Fighting Lust

Get your Bibles and turn them to Second Samuel.

Second Samuel chapter eleven.

And buckle up, because here we go.

If you look at the life of David, two major events stick out to most people when you hear his name.

Either the life event of slaying Goliath or laying with Bathsheba.

And so we're going to be looking at part two today, and both are monumental.

In the first, we see the power of the humility that David had with the slaying of Goliath.

And then we see in the act with Bathsheba the power of humanity and how it overtakes.

In one, we see the greatest victory that would ever occur in David's life.

And in the other, we see the greatest defeat that would happen in his life.

And in this vicious turn on the roller coaster of David's life, we see the giant that slew David.

Often, I think, church, we get caught up in believing that the greatest giants that we face in our life are external.

Things like sickness and suffering or poverty and pain.

But the one that might give us the greatest trouble often dwells within.

And so today we're going to be looking at fighting lust.

Fighting lust.

The Bible talks about lust in three categories.

It says that there's lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

And we all deal with it in different ways.

And I was thinking about lust.

God this week kept confirming over and over that I should share this story.

I've shared it a lot with students, never shared it with this adult group.

But there was a preacher who had employed his young son to come work at the church.

And so he would come and do all kinds of tasks for his dad.

And his dad he had acquired a lot of work hours, and his dad finally paid him some big money, got him a hundred dollar bill for all of his work.

And as they were walking outside of the church on the outer parts of the church, there was a young boy that had heard something going on.

And there was another young boy out there, and he could hear something happening with an animal.

And so they heard these high-pitched yells, come around the corner, and they found a young boy who had a bird that he had caught in a cage.

And from the looks of it, he had been doing a lot of damage to this bird.

So the preacher and the young son was looking at him, and the preacher said, What have you got there?

What are you doing to that bird?

And he said, Well, I captured this bird.

And the preacher looked at him and said, What do you mean to do with that bird, son?

And the young boy said, Preacher, I'll tell you, but you're not gonna like it.

He says, I'm gonna poke at it.

He says, I'm gonna mess with it, I'm gonna hurt it, I'm gonna throw rocks at it, I'm gonna pull at its feathers when I want to.

I'm gonna open this cage door, make it think it's gonna be able to come free, and then I'm gonna shut it right when it thinks it can get out.

I am gonna mess with this bird as much as I want to because it's my capture and I can do what I want with it, preacher.

And he said, and when I'm done, and when I've had all my fun, then maybe I'll just kill it.

And I want you to understand the picture this morning.

The cage sometimes is the cage called lust, and we get trapped in it, and it's not a pretty thing.

Let us pray.

Father, I pray that you would teach us this morning.

Lord, I pray for sensitive hearts.

This is not easy.

It's a topic that not many are preaching today.

And a lot of people would jump right past and Lord, it's heavy, but I believe, Lord, that it is terrorizing families and homes and churches and communities.

So, God, I pray this morning that you would do your work.

I pray the people this morning would just open their hearts to what it is you have to say to them.

And Lord, I pray that they would unpack anything else that they brought in.

Just give them the freedom of focusing on what you have to say this morning.

Use me and your words in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So in 2 Samuel chapter 11, I want you to look at verse 1.

2 Samuel 11 · chapter mention

And this is what it says it happened in the spring of the year at the time when kings go out to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel.

And they destroyed the people of Amon and besieged Rabah.

But David remained at Jerusalem.

Point number one this morning is this.

I want you to see the nature of David's giant.

I said to you, there's three types of lust, and I want you to understand.

Some people might be sitting here already and going, I don't really deal too much with that preacher.

That's not really an issue in my life.

If that is true of you, which I want you to understand, lust of the flesh, lust of eyes, lust of the flesh is I want to feel something for my body, for my person, lust of the eyes is I want to have something that somebody else might have in pride of life that says, I'm entitled to things because I'm me.

And so if you don't deal with any of them, look around because somebody real close to you does.

And so maybe you say, I'm good, but I want you to understand that somebody near you, this may help you to help them.

And this is the fighting chance we get to dealing with it, is understanding the nature of it.

To get a clearer picture of this giant called lust, we have to sort of look deeper.

In sports, you might call it we're gonna scout.

In army, recon.

In a police work, you might call it an investigation, a scientist might say an exploration, and a doctor here might say, today we're gonna have an examination, and I want to do that because how could David go from a man after God's own heart to this great heartbreak?

That takes us to letter A this morning, David's giant examined.

We're gonna have to go back a little bit in 2 Samuel so we can unpack.

How did this giant occur?

How did this happen?

How did we get here?

