Lust

I, I have never known a pastor with a bigger vision than Pastor Tim Delina. And God has used this man to get the gospel I see you're hearing in these services into about 70 plus countries, I think now, throughout the world. Could we just take a moment and just give God thanks for our pastor? Could we just, yes, man, the Bible says that we're to give honor where honor is due.

And I do thank God for you, Pastor Tim, with all my heart. I asked Pastor Tim for permission to speak this tonight because I didn't want to be embracing this topic without, without his consent, but I'm standing here tonight with a mandate of God. I'm standing here with a burden that I know has been given to me of God.

And while we were, while Anna was leading us in worship tonight, at one point I had a kind of a picture come into my mind of the people of God. Actually when they left Egypt, when they walked through those gates that held them captive and they walked into freedom, I felt that that was going to be the portion of many people this evening. And in the days to come, we're going to be a free people.

You shall know the truth and the truth shall what set you free. The truth is not just for head knowledge. The truth is to bring us into a place of, of freedom.

Now this evening I want to speak on the topic of lust. It's just really a simple topic. And I, I want to finish with a story, but I'm also going to start with it.

You know, the story in the scriptures are King David. Now most who study this, the life of King David assume that he was in his fifties when he committed adultery with Bathsheba. He was in a place where he shouldn't be.

He was doing something he shouldn't have been doing as a King. And he looked over at something he shouldn't have been watching and then responded in a way that he shouldn't have responded. He had to break through a lot of barriers that had been placed there by the spirit of God in him to do what he did.

And after he did what he did, after he took another man's wife, and after he had arranged for this man's murder, a prophet called Nathan came to him. And I don't think Nathan came with a pointing finger. I don't think he came with harshness.

I think he came to David with tenderness and he shared with him a story about a man who had all kinds of flocks and herds. But he took this one man's one man, he said, had one, a guest came to him instead of taking from his own flock. He took one little lamb.

That's all this man had. And he sacrificed that lamb to himself and for his own need. And David was angered by this because you can be in sin and still have an unrighteous anger, still not being willing to deal with the reality of what's in your heart.

And David was angered. The scripture said, and this man shall die for what he has done. And he shall pay his estate in a sense will pay fourfold.

In other words, he, under the law and the old Testament, if you stole somebody's lamb, for example, and you were caught, you had to pay back four for the one you stole. And Nathan turns to him and I feel it's with tenderness. And that's what I prayed for tonight.

God, give me a tender spirit to deal with this topic. But Nathan turns to David and said, David, you're the man you, you had all of this before you and you had all these opportunities. God had given you everything your heart desired, but you saw something that didn't belong to you.

And you took that to your bosom. And he says to David, he says, you will not die, but David did pay with four lambs. He paid with the lives of four of his sons died because of the sin he had committed with Bathsheba.

My prayer in my heart is that God, I wish you had come to David. I wish nation Nathan had come before he committed that sin and not after. I wish that Nathan, the prophet or somebody like him had come into the King's room when he was in a place he shouldn't have been.

And he was doing something you shouldn't have been doing and say, and, and, and preempted him and say, David, don't do this thing. It's sad when there's nobody there to warn. So I think I'm standing in the stead in the sense of Nathan and somebody's life tonight might be somebody who's here in the sanctuary.

Might be somebody who's online. It might be somebody who's going to hear this message in the days, weeks, or months ahead. But I'm standing in the stead of Nathan, the prophet in the sense in David's life before this sin brings forth death, because that's what the scripture says.

It does. It brings forth death. Let's start in the epistle of James chapter one in verse 13, father, I thank you God for the touch of heaven tonight.

I thank you for the tenderness of the Holy spirit. There, there has been tonight a sense of freedom in this sanctuary. I do believe Lord that you're going to open prison doors to those have been taken captive or are being taken captive.

