This is a biblically-based 12-step group intended for alcoholics and addicts seeking recovery. The group studies biblical principles underlying the 12-step recovery.
Day & Time: Fridays from 5:30-6:30 pm
Zoom video link: https://newcitychurchla.zoom.us/j/88219969215?pwd=qnAso7sylCvnISWbzwaBFaRm8dtgK9.1(video and audio)
Meeting ID: 882 1996 9215
Passcode: 692798
For more information, contact Manny
Recovery in the Spirit is a biblical 12-Step recovery ministry. Below you’ll find a sermon series entitled Life Change from the Heart, co-taught by Manny (the leader of Recovery in the Spirit) and Kevin Haah (our lead pastor). The sermon series is based on the Bible and Manny’s book called Recovery in the Spirit. The recovery group uses Manny’s book during meetings.
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Click HERE to view this series on our Sermon page.
Introduction to Life Change from the Heart [by Kevin Haah and Manny C]
Life Change from the Heart – Introduction from New City Church of LA on Vimeo.
As we start this series, we laid the foundation of how life change happens. Kevin referenced Galatians 5 to describe how real life change begins when we live by the Spirit. He explained how when we live by the Spirit it frees us from being held hostage to gratifying the desires of the flesh—greed, envy, lust, and so forth. When we live by the Spirit what we experience, or what we feel in our heart is its byproduct: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Somehow, as we experience this collective byproduct, we are freed from imprisonment.
Then, Manny introduced the 12-step recovery program and its origins in the gospel of Jesus of Christ. He also went over three critical elements of a recovery program (the process of life change): Sponsorship (discipleship); daily suggestions (spiritual disciplines); and working the 12-steps (working out the gospel in our lives).
Click HERE for the Homework and Group Study Guide.
Step 1: Powerlessness Apart from the Spirit [by Manny C]
Life Change from the Heart – Powerlessness apart from the Spirit from New City Church of LA on Vimeo.
Life Change from the Heart is a sermon series on how God changes us from the heart through the gospel. According to Romans, the critical starting point for the gospel is the reality that we are all sinners. We have a sinful nature in us that drives us to do what we don’t want to do, and not do what we really want to do. The gospel tells us that we are in bondage to our sinful nature. That is what the 12 Step Recovery Program calls “powerlessness” that leads to our lives being unmanageable. We are powerless to fix ourselves even if we try. It is only when we come to receive God’s love and grace towards us that we can start our journey of life change from the heart. So, the first step to living by the Spirit is to acknowledge our sins and our powerlessness to fix ourselves.
Click HERE for the Homework and Group Study Guide.
Step 2: A Skeptic’s Quest for the Truth [by Kevin Haah]
Step 2: A Skeptic’s Quest for the Truth from New City Church of LA on Vimeo.
“Life Change from the Heart” is a sermon series on how God changes us from the heart through the gospel. Step 1 is admitting that we are powerless, our lives have become unmanageable, and we can’t fix ourselves. If that’s the case, we need to find a Power greater than ourselves to restore us to sanity. That’s what step 2 is about. We need to go on a quest to find that power. We can’t just see if it works; we have to see if it is true because if it is not true, it is not really going to work in the long run. So, Kevin shared two things: (1) an intellectually credible case for Jesus—that he is not a legend, liar, insane, or just a good teacher, but the Lord God Himself; and (2) that Jesus can restore us to sanity through the gospel. Robin Castañeda shared her testimony in support of the second point that God can restore us to sanity.
Click HERE for the Homework and Group Study Guide.
Step 3: Surrendering to a New Life [by Kevin Haah]
Step 3: Surrendering to a New Life from New City Church of LA on Vimeo.
“Life Change from the Heart” is a sermon series on how God changes us from the heart through the gospel. Step 1 is admitting that we are powerless to fix ourselves. Step 2 is about a quest to find power greater than ourselves to help us. Now, step 3 is about surrendering our lives to God.
Kevin shared a message from Ephesians 2:1-10. That passage tells us that we can go from powerlessness to a changed life. But, how does that happen? The passage tells us that it starts with grace, which leads to faith, which leads to work. Grace comes first. Grace means an undeserved gift. Grace has the power to wake us up. Grace is God kissing us when we were in a death sleep. And faith is our response to God’s grace. It is grabbing hold of the one who kissed us, the one who woke us up. But, it doesn’t stop here. It is only the beginning. Faith now leads to work. We are God’s masterpiece in progress. When we put our faith in the grace of Jesus, we don’t get zapped into perfection. It is only the beginning of the process in which God changes us. How does God change us? That’s what steps 4-12 are about. We go through the process of self-examination, confession, repentance, and experiencing God’s grace. This is the start of living by the Spirit. When we live by the Spirit and start bearing the fruit of the Spirit, God calls us to do good work, which he has prepared in advance for us to do.
Click HERE for the Homework and Group Study Guide.
Step 4: Part 1: Examining the Inside of the Cup [by Manny C]
Step 4 Pt. 1: Examining the Heart from New City Church of LA on Vimeo.
