And now at this time, please open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 12, and follow along silently as we read.
That is Hebrews chapter 12.
Hebrews chapter 12, the Bible reads,
Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us,
And let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that it was set before him,
Endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself,
Lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
Ye have not resisted unto blood, striving against sin,
And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children.
My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord,
Nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.
For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth,
And scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons.
For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?
But if ye be without chastisement, whereof are all our partakers?
Then are ye bastards and not sons.
Furthermore, we have fathers of our flesh which corrected us.
We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us.
And we gave them reverence.
Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live?
For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure,
but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous.
Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet,
lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed.
Follow peace with all men, and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.
Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you,
and thereby many be defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau,
who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected,
for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire,
nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest.
And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they that heard entreated that,
the word should not be spoken to them any more.
For they could not endure that which was commanded.
And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart.
And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake.
But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first born,
which are written in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
and to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling,
that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
See that ye refuse not him that speaketh; for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth,
much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.
Whose voice then shook the earth, but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
And this word, yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken,
as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace,
whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear; for our God is a consuming fire.
Brother Sean, would you bless the service?
Amen. Before I get started with the sermon tonight,
your pastor had asked that I talk a little bit about the Musicians Conference in March,
just to give a few details on what's going on with that.
But this is going to be on a Monday through Wednesday, March 9th through 11th,
so it's still a few months out, but I want to put it on your radar.
And the idea behind this is going to be for a few different types of people.
First of all, for people to learn how to lead singing or to just improve their song leading,
there are going to be some song leading classes every day, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
So that's going to be kind of geared toward an absolute beginner, toward advanced.
So whether you've been song leading for a while or you just want to get into it,
like either way that's going to work for you will do all of it.
And then also for the musicians, those who play on instruments,
to just get together with other musicians and talk shop and just jam together.
So we'll be probably about, we're still nailing down the exact final schedule,
but each day we'll have at least just three hours, like three different one hour sessions
where we all just get together and just kind of just play together in kind of a low stakes environment.
So there's no pressure because it's not a service, but it's kind of simulating a service.
And so, you know, we'll be able to try new techniques and kind of experiment and play and just have a good time.
So there'll be fellowship, there'll be soul winning, we'll be playing a lot of songs.
And then while we're practicing playing our instruments, then all the different song leaders are kind of be cycling through
and they'll get to practice and so forth.
And there'll be like breakout sessions into like stuff that's specific to obviously the song leading.
But then while the song leaders are doing their thing, we'll have some stuff that's specific to guitar, specific to piano,
maybe something beyond that, depending on who RSVPs, what we can put together for the breakout sessions.
There'll be music theory stuff, ear training, just everything about music.
It's going to be like a pretty packed schedule, pretty much from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Relax, people. It's 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., but there'll be like hours of breaks built in,
like generous lunch break, dinner break, or whatever.
We'll start at 9 a.m., we'll get out at 9 p.m., but you can skip anything you want, folks.
Nobody's making you be at every session. Just let it not be said that we didn't offer enough.
Now, here's the thing, all levels are welcome. All levels of musician are definitely welcome.
So don't be shy and think like, "Oh, man, I'm not good enough," or whatever.
But at the same time, I will say this, a lot of the stuff we're going to be doing is going to be more geared toward, like, intermediate and advanced.
I just want to say that so that, you know, we're not going to bore you if you're like, "Oh, I'm already a good musician.
I already know everything. Nobody can teach me anything." You know, well, I think we will teach you some stuff.
Because here's what I've noticed about music is it's such a massive subject that everybody has blind spots, even virtuoso musicians, experts.
I talk to just fantastic musicians all the time that don't even know certain basics because it's just everybody's got holes in their knowledge.
And so we're really trying to put together a program to really challenge even the seasoned musicians with maybe things that they haven't thought about and just get them practicing in new ways and so forth.
And then also we'll try to have some stuff even for the beginners, you know, also without boring the real musicians, you know.
So all that to say this, we're not teaching you how to play an instrument.
You know, we're expecting you to know something when you come to this event.
But anyway, like I said, anybody's welcome to just come and sit in on anything, participate in anything.
So we'll release more details and more schedule as it gets closer.
But, you know, I want to put that on your radar.
We'd love to see people from this church come out for that.
And if you are planning on coming, please RSVP, let us know what instrument you play so that we can be prepared for you and so forth.
All right. But getting into the sermon tonight, the title of the sermon tonight is The Leverage of Lust.
The Leverage of Lust. And the idea behind the sermon tonight is that obviously we know from Christ's teachings that whoever commits sin is the servant of sin, right?
Sin tends to enslave us. It tends to put us into bondage.
And we will often emphasize the fact that our sins can sometimes become addictions and people are a slave to the bottle and they have to do this and they're compelled to do this and that and so forth.
But what I really want to focus on tonight is not so much as being a slave to your own appetites, but as much that other people can actually manipulate you through your sins and through your lust and through your intemperance and weakness.
You're opening the door for other people to manipulate you.
And we have a lot of examples of this in the Bible. And the first example we're going to look at is the example of Jacob and Esau, because Jacob manipulates Esau. Why?
Because Esau gives into lust. He gives into his lust. He doesn't have control of his appetites.
And so therefore, Jacob is able to step in and manipulate him and swindle him and rip him off because of his weakness in that area.
And we're going to see lots of other examples of that as well.
But think about how much advertising and, you know, just TV, movies, Madison Avenue, billboards, you know,
they're trying to manipulate our weaknesses and get us to do things that we would not normally do or to purchase things that we would not normally purchase.
And, you know, the saying goes, you know, that basically sex sells, right? Because they know that men have this weakness with the lust of the eyes and that fornication is a temptation, that adultery is a temptation.
So what are they constantly doing? They're showing you these images to manipulate you, to get you to do something, to buy something, to believe something.
And so we need to be aware of this and have control over our own bodies and our own appetites so that we don't fall prey to the manipulation of others
or fall prey to the manipulation of Satan, right? Because we're just giving in to these cravings and lusts.