So, 2 Samuel chapter 5, I want you to look at verse 12 and 13.

2 Samuel 5 · chapter mention

Hold your place over in chapter 11.

We're gonna go back.

It says, So David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.

And David took, listen to this, more concubines and wives from Jerusalem after he had come from Hebron.

Okay?

And so hold your place maybe there and go back to Deuteronomy.

I want you to see what was expected of kings.

Deuteronomy chapter 17.

Deuteronomy 17 · chapter mention

Just these two verses will help us build a little bit.

At the heading around verse 14 on down, it says, Principles for governing kings in Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 17, 17 says, Neither shall he, a king, multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.

So it lays out some things that a king shouldn't do.

This, I want you to understand, this examination, this heart that changed, started a long time before David saw Bathsheba.

It started long before this.

It said, Do not have many wives.

And so I get this question a lot, and this may help some of you, it may fuzzy it up even more, but I get this question a lot.

Why was it okay for Old Testament men, kings, to have multiple wives?

Right?

Um, and and here's a couple of things that I got.

Culturally, I'm not saying it's okay, and I even I'm gonna say it's not, but culturally, single women living in that time in a patriarchal society were not able always to provide for themselves.

And so a provider would be needed.

A man could marry, not biblically, not biblically, but legally, okay, culturally and legally could marry several women and provide for them.

Unmarried women could be in a position where they'd be subject to prostitution and slavery, if not cared for by their fathers or their brothers.

Um, and so husbands oftentimes was a thing for protection.

Even so, that being said, biblically, there's never a place for polygamy in the Bible.

Not Old Testament, not New Testament.

The way that the scripture upholds marriage is for monogamy to be proper.

It goes all the way back to the book of Genesis, right?

Y'all remember in the beginning what it says?

It's simple mathematics.

Genesis 2.24, it says, one man for one woman together.

Not three together, not four together, or five gather.

Two gather.

One and one equals two, right?

And not a concubine.

What a weird term.

Would you want to be the concubine?

Like what do you do for a live?

Well, I'm a concubine.

It's it's it's it's in effect a legal mistress.

Okay, it's a weird term.

They had more that they did, and again, there for the um the use uh of protection and all that.

But apparently what we find here, looking back at David in 2 Samuel 5, is that David had a strong sexual desire.

For some reason, in a cultural effect, God allows this without punishment up to this point.

Okay?

Now remember, psalmist named David wrote later, God is quick to mercy, slow to anger.

And so we see that God is like that with his children.

But I have to believe up to this point David abided by cultural, not biblical laws in order to establish it.

So don't leave here saying the preacher said today that polygamy is okay.

It's not.

It's not biblical in any place.

Okay.

But to kind of understand, a lot of people get that question why did people have a lot of wives?

Okay, a lot of it was based on protection.

Okay.

It never says that it was right, though.

It never once says that it was biblically okay with God.

Allowed, possibly.

But David's giant began, listen to me, incrementally well before that.

And I want you to understand, anytime you look in scripture at and you see pointed out systems of polygamy, trouble looms.

If you look at Abraham, Sarah and Hagar had issues, their children had issues, Jacob had issues, but Rachel and Leah, there were issues and divide.

Now David has seven wives, and I don't even want to get into his son Solomon.

Three hundred wives and seven hundred mistresses?

Can you imagine, man?

This is insanity.

How could he keep all of these things together and happy and fine?

You cannot.

And so we get this problem.

But David, again, what I want you to understand is it began long before he ever seen Bathsheba.

I remember entering the fourth grade, it was a banner year for me.

First year that I had a puppy love relationship, and yes, I entered into a relationship, and that girl had a best friend, and she said she just didn't feel right that her best friend would stay alone.

And I said, No problem, ladies.

There's plenty enough for the both of you.

And so I thought I had a pretty good plan.

We would have some school activities.

I remember the first couple skate that I have ever had.

First couple skate ever, one on each hand.

It was wonderful, right?

I had a great plan.

At school, I would spend more time with one girl because on the ride of the bus ride on the way home, the other girl rode the bus.

So I had a perfect process, I thought.

Until by year's end, my heart was stomped by two girls.

It didn't work.

It did not work.

Mathematics, it did not work out.

I want you to know this morning, letter B, David's giant was established over time.

It was established.

Look at verse 2.

So it was long before he meets her in this moment.

We think about this moment, like you walk up the stairs, and then it just happened.

But David was already entertaining things that a king shouldn't entertain.

Letter B, David's giant established.

Verse 2.

It says, Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house.

And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold.

You see, David was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He was in the bedroom instead of the battlefield.

Okay?

