SERIES TITLE
Cycle Breaker
series overview
It’s easy to feel stuck in patterns of the past. Most of the time we inherit these cycles from society, parents, or even the church. Let’s get past the layers of dysfunction and have an honest talk about emotions, racism, addiction, and religion. It can stop with you —you can be the cycle breaker!
sermon TITLE
I’m Breaking the Cycle of Addiction
weekend in review
Mike Breaux addresses addictive behaviors — what the Bible calls “strongholds” — that often get passed along from one generation to the next.
WARM UP
Begin with some conversation, checking in on how people are doing. You can talk about whatever you’d like, but here are potential questions to get the conversation going.
- As a child, who was your favorite hero or team of heroes? Why?
DISCUSSion
- Mike talked about how identifying scripts, patterns, and trauma goes a long way toward breaking the cycle of addictive behavior in one’s life.
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- Patterns: Repeated behaviors, practices, habits, or ways of thinking that extend from one generation to the next.
- Trauma: Have there been traumatic moments in your life that have shaped you in some way, leaving scars?
- Scripts: Roles we were handed that we believed we had to play.
Reflect on these three and share if there is one area that comes to mind that you see yourself repeating, a cycle you would like to break.
- Read 2 Kings 5:1-3. A captive Israelite girl serving Naaman’s wife suggested to her that the prophet in Samaria could heal Naaman of his leprosy. God often uses people close to us, sometimes someone considered unlikely to be influential, to point us toward help. Where has this been true in your life?
- Read 2 Kings 5:4-12. How did Naaman’s pride keep him from the simple act of obedience that the prophet required of him? How might that be true for us?
- What did Naaman’s response to Elisha reveal about Naaman’s opinion of himself? How might our harboring such an opinion produce disappointment in our relationships with others? In our relationship with God?
- How does a prideful opinion of ourselves keep us from reaching out for God’s healing and intimacy?
- Read 2 Kings 5:13. Mike talked about having the kind of friends who are willing to speak truth into your life. Share about a time someone close to you did that. What was your response, and did you see it as a gift at the time?
- Read 2 Kings 5:14-15. Cycles of addictive behaviors can continue for generations, particularly when we resist humbling ourselves and seeking help. Naaman stepped into the Jordan River and dipped seven times, choosing to surrender to what God had stipulated he needed to do. Share a time you felt God calling you to take a step of faith, but you resisted, at least initially. What was the outcome?
- Read 1 Corinthians 1:9 (TLB). Share about a time when you felt powerless, put everything into God’s hands, and experienced his help to you.
application
- Read Isaiah 57:18-19 (NLT). In what areas of your life do you struggle to believe that God wants to and is able to bring you healing and freedom? How can the group pray for you and encourage you?
WRAP UP & PRAYER
- Pray for healing and wholeness as we own our hurts, addictions, insecurities, and all that we are, exposing everything to God’s grace and love.
- Pray for each of you to have at least one person in your life who loves you enough to tell the truth and point you to healing. Ask God for the strength to make changes so you can break unhealthy cycles and experience freedom and peace, resting in his grace.