CLEAN AND SOBER (1988)

Directed by: Glenn Gordon Caron
Written by: Tod Carroll
Studio: Warner Brothers
Starring: Michael Keaton, Kathy Baker, Morgan Freeman
Rated: R

About the film:
A man wakes us after a night of “hard partying.” He discovers that he has a dead woman in his bed and his employer has been calling him with accusations of embezzlement. He checks himself into a drug rehab center in order to escape the law but, as time goes by, he realizes that he may have a bigger problem on his hands than he originally thought.

Movie Quote:
“The best way to break old habits is to make new ones.”
Craig (Morgan Freeman) in Clean and Sober (1988)

Bible Quote:
“Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”
Colossians 3:9-10 (NIV)


Commentary:
Craig, an ex-addict who now runs the rehab center, offers wise words that come from the experience of someone who knows. Nature abhors a vacuum. It always has. It is a physical law. It is especially true when considering the nature of man. Stopping a habitual act without adding something new to takes its place leaves the door open for that old habit to work its way back into our behavior.

We certainly recognize this with physical habits which we try to break. Smokers who desire to stop smoking will often engage in new activities to take the place of reaching for a cigarette. What is true physically is, in this case, also true spiritually.

After being born again as a new creation in Christ, we are encouraged to put off our old, “natural man” ways or habits. We do this by adopting a new way of thinking and acting – a way that is enhanced by spiritual knowledge – the way of Jesus Christ.

Armed with our new man ways, we have the capability of utterly demolishing our old man or natural man ways. The more we put into practice our renewed mind behavior, the easier and more habitual our righteous actions become. Our old man can cease to exist because we have been given a better way to live and we have chosen to follow it.

Questions to consider while watching the film:
1. What does the Bible say about drugs and alcohol? Why are they dangerous?
2. What examples in the Bible can we read that illustrate our ability to “put on” the new man? What can we learn from them?

Michael Elliott
http://screensermon.blogspot.com