What does First B Jackson teach about addiction recovery?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on addiction recovery starts with a conviction that the 12 steps are not borrowed from secular culture but are thoroughly grounded in scripture. Pastor Nathan, Pastor Carl, Pastor Ray, Pastor Josh, Pastor Brian, and Pastor Mark have each contributed to a sustained series working through all twelve steps, and the consistent opening move is the same: before anything can change, a person has to admit that the problem is real, that life has become unmanageable, and that willpower alone will not fix it. That admission, Step One, is treated not as defeat but as the beginning of honesty with God. Step Two is coming to believe that God can restore a person to sanity, and Step Three is the decision, a real volitional act, to turn your will and your life over to His care. The teaching holds that these first three steps function less like a one-time checklist and more like a continuous return, because there are always areas of life not yet surrendered.
Steps Four and Five ask for something harder: a searching and fearless moral inventory of yourself, followed by confessing what you found to God, to yourself, and to one other person. The story of David and Nathan has been used to show how easily a person can name sin in a parable and miss it entirely in their own life, and how persistent sin dulls the conscience until an outside voice breaks through. The teaching on confession draws on James 5:16, and the point made repeatedly is not that another person can forgive sin, but that saying it out loud to someone who is a step ahead of you and asking for their prayer is powerful in a way that private acknowledgment rarely is. Steps Six and Seven pivot on the question Jesus put to the man who had been ill for thirty-eight years: do you actually want to get well? The church has pressed on that question honestly, noting that something carried for a long time can begin to feel like identity even when it is causing harm.
The later steps turn outward. Steps Eight and Nine involve making a list of people harmed and becoming willing to make amends, which the teaching frames as the place where a person's relationship with God begins to work itself out in their relationships with other people. Step Ten is the daily practice of continuing inventory and promptly admitting wrong, described as keeping a short account rather than letting things accumulate. The teaching has also included personal stories, including a man named Ron whose twelve years of heavy drinking eventually led him through the church's door and onto the long road of the steps, as well as the announcement of a twelve-week program combining brain science and inner healing, open to anyone who wants to live with more joy. Running through all of it is the same conviction: the gospel is specifically good news for people who already know they are in trouble.
Taught from Romans 7 · Galatians 5:19-23 · James 5:16 · John 5:1-18 · 1 John 1:9
The passage taught · 1 John 4:9-11
9 By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- September 29, 2024 Good News for the Sinners in This Room A pastor walks through Step 10 of recovery: taking daily personal inventory, promptly admitting wrong, and trusting God to complete the work He began in us.
- September 15, 2024 Love Must Have an Object The pastor walks through steps one through eight of a biblical framework for freedom from sin, focusing on willingness to make amends and pursuing peace with God and others.
- August 25, 2024 Rise, Take Up Your Pallet, Walk The pastor walks through steps 6 and 7 of the 12 steps alongside John 5, asking the same question Jesus asked a paralyzed man: are you ready to be made well?
- August 25, 2024 Rise, Take Up Your Bed, and Walk Ray walks through Steps 6 and 7 of the 12 Steps alongside John 5, asking one question: are you truly ready for God to remove what holds you back?
- August 18, 2024 Deflation at Depth A Wyoming pastor walks through Steps 4 and 5 of the 12 Steps, showing how honest confession to God, yourself, and another person leads to real freedom from guilt.
- July 21, 2024 Searching and Fearless A Wyoming pastor walks through Step 4 of the 12 Steps, a searching moral inventory, showing how Scripture's vice lists point us toward honest self-examination and God's grace.
- July 21, 2024 Search Me and Know My Heart A Wyoming pastor walks through Step 4 of the 12 Steps, showing how a fearless moral inventory of ourselves is deeply rooted in Scripture and leads to healing.
- July 14, 2024 Turn Over Your Will A Wyoming pastor walks through Step 3 of the 12 steps alongside 1 Thessalonians 5, showing how surrendering your will to God is at the heart of both recovery and faith.
- July 7, 2024 A Problem I Can't Do Anything About The pastor opens a series on the 12 steps, showing how admitting powerlessness and trusting God are thoroughly biblical foundations for freedom from sin.
- July 7, 2024 Steady As We Go A Wyoming pastor shares how the 12 steps align with Scripture and the Roman Road, showing why admitting powerlessness is where real change begins.
Mentioned along the way
- February 2, 2025 This week's Sermon @ First B Jackson January 26th A Jackson Hole pastor traces the conversion of Saul in Acts 9, showing how God humbled a zealous persecutor and transformed him into a chosen instrument.
- January 26, 2025 Saul, Why Are You Persecuting Me? Paul's dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus shows how God humbles the proud, hears prayer, and transforms even the fiercest enemy of the church into His chosen instrument.
- January 26, 2025 Saul Is My Chosen Instrument Acts 9 traces Saul's dramatic encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus and his sudden transformation from persecutor of the church to proclaimer of Christ.
- September 11, 2024 Women's Bible Study - September 11th, 2024 - Overcoming Temptation Through God’s Strength Natalie Yates teaches on Matthew 4, tracing how Jesus faced the lust of the flesh, pride of life, and lust of the eyes, and how we can follow His example.
- June 26, 2022 Power Over the Supernatural Realm Jesus confronts a demon-possessed man across the Sea of Galilee, showing His power over the supernatural and sending the freed man home to tell what God had done.
- June 26, 2022 Power Over the Supernatural A Wyoming pastor walks through three Gospel accounts of Jesus freeing a demon-possessed man, asking why people who witness God's power sometimes beg Him to leave.
- February 3, 2013 The Raising of Lazarus, Traditions Jesus wept: two words that reveal Christ's humility, humanity, and holiness, and show us a God who grieves with us rather than sitting apart from our pain.