All right, good evening. I want to mention, because of the truth that I'm going to talk about this evening, and the truth that changed my life. And I want to tell you about a couple of these booklets here. They're almost all gone now. But this book here. What should I do if I'm doubting my salvation? And in the back of it, it has the list of 82 lusts that a Christian can have. Many times people who are doubting their salvation are entangled in a demand lust that is controlling their behavior. And so it's a very important little booklet, but also, How to deal with worry, anxiety, and fear. And many times people who are entangled in a demand lust, that is causing the issue of their worry and anxiety and fear. And the final book I want to mention to you tonight is one that has helped a lot of people around the world. How do I find hope from my grief? And, you know, grief comes at many different ways, many different times. And sometimes it comes when you're not expecting it. You know, but this booklet has, or this book has been a great help to many people. And so I would encourage you to go back and take a look at those. Tonight, the truth that, you know, we've been talking about here, important decisions for your family. And this tonight is going to be a truth. And I remember the first time that it dawned on me. And then I became a student of that subject. And as I studied it more, I realized that this was a whole lot bigger than I thought it was to begin with. And God has dealt with it many times within the scripture. And in one book of the scripture, he deals with it profoundly. So I would like for you to take your Bibles this evening and turn to James chapter four, if you would. James chapter four. James chapter four. Now we've talked about the issue of making sure that you're in fellowship with God. Now, you know, ladies and gentlemen, outside of your salvation, that's the second most important decision in your life every day. And then learning that you have to learn to ask God questions. And you realize that you're gonna ask God to show you if there's any sin in your life today. You're gonna ask God, is there any hurt that I'm allowing to control me? Is there any bitterness in my heart and dealing with it the way we talked about? And then I'm gonna ask God to teach me. I'm gonna ask him to fill me with the spirit today. And I'm gonna ask him to teach me today. Now there's other questions that I tell our counselees to ask God, but those are the primary ones to start with, but there's a whole lot more. But tonight in this truth, which I believe that once you see it, it's going to make a world of difference in your life. So let's stand together as we read out of respect to God and his word. James chapter four and verse one. The Bible says, from whence come wars and fightings among you, come they not hence even of your what folks? And do you notice it's plural, meaning more than one. And I've said that there's 82 in the Bible that a Christian can have. Your lusts that war in you members, You lust and have not. You kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight and more yet you have not because you ask not. You ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your what? lusts, ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whoso therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do you think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy, but he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud. And I can tell you this, that pride messes up a lot of things in our life. God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Here's a huge verse for you. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw an eye to God, and he'll draw an eye to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted and mourn and weep. And let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we come to you tonight. We thank you for the opportunity to come and present your word. And we pray tonight that the Holy Spirit will be our teacher. And I submit myself to you now. I need your help. I pray for the filling of the Holy Spirit. I pray, God, that you will direct us and that my thoughts will be yours. And God, I pray that you'll guide and direct in this moment. Lord, there might be someone here tonight who's unsaved, that they're not sure if they died tonight that they would go to heaven. I pray, God, that you'll encourage them to deal with that subject tonight. There may be those that are still in here without understanding that they need to be in fellowship with you. And if that person here tonight is out of fellowship with you, that they'll have their fellowship restored this evening. God, I pray now that you'll open your word powerfully to us. I pray that you'll make it real to us. I pray that hearts will be open to your word tonight. And we ask these things in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. I'm saying it's important decisions for your family. Now, if you never teach You know, if your wife does not know that she needs to be in fellowship with God, she's never going to teach that to the children. And as a husband, if you're not in fellowship with God, you're going to create a mountain of problems for your family. And, you know, and as a child, if you never learn how to be in fellowship with God, you're going to create a mountain of problems in the lives of others around you