S5 Ep18 Finally Free Continued Part 7 Finale

Talking and walking Christian men's ministry would like to invite you to our monthly men's breakfast, held every first, third, and fifth Friday of each month. You enjoy fun fellowship in the Word of God as we break bread together. The meetings are held at First Christian Church, 1130 North Main Street, Kernersville, North Carolina.

Start promptly at 630 AM and have a hard stop at 8 o'clock AM. Come join your hosts, Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr. Welcome to Man Talk, a ministry sponsored by TAWCMM, talking and walking Christian men's ministry, where we're devoted to breaking down the walls of race and denomination, and to point men to their God-assigned roles. Now here's your hosts, Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr. Welcome to Man Talk Radio. I'm Roy Jones, one of your co-hosts. And I'm Will Hardy, your other co-host.

Will, it's nice to see you. It's been, gosh, four weeks, I guess, five weeks since we've been together, unfortunately. Yeah, and we are coming to the last chapter of the book, Finally Free. And this, I think, is a very interesting chapter because when I started reading it, I looked at and thought about what in the world would you get? Can you get pornography out of what he was talking about in the specific chapter? And I think that was the question he asked, you know, in the chapter. It's like, what does this have to do with pornography?

Well, we're going to find out today. That's good, Will. It's always good when we pull parallels out of the Bible and some scripture, even though it may not be directly applicative to what we're talking about, but the correlation was there through the scripture reference. And, of course, he started off in John chapter 6. And in John chapter 6, as you know, or may not know.

I do, only because we read it this recently. That Jesus fed the 5,000. And then what happened, it was really interesting because he went to a place up in the mountain and the disciples were there and he was going to teach them. And then he saw the big throng of people coming. And, of course, he tested Andrew by saying, how are we going to feed all these people? And then he said, well, if we had 200 denarii, we couldn't feed all these people. And then Andrew Phillips' brother said, well, here's a lad here with five loaves and two fish. Jesus said, well, just bring it to me because he already knew what he was going to do exactly according to the scripture. And then, of course, when he fed them and then he left. And then they followed him. And see, that's the thing.

How can we connect the people following Jesus to pornography and its effects on people? And, of course, that's again, that's what we're going to get at. That's part of the chapter. That's right.

Exactly. So in the second time when they followed, initially, he was there to feed them spiritually but provided their natural needs, right? Their natural food, desire for hunger to satisfy their hunger pains. And then when they moved to the second visit, they didn't obviously get it the first time while they were there to be fed.

Not physically, but spiritually. Then when they went to the second pursuit of Jesus, they weren't looking for spiritual feeding again. They were looking for their physical needs to be met.

And I think that's where we talk about this correlation to the pornography piece, right? Our physical needs are what we're trying to satisfy. We're in a selfish pursuit of that. And we've learned through this book that it truly is an arrogance, if you will.

It's truly an arrogance. And so in this case, their pursuit was for food, not for spiritual food. Exactly. And it's no different than the pornography pursuit. Exactly. And when you look at that, and of course, we say, well, Jesus, why am I going through this?

Number one, if I'm struggling with pornography, why am I going this and why don't you take it away? See, that's what we say. So what we're doing is we're putting things back on Jesus and we're not taking any accountability of our own. See, and that I think is the huge issue because we're saying, OK, if the Lord delivers me from this, then I'll know he's real.

But if he doesn't deliver me from this, then I have more questions about why he didn't do it, but not look at myself on taking some responsibility as to say what things have I allowed to enter into me that I'm fulfilling rather than saying, Lord, why didn't you help me? And he wants to. That's the thing. If you ask anything according to his will. Right. He hears us. And we know that being pornography free is in his will.

Absolutely. Because it's back to sexual purity. And if we know that it is in his will for us to be delivered, then we just can't go to Jesus and look at him as some type of genie in a lamp. We rub the lamp and we say, God, I want to be delivered from this. And then if he does deliver us from it, because we've taken the responsibility of ourselves upon ourselves to look at some things that we're doing that we can correct by the Holy Spirit, then we don't have to take the approach to say, well, God, if you do deliver me from it, you know, then I know you're real. If then statement. That's exactly right. And so we find ourselves in a quandary there, see, because we're putting ourselves in between this inevitable rock and hard place situation.