David handed his baton to Joab, who was to go out, but it was meant for kings in the springtime to be involved in wars.

And so I want you to know, for me, I don't know about you, but half the time I got in trouble in my life, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Right?

And so David did just that.

He was lounging in his bedroom when it was time to be at battle.

The second thing about this giant being established is David chose to be idle.

He was in the wrong place.

And then he chose to be idle, lazy.

Benjamin Franklin said this it is the working man who is happiest.

The idle man is most miserable.

The idle man is most miserable.

You've heard it said before that the idle mind is the devil's what?

Workshop.

Right?

So here's the scene.

It's like something off of lifestyles and the rich and famous.

You remember that show with Robin Leach?

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

And so David wakes up at noon with something like a fuzzy robe and fuzzy slippers, gets up, eats some cheese from the cheese trays, has some grapes, and continues on his walk.

Walks up the steps.

There's nothing to do, so he heads up there about the time that people might be bathing.

That's the scene.

The third thing that David had an issue with as his giant was established was David had been full of success.

And I want you to know something.

Success sounds very good until it isn't.

David had absolute success over every enemy.

He just finished in chapter 10, a whole nother set of conquests.

Maybe David developed this feeling of invincibility.

I can stay home.

God's blessing is on me.

I can go up the steps.

I don't know if he was kind of dabbling with the idea, maybe this sin's going to come at me, and I'll be able to withstand it.

You see, previous to this, David acted out of humility, but the actions that would follow would show that David, I think, began to believe his own press.

He heads up these stairs, very aware of what could happen.

You know, David wrote in the Psalm, Psalms 109, 105, Thy word is a lamp into my feet and a light into my path, which makes me think the fourth thing that David sort of was happening here in his life, he was neglecting the spiritual man.

He was neglecting the spiritual filling that he knew he needed to stay a man after God's own heart.

Because this is what I know, church.

People that stay close to the Lord don't step up those steps.

They don't put themselves in a situation.

People that are praying and worshiping don't make a beeline up those steps.

People that are spending time with God don't look for and entertain Satan's traps.

You see, David is in a season of life where he's not answering to anyone.

He is king, he is all in all.

He has no accountability in his life.

Who does he have to answer to?

And you see, I need you to know that a giant doesn't just come on all full blast.

It's been coming over time.

But David has no, he has nobody ask him, why are you doing what you're doing?

He gets up, fuzzy, robes, slippers, does what he wants.

And there's a giant before him.

First John says this about 1 John chapter 2, 15 and 16.

1 John 2 · chapter mention

Listen to me.

How do we know he was neglecting the spiritual man?

Because it says, Do not love the world, neither the things of the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not him.

All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

And so David was looking for something more, possibly because he was bored, possibly because he was in the wrong place, wrong time, possibly because he thought he was invincible.

But David had neglected what he knew he was supposed to be doing, and he found himself in this position.

I want you to look over at James chapter 1.

James 1 · chapter mention

You need to see this scripture so you understand the pathway of lust.

James chapter 1, verse 14 and 15.

James 1:14

This is the lust formula.

And this is what happens.

Now it's been happening over time, established, but it happens all at once also.

The temptation that hits him hits him all at once, but over time is what made him susceptible to this moment.

And so verse 14 of James chapter 1 says, Everyone is tempted.

James 1 · chapter mention

We all have temptation when we're drawn away by our own lust and enticed.

And then when desire or lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin when it's finished brings forth death.

And so this is the lust formula.

Lust draws us away.

It was lust back in chapter 5 that began to draw David away.

It began to lure him away.

Away.

What does that mean?

Drawn away from what?

From what is good.

He was drawn away from what is right.

And so he began then, once he was drawn in, the next part was deeds.

I have lust.

This temptation has become lust, a desire, and now I gotta do something with it.

And when lust is finished, it says death.

The best way to have avoided falling was just saying, I will not do that.

And then have been serving.

If you'd have been busy serving, serving a higher purpose, why do we say all the time, hey, get involved.

Get involved at your church.

Get involved, do something.

Because people sometimes it's not, listen, sometimes it's not like the allure of some great sin, but it's that people get bored.

And when you get bored and you're not living a life with purpose or passion towards something, when you get idle, you will be susceptible to doing something that Satan's whispering in your ears when you're not living your purpose for God.

And so David is looking for some excitement.

He craved excitement, and what he craved was right on that rooftop, a sexual encounter.

It's not always the sin that's so alluring.

Sometimes it's too much complacency, church.

Too much mediocrity.

We were created to serve.

And so David found himself wrong place, wrong time, feeling invincible, walks up them steps.

And that takes us to point number two, the nightmare of David's giant.

