======================================================================== (SERMON CLIP) PERSISTENCE IN THE PRAYER CLOSET BREAKS CHAINS OF ADDICTION by Shane Idleman ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the concept that addiction is a form of idol worship, diverting our focus from God. It highlights the importance of persistent prayer in breaking strongholds and chains of addiction, illustrating that the strength of our pursuit of God can overcome any obstacle. The message encourages discipline, diligence, and a continuous seeking of God to become prayer warriors and soldiers in faith, stressing the need for unwavering persistence in prayer to truly hear God's voice. Topics: "Addiction as Idol Worship", "The Power of Persistent Prayer" Scripture References: Matthew 6:24, James 5:16, Ephesians 6:18, Colossians 4:2, 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Hebrews 4:16 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the concept that addiction is a form of idol worship, diverting our focus from God. It highlights the importance of persistent prayer in breaking strongholds and chains of addiction, illustrating that the strength of our pursuit of God can overcome any obstacle. The message encourages discipline, diligence, and a continuous seeking of God to become prayer warriors and soldiers in faith, stressing the need for unwavering persistence in prayer to truly hear God's voice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ So a lot of times that temptation will stay there to teach us to go to God and not, basically addiction is idol worship, idolatry. I know it's a hard thing to grasp, but addiction is idolatry. We're worshiping something other than God. And when we worship God prevails, that's where we're drawn to God. But it's in that persistent prayer and being persistent. And also strongholds are not easily broken. Are they? It's hard, break every chain. You know how hard it is to break a chain? You get a big binder on that chain and just crank it down. Sometimes you gotta get a cheater bar out. It's a big old bar and you get in, cheat, oh, and then finally, what happened? The strength pulling was greater than the strength of the chain. Did you catch that? Because that could change some of your prayer lives tonight. The strength pulling on that chain was greater than the strength of the chain itself. That's what persistence does. Persistence. Take a little hacksaw and a chain. Just go over it three times. What's gonna happen? Go buy 20 blades at Home Depot and just sit there for a few hours. Now you can break that chain. Persistence, discipline, diligently seeking Him. I'm trying to make prayer warriors and soldiers. That's what God's word says, that we're soldiers and we're prayer warriors. So to be, actually, to hear God's voice in prayer, you've gotta be persistent in prayer. That means falling forward. That means probably everybody in this room is convicted right now, including myself, because any time you can say, oh, I pray enough, I'm good, then you're not good. You're just, you're lying to yourself. That's the good thing about conviction. Lord, I want, if I'm, even right now, I'm preaching, going, Lord, I wanna pray more. Good, get up in the morning when it's dark out, when you wake up to go to the restroom, get up and go pray. Oh, I wanna go back to bed. No, see, that conviction draws me to the prayer closet. No conviction, no drawing. So that's, that's. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/rIF2m57BJJY.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/shane-idleman/sermon-clip-persistence-in-the-prayer-closet-breaks-chains-of-addiction/ ========================================================================