SPEAKER_00: Well, we are gonna get back to our sermon series today.
SPEAKER_00: Just as a reminder, we have established over the first half of our series a working definition of what spiritual warfare is.
SPEAKER_00: I hope that's been clarifying to you.
SPEAKER_00: I hope that's been helpful to you to look at what what I think can be somewhat of a confusing topic and to look to scripture to get our understanding of when we talk about spiritual warfare, what are we talking about?
SPEAKER_00: To really summarize it up into a single concept.
SPEAKER_00: Really, spiritual warfare is the believer's battle against sin.
SPEAKER_00: When we talk about spiritual warfare, we're talking about fighting sin.
SPEAKER_00: And we've established the three primary enemies of the Christian who are working together to draw you away from God and draw you into sin.
SPEAKER_00: But beginning this morning, we now turn our attention to answering the question: how do we win this war?
SPEAKER_00: How do we successfully fight sin?
SPEAKER_00: This is where I hope the series turns from clarifying and understanding and defining what spiritual warfare is to now becoming much more practical.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope that over the next several weeks that what we explore and examine in Scripture will help equip you to just become a better fighter against sin.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're here this morning and maybe you'd say, I feel like I am fighting a losing battle.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're here this morning and you'd say that I just I feel like I've tried to fight sin in my life, and I feel like more often than not I lose.
SPEAKER_00: I feel as though sin has gotten a hold of me in this area or in that area.
SPEAKER_00: And if that's you this morning, then I hope that over the next several weeks that what we talk about today won't just be interesting or head knowledge, but that that you will sincerely seek to put into practice what we're talking about and find victory and find uh ways to defeat sin in your life so that you can become more holy.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that it is God's will for you to be holy today?
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_00: It is God's desire.
SPEAKER_00: We read in 1 Thessalonians, this is the will of God, Paul says.
SPEAKER_00: This is God's will, your sanctification, your setting apart away from sin and becoming more holy.
SPEAKER_00: That's God's will and God's desire for you.
SPEAKER_00: And if it's God's will for you to be holy, he provides the means and the avenue and the ability and the empowering grace for you to be holy.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what we're gonna talk about over these next several weeks.
SPEAKER_00: Are you excited?
SPEAKER_00: Are you excited this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Church, I've been gone for two weeks.
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited.
SPEAKER_00: I'm ready.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get into the word.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get in and we're gonna see how we can grow in holiness, how we can win the fight against sin.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna begin today in the book of 2 Peter.
SPEAKER_00: I intended to preach through several verses this morning, but by the time I had worked through the first verse, I had enough material for an entire sermon.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna take this morning to uh to look at one verse in the Bible, but I believe it's a supremely significant verse.
SPEAKER_00: The truth that is contained within this verse this morning, I believe, is a foundational piece to having victory over sin.
SPEAKER_00: And well worth our time this morning to fully examine and study out what the verse communicates.
SPEAKER_00: So turn with me in your own copies of God's word to 2 Peter chapter 1, 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 3, 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you now for this opportunity to open up your word.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, help me to preach, to preach well, to preach in a way that clarifies and communicates exactly what your word says, exactly what you mean by what you say in your word.
SPEAKER_00: Help me to get out of the way this morning and to really uh just be the mouthpiece and messenger to communicate the meaning and significance and application and ramifications of what your word says today.
SPEAKER_00: And I I want that.
SPEAKER_00: That's my desire because I fully trust and believe that it is your word that works in us and that changes us and that conforms us into Christ and encourages us and sustains us and feeds us and strengthens us.
SPEAKER_00: We need your word more than anything else, God.
SPEAKER_00: And so I pray your word would work in us today.
SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name I pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 3, Peter says or writes this His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.
SPEAKER_00: We notice this morning, first and foremost, that God has given you everything you need.
SPEAKER_00: And the possessor of the divine power in verse 3 is God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: So the His, the pronoun at the beginning of verse 3, is a reference to God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: It is God's divine power, and it is through God's power that he has granted you all things as they pertain to two significant categories that Peter mentions.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning everything that you could ever need as it relates to these categories comes directly through God's divine power.
SPEAKER_00: God's divine enabling power.
SPEAKER_00: And what are these two categories?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you'll notice in the text, the very first thing he mentions is life.
SPEAKER_00: Life.
