A New Beginning presents something for the New Year from Pastor Greg Laurie. We want to help you get stronger in your faith and discover what it really means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. To help you do that, we're offering a book called Discipleship, The Road Less Taken. I explore what the Bible says about discipleship and how we can grow in this area. And we'll send this book to you for your gift of any size.
Get your copy of Discipleship, The Road Less Taken at Harvest.org. Can a man take fire into his lap and not be burned? No. But that's what lust is like. Oh, I can control this. Oh, this won't get the best of me. You'll get burned.
I'm telling you. Today, Pastor Greg Laurie warns us of the destructive power of lust and how to keep it from invading and igniting our lives. The best way to overcome lust and protect your mind is to fill it with something better. Cultivate your relationship with Jesus Christ. This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.
Oh, can you hear when the angels are singing? This is the day, the day when life begins. If there's some liquid left in the bottom of a drinking glass, milk, juice, soft drink, what's the first thing we do to get it clean? We rinse it out, right?
Run some water in it and flush it clean. Today on The New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out the same approach works well with all the stuff that needs to be cleaned out of our minds. We'll see how to wash it clean with a renewed mind and a renewed passion to draw closer to the Lord.
It's one of the most requested messages of the past year. This is the day, the day when life begins. All right, let's turn in our Bibles to two passages today.
Exodus chapter 20 and Matthew chapter 5. How's this for a sermon title? Violence and Sex.
That is my message title. You've seen warnings on the screen before a TV program is about to play. A word of warning, the topic we're about to explore, may not be suitable for young listeners. Or you see a movie down at the theater and you're thinking, well, do I want to go see this? And it might warn you that there's violence and sex in the film.
That's what I want to talk about. But I don't want to glorify it as is often the case. But I want to tell you what the Bible says about these topics as we're looking at the Ten Commandments. Now if nothing else comes from this series on the Ten Commandments, part of a larger series on the life of Moses called Water, Fire, Stone, I hope you'll memorize the Ten Commandments in order.
Okay. Commandment number one. You shall have no other gods before me. Commandment number two.
You shall have no graven images. Commandment number three. Do not take the Lord's name in vain. And commandment number four. Remember the Sabbath day.
Keep it holy. There's two tablets. Four of the commandments are in tablet one. The final six are in tablet two.
So tablet two. Commandment number six. You must not kill or you shall not murder. And then the next one is you shall not commit adultery.
Let's talk about that. Heard about a little boy that went to Sunday school and the teacher was speaking on the seventh commandment. He seemed to have misunderstood her. He went home to dad and said, dad the teacher was telling me in Sunday school today thou shall not commit agriculture. What does that mean? Dad was smart without missing a beat. He said son that means you're not supposed to plow the other man's field. So that's a pretty good summation.
Pretty good summation. What is adultery? Let's just get technical for a moment. Adultery is sexual relations with someone beside your spouse. We hear the word fornication. That would be premarital sex. Adultery is primarily extramarital sex.
The only place for sex to be right and indeed blessed by God who created it is in a marriage relationship between a man and a woman living together committed to each other in a monogamous relationship. Imagine how different our nation would be if we obeyed the seventh commandment. How many divorces would have been avoided. How many families would still be together.
How many fathers would still be home to raise their children. It's such a devastating sin. Sex is not evil.
Sex can be good when it's in its right place. That's in marriage. Hebrews 13 4 says give honor to marriage and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery.
Another translation of that same verse goes as follows. Guard the sacredness of sexual intimacy between wife and husband. God draws a firm line against casual and illicit sex. So sometimes people think well you know but we need to get to know each other. Find out if we're compatible. So we'll have sex before marriage.
Maybe live together and then we'll later get married. Well that's how to sabotage a marriage. A University of Tennessee study among young women said there seems to be a correlation between illicit sexual behavior and serious emotional problems. And then another study done by the University of Oregon found that those who engage in premarital relationships make poor marital risks. And so it doesn't help you.
