Parable of the Strong Man

Transcript

well good evening it's really nice to share this time with all of you not just Boston but I know there's folks tuned in from all over the east coast and the Midwest so it's nice to be with you sister Chris also extends her greetings to you

tonight we're going to talk about perhaps the shortest parable of Jesus

and to be honest when you look at it almost seems like it's unnecessary to talk about it

it's so short and so to the point

that even the Lord's disciples didn't ask him to explain it to him that seems very obvious

now some of you may have heard parts of this talk before I had given it about 10 years ago but as I learned more I Revisited it and rewrote it so hopefully everybody will get something out of it

also in case you're wondering uh I'm standing up I just hate sitting down teaching so tonight I'm in the studio or as Chris and I affectionately call it the dining room so hopefully uh I won't be moving around too much for you

I want to give a couple points before we go into this tiny Parable and these are just very basic points to remember when we're doing Bible study

Point number one

if you recall words spoken about Samuel when he was a young man in first Samuel 3 19 we read and Samuel grew

and the Lord was with him and did let none of his words fall to the ground

and that word fall actually means to fall as in a violent death to be attacked to deserve to Fall Away uh it also means to fail it also means to waste away

God didn't force people to understand Samuel to pay attention

but the people understood that Samuel's words were so important they wouldn't let them fall to the Earth they wouldn't refuse to hear them they were words not to be ignored and this is just from a young man Samuel

so every word Samuel spoke was important and the people understood it

the second Point Builds on that in John 21 25 we read

and there were also many other things which Jesus stood which Jesus did the witch if they should be written everyone I suppose that not even the world itself could not contain them

think about what John just said

the only thing we know about Jesus are four tiny little gospels hardly anything about his childhood growing up there's literally John says a world of books that could be written

and his father edited out almost a world full of books to just these four Gospels and The Echoes we hear throughout the rest of scripture

God edited out all this information about his son

which tells us that the little words left

are really important

he threw away everything else but the words we read in the Gospels so every word there every jot every tittle is important and so if we approach Bible study with that idea that God's words every word is important

and also that the gospels in particular to Jesus were narrowed down we're weeded out to just these few things that they must be extremely important to the father

so here we go

for the rest of the class we're going to consider this tiny parable it's in Mark 3 verse 27. Mark 3 27. but no one can enter into the house of the strong man and spoil his Goods

except Heath births mind the strong man and then he will spoil his house

now you're already wondering how on Earth are we going to spend a Bible class talking about this

it's so simple no one asked for it to be explained it was obvious what it was talking about

or so they thought

unfortunately it went way over their heads in fact it went so far over their heads that the very next day Jesus Illustrated it he was preparing them for what would happen the next day

I suspect a lot of Jesus teaching really took on a much deeper meaning after his Ascension when the apostles got to think about it with the aid of the Holy Spirit you know they probably would have felt embarrassed about all the things that they'd missed or misunderstood

so this little tiny parable of Mark 3 27 let's start looking for Clues if words are really important and if God thought this little tiny Parable was worth our attention

just a few verses before this Parable if you're looking at Mark 3 you're going to see that Jesus own family and it's not distant relatives I believe it implies his mother or at least his Brethren said

he's out of his mind

he's crazy

now the scribes and it's all there the scribes surprised at hearing this from Jesus owned family sees the thought and add more to the fire

they slander Jesus it says in Mark 3 22. he hath belzebub and by the prince of devils casteth theeel castethia devils

so he heard his family saying he's out of his mind and they immediately jump on it and say well he has the elves above

and what happens next Jesus rebukes them for this faulty logic right A House Divided cannot stand Satan can't cast out Satan

and then at this precise moment

with this image of the house falling that can't stand if it's against itself Jesus tells the parable so that's the backdrop the backdrop is his family wanting thinking that something's really wrong the Pharisees seizing on it and adding wood to the fire so to speak say he has a devil he's he's serving bills ebub

