It's like the gentleman that went to a restaurant with his friends and he had ordered some soup. And so, but he had ordered his soup, but he had to go to the bathroom. And so he didn't trust leaving his soup with his friends. And so he said to the guy, or he left a little note in there so nobody would touch his soup. He says, I spit in there. And so he went to the bathroom and he came back and he saw a note and says, so did I. so hope it's not the same with this water amen well it is good to be here yes oh it is i thought i turned it on i thought it was ahead of the game oh i turned it to mute it was on there how about that testing one two two one two give me the five give me the four start auctioning here Are we on? And we're going, you see the hand coming up, and sold! Five dollars for nine corn. As I said, it's a joy to be here once again. It's been almost three years since the last time. My wife and I had the privilege of being with you folks, a lot of new faces. And so we praise the Lord for God continuing to add to his church. And so I wanna touch this morning on a topic that I know is a struggle for men, for all of us, and not just for men, but for ladies as well. But primarily, I wanna talk this morning about a topic entitled, how to deal with lust. And it's something that perhaps may make us feel uncomfortable at times, even addressing, perhaps even admitting that we may have a problem with lust. But the Bible says that there is no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. Meaning that all of us, we're all made from the same thing. There's no one that's made any better or any worse. We all struggle. We all have the same desires and things of that nature. We're all made equal. And so we all have the same struggles. Some may have a struggle in a particular, more of a struggle in a certain area than the other. But nonetheless, we are plagued with problems in this life. But, praise God, we have a God that can deliver us from these troubles, these trials and temptations and things of that nature. As the Bible says, But God is faithful. who will with the temptation also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. And so God has not left us to fight this Christian life on our own. We have a God that said that I will fight for you, and we have a God that was going to help us in every area of our life. And so this morning, I want us to bring us to our attention that we as men, we need to be very careful that we deal with this aspect of lust. Now, somebody might say, well, what is lust? How do you define what lust is? Well, someone has said, and this is, I believe, a biblical term, lust is a God-given desire taken out of God's will. It's a God-given desire which is taken outside of God's will. And we'll look at that a little bit more in the Bible. But in Ephesians chapter two, if you have your Bibles, you can take and turn there. Ephesians chapter two, verses three, Now Paul here is writing to the Ephesians and he's letting them know who they are in Christ. And we need to understand that as well. If we want true victory in our Christian life, we need to understand who we are in Jesus Christ. And that's going to be key to living the victorious Christian life. And this is something that we need to study the scripture. This is a truth that we need the Holy Spirit of God through His Word to teach us, to plant this truth deep into our minds and into our hearts, and so that we live this. This is the Word of God. Paul says in Colossians chapter three, let the words of Christ dwell in your heart. in you richly. Now the word dwell doesn't mean just to memorize the verse of scripture. You can memorize all the verses of scripture that you want and still be struggling with sin. But what the verse is applying when the Word of God says, let the Word of God dwell, it means to abide. It's a term for a living, abiding in you. The Word of God is quick, the Bible says. That means the Word of God is alive. This book, the Bible, is not like any other book in this world. This is a book that's been given by God. The words that we have, they are spiritual words and they are life, amen? So it's so very, very important that we don't just treat this book as an ordinary book, memorizing verses. Am I against memorizing verses? Absolutely not. The Bible says in Psalm 119, Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. And so we need to memorize the Word of God, but we need to let that sink into our heart. If the Word of God is just in our heads, and it never is applied to our hearts, to the inner man, then we're not gonna live in victory. I hear a lot of Christians say, well, I've memorized so many verses of scripture and I'm still struggling. Okay, I understand we will always struggle with sin, but there has to come a time in our lives where we have victory over that besetting sin, that habitual sin that plagues us over and over and over again. There has to come that time in every man's life where we say, I now have victory over this besetting sin. And so what that means is, does it mean that you're never going to be tempted in that area? No, no, that's not what I'm saying. We're going to be tempted for the rest of our lives. Isn't that encouraging to know? Hey, but it's so much encouraged as Paul says, Who shall deliver me from this body of this death? I thank God through Christ Jesus, amen. So again, before I get ahead of the message, which I'm going to do, our hope is in Jesus Christ. But he's given us the manual, he's given us his word, his power, he's given us everything we need in this life to live a life of godliness and holiness, and a life that we can truly and honestly please our Heavenly Father. And that's what we are seeking to do, and I trust that that is your desire. But Ephesians chapter 2, going back to the definition of lust, it says here, So he's talking to the Christians that have now been saved. They're in the church now. They're seeking to live for Christ. And so Paul is still instructing them. Now