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How to Fight Temptation and Live in freedom - Matthew S1E3
January 26, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min
Why is temptation so tempting? In this episode, Pastor Joby Martin and his guests discuss how to overcome temptation to sin using the power of the Word of God. If you’ve ever wondered why you still struggle with the same temptations, you’re not alone. Satan uses his 3 basic lures to try to distract us and deter us from the mission. We see in Matthew 4 that Jesus modeled for us a way to defeat the enemy's temptations and experience his victory.
📣Episode Mentions:
• Scripture Passage: Matthew 4
• Hosts: Pastor Joby Martin, Pastor Ryan Britt and Jonathan Vinke
📌 Supplemental Resources From This Week:
• From Self-Worth to Surrender - Caleb's Story
• Temptation of Jesus - Heaven to Earth - Matthew S1E3 (Full Service)
• Matthew Season 1: Heaven to Earth Sermon Series
• Deepen with Pastor Joby Martin
The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas.
To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here.
Series Deepen with Pastor Joby Martin
Joby Martin is the founder and lead pastor of The Church of Eleven22 in Jacksonville, Florida. Since launching the church in 2012, he has led a movement for all
January 26, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min · Deepen with Pastor Joby Martin
Why is temptation so tempting? In this episode, Pastor Joby Martin and his guests discuss how to overcome temptation to sin using the power of the Word of God. If you’ve ever wondered why you still struggle with the same temptations, you’re not alone. Satan uses his 3 basic lures to try to distract us and deter us from the mission. We see in Matthew 4 that Jesus modeled for us a way to defeat the enemy's temptations and experience his victory. 📣Episode Mentions: • Scripture Passage: Matthew 4 • Hosts: Pastor Joby Martin, Pastor Ryan Britt and Jonathan Vinke 📌 Supplemental Resources From This Week: • From Self-Worth to Surrender - Caleb's Story • Temptation of Jesus - Heaven to Earth - Matthew S1E3 (Full Service) • Matthew Season 1: Heaven to Earth Sermon Series • Deepen with Pastor Joby Martin The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here. ...more Show the full description Show less Why is temptation so tempting? In this episode, Pastor Joby Martin and his guests discuss how to overcome temptation to sin using the power of the Word of God. If you’ve ever wondered why you still struggle with the same temptations, you’re not alone. Satan uses his 3 basic lures to try to distract us and deter us from the mission. We see in Matthew 4 that Jesus modeled for us a way to defeat the enemy's temptations and experience his victory.
📣Episode Mentions:
• Scripture Passage: Matthew 4
• Hosts: Pastor Joby Martin, Pastor Ryan Britt and Jonathan Vinke
📌 Supplemental Resources From This Week:
• From Self-Worth to Surrender - Caleb's Story
• Temptation of Jesus - Heaven to Earth - Matthew S1E3 (Full Service)
• Matthew Season 1: Heaven to Earth Sermon Series
• Deepen with Pastor Joby Martin
The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas.
To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here.
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0:00 Welcome to Deepen with pastor Joby Martin. The Church of 11 22 is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ, and we're praying this message0:12 helps you deepen your relationship with him. Now let's dive in.0:17 Pastor, I love what you said when we were when you were opening today when you said this is we're gonna talk about how Jesus beat temptation, but also gives us a lens0:29 to beat temptation. So, you know, this this in Matthew 4 comes off the heels of Jesus' baptism, and what strikes me in the 1st verse there is that he was led by the spirit0:40 into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. So let's start with how does God use Satan as part of his plan to sanctify you? A real light0:53 Do you think that's why when when we get to the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus teaches us to pray, he says, and lead us not into temptation? Because he experienced that 1 time, and he didn't didn't like it?1:04 Yeah. I do.1:09 So what was your question?1:11 So so how how would you explain to somebody that the sovereignty of God uses the devil kinda like a pawn in his plan? Because it seems like1:23 the Holy Spirit led Jesus to be tempted by the devil.1:26 Right? It doesn't just seem like it. It says it. Right. So it's probably you probably need to start with the idea that God is at work in all things, the sovereignty of God, that everything that happens, God1:38 wills and allows. You would need to start there and then get the details of the context as opposed to trying to work backwards to figure that out because you won't be
1:50 able to. Yeah. There's a few places in scripture where you can see that. Maybe the best place would be the cross. You know? That's the clearest example of
2:03 God's purpose in the cross was, well, 1, demonstrated his love for us, and then obviously from before the foundations of time, the redemptive plan of
2:15 God to redeem us for his own glory was through the cross. So right up until this point, you would think, well, God, you've you've lost control.