and so Jesus says

speaking of a house no one can enter or no man can enter into a strong man's house and spoil his Goods except he will first find the strong man and then he will spoil the house

well how would his disciples understand that parable right what would the people think who would they think of when he talks about the strong man

so brothers and sisters let's think put ourselves in the audience

who was the only strong man in Scripture who was bound

I believe there's only one

and you've already guessed that it's Samson Samson was the only strong man who was found I don't believe there's anyone else

and after Samson was bound

the Philistines were free to plunder

to spoil the house of Israel there was no one to oppose them

you know I wonder if anyone thought about this Parable and what Jesus was getting at keep that thought in mind for a minute

second question

if that's true if Samson was the only strong man bound and that's what Jesus is thinking of

what was it about Samson

that Jesus wanted to draw our attention to

and maybe a further clue related to the parable but we find it in Samson's life

the goal of the Philistines was to bind him

all right seven times that word or that idea occurs in regard to the Philistines Desiring to bind Samson I'm going to read them for you real quick you don't need to turn them up uh if you don't want to judges 16 verse 5. entice him see wherein his great strength lieth and by what means we may prevail against him that we may bind him all right sounds like the parable of the Lord or judges 16 verse 6. tell me I pray thee we're in thy great strength lieth and wherewithal might us be bound to afflict thee

or judges 16 7 if they find me

judges 16 verse 8. and she bound him

Judges 7 16 verse 11. if they bind me fast

with new robes

and eventually the Philistines did prevail it says but the Philistines took him put out his eyes brought him down to Gaza and bound him with Fetters of brass judges 16 21. and just adding to the misery of the story even Samson's own countrymen

his fellows sought to bind him in fact they thought it was expedient to bind Samson to preserve their own lives

judges 15 verse 12. we are come down to bind thee that we may deliver thee into the hands of the Philistines

so we have a strong man

and we have that desire to bind him and he being bound in the end

so I think based on just that we're pretty confident that when Jesus told this little tiny parable

he was thinking of Samson

Samson's the only one that fits this description

but we're still really no closer right to interpreting this what's this little parable about and why is Samson being drawn into it

well just a quick look at Samson kind of points out what we should understand

Samson was God's deliverer the angel proclaimed that he would begin to save them from their enemy the Philistines

uh unfortunately the the men of Judah worked to help find Samson to the Philistines too

so Samson was a deliverer to begin saving them

so that idea needs to be tied into this little parable

the fellows that the fellow Jews of Samson his countrymen saw his signs

saw some things that I would call miracles

but none of them believed none of them would follow Samson

in the end

Samson stood alone

by rejecting Samson they had chosen to remain in bondage to their enemies instead of becoming free men

God's people would be ruled by sinners and all their possessions would belong to their enemies that was their choice when they delivered Samson to the Philistines

now keep all this in mind when we return to Jesus uh

speaking to his friends his foes and his family

you're starting to realize now that the men of Judah

just like they sought to find Samson

the countrymen of Jesus

sought to binds him in fact not only his enemies but even his own family sought to have Jesus found

and it's all there in Mark 3 21 we're still in this little kernel of scriptures just a few verses around Mark chapter 3. we're told when his family heard about it they went to get him they said he's out of his mind

and that word get him

regardless of the version you're reading the Greek is translated to lay hold to restrain to seize by force says Weymouth to lay hold on him

like Samson's brethren Jesus physical brethren

wanted to have power over him to bind him up

and like Samson Jesus was bound and finally delivered to his enemies

and it was Jesus Brethren who did this

in Matthew 27 just to show you Matthew 27 1-2 says all the chief priests the Elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death and here's the key again and when they had bound him they led him away

so again in the end like Samson

Jesus would stand alone

I think it's pretty easy to understand Samson being a strong man right you think of everything Samson did

what we fail to appreciate is that Jesus was truly the strong man of Israel and we're told that in the Psalms

some 80 verse 17. let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand upon the son of man whom Thou made strong for thyself

