Speaker 1: I tell you what if you've been missing these services, you've been missing a lot.
Speaker 1: God's been pouring out his spirit and he's been doing something real for his people and showing himself to his people once again as they make the grand escape.
Speaker 1: I tell you what it takes a man of skill to get out all them wires and straps and everything else and get off the stage without tripping over something.
Speaker 1: If you have your way, just go ahead and fall forward Right to the altar.
Speaker 1: Brother, go ahead.
Speaker 1: If you have your Bible today, look with me in 1 Corinthians 16, verse 13.
Speaker 1: If you're already there, say amen.
Speaker 1: If you need more time, say hold up, I got you.
Speaker 1: Like Brother Vernon said, if you don't have a church home, welcome home.
Speaker 1: If you didn't notice, we like having fun, but we also stick to the scripture and what the word of God says, and anything outside of that will not be coming from this pulpit.
Speaker 1: We believe that the word of God is infallible.
Speaker 1: It is true.
Speaker 1: It is the one true source of all knowledge and truth.
Speaker 1: There is no other truth, doesn't matter what your opinion and feelings say about it, doesn't matter what the culture says.
Speaker 1: There is only one truth and it comes from God and it comes from the word, and we do not bend and we do not let the culture influence the church.
Speaker 1: The church needs to be influencing the culture.
Speaker 1: 1 Corinthians 16, verse 13,.
Speaker 1: It says Be on guard, stand firm in the faith, be courageous and be strong.
Speaker 1: Let's pray, father, we thank you so much for your presence.
Speaker 1: I pray, god, that the hardest of hearts hear today that your word penetrate.
Speaker 1: Let my mouth be the mouthpiece of the Lord today.
Speaker 1: Let lives be transformed, let spirits be renewed, let minds be regenerated.
Speaker 1: In the name of Jesus, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1: You may be seated.
Speaker 1: Now we're going to do a small little recap.
Speaker 1: Anybody here last week Anybody we got some that were, some that weren't, so right now we're in this series.
Speaker 1: Last week was our first Sunday of in this series of choose first, choose first.
Speaker 1: We have to make a decision today for the choices and temptations that we will be faced with tomorrow.
Speaker 1: We have to choose today that we are going to serve the Lord, no matter what comes our way.
Speaker 1: We are going to stand firm and steadfast where God has called us to be, where God has planted you to grow, and we're going to make the decision now for the future of tomorrow.
Speaker 1: So last week was take it back.
Speaker 1: Did anybody carry home a steak with you?
Speaker 1: If you were here, you didn't get a steak like a medium rare version or a T-bone.
Speaker 1: You got a steak.
Speaker 1: It looked like a tent stake in the ground.
Speaker 1: You went home and my instructions were it had a scripture on it that whatever the weapons the enemy is going to form, that he will form them.
Speaker 1: It is promised that we will have trouble, we will have turmoil, we will be on the spotlight for God.
Speaker 1: When you say I am a Christian, people begin to take notice and then watch to see what you're going to do, and sometimes people who don't come to church will use the church to dictate how they live their lives.
Speaker 1: So we need to make sure that we are living accordingly to the scriptures.
Speaker 1: And so, on those stakes, I instructed you to take them home and to drive them in the ground with your family to pray over them, to pray over your property, to pray over Longview, texas, to pray over Kilgore and Hallsville and New Diana, and by this we are declaring that what the enemy has tried to take from us, we are here to take it back in the name of the Lord, that everything the enemy has tried to rob us of and sometimes we give it to him that we are making clay.
Speaker 1: We are putting a stake in the ground that we are here to stay and, no matter what it looks like, we are going to follow the Lord.
Speaker 1: The whole idea behind this series is to retrain our minds and our spirits to stop letting life just happen to you, that you have the authority to take control of your life.
Speaker 1: Last week, the stakes to reclaim your physical property surrounding Longview, texas.
Speaker 1: This brings the body into unity that everyone imagine.
Speaker 1: This is how, when I thought that up and we had, at the beginning of the year, stake Longview and it was kind of the same principle we went to schools this time and the entrances of Longview, texas.
Speaker 1: It's time that we keep out the enemy of our business.
Speaker 1: A lot of us, we have something we put stock into and we let the enemy move in and build a house when he has no business having real estate there.
Speaker 1: That the territory imagine this.
Speaker 1: Everyone who took home a stake in all of the area that we covered, all of us put the stakes in the ground and everything inside of there is now going to be blood bought and redeemed by God.
Speaker 1: That's what I believe that when you put scripture I said it last week, but actually in the foundation of this church, there is an actual Bible in the foundation of this church, because when you put your foundation on the word of God, you will not falter, you will not wane, you will not whine, you will continue to serve the Lord because you know what real truth is.
Speaker 1: There's people Brother Vernon told me this story and I've heard it from other places is that money, currency, the dollar bill of America?
Speaker 1: The people who study to make sure it's not being produced and ripped off and used as fake currency.
Speaker 1: They don't study the fake currency because there's too many variations.
Speaker 1: They study the one true piece of currency to know when a fake comes about.
Speaker 1: The problem is we get wrapped up on YouTube, ministers, and you don't have a real relationship with God.
Speaker 1: You haven't been diving into his word for yourself and so when false prophets and false ministries come knocking at your door, you don't have a clue and the enemy sneaks into your camp and you just eat whatever's served at the table.
Speaker 1: You've got to have a relationship with the one true God and we start by getting into his word.
Speaker 1: You must put a stake in the ground and say for me and my house we will serve the Lord.
Speaker 1: Enough is enough.
Speaker 1: I choose this day.
Speaker 1: From here forward, let me say something to you you cannot sin too hard or too loud to not be welcomed in when God's grace and mercy covers you.
Speaker 1: It don't matter what you did last night, you're here today.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter your struggles.
Speaker 1: It cannot rob you of your salvation unless you give it over.
Speaker 1: But if you keep trying and you keep pushing and you keep reading and you keep praying, one day I believe we serve a God of breakthrough.
Speaker 1: But it starts with you putting a mistake in the ground and saying I don't care what everybody else is doing around me.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you've got to cut some relationships, sometimes you've got to let some people go Because they are poison to your very soul.
Speaker 1: That we, as followers of Christ, we do not have to sit and wait for the enemy to come to us.
Speaker 1: We need to be more on the offense and stop playing only defense.
Speaker 1: No sport in the history of sports has ever been won by only good defense.
Speaker 1: If you can't get the ball in the history of sports has ever been won by only good defense.
Speaker 1: If you can't get the ball.
Speaker 1: In the end zone we are to be.
Speaker 1: We are to understand that we have the authority and the power to go to the enemy's playground and win souls for the kingdom To be in the offensive moment, not just defensive.
Speaker 1: So today we're going to be talking about overcoming temptation, because here's what I know as soon as I make a claim and put my stake in the ground, the enemy comes knocking on my door.
Speaker 1: He starts trying to find places he can disrupt and dismantle my divine destiny that God has called me into.
Speaker 1: And sometimes we let him.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: It's not because we want to invite him in, it's because we're not paying attention.
