 God did not create you to live in defeat. God did not create you to live under the subjection of the power of sin. God did not create you to walk in confusion. God did not create you to live in guilt and shame which destroy your joy, which destroy your peace. So if you wanna be set free, lift your hands and say set me free. And you watching online, just write that in the comments section right now. Even if you're watching on the replay, set me free. Because the reality is all of us are being perfected. All of us have issues that we need to deal with. Now for some, this is revealed in the way sometimes that we behave, for others it's in the way we think, for others it's in the way we allow our emotions to control us. But here's the thing about battling the flesh. The flesh doesn't come and go. It shrinks and grows. The flesh doesn't arrive and then leave. The flesh gains power and loses power depending upon how we respond to the word of God. So as you live according to the word, each step that you take in the direction that God has willed, each response of obedience to God's word begins to weaken the power of the flesh over you. So what begins to happen in the life of some believers is they begin to gradually come into these behavior patterns. And this is not just for people who are dealing with secret sins of lust like pornography and adultery and things like that. This is for every believer because all of us have the tendency to be pulled back into our old ways. Unfortunately, you cannot cast you out of you. You're stuck with you. And so we must live in a way that keeps the flesh, keeps that sin nature under the power of the Holy Spirit. And the moment we begin to let off, the moment we begin to lower our guards, that's when the sin nature begins to take the opportunity to gain more influence over you. Now watch this First Corinthians chapter nine, verses 26 and 27. Paul the apostle writes, I therefore so run, not as uncertainly. So fight I not as one that beateth the air. In other words, he has focus. He knows where to hit the enemy. Verse 27, but I keep my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast away. Startling words written by Paul the apostle, especially when you consider that Paul the apostle was one who wrote a good portion of the New Testament. He was the one to whom God gave the revelation of the gospel being also for the Gentiles. He was the one who experienced heavenly visions that were so powerful that God had to give him a thorn in the flesh just to keep him humble. An apostle of power and faith, walked with the Lord, met Jesus in his glorified form. Even he writes, lest I become a cast away. Paul the apostle says, I have to keep my body under the power of the spirit, lest I myself, after having preached to others, become a cast away. If he was vulnerable, so are we. That's how strong the flesh is. Now, it's at this point I have to tell you that when you read the scripture and you read that word flesh, sometimes depending upon the context, that word flesh is talking about the physical body. And other times depending upon the context, that word is talking about the sin nature or the tendency to disobey God. If I say something like, well, we drove over the bridge to get to the island, you think of one kind of bridge. But if I say, you know, they were arguing, but then they bridged the gap, you think of a different type of bridge, a metaphor. So it depends upon the word in the context and the context will dictate the meaning. Still, the physical body and the sin nature have a very close connection, though they're not the same. Now, your body is not evil unto itself. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Your body can be used as an instrument of worship. Your body can carry the very glory of God, the manifested, tangible presence. You can become like the Ark of the Covenant in the earth, the living Ark that carries a glory that people can literally feel around you in a tangible way. And that same body can also commit sins that grieve the Holy Spirit. That same body has a mouth that can speak words. I'm astonished at how often we do the devil's job for him in discouraging one another, in gossiping about one another, in speaking doubt instead of faith, in saying things that are in direct contradiction to the word of God. Now, look at what the Bible says in 1 John, chapter two, verse 16. 1 John 2.16, this is what the scripture reveals about the nature of sin. Because before you can address the problem of sin, you have to look at what the scripture says concerning sin. You have to understand the nature of sin. 1 John 2.16 says this, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. Say this, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. Okay, these three make up the entirety of the nature of sin. Any sin that you can think of will, categorically speaking, fall under one of these three. Now, I'm not saying that there are only three sins. I'm saying that according to scripture, there are only three kinds of sins. And all sin, whether it be internal or external, omission or commission, thought or action, will fall under one of these three categories. Either the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life. Let me show you something. So here we see the scripture revealing the fact that sin has a