Breaking Bad Habits - Part B

The point of what Jesus said is that we should deal radically with sin. We should cut it off, put it to death. We should deal radically with sin.

We should cut off opportunities immediately. Listen to what Paul writes to young Timothy, a man who is tempted by the world. Flee youthful lust.

Flee means run. Because sin is so destructive, we must deal with it radically. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares practical insight and helpful tools to help you defeat bad habits and cultivate good ones. Right now, we want to tell you about a resource that will encourage you even more in your faith. Listen to what Sean McDowell said about the book Tactics. This is the book I've been waiting for.

I enthusiastically recommend Tactics. Here's Skip Heitzig to comment on how Jesus spoke out for truth. We might think that Jesus never raised his voice, that he would never call anybody out. However, there was a side of Jesus that was contentious. The Jesus that took tables in the temple and overturned them and took out a whip and drove people out of the temple.

Yeah, that Jesus. Get equipped to defend the gospel and guard against false teachings with Fight for the House, a six-message series through the book of Jude with Skip Heitzig. This teaching series on CD is our thanks when you give to keep this Bible teaching ministry on the air. And when you give $35 or more today, we'll also send you a book by Gregory Kochel called Tactics, your game plan for communicating the truth about Christianity with confidence and grace.

To give, visit connectwithskip.com or call 800-922-1888. Now, as we join Skip Heitzig for today's teaching, we're in Colossians chapter three. Once you've pondered your position, now you need to practice your position. That's the second part, act decisively. Once you've fallen down, once you've determined, I need to get up. Now get up.

Now get up. Somebody once said, the longest journey you'll ever take is the 18 inches from your head to your heart. That's where you move from the thinking part to the conviction part, from just I know certain facts, truths, but now they really become a part of me and I really believe them.

So the longest journey you'll ever take is the 18 inches from your head to your heart. I agree with that, but I want to add something to it. Once it's in your heart, it's got to move to your feet. So our theology must eventually become our be-ology. It's who we are.

It's what we do. Or maybe better put, our theology needs to become our neology, where we pray about it, surrender, I'm convicted by this Lord, and then our be-ology, where we're walking in this and acting decisively. So what are we to act on?

How are we to do that? Well, verse 5, put to death your members which are on the earth. Verse 8, put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, etc. Verse 10, put on and a list of behaviors are given.

So put to death, put off, and put on. All of these are commands that involve our what? Our will, our will, our decision, our choice, which shows me, just by the very language, it shows me there's always an element of self-control when it comes to breaking bad habits. Self-control. You say, well, that's the problem. I've done this so long I've lost control. This is why we need to act decisively.

And if you need help, get help to act decisively. I heard about a preacher who was pulled over for speeding. Not me.

Though I have been, but it wasn't me. And this preacher was pulled over for speeding and the officer said, you know what officers do? License and registration, sir.

Right? So the guy, pastor, gives him his license and registration, but tried to play the spiritual card. So handed him the documents, but then said, Matthew chapter 5, blessed are the merciful, they shall obtain mercy. Cop said, yeah, okay, thanks. Goes back to the car, writes him a ticket, very courteously hands it to the offender.

And when he hands him the ticket, says, oh, by the way, John chapter 8, go and sin no more. See, dude, it's not on me for giving you a ticket. It was your foot on that accelerator. You made that choice. That was your control.

So why should we act so decisively? Because your choice can become your habit. And then your habit can become your addiction. And your addiction can become your lifestyle. Did you know that we rewire our brains by consecutive consistent behavioral patterns?

Where pretty soon the behavior becomes chronic. It's hardwired and that has to change. So go back where it says in verse 5, therefore, put to death your members. Put these things to death. So here's the solution for your flesh.

Ready? Kill it. Say that to your neighbor. Kill it. Yeah, that's what you got to do. You can't compromise with the flesh. You can't say this, okay, this is a real struggle with me.

I'm going to taper down. No, kill it. God's answer is always the cross. It is to die.

Let me remind you of something. See if you remember this from the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5, Jesus speaking. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. Okay, was Jesus clear or not? And if your right hand caused you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you, for it is better that one of your members will be cast into hell. Okay, that's what Jesus is saying.

For it is better that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. You go, come on, that's gross. That's the intended effect. The intended effect is for you to hear that and go, that's gross, because that's how we should think about sin. It's gross. It's so destructive.

It should shock us. Now, when Paul says, put to death your members, or when Jesus says, cut off the right hand or pluck out your eye, he is not advocating amputation surgery, because the problem is never the hand or the eye. The problem is always the heart. You know, there are societies today that if you get caught stealing, they will cut your hand off.

To this day, in the era in which we live, it's called Iran. That's what they do with thieves. They cut off a hand or a finger. Common practice.