I mean God made Samson strong the spirit fell upon him and he moved

and here's God saying he will do that for Jesus he will be a strong man who God made strong

so there really are a lot of similarities between Jesus and Samson if we look at him

but why is Jesus still drawing our attention to this that there has to be more to it I mean it's so obvious the connections and brothers and sisters all we've done is just look at the words and follow the Concordance this isn't anything deep it's just following the trail it's thinking about it putting yourself in the scene and thinking about what you would have heard and you come to a really fascinating Parable in an interpretation a meaning of it

so when we look at them

there's more similarities both Jesus and Samson at their births they were announced By Angels they were told they'd be deliverers they both performed signs and miracles

and I guess roughly about that point the similarity stopped between Jesus and Samson

but in the end unlike our lord Jesus Samson ended up being a Slave in his enemy's house

and he would die with them

so that was always a sad ending in my mind about Samson

well let's think about this little parable who had heard it and let's try to figure out why a few other things were introduced

scripture is really clear that the scribes and Pharisees always seem to understand more than his disciples they were always one step ahead at the disciples they interpreted Parables they perceived when it was about them they put scripture to use and they understood what the Lord was talking about Time After Time

in this parable of the strong man

they didn't want Jesus to be thought of as a savior

they wanted to knit that in the bud they knew Jesus was talking about Samson they made all these Connections in their mind and the last thing they wanted was Jesus to be perceived as a savior a deliverer and so they throw a monkey wrench

into the parable and it's interesting how they build on the parable of Jesus

they make reference to a Philistine God called belzebub

I don't think that was a very common God to be worshiped in the New Testament but they referenced a Philistine God and said Jesus served him

why belzebub why not another God why that particular attack was taken by them to throw into the parable so they took Jesus parable and said no no that's not true he serves fails above that's the source of his power

in fact it's been suggested that perhaps the house that Samson uh died in that house or that Temple could have been belzebub's Temple

and so they slandered Jesus by saying he serves a Philistine God who gives him power

so that kind of explains that but we still haven't solved the parable right

I mean Jesus dealt with it we talked about A house divided against itself can't stand but it explains why they use a Philistine God to explain it but we still don't know who the strong man is really it's not Samson he ends up dying with the Philistines what's Jesus getting at and what's he trying to teach his disciples

Samson fills many of the gaps but obviously it's not complete

when you read Mark 3 really careful you find out that the strong man being referred to is given

evil cannot cast out evil

the strong man of the parable was sin

sin needed to be bound

sin is what binds all of us to death right and as strong and as powerful as Samson was

even that strong man couldn't find sin

so let's go through we're really just following a bunch of strings a bunch of Clues all leading back to this Parable in mark 3. I think maybe the real question in Jesus parable is is this if the only strong man in Israel's history

Samson couldn't find sin

then who could

who can bind the strong man of sin was the question really being asked

and there's only one man stronger

than the strong man of sin there's only one man who combined him we all know it's it's our lord it's Jesus

now before we move forward anymore there's a few more details of the story we're going to just talk about because these little details really fill it in and again this is just basic concordance work following the clues

the Greek word balzi Bob used in mark means lord of the house right ruler or Lord of the house

and when you think of this slander directed at Jesus by the Pharisees and scribes

sin was never the ruler was never the possessor of the House of Jesus his body his mind sin never possessed it despite what they had slandered him with in fact until Jesus lived sin successfully resisted every attempt to have it bound

