Mike Bickle addresses the critical issue of overcoming temptation, particularly focusing on the deceptive nature of lust and its impact on the soul. He emphasizes that the Christian life requires active cooperation with God's grace, where individuals must take responsibility for resisting lustful desires that wage war within them. Bickle outlines the internal and external battles Christians face, urging them to be strategic in their prayers and actions against sin. He highlights the importance of understanding the stages of temptation and the necessity of setting boundaries to avoid situations that inflame lust. Ultimately, he calls for a deep commitment to purity and the expression of love for God through obedience to His commandments.

...word of God and we ask you Lord to release your blessing on your word, the speaking of it, the hearing of it. Let your word gain entrance into the heart. Lord, let it bring living understanding, I ask in the name of Jesus. Amen. Well, tonight I want to talk about overcoming temptation, understanding the deceptive process of lust, how lust operates in our members as the Scripture describes that lust wars in our members. It starts in 1 Peter 2, verse 11. Peter says, I beg you to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the heart or against the soul. Paragraph A, I use this in many handouts because it's so fundamental, this concept. The Christian life is a cooperation in the grace of God. God will not do our part and we can't do his part. And here in the notes, I give four or five dimensions of what our part is. I don't want to go through those tonight. And then what God's part is. You can read those on the notes if those are new thoughts to you. But we can't do God's part and he won't do ours. If we don't make the decisions to war against lust, then we won't get victory over it. Some people pray, Lord, deliver me. And what they mean is without me repenting or without me doing my part. And the answer is no, I will only deliver you in context to you doing the part that the Word of God describes that is ours to do. Paragraph B, we are in a spiritual conflict. Now we all know that. But there's two battlefronts. There's a war on the inside and there's a war on the outside. Now we know about the war on the outside. We are praying for revival. We're praying for justice in society. We're praying for people to get healed. There's a war that's outside of our personal, our inner life. And IHOP is focused a lot in our intercessory prayer meetings. We pray for the war that's going on out there for the Lord to break in. But many people in the IHOP world, I don't believe in the same kind of intensity pray for the war on the inside of them. They'll occasionally say, Lord, help me here and there. But we need to be as strategic about the war waged on the inside as the one that we're fighting for revival on the outside. We have to attack it with prayer. Paragraph C. Scripture speaks of lust warring in our members. Now our members include our mind, our emotion, and our physical appetites. That's what our members refer to from the biblical point of view. Lust has many expressions. Now when I'm speaking of lust, in a few moments I'm going to talk about immorality. But lust is not by any means only immorality. Lust is mostly, if there was the biggest expression of lust in the Bible, it's pride. Lust includes anger. Lust includes covetousness. Covetousness is one of the primary lusts in the body of Christ that is almost never addressed. The reason people are not faithful in the area of their finance because they're afraid and they're coveting their money out of fear and they don't obey God in it. And it's a huge stronghold in the church that's rarely ever addressed in terms of the church of our nation. Lust includes bitterness, jealousy that leads people to slander one another. Immorality is there. Drunkenness, overindulgence, etc. Paragraph D. Our war against lust is difficult. Jesus said narrow is the gate and difficult is the way. Now the way that I typically hear the kingdom of God presented in our nation in these days is that the kingdom of God is a mostly about victory. An unbroken line of victory and blessing. And there is, we are, there is victory and we certainly ask God for blessing but there's a difficulty that Jesus said that is in the path of righteousness. And many people sign up for the kingdom of God for blessing and breakthrough and they don't sign up embracing the reality of the difficult way. The way is difficult in our war against lust. And therefore when life shows itself hard and the war really is real and discouragement happens they get offended at God because they didn't sign up for a kingdom in which the way was difficult. And I want to just be clear our way between now and meeting the Lord there will be difficulty in each step of the way. There will be blessings and breakthrough for sure. But difficulty is part of God's wisdom during our journey in this life. War, I mean lust is unrelenting. It's coming at us at every angle. Whether it's the the lust related to money or lust related to anger there that's expressed in in a slander and outbursts and in all kinds of arenas of lust. It is continually attacking and assaulting our members. Paragraph E, there's the yoke of intimacy. Jesus said my yoke is easy. And there's an easy yoke and and there's a difficult way and the two of them do not contradict each other. I'm not going to go over that right now but I just wanted to mention that when we yoke ourself and understand the the true heart of God in the way the gospel works in the in the inside we have confidence because God freely gives us favor. God freely draws us near to him so there's an easy dimension and yet there's a difficult dimension and the difficult is related to the to the war against lust. Paragraph F, denying our lustful desires is the theater of which God has chosen for us to express our love to him. John 14 21, Jesus said he that has my commandments and keeps them this is the person who loves me. If you have his commandments you've understood them from the Word of God which we do. We have the Word of God and we understand many of his commandments. They're straightforward. Jesus says if you have them and you actually follow through you actually follow through and keep them he says it is he who loves me this is the one who loves me the person that follows through on my commandments. So paragraph F, denying our lusts, resisting is the platform