and your parents and everyone else. Now, everyone tonight, everyone in the family must understand this process. The process that we're gonna speak about tonight. I tell all of our counselees, and every church also I go to, that if you're really gonna walk with God and move forward with God, you've got to learn the fours. That would be James 4, which we're in tonight, Philippians 4, and Ephesians 4. These are the change chapters of the Bible. If you're gonna make biblical long-term change in your life, you need to know what these chapters are talking about. Now, the ultimate change chapter in the Bible is Ephesians 4. And there are chapters in the Bible that are known for certain things, like 1 Corinthians 13 is the love chapter. Well, Ephesians 4 is the change chapter of the Bible, but so is Philippians 4, and so is James 4. Now, so as we come here to this chapter, James is a very practical man. They called him old camel knees because he spent so much time in prayer. And now he's going to tell us tonight something that's extremely important, something that we have to get. And if we're going to move forward for God in our life, we have to learn how to do this. And in James chapter four and verse one. So I want you to picture in your mind tonight that is a married couple that comes into our office and they are fighting and warring. They're not friends. And the Bible says, from whence, and so the answer's here, from whence come wars and fightings among you, come they not hence, even of your what, ladies and gentlemen? Lust, and it's plural, meaning more than one. That war in your members. So when a couple comes in and they're fighting and warring, they're fighting for their lusts. They're fighting each other for their lusts. Now, if I said to the average independent Baptist, do you understand what that means? They would think moral. But there's 81 others. I had one guy one time, he asked me, he says, Pastor, what happens if I got all 82? I said, man, you got a mess of a life then. But most people have at least three. Do you hear me? Most people have at least three. Now, once we get somebody moving on having a real relationship with God, we want to get to the lust issue. Now, think about it like this. You go to the doctor, and you come in and you tell him, and I always tell our counselees, you know, I've got, of course, we do some of this on the phone, I said, look, picture I've got both my hands in the air. And you go into the doctor and you tell him, over here on the right hand side, I got a fever, my body's aching, or I've got these symptoms over here. But really, that's not the problem. The problem is over here. And the real problem is over here on this side, which is causing the symptoms over here. So many times people, Pastor Sullivan here does a good job preaching and he will give a message and you come forward because God dealt with you about something and you ask God to forgive you. And then 24, 48, 72 hours later, you're doing the same thing again. And so you come back the next week And Pastor Sullivan preaches again, and you turn around and do the same thing again. And the next week, the same thing again. And finally, you're, I don't understand. Did God, did God didn't forgive me? Yeah, he did at that moment. But you're back doing the same thing again. Now listen to me carefully. You remember when I said that every day when you start your day, you need to ask God if there's any sin that stands between you and him? Now, if you ask God that question, and that sin comes up again, and again, and again, and again, and it comes up more than three times, it's a demand lust controlling behavior. Did you hear me? What did I say it was? Demand lust. It's a desire of the mind. And so that has to be dealt with differently than just coming up and saying, God, I want you to forgive me. Because it's controlling behavior in your life. So the lust is over here, but it's controlling behavior over here. And many people are confused about that. So now, I want you to understand that's one way to determine if you have a demand lust in your life. Because if you have to keep asking God again and again and again to forgive you for that sin, it's controlling some behavior, i.e. think alcoholic. You know, and we have no problem saying, well, an alcoholic or someone that's addicted to drugs or something of that nature has a demand lust. But I think you're gonna find it very interesting tonight that the first lust that God brings out the door has nothing to do with any of that. But he says it's really bad. So not only do I have to learn to deal with my lusts, I have to teach little Billy and little Susie how to deal with their lusts. 