SPEAKER_00: God has given you through his divine power everything you need for life.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, we recognize this morning this would include physical life.
SPEAKER_00: Your physical life this morning is a gift from God.
SPEAKER_00: Everything you need to physically live comes directly from God's hand.
SPEAKER_00: The food you need to eat to survive.
SPEAKER_00: The water you need to drink from God's direct hand.
SPEAKER_00: The very air, the oxygen you need to survive comes from God's own hand.
SPEAKER_00: From God.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that you can imagine that you need to continue on in physical existence is directly from God.
SPEAKER_00: But Peter likely does not have in mind here simply physical life alone.
SPEAKER_00: This is eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Your eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: This is good news because in the book of Galatians, chapter 3, we notice Paul mentioned, or Peter mentioned, for all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.
SPEAKER_00: For it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul's point in Galatians chapter 3 is that if your salvation were up to you, if eternal life were up to you, here's how you do it.
SPEAKER_00: You have to keep every single law as it is written in the book of the law.
SPEAKER_00: That 613 commandments that you must keep in perfection from the moment you first draw breath until the moment that you draw your last breath, both in external law-keeping and internal heart conformity to that perfect righteousness that is communicated through those 613 commands.
SPEAKER_00: Are you glad this morning eternal life isn't up to you to earn?
SPEAKER_00: Can somebody say amen?
SPEAKER_00: Are we glad?
SPEAKER_00: We are glad.
SPEAKER_00: We're glad that everything that you need to have eternal life with God is supplied by God, not earned by you.
SPEAKER_00: Woo! Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Notice how God does this, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: God supplies the sacrifice to atone for your sin.
SPEAKER_00: You need someone to pay the price for sin.
SPEAKER_00: You can't pay it.
SPEAKER_00: If you have to pay it, it's your life.
SPEAKER_00: That's the price.
SPEAKER_00: Notice how God supplies the sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Notice how God supplies the righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: You can't enter into the presence of God without attaining to his perfect standard of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: So, what does God do?
SPEAKER_00: He gives you Jesus' perfect righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Notice how he even supplies the resurrection body you need to inhabit eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Remember at the end of our study in 1 Corinthians, in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, we read about the resurrection body.
SPEAKER_00: God even supplies the body, the very body you need to live eternally, God gives to you.
SPEAKER_00: Everything you need for eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: God gives you what you need.
SPEAKER_00: So the first category here, Peter mentions God has granted you through his divine power everything that pertains to life.
SPEAKER_00: But notice, secondly, the second category.
SPEAKER_00: Not only does God give you everything you need for life, he gives you everything you need for godliness.
SPEAKER_00: For godliness.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what is godliness?
SPEAKER_00: Godliness, we would define it this way, is piety or devoutness that flows from an awesome respect for God.
SPEAKER_00: Or to say it another way, it is a life conformed to the moral character and nature of God.
SPEAKER_00: Godliness.
SPEAKER_00: And we notice here that Peter writes that everything that you need for godliness, everything you need to live a life conformed to the moral perfections of God, has been granted to you by God's own divine power.
SPEAKER_00: This is great news because we recognize once again our complete inability to be godly people.
SPEAKER_00: We are born in sin, we're born to love sin.
SPEAKER_00: We're born with a fallen human nature that loves sin.
SPEAKER_00: We are susceptible to the temptations of sin.
SPEAKER_00: And so God therefore supplies what you need to defeat sin and to live in holiness instead.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning every command found in Scripture, you have been enabled by God's divine power to yield to and to obey.
SPEAKER_00: Every single command in Scripture, you can conform to, you can yield to.
SPEAKER_00: You'd say, I don't know about a couple of them.
SPEAKER_00: All of them.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not up to you.
SPEAKER_00: It's not based off of your own human effort.
SPEAKER_00: It's by God's divine power.
SPEAKER_00: Every sin that you struggle with, you have been empowered to vanquish.
SPEAKER_00: You'd say, well, there's a couple that I really struggle with.
SPEAKER_00: There's a couple sins I can think of that I have tried for years, maybe.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: But Peter doesn't qualify this statement.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't a qualified statement, it's not a conditional statement.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that pertains to godliness, God has by his divine power granted to you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you don't believe me yet.
SPEAKER_00: Believe me.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to think this morning.
