Celebrate Recovery!—Admitting Need
Rom. 7:14-25

There is a GOD

God is the never created, eternal, all-powerful, righteous, loving Being who created all things and upholds them by His power (Gen. 1:1; Col. 1:16, 17). As He is the Supreme Being and Author of life and Law, He has a right to run the universe as He sees fit.

I am not HIM

Angels, humans, animals, and all other living things are creations of the Creator. All these are created, not eternal, not all-powerful, and not consistently righteous or loving (Acts 17:24, 25).

I want to PLAY God

The desire to play God and control our lives started with the first humans (Gen. 3). Adam and Eve willfully rebelled and instead of their decisions improving their happiness and freedom, it brought shame and slavery. Humans want the center of the universe to be them. But because that is not our place or ‘lane’, it leads to fear as we don’t know what to do, frustration in not being able to perfectly control our lives or others, fatigue as we spend energy in a useless way, and failure as we see what we want to be good, crash and fall.

Our problem—we have a sin NATURE

Just like parenting, problems arise because of a battle of wills. We are born with a need to control and the arrogance and pride to continue even when what we do doesn’t work (Eph. 2:3). We must learn humility, which is the reality we don’t control life. The problem is, many people believe in God by profession, but then live their lives as atheists in practice. ‘Someone’ calls all the shots in people’s lives, and people get to choose who sits on the throne of their hearts—self or God. Jesus is Lord of all or not lord at all!

God’s solution—Admit our need and POWERLESNESS

God asks us to repent from our sin, admit our need of Jesus, and get help from Him and others (Acts 2:38). We must admit we are powerless to change the past, control other people, and cope with our hurts, habits, and hang-ups! You will get somewhere on your own, but it won’t be far, it won’t be forward, and it won’t be fruitful. You can’t change the fruit until you change the root!