Nightmare happens after this.

You know, a nightmare happens.

Maybe you've been in this place, but this is this is sort of what when you wake up from it, you go, How did I get here?

When you have to say, How did I get here?

It's too late.

The drunk person wakes up and says, How did I get here?

And it's too late.

The part, listen, teenager, a teenager with a joint in hand for the first time goes, How did I even get here and it's too late?

And the man that cheats on his wife and wakes up and looks over it goes, How did I get to this point?

And the lady that's contemplating leaving her man for another man says, How did I get here and it's too late?

Well, how did David go from man after God's heart to this lust trap?

And I'll tell you how.

Verse 2 and 3, letter A is this David, his giant, ensnared him mentally.

Read two again with me in three.

It says, Then it happened one evening, David arose from his bed, he walked on the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing.

The woman was beautiful to behold.

So David sent and inquired about the woman.

You see, lust is a master at mental warfare.

It says, physically, Bathsheba.

Oh, oh, Bathsheba was beautiful.

No, you know what it says there?

Maybe you didn't maybe you missed it.

It says, very beautiful.

137.

Women are mentioned in the Bible.

Beauty of women is mentioned over a dozen times.

Very beautiful is mentioned by my count four times, and I'm going to give it five.

Four times I'm going to give it five because after God made Adam and Eve, he says, This is very good.

And Adam went, whoa.

Sorry, dad joke.

Whoa, man.

So we have in scripture, I'm going to tell you the names.

Eve, Sarah, Abraham's wife, Rebecca, Jacob's wife, Bathsheba, and Abishag are the ones listed as very beautiful.

Folks, Satan's not playing around with this temptation.

Bathsheba was a vision.

By the way, it's okay to acknowledge beauty.

I don't get mad when people say to me, Rick, your wife Heather is beautiful.

Right?

Like I go, I know.

Right?

Just don't say much more, or your teeth might be in danger.

But she is beautiful.

Bathsheba is a vision.

And when David saw her, right?

You remember that old commercial he did the triple take?

He said, wow.

He looked at her and he lost all his mental faculties.

He lost his focus.

You know, the next eloquent love poetry that comes out of David, he goes, me want her.

That's what he says.

Look at verse 3.

I want her.

He inquired about her, and then he goes full stalker mode, like some of you teenage girls.

Mm-hmm.

Instagram, they can they can find a boy in a half second.

All they gotta do is stand by him.

And then they know their whole story.

Look, we got some stalkers in our group.

I'm just gonna say it.

Say it for what it is.

Look, I'm not saying no names.

Okay.

But all he can think is, I want her.

I want Bathsheba.

And lust takes over and he loses his senses.

He forgets who he is.

And I want you to understand, playing with this is like playing with Russian roule.

It's putting a bullet in the chamber, squeezing the trigger, hoping not to die.

David, in this moment, maybe you've heard the old soul writer, Luther Ingram.

This is David's song right here.

If loving you is wrong, then baby I don't want to be right.

And he's just staring off at Bathsheba.

But look at the second part of verse number three.

I want you to see this.

This is how good God is.

It says, after he inquires about her, after he goes on stalker mode, gets the info, gets the data, gets the numbers, finds out her address, finds out when he can get up with her.

And someone said, this is how good God is, and someone said, Is this not Bathsheba?

The daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?

God still provides a way out.

This is the test of character.

This is the question, isn't that Eliam's daughter?

Isn't it Uriah's wife, David?

This phrase should have made a man of God, an honorable king, a married man, a man with his own daughters, slam the brakes.

1 Corinthians 10 31 says, There hath no temptation take you, but such as is common to man, but God will always make a way of escape.

There's always a way of escape.

Now listen, in order to escape, you're gonna have to practice what I like to call today the five-second rule.

Temptation hits, you've got about five seconds to make a determination sometimes.

David saw her, and his mental faculties took a shift within five seconds.

It was over.

He was in it.

We went not real long ago to an escape room.

Uh Heather and I and some friends, and we went to the clue escape room.

You ought to go to this thing, it's pretty cool.

Um, but in the clue escape room, you had an hour to get out.

And y'all, this is this is just funny.

The group was in there and they were looking for clues and they were trying to figure it out.

And I'm telling you, I was having a ball, doing none of that.

I was picket pulling on things I wasn't supposed to.

It said, don't touch, I touched it.

I was pulling under carpet, looking at the fruit.

I didn't care.

I was having a good time.

The whole team was working feverishly to get out.

I did not care, right?

I was blissfully unaware of the hour time frame.

I didn't know, didn't know how much time we had left, but they were going, they were going, working.

