Please take your Bibles and turn with me to Genesis 9, if you would, please, and hold your finger there. We're going to also be reading from 1 Corinthians 10, one verse of Scripture. There was a book that was entitled, Every Man's Problem. And it deals with a subject that I'm going to probably have more of my introductory comments in regards to than some of the others, but the message is entitled, Victory Over Addictions. Victory Over Addictions. And of course, as we look at Genesis 9, we have the example here of Noah being drunk, and of course, the shameful activity that happened there in Genesis 9. And I'm going to broaden the basis for this message and handle all sorts of addictions. How many times have we been before the throne of grace asking God for deliverance? asking God for His forgiveness. And it seems like, as it says in Hebrews 12, that many are enslaved with that sin which does so easily beset us. And so I want to handle that from the Word of God this morning. And out of respect for the Word of God, let's all stand for the reading, please. Genesis 9, beginning to read in verse 18. And the sons of Noah that went forth of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah, and of them was the whole earth overspread. And Noah began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine and was drunken, and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. And their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. And Noah woke from his wine and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants, shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant." And Noah lived after the flood 350 years. And all the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died. In 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13, the Scripture says, There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able. but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it." Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, as we preach on this important topic, Lord, I pray that as we touch on these issues, that our hearts, our minds would be open to the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit of God and what He wants to accomplish. Lord, I believe that many Christians are enslaved by some form of addiction. And Lord, I pray that the message, yes, of the Word of God would ring true, that it's 100% curable. And Lord, I pray that You would just help us to get that message. No matter what enslavement we may find ourselves, Lord, I pray that this message would give hope to the hopeless. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. You may be seated. It used to be when we spoke of breaking sins, habits that we spoke mainly of tobacco and rock music and cursing and swearing, cussing you may call it or whatever. And I'm not in any way, shape or form going to minimize any form of addiction. In this particular passage of Scripture, of course because we look at the liquor crowd and the devastation that it has brought upon society and how it's destroyed so many homes, that's something that I don't want to minimize either. Yet we live in such a complexity today. There are many hybrid forms of addictions that some we deem as not as bad as others, and yet there's a sleeping giant that seems to be really getting into many of our homes and infiltrating, yes, even ministries, and it's all because of the upsurge of technology. And of course, pornography has always been a problem down through the quarters of time, and we find here that something that was so closely related with the sin of drunkenness was also the sin of nakedness. It seems like one sin just swings on the hinge of another sin, and if we're not careful, By giving in to little things, the little foxes that spoil the vines, we will then be doing things that we never imagined that we would ever be caught doing. And yet we find man is doing it. It seems that sinful man is constantly dreaming up ways to cater to man's base needs, or their base desires, or their base lusts. The way you break the addictions of drugs and sex and porn are with the same truths that we break any kind of addiction. And so the truth is timeless in the Word of God. The truth is timeless that we've been hearing from the preachers of the Word of God. I can remember several years ago, a Reader's Digest article coming out, and they were talking about inmates who were sitting in their cells, and they were watching their color TV sets, and they were taking notes of the various crime shows, and what they were trying to do is take notes to try to find, to be able to put together that perfect crime. Not that they were looking to be rehabilitated, but that they were looking to be able to go on in their sin without getting caught. And we have many people that wouldn't dream of going to various other places and committing sin, but yet they're doing it in the confines of their home or their office. They're doing it in the inner recesses and sources of their mind. And what I'm making reference to, and I'm going to give some statistics, and even though we could sit here for the rest of the hour and recall various statistics of other forms of addiction, I'm talking about Internet pornography. It's become one of the primary tools that Satan is using today. Many of our homes, because of the homeschooling movement, and I'm not minimizing that one bit, I'm all for it, you know that to be true, but we've gone computer, and with that we've hooked into the internet, and it's a great and wonderful tool. But with anything, Satan always tries to take that which is good, and to distort it, and to ruin its use. And many are becoming enslaved, many Christian men and women and children are being enslaved to internet pornography. Understand this, pornography on the internet is the number one seller of all business in the world. Get that. The number one seller on the internet is pornography. Many prostitutes are using this medium to gain customers, as well as additional monies for their porn shows. They've taken it to the next level, so to speak. Listen to this statistic. These are not my statistics. 