2:24 Mhmm.
2:24 Like, Pilate's in charge. Herod's in charge. Caesar's in charge. The Pharisees are in charge. And then post resurrection, it is very clear that God has always been in
2:36 charge. So when you start with the sovereign hand of God and decide to see things through that lens, it will keep you from the logical fallacy that a lot of people make
2:48 when they start with the lens of their own circumstances and then try to make God fit it.
2:52 Mhmm.
2:53 So 1 of the key examples of that is I look at the circumstances of my life like pain
2:59 Mhmm.
3:00 And then I'm trying to fit God into my pain. Mhmm. Well, then no argument is ever gonna get you there.
3:06 Mhmm.
3:06 And that's when people try to reverse engineer it and say, well, if God is these 3 primary things, then why this? You're like, hold on 1 2nd. What if you started with God became flesh and endured the most pain ever?
3:18 What if you started with that lens? And now let's talk what's your problem again?
3:21 Right.
3:22 You know? So not only do I wanna teach the Bible, I wanna teach people how to learn the Bible. And so when I see
3:33 themes and trends kind of lenses by which to see the whole thing, I wanna teach that over and over to our church. You know, the gospel would be the primary 1, but there
3:45 are other things like the preeminence of Christ. We talk about 1st and best all the time. The way it plays out most practically in our lives here would be in your tithes and offerings, but when you see that as a
3:55 principle rooted in the preeminence of Christ, it starts all the way from the very 1st verse, and all of a sudden you see the whole thing differently.
4:01 Right
4:03 before I walked on stage tonight, something that hit me is I grew up, when I did go to church I didn't go to church much, but when I in high school, went 3 times a week, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night,
4:15 and some Bible teaching churches, and I was often taught not to sin. I I can't remember a time when I was taught how not to
4:27 sin. Mhmm. It was just there's right and there's wrong. There's a narrow path. There's a wide path. We are narrow path people. And then we spent, or what I can kinda remember is
4:39 a lot of time, effort, and energy around defining the narrow path. So here are the things that we do and don't do. Nobody ever went a layer deeper
4:51 to like, here are the fingerprints of God in your life, and what you're actually trying to do is meet this God given need or desire, but the enemy, what God creates to the enemy is corrupted, so pay attention to those
5:01 things in your life. It was just don't have sex, don't drink, don't smoke, you know, whatever the list was. And some of them you could point directly to a verse, but most of it
5:13 was just rooted in good Christians are good and don't do bad things, and here's the last of bad things to avoid. And then I was just not very successful in my attempts. Yeah.
5:25 Because it was all it was just white knuckling it for me.
5:28 And I
5:28 mean, I I would try real hard.
5:31 It's like you said, everybody knows those things are tempting, and, like, you wanna do them. But, like, there's a lot of energy spent on, oh, no. No. No. You don't wanna do those.
5:39 Well, lost me at that. Right. And I I do mean, that old hymn, you know, turn your husband Jesus Mhmm. Belonged to his wonderful face, and the things of this world will grow strangely dim. That is very true, but nobody
5:50 rooted that in John 15. They didn't talk about mortification and vivification. They would just and I also think I was 16, and a 60 year old pastor who had 40 years of sanctification in his life
6:02 would be like, why would you even wanna do that stuff? And I was like, do you really was that a real I don't think it was a real question. I have a long list right now. And so
6:14 and, you know, we all continuously get tempted. And hopefully, you do stack up victories in Jesus when you rely on his word and lean into the spirit of God in you, and
6:26 but what what happens in that, you know, good Christians don't do bad things, is through the amount of condemnation and just defeat that I felt most of my
6:38 Christian life was just overwhelming. I mean, and then, you know, you kinda get, well, if that's the label I am, I guess I'm just gonna live into that.
6:48 Mhmm. Yeah.
6:49 But I was taught salvation by grace, and so I went back there and rededicated my life about 50 times.
6:56 You live your labels. The reason I wanted to ask that is because you and you mentioned that
7:00 That's a good line. You just ran by in 1 2nd. You live your labels. Did you make that up?
7:04 No. I heard it a long time ago.
7:06 Oh. Well, that is true.
7:08 Where were you? I'll take credit. I'll take credit for it now though.