The clock was ticking.

The lust clock is like this, church, and it's ticking.

2 Timothy 2.22 says it this way about lust when it happens.

Flee.

Flee, youthful lusts.

That's why Joseph, look, he was in the clutches of Potiphar's wife, and you know what he did?

She had him by the robe and she said, You're about to come in here with me, baby.

And Joseph said, I'm out of here.

He ran and he came out that door busting through, looked like forest gum.

He said, I just went running.

Said, I'm out of here, Jenny.

Time ran out on David.

The time clock ran out.

He was intoxicated with one thing.

I want to feed this flesh.

I gotta feed it.

I gotta have her.

I seen her, I won her, I need her.

And he was intoxicated with getting it.

Now I looked up a word this week.

Um pornea.

Want you to hear me, church.

The word pornea, the Greek, means lust for sexually immoral or illicit behavior.

The author here is even pointing out that David, look, that he had missed it.

He missed his opportunity to understand.

He said, the author said, someone said, Isn't that Eliam's daughter?

Isn't that Uriah's wife?

In other words, listen, she is nobody's object.

David, she is not an object.

She is not an object for you.

Listen, I have a precious daughter.

And I have a beautiful wife.

I have a mom and I have a sister.

They're nobody's object.

They're not objects, church.

Hear me.

Ladies, you're not an object.

55% of married men and 25% of married women reported that they will watch pornography one time a month.

There's 42 million pornography websites.

There's 40 million U.S.

viewers.

The revenue for pornography bolsters over Major League Baseball, NFL, and MBA combined.

You think this is not a problem?

Please tune in to me, parents.

Please listen to me here.

I've been working with youth ministry all my ministry up to this point.

Every single student is going to view pornography.

There's a smidgen of a window of some ultra crazy parents that might stop it.

But probably not.

The average age of pornography view for guy and girl is 11 years old, church.

70% of youth pastors reported that every year they have at least one student that comes to them saying, I need your help.

I'm addicted to pornography.

Not I've viewed it.

I'm addicted.

I cannot stop.

Addicted.

Listen, church, it ain't like it used to be.

And if you think that you can keep a track of this and you're doing a good job, I want you to know you're not.

There's secret apps.

They can play a game and have a conversation with their friend on the other side of the game, keeping it from you.

They will find every secret app to find.

They will find secret ways to get movies.

If they want to view it, it's just right here.

And if you think in ignorance that you can stop it for a second, you cannot.

The only thing that will stop this is a heart.

And you gotta check that heart.

Please hear me, parents.

Grandparents.

You gotta have uncomfortable conversations.

I'm sorry, but you just do.

Addicted.

It's strange.

I was reading that all of this devices, right?

Devices.

And I was reading 2 Corinthians the other day, and it said that you know what Satan uses against us?

His devices.

Same word has two different meanings.

One means electronic, but the other means a plan or a trick.

Devices.

Also known as the Prince of the Power of the Air.

How do we get all this?

I don't know.

Somebody could explain it to me, but through internet airwaves.

It's there.

Fifty-seven percent of pastors said that porn addiction is the most damaging issue in their congregations.

The nightmare of lust is alive and fighting in your home.

It's fighting in your church.

It's fighting in your kids' school.

It is that serious, and you do need to know.

Church, hear me.

One of every three men that's married sees an extramarital affair.

One out of every six has an extramarital affair.

It's a nightmare that ensnares people into believing that if they just get what's in the trap, that they're going to be fulfilled.

And the only thing that does fulfilling is right here.

But we don't want to do the work to get right here, so we'll go over there to what we think is going to fill us, and it's not filling.

It's a trap.

And it snares people.

Just look around.

Tell me a place where it isn't used.

There's not a commercial that doesn't try to use lust.

There's not an advertisement or a magazine.

You can't walk through the grocery store.

You probably can't buy too many foods.

Satan endeavors to strike us down through lust.

That takes us to letter B.

What happened to David?

Letter B, David's giant eclipsed his master.

He looked at this thing and took his eyes off his master.

He was focusing on this thing and this feeling and took his eyes.

Maybe the saddest part of this story, David is, he's not a teenager anymore.

David is in his 50s when he sees Bathsheba.

He's in his 50s.

So when you say, Oh, it's never gonna happen.

I'm a grown man, I've been through, listen to me.

You don't know better.

He's been a king now for near 20 years.

He sent for her, ignoring the questions.

Look at what it says.

Then David sent messengers, verse 4, and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her, but she was cleansed from her impurity, and she returned to her house.

It says that David laid with her.

I want you to know, church, this is not a nap.