Yeah, very much so, because as long as you keep going back to the well, it's going to keep flowing back through the well. And of course, in this case, be in the pursuit of pornography. So if you don't make a conscious decision, that's a great point, Will, that if you don't make a conscious decision to change your behavior and like we've talked about in the past. Right. It's the definition of insanity is what to continue to do the same things, expect a different outcome. Right. So if a person is in pursuit of pornography, how will they ever expect a different outcome if they don't start changing the way they're approaching change their time management, change their accessibility to the to the pornography change from a lack of accountability to an accountability to an accountability partner to spiritual guidance and feeding. All those things are elements to make them break free. But to your point, if they don't do any of those things, they keep trying to. I would almost say if they're testing God and we know that's not supposed to happen. Right.

Other than in one area. Right. Entire thing is that that's what the outcome is going to be. And it's really sad. And we've seen the release of a movie recently, The Sound of Freedom, which deals with human trafficking. And that really gives a greater tie into some of the stuff we've been going through in this book. Some of the things we've been sharing on our podcast and our video channel here that we really need more people to be aware of. So what else did you learn from this this chapter? Well, I wanted to point out that just this week locally that there were four people who were arrested on trafficking, human trafficking. And then two weeks before that, again, locally, there were others who were arrested.

So this is an issue, you know, that we knew existed. And as a ministry, you know, we're supporting organizations like Land and Rescue, who go out and rescue men, women, boys and girls from this human trafficking situation. But the thing that from the book, my big takeaway there was the fact that when they came back and they said, well, you know, Moses gave us bread from heaven. Like our fathers did. And so so Jesus told them, he said, basically, I am the bread of life.

This is what he was telling them. I'm the bread of life. If you eat of me, then you never go hungry. There's no there's no hunger when you eat of me. And so when they looked at the entire situation, you know, they said, well, why don't you do a miracle for us?

Well, hello. They just he just said, yeah, he just fed five thousand. So, again, what they were there for was the natural pursuit of hunger. So they didn't have to work. Think about it.

They didn't have to work. So continuously, Lord, to give me this natural food so I don't have to go to the field, plant, we sow it and then reap the harvest and and do all of this. I could just follow you and get as much bread and fishes as I need. And this, I think, is how, again, we tie this back to the pornography piece. We say only if I see results from you, Lord, right now. And that's another issue I'm not going to get into. But when we start commanding the Lord right now, right now, the Lord do things in his time. And we have to be open to accept that. But don't let me get on that right now. So I want to say Spirit might be leading you.

I want to stay on topic, though, you know, so all of the time when they were following him and they had this this, you know, desire of wanting more food so they didn't have to work. I equate that again to, again, the person who was involved in pornography. Lord, if you take it away and do it right now, I don't have to do anything. I don't have to make any effort. You can do it miraculously. Right. Take it away. Right. You know, that would make some level of sense if it were the spouse or someone praying for the individual, intercessory. Right.

You know, I'm praying on your behalf, Father, heal Will or deliver Will from whatever he's in the middle of versus the inward, the selfish, the arrogant piece of God fix this, you know, rather than say, OK, Father, how is it that I need to go through these steps to be released from this and to really learn and seek counsel. Right. And that's something that, well, it's a man problem.

We've talked about this many times. Right. Not in the not in the word, not in the prayer time. They're not leading their families. They're not leading their wives.

And by leading, we mean truly spiritually leading as a servant so that you're demonstrating what it looks like to be a follower of Christ. And then this all parallels right back into these types of issues. And, you know, ladies, if you're listening and watching today, along with your husbands or your boyfriends or your sons or your uncles, your brothers, whomever, don't be afraid to love on them in a way and request of them to be that servant leader in your home and in your family. That's what we're missing. And we hear a lot of the a lot of the negative stuff that goes on in today's society.

Society is really pushing the dumbness of men, as we've talked about in the past, on the commercials and the videos and just the blatant disrespect of men as a whole. So we, as followers of Christ, have got to raise the bar. And part of that comes in the servant leadership. So we feel like that's a real key piece of it. We talk about that quite often.