or the theater of which God has chosen for us to express our love to him. Each one of us has a different struggle because everybody in the body of Christ has a different personality and different circumstances from the person by them. You have a unique struggle, a unique assignment. It's this assignment God has given you and he's saying in the difficulty and in your own makeup and unique circumstances it's this context from which I want you to express your love to me and so you have an assignment the person next to you has a different assignment in the Lord but we we take this war and this difficulty as an opportunity to express love to the Lord and this love is is is near and dear to God's heart. Jesus takes it personal. That's a good thing. He takes it personal. When you don't yield to slander or you don't yield to fear in the realm of finance you really obey him in that area. You don't yield to overindulgence. Because of him the Lord takes it personal. He says I will remember this. I see the longing of your being to give yourself to these things but you've said no because there's a superior longing in your heart to love me and the Lord remembers it and he records it. He esteems it and he rewards it because he takes it personal and so though maybe I mean most the time no human eye will see your war, your personal struggle. They won't fully understand how your personality and the circumstances and all the combination of events. They won't understand the the difficulty of the place where you're at but the Lord does and we say Lord I'm not gonna vent and yield to slander. I'm not gonna yield to anger, the lust of anger and bitterness and jealousies. I'm gonna bless and I'm gonna walk in purity and I'm gonna obey you with my time. The Lord really is honored by this because he sees it as an expression of a superior longing to please him. I mean we have a longing in our being to express sin but there's a superior longing to love the Lord and the Lord likes this and he sees this. Let's go to Roman numeral 2. Now I'm gonna look at specifically for a few moments on the issue of immorality but I don't want you to reduce this teaching to the subject of immorality only. Not everybody in this room is struggling with immorality but everyone in this room is struggling with lust whether it's impatience or anger or jealousy or any of these different many categories. So I'm just gonna take a moment and focus on one but the principle applies to all and if you're not struggling with immorality and many of you aren't and and a number of you are and this is again the assignment the Lord says this is your assignment I want you to show love to me even with this struggle. I want you to use this theater of life in order to show yourself as true to me but if you're not struggling with this I encourage you to note these verses so you can bring them to people that are. There's a lot of ambiguity today in the body of Christ about immorality. The Bible is very clear there's no need to be unclear about the subject. 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 this is one of the premier passages on immorality in the Bible. Paul the Apostle says for this is the will of God your sanctification and in this context he's talking about sexual purity that you should abstain from sexual immorality. That's the will of God. People pray I want the will of God. A guy can tell you for sure the will of God is sexual purity. I don't mean the will of God that I mean I want to know my ministry and whom I'm gonna marry and where I'm gonna live and those are important to know those dimensions of the will of God but this is the will of God first of all that you walk in purity and and we need to spend as much time struggling for the will of God in this area and laboring for it is we do finding out the will of God and where our ministry is and and who we're gonna marry or these kinds of things this is the will of God sexual purity now he goes on verse 4 and he develops an important principle he goes here's what's important that each one of you should know or you could put the word there learn because you know this by learning how to possess your vessel in purity and in honor now what Paul's saying is that everybody has a unique makeup of how their personality works and and how their moods work and what circumstances and what environment stirs them up for good or for bad Paul says learn how your body and your emotional chemistry work together he says learn how you function in this arena and learn how to possess your vessel your body and your emotions your mind learn how to carry them in honor and the in the exhortation isn't only be honorable and pure but it's an exhortation to study how your body works it's not just an exhortation to succeed and to have purity Paul's saying learn embrace the process find out what stirs you up in wrong ways in the processes learn from it and then having learned from it carry yourself in honor many young people though there's some older ones as well but it's just by definition it's more with younger people they don't know how their body works in this way meaning they get themselves into situations and they stumble into send different degrees of immorality and they go I can't believe I did that I didn't know and and it's just that it was the time and the place and the mood and the circumstances they go I wasn't even paying attention to all of that and it caught them by surprise they were shocked that they did it it's because they don't know all the dimensions of how they work the relationship of their emotions in their body and the environment they put themselves in we want to be wise in these areas we want wisdom in these areas we want to excel in these areas now he goes on in verse 6 to talk about a very particular thing he's talking about a brother who's committing adultery with another brother's wife in the congregation he says now I want you he says I want that no one should take advantage and defraud his brother in this matter because the Lord is the judge of all these things the Lord is the Avenger the judge now what he's talking about the way that a brother takes advantage of another brother in the body of Christ in this issue is that the unsuspecting brother is because they each have a mutual testimony of Christ and of being brothers in the kingdom he's not guarded when the offending brother is relating to his wife he's not guarded as if it was an unbeliever he's an unbeliever he'd be watching and