Samson failed and everyone before and after Samson failed at the same task sin ruled in the house in the minds of people

and here's the key to the parable

Jesus was always the Lord of his house

not sin not balesy Bob Jesus would never be under the Dominion of sin

Jesus every moment

with all his energy bound

every evil thought that would enter his mind he would bring it under his control he would bind up every thought

every wrong thought and cast it away and he did that his entire mortal life Paul picks up on that in Hebrews 2 and you you all know this verse Hebrews 2 14 and 15. that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the devil and deliver him who through fear of death where all their lifetime

subject to bondage So Not only would sin not rule in the house of Jesus in his body whereas he refers to it his Temple

he would destroy it and he would also deliver others who were captive to sin

and that's what Paul says in Hebrews 2. or think about Romans Romans 6 verse 16 or baptism chapter

no you not that to whom you yield yourself servants to obey

his servants you are

whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness

so this simple Parable starts to open up to us

sin is the strong man is the master that has ruled mankind it's the strong man that demands our submission

sin expects obedience from us

but the parable goes on see there's two metaphors hidden and this is again where you need to use a Concordance

it says spoil his Goods except they'll bind the strong man you can't spoil his Goods

well I looked that word up it just I was just curious what it was referring to and the word translated

Goods

actually means vessel you know we're not talking about a house we're not talking about a car and a TV and a toaster the word Goods means vessel

and if you look in scripture where else this word vessel or container is used

19 out of 22 times

it's

it's Transit translated vessel and it I'm sorry

and that vessel is a metaphor for the body so again that word Goods isn't household goods it's really the word vessel and that word vessel in scriptures is used as a metaphor for your body and mind and we see that in first Thessalonians uh chapter 4 verse 4. that every one of you

should know how to possess his vessel

for sanctification and honor where the Bible in basic English says

keep his body holy

so it wasn't the strong man uh having to be subdued to take his things

the straw man had to be subdued to rule his body

to have control over someone so that word Goods really isn't a very good translation it should be vessel and and I think it's borne out in the New Testament it's almost always translated with that word and that word's a metaphor for our bodies

and to be honest that's where Samson that's where you and I have failed uh

for us to successfully possess our vessel means that everything that previously was in it in other words sin

needs to be displaced to be poured out to be swept clean so there's nothing in it and then it can be filled with right things good things the fruits of the spirit

Jesus was the only one to do what we failed to do

he truly took possession of his own body

he took his body and all the desires that ran counter to God and he kept it bound up tightly

he took it captive

he spoiled it so to speak he owned it

and that's exactly what Paul teaches

Philippians 2 7. speaking of Jesus it says but emptied himself

taking the form of a servant being made in the likeness of men he emptied everything that didn't belong there

and filled it with everything that should be there

and that brings up our second metaphor hidden in this tiny little parable

it says spoil the house

well that word house means an inhabited dwelling yeah that's pretty obvious

but I also found in the Greek and in the Greek

index in in the online Bible it also means the inmates of the house

so not only is it an occupied house but the metaphor is it's really unoccupied prison

filled with prisoners

now that's an interesting example too in this little tiny parable

all of us each one of us are inmates we're all locked in a body of sin we're all prisoners who are hopefully seeking their freedom

and that can only happen if someone more powerful

than

the man running the prison the the strong man of sin frees us we need to be freed someone has to

find the person running the prison

I don't think we think of sin were the infirmities of the flesh this way

but brothers and sisters we are all bound

that's the reason we have sin and death that's the reason before class we're talking about praying for brothers and sisters who are struggling who have health issues because we are all bound to a mortal body and in one of The Parables of Jesus he really makes that clear listen for the word it'll be pretty obvious

behold

there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity 18 years and was bowed together and could in no wise lift up herself

and once and when Jesus saw her he called her to him and said unto her woman

thou art loosed

from thine infirmity

see all the ailments all the aches and pains all the spiritual difficulties we go through

but because we are bound

we need to be Unbound we need to be loosed like this woman

now consider verse 16 in the context of this parable

and ought this woman

being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan hath found Lo these 18 years

be loosed from this Bond

on the Sabbath day the seventh day so you see the pieces are all starting to fall in place right Jesus is the only one who can Unbound I'm sorry unbind who can unloose

us

who were in bodies of sin

now to be honest if we stopped right here this would all I in my mind is pretty cool it takes this little Parable really blows up the meaning when we start getting images of this woman being saved or of Samson and his struggles it really brings this little Parable to life it really has a large meaning

but it actually continues

because only now Jesus is bringing everything to our doorstep remember I said it went over the disciples head they didn't understand any of this I believe the scribes and Pharisees did

let's see what happens the next day

it says the next day

Jesus crossed the Galilee and when we read it we know his sole intention of crossing the Galilee was to heal one man

