Amen. Thank you, Brother Ken. I just, in the past three weeks, moved my choir seat. Since I sit on the platform, I have to be able to get out of the choir easily. And my seat just happened to end up right next to Brother Ken. And we both sing tenor. However, he's good and I'm not and so I'm extremely intimidated by that But he just kind of he he does this thing now you choir people you may or music people you may know what it is. I Sometimes I think I get so bad in my singing that I mess him up and here he goes like this You know, have you ever seen anybody and do that? I think you're shutting me off. Is that what you're doing brother Ken? Are you? I wish I could have known. Every time I saw him move, make that move to his ear, I kind of... I don't have to consider myself to be... educated in the field of music. I love singing. Pastor Phillips, you know, preached Sunday night about music and singing. And I really do. I love singing, singing everywhere I go, singing in the car, singing at home, singing at church, singing in my office. I just love singing. It makes you feel happy inside. And so I really do love it. I look forward to the opportunity to preach this evening. I really do. I'm not necessarily going to preach as much as I am going to try to teach. I enjoy standing behind the pulpit of Faith Baptist Church. I most certainly do. I don't have the opportunity very often, but it's something that I do not take lightly, but I certainly, certainly appreciate. And when Pastor Monty leaves, now that I'm on staff, part of me is sad because it's nice having him around, but part of me is happy because then I might have the opportunity to preach. And so you may know if you're a preacher or been in the ministry, you know where I'm coming from on that. I forgot to make one announcement with the BYF. You know, she gave me that sheet of paper and everything. And I had said one more thing. If you're planning on going to the BYF Churchwide Chili Supper, you are asked to sign up in the South Lobby, OK? And so if you want to attend that, on the South Lobby out here, there's a sign-up sheet. Just write your name down in parentheses. Put down how many are coming with your family. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, depending on the size of your family or how many are planning on coming. And that'll allow them to prepare. adequately for that activity. If you have your Bible, let's take that and turn it to the book of Romans, chapter number six, the book of Romans, chapter number six from Romans. Turn Mike on. OK, now you tell me if I get it. OK, is it there or is it off? The sign went down. Is that a good sign? OK. All right. You ready? Is it on? No? Oh, I'm going to have to take it out and look at it. That's just tacky. I didn't want to do that. Okay. Okay, how's that? All right, good. Can everybody hear me now? It would have been sad if I would have, you know, 45 minutes later, standing up here saying, let's pray and nobody responds. You've just been trying to hear what I've been saying. Nobody knows what he's saying, what's going on. So I'm glad you can hear me now and I can hear myself. I'm going to be speaking tonight on a topic, a subject that I believe, in fact, I'll say this, I know is not foreign to you. In fact, I'm speaking on a subject tonight that I know is probably more familiar to you than you wish it was. You are probably so familiar with the subject that I'm going to be speaking on tonight that it makes you uncomfortable at times. The familiarity, the response that you have to what I'm talking about tonight. We're going to be in Romans chapter number 6 and verse number 11. Let's just start reading and then we'll jump right into it. Romans chapter 6 and verse number 11 the Bible says likewise reckon ye also yourselves. To be dead, indeed, unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness. unto God. You say, Pastor Lopez, what is it that you're going to be speaking on tonight? I'm going to be speaking on the subject of sin. You see, I would say, knowing human beings, knowing our mortal flesh, that you and I are a people who on a daily basis are coming in contact and struggling with in our own lives this subject, this issue of sin. It would be wonderful if I could stand up here and say to you that we don't have to worry about sin. that sin is something we're never going to have to face, or that we are absolutely free from any contrast or any grinding against sin. We're absolutely free of that, but we're not. You and I both know that we live in a world that is inundated with sin. It's something we face every single day. And the worst thing about it is it seems like oftentimes the sin that we struggle with and the sin that we face is introduced from within our own flesh, and from within our own carnal hearts. And that's oftentimes the most frustrating thing about sin. You say the world is a sinful place. Avon, you can see the sin all over around. You can see the sin across the seas. You can see the sin everywhere. Yes. But the terrifying thing is you can also see the sin within our own hearts, the sinful nature, the sinful lusts, the sinful desires, and