7:13 Sitting in the front row.
7:14 Yeah. You were taking notes.
7:17 You mentioned it that many people have the wrong perspective of good versus evil, and it they're like, it's a yin and yang. And if we zoom out and understand that it's that God is sovereign and that it's not it's not
7:29 like that, then you actually have something to to fight your temptation with.
7:33 Well, a better paradigm is life and death Mhmm. Out of John 10. Mhmm. And Renaud, out of Mosaic Church in Orlando, told me that. Mhmm. We were at this pastor's meeting together, and we were just chatting about stuff, and
7:44 he helped me see that paradigm that's in the scriptures. Like, I don't have a random list of don't do these things because I don't like them. And even if he wanted to, he could because he's God. He does what he
7:55 wants. But the reason he didn't like them is because he loves you, and he loves you because he's you're an image bearer of him. And you having abundant life is having him, and when you do life his way,
8:08 this this is what leads to him, which leads to abundant life. And then there's an enemy that wants to kill, steal, and destroy. So especially alright. So there's there's people out there right now, and you're sleeping
8:17 with your girlfriend, and it's going to lead to death and destruction. It just is. It's not gonna help any future that you have. You're hurting her. You're hurting yourself.
8:29 And God's not just saying, like, I'm just trying to make up random strict rules to teach you obedience for you know, that's not, man. He's a good shepherd, and he's trying to lead you to green pastures and still waters
8:41 and an anointing that overflows your cup. And so especially when you don't understand it, money's another good 1. When you trust him with all and bring to him 1st and best, it
8:52 aligns you with his ways, regardless of whatever your financial planner is telling you. And if you have a financial planner that doesn't even have bringing 1st and best on the
9:04 radar, you might have the wrong 1, because there's a lot of Christian ones out there that understand God's principles and that he owns it all.
9:12 Yeah. Anytime that you get to talking about God's sovereignty, God's will, whatever word you wanna use in in God's relationship to evil, a couple of things that I would say are ingredients in the
9:24 soup to help think about it rightly. Number 1 is that God's perspective is very different from our reality, and so we live 1 day at a time, 1 minute at a time, finite, limited.
9:36 God is outside of time, and so his perspective on things, from his perspective, is already all preprogrammed, and it's all going to come about as he
9:48 programmed it. Our reality is not that way,
9:52 Mhmm.
9:52 And the gap between our reality and God's perspective is faith. That our faith is what connects us to the grand reality of what God has planned from before the
10:04 foundations of the world. There's nowhere else to go in scripture but That's the only place scripture is ever gonna take you.
10:09 Mhmm.
10:09 And if you go to, like, Job chapter 1 is where you probably see this play out specifically. And the rest of the book of there's, like, the the
10:21 conversation in Job chapter 1 between God and the sons of God is what Job 1 calls it, 1 of whom is Satan. And ultimately, what you see for the rest of the book of
10:33 Job is God's perspective and humans' reality and the gap that God is ever closing between those things. However, humans do
10:44 have agency and responsibility in that. Yep. That's the whole that's the whole thing. And the other ingredient I would offer is that I don't know if the right way to say
10:56 it is that there's a greater glory, but I would say for sure there is a particular glory that God was always after, the father was always after, and the plan was always that that particular glory would go
11:08 to the son. So let me put that in the context of a question. If Adam and Eve don't fall, then we never see the cross nor the resurrection, and that particular
11:20 glory for the son was something that the father clearly was after from before the foundations of time. Mhmm. And so and because it was the father that
11:32 is the 1 that's after it, then it can only ever be good, and his only motive in it can be love. Mhmm. And so because we know God's character, we can understand his motivations even though we
11:44 can't see it from his perspective.
11:45 So good. Yeah.
11:47 Yeah. So is there love without sacrifice? Like, is there have you ever seen a movie? You know? Right. So everybody buying to that.
11:58 So then is there ultimate love without ultimate sacrifice? Mhmm. So would God ultimately demonstrate his love without the ultimate sacrifice? Even in our human minds, we can go, okay. Well, if you just put it that broad,
12:10 it makes sense. Now the details of it, at the flogging of Jesus, you're like, what are we doing? And we see glimpses of it all throughout the scriptures. Like, Joseph in Genesis is standing before
12:22 the people who have done him wrong. And his perspective is, am I not in the place of God? What you intended for evil, God intended for good. So
12:34 God's sovereign hand is over it all. And God is glorified most in the story of redemption that he decided to write. Yeah. And that we get to play our part
12:46 in.
