Morning, everybody. I couldn't help but think when Van was talking about how blessed we are. You know, I think we all agree that we live in the greatest place in the country, but especially this time of year, you know, the blessing that we have and being able to, of course, everybody knows me, knows I like to hunt and fish, and we've got everything. Right now is the month. If it wasn't for work, I'd like to take off for a month and go. Justin and I was talking about this one time. Right now, coming up here at this time, you can get up, watch the sun come up in the morning and turkey hunt, and on the way into the house, find a mess of mushrooms, get back and go sucker-grabbing. Maybe come in, take a nap, and watch the Cardinals baseball game, and then go to the lake and white bass fish or goggle-eye fish. Anyway, we are truly blessed to live where we do and to enjoy the things we do. Yesterday, I got Caitlyn, she got her first turkey. If anybody's never experienced the thrill of turkey hunting, you need to get your heart right. It's something that's just impossible to explain to somebody unless they've ever been the turkey goblin. And I've got a 14-year-old daughter sitting there next to my lap. She's just shaking like a leaf and breathing hard. But anyway, it was really special for me. If you would turn to Hebrews chapter 12. You know, it seems it's one of the biggest surprise in my Christian life is verses that I have heard all my life and read and heard messages on. I'm sure Reg is probably even preached on this. And somehow or another, there's things that never click in my mind until all of a sudden a light bulb turns on. The Lord slaps me upside the head or something. And there's been a lot of those things. And this was a verse that struck my attention one time. In fact, I think I was reading here in church. Greg was preaching on something that Hebrews chapter 12 in verse one. Let's pray first. Dearly Father, I do pray that you'd help me keep my thoughts clear. I'd like to get the message across that you gave me to these people. Lord, I just pray that you would speak through me and bless these things in Jesus' name. Amen. It says, Hebrews chapter 12 says, Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. This word beset is what I want to teach on. What are besetting sins. And you know I'd say that it just gone over the top of my head and you know I just thought it was a sin of the sin. And I got this. Well I tell you what first caught my attention on it. is there was a note in Schofield. I have a Schofield Bible. Or no, this isn't a Schofield Bible. But anyway, there was a note on it, and I looked down and read, and it says, and this isn't the Bible, but this is what first caught my attention. It says, this race is to be run by putting off entangling sin. This seems to refer to the one sin above all others that defeats a Christian. This may be a different sin for each individual. And that was what really caught my attention because, I mean, automatically, you know, My besetting sin came to my mind. And I do truly believe that each of us has a besetting sin or perhaps more than one besetting sin. And what it is, it's a sin that over and over entangles us. We have a tendency to gravitate towards, and that is a sin that catches us. I started by wanting to look up what is the definition of beset or besetting. And so I went to Webster's Dictionary, and this is what it says. beset to surround to enclose to him in to besiege to press on all sides so as to perplex to entangle so as to render escape difficult or impossible. Now that's Webster's definition of what beset is. And I got to thinking about, you know, the sins that I over and over have to come to the Lord about and say, you know, it's me again, Lord. You know, I've done it. And this definition is exactly, you know, what happens. The adjective besetting, according to Webster's, is habitually attending or constantly harassing or attacking. If an army is besetting you, they're just ready to attack constantly. They're lobbing bombs at you. They're besetting you. And that's what this is talking about when it's talking about our besetting sin. And I've got a lot of points I'll get to but everybody's besetting sin is different. You know what bothers one person you know that they have a tendency towards another person may not have a problem with that. Had another verse over when we turn there but Israel over and over in the Bible the Old Testament God refers to Israel as their their their doings have beset them round about there. It's their own doings that get them into these. the situations that they have these these problems and you know Israel they kept having a problem going back to idolatry and that's the idea is that they were easily slid right back into the same thing over and over. Question is who has the setting sins. And I believe that everybody even though we're saved as believers once you say we are still dealing with this flesh. And I think if we're honest we all know you know we have areas specific areas. You know I know exactly what my problem is. And and we I think if you're saved you're going to have if you're honest that you've got a problem. I mean it's a certain sin that is more prevalent than others. I thought of some examples from the Bible of men you know great men of God that had the setting sins. I'm sure some may want to jump up with suggestion here on somebody in the Bible had the setting sin. David that was my first one I had on the list. And I mean, everybody knows the story of David and Bathsheba and his lust for women. And, you know, it became a huge problem for him. And I'll get to the results of sins here later in David's life. But he suffered for that for his entire life. I mean, it was a problem. Another one I had, I thought of, was Moses. Moses had a problem with anger. His temper got him into trouble. And the same thing, Moses suffered because of that. He didn't get to go into the Promised Land. Another one that I think had a dissenting stand and some of this, you know, I don't know. We don't know, you know, for sure that those were, you know, a bit of a problem, but I'm kind of supposing here. But I think Paul, you know, Paul probably had a dissenting stand. Let's turn over to 1 Timothy 1.15. 