BROADCASTS.com

When God is Big... is a sermon series examining what happens when you have a bigger vision of God. When God is Big...Chains are Broken: This world can be really tough. And it can be so tempting to turn to certain substances or behaviors to try and escape from reality. Whether it's binge drinking or endless social media scrolling, our tendency toward compulsive overconsumption is unhelpful and frankly destructive. However, there is hope in Jesus for freedom and healing. Recorded on Oct 24, 2021, on Acts 16:16-34, by Pastor David Parks. Sermon Transcript All year, we’re focusing on The Greatness of God. And today, we’re finishing a sermon series called When God is Big… In this series, we’ve considered how a bigger view of God changes everything, including how we live out our values and how we might deal with our various struggles. Well, today, we get to address one of the main issues that people in our culture struggle with today, which is the struggle of addiction. And the first question is, is this really a problem for us? Undoubtedly, you’ve probably heard of the opioid crisis, but for many of us, that issue might feel far away. Is this something we need to be paying attention to as followers of Jesus today, well, I think the answer is yes. According to the CDC, Wisconsin has the second-highest rate of binge drinking in the country and is almost tied for first place. A CDC study from 2015 showed that almost 25% of adults in WI (that is, 1 out of 4) had engaged in binge drinking in the past 30 days. And I believe the trauma of the Covid-19 pandemic and all the other social and political turmoil of the past few years have only accelerated this trend. It might be more like 1 out of 3 adults or even higher today. Now I get it. In this world, there seems to be stress and various threats coming from all directions. So it’s no wonder to me that more and more, people are falling into addictive patterns of behavior or turning to substances to try and escape reality for a time. That’s understandable. But it’s not just alcohol that’s a problem for us, is it? In her book, Dopamine Nation, Dr. Anna Lembke repeatedly refers to addictive behavior as ‘compulsive overconsumption,’ and that phrase was helpful to me to better understand what’s going on here. However, by that definition, almost everyone may wrestle with a certain degree of addictive behavior. Just think about the phrase ‘compulsive overconsumption’ and think about your relationship with your phone or your social media feed or with gaming or even your TV. We don’t even watch TV anymore, we binge-watch. Think of the struggle that so many people have with pornography or merely of watching the news. We know these things aren’t really helpful or healthy for us, and some are downright destructive patterns of behavior — but we just can’t stop. So given the difficulty and trauma of this broken world, are we hopelessly bound by these substances/behaviors, or is it possible to find freedom from compulsive overconsumption? The answer is yes, freedom is possible, healing is possible in Christ. In fact, one of the great benefits of the gospel of Jesus is its power to break the various chains that bind us in life. But how does this work? Well, if you have a Bible/app, please open to Acts 16, starting with v.16. My goal today is to show you that when God is big, chains are broken. Let’s start with v.16. Acts 16:16-18 (NIV), “Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.”