Speaker 1: About a year ago, I got a note that says
Speaker 1: this pastor Rick. Every morning I start out with great
Speaker 1: intentions to change my ways. I think today is going
Speaker 1: to be different, but it never is. Somehow, in some way,
Speaker 1: I always seem to fall back into the same old
Speaker 1: pattern of relating to people and my old bad habits.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I feel like there's a tug of war going
Speaker 1: on inside of me. Honestly, I really want to do
Speaker 1: what's best, but I always end up disappointing myself and God. Rick.
Speaker 1: I have tried everything, prayer, resolutions, self help tapes, even hypnosis.
Speaker 1: Nothing seems to work. Why do I keep making the
Speaker 1: same mistakes over and over and over. Why am I
Speaker 1: so resistant to change? Why do I think? Why do
Speaker 1: I do things that I know are bad for me?
Speaker 1: I'm really discouraged and I need help getting unstuck. If
Speaker 1: you're honest, every one of us have felt that way
Speaker 1: at different times in our lives about different things in
Speaker 1: our lives, because the reality of living on this planet
Speaker 1: is good intentions are never good enough. Good intentions are
Speaker 1: never good enough if your life is going to change,
Speaker 1: if you're going to break free from the hang ups
Speaker 1: in your life, from the stuff that messes you up,
Speaker 1: from the past, and from your temptations, and from bad
Speaker 1: thought patterns and all kinds of things. It's going to
Speaker 1: take more than just well, I hope I'll do better tomorrow.
Speaker 1: And the reality is we often get stuck in this
Speaker 1: cycle of good intention, failure, guilt, confession, good intention, failure, guilt, confession,
Speaker 1: and on and on, around and around in a circle.
Speaker 1: Is that the way God wants you to live? No,
Speaker 1: that's why you need well we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: this week in the prayer of deliverance. Now, we've been
Speaker 1: looking at each phrase of the Lord's prayer in depth
Speaker 1: and in detail, and this weekend we come to lead
Speaker 1: us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Now.
Speaker 1: The fact is some of you want to start checking
Speaker 1: out right now, So well, thank God, I haven't been
Speaker 1: tempted in fifty years, right. We often think temptation is
Speaker 1: an enticement or a llure to do something evil. We
Speaker 1: could mean bad and nasty, the really bad stuff, murder, adultery,
Speaker 1: and fornication, all of these different sins that other people do.
Speaker 1: And we tend to think that temptation is just about
Speaker 1: the big things in life. The forbidden the evil things
Speaker 1: in life. But actually I found that Satan is much
Speaker 1: more subtle in my life, and some of those things.
Speaker 1: I'm not tempted to murder anybody. I'm just not. And
Speaker 1: you can train your mind to think in certain ways
Speaker 1: that certain things just don't tempt you anymore like they
Speaker 1: used to in hard ways. But I made a list
Speaker 1: off of the top of my head of what I
Speaker 1: call the subtle temptation. I don't know if any of
Speaker 1: you deal with any of these, but I do. Number one,
Speaker 1: the temptation to do what works, not necessarily the right thing,
Speaker 1: but what works. The temptation to do what's easy, like
Speaker 1: when you're a parent and you set your kid down
Speaker 1: in front of the television, them babysit, and a thousand
Speaker 1: other ways we do what's easy. The temptation to do
Speaker 1: what's quick, the temptation to do what works in the
Speaker 1: short run, the temptation to do what is self serving
Speaker 1: or best for me. I find myself often tempted by
Speaker 1: the temptation to do what's unimportant, to not do what
Speaker 1: really matters in life, the essential things in life, but
Speaker 1: to do stuff that Why am I doing this? Why
Speaker 1: am I frittering away my time, procrastinating, I'm doing the unimportant,
Speaker 1: The temptation to do what I've always done, the temptation
Speaker 1: to do what's right for the wrong reason, the temptation
Speaker 1: to do nothing. When you see something that I know
Speaker 1: I could help that person. I know I could help
Speaker 1: in that situation. I know I could do that, But
Speaker 1: you don't do anything when you see the poor, you
Speaker 1: see the sick, or you see the needy. The truth is,
Speaker 1: temptation is a lot more subtle than we think it is.
