Let me confess to you, I don't care how saintly you want to appear, and I don't care how sanctimonious you might want others to think of you.

I don't care how holy and spiritual you want to look.

None of us enjoy coming under conviction of a sin in our lives that we don't want to give up. That's a fact.

Now, if you are anything like me, you internally fight that conviction. If you're anything like me,

internally, you try to rationalize your sin.

Internally, you want to explain it away.

Internally, you want to try to justify it.

And you're going to keep doing this until either you surrender or pay the consequences and then surrender.

One way or the other, you're going to surrender if you're a child of God.

You know why?

Because God always wins.

Don't even try it any other way.

Take it from me.

I give you firsthand experience, chapter and

verse. As a matter of fact, I'm going to right now. In the mid-70s, I graduated from seminary,

and I was ordained to the ministry, right there at San Andrews Cathedral in downtown Sydney,

Australia. But I had a secret sin in my life. And the Holy Spirit would bring me under conviction

again and again and again. Every time I pray, the Holy Spirit would bring me under conviction.

You know what I did? I tried to explain it away.

I bet you're dying to know what that was, won't you?

Well, I'm dying to tell you, but not yet.

I graduated from seminary.

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