In part one of step four, Manny introduces the process of “cleaning the inside of our cups.” According to Jesus, the Greatest Commandment is two-fold: Love God with all our hearts and love our neighbors as ourselves. When we fail to love God with all our hearts, we commit idolatry. This “cup-cleaning” process of submitting ourselves to examination by the Spirit, exposes idolatry so we can be set free to love God with our whole hearts, and love others as we love ourselves.
Click HERE for the Homework and Group Study Guide.
Step 4: Part 2: Examining the Inside of the Cup [by Manny C]
Step 4: Part 2–Examining the Inside of the Cup from New City Church of LA on Vimeo.
“Life Change from the Heart” is a sermon series on how God changes us from the heart through the gospel. How does change from the heart happen? After we surrender our life to God, we start the process of cleaning the inside of the cup, our heart. We can’t change ourselves just by trying to clean the outside of the cup, meaning by trying to change our behavior. We have to first focus on cleaning our heart, which Jesus said is full of self-indulgence. So, step 4 is about examining our heart for self-indulgence so that we can start the process of cleaning our heart. It is critical to find the self-indulgence in our heart if we want to change our life. But, our spiritual blindness makes it difficult to find self-indulgence directly. There is an indirect way to find our self-indulgence, though. It is by looking for resentment, a more noticeable byproduct of our self-indulgence. So, one way we find self-indulgence is by examining our resentments and asking, “How might each of the following forms of self-indulgence be at the real root of the resentment: pride, self-pity, dishonesty, and self-centeredness?” As we do so, we will find self-indulgence. It is very important for us to take the time necessary to ask this question for every feeling of resentment we experienced. A lot of people find this too hard to do. But if you want real change, you should go through this process even if it takes months to complete. This is at the core of examining our heart.
Click HERE for the Homework and Group Study Guide.
Step 5: Confessing our Sins to One Another [by Kevin Haah]
Step 5: Confessing Our Sins to One Another from New City Church of LA on Vimeo.
“Life Change from the Heart” is a sermon series on how God changes us from the heart through the gospel. How does change from the heart happen? After we surrender our life to God, we start the process of cleaning the inside of the cup, our heart. We go through an extensive process of self-examination to find self-indulgence in our heart so that we can confess them and seek to get rid of them. We saw that a great way to find self-indulgence is to look for resentments. Once we have spent time examining our hearts, we must confess them to God, to ourselves, and to another human being. That’s what step 5 is about. Kevin shared from Psalm 32 to talk about the power of confessing to God. He shared from 1 John and James to discuss the importance of confessing to another human being. Jonathan Paredes shared a testimony of going through a confession.
Click HERE for the Homework and Group Study Guide.
Step 6: Preparing the Garden [by Manny C]
Step 6 Repentance from New City Church of LA on Vimeo.
“Life Change from the Heart” is a sermon series on how God changes us from the heart through the gospel. How does change from the heart happen? After we surrender our life to God, we start the process of cleaning the inside of the cup, our heart. We go through an extensive process of self-examination to find self-indulgence in our heart. Then, we confess what we find to God, ourselves, and to another person. Step 6, the subject of this week’s sermon, is about repentance, changing the posture of our heart. Although repentance is a separate step, it is really a continuation of self-examination and confession. As we begin to see how self-indulgent our heart has been, we start the process of changing the posture of our heart from being self-indulgent to seeking God’s grace. We don’t just repent of our behavior (our bad habits, our anger, our alcoholism, our sinful lifestyle, etc.); we repent of various ways in which we have self-indulged: self-pity, self-centeredness, dishonesty, sloth, pride, etc. We repent of our heart’s biggest idol: self; then, we open our hearts towards God. The parable of the sower helps us understand our part of preparing our soil—our heart—to the work of God, the Great Gardener.
Click HERE for the Homework and Group Study Guide.
Step 7: Part 1: A Humble Heart and Extravagant Grace [by Kevin Haah]
Step 7: A Humble Heart and Extravagant Grace from New City Church of LA on Vimeo.
“Life Change from the Heart” is a sermon series on how God changes us from the heart through the gospel. How does change from the heart happen? After we surrender our life to God, we start the process of cleaning the inside of the cup, our heart. We go through an extensive process of self-examination to find self-indulgence in our heart, confession of what we find, and repentance. Then, step 7 says we “humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.” How does God remove our shortcomings? It is through grace. Kevin shared from the parable of the two sons, commonly known as the parable of the prodigal son. From that parable, Kevin shared that (1) God is the God of extravagant grace; (2) grace changes our heart; and (3) grace only works through humility.
Click HERE for the Homework and Group Study Guide.
Step 7: Part 2: Grace Based Discipleship [by Kevin Haah]
Step 7: Part 2 – Grace Based Discipleship from New City Church of LA on Vimeo.