we must face those on a daily basis. It seems like it never ends. See, the good news for you tonight is you're not alone. Paul said, O wretched man that I am. I think Paul experienced the same thing. He says, In me dwelleth no good thing. Even Peter in the Gospels, you find him in situations and in times where he sins. Not necessarily always based upon his outward situations or circumstances, but often times because of something that was initiated inside of his own self. You see, you're not alone. We all face it. We all struggle. And we all try to gain victory. But the thing about sin is oftentimes when it defeats you, it doesn't just defeat you and walk on by. When the sins that you face, and there may be some that are coming to your mind right now that you know you face on a daily, a weekly, a monthly, whatever it may be. You know you face these sins. And they don't just defeat you and pass on by. As though they defeat you, they knock you down to the ground. They stand right above you with its hands on its waist, looking down at you mockingly saying, I am sin and I have defeated you. That's how sin is. It tries to make you feel defeated constantly. And I may be speaking to a people out here who are going through that very time in your life right now. You may have been struggling for weeks, for days, for months, maybe for years with either sins of commission or omission, things that you don't do or things that you do do, but you're struggling with sin. You've been struggling. You've tried. You've fought against it. You've tried to gain the victory. Attempt after attempt has ended up in failure. And you're growing frustrated. Maybe the question has crossed your mind. Can I really gain victory over this sin in my life? Maybe it's something real small, but maybe it's not. Maybe it's something that is overwhelming to you. But you may be feeling so defeated, is victory even possible? Is it within my reach? I'm going to give you tonight from Romans 6, verses 11, 12, and 13. Each one will be one point for us tonight. I'm going to give you three keys to deliverance from sin. I want to help you tonight and I want to encourage you to understand that the sins that you face and the sins that you struggle with and those sins that constantly seem to be right there knocking on your door are not sins that have to defeat you over and over and over and over again. I'm going to talk about this in a minute, but when sin gets your mindset to think, I'm defeated, then it has you. And we're going to talk about that tonight. How to gain deliverance from my sin. And I can't even hardly begin to list a list of sins, the possibilities of what you may be facing or struggling with, because the list would never end. It could be wrong thinking. It could be negative thinking. It could be lustful thoughts. It could be a lack of faithfulness to Bible reading, to prayer, to church, not loving your spouse the way you should, not loving God the way you should, not soul winning, not tithing. It could be the television, the radio, a certain CD. The list goes on and on and on. But I want to help you tonight. To look at that list and not think like we do when we used to be in school and we used to get a bad grade and think, not again, I studied so hard for that test and all I got was a C-. I wanted to get an A. We've all been there in our past. Well, I don't want you to look at the list of sins that you're struggling with tonight and have that feeling of defeat in your heart. I want to uplift you and encourage you and I want to tell you tonight that there is a way to gain deliverance from those sins. Let me throw out a caution. If you're sitting here tonight and you're thinking, well, Brother Peter, I've tried this, I've tried that, I've tried this, and every single time I fall flat on my face over and over again, what you're going to tell me tonight I've probably already heard and I know that it's definitely not going to work for me. Caution. Then you've already been defeated. and I haven't even had the opportunity to share what the Scripture says with you. So let me say this, keep an open mind and don't convince yourself tonight that this is not going to work, because I can guarantee you from the Word of God that it will. Romans chapter number 6, verse number 11 is going to be our first point. After verse number 11, I'm going to take us to a cross-reference and I'm going to call it our helpful hint for the night. Then we'll discuss verse number 12, which will be point number 2. Following verse number 12, I'm going to take you to another cross-reference, which you're not going to guess, but it's going to be our second helpful hint for the night. Then we'll have verse number 13. Verse number 13 will be our third and final point. And then we are going to discuss a helpful hint for the night. I want to help you tonight. That's really what I want to do. Let's dive right into it. Romans chapter number six, verse number 11. