Many of us dedicated to the path of personal growth eventually hit a wall we didn’t see coming: the "spiritual plateau." It is a place of profound exhaustion where we are doing all the right things—attending meetings, practicing discipline, attempting to be "better"—yet we feel a hollow echo where a connection to the Divine should be. It is the wearying realization of trying to be our own Savior, only to find our unaided strength has run dry. This is where Step 12 changes the

We made it. Step 12. If your toes got stepped on along the way, if you felt challenged or even a little beat up, you're not alone. This has been one of the hardest series to prepare and preach, because it forces you and me to look in the mirror and focus on the things we'd rather ignore. But those ignored parts of us never get better on their own. They just don't. So we cry out to the one who can save us, and we do the work. The Man Nobody Could Tame If you open to The Gospel

In the early stages of recovery, many practitioners fall victim to the "Finish Line Fallacy." There is a persistent myth that after the "Big Steps"—facing the wreckage of the past and making amends—the heavy lifting is done. In reality, the transition from Step 9 to Step 10 marks a shift from a marathon to a daily ritual. Think of recovery as a high-performance fitness regimen. You cannot "complete" physical exercise and expect your strength to remain indefinitely; the moment

There's a moment near the end of any big project when you think, "Almost there. Just a little further, and I'll be finished." That feeling can be a trap. As I was talking with Craig, our guitarist, before a recent service, he reminded me of something important about the 12 steps: you're never really done. You keep going back. And honestly, that's the whole point. Discipleship works the same way. When can a Christian say, "I have arrived"? Not this side of heaven! Following Ch

Living with the weight of our past is a specific kind of internal gravity. In the language of recovery, we call it the "human wreckage"—the trail of broken trust, unpaid debts, and emotional scars left in our wake. For many of us, the natural instinct is to hide behind a shield of shame, pride, or embarrassment. We hope the past will stay buried, yet we find ourselves "looking over our shoulder," unable to walk with our heads held high. True freedom is not found in the avoida

The further you go in the 12 Steps, the harder they get. So much of the early work is internal. You've made your moral inventory. You've confessed your shortcomings before God and a trusted person. You've become willing to ask God to remove your character defects. That's all deeply personal, often painful work done mostly in private. But Steps 8 and 9? Now we go public. Step 8: We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. Step 9:

We are often our own most confounding enigmas. We stand in the debris of a familiar catastrophe, possessing a master’s degree in the "what" and "why" of our self-destructive patterns, yet we remain paralyzed in the "how" of changing them. This is the paradox of the recovery journey: we claim to desire a new life, yet we are notoriously skittish about the actual labor of transformation. We cling to our misery because it is a known quantity—a self-destructive comfort zone that

There's a moment in the Gospel of John where Jesus walks up to a man who has been unable to walk for decades, looks him in the eye, and asks what should be the easiest question in the world: "Do you want to get well?" (John 5:6) You'd expect an immediate yes. Instead, the man starts making excuses. He doesn't have anyone to help him into the healing pool. Someone always beats him to it. He talks around the question, never actually answering it. He'd grown so comfortable wit

More than most, the individual struggling with the "baffling malady" of addiction or chronic character defects leads a double life. As described in the literature of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and the psychological insights of John Ortberg, the sufferer becomes a consummate actor. To the outer world, they present a "stage character"—a polished, curated persona designed for applause. Yet, behind the curtain lies a "nightmare" of memories, fears, and inconsistencies that they tr

We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. Have you ever been around someone so good, so wholesome, that it made you feel worse about yourself? Maybe someone comes to mind. You feel self-conscious around them, trying your hardest not to cuss or make a crude joke. I promise you, they've got their own stuff. We're all imperfect. We're all human. That's kind of how it was around Jesus sometimes. He had this way of bringing out se

In the architecture of recovery, Step 4 is often described as the "engine" of character transformation. After the internal shifts of admitting powerlessness and surrendering to a Higher Power, the program demands a transition from abstract belief to rigorous, tangible action. Yet, for many, this is where the momentum stalls. We find ourselves standing at the threshold of a "searching and fearless moral inventory," staring into what feels like a dark, cluttered closet of our o

Step Four: We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. If you thought the first three steps were challenging, welcome to where it gets real. Steps one through three are about surrender: I can't, He can, I think I'll let Him. But step four? This is where you actually have to do something. When Jesus Called Zacchaeus Down From the Tree Remember Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10)? The tax collector was so short (possibly dealing with dwarfism) that he had to climb a tre

BEYOND SUNDAY Introduction: The Myth of Absolute Control We are taught to be masters of our own destiny, to fix our problems through sheer willpower. The word "surrender" often feels like weakness—an admission of defeat. In a culture that prizes self-sufficiency, the idea of turning over control to anyone, or anything, can seem irresponsible and a final blow to our pride. But what if this deeply ingrained belief is wrong? In the context of recovery, personal growth, and disci

We're walking through the 12 steps of AA and other recovery programs right now. These steps have been utilized for coming up on 100 years, and there's tremendous validity to them. But here's what I want you to understand: I'm not just talking to addicts or alcoholics. I'm talking to each one of us who has chosen the path of discipleship. Because at the heart of these 12 steps is the message of the gospel. When Nothing Else Works In Mark chapter 5 we meet a woman who was at he

BEYOND SUNDAY Introduction: The Loop We All Get Stuck In We’ve all been there: stuck in a destructive pattern, promising ourselves that this time will be different, only to find ourselves right back where we started. Whether it’s a bad habit, a toxic relationship, or a cycle of negative thinking, we eventually face the humbling reality that sheer willpower isn’t always enough to break free. The 12-Step program is famous as a path for addiction recovery, but its wisdom extends

Exploring the Second Step in Recovery: "We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." Walking on Water, Then Sinking Remember Peter's famous moment on the Sea of Galilee? A storm raged, waves battered the disciples' boat, and then Jesus appeared, walking on the water. Peter, bold as ever, called out, "Lord, if it's you, command me to come to you on the water." And Jesus said, "Come." Peter climbed out of the boat and actually walked on wa

BEYOND SUNDAY The Misunderstood Path to Recovery Our culture is filled with dramatic stories about addiction recovery. We imagine a single, life-shattering "rock bottom" moment or a heroic battle of pure willpower against overwhelming urges. These narratives, while compelling, often miss the quieter, more profound truths at the heart of lasting change. They paint a picture of recovery as an act of force, a head-on collision with a problem that must be wrestled into submission

As we start this new year, many of you are thinking about resolutions and goals. Maybe last year you resolved to lose 10 pounds and now you're thinking, "Great, only 18 to go." Whatever is on your mind today, I hope you'll join us for this new series on the 12 Steps. Why the 12 Steps? Some of you might be wondering why we're going through the 12 steps from Alcoholics Anonymous and similar recovery programs. "I'm not an addict," you're thinking. "Why do I need this?" Here's th