Speaker 1: But the answer to the temptations that we experience in
Speaker 1: life is this verse, which is the prayer of deliverance.
Speaker 1: And the prayer of deliverance always leads us to the
Speaker 1: path of escape. Now, Jesus said, you are to pray
Speaker 1: thy kingdom. Come, I will be done on earth as
Speaker 1: it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.
Speaker 1: Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin
Speaker 1: against us. We've looked at that the last two weeks,
Speaker 1: and he says, lead us not into temptation. Now, if
Speaker 1: we didn't give into temptation, we wouldn't have to worry
Speaker 1: about the two sentences before the sins, the guilt and
Speaker 1: the resentment. They wouldn't have to worry about that one.
Speaker 1: But God says that the prayer of deliverance is the
Speaker 1: path of escape. And what is the path of escape?
Speaker 1: I want you to take your outline, and I want
Speaker 1: you to read this verse with me one Corinthians ten thirteen.
Speaker 1: Read it with me. The temptations that come into your
Speaker 1: life are no different from what others experience. Okay, stop
Speaker 1: right there. If you say nobody knows what I'm going through,
Speaker 1: you're wrong. The temptations that come your way are no
Speaker 1: different from what others experience. We all have the same
Speaker 1: basic temptations in life. You are not unique in the
Speaker 1: fact that you're tempted. Some of your temptations are more unique.
Speaker 1: But temptation is not you need. We all get tempted
Speaker 1: and they're not any different. Then he says, and read
Speaker 1: it with me. God is faithful. You will keep the
Speaker 1: temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up
Speaker 1: against it. Now, let me stop right there. When you
Speaker 1: say it was so strong, I just have had to
Speaker 1: give in. Then you were calling God a liar. Because
Speaker 1: God says I will always make a way out. I
Speaker 1: will never put more on you, or I will never
Speaker 1: allow more on you than I put in you to
Speaker 1: bear it up. And when somebody says I just couldn't
Speaker 1: help myself, they're not telling the truth. Because the truth
Speaker 1: is temptation is a choice, and you only do what
Speaker 1: you choose to do, so don't blame anybody else. Temptation
Speaker 1: is a choice to do do right or do wrong.
Speaker 1: And he says, God will keep the temptation from becoming
Speaker 1: so strong you can't stand up against it. And then
Speaker 1: read the rest with me. And when you are tempted,
Speaker 1: he will show you a way out so that you
Speaker 1: will not give in to it. And I want you
Speaker 1: to circle show you a way out, because this weekend
Speaker 1: we're going to look at the way out. Number one.
Speaker 1: The first step on the path to escape from the
Speaker 1: prayer of deliverance, as the Bible teaches, is first to
Speaker 1: have to identify what makes me vulnerable. I must identify
Speaker 1: what makes me vulnerable. Now, notice I didn't say identify
Speaker 1: what tempts you. You already know what tempts you. What
Speaker 1: you may have never really thought through is what causes
Speaker 1: me to be tempted by that? What makes me vulnerable
Speaker 1: to that temptation. What makes me weak, what makes me susceptible.
Speaker 1: And more important than knowing what tempts you is knowing
Speaker 1: the when, why, how, where, and all the other factors
Speaker 1: that go into that temptation. If you're serious about permanent
Speaker 1: life change. Now, Jesus said this in Matthew twenty six
Speaker 1: forty one. He says, watch and pray so that you
Speaker 1: will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but
Speaker 1: the body is weak. In other words, you may be willing,
Speaker 1: you may want to overcome your temptation, but will not enough.
Speaker 1: The spirit is willing. Have you learned that willpower is
Speaker 1: not enough. It'll work for a while, but after a
Speaker 1: while you get tired and willpower burns out. No lasting
Speaker 1: change ever happens with willpower. I'm gonna lose weight, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna stop smoking, I'm gonna whatever. Well, yeah, you can
Speaker 1: force yourself for a while, but as soon as you
Speaker 1: get tired, the will poops out. So he says, the
Speaker 1: spirit is willing, but the body is weak. Now he says,
Speaker 1: watch and pray. So when Jesus says, as you are
Speaker 1: to pray, lead us not into temptation, he's even saying
Speaker 1: that's not enough. It's important to pray the prayer of deliverance.