90% of children ages 11 to 17, 11 to 17, will be accidentally exposed to pornography on the internet. And it's through the use of the medium called pop-ups. You'll be working along on your computer and all of a sudden something will pop up. And many times people have seen that it's to a porn site. And it'd be something to try to whet your appetite, trying to get you to have that desire for more. And it's not something that you've solicited. It's not something that you've purposely gone to to try to view. It's something that they have just designed through spam and other ways of getting to your computer, trying to get your attention, trying to get you hooked, and trying to get you to sin. 11 to 17, 90%. So it behooves us as parents and those in positions of authority to send out a warning and to be very careful in our homes. Listen to this, children ages 12 to 17 are the single largest group of consumers of internet porn. I'm talking about where money is spent. I'm not talking about just viewing sites for free. I'm talking about where you're paying hard-earned money. That this age group is the largest single group of consumers of internet porn. Folks, the devil's out after our children. And He'll use any way He can to get to our children. And He'll use any means available even to get to we adults. Because if He can get us desensitized, then He's got our children already. And so we have to be careful. There was a five-year-old boy. A five-year-old boy who charged $673 on his parents' credit card in one month. Five years of age. Many of you with computers, you know your children get very adept at being able to play the games and being able to surf around. And you may think that it's all innocent and it may be the way it starts out, but we've got to be extremely careful because of the pop-ups and other means, but here this guy had logged on to an internet porn site and had called for a credit card. He went into his parents' bedroom, got the credit card, and was able to punch in the numbers and was able to purchase porn. $673 documented case. I could give you the name. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States, 80% of porn sites are controlled by organized crime. This is a serious matter. There are some 65,000 different vehicles that are being used by pornographers trying to get people allured and hooked on pornography. One man in the state of Texas charged $75,000, $75,000 in one month in pornography. This is unbelievable, isn't it? They say, statistics tell us in North America, that there are some one million stalkers on the internet who they are perverts, And they are simply surfing the internet trying to find, and they hit the chat rooms and the other sites trying to find praise so that they could work out their perverted sexual fantasies and desires. We'd better wake up, amen? With our neutralized society, even women are getting hooked on porn. It used to be that the way women were really tied into the internet and some of those things were through the chat rooms because they crave and want communication and someone to talk to. And many times their husbands are not available and maybe sometimes they're feeling lonely and so they would get into that. But because we've been trying to do away with the distinction of the sexes and saying there's no difference between men and no difference between women, doctors and scientists tell us that even some of the minds now are being pretty much reprogrammed to where women are going to these internet porn sites and getting just as hooked as men are on the visual stimulation of porn. On November the 11th, 2004, the ABC news program Dateline set up a sting operation without the police. They went to the city of New York. They rented a house and they got on the Internet. And they began to put out and say that there was a 14-year-old girl available and was interested. In two and a half days of just surfing on the Internet, this program was able to lure 18 men. 18 men left their house from playing on the internet and went to that house thinking that they could have relations with a 14-year-old. That's wicked. That's wicked. So we better wake up to this problem. And folks, most children can bypass the filters that are out there by the simple click of a mouse. And so we need to do whatever we have to do to guard our homes and even to guard our churches in regards to that. I just recently ran across, and I ordered it for the church, and we can put up the six computers on there. It's called Max Protect. And I'm not giving a commercial, but yet at the same time, it is supposed to do away with the pop-ups. where you don't even have to be in danger of seeing the pop-ups of the trash that's coming out over the internet. I'm a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors. And they tell me in all the writings and the things that I get that comes