Man, the title of my sermon this evening is The Power of Our Habits.
The power of our habits.
We as human beings are creatures of habit.
We end up doing the same things over and over again.
We have a certain routine that we go through on a daily basis each morning or each evening
and then we have certain things that we do on Monday, certain things that we do on Tuesday
and so we're constantly in some kind of a pattern or a cycle of our lives.
That's just how we are as human beings.
We are creatures of habit.
But not only that, when it comes to the sins that we commit in our lives, we probably tend
to commit the same sins over and over again more than committing new novel sins.
You know, every time we sin, it's not some new exotic sin.
It's probably the same sins that we tend to struggle with over and over again.
And if we want to overcome sin in our lives, obviously we learned last week that walking
in the Spirit is the ultimate way to not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
But humanly speaking, there are also ways, and we're going to look at things from scripture
tonight as well, just to get some of these bad habits out of our lives because breaking
bad habits means breaking sinful habits, right?
Because the habits that are bad in our lives are typically things that we should not be
doing or things that are not honoring to God or things that are harmful to ourselves, etc.
So we want to also build good habits.
There are things that we do want to be doing continually.
For example, we want to be reading our Bible every day.
We want to be praying every day.
So what do we want to do?
We want to be in the habit of praying, in the habit of reading our Bible, in the habit
of going to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
So we want to be building good habits, and we want to be getting rid of bad habits because
habits are powerful things in our lives.
Now, the part of the scripture that I wanted to focus on there in Jeremiah 13 is in verse
23, where the Bible reads, Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?
Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil.
Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness.
And so the Bible is saying that people who are accustomed to do evil, what does that
mean?
People that are in the habit of doing evil, it's very hard for them to do good.
And in this case, he's saying at this point, it's impossible for you to do good because
that habit of doing evil is so ingrained.
It's almost just become intrinsic to who you are.
Like, for example, the Ethiopian right now, what what is the Bible talking about with
the Ethiopian?
Well, if we look at Ethiopian people today, they're not really that dark, right?
In biblical times and in other like ancient Greek literature and things, they're pretty
much the quintessential black people that Europeans are exposed to.
And so back then they were darker.
Obviously, thousands of years later, human beings have mixed so much and Ethiopia was
colonized by Italy and and there's a lot of change that's taken place to where Ethiopians
aren't really as dark as they used to be.
But obviously, when the Bible is being written, he's just using them as an example of someone
with really dark skin, the Ethiopian.
And they're also used that way in other literature as well.
And then he talks about the leopards spots.
You know, leopards have a certain pattern to their skin that's very unique or very special.
And they can't change it, right?
They're born with that pattern.
And the pattern is what it is for the rest of their lives, right?
The Ethiopian is born with black skin.
Maybe you're born with white skin or you're born Korean or you're born Native American.
You can't change that, right?
It's who you are.
And that's all he's saying here.
He just says, you know, just as the Ethiopian can't change the color of his skin, right?
No one can change and, you know, a white person can't become black or vice versa either.
The leopard can't change his spots.
And in that way, he's just using that as an example of something that can't change.
And he says to them, you know, so you that are accustomed to do evil, you know, are not
going to be able to do good because you just have that habit so ingrained.
So we don't want to get to that point where we're so addicted to sin or where we have
such a habit of doing something evil that we get to the point where we just can't change
anymore, right?
We want to change those things while we still can.
Now obviously, when we talk about someone being incapable of changing, we're talking
about the unregenerate man.
Through Christ, those of us that are saved can do all things, right?
I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.
And through walking in the spirit, we could overcome any sin.
But this is talking about humanly speaking, in the flesh, people becoming so ingrained
in a certain behavior.
Now we want to make sure that we get bad habits out of our lives, okay?
Now the best way to get rid of bad habits, and I'm going to come back to concrete ways
to get rid of bad habits, but first let's just talk about what we talked about last
week that the best way to not fulfill the lust of flesh is to walk in the spirit.
So if we want to walk in the spirit and put on the new man so that we're not held down
by the constraints of the flesh, then what we need to do is we need to develop some good
habits for putting on the new man.
Like how do we put on the new man?
How are we filled with the spirit?
Well the Bible says, for example, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly with all
wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual psalms.
It also says, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the spirit,
speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
So apparently speaking to ourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs can help us
to be filled with the spirit, and apparently letting God's word dwell in us richly with
all wisdom can also help us to be filled with the spirit.
There are also lots of prayers in the Bible where people are praying to be filled with
the Holy Spirit.
Or we look at the book of Acts, chapter 4 verse 31, when they had prayed, the place
was shaken where they were assembled together.
They were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness.
So things like prayer, reading our Bibles, singing hymns can cause us to be filled with
the spirit.
Therefore, if we have a habit of reading our Bibles, a habit of praying, a habit of singing
hymns, well then that's going to help us to put on the new man daily in our lives so that
we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
The Ethiopian cannot change the color of his skin.
The leopard cannot change his spots.
What do those two illustrations have in common?
They are talking about physical flesh, right?
Skin, fur, a pattern.
Here's the thing.
We can't actually change our flesh, right?
I mean our flesh is always going to be sinful and nothing can change that.
You can't reform the old man.
All you can do is kill the old man daily and put on the new man, okay?
But habits can help us do that.
The good habits can help us put on the new man and getting rid of bad habits can prevent
us from falling into the trap of walking in the flesh and walking in the old man.
I'll get into more specifics about that.
Now before I do, let me say this.
The best habits that we could form as far as good habits or the easiest habits to form
are daily habits.
You see, it's kind of hard to have a habit of, well, I'm going to do this about two or
three times a week.