1 Timothy 1.15 says, This is a faithful saying worthy of all the acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. And, you know, I've been saved several years before somebody pointed out to me that that didn't say he came in the world to save sinners of who I was chief. He came in the world to save sinners. This is Paul. He saved and he came in the world to save sinners. And Paul thought that he was chief of sinners. And so, you know, Paul knew that he had problems in his life. And he he dealt with that a little more over in Romans chapter seven. Turn to 715. says and this is Paul's struggle with with the flesh versus spirit says for that which I do allow not for that which I do I allow not for what I would that I do not but what I hate that do I if then I do that which I would not I consent in the law that it is good you know and I'm going to read through the rest of this but you know I have found myself in this situation over and over I mean, I know there's things I know it's wrong. I mean, I've been I've known it wrong from the time I was old enough to to understand anything. And and I, you know, since I've been saved, I make, you know, I say, God, I don't want to do that. And I'll find myself right there just like Apostle Paul. That's the thing that I said I wasn't going to do. And I did it. If then I do that, which I would not, I consent until all that is good. Now, then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not. But the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find in a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. It's talking about this fleshly nature that we have. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of the sin which is in my members. Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And he gives the answer. I thank God for Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with with the mind I myself serve the law of God but with the flesh of all sins. And that's kind of a lengthy passage. But you know I'd say to sum it up Paul he had good intentions he had desire he wanted to serve the Lord but he had this fleshly nature was constantly worn against him. And you know and I don't know if this the verse talks about I think it's over in 2nd Corinthians chapter 2. Paul talks about his thorn in the flesh. And I've heard all my life that, you know, it might have been his eyesight. And I think there's a lot of I'm not sure if there's anybody knows for sure what it is. But I got to thinking on this. And I wondered that if Paul's thorn in the flesh wasn't wasn't his besetting sin, because it talked about over there, that he sought the Lord three times to remove it from me. And I'm not sure if I'm right on that. But I just I thought of that when I got thinking about Paul saying he's the chief of sinners, and talking about his struggle with with this sin. And then he talks about this thorn in the flesh. And whether that is or not, I don't know. But I can tell you that a besetting sin, and I'm thinking mine, it can be a thorn in the flesh. And it's something that a lot more than three times, you know, I've sought, you know, the Lord to give me victory over this. But anyway, the idea is that I think, you know, even these great men of God, you know, it's something that they struggled with, something that they had problems with. And like I say, I think everybody here has at least one and maybe more, and they're different for every one of us. You know, I got thinking about that, and there's, you know, there's a list of sins a mile long that we could be guilty of. There's some things, I have no tendency towards cigarettes. I've never smoked. I could be around it, that would make me sick. Somebody else, you know, that had smoked in the past and have got saved, you know, they may get around somebody, man, they want to pray to a cigarette, and that could be a besetting sin, something they fall back into. Something that bothers me, Another person may not, it may not even affect them in the slightest. But if I, if I get near that temptation, that's what I tend to, you know, to fall into. So everybody's sin is different. And I think it's important to identify what your, what your weakness is. And I'll get to that a little later so that we can stay away from it. And another thing is we don't know. You know what other believers the setting sins are. I believe most sins are sins in the heart, sins in the mind. You know, I can just tell you, I'm not going to give specifics on my besetting sin, but I sin more with my mind than anything by a long shot. Now, don't get me wrong. I sin with, you know, my mouth and my hands and, you know, other things, feet and everything else. But but by far, most of my sins, 99 percent of them are sins in my heart, sins in my mind. And you guys won't know that. You know, I don't know. My wife, we've been married 23 years, but I don't know, you know, her besetting sin. I was teasing her yesterday about it. I think it was probably gathering my stuff up around the house and hiding it from me. But no, seriously, this is a personal matter. The point is, it's a personal matter that