Speaker 1: But besides praying, you aught to got it. You also
Speaker 1: have to do some watching. And what is he saying
Speaker 1: you need to watch for? You need to watch for
Speaker 1: the circumstances that make you vulnerable. You need to identify
Speaker 1: those and work with them. Explain what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: You know that the Bible teaches that every human being
Speaker 1: is unique. There's nobody in the world like you. Everything
Speaker 1: about you is unique. God never makes copies, he never
Speaker 1: makes clones. He will never make anybody like you before
Speaker 1: you or after you. And we call this your shape.
Speaker 1: Your shape determines what tempts you. It's why some things
Speaker 1: tempt you and don't tempt other people. Why some things
Speaker 1: attempt other people don't tempt you. You have a unique
Speaker 1: susceptibility to temptation based on your shape. Some are caused
Speaker 1: by nature, your own said nature, and some are caused
Speaker 1: by nurture. The way you grew up and if you
Speaker 1: grew up in a house that was prone to blow
Speaker 1: up in anger, you probably learned that pattern. If you
Speaker 1: grew up in a house where you learned to stuff
Speaker 1: your emotions, that's pattern you learned. So some temptations are
Speaker 1: by nature, and some are by nurture, Some are caused
Speaker 1: by your DNA, and some are caused by your environment,
Speaker 1: Some are caused by your character, and some are caused
Speaker 1: by your your circumstance. What am I saying is this,
Speaker 1: you don't get to choose your temptations. You don't get
Speaker 1: to choose them the things that really tempt you. Sorry,
Speaker 1: it's just part of the negative side of your shape.
Speaker 1: Now what does that mean. Well, the implication of that
Speaker 1: is you cannot be self righteous about anybody else's temptation,
Speaker 1: and you can't be self righteous about your own. And
Speaker 1: what does tempt you and what doesn't. And so when
Speaker 1: you see somebody who's tempted by drugs, or you see
Speaker 1: somebody who's tempted by gossip, or you see somebody who's
Speaker 1: tempted by pornography, or you see somebody who's tempted to overeat,
Speaker 1: really doesn't matter where that temptation come from. From DNA,
Speaker 1: from gene, from nature, from nurture, from environment, from choices,
Speaker 1: from circumstances. All of those things fit into that. But
Speaker 1: the fact is they're all the same thing, and one
Speaker 1: is no better or less evil than the other. The
Speaker 1: Bible says sin is sin, so we have no right
Speaker 1: to judge and say, well, my sins are okay, yours
Speaker 1: are nasty. How could anybody do that? Okay? Now, what
Speaker 1: I'm saying is that you have a pattern of vulnerability,
Speaker 1: and you better figure out what it is, because I
Speaker 1: want to tell you for sure, Satan knows what it is.
Speaker 1: Satan knows your vulnerable points, and he's plotting the moment
Speaker 1: you wake up. If you wake up in the morning,
Speaker 1: you don't hit Satan. Fir his face on just means
Speaker 1: you're head in the same direction. To identify your pattern,
Speaker 1: you identify what makes you vulnerable. Now to get specific,
Speaker 1: let me give you five questions you need to ask yourself. First.
Speaker 1: You need to ask yourself when am I most tempted?
Speaker 1: You know? You need to figure out when are you
Speaker 1: most tempted? You know I can handle any diet till noon.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's nothing. It's the hours between about six
Speaker 1: o'clock and midnight. That's my pattern of temptation. It's when
Speaker 1: I want to eat everything in the refrigerator and buy
Speaker 1: an extra refrigerator. Now I could go out and blame
Speaker 1: my genes and say, you know what, I just came
Speaker 1: from an obese family. Well, just because it's genetic and
Speaker 1: me doesn't mean it's right or it's healthy. No, it
Speaker 1: is not. It is not. And so you have to
Speaker 1: say when am I most tempted? You need to ask where?
Speaker 1: Where am I most tempted? Do you get tempted at
Speaker 1: seven eleven's? Do you get tempted at a sports bar?