three-fold nature. And then we see in Genesis chapter three, this is amazing, watch this now. The very first temptation. Genesis three, one through seven, watch this. The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden? Interesting. The enemy's first tactic. In order to tempt, he must first deceive. And in order to deceive, he must get you to question the word of God. This is why sin is so rampant in our world today, because culture, as a whole, generally speaking, has stepped off the foundation of the word and onto the sinking sand of man's opinion. The word is no longer elevated as the final authority. We've elevated man's opinion now as the final authority, and we find ourselves as a culture in lunacy, chaos, and confusion. So that's what the enemy does first. He first questions the word. Did God really say? And then the Bible says in verse two, of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, the woman replied. It's only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, you must not eat it or even touch it. If you do, you will die. So first we saw the serpent question, and then verse four, you won't die. The serpent replied to the woman. So first he questions, and then he contradicts. And this is that slippery slope that nations don't just fall into, but people fall into. First it begins with my questioning of the word, and then it becomes a contradiction of the word. You won't die, the serpent replied to the woman. God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God knowing both good and evil. The woman was convinced. There we see deception before the fall into temptation. Watch this now. But where the three components of sin, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, watch this, she saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious. So there we see the sight when she saw the tree and its beauty, and then the fruit being delicious, that is a physical craving. That's the lust of the flesh. And she wanted the wisdom it would give her. She wanted to be like God. That was the pride of life. And here we see all of these different components of sin falling into place in the very first temptation of mankind. Temptation is not an event. It's a process. This is something we have to catch here. We imagine that we sinned, and again, I'm not just talking about sexual sin because whenever I talk about overcoming sin, that's where everyone's mind goes. Whenever I talk about sinful habits, that's where everyone's minds go. Things like drugs or alcohol or sexual sin. We're not talking just about that. I'm talking about anything in your nature that contradicts the nature or the word of God. And so it begins as a process. It is not a one-time event, but I will use sexual sin as an example. Adultery doesn't begin in the final act of adultery. It begins with a flirtatious Facebook message. Going back to your ways of drunkenness, that doesn't begin at the bar. It begins with a thought two or three days before that Friday where you gave in. If you fall into sin on Friday, it's probably because Monday through Thursday you were filling your mind with images, thoughts, and things that caused you to be pulled toward that moment. And in every temptation, God will provide a way out. This is why the scripture talks about fleeing from temptation, not debating with it. Here's a mistake that many people make. They try to get into arguments with the flesh. The moment you begin to find yourself debating with your sin nature, you've already lost. Because now what you're doing is you're exercising willpower and you're fighting against the flesh that's going to get what it wants. This is why the scripture talks about fleeing from temptation. The prayer goes, lead us not into temptation. Not, Lord, help me fight it when I put myself there. And once that debate begins to happen, that back and forth, should I, shouldn't I, should I, shouldn't I, should I, shouldn't I? Say that, do that, go there, think that, should I, shouldn't I? That really is the spiral of death. Being in that process is the spiral has already begun, the back and forth, the back and forth. We are not called to flirt with temptation or debate with temptation. We are called to flee from temptation. And this is why we have to begin to put distance between ourselves and the things that tempt us. It's a process, not an event. Psalm 101.3 says, I will set no wicked thing before my eyes, I hate the work of them that turn aside. It shall not cleave to me. Here's the thing about the flesh. Your flesh is really good at lying to you. And by that I mean, you're really good at lying to yourself. You see, because on the surface level of who you are, you're telling yourself, I'm not gonna do that, I'm not gonna say that, I'm not gonna go there, I'm not gonna give in. And the flesh in the deeper layer, those deeper hidden desires are pooling toward it. And you're saying I'm not going there, I'm not doing that, that's not my intention. And you may tell yourself it's not your intention all the while taking actions and steps that pull you closer to it. I can't tell you how many times I've received phone calls from young men who are struggling with sexual temptation. And I'm using sexual temptation several times as a good example of the nature of temptation because it's easier for people