Video Transcript: Lesson 4

The addiction cycle. We looked at it briefly in the first video, and now in this  fourth video, we want to look at it even in more detail. How do we understand  the addiction cycle from the perspective of Scripture and also of the human  experience. Addiction is a cycle. It's not a one time event, and I felt it necessary  to look at this in more detail. Your readings will guide you through more of the  detail that that I'm expecting you to get into and understand, grasp, and also the  quiz will address it as well, in passing this modular so let's first look at the  addiction cycle as it relates to The whole aspect of the madman. The madman  addiction is often related to insanity. We often joke about the insanity button,  keep hitting the insanity button to get things done, to do you have to try  something different, something hit the insanity button so we can get this to doing the same thing to get a different result. That's insanity. And Nietzsche, who is the author of the saying, God is dead, of course, had a belief in God prior he was a  part of the family of faith, and then something happened along the way where he turned his back on God, his doubts overtook him. We can only imagine the fear  that he was feeling, and, of course, brilliant as he as he was, he asked these  questions in his writing, and then coined the term, or the saying, God is dead, or must be dead, because of what I see around me. Of course, during Nietzsche's  day, it was not pleasant. A lot of upheaval, lot of change in the 1800s historically, you have technology advancing, and you have society changing, and, and what  about the poor, and, and all these questions. And Nietzsche wrote this poem,  have you ever heard of the madman as we have it here on the screen on a  bright morning, lighted a lantern and ran to the marketplace, calling out  unceasingly, I seek God. I seek God. As there were many people standing about who did not believe in God, he caused a great deal of amusement. Why? is he  lost? Said one, has he strayed away like a child, said another? Or does he keep  himself hidden? Is he afraid of us? Has he taken a sea voyage? Perhaps? Has  he emigrated? The people cried out laughingly, all in a hubbub, the insane man  jumped into the into their midst and transfixed them with his glances. Where is  God gone? He called out, I mean to tell you, we have killed him, you and I, we  are all his murderers. But now have we? How have we done it? How were we  able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the whole  horizon? What did we do when we loosened this earth from its sun. Whether  does it now move? Where does it move? Whether do we move away from all  suns? Do we not dash on, on, unceasingly, backwards, sideways, forwards in all directions. Is there still an above and below? Do we not stray as though infinite  nothingness? does not empty space breathe upon us? Has it not become  colder? Does not night Come on continually, darker and darker? Shall we not  have to light lanterns in the morning. Do we not hear the noise of the grave  diggers who are burying God? Do we not smell the divine putrification? For even God putrefy God is dead. Dead. God remains dead, and we have killed him.  How shall we console ourselves? The most murderous of all murderers, the 

holiest and the mightiest that the world has so far possessed, has bled to death  under our knife. Who will wipe the blood from us, with what water could we  cleanse ourselves? What lustrums, what sacred games Shall we have to  devise? Is not the magnitude of this being too great for us? Shall we not  ourselves, have to become gods merely the scene worthy of it. There never was a greater event, and on account of it, all who were born after us belong to a  higher history than any history so far. here, the madman was silent and looked  again at his hearers, they also were silent and looked at him in surprise. At last,  he threw his lantern to the ground so that it broke in pieces and was  extinguished. I come too early, he said, I'm not yet at the right time, the  prodigious event is still on its way and is traveling. It has not yet reached men's  ears. Lightning and thunder need time. The light of the stars needs time. Deeds  need time, even after they are done, to be seen and heard. This deed. This  deed is as yet further from them than the furthest star, and yet they have done it  is further stated that the madman made his way into different churches on the  same day, and there, intoned his Requiem aternum depot, when read out and  called to account, he always gave the reply. What are these churches now, if  they are not the tombs and monuments of God, there never was a greater  event. And on an account of it, all, who are born after us belong to a higher  history than any history hitherto. Here the madman was silent and looked again  at his hearers, they also were silent and looked at him in surprise. At last, he  threw the lantern to the ground so it broke into pieces. It was extinguished.  Come I come too early I met yet at the right time, this prodigious event is still on  its way and is traveling. It has not yet reached. Men's ears. Lightning and  thunder need time. The light of the stars needs time. Deeds need time, even  after they are done, to be seen and heard. This deed is as yet further from them  and the furthest star. And yet they have done it. They have done it. It is further  stated that the madman made his way into different churches on the same day,  and there intoned his Requiem aeternam deo when let out and called to  account, he always gave the reply, what are these churches? Now, if they are  not the tombs and monuments of God, my friends. Nietzsche raises the  question, Where is God? He also raises the question, Is he not dead? You see,  in the addiction cycle, we, caught up in our addictive behaviors have become  our own god, not too different than what the Israelites were into the addiction  cycle assumes that we are our own god. Let us review again the eviction cycle,  addiction. Is continued involvement with a substance or inactivity despite  ongoing negative consequences and the four criteria, physiological addiction,  withdrawal, relapse and tolerance, if God is dead. And we have to become our  own god, because our insanity says we have to fix whatever's going on around  us, or we can't fix it. We're out of control, and therefore we need to medicate the  pain. The Cycle brings us into this whole path and journey where we've become  so connected, so dependent on behaviors, people, places and things that we do