And then other people can use those as a leash to control us and use us and abuse us and spin us around and get us saying and doing all kinds of stupid things and so forth.
So we want to make sure that we, as Paul said, keep under our body and bring it into subjection, right?
Lest having preached to others, we ourselves become castaways, we become discarded, we become worthless, we become unusable because of the fact that we just give in to these lusts and appetites of the flesh.
Now, starting in Hebrews chapter 12, this is a great passage here about Esau because I love it when the New Testament refers back to an Old Testament story because it kind of gives us an insight or a commentary on what's happening in that story.
And so, in Hebrews chapter 12, we have this allusion to the story of Esau in verse number 16. It says, "Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau," like Esau would be another way of saying that, "who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright, for you know that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." Now, let's break this down.
First of all, I'm not sure that Esau himself was personally a fornicator.
What the Bible's saying is that we don't want there to be a fornicator who's like Esau.
In the sense that Esau sold his birthright for one morsel of meat, and the idea is that that's what a fornicator is doing.
Selling their future, selling the blessing of God, giving up on good things that God has for them,
just for that one satisfaction of a physical craving or appetite.
In this case, it was food with Esau. We know Esau gave him that craving for food, but with us, the craving could be fornication.
So he says, "Lest there be any fornicator," that's in present day, "a fornicator or a profane person like Esau,"
you know, back in the day, what did he do? He, for one morsel of meat, sold his birthright, and that's what fornication is like.
And then it says, "For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected,
for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears."
And this shows you how sin ends up costing you more than you were willing to pay.
Because if you think about it, he thought that all he's giving up is the birthright.
Now, what is the birthright? It means that he gets a double portion of the inheritance.
And of course, their father is a very wealthy man. This is a lot of money, right?
He's literally saying, "Okay, give me half what I was going to get of my inheritance so I can have this bowl of soup right now."
It makes no sense. It's a horrible deal, total ripoff, but he just thinks, "Eh, who cares? Whatever."
And he despised his birthright, sold his birthright for one morsel of meat.
But then it says afterward when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected.
The blessing is a totally different event that happens later.
The selling the birthright don't mix up these two Bible stories.
Selling the birthright and losing the blessing, Jacob nails them both times, but they're two separate occurrences.
And so the idea here is the second time when he loses the blessing, it's not really his fault if you think about it.
Because what happens in that story where he loses the blessing?
He goes out hunting. His dad says go out and hunt and go kill the venison and bring me savory meat.
He goes out and does exactly what dad says. While he's gone, Jacob comes and steals the blessing from him behind his back.
So that's not really Esau's fault. How can he control the fact that his hunting trip took a little too long or whatever?
I mean, he actually got back pretty quick. And so he did well. He did fine.
So why did God allow him to get so misused and to lose that blessing and to just get so ripped off?
I'll tell you exactly why God allowed Esau to get ripped off is because earlier he was stupid and sold his birthright and God didn't like it.
And when God saw him selling his birthright for one morsel of meat, that offended God.
And God said, "Oh, you don't care about the birthright? Well, guess what? You're going to lose the birthright and you're also going to lose the blessing."
And so you can sit there and say, "Oh, I don't really care about offending my parents or offending the pastor or offending the church.
I don't care about losing out on this privilege or that privilege because I disobeyed God."
But here's the thing. What about the future blessings, though, that God's just going to withhold from you because he doesn't like your attitude?
You know, you throw away one thing in the name of sin and you lose the whole thing.
You lose something else that you didn't even expect.
Because it says, you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing,
I mean, he would have inherited that blessing had he not been stupid and sold his birthright, is what the Bible is saying.
But he was rejected. He found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
Now, let's go back to that story in Genesis chapter 25 and read it.
Genesis chapter 25. Why did he lose the blessing? Why did he lose the birthright?
He allowed himself to be manipulated by someone else who exploited his weakness
because of his lust of his appetite, is what happened.
And so the lesson for us is for us not to be a profane person,
not to be a fornicator, not to give in to lust, not to give in to carnal desires
at the expense of having our freedom to serve God and do the right thing.
Don't let people manipulate you into making a bad decision because of your lust.
The leverage of lust is the leverage that our lust or sinful tendencies
gives other people to use us and manipulate us.
Look what the Bible says in Genesis chapter 25, verse number 27.
It says, "And the boys grew, and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field,
and Jacob was a plain man dwelling in tents."
And Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his venison.
But Rebekah loved Jacob.
And Jacob sawed, sawed means boiled.
Jacob sawed pottage.
Pottage obviously just comes from the word pot, and it's basically just some kind of a potted meal.
So whether it's like a stew or a soup or chili or whatever, he's got the crock pot going.
And he's got something good in the crock pot.
He's got the potted going, it's red, it tastes good, whatever.
But it says Jacob sawed potted and Esau came from the field and he was faint.
And, you know, we've all been there, hypoglycemic, just absolutely starving.
I mean, this guy's out doing a physical activity, right?
He's hunting, and that's going to involve a lot of walking, maybe running.
It's, you know, he's not on a motorcycle, right?
He's not on a quad or something.
I mean, he's out there on foot, traveling huge distances, and he comes in, and he's faint.
I mean, you know, he's barely stumbling home, just probably seeing stars, blurry vision, whatever.
He's faint, right? Meaning that he is exhausted and has no energy because he has not eaten.
He ran out of food, okay?
So you got to put yourself in his place.
This is a legitimate craving here that he has.
He's not being a glutton. He's not just going back for the third dessert or something.
I mean, he's been out there burning calories and he's hungry, okay?
And Esau said to Jacob, "Feed me!"
Now look, again, pretty reasonable, and if Jacob was a nice guy, he's going to feed him.
He's just going to give him the food.
Jacob said to Esau, "Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage, for I am faint."
Therefore, his name was called Edom.
Edom just means red. That's the idea.
And Jacob said, "Sell me this day thy birthright."
Now, obviously, this is absurd. This is ridiculous.
He's basically just saying, "Yeah, I'll give you this food for, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars or something.
Yeah, here, you can have this for a million dollars down the road or whatever."
Now, this is absurd, what he's asking for.
