Drugs. I’ve done them, have you? If you would of asked me in high school what I thought of doing drugs, I would have said,“Drugs are fun.” If someone would have told me to stop doing them I would have said, “It’s my life, I’ll make my own choices.” If someone would have told me that drugs open up the door to other drugs, I would have said, “That will never happen to me.”

Years later. I wish I could preach to every middle school and high school student on the planet an entirely different message:

• Drugs are fun, for a season, then the fun runs out and they ruin your life.

• Your choices don’t just impact you, they impact anyone who cares about you. You can cause people a ton of pain and grief through your choices.

• It Can Happen To You – We could all get addicted to hard drugs. We could all overdose. We could all _____. Even in my life now, I never say, that something could never happen to me. Why? Because we are all one decision away from stupid. One decision away from addiction. One decision away from overdosing. One decision away from trying a harder drug.

• Drugs will Limit Your Life - How they limit your life will be different for everyone. You will never even come close to reaching your full potential if your a drug user.

Here are some Tips for getting away from Drug Addiction:

Get Away From Any Body That Does Drugs – You will become who you associate. Want to stop doing drugs? Cut off everybody you know that is associated with them.

Don’t Give Drugs A Chance - If you give them a chance, they will be fun at first. That is what draws everyone in. Nobody when they start can fast forward and see where they will be if they continue using. The fun wears off. You start to crave a bigger high, you try harder drugs, you get addicted, they ruin your life.

Realize People Love You - Just because people don’t love the choices you’ve made, does not mean they don’t love and care about you. The people that love and respect you the most, want to help you the most. I can promise you, your friends that use drugs, don’t love you. If they did, they wouldn’t let you use. Open up in front of people that love you and have their life together. They can and will help you!

Don’t Try to Help People if it’s a Struggle for You - If you’ve struggled with drinking and have gotten free, you shouldn’t go to bars to help people struggling. That will open up doors for you to fall. The same is true with drugs. Be straight up rude to temptation. Ignore it.

Do Whatever it Takes - Go to rehab. Stay in your house for a few months instead of going out and being tempted to go places you know will get you in trouble. Do whatever it takes to get clean and stay clean.

Once Your Clean, Spread this Message - Talk to students and people who have never used about your journey. Tell them it’s not worth it. Tell them it can happen to them. Tell them their choices impact more people than just them. Tell them the fun wears off. Tell them how drugs will ruin and limit your life.

If you currently use or know someone who does, I did a few posts in the past on how I got free from addiction, bondage, and sin in my life. Here are the links:

Part 1 – The Argument For

Part 2 – Enough is Enough

Part 3 – God First, Freedom Second

Part 4 -The Spiritual Side

Part 5 – The Natural

Part 6 – Never Quit

Part 7 – The Other Side

I hope this helped you.

Saturday Night’s 19 North Service was one of the most powerful services I’ve been to. I encourage you to watch this short testimony video from Ian at 19 North.

It’s a story about God bringing Ian out of addiction and bondage into a life of freedom. I promise you it will have inspire you and give you hope:

If you’re 18-30 years old, looking for a new beginning, looking for new friends, looking for a family to be a part of, and looking for God, I couldn’t encourage you enough to check out 19 North. It’s a ministry that is changing lives on a weekly basis.

But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. – Matthew 5:28

Every second – $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography, Every second – 28,258 Internet users are viewing pornography, Every 39 minutes: a new pornographic video is being created in the United States?.

I’ve never met anyone who is addicted to porn who is actually proud of it. Everyone I meet is hurting, has caused pain to people around them, and longing for a way out. It’s the easiest thing to hide, but one of the hardest things to come clean to somebody about. The shame can be almost unbearable. So how can you get free?

1.) Repent and Pursue God - In James it says, if you draw near to God, He’ll draw near to you. Though you’ll feel so distant from God it’s not even funny, if you’ll pursue Him, His desires will start becoming your desires, and porn will become less and less of a temptation.

2.) Recognize You’re Not Alone - There are millions of people struggling with the exact same thing you are and feeling the exact same way you are. You’re not alone.

3.) Humble Yourself and Tell Somebody that Loves you Unconditionally – This is the hardest step. Find somebody you know will love you regardless, and will walk you through the journey to freedom.

4.) Get Accountability - The video above is promoting 2 programs: X3Watch and Safe Eyes - both are accountability software that will block sites you shouldn’t be going to, and send any questionable sites you do visit to two accountability partners of your choice.

5.) Control Your Thoughts - You can control your thoughts – that is a fact. Philippians says to think on Good things only! What you put in your heart through what you watch and listen to, will fill your thought life. If you’ve been watching porn for a while, you’re probably filled with bad thoughts. Focus on putting positive deposits into your heart (go to church, listen to sermons, read great articles). Garbage in, Garbage Out. Purity in, Purity out!

Another Great Resource is XXX Church which is headed up by Craig Gross – you’ll find tons of great videos and articles to help you.

I hope this helps you – if you’re in need of someone to talk to – Send me a message on Facebook – I’d love to talk to you.