47 times in the Bible this is mentioned. Now whenever God wants to make a point in the Bible, what's he do? He repeats it. So if it's mentioned 47 times, wouldn't you think that's a big deal? Amen? All right, now watch. He says, verse one, even of your lusts that war in your members. He said in verse two, he says, you lust, ye lust and have not, you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain, yet you fight and war, yet you have not because you ask not. Now, so these lusts here, Brother Helm, they control your prayer life too. In essence, if you've got a demand lust in your life, and you're out of fellowship with God, you're not dealing with it, it's going to affect your prayer life, right? Cause Psalm 66, 18 says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, and iniquity means sin, The Lord will not hear me. So now we wonder why we have such anemic prey. And then look at verse three. He says, you ask and receive not because ye ask amiss. Now think about what this is saying. He says, you ask and receive not because you ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Here are people that are praying for their lusts. Now I want you to notice what level God puts this on. He said, if people are, and he's contextually here, he's talking to Christians, not talking to lost people. Now watch, look at the level that God puts us on. He says in verse four, ye adulterers and adulteresses, Know ye not that the friendship, by the way, if he says, know you not means he didn't know. Know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Now let's break it up. He says that if you are living for your lusts, You're praying for your lusts. You're fighting for your lusts. He says you're a spiritual adulterer or a spiritual adulteress. Now those are pretty hefty words, aren't they? Spiritual adulterer. And then he goes on to say, notice, Know you not that the friendship of the world. You know, I've heard, you know, when I was young, I heard a lot of preach, when I was first saved, I heard a lot of preaching about, you know, don't live like the world. And they'd mention a couple, two or three things, and you know what? They never really got into that too deep other than don't live like the world. Right now, he just gave you the definition of what worldliness is, is living for your lusts and fighting for your lusts. And in essence, if you're living for your lust, you're a friend of the world. Does that make you feel uncomfortable? That you as a saved person could be a friend of the world? If you don't understand how to deal with this. When our counselees get this, it's like, wow, I never would have ever thought that. And yet my life has ran off the rails and down past the weeds, down past the railroad track, and on down past the river, and I never even understood why. He says, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God. That word enmity means hatred, hostility, and antagonism. He says, whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world. Now watch, this is talking to believers. He says, whosoever therefore, whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. and he's not talking to lost people here. Do you wanna be the enemy of God? I don't wanna be the enemy of God. No way, no how. And then this next passage is really interesting. You know, I've studied the word envy. Do you know that the Bible says that envy is worse than anger? I've had many people like this in counseling. You know, a wife feels that she's being mistreated. And she looks over and she sees another couple in the church and she says, well, I bet John doesn't treat Linda that way. He treats her so kindly. And look what I got. So she starts to envy. And that leads to a whole lot of major malfunctions. Do you, verse five, do you think that the scripture saith in vain? So in essence, everything that we've read up to now, do you think that the scripture says it in vain? If I'm living for my lusts and I'm not willing to deal with them, I don't even know how to deal with them, I'm saying the scripture is speaking in vain. Do you think the scripture saith in vain? No, we better understand exactly what's being said here. Do you think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? Do you notice, lusteth? So the reason why I'm being an envious person is because I'm lusting for my lust, whatever it may be. But then he switches here. Just switches direction. And verse six, and he says, but he giveth more grace. And ladies and gentlemen, the word grace here means divine help. But he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud. Now, remember I said pride messes up a lot of stuff. One of the reasons why a person does not want to deal with their lust, does not know, want to know how to deal with their lust is because of their pride. And the word pride means that you can live, that I wanna live independently from God. In essence, I think I can do it on my own without God. Now, I'm gonna guarantee you, you're not gonna win this battle on your own. And life is going to be really tough. So remember how we started this out. I have a couple that comes into my office, and they're warring and fighting. And generally, I'll say, OK, Linda, tell me what's the problem here in your marriage. And she'll go on for half an hour. And I don't let them go on much longer. We go 30 minutes. I'll let her speak and tell me. We don't talk over one another. And then she goes on for 30 minutes and she doesn't come up for air. And so then I said, all right, John, tell me what the problem is here. And he goes on for 30 minutes and doesn't come up for air. The real problem here is they're living for what? Their lusts. And they're fighting for them. That's the reason why they're warring and fighting. You know, statements like, who do you think you are telling me what to do? You've heard this probably. I've had a couple ladies say to me, you know, give him an inch and he thinks he's a ruler. And I've had a couple ladies say, do you know that the Bible says if he's dead, that I can remarry. And one lady said, well, do you think maybe I can help God out a little bit? Ooh, ooh. I would say she's living for her lust, wouldn't you say? You know, way out there. But I also want to tell you this. As someone who has been a biblical counselor and a pastor for 44 years, this is a whole lot more common than you think it is. All because they're not willing to deal with their lusts. But the fact of the matter is they're so ignorant that they don't even know that they're lusting. for lack of better terminology there. They don't even know it. They don't have a clue. Now, verse six says, but he giveth more grace, divine help, and I want divine help. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud. but giveth grace unto the who? The humble, and the word here humble means submitted. Now remember in the first couple of sermons I said, you've got to understand at the point of impact, you have to submit immediately. And verse seven says, what is the first word in verse seven folks? Submit who? immediately to God. Submit yourself immediately to God. Submit yourselves therefore to God and when you do that you're gonna resist the devil and the Bible says he will what? Flee from you because if you're saved the Holy Spirit indwells you and greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. But you have to take the action to submit. Instead of saying, well, here he goes again. Got those muddy shoes all over the floor, you idiot. Don't you ever put your clothes in the dirty clothes, Amber? Why do I have to clean up after you all the time? Woman, we've had meatloaf three nights in a row. Can't you cook anything else? Do you know I'm sick of meatloaf? And they think they're just bantering back and forth, but the Bible says here in James 4, 1, they're fighting for their what? Lusts. What you say can be very hurtful. And if you're fighting for your lusts, you're going to say hurtful things. And I always tell the people that we're counseling for marriages is that picture you on one side, your husband on the other, and here is all these hurtful words, and you're going to keep building a wall. Picture bricks. And each time you're going to put a brick up. You're going to put another brick up. Going to keep on going. And pretty soon you can't get over the wall. We're just thinking we're fighting. But it's not that we're just fighting. We're fighting for something. And we're fighting for our what? Lusts. So it says, submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Now, draw nigh to God, verse eight, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts. And notice the phrase, you double-minded. Now James 1.8 says a double-minded man or woman is unstable in all their ways. In essence, you never know what they're gonna do. So a person who is consistently living for their lust is, the Bible's definition, unstable. You never know what they're gonna do. One moment they could come into church and say, praise the Lord. God bless you. And the next minute, you jerk. Or they would be saying, did you know what she did? You know, I am, you know, this is a decent sized church. I am pretty sure that no lady would walk in here and walk up to another lady in here and, you know, and she says, Julie, what's the matter with you? Look at you. When are you going to start taking care of yourself? and her husband's named Tom, and all the way home, Julie is saying, do you know what she said to me? Do you know? Oh, man. How dare her tell me to take care of myself? Who she thinks she is? I'm gonna tell her. And then Pastor Sullivan might get a phone call. And he gets to field the phone call of the woman, he says. You know what? If she said that to you, stop, think, turn her over to God. Now, I want you to understand this with me. Do you know that the Bible says in Romans 1.17, turn back there with me for just a second. Now watch carefully because this is important and we'll come right back here. Keep your finger back here in James four. Turn back to Romans chapter one. And look at verse 17 with me. Now if you're saved, the Bible says this. for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from what folks? Faith to what? Faith. As it is written, the just shall live by being angry. Is that what it says? Or being ugly. Now some people can't help that, but I mean, but you know, being mean for lack of better terminology there. Now listen to me, it says faith to faith. So, somebody does something to you today, says something to you today. Now you can be out of fellowship with God, be angry, gossip, you know, jump up, down, snort, snob, yell, chew carpet, all of that, or you can say, Lord, I'm gonna turn this over to you. I wanna submit myself to you, I'm gonna turn this over to you. What do you want me to praise you for? What do you want me to thank you for? I shared this with the young people, so if you were in College Chapel, you'll have to hear it again, I'm sorry. I'm really not sorry, but you have to hear it again. My mentor, one of my mentors, who's now in heaven, great Bible teacher, and he took over a church from one of the great Bible teachers of the previous generation, and he shares this. He said, you know, he said when I took over the church, he said, I had a deacon who was always mad at me. No matter what I decided or what I even proposed, no matter what, he didn't like it, he was against it. He said he was against it. And he kept on with that and on with that and on with that. And my friend said, I prayed about