David Diga Hernandez - How to FINALLY Overcome Sin and Temptation (6 Keys)

You can be delivered from addictions completely. You can be delivered from demonic powers completely. But the flesh, the sin nature, doesn’t come and go like addictions or bondages. The flesh remains. The flesh doesn’t come and go, it shrinks and grows, and it is the battle with the flesh that is the primary battle for the believer. Now, perhaps you’ve fallen into sinful habits again and again and again, and you’ve found yourself frustrated, filled with guilt, filled with shame, asking yourself, «Why did I do that again»? Wondering if God has finally given up on you and you found yourself in these cycles, unable to break free from the power, from the hold of that sin. Then, I wanna show you something from the word of God that will deliver you, that will set you free. In first John chapter two verse 16, we see the nature of sin. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. So sin, in essence, is basically these three things, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. Any sin that you will ever commit, any habit, any cycle that is ungodly in nature will always fall under one of these three categories, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. Now, it’s interesting, because if you go back to Genesis chapter three, you’ll actually see this pattern on display right there. Genesis 3:1 says 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“? So right here already in Genesis chapter three verse one, when the enemy tempted Adam and Eve, this was the first temptation, by the way, when the enemy tempts them, the first thing he does, you’ll notice, is he begins to question the word of God. 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.'“ The enemy in verse four contradicts 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“. Verse six, the woman was convinced. In other words, she was dissuaded from believing the word of God. She saw that the tree was beautiful and it’s fruit looked delicious and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it, then she gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it too. Notice here that the scripture says that the tree was beautiful, there’s the lust of the eye. It’s fruit looked delicious, there’s the lust of the flesh, the craving of the flesh. And she wanted the wisdom it would give her, there’s the pride of life. The lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. No matter what sin it is that you’re dealing with, it’s going to fall under one of those three categories. And the scripture gives us the blueprint, the pattern for overcoming sin and temptation. But you have to also understand the nature of temptation. So the nature of sin is the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, I’ll have more on these in just a moment. But the nature of temptation is this, temptation is not an event, it’s a process. Now, this is very important that you understand this, temptation is not an event, it’s a process.

You see, sometimes we become frustrated with ourselves in the moment of having given into the temptation. And we imagine that the sin overtook our lives in that moment, when in reality it was the moments, the days, the weeks leading up to that failure, that weakened us and caused us to sin in that moment of temptation. So temptation is not an event, it’s a process, it’s something that gradually takes hold of you. If you fall into sin on Friday night, it’s likely that it was because Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, you were not guarding your eyes, you were not guarding your spirit. In fact, it’s very likely that throughout the week, you were taking in things that strengthened your flesh. You were taking in images, you were listening to music, you were watching certain programs, you were having certain conversations, you were going certain places, you were scrolling past certain feeds that all fed into the flesh and grew it to the point where when the temptation finally became too much, there was a moment of failure. The key then is to recognize these patterns in our lives and to stop kidding ourselves, to stop deceiving ourselves. We have to be honest with ourselves and we have to evaluate where we messed up and what led up to the moment of failure. Jesus said, „Lead us not into temptation“. He didn’t say, „Help me when I get there“. The point is to avoid those moments of temptation. Psalm 101 verse three says I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. I hate the work of them that turn aside. It shall not cleave to me. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. In other words, I will guard myself, I will be aware of my surroundings, I will be conscious of what leads up to that moment of temptation. Think of an alcoholic. An alcoholic walks into a bar telling themselves that they’re just there to hang out. They’re deceiving themselves. This is how deceitful the flesh is. You will lie to yourself and tell you that you don’t want that thing that you want. You’ll make up some excuse, some clever sounding reason as to why you should be in the position of temptation. You’ll tell yourself that you’re strong enough to endure being there. You’ll tell yourself that you don’t really want that thing. You’ll tell yourself all sorts of things, just to allow yourself near that temptation, and it is that process that eventually takes you out. You may be asking, „Why can’t I overcome this sin“? It’s because before you have that moment of failure, there are things that you are doing, there is a pattern that leads up to that moment of failure. Song of Solomon chapter two verse 15 says catch all the foxes, those little foxes, before they ruin the vineyard of love, for the grape vines are blossoming. Now, the Song of Solomon is a prophetic picture of the bride of Christ, the church, you and I and Christ. That relationship is represented by the garden, that love is represented by the vineyard. So then, the little foxes that spoil the vine are those little temptations that we allow in our lives that spoil our love for Jesus. You must stop the embers before they become a raging fire. If you give the enemy your flesh and the demonic powers that will tempt you, if you give them even a slight opening, they will march through it as if it is a wide open gate. Your flesh will take every opportunity it can to strengthen itself, even if it means lying to yourself. You may tell yourself, „It’s just a little scrolling. „It’s just a little bit of a program. „It’s just a simple conversation. „We won’t do anything, I’ll just be with them. „I won’t smoke that. „I won’t drink that. „I won’t participate in that. „I’ll just be around it. „I’ll be a witness“. There are things we tell ourselves that’s deception. It’s just a Facebook message. Do you realize that every moment of adultery came about as a result of a process of giving into tiny temptations, making tiny compromises. Some people get there faster than others, but it all begins with a moment of compromise. God can forgive you and God will set you free, but sometimes there are consequences that come about as a result of our decisions that can derail us for a long time. So how do you overcome sin and temptation? Remember, the nature of sin is the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, the nature of temptation is such that it’s a process, not an event. And if you catch that process, if you disrupt that process early on, then the flesh will never gain enough strength to take you out. So key number one, see the truth about your sin.