across my desk in regards to that counseling association, is that this is reaching catastrophic proportions and is devastating families time and time again. And I venture to say, with the upsurge of technology in our own homes, and even though we live in primarily a blue-collar area, I believe that there are many people who are hooked, and who are dabbling, and they're enslaved by some addictions, and specifically in regards to pornography. You see, one of the things that makes pornography so addictive and so alluring is the fact that someone has said it's accessible, it's anonymous, and it's affordable. And you know, that's not my outline. And that's not just an outline of a counselor. The man who came up with that outline actually committed suicide because he was hooked on pornography. And here he was as a counselor, trying to help others, coming up with this outline, and then he himself committed suicide because he didn't know how to get free. You see, the problem is in many of these situations, when we talk about pornography and the secret sins of the flesh, that there's no accountability. There's no one looking over our shoulder. There's no one that is holding our feet to the fire. There's no one that's checking up to make sure we're doing right. And the problem is that this type of addiction is intoxicating, it's addictive, it's alluring, and so we've got to come to grips with it. Now, many people who are caught up in addictions, and you say, but pastor, I don't own a computer, I don't work on a computer, I wouldn't know how to hit the power button on a computer. Then you take the principles of what I'm talking about this morning, and you apply them to the addiction that maybe you are faced with, that besetting sin that you are wrestling with. And folks, we've got to finally be honest with each other. We've got to be honest with ourselves. that we need help. Amen? When people are caught up in this addiction, there's a chain of events that happens in many lives that is literally devastating and is destroying our victory in Christ. There is the shame that rolls in. There's the guilt that comes upon us. And then there's the feeling of intense loneliness that comes, thinking that, hey, there's no way we can be victorious. I've tried and I've tried and I've tried. There doesn't seem to be any way of victory. And so I feel so guilty. I'm so rotten. I'm so terrible. And 71% of people who feel the shame and guilt and loneliness of their addiction Think of committing suicide, taking their own life. And I want to say this morning that you can set those thoughts aside and you can indeed be victorious in Christ today. We have the victory through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But you see, pornography is not just a simple matter of the sin of the eyes. There is actually a physical thing that happens when someone views a porn. And of course, I'm speaking primarily of men. And it's like I mentioned in my opening comment, the book that was written, Every Man's Problem. And we can try to hide from this all we want to, men. But this is something that we've got to guard our minds and guard our hearts in regards to. Because it is a battle that we all face. They say that there is that thing called adrenaline. That adrenaline that comes when we get excited. And many times we have that rush that happens in our bodies because of just the mystique and the mysteriousness of what is forbidden in the Word of God. You and I know what's right. We know what's wrong. We've got the Holy Spirit of God. We've got the Word of God. We've got the preaching of the Word of God. We've been brought up better, so to speak. And so we know it's wrong, but there's just something alluring. There's something that the devil tries to get us to be infatuated with the forbidden. Boy, it might be exciting. I wonder what it's really like. And there is a chemical release in our bodies, adrenaline, and it puts us on a high. And when you want that high, you've got to get higher and higher and higher and higher. And that's what the pornographers want. They want to slowly but surely suck you in. That's the thing with all addiction. Slowly but surely sucking you in. It's like the drunkard in Proverbs chapter 22, where it says that, hey, he drinks and he drinks and he drinks, and when he goes to sleep, he wakes up and he seeks it yet again. He wants it again and again and again. And after a while, one drink's not enough. Two's not enough. Three's not enough. Ten's not enough. They've got to have more. After that, one shot's not enough. Two's not enough. They've got to have more. and more, and after a while, one site's not enough, one site's not enough, one site's not enough. They go more, and more, and more, and more, and they're hooked. There's also the antidepressants that are released in the body of dopamine and serotonin. And then there's the relaxants that happen after the effect that happens. It's the catecholamines, is what they say. And other effects. There's the relaxants, so you have the depressants and the antidepressants. And these are all chemicals that are released in our bodies. And so we can have a chemical high just from the sin of pornography. Dangerous business. Enslaving business. And I'm afraid many are hooked on this. Now, what are the signs of addiction? What are the signs of addiction? Now, this could go into a long theological discussion, but at the same time, let me just say, folks, we are sinners. I believe that man's nature