to understand. The thought process might be a little more nuanced and more difficult to explain. But they'll say like, well, I don't wanna fall again. And I'm saying, well, then why are you going away for a weekend with her? Well, I don't plan on doing anything. I'm not planning on actually falling in. I just, I wanna keep myself and pray for me, but I'm gonna go away for a weekend with her. I'm thinking, you're driving toward the temptation. You're flying toward the temptation. And in doing so, you're telling yourself, I have no intention of doing this ever again when deep down in your heart, you're saying, when is my next opportunity? And that is really the destructive power of the deceptive nature of the flesh. Song, Song of Psalms 2.15 says this, catch all the foxes, those little foxes before they ruin the vineyard of love for the great vines are blossoming. Now, Song of Solomon is really a spiritual picture between Christ and his bride. And that garden represents your love for God and his love for you, that relationship that we have with him. So when the scripture talks about catching all the little foxes that spoil the vine, it's talking about catching those little things that destroy your relationship with God before they become an issue. And this is where we have to be vigilant, not dealing with things when they come to manifestation, not dealing with things when they finally begin to surface, but putting that distance between us and what tempts us, putting that distance between us and wrongdoing, that distance between us and wrong thinking. And the only way to do that is by living by God's word. And I'm gonna show you how to overcome this. Again, we're still analyzing the nature of sin, exposing it for what it is, exposing the sin nature, the flesh, and how deceptive and crafty it is in getting what it wants. And so those little foxes spoil the vine. Those little things, those thoughts you don't hold captive. Unforgiveness doesn't just show up. Unforgiveness comes from not taking thoughts of bitterness captive. Pride doesn't just show up. Pride begins to develop when we don't take pride for thoughts captive. Things begin to spiral out of control if we do not address the issues at their root. It is better to deal with little temptations and be labeled as hyper spiritual than it is to allow for compromise and be called a hypocrite. You wanna overcome it? I'm gonna show you. I don't have the answers, but the scripture does. Let's go to them. So here are keys to overcoming the nature of sin. Key number one, you have to see the truth about your sin. Let me show you something powerful. In Psalm 32, I'm gonna read verses one through six. Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight. Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty. Watch this now. This is key. When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away. And I groaned all day long. Day and night, your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. For those of you here, like water in the Texas heat. Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. Wow, that's honesty. I stopped. I stopped lying to myself. I stopped lying to you, even though you didn't believe the lies, Lord. I became honest. I said to myself, I will confess my rebellion to the Lord and you forgave me. All my guilt is gone. Wow, what joy for those whose lives are lived in purity, what peace they have when they place their heads on the pillow. They're not looking over their shoulder, wondering when they'll be caught, but they're lived in complete honesty. Now, here's really, Lord, help me say this. Don't confuse regret for repentance. And again, this comes back to the very crafty nature of the flesh, which will say things like, you feel bad, God, I'm sorry. And really what you want is relief from the guilt, but not release from the sin. And the flesh lies to you. And sometimes you allow it to lie to you and you say, I'll never do that again, but deep down in your heart, you're saying, well, maybe at least not for a couple of weeks. You know, in the original language, to repent means to change your mind. And in the context of biblical repentance, it means to change your mind in such a way that it changes the way you live. It's to come into agreement with God and to say, God, I agree with you. What I'm doing, how I'm thinking, it's wrong. Not just the actions, the thoughts, the feelings, the entitlements, the pride, the anger, the bitterness, the doubt, the cynicism, all of it. God, it's wrong. And I agree with you. Not only do I agree with you on the fact that it's wrong, but I agree with you that this has no place in my life. And not just no place in my life, but this doesn't belong in my life in even a hint, in even a small portion, in even a little taste. This thing has to go now, and it has to go permanently, and it has to go in all forms. Not, it has to go for now, and then a couple of weeks from now, I'll regret it again, repent until the guilt is gone, and then go right back to it. But Lord, I'm gonna change this by your power. I agree with you that this is wrong. John 8.32, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. First John 1.9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we confess our sins. Not in the sense of I'm listing them, and because I list them, then