12:47 Another place I thought of is if you read Isaiah, it's it's so long, it can be hard to kinda stick with it if you aren't new to it. But, you know, we're most familiar with the servant language around Jesus.
12:59 Yeah. But at other places in Isaiah, he refers to the commanders of the armies that take out Israel as his servant. I will raise up my servant,
13:10 Sennacherib or whoever, and they're gonna come do the thing that I said was gonna happen. Mhmm. You know? That's how sovereignty is. It's wild. Well, temptation is tempting, and I
13:22 I did hear an amen when you said that, so
13:24 Yeah.
13:24 People are learning.
13:25 Yeah. People are learning.
13:27 But I wanna talk about that John MacArthur quote because
13:29 I love it.
13:30 You know, we grow in our faith and we are still tempted, you know, and so It's so true.
13:35 From John MacArthur.
13:36 Unbelievable. I love it. So does how would
13:39 you describe what never changes and then what does change?
13:45 I mean, you see, you gotta this is like a big soup of your own sanctification. Alright. So Jesus says, you know, a tree bites fruit. So if there's not some life
13:56 change over time evidence that you're different Mhmm. Then Jesus is not your lord. You're still your lord. I would quickly make sure you're not like the fruit inspector on everybody else real quick. You know? That
14:07 happens a lot. But Bruce Frank pastor Bruce Frank here said 1 time, everybody doesn't check the sanctification boxes in the same order.
14:14 Mhmm.
14:15 Be careful with that. Yeah. Now MacArthur says, the longer you've been a Christian, the less you'll sin and the worse you'll feel. And so, like I said, when I was like, shortly after becoming a
14:26 Christian, I just thought if I was celibate and sober for a week or 2 in a row, man, I was killing it. And and now I am deeply convicted over things I didn't even know were a sin
14:38 yet then. Mhmm. And so when you abide in his word and you allow his word to abide in you, you get closer to Jesus, you tap into the vine because you're just a branch, then over time, he
14:50 begins to produce in you all kinds of fruit, which are external activities that are evidence of an inward work of the Spirit of God in you. And yet,
15:03 but I think I heard you say it this way, conviction is like a warm invitation of God. That is not like, conviction of sin is evidence of the spirit at work inside of you,
15:15 sanctifying you, conforming you to the image and likeness of Jesus. And so, man, I sure do hope I hope everything changes in your life, but the
15:26 conviction won't change. It just goes deeper. And I mean, I feel like there's that old preacher thing about Michelangelo's carving David, and he said, I just carved away
15:38 everything that wasn't David. Right? Mhmm. Well, at 1st, I'm sure he was knocking off big old chunks, and it was a lot more fine tuning at the end. Maybe from God's perspective, the fine tuning never ends. Mhmm. You
15:50 know? Mhmm. From David's perspective, it it still feels like a hammer and a chisel.
15:56 It's it's funny because 1 of the things you said applies to this because you said that no matter what you're reaching for for comfort, it's coming from that same root.
16:07 Yeah.
16:07 And then if you think about your own journey with sin throughout your sanctification, in hindsight, you can say, I know what that root was. You know? I was expressing it by going out and getting
16:19 drunk on the weekend. Now that root, I might still struggle with, but how it expresses itself is I spent too much time on Netflix or whatever. And maybe that's better, but it's still like God's trying to conform
16:31 you to this.
16:32 And pure worldly wisdom can only take you so far. Mhmm. You know? Like, man, if you wanna stay employed and married, you can't go get go out and get drunk. Mhmm. You can't do it. It can't be a normal habit of your life.
16:42 You just won't make it. You might learn that. But again, if you just substitute drink for donuts or something, then but you don't deal with what's, like, that thing that you're looking for apart
16:54 from Christ Mhmm. Then you didn't actually deal with it. That's like in in Jacksonville, if you don't ever do something about the weeds and all you do is mow over them, when you mow over them, your yard looks great for
17:04 many minutes. Mhmm. But if you don't deal with the roots of the weeds, they'll just keep popping back up. What Jesus is doing is he wants to get down to the root of it.
17:12 Your example tonight about when you're more or less a hellion, when you 1st get saved and you're just kinda running around chasing after whatever. Yeah. And then you get saved and you're
17:24 married for, like, 10 years, 20 years, and you're, like, growing in a relationship with the Lord. You take a harsh tone with your wife and you're like,
17:32 oh my gosh. Like Yeah. What is wrong with me?