was fundamentally altered when Adam sinned and sin came into the world. You can try to downplay it all you want to, but if you'll put your thinking cap on and also look back at your experience, you'll know that, hey, the good you wanted to do, you didn't do. The bad you didn't want to do, that you did. All wretched man that I am. And you can try to explain Romans 6, 7, and 8 all you want to, but the flesh is flesh, and it's depraved, and it needs God. But one of the signs of addiction is that it becomes unmanageable. In other words, if there's an activity or an action or a behavior that you've tried to stop, but it seems like you just keep doing it over and over and over, you get into this rut of sin and confess and sin and confess and sin and confess. I mean, it becomes unmanageable where you actually sit back and say, I can't help it. I can't help myself anymore. It's unmanageable. Another sign of addiction is the desire to control ourselves. Where we say, look, I can handle this. I don't need God. I don't need intervention. I don't need someone to help me. I don't need someone to try to come in that I need to be accountable to. No way. I can control this myself. And folks, that's part of the fall as well. We don't want God to tell us what to do. We don't want a preacher to tell us what to do. We don't want parents to tell us what to do. We don't want bosses to tell us what we ought to do. We don't want the government to tell us what to do. We just want to do what we want to do. And when we're battling an issue, that's a sign that we're addicted. When we say, hey, I can lick it myself. Hey, it's quite obvious you can't. Or you wouldn't be doing it, and then not doing it, doing it, and then not doing it, and then sinning, and then confessing, and then sinning, and then confessing. If you were victorious, if you could lick it, you'd stop it. Wouldn't you stop it? Yes, you'd stop it. Then also, another sign of addiction is the progression. That means that one thing leads to another, and it leads to another. I mean, you talk to any addict, there's never been a person I've talked to at a rescue mission that's been enslaved by alcohol that said that they ever grew up, and as a teenager, as they were going through school, went to see the guidance counselor and sat down in the office and said, you know what I want to be when I grow up? When I get my grade 12 diploma and I walk out into the workplace, you know what I want to be when I grow up? I want to be a drunkard. I want to be an alcoholic. I want to be a drug addict. I've never heard one of those individuals say that. They start off with one drink. And folks, if you never take the first drink, you never have to worry about being an alcoholic. If you never take the first puff, you never have to worry about being enslaved to weed. If you never take that first, you never have to worry about being enslaved. Amen? Folks, we need to start thinking like the Bible thinks. Amen? And so there's a progression that happens with any addiction. One thing leads to another that leads to another. And after a while, you know it to be true. Hey, the high you received at first is just not high enough. I think I'll try something more. And that's what the devil does. Drawing us in. Luring us in. We have to be careful. Another sign of addiction is the negative consequences that happen because of the activity that we're involved in. The money that's spent, that's squandered. Just as bad as we hear the stories of a drunken man that Spends all of his money at the bar and goes home and begins to hot some of the furniture down at the stores and so on and selling it to friends so he can get that, drink a booze and we say, boy, how enslaving. And yet, we have testimony after testimony on record now of individuals enslaved to pornography and other types of addictions that are just as hooked as the drunkard. Folks, you've got to be careful of your internet surfing. You've got to be careful even of your TV surfing. How much pornography is being introduced just by the commercials. Just by the little blips, the little shows on the screen. Just as devastating. The movies you watch. The TV shows you watch. Those things that were considered unholy twenty years ago are considered good Christian entertainment today. Got to be careful about that. Convicting, amen? But it's about time. It's about time. Is there a way out? Yes, there is. I like that part. You know, you don't have to worry about going to a self-help meeting. and saying, hello, my name is Mike Sullivan, and I'm an alcoholic. Folks, you don't have to worry about that when you do it God's way. He can set the captive free. It's not that you're going to be an alcoholic all your life. You can be set free of alcohol through Jesus Christ. You can be set free from pornography through Jesus Christ. Whatever your addiction is, whatever your struggle is, you can be free. It's 100% curable. I ask you a question though. Do you want to be free? I mention this as probably one of the first lessons we learned in my Sunday School lesson as we're going through some of the timeless truths that are mentioned for us about wisdom in the book of Proverbs. Do you really want to be free? Some people enjoy their addiction so much that they don't want to be free. And folks, if you don't want deliverance, you won't have deliverance. If you don't want help, no one can help you. So I have to ask the question this morning. Do you want to be free? Do you want to experience