it. He said, I asked God what to do about it. And he said, am I doing something? And finally, this guy got so angry, he left the church. And my friend says, he asked God, did I do something wrong here? Because if I did something wrong, I want to make it right. And God said, no. He said, just turn him over to me. He said, boy, the first week, it was really tough. Some of the hateful things he had said to him, some of the mean things he had said to him, some of the ungodly things that he said to him, he said, you know, the devil would bring those up, and he said, I'd have to, I want to submit myself, I want to turn it over to you. He said, the first week was tough, and he said, I had to do that many, many times. Second week got better, third week got better, fourth week got better. He said, after six months, I never even thought about him anymore. Because Satan already knew that he wasn't going to win that one. And he said, I just turned him over to God and got out of the way. Fast forward 10 years. He's in the auditorium on a Monday morning, and he's straightened up hymn books. Guy walks in the back door. He is dirty, filthy, hair down, greasy, Clothes all torn and looks really bad. He said, I was a little concerned because I was the only one in the building. But he says, as the guy walked up closer to me, he said, I looked at him and he said, I thought I recognized him, but I wasn't sure. And he says, as the guy got up to me, he said, I still wasn't sure, but I thought I recognized him. And he said, to my mentor, you don't know me, do you? And he says, well, I think I recognize you. But he said, I can't really place you. And the guy told him his name. And my friend said, really? And he said, pastor, he said, I've come in here today to get right with you. He said, I've lost my home, I lost my wife, I've lost my children, I lost my business, all because I hated you. But God has made it plain that I need to come and make this right with you. He said, will you please forgive me? And my mentor said, well, sure. He said, can I get you any food or get you a bath, get you some clothes, get you a place to stay? He said, no. I just needed to make this right with you. Now I told the young people in Bible college, I want you all to think about this. And I want you to think about your behavior if it's not spirit controlled. What happens if somebody turns you over to God? So you better understand the need to be in fellowship with God, be a spirit-controlled person, and deal with your lusts. Because if you don't, God may have to intervene in your life. And especially if somebody turns you over to God. Think about it. You know, my friend said, I hadn't thought about him in nine and a half years, but God made sure he thought about me every day. And the more he thought about me, the angrier he got, and more walls God had to put in front of him until he lost everything. So one of the good things for you is learning that whenever things happen, that the best part of wisdom is to make sure that you immediately submit and turn the thing over to who? Now, look what the passage says in Romans 117. Now look what it says. It says, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from what, ladies and gentlemen? Faith to faith. So if something happens today, I'm going to live by faith and I'm gonna turn it over to who? God. Okay, then something happens tomorrow, I'm gonna live by faith and I'm gonna turn it over to God. So the just shall live from what? Faith to what? Faith. Y'all with me? So rather than me be out of fellowship with God, be worried, be upset, be mean, try to go back and push something on somebody else, that kind of thing. Recognize that God cares enough about you that if you turn it over to him, he'll take care of it. Amen? Turn it over. Allow God to work in your life and in the other person's life. Now I recognize, believe me, as a pastor, there are things that you have to deal with, okay? You know, I wanna make sure that I understand what the scripture says on the subject if I gotta deal with a person's sin. And sometimes you have to deal in the ministry, you have to deal with people's sins. And sometimes because of their lusts, they can get themselves involved in a lot of wickedness. But I still have to make sure that I am focused on being a spirit controlled person, that I am understanding what the scripture says about their sin and do what the scripture tells me to do as a spiritual leader. But I'll guarantee you this, I know there are young men in here that are gonna go into ministry. I know there's folks on the staff here. I'll guarantee you this, you can do all of that. And no matter how you handle it, The phrase always comes back, you did not handle it right. But you may have to still handle it, amen? Period, but you wanna make sure you handled it biblically. But I want you to notice, it says here, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. from faith to faith. So from instance to instance, I can exercise my faith by submitting myself to who? To God. And as it is written, the just shall live by what folks? Faith. Now, let's turn back to James four and notice it says, In verse nine, verse nine is about people who are living in worldly joy. It says, be afflicted and mourn and weep and let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. Just wrote a book on forgiveness and forgiveness is more about you than it