they can be forgiven. That is a legalistic way to look at confession. It's not to list them because then what happens if there's a sin that you forgot about? Well, good luck with that if that's what you think confession is. No, no, confession is to acknowledge, to agree, to confess, God, this is wrong, and it needs to go. And so, once we see the truth about sin, it actually sets us on a path to say, okay, now that I agree that this has to go in every form, not just for today, not just for the next month, not just for this season of my life, but this has to go permanently and it needs to be removed completely. That's really the first step to beginning to deal with some of those things in our lives because what happens is we become apathetic about it, and then we just live in this perpetual state of guilt, repentance, guilt, repentance, guilt, repentance, guilt, repentance, and then the cycle never breaks until you come to the conclusion of God, this has to go and it can go by your power. It's not a part of who I am. It doesn't matter what I was taught growing up. It doesn't matter how I was raised. It doesn't matter what they told me at school or at work. It doesn't matter what people's opinions are. It doesn't matter what the world says. What matters is what the word says and I come into agreement with that. So that's number one, see the truth about your sin. Not only that it's wrong, but that it breaks the Holy Spirit's heart, that it destroys your emotional and mental wellbeing. That it robs you of joy and peace. Key number two, seek God's presence. Seek God's presence. Second Corinthians 317. For the Lord is the spirit and whether the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. In his presence, you become satisfied. And in that satisfaction, sin loses its power. Some of us are so hungry for the things of the world because we're not eating of the things of his presence. I thought it was very interesting that the scripture says, where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And I thought, well, Lord in Psalm 139.7, it says that your spirit is everywhere. So why isn't everyone free everywhere? That scripture that's talking about the fact that where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom is talking about his influence, not just his presence. You can't fight sin by willpower alone. Do you know what the real key is? It's to fall so in love with Jesus. It's to be so consumed by his presence, to be so satisfied in him that you don't seek satisfaction in anything else. You know what the great lie behind temptation is. The great lie behind temptation is that it will satisfy you. The great lie behind temptation is that it's going to fulfill you in some way or complete you in some way. But to know his presence is to know freedom because to know his presence is to be satisfying him. Only the presence of Jesus can satisfy the deepest longings of the human soul. And in that presence, you find the power to overcome that temptation. I'm telling you this, your flesh, many of you who come on Thursday nights, you know this, your flesh doesn't like to pray. Your flesh doesn't like to read the word. Your flesh doesn't like to truly worship. But I'm telling you that when you begin to know his presence in this way, you're not fighting to discipline yourself, to make yourself pray. If anything, the moment you become aware of his presence and satisfied in his presence, it's like you're trying to pull yourself away from the prayer room because it has such magnetism. You don't have to force yourself to pray anymore. You're saying things like, okay, well, someone has to feed the kids. Well, I do have a job, I eventually have to go to work. I probably should fellowship with other believers too because that's what the scripture teaches. You're so satisfied in that presence. And in that satisfaction, what does the world have to offer? I liken it to eating healthy versus eating fast food. Now I don't wanna sound like a nutritionist, I'm not, but you know, they put things in fast food that are addictive, namely sugars and so forth. What did he say? He said, thank you, Jesus. Oh, he said, Lord, Jesus, help me, yeah, me too. You know, sometimes you go for those cravings and when your body begins to be filled with those, it craves it and it's funny because you don't even realize how bad it is for you until you stop for a long period of time and then go back and try to eat it again. But that's the nature of the cycle of the craving is that if you're filling yourself with cheap things, you'll forever crave cheap things. But when you fill yourself with that presence, sin loses its power. And here's the thing, something begins to change in you. You see, you might have trouble. You might be having trouble picturing the day when you can overcome that part of your flesh that's just been a problem for you. And you may say, I don't think that day's ever gonna come. Maybe I'll be dealing with this for the rest of my life and you can't picture not being tempted in that way. You can't picture overcoming that side of your flesh, whatever it may be. Can I tell you? As you begin to walk in the presence of the Holy Spirit, as you begin to become satisfied in who he is, not only does sin lose that power, but you'll be so transformed that what once tempted you