But this is what Jacob wants, and he's just holding it over his head.
And he says, "If you sell me your birthright, I'll give you the food."
And Esau said, "Behold, I'm at the point to die. And what profit shall this birthright do to me?"
And Jacob said, "Swear to me this day." And he swear unto him.
And he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread on the side.
I mean, it wasn't that bad of a ripoff. I guess at least he threw in the bread.
But he gives him bread and pottage of lentils, and he did eat and drink and rose up and went his way.
But look at God's commentary at the end. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
Right? He despised his birthright.
Now look, obviously this is saying that Esau did not have a proper respect for his birthright.
Why? Because he's thinking to himself, "Well, I'm hungry right now. I'm starving right now.
I'm going to die of hunger right now, whereas the birthright is something I'm not going to get for decades and decades."
And let me tell you something. This is how a lot of teenagers think.
So they just think, "Live fast and hard and die young."
And they can't see past 30. If you told them, "Hey, what you do now is really going to cause your problems when you're in your 40s."
They're just like, "What? Who cares? My 50s? What? 60s? I'm not even going to live that long."
Right? Isn't that how young people tend to think?
And so the birthright is something that's not going to come into play until he's an old man.
You know, when his dad dies, right? And typically our dads don't die until we're older ourselves.
You know, God willing, our, you know, my dad will live a very long time. He's still, I'm 44.
Hopefully he's going to live another 20 years or something, right? Who knows?
But the point is that, you know, this is something that doesn't come into play when you're young.
It's when you're older that your dad dies and you're going to get that inheritance.
And so he's just thinking, oh, that's off in the future. Who cares? I'll worry about that later.
Just feed me now. Give into lust now. Give into the cravings now.
Because he says, oh, I'm at the point to die. He's not going to die.
You know, we've all been starving to death, but we're not really going to die, right?
It's really just that we're hungry and we don't want to go through that discomfort.
But guess what? You got to go through some discomfort in life.
You know, you got to go through the pain of working hard, pain of abstaining as a teenager, abstain from fornication.
And sometimes we have to go through the pain of going on a special diet or something or whatever.
You know, we have to do in our lives that's hard.
You know, life involves pain.
Don't just go through life just avoiding all pain, not doing anything difficult or hard.
Yeah, try that at work. That's not going to work, is it?
Now, if you would go over to Judges, Chapter 16, let's look at another example of this in the Bible.
Because remember, the sermon is about people being manipulated by other people and getting ripped off by other people,
deceived by other people, used by other people because their cravings are out of control.
With Esau, it was his craving for food. It's out of control and so he ended up losing everything.
What about Samson? Well, Samson, of course, had a different craving because Samson's issue was with women, with fornication.
He was constantly giving into the sin of fornication and it allowed other people to manipulate him.
Look what it says in chapter 16, verse 1, "Then went Samson to Gaza and saw there a harlot," harlot is a prostitute, "and went in unto her."
I mean, look, this is not a godly thing to do. So wicked thing to do. People who do this are called whoremongers, right?
They're going to whores, they're going to harlots. And so he goes into this harlot.
He obviously has an appetite, a lust that's out of control.
And it was told the Gazites saying, "Samson has come hither, and they come past him in and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city,
and were quiet all the night, saying, 'In the morning when it is day, we shall kill him.' And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight,
and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders,
and carried them up to the top of a hill that is before Hebron." So God allows him to escape through his supernatural strength.
They lock him in, and he ends up just ripping the door off the hinges, and just taking it with him.
You know, just taking the whole thing with him, and they wake up, and it's not that the door had been broken open or left open,
but that it's actually gone, because he took it with him.
Okay, so jump down, if you would. Well, let's just keep going with this.
It says, "And it came to pass afterward that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
And the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her, Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth.
And by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him.
And we will give thee, every one of us, eleven hundred pieces of silver.
And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth."
Now look, we have two levels of manipulation here, because Delilah is going to manipulate Samson because of his lust for women.
Right? She's a beautiful babe, and it says that Samson loved her, and so she's going to manipulate him into losing everything.
But not only that, the Philistines are manipulating her because of her lust for money.
Right? Because she has a love of money, they're able to manipulate her and say, well, we're going to give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.
We're going to give you, I mean, that's, you know, that's a lot more than Judas got, right? It's a lot of money.
And so we're going to give you all this money if you do this. And then she gives into that.
She's manipulated. She's used because of the love of money. And so we get we need to watch out, right?
Our cravings for food, our cravings for women, our cravings for money or whatever.
You know, if we don't get these things under control, if we don't practice temperance and self-control,
then we're opening ourselves up for the advertising industry to just manipulate us,
get us to waste money, buy stupid things, do stupid things. People around us can control us.
And look, there are all kinds of examples of this throughout history
where women have been used to entice politicians and to get them to, you know,
make certain policy decisions or give up secrets or something.
And, you know, obviously it's the oldest trick in the book.
And so, you know, we don't want to fall prey to this spiritually in our Christian lives.
Jump down if you would to verse 15.
It says, "She said unto him," watch how she manipulates him,
"How canst thou say, I love thee, when thy heart is not with me?
Thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me wherein that great strength lies."
Because she keeps asking him and he keeps giving her fake answers.
And then she keeps trying the fake answers.
Like, he's like, "Oh, if you do this to me, I'm going to be weak like any other man."
The fact that she's trying it, shouldn't that be a red flag to him?
Like, I probably shouldn't tell her the real answer, since she keeps trying it.
Because, you know, she's going to do it to me.
But he's an idiot.
And there's a word, there's a word in English, infatuated, right?
And it comes from a Latin word that means a fool.
And the idea is that being infatuated is you end up making a fool out of yourself,
because you're so in love with someone, quote unquote, that you just are so stupid.
You're not seeing all the red flags, how this person is bad news, and everybody tries to tell you,
your parents try to tell you, your friends try to tell you, your pastor tries to tell you about the red flags,
and you just don't see it because you're infatuated, and you end up making a fool of yourself,
or that person takes you for a ride.