It actually hurts you. Now let's see what Jesus says about this. Matthew 5 verse 27. Jesus says you've heard the commandment that says you must not commit adultery. But I say anyone who looks on a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Wow. The word that Jesus uses here for looking is not speaking of a casual glance. It refers to the continual act of looking.
It's not an incidental or involuntary glance but an intentional and repeated gazing with a purpose of lusting. It's not just someone that notices someone's attractive. You might see a woman and say that's an attractive woman. Or you might see a man and say that's an attractive man as you would say right now. About your husband that you're sitting next to or somebody else.
Not me. So there's nothing wrong with it. That's not sinful to notice that someone is attractive. It's sinful when you take that thought and let it go into another arena so to speak and you begin to look at them with the purpose of lusting. So it's an intentional repeated gazing at something with the purpose of stimulating lust for that person.
Listen. You don't feed lust. You starve it. It's certainly one way you can feed lust is by looking at pornography. Actually the word that is used here for adultery, the original root word by Jesus is the Greek word porneia.
Guess what word we get from that? Pornography. Porn as it's often called. 79% of 18 to 30 year old American men watch internet porn at least once a month.
Say well yeah guys are all twisted and perverted. Doesn't surprise me. Really? 76% of 18 to 30 year old American women watch porn once a month. One expert described it as the pornification of America. It's joked about in sitcoms. It's coming to the mainstream. Films like Fifty Shades of Grey have brought it to a much larger audience.
So it's everywhere. So you don't want to feed that flame. And I would compare sexual desire to fire. And fire is not always bad. Fire can be good.
It's nice to sit around a fire ring or in front of a fireplace. It's nice to use fire to cook your food. But then fire can be destructive. It can take property.
It can take lives. So we want to have fire in its right place. The Bible asks the question in Proverbs 6 27, can a man take fire into his lap and not be burned?
In case you're wondering what the answer to that is, no. Don't try this at home. Let's start a fire in my lap and see if I get burned.
No. You'll get burned. I'm telling you. It's an obvious question.
An obvious answer. You can lose control of fire. When I was a little kid, I don't know what the deal was, but I seemed to be some sort of a junior pyromaniac. I like to set things on fire.
And one of my favorite things to do, not big things, just little things, you know like army men. I'd buy like 50 army men in a package. They were all green.
Remember those? And they'd be in different positions. There's a guy with the binoculars, you know, and then there's another guy kind of with a machine gun down here and then a guy with a long rifle pointing it. He was my favorite guy because I would light the end of his rifle with a lighter and the flame would kind of make it so and he would start melting like this and melt and melted.
He'd be a little flaming puddle. So one time I'm lighting my army men on fire. I did it more than once. And they were on newspaper.
Really a bad idea. So the army man melts, puddle of green, all of a sudden the paper, a little fire. So I scoop up all these papers in a panic. I'm running around.
I'm just a little kid. I throw them into a trash can made out of bamboo. The trash can ignite. Thankfully I got it out, but that's what lust is like. Oh I can control this. Oh this won't get the best of me. But it starts with looking.
That voluntary looking like I'm looking with this purpose. A great example of this or maybe a tragic example would be a better way to say it is David was up on his rooftop. Now back in biblical times the rooftop would be flat.
They might have a patio up there. And David being the king of Israel was on the rooftop of his palace. He had a great view of everything below.
And we read that he was up on his rooftop after he had been sleeping in all day. And he looks and sees a beautiful woman bathing herself whose name ironically was Bathsheba. Now he saw that.
I guess he couldn't have avoided seeing that the first time. And then he acted on it and gave it to him. And he then he acted on it and gave the order that she be brought up to his bedroom and they had sexual relations.
And she became pregnant. Instead of admitting that to the Lord and repenting he tried to hide it. So he called her husband Uriah who served in David's military back home hoping he'd spend a night with his wife and think that was his kid not David's. But this husband of Uriah was such a loyal soldier he couldn't bear the thought of having such a pleasure when the fellow soldiers were out on the front lines so he wouldn't go along with David's game plan. So in effect David had him murdered.