I want you to look at your neighbor and say, It's not a nap.

It's not a nap.

This is not a snuggle.

He didn't call her over to spoon.

It's not a nap.

What David does that will follow, he dishonors her.

He dishonors Uriah, her husband.

He dishonors his own wives and his own family, and he dishonors his own God.

Exodus 20, 14 says this that thou shalt not commit adultery.

David is so intoxicated by desire that he's acting as if he's a practical atheist.

Like there is no God.

And for this moment, I'm just.

The God that took a stone and killed the greatest giant Israel ever seen was with David.

And David acts as if God doesn't exist.

Don't tell me it won't happen to you and me.

He saw the hand of God and he acted in this moment as if God didn't exist.

For what?

For a moment.

A moment.

A moment in time that would cost him for a lifetime.

For a moment.

2 Corinthians chapter 10 says this.

2 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

Verse 3 through 5.

I want you to hear this.

How do we work against this?

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.

The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God.

Listen, for the pulling down of strongholds, this is how we fight against it.

It says, casting down every evil imagination that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought, every thought into captivity.

We have to stop every thought.

You got five seconds.

It's like that.

You got to stop that thought.

Five seconds, you got to stop that thought.

Teenager, listen to me.

It's going to be too late.

It is going to be too late.

If you get in the basement, it's too late.

Just hear me.

It's too late.

Parents, don't give them a blanket.

Don't let them sit there and watch the movie.

Just be cold.

You're going to have to watch a movie cold.

I'm sorry.

Don't need a blanket.

Why do we have a in the youth ministry here?

Why do we say kids don't ride on the van together, boys and girls?

Duh.

If David was a man after God's own heart and he did it, you're going to mess up too.

He says, every thought, bring it in captivity.

Why is it so important that he'd been in God's word?

Psalms 119, 11.

He wrote, Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.

You've not been left without weapons, so let me give you seven practical tips.

If you're writing stuff down, these would be great.

How do we fight lust?

How do we fight against this?

Number one, read the Bible.

Absolutely read the Bible.

I've said this jokingly over and over.

It is real hard for me to have worship music turned on and cuss somebody out that cuts me off.

It's real hard.

It's real hard.

Waymaker spiritual.

If I'm doing something spiritual, it's real hard for me to fall.

So read the Bible.

Number two, hear me.

Everyone, be careful how you look at others.

Church, how you look at others, because Matthew says that if you look at someone to lust after them with your eyes, then you've committed adultery in your heart already.

Be careful how you look at others.

Be careful how you receive or perceive that look that comes across your way and that feeling that it gives you.

Be careful how you look at others.

Number three, be careful how you look to others.

Be careful.

Why is the Bible so big about modesty?

Be careful how you look to somebody.

Don't dress for that attention.

Men or women.

It's a different world.

Used to you just hear this about ladies, right?

I got guys in the youth group.

Oh, I got this six-pack of head, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I want all the ladies to see it.

It's everywhere.

Everyone.

Dress for comfort.

I don't wear nothing called skinny.

There's a reason.

Just saying.

Skinny doesn't sound comfortable.

Am I right, Jason?

Okay.

I don't got nothing in my closet called that.

Maybe portly, but not skinny.

So be careful how you look to others.

Number four, be busy.

Be busy.

It goes with number five, but be busy.

Number five is avoid isolation.

That's the way the devil works.

He gets you when you're tired, it'll get you when you're alone, it gets you late at night, it gets you when your wife leaves on a trip, it gets you when your husband leaves on a trip.

Don't be alone and stay busy.

Next one, utilize the five-second rule.

When it comes, you got five seconds.

And if you don't eat, scream, yell, do something with Jesus involved, the other name might come out.

You got five seconds.

And the last thing is for married folks, enjoy your spouse.

Bible says it, Proverbs 5 says, enjoy the wife of your youth.

So Heather just told me, I'm will enjoy you.

I love you.

It says in 1 Corinthians, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 7.

1 Corinthians 7 · chapter mention

I'm not gonna go there now.

That's a marriage conference for another day, but it says, don't neglect each other.

I'm just being honest.

We don't hear this enough.

It says, unless for the cause of fasting.

So enjoy one another.

That takes us to the last point this morning, the negativity of David's giant.

You see, love gives and lust takes.

Love waits, lust is impatient.

Love respects a person, lust violates a person, love forgives a person, lust condemns a person, love is generous, lust is greedy.

Love protects, lust endangers.

The negativity of this giant, there's so much depth to it.

I want you to look at verse 5.

Letter A is this David's giant causes deception.

Verse 5.

And the woman conceived.

So she sent and told David and said, I am with child.