each of us needs to identify. and conquer and not be worried about what somebody else's setting thing is. You know, for me, identifying it, I say when this first, you know, hit me, it popped up in my mind. But if you have trouble identifying what you're setting sin, you know, just think, what do you have to go to the Lord for and claim? First, John one nine, you know, confess your sins. He is faithful and just to forgive your sins. But but if you're like me, I'm serious. I got that thought. This time I go to the Lord and I pray and I feel like saying, yep, here I am. It's me again, Lord. Stand in the need of prayer. You know, I did it again. And so if you think, what is it that I over and over, you know, fall on that, that is what your besetting sin is. And I just got a few examples down and, you know, pride. I think it can be a huge one for a lot of people. Lust, anger. Gossip, addictions such as tobacco, alcohol, lying. You know, there's people who even know to say, they just, they can't get the truth straight. I've seen that people, they just, they'd rather tell a lie than, what is it, walk a mile to tell a lie than walk ten feet to tell the truth. And I think that a lot of people struggle with telling the truth. Stealing, I mean, and the list, like I say, could go on and on. But every, it just gives you an idea of, you know, what we're up against. There was another interesting, when I got to studying on this, a besetting sin, it said something in there about it being habitual. Let me back up to that. Yeah, as an adjective, it said that it's habitually attending. And so I got to looking about that, and a habit is a lot of times an addiction. And this was interesting. I looked up a definition of an addiction. And this really caught me by surprise. So the definition is a repetitive pleasure seeking behavior that is habitual in spite of moral or physical reasons such as harm to the body that should rationally preclude its practice and that displaces spiritual obligation. So you know a lot of times we have let our sin reign. The Bible talks about sin reigning your body to the point that it is it is an addiction. And, you know, because it is a repetitive pleasure seeking behavior. And I'll get to that. Well, this next this next point is why do we keep you know, why do we keep sending over and over? Because there is pleasure in sin. You know, the Bible talks about that. It's pleasure for a season. You know, it's for a short while. But but this flesh, it desires that it's just like an appetite, you know, and this sin feeds the appetite of the flesh. And that kind of goes back also what I was saying there a while ago about how everybody has a different besetting sin. It's a lot like appetite for food. Now, there's some foods I won't have any trouble with. You'll never see me overeating on okra or, you know, some of this kind of stuff. But, you know, I have a tendency towards pork steak. And, you know, I could name a lot of different things that I have a tendency to, I have an appetite for. And our flesh, Everybody has a different appetite for different sin, and a lot of that is because we have let that become a favorite of ours. And our flesh nature has come to the point where it desires that. It's just like a crack addict or somebody addicted to tobacco or whatever. There is an addiction there to that sin because it fulfills a pleasure, an appetite for that sin. Let's slow down and find myself here. And this is important. Let's read the first Peter, chapter five. First, Peter, chapter five, verse eight says, Be be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking who he may devour. There's nobody that knows our besetting sin, our weakness, more than Satan. And he knows just exactly how to trip each and every one of us up. There's a quote written in the back of my Bible that says, Satan's goal is to get you to act on your God-given nature, to disobey God's commandments, and live outside his will. Has anybody ever heard that before? It says right outside of Reg Kelly, 11-2606. So I was listening one time. I want to read that again, Satan's goal is to get you to act on your God given nature. You know, we have this nature to disobey God's commandments and live outside his will. And that is what Satan is. That is true. That's what he's out. He's out to seek and to mess us up. And if he can mess, he knows if he can mess us up. And I'll get to that more in a second here, too. You know, we're not an effectual tool at all to witness our Christian You know, life is a pretty well wrecked and that's that's less people that are going to be the way Satan sees it. That's less people are going to be saved if we are an ineffectual tool for Christ. That's the second part. First thing I had here was what is a besetting sin? Second thing is what happens if we let that sin reign in our life? And let's go over and read Romans chapter six. This is this is where it starts to get little scarier for us. They did me anyway. I might say it seemed like every lesson I ever work on or give, they get me. It works me over worse than, I don't know if it gets anybody else anything, but it works me over pretty hard. Chapter six, verse 12 says, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof. And that's what we're doing when we let these sins come over and over. I mean, It's one thing, you know, we're dealing with this sin nature, but to, you know, have these sins and, you know, but when you continually over and over the same thing, that sin is reigning in your mortal body. I mean, Satan's winning the victory and that sin is taken over. And the first thing, the point is, we live less than a victorious Christian life. And there's several things