will begin to repulse you. You look at it now and you say, there's no way, I keep going back to it, there's gonna be a day where it will no longer even tempt you, it will repulse you. That's a fact when you begin to live in the presence of the Holy Spirit. Once you've tapped into that, well, there's nothing that can satisfy. I say, you've been ruined for all things once you've tasted the goodness of God. Number three, and this one, I'm gonna spend a little more time on this one. Are you receiving this tonight? You in the comment section, if this is blessing you, let me know. Key number three, see the truth about your identity. Now, let's go to Matthew chapter four. I'm gonna read verses one through 11. This is the temptation of Christ. Now, Jesus himself was tempted. Temptation itself is not a sin. If it was, Jesus would not have been offered as the perfect sacrifice. Watch this now and see how the enemy begins to tempt him. And Jesus was led away, this is Matthew four. Then Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. For 40 days and 40 nights, he fasted and became very hungry. During that time, the devil came and said to him, watch this now, if you are the son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread. Now, we see that he's tempting him, yes, with hunger, but what does he challenge before he can tempt him? He's challenging his identity. Before temptation will work on you, first the enemy will challenge your identity. We'll come back to Matthew four for the next three points, but for now we've read enough. Notice that the enemy challenges who he is. Truth about your sin must be understood, yes, but the truth about your identity must also be known. So number one is see the truth about your sin. Number two is seek God's presence. Number three, see the truth about your identity. Willpower doesn't set you free. Discipline alone doesn't set you free. Frustration, as many of you have discovered, doesn't set you free. Only the truth can set you free. Remember this, the forgiven soul that knows it's forgiven has great strength in the resisting of temptation. There is a vicious heresy. Some call it lordship salvation, others call it the works-based gospel, and it's terrorizing the minds of believers. The works-based gospel says I had to work to gain my salvation and I must continue to work to keep my salvation. This is dangerous because people who live under the frustration and the shame and the tension of religion have a very difficult time resisting sin. But there's something about knowing that you're forgiven that gives you the power to overcome sin. Do you realize that the enemy traps people in this cycle of sin and shame, sin and shame, sin and shame? The difference between guilt and conviction, the difference between shame and conviction, it's that shame tells you you are a mistake. Conviction says you made one. Shame drives you away from God. Conviction drives you toward him in repentance. Once you've known the forgiveness of God, once you've come to truly believe that your sins have been washed away and that you're forgiven and that your past has been erased, once you've come to see that the list that you thought was being kept against you has been thrown out, then and only then do you experience the joy of the Lord and the joy of the Lord is the strength against temptation. Galatians 2, 20 says my old self has been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. You are no longer classified biblically speaking as a sinner. I know this is gonna stir the waters a little bit, but I've been known to stir the waters. This mentality that I'm this beggar coming to God who loves me, but is just kind of putting up with me. He loves me, but he doesn't like me. He welcomes me, but just barely. Like as if God is looking down from heaven and saying, okay, you're saved, but you are like this close. I love you, but man, you're right on that line. That's how we visualize God. And so what happens when someone like that falls into a sin? They're buried in overwhelming shame, guilt, fear, and terror, and that drives them away from the Lord. Some would say, well, you can't tell people that they're saved by faith alone because then they'll go on sinning. My friend, it's the grace of God in knowing His forgiveness that inspires us to live holy. Do you ever look at a project and then have to start over? My daughter loves to do puzzles, but I've watched her and sometimes if she can't get a piece to fit, she just throws the whole thing to the side. What's that? It's the frustration of having to start over. It's the frustration of arriving at the presence of God, so to speak, at the gates looking to Him and thinking, man, I have to work now to get back to Him. Well, that in itself is going to discourage you. But if you come to Him knowing that He's already done the work, that you can step into that grace, I don't care how far you think you've gone, a single moment of repentance can bring you all the way home. And so, knowing the truth about your identity, I'm not a sinner, I'm a saint. That's a fact. You say, well, I've sinned and I feel like a fake. Well, I've got good news for you. And it kind of sounds like bad news, though. When you sin, you are a fake. You're a fake sinner. You may have acted out in that way. You chose to do it. You may bear