I heard about years ago in England that they did this. It was brutal back then, even in Western culture. And one man was a pickpocket, a thief. He was caught. They cut off his right hand. He was caught again for doing it again, because he still had a left hand. They cut off his left hand. He kept stealing. You say, how could he? He pickpocketed with his teeth. Now, that could be legend.

I don't know, you might look it up on Snopes and go, nah, that's a fake story. But the point is, the problem is not the hand, right hand, or left hand, or eye. The problem is in our hearts. So, the point of this, and the point of what Jesus said, is that we should deal radically with sin. We should cut it off, put it to death. We should deal radically with sin.

We should cut off opportunities immediately. Listen to what Paul writes to young Timothy, a man who is tempted by the world. Flee youthful lusts. Flee means run. Sometimes the best way of escape is your own two feet. Joseph found that out when Potiphar's wife grabbed him and said, come to bed with me. And it says in the book of Genesis, he actually ran, he streaked out, because she was still holding his clothes, his robe, and he just ran out of the house naked.

But at least he ran. So when you're in a temptable position, here's a tip. Get up and get out.

Sometimes the best solution to temptation is evacuation. Just walk away. You say, well it's so rude. You mean like get to stand up and walk? Yeah. Be rude. You have my permission.

Be absolutely rude if it's going to keep you from falling. Now, just go back and we're just going to brush over this, but Paul tells his audience to break bad habits in two categories. He has two lists.

Did you notice that? He has a list of sins in verse five and another list of sins in verse eight and nine. It is not an exhaustive list and Paul has many such lists in his writings.

I'm not going to take the time to hash through them but I do want you to notice a pattern. The first list in verse five is what we feel and do. The second list in verse eight is what we say. The first list in verse five is about perverted love. The second list in verse eight and nine is about perverted hate. The first list deals with sensual sins. The second list deals with social sins. What G. Campbell Morgan called sins in good standing. Stuff that people do.

Everybody says that, does that. Now, just take a quick look at this description once again in verse five. Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness.

And then verse eight, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. That to me sounds like 90% of our entertainment. And I'm being conservative in that estimate. If you think of what the stuff that we expose ourselves to, we are on, in the entertainment world, we're in sensual overload. I'm not going to overstate this when I say this.

Most people, or it's possible for the average person today to get more sensuality in one evening than their grandparents got in their entire lifetime. And because it's so prevalent and inundated so much, we become numb to it. It's really, it's like, so what?

And then in verse eight and nine, anger, wrath, blasphemy, that's like a routine tour of social media. So here's a tip, if you struggle in any of the areas of these lists. The tip is to keep as much distance. One is to run away, but now keep as much distance as you can between you and the sin you struggle with. Keep as much distance as possible. Yeah, it's not always possible. You can run away from things, but you and I live in this culture, this sensual oriented secular culture.

So we're exposed to a lot. So keep as much distance as you can from that temptation, that point of weakness. Solomon wrote to his son, in Proverbs chapter one, said, if sinners entice you, do not consent. Do not walk in the way with them. Get new friends, son.

Then in Proverbs chapter five, he talked about a prostitute, because they were prevalent back then, the lure, the temptation of sexual misbehavior. And he says to his son, remove your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house. Don't even walk down her street. Don't walk by the magazine rack. Don't get on your computer when you're alone at a certain time. Don't have that conversation.

Keep as much distance as you can. You know, I read just two days ago, something that fascinated me and I wanted to make application. Archaeologists in digging up the tombs of the pharaohs in Egypt have found that with the pharaohs, they often buried grain, right, for the afterlife.

That was their belief. So you have grain in a tomb that's been there for 4,000 years. So the fascinating thing the archaeologists discovered is when you planted some of those seeds, you expose them to sunlight, you expose them to nutrients and water, they grow.

So you have seeds that for 4,000 years gave no evidence of life at all, but under the right conditions, they sprout. Now here's how I want to apply that. You and I, all of us, have all sorts of dormant sinful proclivities just under the surface.

All of us. Keep them buried. Don't excavate them. Don't let them out. Don't expose them to nourishment, nurturement.

Keep them down. Now that's the put off part. Let's go to the positive really quickly because he says in verse 10, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge. So, and this is Paul's language in a couple different places. Put off the old, put on the new. And he says, you put on the new man renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. Now the language here happens to be a picture of a person changing clothes. A soldier would put off his clothes and put on his armor.

After the battle, he would put off his armor and put on his clothes. So this is stuff we do every day. We put off our PJs, we put on our work clothes.

At least that was the way it was before COVID. And then you put off your work clothes and put on your workout clothes. Then you put off your workout clothes and put on your PJs again or whatever. In this case, put off the grave clothes, put on the glory clothes.