You know, it's not really a habit.
Habits have to be consistent, right?
So the nice thing about a daily habit is that if you do something every day, then it's pretty
easy for that to just become automatic, just a daily thing like say brushing your teeth
or taking a shower or whatever you do daily.
Other habits are weekly habits like going to church on Sunday, but at least those things
happen every Sunday.
If you said, well, I'm going to go to church three Sundays a month or something, you know,
it'd be pretty easy to get out of that habit because you have Sundays where you're not
going to church and then that could confuse the whole thing.
But if it's just every Sunday I go to church, every morning I read my Bible, every morning
I pray, these are the kind of habits that are actually going to stick.
Now if you want to flip over to Luke chapter nine, and while you're turning to Luke chapter
nine, I'll read for you from act 1711.
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica and that they received the word with all readiness
of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether these things were so.
So here's a group of people that are not only reading the Bible daily, but they're actually
paying attention to what they're reading and actually thinking about how the things that
they're hearing in their lives are matching up with or not matching up with scripture.
They're reading scripture and they're thinking about it, meditating upon it every day whether
the preaching they're hearing is correct and consistent with what they're reading in the
Bible each day.
Of course, we could go back to the Old Testament and find the scripture where it says that
the king of Israel is supposed to read in the book of the law all the days of his life.
And so we should be reading our Bible daily.
That should be a daily habit.
Now I think the best time to do this is first thing in the morning because when we wake
up in the morning, it's a brand new day, we want to start it off right, seek first the
kingdom of God and I think that's the best scenario.
But here's the thing, let's say for whatever reason you have a hard time with this.
Maybe you're not a morning person or whatever, you know, it'd be better to at least stick
that Bible reading habit somewhere in your day than to not have it at all.
So if you fail to put it first thing in the morning, well, don't just say, well, I give
up, instead pick another time.
Okay.
Now for some people, this could be as simple as just when you get in your car to go on
your commute, instead of listening to brain dead talk radio or something, you could actually
turn on the audio Bible.
I mean, what could be simpler, right?
You're in the car five days a week.
You've got time.
Don't say you're too busy.
You're sitting in the car, you're driving to work.
Most of us men drive to work at some point.
That could just become a habit of just turning on a few chapters of the Bible.
Boom.
You're getting your Bible reading.
Now some people have asked, hey, is, you know, is listening to the Bible a substitute for
reading the Bible?
And I would say yes, it is.
Okay.
Now for some people, maybe it's not.
Maybe for some people, they have a hard time focusing when it's audio.
Personally, I get more out of it when it's audio.
Obviously I do both.
When I'm reading in a foreign language, I'll typically physically read the book, but, you
know, when it comes to English Bible, I prefer to listen to it.
I get more out of it listening to it.
That's just how I am now.
You might be different, but I wouldn't sit there and say, well, no, I have to physically
read it and, and have some kind of a superstition about that or be legalistic about that.
Because the important thing is that you're consuming God's word and bless is he that
heareth and he that readeth, the Bible says in revelation.
So either way, you're going to be blessed by God's word.
Obviously throughout history, a lot of people have even been illiterate and they can still
take in the word of God by listening to it being read out loud.
But God wants us all to be literate of course.
And so daily reading your Bible, get in the habit.
You know, one Christian told me that it revolutionized his Christian life by just putting the Bible
on the back of the toilet and that that just changed his life because he said, for the
first time in my life, I'm consistently reading the Bible every day because I just have this
habit.
I go to the bathroom every day.
The Bible's there.
I pull it out.
I read it.
You know, this was an older person that spends more time, uh, in that particular activity.
And so he's getting this Bible reading done.
Life changing stuff, folks.
Okay.
You've got to make it easy to do right in your life and make it difficult to do wrong.
This is the way to succeed.
Get a habit, whether it's listening to it in the car, whether it's reading it first
thing when you wake up, just have it by the bedside.
You just wake up first thing, grab a Bible and read it and have some kind of a habit
that says, you know, I read my Bible before I eat breakfast, I read my Bible before I
brush my teeth, I read my Bible, you know, and just have it as the priority.
The thing that has to happen first thing in the morning, can't do it first thing in
the morning, stick it on the back of the toilet.
Can't do it.
Uh, any of those other times, listen to it in the car.
But for crying out loud, get a habit of reading the Bible every single day and you want to
know what's wrong with Christianity today is that Christians don't read their Bible.
You want to know why these liberal churches are just filled with people who don't have
a clue about what doctrine is, don't have a clue what God actually is like or what God
actually expect.
Why?
Because they're not reading the Bible themselves.
They come to church and they get a very censored, edited version of who God is.
Whatever the pastor wants to give them in his 20 minutes sweetness and light sermon,
they're not getting the whole picture.
They're not getting everything.
The only way to get everything is to read it yourself.
Even I'm not going to give you everything, although I'm trying.
You got to read it yourself to get everything.
And so reading the Bible is so crucial.
One of the biggest problems in Christianity today is that Christians have not read the
Bible cover to cover.
They don't know what it says.
It's not.
The problem isn't that they're listening to it instead of reading it.
The problem is that they're doing neither.
They don't know the material.
They're not letting God speak to them on a daily basis.
But talk radio speaks to them.
Hollywood speaks to them.
Madison Avenue speaks to them.
They're not letting God speak to them on a daily basis through his word.
Don't be that guy.
Let God speak to you.
Get a daily habit of reading the Bible.
The Bible says in Chapter nine, verse twenty three there in Luke, it says, And he said
to them all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross
daily and follow me.
Deny self daily and take up the cross and follow Jesus.
