Achilles: Week 2

Good morning, Welcome to the Church of the Crossing. My name is James,

and I want to encourage you. I noticed that Thursday night we had

a lot more Sunday people because they were traveling. We're gonna be traveling like

crazy, everybody's traveling the next few weeks. If you're get a chance to

go to Thursday night services, it is an awesome time and out within an

hour and it's a great fellowship time. So if you're gonna be out of

town, I want to remind you about that. And also today we are

talking it is a PG message. We're talking about lust, so you know,

make that decision about your young children and also also decide whether or not

you're mature enough to hear this. I know we got a lot of jokesters

in this church and just this might not be a good sermon. You're like,

he's given me joke material. So anyways, let's just pray and ask

God to teach us, challenge us, and shape our hearts. Today.

God, we're diving into your word today. This is what you tell us,

and so God, we want to received from you Holy Spirit. I

pray that every heart is open right now, teach us, convict us and

help us walk out of here with commitment to grow and to be shaped in

Jesus name. Amen. Last week I talked about going over and fishing in

my neighbor's front, you know, water front, and I got sprayed and

all this other stuff. And let me tell you, if you haven't heard

that story, go jump online. But I'm I kid you not. It

was an interesting Memorial Day for me because while my shirt was still wet from

being sprayed by my neighbor, I go into the house and my wife is

cleaned off the kitchen table and there was this box that's been on the kitchen

table for about a week a week half and she said, what is it?

And it was a It's a box that came out of a larger box

from where my parents are still cleaning out my childhood bedroom. And when I

got it, I just said it aside, and she goes, you know

what this box says, I go, yeah, that's the box that held

my Hank Aaron autographed baseball. And I said, but I still have not

seen my Hank Aaron autographed baseball. So, by the way, any of

you see a baseball signed by Hank Aaron in between here and Cincinnati. Just

assume it's mine, grab it, bring it to me. But and I

said, I kept a box because you know, I'm sure it still has

it, you know, certificate of authenticity. So my wife opens up the

box and she goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, here's your certificate of

authenticity. Hank Aaron signed it. Oh, you got a couple other letters

in here. I was like, oh, okay. So she opens up

this first letter and it says, James Roberts has my permission to go to

McDonald's. Pamela Roberts. Clearly not my mom's handwriting. It was a forged

note from one of my friends. I said, oh, maybe that's why

I had it hit it in this little box. And then she finds this

pink letter and my wife goes, oh, what is this? And I

a moron, idiot, whatever you want to call me, and I said,

I don't know read it. Yeah, you know where we're going.

So here's this note from a former girlfriend of mine that Gina had always been

jealous of because I dated her and her twin sister, not at the same

time, but Gina was he jealous. And so Gina starts reading a note

out loud, and you know, I'm sitting there going like, God,

I have no idea, what's going to happen here? Please be with me.

And so Gina's reading a note out loud, and she's going on talking

about how her and her boyfriend they've totally cooled off, don't even know if

they like each other anymore, and then wanted to know if I wanted to

go to King's Island just with her, And so it's kind of an invitation.

Hey, let's go sneak away and go to King's Island. And then

here's the awesome part about this letter, And she says we can go as

and then she highlights friends, and then she says this just in case my

boyfriend reads this. She thought so highly of her boyfriend that she did not

believe he could decipher that code. Let's go as friends in case he reads

us. And but guess who could decipher that code? My wife, and

she, for some reason, I don't know why, she did not think

this was nearly as funny as I did. The desire to have someone else,

or just to have someone, it's oldest humanity. God gave us a

desire to want someone to be with someone, to be sexually attracted to someone

and see, God purposely gave us these feelings for man and for female to

have these sexual desires because it's through these sexual desires that we find someone else

attractive and that brings us into a relationship of God's design marriage between male and

female. But it starts out here with the sexual desires. Now, let's

be clear, we usually just kind of focus on men during these types of

sermons. I hate to admit this, but recently I found out that women

had these sexual innate desires as well. And the reason I wanted to deny

it all these years because I can't think about my mommy and my grandma,

my sweet grand Burgess has sexual desires, like come on. But that's the

truth. Men and women, we have sexual desires. But here's a good

thing. God gave it to us, and they're good desires, They're Godly

desires. Now, I wish I could tell you right now that all the

sexual desires my whole life has only been good sexual desires that have only been

for my wife. But I would be a liar if I did that.