that kind of go underneath this, but But with sin in our life and open sin, repetitive sin over and over, it's impossible to live a victorious Christian life. We won't bear any fruit. It's pretty hard. And again, a lot of this is I can talk from my own experience. It's pretty hard for me to talk to somebody about salvation and about their need for a savior when I know that I've got sin taken over in my life at that time. Not only is it hard to talk, I don't even have the desire or a concern for them people like I should have, you know, our ability to bear fruit. And I think a lot of that is the guilt that we have. There's a guilt that comes along with, you know, Bible talks about sin, there's bondage and sin. And there's a guilt there if we've fallen into sin. And I'd say I can't tell if everybody else does the same, but my desire to tell anybody else about the gospel goes out the window when I have sin in my life. We live a defeated, life. I was reading the scriptures. We really didn't have that much to do with this lesson, but over there where Peter denied Christ, I got to thinking what Peter must have felt like after he denied Christ three times. I mean, he had to have felt pretty defeated right there at that point in his life. And a lot of times, you know, Reg talks a lot of times about the valleys and the mountains. You know, you talk about something that will bring us down into a valley is this sin. And, you know, we'll get lower in the You know our whole spiritual being is down. Second thing is if we have this sin right here in life is there is no desire to read or study God's word. I've got a verse. It's a quote from a pastor I had back when I was a teenager written in my Bible. I've had it in every Bible I've ever had. It says and this has been a convicting quote and it's probably been around a lot longer than what he gave me. says this book will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book. And I mean, there is so much truth to that. Again, I can go back in my life and I can tell you that is that is true. I have no desire at all. I think a lot of it is subconsciously. I know that if I get into this book, I'm probably going to get told what's wrong. You know, it's you know, I'm afraid of what it's what it's going to tell me. But even deeper than that, I have no desire to have fellowship with my father. And that's the next point is my prayer life. you know, our prayer life will go out the window. It's just like, you know, when my dad and I, when dad was alive, we'd have, I wouldn't call them fights, or somebody told me the other day, intense fellowship, moments of intense fellowship or something. But my dad and I, when we were on the house with each other, and I'll say again, most of the time that was my fault probably, but I didn't have much desire to call dad up on the phone and just talk and, you know, and have fellowship with him. We didn't want to go fishing together. You know, we stayed part of the same way with God. When we when we are in sin, you know, and remember, it's not God that left. You know, we're the ones that fell into that sin. God is desiring us to come back to him. And I got that down here a little bit later on coming back. But he's just like the father in the story of the prodigal son. You know, he's looking far off. You know, he's wanting us to come back. But that fellowship is broken because of sin. And so the communication both ways, God speaking to us through his word and us speaking to him through prayer, you know, that's gone. Second point, besides, you know, we live less than a victorious life as a result of sin, is that God's chastisement will come on our lives. The Bible says that it... Well, let's read Hebrews 12, chapter 5. It says if you endure chastening God deal with you as with sons for what son is he whom the father chasing is not. But if you be without chastisement whereof all are partakers then are you bastards and not sons. Furthermore we have we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the father of spirits and live for for barely for a few days chasing. For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous but grievous. Nevertheless afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. You know God is not going to let you know let us stand by and openly flaunt you know his commandments and you know over and over there's going to be chastening come in our lives. And again you go back to these These men of God talked about their specifically David. I mean everybody knows what what? Lost David suffered his family. I mean his kingdom everything was there was chastening brought in his life by God because that sin Moses again He wasn't allowed to go into the promised land because of his sins, and there's I'm sure there's lots of other examples But but God is you know he's he's holy and he's not going to wink or look the other way at our sin You know I've heard Reg say it, he's not the least bit amused by our sin or foolishness. He deals with it, he's a holy God and there is going to be a price to be paid for sin. The sweet side of that is, the good side of that is, is that this is talking about a father-son relationship here. And it is a good assurance of our salvation. If the Lord deals with you in a matter, it's a proof that we're his child. You know, I'll say this, if we can go on and do this, and number one, there isn't the conviction or the chastening in our life, that would be a good time to look at your salvation and see, am I truly a child of God? If I can get away with this, and there's no chastisement to come, there is no conviction for doing it, there's something bad, bad, wrong. And so, you know, it's kind of a two-way