the consequences, but you're not acting according to your nature. You're acting outside of it now. You are not a wolf in sheep's clothing. You're a sheep trying to wear wolf's clothing when you sin. That's why you're so miserable. People say, does the Holy Spirit leave me when I sin? Why would God remove from you your only power to be holy as a punishment for not being holy? Think about that. Say, well, I don't know. Will the Holy Spirit still abide? Will He still help me? If you're struggling against sin, who do you think is in you struggling against sin? The very fact that you are struggling is proof that the Spirit abides with you. Because if He didn't abide with you, you wouldn't be struggling against sin. You would just be sinning. And so knowing the grace of God covers us gives us the assurance of knowing that we don't have to begin again every time we make a mistake. Embracing forgiveness is empowering in the pursuit of holiness because guilt is a distraction after repentance. Now, I'm gonna give you three more keys here and then I wanna pray for you. How many of you would say, as you're hearing this, there are some kind of like spiritual light bulbs going off in here? Let me see your hands. Because when I began to see this in the scripture, it was like things were just illuminating, like yes, yes, yes, I see it now. Key number four, the word. It's interesting to me that when the enemy challenged the identity of Jesus and the wilderness in Matthew chapter four, that Jesus didn't point back to the Jordan River. That's what most of us would have done. If you are the son of God, excuse me, devil, were you there when I was baptized? Didn't you see the sky split open? Didn't you hear God's booming voice announced to everyone, this is my beloved son. I'm sorry, did you miss the dove descending? The Holy Spirit upon me? Did you not witness this? People of God, if anyone could have used their experience to fight Satan, it would have been Jesus. But Jesus didn't point to his experience. He pointed to the word. When Jesus was tempted, he didn't say, well, here's what my experience is. Here's what my credentials are. Here's how mighty and powerful I am. He said, it is written. Psalm 119, 111 says, I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Nine times out of 10, I should say 99 times out of 100. When I'm approached by a Christian who says, brother David, I'm just struggling so much. I can't get over this temptation. I can't overcome this aspect of my flesh. There's something in my nature that seems to be resisting God's goodness. And I just don't know what to do. I'll always ask them, how is your devotion to the word? And 99 times out of 100, they tell me the same thing. Well, I read it every now and then, but I'm not really consistent. And then they want me to lay hands on them, give them a quick fix, cast them out of them, which can't be done. They wanna come have prayer and receive it at the altar. Which is good, we should do that. But then they're gonna go and live their lives without the word and expect to walk in victory. That's just foolishness. I'm sorry, I'm gonna tell you like it is, that's just foolish. You don't go to the doctor and say, doctor, I just feel terrible. I haven't been sleeping, I haven't been eating, I haven't been drinking water, I haven't been exercising, and I've just not been taking care of myself. And I feel terrible, what do you think I should do? He's gonna look at you and say, hey, go home and do the basics first. And if the problem persists, then we'll call in the specialist. The problem is, believers don't wanna do the basics because they're spiritually lazy. They'd rather you go and tell them a word or lay hands on them and impart something that can quickly fix their problem. And they want to climb the heights of spiritual growth without ever dealing with the flesh. It's just not gonna happen. You need the word. Every true believer should be in the word daily. I can't even believe this is something we have to say. And you know, I've seen videos of people in other nations where the Bible is illegal. Go look it up, it's a powerful clip where they bring in boxes of Bibles and they open it up in a hidden underground church and the people swarm it. They pick it up and they're literally holding the Bibles like this, smelling the Bible with tears streaming down their faces because they can't believe that they're holding a Bible. I think of the martyrs in the early church who died because of the messages that were being spoken. I think of our brothers and sisters around the world who each have to memorize portions of the Bible so that collectively they've all committed the entire Bible to memory. And then you and I will scroll past the Bible app just so we can stay on Instagram another hour. Don't tell me you're serious about subjecting the flesh when you spend more time watching Netflix than you do in the Word. How can we think that we can fill ourselves with the things of the world continually while never touching the Word and then just be victorious? We need the Word consistently. Number five, and by the way, Jesus resisted the lust of the flesh with the Word. What did he say? If you are the Son of God, make these stones bread. Jesus was hungry. That was the lust of the flesh. You overcome the lust of the flesh