Bondage—Addiction

Joyce Webb 2010

 

“Stand fast in the liberty (freedom) wherewith Christ hath made us free,

and be not entangled (tied up) again with the yoke of bondage.”

Galatians 5:1

A yoke is the wooden collar that oxen wear so they can pull a wagon. A yoke keeps them in place so they can pull. A yoke is good for a farmer to use the farm animals, but the yoke is not something the animals like.

A yoke is like a burden—it is heavy. It does not allow movement except in a few ways. The purpose of the yoke is to keep the oxen in one place.

A yoke is not freedom (liberty).

Christ came to make us free of being in bondage (tied up) to sin. There are several well known habits that have people in bondage.

People who smoke are tied up to tobacco. They find it hard to stop smoking.

People who take drugs to make themselves feel good—get to a place where they must have drugs all the time. People whose bodies have great desire for drugs are called addicts.

Drug addicts will do anything to get more drugs. Drugs are expensive, so drug addicts often steal—even from family—cheat, do sexual acts to get money, even kill to get money.

People who start looking at pornography (sexual pictures) find they want to look at more and more. It makes them feel excited.

After awhile they do not feel so excited, so they watch sexual acts where people are tied up in chains. Then they watch people being hurt while having sex. Bondage and torture is now part of sex.

Some of these people end up doing sexual acts to real people. They hurt them. They may kill them. Some hurt children.

We have seen TV shows about people who have taken a child or a young woman and taken them from there home and held them in a secret place.

One story was about a man who took a teenage girl and kept her in his basement for years. He would chain her and hurt her then have sex with her.

The police found them. The police found many pornographic magazines in his basement. At first there were pictures of regular sex acts, then their were pictures of bondage and torture.

The man began with regular sex then when the excitement was gone he need stronger excitement so he tried other things. Things got rougher, meaner, and darker.

Satan tricks us—fools us. He puts a thought into our minds that says, “You are old enough to be free to make your own choices about sex.” “It is just a little excitement, what is the harm?”

Young people think: “My friends are all smoking, drinking, doing drugs—I want to be part of the group. I do not want to be a “baby”. I want to be with the ‘in’ group.” “I’ll just do it one time, one time will not hurt.”

Did you know that with crack cocaine —-just one time makes a mark in your brain cells and starts a desire that is hard to go against the next time? Just one time can hurt you.

The brain has a desire center. Chemicals run this desire center of the brain.

Drugs of nicotine from tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs come into this desire center. These chemicals are new to the brain and they change the chemistry of the brain. The desire center of the brain remembers this new chemical.

If the chemical comes into the brain again and again, more and more the brain remembers and has a desire for more. The normal chemistry of the brain is not working correctly any more.

 

The brain yells out for more of this new chemical. These chemicals also change other things in the body. So the body wants the chemical, too.

Now your brain and body are telling you what to do. It seems you can not reason with your brain. Your brain desire center is in control and is going to run everything.

Pornography works the same way. Sexual desire makes chemicals in your body that go to the brain. Sex pictures and acts seen in magazines, movies, and online are very exciting. Your body sends a lot of chemicals to your brain. Your brain wants more and more. Soon pictures of normal sex are not exciting enough.

Having normal sex with a person is not exciting enough. So other kinds of sex are tried. The brain’s desire center wants large amounts of chemicals.

Pornography breaks up marriages. Why? A normal person can not be as exciting as a beautiful model in a magazine or online. A normal person is not going to want to do those kind of sexual acts that is seen in the movie.

Usually it is a man who is watching pornography—so it is his wife that feels that her husband has another lover. That lover may be in a magazine, or online—but that lover has the husband’s attention and that is what makes him excited. The wife is left out.

No matter what kind of chemical you put into your body—nicotine, alcohol, drugs, “fake” sexual excitement, pills,—-your brain is going to get used to it little by little. The desire chemicals are now running your thoughts and they are stronger than any thoughts of reason. You are now controlled by the desire center of your brain.

So now your reason is not in control but your desires.

This is a sad place for a mature person to be. We teach children to not be controlled by what they want, and to learn control. Yet by overuse of chemicals —adults put themselves back to childhood level of being controlled by their desires.