Speaker 1: Do you get tempted at the beach? A lot of
Speaker 1: you get tempted in front of a computer. You need
Speaker 1: to know your area of vulnerability. When am I most tempted?
Speaker 1: Where am I most tempted? Then? Number three? Who who
Speaker 1: is with me when I'm most tempted? You need to
Speaker 1: know your pattern of vulnerability. Who is with me? Am
Speaker 1: I most tempted when I'm alone? Am I most tempted
Speaker 1: when I'm with friends who lead me in the wrong direction?
Speaker 1: You know you can't soar with the eagles if you're
Speaker 1: flying with the turkeys. You need to figure this out.
Speaker 1: This is your pattern. Identify what makes me vulnerable? When where? Who?
Speaker 1: Number four is what what temporary benefit do I get
Speaker 1: if I give in to the temptation? There's always a payoff?
Speaker 1: You know the Bible even says that. The Bible says
Speaker 1: there is pleasure in sin, It just says there's pleasure
Speaker 1: in sin for a season. In other words, it doesn't last.
Speaker 1: You have your kicks, then you get the kickbacks. So
Speaker 1: what of the temporary benefit I give in when I
Speaker 1: give in the temptation? Do I get comfort? Do I
Speaker 1: get excitement? Do I get joy? Do I get pleasure?
Speaker 1: Do I get a false sense of confidence? You need
Speaker 1: to know what's the payoff when I do this? And
Speaker 1: then the fifth thing you need to ask is how
Speaker 1: how do I feel right before I'm tempted? Right before
Speaker 1: I'm tempted? You need to know what your emotional triggers are.
Speaker 1: You need to know what makes your you vulnerable? Is
Speaker 1: it frustration? And then all of a sudden you get tempted?
Speaker 1: Is it stressed you get tempted? Is it when you're bored?
Speaker 1: You get tempted? When you're lonely, you get tempted? When
Speaker 1: you can't sleep at night, you get tempted. You need
Speaker 1: to know these things. Once you know that pattern, here's
Speaker 1: a step number two. Plan to avoid it. You plan
Speaker 1: to avoid it. You don't wait until you're in the situation, deside,
Speaker 1: Am I going to give into this or not? No,
Speaker 1: you decide before your emotions kick into gear. Now, the
Speaker 1: Bible says, as plan carefully what you do now. Temptation
Speaker 1: always begins with a natural desire in you. Temptation. If
Speaker 1: you didn't have a natural desire, it would never key
Speaker 1: into it. And often temptation is fulfilling a legitimate desire
Speaker 1: in the wrong way, or fulfilling a legitimate desire at
Speaker 1: the wrong time or in the wrong amount. You have
Speaker 1: a natural desire to eat, You have a need to eat.
Speaker 1: You have a natural desire to drink, to sleep, you
Speaker 1: have natural sexual drives. These are natural. Where do you
Speaker 1: think you got those? God gave them to you. Those
Speaker 1: are not evil. What is temptation. Temptation is when we
Speaker 1: abuse and misuse what God has given us. That's temptation.
Speaker 1: When we abuse, use and misuse something that God has
Speaker 1: given to us for good. Fire is good, but if
Speaker 1: you amuse it, use it and misuse it, it's going
Speaker 1: to burn up your house. Water is a good thing.
Speaker 1: Your body is ninety percent water, but if you get
Speaker 1: too much of it, you're gonna drown. And so there's
Speaker 1: nothing wrong with water. It's just misused and abuse. It
Speaker 1: becomes a temptation. So temptation what it does is it
Speaker 1: turns a routine desire into a runaway desire. I gotta
Speaker 1: have it, and I've got to have it now and
Speaker 1: now now, now, wrong time, wrong way, wrong amount, and
Speaker 1: it becomes more than any important, than anything else, and
Speaker 1: it's all you think about, and any good God given
Speaker 1: desire out of control becomes a sin. So you have
Speaker 1: to plan in advance. I say, you know what I know.
Speaker 1: I get tempted in sports bars. Well, simple, don't go
Speaker 1: to sports bars. Okay, I get tempted to pick up
Speaker 1: the porno magazines and seven elevens. Don't go to seven elevens.