understand, he says, this is who we were in the past. This is how we used to live. He says, fulfilling the desires. Now what is lust? It's a desire, it's a God-given desire that's been taken outside of the will of God. And so he goes on to say, fulfilling the desires of the flesh. and of the mind. Now understand this, God has created us with certain desires, has he not? He has created mankind for fellowship, for companionship. He has created mankind for a sexual need, a sexual desire. Now is it wrong to have a sexual desire? Absolutely not. It becomes wrong and it turns into lust when we apply those desires to someone that is not our wife. That's when it becomes lust. Now we are fulfilling the lust of the flesh. Now that desire is there, but we have to allow God to channel it and place it in the right order. And so here he goes and says, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature the children of wrath, even as others. So he says, this is who we are. This is what lust does. It's a desire taking out of order. And so God has, planned everything so wonderfully, so beautifully, as we'll see in the morning message, that in the beginning God created man and woman, and he had a perfect and special plan for them. But the world and the devil has taken that and tried to destroy God's plan. And it's no marvel how that the world being influenced by the devil, is focusing on families, trying to destroy families. What is it any of their business that we have families? It's an attack from the world. There's a battle that's raging for the family, for the foundation of the truth. As Pastor mentioned, I think it was on Friday, if the foundations be destroyed, What can the righteous do? We need to go back to the foundation. Now what is our foundation? The foundation is the Word of God. What is the Word of God? Jesus Christ in the flesh became, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The Word of God is our foundation. No other foundation can any man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. And so when they attacked the family, which is created by God, they're really essentially attacking the foundation of society, they're attacking the foundation of church and everything that's supposed to function according to God's plan, and so they're attacking God himself. They hate God, they hate the holiness of God, they hate the purity of God, but you and I, we are here to represent Jesus Christ, and I think as we teach our families, And as we, sorry I'm getting off into the morning's message, but as we as men try to understand that we need to deal with this area of lust. It cannot deal with us. If we leave it alone, lust will deal with us. Most of the time when you hear the word lust, automatically our mind thinks of sexual lust. and that is part of that. But there's many aspects, and I won't go into it this morning for the sake of time, but there's also the lust for money. We need to deal with that. I Timothy chapter 6 verse 9 and 10 says, But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts. There's that word again. which while some coveted, after that word coveted has the same meaning as the word lust. It means a desire, having a desire for it. If it's not God's desire for you to have money, then we as God's children ought not to go after it, and we ought not to desire it, because then it becomes outside of God's will, and we hurt ourselves, we hurt our families, and ultimately we hurt the testimony of Jesus Christ. And so there is that lust for money. There's also the lust of concupiscence. Now that's a fancy word which simply means just a desire for worldliness, a desire for the things that are lawless, just the things that are fleshly. There's that overall lust for just the things of the world. If it feels good, do it. We need to be very, very careful of that because that's the world, what the world is promoting. Whatever you feel like, just do it. If you feel like being a woman, just be a woman. Those are the lusts of the flesh and that's just so destructive. Again, it's a direct attack on God and on His character. But there's the lust of concupiscence. It says in 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 5, Now can Christians be caught up in these kinds of lusts? Absolutely. Paul is writing to the Christians of Thessalonians. And he says here, We know God. So the lust of concupiscence should not be a part of our lives anymore. We ought to lust after God, to desire Him, and that needs to be our focus. Hey, there's also, get this, the lust of other preachers, of false preachers. You say, how can we lust after preachers? 2 Timothy 4, verse 3, it says, For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust, their own fleshly desires. Hey, give us a preacher that will tell us what we want to hear. We don't want a preacher to tell us what's wrong. We want a preacher to tell us how we can fulfill the lust of it. That's the lust of having a preacher, having someone to come in, just make us feel good. That's all what it's all about. It's about the flesh, is it not? It's all about the flesh. Tell me what makes my flesh feel good. Don't tell me what I need to hear. Tell me what makes me feel good. And so there's those various kinds of lust. So how do you deal with the sin of lust? Well, the only way to have victory over our flesh is found in Galatians chapter 5 verse 16. This is perhaps a verse that is familiar with us. And so when we look at the flesh, we look at the temptation, we look at the lust, and all the things that the flesh has, we may look at this and say, man, it's pretty hopeless in my situation because I have strong desires. And we do. The flesh is the flesh. Now let me also say this. When you got saved, the flesh stayed the flesh. What the flesh produces, the flesh can only produce flesh. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, right? We're born with a fleshly nature. That's what we are. We're flesh. When God saved us, He didn't regenerate the flesh. The flesh stayed the same. There was no change in the flesh, but there was a change in the inner man, the spirit. We were made alive. We were quickened in our spirit. See, when Adam and Eve sinned, when they desired something that was outside of God's will, was it wrong for Adam and Eve to desire food? No, it wasn't. God created them with that desire. But they went after something that God did not want them to have, and therefore they lusted, and they sinned, they disobeyed God, and therefore they sinned. And so that desire wasn't wrong, but they desired the wrong thing. And so, but here, how do we get victory over this thing called lust that we deal with in our life? Galatians chapter five, verse 16. Paul here again is writing to the Galatians. He says, this I say then. walk in the Spirit, capital S in your King James Bible, meaning the Holy Spirit, walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So what does it mean to walk in the Spirit? What does that look like? You know, we can't see the Spirit. We can't audibly hear the Spirit telling us something to do what's right and do what's wrong. No, that's right. But we have the Word of the Holy Spirit. Amen? The Word of God. We have the Bible. The Bible says about the Word of God that holy men And so we have the Word of God given to us by the Holy Spirit. And there are no contradictions in the Word of God. The Word of God is pure, it's right, it's perfect. And so how in the world do you walk in the Spirit? You walk in the Spirit by walking in the Word of God and by fellowshipping with the Lord Jesus Christ through prayer. If those two things are missing from your life, I can guarantee you, you are not walking in the Spirit. And this is what God's plan is for our lives, to walk in the Spirit. And there's great, great reward for walking in the Spirit. He says this, I say then, walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. This is the promise that God has given to us. And we as God's children, what happens in our lives when we walk in the flesh? When we're fulfilling the lust of our flesh? Our spirit, the Holy Spirit within us, is grieved, is He not? The Bible says grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, which ye have, which is in you. And the Bible also talks in the portion of Scripture that we can quench the Holy Spirit of God. So what does the word quench the Holy Spirit of God mean? It means to dampen it. It means to resist the Holy Spirit of God. Now let me also say this. You and I, we cannot live the Christian life apart from the Holy Spirit. That's why Paul says here, walk in the Spirit. That means we obey the Holy Spirit of God. We have fellowship with the Holy Spirit of God. We have communion with the Holy Spirit of God. Now, when we have communion and a relationship with the Holy Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit of God will lead us into all truth. As Jesus promised his disciples before he went to heaven, he said, I will send another comforter who shall teach you and guide you into all truth. And we have the truth here this morning, my friends. We have the word of God. So we have everything we need to live a life of godliness and holiness and to please God and to walk in true victory. Guys, we can have victory over our mind in the area of lust. We truly, truly can. And maybe, I don't know who I'm speaking to, I don't know if this is, I just know because of who we, how we function as men, this is a struggle that we face in life, lusting after, as I mentioned, after different things. But so this morning, in the few minutes that we have, I want to deal with the area of sexual lust. This is even the lost world and physicians have recognized the epidemic that is in our world today through our phones and through internet and through media. It's an epidemic that has created so much havoc and so much confusion in our society today. You can't even explain, you can't even, you can't, I don't think we even really realize the depth of destruction that pornography has caused in our society and yes in our churches. You would be shot being a director of a missions board and praise God we don't have any of our missionaries who we've had to call off the field because of this particular sin and lust. But I get emails from churches and from other pastors and from other missions boards who now write me letters back and say, so-and-so has come off the field because he has committed adultery. So-and-so had to leave the field because there was unfaithfulness. I can name you list after name, after name, after name. Men and women that I knew, a while ago we worked with a missionary. We took a missions trip with our young people to a certain country. And we worked with a certain missionary, and after about a year that we had been there, I got a letter or a phone call from his pastor. And he said, so-and-so is not going to go back to the field as a missionary. And he said there was some unfaithfulness that had taken place. He says it's gotten very, very ugly. He's just gotten so bad that the law had to step in. It's so bad that they arrested the missionary, and he was kept in prison for his charges, a bail of $500,000. I mean, it got horrible. I mean, the... If we're gonna toy around with this area of lust and think, ah, everybody's doing it and you can get away with it, be sure God is not mocked. Whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. Don't let Satan deceive you that you can play around with this rattlesnake, that it not bite you, that you're wise enough that you can hide and delete the history off your devices, that nobody's going to find out, hey, the devil is far, far wiser than you are. I know of another missionary in the United States, he was a missionary to Lithuania. And he was a missionary there and he had a good ministry there. But he let his heart, he let the desires get out of control and he fell in love with a young girl. And then he brought this young girl, nobody really knew about it, but he took this