And especially online, there are all kinds of guys that get infatuated with some broad online
that they don't even know, or maybe she's not even real, or at least she doesn't care about them,
because she's just using them, and she's going to steal money from them,
or rip them off, or get them involved in crime, or whatever she's going to do.
And so we see her manipulating Samson here, and saying,
"Oh, you know, you've mocked me, you've told me lies."
And again, when you read this story, it's hard not to feel like Samson's a complete idiot,
but it's because he's infatuated, so he's being made a fool of.
And so finally, he's going to tell her the truth.
"It came to pass," verse 16, "when she pressed him daily with her words
and urged him so that his soul was vexed unto death,
that he told her all his heart and said unto her,
'There hath not come a razor upon my head, for I have been a Nazarite unto God for my mother's womb.'"
So again, the idea here is that, you know, he's not married.
He's cohabiting with this woman in fornication,
and so that's why he ends up making an idiot out of himself.
God's not going to bless that union, and he's giving in to lust,
and now he's allowing someone to manipulate him and use him.
He says, "Hey, if you do that to me, then my strength will go from me,
and I shall become weak and be like any other man if you cut my hair."
And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart,
she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying,
"Come up this once, for he has showed me all his heart."
Somehow she knows that this time it's real and that he told the truth.
Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her and brought money in their hand,
and she made him sleep upon her knees, and she called for a man,
and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head,
and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.
And again, you know, the tragic story. What ends up happening to him?
Look, verse 21, "The Philistines took him and put out his eyes
and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass,
and he did grind in the prison house."
So he's made to act like a literal animal, turning the mill like an animal,
grinding in the millhouse like an animal.
He's bound and, of course, he's blinded.
So a way to remember this is blinding, then binding, then grinding
is the life story of Samson at the end. Why?
Because he gave in to lust and was thereby manipulated.
Go back to Genesis chapter 38. Let's look at another example.
And I'm just going to go quicker with these other examples.
But in Genesis chapter 38, we have a story of Judah and Tamar.
And Judah ends up getting manipulated by his daughter-in-law Tamar.
And what had happened is that Judah had a son and his son was wicked.
So God killed him. So he's left with a widow.
Well, then the next son marries the widow and, you know, to raise up seed unto his brother.
And, of course, he, you know, Onan, spills it on the ground, makes God upset.
God kills Onan too.
And so now there's a third son, Shelah.
Well, here's the thing about Shelah is that Shelah is too young to get married.
And so Judah tells Tamar, hey, just wait for Shelah to get a little bit older.
And then you could be married to Shelah because, hey, you know, maybe God's going to kill him too or whatever, you know.
But, hey, we'll give it a try.
And so what happens is Judah doesn't really make good on this.
He reneges on this, and it gets time for him to give Tamar to Shelah, and he ends up not doing it.
And so Tamar gets impatient, like, what's going on?
You know, where's my husband?
What's the deal?
Because she's sent home to her father's house, and, you know, she doesn't want to be back living at home as an adult and doing that.
You know, she wants her husband.
What's the deal?
Look at verse 11 of Genesis 38.
"Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter-in-law, 'Remain a widow at thy father's house till she let my son be grown, for he said lest pervention he die also, as his brethren did.'
And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house.
And in process of time, the daughter of Shua, Judah's wife, died.
And Judah was comforted and went up unto his sheep-sheers to Timnath and his friend, Hira the Adolomite.
And it was told Tamar, saying, "Behold, thy father-in-law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep."
Now, Judah's wife dies, and so he goes to hang out with his buddies in order to feel better, you know, to take his mind off things.
He's going to get together with the bros and just kind of hang out.
But the problem is these are some sinful dudes that he's hanging around with.
These are not godly Christian companions, you know, as it were.
But he's getting together with these worldly guys and he's going to hang out with them.
He's going to party with them because, you know, the sharing of the sheep is kind of a party type event.
And it says in verse 14, she Tamar put her widow's garments off from her and covered her with a veil
and wrapped herself and sat in an open place, which is by the way to Timnath.
For she saw that Sheila was grown and she was not given unto him to wife.
When Judah saw her, he thought her to be a harlot because she had covered her face.
And he turned unto her, by the way, and said, Go to, I pray thee, let me come in unto thee.
For he knew not that she was his daughter-in-law.
And she said, What wilt thou give me that thou mayest come in unto me?
Now, here's the thing that we need to understand.
First of all, Judah is with his buddies and he has absolutely no problem in front of his buddies
with the knowledge of his buddies, because it's going to become very clear later in the story
that his buddies know about this transaction.
To just basically just stop at a prostitute and say, "Hey, how much?"
In front of his friend. Now look, those are the kind of friends you don't want to have.
Don't have friends where you could commit gross sin in their presence
and they're just going to be totally cool with it and totally fine with it.
You know, you want to have the kind of friends that are going to restrain you
that if you do have a weak moment, that if you do have a sinful idea,
that if you are tempted to do something, that you would be embarrassed in front of your friends
to do those things. You don't want to be around friends where anything goes.
And let me tell you something, young people crave acceptance.
And so they love their friends that are just so willing to accept them.
And here's the thing, some of the most wicked people are the ones that are going to just accept you
because they just accept everything. Because just everything's fine.
You know, you could be a dude with green hair and wearing a skirt,
like I just saw in Portland a couple hours ago, and they're going to accept you.
They're not going to judge you, right?
But you need friends that will tell you when you're going astray, right?
Faithful are the wounds of a friend.
And you don't want to have a friend where you can just commit fornication or adultery
or get drunk or take drugs, and they're just going to be like,
"Hey, man, whatever you want to do, yeah, let's party!"
No, you want friends that are like, "Whoa, what are you doing?
You're not going to drink that beer, are you?"
You know, don't take that pill. Are you crazy?
Don't steal that. Don't shoplift that.
Don't hang out with her. Look how sleazy this woman is.
Don't talk to her, right?
You need friends that are a good influence in your life.
And Judah is surrounded by just really worldly people that don't worship the Lord.
And so he's just totally comfortable in front of them.
Because you'd think this would be embarrassing even for a worldly person
to just be hiring a prostitute in their presence.