Legion

and Legion did not stand alone it wasn't just him

we are many

Luke 8 27 and there met him a certain man which had Devils a long time neither Abode in any house but in the tombs

that's us right

we're all dead men in a sense without being in the Lord

this says in Luke 8 29 and he was kept bound with chains and in Fetters it's an image of Samson and he break the bands and was driven out of the devil Into the Wilderness

so here we have Legion

a strong man

representing sin who could not be made who could not be bound

and where was he he's living in the tombs we are many

so who could conquer this strong man think about it who could find him nobody could find Legion at all no matter their efforts no matter how strong they they tied them the thickness of the ropes the thickness of the chains no one could find the strong man Legion

Jesus

overpowered him because we next see Legion sitting at the feet of Jesus

in his right mind

and the Greek for that word right mind means to exercise self-control

to curb one's Passions

at the feet of Jesus we too can bind the strong man of sin

and with Jesus help

we can have self-control

over ourselves

so let me explain I think you're already understanding where we're going here

when you think of our Lord Jesus

the real battle with Jesus was inside himself

and Jesus defeated the strong man of sin he defeated all the efforts to to get him to think and to do wrong

he strangled every evil thought he bound them up tightly and cast them aside constantly

here's how Paul explains it to the Corinthians for though we walk in the flesh

we do not war according to the flesh

casting down imaginations every High thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought into captivity to The Obedience of Christ

but as we all know the only way to truly defeat sin

is to put the body of sin to death

and that's exactly what Jesus did on the cross despite never sinning never allowing a reckless thought to take control of him and lead him astray

you can't preserve a sinful body it had to be put to death

what a what a life Jesus lived that this constant bombardment which never stopped he successfully combated

it wasn't until he was raised and closed an immortality

so Jesus Took captivity captive he took sin that was in him completely captive

no more suffering the ill effects of wrong thoughts and desires coming into him

when he was changed

he took sin captive he now was the master and sin was the prisoner never to have control over him

Ephesians 4 verse 8 Builds on that

wherefore he saith when he ascended up on high he led captivity captive

so for him at that moment sin was conquered and destroyed

now think about this comment from Brother Roberts

brother Robert said Jesus entered into the arena of sin in his own body and defeated it

Jesus entered into the arena of sin

in his own body and defeated it well who's that sound like that sounds like Samson to me and Samson was in the arena in the house of a Philistine God he had his arms stretched out between two pillars

and he destroyed that house of sin he brought down that evil building around him and in the process Samson destroyed his own body of Flesh

and S is full of type as Samson could have to representing the Lord one day he'll be resurrected and the type the symbol will be complete but he fully mimicked the death of Our Lord

that's the important lesson that Jesus wants us to understand about Samson

but only Jesus could say destroy this Temple or this house and in three days I'll raise it up

you know when we look at the verse in Psalms that Paul quotes a few times it Bears out this understanding

thou has to send it on high

thou has led captivity captive thou Hast received gifts for men yea for the rebellious also

that the Lord God might dwell among them

blessed be the Lord who daily loaded us with benefits even the god of our salvation

he that is our God is the god of salvation and unto God the Lord belonged at the discharge from death

so one day all of our sins will be held captive will be the prisoners of the Lord never to rear up their heads

our strong man Jesus says to him who overcomes

and perhaps a better translation to that is to him that conquers I will make a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go no morale

Jesus now possesses the house When sin is conquered Psalm says that the Lord will dwell with us but he will never dwell with sin

being bound to sin obviously brings death

being bound to Jesus is life I mean that's the reason all of us are here

now I want to read the same verse we read before but from a slightly different version as we wrap this up in Ephesians 4 verse 8. this is from Weymouth

for this reason scripture says he ascended on high he led captive a host of captives and gave gifts to men

and what's that gift that Jesus will give us

Romans 6 23 the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus

so let's just stop for a moment I just want to make one thing clear to us because maybe I was a little hasty