freedom in Christ? Do you want that addiction to control your day, where you got to have that fix, where you can't really even maneuver in any long-distance time frame without having a little bit of a fix? Do you want to be free? Number two, here we are. First of all, you say, yeah, Pastor, Boy, you're ringing my bell today, and I'm not asking for a raise of hands, and I'm trying to be careful not to elicit a bunch of amens from you because I'd venture to say that just about every single one of us need a message like this. And it's not a pretty picture. Because you see, when I talk about sins like alcoholism, you may kick back and say, I don't have that problem. I don't go down to the bar. But how about these types of sins where we can play with them ourselves? We can hide them ourselves? No one else needs to know about it. How about those types of sins? I would venture to say that they could be more devastating than the more outward type sins, and I'm not putting any kind of a degree of wickedness to it. Sin is sin. So do you want to be free? You say, yes, I want to be free. Number two, be careful. Here we go. Be careful of innocent activity. Be discerning. In 1 Peter chapter 5, the Bible says, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. If you've ever watched a football game, you see those guys put the blitz on, and you see that quarterback, he goes back into the pocket, He's looking for his man out there. He's going to get ready to throw the ball. He pumps it once. Tries to fake out the defenders. And then all of a sudden, as he cocks his arm, ka-wop, he gets hit from behind. And he gets sacked. He never saw the hit coming. Otherwise, he'd run out of the pocket. Right? The devil is as a roaring lion. He many times is not going to run down the center aisle. But He'll come in and just sort of sit right next to you. He'll try to warm up to you. And you see, He tries to make sin look palatable. He tries to make it look ever so nice. He pretties it up. That's the way the devil works. And Christians, let's quit fooling ourselves. Let's quit trying to justify our sin. Let's quit saying, well, that's not my problem, that's the world's problem, or that's their problem. Hey, we're not talking about everybody else's problem. We're talking about you. Talking about your problem. How did it ever start? Ever so innocently. And so be alert. The devil is going to seek any way he can to get to you. Guys, any way you can. It might be a magazine on the floor. It might be a calendar on the wall when you go into a workplace. It might be some hussy walking down a mall lot somewhere. We've got to be careful. We have to guard our eyes. We have to be careful of innocent activity. Be sober. Be serious about this. That's what the word sober means. Be vigilant. Be on guard. If you have a guy guarding, say the offering plate here, and he comes down here and he just sort of... That's not vigilance. Going to sleep. Guarding the money. That's not vigilance. Vigilance is, stay away. That's vigilance. And folks, as we are living life, we've got to understand something. We've got to be vigilant. We've got to be looking. Man, I know the devil's stalking around here somewhere. I know he's around here somewhere. Where is that old buzzard? I'm looking out for him. I don't want him to get in on me Be sober, be vigilant, because you're adversary. Folks, the devil's your enemy. How many times has kids where you play wrestling around or something like that, and then they put a hole on you that we didn't think was fair, or maybe they slip one in on you and hit you and you say, that's not fair. Folks, we might as well understand that the devil doesn't play fair. He doesn't have a set of Geneva rules. Convention rules. He's a dirty fighter. And he wants you. He wants to destroy you. The thief coming forth, but to steal, kill, and destroy. He wants to steal your happiness. He wants to steal your joy. He wants to kill your effectiveness. And he wants to destroy your life. The devil is not your friend. And the world's ways are used by him to suck you dry. Suck you dry. Be careful of innocent activity. You say, Pastor, how do I do that? It's innocent. Hey, you're alert. You're alert. Third point. avoid nakedness you know We've got to be honest. We've got to be pure. Oh boy, people say, boy, your church has high standards and all this kind of stuff. And boy, we're known for the church where, hey, we want women to dress modestly. We want men to dress modestly. We want there to be appropriateness. We want women to look like women. And we want men to look like men. And somehow that's poo-pooed in society. And sad to say, amongst Christians. And we find the devastating results all throughout the Bible of nakedness. And yet, we're going to kind of rationalize it away. And it's a shame. When a man doesn't even have to worry about the TV and the Internet, he just has to worry about coming to church. He has to worry about going to the mall. He has to worry about going to the workplace. He has to worry... I mean, it's sad. And if somebody lifts up a banner of righteousness and cleanliness and holiness and modesty, he's old fogey, he's fanatical, he's mean, he's dictatorial, and he just doesn't have his head screwed on straight. There must be something wrong with him. I'll tell you what's wrong. We need to go by this book. The problem is our depravity and our unwillingness to deal honestly and to deal in purity. And guys, you know I'm telling the truth. And so instead