Speaker 1: You haven't been preparing for the battle at hand.
Speaker 1: And so you look around and you find yourself in the middle of this season or battle, or circumstance and you're like, oh, if only I would have blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, guess what?
Speaker 1: Today is the time that you make that decision.
Speaker 1: From here on forward, I'm going to preemptively prepare myself spiritually for the battles that are coming my way.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because we know that it rains on the just and the unjust.
Speaker 1: It is proven Ask anyone who's been on this earth for a while that you will have hardships, you will have troubles, you will have loss, you will have pain.
Speaker 1: So it would be stupid and ignorant for someone who knows God to let these things just happen to us.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to tell you the week's coming up.
Speaker 1: We got a seven-week series maybe the longest one I've done yet and we may not stop at seven.
Speaker 1: It just depends on what the Lord does.
Speaker 1: Week three we're going to be talking about the power of consistency.
Speaker 1: You ever talk to somebody about their Christian faith, belief before, and they just rattle off a bunch of cherry picking scriptures and they have no consistency.
Speaker 1: Week four drawing closer to God.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we get caught up on programs and time and everything else that goes on in a structure of a church and we forget to tarry and wait and draw closer to God.
Speaker 1: If you're waiting for a Sunday service to draw closer to God, your well will dry up, because what you're doing and listen to me, I'm going to say this as bluntly as possible to hurt your feelings is that if you wait for God to do something in your life, to come and hear a word from a preacher, you have made an idol.
Speaker 1: If you come to a church and you're wanting to be filled by God, you're wanting to feel his spirit and, yes, he does those things in his house.
Speaker 1: But you are a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: You carry with you the name of God.
Speaker 1: You bear witness, with God going with you in the name of the Lord.
Speaker 1: It is not a building.
Speaker 1: That is the church.
Speaker 1: The people in the seats are the church, and if you only see church as a place you go to, you will never, ever find the place that you're looking for, because it's not a person, it's not a man or a woman, it's not a worship team, it's not a certain song.
Speaker 1: Yes, these things are wonderful, these things are great, and I believe that God has designed them for our enjoyment, that we are not to forsake the gathering.
Speaker 1: It's important to be with each other, but if you don't get along with God, it's all for nothing.
Speaker 1: Drawing closer to him.
Speaker 1: Week five what happens when you in your life stop holding back?
Speaker 1: Paint that however you want, but what if?
Speaker 1: What if God has been waiting to use you and you keep holding back his spirit from your life working?
Speaker 1: What if God has a divine purpose for you?
Speaker 1: And guess what he does?
Speaker 1: What if God has a divine purpose for you and guess what he does?
Speaker 1: And you have been sitting there on your gift, constraining the spirit of God working in your life because you're whining about what your circumstance looks like.
Speaker 1: If you do this, you are saying that God is not big enough, that his grace is not sufficient enough, that whatever's going on in my life, it trumps God.
Speaker 1: And I'll say it again If you do this and you live this life, you have made an idol.
Speaker 1: What happens when you stop holding back?
Speaker 1: Week six?
Speaker 1: One word that will change your life.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to give it to you.
Speaker 1: You got to stick around that long Week seven, when you want to give up.
Speaker 1: See, all these things are surrounding choosing first, which there's a lot of times when you may make a choice and you choose first, but you're in the middle of it and you get tired, you get exhausted and you just want to throw in the towel.
Speaker 1: So we're going to be talking about what to do when you get to that point.
Speaker 1: So if you come here all the time, or you're visiting today, or if you go back and want to watch the messages, I want to let you know if you've been looking on Facebook.
Speaker 1: We stopped going live on Facebook.
Speaker 1: We have no more videos on Facebook.
Speaker 1: It kept giving us trouble and I was actually thinking about this the other day because I had an online apparel store.
Speaker 1: I make t-shirts and hats and all these other things and I, just a couple of weeks ago, I cut that and let it loose, because I'm getting to the age now to where if it ain't working for me, it's working against me and I ain't got time for that.
Speaker 1: So we had Facebook and YouTube that we would do simultaneously and Facebook kept giving us issues and they're like we can't figure it out.
Speaker 1: I said then cut it.
Speaker 1: So if you want to watch our sermons, every single sermon since the conception of this church in this building with the cameras, is on our YouTube channel, connect Church Longview.
Speaker 1: Look it up.
Speaker 1: You'll see the logo and everything on the channel.
Speaker 1: So that's where.
Speaker 1: If you're looking for the services, that's where they are Sunday, as soon as they're live.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you the process as soon as they're live and they go off, they are not rebroadcasted until Monday again, okay, at about eight o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 1: That gives me time to edit the photos and the thumbnail and all the YouTube fun stuff.
Speaker 1: So just letting you know.
Speaker 1: If you can't find it on a Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 1: That's where it's at.
Speaker 1: If you want to share it with somebody Monday morning, it will be there ready for you to share and give to somebody else.
Speaker 1: So I just want to let y'all know we're not doing Facebook anymore.
Speaker 1: We still have a page, we still have an Instagram, but we're only going live on YouTube because I ain't got time to waste on their precious time and energy to try to figure out what's going on.
Speaker 1: If you ain't working for us.
Speaker 1: I have the same policy about programs.
Speaker 1: People think the more programs you have, the better your church is.
Speaker 1: Usually that's the more dead weight you got.
Speaker 1: So if a program ain't working, I'm cutting.
Speaker 1: So one day.
Speaker 1: If your program, I'm just kidding, just kidding.
Speaker 1: So I believe that through this seven-week process, that God is going to speak to someone here today.
Speaker 1: So prepare your hearts every week.
Speaker 1: I want you to.
Speaker 1: Before you come into this church, you should be already every single day preparing your hearts, not Sunday morning on the way to church.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this and I'm going to be very y'all know I'm pretty blunt already.
Speaker 1: I may have to apologize later.
Speaker 1: Will you ever come to a Sunday service?
Speaker 1: And it was just as okay.
Speaker 1: You're the problem.
Speaker 1: A pastor does not manifest something.
Speaker 1: I'm not your motivational speaker.
Speaker 1: I'm the deliverer of the word of God.
Speaker 1: I sing, I do other things to lead worship, but I can only do what I can do.
Speaker 1: That's what's so awesome about being a part of a body, is every single piece of the body has a purpose, it has a place.
Speaker 1: So if you're not feeling the service, start worshiping a little harder.
Speaker 1: If you don't like the pastor, say amen a little louder and you'll just start enjoying yourself.
Speaker 1: And I promise you, the more you say amen, the faster I talk and preach, so the faster I'll get done.
Speaker 1: So if you're worried about lunch, just start saying hallelujah, praise God, and we'll get out of here.
Speaker 1: I told you, man, church is too fun.
Speaker 1: I have good and I have good times in the Lord.
Speaker 1: All the times in the Lord that I have had and experienced is better than any second in the world.
Speaker 1: This is why I've been beating you over the head.
Speaker 1: I say it every single Sunday.
Speaker 1: The challenge is 17,.
Speaker 1: Five minutes in prayer, five minutes of reading a word, five minutes of praising.
