 I want to talk to you about walking in holiness and how the Holy Spirit can help you overcome sinful habits. If you have a desire to live holy but you've been struggling to overcome the flesh, this message is for you. We're going to go into the scripture and I'm going to show you how the Holy Spirit helps you to walk in holiness. This is really going to bless you. Number one, he stays with you even when you fall. In John chapter 14 verse 16 the Bible says, and I will ask the Father and he will give you another advocate who will never leave you. Remember this, the Holy Spirit is not a reward for holiness. He's the source for holiness. I'm going to say that again, let that get in your spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a reward for holiness. He's the source for holiness. Some believers are under the impression that if they mess up enough times that the Holy Spirit is going to get frustrated with them, that he's going to remove himself, that he's going to remove his influence, that he's going to abandon them to their own desires. Now the argument can be made that if someone persists enough in sin that they can go reprobate, we understand this, but I'm talking to you. I'm talking to the one who wants to live holy. The Holy Spirit would not abandon you. It makes no sense for God to remove from you your only source of holiness as a punishment for not living holy. That just doesn't make sense. You can make mistakes and the Holy Spirit will abide. That doesn't mean that he approves of the sin, but it means that he faithfully remains to help you overcome that sin. Otherwise you couldn't overcome that sin. The Holy Spirit helps you to be holy. That's why I call him the Holiness Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the key to righteous living. So number one, he stays with you even when you fall. He doesn't abandon you. The Holy Spirit is more patient than we are sinful. The Holy Spirit is more faithful than we are stubborn. He's more loving than we are flawed. He's not going to abandon you. So that's the first way that he helps us to overcome sinful habits ungodly living is that he remains. Think about the faithfulness of the Holy Spirit. You may feel sometimes after you've messed up that the Holy Spirit has abandoned you, but I'm here to remind you that Jesus said the Holy Spirit will never leave you. I'm here to remind you that you have a faithful friend in the Holy Spirit of God who will abide and give you the power to live holy. He's not going to abandon you. He's not going to leave you. He's not going to abandon you to your habits and to your ways. He loves you too much to leave you and he's going to abide and he's going to help you fight the flesh. The Holy Spirit will remain with you. So many believers live in the condemnation, the worry, the fear, has the Holy Spirit left me? Did I finally go too far? Did I make one too many mistakes now? Is that it? Is he done with me? No. The Scripture declares that his mercies are new every morning, every day that you wake up, the Holy Spirit is prepared to give you a fresh start and he abides right there with you, that faithful friend fighting and contending for you because he loves you. Number two, he gives you a love for the Word. Jeremiah chapter 20 verse 9 tells us, but if I say I'll never mention the Lord or speak in his name, his word burns in my heart like a fire. It's like a fire in my bones. I am worn out trying to hold it in. I can't do it. One of the symbols for the Holy Spirit in the Scripture is fire. It was the fire of the Holy Spirit in Jeremiah that gave him a love and a passion for the Word of God. And the Word of God keeps you from sin. In Psalm chapter 119 verse 11, the Scripture declares, I have hidden your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you. As you read the Word, as you receive the Word in your spirit, you are strengthened in the battle against sin. The Word of God shows you the will of God that you might not violate the will of God, but the Word of God also gives you the spiritual strength that is necessary for overcoming the flesh. When the enemy tempted Jesus in the wilderness, he said, if you are the Son of God, make these stones bread. And Jesus told him that he doesn't live by bread alone, but by every word that precedes from the mouth of God. It's the Word of God that helps you to overcome the cravings of the flesh. It's the Word of God that gives you the spiritual strength to resist the temptations that the enemy throws in front of you. If you have a word deficiency, then you will have a weakness towards sin. Temptation becomes weaker on your life, the stronger you become in the Word. So if you're not in the Word daily, if it's not a habit of yours to get into the Scripture and let the Scripture get into you, then what's going to end up happening is you're going to become weak. You're going to become unresponsive to the work of the Holy Spirit within you. But the Holy Spirit gives you that desire for the Word. You couldn't desire spiritual things on your own. You wouldn't even desire to do right or to live holy on your own. Those desires come from the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit gives you this desire and this love for the Word of God. And as you consume the Word, the Word gives you spiritual strength. That spiritual strength enables you to overcome sin. So number one, he stays with you even when you fall. Number two, he gives you a love for the Word. Number three, and I love this one, he desires holiness through you. Here's what the Bible says in Galatians chapter five verses 16 and 17. This is key right here. So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. Now notice here, I'm going to read verse 17 in a moment, but notice here that the Scripture tells us that if we live lives guided by the Holy Spirit, then we will not fulfill sinful desires. Some people are focused on fighting what they shouldn't do rather than living how they should. Verse 17, the sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. The key to