And see, there's this thing where Jesus talks about and we just don't want

to talk about it. So much. A matter of fact, when Jesus

talks about lust and sex and adultery and on that, we try to keep

it only at the level of this. All right, Hey, let's keep

the conversation at don't cheat on your wife, don't cheat on your husband,

don't flirt with somebody at work, don't secret message some one of the opposite

sex. Let's just keep it here so that we can all feel good because

we don't break the good old commandment. Number seven was commandment number seven,

you shall not commit adultery. But what we don't like to talk about is

the Achilles hill that many of us struggle with. And I'm talking about lust

today, so we don't like to talk about it. But since Jesus did,

well, we need to talk about it. So here, before we

jump into Jesus teaching on lust, I want to give us a theological framework

which we are working from today. Okay, I know some people get bored

with theology, but we have to understand why do we have a theological framework.

Well, we have a theological framework basically that looks through the whole Word

of God, the whole Bible. We interpret things in light of the whole

Bible and also two thousand years of Orthodox history and theologians, And what we

do is we have this framework at which we interpret scripture. What happens when

we don't interpret scripture within this theological framework, Well, people with agendas will

grab one verse out and you can make it any verse mean almost anything that

you wanted to mean, so that you can say, all right, the

Bible supports me in this. So what we want to do, as we

want to talk about this scripture within a theological framework of understanding what Jesus is

talking about. So what we're gonna be doing is we're gonna be looking at

Jesus's talk during a Sermon on the mount the Sermon on the Mouse jesus most

famous sermon. And I want to let you know a few things that theologically

about the Sermon on the Mountain. Summon mountin number one is not a conversation

or a teaching or a preaching about how to get into the Kingdom of God.

No, we can only get into the Kingdom of God by grace and

mercy and by the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ. So it's not a conversation

about how to get into the kingdom. It's also not a conversation about how

to stay in the kingdom. No, the sermon that Jesus teaches a sermon

on the Mount, it's Jesus saying, all right, this is the type

of life. This is what it looks like to be a kingdom person.

A person who has entered into the Kingdom of God, the person who has

been saved, the person who has been given a new beginning. This is

how they live. Let's look at this quote right here. It says,

a sermon on the Mount is a description of the character and the conduct of

those who are already belonged to the Kingdom of God. In other words,

this is why a kingdom person does, and this is what a kingdom person

looks like. So that's Jesus teaching here. He's simply teaching something and saying,

all right, do you want to know what the new kingdom is gonna

be like? Well, first of all, let me tell you what our

people are going to be like. Okay, And here's another quote for you

today. The purpose of the Sermon on the Mount is for God to work

his kingdom characteristics, his virtue in you. In other words, we are

learning about God and God's characteristics. And then as kingdom people, we adapt

to those Okay. Why well, is so that we can achieve all that

God attends for us, so that we can properly represent Him and his kingdom.

So again, that's the framework in which we're working here. Before we

get to this teacher. So Jesus talks about lust, but he begins with

the law of Moses, the seventh commandment, And Jesus says, I know

you've heard this, you've heard this for centuries, but I'm telling you it's

not enough. We've got to dig deeper here in the New Kingdom. And

so Matthew five twenty seven, this first part is a literal commandment. You've

heard that it is said you shall not commit adultery. But I tell you

that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully, okay. So, whether you're

a male or female, if you're looking at someone of the opposite sex lustfully,

you have already committed adultery with her or him in your heart. Okay.