not see, that God does exist, that He is real. God is alive, but we have denied  him. The signs again. The habit is a repeated behavior in which the repetition  may be unconscious. We are creatures. We are people. Habit compulsion is  present if considerable discomfort is experienced, if the behavior is not  performed, we have pain, we go to the comfort food, we go to the drug, we go to the alcohol, we go to the behavior that seems to help us cope, so we can feel  we're like we're in control, but we're not again, obsession, loss of control,  negative consequences, denial, oh, I got it all under control, when really it's all  chaos. And there are negative consequences we tend to deny are even going  on people we hurt, things that fall apart, but we tell ourselves it's okay, and we  do what's right in our own eyes, the process nurturing through avoidance, the  physiology and also physiology of addiction. We look at the neurotransmitters,  the tolerance of withdrawal of the brain. In other words, get to like and tolerate  and also want and need the behavior. Here's the cycle again. We have the pain.  There's a need for relief. We crave it. It's a preoccupation with substance or  behavior, the substance use or compulsive behavior, the short term pain, the  relief. I don't feel like I have this pain anymore because I'm attached to whatever drug of my choice, it may be negative consequences resulting from the behavior people tend to shut you out now because you've hurt them so bad you burned,  as we say, the bridge. Depression, guilt, shame, they maybe this morning, you  fell into that behavior again that you thought, I don't want to do it, but I, I need to  do it. I feel this discomfort, hence pain. But I know if I if I just take the drink, or if I take the hit, if this is to be the cigarette or the marijuana or the pipe of the crack,  I need this. Or maybe it's just that I need to look at that pornography again, or I  need to look at that, I will feel I'll feel better. It'll be as if that pain was never  there. After the act after the the engagement with the behavior, that anger  comes up, that guilt comes up, that beating yourself up, and then there's more  pain, lower self esteem, and again, that beating ourselves up turns into that I  can't look at myself in the mirror anymore, and the pain continues around and  around and around. And you see Israel, Israel went to the same thing. We go to, back to Scripture. We then look at how God dealt with Israel's cycle and Judges  2, after Joshua dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the  land, each to their own inheritance, the people served the Lord throughout the  lifetime of Joshua and the elders who out. Lived him, and it had been all the  great things the Lord had done for Israel. And Joshua, son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at  Timnath Heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash, after the  whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors. In other words, died.  Another generation grew up to know neither the Lord nor what he had done for  Israel. Yes, they had the 10 Commandments, but Well, I don't. They just did not  remember. They did not have for some reason, the traditions in place to carry on with Joshua declared, choose whom you this day you will serve, as for me and 

