Counseling Someone Who Struggles With a Specific Sin - Kevin Williams

When people want to come and talk,

want counsel for a particular struggle

against a certain sin,

one thing that has changed over the years

is what people want to do

is they want to talk about their sin

and their struggle

and how defeated they are.

And, no matter what it is,

they just want to go on and on about it,

but I don't even go there now.

What I talk about is

their position in Christ,

what Christ has done,

that that's not them anymore.

It just doesn't help going
on and on with the sin.

It's just stirring up more sin anyway.

The obsession with it.

When you get off of that,

onto realizing who you are now.

It's not me anymore.

An example I use to describe this

is if you were adopted
into a royal family -

which we essentially are as Christians -

I don't know about your upbringing,

but mine, I would be expected to behave

in different ways.

Even things like eating at the table

and putting your knife and fork,

and saying things different.

You're taught that.

That's not who you are anymore.

Well, in the same way,

not with our knife and forks, of course,

but in our life set
apart for God as Christians

we're told that's not us anymore.

But realizing someone's
position in Christ,

and also realizing the gospel there -

what Christ has done for us.

Because when you're thinking of that,

how glorious Christ is

and how glorious our position is,

what He's done for us,

you're not thinking about
going on in sin next.

You're just thankful.

So getting the person away from

that obsession with whatever.

That just tends to keep dragging them

under and under.

I've said this to people before.

If someone's recommending
a book or a sermon

about how to defeat a sin
that you don't struggle with,

don't even go there,

because you might end
up struggling with it.

You know, if you try and
put all that into practice

when it's not even relevant to you,

but you might end up
struggling with it afterwards,

because it becomes the wrong approach

getting obsessed with the sin

and talking about how defeated we are,

rather than what Christ has done for us

and our position in Him.