So Jesus, we're gonna define lust here in a moment. But Jesus

saying, all right, when you're looking at a person lustfully, you've already

committed adultery. So this teaching part is literal. This next part, okay,

is not literal. What Jesus about Ray say, it's really it's one

of those things where Jesus is saying, hey, do whatever it takes,

go to whatever drastic measure you need to do to rid this lust out of

your life. So he gets animated here, and let's look at what he

says. He says, if your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge

it out, throw it away, and it's better for you to lose one

part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown in a hell.

And if you're right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off,

throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your

body than your whole body to go to hell. So the bottom line is

this, Jesus says, hey, don't lust after anyone that you're not married

to. It's very simple, and do whatever it takes to battle that lust

in your life to get rid of that lust. So let's define lust all

right. First of all, lust is a desire to have someone, to

have someone that you're not married to. Okay, It's also where you fantasize

so about someone that you're not married to. It's also where you sexualize someone.

So you know, when you're watching porn, you might say, well,

I don't want to marry them. I know I'll never you know,

be in a relationship with that person this is on television or this is on

a video, but you're still sexualizing that person and fantasizing about that person that

you're not in a marriage relationship. So you know, so lust defined is

you know, the desire to have someone else, to fantasize about someone,

or to sexualize someone. And so Jesus is actually showing us a true intent

behind this commandment. Because here's the thing. We can actually obey most of

the commandments, but there'll be no change in our heart or our mind.

So I cannot commit adultery and I cannot murder someone, but I can have

sexual perversion and lust all in my soul, or I could have hatred towards

someone and not be changed. And so Jesus saying, hey, this is

not the righteousness, this is not the kingdom heart, the kingdom mind of

what God has calling us too. So let's look at Jesus teaching. Later

on, he says, for out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder,

adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, as slater. These

are what to file a person. So, in other words, in the

Kingdom, to Jesus's framework, Kingdom theology about lust is simply this, in

the Kingdom, what happens in our heart and our minds, it is just

as important as our actions. If you're in the Kingdom, what happens in

your heart, in your minds, it is just as important as our actions.

See, Jesus comes at this teaching in a different way, because yes,

we will all agree that we are born with sin, we are born

corrupted. A lot of people say, hey, I was born this way.

But the Kingdom of God says, you're invited into a relationship God and

you can be born again, So you could become a new person, with

a new heart, with new desires, with a new mind because you're brought

into a new kingdom. Okay, the Kingdom is not a place where we

just slip over and we're not changed. He says, no, you could

be born again, become a different, completely different person who belongs to God

and God himself. And Jesus says, hey, this is what I do.

I make new people. I make new heart and I make new desires.

All right, So here's what we've done so far. We define lust.

Secondly, we've worked through a theological framework about Jesus's teaching on us.

Now here's what I want to do for the third part today. I want

to take us through the most famous lust story in the Bible, and I

think there's some things we can learn from it. So safe from Adam and

Eve, I think the story that gets the most press in the bye is

most undoubtedly David and Bathsheba. Okay, now here's where we find David King.

David is about fifty years old. Okay. And here's what I want

you to understand men, especially okay, and my experience in ministry, and

I've talked to a lot of other pastors, it seems to be their same

experience. It tends to be when men are forty or fifty, when we

hit those ages, that we actually have our greatest falls in our life.

Okay, We've achieved some career things, we got more time on our hands,

the kids are raised, and we're just we have more opportunities. And

so these affairs, these addictions, the consequences of life without accountability, They

finally come to us and bear fruit in middle Age, and this is what's

going on with David. David has been on the throne for about twenty years.

He's distinguished himself as a man of God. He's a composer of the

psalms. Okay, he's a faithful shepherd, he's a valuable warrior. He's

a leader of people. And by the way, we look at how awesome

David was, and then we fall find him in this sin. So don't

think for even one second that David Allison suddenly one day sin. No,

we see that there's a progression. We see some chinks in his armor.