“Life Change from the Heart” is a sermon series on how God changes us from the heart through the gospel. How does it work? After we surrender our life to God, we start the process of cleaning the inside of the cup, our heart. We go through an extensive process of self-examination to find self-indulgence in our heart, confession of what we find, and repentance. Then, step 7 says we “humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.” How does God remove our shortcomings? It is through grace. But, does that mean we do nothing? No! We are called to take up the cross and follow Jesus. We are called to a discipleship. But, there are wrong ways to do discipleship and the right way to do discipleship. The wrong way is to do discipleship based on fear and pride. This kind of behavioral compliance, while seeming good on the surface, is superficial and ultimately does not work to change us at our core. The right way to change is to change out of the experience of God’s grace.
Click HERE for the Homework and Group Study Guide.
Step 8: Leave Your Gift at the Altar [by Manny C]
Step 8: Leave Your Gift at the Altar from New City Church of LA on Vimeo.
“Life Change from the Heart” is a sermon series on how God changes us from the heart through the gospel. How does it work? After we surrender our life to God, we start the process of cleaning the inside of the cup, our heart. We go through an extensive process of self-examination to find self-indulgence in our heart, confession of what we find, repentance, and embrace God’s extravagant grace and pursue grace based discipleship. Then, step 8 is about starting the process of reconciling with our friends, family and neighbors.
Click HERE for the Homework and Group Study Guide.
Step 9: Pursuing Reconciliation [by Manny C]
Step 9: Pursuing Reconciliation from New City Church of LA on Vimeo.
“Life Change from the Heart” is a sermon series on how God changes us from the heart through the gospel. How does it work? After we surrender our life to God, we start the process of cleaning the inside of the cup, our heart. We go through an extensive process of self-examination to find self-indulgence in our heart, confession of what we find, repentance, and embrace God’s extravagant grace and pursue grace based discipleship. Then, step 8 is about starting the process of reconciling with our friends, family and neighbors, and Step 9 is actually doing the reconciliation with our friends, family and neighbors.
Step10: Continued Humility, Part 1 of Three Focuses of A Vibrant Christian Life [by Kevin Haah]
Step 10: Three Focuses of a Vibrant Christian Life Part 1: Continued Humility from New City Church of LA on Vimeo.
Steps 10-12 are about how to make sure we continue to grow and maintain our recovery after we are done with Steps 1-9. How do we live a vibrant Christian life in the Spirit? Step 10 focuses on continued humility.
At the Last Supper, when Jesus said that all of the disciples would abandon him, Peter said that even if everyone abandons Jesus, he would not. He essentially told Jesus that he love Jesus more than any one of the disciples. But, Jesus said Peter would disown him three time that very night. And, Peter did disown him. He relapsed. After the resurrection, Jesus again met with Peter. Jesus asked him if he love (agape) him more than any one of the disciples? Peter humbly replied that he loves (phileo) him. He used a more humble form of love. He was not saying that he would die for Jesus and sacrifice himself more than any of the other disciples (agape love Jesus); he was merely saying that he wants to be with Jesus, phileo love Jesus. We are called to live in humility, not that we can do all these things for God, but that we just want to be with Jesus. When we live in continued humility, we will end up doing more things for God than we can imagine now.
Step 11: A Rhythm of Spiritual Practices, Part 2 of Three Focuses of a Vibrant Christian Life [Cindy Lee and Kevin Haah]
“Three Focuses of a Vibrant Christian Life” Part 2: A Rhythm of Spiritual Practices (Step 11) from New City Church of LA on Vimeo.
Steps 10-12 are about how to make sure we continue to grow and maintain our recovery after we are done with Steps 1-9.
How do we live a vibrant Christian life in the Spirit? Step 10 focuses on continued humility. Step 11 focuses on living in a rhythm of spiritual practices.
The spiritual practices are any practices that help us center our lives on God and put us in a place where God can take a hold of us. These practices lead us to a place of intimacy and transformation. So, think of spiritual practices as things we do to stay close to God, not things we do to be a better person. If we stay close to God, we will be a better person; we will bear the fruit of the Spirit. So, the focus of spiritual practices is on the relationship, not on transformation, because transformation comes from the relationship.
Step 12: Living on God’s Mission, Part 3 of Three Focuses of a Vibrant Christian Life [by Kevin Haah and Manny C]
“Step 12: Living on God’s Mission, Part 3 of Three Focuses of a Vibrant Christian Life” Matthew 4:19 from New City Church of LA on Vimeo.
Steps 10-12 are about how to make sure we continue to grow and maintain our recovery after we are done with Steps 1-9. How do we live a vibrant Christian life in the Spirit? Step 10 focuses on continued humility. Step 11 focuses on living in a rhythm of spiritual practices. And Step 12 focuses on living on God’s mission.
Matthew 4:19 says: “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men [people].” In this passage, Jesus says to “follow me” (enter into an intimate relationship with him—Steps 1-3) “and I will make you” (enter into a process of being transformed to be like Jesus—Steps 4-11) “fishers of men” (he gives us a mission that’s about others, not just about ourselves). The call is to live on God’s mission of making disciples.