On Sin, Vulnerability, and Victory

0:02 If we're being honest, many times we don't necessarily hate sin. We actually hate how sin makes us feel about ourselves. We hate the shame that comes with it. We hate the failure. We hate the disappointment that comes with committing a sin that we do not want to commit. But the question is, should we grieve sin because it wounds our pride or because it's grieves good? Because no matter how many tips or tricks we learn, we'll keep losing the same battles if our motivation to not sin is to feel good about ourselves.

0:44 Hi, welcome. Welcome back to the Rooted podcasts. Here, timeless biblical truth is brought to you in a way that is true, that's clear, authentic, yet powerful. So how are you doing? How have you been? I know it's been a while. I think 2 weeks. I'm not sure the exact duration, but yeah, I think it's two weeks. Life has been busy or busier recently. I'm actually going for my. I think by the time this gets to you, I'll already be at the NYC orientation camp.

1:23 Promises to be interesting. I will update you on how that goes when I can. Yeah. Also, this is random, but before I was about to record this episode, I was listening to music and I was just thinking about how music is such a beautiful thing. And this is, this is one of the ways by which God blessed us. You think about music, you listen to music and you just tell that God is good. Like such a creation had to have come from a good God. You can just listen to a song and it just takes you to such a lovely place.

1:58 So yeah, that's pretty much it's. Anyway, today's episode. A lot of times when we talk about temptation and victory, we've seen what we really mean or what image we really have in our mind without realizing. It's most times it's personal success. So we measure victory by how many days we've gone without failing or without falling, how disciplined we feel, or how strong we look to ourselves and to others. And when we feel the thing that hurts us the most is often not that God was grieved, but that we didn't live up to our own expectations.

2:39 But Scripture presents victory in a very different way. Victory over sin is not first about how powerful or consistent we are. It's about our obedience to God. Jesus was saying in John 14 verse 15. I remember the first time I heard this, it was actually my aunt that was I. I followed her to a church in a remote area and I don't know what I didn't even know what I was paying attention to teaching both. I remember hearing I called this verse John 1415. If you love me, you keep my commandments and he stuck with me.

3:13 This was over five years ago. I don't think I was even taking my walk with God that seriously then, but all I know is it stuck with me. But anyway, point is, obedience is supposed to be the focus. So what we're actually striving for is obedience. And when obedience becomes the aim, victory becomes a result. It becomes the fruit of our obedience to God. Scripture even tells us to obey better than sacrifice. Just saying. So sometimes the language of victory version can actually 'cause more harm than good, or it can subtly make us feel like we've defeated something by our own strength, like David's standing over Goliath.

3:58 I think that gives the best picture. But the Bible is clear that any virtual experience cannot be self generated. It is not self generated. Paul was telling us in first Corinthians 15 it was the same or not us. It was talking to the Corinthian church, but by extension believers. And he was saying thanks be to God who gives us victory through Jesus Christ and passes on through Jesus Christ. So even our ability to obey is empowered by God's grace. So an issue is not where that victory is real, because it is.

4:31 The issue is how we view it, how we understand it. If we are more focused on how failure makes us look or how it makes us feel than on how sin grieves God. And our view of victory is still self-centered, even if it seems spiritual. This self centeredness is also why we approach sins selectively. Sometimes we identify a particular struggle, the one that feels most obvious, most embarrassing, or in some case destructive, like, oh, these things are really destroying the future. I need to get rid of it.

5:06 And things like that are we poured all our efforts into it and I can see some of these things because I've been there. Basically, I'm a work in progress, so I can relate to everything I'm saying. Everything I'm saying is something that I'm currently learning and I'm currently dealing with as well. But basically, we focus on the most obvious or the most pressing issue. But that means in doing so, we sometimes excuse other things or we compromise on other things. So for example, we might feel devastated by lusts, but we're casual about pride or gossip.

5:44 We repent deeply over impurity, but we just shrug us dishonesty or bitterness. And So what we need to understand is that sin does not all of a sudden lose its distaste or displeasure to God. He does not lose it's I don't know what word to use, but it doesn't only so didn't become less of sin because we rank it differently. Scripture says in I think James, yeah, he was saying whoever keeps the whole love blood fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. So holiness is not about managing 1 weakness.