my house, who will serve the Lord? No. Verse 11 of Judges 2 then the Israelites  did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. Or Baals, they forsook the  Lord, the God of their ancestors who had brought them out of Egypt. They  followed the worship various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused  the Lord's anger because they forsook Him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths, other gods that said, sacrifice your firstborns, have sex all out in the open with  prostitutes to please the Baals. And so what we're looking at here is because,  and then, of course, the negative consequences. Interesting, coming back to the eviction cycle. Oh Lord, who is this God that our ancestors followed? Or we  don't know? Oh well, there's a Baal, all the Ashtoreths, of course, that's who we  follow, because we have this pain we don't know about the harvest to come. We  we need our gods to tell us it's going to be okay. And, oh, and how do we  worship them? Oh, yes. And then they get attached to the idol, much like the  drug. And then God, of course, who is alive and well, in his anger against Israel,  the LORD, gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold  them into the hands of their enemies, all around whom they were no longer able  to resist. And whenever Israel went out to fight the hand of the Lord was against  them negative consequences to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them, they were in great distress, great pain, then the Lord raised up judges who saved  them out of the hands of these raiders. God still loved his people. God still loves  you and me, of course, in the middle of our addictive cycle or and for all of us,  with all something you we don't believe that God does love us. How could he  depression, guilt? Remember that one part of the cycle in verse 17, they would  not yet. They would not listen to their judges, but prostituted themselves to other gods and worship them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors,  who had been obedient to the Lord's commands, and whenever the Lord raised  up the judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies. As long as the judge lived, the Lord relented because of their  groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. God disciplined them.  There was pain, but God saved them, because God is the one who saves you  and me. We know this by faith, theologically, biblically, but with our human  behavior, with the habits that may turn into compulsions, because we feel that  Baal, that Ashtoreth, that whatever attachment may be, that act that we need or  to make us feel better is actually God and not God Himself. And Israel was  going through the same thing in this vivid narrative in the book of Judges, and  eventually we read that the Israelites who forsook The Lord did what was right in their own eyes. Sounds familiar. Further, Paul addresses this in Romans 7. In  Romans 7, he says, What shall we say? Then, is the law sinful? Certainly not.  Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was, had not been for the law.  Eventually, the Israelites, his ancestors, came to under. Stand, what they were  doing was wrong, because God said, Look, I'm disciplining you. Thou shalt not,  and this is how I want you to live. And the judge at that time led them. Here, it's 

the Holy Spirit that guides and directs us and convicts us, but sin is seizing the  opportunity afforded by the commandment produced in me every kind of  coveting, for apart from the law, sin was dead. Once I was alive, apart from the  law, but then the Commandment came, sin sprang up to life, and I died. I found  that very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.  For sin seeing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and to the commandment put me to death so that the law is holy. The commandment is holy, righteous and good. Did that which is good then become death to me by  no means. And he goes on to say, verse 14, we know that the law is spiritual,  but I am unspiritual in my human nature. this addiction cycle. I keep going  around and around and I just I need to surrender to God. In verse 15, I do not  understand what I do for what I want to do. I do not do. In other words, to honor  God, to love God, to serve God, and if I do what I do not want to do, I agree the  law is good. It tells me what I'm doing is wrong and what right I need to do. What is righteous to do as it is. It is no longer eyeing myself to do it, but it is sin living  in me. Verse 18 of Romans 7, for I know that good itself does not dwell in me.  That is in my sinful nature. For I desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it  out. The good that I want to do I don't do, and the bad that I don't want to do, I  do. things I hate I do, and we instill this battle within us. That's why we need to  look at the addiction cycle more closely here in video number four, because sin  brings us back down that, that that awful path, that awful repeat, because we  think we've got it all together, and we don't, especially church leaders, church  leaders who I study my Bible I got all figured out. So we think, yes, I know God. I pray every morning. Truth of matter is we need to, we need to pray every  morning. We need to turn things over to God. As I've mentioned before, I do  recovery ministry full time. And the first thing I did 20 years ago that I began to  see I needed to do was to get myself an accountability partner, or rather a  sponsor, as we say, in recovery, as I sought him out, it's always the same  gender of a person who's going to be that recovery sponsor. And the sponsor  walks you through the steps of recovery, step one through Step 12, and step  one has to do Romans 7. Step One says, I admit I am powerless over my  compulsive behaviors and my addictions and that my life is unmanageable. Who me a Christian, much less a church leader? Yeah, me a church leader who  needs to repent every morning, and one of the things we also say recovery is is  perhaps you need to leave your keys for your car, let's say, or your house, or for  whatever that you need for the day, underneath your bed, so that you roll out of  your bed and you fall On your knees to get your keys knees to the keys. You  see, if we get on our knees to surrender, we discovered that the key is God  Himself, who is, in fact, alive. Nietzsche did not go back to the one true God  from the Bible, who does rescue us? As he read in Judges 2, and all throughout  that Book of Judges, God was there for His people, His promise he always kept, even though we as human beings do not, there's a. Gentleman who was in his 