is about them. And Do you realize you can forgive in your heart? Now there may be some people you can't be around because of the way they live, but you can still forgive them in your life, in your heart. And you know, many times people who do hurtful and ungodly and wicked things, they're just merrily going on their way. And if you're gonna let that stay in your heart, you're gonna have bitterness. And so one of the things that you need to recognize is that you're going to be a person who seeks forgiveness. That you're gonna be the person who says, I'm gonna turn this over to God, and I'm gonna forgive that person, and I'm gonna let God take care of it, and I'm gonna get out of the way. Amen? Forgiveness is more. And quite frankly, you know, the more you spend time debating and arguing with people and things like that, just guess what? You're getting in the way of God. Now look at it like this. I use this. I have a little board that, and some of you people that were in the counseling conference, you've seen my board. And it doesn't cost us nothing to fly with the thing. Doesn't take up space in the car. Watch, right in the middle is God. Here you are. Here is the person who hurts you. Now who's standing between that person and God? You are. And so by stopping thinking, turning it over to God, you're gonna get emotionally free. And when you get emotionally free, you're gonna move over here, get out of the way, and let God work in that person's life. Amen? So you gotta learn to get emotionally free rather than be an emotional wreck. Y'all with me? But make your life be a lot easier. It's gonna give you a lot sweeter spirit. It's gonna make things a whole lot better because if you choose to live by faith, God's gonna bless your life. Amen? Let me ask you this. If you can trust God for the saving of your soul, why can't you trust him for the details of your life? I mean, the most important thing you got is your soul. And he says, I will save your soul. I'll take you to heaven. Then why in the world can't you trust him for Billy Joe over here who acts like an idiot? Amen. God does good jobs with dealing with idiots. And I can forgive the guy and go on. And walk with God and have joy and peace and hope. Now, notice verse 10, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he'll what? Lift who up? You up. So you don't have to play over here in the mud hole. The word humble here means submit. So I'm gonna submit myself. And when I submit myself in the sight of the Lord, he'll lift me up. Now remember, these are important decisions for your family. Got it? These are important decisions for your family. When our girls were little, they were four years apart. That was kind of a thrill to my heart to see. We were out here eating this evening in the college cafeteria, and all these little children were out there, and little babies, and different things like that. It always throws my heart to see these little kids. And I was thinking about my two daughters, and I remember my oldest daughter saying, Daddy, you don't make her do that. It's not fair. Well, we don't do things based on fairness around here. We do things based on what's right. This is important to teach in your family. that we're not gonna get sidetracked here by people or things or situations that will take away our joy, our hope, and our peace because we get out of fellowship with God and then we want to live for our lusts. Amen? Gotta teach that to your children. Mom and dad need to be taught that. But now, Let's go over to Ephesians chapter four. Because I want you to really see this. Now how many lusts are there? 82. And we have the list here for you if you want it. Ephesians chapter four, remember? Ephesians chapter four is the change chapter. Now I want you to notice this. It says, In verse 17 of Ephesians 4, it says, this I say then and testify in the Lord that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, in essence, for their lusts. Having the understanding darkened and being alienated through the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. And by the way, when you're living for your lust, your heart is blinded. Now verse 19 goes on to talk about it and saying, who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, which means unbridled lust. To work all uncleanness with greediness, it says, if that's the case, but you, ye have not so learned who? You know, I've seen people over 44 years that have come to church and, oh, you know, they're moving along pretty good and all of a sudden something happens. They get mad and the next thing you know, they're out here living in lasciviousness. Unbridled lust. And it says in verse 21, if so be that you've heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. Now, here is the way we deal with people's lusts. And when I identify a demand lust in a person's life by our change sheet, the sheet of 82 different things, okay, on a scale of 0 to 10, we ask the person to identify, you know, is this an issue in your life? 0, 1, 2, 3 means it's not an issue. 4, 5, 6 means it's getting to be an issue. 