6:22 It's it's, it's more like you're aligning your whole life to the whole will of God. So anything that does not please him matters, even if he feels small to you. You are not the skill. Other people's views or perspectives are not the skill. What is the skill or who determines the skill is called So when we fail, and we will all have moments when we fail or have moments when we fail, many of us then begin to turn inward instead of upward. This is another hint that you are more self-centered than God centered as regards your approach to victory version or dealing with temptations.

7:04 But point is, whenever you have those moments when you fall, you begin to turn inward instead of upward. So it's like we become so critical of ourselves. We get so angry, so annoyed as ourselves, so frustrated with ourselves. It's like you start replaying everything. What could you have done better? In some occasions, maybe you even speak harshly to yourself and in my scene like humility, but it's really just another form of pride. You're upset that you didn't perform well, not because you wounded your relationship with God, not because you tampered with it or tarnished it, but because of how you feel, how you did not measure up, you did not meet that standard that you had in mind.

7:50 And so Scripture tells us plainly that there is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ, but they're still wiling in condemnation. And so while conviction is supposed to lead us back to God, condemnation keeps us looking inward. And the longer we stay there, the weaker we become because really there's nothing edifying about being frustrated with yourself. There's nothing edifying about speaking harshly to yourself. It doesn't help you. It certainly doesn't deal with the issue. So it just makes you very kindly.

8:22 So this inward focus is such a is such a big issue. It is such a big issue. It's pride, it's pride, it's pride. And it's also what makes vulnerability an issue. We know at the various intellectual like borderline base, at the very least intellectually we know that we need to reach out when we have issues. This is like this is just a normal human thing. Maybe you're at work, you don't know something, you ask somebody, then let's now bring it to Scripture. James again was saying confess your sins to one another, pray for another, one another and things like that.

9:03 But when we have an issue, we hesitate because of how afraid we are of how people will see us. We are afraid of being seen as weak or not perfect or just losing that image of strength or spirituality that people have associated with us. I think it's much more pressing in that situation. You know, it's like I've already stood on the stage to talk about God. I've already posted things on my status about God. This is what my bio says. How can I now go and tell someone that I am dealing with this issue?

9:34 And so we choose silence. It's, it's, it's crazy. It's, it's, it's difficult, like, and deep down, it's not as if we don't know that we're supposed to reach out. But it's, it's tough. It's tough. And the issue now is that the fear of men sort of keeps us trapped. You know, it ensnares us for lack of better terms. And at the same time, there's another side to this whole thing of dealing with temptations before we talk about how we actually resolve them. There's another side to the whole thing. One side is, oh, you know what?

10:10 You're so fixated on dealing with it. The other side is total passiveness to the work of God. So it's like in trying to emphasise the grace of God, we come to believe that we have no part to play in our pursuit for holiness, even though God commands it. So it's like God is working. God is working in you both to will and to dove. It's good pleasure and color that you don't need to do anything. Whereas Scripture tells us Scripture commands us to be transformed by the renewing of your mind, which points to the fact that there's intentionality involved in it.

10:43 But more than that, it gives the idea that is a recurring thing. It is a regular thing. And this is because temptation is recurring. So because temptation will always come, renewal should also be a constant thing. And this is what I'll bring just to our resolve. This is why the Word of God is absolutely essential in the fight against temptation. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, he did not display a miraculous act of power. He did not call on indios to his defence. He quoted Scripture. He said man channel you by breeding, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

11:22 Jesus showed us that victory by temptation is sustained by internalized truth. You cannot rely on a word you have not absorbed in a word you've not meditated on something that's not become a part of you. And this was why David the psalmist said, I have stored up your word in my heart that I may not sin against you. And this practice, mind you, this whole thing of holding the word of God, Jesus modelled Jesus of course gave us that example, but we see people even in the early church do it. Many believers memorize large posts of scriptures because then physical copies were not necessarily available like now.