Let's look at this in Second Samuel five thirteen. Meanwhile, David took more

concubines and wise from Jerusalem after he came from Hebron, and more sons and

daughters were born to David. All Right, God's blessing David. God's blessing

the people. God's blessing his decisions, his leadership. But then David brings

on these wives and concubines. By the way, in case youa warner,

this was a direct contradiction to God's commandment when he's talking about the kings of

Israel. We go over to Dudarami seventeen seventeen, and here's what the Lord

instructs. Neither talking about the kings, neither shall he multiply wise for himself.

Why because his heart will turn away from me. His heart will turn

away from me. And so we have to ask, where's the accountability for

David? No one's called him out for increasing all these wives and concubines.

And I got a little truth for everyone here today. Okay, you will

either make yourself accountable or you will be made accountable by your choices. I'm

gonna say that again. You might want to write this down. You will

either make yourself accountable or you would be made accountable for your choices. So

you know, when we're looking at this king and we see David sinning,

but who's qualified to blow the whistle on David? Because they're like, hey,

because from a humble beginning, he killed a giant, has two decades

of great leadership, He's expanded our borders by sixty thousand square miles, no

defeats on the battlefield, So who's good point of finger of accusation to him?

Because they're looking around their country and they're like Hey, yeah, our

king has fallen away. Our king is doing things that God has commanded him

not to by Hey, we're winning. Our country is awesome, we're bigger,

we're better. So who cares if our leader does this or that?

And so the country kept quiet because things were good, and they knew as

long as they had David up on the throne. So so don't mess with

David, don't make David upset. But then we find that his heart has

turned away from the duties of the king prescribed by God in the Hearts of

the Kings. Let's look at this the second Samuel level one. It says

in the spring at the time when kings go off to war, David said

Joe about with the king's men in the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the

Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem. Pay attention that David

remained in Jerusalem. So David was where in bed, but he should have

been in the battle. David was in the bed where he should have been

in the battle. And if he'd have been where he belonged with his troops.

We never hear of a Bashiva episode and here's what we need, are

saying. Our greatest battles in our life. Usually they don't happen when we're

crazy, busy building our career or are building our family. They happen when

we get some leisure time from downtime, when we're tired, when we're out,

we're board. It happens in those moments. About six months before I

became a pastor here, I was on a trip to Paris, France,

and we spent the first week we walked about one hundred miles and we were

passing out invites to help start a new church plant. Well, the rest

of the Americans were going home, and I was going to stay in France

for another week because I had a good friend of mine who lived in France,

and I was gonna go hang out him. But before I was going

to go hang out him, I had a day all alone in Paris.

So I spent that whole day going up and down the Chancelse. And if

you've been to Paris, you know how amazing the Chanslse is and all the

shops and spectacles and all that. Well, towards the end of the day,

I'm just tired, and I sit down on a bench, and this

beautiful woman from Strassburg, France sat down next to me and we just started

talking. And I'm like, this is so cool. I'm actually having a

real conversation of a person from France, and so We're getting deep in this

conversation and I'm having a great time, and you know, I'm just like,

this is so cool. And by the way, I'm just completely list

because she looked at me and said, so, how long are you staying

in Francis? So I told her, and then she said, would you

like to come back and stay with me at Strasburg this weekend? We will

have a wonderful time. I did not expect to be invited to a sleepover.

In that moment. We were talking about the Eiffel Tower, and then

the next thing I know, she wants to know if I want to go

for a rendezvous, you know, and and so I'm just shocked by this.

I'm like, how did this happen? And so I just I looked

at her her and I said, you know, hey, I'm a happily

married man. And then I just walked away and I started walking back down

to chauns Lee's and I reminded myself you know, don't look back. Don't

look back. And so I just didn't look back. And so then I'm

like, all right, I gotta call my wife. I called my wife

a good man, see you tell you what happened? And how I you

know? Hey, I told her I was married, and I walked away.