SPEAKER_00: There's a few lies of the enemy lies that we tell ourselves that this statement obliterates.
SPEAKER_00: Lie number one, I've struggled with this sin for so long, I'll never be free.
SPEAKER_00: I have fought and I fought and I fought, and truly, this sin, this specific sin, has mastered me.
SPEAKER_00: It has become my master.
SPEAKER_00: I have become enslaved to this sin.
SPEAKER_00: But Peter's statement obliterates the lie by reminding us that God has given you what you need.
SPEAKER_00: You're not missing anything this morning.
SPEAKER_00: You're not missing anything.
SPEAKER_00: God has given you everything you need to defeat any sin.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter how long that you've struggled with it.
SPEAKER_00: God has enabled you this morning by his divine power to defeat it.
SPEAKER_00: I've heard it described this way that sometimes when we when we yield ourselves to sin for so long, and there's maybe a maybe specific sin in your life that you have just yielded to and yielded to for so long.
SPEAKER_00: It's described like one of those giant cargo ships in the ocean.
SPEAKER_00: And you've seen these huge ships.
SPEAKER_00: And if you were to take that cargo ship and you were to tell the captain, Captain, we need to do a 180-degree turn.
SPEAKER_00: We need to do a complete change in direction.
SPEAKER_00: That captain doesn't just simply spin the wheel and do one of these and start going in the other direction.
SPEAKER_00: No, what does that captain need to do?
SPEAKER_00: He needs to start slowly turning that wheel.
SPEAKER_00: And that giant cargo ship, you know, it takes a long time for that ship to begin to slowly turn around and to start heading in the other direction.
SPEAKER_00: And some have described when you're battling sin for a long time, that's what it's like.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it's like.
SPEAKER_00: One degree, you're turning, you're turning this ship around, and it's one degree one day, and it's one degree the next day, and it's one degree the next day, and and you're slow, you have to turn this ship around, and you're not gonna all of a sudden just say, okay, snap.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so I'm completely free, I'm no longer tempted at all, I no longer struggle at all with this sin.
SPEAKER_00: That's not how it works.
SPEAKER_00: Day by day by day, the first day it's hard.
SPEAKER_00: You say, I'm committing today.
SPEAKER_00: Today I'm gonna finally get my anger under control.
SPEAKER_00: Today I'm finally going to put my tongue into submission.
SPEAKER_00: Today I'm finally gonna defeat the lust that has consumed me.
SPEAKER_00: And so you do the first day and you fight, and it's hard.
SPEAKER_00: You're turning a giant ship.
SPEAKER_00: And the next day, it's hard.
SPEAKER_00: And the next day.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard.
SPEAKER_00: But the idea is day by day, by day, by day, by day, by day, slowly that ship begins to turn.
SPEAKER_00: And what I don't mean is that you every day you lose, you lose, you lose.
SPEAKER_00: That's not turning the ship.
SPEAKER_00: Turning the ship is saying, today, today I'm choosing to put off my sin.
SPEAKER_00: Today I'm choosing by God's divine power to say no to these sins that so easily ensnare me.
SPEAKER_00: And then the next day, doing it again.
SPEAKER_00: And as you do that, eventually the grip that sin holds on you will loosen.
SPEAKER_00: It will loosen.
SPEAKER_00: How about the next lie?
SPEAKER_00: You can't teach a no, I missed it up.
SPEAKER_00: You can't teach an old dog new tricks.
SPEAKER_00: New dog old tricks.
SPEAKER_00: You can teach a new dog old tricks.
SPEAKER_00: That's supposed to say you can't teach an old dog new tricks.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not calling anybody here an old dog, just so you know.
SPEAKER_00: But some of you are here this morning and you'd say, you know what, I've lived a long time.
SPEAKER_00: I'm out of time.
SPEAKER_00: I just can't change my I can't change at this late stage in my life.
SPEAKER_00: But know this morning that you have never reached an age at which the power of God stops working in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you don't believe me.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you're 10 years old or you're 100, the power of God is active in your life, enabling you to change.
SPEAKER_00: How about the last one?
SPEAKER_00: This is just who I am.
SPEAKER_00: It's just who I am.
SPEAKER_00: It's a part of my nature.
SPEAKER_00: I just have a quick fuse.
SPEAKER_00: That's who I that's how that's how I was born.
SPEAKER_00: It's who I am.
