YYjCXuwm-0g

1:49Therefore, be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, to God, even the Father. And be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

2:29Well, we've talked about this. This will be some review. I talked about this a couple of years ago. But it's very important, I think, and you've heard me say this before, that the Christian life isn't about a lot of high-order levels of thinking. It's really about very simple things done well. And that's the basics of Christianity and a life that pleases God. It's doing the best. Basic things well. And one of the most basic things that you're going to experience in life is temptation. And so developing a temptation plan is very important. We've already looked at several plans for life in this heart series.

3:21Number one, we looked at a repentance plan. One of the first things you need to learn about life is how to repent. You need to have a plan to repent because you're going to be having to repent quite a lot through life. And so you might as well get used to it, have a plan, do it well. So we've looked at a repentance plan. Another plan in this heart study that we have looked at is a forgiveness plan. Not only are you going to wrong somebody in life, but somebody's going to wrong you. And so you're going to have to, number one, become a very good repenter. You're going to have to become good at knowing what it's like to ask for forgiveness because you're going to wrong somebody. You're going to have to learn how to repent before God and make things right and let him make things right in the shed blood of Christ. And then you're going to have to go and learn how to make things right. And the best rest, the rest repentances come with restitution.

4:30Repentance with restitution, making things right where that is possible. So, if you get to be a good repenter, you know what it's like to ask for forgiveness and you know what it's like when it's granted. And so, not only do you have to have a good repentance plan, but you need to have a good forgiveness plan because inevitably somebody's going to wrong you. And inevitably, they're going to have to come to you and make things right. And you need to have an ability to forgive a plan. At the moment the offense occurs, you've got to be a good forgiver. Forgive, even as Christ has forgiven you, even if they haven't come and asked for forgiveness. Your forgiving of them, the sending away of the offense, is at the headwaters of grace, the headwaters of reconciliation.

5:33And without forgiveness, at that fundamental heart level, there is no pursuing of reconciliation. This is the queen of the graces, as what one person I recently read said: that the forgiveness of God is the queen of the graces. Because without it, guess what? There is no reconciliation. Else. There is a flood without an ark. There is a hell with no plan of salvation. And so forgiveness, the forgiveness of God is at the foundation of redemption, the foundation of reconciliation. And so you must learn how to forgive and pursue reconciliation.

6:27A third plan in this heart series that you're going to have to have in your mind and understanding and even on paper is a temptation plan. How to deal with temptation. And the first two areas you're going to have to deal with temptation is not repenting. They're going to have a lot of temptations not to go through with a thorough repentance. And forgiveness. You're going to be tempted not to forgive. You're going to be tempted to hold on to bitterness and to have all kinds of theological reasons and excuses to not completely repent and to not fully forgive.

7:12That's going to be a temptation in life. But going beyond those two fundamental areas of repentance and forgiveness, you're going to have to have a temptation plan for all areas of life. Because Temptation is like a battle. It's like a war against your soul, and its intention is to separate you from God, to destroy you, to make your life ineffective in life and ministry, destroy relationships. That's what sin does. It comes, and its desire is to have you, to own you, to master you, and to destroy you, and destroy relationships. It is a battle against your soul.

8:11And so that is why I think it is good to think about the temptations that you will face in life as battles that you're going to face. And get ready. Somebody's got to tell you. You already know it's true. You're going to face temptation. That's going to be part of life. And so I'm going to talk to you tonight about a temptation plan. I shared this illustration with you previously, but I'll share it again. Sir Edward Creasy in 1851 wrote a book called The 15 Decisive Battles of the World. And what he does in that book is he goes through and he documents the major battles that have taken place. Place in Earth's history that have shaped our geopolitical lines of today.

9:09And so he goes through these. We live in a world that is shaped by several decisive battles in history. Talks about the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. That's what told the Persians. That's when the Greeks spoke to the Persians and said, no more. You stop here. And then you have the Battle of Tours, 732. Again, when you had the Franks telling the westward Muslim expansion, no more. And that stops the westward expansion of Islam. You have Joan of Arc.