Seems kind of a ghetto thing to do, am I right?
But not only that, how did Tamar know that this plan's going to work?
I mean, think about it. You think somebody's going to go,
"Oh, I have an idea. I'm going to dress up like a prostitute
on the road where Pastor Anderson's driving,
and then he's for sure going to stop and roll down the window and hire me."
Like, no, because that's never going to happen.
But apparently Judah was the type of guy where Tamar knows,
"Hey, if I'm in the right place at the right time and he passes by,
he's going to do this because he's that kind of a guy."
That's a pretty bad testimony to have.
Pretty bad reputation when your relatives know
that you're a guy that's ready to commit fornication.
You're a guy that's just ready to commit whatever
and that all she has to do, because here's the thing,
why isn't she thinking to herself,
"Well, maybe one of the buddies is going to try to hire her."
It's like she knows, "No, this is Judah's weakness.
This is Judah's vice.
This is what he's into."
And so she somehow knew,
"All I have to do is just cover my face,
put on a Muslim hijab,
and he's never going to know."
And it worked.
He ends up hiring her, and she ends up manipulating him.
She ends up getting from him his ID as a pledge,
because he says, "Well, I'll pay you with a kid of the goats."
And she's like, "Okay, well, how do I know I'm ever going to get paid?"
And he says, "Well, okay, I'll give you my staff, my ring, my signets."
You know, he gives her basically the equivalent of, like, his ID and a credit card or something, you know.
Some kind of a hold, and then she takes that stuff.
And then later when she's pregnant, and he's like, "What in the world? How'd she get pregnant?
She's supposed to be marrying Sheila! Burn her with fire! Burn her at the stake! She's a whore!"
And she's like, "Oh, really? Because guess who got me pregnant?"
And she gives him back his ID, and he's like, "Well, she's more righteous than I am."
Which is not saying a lot, because he's not very righteous. Neither of them are righteous.
I think a better way of saying that is, "I'm worse than her."
But it's funny how he words it like, "She's more righteous than I."
Yeah, I guess so. You guys are both real pieces of work.
I'm real impressed by both of y'all's morality.
But the point is that because Judah had this weakness that was apparently known,
Tamar knew exactly what button to push, and she's able to manipulate him.
You know, if you go through life and you have an addiction that everybody knows about,
everybody knows that liquor is your weakness, drugs are your weakness,
food is your weakness, fornication is your weakness, adultery is your weakness,
you know, you're kleptomaniac, whatever.
You know, you have these kind of cravings in your life, these weaknesses, these lusts.
That is leverage that, first of all, just Satan will use, the mass media will use,
your frenemies will use, people will use, coworkers could use,
to take advantage of you and rip you off and hurt you,
because you're giving into those things.
Go, if you would, to 1 Kings chapter 11.
We're going to look at another example, 1 Kings chapter 11.
But you can see how there are a lot of examples of this in the Bible,
where people are manipulated and they're opening themselves up to manipulation
because they are a lustful individual,
because they don't have these cravings under control.
1 Kings chapter 11, verse 1, the Bible reads,
"But King Solomon loved many strange women."
There's his weakness right there, right?
He loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh.
So it's not enough that he has this one foreign wife, the daughter of Pharaoh,
but he's also got women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites.
"Of the nations concerning which the Lord sent into the children of Israel,
you shall not go in unto them, neither shall they come in unto you,
for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods."
Solomon clave unto these in love, right?
So he is emotionally involved here.
He loves these women.
He wants to be with these women.
And he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines,
and his wives turned away his heart.
You say, what's the difference here in this passage
between the wives and the concubines?
The difference is that the wives are all princesses.
These are all, like, political alliances.
They're high-class, noble women.
The other 300 are just women that he's into,
but they don't get the title of being a wife
because of the fact that they're lower status.
They're not princesses.
And so he's not just doing this only to make political alliances.
Because obviously this is the thing, you know,
Genghis Khan did this a lot where he would conquer a certain nation
and then he would marry a woman, you know, from that clan or whatever,
the king's daughter, in order to kind of make peace
and kind of say, "Okay, going forward, you're one of us now.
We're going to unite the clans."
So he would do these kind of political marriages.
But here's the thing, you know, Solomon's doing that, okay,
but also he's got 300 concubines.
These are just women that he wants to get with because he wants to get with.
It's not about politics. It's not about power.
It's about an insatiable lust of somebody who's greedy
and just totally not controlling himself at all, right?
Where 700 is not enough, you got to add these 300 that aren't even wives,
that aren't even important enough to even get that status.
And so he ends up cleaving under these in love.
And God had warned, "Look, if you marry these women,
they're going to turn you away toward other gods."
And it says in verse 3, "And he had 700 wives, princesses,
300 concubines, and his wives turned away his heart.
For it came to pass when Solomon was old,
that his wives turned away his heart after other gods."
Because here's the thing, when you get old,
sometimes you get soft, you don't want to fight anymore,
you don't want to take a stand anymore,
and you're kind of just like, "Whatever, honey.
Here's the credit card. Just go spend the money."
I don't even care anymore. I give up.
I've been fighting you for years, but just do what you want.
Whatever. You know, who cares anymore?
So he's old, and so he doesn't have that fight in him that he used to have,
and he's just ready to just do whatever they want.
And so his heart was not perfect with the Lord as God.
They turned away his heart after other gods.
For Solomon went after Asteret, the goddess of the Zidonians,
and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites.
And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord
and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father.
Now this story can sometimes confuse people,
because we often teach that if you're truly saved,
you're not going to stop believing in Christ,
and you're not going to go join a false religion.
And what does the Bible clearly say?
They went out from us, but they were not all of us.
For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us.
But they went out that they might be made manifest
that they were not all of us.
And this is not an isolated scripture.
Paul says, "Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God."
He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
When you see people crossing lines into damnable heresy
and not staying with the key fundamental doctrines of the faith,
the doctrine of Christ, it's because that person was never saved in the first place.
They went out from us because they were not of us, right?
Jesus said, "My sheep, hear my voice. A stranger they will not follow,
a stranger they will flee from, for they know not the voice of strangers."