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed under sin. but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Point number one from verse number 11 is live in life and death. Live in life and death. Verse 11 says, to reckon also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. There is a death and then there is a life. You have to live in the death and the life. You say, alright, you haven't even said the first two sentences of your first point and I'm already confused. Well, let me clarify, it really is not difficult at all. Live in death, first of all. What does that mean? How do I live in death when it comes to this subject of sin? Here it is. Consider yourself to be dead to sin. Now, consider yourself to be dead to sin. Here's what happens. Sin oftentimes defeats us so many times that in our minds we determine, we set it as a fact in our minds that sin is not able to be defeated. No matter what I do, how hard I try, sin will always defeat me and I'll never gain victory over it. I've tried, maybe for a day or two, but I just can't gain the victory. What do I do? Listen, consider yourself to be dead unto sin. Don't convince yourself. Don't allow sin to convince you. that you cannot defeat the sin in your life. You just have to consider. Set it in stone. Here's this. Make a factual, concrete decision that sin's not going to reign over you. Make a factual, concrete decision that sin's not going to reign over you. factual and concrete. Here's what often happens in the average life, and myself included, is when a preacher is preaching a sermon and he hits something that we know we are struggling with, the tendency for us is to feel an emotion of, I'm trying to think of the right word, we feel an emotion of hurt, guilt, We feel all of these things, we feel a disappointment because we know we're disappointing God in a certain area of our lives. And let's just throw out, for example, illustrations sake, let's just say that we're struggling with something that is on the television set, something that pops on at a certain time and we know it is, we know it's going to be there, and we're struggling with that. What will happen oftentimes is a Christian will feel these emotions of guilt and hurt and disappointment, and after the church service and the invitation is given, they'll walk up and they'll kneel down at an altar, and when they get to the altar, they'll sometimes even weep and cry and cry out to God, and they'll say, God, these are the things I've been doing. This is what I've been struggling with. You know what it is. Please give me the victory over that. and they stand up and they walk back to their pew, but oftentimes what happens is what just happened, this event that just took place at the altar, is kind of a wishful hope. Oh God, it'd be great if somehow you could take this away from me. It's not necessarily a decision that we make where when we get up off our knees, It is a factual, concrete decision that will even change certain things about us. You see, when you make a decision based on fact and based on this is just the way it's going to be a matter-of-fact decision, then you're oftentimes willing to do things to back up or to support the decision that you've just made. So when it comes to you dying to sin, You don't just make some wishful hope of, it'd be great if I could overcome, if I could defeat the sin that I'm struggling with. You make a factual, concrete decision. You say, I am going to defeat this sin. This sin is not going to reign over me. And then you absolutely do whatever it takes for that to be so. But you reckon. You reckon. That reckon is a key word. You reckon that this is the way it's going to be. I searched in verse number 11, trying to find something interesting, a little tidbit to bring out for you. And when I looked at verse number 11, it says, likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. I looked up the word dead, and I just wanted to find other places it was used in the Scriptures. And you're not going to believe it, but it took me to the Gospel of Luke, where there was a story about a father who had two sons. The sons wanted their inheritance, so the father gave it to them. One son chose to use it wisely, the other son just chose to leave the country and to go out and to spend it in righteous living. And after a while, he ran out of money and his resources were all drained, and he ended up living with the pigs. You know the story. What happened when the son finally came to his senses, got up, he walked out, he started walking, heading on that journey towards his father. His father sees him. His father runs out. His father hugs his neck. His father says something to the effect of, we're going to have a feast. We're going to kill the fatted calf. We're going to do all these things, because this, my son, was... He says, this, my son, was dead. Was the son lifeless? As far as physical life and body? No, his son was still in existence. He was out of his presence, out of his sight, not able to be seen, felt, heard, or anything like that. It wasn't that he was physically dead. He was just not there, not in his presence. You reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin. That doesn't mean, it doesn't mean that you're never going to sin. It doesn't mean you're going to be perfect. But you consider sin, though