Rev. David Holwick B Twelve Step Christianity series
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
January 9, 1994
Romans 7:15-20
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Step 1: Admit you have a problem and are powerless to solve it.
I. A classic story of recovery.
It was 1934.
Bill Wilson was a pretentious, loud-talking New York City alcoholic.
Nearly 40, he was feeding his habit by stealing grocery money
from his wife.
Sometimes he even panhandled.
Several times he had been hospitalized, but he always started drinking
again, no matter what resolutions he made.
One November day an old alcoholic friend, Ebby Thatcher, paid him a
visit.
Thatcher was sober and had come to tell Wilson why.
He had had a religious experience.
Members of an organization called the Oxford Group had visited him in
jail, where he had been incarcerated for drunkenness.
After talking with them, he had yielded his life to God.
The desire to drink was gone, he said.
His life was changed.
After several visits, Thatcher convinced Wilson - who was quite
hostile to religion - to attend a meeting at a Manhattan rescue
mission.
Wilson, though quite drunk, was moved by the testimonies and went
forward to testify to his own changed heart.
This change lasted less than a day: Wilson went on a three-day binge
and was hospitalized again.
Thatcher visited the hospital, and at Wilson's request repeated his
formula for conversion:
"Realize you are licked,
Admit it,
And get willing to turn your life over to the care of God."
After Thatcher left, Wilson fell into a deep depression.
But finally, while still in the hospital, he found himself crying out,
"If there is a God, let him show himself!
I am ready to do anything!"
What followed was a powerful spiritual experience in which Wilson felt
overwhelmed by a sense of freedom, peace and the presence of God.
He never took another drink.
That spring, Wilson went to Akron, Ohio, on a would-be business deal.
The deal fell flat.
Broke and lonely, Wilson felt strongly tempted to drink.
Desperately, he looked in his hotel's phone directory and called a
local Oxford leader, and told her:
"I'm from the Oxford Group and I'm a rum hound from New York."
He poured out his fear of falling, and she invited him over immediately.
She had a project in mind.
For two years she had been working on a surgeon, Bob Smith.
Smith was Wilson's opposite in personality.
The surgeon was a silent drinker, stern and distant.
The group had confessed with him and prayed with him, but his drinking
had remained as uncontrollable as ever.
The next day the two men met in the kitchen of a local home in Akron,
and they hit it off remarkably well.
Within a month Smith took his last drink.
At that kitchen table in Akron, Ohio, in 1934, "Alcoholics Anonymous"
was born.
#2585
II. What is our real problem?
A. Romans 7 is a classic description of inner struggle.
1) We know what is right and good - but we don't do it. 7:15
2) Instead, those things we reject, we actually practice. 7:19
3) We feel enslaved to the corrupt part of our nature. 7:14
4) It cannot be us - it is SIN. 7:20
B. Society avoids the concept of Sin; so do many Christians. #2583
1) It is common to view individual sins as nuisances.
a) Like parking tickets, it is a problem only if you
accumulate too many.
2) The Bible has a far different perspective on sin: Cancer.
a) Sin is like cancer cells.
One or two here and there do make a difference - often
the difference between life and death.
Cancer cells grow, multiple, and take over, and they may
ultimately require major surgery.
b) SIN is not sins, but the underlying, inescapable power
that leads to sins.
#2583
1> We are caught in a web of sin.
2> We may not know how we got there, but we cannot
escape by our own power.
3> Trying to escape only catches us deeper in the web.
C. Sin, no matter how insignificant, can lead to terrible
consequences.
Brothers Geno and Russell Capozziello were owners of a Bridgeport,
Connecticut wrecking company.
In 1991 a judge fined them nearly $900,000 for operating an
illegal dump.
Back in 1986, on the empty lots surrounding their facility, the
brothers began dumping debris from buildings.
Eventually muck covered two acres and reached a height of 35 feet,
the equivalent of a three-story building.
The state ordered them to clean it up, but the brothers claimed
there was no place to dump it legally in Bridgeport.
They could not afford to have it hauled away.
The previous year they had spent more than $330,000 to have
debris hauled away, and it barely dented the pile.
According to Geno, "it was never supposed to get this high."
Like garbage, sinful habits have a way of accumulating beyond
our plans and beyond our control.
#1977
1) That is why the Bible takes individual sin so seriously.
2) Ignoring it won't make it go away. We must deal with it.
III. The first critical step is admitting our problem.
A. A hundred reasons, a thousand resolutions.
1) Most people are very successful at covering up their problems.
2) Alcoholics fill their lives with excuses and promises.
a) "I can stop any time I want."
b) "Others are far worse than me."
B. We must realize our schemes for reform are hopeless.
1) "We admitted that we were powerless... that our lives had
become unmanageable." [First step of A.A.]
2) We are caught in something more powerful than ourselves.
3) Until we recognize our helplessness, we will be unwilling or
unable to turn outside ourselves for the help we need.
C. We may not understand our addiction, but we remain responsible-
responsible to recognize our helplessness.
IV. Who is helpless in Romans chapter 7? [from earlier sermon]
A. Paul speaks as a non-believing Jew.
1) Many expressions are incompatible with being a Christian.
a) Sold in bondage to sin. 7:14
b) Practice evil. 7:19
c) Prisoner, wretched man. 7:23-24
2) There is a heavy emphasis on the Law.
B. Paul speaks as a sinful, disobedient Christian.
1) Person desires to do what is right but lacks power.
2) No mention of Spirit: Dead-end of legalism?
C. Paul speaks as a normal Christian. *
1) Expressions incompatible with non-Christian state.
a) He joyfully agrees with God's law. 7:22
b) He wishes to do good. 7:19
c) He serves God with mind. 7:25
2) The disparity within verse 25 becomes understandable.
3) Paul's life reflects struggle, even as a Christian.
a) Victory did not come in an instant.
b) Everyone is powerless before sin.
A passage from the classic devotional, "The Imitation of Christ" by
Thomas a' Kempis (AD 1400), reflects modern struggles:
"Lord, I confess my sinfulness, and acknowledge my weakness.
Often it is but a small matter that defeats and troubles me.
I resolve to act boldly, but when I am assailed even by a small
temptation, I am in sore straits.
From a trifling thing sometimes arises a strong temptation;
and when I am secure, I am almost overwhelmed by a mere breath.
I am weary of living constantly at conflict.
My weakness is apparent to me, for evil fancies rush in on me more
readily than they depart." #533
D. Gordon McDonald and falling in strong area of life. #585
V. We are helpless, but God can help.
A. God reaches us before we reach out to Him. Romans 5:8
B. Almighty God is greater than any problem we face.
1) His will is better shown through our weakness than
our strength. 2 Cor 12:9
2) We must admit weakness not only in becoming a
Christian, but in living as one.
Philip Yancey writes:
"Good Christians who battle 'internal sins' can easily think
our sins somehow more respectable than more blatant sins
such as adultery and drunkenness.
I have never met a recovering alcoholic who denied his or
her own sinfulness;
But I have met many Christians who find it difficult to
confess their own sins." #2581
C. Victory is possible.
1) Millions have conquered addictions and sins with God's power.
a) It may be "day by day," but it is achievable.
2) The key is living through the Holy Spirit. 8:2
D. Recovery from addiction is not enough.
1) Life-changing experience may be limited to enough personality
change to bring about recovery from addiction.
2) Christian conversion runs deeper.
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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