Welcome to Authorized Sword Ministries. This is Breaking the Chains, Series One, Overcoming Addiction. Lesson Four: Walking Free and Staying Free, Temptation, Relapse, and Accountability.

We're so glad you're here.

Before We Begin

A gentle note first. This course is Bible teaching and spiritual encouragement. It does not replace medical care, professional counseling, or treatment. We encourage you to use those good resources right alongside your faith. And if you are in crisis or thinking about harming yourself, please call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, any time, day or night, in the United States. In an emergency, call 911.

Getting Free and Staying Free

In this series we've said there is hope. We've looked hard at drugs and pills, and at alcohol. Today we finish with a question every person in recovery faces sooner or later: How do I stay free?

Getting out of the pit is one battle. Staying out is another. Temptation will come back. Old friends will call. Bad days will come. And some people will fall. So let's be ready, with the Word of God in our hearts and good people at our side.

Our Key Verse

Today's key verse is 1 Corinthians 10:13.

"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." — 1 Corinthians 10:13 (KJV)

Three promises are packed in that verse. One, you are not the only one. Your temptation is "common to man." Two, God is faithful. He won't let it be more than you can bear with His help. And three, He always makes "a way to escape." Every time. Your job is to look for the door and run through it.

Know How Temptation Works

James shows us how temptation grows step by step:

"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." — James 1:13-15 (KJV)

Look at the steps. First a desire pulls at you. Then you're enticed, like a fish looking at bait. Then the desire "conceives," you start planning it. Then comes the sin. And in the end, death.

The good news is that the chain can be broken at any link. The earlier the better. Don't wait until you're holding the bottle or the pill. Stop it at the first thought.

Science sees the same pattern. The National Institute on Drug Abuse says stress cues tied to drug use, "such as people, places, things, and moods," and contact with drugs are "the most common triggers for relapse." So know your triggers. Write them down. Is it a certain friend? A certain street? Payday? Being tired, angry, or lonely? Name them, and plan your way of escape before they show up.

Flee and Follow

"Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." — 2 Timothy 2:22 (KJV)

Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is leave. Don't stand around arguing with temptation. Flee. Walk out of the party. Hang up the phone. Change your number if you have to.

But notice, Paul doesn't stop at running away. He says run to something. "Follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace." And do it "with them that call on the Lord." You don't just leave the old crowd. You join a new one.

Watch, Pray, and Hide the Word

Jesus told His disciples in the garden:

"Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." — Matthew 26:41 (KJV)

Your spirit wants to stay free. But your flesh is weak. That's why you can't run on willpower. You need daily prayer.

And you need the Word:

"Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." — Psalm 119:11 (KJV)

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He answered the devil with Scripture. Do the same. Memorize the verses from this series. When the craving hits, say them out loud.

If You Fall

Now let's talk about something a lot of churches won't. What if you fall? What if you were clean for months and you used again?

First, hear this:

"For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief." — Proverbs 24:16 (KJV)

The difference between the righteous and the wicked here is not that one never falls. It's that one gets back up. A fall is not the end of your story unless you stay down.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse says it plainly too: relapse doesn't mean treatment has failed. It means it's time to talk to your doctor and get back on track or try something different.

So what do you do? You run to God, not away from Him:

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." — 1 John 1:9 (KJV)

Don't hide. Don't let shame keep you in the dark. Confess it to God. Tell your accountability partner. And get back up today, not next week.

And then, keep your eyes forward:

"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." — Philippians 3:13-14 (KJV)

A Serious Warning About Relapse

This next part could save a life, so please listen. NIDA warns that relapse "can be very dangerous—even deadly." When someone goes back to the same amount they used before they quit, "they can easily overdose because their bodies are no longer adapted" to it.

If you have been clean for a while, your body is not where it used to be. If you slip, do not go back to your old amount. Get help right away. If someone you love has relapsed on opioids, keep naloxone close and call 911 in an emergency.

Two Are Better Than One

You were never meant to stay free alone.

"Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up." — Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (KJV)

"Woe to him that is alone when he falleth." That's why you need accountability. Find one or two strong believers of the same sex who will check on you, ask the hard questions, and pray with you.

"Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." — James 5:16 (KJV)

"And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." — Hebrews 10:24-25 (KJV)

Get in church, and stay in church. Be there when the doors are open.

A Word to the Church

Church family, when a brother or sister falls, here's our instruction:

"Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." — Galatians 6:1 (KJV)

Restore them. Gently. Don't gossip, don't shun, and don't act like you're above it. Any one of us could fall without the grace of God.

Simple Steps for This Week

First, write down your triggers and your way of escape for each one.

Second, ask one or two believers to be your accountability partners.

Third, memorize 1 Corinthians 10:13.

Fourth, if you have fallen, confess it today and get back up. Call your doctor or counselor.

And fifth, read James chapter one and Ecclesiastes chapter four.

Closing This Series

This ends Series One of Breaking the Chains. In Series Two, we'll take on another chain that is pushed in our faces every day: sexual sin, and how to walk in purity and freedom.

Until then, hold on to this promise:

"Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy," — Jude 1:24 (KJV)

He is able to keep you.

A Prayer

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father,

Thank You that You are faithful, and You always make a way to escape.

Lord, keep everyone listening from falling. Help them see their triggers and flee. Hide Your Word in their hearts. Give them faithful brothers and sisters to walk beside them.

For anyone who has fallen, lift them up again. Wash away the shame, protect their life, and set their feet back on the path.

Help Your church restore the fallen with meekness and love.

Keep us free indeed.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Thank you for spending this time with us. We'll see you in Series Two.

This is Authorized Sword Ministries. God bless you.

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Sources

All pages opened and checked on October 24, 2026.

1. National Institute on Drug Abuse. "Treatment and Recovery," Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction. https://nida.nih.gov/publications/drugs-brains-behavior-science-addiction/treatment-recovery (Most common relapse triggers: stress cues "such as people, places, things, and moods" and contact with drugs; relapse doesn't mean treatment has failed; relapse "can be very dangerous—even deadly" because the body is "no longer adapted.")
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Fentanyl." Overdose Prevention, updated June 9, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/overdose-prevention/about/fentanyl.html (Naloxone can reverse an opioid overdose, including fentanyl.)