Speaker 1: Start your day off that way.
Speaker 1: Some of you are like that's not 17.
Speaker 1: Hold on, I'm getting there.
Speaker 1: Start your day off that way and you'll be ready and prepared and I promise you, after a few days five minutes won't be enough.
Speaker 1: And then do one small act of faith every single day and invite one person to church.
Speaker 1: Start quacking as loud as you can to get the other ducks to come to the pond.
Speaker 1: Why do one small act of faith every day?
Speaker 1: Same reason you go to the gym every single day to work out is you want to get that muscle larger.
Speaker 1: So reason you go to the gym every single day to work out is you want to get that muscle larger.
Speaker 1: So when you start believing and other people start believing, everybody may have baby faith, but when you get together, your faith becomes larger and you are built up in strength and faith and, all of a sudden, things that you never would have prayed for or believed in.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden you're like I know God can do it.
Speaker 1: Let's go to the hospital and clear that place out and if you've got a lot of faith, you'll go to the Lord.
Speaker 1: I've heard stories of people spitting up embalming fluid after they've already been embalmed.
Speaker 1: Now listen, I don't want to be around that.
Speaker 1: That will scare me.
Speaker 1: I'm just being honest.
Speaker 1: But I know God can do it and I'll pray for that from a distance.
Speaker 1: So today's message, now that we've got a little spiritual right Overcoming temptation Now why is it so important to understand that you have an assignment on you, that you have the enemy coming for you.
Speaker 1: When you begin to declare and rightly divide the way you're going to be living, when you start diving into the word, when you start witnessing to people, when you start inviting people to church start witnessing to people, when you start inviting people to church, everything in your life is going to begin to break down, it seems.
Speaker 1: Now the question is and this part doesn't matter, but think about it Is it the devil coming after you or is it God perfecting your faith?
Speaker 1: You read Job.
Speaker 1: It was the devil that did all the things to him, but it was a stamp of approval from the Heavenly Father.
Speaker 1: So let me twist up your theology a little bit.
Speaker 1: Maybe sufferings and issues and pains are not for you.
Speaker 1: Maybe what you're walking through right now it is hard, it is a struggle, but it may not be for you.
Speaker 1: Is anybody else in the house very selfish like this?
Speaker 1: You think when you're going through something?
Speaker 1: Oh Lord, I just can't believe God.
Speaker 1: I've been paying my tithes.
Speaker 1: I've been coming to church faithful.
Speaker 1: Why is this happening?
Speaker 1: Because you have been faithful and now we're going to see if you really believe what you say.
Speaker 1: Do you not build in trust when you have to trust?
Speaker 1: Do you not start to build your faith when you actually have to believe?
Speaker 1: Do you not truly Begin to thirst when you're in the desert?
Speaker 1: Do you begin To seek his face the most when everything is right or when everything is wrong?
Speaker 1: Sadly enough, that is our human condition Is that we seem to have to be pressed on every side before we begin to look up.
Speaker 1: Because as soon as you start to declare that I am going to change, I am going to live for God, I'm going to give him everything, the enemy's ears begin to perk up and he begins to look in your direction.
Speaker 1: You are now his number one enemy.
Speaker 1: So how does the enemy fight against us?
Speaker 1: He tries to get us to drink from the well of temptation.
Speaker 1: Now let me ask you this.
Speaker 1: Probably everyone in here, you're in church.
Speaker 1: You know the story of Jesus, that he was perfect, he was the perfect sacrificial lamb for our sins, and yet he still, and yet he still read it.
Speaker 1: When he was baptized, the Spirit came down like a dove on him Immediately.
Speaker 1: Not the devil, led him out into the wilderness to be tempted.
Speaker 1: The Spirit led him out to be tempted.
Speaker 1: And what does that mean?
Speaker 1: That means, if you're following closely behind the Lord and you're being led by his spirit, who are you to be better than Jesus?
Speaker 1: Now, what did Jesus do when he was tempted?
Speaker 1: He stuck to what he knew to be true.
Speaker 1: If you don't know or understand the scriptures, how are you supposed to face temptation?
Speaker 1: If you don't know what's available to you and who is fighting for you, how will you stand against temptation?
Speaker 1: You may think this is pretty obvious, that when the devil's coming at you, oh, I could spot that easy.
Speaker 1: But let me ask you some questions.
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you.
Speaker 1: Jesus did this all the time.
Speaker 1: He said parables that were a physical example of spiritual things.
Speaker 1: So listen to this have you ever, you ever met anybody who planned Anybody?
Speaker 1: What's that show?
Speaker 1: A thousand pounds, my sister a thousand pounds, or something like that?
Speaker 1: Something like that, a thousand pounds, sister, I, sister.
Speaker 1: I was reading the Spanish version.
Speaker 1: It was backwards.
Speaker 1: Y'all didn't know I knew Spanish.
Speaker 1: Does anybody in here think that one day, when she was a child.
Speaker 1: She woke up and she's like you know.
Speaker 1: I think a thousand is probably a good place to try to hit.
Speaker 1: Do we think that that was an actual, accurate thing?
Speaker 1: Or does, over time, slowly, you get to a place where you're like, oh my goodness, I have to get new clothes because my pants don't fit anymore?
Speaker 1: I just recently went through this.
Speaker 1: Some of you are like no, you didn't.
Speaker 1: Yes, I did.
Speaker 1: Shut up.
Speaker 1: You don't understand my pain.
Speaker 1: I went from size 28 to size 30 because, shut up, listen, listen, it's that, it's that Pentecostal weight, it's coming on.
Speaker 1: I know some of you are like, oh, that's so stupid.
Speaker 1: But I, I seriously would get angry when I put on pants and the buttons would not touch anymore Because, listen, I'm not a bigger frame guy, it's not up on me.
Speaker 1: I thought I was going to go walking out looking good and I couldn't even leave the bedroom because I wouldn't go on.
Speaker 1: No, this was months ago, this was not recent, and some of y'all laugh because you really understand Anybody ever.
Speaker 1: When they were younger, they were a little smaller than they are now.
Speaker 1: Come on, we got some people living in the truth in the house of God today when you were a little younger, you were a little smaller.
Speaker 1: None of us said, oh, as soon as I get out of high school, I'm getting my fantastic 50 on.
Speaker 1: Nobody says that.
Speaker 1: Nobody says when they are four years old.
Speaker 1: You know, just one day I want to be bankrupt.
Speaker 1: I just you know.
Speaker 1: I want to give it all away.
Speaker 1: I just you know I want to give it all away.
Speaker 1: I just want to have nothing.
Speaker 1: Matter of fact, I would love.
Speaker 1: I would just love Mom.
Speaker 1: I would just love to be in debt to the IRS.
Speaker 1: That's just a goal of mine.
Speaker 1: God placed it on my heart.
Speaker 1: I want the IRS to chase after me, apparently with their new guns.
Speaker 1: Apparently, I don't know, no one sets out with these goals, but yet things happen in life Little small steps in the wrong direction, just a little bit.
Speaker 1: It's not always a hard right and you find yourself there.
Speaker 1: It's always a little bit, just a little, where you never desire to be.