And then my wife what she was most stunned about was that a woman

wanted to spend a weekend with me. But people, it happens, And

David has now shifted in time of unaccountability. So let's set the scene Eastern

monarchs. The way the house was set up. They would usually have their

room on the second floor, their bedroom, and they would have a great

patio for them to have their family or their counsel out there. And usually

that great patio would be have bushes and plants all around it, so that

the people down in the city couldn't see up, but the king when he

wanted to, he could look over the city at any time. So we

find David in this moment, probably looking over the city, and then he

sees what does the Bible say? The Bible said and second Samuel Lemon two

from the roof, he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very

beautiful in appearance. So then David inquired about this woman. So you understand

here he's hanging out long enough to inspect the woman, see that she's beautiful,

and then he's very interested in the woman. So he inquires about the

woman. And notice this report. Okay, there's some deep theology here.

Pay attention. Is this It is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Elium,

the wife of your eye of the hit tight. I'm gonna say that

again. So he says, who is this? And they say, is

that not Bathsheba, the daughter of Ilium, the wife of your eye of

the hit tight. What you have to understand, and the Eastern culture is

they never put your name together with your spouse. No, you were Bathsheba.

And this is her father, her grandfather, and her great grandfather.

That's how it worked. They did not put the spouse's name in area.

It was there this person and this is their dad, this is their grandpa,

and this is their great grandpa. But what does it say here?

This is Bathsheba, the daughter of Ilium, the wife of your eye of

the hit tight. So in other words, what is this person saying she's

married? She's taken? Oh, By the way, you know Uriah because

Uriah is one of those men who's been out in the battlefields with you when

everyone else abandon you. Uriah was there for you. Uriah has blood for

you. He's one of your buddies. But what we've seen the stories that

David uses powered and fluence, and we could skip all over their details,

but bomb line as they had an affair and she became pregnant. Now there's

a whole lot more to this story. But here's what I want you to

notice. The progression. Number one, he's bored. Number two, he's

in a hidden place. Number three, he sees a beautiful woman. But

then you know, the next step is he has private thoughts about her.

Hey, I want to know more about her, Go investigate this. Number

five, he investigates her, and number six he finally goes after her.

Now, I wholeheartedly don't believe that David went to breakfast that morning and had

his coffee with goat milk and sit there and thought for a second, you

know what, today's a good day for an affair. No, here's what

happened. David became comfortable with his lust. He'd already brought other women in.

He had already decided that it didn't matter for him to continue to look

at Bathsheba. He became comfortable with his lust. And when you become comfortable

with your lust, it will eventually turn into actions. All right. So

here's what we've done so far. Today. We've defined lust, we've talked

about the theological framework on Jesus's teaching on lust, and now we've looked at

the most famous story of the Bible about lust. So here's what we're gonna

do for the rest of our time. We're gonna work shop lust. Okay,

you're ready, let's work shop lust. So the first thing we gotta

ask is how does lust grow? How does lust grow? Number? One?

Lust grows through access. It grows through access. My first interaction with

porn, lust and sexual things came from a book that my brother gave me

that he took from my dad. My dad had these books that were hidden

in his room, so my brother gave them to me. I didn't even

know what it was, but I can tell you this, I was enticed

by it. I had feelings that I never felt that, I had thoughts

that I had never had. And let me tell you something. For the

next year, whenever my dad was not around and no one else was around,

I went and found the stash, and within a year I went from

clueless to someone whose heart was consumed with lust. And guys, I'm not

talking about middle school. This is way before middle school. See back in

the day, and those of you who are older, we used to have

to go on these secret, covert missions to find pornography. Today there's more

access than any other time in history. Right now, for than three seconds,

anybody in this room could be looking at porn as fast as it takes

you to type it in on our computers. Access. We have access to

it. And because we have access to it, then we see the we

become a nation of lust. Number two. How does porn grow? Secondly,

it grows by keeping it hidden. By keeping it hidden, now here's

a good rule of thumb for everybody. If you need to hide something,

it's probably not a good godly thing. Did ever I get that? I

think everybody can remember that, right. If you need to hide this,

it's probably not a good godly thing. But we learned very quickly to hide

our lust. And that's what makes less so easy, because we could just

have it in our minds and our hearts, and we could keep these thoughts

to ourselves, and also we can physically hide the sexual material on our phones

and our computers. One day, when I was about twelve years old,

I'm um yelled for me to come outside, and she's out back on a

patio. She's got our grill and you see the fire flaming, and it's

a big hot grilled and she opens it up and there's the big porn stash,

porn videos, everything, it's all on fire. And then she turns

to me and starts preaching, like about the fires of hell or nothing compared

to this, you know, And I mean was a spectacle. A spectacle.