Look at Luke Chapter eleven, verse three.
While you're there in Luke, Chapter eleven, verse three says this.
Give us day by day our daily bread.
And again, this is referring to physical food.
But spiritually, it could be applied to the word of God.
Job said, I've esteemed the words of my mouth more than my necessary food.
And so part of that daily bread is our daily dose of the word of God, because man doesn't
live by bread alone.
By every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God does man live.
And so we want to every day deny self, take up the cross and follow Jesus.
And one of the ways that we do that is by daily reading our Bible.
You might want to be listening to music or listening to political talk radio or brain
dead morning talk radio shows.
Shut that stuff off.
Deny the flesh as appetite for that stuff.
And instead, get that Bible reading done.
Get it in.
Don't skip it.
And you know what?
It's so easy compared to so many other things in the Christian life.
When you think about the fact that we have this whole day, we're probably awake about
16 hours a day.
Can you read the Bible for 15 minutes?
Oh, you don't know how busy I am.
Really?
You don't have 15 minutes, because if you read the Bible for 15 minutes a day, you'll
pretty much read the entire Bible in a year.
So if you've been saved for a year, you should have read the Bible cover to cover.
If you haven't, what's wrong?
You didn't spend the 15 minutes.
I mean, it's not that you don't have the time.
It's that you're not denying self.
You're letting self and his cravings cause you to binge watch this and listen to this
and do this and hang out on social media at this time and talk on the phone and do all
these other things.
I'm not saying that those are all necessarily bad things, but you've got to seek first the
kingdom of God and you've got to carve out that time for the Bible reading.
Make it happen.
Make it a priority.
It's important.
You don't have to turn there, but in Proverbs chapter 8 verse 33, it says, hear instruction
and be wise and refuse it not.
Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of
my doors.
The Bible says that we need to watch daily at the gates of wisdom daily, ready to receive
truth from the Bible every single day.
The Bible, uh, turn if you would to Hebrews chapter three, Hebrews chapter three and while
you're turning to Hebrews three in first Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul said, I die daily.
What did Paul mean when he said I die daily?
He said, you know, every single day I've got to mortify the flesh and I've got to put on
the new man, put off the sinful flesh, the sinful desires, put on the new man.
This doesn't happen once when you get saved.
It doesn't happen once after you get saved.
It happens every single day.
Deny self every day.
Die daily.
Okay.
How do we do it though?
Prax.
It's easy to just say die daily, but how do we do it practically speaking?
Read your Bible.
How do you do practically speaking?
Get on your knees and pray to God.
What do you do?
You sing a hymn to God.
These are the type of things that are going to allow you to walk in the spirit.
They're going to cause you to be filled with the spirit.
They're a way to practically put on the new man.
What about all these other things that you know in our lives, most of them, many of them
are feeding the flesh and so we've got to deny some of those appetites and say, Hey,
I need to first put on the new man walk in the spirit.
If you walk in the spirit, you'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
This is true, but walking in the spirit can sometimes be triggered by a good habit like
reading your Bible, praying or singing a hymn that will get you in that mode so that now
you can go through life in the spirit as opposed to in the flesh.
Look at Hebrews chapter three, verse 12.
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing
from the living God, but exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of
you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
So the Bible is saying, look daily, we need to be encouraging one another, exhorting one
another.
We need to be putting on the new man ourselves and we need to be an influence on the people
around us for them to put on the new man too.
We want to influence them to read their Bibles.
People in our family, friends, other people want to influence others also that are Christians
to put on the new man, want to exhort one another daily while it is called today.
We don't want to be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin because a life of sin will cause us
to become spiritually callous to the things of God because the flesh warth against the
spirit and the spirit against the flesh.
These are contrary to one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would.
If we're constantly giving into the flesh, that hurts our spiritual walk and it's just
a downward spiral, just gets worse and worse.
Now go if you were to Romans chapter 13.
So we said that the best habits are daily habits so we want to do something every day,
get in the habit of say reading our Bible, praying, singing a hymn.
We should really be doing all of the above.
Put on the new man ideally first thing in the morning but better late than never.
If you have a habit of doing this every night before you go to bed, that's better than not
doing it at all.
So at least just get it done.
You got to die daily.
You got to put on the new man.
So that's the primary thing that we need to do every day is put on the new man, walk in
the spirit and so we need to develop those good habits of doing those things that will
lead us to that destination.
But we also want to just overcome bad habits and addictions by making it difficult to sin.
We want to make it easy to do right and we want to make it difficult to sin.
Look what the Bible says in Romans chapter 13 verse 12, it says, the night is far spent,
the day is at hand.
Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light.
Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering
and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what we've been talking about, right?
Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Walk in the spirit, put on the new man and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill
the lust thereof.
So number one, walk in the new man, put on the new man, put on the Lord Jesus Christ,
walk in the spirit, let Christ live through you.
Hey, that is plan A, but we also need to not make provision for the flesh to fulfill the
lust thereof.
That's the other half of this winning formula here.
Yes, walk in the spirit, but don't make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust of.
Now what does that mean, not to make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof?
Provision is just a noun from the verb provide.
We don't want to provide opportunities for the flesh.
We don't want to make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.
And I know that this is a sensitive topic and I'm not trying to just harp on this or
anything, but it's just the easiest illustration.
I'm just taking the easy way right now, okay?
The food.
It's just easy because we can all relate, we can all talk about it, we all understand
it.
Okay, let's say I'm on a diet and then I just put a candy bar right next to the bedside
table and I just, the nightstand has a candy bar on it and I'm on a diet.
I'm making provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.
So if the craving hits me, it's right there.
It's easy.