Legion

represents all of us

we are all trapped in the tombs

without the Lord we are surrounded by death there's no hope there's no way out we are like Legion and we'll perish in the tombs

you know sometimes we teach that Jesus crosses the Galilee with the sole purpose of saving Legion that's wrong

Jesus crossed the Galilee to show that he will save all men including Legion

and bring all men to his feet into his subjection

We Are Legion and our needs are the same as the needs of legion

and finally One Last Detail and this is how Jesus brings the lesson home to us

in in Matthew's account of this little tiny parable of the strong man Matthew adds one little comment

he that is not with me is against me

he that gatheth not with me scattereth abroad

you know that's a challenge of Jesus to all of us

are you going to battle the strong man of sin

are you going to keep him from occupying your body are you resisting

the story of Legion ends with a blessing

especially to that man sitting at Jesus feet but to all those who resist sin and sit there mark 5 19 says

but Jesus said unto him go home to thy friends and tell them what great things the Lord hath done and how he hath compassion one day

and so this little Parable ends up being about Jesus and us

controlling sin seeking freedom and being Freed at the End by our Lord and living in his house forever

because that's all neat to me that's pretty neat how this little Parable has all these types and pulls things in and it brings it back to our hope and wanting to be with the Lord in the Kingdom

but how on Earth do you stop sinning you know what do we do

every Sunday in our meeting the brother tends to read but let a man examine myself examine himself right and when I examine myself it's like oh boy I I go back to what Paul was preaching to Felix because this is what I'm lacking Paul in Acts 24 27 says and he reasoned with Felix of righteousness self-control and judgment to come well I understand righteousness I understand the coming judgment and Kingdom but self-control

unlike pilate when pilate heard this he said Paul you know I'm leaving I'll come back later and sometimes I'm like that I I can't do self-control

my sins tend to be the same ones over and over again and perhaps that's true for you how do we stop sinning

I'm assuming a few of you feel this way

I have three things real quick to pass on to you

self-control

by itself is worthless

it's been proven it doesn't work at least in terms of controlling your thoughts and this has been studied studied and here are a few comments by people who study self-control

Brian Gala says Studies have found that trying to teach people to resist temptation either only has short-term gains or can be outright failures we don't seem to be all that good at self-control

and I'm guessing most of you agree with Professor Gala

and what they also found was people who said they were really good at self-control

in reality weren't listen to this comment about people who thought they were good at self-control

he says we tend to think of people with strong willpowers people who were able to fight this battle effectively

actually the people who were really good at self-control never have these battles in the first place

and what a number of Studies have shown

the way to avoid temptation

is to avoid the sin you don't have to have self-control if you never allow yourself to be confronted by the things that bring you down the key in all these studies was avoid temptation

and you don't have to worry about self-control all these people who said they were good at self-control when they actually gave them self-control tests they failed as much as everyone else they were always successful because they avoided Temptations

what simple advice for us if you ever knew somebody was going through Alcoholics Anonymous or substance abuse the first thing they tell them is avoid Temptations avoid your old friends change your environment if you walk by a bar that used to have problems you know that you used to go to that would cause you problems don't walk by it change your route change your routine

don't allow yourself to be tempted

and the ones that had self-control

were the ones who avoided it in the first place

the people who were best at self-control has been found that they were best at avoiding Temptations and we could go through lots of scriptures showing that

you may have heard of a thing called the Marshmallow Challenge it's kind of an old study now but they would take kids and put them in a room by themselves and in front of them they would put a marshmallow and they would say if you don't eat this marshmallow when I come back I'll give you two you can eat it now or you can wait for me to come back and you can have two

and most kids failed at it they would eat the marshmallow

but the ones who didn't failed

their strategies were they stopped looking at the marshmallow or they imagined it to be something yucky