thing. Yeah, it's bad. You know, to come underneath God's testifies and God's conviction. But it's also it's a comfort to know that that that he is there to bring us back. There's a verse over in Psalms. Let's read it real quick. Psalms ninety four twelve. And David again, he should know this as good as any man. Ninety four twelve says blessed is the man who now chastened us oh Lord and teaches him out by law. You know the world would look at this and say oh man you know you've had this and this happen and you know you're you know they say what a terrible thing but from a from a spiritual standpoint we're blessed if God you know does chasten us and again like the verse said that we read in in Hebrews there's no chastening Seamoth Joyce for the present time when you're when we're in the middle of it it's not a fun thing but but it We need to recognize that we are blessed, that God does take care of it. What happens, though, and this is the next points on this, of what the results of this sin reign in our life, if we don't respond to God's chastening. You know, we've had that conviction in our life, and God's working on chastening us. I think the next thing that happens, our hearts will be hardened. There's several verses taught in, well, let's read Hebrews 3.13. A lot of places in the Bible, God talks about hardening their hearts. We can get to a point in our sin to where I think it's, if not impossible, awful hard to even come under conviction for that sin because we've grown callous to it. 3.13 says, but exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. And, you know, I've heard this analogy a lot of times, you know, sin If it's what we're doing, I guess the bank robber doesn't just jump in. The first thing he ever does is robbing a bank. Because that would seem terrible to a 13-year-old kid. But that 13-year-old kid stealing a piece of gum, that's not that big a deal. But as time goes by, the point is that sin, it's not as big a deal. I'm talking about stealing. And we just get to the point where we can justify more and more. You take whatever sin it is, we get to the point where the mind's deceitfully wicked above all things. And we can justify. in our at least in our mind about any kind of sin that we're doing if we're not careful. And I think that's part of this hardening. We get to the point where we're just we're hard as can be. And you know teachers, Sunday school teachers or preachers, they can stand there and holler at you all day long. It goes right over your head and doesn't even reach your heart. And it's pretty hard to be turned around at that point. I thought of and this isn't actually talking about a setting sin, but I thought of Esau in Hebrews. It talked about Esau. He said he sought repentance. He diligently sought repentance with tears. And I can't remember exactly how he said it. It says that though he sought it with tears, he found no place for repentance. And, you know, I think, you know, we can play, think we're playing games with God, like I'm going to get away with this. And then one of these days I'm going to straighten this out and I'll You know, I'll take care of it. It may not work that way for us. We may get to a point where God doesn't even deal with us on that anymore. And then I think the next step is, let's read Proverbs 29.1. God will. The next step for not dealing with that sin is, I think, ultimately death. God, there is a sin unto death. The Bible talks about that in different places, but Proverbs 29.1, whoever gets that first, Jump up and read it, because I'm away from it here. Somebody got it. Go ahead. And that's what it is. We're hardening our neck when we get to the point and say, God, I don't care what you say. I enjoy my sin. And I'm going to continue in it. And the Bible, like I say, and just to be honest, there's some stuff I'm a little confused about. on this thing and a bit but I do believe that God's finally his child God you're still saying that if you won't straighten up and fly right I think God will deal with you you know ultimately by shortening your life in this in this world and then the final result of not dealing with that sin in our life as Christians is loss of rewards. Let's turn over to first Corinthians chapter three. First Corinthians 3. 11. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide, which he has built there upon, he shall receive a reward. Now listen to this. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. These are Christians standing at the judgment seat of Christ. By the way, I'll put a side note in here. You know, I've always, I guess, believed in eternal security, but this verse right here probably nailed down eternal security in my mind probably more than any other verse that I've ever dealt with because these are Christians They they've made it to heaven. We're standing for the seat of Christ and you're given account of things done unconfessed sin in our life. And this says right here that you're going to suffer loss. And I've asked people that don't believe in eternal security before. If if you're not suffering loss because of sin, what in the world are you suffering loss for? You know, these are people that are in heaven. Remember, they sinned. You know, that's not justifying sin. And I want to get to that some more here, too. One of the dangers of eternal security, I think, is we think that we have more or less a license to sin. We can get away with it and then just come back and get another dose over and over. But the point here is these people, they've made it to heaven. They're at the judgment seat of Christ. They had sin in their life, and there is loss. They're going to suffer a loss of rewards. There's going to