Fish over and boom, that candy bar.
Now what if I have that craving in the middle of the night and the candy bar's not there?
I'm probably less likely to eat something that isn't there.
If it's all the way downstairs or all the way upstairs or if it's, you know, far away,
if it's at the store, you know, I'm very unlikely to eat it in the middle of the night.
Sure, I could put my shoes on and go down to Walmart at 2 a.m. in my pajamas and go
buy that candy bar, but I'm probably not going to.
Whereas if it's right there on the bedside, it's pretty likely that in the middle of the
night things get a little fuzzy, we all get a little confused and we just start shoving
things in our mouth that taste good, okay?
Now again, you know, that's just maybe kind of a simple illustration, but it's like that
with everything.
It's not just like that with food.
It's like that with everything.
So if you can understand what I'm saying about food, about not making provision for the flesh
to fulfill the lust thereof, then you'll understand in other things as well.
Look, there are certain triggers, you could say also, that will trigger a habit to kick
in, right?
It's sort of like you get in your car and you start driving home.
Pretty soon you don't have to think about what turn you're going to make.
You're just on autopilot.
You're not thinking, okay, press the gas, oh, let up on the gas, push the brake pedal,
turn the wheel to the right, hand over hand, 10 o'clock until, you're not thinking about
those things.
You're just on autopilot.
You're just setting off like these macros, like go home and then your body just kind
of does the rest, right?
Certain things will trigger us to do certain behaviors, okay?
So let's say you have a bad habit that you want to kick.
The best thing that you can do is think about when is it that you typically do that bad
habit or what always happens right before you do that bad habit because again, we probably
end up committing the same sins over and over again, don't we?
So whatever it is that triggers you, maybe there's a certain place where you're constantly
committing that sin.
Maybe there's a certain person that you're with that leads you to commit that sin.
Maybe it's a certain event that happens and then boom, you're doing that sin next.
Whatever it is, you need to identify that and remove the trigger.
Don't make provision.
Don't set yourself up for failure.
Set yourself up for success by getting rid of the temptations and getting rid of the
triggers that lead you into those things.
You know, let's just go through some examples other than food.
Well first, let's talk about food because it's just easy, okay?
Like if I had my house just filled with nutritious, healthy food, that makes it easier to diet
than if it's filled with candy and chocolate.
If it's filled with Cinnamon Toast Crunch and chocolate bars and all these wonderful
things, you know, then yeah, it's going to be pretty hard to be on a diet.
But if everywhere I turn there's little bowls of fruit and chopped up veggies and all kinds
of healthy options, I'm probably going to be a lot more likely to eat healthy stuff.
You know, these Hollywood actors and people who have to live by these really strict diets
and everything, it's not that they just have so much willpower, it's that they have some
personal trainer and personal chef just constantly handing them all the right foods to keep them
at an ideal weight and they're just being handed it on a silver platter.
They're making it easy for themselves versus having to just overcome all these temptations
and just do it all on their own.
And so we need to also set ourselves up for success, surround yourself by the foods that
you want to be eating and get those bad foods away from you so that they're not even available
so that you don't even have provision for the flesh.
But again, let's move on to something else.
You know, what about say alcohol?
Well, here's the thing, you know, if you're someone who struggles with alcohol, don't
have any alcohol in your house for any reason.
For any reason.
You say, well, you know, I was just thinking about making some beer-battered cod, you know.
I'm making fish and chips, I like to put a little beer in the batter.
You know, if you're a recovering alcoholic, no, you just don't do that.
Oh, a little wine for cooking.
If you used to be a wino, then don't do it, right?
And look, I'll tell you why I would never have wine in my house for cooking.
Obviously, there's nothing sinful about cooking with beer or wine because the alcohol cooks
off, there's no inebriation factor.
There's nothing inherently sinful about those things.
But I don't want to even have that stuff in my house for any reason.
Why?
One reason is because I have nine kids.
And so what if I just have that stuff in my house and my kids just want to play around
with it, experiment with it when they're little kids.
You know, I've read the biographies of several alcoholics and they start drinking when they're
8, 9, 10, 11, 12, stealing it from their parents, stealing it from their friends' parents.
I don't even want that stuff in the house.
But especially if you struggle with alcohol, get that stuff out of the house.
You know, when I was growing up in my house, in the cupboard, in my kitchen cupboard my
entire childhood, so from the time I was born to the time I got married at age 19, in the
kitchen cupboard, there was this little glass vial.
And in it, it had one cigarette and one match.
And it said, in case of emergency, break glass.
And it just had a cigarette and a match.
My entire life now, you know, my entire life growing up, my parents didn't smoke.
And I was constantly seeing this thing in the cupboard and I'm just thinking like, why
do we have this?
Like what is this?
So one time I finally asked my parents like, what is this?
They're like, oh, you know, we smoked a long time ago, like way before you were born.
And like, somebody gave us that when we quit smoking as a joke.
You know, this one emergency cigarette or whatever.
But here's the thing, obviously, that's not something that you want to have in the house.
You know, we had it in the house, thankfully, my entire childhood, nobody ever broke that
glass.
But the point is, that's not what we need.
We don't need to have this little, well, you know, in case of emergency, drink up.
You know, we don't want to have alcohol in the house, if that's a struggle or if you
have children.
You probably just shouldn't have it, period, okay?
Because we should, because I'm a teetotal, I don't believe we should drink any alcohol.
I don't believe that God wants us drinking any alcohol at all.
And so, you know, kombucha is as radical as I get.
That's a non-alcoholic beverage.
But here's the thing, you know, alcohol, if that's a problem for you, don't have it in
the house.