paying attention but since it's a brother who has a good testimony and he and he proclaims his love for the Lord then the unsuspecting brother puts his guard down and Paul says the offending brother has taken advantage of this trust relationship and has moved in an inappropriate way and defrauded his brother by what he's doing with his brother with that with his wife he said because of this because of this the Lord will judge beloved there's judgment of the Lord if there's not repentance in these areas he says he will judge he's the Avenger of all such things as this verse 8 he goes if anyone rejects this teaching he's not rejecting man he's rejecting God chapter 1st Corinthians 5 verse 1 it's reported there is immorality among you that a man is having a sexual relationship with his stepmother is what's going on here he says in verse 2 and you're puffed up and you're not mourning that he that has done this deed should be taken away from among you or he should be set outside of the fellowship he should not be allowed entrance into the body into the fellowship gatherings now the reason they're puffed up because the Corinthians had power in their midst he goes you're so excited that there's some power in your meetings you're not mourning that within your own body there are people that are living in immorality and are not repenting now I'm not I don't want to make light of what I'm about to say next but there's a big difference between stumbling and immorality and repenting there's a difference between doing that and walking in immorality and just deciding to camp out and just go there for a while and Paul's talking about that brother who just wants to he's decided I'm just gonna stay with this for a while repent maybe in six months or a year to just I'll get around to repenting but not right now Paul said he said when you have men in your midst like this you should be mourning he said this is grievous that people refuse not that they've stumbled but there's they're camping out there they just decided to give in and to yield to this as a a season and hide it he says that's not possible he says that's not okay he said when if a brother won't repent you must take him from the midst of the body he's not to be permitted any fellowship among you until he repents Paul takes it up in a degree he says in verse 5 and I didn't have these phrases just because of the uh a short amount of space I had here he says when you gather together here's what I want you to do I want you to deliver that man over to satan for the destruction of his flesh he goes when you get together and he's talking about the governmental ministries the leadership the elders those that have that delegated authority from the lord over that congregation he said when you get together I want you to have a prayer meeting and here's how the prayer meeting goes in the name of Jesus we lift the protection of grace around that brother and we turn him over to satan for satan to do with his flesh what satan wants and that means to make the man sick in order that the man would repent or that the man would actually be sick unto death so that he would repent in the process and Paul goes on and he says in verse 5 he goes the reason I want you to do this is so that the man's spirit would be saved when he meets the lord because if he continues in unrepentant immorality he will lose his relationship with the lord and his salvation he will lose it in time his heart will become calloused and hardened he'll grow and the demonic dimensions will come and he will go from one degree of immorality to the other it will just progress and he says his spirit will not be saved in the day of the lord this thing has its logical progression and so it's god's mercy that protection is lifted from the guy and he gets so preoccupied in his sickness in his body and the difficulty that satan's working on him that immorality seems foolish to him he just it's not even on his screen and then the man repents and this is a severe mercy but it's the mercy of god now you've never most of you have never seen such a thing i mean where have you ever seen where the leaders got together and prayed that a man would be delivered a believer delivered over to satan so his body would be destroyed so he would lose interest in immorality people say we want the new testament church well this is the new testament church now what i don't want happening is in our e12 groups people like praying delivering people over to satan for them to get sick and die this is done by the eldership of the body and it's done in under the specific guidance of the holy spirit first corinthians chapter 11 he's talking about the lord's table or communion the breaking of bread he goes when he eats or drinks in an unworthy way if if a man or a woman takes communion and they haven't repented yet that's what an unworthy way means means it's not that they've stumbled in sin they've stumbled and they decide they're going to stay there for a while they're lying in economic issues or they're involved in immorality or they're slandering and they're just and they're passing the word around to people in secret and now it's time to break bread and they won't repent of it they won't deny this and renounce this in the lord's presence he goes if they take the communion mill in an unworthy way without repenting without declaring war in truth against these areas they are when they eat the the the bread and drink the cup they're drinking judgment the judgment of god will come on them if they drink that uh eat that bread and drink that cup now look at verse 30 now this is new testament christianity he says for this reason many look at that word many many believers are sick weak sick and dead beloved there are many believers in the body of christ in our nation that are wicked that are weak sick and dead because they're continuing with the lord with unrepentant sin in their life i'm not talking again i want to say this over and over about a brother that stumbles rises up that very hour says oh this is grievous and they repent that's what david did david repented because he grieved the lord not because he got caught he repented because he offended god's heart not because he got caught saw repented because he got caught and if you repent for in sincerity you will eventually stop doing it you may have a few rounds of it and i'm not giving you know encouraging you to do that what i'm trying to do is get you not to lose heart you can be sincere and