Once we are saved, we're indwelled by the Holy Spirit,
He will guide us into all truth, right?
And we know the voice of the shepherd and the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit
that we're the children of God.
And so if I see somebody out there just joining the Roman Catholic Church,
becoming a Muslim, becoming an atheist and saying, "I don't believe in Jesus,"
that person was never saved in the first place, okay?
So then one of the things that people will bring up is they'll say,
"Okay, well, if that's true, then what about Solomon?"
But here's what we don't see.
We don't see Solomon not believing in the Lord anymore.
It just says, well, his heart's not perfect with the Lord.
He's not fully going after the Lord.
He still is worshiping the Lord.
He still believes in the Lord.
He hasn't stopped believing in the Lord.
And it's not that he has just converted to these false religions,
but what he's doing is he's just going along with what his wives want.
His wives are into these false gods.
So he's indulging them and building a church for their God
and building a temple for their God
and donating money over here for this.
And he's going and he's saying, "Okay, I like the music."
And he's basically going to the Roman Catholic service
with his Catholic wife and saying, "Oh, the chanting is beautiful.
And here, let me light a candle."
It doesn't mean that he believes Catholic doctrine.
You know, it doesn't mean that Solomon believes in
Chemosh-Astoroth doctrine or something.
But here's what you have to understand, though,
is that the further that you drift from God,
obviously without transgressing the doctrine of Christ
and just going all the way over the line
where you're just into total damnable heresy,
which proves that you were never saved in the first place,
it is possible, though, for people, as they drift away from God,
to start believing some stupid things,
because they're in the flesh.
And one of the works of the flesh, according to Galatians 5, is heresies.
So not every heresy means that someone's not saved,
because heresy is a work of the flesh.
Now, if somebody's just all the way over the line saying,
"Oh, I don't believe in the Trinity," or, "I don't believe Jesus is the Son of God,"
or, "I don't even believe in hell anymore," or something,
then it's like, okay, wait a minute, this guy's over the line,
this guy went out from us, he was not of us.
But it is possible, though, if you're not reading your Bible,
if you're not walking with God, if you're not filled with the Spirit,
if you're walking in the flesh, to start believing a bunch of stupid things,
maybe going soft on false religion, hanging around with false religion,
indulging false religion, becoming ecumenical or whatever,
you see this happen even amongst saved people.
And I think that you could see, maybe to try to bring this story into the 21st century,
you know, what if a born-again Christian is married to a Hindu or something, right?
And then it's like, okay, now he's going to Home Depot and buying stuff
so that she can build a little shrine, because he's old,
and he's got his young sweet Hindu wife, and he's like, okay, whatever,
we'll build this little Shiva shrine in the backyard.
And then he might think, oh, that's kind of cool, I kind of like some passages from the Bhagavad Gita,
that's kind of cool or whatever, kind of interesting.
And yeah, we can embroider that and put it in a frame right next to,
as for me and my house, we'll serve the Lord or whatever.
So I don't think for one second that Solomon's not saved or that he doesn't believe in the Lord anymore.
Plus then there's also the added layer of the fact that in the Old Testament,
saints in the Old Testament are not indwelled by the Holy Spirit the same way that we are in the New Testament.
So as New Testament Christians, we're probably less likely to enter into this kind of a scenario exactly.
But the principle still stands that if you marry an unbeliever,
they could turn away your heart and get you involved in false doctrine, false religion.
You know, and they're saying, I've known people that have gone into damnable heresy.
And I'm thinking to myself, I don't know, their spouse seemed cool and seemed saved.
Are they both not saved? But a lot of the time, it's probably just the one spouse could be unsaved.
And they're just kind of dragging the other spouse along on some ride.
And the other spouse is just kind of like, whatever, and just kind of going with it.
Don't get unequally yoked, right?
Because you've got to be married to somebody who's saved so that this doesn't happen to you.
And so because Solomon is loving many strange wives, he just loves those Hindu wives.
He just loves those Muslim wives. He just loves him, that Buddhist wife, right?
Then he ends up serving, you know, and again, I don't think in his heart he believes in Buddha.
You know, and I'm using modern religions just to make it more relatable.
I'm not trying to be anachronistic.
It's not that in his heart he believes that Hinduism is the real religion and that Christianity is, no, no, no.
In his heart, he still trusts in the Lord. He still believes in the Lord.
But now he's also emotional about these religions because he's just empathizing with his wives that are super into those religions.
And so he's going along with it, and he ends up putting money into it, putting effort into it, just to please them, to make them happy.
And there are all kinds of husbands that will go to church just to please their wives or participate in things that they would never participate in because of that.
And so Solomon is being manipulated by his wives.
Because you know what his wives should have done is they should have submitted to him, especially since he's worshipping the true God.
They should have shown up and been like, "Okay, Solomon, tell me about your God," sort of like the queen of Sheba.
Like, "Hey, tell me about your religion. Tell me about your God."
And then they should have all been converting and getting saved and getting on his program.
But guess what? There's no guarantee when you marry an unbeliever that they're going to convert to your religion.
And so decades go by and the daughter of Pharaoh, you know, is still not saved. She's a pagan.
And some of these wives are still pagan and they manipulate him because they know his weakness for women.
And so they use that in order to get him to do what they want.
Also, his weakness is not just women. His weakness is also the fact that he's going soft in his old age.
And, you know, I think about this all the time because I don't want to get soft as I get older.
Because, obviously, I was a hell-raising preacher that started pastoring at 24 years old, right?
And then I'm pastoring in my 20s, pastoring in my 30s, now I'm pastoring in my 40s.
Am I just going to, now that I'm in my 40s, just start saying, "You know what? I preached those hard sermons back in 2006.
I need to just relax, chill out." It seems like I'm always just fighting somebody, you know?
And just always calling out false teachers, always in the news.
But here's the thing, praise God, I was just in the news like a week and a half ago for preaching against fornication.
Preaching against fornication in the news, you know.
Then a few days after that, getting sued by Andrew Tate's lawyer, you know.
