Second Nature

The Gift of Bottoming-Out
January 19, 2025
Chris Seidman, Lead Minister, The Branch

John 19:11 (NIV)
“You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.“

Romans 13:1 (NIV)
… for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.

1 Timothy 2:1-2 (NIV)
I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people – for kings and all those in authority … . This is good and, pleases God our Savior … .

Lord’s Prayer
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from the evil one.

2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV)
And we … are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

2 Peter 2:19 (NIV)
… for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”

F.I.R.S.T.
• Focus – what are we preoccupied with?
• Income – what do we do with money that comes our way through work or a gift? Are there trends? Are we lying about where it’s going?
• Relationships – how many relationships in our life are difficult right now? What do our conversations revolve around? Is there a common theme?
• Security – where do we tend to turn when we’re fearful, or worn out, or in pain?
• Time – how are we spending our time, what are we spending it on, and how much of it is spent dealing with the consequences of our choices and actions?

John 8:31-32 (NIV)
“If you obey my teaching, you are really my disciples; you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 13:17 (NIV)
“Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

Matthew 7:24-27 (NIV)
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

The First Two Steps …

• Realizing I’m not God; I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and that my life is unmanageable.

Richard Rohr Quote
What the ego hates more than anything else in the world is to change – even when the present situation is not working or is horrible. Instead, we do more and more of what does not work … . As English poet W.H. Auden put it: ”We would rather be ruined than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the present and let our illusions die.”

Psalm 86:10 (NIV)
You are God alone.

Richard Rohr Quote
Until you bottom out and come to the limits of your own fuel supply, there is no reason for you to switch to a higher octane of fuel. Why would you want to change? You will not learn to actively draw upon a Larger Source until your usual resources are depleted and revealed as wanting. Until and unless there is a person, situation, event, idea, conflict, or relationship that you cannot “manage,” you will never find the True Manager… . Self-made people … will try to manufacture an even stronger self by willpower and determination – to put them back in charge and in seeming control. Usually most people admire this, not realizing the unbending, sometimes proud, and eventually rigid personality that will be the long-term result. They will then need to continue in this pattern of self-created successes and defenses. This pushy response does not normally create loving people. But just people in control; an ever deeper need of control. Eventually the game is unsustainable. Unless you make others, even your whole family, pay the price for your aggression and self-assertion which is the common pattern.

2 Corinthians 1:9-10 (NIV)
We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure … . Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God … .

Romans 7:15-19, 21, 24-25 (TLB, NLT)
I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I can’t. I do what I don’t want to – what I hate. I know perfectly well that what I’m doing is wrong … . But I can’t help myself … . I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn I can’t make myself do right. I want to but I can’t. When I want to do good, I don’t; and when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong … . Oh what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Mere Christianity (C.S. Lewis)
No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness – they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it … .

Romans 7:25 (NLT)
Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

• Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that He has the power to change my life.

Jude 22 (NIV)
Be merciful to those who doubt.

Mark 9:22-24 (NIV)
“But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
“‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”
Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”