What does First B Jackson teach about powerlessness?
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 Baptist Jackson, the teaching on powerlessness starts with a clear-eyed look at what the word actually means. Across this series on the 12 steps read through a biblical lens, the consistent message is that Step One, admitting we are powerless over our sin and that our lives have become unmanageable, is not a statement of defeat but the only honest starting place for anyone who has tried to stop something on their own and found they could not. Pastor Josh made the point that this is not just for people with a drinking problem. It is for anyone whose thinking has become consumed by a pattern they cannot break through willpower or behavior modification alone.
Both Pastor Josh and Pastor Nathan were careful to warn that powerlessness is a beginning, not a destination. Nathan said plainly that a person who stops at Step One, who only sees their own inability and goes no further, lands in depression, anxiety, and remorse with no way out. The point of naming the problem is to open the door to Step Two: coming to believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity. In this church's teaching, that power is not left vague. The fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, is held up as the shape of the wholeness God is offering to anyone who admits they cannot get there on their own.
The story of Ron, told in both messages, puts a face on what this looks like in practice. Ron walked into the church after twelve years of heavy drinking, having nearly gone blind in the Oregon desert, living out of his van. He had been told by the one person he trusted to find someone who would tell him about Jesus. What he needed was not a quick formula but a long road, and the honest admission that he had a problem he could not manage was where that road began. The steps, and the Scriptures behind them, were part of what that road looked like.
Taught from Galatians 5:19-23 · Galatians 5:25 · Romans 3:23 · Romans 6:23 · John 16
The passage taught · Galatians 5:19-23
19 Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness,
20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies,
21 envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- 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
- August 18, 2024 Admitting It to God, Yourself, and One Other Person The pastor returns from dropping his daughter at college to walk First B Jackson through Step 5 of the 12 steps, grounded in James 5 and the power of honest confession.