When You Fall Back // Pastor Vlad

This is Hungry Gen Podcast and I just want to thank you for joining us today. Here at HGR Vision is to see thousands saved locally and millions globally. We hope you enjoyed this week's message. The message that I've been carrying in my heart for a few months already that I want to share is actually about holiness. It's actually about total freedom and what to do when you fall back. A lot of times in Deliverance Church or people that experience deliverance, especially if you get deliverance from alcoholism, gambling, smoking, masturbation and all these other sins watching pornography or smoking weed or some other behavioral things, though not everything is a demon, but some people have a spiritual problem hiding behind their repeated cycle of sin. And they get delivered from a demon, you know, demon comes out, curses gets broken and they go back and they experience a few months of just a blissful freedom. They no longer have cravings for those things and then sometimes this is what happens. They fall back or sometimes they start to struggle again and some people they do not have a biblical framework of how God develops holiness in your life. Because God's development of holiness is not only through deliverance, it is also through discipleship. God wants us to be holy and getting delivered from a demon is not what fixes every single thing and I want to teach you today what to do when the temptation comes back. What to do even if you fall back, even if you experience the same attacks on the outside that you were attacked on the inside. And I believe that the Lord is going to give freedom today, but most importantly, the Lord is going to bring truth that will set us free in Jesus' name. Can you say, "Amen." In Proverbs 24 verse 16, the notes are also on you version Bible app. A righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity. So in other words, it's not how many times you have fallen. It's who is falling. Let me say that again. It's not the times that a person has fallen. It's who is the person that is falling. The Bible compares one person falls one time and they cannot get up because that person is wicked. So it's not the amount of times that a person falls. It's who is doing the falling. We have this idea that if I am righteous, I will never fall. If I am truly delivered, I will never be tempted again. If I am truly set free, those things will never be something I wrestle with. But Proverbs says, "The righteous man falls seven times and he rises back up." So being a righteous doesn't mean you don't fall. It means you don't stay there. Come on somebody. Luke chapter 22 verse 32, a scripture that Jesus speaks of Peter who was his disciple, Peter who already cast out demons. Peter whose name was changed. Peter who was an apostle. Peter was so close to Jesus that one day we will experience that Peter had that for three and a half years. And Jesus said, Luke 22 verse 32, "But I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail." He doesn't say, "Watch this." He doesn't say, "I prayed for you that you will not fail." Jesus knows, Peter will fail. He's not praying that Peter will not fail. He says, "I prayed for you that your faith will not fail." What does it mean? So that when you have returned to me, you strengthen your brethren. I want you to notice that Jesus is not praying that you don't fail. He is praying that you return to Him with you. He is praying that you don't stay down in guilt and shame and condemnation. He is praying that even through your fall there is a deep confession, there is a deep repentance and there is a returning back to your old. New, godly, holy ways. If we go to Matthew 12 verse 43, 44 and 45, when an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest and finds none. And the unclean spirit says, "I will return to my house from which I came." And when he comes, he finds that empty swept and put in order. He goes and takes with him seven other spirits. Did you notice in Proverbs righteous man fall seven times in here a wicked demon is returning back to his old house with seven more demons. Did you notice Jesus is praying for Peter to return to him and then here is demons returning back. And he finds it empty. He finds his swept and put in order. And he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they enter and dwell there. And the last of that state is worse than the first and watch this the last phrase. Because I cannot tell you how much time this chapter and this verse has been used to attack Christians and how many Christians have been using this to attack themselves. So shall it be with this wicked generation? So Jesus is saying a wicked generation has demons returned to them. A righteous man returns to Jesus. This is not speaking demons returning back. This is not speaking about a righteous person. Why? Because demons don't just return back if your house is empty. For those of you who know anything about demonology, anything about spiritual warfare you know one thing demons operate by agreement and by legal open doors. Demons do not enter because you're empty. They enter because you are wicked. The Bible says this wicked person wicked generation wicked demons come back to but see the scripture says I'm not a wicked generation. I am a royal generation. I am a holy people. I am new creation. I am born again. I am entweld by the spirit. I am washed by the blood. This doesn't mean I cannot experience demonic torment. But when I fall I return to my savior. Demons don't return to me. Unless I open the door. Unless I do the same thing I used to do unrepeated, habitual, unrepentant ways. I want to speak to you today. If you take in notes when a wicked person falls the demons return to him. When a warrior falls he returns to Jesus. I'm not going to give you a license to sin. But I'm not going to give you but I also want to give each one of you today the power that Jesus gives us to live a holy life. A holy life does not come from legalism and a holy life does not come from cheesy grace. Cheesy, Christian kind of a do whatever you want to do a holy life comes from understanding. Some of our problems are spiritual. But even if you remove the demon behind your repeat is sin. You still have to