stumble several times but if you're sincere eventually you're going to stop if the sincerity is there and don't give in and give up because of of the despair of stumbling wage war against the sin he says in verse 31 he goes if you would judge yourself in other words if you would repent of the of the sin if you would declare war on that sin that's what it means by judging yourself if you would declare war on that sin you wouldn't be judged by god i mean paul says it so clearly he goes many of you are under god's judgment in various areas of your life because you're casual about sin because you're you're you're friends in the kingdom are casual about it there's an atmosphere of being casual about sin in the body of christ in our nation it's a real casual but god doesn't change just because our culture is modern the word of god is the word of god and beloved we don't we want to judge ourselves we want to repent we want to have a a severe honesty at the heart level and god i declare war i'm not gonna yield to the lust in the area of money or lust in the area of slander or lust in the area of alcohol or lust in the area of overindulgence i don't want to live in lust or in immorality i declare war i purpose to set my heart to walk free of this and the lord says if you do that you're showing love to me if you do that and if you judge yourself this way i won't judge you because the only reason god's judging us isn't because he got angry at you one day and just kind of went off on a fling he's only judging us in order to get us to repent because he likes us let's read the next one revelation 20 verse uh 20 to 23 this is jesus speaking to the church of athiatira and he says because you allow the woman jezebel who calls herself a prophetess jezebel was actually a lady in the congregation this is not jezebel from first kings 18 and 19 that with elijah that that that was like 800 and uh plus years uh before this time this is not the same jezebel now this poor gal her mom named her jezebel her dad like what what don't name somebody jezebel i mean she walked out her name but that's another story for another time i just think man what is in her parents brains naming her jezebel well jezebel she uh was in a congregation and she operated seemingly in the prophetic anointing i mean she was a real ministry in the church as far as most people were concerned had dreams and visions had a certain dimension of power in her life but here's what she did with her prophetic authority or her so-called prophetic authority at least her reputation she taught the body at thiatira that it was okay to to have certain acts of immorality she uh she taught them that it was within the realm of the grace of god to live in immorality because god you know was matching this man with that guy gal and you know there's groups like that in our nation they call them spiritual partners you know it's not my husband it's not my wife but i'm the lord my spiritual marriage is to this one there's groups that do that in our nation i ran into a number of them it's it's a complete heresy well i don't know exactly what her version was but her teaching on the grace of god emboldened people to continue in immorality and he says you've seduced them now she wasn't seducing them to have a sexual relationship with her she was seducing them to just to create an environment in thiatira amongst the church of of uh uh permissiveness in sin she seduced them away from the true grace of god and there's there's many ministries in our nation their teaching seduces people and and brings their their uh earnestness and their carefulness to walk in the grace of god down to carelessness he said this about her verse 21 i gave her time to repent but she didn't verse 22 i will cast her into a sick bed this is what paul the apostle did in first corinthians he he prayed that man would be delivered over to satan jesus said i am going to make her sick now beloved you're in a you can't bind jesus in the name of jesus in the name of jesus i bind you you can't i'm jesus i'm making her sick you can't use my name to get her healed because until she repents i am going to get her attention or if she won't repent i will get the attention of the people that are following her ministry that this is not good for them he goes and the people that commit adultery with her and it's not it's some were undoubtedly committing it with her in the personal sense but they're in that spirit they're in this thing together to live this lifestyle he says i'm going to cast them into great tribulation now this isn't the great tribulation at the end of the age i'm going to cast them into trouble in their life did you know that jesus cast people into trouble for immorality if they will not repent of it he releases trouble on their life from heaven he says they've got to repent of these deeds now if they repent the trouble will lift he goes on in verse 23 and he says i'm going to kill her children it's talking about jezebels i'm going to kill her disciples jesus said i'm going to make her sick but her disciples that follow her teaching i'm going to kill them now i realize this is uh striking to some that that have never read these passages jesus kills people for immorality he really does paul the apostle said if you're taking advantage of your brother his guards down and you're having uh adultery with his wife god will avenge god will not allow this god has zeal about this matter except you repent if you repent the lord's grace will cover you and he won't send you into the sickbed paul says turn the man over to satan for the destruction of his flesh jesus says i will kill them i will make them sick now here's the most remarkable thing verse 21 i gave her time to repent even jezebel had time to repent is that amazing the lord says you know she's got a bad spirit and jezebel is stirring up a bunch of other people with a bad spirit but i love jezebel and i'm gonna even give jezebel time to repent so the guy says how much time is time i don't know one person gets a long fuse and the other person gets a short fuse nobody knows but that's that's the entirely entirely the wrong question how much time do you think the only question is god how what should i do right now to how can you help me of course you repent of it that's the first thing you do but you need to cry out for help now i'm going to make one little point a little bunny trail on jezebel well the jezebel spirit that you hear about from a biblical point of view