It's like a few more days go by, and it's like, "All right, let's call out Kirk Cameron. Let's go."
It's just like, it's just life is a series of battles.
But don't you think that it would be possible for me to say, "Okay, I've passed it for 20 years.
I'm 44. Time to just keep a low profile, lay low.
Let's get in some really vanilla series on Sunday morning, vanilla series on Wednesday night."
You know, don't even preach on Sunday night, amen.
And just, you know, bring in other people to preach vanilla sermons.
And just get up and just phone it in and don't fight anybody.
Just try to be calm and chill and mellow and whatever.
Folks, not going to happen, God willing.
If it happens, then you're going to be real disappointed in me, aren't you?
And I'm going to be real disappointed in myself.
Because I need to keep fighting, and fighting's exhausting.
Fighting's hard, but you know, we just got to keep fighting.
Just keep preaching.
And if you preach hard, there's going to be battles.
It's going to be a fight.
But we've got to keep going all the way to the end.
We don't want to be like Solomon where we get stopped
and we start getting tolerant of everything
and just whatever.
You know, it's the same thing in our homes
because honestly,
it could be easy in your home
to just say, "Oh, I'm sick of
fighting the battle of ruling my home,
so I'm just going to just let my wife just take over."
You know, and obviously
there are lots of godly wives out there that aren't even
trying to do that, you know.
But I'm saying in a situation where the wife is trying
to take over and she has to be reigned in,
you know, you've got to keep reigning her in.
You know? Or with your kids,
you can just kind of just give up on the kids
and just say, "You know what? Whatever."
Just let them go out and party.
Just let them be out there until
all hours of the night. No curfew.
I'm sick of fighting them. You know, your daughter
comes down in the miniskirt
and you're just like, "I'm sick of fighting this battle."
Just let her wear whatever she wants.
You don't think there are parents doing that every day?
Because, guess what? Getting your
daughter to dress right can sometimes
be a daily battle, right?
Where it's just constantly.
And Rebecca is not guilty of this, okay?
Just so you know.
Rebecca's here, I'm not. It's isn't about you, Becca, okay?
But you know what? Sometimes,
there is a constant battle of
that skirt's too short.
You gotta change that. You know, change that outfit.
That outfit's not appropriate.
You know you can't wear that.
No, you're not putting on pants.
No, you're not putting on the shorts.
No, you're not wearing that provocative outfit.
Don't you think that as you get older,
there could be a tendency to just be like,
"Whatever, just let the boys grow their hair long
and let the girls wear whatever they want.
I'm just sick of fighting this battle."
Or as a pastor, you know, you're fighting
to keep it King James only, right?
And you're fighting to stay with the old-fashioned hymns,
and you're fighting to stay with door-to-door soul winning,
and you're fighting to keep the preaching hot in the pulpit,
but then finally it's just like,
"Whatever, I'm just sick of fighting this battle.
I'm sick of trying to drag people out soul winning.
You know, let's just go to once a month.
They don't want to go anyway, let's do a door hanger."
You know, "Whatever.
Okay, fine, let the musicians just take over
and take us who knows where to Hillsong and back."
You know, "Whatever, I guess, okay, fine.
New King James is close enough, right?
Modern English version is in the ballpark.
You know, let's just go with it."
No, my friend, you can't go soft in your old age.
You know, you got to stay hard.
You got to stay sharp.
You got to be sober.
You got to be vigilant, right?
The Bible says the old man need to be sober.
They need to be vigilant.
They need to be awake.
And so because of his weakness in these areas of just getting old,
I'm done fighting, no, there's no discharge from this war.
It never ends.
The fight never ends.
You just got to keep going.
Just keep fighting.
And look, there are times when you get exhausted.
Take a break.
Take a day off.
All right.
See you Monday.
Let's go.
Take Monday off.
I'll see you Tuesday.
Back in the fight.
You don't need to just take years off.
We're here to do a job.
We need to get it done.
Now last place we'll turn is Proverbs chapter five.
I'm just about done.
Proverbs chapter five, Proverbs chapter number five.
And again, what's the sermon about?
The leverage of lust, right?
You let lust control you.
You let yourself be led around by appetites.
It's not just that sin and the devil and flesh is gonna, no, no, no.
It's other people will manipulate you.
They're bad people in this world watching you.
They're going to figure out what your weakness is and they're going to exploit it.
You know, and that's what the advertising industry is doing all day.
That's what the internet is going to do.
And you know what's funny?
Now a lot of the advertising is on our computer screens, right?
Because it used to be like billboards and magazines and stuff.
How many of us really pick up a physical magazine anymore?
Probably not very many.
And if it is, probably the older people that still take magazines.
Okay.
Most of us are probably just doing everything online.
And you know what is funny is that I get these like targeted ads at me on social media.
Not even based on me, but just based on the fact that I'm a 44 year old man.
They just think I'm having a midlife crisis all the time.
Just because I'm 44, I must be having a midlife crisis.
So I get targeted with all this like men in your 40s kind of advertising.
It's like here you know put on this shirt and it's going to hide your dad bod and it's
going to make your arm muscles bulge out and it's going to make your stomach not seem so
big and you know you can wear this and whatever.
And it's just all this silly stuff and I get all these like hair growth ads.
I'm like I'm not losing my hair you know but a lot of guys my age are losing their hair.
So it's just you know it's a genetic thing either you do or you don't you know and I
drew the short straw.
But the thing is that you know I get targeted with these ads but a lot of the stuff that
I get targeted with is like sinful stuff that it tries to put on you to try to get you involved
in things that are wrong.
And trying to get you as a man because they know men in their 40s they have money they're
having the midlife crisis and whatever so it's just you're going to get manipulated
with those.
