How do you get victory over sin?
Hi, welcome to today's little lesson.
This is another Florida beach edition and it's a low tide edition as well.
How do I get victory over sin in my life?
That's a great question.
The first thing to understand is that that's not an unusual question because it's not an
unusual struggle.
Just because you've become a believer in Jesus doesn't mean that you automatically are super
holy person.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatian Christians that the Spirit wars against the flesh and
the flesh wars against the Spirit.
These two are in opposition against one another that you may not do the things that you want
to do.
This is typical.
This is normal.
Your struggle against wrong desires, your struggle against sin is totally normal.
I've been a believer for over four decades and I haven't found that my flesh has gotten
any improvement at all.
It still has the same wrong desires that it had even before I was a believer.
But, I have learned some secrets which I want to share with you as to how to get victory
over the flesh.
Well, the first thing is to realize that you're in a battle.
The second thing to realize is that you're not alone because if you are a believer in
Jesus, God has put his Holy Spirit inside of you and his name is Holy Spirit.
Obviously, he has a purpose, a function, a job and he's holy.
Obviously, he's going to help us be holy.
The Holy Spirit is very gentle.
He's not forcing anybody to do anything and we have to learn how to tap in to his power.
That doesn't happen automatically either I found.
You have to have faith.
We've been talking a little bit about faith on a previous little lesson.
Here's something that has application for what I shared previously about faith.
This is not hope.
This is faith.
Faith that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
That's what Paul said in Philippians chapter four and verse number 13.
There's the secret.
Christ is the power who can help me and I can do anything that God wants me to do through
the power of Christ.
Where is Christ?
Well, I know he's seated at the right hand of God, the Father, but scripture also speaks
of Christ in us, the hope of glory, which is another way of saying the Holy Spirit lives
in us.
If you have the Holy Spirit, you have Jesus, you have the Father, you've got God inside
of you.
Obviously, that's a game changer in the whole area of living a life that's pleasing to God,
having the ability of God within us, the Holy Spirit.
You have to have faith.
If you're thinking, "Well, I'm not sure I have a Holy Spirit in me," or, "I'm not sure
the Holy Spirit is going to help me."
Well, that's self-defeating and you're squelching the power of the Holy Spirit within you.
Believe, believe that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.
Believe that greater is he who is in you than he that is in the world.
Again, quoting from the New Testament scriptures about the power of the Holy Spirit within
us.
Then another little secret that I've learned is that we need to do, as what Paul said,
make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lust.
A better translation would be the flesh in regard to its desires.
The flesh has desires and one way to make it more possible to have victory over the
flesh is to make no provision for the flesh.
Now, what does that mean?
Well, that means make it as easy on yourself as you possibly can.
Avoid those things which would bring temptation.
Isn't this one of the things that the Lord taught us to pray in the Lord's Prayer?
Don't lead me into temptation.
I want to stay away from temptation because if I stay away from temptation, I'm much more
likely to not sin.
Amen.
If you're near a hornet's nest and those hornets keep stinging you, what do you think would
be the best thing to do in that situation?
Well, obviously, get away from the hornet's nest.
If there are certain things that are causing you to stumble into sin, well, Jesus addressed
this very topic himself.
He said, "If your right eye causes you to stumble, cut it tout.
If your right hand causes you ... Cut it off."
No one takes him literally that we ought to be gouging out our right eye and chopping
off our hands.
We don't actually even believe that our eyes, our hands can literally cause us to stumble.
What Jesus is saying is that we should get rid of whatever it is that's causing us to
fall into sin.
If you are walking to a place of business everyday and everyday at the same place there
was a elevated part of the side walk and you trip over that and you just couldn't remember,
well, the way to correct the problem is to go a different route.
Go to the other side of the street.
If your television, for example, is causing you to stumble and you're watching things
that you know you shouldn't be watching because as you watch them, something on the inside
of you ... Guess who that is?
That's the Holy Spirit saying, "Don't be watching this.
This is not good for you.
This is not healthy for you.
I love you.
I don't want you filling your mind with this stuff."
Well, then you got to get rid of your TV.
You say, "Oh, my goodness.
I couldn't live without my TV."
Well, you could.
There are other solutions that are less drastic.
You can create some method of accountability that if you live with somebody, that you can
have the television out in the public area and you can say to that person, "Hey, I don't
want to watch certain things and so I'm putting this TV in a public place."
Or same thing with your computer if that's causing you to stumble by going to websites
that you know that you shouldn't go to.
Well, if you have somebody else close by, around you all the time that will be a deterrent
to that.
Whatever it takes to avoid the temptation, get yourself away from the temptation.
Then finally, and again this is a little lesson but we have seven or eight minutes to cover
this, Paul wrote, "Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness."
You have to make a determination.
You have to say, "I am going to take steps.
I'm going to pray every morning.
I'm going to get in the word on a regular basis.
I'm going to hang around other people who are going to inspire to be holy and not to
be giving into the desires of my flesh."
Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.
All right.
That's all for today.
Thanks so much for joining me on this beautiful morning on a Florida beach.
God bless you.