young girl back to America so he could send her to Bible college. And while they were in the United States and on furlough, one day while they were in the States, he came home and found that his wife was shot dead in her mother's home. And he called 911 and the cops came there and they began to do an investigation. And they first assumed that there was a home robbery that had taken place and that she walked in and caught the robbers and the robbers shot her dead to hide the witnesses. But upon further investigation, they realized that her husband, the missionary to Lithuania, had shot her point blank in the head with a handgun. We can't toy around with this junk. You say, oh, it's just a... No, no, it isn't. We have to come to the point where sin is exceedingly sinful. This pornography, this sexual desire that's gone so out of control, not only in society, but in... I'm talking about Christians. Paul addresses this to Christians. This is something we have to swallow our pride and say, OK, you know what? I do struggle with this. I'm a man. I have to watch my heart on a daily basis. I got to watch my heart. I got to guard my heart because I know, I know a little bit what my flesh is capable of. As Paul said, all wretched man that I am, all this vile flesh, these ungodly desires, if we leave them unchecked, They will control us. They will destroy us. They will destroy our wives. They will destroy our family. They will infiltrate the church. The church will be affected by it, and the gospel will not go forward. Lost men and women will die and go to hell because we've allowed this thing called lust to permeate our minds and our hearts, and that grieves the Holy Spirit of God. And when the Holy Spirit of God is grieved in our lives, we are powerless. We have no power apart from the Holy Spirit of God in our lives. So when we allow sin into our lives, it dampens the Holy Spirit. It dampens the power. And what happens when we become powerless? More of ungodliness comes into our lives. It's like a wave. It's like when you have a barrier and there's a crack in the barrier of a wall, of a retaining wall. And that wall and their water, a little bit of water comes seeping out. What happens when that water flows through that little crack? It gets bigger and it gets bigger and it gets bigger. Eventually there's such a flood that comes in and it overwhelms the city or a town and it drowns them. Just like Paul says here, it drowns men and it just drowns them. And we need to be very, very careful that we get a hold of this thing. And understand this, you and I, we do not have the strength or the power to conquer this enemy. We do not have the power to control our flesh. It's not in us. God doesn't ask us to do it. That's why Paul says, walk in the spirit. Walk in the spirit. Part of walking in the spirit is recognizing our weakness. Guys, swallow some pride. Tell God how weak you are in that area. Tell God how weak you are maybe in another area. Maybe it's in the area of a lust for money. Maybe it's a lust for concupiscence. Maybe there's just a lust for having somebody else come in and preach something that we like to hear. Let's be like all the other churches. Let's bring in the rock bands. Let's bring in the contemporary. Let's just be like the world. How did that work for the nation of Israel? Oh, give us a king like everybody else. God has the plan. Why do you think the world is in the mess that it is today? Why do you think there's such utter confusion in the world? Because men and women, they wanna do that which is right in their own eyes, and in their own minds, just lusting after the things. But when we talk about the sexual sin, it is such an epidemic. When we worked in the youth ministry, and we worked with young people, good people, people that truly wanted to serve God, And we'd go to youth ministry. I wonder how much better we would be off if we could learn to set our devices aside, have a media fast. Just lay it aside for a moment. I remember our pastor years ago challenged us for a 30-day media fast. Put your phone away, turn off your radio, turn off your TV, turn off everything, and spend time reading, reading a book, You know, listening to a, just reading a sermon, just get your mind out of there. And I did that, and I said, wow, that helped me. I need to do it again, I really do. But anyway, what I'm saying is when we would go to youth camp with our young people, one of the rules was you leave all your devices at home. Don't take your phone, don't take any magazines, just leave everything at home. And then what would happen, Monday morning we'd get up, the preacher would get up and he'd preach a good sermon, a godly, Holy Spirit fills sermon. And the people wouldn't move, the young people. Nothing happened. Tuesday came around, Tuesday morning, you have a morning devotion. Things became a little different. Hearts were more tender, they were more attentive. Wasn't so much moving and talking in the audience here. Tuesday evening came along, message would be preached. There'd be a little bit of a stirring among the people. You'd see a few people come forward to the altar. Wednesday came along. Boy, now you got tender hearts. Now they're listening. Now they're convicted. Now they don't have quite enough courage to go forward, but God is working. He's got a hold of their hearts. Wednesday night came around. Boy, you see more people coming. You have Thursday. Thursday, another preaching and teaching of the Word of God. Thursday night, the altars would be full. People would be confessing their sins. Young people would be asking, Counselor, I need to talk to you. Would you pray for me? People would start confessing their sins. And I had the privilege of helping some young people, some young men that would come to me and say, Brother Friesen, I need to talk to you. And they would come in and say, I'm struggling with this area of pornography. and I want help. And you understand this, our young people, our young Christians in our