Speaker 1: It's real simple. If you don't want to get stung,
Speaker 1: you stay away from the bees. So you know that
Speaker 1: the when, the where, the why, the who, the what
Speaker 1: the how that makes you vulnerable, and then you plan
Speaker 1: to avoid that area. Step number three, I guard my heart.
Speaker 1: I must guard my heart. Now, this is very, very
Speaker 1: important because the Bible says, out of the heart. Everything
Speaker 1: comes out of the heart a man speaks and all
Speaker 1: of the issues of life. Temptation always starts inside of you.
Speaker 1: We think temptation is on the outside. No, it is
Speaker 1: not the triggers on the outside, but the temptation is
Speaker 1: actually inside you. And if there were no natural temptation
Speaker 1: inside you, based on your shape and your nature having
Speaker 1: the attraction to you, it's like a magnet, you know,
Speaker 1: if a magnet doesn't attract plastic because there's nothing inside
Speaker 1: the plastic that's metal to pull it out. The Bible
Speaker 1: says this up here on the screen James one fourteen.
Speaker 1: We are tempted by our own desires that drag us
Speaker 1: off and trap us. And look at this next verse.
Speaker 1: The Bible says, it is inside you. It's inside you,
Speaker 1: out of a person's heart. That's why you have to
Speaker 1: guard your heart. Come evil thoughts, a sexual immorality, theft,
Speaker 1: the desire to kill people, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceitfulness, that's
Speaker 1: when you manipulate other people, lust, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness.
Speaker 1: All these vile things come from not outside, but from inside.
Speaker 1: And the Bible says this. Look on the back of
Speaker 1: your outline. It says, do not give the death a
Speaker 1: foothold circle the word foothold. How do you give the
Speaker 1: devil a foothold. What is a foothold. It's a mental state.
Speaker 1: It is a negative emotion. Anytime you hold a negative
Speaker 1: emotion in your life for an extended period of time,
Speaker 1: whether it's anger or worry, or fear or bitterness or
Speaker 1: envy or jealousy or all of these other things, the
Speaker 1: longer you hold that, you are allowing the evil one
Speaker 1: to get a stronghold in your life, in your brain.
Speaker 1: So you've got to guard your heart, all right. Number four,
Speaker 1: The fourth thing you need to do is you need
Speaker 1: to pray for deliverance. Pray for deliverance, and what I
Speaker 1: mean by that is just ask for God's help. And
Speaker 1: the Bible tells us God is ready to help. He says,
Speaker 1: we're to pray lead us not into temptation, but deliver
Speaker 1: us from evil. That is the prayer of deliverance, and
Speaker 1: you ask God for help. Now, the prayer of deliverance
Speaker 1: is often just one word help, Okay. It doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be our gracious, heavenly Father. And knowing no you
Speaker 1: can do when you come to the prayer deliverance, you
Speaker 1: can do a microwave prayer help. Okay, you know I'm
Speaker 1: walking through Keep my eyes straight. You know I'm going
Speaker 1: through this time. I don't like this person. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have to deal with that clerk who's a jerk. And
Speaker 1: I do not want to get impatient. I do not
Speaker 1: want to get angry. I do not like the way
Speaker 1: my relative treats me. And I'm gonna see them today.
Speaker 1: And oh God, you got to help me because I
Speaker 1: just I lose my Christianity when I'm around that person.
Speaker 1: And God, I really need your help today because everything
Speaker 1: in me just wants me to slugger you know, or
Speaker 1: him or whatever. You know. You just that relative out
Speaker 1: there who just irritates you no end, okay? And so
Speaker 1: you pray for deliverance. Now, the Bible is full of
Speaker 1: examples of people who prayed for deliverance. David, Daniel, Peter, Paul.