I’m gonna read you a portion of scripture, it’s gonna be in the book of Psalm. I’m gonna read chapter 32 and I’ll read verse one through six, this is what the Bible says. 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. There, the Psalmist is writing about the joy of living a clean life. Verse three says when I refuse to confess my sin, my body wasted away and I groaned all day long. That’s the effect of guilt, that’s godly sorrow causing you to live in agony when you have unconfessed sin. Verse four, day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. The Holy Spirit will convict you. My strength evaporated like water in summer heat. Verse five. Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, I will confess my rebellion to the Lord and you forgave me. All my guilt is gone. Therefore, let all the godly pray to you while there is still time that they may not drown in the flood waters of judgment. Notice here that liberation came after confession. Once we acknowledge that our sin is sin, that becomes the starting point from which we can walk in freedom. We must see the truth about our own behavior. John 8:32 says and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. That means if you’re still bound, there’s a truth you do not yet know. First John chapter one verse nine says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You see, sometimes we don’t see the root of our sin. Many times we don’t even see the fruit of our sin. There are some things that we’ve become so apathetic toward, that we don’t even realize that it’s sin. But when you come to recognize the truth about your sin, when you confess to God in regards to your sin, what you’re doing is aligning yourself with this truth. The first step is to agree with God about your behavior, and to say, „Lord, I agree with you. „This thing that I’m doing, „even if in my mind I’ve convinced myself „that it’s a little thing, „this thing that I’m doing is wrong. „And I agree with you, Lord, „this behavior needs to be removed from my life completely. „There must not remain even a trace of that behavior“. And once we’ve come to that realization, once we’ve acknowledged that, then we cut off the strength of the flesh. Because sometimes what do is we feel bad for a thing we’ve done, and then we say, „Okay, I won’t do it again“. But deep within our hearts, our flesh is saying, „I won’t do it for a while“. And we give ourselves that leeway to say that, „Well, maybe in a few days or maybe next week, „maybe if I go seven days and then have a fall, „then it can count as just being tempted, „rather than living in sin“. This is how deceitful the flesh is. The amazing thing about confessing your sin to God is that it aligns you with God’s thinking. You must first and foremost see the truth about your sin. You must acknowledge this thing has to go in every form, in every way, until there’s not a trace of this thing left. And you cannot give yourself the slack, you cannot give yourself the leeway, you cannot tell yourself that there may be future opportunities for this. You have to make the commitment to cut it out of your life, not just in this moment, but in every moment moving forward, and to eliminate it even in it’s smallest form, because sometimes we excuse things in their small form and we tell ourselves, „Oh, that’s just something I’m struggling with“. Instead of saying, „God, I need this to be removed completely from my life“. That’s number one, see the truth about your sin. Confess it. Acknowledge that it has no place whatsoever in your life, and that’s the starting point. To see the truth, to confess it, to say, „Okay, God, I agree with you, „this thing has to be removed“.