Speaker 1: I don't know anybody who's ever really thought I want to be hooked on pornography, yet I know people that enjoy it.
Speaker 1: No one set out to be hooked on it.
Speaker 1: Temptation is sly like that because we don't pay attention.
Speaker 1: I don't know of anybody who plans to do something just completely outrageous stupid, knowing that it's stupid and you make it on your calendar.
Speaker 1: I'm going to do something stupid today, or I'm going to set out and I'm going to do something sinful today and then hide it and then lie about it.
Speaker 1: Oh, and then I'll lose some trust in some people that I really love the most.
Speaker 1: The people that you end up hiding things from are the ones you end up hurting the most.
Speaker 1: No one ever sets out.
Speaker 1: They don't put that in their plan book.
Speaker 1: No one ever sets out.
Speaker 1: They don't put that in their plan book.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna betray some trust today, in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 1: It don't, it don't.
Speaker 1: We don't do that.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because on the outside, looking in, you're like man, that is stupid, that's dumb.
Speaker 1: Nobody would do that.
Speaker 1: But we make these spiritual decisions slightly every single day.
Speaker 1: The problem is that most of us, we don't plan to do this, but we don't plan to not do it either.
Speaker 1: We just let it happen, and that's what we're going to talk about.
Speaker 1: Something today that I believe has the potential to impact your life in a very, very powerful way Is to choose first.
Speaker 1: Before you end up in the depths of sin, choose first, we need to understand that the quality I said this last week the quality of our decisions determines the quality of our life.
Speaker 1: In other words, we make our decisions and then our decisions make us, and we've said this since the beginning of the year.
Speaker 1: We've been talking about retraining your mind.
Speaker 1: You can literally rewrite.
Speaker 1: It's so awesome what God has given the body the ability to do.
Speaker 1: We can rewrite and retrain ourselves in 90 days to form new habits.
Speaker 1: You can literally physically reroute brainwaves.
Speaker 1: Why do we want to do this?
Speaker 1: Why is this so important?
Speaker 1: Because your life will go to the motion of your strongest thoughts.
Speaker 1: That's why the Bible says to think on things above and do not let what's going on around you to distract you, because if you do, you will be messed up.
Speaker 1: You will be constantly depressed, full of anxiety.
Speaker 1: You have to keep your eyes on him.
Speaker 1: The problem is, although we have good intentions, many of us are simply not very good decision makers.
Speaker 1: If I was a better decision maker, I would not have ended up divorced.
Speaker 1: I would not have ended up in jail twice.
Speaker 1: I would not have ended up hooked on meth, I would not have played my mother's favorite and caused a wedge between my parents that ended in divorce.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of things I would have not done if I could have saw clearly and chosen first that I was not going to let these things happen.
Speaker 1: When I was young, in high school, I had so many friends in high school that their parents were divorced.
Speaker 1: Mine wasn't, and that was the song that I sang.
Speaker 1: My parents aren't divorced, I'm not getting divorced either but a series of poor decisions, a series of simple, seemingly innocent temptations that led me, little by little, down the wrong path, and that's why we introduced a big idea called choose first, because we want to understand the power of choosing ahead of time what we are going to face in the future, to make good decisions now so that we don't have to suffer in the damage later.
Speaker 1: Choose first.
Speaker 1: We want to make good decisions now.
Speaker 1: Let's be adults about it.
Speaker 1: Look at yourself honestly.
Speaker 1: Some of you may stick to what you stick to.
Speaker 1: You said I'm not crossing this line, I'm not doing this, I'm not doing that, and you may actually be able to do it.
Speaker 1: But majority of people, we can make decisions and we end up not sticking to it.
Speaker 1: And you know, the number one reason we don't stick with things is the people we allow to speak into our lives.
Speaker 1: Make good decisions now so that we don't have to suffer in the damage later, instead of waiting until the moment to give in to temptation or let our emotions take us to a place that we don't really need and want to go.
Speaker 1: We're choosing first what we're going to do before we ever get into that circumstance.
Speaker 1: We're choosing first who we are, because when we know who we are, we know what we will do.
Speaker 1: If you have a clear definition, clear core values, clear core beliefs in your heart, you know who you are and you will not waver from the truth that you know.
Speaker 1: So I want you to declare these statements.
Speaker 1: I'm going to put them up on the board, on the whatever you call it Screen.
Speaker 1: There we go, not the board.
Speaker 1: We're not in class, but I want you to think about this.
Speaker 1: See, a lot of times we allow the world to speak negativity into us.
Speaker 1: I mean, look at any news channel you want and one person's showing the worst parts of the riots.
Speaker 1: The channel you want and one person showing the worst parts of the riots, the other one showing peaceful protest.
Speaker 1: They all have an agenda.
Speaker 1: Sorry if that messed with some of y'all and the people you watch, I don't care.
Speaker 1: They all have an agenda.
Speaker 1: That's why you have to study and look up for yourself.
Speaker 1: Don't let other people tell you what you are and who you are.
Speaker 1: This is a proclamation of faith.
Speaker 1: This is something that I've been saying to God recently and he's been transforming my heart.
Speaker 1: I am ready, I am consistent, I am devoted, I am generous, I am faithful and I am a finisher.
Speaker 1: I am ready, I am consistent, I am devoted, I am generous, I am faithful and I am a finisher, because I choose first to be the man of God that he wants me to be.
Speaker 1: Our decisions won't be based on our feelings in the moment, if we choose first, but on who you want to be for the rest of your life.
Speaker 1: Not on feelings but on facts.
Speaker 1: These things right here are based on values, because when our values are clear, our decisions are easier.
Speaker 1: When our values are clear, our decisions are easier.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you a question how many of you, of the faithful people of the Lord, have ever given in to temptation and regretted?
Speaker 1: It Should be 100%, unless you're just a second coming.
Speaker 1: All of us, every person in here has at some point in time in their life, given into some sort of temptation and regretted it.
Speaker 1: Now why?
Speaker 1: Why, at some point have we fallen into the temptation?
Speaker 1: I said it earlier Chances are it's because you weren't ready.
Speaker 1: Chances are it's because you weren't ready, you were blindsided.
Speaker 1: But when we choose first what your decision will be, no matter what comes, you will make better decisions and stick to your values.
Speaker 1: Things will not affect you in the same way if you stick to your values.
Speaker 1: So we have to understand that your flesh is constantly at war with your spirit.
Speaker 1: Paul talks about this a lot.
Speaker 1: He even called himself the chief of sinners.
Speaker 1: A man that wrote the majority of the New Testament labeled himself as the chief of sinners.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because he understood that temptation is real and if we do not prepare ourselves, we will fall into temptation.
Speaker 1: If you have your Bibles, look with me in Matthew, chapter 26, verse 41.
Speaker 1: And Jesus is talking to the disciples.
Speaker 1: Here.
Speaker 1: He says keep watch and pray Now.
Speaker 1: Jesus knew that he was about to get taken and crucified.
Speaker 1: He knew it was coming.
Speaker 1: Jesus knew that he was about to get taken and crucified.