it robes you, consider sin not a part of you. It's something that's not me. Sin is something that will not defeat me. Sin is something that I don't have to live under the authority of this sin. You consider yourself to be dead indeed unto sin. Don't convince yourself that sin is undefeatable. Okay, now live in life and live in death. What about living in life? But alive, verse number 11 says, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Okay, you've determined that to live in death means to determine. You stomp your foot and you say, sin will not have control over me. I've made my decision. That's living in death. Now living in life means you are going to decide that your sole purpose for living is to live for Jesus Christ. You see, you've decided, you've made the decision, a factual, concrete decision that sin is not going to reign over me. It will not have control over me. I will not live a life of defeat to sin. But then you must then decide that my sole purpose for living is going to be to live a life completely and solely for God. That means everything I do is going to be for God. You say, what do you mean by that? That means the education, the books that I read, the way I try to educate myself is for God's purpose. How is that possible? Well, you can write. You can read. You can witness. You can speak. The more educated you are, sometimes the different people you're able to reach. Everything you do is for God. That means you walk through the store and you consider that your whole purpose for even existing on this earth is for God. So as you walk through a store, you see people not just like they're passerby's, but you see people as though God wants you to see them, because after all, all you are is God's tool that is walking around on the face of this earth. Everything you do is for God. In 2005, that seems like an extremist point of view. You mean God is supposed to consume me? You mean God is supposed to be my sole purpose of life? He is supposed to be everything about me? Yes. Yes, that's what I mean. What makes the Bible Christians, the Apostles and those guys so different from us? What makes the first century Christians so different from the Christians of the 21st? What makes us so different? Do you know, we are often times so consumed by secular and worldly and other things that we forget that God saved us and it's to Him and for Him that we are supposed to live. Just look at our schedules. Look at our days. How much of your day do you actually spend in thought and contemplation about God? Well, I'm not saying read your Bible and praying. I'm just saying how often does God cross your mind through the course of a regular workday? It would vary in all of our lives. But do you think the Apostle Paul or Peter or James or John, or even some of the Christians that were understudies of these guys, do you think that God only crossed their mind once or twice or three or four, even five times a day? No. You see, I think they were absolutely consumed with the thought that their life must be lived for God. There is no other purpose. Society today tells us our purpose is cars, houses, things, belongings, prestige, popularity, position. And then all those things get pushed to the top when we forget that our purpose is to live for God. Is it wrong to have money? No. But our sole purpose is to live for God. Is it wrong to have a nice car? No. Our sole purpose is to live for God though. Everything about us. So once you decide that you're going to die to sin, you decide, I'm going to live for God. I am really everything that I do, I am going to do for God. You say, that's hard. I know why. And that's why at the end of verse 11, I love it when it says, but alive unto God. It doesn't say through your own power, through your own will. Through who? Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Here it is. Die to sin. Live for God. Everything about you for God. But you don't have to do it on your own. You don't have to put on your hiking boots and hike across the way of this world all by yourself. You don't have to do that. Because Jesus Christ allows you to live through Him, His strength, His power. His leading for God. You don't have to worry about, well, what do I do when I get up in the morning? Well, what do I do when I get to work? What do I do when I'm driving home? How do I live for God? If you decide that your sole purpose is going to be for God, then when you get up in the morning, you get on your knees and you say, God, I'm living today completely, solely for You. Please lead me. And the Holy Spirit of God, when you go through your day, will prod you and will encourage you and will convict you and will guide you and will say, this is how to live for God. It's difficult to know what to do sometimes. I just started a new position at this church. My first week here was probably the busiest week I've had in a really long time. Because this is why I felt like every day I walked into the office, I'm taking on new responsibilities. Every day I walked into the office and I sat down at my desk, I had a specific task that I wanted to accomplish. I've wanted to accomplish it