The woman conceived.

Y'all, isn't that the way it had to be?

Right?

Like, anyone else here, you could never get away with anything you did wrong?

Man, that is me to a T.

I'm thankful now, but at the time I got caught everything I ever did wrong.

I'm just being honest.

My parents are gonna be here next week.

It was like, there you go.

There you go.

There, God had a hold of the nap of my neck.

I was in the middle of, shh.

I'm like, again?

Really?

I thought I thought this one through.

Of course, Bathsheba got pregnant.

Right?

Of course.

What else could have happened?

By the way, I was telling y'all the other week things you don't say to pregnant people.

Another phrase you don't say to someone pregnant, you know they found out what causes that.

Don't say that.

Don't say, don't y'all have cable.

Just quit.

Okay?

Just quit that stuff.

Chuck Swindall shared a young man talking to his grandfather about sexual behavior.

And he said, Grandpa, in your day, you didn't battle with all this stuff that we do.

What did they teach you about protection and how to be protected?

And the grandfather, without batting an eye, shot back, took his finger and went like this.

This is how we protected ourselves.

He said, We got a wedding ring.

Listen to me, students.

That's God's plan for sex.

This is God's plan for you.

This is what God's plan is.

And so I need you to see verse 6 through 9 what happens after this.

Of course, Bathsheba gets pregnant.

So David starts down a long road of deception.

Verse 6, it says, Then David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite.

And Joab sent Uriah to David.

When Uriah had come to him, David asked how Joab was doing, and how the people were doing, and how the war was prospering.

And David said to Uriah, Go down to your house and wash your feet.

So Uriah departed from the king's house, and a gift of food from the king followed him.

But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants.

So, what we see here is David trying to make a plan.

Plan A is this I'm pulling Uriah out of battle.

He's gonna go home, and surely he's gonna sleep with his wife, who's pregnant, and so I'll be cleared.

It'll be Uriah's baby.

Plan A does not work because Uriah, verse 11, look at what it says.

Uriah says to David, The Ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are encamped in the open fields.

Shall I then go to my house to eat, drink, and to lie with my life as you live and as your soul lives?

I will not do this thing.

So it's like David's done what he's done, and then he has to know this guy is an upright guy.

This is a nice man.

This is a solid man.

This is a person who is respectful.

And I've done what I've done to his wife.

And he will not even leave war to go sleep with his wife for the night.

Makes matters even worse.

David, this is a good man.

Well, look at verse 12 and 13.

Then David said to Uriah, wait here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart.

So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.

Now, verse 13, when David called him, he ate and he drank before and he made him drunk.

In the evening he went out to lie in his bed with the servants of the Lord, but he did not go down to his house.

So plan A was pull Uriah off the battlefield, hopes he goes home to sleep his wife.

Plan B is plan A, but also get Uriah hammered.

That's what he does, right?

Despite Uriah's nobility, he does like a corona.

So Uriah drinks up, gets drunk, but never makes it home.

Numbers 33, 23, church says, be sure your sin will find you out.

There's not a place that your lie escapes God.

Listen to me, teenagers.

Proverbs 15, 3 says, The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.

We don't escape his presence.

And so plan B does not work.

You remember when you got in trouble and you had to wait?

Do you remember getting in trouble and having to wait?

Remember your mind racing when you had to wait and you were thinking of all the lies and the schemes and the way that you could justify it or dig yourself out of that hole.

And you remember how you felt in the pit of your stomach?

Disgusting?

Listen, if you're not willing to confess and be honest, the only other option is deceit.

That was David's only other option.

Because he was not willing yet to confess.

He was only willing to be deceiving.

Jeremiah 17, 9 says this that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.

I want you to read a sad piece of scripture.

Go over to Proverbs chapter 6.

Proverbs 6 · chapter mention

David, man after God's own heart.

Proverbs 6, 16 through 19.

Says, these six things the Lord hates.

Yes, seven are abomination to him.

A proud look, a lying tongue.

David's done these.

Hands that shed innocent blood, and a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift and running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.

David, who loved God, in a moment became the epitome of the things God hates.

All of them.

God hates those things.

This takes us to letter B.

What will become the destruction?

David's giant caused destruction.

Plan A and B didn't work, so David went ahead with plan C, which was pull back the troops in the heat of the battle and let Uriah be at the front.

I want you to understand something, church.

Destruction has been all along.

Adam and Eve had lust of the eyes, and it was going for that forbidden fruit, that lust of the eyes that caused us to have sin today.

We inherited sin.

We didn't get a choice in it.

It was lust in Sodom and Gomorrah that caused the city's complete destruction.