deal with what I'm going to talk to you for the next few moments. Amen. I'm going to share with you just three practical steps. Number one, know who you are. Your sin is not your identity. In other words your sin is not your standing. Jesus is your standing. When the righteous person see that's why the Bible could easily say a righteous person falls seven times. That's why Jesus could look at Peter and call him his disciple and says I pray for you and he's not praying the Peter don't fail. Keep because there was pride in Peter's heart and anytime you have pride you will fall. And Jesus knows Peter is going to fall because Peter is self-dependent. Peter is self-absorbed. Peter is overconfident. Peter has an inflated version like he already is something because he's been in church for three years. Peter will fall. And Jesus is not praying to stop that. He's praying that when Peter does and he's hit with the mud of his own shame. And the devil would be there to say you don't belong to Jesus. Jesus doesn't want to do anything with you. They will be saved. They will rise up and say the Son of God who shed me free is waiting for me. I will return to the Savior. Why? Because I'm righteous. Why? Because I'm new creation. Why? Because I'm not a wicked generation. I go back to who I am. I know who I am. I am saved. Not because I don't smoke. I am forgiven. Not because I don't watch pornography. I am a new creation. Not because I don't gamble on the weekends but because of the blood of Jesus Christ. My church attendants do not improve my righteousness. I live out of the gift of righteousness by doing the things that I do. But I'm not more righteous because I've had six years of sobriety. I'm not more righteous because I had 12 years of not watching pornography. I am righteous because the blood was spilled for me and I was given a new status with God. Your struggle is not your identity. Your sin, the last thing you did, is not who you are. You are not the last thing you did. Failure is an event, not a person. As a Christian, we are not defined by our sin, we are defined by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In Romans 6 Paul goes in so much depth where he talks about who we are and he says things like verse 3, "For do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death." Then verse 11 he says, "Recon yourselves dead indeed to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus." What is this means? That means your old life is already been nailed on the cross. That's a fact. It is not subject to your feelings. It is not subject to how your weak has went and your new life has been raised with Jesus as surely as Jesus has risen from the dead. It is how surely you have been raised to new life. You may say, "What do I do with what I had? What do I do with the feelings? What do I do with this thing that happened last week? What do I do with this thing that happened a month ago?" You treat it from the position of who you are in Jesus. That is not who you are, what happened? What happened at the Calvary is who you are. You died with him. You were buried with him. You rose with him and you are seated in the heavenly places with him. That is who you are. But I've done the same repeated sin so many times. Well, amazing part is only one time Jesus had to die to secure your righteousness. And I want to tell everyone at a top of my lungs, that Jesus is better at saving you than you are at sinning. You know, when the Holy Spirit comes, He convicts us. And many people only know the conviction of the Holy Spirit in regards to sin. But John 16/8 says, "When He has come, He will convict the world of sin, end of righteousness, end of judgment." The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, 100%. But then He also convicts us of righteousness. Why does He convict us of righteousness? Because we are convinced when we fall, when we are tempted, when we are facing trials, we are convicted. I cannot be righteous. And this is happening to me. And the Holy Ghost comes and says, "Righteousness is attached to the cross." It's not attached to you. It's attached to Jesus. He convicts us. So not only Jesus died, the Spirit reminds me, not what I have done, but what Jesus has done, because the Spirit glorifies Jesus. And then of judgment, not my judgment, but that one day this flesh will be judged. One day sin will be judged. One day I will have a new body. One day I will have no more temptation in this world. And one day I will see Jesus face to face. He convicts me of that. So what we experience when we fall in sin is condemnation. Condemnation and conviction is not the same. Conviction is specific. Condemnation is general. Conviction attacks one particular issue. Condemnation attacks your identity. Conviction is from the Holy Spirit. Condemnation is from the devil. Conviction gives you hope. Condemnation makes you hopeless. Conviction leads you always to repentance. Condemnation leads you to regret, depression, weightiness and remorse. This is how it looks like you fell. And the condemnation says you are a sinner. You are a pervert. You are an addict. You are an angry person. You have always been like this. And what the devil does is he right away changes your identity based on one fall. Conviction works like this. You are righteous. But your attitude to your wife this morning was sinful. You are righteous. But you should not be looking at Instagram reels in your feed because they are perverted. You are righteous. But you exaggerate it when you share that with that person. That was wrong. You disclosed a secret that you said you will never say. And you buttered it up under where we should pray about this person. But you actually disclosed a secret. So Holy Spirit, he narrows it and he doesn't in such a way there is pain attached to that conviction. But there is a way out. There is hope. There is repentance. There is confession. And you walk out and you grow in godliness. You don't get stuck in that despair. Why? Because who you are? It's not what you did. It's what Jesus did. Can someone say amen? Let's go to step number two and how to process the fall and that is do what you are. So not only I know who am I, I have to do who am I? Which means the position that I have in Jesus must lead to the practices of Jesus. In the next minute I am going to shoot straight really fast the scriptures that I want you to catch this one word in there. First John 3, 4. Everyone who makes a practice somebody say practice. Practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. First John 3, 3. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil. First John 3, 9. No one is born of god. No one born of god makes a practice of sinning. He cannot keep sinning. First John 3, 10. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of god. Matthew 7, 23. Depart from me you who practice lawlessness. Matthew 13, 41. Gather out of his kingdom, those who practice lawlessness. John 3, 20. Everyone practicing evil hates the light. Romans 1, 32. Those who practice such a things are deserving of death. Galatians 5, 21. Those who practice such a things do not inherit the kingdom of god. First John 3, 7, he who practices righteousness. First John 2, 29. Everyone who practices righteousness is born of god. You got the word practice. So my position is I am righteous. The way I live righteous is I start going to practices. This is not trying. This is training. So God says I secure the righteousness. But the way you live this out is you have to go to practices. You practice what you have. You don't practice to get righteousness. You practice to release righteousness. That means naturally righteous living will not be possible until you practice it. The problem with sin is not that we struggle with sin. It's not that we fall in sin. God condemns the practice of sin. What is the practice? It's when you try to get better at something. It's when you try to secure an ability to shoot three pointers from a particular line and you keep showing up. You're missing but you keep showing up to the practice. So it's not that you picked up a ball in the park. Shot three pointers and you are a basketball player. That's not what god is aiming for. He is aiming for a gym membership where person shows up to practice regularly. God says if you're righteous, how do I do what I do now? God says show up to the practice every day. See but the devil tells us religion tells us we tell ourselves I got to try harder when the scripture tells us we got to train better. The religion tells us it's about perfection but the scripture tells us it's about practice. So you're struggling with lust. You're struggling with alcohol. You're struggling that your evenings you're so down and you fall into some kind of a repeated thing. You pray the prayer. I'm so sorry God I will never do it again and this is what we say. I will try better. It won't work. You'll fail again. Why? Because trying is reactionary. Trying is you're saying the next time temptation comes in I will exert more effort but the problem is that you did that last time your effort is limited. It will be equivalent to a marathon happening after the service and I will say I'm gonna try to run a marathon and of course I will collapse after two and a half miles and then I will do this again I will say I'm so sorry I didn't finish the marathon but next Sunday I'm gonna try harder you know what's gonna happen next Sunday I will collapse at two and a half miles what is the key don't try start running practice running don't focus on a marathon focus on daily practice put on running shoes on Monday I might not finish two miles on Monday but I'm Tuesday I'm gonna do another two miles where's it in other two miles why it's not about marathon it's about practicing as I practice righteousness I practice godliness I practice purity I practice my things and then I will be able to finish the marathon and you will say wow you're a great runner no I practice well somebody shall practice Dallas Willard says we mistakenly think the way to grow is to try harder when the way to grow is to train right this down you don't rise to the level of your trying you will fall to the level of your training you will fall to the level of your practice don't try harder keep showing up to the practice keep showing up to your daily encounters don't wait to exert more effort in the moment of temptation no release more effort every day before even the temptation shows up in developing practices that's why in first Timothy for seven Paul tells Timothy train yourself it's actually a gym language Paul is saying train yourself he doesn't say work on your biceps and triceps nothing wrong with that is nothing to push ups and pull ups nothing wrong with that he says train yourself toward godliness Paul knows I have holiness as a gift righteousness as a gift but in order to live righteous the secret is not trying to attempt to run a marathon the secret is showing up to the practice every single day Timothy train yourself towards godliness not Timothy be godly practice godliness do you see how many verses I read to you today what the Bible says he who has god in him practices righteous as they don't just live righteous they practice it and the problem with people who are not going to heaven it's not that they smoked or fell into sin it's they made sin a practice they made sin a habitual practice and Jesus says depart from me you don't know me you don't have righteousness why you who practice lawlessness you practice immorality you practice gossip you practice envy you habitual show up to the gym of the devil to practice ungodliness and Jesus says you're not part of my team but there's some of you you have the membership but you don't show up to the gym and then you keep falling into the same sin you keep going to the deliverance for the same thing and we will pray for you again and again but cannot tell you something don't wait for the next marathon to fail again show up to the practice today tomorrow when it comes to practices all spiritual practices sometimes they're called disciplines fall into two categories or two motions things we abstain these are the practices where you say no to the flesh and things you engage in and these are the practices where you yesterday you say yes to the Spirit Paul likes to call it put things off put things on so the Bible gives us a framework I am righteous I don't become righteous by living righteous life I become righteous it's a gift from God my old self is dead