I do believe that you're going to give sight to those who are spiritually blind and can't see a way out of their dilemma. I do believe God that you're going to heal those that have been taken captive by the enemy at his will or by the lust of their own heart. God almighty, God almighty.

We are your people, Lord. We are called to bring glory to you in the earth and you have called us to glory and to virtue Lord. That's what your word says.

So I pray God that you would send truth and break off any cords of this besetting sin that wants to get a hold of people in your house as it has gripped the people in this generation. This is an incredibly lust bound generation, God, that we now live in and these things should not be part of the inheritance of your house and your people. God almighty open the prison doors, break the chains, shake the foundations Lord and let there be a shout of freedom in many hearts tonight.

Break the chains of pornography, break the chains God of all these things that want to come and grip and bind and destroy the testimony of God. Satan, we stand against you tonight in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the power of the cross of Jesus Christ and his shed blood, we stand against you and we declare that you have no power here. We declare that you are defeated.

We declare that your prison doors cannot hold and you cannot blind the eyes of God's people. Father, thank you God. Thank you that when people come into this church through the internet from all around the world, they're going to see a people who have been set free by the truth of God.

Oh God, give us the humility that David had when he turned and said, I am the man. I recognize I am that man. God, give us the humility tonight, oh God, not to try to justify wrong and call it right in Jesus name.

James chapter one, verse 13, James says, let no one say when he's tempted, I am tempted by God for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt he himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he's drawn away by his own desires. Now the original King James says when he's drawn away by his own lust and enticed, each one is tempted when he's drawn away by his own lust and enticed.

Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin and sin when it is full grown, brings forth death. I was counseling a man one time who had been unfaithful to his wife and we were sitting together and he was in real distress and he said these words, why did God make me so weak? You see what he was doing? He was taking the blame away from himself, from the scriptures and actually blaming God. See God, if you didn't make me weak, I wouldn't have done this.

I wouldn't have cheated on my wife if I was, if you had made me stronger, but it's your fault God, you see, because you made me weak. I couldn't get through to that man. I couldn't counsel that man.

As a matter of fact, he didn't finish well and I stand here tonight grieved to have to say that I personally doubt that he's in heaven today. He died not long after. I don't know if he made it home because there was a spiritual darkness got ahold of this man's heart.

You could not reach him with truth and I pray to God, may that never be the portion of anybody here in the sound of my voice tonight, myself included, may we never get to the point when truth can't reach our heart. When Nathan can't speak to us, when we were unable to acknowledge that we might be on a path that is not leading to life, it's leading to spiritual death. One time in this church, Pastor Tim, a man came to me and he said, I have a lust problem.

I said, okay, well, that's good. He said, well, it's not my problem. He said, it's because of the girls on the platform in the ensemble.

He said, you know, the way they move when they're singing, he said, I can't concentrate on God. I look at them and he said, I just feel lost in my heart. Now he's looking to blame the girls on the platform.

And I said to this man, I said, well, I got a couple of few things to say to you about that. I said, number one, have you considered closing your eyes when you worship? That should be a no brainer. Just do this.

Close your eyes. You don't have to look at the girls on the platform. Just worship God.

And I said, well, and failing that, I said, in case if you want to lift your eyes a little higher than the stage, there's a beautiful crown up here. And it will remind you of Jesus, remind you of why you're here. You're worshiping the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

And then I said, well, the third thing is something you might not have considered yet that the problem is not theirs. The problem is yours. You're given to lust all week.

You're looking at everything that you can look at and you're looking at all the wrong places and you want like a reprieve from the lust in your own heart on Sunday morning. It's just not going to happen because the problem is not theirs. The problem is yours.

First Corinthians. Now God, God does not tempt. The scripture says nobody can blame God for their temptation.

He doesn't derive some strange purpose by placing temptation before anyone. On the contrary, he is the one who makes a way out of temptation and sin. First Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13.

The scripture says no temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man. It's not, it's not unique to you. It's common to men.

