Video Transcript: Lesson 10

We're coming down to the last leg of this course on breaking the addiction cycle, and we've looked at all of the aspects of addiction, individual, family, economy,  social, psychological, the theological to begin with, of course, it begins with how  we've all fallen short of God's glory. Romans 3:23, however, thanks be to God  through our Lord Jesus Christ, we have that free gift given to us through Jesus  of salvation and eternal life, and where then we are made complete. You see, it's that lack of completeness that fuels the addiction. I talked about the poverty  culture in previous sessions, and how there's no hope in the poverty culture,  although there are rules in the poverty culture, there are rules in the middle  class culture, there are rules in the elite culture, but in every culture, in every  class system, there is a need for Jesus Christ, because we've all fallen short of  God's glory, given this God wants us to experience life. Jesus said, I'd come to  give life and give it to the full. Right now, salvation, eternal life, begins right now  for the believer, and that's clearly taught in Scripture based upon this God wants us to fulfill the purpose he has given to you and to me, we're all made different  as far as calling gifts, passion, as well as culture, people groups where God  wants to put us with this group or that group and so on. That's the Christian life.  However. We all deal with our stuff. We all have something that we deal with.  What the It may be that is controlling you and me. So how do we finally come to  this, this method, what is the lifestyle of breaking the addiction, breaking the  cycle, as we also identified in the first part of the course, how the cycle goes  from depression, hurt, fear, anger to then medicating, to Then regretting and  also resenting, and then going from there to finally having some peace, but  maybe not, the pain comes back, and we're never truly satisfied. It's that insanity button doing something different to get the same result all the time. So wanting  what I want, when I want it. And there was a gentleman back in the 1930s who  saw this issue with the human condition. And this brings us to the origin of the  12 Steps of recovery. Why 12 Steps? We're going to take a look at that because the 12 Steps truly brought many people to that place of surrender to God. As  believers in Jesus Christ, we understand about surrender, however, in our  addiction, in our state where we are compulsive or CO dependent or a bit  narcissistic, of course, or we're caught up in an attachment and addiction to a  substance or person, place and thing, we need a way out. And you know, God  says, I'll give you a way out. I Corinthians, 10:9, God gives us a way out of  temptation. So what is that way out? How does this work? How do the 12 Steps  truly help us through? Finally, coming that break in the addiction cycle that never seems to stop and the insanity continues. The Oxford group Part one is the first  part of understanding the 12 Steps. Very crucial. I believe that God used the  founder of the Oxford group in the 1930s to bring us to a breakthrough that has  helped not only alcoholics and drug users, but also people of all walks in all  situations, with all issues, all life issues, to finally break free and to be fully in  God's control as best as they're able, and, of course, a daily practice of 

surrender. Let's take a look more at the Oxford group as part one in the 12  steps. First of all, the Oxford group was formed in 1931 and into the 1930s and  eventually AA was formed. Let's stop. Let's stop. I just, I want to get that that  date, right, I thought I had that straight. So we'll pick it up. Where we left off,  please, so that we can edit that. Yeah, just, just noting, okay. Okay, I was right. I  knew it. Ah, okay, all right, 4, 3, 2, the Oxford group started in 1931 and the  founder is none other than an American minister, Lutheran minister, to be exact.  His name is Reverend Frank Buchman, very German. And as an American  Lutheran minister, he was called by God into the ministry, He also found himself, you know, dealing with the human stuff, as we all do, in terms of leisurely  behavior. And apparently his parents were were concerned about that with him  and and also the human condition. And eventually God brought him into Penn  State College. So the history goes, and at Penn State College, he Frank began  to notice the human condition. In total. He saw, for example, the fraternities, the  parties, the carrying on with addiction, alcohol, substances of all kinds,  everything it was alive and well in the 1930s as much of it is today. So he  thought, What do I do? How do I approach this? And he began to work with  students one on one. Found that the one on one method was, in fact, the best  way to approach this. And it began to to multiply. And eventually he formed the  group called the Oxford group in 1931 where many who were addicted to  alcohol in particular, and of course, other things came together to say, we need  to understand that our main issue is fear and selfishness. Those are the main  beliefs that Reverend Buchman was tackling that he was approaching addiction, rather with the main understanding the first the first things were that it's fear and  selfishness in the human condition that we are addressing. And so the Oxford  group came together and developed four points. The first point was absolute  honesty. You can't move forward. You can't get into a proper understanding of  your problem, your life issue, unless you're absolutely honest. And of course, for most alcoholics, they can't be honest. For most addicts, can't be honest. I've  said before with addiction, it makes us into liars, thieves and cheats, we evade,  we hide, we lie, and it leads to jails, institutions or death. Well, the second point,  once the attitude is able to come to that place of absolute honesty, this is my  problem. I admit it. I admit that I have a problem with alcohol. I admit I I can't  stop drinking. I can't stop chasing a person of the opposite gender and doing  things sexually. I can't stop trying to fix other people and their problems, thus  being co dependent. Once honesty is done and practiced continually daily.  Purity comes forth. Purity as the next point of the Oxford group. Purity. Why?  Because once we admit that we have an issue and a problem, so goes the  whole flow into the 12 Steps. And you see, if you know the 12 Steps, you see  where this is going. The whole thing of purity. Say, I'm purged. I'm now able to  be pure from be set apart, from what I just admitted, what I've just confessed to.  And finally, or rather after purity, the whole thing of purity, unselfishness, begins 