I know what your weakness is it's you're feeling insecure about your appearance because you're
in your 40s now and so boom you know buy this product and they're trying to rip you off
and sell you a bunch of stupid stuff or they're trying to get you on these like weird like
dating sites and stuff it's like and you know what it's like X not applicable not relevant
I'm not interested in this post quit showing me this crap but it's like it's automatic
because you're in your 40s and the advertising industry is like okay what's the weakness
of women in their 20s women in their 30s women in their 40s women in their 50s men in their
60s men in their 50s men in their 40s it's all geared toward manipulating you knowing
your your lust and your weaknesses the pride of life the lust of the flesh the lust of
the eyes to exploit that and use you but then people in your actual life people in your
church god forbid but people in work school neighborhood it's like once they know what
your weakness is right and maybe you have a weakness for gossiping and tail-bearing
they'll exploit that too and they'll use that to manipulate you and use you and ruin you
the love of money it's not just one thing it could be any of these things so example
number one Esau was manipulated by Jacob example number two Samson was manipulated by Delilah
example number three judo was manipulated by Tamar she knew exactly what button to push
these guys had their I mean Jacob knew that Esau why would he even suggest such a thing
if he didn't think Esau was going to do it he knew Esau's weakness and he exploited it
Delilah knew Samson's weakness Solomon was exploited by his wives he was used by them
and lastly we have the example in Proverbs chapter 5 of the simple one the simple one
is exploited manipulated used by the strange woman because he's too foolish to understand
that lust is going to lead him down a horrible path let's just we don't have time to because
we could just spend a long time looking at chapters 5 6 7 9 we could go through all the
strange woman passages but let's just look at chapter 5 here in verse 20 it says and
why wilt thou my son be ravished with a strange woman and embrace the bosom of a stranger
for the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondered all his goings now
watch this don't miss this says in verse 22 this is the key that I want to show you his
own iniquities shall take the wicked himself and he shall be holding with the cords of
his sins do you see that so your sins your lusts your weaknesses spiritually those are
the cords those are the ropes that people are going to use to tie you up with right
because read it again it says his own iniquities shall take the wicked himself and he shall
be holding with the cords of his sins and again the context is being sucked in by the
strange woman she's the one who's going to tie you up like Delilah tied up Samson okay
and you will be tied with the cords of your own sins he shall die without instruction
and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray folly is foolishness stupidity look
my friend you and i as christians we're not invincible we're not supermen and we all have
cravings many of which are natural normal cravings i mean i think it's pretty normal
for esau to be hungry after hunting right it's pretty normal for us to wake up and want
to eat breakfast pretty normal to want to eat lunch pretty normal to be starving and
come home and want dinner that's pretty normal and it's pretty normal for men to want to
have that physical relationship that is supposed to be kept within the bounds of marriage it's
a normal natural desire for women to have it's a normal natural desire for men to have
there's nothing wrong with that appetite just like there's nothing wrong with the appetite
for food but let me tell you something the appetite for either of those things it needs
to be put under control we can't just eat everything we want whenever we want right
what that would be awesome that's probably going to be the best thing about heaven right
just the eternal feasting and and and and never gain any weight you know i can't that's
the that's what i'm looking forward to just the cereal bar up in heaven and don't let
anybody tell you we're not going to be eating in heaven because in heaven there's all kinds
you know we're going to be eating and drinking in the kingdom of god is what the bible says
and so you know just imagine all the cereals and the milk is going to flow and it's just
going to it's going to be an endless party okay that's what i dream about but here's
the thing those those cravings are fine but you've got to tell yourself no you got to
say hey it's enough i got to skip breakfast today or you know i can't do the the the
fourth bowl of cinnamon toast crunch or whatever and you know three bowls is enough and the
thing is when it comes to the appetite for that physical relationship with a woman you
know here's the thing god has provided marriage for that okay and and here's the thing marriage
is going to satisfy that to an extent you understand but do you think that every guy
who gets married is just like oh totally satisfied 365 days a year just never going to have a
temptation ever again is that really real probably not and so here's the thing before
you're married you have to keep under your body and you have to work and restrict yourself
and deny self and not commit fornication and then after you're married it's easier after
you're married but you still have to deny self of adultery and say okay i'm only going
to keep myself to my wife and her alone and no one else you know that's going to take
discipline too it takes discipline not to fornicate but then once you're married then
it takes discipline not to commit adultery and then it takes discipline to keep serving
god and not get caught up in the cares of this world and just the love of money right and for
some people the love of money might be their weakness and the devil's looking to exploit that
other people are looking to exploit that rip you off manipulate you steal your money go down the
list you know what's your weakness and a lot of these and here's the thing even the craving for
money at the root of that there is something righteous because it is righteous for men to
want to go out and work and pay their bills it is righteous for us to have ambition and want to do
the best we can at our job and climb the ladder and get a promotion those kind of ambitions are
normal and natural but you see how they can get out of control just like the lust for women can
get out of control just i mean you wouldn't want a guy to have no desire for women because then you
know the human race would end if men had no desire for that desire should be there if we had no desire
for food we'd just forget to eat and just die of malnutrition so you want there to be some desire
for food under control you want there to be a desire for women under control you want there to
be an ambition to get out and make money and work hard and and get a job and climb the ladder start
a business keep it under control because if you let any of these appetites get out of control
you are just handing the rope to your enemies and saying here tie me up with this afflict me
with this give me over to the philistines here devil ruin my life here madison avenue sell me
crap that i don't need that's what you're saying here steal my money rip me off that's what you're
saying and so don't let lust become the leverage that people use to manipulate you and ruin you
you know i don't want to be ruined as a pastor as a person you know i don't want my ministry to be
ruined i don't want my life to be ruined and the thing is that if i give in to any of these
cravings that we all have in moderation if i give into these in excess well then i'm going to end
up like esau maybe a profane person like esau sell my birthright for one more soul of meat
let's rise and have word of prayer father we thank you so much for your word and we thank you for
these warnings lord help us to get our cravings under control our desires our lust lord help us
to keep those things in their proper place and not give place to the devil help us not to make
provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof because not only will we harm ourselves
not only will the devil harm us but lord we'd be opening our ourselves up to other people
manipulating us and and using us lord god we love you we thank you so much for sure foundation
baptist church and we thank you for these people lord that you've assembled here today please
continue to use them in a powerful way to reach this greater portland area and vancouver washington
with the gospel lord we love you and in jesus name we pray amen
hang it out on the first