:48] We do well to. Check that thing out. That thing. That thing's got to be put in check. If it's not put in check. It's going to be. Become. Part of your Christianity.
[31:01] Let's pray. Let's pray.