Absolutely. And, man, of course, if you are engaged in this activity and when you search the scriptures, the scriptures are clear. In James Chapter one, verses 14 and 15, it says, When every man sin is when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed.

And when that lust is conceived, in other words, it plants a seed. It brings forth sin and then sin, when it is finished, it brings forth death. So if we continue down the path, you're allowing death and destruction to enter your life, to basically take you to a place where you don't want to go. And once you get there, afterward, you find out, well, why didn't I listen?

So you don't have to endure the consequences that you will endure if you simply obey the word of God. Amen. And this is what we're sharing with you today.

Obey God's word because God's word is the foundation of all truth. You know, Will, we've talked many times and even most recently, I think, on our Friday morning a couple weeks ago about the gift that God has given man and woman, man and wife, husband and wife, and the intimacy that he's provided. And this book that we're dealing with, Finally Free, totally obliterates that innocence that God created for the couples. And it's collateral damage that may be so far-reaching that a marriage couldn't recover in the absence of God's healing hand. And that's the thing that we need to be realizing, and not just in pornography, but every area of our life that's a sinful area, that God can still work through those things, but they can still have the same collateral damage in our lives and in our walks. And that's one of the things that I think, as followers of Christ, we weaken down the discipline of following the word. Would you agree with that?

Exactly. So having said that, then we as followers of Christ, especially those that are trying to change other men and trying to work with them and coach them along, that we should continue to raise that bar like we talked earlier today. Raise the bar, expect God to be using his word through our people and us to be expecting our followers of Christ to be following the word and not watering down the doctrine of the Bible. And I think that's what we've done in so many churches today with just taking things that God says are sin, and we say it's okay to do it at the church level. And that goes across a broad scope of sinful behavior. Exactly. And see, when we allow these things to come in, I think we, again, their roots are bitterness. Yes. And what they do is they cause individuals to sort of like break off in the church and form little groups, you know, because they may have some other motive on why they're gathering to get people to vote a certain way if you're voting in the church on something that you want to do within the congregation. All these things, I think, play a role and they could be that one thing could be the thing that separates you and divides you from really getting the true meat of the word of God.

Yes. Because God is clear when he said, you know, in his word forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is. And as you see the day approaching and so much the more. So the day of the Lord is coming. And as we assemble ourselves together, we are letting the word of God do what the word of God does. Bring us together in fellowship, raise our awareness and things that he has done in our lives and in the lives of others, bringing peace where there would be discord, conflict and confusion. So if we challenge ourselves and we truly want to do this, Roy, I think it can be done because the Holy Spirit can't go back on what he said.

No, not at all. And of course, God, the Father, Son, Holy Spirit are one. So when you talk about one, you're talking about the other three. The other two and all three at once. Amen.

You know, Will, that's a very good point about the assembly. The pandemic, I think, was an opportunity for us to really draw closer together when we came out of it or to be complacent in our attendance. And I can't tell you the number of people I've heard, and I'm sure you as well, that have said, hey, I'm good with church. I watch it online. You know, I catch the service every Sunday morning online, but they're not in the body. And back to our earlier comment, people aren't in the Word. They're not praying. So all of a sudden, the assembling is gone together.

They're catching it on the tube, you know, on the TV. And they're not listening probably as much as they normally would be if they were sitting in church because they're distracted. And then all of a sudden, they're never with any other believers. They're back in their work environment, which then leads into the face change that we always talk about.

How does your Monday through Saturday face look compared to your Sunday face? And at that point, I would have to say, based on what we're seeing, attendance in churches continue to slip as a whole across the nation that people's faces aren't the same. Well, see, we know when the Holy Spirit is in union here because when we do our next show, and stay tuned for that, we're going to be talking about what's on your mind.

Yes. And that subject that you just brought up is what's on my mind. Amen. But we'll be talking about that.

Hey. Holy Spirit is right on time. We're in one accord. Amen to that. And the word, see, the word is the thing I think, Roy, that divides and well, the word of God says in Hebrews chapter four and verse 12. It says that the word of God is quick, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. Amen.

Amen. Providing even the asunder of soul and spirit, bone and marrow. And then this part is really tantamount. It is a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart. So see, the word already knows, audience, the word already knows what your intentions are doing, what you do before you do it.