be shame standing before Christ. And he's going to say, why didn't you take care of that sin when you was down there? I'd say there's some reason that was one light bulb that popped on my head on this verse right here in dealing with people who think you can lose your salvation. And you just ask them. I've never had anybody give me a straight answer yet. You know, why would you be suffering loss in heaven if it wasn't because of unconfessed sin? But those, and there may be more with those in the results of having these besetting sins, you know, not taken care of in our life. The third and the final point is a remedy. You know, what do we do? about these dissenting sins. And this is where this lesson got, it kind of backfired on me. It took a pretty hard turn against me. When I got to studying on this, you know, what to do, I'd say it's fine to get a lesson from somebody else, but when it starts dealing with you, it got tough. And fortunately, we have the gift of the Holy Spirit. We talked about this earlier. We have the gift of the Holy Spirit to bring conviction on us as believers. And what I said a little ago, if you can sin and not have that conviction, there is problems with your salvation. I truly believe that. But, and this isn't exactly in order, but kind of jump ahead here. I think the key to this, and I haven't completely conquered this either. I got to thinking, 1 John 1, 9. You know, one of my favorite verses in the Bible, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And I down at Camp Joy, you know, I'm down there every year. And over the years, I've taken probably hundreds of kids to that verse and quote that verse. And God does mean it. He will give forgiveness for our sins. And it's a special thing. But I got thinking this, I guess the point that I want to teach on here, this last part is repentance. And I realized in my life the problem, the reason that this same sin or sins keeps coming back again and again is because I'm asking for forgiveness from it, but I'm not repenting from it. And I think this is key and Reg has been preaching on repentance and boy, all that just came, you know, this lesson came back to me. And that's the problem why I keep coming back to this same sin is because I'm not repenting, turning. And I got to studying. The you know I had this tendency to think all my life when somebody you know these verses in the Bible somebody talks about repentance that that's for these wicked ungodly sinners that are needing to come to Christ. And the more I studied repentance the more I realize I think there's more verses in the Bible that are talking about believers repenting from their sin and coming back to Christ. You know I don't know what the count is but I'm kind of convinced that there's more. You know talking about believers needing to repent and there is sinners and I may be wrong on that but I know there's a lot of and we wouldn't have time to go through all of them. But if I the more I thought about my besetting sin and I come to God a lot of times and I apologize. You know God I'm sorry I did it. You know here I am again. But repentance is a change of mind. It's 180 degrees turn. You know, a believer comes to Christ, he realizes that his sins is what nailed Christ to the cross, and he wants to turn from his sins, and he goes the other way. And these sins, these besetting sins, a lot of times we know they're wrong, and we got caught again, and we come to God and say, yep, God, you know, like I say, it's me again. But we don't turn from them. We just, you know, and I use, you could use the example of if this step right here was a thousand foot, you know, cliff, you know, and we see that that's sin, and we come up to sin, Instead of getting away from that cliff, you know, the obvious thing would be to, you know, go the other way. We want to walk right along just as close as we can to that sin. And again, why do we do that? Because we like the sin. In our mind, we like it, we like the pleasure that it gives, and we don't see sin. Repentance is turning, not just in our mind, mind and actions both. But in our mind, seeing sin the way that God sees it, you know, and the sin is what nailed him to the cross. And that particular sin is, it's wicked and it's nasty to God. This is what I started to say a little ago. I think, you know, and we believe strongly in eternal security here in this church. And I think there's a danger in saying, well, I'm saved, I'm going to heaven no matter what. And then turning around and willfully sinning against God, because we know that we can get forgiveness of those sins. I forgot, where is that? Or in Jude, where it talks about turning the grace of God into lasciviousness. Isn't that in Jude? And that's what we do a lot of times. We turn God's grace that he gave us into, we just think that we can get away with it because we do have forgiveness. And, you know, I just make a confession. I have, I have literally, while I'm, you know, doing a sin, thought, well, This ain't a big deal. I'll get done with it and then I'm just going to, you know, ask forgiveness for it. And I mean, that's a terrible thing to admit, but I have been guilty of that. And, you know, so God's forgiveness, it is true. God's forgiveness is there and he's willing to give it. He's looking for us to come back. But, you know, people talk about easy believism, which is what? That's people coming to Christ, you know, making a confession without any repentance. And I think there's a danger in easy forgiveness, easy forgivenessism. Is that a new word? But, you know, wanting forgiveness without turning, you know, from our sin. There are several parallels, like I say, with repentance for