Speaker 1: He knew it was coming and all he was asking for is some people to be by his side.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been to a place in your life where you felt something was happening or you were in the middle of something and all you needed was someone just to stay and watch with you and listen to what he says?
Speaker 1: And listen to what he calls it?
Speaker 1: Verse 41 in Matthew, chapter 26,.
Speaker 1: It says keep watch and pray.
Speaker 1: Now, these two first things that he says to do are so important.
Speaker 1: If you want to avoid temptation, you have to keep your eyes open, keep focus and pray so that you will not give into temptation, for the spirit is willing but the body is weak.
Speaker 1: Have you ever known anybody that always wanted to volunteer for everything and never accomplished anything?
Speaker 1: The body is willing, but the spirit is weak.
Speaker 1: Jesus was trying to tell the disciples you have to be on guard.
Speaker 1: Keep watching, keep your eyes focused.
Speaker 1: Don't let distractions steal your focus from what is important.
Speaker 1: Second Corinthians, chapter two, verses nine through 11.
Speaker 1: If you got to say amen, man, make sure you mark your Bibles, take notes.
Speaker 1: Taking notes is the Tupperware from the sermon that you take home with you.
Speaker 1: Verse 9 through 11 says this I wrote to you, as I did, to test you and to see if you would fully comply with my instructions.
Speaker 1: When you forgive this man, I forgive him too, and when I forgive whatever needs to be forgiven, I do so with Christ's authority, for your benefit, so that Satan will not outsmart us.
Speaker 1: He included himself, for we are familiar with his evil schemes.
Speaker 1: Now what did he just lay out here?
Speaker 1: That it is a big temptation in the house of God to live and be in unforgiveness in the church, he said.
Speaker 1: I worded it in this way I set it up to see if you would forgive or if you wouldn't.
Speaker 1: I set it up to see if you were going to do what you were supposed to.
Speaker 1: No matter what I said, unforgiveness among believers is a scheme of the devil.
Speaker 1: I didn't say you had to like them, but you must forgive them.
Speaker 1: Get real quiet because y'all know the truth.
Speaker 1: The Bible and the Lord values relationships so much.
Speaker 1: I've said this over and over and over again.
Speaker 1: It says in his word that if you were at the altar of sacrifice and someone has something against you, to leave there and go and make it right.
Speaker 1: He's saying that what is between you and me pivots on what is between you and them.
Speaker 1: If you cannot forgive, you will not be forgiven.
Speaker 1: That's not my policy, that is scripture.
Speaker 1: Sister, you came up last week and you said is anybody in unforgiveness?
Speaker 1: And nobody came up.
Speaker 1: I hope somebody prayed in their heart Because if you're living in unforgiveness, the Bible says that you cannot be forgiven.
Speaker 1: Unforgiveness is division.
Speaker 1: It is a scheme of the devil in God's house to dismantle and distract us from our mission.
Speaker 1: He wants there to be unforgiveness and division in God's house, in your relationships, because it will destroy you and it will destroy everybody you love from the inside out.
Speaker 1: Because when you live in unforgiveness it doesn't just affect you.
Speaker 1: You're planting seeds in other people's gardens.
Speaker 1: So why is this important To choose?
Speaker 1: First, because the enemy is studying you.
Speaker 1: He's not new to this game.
Speaker 1: He understands what works and what don't and he knows that if he can cause division and unforgiveness in God's house, it will explode in a bad way.
Speaker 1: Another word for division we call those here in East Texas church splits.
Speaker 1: We have fractures of this church around Longview, texas, where people just couldn't follow the will of God.
Speaker 1: They had to do their own thing.
Speaker 1: So why?
Speaker 1: Because the enemy is studying you.
Speaker 1: He is waiting to dismantle and devour you.
Speaker 1: So why all this preparation?
Speaker 1: Because you are not as strong as you think you are One of the things I had to learn the hard way.
Speaker 1: When I got out of jail I had anybody ever heard of Facebook.
Speaker 1: Well, if you are with us on Facebook, you know that my wife both of our names are on there, that's actually hers that for a while I took over.
Speaker 1: Now I just don't even get on Facebook anymore.
Speaker 1: When I got out of jail, there was a guy that I met inside of jail and we knew some same people.
Speaker 1: That happens when you go to jail and you're in drugs.
Speaker 1: You kind of know everybody, especially in a little town like Palestine.
Speaker 1: And when I got out of jail, my cousin took me.
Speaker 1: He's come here to preach before.
Speaker 1: He took me to church and I really wanted to get my life right.
Speaker 1: I wanted to make the change that I knew I needed to make and that meant to cut everything in my life.
Speaker 1: But there was something about social media and people.
Speaker 1: If you've been around me, you know that I love to talk to anybody.
Speaker 1: I'm a people person.
Speaker 1: It fills my cup up being around people.
Speaker 1: I find joy in conversation.
Speaker 1: I love it, and so Facebook for me.
Speaker 1: I had it since my son was born over in Orlando, florida, so he's a Florida baby and they got him out as soon as they could, back to Texas.
Speaker 1: And so when I went to Florida I'd never been to a club and I lived in a suburb outside of Orlando and Facebook is a social media network I had.
Speaker 1: I don't know what the limit is on Facebook, but I had the limit of friends.
Speaker 1: They would add me every single night.
Speaker 1: I'd come home to 10 to 20 friend requests every single night.
Speaker 1: I had the gift of gab, even intoxicated or more so.
Speaker 1: So I had that same Facebook when I got arrested in Palestine and when I got out the guy who I talked to he finally got out and he looked me up on Facebook and he sent me a message and said hey man, where's the party at?
Speaker 1: That's all he said.
Speaker 1: As soon as I got that message, something was quickened in my spirit to delete and cut ties to the old me.
Speaker 1: Now I'm not saying Facebook is the devil, but whatever is in your life that you need to get rid of, it needs to not be worth more than your salvation.
Speaker 1: It is a temptation If you have strings attached to your old life.
Speaker 1: You think you're strong enough.
Speaker 1: But I knew the moment I got that message that I was not in a place that I could say no, and so the only way that I could do it was to delete my profile.
Speaker 1: Do you know how hard that was for me?
Speaker 1: I know it sounds stupid, it's Facebook, no one cares about Facebook, it's whatever.
Speaker 1: But it was tough to me because I had spent years building up friends.
Speaker 1: That's official when you're in a relationship.
Speaker 1: Can't do that on ours.
Speaker 1: That's weird your relationship with yourself.
Speaker 1: And I had to cut ties with this.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because I knew that something maybe not this guy, but somebody else who I was closer with would know I was out of jail and would find me and reach out to me through that social media and I got rid of it because I had truly understand that I was not strong enough in that moment of my life to say no when I needed to say no.
Speaker 1: Because when I got out of jail and I started living right and came back to God, I chose first God.
Speaker 1: Everything else didn't matter.
Speaker 1: When you choose first to live for God, everything else should not even come close to measuring up.
Speaker 1: Jesus even said to them in the word.
Speaker 1: Listen, this is tough.
Speaker 1: He said hate your mother, hate your wife, hate your kids.