overcoming sin isn't fighting old desires. Please hear me now. The key to overcoming sin isn't fighting old desires, but having your desire made new. The Holy Spirit wants to give you new desires. He will desire holiness through you. He will crave holy things through you. He will crave the things of God through you, just as you have a sin nature that's not you, by the way, you're still responsible for the decisions that you make in response to what the sinful nature desires. But just as the sin nature isn't really your identity anymore, so the Holy Spirit gives you desires. Just as the sinful nature tries to give you desires, so the Holy Spirit gives you desires. But the difference is that you're one with the Holy Spirit, you're no longer one with that sinful nature. So as the Holy Spirit works, watch this. This truth encouraged me in my earlier years of ministry, really encouraged me. As the Holy Spirit works, listen to this, as the Holy Spirit works, eventually what once tempted you will repel you. What once tempted you will begin to disgust you. That's how he changes your desires. So today it may be a temptation, but tomorrow it will be to your disdain. Tomorrow when the Holy Spirit begins to change those desires, something shifts inside of you and what once tempted you begins to disgust you, but only as you surrender to the work of the Spirit. To know his presence is to be ruined for anything less. To know his presence is to be spoiled. There's nothing that can replace the presence of the Holy Ghost. Therefore, the way you overcome sin is not in fighting the desire to sin, but in being so fulfilled in God's presence that the desire to sin changes to become a desire for the things of God. The Holy Spirit desires through you. He longs through you. His will expressed through you. His desires expressed through you. His wants expressed through you. That's how it works as you begin to surrender to the Holy Spirit. So the key then is walking in step with the Holy Spirit and not necessarily fighting the flesh itself. Number four, he rescues you in times of temptation. Now here I'm going to mess with your theology a little bit. I may mess with some people's mindsets because I think that sometimes we imagine that the Holy Spirit is like this frail frightened dove, and that the slightest movement against his will will cause him to flutter off scared of being contaminated. You can't contaminate the Holy Spirit. He can't be contaminated. He is holy. Whatever touches him can become holy, but it can never contaminate him. So he's like a fire. You don't throw trash into the fire and worry that the fire might become trash. No, because the fire will change the makeup, the shape of the trash. It burns out. It consumes. The Holy Spirit's presence is a consuming fire. So we have this in our minds, right? We think of that moment of darkness, and I want you to go there in your mind right now. Not to lust, not to desire the sin, but think about those moments where you are tempted. Think about that inner struggle that you feel. Think about that pool from the world. We're going to get real now, okay? Think about that pool from the world that you begin to feel. Whatever it may be, to lie, to go on that website, to make that phone call, to send that text, to think that thought, to go to that place, to connect with that person, there are many forms of sin that can become habitual. So I want you to go to that place now. You're there and you're fighting. There's this inner struggle. Here's the thing. The Scripture teaches us to flee from temptation, not to face it. Temptation is not a debate that you can win. If you're going back and forth in your mind, should I, shouldn't I, should I, shouldn't I, you're going to fail. And you're going to fail every single time. Once you even go into the mode of debate, 99% of the time, you will fall. 99% of the time, you will give in to the temptation. Why? Because the longer you stay in that place of debate, the longer you stay in that place of back and forth consideration, should I, shouldn't I, the weaker your will becomes. The enemy can weaken your will. And eventually you just give in. Why? Because you're thinking about the thing you ought not to do. You're thinking about the thing that you want and the flesh is going to persuade you. None of us are strong enough to go through that debate of temptation and say no. So that's why the Bible teaches us to flee from temptation, not to sit there going, hmm, should I, shouldn't I, should I, shouldn't I, you need to remove yourself from that situation altogether. Now, sometimes it's not a situation that you can remove yourself from. Sometimes it's just something internal. Sometimes maybe you're at home and you have access to things. There's just no way to get out of certain scenarios of temptation and the temptation is entirely internal. How do you run from yourself? How do you, how do you run away from the flesh? If you go somewhere, the flesh is right there with you. That's the problem with the flesh. It doesn't come and go. It can only become stronger and weaker depending upon how we live. But you're in that moment. You begin to become tempted. You're debating back and forth already. That's trouble. Why? Because you're supposed to flee. Now watch this. In this moment, we usually imagine that now we have to choose between sin or holiness, right? And we're on our own. God's way over there. Sin is way over there and we have to choose which path we're going to go down. That's not the scenario at all. In fact, the scenario is such that the sin, yes, may be there, but the Holy Spirit is not some decision off in the distance. He's right there with you. He rescues you in times of temptation. So I've talked to people who have been in very terrible situations that they should not have placed themselves in. And what they did in that moment is something quickened them. And instead of just giving in, they cried out, help me, Holy Spirit. Get me out of here. And they would not stop pleading that until they were removed from the situation or the desire was taken from them. Watch this now. I'm going to expound on this more. We're going to dig even deeper into that temptation process. I want you to understand what's happening inside of you, why you keep falling, why you keep going back to the same place. Romans 8, 10 through 12. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin. But the spirit is life because of righteousness. Now watch this. But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. Think about this. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit will quicken your mortal bodies. What does that mean? This scripture, this portion of scripture is not talking about heavenly bodies that we will receive then and there. This scripture is talking about the reality of the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit living and abiding in your physical being. The same power that raised the body of Christ to life again, that very same power is in your physical body. And that same resurrection power and life will quicken not your future heavenly body. The Bible says that power will quicken your mortal body. This one, the earth suit, the Holy Spirit's power will quicken your mortal body. That means in those moments of temptation, let's just get real, in those moments of temptation, for example, that you have that website open, that website you should not be browsing. In that moment, you can still call on the Holy Spirit. That moment that you pulled up to that house that you should not be visiting. You're in the driveway. Maybe you're going to go party. Maybe you're going to pop a pill. Maybe you're going to grab a drink. Maybe you're going to go be with someone you should not be with. In that moment, right then and there, in that driveway, in that car, while you're listening to that worldly music, while you're just about to fulfill the desires of the flesh, in that dark moment, in that field, he's still there. And this is something that, again, I don't feel I talk about enough, in that he will rescue you even in that time. He's sitting with you in that driveway. He's sitting with you in your room. He's sitting with you in the bars and in the clubs. When you shouldn't be going there, Christian shouldn't be doing this. Let's just be honest. You should not be doing these things. And maybe the sins you're dealing with aren't even external. Maybe they're internal. Maybe they're sins of pride and sins of stubbornness and sins of doubt and whatever it may be. You're struggling with these things because you imagine that you have to fight it on your own, not realizing that in that moment, in the midst of that field, in the midst of that darkness, you can throw up your hands and say, Holy Spirit, help me. Holy Spirit, get me out of here, please. As you're browsing that site, you can say, Holy Spirit, I don't want to do this. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. And in that moment, he'll quicken your mortal body. He's faithful even when we are not, for he cannot deny who he is. He is the light. So when he goes to a place of darkness, he can bring light to you there too. In that moment, I'm serious, call out to him when you're on that website. Call out to him when you're visiting that place you shouldn't visit. Call out to him after you send that text, after you tell that line, after you become puffed up with that pride, whatever the sin may be. And I'm not just talking about sexual sin and lust. I'm talking about all sins. In those moments of darkness, sometimes we feel like if we call on him there, he's going to go, I'm not going to help you. You're too far in darkness right now. I'll help you after you sin. I'll help you after you fulfill the lust of the flesh. But you're on your own for now. You've already taken it too far. That's not what he's saying to you. I'm serious. The Holy Spirit goes with you there. The Holy Spirit abides there. He will answer. He's not offended by your being tempted and calling upon him. He will abide with you even in that moment that you say, Holy Spirit, get me out here. And I'm telling you it works. And don't stop. Don't stop. My daughter does this thing when I come home. If I come home from a long trip, sometimes I'll wait in the driveway just to kind of catch my breath because I know once I go in, my little Aria is going to want me to go in her room and play toys. But she says to me, as soon as I get home, and no chance for a nap, no chance to grab a bite, nothing. I can't lie down for five minutes. The moment I walk through that door, she goes, Dad, let's go play toys. Come on, Dad, let's go play toys. Dad, let's play toys. Come on, Dad, let's play toys. If I'm sitting on the couch, she'll repeat that phrase again and again and again to finally go, okay, let's go play toys. And she goes, yay. And we run into her room and we play with toys. That's how we need to be with the Holy Spirit in those moments of temptation. Not that he doesn't want to help us, but, but you see, as you're calling out to him, you're weakening the flesh. You say, Holy Spirit, I have this desire. It's a very strong desire. I don't think I can overcome this. Help me, help me, help me, help me, help me, and just keep saying, they may think you're crazy. Let them think you're crazy. Just say it out loud. Help me, Holy Spirit, help me, Holy Spirit, and keep saying it, and keep saying it, and keep saying it, and call, sincerely call upon him, sincerely ask him to rescue you, and he will. You will be amazed how in that moment, even of temptation, the Holy Spirit's power can touch your life. You'll be amazed at how you'll be able to shut that laptop. You'll be able to leave that house. You'll be able to put down that drink. You'll be able to toss out that drug. You'll be able to say goodbye to the people you should not be hanging out with. You'll be able to set aside the pride and go apologize. You'll be able to apologize for that lie. You'll be able to remove that fill from your life because you called upon him number four. He rescues you in times of temptation.