Put off, look at those old behaviors as like grave clothes. They're just dead filled. When Jesus got up from the grave, when he rose again, he left his grave clothes in the tomb.

He left them behind. So what Paul is doing by this is turning a defensive position into an offensive position. Because the best way to deprive your old nature is to cultivate the new nature. You know, you could be all engrossed and, man, I gotta fight this temptation. I gotta say no. So here's this temptation. I'm facing it.

Here, I'll get a little closer. Yeah, okay. Yeah, that's bad. I don't want to do that. Maybe I'll step away a little bit. But I'm gonna fight it. Best way to fight it?

Get engaged in something totally different than that. What if you spent most of your time walking in the Spirit? If you walk in the Spirit most of the time, you won't be having to battle the flesh. You won't be dominated by the flesh.

Walk in the Spirit, Paul said, Galatians 5, and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. So it's like this. What's the best way to take air out of a bottle? Well, I mean, you could come up with a fancy device that attaches to it. It's like a vacuum that sucks all the air out.

Look at this, man. Cost me 10 grand to make this machine and suck the air out. I have an easier solution. Just put water in that. Just pour water into that jar.

The air has to leave. So be filled with the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. So think clearly. Act aside.

I'll give you a third and a real quick one. Live accountably. Live accountably.

Verse 12, or verse 13. Bearing with, now I'm going to emphasize this, one another. One another. One another. One another. Bearing with one another and forgiving one another.

If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, you also must do. But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which you were called in one body, and be thankful. Notice the one anothers. And again, I'm not going to delve into this text and exegete it all, but I want you to notice the one anothers, because the context here is the group. Okay, now we're in a group right now. We're all in one group in this room, and there are our brothers and sisters who are outside, even though it's hotter than blazes, outside in the amphitheater. God bless you guys. Hope you're doing okay. We're in this group.

Newsflash. Ready? Every person sitting around you has struggled, or is struggling, with something, some bad habit. Every one of us has or is struggling. Now, do you realize the enormous potential then that's here? It means sitting around you, you have encouragers, you have reinforcement, you have support, you have mentorship, you have life examples, what to do and what not to do, all here, the one anothers.

Now, I'm leading somewhere with this. Here's another tip in overcoming bad habits. Some habits become so bad and so prolonged that they become besetting sins, life dominating sins, addictions. And to fight those addictions, you cannot do it alone. You need the help of other people. If you keep lying to yourself saying, no, I can do this, I can do this, I'll never do it again.

How many times have you said that? It's because you can't do it alone. You weren't designed to do it alone. Solomon said two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. If they fall down, one will help up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, he has no one to help him up.

And though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. So, invite accountability. Hey brother, I'm struggling with this issue. I wanted to confess it. I want to get it out and I want to make you aware of it because I have a hunch you can help me through this. And by the way, do you know that just confessing that will steal some of the power of that temptation away from you?

I've discovered that. When you just admit that I struggle in this area, it helps to loosen the power over you. Now the result of doing this, of standing together, of supporting each other, of breaking bad habits, is peace.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts. Don't you want that? Don't you want the feeling? It will be yours when you're on the other side of this gripping habit. Listen, I want you to hear me. You'll never be sinless, but you can sin less.

The habit doesn't have to control you. So, I love that we're ending on that note of peace and I love that the power comes from Jesus and his resurrection. So, I guess to sum it up, I want to plant a picture in your mind. I think we need to learn the lesson of the dog. I love dogs. I've had nine dogs in my married life. I've had plenty more as a single person and grown up with my family in California, but over the years I've taught the dog a simple trick that many of you have done. If I want my dog to learn this, I'll have him sit and I'll say, sit, they'll sit and I have a treat, right?

Maybe a chunk of meat, maybe a kibble or whatever. I put it down on the floor. I put my hand out and I go, no, no, because the dogs that I have are ready to go. No, sit.

No, stay. Now that dog, if it's going to have victory, you tell me what the dog, what does the dog look at to gain victory? He looks at me. If the dog looks down at the kibble, game over.

So, and I've noticed this with a variety of dogs, for that dog to not be tempted, the dog is always looking at the master, always looking at the master, eyes connected to the master. And then when I say, okay, it vanishes miraculously. It's over. Go on. Our key to victory is to always keep our eyes on the master, always keep our eyes on, set your mind on things above, seek those things which are above. But Skip, I failed. Seek those things which are, but I failed. Set your mind on things above.

That wraps up Skip Heitzig's message from his series Now Streaming. Now we want to let you know about a unique opportunity you have to pursue biblical studies in a way that works with your schedule. If you're ready to study God's Word beyond going to church and personal Bible study, you're ready for Calvary College.

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