You're first of all, your embarrassing mom found your porn. Secondly,

she's burning it. The part that is really kind of like unique is it

wasn't even mine. It was my friends who stole it from his dad.

And so I called my friend last night because I say, hey, Thursday

night, I shared this and we'll share it again tomorrow, because we talked

about it quite often, because it's considered the only time, he says,

it's the only time in my life I ever stood up to my dad and

refused to do what he told me. So, my friend's dad found out

that his son stole his pornography and brought it to my house. And so

my friend's dad, being someone who who was not a believer and never been

in church and also was extremely comfortable, okay with his lifestyle, said you

go back to Missus Roberts and you tell her she needs to pay me back

from my porn collection. And my best friend said, he stood to his

dad and said, you can beat me. There is no way I'm gonna

go tell Missus Roberts that she owes our family money to replace our porn collection.

I mean, you can't. You can't make this stuff up. You

can't make this. But it shows you the difference between being comfortable with it

and not being comfortable with it. And also, here's a thing. My

mom found my head in stash and destroyed it, but it didn't change what

was hidden in my heart. See, lust grows from the inside and the

outside. It's a battle on two fronts. And lastly, how does lust

grows by us becoming comfortable with it? It's when we become comfortable. We

saw that King David, he took these wives and concubines and he became comfortable

with sex and lust and all these things. And by the way, when

we become comfortable with it, it will grip our heart, it will control

us. It becomes an addiction, a getaway, and that's the place we

go when we're stressed. The first church I was pastoring at as a youth

pastor, there's this one guy that I really liked, and we became friends,

and I thought he was the coolest guy ever. And he had an

awesome house, he had an awesome family, had two daughters, he had

a really good job, and a really cool sports car, and he was

just hilarious. Is one of those guys that all the other guys wanted to

be around. So we became good friends, and he invited me out to

lunch, and I got really excited to go to lunch with him. And

I remember I had just found out that I was having a daughter myself,

so I'm like, oh, I'm gonna ask him all these questions advice about

how to raise a daughter. We get to the lunch table, we're at

Charlie. Y'all been to an old Charlies? You sent old Charlies. And

he looks at me. Before we could even engage. He goes, I

need your advice. I go, well, what do you need my advice

on? He goes, I've racked up thirty thousand dollars of credit card debt

at the strip club. Now, anybody know how to do inflation twenty years

ago? That's you know, that's a chunk of money. So my first

question was, tell me how you do that, and and and that's a

conversation for another day. But but the bottom line is that guy spent a

lot of time there and nobody knew about it. So his question to me

was not about how to pay the debt off or how to get rid of

the addiction. His question to me was should he tell his wife yes or

no? And I remember I really never counseled anybody, and I'm a young

guy. I don't know what to say. So I just thought about my

wife and I said, I think you should leave the country, and you

know, maybe take asylum because there's somebody who probably antually wants to murder you.

And so but by the way, my counseling skills have grown. But

the point is, when we become comfortable of something, we no longer control

it. It controls us. So that's how lust grows. Let's talk about

how to break free from lust. Okay, so the first thing you have

to do is you have to confess to God and confess to others. Now,

pay attention here. You can't do just one. You can't confess to

God and not confess to others because all of us know in this room that

we've confessed things to God and then it stays there. If you truly want

to see change in your life, you can't just confess to God. But

you gotta go find someone else that you trust. Don't go find the town

gossip, but go find a godly person and confess the struggle to them.

Okay. And by the way, this is, this is the way it

works if you really truly want to get rid of the sin in your life.

