1. Strategies for Pursuing Righteousness
Killing stubborn sin
Strategies for Pursuing Righteousness

2. Where we’ve been

3. Important note
Remember: Heb. 12:1-2: “Therefore…let us also lay aside every…sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.”
Jesus is the founder of our faith AND the perfecter of our faith! His power changes us, not our effort or will.
But while God is the one who is changing us and our hearts, there are real life decisions and actions we make that live out God’s work in our hearts.

4. We need strategies

5. Temptation’s pattern
Identify temptation’s pattern, say no as early in the process as possible, and have a plan for an alternative to sin to help you say no early on.

6. Ignore your conscience
We regularly face the decision to listen to our conscience or ignore it.
“The Bible teaches us in Rom. 14 and 1 Cor. 8 that to go against your conscience when you think it’s warning you correctly is always a sin, even if the action is not a sin in and of itself, because you are committing an action your heart thinks is a sin.”
Ignoring our conscience can embolden us to sin (1 Cor. 8:10) and can sear our conscience so that it no longer warns us of sin (1 Tim 4:2).

7. Remember key truths
Past: Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin, to conquer sin, and to rescue us from sin
Present: Christ has united us to Himself so He is with us and in us right now
Future: We will stand before God and will see God in all his beauty!

8. Eager for accountability
Accountability is our willingness to confess sin to others and ask others for help rather than hiding sin and trying to fight against it on our own

9. Eager for accountbility
Accountability from a mature source
Proactive not Reactive
Accountability must actually hold you accountable

10. Signs of sabotaging the fight
We have to be praying specifically about a sin
We have to put distance between us and sin
We have to confess sin openly, not justify it

11. Review Temptation’s pattern Ignore your conscience Remember key truths
Eager for accountability
Signs of sabotaging the fight