of being so mealy-mouthed with the ladies in your home, why don't you rise up and say, look, I don't want you dressing like that. I don't want you looking like that. You see, that's reserved for me as your husband, not every other man on the street. Amen? Say, Pastor, you ought to talk like this Sunday night. Talk about, this is Sunday morning. Folks, we need it Sunday morning. We need it Sunday night. We need it Wednesday night. And we'll need it tomorrow morning. Amen. Avoid nakedness. Job 31.1 says, I made a covenant with mine eyes. Why then should I look upon a maid? Guys, watch your eyes. Well, where should I look? Look at a lady's face. Look at a lady's eyes. Amen? No lady ought to feel like she's been given the one over when she comes to church. God help us. Some of you guys, when you're sitting there and you're in the mall, that lady walks by and you go like this. How embarrassing. How embarrassing. I just advocate every woman putting a brick in her purse. And when she sees that, she just walks up to him and POW! Get the point? Maybe so. That might help some of us. Amen? Guys, keep your eyes up! Make a covenant with your eyes today. Hey, I'm going to look right. I'm going to think right. Amen? I like what one counselor said, you can't treat the alcoholic in the bar. And if you have a problem with something, some addiction you're fighting, get rid of it. Avoid nakedness. Number four, guard your mind. Boy, this is critical. Harold Lindsell, back in the 70s and 80s, he wrote two books on the battle for the Christian mind. In Ephesians chapter 6, it talks about the fiery darts of the wicked and how the devil is just shooting those fiery darts. You see, we've got the shield of faith, but many of those shields back in Bible days were not made out of tin and metal and brass. Some were, but many were not, most were not. And so when the enemy would put that pitch on the end of the arrow and send it in as a flaming arrow, it would hit on the material of the shield, and it would begin to catch fire. And then the soldiers would get rid of their shields, and then the enemy would be able to stab them and take their life. And you see, you hold up that shield of faith, and the devil's just firing fiery dart after fiery dart after fiery dart. He wants through that shield of faith. And you keep it up there. Don't you get rid of it. You guard your mind. Look at Philippians chapter 4. You know it, but we need to see it again. Philippians chapter 4, verse 8. It's critical for the discipline of the mind. Finally, brethren. He says, look, I've been telling you and telling you and telling you up to this point in the book of Philippians in these four chapters, how that you can have Christian joy, how that you can have a right and ready mind to serve the Lord. He says, finally, here it is. You know, many times you remember how something starts, and you remember how something ends. And so here at the end of the book of Philippians, he says, look, you may forget everything I've written till now, but I'm telling you finally, my brethren, he says, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, that's goodness, And if there be any praise, think on these things." You've got to discipline your mind. The devil is going to try to get you to sin outwardly through a process of wicked thinking. Before David ever committed sin with Bathsheba, before he ever lied to the soldiers, before he ever had Uriah killed, he started out thinking wrong. And when you and I don't keep our minds right, bear in mind pretty soon we're going to be acting out that sin. So the battle for us Christians is in our minds. That's why we say, read your Bible, pray every day. That's why we say, memorize Scripture, meditate on Scripture, run with good people, run with wise men. Run with Christians who are trying to serve the Lord, not those who are hobnobbing and playing with sin. And there's a slew of them that way. The Lord was talking to a church of Laodicea in Revelation chapter 3. And He says, look, I wish you were cold or hot, but because you're lukewarm, I want to spew you out of my mouth. He says, Christians, you make me sick. And why is it that we ought to be the happiest people on the face of God's earth, or are we the most miserable? It seems like we look around and the pervert's having more fun than we are. And that ought not be. Guard your mind. Think on the right thing. You say, but pastor, I just can't help it. Hey, when that thought comes in, You take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. 2 Corinthians 10, verse 5. You cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ. You get rid of it. You stomp on it. You smash that sucker flat. Get rid of it. Well, where's the mind of Christ? How do I know if it's right or wrong? The Word of God. 1 Corinthians chapters 2 and 3 tells us we have the mind of Christ. The Bible is the mind of Christ. You know what's right? You know what's wrong? Because the B-I-B-L-E says so. Guard your mind. Think right. If I think wrong for too long, I'm going to end up doing wrong. And many times, if I think wrong with an evil surmising, hey, that wrong, that imagination becomes a reality to me. The phobias that are around today, there's no truth to the problem, to the phobia, but it's in the mind, and someone has got to think that way for so long, they believe it to be true. even when it's not. And many times you can't tell him otherwise. You tell someone that's afraid of the dark, hey, there's no one down