But not only that, let's say you occasionally fall off the wagon.
Where are you when you fall off the wagon?
Like where does that happen?
Does that happen at a bar?
Does that happen at a restaurant?
Don't go to those places, right?
If you find yourself being sober, being sober, being sober, and then all of a sudden you
go to a certain restaurant or a certain bar and then boom, you end up ordering something,
well then don't go to those places.
Now look, I have no issue eating at a restaurant that serves alcohol because 90 some percent
of restaurants serve alcohol.
But you know what?
If you are someone who does have a struggle with alcohol, maybe you're better off just
going to restaurants that don't serve alcohol, not even setting foot in places that have
any kind of a bar at all, okay?
You know, because honestly you need to figure out if it's a store that you go to.
Maybe you drive by Andy's Frozen Custard, you know, you end up going in there and just
going crazy.
Okay, or back to food again, but let's say you drive by a certain liquor store, you drive
by a certain bar, you know, look if those places are a temptation for you, drive a different
way.
I mean, I would rather add a little bit to my route and just bypass those kind of establishments.
Why?
The Bible says also in the Lord's Prayer, not only give us this day our daily bread,
but you know what else it says?
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Lead us not into temptation.
And so if there's a certain establishment, you find yourself, you see it, you covet,
you lust, you want that and then you end up pulling over and buying that item, don't even
drive near it.
Stay away from it.
What does the Bible say about the strange woman?
Go not the way to her house.
Don't go near her house.
If you would go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 10, 1 Corinthians chapter number 10.
What are the triggers that cause you to do these things?
Whether it's smoking, whether it's alcohol, whether it's drugs, whatever it is, you need
to find a way to get rid of these triggers, get rid of these temptations, make it hard
for yourself to sin, make it easy for yourself to do what's right.
A big one for people is today, pornography.
Another obviously sensitive subject.
It's something that is not wholesome, so we don't want to necessarily spend a lot of time
talking about it, but today this has become so easy for people to access without having
to go to some gross, dirty bookstore or some weird establishment.
They can just go on their phone or go on the internet or go on cable TV or whatever, pay
per view and see some kind of filthy things and especially even young people, teenagers,
if they're given unfettered access to the internet through a smartphone, young boys
and young men and teenagers, you know, they could end up looking at some truly wicked
and ungodly things and really messing up their minds for their whole life.
And you kids, you teenage boys, stay away from it.
You cannot unsee what, once you've seen things, you can't unsee it and you don't want to warp
your mind with wicked things.
Don't even go down that road and you say, oh, I'm just curious.
Well, you know what?
So was Eve.
She was curious too and she damned the whole human race.
Curiosity killed the cat.
Okay.
You don't want to let curiosity lead you into sin.
First of all, it's all lies anyway.
It isn't true.
It's fake.
It's lies.
It's garbage.
It's trash.
It's not real.
Number one.
But number two, it will warp your mind and can ruin your life and cause you to have a
messed up mind for the whole restaurant.
Look, I talk to people all the time who are messed up by this stuff and they're dealing
with the effects of this stuff for years and years to come and decades to come and
it messes up their marriage and they have all kinds of problems.
Just don't go down that road.
And parents don't make it easy for your kids to go down that road either.
You need to remove those temptations from kids that are not smart enough to withhold
these things from themselves.
And so don't give your kids unfettered access to the internet.
Don't give your kids unfettered access to a smart phone because those things are at
the touch of a keystroke and boom, you could be going down all these dark paths.
But what about adults?
Obviously those of us that are adults, we use our smart phones every day.
They're a part of our lives that we use to function with.
You know, that temptation's right there to just look up whatever the filthy thing, whatever
the ungodly thing, whatever fulfillment to the lust of the flesh and the lust of the
eyes and we've got to withstand that temptation.
And so here's the question, you know, because I've spoken to people repeatedly, like I said,
that have asked me for help with this or asked me for advice on this and here's what I've
often said is that, you know, figure out what is it that's triggering that behavior.
You know, whether it's that or whether it's anything and get rid of that trigger or get
rid of it.
You know, is there a certain time of day?
Is there a certain place is, you know, don't go there.
Find something else to do at that time.
Stay away from it.
Don't allow yourself the opportunity to go down that road, right?
You've got to break that habit, you know, because these things are addictive.
Drinking is addictive.
Make no mistake about it.
Drinking is very addictive.
Smoking is addictive.
Drugs are addictive and pornography is addictive.
Okay.
Gambling is addictive, right?
These things are addictive and here's the thing about addictions.
Addictions aren't fun.
Now addictions, they start out being something that you enjoy or that's fun, but people are
addicted to something.
They don't even really enjoy it anymore.
It's like they have to do it just to feel normal.
They're miserable when they don't do it.
I mean, you think heroin addicts are just having so much fun just all the time.
No, you know, you talk to a heroin addict and it's fun for the first few months.
The pleasures of sin for a season, but then they're miserable.
Their life is a nightmare and they have to do drugs just to feel normal.
Well guess what?
Maybe that's an extreme example, but other addictions are the same way.
People who get addicted to alcohol, it's not just, woo, fun drinking party.
You know, no, it gets to a point where it's not that it's fun.
It's just a compulsion and drunks become miserable.
That's why people are constantly trying to quit drinking.
That's why people are constantly trying to quit drugs because the fun wears off and then
it's just a bad habit.
Then it's just sucking up their money and they're doing wrong before God and they're
hurting the people around them and the joy is gone.
You know, sin has its pleasures for a season.
Well guess what?
Same thing with pornography, right?
Yeah, I'm sure you're going to have some fun and excitement there initially, but eventually
it's just going to be a compulsion.