to come in. Because when you are completely honest about how much you've  fallen short of God's glory and how achieved and what your sins are, you're  found out more honest you get about what you have have got yourself tangled  up in, the more you're able to say, Okay, it's not about me, it's about God and  also what he wants. Back to the same problem of Adam and Eve. They want to  become their own God. We want to become our own god, if we get honest about that, and when we get honest that we want to be our own god and admit that we have gone down that path, that's where God redirects us to a pure path. So  absolute honesty, purity, unselfishness, then were devoted to God, as the  Oxford group identified. And finally, love. I Corinthians 13, the greatest of these  is love and to do love. And that's where Reverend Buchman led many students,  one on one, and eventually in groups, as it began to spread from Penn State  College to as it was called, then to many other university campuses. It was a  movement of the Oxford group that went worldwide. Now there are four spiritual  practices that they created and were identified. Of course, it's all from scripture,  but but then put into a four point list. First one is sharing of our sins and  temptations with another Christian, someone who you can trust, because what  they found is, as you share it, you're admitting it, you're verbalizing it. It's out in  the open. It's there. Secondly, surrender our life, past, present and future into  God's keeping and direction. God redirects you from the path of selfishness to a  path of unselfishness centered on Jesus and not on self, becoming your own  God. Thirdly, restitution to all whom we have wronged, directly or indirectly. And  this is where the eighth and ninth step in recovery talks about amends, amends  making, in other words, making it right. And we're going to unpack that more so  we get deeper into the steps in the next session, after we talk about the history  of the Oxford group that was the foundation for Bill W and Dr Bob and the 12  Steps of alcohol, Alcoholics Anonymous or AA also, that became adapted for  everything else, restitution. Finally, the fourth spiritual practice is listening for  God's guidance and carrying it out, listening for God's guidance and doing it,  obeying it. It's interesting. I saw a video a few days ago. There's an interview  between pastor Greg Laurie and the famed rock star Alice Cooper, who's a  Christian man, by the way, and in the 70s, he's still doing music. He's still in, you know, in the rock arena, but God led him to start a center for kids in Phoenix,  Arizona, and then that center for kids was there because, as Alice said on  camera, he said God was leading me, And the Lord said, Go. And I said, Okay.  And he and a bunch of other colleagues obeyed, as he put it, obeyed God and  made this center, this spiritual life center for young kids to come on in as they  are away from the drugs and to the Lord. Same thing redirect as God redirects  us, listening for God's guidance and, of course, carrying it out as we are  unselfish, getting back to the other points of Oxford and also surrendering  everything to the Lord. So you can really see here how with breaking the  addiction cycle, it begins with God and continues with God and denying a self 

