So helpful. As young woman often my default is me being emotional and unsettled in how I process my feelings. But in actual fact it is the rising self pity and solemness that choke my soul. O God deliver me from them all🙏🙏🙏. Grateful for this advise.
Another example of God's perfect timing. I had a situation just this past week where I had to wait at the hospital...for more than 6 hours. I'll be transparent. In self-pitying, prideful fury, I simply left before I was called. I also did not respond to their phone call, nor did I comply with their request to pick up my discharge orders. I shut them out. I know that the world would say that I'm justified. But I also know that by virtue of my developing identity with Christ, my behavior was very wrong. I'll be even more transparent and say that I know what I have to do. But truth be told, I really don't want to do it. I don't want to apologize. I don't want to admit the real reason behind my actions. Just being honest, folks. I will watch this video repeatedly. Maybe even find others like it. It will be a struggle because the roots of this sin run particularly deep in me. May I be victorious in this endeavor, and may I please have prayers from fellow believers?
I deal with things like this as well. One thing I recently learned that helps a lot. Is to invite Jesus into the moment with you. Ask him for help in the moment of temptation or weakness. You can say this in your head or you can say this out loud. You can also memorize a few short scriptures and quote them while dealing with your situation. This is so helpful so that we don't get depressed and start beating ourselves up. If I invite Jesus into the moment with me I feel like he's dealing with this with me. I'm basically confessing I'm weak and I need him. I think sometimes when we sin we get upset and ashamed and want to hide it from God and ourselves. Which becomes an opening for the enemy to make us feel even worse about the situation instead of looking to the cross. Hope this helps a little bit. And yes I will pray for you as well :)
Absolutely and yes yes this is such a great message from Piper. I had a similar incident on a plane ride back and it was a battle between stewing and pity and realizing I am not owed anything. I am so grateful for his transparency and for yours. If you find any additional resources please feel free to share. I also agree it's easy to fall into the other side of the ditch in self-loathing which essentially is the same sin. Same focus on self. Same pity. It's just my wicked flesh trying to find a way not to be killed. If I punish myself with hateful words about myself then I will feel too bad about myself to really kill that sin because after all I'm already too wounded. Ugghhh the depths of deceit in the human heart. Only Christ can save us from ourselves praise God he has, he is, and he will.
Judith Hithe I have bad temper, and I totally recognize the huge flaw in myself. My husband always reminds me, "at least we have Jesus" and it makes me laugh at the situation and calm down all of a sudden. It helps to remind myself of that when situations suck!
I LOOOOOVE How Pastor, Shepard Piper named his sins! Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! More pastors need to be this transparent... I love him even more! Thank God for this man!
Wow Pastor. I would have never guessed that you would feel like me in scenarios like that! Thank you thank you thank you for sharing how to overcome. I am a paraplegic and my wife and I just bought a new kayak. I thought we would try it out together and work out how to get me in/out together. When she told me she was going with a girlfriend for the first go around, I felt just like you when your wife and daughter watched the movie except I lashed out. When just that morning like every morning, I had a sweet time with the Lord and asked for His help for me to love my wife like He loves the church. I preach when my Pastor is not able or on vacation and I feel like such a hypocrite when I don't live up to what I challenge the congregation or my youth (I am the youth pastor, even at 43 years old). But you have given me such hope and direction as to how to overcome at least one of my sins anyways ;) Thank you again Pastor! Jon.
This is so timely, and I love how the Holy Spirit will break things down to us. I was let go from a job 4 years ago and haven't been able to just LET IT GO. I have moved on and prospered exponentially, but have held on to the offense in a way that has portrayed myself as "the victim". I see now that at the root of not being able to release is needing to feel like having been "done-to". I have refused to acknowledge the grace and mercy of God and it has affected my health and mindset. I have tap danced around this long enough and I must wage war on this thing!!