50s. His name is David, and David, I've known his parents all my life. I've not  always known him until the past 10 or more years David, his parents never  talked about it, because he had been in and out of prison many times, or the  local county jail many times. Presently, to date, here, 2019, he's back in prison  again. He has a mental illness. He has, we think, some developmental problem,  emotionally, and every time he would get out of jail, for example, he would find  himself in trouble. Why is that? back to the addiction cycle. The addiction cycle  tends to do if we apply this to observing and understanding human behavior, the sin behavior, so we do some self examination of our own sin behavior, because,  frankly, we do sinful behavior, we just don't get Caught half the time, and unless, maybe, again, if you have access to these videos in prison, and you're taking  the CLI in prison, you are where you need to be, because that's where you are.  Then, as we say, recovery prison is not always bad. It's all it's definitely a  rescue, and yet, not the best place to be, of course, but the forward for you to  come out to rebuild. But when it comes to came to David's situation, he would  always get himself in trouble, because he would go in this same cycle. David, he would get out next bubble, if you will. Oh, I'm okay. I think I'll just do what I need. I think is right. Ah, I think is right. David would then steal from the local  restaurant, or something like that. Next part, David would find himself arrested,  in trouble, in court again, and then back into jail or prison, and after doing time,  back out. What we've come to understand as it applies to incarceration in that  example is that David probably and this is where his parents, myself and others  who've been trying to help him, have come to realize that incarceration is what  he knows and what he's addicted to, three hots and a cot We see, or three  meals a day and a bed. And he's not, for whatever reason, in a place he hasn't  broke out of that insanity button where or the addiction cycle, with this addiction  to going being on the inside, inside an institution, and with addiction is either  jails, institutions or death that someone who is in the acute stage, or there's just  they tried recovery, they tried everything, and they just find ourselves, felt  themselves back in that place. But we pray that they will then find, you know,  come back to God. They would have recovery. They'll be able to rebuild that  addiction cycle is so powerful, like with David's situation, being in prison perhaps is a place he needs to be. Our hope is that all of his life, maybe that's where he  will be the rest of his life now is mid 50s. There's some cases where you just  don't know. The addiction cycle is baffling, because we repent and we believe,  and then we get into spiritual disciplines, Bible, reading, Bible, intake, prayer,  fasting, giving to the Lord, etc, that's where the transformed person becomes  more like Christ. We know this, but we're constantly in this state of sanctification, recovery takes action. And so as you study, as you read more here, in  connection with this video, having to do with the addiction cycle and also the  addictive process, my hope is my goal for this video, and this topic is for you to  understand it and be able to see it in people like David as. Was yourself 20 

years ago, as I got my sponsor and as I looked at myself again, I could see my  co dependent issues. Alcohol was not my issue, crack was not my issue. Food,  overeating was not my issue. My issue was people pleasing, trying to fix other  people, and worrying what other people thought, and taking things way too  personally. At times, with the help of recovery, I've been able to work on those  issues with God's help through the process of sanctification. Now you can see  how sanctification is recovery and recovery is sanctification becoming more like  Christ, theologically, biblically and a life experience. Carry on. Look forward to  talking more about this, and of course, going deeper as we look at the after  effects of addiction, when it comes to the family and also the individual.