I Corinthians 16:15

"I beseech you, brethren, (ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministries of the saints,)

The above is one of my favorite scriptures and I hope it will become one of yours.

Addicted means "To be given over to something. In other words, if you are without the thing you are addicted to, life would be very hard.

To be addicted can either be good or bad, depending on what you are addicted to. Let’s look at the house of Stephanas to see what they were addicted to.

I believe they loved the Lord Jesus with all their hearts, yet, it does not say they were addicted to our Lord.

I also believe it was a home where prayer was no stranger; yet, again, this was not what they were addicted to. So, what were they addicted to? To the ministry (service) of the saints. Now, this was truly a great thing. For this family, life was hard if they did not have saints to serve. Would God this was the state of the Church in this day.

I have met many people who really desire to be praying people but don’t know how to become so. That is the reason for this message. I wish to let you know how to become addicted to something.

Basically, there are two ways to become addicted. The easiest way is to be addicted form your parents at birth, and the second is to force yourself to become addicted.

There have been two great addictions in my life which I wish to share with you. The first was to strong drink, and the second was to the Word of God.

The first one I want to share with you is my addiction to the Word of God. This one I was born with. When I was born into the Heavenly Family, I received this addiction to the Word of God from my Heavenly Parent. This addiction for God’s word was so strong that my beloved Mother, who was not a Christian at the time, said that I read the Bible so much till I would loose my mind.

Let me try to explain just how addicted to the Word of God I was. I could not stand to be in a room where a Bible was with out getting my hands on it. Also, I could never go anywhere without having my Bible with me. While at home, I constantly read the Bible. Anytime Mother and I went anywhere in the car, as soon as I got in the car, I opened my Bible and began to read.

There were a few times when my mother asked me to put my Bible down and just talk a while with her. I would lay the Bible down and try to talk with her, but my eyes kept going to where my Bible was, and my hands kept going out to my Bible. Soon Mother would give up and let me go be to the one thing which was in my heart, and that was reading God’s Holy Word.

I was truly addicted to the Holy Word of God and it was something I received as soon as I was born of God. There was no way I could live without it and not suffer.

Let me say this: Anything which you can "Take or Leave", you can rest assured you are not addicted to it.

I have told you about an addiction which I was born with when I was born into the Family of God. Now let me tell you about an addiction I had while living in sin, and how it came about. This one was to strong drink.

I was in the state of Florida and went into a liquor store to and bought two cans of beer. The man asked if I wanted him to open one for me. I told him "No". At that time I was hitch-hiking so I put my beer into my bag to have later.

I don’t remember where I was going, but I do remember being picked up by a minister and his wife. They asked me if I was a Christian, and I said "No". They asked me to say the sinner’s prayer with them. I didn’t want to say the sinner’s prayer for I was waiting to drink my beer. Never-the-less, as I didn’t want to displease them, I did say the Prayer. (It did no good.)

We drove across Alabama, and into Mississippi where they finally let me out. It was now in the middle of the night and I was out in the middle of the country. I said, "This is the place to drink my beer." This was the hour I had been waiting on. Everyone had been telling me how good beer was, and at last I was going to find out for myself.

There was only one problem: In those days, they didn’t make cans with the pull tabs, and I didn’t have a can opener or a knife. But, where there is a will, there is a way.

I was standing at the end of a man’s driveway, and looking over I saw the flag on his mailbox. I walked over and tore the flag off the mailbox and punched a hole in this can. Oh! What terrible stuff! I could not believe it. It did not agree with my taste buds at all! After just one swig I threw down the can. As I said, I bought two cans of beers. Want to know what happened to the other can? Well, it found itself laying along with the other can. The only difference being, it was still unopened.

I have often wondered what those folks thought upon finding the flag torn off their mailbox, one can of beer opened and another full can of beer laying next to it in their driveway.

This time it was easy to throw the thing down and walk away. There was no one around to laugh at me. Next time the case was different. Satan saw to it that I was with several boys and girls who would laugh if I refused. This happened in the State of Kansas.

I was with a car load of boys and girls out riding around when we stopped to get some beer. God, how I hated for this to happen as I still remembered the last time. However, it did happen, and there I was.

It was the same kind of beer, and it still tasted just as terrible. Nothing about the taste had changed. Something about my circumstances had changed. I was no longer alone. This time I would not throw the thing away without being laughed at. What did I do? I FORCED myself to drink it.

I well remember the young girl I was with giving me a big smile and saying, "Ain’t this good?"

Almost choking and gagging, I said, "Oh yes! It’s great!" I was lying. It tasted terrible and I only wanted to get rid of it but if I did, they would laugh at me so I continued to force myself to drink it.

Here is something I want you to pay close attention to: As I continued to force myself to drink that terrible stuff, something began to change. Let me tell you that it was not the taste of that rotten beer that changed, it was my taste buds!!! They became corrupted by that terrible taste so they began to enjoy that terrible rotten taste.

Where once my taste buds despised that rotten taste, they now began to LIKE it, then to LOVE it, until They couldn’t live without it and not go into a terrible fit. This did not stop with beer, but went on to strong drink.

This addiction to strong drink didn’t happen all at once, but step by step from beer to strong drink. So is it with sin.

It can also happen with our Lord Jesus. We can begin with one thing and continue on until we are totally addicted to our Lord Jesus.

I wish to share with you two areas which I began with in my life.

As an Evangelist, I spend much time on the Highway driving. Many times while driving, I have felt our Lord’s presence and very much wanted to raise my hand and praise Him. Being ashamed of Him, (which none wants to admit, but most all are) I would look in the rear view mirror to see if anyone was behind me before raising my hand to Him. Knowing this showed I was ashamed of Him, I determined to change. I began to FORCE myself to raise my hand without looking. I continued to do this till I no longer care who is looking.

The other thing I did: Anytime I saw a poster with a missing child, I FORCED myself to remove my hat, bow my head and pray for the return of that child. I continued doing this until I can pray for ANYTHING anytime in any place.

If you would love to become addicted to our Lord Jesus, start with one thing and go from there.

Let me give you one word of warning: Do not expect your addiction to our Lord Jesus to grow as rapidly as does addiction to sin.

Wheat Grows.

Tares Spring.

Back To
Rev. Whatley's
Sermon Index

Click on Preacher for
Table of Contents

Rev. Whatley