Speaker 1: Are you supposed to hate those people?
Speaker 1: No, we know we're supposed to love everybody.
Speaker 1: Hate your kids.
Speaker 1: Are you supposed to hate those people?
Speaker 1: No, we know we're supposed to love everybody.
Speaker 1: But he's saying this should be as if you hate them, that if I call you, or like I did, abraham to sacrifice Isaac, that you should be willing to lay them on the altar for me.
Speaker 1: We're not strong enough and we have this human condition called self-delusion, where we think we are more or better than we actually are, and some of us spiral this way in a negative way, where we think we're worse and no one loves us.
Speaker 1: Self-delusion we oftentimes can't see ourselves, so everyone else is the problem.
Speaker 1: Who said this?
Speaker 1: I said it before I had children.
Speaker 1: My kid would never do that.
Speaker 1: Well, that was my kid.
Speaker 1: I'd string them up and spank them till I couldn't breathe, or whatever stupid saying you have, until you have kids and you never still realize it's yours.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something.
Speaker 1: I know it's mine.
Speaker 1: I understand that very well.
Speaker 1: I know it's mine.
Speaker 1: Matter of fact, when there's stuff going on and there's kids doing things and something happened.
Speaker 1: I said what did Tristan do?
Speaker 1: Because I know the reality is he's not as strong as he thinks he is.
Speaker 1: My parents had to do the same thing for me and protect me and not let me go places.
Speaker 1: I wanted to go and take away my phone, take away my car keys.
Speaker 1: First world problems, am I right?
Speaker 1: We're not as strong as we think we are.
Speaker 1: We always have something to say about other people in the season they're in, but we have no clue what they're going through.
Speaker 1: I would never fall into that sin.
Speaker 1: How many times have we seen public figures, specifically pastors, and we're like oh yes, they are the biblically, they are called to a higher standard, but they are still human and what happened along the way is they did not prepare for the temptations coming and they allow things to happen in their life, to slowly creep into their life to where it made them fall and made them stumble in a way that they have a larger platform, so everyone knows their business.
Speaker 1: What if all of us had platforms like that?
Speaker 1: We wouldn't be so quick to judge others.
Speaker 1: Look at 1 Corinthians, chapter 10.
Speaker 1: 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 12.
Speaker 1: It says if you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall.
Speaker 1: Anybody ever heard?
Speaker 1: Pride comes before the fall, when you think you're the strongest and you got it all figured out.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to say it again excuse me, but your boo-boo don't stink.
Speaker 1: You usually stink the worst because you've been hiding yours for a while.
Speaker 1: Three keys we're going to go through this quickly.
Speaker 1: Three keys to fighting temptation, so that you can choose.
Speaker 1: First Three things move the line, magnify the cost and plan your escape.
Speaker 1: So the line what is the line?
Speaker 1: So if I'm going to move the line, I want you to think of it this way If you've ever had a little infant and you say no, no, don't touch that, usually no, no is one of the first words they understand.
Speaker 1: No, no, because you have to say it a thousand times every minute.
Speaker 1: No, no, don't touch that.
Speaker 1: What do they do?
Speaker 1: Sometimes some babies are so bold they'll stare you in the eyes while their hand is stretching out.
Speaker 1: Don't tell me, human sinful nature ain't real.
Speaker 1: So what happens?
Speaker 1: They're getting right up on the line of temptation.
Speaker 1: Move the line.
Speaker 1: We all have something we struggle with.
Speaker 1: We all have something.
Speaker 1: We all raised our hands earlier that we have fallen into temptation.
Speaker 1: So we know where the line is.
Speaker 1: If you're married, you know the line is do not cheat on your wife.
Speaker 1: You will lose the respect from her, your church people, your kids.
Speaker 1: You will lose sight of everything in your life for a one night booty call.
Speaker 1: That was the Greek version.
Speaker 1: So I know this, that I don't do this.
Speaker 1: So what do we do?
Speaker 1: Human nature is we get up on the line and we test how close we can get before we sin.
Speaker 1: If you've ever been young and dumb and dated before you've went up to this line several times, move the line.
Speaker 1: The line stays there.
Speaker 1: You find another one far away where you can't even get close.
Speaker 1: Move the line.
Speaker 1: Don't get up close to temptation to see how hot the fire is, because you will get burnt.
Speaker 1: Move the line.
Speaker 1: Don't get up close to temptation to see how hot the fire is, because you will get burnt.
Speaker 1: Move the line.
Speaker 1: Get further back.
Speaker 1: Get someone.
Speaker 1: That's why accountability is so important in the church house.
Speaker 1: You have to have someone between you and your sin so that you do not fall.
Speaker 1: This is why those pastors of megachurches end up falling, because they got the god complex and they didn't think anything could touch them.
Speaker 1: And they didn't.
Speaker 1: They wanted to get up close to the line instead of get back further from the line you need.
Speaker 1: Yes, angels are important, but you need physical bodies surrounding you, praying for you, reaching heaven for you, so that you cannot fall into temptation.
Speaker 1: Don't get up close to the line.
Speaker 1: Get away from the line as far as you can.
Speaker 1: Move the line.
Speaker 1: Like Samson in the Old Testament, boy had the Spirit of God on him to give him a supernatural strength.
Speaker 1: The things that he did had not yet been done since, and he wouldn't stop going up to the line of temptation.
Speaker 1: Move the line.
Speaker 1: Choose first.
Speaker 1: Choose first, putting distance.
Speaker 1: I am putting distance between me and my temptation.
Speaker 1: Move the line.
Speaker 1: Number two magnify the cost, every temptation.
Speaker 1: This is why it is so important to understand yourself spiritually, your physical needs, your emotional needs.
Speaker 1: Men are based on sight.
Speaker 1: We see a woman that looks good.
Speaker 1: We don't have to think twice about it.
Speaker 1: A woman has to get to know him and it takes time.
Speaker 1: Magnify the cost.
Speaker 1: What is that temptation?
Speaker 1: If you step over that line, what will it cost you?
Speaker 1: It will always cost you more than you think it will.
Speaker 1: A night that you think no one will know anything about will cost you your entire life.
Speaker 1: It will cost you your witness.
Speaker 1: It will cost you relationships, temptation.
Speaker 1: This is why the Bible tells us to run from temptation, because it always costs you.
Speaker 1: Numbers 32, 23.
Speaker 1: We're hurrying along, we're almost here, but if you fail to keep your word then you will have sinned against the Lord and you may be sure that your sin will find you out.
Speaker 1: I'm coming from experience on this.
Speaker 1: Y'all you think you're doing something in secret, but the Lord has a way to shine that light and expose the darkness.
Speaker 1: You may think nobody knows, but somebody will find out, like my parents told me.
Speaker 1: I was one of those kids and y'all probably think this is funny or stupid, I'm not sure which one, but I always told on myself.
Speaker 1: I understood the spirit of conviction before I knew the word conviction.
Speaker 1: If I did something wrong, I would cry and go run and tell my parents almost immediately because I would feel so bad.
Speaker 1: And what do we do spiritually?