but the flesh my body the temptation the cravings are still gonna be there and the way I deal with that is that I don't focus on perfection I focus on the practice I don't focus on trying harder I focus on showing up and training every single day Paul says train yourself toward godliness in this training two things will happen there are things I'm gonna have to say no to and there are things I'm gonna have to say intentionally yes to it could be something like saying yes to reading all the scriptures yes to prayer but saying no to watching things after 9 p.m it could be something like you know I am not gonna go to that store and I'm not gonna actually take that route after work because I always stop and pick up liquor I'm gonna take a different route I am not gonna pick up liquor I'm gonna buy water I am going to say no and I'm going to say yes and this is not about I'm gonna live righteous this is about I'm gonna practice it that means treat it the same way as you treat hitting three point shots in a basketball court it is not just about make sure that every single time I score it and if I don't I'm gonna lose my salvation no this is a practice of righteousness I am righteous I practice righteousness come also my entire chapter 2 verse 11 and 12 Paul says for the grace of god the brain salvation has appeared to all men see that's the grace of god giving us salvation the grace of god giving us righteousness but then in the next verse he says this teaching us teaching us so the grace is not just imparting righteousness and see the grace is not just yelling be right yes the grace teaches me see if you get a teacher you get a coach you don't get it at first the teacher is not a monster the teacher is patient you don't have to write and they're patient with you they start small and they begin to work with you until you get to the point that you can play that instrument you can play that game see the grace is not just giving you the gift the grace sign up to be your trainer and say show up to the practice and I will walk with you show up to the practice and I will train you show up to the practice and I will empower you somebody give god some praise for grace teaching me the grace saves me and the grace teaches me Dallas Willer said grace is not opposed to effort it is opposed to earning earning is an attitude effort is an action see grace does not mean I no longer exert effort it means I no longer earn it it's important because the grace of God does not mean you don't release effort in fact to live a Christian life is about picking up the cross saying no to yourself crucifying desires there is all of that is effort and for those people who got into this bandwagon of greasy grace where you think the grace means no effort that is not in the Bible grace simply means we're not earning it there is no attitude of God will love me more or God will love me less it is about exerting effort because the grace empowers me teaches me I'm not trying to earn righteousness I am exerting effort from the position of righteousness by practicing righteousness I've been caring this for like three months guys second service of you more domesticated but this one I I don't know if it's a sleep deprivation for the last few days or what it is but I'm like burning and it's not because it's hot this word is burning inside of me it changed my life point number three return to who you are so first is know who you are always go back to that know who you are do what you are do what you are but there's one more thing and we have to touch this and I mentioned this in the beginning of the message and I mentioned right now I'm gonna wrap it up return to who you are what this means look chapter 22 verse 32 as I've read Jesus didn't pray that you won't fail he would pray that you return where you return right is down reveals who you are the full returns to his sin the righteous returns to his savior second Peter 222 says and it happened to them according to the true proverb a dog returns to his own vomit and a pig being washed to her wallowing in the mirror but see you're not a dog you're a son you're not a pig you're a daughter a dog returns to their vomit a pig returns to their mirror but see a Christian Jesus says I pray for you that you return to me why return to who you are vomit is not who you are my here is not who you are you the son return to me you may say but I fall in but I lost my rhythm Jesus says I'm praying for you that your faith will not fail and that you return that you rise up when Adam commits sin in Genesis 3.9 the Lord comes to the place where he would meet with Adam before and his cry was this Adam where are you why you haven't returned. Why are you hiding instead of running to me? If your sins are like scarlet Isaiah one, it says come to me, let us reason together and I will wash you. That is grace to save you. That is grace to train you and that is grace to restore you. That is grace to renew you. That is grace to rebuild you. That is grace to give you second chance, search chance, fourth chance. That is not a license to save. That is an invitation to practice. God will build by grace in you what he has by nature in himself. Can somebody say man, when the wicked fall, they return to who they are. When the righteous fall, they return to who Christ named them to be. Jesus calls Judas the devil. When Judas falls, he returns where to the devil. That is who he was. Peter was called a rock. When Peter fell, Jesus says return to who you are. Return to who you are. Do the righteousness, do the holiness, do sobriety, the purity, do the fidelity, do commitment, do dedication, do generosity, do humility, do honor, do health, return. Know who you are. Do who you are. And return to who you are. That is our biblical, New Testament framework for holiness and the righteousness. Thanks for listening to today's podcast. If you are blessed by this message, be sure to subscribe and send it to someone. And don't forget, you can always share it on your social stories. Stay connected with us on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. For more information on internship, prayer line, conferences and other resources, go to HungryGen.com. Remember, better is not good enough. The best is yet to come.