9:55You have the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 that then brings Britain to the world scene. You have the victory at Saratoga that gives rise to the States. You have the Battle of Waterloo, brings Napoleon to an end or turning. And then, of course, if you're in Texas, you've got to add the Battle of San Jacinto. Know, of course, Creasy didn't add that, but he didn't really know history like Texans know history. But you can imagine the point that he is making is that the world we live in has been shaped by these decisive battles. Then you can throw in World War I and World War II and the decisive battles. We live in a world that is shaped by the victories or defeats in these decisive battles.

11:03The way you confront your besetting sins will shape your life and others around you. How you deal with the temptations that face you this day, this year, is going to shape your life and shape the world in which those who live close to you. I've heard it recently said that your marriage is the planet on which your children live. And I would say that the way you respond to temptation impacts everything about you. And it is a battle. It is a war that you are engaged in. It's a war that wants to control you.

12:00Like God told Cain, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is to have you, but you must master it. And you're not going to master it unless you have a robust temptation plan that is in operation. So there are all kinds of besetting sins that you need to deal with. And they come around to beset you. That's what they do. So let's just talk about the few basics of a temptation plan. Temptation plan is basically about putting distance. 1 Peter 2:11 says, Behold, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul. Abstain. It's the word for putting distance. Think about a boat.

12:57And I remember one time being in a fishing boat with a captain who just seemed fearless of everything. And then I'm up there at the high point with him, and one of these big old whales just comes right next to the boat and jumps out. And it's like all the blood in his face just went out, and he was scared. And then I thought it was pretty cool. And then I looked at him and saw how scared he was. And I thought, now I'm getting scared too. And he said, I. hated when those things get that close to me because just a little bit closer and the whole ship, the whole thing just goes over.

13:42But you can think about temptation in that regard. It is enough to, it'll jump out, jump out, and it can completely debilitate you. And so abstain, it's the word is, it is a nautical term that speaks about distance. So the basics of a temptation put a distance between you and your sins, your besetting sins. So number two, a temptation plan involves changing your routine to remove temptation's access to you. You need to change your routine. And third, you need to change your routine to add actions of righteousness. So if you're thinking about temptation plan as a war against you, as an assault, temptation being one of those battlefronts, it's going to come through certain access points, just like any other military. It'll come through a certain pass. It'll come over land or it'll come over sea. You can pretty much figure out where these access points are going to be. And you're going to have to change your routine to not only remove those access points. Points, but to change your routine to add acts of righteousness. And so we'll talk about these three things here. So, how do you develop your own temptation plan? Well, number one, become familiar with the pattern routine of your addictions or your besetting sins. And you can do so by asking the following questions. Get familiar with it. It's pretty routine. Number one, what? What is the specific sin area that you want to address in your life that keeps showing up and keeps knocking the boat over? What is it? Identify it.

15:43When. Think about the when question. What time of day, what time of the week, month does this temptation usually hit? You'll find that there's a pattern to them. If it's depression, sometimes it'll show up certain days of the week. If it is something dealing with substance abuse, you know what? There's usually a time of the day, or maybe a time of the week, or maybe it's payday, or maybe it's game day, or whatever it is. There's a pattern where that temptation is going to hit you a little bit stronger. It's not hard to predict, actually, when you think about it. Where?

16:25Where does this, where am I when this temptation? Typically hits me. What's your physical location? It's important. It's not hard to. If you really start thinking about, okay, I'm in a battle. Here are the access points. They're pretty routine. Who? There may be people that are involved. You know, it's interesting. Every time I get around this group of people in this setting, you know what follows? My besetting sins. Start analyzing that and understanding the when, the what, the where, the who, and the how. Maybe it's there are certain means of this temptation. Maybe it's certain objects. Maybe certain instruments involved. You know, maybe a computer is involved. Maybe a. You just fill in the blank. What all is involved when you go down this road and succumb to temptation. The what, the when, the where, the who, the how will help you start seeing some patterns that you'll need to address.

17:48So then, next thing you need to do after you identify the pattern and routine of your sins, besetting sins, change your routine. Okay, put distance between You and the temptation. Cut off these access points. If there's a time, if you're struggling with depression and that tends to show up a certain time of day or a certain time of the week, take that into consideration. If it's a substance, when is that? Show up and change your routine, knowing that that is going to hit you at this point in time. Expect it. Have a game plan so that you're occupied elsewhere. Change your routine so that the distance, and maybe it's certain kinds of people, certain times a day.