with the Word. Next we see in Matthew 4 that the enemy challenges Jesus to jump and tells him that angelic host will catch him and that will demonstrate to everyone around that he truly is the Son of God and here the enemy is tempting him with the pride of life. What does Jesus say? You shall not test the Lord your God or tempt in some translations. He responds with humility, pride, ego, gossip, bitterness. It's all rooted in the same thing. It's pride. Unforgiveness is rooted in pride. Bitterness is rooted in pride. Gossip is rooted in pride. Doubt and worry is rooted in pride because worry is a useless attempt at control and by worrying you're saying I can figure this out before you can God. Worry is how your flesh prays. So he responds with humility. When was the last time you just humbled yourself? Not just before God, but before your brothers and sisters. Humility is how you respond to the pride of life. Then finally, the enemy takes him to a great height who shows him the kingdoms of the world and he tells Jesus that if he'll simply bow that he'll give him everything that he sees, the lust of the eyes. And Jesus responds to the lust of the eyes with worship. Now I don't have the time to give you the other keys, the other key being accountability. You can see James 516, another key speaking in tongues. First Corinthians 14, two and four. That could be a whole message on its own. So can accountability. But he responds in worship. These are keys to overcoming the different aspects of the sin nature. Do you realize that worship is a greatly underused power in your fight against the things of the world? What does worship do? Worship raptures your attention causing you to become fixated on Jesus. Well that's what worship is. Worship is intensity of attention. Worship is to be obsessed, to be overcome by, to be focused entirely on. And when I'm looking at Jesus, I'm not looking at the things of the world. When I'm looking to Jesus, I'm not looking to the trappings of the material realm, unforgiveness, pride, bitterness, envy, jealousy, gossip, sorcery, lust, anger, deception, doubt, cynicism. These are the things of the flesh, but the fruit of the spirit. Well that's the character of Christ. I want you to lift your hands right now. And I want you to begin praying out loud in the Holy Spirit, please. Pray out loud in tongues if you have that gift. Pray out loud in tongues now. You watching online begin to pray. You watching online begin to pray. Jesus, we love you, we love you, we love you. Many people are being set free by the word. Conto robobos, ontorion do robobosente. Keep praying, keep praying, keep praying church. Conte riendo robobos, ontoco robobosente. Jesus, we love you, and we honor you. Every voice praying this now. Say, Lord, help me to say no to the flesh. Help me to say no to temptation. Tell them, church, say, make me like you. I surrender. If only we realized the opportunities that were before us in the kingdom of God. In every move of the Holy Spirit, there is a pivotal point wherein the people decide to be all in or all out. See, we look at revivals past and we imagine that the people around it were spectating and that it was just a certain ministry or a certain man or a certain woman that God was using, that's not the case. True revival is the collective obedience of God's people. And I'm telling you this, this ministry has the favor of God on it. Not because of me, it's not my ministry, it's his. It's his ministry. I'm just the steward of it, the caretaker, but it's God's. And I'm telling you this right now, and I can say this because I acknowledge it's not mine, it's his, there is favor on this ministry. And we are expanding while people around the world are cutting back. We're seeing growth where others are seeing things shrink and I'm not saying this to brag or to throw this in anyone's face, that's not my heart at all. I'm saying this simply to point out that God's miracle working hand is on this ministry and we need God's people to be on board with it too. You see, in speaking about fighting the flesh, one of the areas that the flesh is most resistant to the spirit is in the area of finances. Whenever a man or a woman of God says, let's take an offering to support the ministry, the flesh begins to fight. The flesh withholds the spirit gives. The flesh is greedy, the spirit is generous. The flesh worries, well, how am I gonna support myself? What do I do if I give? What if my giving doesn't come back to me like I wanted to? But the spirit has faith. The hour now calls for bold, faith-filled people of God to say I'm not gonna listen to what the news says. I'm not gonna listen to what everyone around me is saying. I'm not gonna be like the world in worry. I'm gonna stand on the word of God and recognize that He is in control. And so I'm asking you, don't be afraid, stand with us. This is for you online as well. We're asking you as you've received from the ministry online to also sow into the ministry online. Right now there should be on the screen information for those of you watching online on how to give. And you have to understand that your support makes a difference. I'm telling you, now is the season for generosity. Now is the season to expand and to take opportunities. I don't live by what the world says. We walk by faith and