Start with the Proper Premise

The First step informs individuals of powerlessness over one issue:

I am powerless over alcohol, and it makes my life unmanageable.

Yet we are dead in our trespasses, not just powerless:

"And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;" (Colossians 2: 13)

How did Jesus help us to diagnose this spiritual death? See the Sermon on the Mount:

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." (Matthew 5: 17)

and

"For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5: 20)

The Pharisees were esteemed as quite a holy cadre of people. Yet Jesus disdained their outward pretense of righteousness. The law demands perfection on the inside:

Murder is more than taking a life:

"But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." (Matthew 5: 22)

Adultery is more than sleeping with another persons' spouse:

"But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." (Matthew 5: 28)

Human beings have more than drug or alcohol or sexual problems. In Adam, death has reigned over the human race:

"Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come." (Romans 5: 14)

Yet Jesus Christ rescues us from sin and death:

"For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." (Romans 5: 17)

Let us start with the proper premise: We have more than a mere drinking problem, or drug problem, or another perversion which saps a man's strength and empties him of any life. Without God, we are dead in our trespasses, and any program which presents a solution which deals with neither the "death" or "the sin problem", will bring a man no closer to the happiness, joy, and freedom which he seeks, yet which can only be found in His Creator-Father and His Redeemer-Son.