There is the area of money. All addictions are expensive and need a lot of money.

Gambling can easily become an addiction. It uses up a lot of money.

Again, the excitement of getting something for nothing—getting the big win–keeps the chemicals going to the brain. That big win is always going to be in the next try.

Smoking and gambling may not control a person in the way that drugs and drinking do.

Some say smoking is not a sin. Smoking does not control your thinking in ways that drugs and drinking do. Maybe it does not, but it is an addiction.

It destroys your body. It destroys the bodies of people you live with. It is expensive.

Gambling does not seem to be all controlling of thoughts like drugs or drinking–but it is an addiction. It is a terrible waste of money that is needed for other things. It is not a responsible use of money. It uses up money the family needs.

Eating can be an addiction. Some people use food to comfort them. They eat when they are not hungry. They eat too much. They eat all the time. Eating is out of control.

Gambling, eating and pornography addictions can probably be brought under control easier than addictions to smoking, drinking, or drugs.

There is a spiritual thing that happens when the desire center becomes in control of you.

There is a fine line between your mind and your spirit.

When your brain is controlled by your desire center, then your spirit is under its control, too.

Your thoughts have power over your spirit. Your spirit is now being under the power of your desire center. The desire center is the number one control in your life and thought.

This is bondage. You are in bondage to your desires. Your center of reason does not have control any more.

This is not what God wants people to be. Your brain is out of balance by your own choices.

The Bible tells us in many places that we are to be serious thinking people.

We are to make reasonable decisions. Our spirits are to be under the control of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is not in control of a person who has a desire center in control.

Reason is not in control of a person who has a desire center in control.

You can not please God if your desires are controlling you.

God is to be the number one control in our life.

“Sin” is a Greek word. It means “missing the mark”. When the Greeks shot arrows at a target, if they did not hit the center circle—they “sinned”—missed the mark.

We were created for God’s pleasure and for His glory. Revelation 4:11 “You have created all things, and for your pleasure they are and were created.” The center of the circle is the glory of God. When our lives do not bring glory to God, we miss the mark. We sin.

Desires that control your life do not bring glory to God. It misses the mark. It is sin.

The Bible says, “Sin when it is finished, brings forth death.” This is so true of addictions. Nicotine, drinking, drugs, twisted sexual desire, even gambling when it uses up all the money for living——bring forth death.

James 1:14, 15 “Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust (strong desire), and enticed (pulled into), then the lust, when it is conceived (begun), brings forth sin, and sin when it is finished brings forth death.”

Our bodies are the “temple of the Holy Spirit”. I Corinthians 6: 19, 20

“What? Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own.

For you are bought with a price, so show the glory of God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Our thoughts are joined with out spirits. The Holy Spirit is holy. He will not stay where there is sin. As humans we make mistakes and sin.

But when we choose to sin over and over, and it is the way we live—-the Holy Spirit will not stay. The temple is “dirty”. The Holy Spirit will live only in a temple that is clean by Jesus blood.

The Holy Spirit is the power that we can use to help us stay clean. The Holy Spirit waits for us to ask for help and to yield to His control.

 

The Holy Spirit will not force you to be clean. The Holy Spirit will warn you when something is wrong and a sin. It is your choice to yield to the Holy Spirit or to do your own way.

Romans 13: 14 “Make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lust thereof.”

(Do not think of ways to open up yourself to do fleshly desires—if you open the door you will be doing lustful things.”

If you keep choosing your own way and ignore the Holy Spirit and push Him aside—-He will finally leave you alone.

God needs to be the center of control. He needs to control the desires of your mind.

If you want to have the Holy Spirit in your life—-He needs to be in a clean temple and be in control of you.

You need to confess your sin. You need to ask God to show you how to get over your addictions. You may need to have a doctor’s help, or a special hospital, or a religious group like Teen Challenge.

You will need people you can trust to help you. You probably will not be able to do it alone.

Do not let shame and embarrassment stop you from getting help. If you continue as you are you will come to shame and embarrassment in a worse way. Numbers 32:23 “be sure—your sin will find you out.”

God is waiting for you to come to Him.