SPEAKER_00: I just I shoot at the hip.
SPEAKER_00: I say what's on my minds, regardless of the consequences.
SPEAKER_00: It's just who I am.
SPEAKER_00: Can God change you?
SPEAKER_00: I hope you believe that.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just who you are.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe who you are needs to change.
SPEAKER_00: And God has equipped and enabled you to be transformed.
SPEAKER_00: You can change what you love.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of a big debate going on, like in the LGBTQ debates right now.
SPEAKER_00: Can God actually change what you love?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he can.
SPEAKER_00: He can.
SPEAKER_00: He can, you, your affections, what you love, can be shaped and transformed by the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's not who you are.
SPEAKER_00: Sin isn't who you are.
SPEAKER_00: The power of God changes and transforms you to conform you into holiness and into the image of His Son.
SPEAKER_00: You have everything you need for transformation to take place.
SPEAKER_00: So then the question becomes, how?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we've established to the premise, the principle.
SPEAKER_00: Now comes the question, how does this happen?
SPEAKER_00: How does this happen?
SPEAKER_00: Is it just wait, knuckle it, just say, no, no, no, no, no, no, don't sin today, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: Human resistance, human effort, fighting.
SPEAKER_00: Or does God provide exactly what you need to say no against the temptations of sin?
SPEAKER_00: Notice how the verse, the second half of the verse ends here.
SPEAKER_00: He says that his divine power is granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.
SPEAKER_00: So, what does the second half of the verse communicate to us today?
SPEAKER_00: It communicates this that everything that you need is transmitted to you, it's given to you through the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So the knowledge of Jesus Christ is the avenue by which God's divine power is activated in the granting to you of life and godliness.
SPEAKER_00: So let's break down what this means for both of those categories.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing Jesus is the means by which you receive eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: This knowledge of Jesus certainly includes intellectual facts and truths.
SPEAKER_00: You can't just make up who you think Jesus is.
SPEAKER_00: There's a reason why we have this.
SPEAKER_00: This is the truth.
SPEAKER_00: This is who Jesus really is.
SPEAKER_00: It's in here.
SPEAKER_00: So facts and truth are certainly a part of the equation of what Peter means when he refers to the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But it isn't just knowing.
SPEAKER_00: It isn't just knowing facts about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's not really what Peter means here.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's not just knowing the plan of salvation that saves you.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just knowing Romans' road that saves you.
SPEAKER_00: There's a saving faith.
SPEAKER_00: There's a personal faith and trust that results in a real knowing of the person of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is a person.
SPEAKER_00: He is a being.
SPEAKER_00: He's a personal being, as is God the Father and God the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And so the knowing of Jesus extends beyond simple intellectual facts, although that's a part of the basis of it, and extends into having a personal knowing relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Do you recognize this morning that that's God's design for your salvation?
SPEAKER_00: Why you're saved from sin is so that you can be with and know Jesus for all of eternity, enjoying Him and delighting in Him and being with Him forever.
SPEAKER_00: So the knowing of Jesus, knowing Jesus personally, is the means by which God gives you and grants you eternal life through the personal placing of your faith and trust in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Saving faith in Jesus results in a union and communion with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So we recognize this morning that.
SPEAKER_00: Everything you need for eternal life comes to you through knowing Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But notice once again our second category here, this also applies to godliness.
SPEAKER_00: This also applies to godliness.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, there's a reason.
SPEAKER_00: These are sequential, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: These are sequential.
SPEAKER_00: He says life and godliness, meaning life comes first, regeneration comes first, being made a new creation comes first, and then what follows is what?
SPEAKER_00: Godliness.
SPEAKER_00: So God gives you everything you need for life that comes to the knowledge of knowing Jesus, and then he gives you everything you need for godliness, which once again, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: Comes through what?
SPEAKER_00: Knowing Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is where this gets really good, people.
SPEAKER_00: This is where this gets really good because you say, I'm struggling with sin.
SPEAKER_00: I'm having a hard time.
SPEAKER_00: How do I fight sin?
SPEAKER_00: How do I battle sin?
SPEAKER_00: How do I win?
SPEAKER_00: How do I fight the battle and win against sin?
SPEAKER_00: Guess how?
SPEAKER_00: Knowing Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: It means that everything that you need to grow in godliness and to fight sin comes through you growing in knowing Jesus more.