It's just going to be a nasty habit that you keep going back to and it's not going to
be a joyful thing.
It's going to be a source of misery for you and you're going to wish that you had not
gone down that road.
So you've got to find a way to get these things out of your life.
I mentioned gambling as an addiction as well.
That's a big one today, even amongst young people, even amongst teenagers.
They're starting to get into just online sports betting from their phones, online gambling.
It's a compulsive behavior and what do you do?
You've got to get rid of that habit.
You say well every time I sit down to my computer, I sit down to my computer and I end up navigating
to these sites or whether it's something filthy, whether it's gambling, whatever.
Well then you need to not use the computer at that time of day or whatever.
If you're using the computer for work, use it for work, but if you're using it for whatever,
maybe if there's a certain activity that you do daily on the computer and then you end
up falling down some sinful rabbit hole, then maybe you should do that part of your computer
usage publicly and say like well you know it's never at this time of day, it's always
at this other time of day, well then at that other time of day, don't use the computer
or use it publicly.
Break the pattern, whatever the pattern is.
People that drink, they're probably drinking at a certain time each day, taking drugs at
a certain time each day, gambling at a certain time, looking at filth at a certain time.
Figure out what that is and upset the schedule.
Change the schedule.
Be somewhere different.
Do something different and don't just make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lesson.
Don't just be in that same place at the same time with the opportunity to say it and then
just go I'm not going to do it this time.
That's not a very good strategy.
It's like you're in the place with the person, with the thing, with the opportunity and it's
a pattern, I'm not going to do it this time.
That's a bad strategy.
A better strategy is I'm not even going to go there.
You know, I'm just going to cut this friend completely out of my life because whenever
I get around this certain friend, I end up getting into sin, nuts to them.
Oh, but we've been friends so long, nuts to them.
What a friend we have in Jesus.
You know, there's no friend that's worth destroying your life over.
There's no friend that's worth continuing in a sinful path over.
Some people, you just have to just cut them out of your life completely and just be done
with them and just say I'm not your friend anymore.
I don't want to be your friend anymore.
You say that's mean.
Well, you know what else is mean?
It's mean for you to keep sinning and disregarding and disrespecting Christ and we have to love
Christ more than we love anyone else.
And so certain friends need to be cut loose.
Get rid of them.
Certain places, you go to that place and it leads you to sin.
Don't go there anymore.
Stay away from that place.
Certain time of day is when you typically commit a sin, be in a different place, doing
something different at that time of day and break that cycle, break that habit.
Because I guarantee you that if you really thought about it and you thought about the
sins in your life, I bet you can find a pattern as when and where they're happening.
Now these are the really obvious things like gluttony, drunkenness, drug use, smoking,
gambling, pornography.
I mean these things are just kind of just obviously bad things, addictions, bad habits
that we want to cut out of our lives.
But you know it could even be other things that are more subtle like if you're just habitually
getting angry and losing your temper.
You're just habitually just blowing your top and getting mad.
Well you know what?
You need to change up your routine, figure out what the triggers are, change your strategy.
If you keep doing the same thing over and over again, don't expect a different result
is what I'm saying.
You know I remember back when they first implemented a lot of the really strict TSA procedures
and they hadn't come out with the pre-check yet.
I remember every time I'd go to the airport and have to deal with the grope down or the
naked scanner or whatever, like it always just made me mad.
You know just getting felt up by some TSA agent.
It was humiliating and it made me angry.
It's like I thought this was America.
And so I mean you know who else has just gotten pretty mad about that before it just makes
you mad?
Well here's the thing you know, I remember one day I was at the airport and I was just
so mad and I'm just like walking around like you know just all mad.
And you know what I just decided?
I just decided.
I said you know what?
I don't want to be angry.
And so you know what I'm going to do?
I'm just going to quit flying.
And I mean I was flying constantly for my job.
I was flying for work but I owned my own business though so I had control.
I was like you know what?
I'm done with this.
I'm sick of it.
I go to the airport.
I'm in a bad mood.
I'm angry.
I don't want to be an angry person.
I want to have joy.
It's not right for me to just get all angry.
The wrath of man working not the righteousness of God.
I need to put off anger.
I don't want to be an angry person.
Anger is one of the works of the flesh.
This is a bad habit of me just always just getting angry and being mad about this.
So I just decided I'm not going to fly anymore.
And I literally quit flying for years.
I just didn't fly places.
I didn't fly to preach places.
I didn't fly for work.
And I just changed my business to where I was mainly just only working in California
and I would just drive to California.
And so for several years I didn't fly and I would just drive places and just because
I just knew that it just makes me so mad every time I fly so I'm just not going to fly.
Now I could have just said well you know I'm just going to become all peaceful and zen-like
and just kumbaya my way through the airport.
But I just knew like no this makes me mad I'm just going to stop flying.
Now maybe that's kind of a weird example or kind of a silly example.
This is like back in 2010 or something.
But that's what I did.
And I was a lot happier and I wasn't so angry because there was nothing to get mad at.
You know and so it's pretty easy to just say don't get angry but you know it's even easier
to remove the source of your anger and then you don't even have a temptation to get angry.
Now obviously there are certain anger triggers that you just can't get rid of unfortunately.
Okay but I'm not saying that's always going to work but you know what sometimes here's
an example a lot of people they listen to the news and they get super mad and they're
just so mad and look I've talked to people it's like it's like they can't enjoy their
lives because they're just like they just think America is just going down the tubes
and oh the government and the politicians and all that and then you have people literally
thinking that they have to you know move out of big cities because of what's coming.
The collapse.
World War 3.