since September and October. And as I sit there preparing to accomplish this task, It's as though suddenly I start hearing outside of my office, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, and it's almost as though a dump truck is backing up into my office, and then somebody says, listen, these are all your responsibilities, and they're all over. and I'm thinking, what do I do? It seems like I spent the first week here at the church just trying to figure out what is what. I was climbing through this mess of responsibility. But it was neat to have Pastor Falls and Pastor Monty and Pastor Phillips, and all I had to do was press a button on my phone and say, hey, sorry to bug you for the 15th time today. I need to ask you a question. And they said, well, this is what you do. Or they would say, call so-and-so and they'll tell you what to do. There was some way of assistance there. I didn't have to figure it all out on my own. Well, when we say we're going to live completely for God, sometimes we feel just like that. Oh, I'm going to have to live for God. Oh, what do I do? How do I do it? What do I say? How do I act? What do I wear? What do I do? We just don't know. But that's not the way God plans it. God says, you decide you're going to live for Me. And once you make that decision, then the Holy Spirit of God through Jesus Christ will lead you. Why do you think you have the Holy Spirit within you to help lead you and guide you? And he says, this is the way you get to where I want you. Do you see how blessed we are? We don't just have this expectation without assistance. God says, live for me. Here's your assistant. And he's there to help you. So we live in life. But we also have to live in death. Let's let's look to our helpful hint. You think this is going to go long. No, it's not. It's really not. Romans chapter 8 is our helpful hint. Romans chapter 8 verse number 5. A quick helpful hint. This won't take but a few seconds. Romans chapter 8 verse number 5 and 6. I'm going to emphasize one word as we read these two verses. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Let's stop right there. Here's your helpful hint for the night. Your mindset. Your mind will often affect your living. If you determine in your mind that sin It's just too much to handle. It's just the way I'm going to live, Brother Peter. Defeated. Then you are going to be defeated. Your mindset affects it. Mind the things of God. Think. Consider the things of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit of God. And you'll never believe, you'll never know the difference that that will make. Get out of your mind the influences and the channels of the world and of carnality in the flesh. and fill your mind with the influences of the things of God, and it'll be a great aid to you. Okay? Number two, let's go to Romans 6. Look at verse 12. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof." Number two, give no control to sin. Number two. This is, of course, closely related to number one. Give no control to sin. For sin to reign in your body is for sin to have authority in your life. And the reign of sin in your life will lead to just that. A life of sin. It is possible for Christians to live as Spirit-filled, or let me use another word, it is possible for Christians to live with a heart full of love for God. In 90% of the areas of our lives, we love and are submitted to God completely. But it is possible for to have a small fraction, a small 10% of our lives that we hold back or that we know consistently we are defeated by this certain area of our life. What could that area be? It could be different things. It could be our workplace. We know every time we go to our workplace that there's going to be things that are said or an emphasis that are put on conversations or on lifestyles that we always fall prey to. And it's an area of our life where sin has some control. It's like, when I go there, I'm going to mess up. And it's just the way we feel. It could be oftentimes for teenagers, an area where control is had by sin is relationships, oftentimes in teenagers. I've seen teenagers that seem to love the Lord with all their heart, but for some reason, when it comes to relationships, they just take the Bible, they toss it out the window, and they say, I'm not going to worry about what God says, because this is what I feel, and this is what society teaches, and they just throw the Bible out. Well, they love the Lord in so many areas, but sin has control over a certain area of their life. Here is my admonishment to you. Give no control to sin. Don't let sin have a hand. or a grab on not one single area of your life keeps sin completely away. What if it's the area of music? Well, find a way to not allow sin to have control. Sometimes that means getting rid of CDs. I always encourage kids at the youth center to do that. Sometimes it means taking the CD player out of your car. I don't know. What if it's, there's so many things, I can't even begin. But give no control to sin. You know tonight, if there's a certain area in your life that sin continues to defeat you, and it's often times in one or two very