He sent him out to battle leading a charge. Everybody fell back. Uriah was killed.
And David married Bathsheba. Thought he had covered it all up. But then it all came out. And everybody found out.
And he even saw the same behavior repeated in his own children. So it starts with what you look at. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hey everyone I want you to know about our app called Harvest Plus. Think of it as a harvest version of Netflix. We have all of our resources in one place. We have our movies like Steve McQueen The Salvation of an American Icon, Johnny Cash The Redemption of an American Icon, A Rush of Hope, and much more. Then we have our television program, daily devotions, and much more.
So go and download the Harvest Plus app. Well we're considering the dangers of lust today as Pastor Greg brings a study based in the 10 Commandments titled Violence and Sex. Let's continue. Try to guard your mind. Job 31 says I've made a covenant with my eyes to not look lustfully at a girl. If a scene comes on your TV or in a theater or on your phone or wherever it is you don't want to expose yourself to that thing. You want to do whatever you need to do to not be looking at that sort of thing.
And obviously I don't think I need to say this but I'll say it anyway. A popular trend is sexting. Sending naked photos of yourself.
Worst idea of all time. There's something now called revenge porn where people get photos of someone they were involved with and then they break up. Then they post it and it's out there on the internet effectively forever.
Just you know simple thought. Never ever take a picture of yourself naked. Just don't. And don't carry it around on your phone. I got hacked and it's out.
What are you an idiot? I mean these are such no-brainers but these things happen to people and we want to be careful and we want to guard our minds. Listen to this as I wrap this up. The best way to overcome lust and protect your mind is to fill it with something better. Before I tell you what that is let me just make this one statement. For every temptation you have ever had there was always a way out.
Am I right? Always. 1 Corinthians 10 13 says there is no temptation taking you but such is as common to man. But God who is faithful will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able but will with the temptation make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it.
Let me just paraphrase that. There's always a way out of every temptation. Always. Sometimes it's turning off the TV. Sometimes it's terminating the conversation. Sometimes it's closing the laptop. Sometimes it's walking out of the room.
Whatever you got to do do it. Now let me come back to the thing that you should do instead of fighting lust all the time. Fighting lust.
Fighting. Fill your mind and your heart with something greater. And old Puritan put it this way. We need the expulsive power of a new affection. We need the expulsive power of a new affection.
Here's what it comes down to. Cultivate your relationship with Jesus Christ. See that was David's problem. He was known as the man after God's own heart. He was known as the sweet psalmist of Israel. Many of the great psalms that we read and memorize were written by David as love songs to God. But as we find him later in his career in his 50s he wasn't singing love songs to God anymore. He was sort of on what you might call a spiritual vacation. And when the troops were in battle instead of leading them as he had done in the past David was kicking back at home sleeping in and wandering around looking for trouble.
And he found it in his own backyard. And this happens to us. We back off from our study of the Word of God. We back off from attending church. We back off from prayer.
We don't hang around our Christian friends anymore. We get into these other relationships that are hurtful to us that can drag us down. And we find ourselves giving into something we said we would never give into.
You need the explosive power of a new affection. If you love the Lord with all of your heart and your mind and you're focusing on him it will bolster and strengthen you and give you the power you need to resist that temptation. The Bible says blessed is the man that endures temptation for when he has tried to receive a crown of life.
God will give you the strength to do it. But it all comes down to our need for Jesus. You know sometimes people say well you know Christianity that's like a crutch. Crutch? Christianity is a whole hospital man.
And I need all the help I can get. I don't know about you. And we can turn to the Lord and he'll help us. Maybe there's someone here today that is hearing this message and you don't have a relationship with God. I've been talking about cultivating this relationship with Jesus. You're thinking what are you even talking about?