18:50And this is what Jesus is talking about: about this concept of radical amputation in Matthew 5:29. If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you. For it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than your whole body to be thrown into hell. That's basically what Jesus is saying: is get aggressive. Sin wants to own you and destroy you. Be aggressive. Don't let it cut off the Those access, that's what radical amputation, cut off those access points, even if it's your eye.

19:37He's using a metaphor there, of course. But what he's saying is true. Be so aggressive. I remember one time a man was struggling with pornography, computer porn, he's having marriage problems, and his wife was involved, and we got involved to try to help them. And he just couldn't get rid of his computer. And the wife was like, Yeah, no, we need the computer because that's how we get money. And it's like, well, it's better than gouging out your eyes. There is life without a computer out there. And they didn't take the steps to radical amputation, and so their marriage failed miserably.

20:34Other questions that may be helpful with you, with your unique situation. Each one of us are facing different kinds of temptations. There's a lot of things that are categorically the same, but each come to us in our own unique situation. So we have to understand our unique situation. And so another part of this is ask yourself: what specific failures? On my part, contributed to my sin. In other words, in what ways did I sin in the process of serving my besetting sin?

21:14We can sin in the process of serving our sin. Maybe you lied, maybe you did something secret, had to cover up. But these are the sins of commission, something that you did wrong in order to pave the way for you to get to your sin. So let's recognize those other sins that lead to greater sin. Then another question is: what acts of righteousness was I neglecting that allowed me room to serve my besetting sin? Think about Adam in the garden. He was to take care of the garden. And yet he failed to be taking care of what he should have been taking care of. And because he wasn't taking care of and occupied with doing what he ought to have been doing, he was open to crossing the line and doing what he should not do. And so, what acts of righteousness was I neglecting that allowed me room to serve my besetting sin? And that is your sins of omission. What were you not doing right? Occupy yourself. If you'll occupy yourself with doing what's right, you will not have. Time left at the day to do anything else because there is so much righteousness that needs to be done. You don't run out of good things and right things to do, you run out of time and energy, and you have to go to bed and get up early the next morning, do it again. And then you can think again about what have I done in the past about each failure and success. Have I learned from my failures and have I learned from my successes in these areas?

23:07Again, what other areas of my life have been affected by an addiction to sin? Identify those. Recognize who else your sin has affected. And again, moving in that whole area of repentance and forgiveness. Certainly looking up what scriptures relate to each of the above. And another thought to think about as when you're participating in sin, when you're yielding to temptation, you're saying something about God. You're saying something about God that He is insignificant. When you say that God, when you participate in a sin, you're saying, To God, God, you haven't supplied all my needs, and so I need to go and get this myself.

24:13Study your own heart. Psalm 139 is a good place. Think about what the root attitude is behind your sin. What is going on deeper in the level? Why are you drawn to certain kinds of sins? Is it pleasure you're after, or is it escape? What is it that's some of the root attitudes? And what other areas of life have you been living for yourself? Sin is basically living for yourself. And you look around your life. What other ways are you living for yourself? The little compromises, perhaps it's not as big as a besetting sin, but maybe you're making compromises in your entertainment or maybe in your work ethic or maybe whatever. You fill in the blank. But look around. What are some areas where you are compromising?

25:16Because you'll see the same pattern in the little sins as you will in the big sins. And so sometimes dealing with the little sins, quote, little sins, are some of the best ways to build up. That ability to withstand the bigger ones, be good steward of the little temptations. And if you learn not to yield in the little temptations of life, the lying, the slander, the things with your speech, if you can control your tongue so much, you start learning self-control. You can learn self-control three meals a day. You get an opportunity to, when you sit down at a table, to practice self-control. And we get a lot of opportunities for practice to grow in self-control. But sin basically is living for self. And you've got to understand that this really isn't just about your besetting sin. God wants you to live for Him. The sin is what's in the way of that. But this isn't just you conquering a bad habit. It's really about you living for God. And that sin is what keeps you from doing that. So exhaust yourself. Another strategy is exhaust yourself in imitating the character of God.