specific areas, then give no control. Get rid of the TV. Get rid of the VCR. The DVD player. Sorry, VCR probably nobody has anymore. Get rid of the DVD player. Don't, I don't know, don't go to the movie theater. Don't, I don't know, don't eat at that restaurant. Just find a way not to give control to sin. And it's very interesting. Let's go to our helpful hint on this one and then we'll close off. Go to Ephesians chapter four. This is very interesting. I hope you'll find it so. Ephesians chapter number four. Look at verse number 27, Ephesians chapter number four and verse number 27. The Bible says in Ephesians 4, 27, neither give place to the devil, neither give place to the devil. The reason why I say this is so interesting is because of the word place. Oftentimes, when we think of place, we say, oh, that restaurant is a place, or the church is a place, or there's certain areas or places. When the scripture says neither give place to the devil, place almost has a concept or a meaning of control to it, almost like a military term. For example, If you were to go into Iraq or Afghanistan or into other regions of the world, you would find that there are certain areas, for example in Iraq, where we have bases that are set up. These bases allow us to function more locally and they allow us to be more efficient, more mobile, more educated and intellectual in what's going on in the area. And they really make us just more efficient all around as a military. Well, that place is base. That's a place. It's a place where we can work out of, where we can do our work, where we can get things going. Neither give place to the devil. Don't give the devil any area of your life, not one area of your life, where he can, so to speak, set up base. where he can have room to function, room to work, be more efficient, have a stronghold in your life. Then it's as though the devil has a base in an area in which is otherwise not friendly to him, but he does have one single area that is his to control, and he knows it. And if that's the case in our lives tonight, we know it too. We know what that one area is. It's coming to your mind probably right now, an area in your life where the devil set up camp, he set up base, and he's working, functioning from that area. And so many other problems come because of that. Listen, don't give the devil, give him no control to sin. Give absolutely no control to sin. So what's the helpful hint? Give the devil no room to operate. Absolutely none whatsoever. Don't give him any room. Let's go to our last our last point. It's found in Romans chapter six again, verse number 13. Romans chapter number 613. I wanted to be brief tonight because it's often the brief speakers that are the most liked, you know, and so If Pastor Monty goes out of town and you know he is, and you open up that bulletin to see who's speaking, oftentimes, you know this, you don't act so spiritual that you're not like this. You open up that bulletin, you think, oh, I hope it's so-and-so and so-and-so, because they're the shortest. Then you open that up, and if someone's long, you think, oh. And so, but I'm going to be brief, OK? So next time Pastor Monty leaves town, you say, hey, let's get the brief speakers up there, OK? And I will hopefully be one of them. Pastor Paul's, of course, would be the other, right? Sure. All right. Romans chapter number 6 and verse number 13. The Bible says, neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. Don't yield your members, your parts, as instruments for the usefulness of unrighteousness, of sin, of carnality, of fleshly. But yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Number three is yield completely to God's service. Yield completely to God's service. That means this. And this goes more specific than point number one. Decide that every single area of your life, one way or another, is going to be used in God's service. You say, what do you mean by that? Well, here's your hint. Keep every part of your body busy for God. Everything about you, keep it busy and working for God. You've heard the phrase, what is it? A idle hands are a devil's work something. What is that? Well, idle mind is a devil's workshop, right? There you go. And an idle hands are devil's work tools. I just made that one up. But it fits, right? It goes. It goes together. And so, let's put that on... what's the internet site called? Sermon Audio. Let's put that on Sermon Audio. Could we, James? And that might become an original statement. Spread the nation, okay? Alright, so let's do that. I would really like that. Make sure my picture is next to that. Just kidding. Just kidding. Yield. Yield completely to God's service. Keep every part of your body busy for God. Now, here it is. I'm going to start on a little list. And probably by the end of the list, you're going to think, OK, stop. I've got your point. And that's the whole reason why I'm going to give you this list. Because I want you to get my point. Here it is. Your eyes. We can use our eyes for so many negative things. Determine that you're going to use your eyes for the service of God, to help you draw closer to God. Well, what