17:34 What's wrong with me? And you're actually, I don't know. At least for me, I'm harder on myself now over these, like, I want menial things that are temperature turn
17:46 just turning the dial a little bit, and I had way more grace on myself back then than I do now. And so that's why that quote holds up so good so strong. I think there's 3 evidences that you've talked about
17:58 before, we've talked about before that you'll find in someone who has indwelt with the spirit of God because they've been justified by faith and best running their life lordship of Jesus Christ. 1 of those things is
18:09 conviction for sin to your point. Now you may not be convicted of all the sins equally or may not be emotionally or cognitively aware of conviction in the same
18:21 measure, but there is something at work in you that is illuminating to you behaviors that will only lead toward destruction. This is the conviction of sin. It's God's warm invitation into relationship
18:33 with him, and sin blocks healthy relationship between God's people and God. It just does. And so conviction for sin. Another 1 that you'll see is an evidence of someone being a
18:45 Christian is that is a desire to know God more. When you know him, you wanna know more about him.
18:52 Mhmm.
18:52 Now this 1, the boxes don't check-in all the same order. The needle may not move as quickly. That what the way this manifests in my experience a lot is that there's something innate in people that wants
19:04 to keep them coming back to church because of their own devices. They haven't been discipled yet to really know how to handle the word, and when they do go to it, it's confusing and and they but there's something in them
19:16 that wants more of the word Right. Which is even more imperative why you go to a Bible teaching church. Mhmm. Don't go to a fluff church. Don't go to a philosophy church. Don't go to a cultural diagnosis church.
19:28 Go to a Bible teaching church because there's something in you crying out for the word because God wants more of God. You know, he just does. And then the 3rd thing you'll see in people who are
19:39 Christians, evidences of salvation will be that they have a heart for the lost. They may not have all the words that we would know to use, but they want
19:51 other people to have the experience that they've had and to be saved, and they've gotten the cure to eternal cancer, and they want other people to have it.
20:03 So conviction for sin, a heart for the word, a heart for lost people, Those are 3 I'm not saying those are the only 3, but those are 3 evidences that I've found to be pretty seem to be pretty true in
20:14 people who have been indwelled with the spirit of God and are now Christians.
20:18 Mhmm. There's this phrase, you know, you probably have heard it, you know, instead of judging somebody, you say, there but for the grace of God go I. And that might be another way to
20:30 say, just in my experience, how it's changed for me is like, I think when I was younger, it was more like, did I do something wrong or not? And then as I get older, I'm just like, boy, that's all in there. And I
20:42 just I'm thankful that God doesn't let it come out, you know.
20:45 Well, it's the cross centered life then. Yeah. Right? It's like as the cross gets bigger, you know, as I get closer to the cross, the reality of my sin, I just become so much more aware of it. And
20:58 ultimately, I think a really important thing is your working definition of sin. Mhmm. That matters a ton. And I also think that in relation to the
21:09 cross, that 1 of the things or the maybe the primary thing or 1 of the primary things that Jesus freed us from was our addiction to our self.
21:22 And so what the cross is ultimately trying to free you from is being wrapped around the axle of your own self. Mhmm. And and it's what the cross has the power to free you from and what our
21:33 sanctification is freeing us from that our highest ambitions, our highest desires, our our wants, and our needs are no longer primarily or 1st or even solely based on us anymore,
21:45 that our life is now given over to something greater.
21:48 Yeah. Jesus says, if you try to gain your own life, you will lose it. But if you lose your life in me, you'll gain it. That's that. That's freeing you from you.
21:58 Mhmm.
21:59 And and the way it plays out okay. So like and especially, I mean, I was a brand new Christian in high school, even in the college, man. I mean, I was a fighter. And it was it was
22:10 all unrighteous, and it was all pride of life.
22:13 Mhmm.