26:44Study the character of God. Imitate Him in forgiving, delighting in that which is good and noble and serving others. It's a good way to, if you will, exhaust yourself in imitating the Character of God, again, there will be little left. Think about a couple of examples. Think about like pornography. Pornography comes from lust. What does love involve? Love involves a sacrificial service for the well-being of someone else. Pornography is the exact opposite of that. It's about serving yourself.

27:28It's the opposite of loving someone. You cannot look at an image without using that person. And you should really be praying for it. You should be concerned about the well-being and not creating a market for pornography. You see, you're fundamentally wrapped up in yourself when you're giving in to pornography. You're not wrapped up in the well-being of the others or even the person whose image you may be looking at. See, the porn user needs to cut off all access points. Temptation point, okay, it comes up at this time of day, it comes up in this kind of setting, it's when I'm alone with my computer here, there, or whatever it is.

28:16So the porn user needs to cut off those access points, but also the porn user needs to busy himself or herself with sacrificial service to others. Because that's the exact Opposite. Need to learn how to put on real deeds of service and to those closest to you and beyond. To busy yourself in serving others, sacrificially serving one another. That's the pattern changed. You can come up with, you know, if you're struggling in this area, come up with ten specific ways to show sacrificial love to others. And then busy yourself with that. And especially during those times and temptation is stronger. Learn to biblically love one another. Pornography is all about self, using others to serve self, as is all sexual sin.

29:28Think about gluttony. Excess food intake may stem from pleasure, comfort, security, or boredom. Why do we eat so much? Well, there's a number of reasons. But the glutton needs to not only cut off the access points, like all-you-can-eat buffets, keeping a whole bunch of excess food in the house. Talking to one person says, Yeah, when I get depressed, I make a cake and I eat it. Make a sheet cake and eat it. Yeah, that'll move you from one camp to another, but it's real.

30:16But also, that glutton needs to learn to find pleasure in what God delights in, or maybe comfort in relationship with God and not comfort in food, or maybe security by delighting in God, not in food, or God's provision, or may and maybe find joy in serving others. Busy yourself. And I know I'm it's just there's others, and we could we could add a list of these, especially we could just go down besetting sins, and people get really down on themselves and depression. When does that happen? And maybe it happens in times and environments where, well, I was hoping to be a little more noticed, I was hoping to be recognized, or maybe there's a sense in time and things, or and there's all kinds of layers that we'll talk about depression as this heart study continues.

31:30You're going to have to have these plans, a repentance plan, a forgiveness plan, and a temptation plan. And then you need to have an overcoming plans, and overcoming anxiety, overcoming depression. And we'll talk about those in weeks ahead. But we read earlier, what is ultimately this involvement? It involves putting on Christ's likeness, temptation plan. It's not just cutting off access points of sin, getting victory over sin. It's about putting on Christ's likeness. You're called, you're being conformed into the image of Christ. And He leaves us here. He doesn't just take all this stuff away. He leaves us in a world, but He has overcome the world. And He wants you and I to learn how to overcome the world. That's part of His joy: watching His children learn the difference between good and evil, and choosing the good and walking circumspectly, being wise about the times, and being able to wage war against the temptations, the flesh.

32:55Putting on Christ's likeness is being controlled by the Spirit. Read the Earlier. Putting on Christ-likeness, we need to confront this worship disorder. That's really what temptation amounts to, and yielding temptation, yielding to temptation boils down to a worship disorder. Setting aside God as the one to be worshipped and elevating self as the one to be worshipped. Radical amputation, cut off all that would harm, cause you to sin. Radical indic, add those things to your lives that would occupy and suffocate the opportunity for temptation in your life by being occupied with that which is good.

34:02That's what I've been saying throughout. The goal is to worship God. That's what dealing with sin and not yielding temptation is about. It's ultimately about loving God supremely, about worshiping Him. It's not just about kicking a bad habit, something beyond that. So, as we come back to some of the basics we've talked about. Temptation is about putting distance between you and the sin, your besetting sins. It's about changing your routine to remove temptation's access to you.

34:46It's about changing your routine to add actions of righteousness. It's about repenting well. Temptation plan is also about repenting well. It's also about forgiving well. And you see, in all this, the forgiver learns something. When you learn how to be forgiven by God, you want to grant that to someone else. And when you understand what God went through to reconcile you to Him, forgiving others becomes so much easier. See, the problem and the difficulty with not being able to forgive is that those who do not learn forgiveness never really correct the worship disorder.