Speaker 1: And God provides assistance for anybody who asks, why can
Speaker 1: I expect God to help me when I pray the
Speaker 1: prayer of deliverance? Because God has promised it. Look at
Speaker 1: this verse Psalm fifty, verse fifteen. Call upon me in
Speaker 1: your day of trouble. I will deliver you and you
Speaker 1: will honor me. God says, you don't have to have
Speaker 1: a long conversation. You can just say, hell, may day,
Speaker 1: may day, may day, sos God, I'm facing something now
Speaker 1: that will powers not enough to keep me being nice
Speaker 1: to this person or whatever. God, I need to pray
Speaker 1: the prayer of deliverance. And you know what, God's sympathetic
Speaker 1: to your situation. He knows everything that's going on in
Speaker 1: your life. He knows how irritating those people are. He
Speaker 1: knows the things that tempt you. In fact, look at
Speaker 1: this next verse. Jesus understands our weakness, for he faced
Speaker 1: all of the same temptations we do, yet he did
Speaker 1: not sin. So let us come boldly to our gracious God,
Speaker 1: and then we will receive his mercy and grace to
Speaker 1: help us when we need it. Notice, he says, Jesus
Speaker 1: understands why is he sympathetic? Notice he faced the same temptation.
Speaker 1: Underlying that Jesus faced the same temptation. Wait a minute,
Speaker 1: You saying Jesus was tempted to get angry. Yes I am.
Speaker 1: You're telling me Jesus it was tempted to have self pity. Yes,
Speaker 1: you're telling me that Jesus had sexual temptations. Absolutely, you're
Speaker 1: telling me that Jesus sometimes was fatigued, and tempted to
Speaker 1: be cranky, absolutely every basic temptation. The Bible says he
Speaker 1: was tempted in all ways like as we Yet he
Speaker 1: sinned not that's the difference. He never gave in, And
Speaker 1: so he had the freedom to choose. How do we
Speaker 1: know that Jesus had the freedom to choose? I meant,
Speaker 1: didn't he just have to be perfect because he was God? No,
Speaker 1: he didn't. He had the freedom to choose. That's why
Speaker 1: even at the cross the night before he's going to
Speaker 1: be crucified, and he's thinking, I don't want to be crucified.
Speaker 1: I don't want to go through all that thing. And
Speaker 1: in the garden against him and he's praying and he's
Speaker 1: struggling with it, and he says, Father, not my will,
Speaker 1: not my will, but yours be done. What does that mean?
Speaker 1: Jesus had a choice, and he suffered the same temptations
Speaker 1: we do in life. And so he understands. And in
Speaker 1: John six thirty eight he says, I didn't come to
Speaker 1: do my will. I came to do the will of
Speaker 1: the Father. He was God in a human body. But
Speaker 1: even better is that he never sinned. What does that
Speaker 1: mean he can help you overcome. And so the Bible says,
Speaker 1: come boldly to God, come and say, mayday, Sos, I
Speaker 1: need your help. God isn't ticked with you when you
Speaker 1: get tempted. He's not gonna scold you when you tempt me.
Speaker 1: He said, I'm ready here to help. So I pray
Speaker 1: for deliverance. And then number five, this is a real
Speaker 1: key on the six steps on the path to escape.
Speaker 1: I turn my attention elsewhere. Here's the little secret to temptation.
Speaker 1: Don't fight it, just refocus. Don't resist, refocus. Whatever you
Speaker 1: have in your life that you resist, you're just nailing
Speaker 1: it harder into your life. Whatever you resist persists. Did
Speaker 1: you know that in the Bible, not once are you
Speaker 1: told to resist temptation. We are told to resist the devil.
Speaker 1: And that's a whole different issue. That's another sermon. But
Speaker 1: in temptation, the key to overcoming temptation is not push back.
Speaker 1: The temptation has just changed my focus, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, I'm not interested in not anymore. When I
Speaker 1: get a new focus, when I refocus, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: that which had my attention I forget about. It's not
Speaker 1: that I'm resisting it, I just forget about it. And
Speaker 1: that principle works in every single area of life. Whatever
Speaker 1: gets your attention gets you. The battle for sin always
Speaker 1: starts in the mind. That's why the Bible says this,
Speaker 1: thinking about your commands will keep me from doing some
Speaker 1: foolish thing. Why because if I'm thinking about your commands,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about truth. I'm not thinking about the dumb
Speaker 1: stuff I could be doing. You focus on good things
Speaker 1: in life, godly things in life, true things in life.