is the spirit of immorality you know i met this one guy and he said well i've read many of these over the years he said that woman she has a jezebel spirit i says you mean she has a stronger leadership gift than you do that's what i hear you saying a woman with a strong personality and a leadership gift is not a jezebel even if she doesn't have people skills all developed yet i told the guy he says she's got a stronger leadership gift and her people skills aren't developed that's not a jezebel spirit it's a strong personality there's nothing wrong with that the spirit of jezebel seduces people to immorality the primary spirit of jezebel i mean the primary group or whatever that is manifesting the spiritual spirit of jezebel is the media the media is seducing our nation to immorality and there's a spirit of jezebel upon ministries where they give people confidence and they preach grace in a way that gives them confidence to live in immorality that's the spirit of jezebel it's not a woman with the leadership gift that lacks you know needs a little bit of help on her people skills that's that's just called maturing in the body of christ if a man does it he's just young in ministry if a woman does it she's a jezebel and it's a complete confusion about what jezebel is about anyway i'm off that bunny trail i just want to throw that in for for nothing that was for free first corinthians chapter 6 verse 18 paul says flee immorality now this is the third time in corinthians that i mean he he hit this thing in first corinthians all these passages are in first corinthians flee immorality every sin that a man does is outside the body but the man that commits immorality sins against his own body it's a it's a unique sin and the way that a person sins against their body is when somebody walks in immorality again i'm gonna talk about they stumbled one day i'm talking about they get into a pattern and they just make peace with it they go i'm just gonna do this for a while they are opening the door for demonic activity which will bring a significant increase of immorality in their life and it will hurt their physical body when a person lives in immorality it begets more immorality and it injures their body it hurts their body and it puts them in a position to receive the wrath of god the judgment of god on their body literally sickness and death he says when you do this you're sinning against your own physical well-being he goes don't do this beloved when you when when a person operates in immorality they are sinning against their own body they are working against their physical well-being they're inviting demons to bring addictions into their physical cravings which will make their life far more difficult and all the diseases that are potential with that and all the difficulties that come and they're positioning themselves for the judgment of god to make them sick or to kill them their physical well-being is jeopardized when they do this i want to say again i mean i know we all know it but i just say it as is in the fear of the lord is that uh the the the lord wants us he wants us to understand that he isn't changing our culture is changing and becoming more uh promiscuous as the decades go by but god does not change he is the same god of the new testament he the same jesus is ruling the church has ruled the church then and because it's not politically correct or p or preachers don't like it he still kills people and makes them sick when they live in immorality and they won't repent and he does it because he likes the people he does it because he does not want their he wants their spirit saved in the day of the lord it's an act of mercy and i agree with him and we agree with with the lord's leadership okay roman numeral three the spirit of immorality operates in the mind i'm still i'm talking still about lust in a bigger sense but we're focusing in on immorality you you know the passage well in matthew 5 it says i say to you that in whoever looks at a woman to lust has already committed adultery in his heart a jesus exposed how the operation of the spirit of immorality i mean how it works in a person's life the spirit of immorality is rooted first in the mind and it's fueled by sight by looking with lust that's how the spirit of immorality increases when a person looks with lust upon another job 31 job said i made a covenant with my eyes why then if i've made this covenant or or even another way to say how then can i look upon a young woman he's talking about with the look of lust he's not talking about the look of friendship he says if my heart has been secretly enticed which is uh uh you can add the word secretly enticed by another woman or if i've looked at my neighbor's door so the idea he goes over and he stands by the door and the woman's in the house she doesn't know he's looking and he's lurking at the door looking at her and he goes on he goes if i've done these things i'm guilty of the judgment of god is what he says in job 31 the rest of the passage but here's the point i'm making it is impossible it is impossible to get free of immorality without making a covenant with your eyes it's impossible there is no prayer line there's no three-day weekend there's no 12-step program that will deliver a person who will not make a covenant with their eyes there is zero chance of deliverance if a person will not be serious about this covenant now they may make the covenant and fail and make it again and fail and make it again and fail and repent but it needs to be the number one issue in their life that they're warring against don't worry about revival war against this issue till you get some breakthrough on it we got people at ihop warring for revival but they haven't made a covenant with their eyes and their hearts are inflamed with immorality beloved don't forget revival i overstated that but make this war in your stay with revival but just get you revived first but i look at the the the young guy and i say no make a covenant i understand the covenant you may not keep it but make it again and make it again and make it the primary focus in your heart and your fasting and your prayer and get a brother or two and confess it and get some accountability until there's a covenant with the eyes there is no chance of freedom no chance of freedom from immorality none whatsoever the eye gate is the way the eye gate through the eye is how lust in the heart is stirred paragraph b top of page three the progression of adultery