How does that even happen? It happens when you say to God that you know that you're a sinner and you're sorry for your sin. And you realize Jesus Christ died on the cross for you. As we look at these commandments don't take the Lord's name in vain. Don't have another God before him. Honor your father and mother. Don't steal. Don't lie. Don't commit adultery. Don't murder.
Don't hate. Who among us has not broken some of these commandments? Every one of us has. The commandments were not given to make me holy. They were given to show me how unholy I actually am. The commandments were given to show me how much I need Jesus.
And listen to this. Jesus stands here now ready to forgive you of any sin you've ever committed. And there might be someone here today that needs Jesus in their life. You need your sin forgiven.
You want to begin this relationship with him. Or there might be somebody else who was walking with the Lord but you've given in to some of these things. And it's hit home.
And you realize it. But you can come back to him. And that's what you need to do. You need to turn from that sin and start walking with him again. So we're going to close now with a prayer. And I'm going to extend an invitation for you to either ask Christ to come into your life if you need him to come in today.
Or an opportunity for you to recommit your life to the Lord if you've fallen into some kind of sin. Let's all pray. Father, now we thank you for your word.
Which is so true. And it hits home. And I pray for anyone here who does not yet know you. Anybody here who does not have a relationship with you. Anybody here that needs Jesus. Lord I pray your Holy Spirit will convict them. And convince them of their need for Christ.
And help them to come to you now. We pray. Amen. Pastor Greg Laurie with an important prayer. And if you'd like to make a change today in your relationship with the Lord, Pastor Greg will help you in just a moment before we wrap up today here on A New Beginning. And then thank you for partnering with us to help these daily studies continue.
Your investments have eternal benefits. Why not make this a part of your personal ministry to partner in an effort that's making a real difference with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you for your prayers and for prayerfully considering how God might lead you to help tangibly. Online you'll find us at harvest.org. And there you'll see the way we'd like to thank you for your donation right now.
That's harvest.org. Or write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call us at 1-800-821-3300. We're here around the clock to take your call again at 1-800-821-3300. Well Pastor Greg you mentioned how someone can become a Christian with just a simple prayer.
Yes. Maybe somebody would like to do that right now. Could you help them with that?
Sure I'd love to. A simple prayer is right. In fact I would like to just pray a prayer and I would ask you to pray it after me. You might even pray it out loud. Pray these words, Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner but I also know that you are the savior because you died on the cross for my sin and you rose again from the dead.
Jesus come into my life and forgive me of every sin I've ever committed. I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Thank you for hearing this prayer. Thank you for answering this prayer, Lord, and I pray all of this in Jesus' name.
Amen. If you just prayed that prayer and meant it I want you to know on the authority of scripture God Almighty has heard your prayer and he will answer this prayer. You are now a newly minted child of God so congratulations. You've made the right decision and welcome to the family of God.
I want to send you a special gift because of that prayer you've just prayed. It's called the New Believers Bible. So the New Believers Bible is the New Testament in the New Living Translation with hundreds of notes that I wrote that will encourage you in this commitment you are making to follow Christ. There's some other materials included as well in what we call the New Believers Growth Pack but let me get this New Believers Bible into your hands as quickly as possible.
Here's Dave to tell you more. Yeah, we'll be glad to send it all your way free of any charge if you prayed along with Pastor Greg today. Just ask for the New Believers Bible when you call 1-800-821-3300. You can reach us anytime 24 7 at 1-800-821-3300 or write to us at a new beginning box 4000 Riverside California 92514 or just go online to harvest.org and click know God. Hey everybody I want to encourage you to join us for something we call Harvest at Home. It happens every Sunday at harvest.org and on our brand new app Harvest Plus which is available on your mobile TV devices. Download it now and you can watch Harvest at Home with Christians from around the world as we worship together and study God's Word. So again join us for Harvest at Home at harvest.org or on Harvest Plus. Next time more from Pastor Greg's series of the top 10 most requested studies of the year. Join us here on a new beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie.
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