John Adams, in a letter to the Massachusetts militia, dated October 11, 1798, said this: Because we have no government armed with the power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion, avarice, ambition, revenge, and licentiousness would break the strongest cords of our Constitution, as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

What Adams was expressing was this idea that Constitutions such as the United States of America has only work when those who live under it can exert a strong degree of self-control.

Adams wasn't alone in this view. To our Founding Fathers, it was “self-evident” that a democratic republic could only be sustained by those who were able to be self-controlled. Reflecting that thought, a contemporary German author and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe stated: “What is the best government? That which teaches us to govern ourselves.”

A later prominent 19th Century minister, Henry Ward Beecher, simply said: “There is no liberty to men who know not how to govern themselves.”

Self-governance consists of self-regulation of attitudes and actions. In keeping with this philosophy, the Founding Fathers believed that the success of our nation, our culture, hinged on both individual and community virtue - that is, moral character.

This morning, we are still in the first chapter of James (wow!). And the text we are looking at is short - again, just three verses long, but HUGE in its impact. Because what we are going to see is the key, according to James, to being the people God has called us to be.

Opening up a can of worms this morning. Gonna talk about something that I haven't heard much about from the pulpit in my life. Gonna talk about addiction, which is something very easily demonized by good Christian folk. Too easy to think it's not a problem because it's not a problem for YOU. It's on THOSE people, in your opinion. They made their bed so to speak. Or maybe too easy just to say it isn't a problem because you don't want anyone finding out that it IS a problem for YOU!

Why do we do that? Pretend that we're okay when we're not? I bet that if most people were honest with themselves and really understood the power of the sinful nature, we would realize how easy it is for anyone to find themselves trapped in sinful addictions.

You'd think that once we give our lives over to the Lord, then sin and addiction shouldn't come into play anymore, right? That "good Christians" don't deal with addiction. And yet, that's not what we find. The Bible tells us that there is a spiritual war we enter when we step from the darkness into the light. And the enemy isn't one to just give up ground in this war. The power of God is there to free us from the punishment of sin - but it's also there to free us from the power of sin and one day free us from the presence of sin as we step into eternity.

Now here's a disclaimer this morning: addiction is a big issue, and this is merely an overview and a look at addiction from a biblical perspective. And that's good and necessary. BUT…if you think you have an addiction, it would be wise to also seek out other avenues of support and accountability, Christian counseling and other support programs. MY job today is to tell those struggling with addiction that God is for you and gives us some valuable wisdom in dealing with this battle.

Last week we talked about some of the trials of life - stuff that happens simply because we live in a fallen world; and how God uses what we go through to help us through what I called the Perfecting Process (perfect being a Biblical term that often just means complete and whole, or mature). We saw how if we watch, if we ask WHAT GOD and not WHY GOD, then we can cooperate with the perfecting process and God's ultimate intention for our lives - making us more like Jesus - is able to happen.

This week, we are still in the first chapter of James - but I want to show you something that may shake your theology a bit.

You see we live in a culture where those who believe in God love the blessings that God brings to them. We like to look at verses 16 and 17 of this first chapter: "Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."

Father of Lights you delight in Your children, we sing. We love the good and perfect gifts from above, don't we?

But have you ever gotten a gift that ultimately was good, and truly perfect - but it didn't SEEM good at the time? IOW, what if SOME of those trials we face in life didn't come from just life happening, but from a different source?