As a matter of fact, it's more than common in this generation. It's everywhere. David Wilkerson once years ago preached a message about, and he spoke prophetically and he was speaking at a pastor's conference in Canada actually.

And he said, I, I see a device, I don't know what it is. It's a black box with cables in it and it's going to be connected to people's television sets and through this box, pornography is going to be piped into people's homes. You know, the ministers got up and walked out on him.

What he was describing was the internet, but there was no word for the internet back then because there was no internet, but he saw it in the spirit. He saw what was coming and it's a, it's, it's beyond a common temptation. Now it's, it's gripping the minds and the hearts of this generation.

There's a recent statistic out and I don't know how true it is, but I heard it in Washington in a pastor's conference that about 70% of men in this generation are hooked on some form of pornography right now, even in the house of God. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man. But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it.

God says, I will, if you will allow me, if you will get up and follow me, I will, I will take you out of this temptation. I will take you out of the grip of this darkness. I will take away from you this thing that wants to take away your life.

It wants to take away your spiritual vision. It wants to destroy your home, your marriage, your family, your future, wants to lead you into a place of fantasy and perversion that even if you do get married one day, if you're not already married, you, you won't be able to enjoy sexual relations as God intended it to be because your, your mind is laced with perversion. I'll take you out of this place.

Now they say, doctors say that, that pornography actually puts an imprint, an actual imprint on the human brain. Now only God can heal that, but God will heal that. If we'll turn to him, you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.

Hallelujah to the lamb of God. God is faithful. And with the trial, with the temptation, he will make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it.

He will get you out. Even if you can't get yourself out, you found yourself so captivated by this particular loss that you can't get out of it. Jesus himself told us to pray in Matthew chapter six and verse 13 and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

The context of lead us, Jesus is praying, basically saying this, don't release us into temptation. Don't, don't let us get stubborn or obstinate to the point where you, you, you remove your hand of protection from us. God, God, keep your hand of protection there and lead us.

Deliver us from the evil one. Don't release us into the temptations around us or even into the things of our own heart. Now the Bible just defines lust as a sinful desire that leads one away from God.

And it's not just sexual lusts. There's a lust for power that can even be found in the house of God. That's it's people who are in the workplace.

It's people who just want to be an authority because they lost to have power over other people around them. They don't want to be servants. The Bible says the greatest among you will be the servant of all.

They have a, they have a perverse understanding of greatness. And they think in order for me to be achieved as it is, I have to be in authority and have to be in power. And it can actually become a lust all by itself.

What about the lust for preeminence? Jesus said to the religious teachers of the day, you, you, you, in a sense, you long for the greetings in the marketplace and to be called teacher, teacher. You want to be singled out. You want, you want to be esteemed above everyone else around you.

What about the lust for money? Bible does say the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, which whilst many coveted after they have, they've fallen into error and ended up piercing themselves through with many sorrows. You can say, well, I need money. How do you know when I'm lusting for money? Well, it's easy.

It's when you never have enough, you never get to the point of saying, I have enough. I have enough. I have enough in my bank account.

I have enough to pay my. Now, if you have a lust for money, you never have enough. You spend your whole day thinking about money.

How do I get more money? And when you have more, how do I get more? And when you have more, how do I get more? That's how you know you have a lust for money. What about the lust for vengeance? Ah, oh, you you're wishing right now that person's face had not popped into your mind, but you can't push it out because it's there. You know, the guy at work that you, you say, God, forgive him.

But if you run him over with a bus, I'll be okay with it. You know, the lust for vengeance. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord.

You forgive. I'll do what needs to be done. And if I choose to forgive, you've got to be okay with that.

The lust for vengeance grips a lot of people. Our country is divided now by a lust for vengeance. I think you're probably aware of that by now.

There's such hatred. There's such vitriol. There's such a lust to see harm come to other people that it's in the air now.