7, 8, 9, 10, it's a demand lust controlling behavior. Now watch what the Bible says. So when we have a demand lust, we have to use the put off, put on method here, the change method from Ephesians 4. Now watch carefully what it says. Verse 22, that you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man or the old nature, which is corrupt according to the what, ladies and gentlemen? Deceitful lust. You ever thought about why it says deceitful there? The word deceitful here means that it's promising something it can't deliver. Deceitful lusts. promising something it cannot deliver. Now watch. Look at verse 24. And that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. And so how's the methodology of that work? And in verse 23, it says, and be renewed or transformed in the spirit of your mind. Romans 12, one says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your body a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Verse two says, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. And the word transformation there means changed. So God wants us to put off the lusts. He wants us to be transformed and changed. Now, I want you to see though, before I go through that process, I want you to see the first lust. that comes out the door. In essence, the first lust that God lists. Look at verse 25. Wherefore putting away, what? So lying is a what? A lust. Wherefore putting away lying Speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we're members of one another. You know, I had a young man in our church, one of our churches. Kid was, you know, he's a teenage chronic liar. I mean, he'd be in the back of the church and the men would be back there with him, some of them would, and he'd be telling them a whopper of a story. And I'd see the guys shaking their heads, you know. And most of the time he was doing that so he could impress girls. Are any of you girls impressed by a liar? Do what? Hope not. But some are, because they'll buy the lie. I mean, this guy believed his own lies. So I bring him in and I sat him down and I said, We've talked about this, you know, and I said, okay, here's the put off, put on process with this. Remember last night I said that there are sins that people think are okay. They're just not gonna deal with it because they presume that God won't deal with it. It's a presumptuous sin. Well here, lying is a lust and many people who lie all the time, the fact of the matter is, it's a presumptuous sin with them. They don't think God's gonna deal with it. But here he says, put off lying. So I bring the guy in, we're sitting down and I said, now look, here's what we're gonna do. I want you to go home, and I want you to look up five verses on lying, and I want you to write down two things that you learned from each verse. So he did, and he comes back the next week, and I said, so what do you think about lying? What do you think God thinks about lying? He said, oh, God hates it. That's good, isn't it, Brother Hill? All right. So I said, all right, I want you to look up five more verses this coming week. And I want you to read over the five that you just did. And I want you to write down two things that you learned from each verse and bring them back here next week. And he did. So I said, now what do you think God thinks about lying? God really hates it. All right, next week, five more verses. And then I'm gonna have you memorize one of these, but I'm gonna have you write down two things that you learned from it. And he comes back in the next week. All right, what does God think about lying? Oh, pastor, he hates it. And we went up to clear up to 50 verses, because he was a chronic liar. Now remember Romans 12 too? Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. So now what's happening with my guy? He is seeing straightforwardly that this can no longer be a presumption with sin in his life. His thinking is gradually being changed or transformed to God's thinking on the matter. So we get up to 50 verses. He comes in the next week and he says, Pastor, can I ask you a question? I said, yes. And he says, how many verses are there in the Bible on Lion? I said, there's 96, and you're gonna do them all. But his, that changed. You get it? It's the put off, put on process by transformation that the mind gradually will change from your thinking to God's thinking. So that's what we do with our counselees when we identify a demand lust. And it's really cool to see their transformation. Y'all with me? So if I were you guys, I'd want that sheet, wouldn't you? You got it? And if we don't have any more books out there, you can tell Kim, give her a name, and we'll email it to you. So you can check yourself to see where your demand lists are. And so that you can transform your mind. By the way, transformation means change. Biblical, long-term, what? Change. Biblical long-term change. So many times we're guilty of when the person comes in and they're living a life that's dishonoring to God. And we say, all right, well now just ask God to forgive you and he'll forgive you and we'll go on out of here. Maybe read a verse to him and let him go on. That's not gonna get it. Not when a lust is controlling them and they're fighting for it. It's not gonna get it. I have to understand now that God wants us to change. Now I want you to notice the second lust that comes out this door. We'll be done here in just a second. Look at verse 26. Be ye what? So angry, anger is a what? It's a lust. Be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Wrath is anger with a strong desire to avenge. Now, I want you to understand here that anger is a present passive imperative and I want you to get this with me. And I illustrate this just