Speaker 1: It's going to pull you that direction. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you've realized this, but the more you think about something,
Speaker 1: the more it upsets you, and it gets worse and
Speaker 1: worse and worse, and it gets a stronger hold. Then
Speaker 1: you repeat it and repeat it and reinforce it and
Speaker 1: reinforce it. And you know, the first time you think
Speaker 1: about that really upset me. The more you think, man,
Speaker 1: that really did upset me. The more you thinking about man,
Speaker 1: I am kicked off, then you know, and then you're
Speaker 1: ready to drop an atomic bomb on that person. By
Speaker 1: the time you've thought over and over, you know what,
Speaker 1: it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. So whatever
Speaker 1: is tempting you, whoether its sex or food or anything else.
Speaker 1: Whatever you focus on is going to pull you that direction.
Speaker 1: That's what the Book of James says, chapter one. So
Speaker 1: you don't fight a temptation. You just churn your mind
Speaker 1: to something else. Look at this verse. We capture every
Speaker 1: thought and make it obey Christ. We capture every thought. Now, friends,
Speaker 1: what that verse says to do. That's a secret to temptation.
Speaker 1: You're not good at that. You're not very good at it,
Speaker 1: that capturing every thought and turning it to Christ, because
Speaker 1: that takes practice. That takes practice. You can't always control
Speaker 1: your circumstances. And by the way, you can't always control
Speaker 1: the way you feel, but you can control what you
Speaker 1: think about. That's always your choice. You can't always control
Speaker 1: the way you feel, but you can control what you think.
Speaker 1: And if you change the way you think, it changes
Speaker 1: the way you feel, and that will change the way
Speaker 1: you act. When Jesus was resisting temptation in the Bible
Speaker 1: and Satan said turn these stones for bread, he did
Speaker 1: and say, oh, no, I'm not hungry. He was hungry,
Speaker 1: fasted for forty days. He just turned his mind to
Speaker 1: something else. Quoted the Bible, Would you write this down
Speaker 1: the more I fight it, the more it controls me.
Speaker 1: The more I fight it, the more it controls me.
Speaker 1: So the answer is, I'm not telling you to go
Speaker 1: out of here and fight temptation. You can't fight a feeling.
Speaker 1: But let me tell you how you ignore a very
Speaker 1: powerful feeling. I just told it to you. You ignore it.
Speaker 1: That's it. You don't fight a feeling. Can't fight this
Speaker 1: feeling anymore. What you go gotta do is you just
Speaker 1: ignore it. You refocus on something else, and the feeling
Speaker 1: loses its attraction because of your attraction and attention on
Speaker 1: something else. Look at the next verse Romans twelve twenty one.
Speaker 1: Don't let evil conquer you, but overcome or conquer evil
Speaker 1: with good. Now, what is this right underneath that? The
Speaker 1: principle of replacement. That's what this is. It's the principle
Speaker 1: of replacement. Fill your mind with truth, good thoughts, good things,
Speaker 1: and it pushes out all the junk in your mind. Now,
Speaker 1: learning this kind of stuff that I'm talking about is
Speaker 1: this pattern of thinking is not easy, but it is
Speaker 1: possib and you can learn how to do it. So
Speaker 1: here are the steps. First five, identify what makes me vulnerable.
Speaker 1: I know why I get tempted. Then I plan to
Speaker 1: avoid those places. Just stay away from those things. Don't
Speaker 1: watch that channel. Have somebody put a block on your
Speaker 1: on your computer, your your wife, or on your on
Speaker 1: your television or whatever. Guard your heart. Know when you're
Speaker 1: when you're emotionally low, pray for God's help. Ask God
Speaker 1: to give you deliverance. Pray the prayer of deluiance. Turn
Speaker 1: my attention elsewhere. And then here's number six. And this
Speaker 1: is the number one thing. Get a group and a partner,
Speaker 1: the friends. I've been helping people through temptation for over
Speaker 1: thirty years and nothing works like this. That's why I
Speaker 1: keep talking about you need to have an accountability part
Speaker 1: part You need to have a spiritual partner. You need
Speaker 1: to have a spiritual friend. You need to be in
Speaker 1: a small group. So I told you when we started.
Speaker 1: The reality is willpower is not enough for permanent change.