22:14 Because I wanted, I don't know, I wanted to I wanted to beat people. Either I was protecting my own ego, that would get me into them, or I was trying to prove myself to everybody else. And sometimes they were sanctioned
22:25 sports, and sometimes they were unsanctioned. So I've grown in that area. Unless it's for the protection of the weak, I'm not gonna get in a
22:37 fight to protect my own ego now. But if I don't deal with the root of that now, something that God's working on me is don't I try not to take credit for things
22:49 that aren't mine. I don't wanna take credit for even things that aren't mine, but so it's the same thing if I don't pay attention to it. Mhmm. So if I've if to the best of my ability, if I if if I can say, 1st time
23:01 I heard this was, or 1 time I heard you say this, it's actually the same root, and I haven't punched somebody in years. Mhmm. You know? But if you don't get down to it, then that's where the enemy will really get you. I
23:14 haven't punched somebody in years. I think it's so funny. It's true. It's true. Good?
23:20 But he said it is good. Let's keep the streak going. I'm I'm doing my best.
23:24 Yeah. At least 4. It's been at least 4 years. More than 4? Yeah.
23:27 I'm putting it in 25.
23:30 25 years.
23:31 A little bit less
23:31 than that. Okay. It
23:32 must be
23:32 your thing.
23:33 That was a righteous 1, though.
23:34 Yeah. But, dude yeah. You're right. Yeah.
23:36 But still but, you know, but but what okay. But even now, just from, like, human wisdom would be, it's not gonna be a good idea for any of us for me to be an even just verbally be a
23:48 jerk to somebody, you know? And so even if I can feel it coming, I mean, the Lord just wears me out of it. And then you never know what's gonna happen. Somebody sent me a TikTok, I can't watch TikTok, I
24:00 don't even have that, but apparently I have a TikTok. Some guy on a motorcycle the other night, I can remember, I was very frustrated and went to put gas in somebody's car at my house. And so I'm
24:12 just like, it's late, and I gotta deal with it, and that's the last thing I wanna do. And by God's grace, this guy on a motorcycle is filming everything, and it just says, it's on
24:24 TikTok. It was just very like, you just never know. And it just says, when you see your pastor walk out of Wawa, you gotta say I don't know what it said. And so
24:36 this guy's about to pull away on a motorcycle, and he just says, see you Sunday, pastor, and I I didn't hear everything he said, and I just was like, what's up, man? Nice bike. That's all I said. And he said, alright.
24:45 Thanks. And I was like, stay safe, that's all I said. It just made me think, I'm glad I wasn't mean, you know what I mean? It just A
24:55 little tired, little grumpy.
24:56 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like in my home feeling sorry for myself because I didn't wanna be out that late putting gas in cars and stuff, I wanted to be at home, that kind of thing. But it was a reminder, I have it in me to be
25:07 real short with people, which is not it's still the same route where that used to manifest itself in, like, physical activity. I'd I need to I need to watch that, you know, because what am I
25:19 trying if I'm trying to protect me and my ego and what I want, that that's that's a combination of the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. Yeah. So I gotta be aware of that, not just because
25:31 it might show itself on TikTok, but because God sees the heart of every action. And so when I feel convicted or when somebody, especially somebody I've invited to play that role in my life,
25:43 and the Holy Spirit tells them to tell me something, I've got 1 of 2 options. I can defend myself, or I can receive God's grace in my life in that moment.
25:54 Well, something you said earlier, you were talking about I haven't punched somebody in a long time, and I had an incident recently where not that I punched somebody, but that there are times
26:05 where for righteous reasons, you are defending others. Sure. K? For sure. This would certainly qualify in any adult time of you or me or anybody having to get physical in any situation.
26:17 Sure.
26:17 Right? But this there was a car accident. A guy asked me this question. He just felt terrible about it. There was a car accident. There was a his child was involved in the car accident,
26:29 and he comes up on the that he wasn't far behind. And just the driver that was at fault was
26:41 not in good condition. They weren't they shouldn't have been driving a car. And this guy just comes unglued. He just comes unglued. Now luckily, he didn't assault anybody. He didn't, but there was a lot of yelling, lot
26:53 of screaming, a lot of if it had been filmed. I'm sure somebody filmed it, but that he would he just got beside himself. You know what I mean? And certainly was on the line of self control if he didn't lose it as he's
27:04 telling me the story. Super under conviction about it, like and he's just trying to process how do you go about it. And and I'm man, I'm just trying to like, hey, man. As a dad, I get it, but at the same time,
27:16 like, it's the fact that you're asking these questions, there's evidences of God's trying to teach you things in this and that he's trying to grow self control. And if you did cross the line, you just gotta own that.
27:28 And, you know, so we're talking pastorally through through all that, but I I do think you live in a world we live in a world where the turn the other cheek thing has been misinterpretedShow more
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Joby Martin62.7K followers
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