SPEAKER_00: You'd say, I already know him.
SPEAKER_00: Try that one with your wife, men.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to spend any more time with her.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to get to know her anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I already know her.
SPEAKER_00: Hold on a second.
SPEAKER_00: What does this mean?
SPEAKER_00: It means that there is a depth to your relationship with Jesus that has no bottom.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning you go deeper and deeper and deeper.
SPEAKER_00: And the fellowship and the union and the communion with Jesus gets richer and richer and better and better and sweeter and sweeter.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what he says here.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what he says.
SPEAKER_00: How does Jesus call you?
SPEAKER_00: He's called us to what?
SPEAKER_00: His own glory and excellence.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning that as you grow in your knowing of Jesus, as you grow in knowing Jesus more day by day by day, you grow in your relationship with Jesus every day.
SPEAKER_00: So the more you grow in knowing Jesus, the more magnificent he becomes, the better he becomes, the more majestic he comes, he becomes.
SPEAKER_00: The more you come to know Jesus, his glory shines brighter and brighter and brighter.
SPEAKER_00: And we are drawn like a moth to flame.
SPEAKER_00: We are drawn to the greatness and the glory and the splendor and the majesty and the sovereignty of our Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And not only his glory, but notice he says his excellence.
SPEAKER_00: And the word there carries the connotation of moral excellence, which means that we are drawn to Jesus' perfect love.
SPEAKER_00: Who else loves you like Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Who else loves you with the depth and the strength and the perfections of the love of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Who?
SPEAKER_00: Where else can you go for that unconditional perfect love?
SPEAKER_00: And that's just one.
SPEAKER_00: How about his kindness?
SPEAKER_00: Who else is perfectly kind?
SPEAKER_00: People are mean sometimes, aren't they?
SPEAKER_00: People are mean.
SPEAKER_00: My own kids are mean to me.
SPEAKER_00: People are mean.
SPEAKER_00: Where else can you go for the perfect kindness?
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: What about compassion?
SPEAKER_00: What about patience and long suffering?
SPEAKER_00: What about grace and mercy?
SPEAKER_00: What about justice and righteousness and fairness and holiness?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is perfect.
SPEAKER_00: He has moral excellence, moral perfection that can be found nowhere else.
SPEAKER_00: And the more you know Jesus, the more he draws you to himself through those perfections of his character and who he is.
SPEAKER_00: And the more you are drawn to him and love him and grow closer to him.
SPEAKER_00: And while this is happening, day by day by day by day, and you don't stop.
SPEAKER_00: It's why Jesus says, abide in me, remain in me.
SPEAKER_00: Don't stray away from me.
SPEAKER_00: Stay with me, stay in me.
SPEAKER_00: And the more you do that, the more you are growing and knowing Jesus more every day.
SPEAKER_00: Get this.
SPEAKER_00: He satisfies you and fills you up with his perfections so that there is no more room in your heart to want sin.
SPEAKER_00: That's how you fight.
SPEAKER_00: How do you fight?
SPEAKER_00: Go to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just come to Jesus Sunday morning at 9.15 next week.
SPEAKER_00: Every morning.
SPEAKER_00: Start your morning.
SPEAKER_00: Go to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about the practice of biblical meditation in a couple of weeks.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to get really practical there about how you do this, but this is the principle here.
SPEAKER_00: In the morning, go to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Fill yourself up in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Before you go to bed.
SPEAKER_00: Satisfy yourself in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Grow in knowing Jesus more.
SPEAKER_00: You're struggling with sin.
SPEAKER_00: Could I ask you, are you growing in knowing Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Is Jesus just a concept, an idea?
SPEAKER_00: Just a figure that you kind of have learned about but don't really know.
SPEAKER_00: I'd say that's where you gotta start.
SPEAKER_00: That's where Peter says you gotta start.
SPEAKER_00: This summer, Liz.
SPEAKER_00: Now I owe her ice cream because that's our rule if I use her in illustration, and I forget to tell her I owe her ice cream, so.
SPEAKER_00: Here you go, Liz.
SPEAKER_00: Free ice cream.
SPEAKER_00: Over the summer, Liz built a mud kitchen in our backyard.
SPEAKER_00: Has anybody heard of these things?
SPEAKER_00: A mud kitchen.