can I do? Well, read a good book. That's one way to use your eyes for the service of God. Use your eyes to draw yourself closer to God. How? By reading a book. I have books in my office that I love to read. I have several books on Billy Sunday, and I know he was a man that had some flaws. But I enjoy reading on Billy Sunday. And it has never happened that I read a book on Billy Sunday and at the end of the book I'm just bored with it. It's really the other way around. When I finish reading a book on Billy Sunday, I am so excited and motivated and I'm just thinking in my mind, you know, let me go and do the things for God that Billy Sunday was able to do. And there are other people that I enjoy reading on. John R. Rice, I enjoy reading on him. And there have been others that I read on them and it just excites me and it says to me there are others that have lived for God in a great way and I can do the same. But instead, so many people are wasting their eyes on television and on the computer. And all we do is we sit there for hour after hour after hour and it has done absolutely nothing to improve our relationship with God. Read a good book. What about reading your Bible? That's the best book, right? Read your Bible. How often do we spend reading our Bible? We read it in the morning out of habit and out of conviction and out of discipline. But what about as the day goes on? What about that? I did this several months ago. I've been meeting to start back up. Maybe, Pastor Falls, if you want to join me on this, it'd be a blessing and encouragement to me about accountability. But I months ago I used to every morning I would I would get an index card and I would write down a verse and I went by topics sin heaven the rapture Anything the cross the blood Jesus Christ God all kinds of things and for a week or two or three weeks I would memorize a verse every day on That subject and so if I couldn't do it every day, of course, sometimes that's impossible Then I would just hold it in my pocket. So I memorized it And I would carry this index card around and I would pick that up and I would look and I'd say, okay And anytime I had an extra opportunity, I pulled it out of my pocket and I try to memorize it Oh, it wasn't something I flashed around everywhere. It was just in my pocket And so when I'm sitting at when I'm standing in Walmart in line and thinking oh man these people are I had to be behind the lady that has 15 coupons, you know, that type of deal. And so instead of just standing there growing frustrated, you know how the leg starts going and you're getting aggravated, then I could just pull out the card and I was able to use the time that I had, that was unexpected time, to read the Bible, to help memorize it. Or what about when you get caught in traffic or when you're at work and you're sitting there waiting to talk to the boss, you know, or something like that? Do something. Do things like that that allow your eyes to be used completely for God. What about your ears? Well, there's so many things we can do bad with them. What about for God, to help improve our relationship to God? Well, listen to good, godly music. I am a firm believer that music has a great impact on a Christian's life. You know, you cannot convince me that music does not affect people, because it does. And listening to the wrong kind of music will, as is logical, affect you in a wrong way, in a bad way. Well, listen to good, godly music. You have no idea how it will affect your mind, I do that with even my boy. When my boy was in my wife's womb before he was actually born, we always had good music playing. Good, good, good. Just, you know, the southern gospel that makes you tap your foot, you know, that type of thing. Just kidding, Pastor Paul. Just kidding, just joking. I'm just kidding, but good music, good music. Only the kind of stuff that Pastor Paul would play, I know, because we have the same taste. And so I always had good, godly music playing. And even now that he's born, I do the same. I think that that even is a distributing way. What am I trying to say? Contributing. Yes. What am I thinking of? I don't know. The distributor in the bus is probably what I'm thinking of. That is a contributing factor. To my son and his have you ever noticed his demeanor? He's he's more late I know the second one's gonna come out like a like a wild man and everybody's gonna say oh What you didn't listen to music now now don't don't hold me to this and you can edit this off off the internet side okay, you can edit this one out, but You know, I think that contributed. I really do think so. And so good godly music has an effect. What about preaching? You know, get sermons on sermonaudio.com. There are hundreds of thousands. I don't know how many sermons. Listen to good preaching. What about the Bible on tape? I have that in my car. And while I'm traveling somewhere, I just put that in there and I listen to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. You'll never believe how something will come up and your Bible on tape listening time will pop into your mind and you'll remember a story or an incident or a saying