You know all these different things.
Now here's the thing you know could there someday be some kind of a collapse or World
War 3.
Yeah you know it could happen but what are the chances that it's going to happen this
year or next year or any time soon you know they're pretty slim.
Chances are in my opinion we're going to live here in Phoenix for the rest of all of our
natural lives and this place is never going to get nuked or the grid's not going to just
totally go down or we're not just going to have blood in the streets in our lifetime
in Phoenix.
I mean who agrees with me that that's probably what we're looking at you know a lot of hands
aren't going up because you're listening to a lot of talk radio.
But here's the thing you know if you're but but here's the thing if you're listening to
info wars if you're listening to info wars all the time if you're listening to talk radio
all the time if you're listening to the news all the time you're following the news it's
like man we're on the verge of World War 3.
And I mean the government is just about to collapse and implode and whatever but see
here's the thing here's what I find and I'm not saying that it's sinful to watch info
wars or listen to the news I mean look if you enjoy info wars and you enjoy the news
and it brings you joy and it's just like a little bit of you know good clean fun for
you then by all means I don't want to take away your good clean fun.
I'm not one of these people that wants to take away all your fun in life.
I want you to have a little fun.
I want you to blow off a little steam.
I want you to enjoy if you enjoy that stuff then you know what enjoy have a good time.
Listening to all your talk radio after you've read your Bible.
Amen.
Yeah.
Listen to that stuff if it brings you joy.
But let me tell you something if it's making you upset and scared and fearful and worried
and stressed out and angry and hateful and I mean man I talk to people sometimes and
man they are just ready to snap because of the Democrats and the government and Biden
and I'm just like I don't know what you're talking about.
You know Russia and China and North Korea.
You know.
OK.
You know Russia.
I don't know.
Are they are they still invading Ukraine or something.
I don't even know.
Is that still a thing.
Then that seems like it's gone on for a long time.
It sounds like the never ending story.
OK.
How long has that been going on.
Several years.
One year.
One and a half.
OK.
That's kind of long.
It's just some dragged out thing and I don't know am I supposed to worry about you know
the Russians coming over here because I really doubt that's going to happen.
OK or China or what China is developing.
You know face recognition.
You know super tick tock doomsday device or something.
You know whatever.
OK.
You know what.
What I don't know can't hurt me.
I don't have to know about all that stuff.
You know I could look like let's say Phoenix just like got nuked tonight.
You know you know what.
OK.
It sounds like it'd be over pretty quick if I'm living right in the center of Phoenix.
You know if that's if that's what God allows to happen whatever.
OK.
But you know what.
If I got nuked tonight then I'd just be glad I didn't see it coming.
Because then I didn't have to worry about it and get nuked.
Why do I want to stress and worry and be upset and get nuked.
I'd rather just get nuked.
You know I'd rather just from one second to the next just get burnt to a crisp and not
even see it coming.
Because you know what.
Then I'm going to open my eyes and be in heaven.
Big deal.
So what if he's just like.
What just happened.
Whoa.
Am I.
You know.
Is this.
You know.
Am I dreaming.
Or am I.
Oh I'm in heaven.
Oh.
Dang it.
I got nuked.
Dang it.
I should have watched Info Wars.
I could have headed for the hills.
I could have strategically relocated.
You know what.
It's silly because the chances of it happening are so slim and even if it did happen well
whatever.
You know I don't want to be on the outskirts dealing with all that fallout.
You know I hope.
You know if Phoenix gets nuked I hope it lands on my head.
I hope the warhead literally lands on my head.
Because then there's no way.
It's going to be a slow and painful death.
It'll happen so fast.
Let my address be ground zero.
In that case.
But it's like who cares.
You know what.
God is going to protect us.
And if God doesn't protect us then he has a reason.
He has a plan.
Whatever whatever God wants.
But you know what.
I believe God's going to protect us anyway.
I don't see that happening.
It's far fetched.
But you know what.
There are people man.
They're worried about a financial collapse.
And so they have to hoard up all this money and they got to hoard up all the precious
metals and stockpile the weapons and stockpile the ammo because they're all stressed out
about it.
Look I don't want to go through life angry and upset and stressed out.
I don't want to set my affection on things on the earth.
I want to set my affection on things above.
I want to be thinking about heavenly things.
And so therefore I don't follow the news.
Because if I follow the news I tend to get emotional about it.
Tend to get worked up.
So I just don't listen to it.
I just don't care.
If you can enjoy it responsibly then enjoy the news responsibly.
Enjoy info wars responsibly.
But if it's a source of anger for you turn it off.
You know so obviously there are obvious addictions and sins like you know just the ones that
are just so easy to throw out there you know drinking fornication adultery you know they're
just like the go to when you're preaching right.
But there are a lot of other sinful ideas that are more subtle like things like anger
and fear right that are also things that we don't want to characterize us.
And obviously there's a righteous fear of God and there's a righteous anger toward sin
and so forth.
You know what I'm talking about because the vast majority of our fear and our anger is
sinful and it's from the flesh.
And so remove the trigger.
Remove the thing that upsets you.
Don't be led into temptation.
Go to First Corinthians Chapter 6 or sorry Chapter 10.
I think I had you turn there.
The last point I want to make tonight is that there's always a way to escape temptation.
There's always a way out right.
The Bible says in First Corinthians Chapter 10 verse 6.
Now these things were our samples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things
as they also lusted neither be idolaters as were some of them as it is written the people
sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day thirty
or three and twenty thousand.
Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents.
Neither murmur ye saying don't complain as some of them also murmured and were destroyed
of the destroyer.