pretty clear, as Jesus said, deny yourself, carry your cross and follow me. Well,  then the Oxford group developed what's called the 5c to continue to help those  who are coming out of addiction into sobriety and also lifelong service to the  Lord as they accept Christ. And the first three are confidence, confession,  conviction, defined as this confidence, the establishment of rapport for the  person to be changed. Confidence, as I said earlier, Reverend Buchman would  work with people, one on one, and in another session related to the 12 Steps,  we're talking about sponsorship and what that means, as well as recovery  coaches and also other roles of leadership and also mentorship in recovery and  breaking the addiction cycle, no confidence, the establishment of rapport with  the person to be changed. Where that sponsor, that mentor, that accountability  partner, gets involved. Confession, where this comes in, of course, admission of  sins, to God, to another person, setting yourself free, conviction, becoming  aware of your sinfulness, aware that you are falling short, that you are on the  road to self destruction, and with God's help, to get back on The road to life. So  confidence, confession, conviction, conversion now for those of you who have  been through alcoholism or substance abuse of all kinds, and coming out that  coming through that detox process and coming back into and then into the  reality God wants us to be in, and to finally, have a clear mind. Because when  you were on the stuff, whatever that was, your mind was unclear, chaotic. Now,  with God's peace and a clear mind being filled with Jesus, now it's that place of  conversion where you give oneself to God and follow His guidance, and finally,  continuance where, and this is the purpose of the church, fellowship and witness to others. Funny how with addiction, we got caught up into our own thing. Well,  that's what we call being lost spiritually. Evangelism happens where we meet  people where they are, and the Oxford group was doing just that. It's like we  need to meet alcoholics and substance abusers and addicts of all kinds where  they are, and eventually they'll come to this place of conversion and then to  continue to be a part of a body of believers, which the Oxford group was an  evangelical Christian organization. Those are foundations of the 12 Steps. And  Reverend Buchman knew that it took the church community to bring all into that  place of continuing honesty, continuing confession, continuing it's a daily  process for one day at a time and one moment at a time. For many, we continue through our conversion and more to that process of, oh yeah, sanctification.  Now you can put the dots together. Here you can put two and two. Sanctification is involved in this methodology, as it was also the precursor to the 12 Steps  themselves, after the five C's, then they created the four steps which more and  more they're realizing a step by step process was necessary. So surrender life,  past, present, future into God's keeping and direction. Second step sharing  confession, sins, temptations with another Christian, and use sharing as a  witness to help others still unchanged, to recognize and acknowledge their sins.  Because what Reverend Buchman and recognized is that as you're in a group, 

or at least one on one, or in a support group together, and you hear someone  share their sins and their shortcomings. It convicts you. You come to that place  as you're going around the table or around the circle in the room, you're  realizing, man, something I yeah, I've got the same problem. I have the same  sin issue, and I need to get honest with myself. Now, many don't. They'll say,  Well, I'm just here to listen in the group, or, yeah, I'll and they share someone  shares after someone else's shares. You know, something more surfacey and  nothing really deep and meaningful, because they're not ready, maybe the next  time they will be ready. So that sharing is an important part of the process.  Restitution was that third step to all whom we've wronged, directly and indirectly. That's not necessarily forgiveness, is it? Restitution? Is saying I'm going to make it right. I'm what I stole from you. I'm going to repay. I what I you know, as far as  maybe it's monetary or what I took from you, maybe it was that cell phone,  Robert, I'll make sure I get it back to you, and then continuance, listening,  accepting and relying on God's guidance and carrying it out, and everything we  do and say, great or small, whatever it takes. So with Reverend Buchman, he  really he began to show the Christian lifestyle as a lifestyle of recovery, a  lifestyle of restoration, a lifestyle of being restored and helping and being used  by God to restore others. It's not about us, it's about God. Then it went from four  steps, as the history goes, into six steps. And with six steps, it went from  complete deflation, where we because again, as groups go and methodologies  go. Reverend Buchman and others, they began to see that, well, we need to  break it down even more, which, again, it was finally broken down to 12 Steps.  But that comes later. But here the six step rebel part of the process, complete  deflation. I surrender, Lord, it's not about me, and then dependence on God  doing a moral inventory. So, so yes, we confess our sins verbally, but doing the  moral inventory, inventory where we will then take the pen, take the pad, and  begin to make a few columns and write down what has been going on inside,  what my insecurities, anger and etc, is going on inside, and then confession,  writing it out with A moral inventory and speaking it restitution as we just  described earlier, and also continuing to work with others in need. God had a  plan for what was being or was happening for the Oxford group, and they went  off into other directions, though too, globally and had a lot of influence with  social influencers, political leaders and so on. But we're not going to go down  that path today. As far as the history of the Oxford group. We wanted to do is  give you a good first step into the movement of Christian recovery that  demanded a methodology, a system that was going to be effective in helping us  as human beings to get honest with our own sins and to experience God's  grace, forgiveness, making it right with others and keep giving back. Next  session, we're going to get into the next part of the history of the 12 Steps with  Bill W and Dr Bob.