there. There's no one out there. Go anyway. But boy, they don't believe you. And you can go and turn on all the lights, look in every nook and cranny, and there's no one there. But as soon as you leave the room and turn out the lights, they just know someone's there. Think right. You put garbage into your mind, don't be surprised when garbage comes out of your mind. And so we need to have an information change. We need to have our computers wiped clean. And have the software reloaded. As the Bible says, be not conformed to this world. but be ye transformed." What? By the renewing of your mind. Don't be weary in well-doing. In due season, you'll reap if you faint not. You keep your mind right. And even though you may struggle, and even though you may have a series of victories, and yes, every once in a while you may fall, hey, you get back up, you dust yourself off, and you keep going. You don't quit on God. Guard your mind. And then my friend, you've got to run like Job did. You've got to run from evil. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 22 it says, abstain from all appearance of evil. Wow, what a convicting verse. I wish it wasn't there. Because you know what? There's some sin I sort of like. You with me? Oh. You mean, I've got to abstain from all appearance of evil? Why did God put that in there? Well, I said there, be careful of innocent activity. Boy, if something just looks wrong, ping! Run from it. Like old Job, he was a perfect man. One that feared God and a shoot evil. Boy, that's evil? I don't want that. You know what we want to do? We want to dabble with it. Oh, I'll just see how bad it is. I'll see if what they say is really true. Ah, one drink won't bother me. One toke won't bother me. One little high won't bother me. Run from it. If you run from the sin, you don't need fear of being enslaved by the sin. Run. Number six, be accountable. Now this is where it gets tough. In James 5, verses 14-18, it talks about the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much, but it says, confess your sins, your faults, one to another, that ye may be healed. the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." I'm not advocating getting up in church and laying out all your dirty laundry. Let's clean it up first, amen? We all look better clean than we do dirty. But it could be that what you need to do is you need to go to someone that might be your mate, it might be a close friend, and you may just say, look, I'm battling in an area and I need your help. I want you to hold me accountable. Folks, I've had some folks come to me through the years and they said, Pastor, I'm battling pornography and I need some help. And so you know what we do? We get a covenant. I'm not talking about signing a contract, but we get an agreement between us. We say, you know what, in the course of the day, and folks, you're not going to know who I'm talking about. You're not going to know who they are. But you know, every once in a while, I'll go to that individual and say, hey, how you doing? And folks, I say that just about to everybody. But those people that I talk to that we've got this agreement, they know what I mean. When I look at them and say, hey, how we doing? I'm asking them if they're victorious over their sin or not. See, and by them knowing that at any time I can call them on the phone, or I can see them in church and say, hey, how you doing? You know what it does? It helps them stay straight. They say, man, I'm not going to do that because the preacher is going to be asking me on Sunday how I'm doing, and I want to be able to say, I'm doing alright. I'm not talking about sharing your sins. I'm talking about where you make yourself accountable and say, hey, look, help me. The problem is, like I said, one of the signs of addiction, I can do it myself. And folks, it's quite obvious if you're enslaved by an addictive behavior that you can't do it yourself. And if you can't do it yourself, get some help. Don't go on in despair. Be accountable. And then lastly, realize you are vulnerable. That means there never comes a time in your life where you say, hey, I don't need any more help. Or boy, I got this one licked. There's no way the devil can get me in this area. If you look at our text passage of Scripture in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 12, it says, "...Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed, lest he fall." You say, I'm glad the preacher wasn't preaching to me today. Boy, I hope so-and-so got that message. Man, did he need it. Look out. You may be admitting right there that you are addicted. You may be admitting right there that, hey, devil, come on. Folks, I don't know about you, I don't want to do that to the devil. Let's eschew evil. Let's run from it. Let's stay away from it. And so, hey, I ask you, start running through your mind the things you're involved in. Your entertainment. What effect does it have on you? What's the weight that you have in your life that's hindering you? What is that sin that doth so easily beset you? You want to be free. You can be free. Do you really want to be free? The Lord has the answer. Amen? Amen. You want it? Hey, we've led you. We've even salted the oats. Now will you eat? It's like James said, be doers of the Word and not hearers only. We've got to take what we've just heard this morning and we've got to do something with it. How about it, men? Do something with it. Ladies, do something. Teenagers, do something with it.