Your spouse shouldn't have to be a police officer, a detective, and investigate all of these things that you are involved in if you simply come clean. Amen. And when you do this, because the Lord is in the midst of it, when you do this, there is no doubt that the Lord will hold up everything he said he would do if you do those things according to the word. And whatever consequences, and we talked about consequences in a later show, whatever consequences come about as a result of that, you as an individual needs to be at a point to receive whatever those are.

That's right. And not be upset, not throw temper tantrums and do all these things, but let the word of God minister to your heart, soul, and mind. Amen. Absolutely. Amen. Amen. That's good stuff, Will. I'll tell you, this book has been very challenging. Absolutely.

I was telling someone today, we were talking through this. Let me hold it up one more time. There you go. Finally Free by Heath Lambert. Finally Free. Yep.

Heath Lambert. How many total pages are in there, Will, just to kind of give the viewers and our audience, listening audience. About 168. So it's a very easy book to read. Easy book. You don't need to rush through it. It's got some critical steps, which will be very important to your success in releasing yourself from this problem and being active in the role of releasing yourself. But one of the things I think, as we were talking about this morning or earlier with the gentleman I just started to mention, was that we've kept 25 or so guys engaged in this one study, which has been pretty remarkable because, and with that, we weren't trying to figure out if they were in the middle of the struggle or if they had been in the struggle. We took it from a position of first of grace based on what the book had made sure to make clear.

Second, no condemnation. And third, it could be either a preventive measure, a corrective measure, or a foresight potential issue coming with a loved one or something like that, which kind of pairs in with some with the preventive side. But it's been a great book, so if you haven't had an opportunity to review it, chances are you got someone in your family. If it's not your husband or your wife, it's probably your son or your daughter or your mother or your father. Someone in your life, based on statistics, is in the middle of the struggle.

That's right. And it's a great opportunity to make a difference with their life in their walk with Christ. And if they're not believers, this may be the very thing that brings them into a relationship with Christ.

Absolutely, because if not you, then who? So God has called us as believers and followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. So he's speaking to you right now. He's speaking to you and saying, what is it, the steps that you're going to take?

What are those steps? And if those steps are the steps that bring you in closer relationship with the Lord, then the Lord will begin to feed your spirit more and more and more, and you'll begin to grow. And when you begin to grow, he tells us in the Word that we are to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, because you need knowledge first before you can really have wisdom, because wisdom is what you use once you get the knowledge. So the knowledge precedes wisdom. Wisdom tell you how to use what you have learned. So as a believer, follower, or a struggler with this particular subject, we are saying to you that it has helped us as men of God, not to the point that we were engaged in this, but helped us in knowing how to deal with others who might be engaged. And again, as Roy stated, it may be a neighbor, it may be a church member, it may even be your pastor.

That's right. And so if you understand that these things are going around and people are engaging in them, then as a believer in Christ, you need to challenge that individual with the love that God had placed within you, because without his love, we wouldn't know how to love. Amen.

What are the numbers, Will? Is it 150 or $160 billion a year globally that this industry represents? Exactly. I think human trafficking is equally as much.

So we're talking, if I remember correctly, 250, $300 billion between human trafficking and the pornography industry globally. And that's very, very, very sad. It is.

Very sad. And I can't stress enough, and Will, we talk about this quite often, and just as we finish the chapter, I think it's important that we reiterate to you as the listener and the viewer that, if you're in this cycle, if you're in the midst of this, it doesn't matter what portion of the supply chain you're in, you're feeding the whole supply chain. And by that, I mean that you're culpable, you're responsible for the most violent of acts that goes on in this arena, because you're feeding the supply chain, you're feeding the revenue base, you're a part of the problem.

So don't think just because you're looking at still pictures or videos or whatever it may be and you're not looking at all the really bad stuff, it's all bad, but if you're not thinking that I'm not looking at the other end of the spectrum, you're responsible for it. Thank you. As we conclude today's show, TAWCMM, Talking and Walking Christian Men's Ministry, are building a community of men to be servant leaders in their home, communities, churches, and work environment. Check us out at our website for upcoming events and regular scheduled meetings. Don't forget to send us an email for topics that you would like us to visit in the future. Thank you for joining us today on Man Talk. Send us at tawcmm.com.