Lust took Samson's strength and killed him.

David's two sons after him inherited this curse.

He has a son named Amnon who lusted after his own sister and raped her.

He has a son named Solomon who was overtaken in lust.

If you have an appetite for money, the next promotion will not be the end of your lust.

Lust never says, okay, you can stop now.

That is plenty.

For some, today you might have a struggle with something simpler like food, and your lust goes, I need just one more.

And after one more, then I'll stop.

And others, it might be a magazine, and they look on it and say, just one more nude picture and then I'll stop.

And someone else says, after I have one more joint, it'll be my last and then I'll stop.

Just one more drink of beer, this will be my last and then I'll stop.

Just one more section gambling, and it's gonna be my last and then I'll stop.

If I just get one more pair of shoes that I can have in my closet, then I will stop, then I will stop.

And the Bible, it says it just needs more and more.

The Bible says the pride of eyes, the flesh, the pride of life, they all need more.

And what they say to us, pretty please, just have one more.

You'll be able to be done with it if you just have one more.

But what it means to do is to destroy you, church.

Look at verse 14 through 17.

In the morning it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.

He wrote in the letter saying, Set him at the forefront of the hottest battle and retreat.

And so this is what Joab does.

They come through, and Uriah the Hittite at the end of verse 17 died also.

Lust is never satisfied.

Deception didn't work, so he premeditates destruction, orders the death penalty on a good and decent man.

Lust church is never satisfied.

Don't be deceived.

The giant looming will never be satisfied, for nothing short of destruction.

I think verse 26 and 27 are probably the saddest part.

It says, When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband, was dead, she mourned for her husband.

And when her mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son.

But listen to this.

I want you to hear the coldness and the heaviness and the weight of the relationship between David and the Lord.

But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.

Cold and vacant is this line.

It's almost like there should be a big pause before the next chapter.

The man after God's heart who experienced victory over victory.

I can almost see God cheering down the teenage boy that slew Goliath.

Look at my boy go.

It's unbelievable.

The world is gonna see me through him, and then he makes good choice after good choice, and he's conquering and battling, and he will not fall, and he's praying and he's writing psalms, and God is so pleased with his David.

And then this desolate phrase.

And the thing that he had done displeased the Lord.

When that preacher found that boy with his son, and the boy got the bird in the cage.

Remember what he said?

He said, What are you gonna do to that bird?

And he said, Preacher, you're not gonna like it.

I'm gonna pull at it, I'm gonna poke at it, I'm gonna mess with it, I'm gonna hurt it, I'm gonna taunt it, I'm gonna laugh at it, I'm gonna throw rocks at it.

It's my capture.

I can do what I want to do with this bird.

I'm gonna open up the cage and make it think it can get set free, and then I'm gonna slam it shut on it.

I'm gonna keep throwing things at it, and when I've had my fun, I'm probably just gonna kill it.

The preacher's little boy spoke up.

He said, Daddy, I want that bird.

I'll pay for that bird.

As he was looking at his father, discussing this, the little boy with the bird piped in.

He said, Oh, you want the bird?

It ain't gonna be cheap.

He said, Okay.

And then the little boy said, Why would you even want this bird?

It's useless, it's worthless.

I've messed with it.

There's nothing good to it.

It's disgusting, it is unusable.

And the little boy says, What will it take?

He said, All right.

His father looked at him and said, Give him everything you have, son.

He pulled open his wallet from the work he had just got done, and he pulled out his hundred dollar bill, all that he had, and he handed it to him.

The boy gave him the bird.

The little boy looked at it, he was so happy that he had made this purchase.

He looked at it and he opened the cage, and the bird walked out, hobbled out, and he took some time with the bird, but finally the bird was able to fly away.

Church, listen to me, 2,000 years ago.

Satan tried to trap us and put us in his cage.

He tried to have all of humanity locked up in his cage, and he looked at us and he had the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

And he was asked, Satan, what are you thinking about doing to those people?

And he said, I tell you what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna mess with them.

I'm gonna hurt them.

I'm gonna make their houses a war, I'm gonna make their schools a war, their families a war.

I tell you, I'm gonna make their life like hell, and I'm gonna mess with them every day, all day.

I'm gonna terrorize them.

I'm gonna make them want to drug themselves and I'll make them want to starve themselves, and I'm gonna make them want to drink themselves, and I'll make them want to sex themselves.

And when I've had my fun, I hope to make them just want to kill themselves.

And Jesus looked at the Father and said, I want them.

I want them, Father.

He said, I'm everything.

And Jesus said, I give everything.

I give them everything so that they can be freed.

Give them everything so they can be free.