not by sight. If we walk by sight, we would right now not be doing most of the things we're doing. But I'm telling you, as you begin to give to God's work you are partnering with what He's doing in the earth. Yes, God will bless you. Yes, God will take care of you. Yes, your gift will return to you. But that's not what it's about. It's about saying, I'm gonna say no to the flesh. Yes to the spirit. And I'm gonna partner with what God is doing. I might see revival in this world. It's about souls. It's about kingdom. It's about the gospel. When you give to this ministry, you're funding the videos. And I'm sure most of you came here from having watched the videos. They literally are touching millions of people. The live streams literally touching millions of people. The events literally touching thousands of people. And this is how you participate. This is how it happens. This is where it comes down to deciding, am I gonna get involved? Am I gonna be a spectator? I'm asking you get involved. You watching online as well as you here. I'm asking you to give your very best one-time gift and also consider becoming a monthly ministry supporter. If you haven't done that already, it makes more of a difference than you know. So go right now. Those of you watching online, davidhernandezministries.com slash donate. Those of you here in person, you can scan that QR code with your phone. And also we have envelopes that we're passing out now. You're gonna take an envelope. Everyone will take one and then pass the stack down. You can make checks payable to davidhernandezministries. If you wanna give using that code, that is the fastest, easiest way to give. Many of you online are asking, where do we give from other nations? I'm telling you that link that's up there. It works for all nations. They're on that giving form. There's a PayPal option. There's a Google option. There's an Apple option. And then it takes all sorts of currencies from around the world. Now, for those of you giving online, I can actually see your names coming up. For example, I see Joseph just gave a one-time gift. Monica became a partner. Gustavo gave a one-time gift. Thank you. Anjina became a monthly partner. Richard, thank you. Sovereign, somebody named Sovereign just gave. That's a wonderful name. Andrew, thank you for your giving. Lillian, thank you for your giving. Laura, and Felix, and Beatrice. Wow, thank you, thank you. Many of you giving one-time gifts from around the world. Victoria, John, thank you for your generous gift. Timothy, thank you. Omar, thank you. Luke, also more partners coming in. Karen, thank you for being a partner. And Cassandra, thank you for being a partner. Thank you also to Crystal for being a partner. I'm seeing these coming on my phone right now. And those of you here in person, you're giving also counts. We want to continue holding these meetings. It takes resources to do that. So again, I remind you, as you're preparing your gifts, this funds the live streams. This funds the content. This funds the infrastructure of the ministry that's needed to do the events that we do around the world in the missions, projects, and the Holy Spirit School. All of it goes to efficiently, effectively, powerfully spread the gospel all around the world. So as you're giving, I want to thank you. And I also want to pray. And when we pray, I don't want you to just do it like a religious ritual. We really are gonna pray because there is something supernatural about giving. I don't care what anyone says. I'm convinced in the word of God that it's very clear that giving is a supernatural act. It's a demonstration of the heart. It's a demonstration of love. So let's pray and ask God to bless you for giving, you watching online for giving. And let's pray that he would make these resources effective for the sake of kingdom expansion. Father in the name of Jesus. Come on, pray with me, church. Father in the name of Jesus. Lord, I pray you would bless your people. I pray you would cause them, Lord, not to be affected by this recession in Jesus' name. Lord, I pray for supernatural provision. We thank you, Father, that you're in control. We thank you, Father, that we have no reason to worry. We thank you, Father, that you're a God who does exceedingly, abundantly above all we could ask or even imagine. We thank you, Lord, that we, with love in our hearts, can participate with the expansion of your kingdom here in the earth. Give us the grace to be generous. Give us the faith to be generous. Give us the love to release these resources. And as we do, Father, we pray you would bless us, but more importantly, that you would cause us to be effective for the sake of the gospel in the mighty name of Jesus we pray in. The church said, amen. Now listen, if you're watching online and you're looking for other resources that can help you in this area, especially this area of dealing with temptation, maybe you're not just dealing with issues of the flesh, but you're also dealing with issues of demonic bondage. It's a very real thing and it's a reality in the life of many believers. So I wanna encourage you to watch the teaching. How do I break free from strongholds? It's gonna be linked right here on the video and we appreciate you, we love you. Check that out and remember, nothing is impossible with God.