or something like that. What about your mouth? We know we can use our mouth for a lot of bad things. Gossip, huh? Gossip is one main thing. What about using our mouth for witnessing? What about using our mouth for preaching? Not necessarily women being preachers, but guys preaching in the way of encouraging righteousness. What about singing? And what about praying? What about your hands? We know we can use our hands in a lot of negative ways. What about for passing out tracts? I'm going to be giving a soul winning challenge Sunday night. You know, Pastor Falls gave a missionary spotlight. And at my soul winning challenge, I'm going to talk a little bit about the even small ways to spread the gospel. I'm going to be talking about passing out tracts. And you'll never believe the difference that that could make. Always, always have a track in your pocket. Okay, I'm going to keep mine covered because I forgot mine in my office for the service. Okay, so don't look in my pocket right now, but always have a tracker with you in your purse or in your pocket. And hey, just pass out tracks. It's a good way to use your hands for the service of the Lord. What about learning to play instruments? This church does a fantastic job. Brother Ken was here late last night. I showed up. Was it last night? I think that was. and he was here giving lessons for the trumpet. And so, you know, using our hands to play instruments, what about writing? Writing. I've tried, and I haven't been nearly as consistent as I ought to be, but I've tried keeping a journal, a Christian journal, and every night before I go to bed, I write a little bit about my day. Prayer, God answered. A small way that I saw God work. And why do I do that? Well, primarily when I die, I like for my boy to pick up those journals, a whole stack of them at that point, and to look through those journals and to say, wow, you know, Dad really tried to live for God. you know, writing, using your hands to promote godliness and encouraging you too. Every night you go to bed, you stop and just take a few moments and write down how God worked in your life that day. Talk about going to bed, you know, above the clouds. That's a certain way to do it. What about your feet? Door-to-door soul winning. What about bus visitation? I like that one, right? Bus visitation, door-to-door soul winning. Use your feet in a way. Do you see how I've gotten so specific But it works. It works. How do I gain deliverance from sin? You live in life and death. Decide, I'm going to die to sin and live to God. You determine that sin is not going to have any control over you. It's all, I'm going to push it out. It's not going to rain. It's going to have no base. And then you determine, I'm going to go out and I'm going to yield every part of my body for God. You see what we've just done tonight, and this is the neat thing is you didn't even know we were doing it. I was the only one that knew. But what we've just done tonight is we've set up a beautiful military strategy. How have we done that? Well, you know, we declared war. We said, sin is not going to have control over me. And what you have done is declare war. Sin is not going to have control over me. And then we decided that we were going to give no control to sin. We were going to push the areas of sin that control us out of our lives. We were setting up base. This is where we're going to work out of. This is where our camp is going to be. We declare war. We set up camp. Push all the areas out. Make it a safe zone. And then we say, hey, let's go out and let's attack now. We're going to yield completely for God. Everything about us. Our hands, our feet, our eyes, our ears, our mouth. Everything is going to be for God. You've just set up a military strategy tonight and you had no idea, General Darren. You see that? Generals. We're all generals. Because we've set up a beautiful military strategy and if you put it into effect, it will work. Decide though. You're going to have to decide for yourself. Listen, don't allow yourself to live day after day and turning into year after year after year. And every single time you just feel like sin has you down. Oh, don't come to the end of your life and think, you know, My life was lived in defeat with occasional victory. When I lay on my deathbed, I want to say, you know, my life was lived in victory. An occasional defeat, but in victory primarily. They said, what kind of life do you want to live? You can gain deliverance from your sin. Follow the Scriptures. Romans 6, 11, 12, 13. Meditate on them. Memorize them. And they'll make a difference, have an impact on your life. Let's pray. We pray that we would be faithful to You. We ask, Lord, that we would not let that sin, that sin that nailed Jesus Christ to the cross, continue to have a reign over our mortal bodies. We would ask, Lord, that You would help us to gain deliverance. We know that we have the most wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit of God to lead us, to convict us at times. We pray, Lord, that we would Be very tender towards his leading. Make us all Christians of victorious living in Jesus name. Amen.