in the bible it's i adultery leads to heart adultery that leads to physical adultery people don't commit physical adultery unless they commit heart adultery first they don't do that until they've done i adultery let's go to roman number four boundaries boundaries we have to refuse circumstances that inflame lust in us we've got to have boundaries essential biblical boundaries paul says in romans 6 13 he goes don't present your members as instruments of unrighteousness the members talk about your mind your emotion your body don't let's let's read a we are not to present our members our mind emotion in our body as instruments of sin by putting ourself in circumstances that stir up lust we must refuse to be in relationships or we must refuse to be in situations or places that inflame lust in us we must refuse this when we when we get in our car and we go to the place where it happens and it may be a few friends it may be a party it may be another situation there's a thousand situations it can happen especially with young people in the college campus kind of context when you get in your car and you go to the place you are positioning yourself to get inflamed with lust now i'm not going to do it i'm not going to do it i'm not going to do i'm just going to go there i'm going to witness i'm just going to go there be testimony i'm going to go there i'm going to go there i got to be tested i got to show the lord i love him i'm going to go there ah sin how did that happen i don't know how it happened god i'm sorry it happened that's okay as you're learning what's going on i mean you're like i was really tricked but i mean we're talking it's 500 times later i mean come on get in the car drive there i won't i won't i won't i'm sure i won't this time i won't i won't i won't i just did paul says don't present yourself in a situation that inflames you well there are a bunch of believers we're all christians and we drank a little bit didn't mean to our talk got a little bit loose and you know i was driving her home and it was midnight we started sharing i prayed for her and well it didn't go right i have heard that over and over and over through 30 years of ministry i go what were you doing with a bunch of believers out somewhere drinking anyway well grace of god brother no deception brother then the loose talk starts doesn't it well not the first time not until we met three times did we start lewd jokes no one does it the first time and then they're on the way home and they're tired and they pray for each other and just a little back rub because i'm just a little bit tight right here in my neck and brothers three o'clock in the morning were you at the night watch no i'm serious and the guy's heartbroken i don't know what happened what do you mean you don't know what happened you got in your car you went to the place you drank the stuff you talked wrong you got in the car you were alone it's midnight you've done it three times in a row you positioned yourself to sin that's exactly what you did so if we're going to be nice we'll call them naive but if we're going to be straightforward we're going to call them deceived when somebody does that they are deceived they can use naive the first couple times but it's deception and i'm the reason i'm being straightforward i'm not trying to be mean is that god has deliverance and goodness for us this is trouble well everybody's kind of a little bit on the edge but jesus is not changing his personality because the american culture is changing in the church he is not changing he is the same he is going to trouble the people who step over this line and camp out there he will trouble their life because he loves them paragraph b jesus taught us in matthew chapter 5 the right eye caused you to send pluck it out and you know the passage and he's not talking about literally pluck your eye out he's talking you paragraph b make the hard decisions to break off the relationships refuse to go to the fellowship settings refuse to go to the places that result in sin being stirred up in you jesus taught regardless how costly it is it is a much lower price it says well i can't this relationship's so important and going to this several places is so we all go there and what would they think and they will think i'm prudish and they'll think i'm afraid and they'll think that i don't get it and i'm i'm legalistic well you may have to bear that reputation loss you may have to bear that hit in your reputation it may cost you something but i promise you this it will cost you far less to do that than it will where where this thing's going the price it will pay to not pluck out the eye and cut off the hand using that that illustration the price you will pay for being casual is far more severe than the price you will pay for cutting it off we talk about the price of discipleship but i like to mention how much it costs not to be a disciple it costs far more non-discipleship costs far more than discipleship does yes discipleship is costly it costs a lot more not to be a disciple do you know how much money and time and honor it takes it costs a person to do the things that get you a demon and then to feed that demon for a few years and then to change your mind and try to get rid of that demon do you know how much time and money and loss that's involved in doing that the guy goes and he's going to go get himself a demon that's not what's on his mind but he goes into that environment and the drugs and the alcohol and the immorality so he gets his demon and it cost him a little while took a little time to get the demon but he gets the demon he doesn't know it he just thinks that he's kind of stuck a little bit he's got a demon now he's going to feed that demon he's going to take a year or two and uh and feed the habit he's going to keep doing those things that's going to be real expensive his loss of relationship and guilt and shame and the money and the dishonor and now he changes his mind he wants to get rid of the demon you know what's going to cost to get rid of the demon that you paid to come in in the first place the whole thing it's two three four five year process he finally gets his just the money the time the energy beloved it cost a lot to not be a disciple let's go uh roman numeral five again i'm speaking as a shepherd i want i want to be strong and straightforward because where what i'm telling you is is the place of the fear of the lord the fear lord is clean the clear fear the lord is good