Number two, seek God’s presence. Second Corinthians chapter three verse 17 says for the Lord is the spirit, and wherever the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Psalm 32:7, you are my hiding place and you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. You know what deliverance is for God’s people? It’s being liberated from deception. Deliverance for God’s people is much different than it is for deliverance for the people in the world. Deliverance for God’s people is to be set free from a certain way of thinking. And when the spirit of the Lord is present, when we allow the influence of the spirit to affect our minds, then we’re positioned to where we will focus on his presence. And when we focus on his presence, when we become of his nearness, there is liberation. Why? Because when I’m satisfied in his presence, I look for nothing in the world to satisfy me. In his presence you become satisfied and sin loses it’s allure. How can I be hungry for sin when I’m full of the Holy Spirit’s presence?

Number three, see the truth about your identity. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, the enemy nagged him again and again, „If you are the son of God, if you are the son of God, „if you are the son of God“. In order to try to tempt Jesus, the enemy first tried to challenge his identity. You have to know the truth about your sin and you have to know the truth about your identity. Temptation is not the challenge of your willpower, it’s the challenge of your identity. Please hear me now. Temptation is not the challenge of your willpower, it’s the challenge of your identity. Willpower alone does not set you free. Discipline alone does not set you free. Frustration alone does not set you free. The truth will set you free. What do I mean by that? When you see the truth about your identity, when you see that you do in fact belong to God, despite how you feel, then you are liberated to walk in freedom. Galatians 2:20 says my old self has been crucified with Christ. That’s past tense. It is 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. That’s Galatians 2:20. The soul that is forgiven, the soul that knows it’s forgiven, is empowered to resist sin. I’m gonna show you something interesting… And it’s found in Romans chapter seven, something interesting that Paul the apostle wrote. I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate, but if I know what I’m doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong, it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me that is in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong, it is sin living in me that does it. I have discovered this principle of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.

Here, you can hear the frustration in his writing. Those things that I wanna do, I can’t seem to do them. The things that I wanna be done with, I can’t seem to get rid of them. And then he says something powerful. He says that, „When I sin, I’m not the one sinning“. Now, here he is not saying he has no responsibility in the decisions that he makes, and yes, God holds us accountable for our personal decisions that we make. But Paul the apostle is revealing an amazing truth, and that is that even when I sin, the one who is sinning is not really me. Yes, he takes responsibility. Yes, free will still applies. Yes, there are consequences. But just because I made a mistake, just because I’ve sinned, doesn’t mean that I have to identify with that sin. John 3:6 says that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. In other words, when I was born again, I became of the Spirit. Now, whoever that is, that old crucified sin nature that tries to be resurrected now and again, whoever that is, it’s not me. It may be active, but it isn’t me. It may battle with me, but it isn’t me. I am not that one. Once you know who you are, the cycle of guilt, fear and shame is broken. Once you recognize that you are forgiven, once you recognize that you are the righteousness of Christ, once you recognize that God has placed his holiness upon you, once you recognize that your slate has been wiped clean, it is from the freedom of that forgiveness that you can begin to walk in liberty. You see, guilt and shame are designed to keep you in the cycle of sin, because guilt and shame push you away from God. Think about it. When you make a mistake, what’s the last thing you wanna do? The last thing you wanna do is pray. The last thing you wanna do is worship. The last thing you wanna do is go into the word of God. That is proof to you that guilt and shame don’t serve a godly purpose. There is godly sorrow, and then there is guilt and shame that produces no fruit of repentance. It breaks you, it wears you down, it places a heaviness upon you, you’re disgusted with yourself, and that pushes you away from God. And in being pushed away from God, you sense that isolation, that loneliness, and it is in that unfulfilled place of isolation and loneliness that you begin to seek out pleasure, and then the sinful cycle repeats itself. But once you recognize that you are forgiven. I don’t care if it’s a sin you committed three years ago, 30 years ago, or three seconds ago, if you’ve repented, if you’ve confessed it to God, if you’ve told him, „I agree with you, „I want this removed from my life“. Then that sin is forgiven. You can press on. Paul said, „I press on, „I forget those things which are behind „and I press on to achieve that goal“. Embracing forgiveness is empowering in the pursuit of holiness. Guilt can so often distract us from pursuing holiness. Recognize who you are, see the truth about your identity. Recognize that you do belong to God. And from that place, walk in freedom. Because when you think you have all of this debt to pay, when you think that you have all of these things to make up for, then it just becomes discouraging. „Well, I have all these sins in my way „and I’d have to really.“. It’s like we see our sins as these stairs that lead up to God and every sin becomes another step that distances us further from God, but that’s not the way it is. But when you see it that way, when you see sin as something that makes it impossible to be forgiven, then you become discouraged in your pursuit for holiness. It’s when you realize that in repentance and belief, that you can make up for that distance, one moment of repentance can bring you all the way home. Once you realize that it is forgiveness of God that liberates you, then you’re encouraged to pursue holiness. Yes, sin separates us from God, but his grace, mercy, and forgiveness, brings redemption.