12:01 They were very rare and a lot of times because of persecution and things like that, they were confiscated. So some early persons did not know when they would ever see a Bible was like this like if they see is 1, they don't know they don't know when next they might actually have access to so different things. Church fathers so like they were known for extensively memorizing Scripture, right? Because they knew that their sustenance, their life was dependent on this very thing. They understood something that when temptation comes suddenly what you haven't stored internally will not be available externally.

12:37 So for lack of better terms, you need to have a Bank of the word of God within you. Again, you're not cramming it to the intention that OK, you know what? Once ambition comes, I can, you know, begin to wage or. But yeah, actually memorize and meditating because this is the very thing that liberates you. This is the very thing that will save you. Paul. It's in the Word of God that we see. Paul was speaking to Roman church and he tells them romantics that consider yourselves dead to sin. Our knowledge or the realization that we are there to sin comes from the Word of God.

13:09 Of course, it is the Spirit of God that will actually do a work in our hearts, but it's the Word of God that reveals it to us. And so we must trust the Word of God. We must hold on to it. The Word of God says walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the loss of the flesh. We trust it and we hold on to it. The Word of God says, oh, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. The Word of God says that we have victory in Christ, that we've overcome the word, we hold on to it.

13:37 And finally, there's one more lie that needs to be confronted as regards this whole thing of vulnerability, temptation and victory. And it's delighted at consistent victory is impossible. Many believers, myself inclusive, have been at stages in their life or in our lives. We've been at stages where we expect failure subconsciously or very certainly. We expect failure even after praying for victory version. So we assume that a relapse is inevitable. We can go for long streaks, but eventually, just eventually there's going to be that slack off.

14:20 And I believe that life was so long. I knew intellectually speaking or days of our memory that Christ has given us victory. But again, subconsciously I was preparing myself that at some point I will fall and then I'll have to go back to the like I was gingering myself up that when I fall, if I'm just go back to God and things like that. But Scripture says sin will no longer have dominion value. And God is faithful. He will not let you to be tempted beyond your ability, but with every temptation he provides a way out.

14:47 So this is the word of God telling us that it is possible. It is possible to live a life of consistent victory where temptations will still come, but you don't give in and the next time it comes, you still don't give in and you live your life on like that. Am I saying that, oh, you're going to attain seamless perfection? No, I didn't be. We all still make mistakes, but I'm speaking particularly to the context of maybe there's a struggle that you have a particular advice that you're dealing with that it's like every two market days, you know, or every now and then there's just a kind of pattern of that particular traits.

15:22 It is possible to live a life of consistent victory.

15:28 So this is not a call or this episode is not saying you should be perfect. It's, it's a call to obedience, to dependence, absolute and utter dependence on God, to humility, to a life that is shaped and sustained by the word of God, to a life of vulnerability. Because really, do you want to prioritize how people will see you more than whether what you're doing grieves God?

15:59 So again, a life of humility, a life of vulnerability. Scripture assures us that the same God who calls us to holiness is the one who keeps us. Jude one lessons for now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and present you blameless to himself. That's the God that we serve. So I really hope this episode helped you. I hope it shed light on something. I hope it reminded you maybe of something you had forgotten. I don't. I just hope it edifies you. I hope it exerts you. I hope it gives you hope or you need hope.

16:32 I hope it gives you clarity where you need clarity. I hope it gives you strength where you need strength. Because I know thinking about all of these things, I was grateful to God for his strength, for his help, for his clarity and thinking about him. I was just thanking God looking at scripture, reading books that talk about holiness, like when I began to understand a lot of these things better, I was really beautiful to God. And and I was like, I'm going to share this. I'm going to share this. And this is me sharing it too.

17:00 Yeah. I hope this was a good episode. I hope you enjoyed listening. Thank you for listening this far. I love you so much. All right, if you have feedback for me, please, by all means let me know, right? If you can reach me on IDKJ dot FME Fiishman X only be rights or if you have my ersonal number, you can reach out to me whichever I want. O yeah, take care of yourself, stay rooted. Bye.