the fear of the lord endures forever the fruit endures forever it's powerful it's good it's right it's worth breaking off these things i'm going to pause for a minute and i'm going to ask the holy spirit to speak to us we'll just go just a few more minutes after this but i'm going to right now i'm going to ask everybody just to bow their their head and close your eyes for a minute and we're going to ask the lord what circumstance or what relationship do i have to end because i keep being stirred up in sin holy spirit i ask you right now across this room that you would speak about the circumstance the location the place they go or the relationship they're in that has to come to an end the hand that has to be cut off the eye that has to be plucked out i ask you to speak right now and some of the interns are here from out of town and it's back home but you know in three months you're going to be back there and the lord says i'm not even in this why are you even wrestling with it i'm not even in it now lord we if you speak to us lord we want to obey you in jesus name amen okay uh roman emerald of five understanding the six stages of temptation and this isn't only for immorality it's also for for the lust of covetousness not being faithful with our money it's the lust of slander our words and divisiveness and all the other lusts that are laid out in the scripture let's read this passage and then i'll just give you a sentence or two over each one of the six steps and you have the notes to look at more in detail says in verse 12 blessed is the man who endures temptation it's the man that perseveres in warring against the temptation he's not going to yield to it he's going to fight it he fights it he says no no it's called enduring temptation what a phrase enduring temptation a lot of people give in and give up but the man of god the woman of god even though they're weak they say i'm not giving in i'm not giving up and i've yielded but i'm repenting and i'm coming back i love you god he that has my commandments and keeps them it is he who loves me i love you and this person the bible describes him or her as enduring the pressures of temptation that are bearing down on them he says blessed is the man who endures it who who bears this pressure and resisted and fights against it he says for when he has been approved he will receive the crown of life which the lord promises the those that love him verse 14 now each one is tempted and now he's going to talk about the area of temptation when he is drawn away step one by his desire step two he's enticed by his by his lustful desire step three the desire is now becomes conceived in him step four the desire has now been birthed in sinful actions step five it becomes full-grown sin that's an addiction and then step six it brings consequences great loss and shame and pain to the person's life and the idea is to bail out on this process because every step we wait before we repent it's more difficult step three and four is far more difficult than step one and two to repent in it's far more difficult to repent at step four than it is at step one look at paragraph eight james said we receive the crown of life for enduring temptation which speaks of persevering in our war against sin without giving up or giving in now the crown of life i mentioned this the other night is is not a is a is the crown of life everyone doesn't get the crown of life the crown of life is not synonymous with being born again there'll be two or three i'm guessing two to three billion born-again believers and i'm guessing some millions will have the crown of life but by no means will all the believers have a crown of life it's it's a uh token of a i mean it's an expression of authority in the age to come it's an eternal crown and it's given to the people that endure temptation now paul i mean james said that god he says when you're approved a person has to be approved by god before they receive the crown on the last day there'll be all the you know the billions will be there and the lord will only approve a certain number to receive crowns only those that have been those that have a track record of faithfulness you say how long is the track record i want to get it going i don't know how long just start now if it's new obviously many of you are already on that that journey and if you're struggling and you've been yielding beloved start your your history in god at a new level start it tonight and say i am going to have a track record i am going to be consistent and i'm going to be found faithful and the lord is going to approve me and i'm going to receive a crown the crown of life and only i believe a uh small percent of the body of christ receives the crown just by my observation of the multitudes i don't know that many but just my the general trend of christianity is just so low and so many of the leaders and the people as well are not enduring temptation they're yielding to it at the slander level at the not being faithful with their time and money level at not in immorality in many areas they're just not being faithful in the realm of temptation let's look at these stages real quick top of page four okay james says he says a person is tempted when he's drawn away by his desire stage one is the initial stirrings of lust being drawn away by lustful desires this happens when our imagination is initially stirred up and it's when we're casually thinking about walking out the lust it might be anger you know you're you're casually thinking i'm gonna get that guy back i don't care who he is or what he said i'm gonna get him back it's it's the we're drawn away the person begins to imagine that immoral situation or whatever they're only fleeting thoughts they are not sustained thoughts they're drawn away stage two it goes from being drawn away to enticed they're they're not being wooed drawn away now they're being enticed the fleeting thoughts are now sustained ones they are fixed on it they are going to do that guy in they are going to tell the people the truth about how evil he is it's called slander they're gonna they're gonna set the record straight they're gonna go in and get their money back and they're gonna prove and they're gonna use some some non-biblical ungodly ways to get their money or they're gonna involve themselves in an immoral situation they have now a sustained thought they are now enticed they're fixed on it they haven't done a thing yet but they're daydreaming about it regularly now