something they wouldn't want to taste and and by looking at the marshmallow differently it kept them from giving in and so their strategy was to look at things differently if we actually think about Sin for what it really is why would we want it it's poison

it kills us you think of all the evil headlines you see shootings murders all the terrible things we see in the paper or on the news that's sin

why would I bring that into my body and who wants to live in my body who wants their thoughts to be my thoughts it's our God

and our savior Jesus

if we want them to live in us if we want their thoughts to be in us why would we bring these other things into our mind

we need to really appreciate how evil sin is to look at it differently and that strategy is also very effective

and one last one I think I'm posted that a time my five minutes you may have heard me talk about this study too if you want the full studies because we ran out of time I'm happy to send them to you this was called I don't versus I can't and it goes on when empowered refusal motivates motivates goal-directed Behavior it's a mouthful it's a research study that was done

oh I don't have the time here but I'm happy to send it to you

so what they did was they said

you have to control what you're thinking about and how you think about Temptation so there was two groups one group was given a simple Temptation and they were told that whenever you're tempted by this you say I can't do that maybe it was people trying to lose weight and so when they saw a cookie or or a cake they were always told when you see that Temptation say I can't do that

the other group when they were presented with the same Temptation they were said they were told to say to themselves over and over I don't do that

so we go from a group that says I can't do it to a group that says I don't do it

and this has been repeated and it consistently comes out like this people who were told to say I can't do that behavior

uh they gave in 61 of the time in other studies the numbers are similar people who were told to say I don't eat cake or I don't eat cookies

they only failed 36 percent of the time you know nearly double the first group

because when you say I don't you introduce that into your personality and your character I don't do that not that I can't not that oh I really shouldn't where you get a little bit of wiggle room but when you say I don't do that it reinforces your personality and character so we need to say I don't sin and whatever the sin that easily besets you you need to say I don't do that and be firm and you're really just talking to yourself

so that was pretty dramatic and they conducted another study and this was people's long-term uh health and wellness goals like working out losing weight you know things related to their health and their Wellness

again there's three groups this time one group was told to say I can't miss my workouts you know I I can't not go to the gym

the second group would say it was told to say I don't miss my workouts you know I always go to the gym and the third group wasn't given any strategy they were just told you know try to lose weight you know try to meet this goal

and listen to the results ten days later they found that 3 out of ten three out of 10 in the control in the control group stuck to their goal so people that weren't given any strategy about 30 percent of the time uh they stuck to their goals so about one third of the time roughly they kept their goals

the people who were told I can't

you know I can't miss my workout only

only one out of ten

uh were successful it was a 90 failure rate so people without a strategy actually did better than people who were told to say I can't

and the group that was told I don't miss my workouts eight out of 10 of them were successful

eighty percent

you know that's astounding and it's because you've made that goal part of you I don't whatever

and you say it again and again and eighty percent of the people with that strategy were successful

people with the other strategy failed even worse than people with no strategy because they give themselves wiggle room uh won't hurt if I do it this one time I I can miss a workout I can have an ice cream and that wiggle room does you in so tell yourself whatever the sin is you're struggling I don't do that

and then pray about it and you'll be successful

now unto him that is able to keep us from falling I think we all believe that

but we need to pray it

when you're trying to take captive the strong man of sin in you can only be done with the Lord's help and there's a thousand verses about that you know just think Jude 24 and 25 the whole verse so keep these strategies in mind and they're proven to work and I'll tell you the biggest failure I know it works I I can think of desires I had where I prayed to God to remove them they would just always come back and God removed that it was no longer tempting me God literally answered my prayer

and then I brought them back despite that even though I wasn't being tempted or thinking about it I chose to reintroduce that temptation and that's just the perverseness of our bodies of sin

but if you pray about it you make it part of you you will bind the strong man of sin and the Lord will do the rest so sorry that was a few minutes more than five but thank you for your attention I hope some of that was helpful to you tonight