I also am making war for sexual sin. This sin has been a great problem for me. After days of commiting this sin, I am tempted. And everytime I am tempted, I am not able to say no. Then I would repent immediately and have an appropriate emotional response to this sin such as the feeling of regret. This has become a cycle to my life and its happening to me for 2 years. Pls pray for me guys if you will and thank you also pastor John for your powerful message.
Please don't give up. Humble yourself to Father and truly ask for His help in Jesus name. He will help you. Praying for you ❤️ Remember to get rid of anything and anyone that leads you to sexual sin. Matthew 5:29 29 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. The Bible is all that you need to grow spiritually because God has graciously placed all of our solutions to our problems in one book. All we need to do is read it and apply it to our lives. If you do not fast and pray, it would benefit you greatly. Start with fasting and prayer one meal and gradually abstain another meal until you can do a day and so forth. It is all about intimacy with Father and it is so glorious. He has revealed so much about myself and others in my life that I should not deal with and a host of other breakthroughs in my life. Yes, we will always have trials but we will become better equipped and ready when they come. We will have the unwavering faith and joy despite our trials because we know that Father will deliver us from them all. Amen!
You have to immediately put it to death. Get up and go for a walk and pray, sit in the living room, talk a cold shower, hop in the pool. You have to kill it. Praying for you brother, it’ll get easier over time.
Man I really needed to hear this today. I feel this way often against my boss who is also my Dad. I also relate because I'm also in the Seattle area so maybe Christopher is a lot like me. Gotta wage a war
I have been noticing the error of this sin more and more lately. My first thoughts were that this sin is undefeatable. However, hearing of John's prevailing, I must go to war.
wow ,so powerful pastor ,my powerful promise I meditate on is I AM APPROVED BY GOD ,CHOSEN BY THE ALMIGHTY ,THE GOD OF ISRAEL AND LAVISHED BY HIS GRACE AND MERCY , THIS REALITY BRINGS INSTANT RELIEF AND CONFIDENCE AND RESPOND WITH GOODNESS EVEN TO MY ENEMIES .
Gosh....u have described me with all these words! Thank you so much for sharing this going thru such a difficult spiritual time. This is the tactical way of going at this
I have a lot of selfishness in me. A lot of evil and I feel stripped raw right now. I feel resentment for being stripped because it hurts so much. I hate that I have these feelings for God. Jesus died so that I can live. I have resentment because I can’t wallow and that is what I have always done. I hatred it. I wasn’t happy. Only through God can I even see that’s what it even was. My mind plays tricks and tries to convince me that I’m crazy. God is not real so don’t even worry it says. It is only more distressing at this point. I cannot fix myself by my own will. It is not in me. I need God. Please pray for me.
Yes and yes. Yes, there is the problem to pride. And yes, you got to beat your pride to death. And more than that, what is there to live for in life after you had beaten your pride to death? You need something worthy to replace your pride that has driven you for the good but also for the bad. The good is giving you reason to get out of bed everyday. The bad is this anger and sulking. We need something more worthy to replace our pride, which is only consist of the good without the bad. That is Jesus and his truth to take over what we see, what we think and hence what we do. Cut yourself down and out, replace it with the gospel of truth. If l had only one problem in life, this got to be it. It has eaten me out from the inside. What a wretched man l am, who can save me. Thanks be to God who has saved me. Therefore, l consider l, me and myself (my 3 best friends) be sold as slave to God. I want God to be my slave master. For God is the best kindest most generous master there is and ever will be. Lucky me.
How in the hell does a human being fight demonic attacks? Literally! I thank God for example and it is taken from me. I have no vehicle, no job, I’m all alone trying to live a celebate life, have empathy that I express in encouragement, yet I make lemonade of the lemons and it is zapped away. Over and over…I’m a human being and cannot fight magical evil.
First, even though you are met with Jesus Christs love and the change in a person is immediate it still takes time to fully root out all patterns of sin. No. Its not about him, if he is simply putting to death the root issue of an attitude. It was about getting over that sickness in himself to not spread it to his family, to the glory of God. That would be like saying that the husband building a house because it was for him too was not providing for his family a home....you know? He was talking about a moment when yes " me, me,me!" Again rears its ugly head. These were his actions against the selfishness and provided instead for his families pleasure too. You know?
