Key Verse – John 14:6 - Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father (God) except through me.          

Matthew 5:6 - Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

    *We’ve Been Acting, Thinking, & Feeling in Ways that Cause Us to Sink in Life. We Must Become Ready & Willing for God to Transform our Internal Workings. The 12 Steps of Jesus, are a Total Life Makeover. Our Addictions Are NOT our Real Problem. They are Symptoms of our Root Problems of Dealing with Pain of Life & Trying to Survive. Let’s Hand Over these Root Character Defects to God, & Work the Steps Daily for the Rest of our Lives. 

John 13:34-35 - 34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

*Character Defects – Any Behavior that Blocks the Love of God from Flowing Into Us & Through Us & Into the World. Any Pattern of Behavior that Stands in the Way of our Usefulness to God & Others. These mostly Fear Based Behaviors Undermine our Relationships, & Underwrite our Addictions. These are our Sins (Disobeying God) & Flaws (Selfish Wrongdoings).

Isaiah 59:2 - But your iniquities (disobeying God) have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

Ephesians 2:8-9 - 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

*Character Defenses – We Develop these as Young Kids, in order to Survive in the World. These help us to Feel in Control, Sooth our Pain, & Get our Needs Met, in a Chaotic & Unpredictable World. We unknowingly bring these into Adulthood, where they Cause a LOT of Problems & Pain throughout our Life-Time, if we don’t Acknowledge Them & Let God Help us Change. We have to be Honest & Gentle with Ourselves with Self-Compassion. Our Conscious & Unconscious Fears of Losing What we Have, & Not Getting What we Want - Activate our Defenses.     

John 5:1-15 - 1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” 8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” 12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” 13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. 14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

*We don’t Do the Steps, God Does!  Our part is to Pray for God to do the Work & Allow Him. We supply the Willingness & God Supplies the Change.

Hebrews 12:1-3 - 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.