Speaker 1: We don't want to tell nobody, we don't want to call nobody, we don't want to have a conversation.
Speaker 1: And then we wonder why, years later, we have bad fruit in our gardens.
Speaker 1: It's because you tried to cover up.
Speaker 1: But fruit always grows Because you tried to cover up.
Speaker 1: But fruit always grows.
Speaker 1: If you ain't tending to it and you're not pruning it and you're not weeding it out, things will grow that you don't desire to be there.
Speaker 1: I've said this story before, but when my wife and I first got married, I've been arrested and after jail and after coming back to God and my dad finally got me to get a haircut, I had long hair down to here and a beard down to here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, hey, it was very biblical.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all probably wouldn't be here, I guess, if I had that, apparently, but it had been almost two years and the charges that were brought against me had not yet went to court.
Speaker 1: So what happened?
Speaker 1: I got out of jail, I started going to church, I gave my life back over to God.
Speaker 1: I started living for him, truly living for him.
Speaker 1: I met her.
Speaker 1: I tricked her.
Speaker 1: We got married.
Speaker 1: I'm not deceived.
Speaker 1: I know I tricked her.
Speaker 1: She is actually I think God blinded.
Speaker 1: I told her when she wasn't here.
Speaker 1: I said God made her blind and dumb.
Speaker 1: And then she got on to me when I got home, cause I called her dumb.
Speaker 1: I'm saying God had to dull her down.
Speaker 1: Pretty good to stick with this, but the echo of my sin listen to me that had not yet been dealt with.
Speaker 1: After we got married, I had to take my brand new wife to court because they called me in after we had gotten married, so she had to sit there.
Speaker 1: I know it was embarrassing for her.
Speaker 1: She was telling me to shut up on Facebook because I was proud of what God did and all this other stuff.
Speaker 1: She's like I work with people.
Speaker 1: I don't want them to know my business.
Speaker 1: It was embarrassing.
Speaker 1: Something she had never known herself that I had done was carried over into her life.
Speaker 1: Every temptation you fall for and stupid decision you make is not just about you.
Speaker 1: It will affect the people you love the most and sometimes those bad decisions and the echoes of those bad decisions will bleed into new seasons of your life.
Speaker 1: And sometimes I think it was.
Speaker 1: I don't know the law, but I think it was like in two years, if they didn't do something, they would have just said nevermind, you're good to go.
Speaker 1: Well, that didn't happen.
Speaker 1: We were praying and God didn't answer my prayer and a temptation that I fell for that she never experienced herself.
Speaker 1: Now she has to deal with the aftermath People in your life of the stupid decisions that you make and the temptations that may have happened years ago at some point will come out.
Speaker 1: The Bible doesn't say your sins will find you out unless you ask for forgiveness and then no one will ever know.
Speaker 1: That's not the word.
Speaker 1: It's that your sins will find you out.
Speaker 1: So what do we do to be on guard against this?
Speaker 1: We be honest and true about bad decisions and temptations.
Speaker 1: I have told my story to I don't even know how many people new people Like.
Speaker 1: When we were dating, I was sitting in the living room of her parents' house and her uncle was in there and her dad and she was like I was listening.
Speaker 1: In the living room of her parents' house and her uncle was in there and her dad and she was like I was listening in the kitchen and I'm surprised my dad didn't shoot you and sure beside myself that he didn't kick you out of his house because I was telling him all of my secrets, why there was no room for the devil to throw anything in my face, because I was sharing my testimony of what I had done wrong and letting God use it to empower his glory.
Speaker 1: Shame is the devil's work.
Speaker 1: We all have things we've fallen for.
Speaker 1: We've all had things we've messed up on, but you need to talk to somebody about it.
Speaker 1: You need to share what God has done in your life and if you ain't through it, you need to have counseling.
Speaker 1: You have to because it will become a stumbling block later in a new season.
Speaker 1: God's trying to bring you into, but you didn't deal with the other things and so in your new season you're still living in the past.
Speaker 1: One, five minutes of sin will wreck a lifetime story of serving Jesus.
Speaker 1: Let's recap Move the line, stay as far away from the line of temptation as you can.
Speaker 1: Get somebody who can be your accountability partner to stay between you and that sin and that temptation.
Speaker 1: Do it.
Speaker 1: This is why I've told y'all over and over again she has every login of everything that I have.
Speaker 1: She knows all my passwords, all emails, all everything, to every Instagram account, anything.
Speaker 1: She can get in there and look if she wants.
Speaker 1: When I first gave that to her, she was like no, baby, don't worry about it, she's my best friend.
Speaker 1: She's like no, it's fine, you don't have to do that.
Speaker 1: I said, yes, I do.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because I felt temptation pulling at me, trying to get me closer to that line.
Speaker 1: And so what did I do?
Speaker 1: I took somebody that I trusted, that wasn't going to talk to nobody else about my business and my struggles and my frustration, but knows me for me, and I put her between me and that temptation.
Speaker 1: And now the devil cannot come and get me because I have a prayer warrior between me and temptation.
Speaker 1: I understand that it is embarrassing, that it is a struggle to put your pride aside, to let somebody know that you struggle with something so serious and so dark.
Speaker 1: But I promise you the cost is so much greater if you keep it to yourself.
Speaker 1: The cost is so much greater if you don't let somebody inside your inner circle and help keep you accountable through love and prayer and scripture, because five minutes of sin can wreck a lifetime of serving Jesus, move the line and magnify the cost.
Speaker 1: What will falling into sin and temptation cost you?
Speaker 1: It will always cost you something and chances are it will cost you nothing in the moment.
Speaker 1: That's why it's so satisfying.
Speaker 1: It's like going and getting a loan out from a bank.
Speaker 1: You're just like who wants some money.
Speaker 1: You don't think about the 20,000% interest that they're going to start charging six months from now, but all you saw was 0% for 90 days and you don't realize you got to pay that back.
Speaker 1: It's the same thing with sin.
Speaker 1: You think you're walking into somewhere getting something that is instant gratification with 0% interest, but it will cost you and I promise you, just like that stupid interest.
Speaker 1: By the way, the reason I'm saying this is because we got debt-free besides our house, and it eats me up.
Speaker 1: When people send me credit card stuff in the mail I'm like oh, you don't even know.
Speaker 1: I wish I could find you.
Speaker 1: Sorry, because we had a credit card that was a percentage of interest that was manufactured to where you could never get out and pay it all off.
Speaker 1: Sin is the same way.
Speaker 1: When you decide to get up on that line and get close to sin and that temptation, it will cost you something and you cannot afford the interest.
Speaker 1: You will not be able to get out.
Speaker 1: Five minutes of pleasure, five minutes of temptation, will wreck an entire life of serving Jesus.
Speaker 1: Magnify the cost.
Speaker 1: Plan number three is plan your escape In Genesis, chapter 29,.
Speaker 1: You can read it for yourselves.
Speaker 1: We're just going to skim through the story Joseph.
Speaker 1: The Bible even calls him handsome and it even said well-built.
Speaker 1: We got some well-built men up in here today.
Speaker 1: We got some gym membership guys over here, you know, been doing what he can eating them protein shakes.