it's gone from the the early stirrings of simply being drawn now it's sustained stage three lust is now conceived that's the decision in their heart i'm going to act i'm going to act i'm going to tell people what i think about this situation i don't care if it's slandered i'm going to tell them because i tell the truth well brother you only tell the truth that's negative about others you're not telling the whole truth about you tell us everything evil you've done that's the truth i talked to one guy he says i just care about the truth i says what truth the truth about you or the truth about the guy you're mad at he says well i meant just the truth i go do you want god to tell the whole truth about you are you that committed to the truth he goes well not that committed to it i said well there you have it i go this isn't about truth this is about your feelings are hurt that's what it's about it's not about truth i only talked to the brother that way because the lord talked to me that way a couple times i got it straight straight from the source okay stage three is that those those sustained thoughts now become a decision to act james is using the analogy of a baby in the mother's womb the baby is alive the child is alive that nobody can see it the decision the sinful behavior is now conceived the guy has decided i'm going to the party i'm going to do it i'm going to take my chances i hope i don't send do bad but i'm going beloved sin has been conceived it's alive it's hidden people can't see it but it's alive it's a real entity now working in your in your members then stage four the sin is birthed there it's the time we walk it out we walk it out it's no that's obvious all can see it who who can witness the situation all that we're there can see it we actually did it sin has now been birthed it's harder now here's the problem stage four it goes up to a whole nother level because when we when we think sinfully it's it's troubling and it causes certain kinds of confusion and depression but when we act sinfully it's a legal act when we act sinfully it's like we're giving the devil keys to parts of our life he cannot have except we open the door and hand him the keys when we act we give him legal permission to come into our life as long as we're thinking as long as we're being drawn away subtle fleeting thoughts okay that's the time to cut it off now it's a since it's sustained thoughts we're enticed now it's gone and it's conceived we decided we're going to do it still the devil does not have permission yet but when we act it out when we actually do the act that is the arena in god's government of which satan now has permission to come into our life in a new level talk about believers stage five sin over time becomes full grown not every sin but in the lives of of god's people time goes by it may take some months may take some years but the sin becomes full grown it's called addictions now there's more addictions in the body of christ and and my guess is most people that have them don't call them addictions they call them struggles but they're they're uh compelled they're fixated with this behavior they're fixated with when's the next time i can go do this again the sin is full grown it's an addiction and there's demonic energy around it because we've opened the door by by allowing sin to be birthed stage four stage five it's really hard to get free of it at stage five and at stage five when people start taking sin serious stage six the consequences it brings forth death beloved the wages of sin is always death always it will bring loss it will bring separation from god death is separation and loss we'll have a separation i don't mean that we won't be saved but we'll have a separation and a dimension of our life in god we'll have separation from brothers and sisters in the body of christ because when our spirit is defiled our conscience is seared and dulled and injured we can't fellowship the right way we can't function in the body of christ their separation begins to happen our spirit is quenched it's dulled our conscience has been injured and without repenting it doesn't get restored and there's shame there's pain there's loss i promise you the payment that's the word wages put the word payment the payment for sin is always always always always death always it's death always it's death it separates you in a dimension from god it separates you in a dimension from your destiny it separates you in a dimension from other believers because your spirit's injured and wounded your conscience is touched it separates you from god's blessing it create creates loss it creates pain it creates shame it's always death every time and many people do not get serious about sin till stage five and six and it's far more difficult to deal with sin at stage five and six it's a whole lot harder to stop that car when it's rolling down the hill the car's rolling down the hill now stop it on the before it starts when it just that moves in it stop it it's gonna just put a you know put something under the wheel there and stop it it starts rolling down the hill the guy's running full blast jumps in front of the car i'll stop it and it just gets plowed over that's what happens to people's lives it's like stopping a car rolling down a hill they get in front of it and say i gotta stop it or it's gonna be a chaos and the chances of bailing out of this are really hard it's much easier at stage one two and three h we only have two choices we don't have three we either die voluntarily which means we die to the sin or we die involuntarily under god's judgment and satan's rage there is not a third option where we live on our own terms that's what people are holding out for i don't want to die to the sin i want to do it but i don't want god's judgment i don't want to die that way i'm going to opt out for the third option i'm going to live life on my own terms that option does not exist it just does not exist here's the good news have the worship team come up if you will here's the good news is that if you choose to die you get rewarded eternally for it and the lord takes it is love if you wait and get killed under the rage of satan and the judgment of god you get nothing you get nothing for your pain nothing if you make the choice yourself you get eternally rewarded for it if you wait till the choice is made for you you have shame and destruction all your days just doesn't make any sense does it this let's just do it the right way let's stand