Ishmael LaBiosa: Welcome to the You Ask Podcast, where the goal is to answer common questions about Christianity. Let's listen in as Pastor Rusty answers today's question. Today's question is: how can a Christian effectively overcome habitual sin and temptation? Well, I think it's important to start today to try to understand the nature of temptation. Actually, there are two words. That are closely related in the New Testament. They're actually not only are they closely related, they come from the same Greek word. And those two terms are test or tempt. Now, I think, first of all, to understand temptation and testing, we need to think through these concepts quite carefully, because here's the way it goes. God has given us a free will. And the simple turn of phrase is God tests everyone, but tempts no one. So if you want a quick turn of phrase, God tests, Satan tempts. Okay, just put that in your mind. Additionally, testing situations. Can actually bring about our moral praiseworthiness or can reveal our character. For example, I don't really know who you are, and you don't really know who I am unless I am put in a situation to really show who I am. And so God allows every person to be tested. The Bible is full of these moments. For example, in Genesis three, God put Adam and Eve in the garden, and he said, Of the trees in the garden you may eat, but the tree in the middle of the garden you shall not eat it, or you'll die. And so notice it was God who put Adam and Eve in a test in that particular moment. Now, had Adam and Eve passed the test, they would have shown Their moral praiseworthiness, and it would have been a great opportunity for celebration. But in the context of that test that God set up, God says, I'm giving you a garden, you can eat of any tree except the one tree. In that particular context, God tests Satan tempts. The serpent comes to the woman and says, If you eat it, you will not surely die. And so I like to say this that a temptation is often just the wrong way out of a test. And if you read through the Bible, you see people fail the test and then maybe later on pass the test. I think the story of Abraham, for example, Abraham has many moments where God tests him and he fails, but near the end of his life. He passes the test. So we need to get this in our mind that God tests, Satan tempts. And we should never say, we should never say, well, I think God tempted me. No. God allows situations to come about where you are tempted, but God is never the author of temptation. James chapter one verse thirteen says this very clearly. James says, No one undergoing a trial should say, I am being tempted by God. For God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn't tempt anyone, but each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desires. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death. Don't be deceived, my dearly loved. Brothers. So another thing that happens when people say they're tested, they say, Well, the devil made me do it. If God's not tempting me, the devil's tempting me. Well, the sources of temptation, per the Bible, are first and foremost the flesh. So lots of times you made you do it. The flesh is our desire set against God, but our flesh needs a context in which to Rebel against God, which is the world's system, and the world system is being influenced by Satan himself. So I think some of that needs to be kind of set up on the front end when we're just thinking how can a Christian effectively overcome temptation to even know what temptation is. Now we need to address the issue of habitual sin. But let's just talk about overcoming temptation generally, and then we'll spend a few moments on habitual sin. If I told you when is the best time to get prepared for a problem, when you're in the problem or before the problem begins? And the answer is it's always better to kind of have a plan for a problem that is coming than to wait for the problem to be upon you. There's some guidelines in the scripture that I think we ought to note. First of all, the Bible says, I have hidden God's word in my heart, Psalm 119, 11. So that I might not sin against God. And so I think regular Bible intake, just keeping yourself with the spiritual disciplines is so important. If you find yourself in a temptation, there's some things that you begin to think. Some people think my temptation is unique. And the other thing some people say is I feel trapped. And the Bible counters that. First Corinthians 10 13. It says, No temptation is taken you except here it is, which is common to humanity, common to man. And with the temptation, God has made a way of escape. And so I think when we're in a temptation, there's always a way out. Sometimes that way out is walking away. Sometimes that way out is calling a friend. Sometimes That way is to call out to God in prayer. But no temptation is taken you except which is common to humanity. And with the temptation there's always a way out. Jesus tells his disciples, Watch and pray in the garden of Gethsemane, lest you enter into temptation. First Peter five, eight, be sober, be vigilant, for your adversary, the devil, walks around seeking who he may devour. I do think that part of our prayer life, which