like I, you know, from baseball because I played baseball. So present means when? Right now. Imperative is a what? Command. Passive. That's really interesting. So I'm going to illustrate it like this. I'm standing at home plate with a bat, and I swing the bat. Is that active or passive? Active. I'm standing at home plate with a bat, and that guy threw the ball and hit me. And I didn't do anything. So is that active or passive? Passive. So here's the deal. When someone does something to you to make you angry, you deal with it right now by stopping thinking, turning it over to God. What do you want me to praise you for and thank you for? Because notice what the verse says here. Now, when you've got a real angry person, you're gonna do the same thing we did with the kid that was lying. Got it? so that we can change his mind. But when someone does something to you and you get angry, it says, be ye angry. So in essence, people are gonna do things to you to make you angry. Be ye angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. In essence, you need to deal with it now. because if you don't deal with it now, okay? The two we've looked at tonight, the two lusts are lying and anger. And if you don't deal with those, notice what verse 27 says. Now follow me right now, don't miss it. If you don't deal with it, like we've talked about, neither give place to the devil. So in essence, you remember my illustration with the portal windows? You're opening them and you're giving place to Satan in your life because you're unwilling to deal with your lusts. And it's gonna come back and get you again and again and again and again and again and again. And it's gonna become stronger and stronger and stronger. So if I'm a parent, wouldn't it be smart for me to really learn about this so I can teach it to my children? Amen? Yeah. Y'all with me? If I'm smart here, I'm gonna understand I gotta deal with my own lusts and therefore I need to find out what they are. And so that I'm not out of fellowship with God, because then horrible things happen. And so therefore that I can teach this to my children. And by the way, this is not a one-time act because there are other times that as a person grows or moves around other people or these kinds of things, something else can come up and I need to check myself on this quite a bit. And one of the ways to do that is we've already learned with God's tool is, Show me any lust in my life. Okay? But I need to really know what the 82 are first. But God, I want you to show me if there's any lust in my life. And I deal with it the same way. So that, but when it's a demand lust, you're not going to be able to just ask God to forgive you for it and walk away from it. There are some lusts that you can ask God to forgive you for and walk away from. A demand lust does not work that way. And so you really must be aware of your demand lusts. Remember I said most people have how many? Three. Now here's what I want you to get and we're done. God does not want you to live a life dishonoring to Him by living in your lusts. He doesn't want you giving place to the devil in your life. He wants you to have hope and peace and joy. and He wants your children to be able to grow up and walk with Him and serve Him and love Him and that they have learned how to deal with these things biblically because it's biblical long-term change. Amen? Now here tonight, you might be here this evening and you don't know Jesus Christ as Savior. And if you don't, when the invitation is given, you come on down and we'll take the Bible. Someone will be here and help you so you can know before you leave here that you're a child of God. But tonight, I hope I've not confused you about this. And if you were listening closely, I hope I haven't, but I understand it's a subject that the devil does not want you to understand. He doesn't want you to understand it because he wants you to give place to him in your life. But if you believe tonight that there are lusts in your life that you're living for, then you need to ask God to show it to you and ask God to help you to use this process to be able to make biblical long-term change in your life. And don't put it off because it can mean serious issues for your life. I.E., calls every day. Our home's falling apart. Our son ran off. Our son's involved in drugs. Our daughter's been out doing things she shouldn't be doing. I don't know what to do. Life is a mess. We're fighting all the time. Our home's a wreck. Please help me." You know, we get them up having a real intimate, personal, and passionate relationship with God, and about week seven, we put that sheet out there, and it's like, You know, now that they're up and they're focusing on having a real relationship with God, they're no longer sitting there saying, I hate him! Or I don't like her! Or what in the world? You know, the calls we get? Two things, how can I save my marriage? And what in the world can I do about this child? And keep in mind where it's focused at, living for your what? Your lusts. And once we get to about week seven, their mind is now open to the fact of making real change. And you can see God, the transformation of God, start to get into their life and work in their life. And you can see that in a powerful way. And it's always really cool when you see God do great and mighty things in a person's life. Amen? It's always, always, always.