Because He meeded to deal with the root issue upstairs in private with only God. Sitting with his family as a "third wheel" would maybe gloss over the symptoms or let them fester, but God gave him the cure!
its a choice. I am very familiar with what its like to have a rage and then go silent on people. Its only in more recent times I have learnt to sort it out myself... and the key is, for me, it to keep dialogue with whoever has 'wronged' you. It might be a bit stilted and awkward but keep the dialogue going...and you will get over it. Now you might be in the right OR in the wrong, you might be a Christian but you can still be in serious error and wrong! and please....learn to laugh, at yourself. We are nothing short of pathetic little specks on this wonderful Planet. Life is short.
Melen Negussie I'm crying so much right now because you actually took time out of your busy life to reach out to me and love on me.💗 Thank you so much for loving Jesus so much that you would love me too. I know the Lord is with me but I just feel so isolated. I can basically only make it to doctor appointments and that's it. To be honest, I'm not sure I will be here much longer as my kidneys are now having major issues. I'm ready to be with my Jesus. I can't wait to give you a GIANT hug in heaven and say thank you so much for loving a complete stranger. Thank you so much. I can't quit crying. Thank you so much for caring. I will pray for you too, Melen.🙏💕
Kinsey Compass Hey Kinsey, you are never alone...you are our sister in Christ...my best text in the bible is Jesus is our shepherd and he will guide and protect us ....only his sheep hear his voice .....so listen to Jesus and you will feel his love and care.....
+smrlive aeiou 160477..Jesus was the Spirit of Love..the Spirit of the Father..Who Came in a Form like us..a Human body to teach us and Show us His Love for us. He demonstrated to us in our own form so that we coud understand better. He gave us His commandments to Obey and His Spirit to Help us live those commandments..if we Seek His Help Everyday.. This is His Grace and His Love for us. This is done for US..for our Good..that we obey His commandments. We are not doing this for Him..He is Already Good..we are doing this for our own good. He loves us and wants to Help us.
Can you imagine taking a leave of absence for 8 months? Who can do that these days? Most American pastors live in a bubble of privilege and have no idea about the difficulties regular people face in their lives. They have time to play in detail with these small issues, which is actually self-absorption behavior, while we face blows on our head that make us want to die. I believe that God is just and can understand our weakness and have mercy with us without these self-righteous nitty-picking.
+Dan..I so appreciate you caring and wanting to help..but I think you misunderstood me. I am not struggling with it at all..Jesus Helps me Forgive. It is not a war. I was just wondering why you Christians have to make everything in to a war. It does not have to be. Maybe if you followed Jesus..instead of Paul..things would be easier for you.
+Melendez Negussie..why would you follow somebody who follows somebody? I follow Jesus. He said.."Resist Not evil. Love your enemies..Bless them..Pray for them..do Good..Be kind as your Father in Heaven is Kind to them. For He is Kind to the good and the evil..the just and the unjust." you do not seem to know what Jesus said. If you Forgive your enemy..There IS No War. If you are sulking you are holding a grudge against someone..so forgive them!
+WBG..Jesus said.."Resist Not evil.". What about that do you not understand? You think you have a better way than Jesus? Jesus said.."If you forgive your enemy..you will be Forgiven..and the Father will Protect you from evil." do you not understand that also? The only reason you are fighting evil..is because you are not listening to Jesus and Obeying His commandments.
+smrlive aeiou 160477..it is Best to Follow Jesus..His sayings are right there in Matthew 5 6 7. When you get to Heaven..you want to know Who Jesus is. What good does it do? if you know John Piper? If John Piper were a True teacher..he would tell you to Obey Jesus sayings and go to Jesus Himself.. for your Guidance. He is all puffed up in His own pride because you are going to him..instead of Jesus. How are you ever going to Have a relationship with Jesus..if you go to John Piper? Pastors are nothing more than false prophets and false Christs. They will answer for it.