So he's saying don't commit idolatry, don't commit fornication, don't tempt Christ, don't
be a complainer.
All these things verse 11 happen unto them for in samples and they are written for our
admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come.
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
So it says you know we all are vulnerable to temptation.
These things were written for our admonition and just because we think we stand strong
we need to understand that the temptation toward these things is still there.
We can still fall into sin.
You know I'm 42 years old.
I've been a Christian since I was a little kid.
I've grown up in a Christian home but you know what I could go down a dark path just
like anyone else could if I were to just stop caring and stop serving the Lord and
stop walking in the Spirit.
So let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
There is no temptation taking you but such as is common to man.
So whatever temptation you're going through millions of other people are going through
the same thing.
Drinking, drugs, pornography, gambling, gluttony, whatever, you're not alone.
Those things are common to man.
All of us deal with those type of things.
But God is faithful who will not suffer you, that means he will not allow you to be tempted
above that you're able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that
you may be able to bear it.
So he's not going to give you a temptation that you cannot endure.
There will always be a way to escape wherefore my dearly beloved, wherefore means same thing
pretty much as therefore, therefore flee from idolatry.
So because there's a way to escape take that escape route and run, run through that escape
route.
See we often quote verse 13 but verse 13 leads into verse 14.
Because there's a way of escape flee it.
Now here specifically he says flee idolatry.
A couple chapters earlier in chapter 6 verse 18 he said flee fornication.
In 1 Timothy chapter 6 he tells us to flee the love of money.
In 2 Timothy chapter 2 he says to flee youthful lusts, right?
And so again get away from these things.
Get away from these things.
Get away from the things and the places that lead you into sin.
If the liquor store is leading you into sin get away from it.
Don't drive by it.
If you are a recovering alcoholic don't even walk down the alcohol aisle of the grocery
store.
Avoid it, pass not by it.
Don't even go to those places.
Don't hang around with those friends.
Flee.
Run away.
Escape.
There is a way to avoid these things.
It's not inevitable that you commit these sins.
You say well you know the Ethiopian can't change the color of his skin.
The leper can't change his spots.
Well guess what?
We've got the spirit.
So we can transcend the limitations of the flesh.
And so therefore there is a way to escape.
God is faithful.
He'll provide a way of escape.
Watch and pray the Bible says that you enter not into temptation.
The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak.
Our spirit wants to do what's right but the flesh is weak.
Pray that you enter not into temptation.
Lead us not into temptation Lord.
But don't lead yourself into temptation.
Avoid the triggers.
If politics make you mad, ignore politics.
If certain people make you mad, avoid them.
Unless they're your family.
And you know, I'm not telling you to forsake your family.
If people in your family make you mad, you know, change the routine and figure out a
way to not clash with those people.
Figure out a way to make a peaceful home.
If it's alcohol, stay away from it.
If it's pornography, stay away from whatever that electronic device is, the time of day,
the setting, the place, change it up.
Get rid of that trigger.
Find something else to do at that time.
Find somewhere else to be.
Find a way to break those habits by breaking the habits of what leads up to those things
and figure out.
Because I guarantee you that no matter what the sin, I bet you can identify a pattern,
a place where it's happening, a device that you're using, a person that you're with, something
that puts you in a certain frame of mind where now you're susceptible to that temptation.
Find those triggers and eliminate them.
Get rid of that geography or get rid of those people or whatever.
And look, I could just go through example after example, but it's going to be different
for everybody.
You know, I could think of temptations in my life, places and situations and feelings
that, and I've given you some of those examples tonight.
But at the end of the day, it's not necessarily going to help you to just listen to everything
that I deal with or everything that I've done to try to overcome temptations in my life
because you've got your own unique situation and you're tempted by different things at
different times and different places.
You've got to figure it out though and decide, why do I commit these sins?
Why do I keep going back to that substance?
Why do I keep going back to that sin?
Where am I?
Who am I with?
What happened right before I did that?
Find the patterns and break them and then establish new good patterns of daily Bible
reading, daily prayer, daily walk with God, weekly church attendance.
Get in that habit of church on Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night.
You know, I don't, I don't have to make some big effort to go to church on Sunday morning,
Sunday night and Wednesday night because it's just autopilot.
We never just wake up like, are we going to church today?
I mean, my kids ask, are we going to church today?
Because they just don't know what day of the week it is because they're little kids.
Once they know it's Sunday, they know we're going to church.
Once they know it's Wednesday, they know it's church.
If they say like, are we going to church?
It's because they don't know what day of the week it is.
But if you know what day of the week it is and you're like, are we going to church?
Something's wrong with that picture.
Make it a habit.
Make it automatic.
Put the good deeds on autopilot and then the bad deeds that are on autopilot right now.
It's time to smash up that machinery and there, because I guarantee you there's a whole progression
that leads you into sin.
Lust conceives and brings forth sin.
Sin brings forth death.
There's a process, you know, look at King David, right?
It's like he's, you know, he's up on the roof.
He's wandering around.
He's looking out the window.
He sees the woman bathing, you know, if that was your situation, you know, don't go on
the roof, right?
Don't stay up late at night.
Figure out something else to do at that time, somewhere else to be.
You got to figure it out on the, on your own, but you got to flee these things.
Make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.
Make it easy to do right and difficult to do wrong.
Which, by the way, isn't that a word of prayer?
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and we thank you for the overcoming
power of the Holy Spirit in our lives that can help us transcend the desires of our flesh
and our sinful tendencies, Lord.
But help us to take the step of putting on the new man.
Help us to make those good habits of, of getting in the spirit and walking in the spirit each
day.
Lord, help us not to make provision for the flesh and in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.