Speaker 1: You've got to get a group and you've got to
Speaker 1: get a partner. Now, look up here on the screen,
Speaker 1: the Bible says this. I love this a message paraphrase. Sheer,
Speaker 1: muscle and willpower don't make anything happen. But every word
Speaker 1: I've spoken to you, Jesus is a spirit word. So
Speaker 1: it is life making, it's life changing. Change has to
Speaker 1: come inside. Here's my question to you, is your pastor
Speaker 1: somebody who loves you, how serious are you about breaking
Speaker 1: free that thing that just you keep going back to it,
Speaker 1: and you keep going back to it, and that habit,
Speaker 1: that pattern of thought, that pattern of I always get
Speaker 1: angry in that situation. I always get impatient in that situation.
Speaker 1: I always tend to build myself up in that situation.
Speaker 1: I always get whatever. How seriously are you interested in
Speaker 1: changing and breaking free? Because if you are, let me
Speaker 1: be very blunt with you, you will never do it
Speaker 1: without support. You will never do it on your own.
Speaker 1: I don't give you any hope of success in changing
Speaker 1: by yourself. Zero. Because God has wired us in a
Speaker 1: way that we need each other to grow. We need
Speaker 1: each other to break free of habits and hang ups
Speaker 1: and hurts. And you need accountability in your life. The
Speaker 1: very thing that you want least is the very thing
Speaker 1: you need most. You need a friend who checks up
Speaker 1: on you, and you need a group that supports you.
Speaker 1: The Bible says this, the Ecclesiastes for two are better
Speaker 1: than one, because together, if one falls down, the other
Speaker 1: can help him up. But if somebody is alone and
Speaker 1: he falls into temptation, there's no one there to help
Speaker 1: him up. It just doesn't work. So just quit kidding yourself.
Speaker 1: If you could, you would, but you can so you won't.
Speaker 1: And you're never gonna change without a group giving you
Speaker 1: support and without a person giving you accountability. If there's
Speaker 1: just one thing I could do as your pastor, it
Speaker 1: would be to get you in a group and get
Speaker 1: you with a person that you could be totally honest
Speaker 1: with on the things that you think I don't want
Speaker 1: to tell anybody about, because you're never gonna break free
Speaker 1: until you share them. And if we were more consistent
Speaker 1: in confessing our temptations to each other, then we wouldn't
Speaker 1: have to spend so much time confessing our sins to
Speaker 1: each other. I'd rather have you confess and temptations in
Speaker 1: having to confess sin, wouldn't you. Yeah, following Christ does
Speaker 1: not exempt you from temptation. Now, what I'm telling you
Speaker 1: is on this earth, you're never gonna be sinless, but
Speaker 1: it is possible to sin less. Okay, you're never gonna
Speaker 1: be sinless, but it is possible to sin less. That's power. Heads.
Speaker 1: Why don't you pray this prayer if you're ready for
Speaker 1: a change. Dear God, you know all the habits and
Speaker 1: temptations in my life that have tripped me up for years,
Speaker 1: and you know the tempting situations I'm facing right now.
Speaker 1: And you even know the temptations that lay ahead of
Speaker 1: me this week that I don't even know about yet.
Speaker 1: So I'm asking for your help. I'm praying the prayer
Speaker 1: of deliverance, and I'm willing to follow the path of
Speaker 1: your principles of escape so I can change and be free.
Speaker 1: Help me to clearly see the patterns in my life
Speaker 1: that lead to temptation. Give me the strength to start
Speaker 1: avoiding them, to plan to avoid them. Help me to
Speaker 1: refocus my attention on other things. When I'm tempted today,
Speaker 1: I want to commit to getting in a small group
Speaker 1: or starting a small group. Or I can be encouraged
Speaker 1: and help others too and find a partner. Most important, Lord,
Speaker 1: I need you to do some heart surgery on me.
Speaker 1: Remove the negative emotions that make me vulnerable and replace
Speaker 1: them with your love and your forgiveness and your trust.
Speaker 1: I ask you, Jesus Christ, you start changing me from
Speaker 1: the inside out, beginning Today, in your name, I pray
Speaker 1: Amen