Number four, the word. Now, I told you I would revisit this idea, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life and the lust of the eye. When Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness, the enemy actually tempted him in all of these points. First and foremost, he tempted him with bread, if you are the son of God, make these stones bread. The enemy tempted Jesus to jump off from the high place to demonstrate that he was the son of God. In fact, he said, „The angels will catch you, „and then everyone will know that you are the son of God“. That’s the pride of life. The enemy also tempted Jesus with the world, he showed him all the kingdoms, that’s the lust of the eye. And so, these three areas of temptation, Christ himself faced while being tempted. But when Jesus was tempted to turn the stones into bread, what did he say? „Man doesn’t live by bread alone, „but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God“. So you need the word. In order to overcome the lust of the flesh, the cravings of the flesh, the cravings of sexual desire, the cravings of pleasure, those things that come from the physical being, those temptations that tempt the physical body, that’s the lust of the flesh, and you combat the lust of the flesh with the word of God. Psalm 119:11 says I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. You need the word of God to strengthen your spirit. Don’t tell me you’re serious about overcoming your sin if you’re not consistent in the word of God. Don’t tell me that you truly desire to be free from sin if you’re not consistent in the word of God. The truth of the matter is this, if you would commit to the word daily, not just a verse here or there, if you would commit to the word daily, in as much scripture as it takes to liberate you, over time you would see the lust of the flesh begin to weaken. You need the word of God in your life, it is strength. If there is no word in your life, there is no strength to resist temptation. So, so far we see key number one is see the truth about your sin. Key number two, seek God’s presence. Key number three, see the truth about your identity, because it is from the place of forgiveness that we pursue holiness with the most inspiration. Key number four, you need the word.

Key number five is humility. When challenged to jump off from the high place by the enemy, Jesus said, „You’ll not tempt the Lord thy God“. You should not tempt the Lord. He responded to the pride of life with humility. Everyone would’ve seen Jesus for who he was had he jumped from the high place, had he been captured by the angels. And it is this kind of pride, this need to be recognized, this need to be celebrated, this need to be consulted and acknowledged, this need to be looked at as great, the pride of life that leads to so many kinds of sin. In order to overcome that pride, you must respond with humility. James 4:7 says so humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. When you humble yourself before God, there is Liberty from pride.

And finally, number six is worship. The enemy took Jesus and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and he promised him all the kingdoms that he saw. It was the lust of the eyes. But Jesus responded by saying that you must only worship the Lord your God. Worship takes your eyes off of sin and puts them on Jesus. When you turn your eyes to Jesus, you’re not focused on the things of this world. Worship will steal your heart. Worship will calm the soul. Worship will cause you to be infatuated with God’s presence, his glory, his person. And it is in the those moments of worship that the distractions of the world fade dimly into the background. Worship is a key to overcoming sin and temptation. So see the truth about your sin, admit it, acknowledge it that it’s wrong and commit to weeding it out of your life for good, in every form, every bit of it. Key number two, seek God’s presence. Key number three, see the truth about your identity, that you’re forgiven, that you’re redeemed. Key number four, the word. Key number five, humility. Key number six, worship. And there are a couple other notes I’ll throw in there. I wasn’t gonna address them in this message, but I’ll give them to you as an aside. Another key is accountability, you’ll see that in James 5:16, getting around brothers or sisters in Christ who can help you resist the temptation. Speaking in tongues, first Corinthians 14, two and four, talks about strengthening your spirit by use of that spiritual gift. But I wanna pray with you now that the Holy Spirit would help you to apply these. Don’t say, „Oh, I’ve tried that before „and it didn’t work for me“. Let God be true and every man a liar. If the scripture says it works, it works. And if it didn’t work for us, it means we didn’t commit to it fully. So don’t believe that lie that would tell you, you’ve already tried this and it doesn’t work for you.