35:49And therefore, they're never really free from their primary addiction to self. We've got to learn how to forgive, we've got to learn how to repent well. And the problem with, and we're going to face this temptation of walking that back, walking our repentance back, and walking our forgiveness back. And that's going to be a temptation in life. And we're going to come up with all kinds of justifications and excuses not to repent well and not to forgive well.

36:21And what makes repenting and forgiving so hard is that it requires something of us. See, we like to think of repenting and forgiving as just like something, okay, well, I can just put it out of mind. Well, I did that. Yes, all right, I'm going to move on. No, it requires you to make things right, to own things. And forgiving. We think of forgiving as, well, I just don't have to think about it until that person comes up and gives me a repentance that I will accept.

36:54No, that's not what forgiving is at all. You forgive like Christ forgave you. You let the offense go and you pursue reconciliation because without that, there is no relationship. But it requires you to do something, and that's what's hard. But in Christ, we can do these things. We can do all these things. Because as we repent well, we understand that we are forgiven well. And then we're able to forgive well. And we're able to walk well, circumspectly. And so, plans for life. You need to have them. Repentance plan, forgiveness plan, and a temptation plan.

37:50There'll be more plans to come, but those will get you started. Actually, these really just, you have this down. This is going to be routine in life. And like I said, gospel living isn't about all these higher order levels of truth. It's these simple ones and doing them well and practicing them well day in and day out. Thoughts? Questions? We've got a couple minutes and yes, sir. Can you talk about how true, honest repentance might help fuel your temptation plan and forward?

38:38How honest repentance will help fuel your temptation plan? Making, yeah, how repentance, a good repentance plan. Let's suppose, let's suppose, and this has happened. Somebody came up to me. This is years ago. Nobody in here. Nobody you'll know. But somebody came and was basically really slandering somebody else. And my memory of the conversation is a bit fuzzy. But person, basically, later, suppose this person comes up and says to me, I sorry, I need to ask your forgiveness. I really didn't need to dump all that on you.

39:44And I say, you really didn't sin against me. It's the person you spoke about that you sinned against. You go to that person and you tell them what you said to me and you ask for their forgiveness. How do you think that might help them in the future about that temptation of the tongue? That's pretty painful, isn't it? And in that case, but anyway, that's painful. You don't just go find someone to confess to. You go confess and own the sin and ask the person who you wronged. To forgive you. That'll be such a painful experience that you'll bite that tongue when you start going down that road. And so, repentance, a real thorough repentance, really making things right makes it easy for somebody else to forgive you. But that process of confession is painful. And to really own it, it's painful. And then next time that sin comes around, it has a little bit of a... I ain't going down that road again. Anyway, yes, sir. You know, Thomas, you mentioned about amputating, but also adding, adding, you know, amputating the bad, adding the good. And just between me and you, mad acting people on the spot, especially Pat, we can name a lot of things right here, just as we did in an animal Baptist church, that you can add, if there is opportunities for service that really have ongoing or some have been unmet.

41:36So the comment was just recognizing there's amputation, but then adding. And there's a whole lot of opportunities here at the church or in any really gospel-centered, Bible-believing church, there's going to be opportunities for ministries and service. And that's why you are to be involved in a local church. Because the adding to, being occupied with good things is within the community of believers. They're going to have a lot of opportunities. And so I don't think you're going to ever get complete victory over these temptations independent of a local church or local brothers and sisters who are walking with you through this life. We need each other. And that's just one for the many opportunities to occupy ourselves. And yes, you can exhaust yourself. Believe me, this church, you can easily get exhausted by the opportunities in service.

42:47Good. It's a good place to end tonight. So let's go to the Lord. Heavenly Father, we thank you for godly wisdom. Father, you've left us here to walk circumspectly, to understand that there is good and there is evil, how to navigate our lives to the good for your glory and to be mindful of the evil and where it comes from and what its desire is and how to overcome it. And Father, we thank you that you haven't left us to do all this in our strength. But you delight to teach us and show us, and you have empowered us by your Spirit because it is your delight to see us walking in grace and in truth and overcoming the temptations that you overcame. So we thank you, and we want to follow in your footsteps. Go with us tonight in Jesus' name. Amen.