And I know and I know this works. When I had only been

following Christ for our years, I became a youth pastor and had a computer

set up in my room and I would write sermons on it sometimes. And

it's back in the day when we had pop you know, you didn't have

these blockers for pop up ads, and so they would pop up and it

would be like an advertisement to go visit a porn site, and so they

would show about ten to twelve seconds of the porn, and that first couple

of weeks I would be quick, quick, quick, exit out gone.

Well. Then about a week later I started watching three or four seconds.

Then a week later I'm watching five or six, seven seconds, and then

another week later I'm watching the whole advertisement. Now I know him in real

trouble. But I knew I was in really big trouble a week later when

I was writing, and I couldn't wait for the pop up because now something

controlled me, and so I knew it was in trouble. So I went

over. I caught up a passing friend of mine and went to his house,

and I confessed everything, and we prayed together, and I felt redeemed.

I felt God's mercy and grace poured out of my life. I felt

renewed, I felt cleansed. It was a powerful, powerful moment. But

then he asked me a question that I wasn't expected. He asked me,

the question is what's your course correction plan? See, you can't just have

confession. You got to have confession and a course correction plan when it comes

to something like this. Okay, and I wasn't expecting that. So we

made a plan before we left his house, and I went out and I

bought expensive software for all my computers. Is still to this day, my

phone and my computers. I don't have access to these things, okay.

And back in the day, you used to be able to block titles on

your television program and so I set it up where every time there was a

program that was racy or maybe inappropriate for me to watch, I would have

to type in the day that I got saved November thirteenth, one one,

one three, And so I would see a movie in me is late at

night, and I'd being tempted. But the power of typing in the day

that Jesus Christ changed your life to watch a naughty movie that worked phenomenal,

I couldn't do it. I never did it. And now we don't have

that. But now what we have is a thing called continue watching or watch

again on all these apps. And I just can't bear the thought of my

daughter or my wife's seeing that, Daddy, you watch something like that.

And so that helps me. That brings count. And here's what I want

to tell you is open accountability works. Open accountability truly works. So after

you confess, after you confess to God and to others, what do you

do next? You clear the house, you confess to God and to others

you trust, and then you've got to get rid of all of your access.

And so that means that you must set up accountability. So here's what

I did this week. I did some research for you. Okay, here's

some great accountability software things you can put on your computer, on your phone,

Ever Accountable, Covenant Eyes and Canopy dot Us. Now here's the thing

I was reading about Canopy dot Us, which is fascinating. So there's there's

this new thing now on social media. And I've noticed this lately that as

you're streaming or you're scrolling through like Facebook, all of a sudden, you

know, magic might might show up, you know the apps, and if

you go oh, and you hold it there for more than two seconds,

guess what down in your feed you start getting more things like that. And

so guys, you know, like all of a sudden, hey, I've

never tapped on one of these pictures of a woman in a bikini, but

all of a sudden, you go, oh, oh, my gosh,

I didn't expect that. One two three, now your feed fills up and

about every twentieth thing, you'll have another woman in wearing something very revealing,

and so Kip can it be dot Us says that they can filter that out

and so you're not just scrolling through checking out how the family reunion went and