SPEAKER_00: It's like a thing that you build, I don't even know.
SPEAKER_00: You put all these pieces of wood pallets together and build a kit an outdoor kitchen.
SPEAKER_00: And you get all these old pots and pans, and then the kids can use play with mud basically and make like mud food for us.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And so now Benaya, he'll go out into the mud kitchen and he'll make these mud pies and mud cakes, and he'll offer them to me for sustenance.
SPEAKER_00: I say, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: I'd love another one.
SPEAKER_00: Goes and make another one.
SPEAKER_00: He loves it.
SPEAKER_00: He loves playing in the mud kitchen.
SPEAKER_00: Great job, Liz.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what Benaya likes more than like mud cookies and mud muffins?
SPEAKER_00: The real thing.
SPEAKER_00: He loves the real cookies, right?
SPEAKER_00: So I could tell Benaya, if I said, Benaya, you need to stop playing in the mud.
SPEAKER_00: Stop playing in the mud.
SPEAKER_00: I say, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: Stop doing that.
SPEAKER_00: He might obey, but he's also a rebellious little kid.
SPEAKER_00: And he probably is just still doing it because he is having fun.
SPEAKER_00: He's enjoying the mud.
SPEAKER_00: He's having fun.
SPEAKER_00: I could start to, I could start to punish and discipline him.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I could start taking away toys, right?
SPEAKER_00: I could send up the timeouts.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we could do some spankings.
SPEAKER_00: We could do various disciplinary techniques to try to get him to stop.
SPEAKER_00: And that might work too, but inside he probably still is going to really want to be playing in the mud because there's a joy and a fun to it.
SPEAKER_00: I could grab away everything he's playing with.
SPEAKER_00: I could do all these measures to try to get him to stop.
SPEAKER_00: But what I believe the most effective strategy would be to get him to stop playing in the mud is to say, Banaiah, I made cookies.
SPEAKER_00: Put your mud down and come inside and eat.
SPEAKER_00: And I guarantee you, because he is my son after all, that at the sound of the of the temptation of a treat inside, he would ditch the mud in a heartbeat and would begin to run with the speed of which a three-year-old, almost three-year-old can run into the house to partake of the better treat, the better joy, the better pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: This is what it means to know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This is how God has designed for you to grow in holiness.
SPEAKER_00: He's given you his son.
SPEAKER_00: He's given you Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's given you someone who is so much supremely better than sin.
SPEAKER_00: So you say, I don't why would I want, why would I want the mud pies anymore?
SPEAKER_00: Why would I want that?
SPEAKER_00: When I can have the glory and the excellence of Jesus instead.
SPEAKER_00: That's how you fight.
SPEAKER_00: That's how you win.
SPEAKER_00: So, church, do it.
SPEAKER_00: Do it, church.
SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Today.
SPEAKER_00: Satisfy yourself in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And I promise, because it's the promise of Scripture, that the lure and enticement of sin will weaken in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And you will just find supreme joy and satisfaction in someone who is so much better than the mud pies.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for today.
SPEAKER_00: Thankful for this opportunity to open up your word and to study out this single verse this morning, but an important verse.
SPEAKER_00: One that's packed with such a helpful concept for us to embrace.
SPEAKER_00: We know that sin is powerful, it's strong, it is a temptation.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure that everyone here this morning has sin in their life that they struggle with and have a hard time defeating and fighting and putting away.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes there's a feeling of hopelessness and helplessness, sometimes even a feeling of defeat that may wash over us.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I pray that we would all together this morning as a church be encouraged and uplifted this morning in the truth that you, by your divine power, it's not our human initiative, it's your divine power that has granted to us everything we need, not just for eternal life with you, but to live in godliness.
SPEAKER_00: And we're thankful this morning that the means by which we can walk in that empowering grace is through coming to know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing his glory, knowing his excellence, his perfections.
SPEAKER_00: I pray, Lord, that we would go to Jesus, satisfy ourselves in Jesus, look to Jesus every day, growing and knowing him more.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that as we satisfy ourselves in Jesus, in the knowledge of Jesus, Father, I pray that you would make us godly.
SPEAKER_00: Turn us away from our sin.
SPEAKER_00: And turn us to what is so much better holiness through knowing Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's in his name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: This time we are going to transition into our communion service.
SPEAKER_00: So I'd ask the guys to