salvation and repentance from sins. First of all, there's conviction of the Holy Spirit on both of them. Like I said a little ago, you're not going to, you know, the Holy Spirit is the one that's going to convict us and to turn, you know, to bring you to Christ, Say, you know, I've had enough of this. Romans 2, 4 says, it's the goodness of God that leadeth men to repentance. And I believe that applies to Christians needing to repent too. You know, it's God's goodness that slaps you upside the head and says you need to take care of this. Second, we need to get a fear of God. And I think that's a, and besides repentance, most of us don't fear God. I don't know if anybody fears God the way they should. And again, it's just like the example of the clip. If we truly hated sin, feared God, and realized how holy God was, we wouldn't walk as close to that, you know, that besetting sin as we do. But the fact is, is we don't fear God. You know, the Bible says it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. I mean, God hates sin because of his holiness, because he knows what it did, you know, put Jesus Christ on the cross. And that's the reason God hates sin. We don't fear God. Most of us, and again, I'm talking to myself here, we don't realize that God is watching everything we do. He knows every thought we have. And I think, personally, if I can keep that in my mind, that God sees me, God knows my heart, He knows my thoughts, And he hates sin. I mean, getting that straight in my mind and keeping it in my mind is a big deterrence, you know, to keep me from doing that sin. Another parallel is, the second one was there, that the fear of God is involved. You know, a believer, a person to get saved is going to have to fear God, know that there's a hell to shun, and a person to get control over this, this setting sin is going to have to realize that they are, God is going to deal with this sin one way or another. He's going to deal with it in this life by chastisement, looking for a confession and repentance, or he's going to deal with it by loss of rewards. Second thing is that prayer is required either way. A believer just as a sinner has to call on Jesus Christ to confess their sins. We've got to go to, it's not enough just to say, well, I'm going to quit doing that. You know, we have to come to Christ and confess, say, Lord, you know, I'm guilty. And not just I'm guilty, but I want to repent. I want to turn. And, you know, I think, you know, the Bible talks over there and the Lord's Prayer says, forgive us this day our trespasses. You know, a lot of times it's a daily thing, you know, that it, you know, and again, this is something that, you know, I'm dealing with right now in my life. I don't think that I've got the battle won by long shot, but I think Like I said, recognizing that the repentance in my life is going to be, hopefully, a big difference. Another thing, a couple more points, God's Word is important. Just as it talks about a believer, a new believer has to desire, as a new believer desires the sincere milk of the Word, and that's in 1 Peter 2.2. Believers that repent of sin, They've got to get into God's Word. The Bible says in Psalms 119.11, Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. And just like the quote that I had there out of my Bible there a while ago, sin, this book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book. And so the second step, or third or fourth, I forgot where I'm at here. But after we've repented of that sin, is to get into this book and to draw closer to him. And then the final point in getting victory over this sin is relying on God's grace. Because without God's grace, I mean, we're all sinners. And there's, you know, without the grace of God, we're not going to have victory over this thing. Let's read 2 Corinthians 12, 9. He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Another verse, Romans 5, 20, says, Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Another verse that come to my mind a little ago when I was driving over here, One of the biggest Ways that a lot I'll just quote this verse because it probably is my favorite verse in the Bible with 1st Corinthians 10 13 There's no temptation taking you but such as is common to man But God is faithful who will not suffer you be tempted above it You're able but will with the temptation also make a way escape that you may be able to bear it So, you know all these temptations and these the setting sins God he knows and there he's not going to you know, he's made a way to escape. And there's no temptation that we, you know, even though we have this, this sin nature, it's not an excuse. You know, we there's no temptation taking you. Finally, the last verse I want to read is 2 Corinthians 7. 2 Corinthians 7, 1 says, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. And I looked at that and I'm like, having therefore these promises, what's that talking about? And you back up two verses in chapter six says, Wherefore, come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. And this is important here, and will be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. And then it goes on to say that having therefore these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh. So I guess in a nutshell, first thing is important to identify what our besetting sin is, realize what the results are of that sin reigning or not being taken care of, and then look to God for the remedy for that besetting sin. And again, I think, and again, this is me personally, what hit me the hardest was the idea of repenting from that besetting sin. Not just confessing it, not just asking forgiveness, but turning dead away from it.