then you're bombarded by it. But will actually, you know, mess with

the pixelation and block that out. So I would encourage you to check those

things yesterday cost money, but they are worth the investment. So here's what

we're gonna do. That was my last point. I'm bury to do the

conclusion. So the sooner you do what I'm ready to tell you to do,

the sooner the sermon's over. So how's that for incentive. Everybody,

get your phone out right now, everybody, let's go the sooner you do

it. The sooner the sermon's done. Great incentive. Look at people are

racing through. And another reason I'm doing this is go ahead and put it

on your picture because I think there's a few people in this room who really

need to take a picture of this so they can do this later. But

I think they would be too embarrassed to be the only person with a phone

out taking pictures of this. So we're all going to take a picture of

it. Okay, just so our brother or sister who's struggling they know that

we're together. Okay, so let's all take a picture of this. And

the good thing is at times somebody's going to come to you can say,

yeah, I got some things that can help you out right here, I

got some pictures of some websites. So hopefully for those of you who really

needed that, you saw the grace there. Because there's nobody in this church

that we want to shame. We don't want to shame you, but we

also want to see you grow and become like Christ. All right, here's

a conclusion today. I have a dream and a vision that the people the

church at the Crossing that we are a people that are whole, that sin

and lust and all these things that come about with our sexuality does not take

control of us. And I have this theory, by the way, and

I've had it for many years. I believe that there's a lot of men

in our church, in any church I've served in that don't step into leadership

roles, don't develop, don't take big steps in our discipleship, only because

they're ashamed of the personal sin in their life by looking at pornography. I

think there's a lot of men who never became what God called them to be

in the Kingdom because they're a shame to take steps forward. Like, No,

I can't be a leader here. I can't be a leader here.

I can't be a leader here because I have this secret hidden sin. And

man, if we can have our whole church freed up from this sexual addiction,

I believe we'll have a lot more leaders in our church as a result.

Now, Ladies, I apologize. I know that was one sided,

but I'll be very honest. I just did not have it in me this

week to go to any of our female staffers and say, can you talk

to me about your journey with lust? And so, Ladies, I'm gonna

trust that you can have these conversations with each other in your small groups and

your Sunday groups. But it is conversations we need to have some men you

got if you're struggling with this, you got to find someone to talk about

with this. And so here's the thing. Also, I want to see

us have a church where our children are protected. You heard that I was

guys, I'm talking maybe second or third grade when I found this access to

my dad's pornography. And so here's the thing, And are your kids gonna

grab your phone to play a game and find something they shouldn't find? Dads,

moms, And so I have this dream of a church where we protect

our kids, and even as our kids finally get their first phone or computer,

that we take those steps to go ahead and put the accountability software on

there for them. Because our kids are going to be bombarded by their friends

at school. But man, we got to give them a chance. We

got to give them a chance to mature a little bit so they can make

good decisions. But if they start fighting this stuff when they're a little and

they become curious, it's going to have a hold of them before you even

know it. So let's protect our kids. And lastly, today, almost

everybody I talk to and they're having marriage problems. Almost always there's a sexual

component to it. And so brothers and sisters, it is so important that

men or women, if you have lust in your life, if you've got

pornography in your life, if you are having inappropriate conversations with somebody outside of

your marriage, it's time to stop it. Like Jesus said, do whatever

it takes to get that out of your life. Because let me tell you

something. We need strong marriages too, because we need to be a light

to this community. We need to protect our children, we need to be

alike to our community, and we need to be freed up so we can

serve God to break him glory and honor. All right, that's a spiel

today. Now it's time for grace. Okay, So we're gonna take some

time to pray, and some of you need to ask God for forgiveness today.

And so let's bow our heads and let's pray. And here's the thing.

God wants to give you grace today. God wants to pour his grace

and his mercy out. But you've got to humble yourself and admit that you

have sinned. And by the way, all of us struggle with sexual desires

just to summons at a different degree or level. So this is something we

all struggle with. But today is a day for some of you in this

room to take a step. So God, we come to you right now

and we ask for your forgiveness, We ask for your mercy, we ask

for your grace, and we're so thankful that you love as and we can

come to you. So right now where you're at, go ahead and take

a moment and speak to Lord and confess. For those of you who just

confessed it, and maybe you need to take action steps of course, correction,

go ahead and commit that to the Lord. Don't leave this sanctual worry

without committing to the Lord that yes, I'm gonna go talk to somebody and

I'm gonna go take some steps. Go ahead and commit that to the Lord.

Right now. God, this is a place of grace and a place

of mercy, because we want to reflect your son, who who gave us

grace and mercy. And so Jesus, I pray right now for every family,

every marriage in this room, every person who represents a child in this

room, every person who is going on in their own personal struggle. God,

I pray mercy, I pray grace. I pray they experience your love

today. At the same time, God, we say here at the churches

across and feel free to convict us so that we can become more like you,

to bring you glory, to bring you honor. In the mighty,

mighty name of Jesus, we pray Amen