 I don't struggle with sin. I do not partake in sin. I don't struggle with backsliding. I don't desire the things of the world. In today's video I interact with a pretty controversial TikToker. She recently said something about her relationship with sin and it confused a lot of folks. As always, let's dive in. I'm coming boldly to you as a servant of the Lord and I'm going to assure you that I will never make content about me struggling with sin because I don't. I don't struggle with sin. I do not partake in sin. I don't struggle with backsliding. I don't desire the things of the world. I'm not going to do that to you, why? Because I'm a living testimony of the fact that Jesus can heal you and deliver you from sin to the point where you no longer desire it, where you don't struggle. You are not going to live in your struggle forever. And as long as I hold my testimony, I'm a demonstration to you that what the Lord has done for me, he'll do for you because I'm not special and he doesn't love me more than you. And if he's freed me from sin, then he'll do the same thing for you. First, John 3-4, whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness and sin is lawlessness. And you know that he was manifested to take away our sins and in him there is no sin. Whoever abides in him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen him nor known him. He died on that cross. The reason why he walked on this earth was to free you from sin completely. Don't take that away from yourself. Don't take that away from your Lord. Whoever sins has never seen him. So all you have to do is to ask to see him. Lord Jesus, I pray that you reveal your heart to your sons and daughters in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. I think about if I had heard this message when I was a new Christian, how confusing it and disheartening and discouraging it would be for me because I was struggling with sin. And still am struggling with sin in a lot of ways. But back then especially it was like I was struggling with pride, with lust, with worry. It was and is still a battle. If I heard that message as a new Christian I would immediately start to doubt my own salvation. So what was I missing? What am I missing? This woman says that she doesn't sin at all. So what's the secret sauce? She uses a passage in 1 John to defend her perspective. So let's take a closer look. Beloved, we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins. And in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. It's so interesting. You just have to take a little bit of a closer look to look at the context and you begin to see we are not as we will be until we see Christ. So even within this passage that she states here, it's refuting her point. Key idea that we need to hone in on here is the idea of practicing sin. Are you living in a lifestyle of habitual unrepentant sin? Because if you are, there's no evidence that you are in Christ. Even later on there's a warning that if you make a practice of sin, you're of the devil. These are important warnings to examine yourself to see if you're in the faith but the expectation of perfection for the believer isn't illustrated here and it's not illustrated throughout the whole Bible. I think of the apostle Paul and his very open struggle with sin. For I do not understand my own actions for I do not do what I want but I do the very thing I hate. Now, if I do not do what I want, I agree with the law that it is good. So now it is no longer that I who do it but the sin that dwells within me for I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh for I have the desire to do what is right but I'm not the ability to carry it out for I do not do what I want but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. What Paul's illustrating here is the battle between the flesh and the spirit. You can see this uttered all throughout the scripture, this constant battle between what God is leading us into and the new creation that he's creating us into and also this flesh that still remains. I heard Harry Reader put it this way that even though sin no longer reigns, it still remains in our life. Now, as we heard, people can come against that understanding that sin still remains in any way but this is the heresy of sinless perfectionism, the belief that Christians can achieve perfection here on earth. It's so interesting. She used first John three to try to illustrate her point but you go a little bit earlier into first John one. It says this, Now I believe deception is most powerful when it is close to the truth and I want to make a distinction here between what she said and what the truth of scripture illustrates. I truly believe that we're not to be sitting in this space, this defeatist mentality or this victim mindset saying that, you know what, I'm just gonna completely struggle with every sin my whole life and I'll never find freedom from anything until Jesus comes back. I don't think that's true. This is what I've said to the folks that have been struggling with pornography. I say to them that I believe that through the power of the Holy Spirit, there could be a point in your life where you're not tempted to watch pornography. I believe that can happen. Is this a guarantee? No, but I've seen it, but the thing is you still may struggle with lust in other forms that you'll still need to run away from that temptation. As we follow Christ and he transforms us through his spirit in sanctification, we are laying things at his feet. We're finding victory in specific areas but the problem with this overall mindset of sinless perfectionism is that you can achieve total perfection, total victory over every aspect but the truth is we won't get to that point but there can be some key markers in your life, some key problem issues, some key sin issues that you want to hone in on that you can find victory from. I totally believe that. She talked about how she doesn't have the desire to sin anymore and when I think about our desires, yes, our desires have been transformed by God when he takes a heart of stone and turns it into a heart of flesh. We want to honor God. We want to do what God wants us to do but at the same time there's warring desires, there's warring affections where sometimes we look at something on the side of the path as we're following Jesus and it looks attractive to us and we go to it for a second or for a moment or for a season and we realize, man, this was actually just a mistake, this was just a facade, this wasn't delivered, didn't deliver me what I truly wanted and once again we turn our eyes in repentance towards Christ who is our ultimate affection. Here's the dangerous thing about this teaching. If you're not aware that there is a war going on, if you're not aware that there's a battle going on, a spiritual battle going on and you're convinced that every one of your desires is right, you're going to miss out on the necessary discernment and examination that it takes to be conformed into the image of Christ. If there's no battle or struggle against sin in your life, then you're just giving in and it's waging war on your soul. I just wanna encourage you, maybe you've seen content like this talking about how we need to be perfect as Christians or we shouldn't even struggle because it just should come naturally to us and we should just ultimately just walk in perfect holiness because we're Christians now and maybe that's put a burden on you, it probably has. I just want you to know that the fact that you do struggle, that you do battle against sin in your life is a testimony to the fact that God is working within you. Somebody that is a complete slave to sin that is without God, no relationship with God, they're not struggling against sin, they're just giving into it. So the fact that there is a battle, there is a struggle, to me that is a fruit that God is working within you that you want to want to desire to follow God, that you want to serve him or want to want to serve him. That's where you need to begin. I heard someone say it this way, it's not about perfection, it's about direction. So as we're on this path of following Jesus daily, there's gonna be times where our attention is taken and shifted towards things that are lesser than God and we're gonna be distracted, we're gonna take wrong turns, we're gonna fall on our face and the dirt but Jesus doesn't leave us there. He lifts our eyes to heaven to call us his child and to once again get up and follow him. That is the grace that I want you to walk in. Thanks so much for watching this video guys. If you enjoyed it, subscribe because I'm putting out new videos like this all the time, a huge shout out to everyone on Patreon. It is because of your support that I can continue to make this content, equipping people to follow Jesus daily. So thanks so much. If you want to support what I'm doing here, or if you enjoy the content, click the link in my description and check it out. Until next time, God bless.