Speaker 1: He was handsome, he was well-built, he was powerful, he had influence in the place of Egypt.
Speaker 1: He started the servant but he went to the top.
Speaker 1: An unknown story, unheard of story.
Speaker 1: But he was being faithful to God and also his boss.
Speaker 1: When Potiphar's wife something that did not belong to him a temptation.
Speaker 1: Listen, if the woman was married to Potiphar, she probably wasn't ugly.
Speaker 1: Sin's going to come and try to get you.
Speaker 1: Temptation's going to present itself in a way that it is pleasing.
Speaker 1: If it wasn't, you wouldn't want to go do it.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't want to get him to the line.
Speaker 1: Even though Potiphar's wife kept pressuring him, he stayed clear and even fled from temptation.
Speaker 1: He had a plan of escape.
Speaker 1: He even left his cloak, the very escape plan that he had led him to getting in prison.
Speaker 1: But prison was worth.
Speaker 1: Listen to me.
Speaker 1: Prison was worth the cost of his integrity.
Speaker 1: Worth listen to me.
Speaker 1: Prison was worth the cost of his integrity.
Speaker 1: Prison was worth it.
Speaker 1: His integrity, his character staying intact, was worth it to him.
Speaker 1: Joseph had his mind stayed up to stay true to what he knew to be true, no matter the temptation.
Speaker 1: First Corinthians, chapter 10, the temptation 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 13,.
Speaker 1: It says this the temptations in your life are no different from what others experience.
Speaker 1: This is important because the devil will try to make you think that the temptations that you're struggling with, that you're keeping private, that you're not talking to people about, that you're the only one that has that temptation, and that is a lie.
Speaker 1: Is the scripture a lie?
Speaker 1: Neither is this verse the temptation in your life are no different from what others experience, and God is faithful.
Speaker 1: He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand.
Speaker 1: When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.
Speaker 1: The Bible promises that if temptation comes knocking at your door, he will give you a deadbolt To where temptation cannot make its way into your residence, to where temptation cannot make its way into your residence.
Speaker 1: Choose first whatever temptation comes your way, no matter how good it looks.
Speaker 1: If you've already chosen to remain true and faithful, choose to stay away from temptation.
Speaker 1: No one plans to mess up.
Speaker 1: You know, I heard on a, I listened to a lot of podcasts and they said from studies shown that a lot of people step outside of the confines of marriage because of proximity.
Speaker 1: What does that mean?
Speaker 1: For instance, I'll give you a real world experience.
Speaker 1: When I was in high school, you go your first day of the class.
Speaker 1: You sit down with people you may know, you may not know, you got some new people, whatever, okay, so I sit in the class.
Speaker 1: I was single Let me just say that right now and some some.
Speaker 1: There's obviously there's guys in there, there's girls in there.
Speaker 1: Well, you look around and you try to see what the stock is.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I want to see what kind of crops in the class, and so I may have a certain opinion and a certain measuring point.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: By the end of the semester, people who were not attractive because I got to know them, they become more attractive.
Speaker 1: People step outside of the confines of marriage because of proximity.
Speaker 1: People they get to know over a period of time that are always in their sphere of influence.
Speaker 1: This is why you need to be very selective of who you let in your life, because it could be a temptation and you'd be up on the line and you not even realize it.
Speaker 1: This is why my policy at the church is I'm not giving a woman a ride anywhere without my wife or other witnesses in the car with me.
Speaker 1: That is in leadership at this church.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because there's not going to be a place of temptation in my life.
Speaker 1: There's not going to be a place of gossip and temptation in my life.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it doesn't have to be what you do, but what it looks like.
Speaker 1: We don't plan to mess up.
Speaker 1: We don't plan always to be up on the line of temptation.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you the amount of times that I've turned around.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, and all of a sudden in my spirit something feels off and I'm like hold on.
Speaker 1: I got to go over here and I had to get away.
Speaker 1: Not that I was doing anything, maybe not that somebody else was doing something.
Speaker 1: But you have to be sensitive and in tune with the spirit so that when temptation is trying to come your way, you can spot it, you can see it, seeing it with your spiritual eyes.
Speaker 1: That oh no, sir, no, ma'am, I'm sorry we're not going out to lunch.
Speaker 1: Now that sounds pretty abrasive and sometimes a little weird because of the culture we live in.
Speaker 1: I don't care about the culture, I care about my heart and spirit and soul and I also care about other people's.
Speaker 1: Let me give you a real world example.
Speaker 1: If you go out to eat lunch and listen, lunch is harmless.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to preach on lunch and you can't do this and mix blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1: Whatever I'm saying, listen to me.
Speaker 1: Now you make sure that your spouse or someone you know and trust, is with you or knows where you are, because if they find out another way, by somebody else seeing you, you may not have been stepping into temptation, but now your significant other is, because now they got some jealousy.
Speaker 1: Now they're going to start questioning everywhere you are.
Speaker 1: Now they're going to start asking all these questions.
Speaker 1: That before wasn't an issue, but you just didn't take the preemptive strike and you didn't choose first.
Speaker 1: Then I'm going to let my spouse know there is nothing more damaging to relationships than empty gaps that have no knowledge in them, because that person will fill in the gaps with whatever information they want to fill it with.
Speaker 1: No one plans to mess up, but few plan to not mess up.
Speaker 1: We have to be on purpose, living our life for god.
Speaker 1: We have to be offensively, spiritually, preparing ourselves for the battles to come, because we know the battles are plenty.
Speaker 1: And if you're not dead, guess what?
Speaker 1: God's not done with you, but the battles ain't done either.
Speaker 1: You'll battle until your last breath.
Speaker 1: So why not make a plan?
Speaker 1: Why not be an adult?
Speaker 1: Can I say that in church and say that, whatever comes my way, I've got a plan already.
Speaker 1: I have got God on my side.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to step up to the line.
Speaker 1: I'm going to magnify the cost and I'm going to have a plan of escape in case I get too close to that line or that line tries to move and get close to me.
Speaker 1: Are you with me?
Speaker 1: We have to be honest about where we are.
Speaker 1: Where our head's, at Our mind is a great battlefield.
Speaker 1: This is why Jesus said listen, if you think it's too tough, then you probably got some issues with lust.
Speaker 1: Jesus said if you even look upon a woman with lust, you have already committed adultery in your heart.
Speaker 1: You've already committed adultery in your heart, because where our mind goes, where our thoughts go, so soon our feet will follow.
Speaker 1: And if you become better at making decisions now, you will not have to live in the damage it produces later.
Speaker 1: Why would I resist?
Speaker 1: Listen to this.
Speaker 1: Why would I resist temptation in the future if I have the power to eliminate it now?
Speaker 1: If I never get in a situation because I've made a decision and I have chosen to keep and exclude myself from any kind of circumstances that would be even questionable.
Speaker 1: Exclude myself from any kind of circumstances that would be even questionable.
Speaker 1: This eliminates any future temptation, any future gossip, any future circumstance that could be used to damage the witness of an almighty God.
Speaker 1: Why would I resist temptation in the future if I have the power to eliminate it now?