churches, they don't want to be involved in that. But they have allowed some of the things to come into their lives and it's gotten a hold of them. And now that they've gotten a hold of the sins, the sin has gotten a hold of them, now they want to shake it and they don't know how to get rid of it. It's where we as men need to stand up and say, let me help you. Let me help you with this. But what I'm saying with all of this at youth camp, when they laid all these things aside, they put these things aside and gave God an opportunity to minister to them. Guys, if we're gonna be serious about this area of lust in our lives, we're gonna have to take some drastic measurements. We're gonna have to take some drastic steps. You say, well, I don't wanna get rid of my phone. Well then, if that's an area of your life that's causing you to sin, as Bible says, Is it wrong for us to have a phone? Not necessarily. But what are we doing with that phone? Does that phone have a hold of us? I've told my wife that if I wasn't in the ministry, I wouldn't have the phone, not because the phone has the hold of me, but it's just, it's disturbing that how much we do through our phone. You know, if I want to email somebody, through the phone, if I want to call somebody, through the phone, if I want to chat, it's the way that the world has set this up. I would just be happy just to chuck it aside, you know, get me an old phone booth with a quarter and all. Or just talk to somebody. Man, that's a different story. But if it's causing us to sin, we have to take some steps in our lives. Say, I'm going to take some drastic steps so that I can have victory in this area of our life. Because if we don't take drastic steps in this area, This area, the lust, is going to take drastic steps in our lives. It will destroy us. We will become so ineffective for God that we will become useless. We will become defeated. We will live lives that are so miserable that we'll be completely useless to the Lord. Our testimony will be destroyed. Our families won't be helped. And the gospel will not go forward. But we need to recognize that we struggle with this. I think I'm done with the time. Yes, Brother Timothy? Yeah. Two more minutes. What can I say in two more minutes? Three? We'll go with three. But let me just say this first. Let me challenge you to study out the truth of Galatians chapter two, verse 20. Maybe mark it down. I think this is the key to the Christian life. I really believe that it is. Galatians chapter 220, Paul there is writing, he says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Can you memorize that verse? Not only memorize that verse, but ask the Holy Spirit of God to teach you what that means. What does it mean to be crucified with Christ? Nevertheless, if Paul says, I am crucified with Christ, Romans chapter 6, 7, and 8, men, if this is an area that we struggle in, spend some time in the next while reading through these three chapters, on your knees if you have to, praying, bathing that time in prayer, beseeching God, pursuing God, getting a hold of God, say, God, teach me what that means. Teach me the truth of your word. Teach me how to apply the truth of the word of God. And see now, and I'll say this. Trying to get victory over the flesh is not in our effort. It's not in our strength. I'm going to memorize more Bible verses. I'm going to put my phone away. I'm going to go to church more. I'm going to serve more. All you're doing is you're going to burn yourself out. You're going to put so much upon you that you're going to be so burned out, and yet that lust is still going to come in. You're still going to give in to sin. It's going to overwhelm you. You're going to say, I'm sick of this. I'm tired of it. We just had a young man leave the church because he just did just that. Struggled with some areas in his life. He said, I'll just serve more. I'm going to go to Bible college. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that. No, no, no, no, no. Walk in the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit. and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. It doesn't say memorize more Bible verses. It's good to memorize Bible verses. I'm not discounting that. It's good to come to church. It's good to serve. We ought to be. But our life, our service, our victory ought to flow from our relationship with God. It comes from God. That's where it stems from. It's a life. It flows from our relationship with God. Walk in the Spirit. And as you learn to walk in the Spirit, trusting Him and His power to live through you, nevertheless, I live, yet not I, no more me, but Christ, Jesus Christ now takes control. When we read the Word of God, when we pray, take time for God, the Holy Spirit of God speaks to us. He brings the Word of God that we've memorized, He brings it to our mind and to our heart, and then as we obey the Holy Spirit of God, He leads us, He gives us victory in our lives. And the closer you get to God, the closer your relationship is with God, the less of a struggle, the less of an impact the lures of the world has in you. If you're here this morning and the lust of the world is so strong, so powerful in your life, it means one thing, we're not close to God. We're not walking as close as we need to, because the closer we get to God, the less the impact of the world we sense in our lives. Get close to God. Learn what that means. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now live, in this flesh, I live by the faith of God. by the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Oh, let me encourage you, man. Let's study that out. Let's be men of God, men of character, pure men, amen? Father, thank you so much for this time. Lord, I just pray that you would, the word of God that was shared this morning, that you would use it in each one of our hearts. Help us, I pray, dear God, to be men that are pure and holy, that are a reflection of Jesus Christ in this lost and dark world. In Jesus' name, amen.