I’ve been in enough conversations about addiction to notice a pattern. At some point, almost everyone says some version of the same thing: “I’ve tried everything.”
And honestly? I believe them.
They’ve tried programs. They’ve tried willpower. They’ve tried accountability partners, new environments, fresh starts on January 1st. Some have tried Jesus—or at least a version of Him—and found that nothing seemed to stick. The result is a particular kind of exhaustion that goes deeper than being tired. It’s being tired of hoping.
That’s exactly the person I had in mind when we put this series together.
Why Easter?
Easter is the one moment in the Christian calendar when even the most burned-out person in the room tends to lean in a little. There’s something about the resurrection—the sheer impossibility of it—that cuts through the noise.
But here’s what I’ve noticed: for a lot of people struggling with life-dominating sin, Easter functions like a spiritual sugar rush. They feel something on Sunday. By Tuesday, the craving is back. And the gap between what they felt in church and what they’re experiencing at 11:00 PM on a Friday night feels like proof that even the Gospel doesn’t work for them.
I want to push back on that. Hard. Because I don’t think the problem is the Gospel. I think the problem is that we haven’t let the resurrection be as big as it actually is.
What This Series Is
This April, we’re launching a new series called “Resurrection Hope.” Five posts, built around the conviction that the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is not just the theme of an Easter Sunday sermon—it is the actual foundation for lasting transformation in the life of someone enslaved to sin.
This isn’t a series about trying harder. It’s not about getting your life together before Easter so you can feel good about yourself at church. It’s about what happens when a dead person meets the One who conquered death.
Because that’s what we’re actually dealing with. Ephesians 2 doesn’t say people struggling with addiction are “struggling.” It says they were “dead in trespasses and sins.” Dead. And dead people don’t need a better program. They need life.
Who I’m Writing For
If you’re in the grip of a life-dominating sin right now, this series is for you. Especially if you’ve been told—or have told yourself—that you’re just an addict, that the label is permanent, that the best you can hope for is white-knuckling your way through each day. Scripture has something different to say about who you are.
If you’re a pastor or church leader, this series is for you too. Your church preaches the resurrection every Easter. The question this series asks is whether your church is structured to “embody” it the other 51 weeks of the year—to be the kind of community where the spiritually dead actually find life.
And if you’re an FTL director, I hope this gives you sharper language for the conversations you’re already having every week with people in the hardest places of their lives.
What’s Coming
Here’s the lineup:
Part 1 — From Death to Life: New Life and Transformation. What does it actually mean to be raised with Christ—and why does that change everything for someone trapped in addiction?
Part 2 — The Power of Resurrection in Daily Recovery. The resurrection isn’t just a past event. It’s a present power. How does that work on a Tuesday morning when the craving hits?
Part 3 — Hope for the Hopeless. The resurrection was made for people who have given up. We’ll meet some of them in Scripture—and find out what Jesus did.
Part 4 — Becoming Witnesses of Transformation. What the church is called to do with resurrection hope. Hint: it’s not keep it to themselves.
My encouragement to you as we head into Easter season: don’t let the resurrection stay in the past tense. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is available right now—to you, to the person sitting next to you, to the person in your congregation everyone else has given up on.
That’s worth leaning into.
📖 Come back next week for Part 1: From Death to Life. | Start or find a Freedom That Lasts chapter at freedomthatlasts.com/Get-Started.