is clearly, by the way, what Jesus tells us to pray, and lead us not into the temptation or lead us into the moment of a test, but deliver us from the evil one. That's at the heart of the Lord's prayer, that in the place of prayer we should be alert to our vulnerabilities, to our temptations, to our weaknesses, and that we ought to ask the Lord for help at those particular moments. There are some temptations that we have to fight, that we just can't get away from them, that they are there and you can't remove yourself. But there are other temptations that you can flee. I think about Paul telling young Timothy, flee is full lust. And that's just one you run away from rather than try to figure it out while you're there. And then I think sometimes an overlooked area is the Bible tells us to use our time wisely. Ephesians chapter five, fifteen to sixteen says It says, redeem the time, for the days are evil. If we don't have a plan for our days, then all of a sudden then we can end up doing something bad. We don't usually end up doing something good on accident. We end up doing something bad on accident. Or due to inattention, rather. So that's a lot about temptation. Let's talk a little bit about habitual sin. Habitual sin is the sin that kind of beats you. It seems. And the Bible seems to have a sense that sometimes there are besetting sins. The writer of Hebrews says, Let us fix our eyes on Jesus and lay aside the sin that so easily besets us. So sometimes there's besetting sin. I think in the field of counseling, they have diagrammed what is called the addiction cycle. And I do think that this gives us some level of insight. Into how besetting sins sometimes work. We can have moments of abstinence where that particular sin is not affecting us, but then usually there's some type of trigger event, can often be stress-related, or there can be a situation or someone says something, and it just kind of fires us up emotionally, and we're looking for some type of relief from. the stress or the bad feelings. And then that trigger leads to thoughts. And oftentimes addiction cycles are used with people who have a addiction to alcohol. A a trigger event can happen. A person gets stressed out and they have tempting thoughts like, ⁓ I I would like something to drink now. And then what is often happens after tempting thoughts is those thoughts start to move into some type of actions. And we we've called this in counseling seemingly unimportant decision. For example, I've had men tell me who were addicted to alcohol that they have a really tough day at work and they're looking for relief and they decide they're going to drive home. But today they're going to take the scenic route. They're making a seemingly unimportant decision. And the scenic route the drive home happens to be near the local liquor store. And before they know it, they're taking the scenic route. And then next thing they know, they're in the parking lot of the liquor store and they're they're indulging on alcohol. And then they g they have defeated thoughts. ⁓ how could I do this again? And then guilt. And then they try to they try to pull themselves up by their bootstraps or whatever they do and they get abstinence again. They're like, ⁓ no, I'm never gonna do that again and then a trigger event and tempting thoughts and seemingly an important decision and indulgence and defeated thoughts and guilt. And then they try to like Get their life together again and vow never to do it, only to be absent for a while, trigger tempting thoughts, and around and around and around they go. And the question becomes how do you break that cycle? And I would say for besetting sins like this, accountability just seems to be necessary. You just gotta have somebody that you talk to about this. And I, especially in the place when you are. Beginning down the road, you haven't acted out yet on the habitual sin, but you're tempted to that you need something to interrupt that process. And usually that's usually a friend to call, or that's a weekly group to attend, or that's a counselor that you see. And hopefully that your whole life is not just managing this sin, but it's defeating it. And oftentimes you can begin to understand why it is that you do this particular thing, you can genuinely repent of it, you can put God in his rightful place, you can learn new skills so that you can cope with whatever stressors are coming your way, and you learn new patterns so that you get off kind of the wheel of habitual sin. This is not an easy process. If something has grabbed you, Jesus is able to liberate you, but he usually does so in the context of community, in the context of counsel, in the context where you humble yourself and do the thing that's very hard when a sin is grown large, and that is say, I need help. And that is usually the first step to actually becoming. Whole. I pray that if there is a sin that is besetting, that through the Holy Spirit of God, through the care and counsel of his church, that you are able to find wholeness and healing in Jesus. Thank you for listening to the You Ask Podcast. This is a ministry of Liberty Baptist Church. And we pray this podcast enables you to more faithfully live out your Christian life.