Hi, this is Joel in Victoria. Thanks for listening to our podcast and thanks for supporting the ministry.

If you enjoyed today's message, why don't you be a blessing and share it with a friend.

We appreciate you and pray for God's very best in your life.

God bless you, to joy to come into your homes. We love you and if you're ever in our area, I hope you'll stop by and be a part of one of our services. I promise you this will make you feel right at home.

Thank you again for coming out. I like to start with something funny. I heard about this pastor. He decided to skip church one Sunday morning and go play golf.

He told his assistant he wasn't feeling well and drove to a golf course in another city where nobody would know him.

He teed off on the first hole and a huge gust of wind caught his ball, carried it an extra hundred yards and blew it right into the hole for a 420 yard hole in one.

And Angel looked at God and said, what'd you do that for? God smiled and said, who's he going to tell?

All right, hold up your bibles, say it like you mean it. This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I can do what it says I can do.

Today I will be taught the word of God. I boldly confess my mind is alert. My heart is receptive. I will never be the same in Jesus' name. God bless you.

I want to talk to you today about resisting temptation. No matter how good of a person you are, how much you want to do what's right, temptation will come.

And it's important to recognize the areas that you're tempted in. It's different for every person. You need to take inventory of your life. Be honest with yourself and say, okay, this is an area that I struggle in.

This is an area that I need to stay in guard. What keeps many people from being free is they live in denial. I read where 70% of alcoholics don't think they have a problem with alcohol.

If you're not honest with yourself, it'll be very difficult to be free. You need to know yourself.

If you're tempted to watch things that you shouldn't, get it out on the table. Say, God, here's an area that I need to improve in.

If you have a problem with being impatient, a problem with spending money you don't have, a problem with drugs or alcohol, the first step to be in free is to identify what's holding you back.

You cannot conquer what you will not confront. As long as you're downplaying it, trying to hide it at clock it's not there, it's not going to go away. Ignoring the enemy doesn't make him leave you alone.

He already knows the area of your greatest weakness. You should know it as well. Not to go around feeling bad about yourself, but so you can stay especially on guard.

The scripture says in Hebrews, let us lay aside the weights and the sin that does so easily beset us. Notice it says, the sin.

It infers that every person has one thing they have to specifically deal with. I call it a persistent temptation.

Whenever you try to move forward, the same temper, the same self-pity, the same addiction, the same compromise is there to try to hold you back.

Some people, every time they're about to be promoted, the same problem with their mouth gets them in trouble, speaking their mind, saying things that they shouldn't.

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