And as God's people, we're not to be partakers of that lust. We're to love our enemies according to what Jesus says in the word of God. We're to pray for those who despitefully use us.

We're to be kind for those who are not necessarily kind to us. I don't want this to come to a lust for vengeance. I don't want an enemy in my life.

Well, I'm going to have them, but I don't really want them to be enemies in my heart. I want to be willing to reach out and do something nice for somebody who might not be inclined to do that for me. And also lust, of course, is where I started.

It's lusting for forbidden sexual gratification. First Peter chapter one, verse 13. Peter says these words, therefore, gird up the loins of your mind.

Truth. There's no other way to do it. Let truth be your guide.

Dress your mind with truth. What's lovely? What's a virtue? What's a good report? If there'd be any virtue, if there'd be any praiseworthy thing, think on these things. And the God of peace, he says, will be with you.

Gird the loins of your mind. Be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Rest your mind on the thought that God, it's your favor that will set me free.

It's your favor that will keep me free. It's your favor that will help me get across the finish line. Thank God.

When I get older and my hands will be raised and I'll be shouting and praising you. Oh God. Oh God.

Oh God. I can't tell you the numbers of people I've known over the years that have blown it in the last stage of their lives. Walk with God.

And some were even of reporting and right at the end that just a total train wreck. And I've been at the bedside of some of them. My prayer is God, when it's my last day on the earth, my last week, my last month, bring to me my kids, bring to me my grandkids.

And I'm going to be telling them like the prophet once did bang that arrow on the ground, serve God, live for God. You will not regret living for God. I don't want to be on my deathbed saying, I'm so sorry for what I did.

I'm so sorry for what happened. I wish it hadn't happened. Peter says, rest your hope fully upon the grace that's to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts as in your ignorance.

But as he was called, he was holy. You also be holy in all your conduct because it is written, be holy for I am holy. And if you call on the father who without partiality judges, according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers.

But with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Peter says, don't be conformed to your former lusts. The things that you did when you lived in ignorance and in darkness, don't go there.

Don't live like that. Don't let that become your guiding force in your life. Don't yield your body to these things that God said shouldn't be in you.

And then my favorite verse in second Corinthians chapter five and verse 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away.

Behold, all things have become new. I'm in Christ. You are in Christ.

Therefore, I am a new creation. I'm not going to live the way I used to live before I came to know Christ as my savior. The old things that governed my mind, that governed my thinking, that governed my life have died.

According to the word of God, they passed away. You can hold a funeral for your old way of thinking. It's passed away.

Maybe you should hold a funeral for it. Put it in a box, dig a hole in your backyard and bury it once and for all. The old things that governed my mind, the old things that governed my life, the old lust, the old selfishness, the old angers, the old everything about me that was there before I came to Christ has died.

And all things have become new. That's a promise from the word of God. And the Bible again says, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.

I am a new creation in Christ Jesus. The old things in my life have passed away. I'm not fully, Paul says, what God's called me to be.

I know that you know that there's still ways to go. But Paul says, I am now leaving behind what needs to be left behind. And I'm pressing forward to the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

I want my life to be a testimony of God's grace and God's glory. I want my voice to count for righteousness. I want my song to be acceptable to God.

I want the giftings of the Holy Spirit to flow freely through my life, to be able to speak into people's lives and see them brought out of darkness and into life and light in Jesus Christ. I want to be a key that unlocks prison doors and oil that pours the anointing of God on other people's lives. I want the fullness of God from all that God has for me.

That's what I want. In the book of Romans in chapter eight, I was supposed to teach this, but I guess I'm not doing much of a job at Pastor Tim. I can't teach.

I can't. I can't. It's hopeless.

I can only preach. That's who I am. That's what I'm called to do.

Romans 8 11. But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh.

For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead. If you're a believer in Christ is now upon you in you, raising you out of death and into life through Jesus Christ.

If the same spirit is in you, the body is dead, but the spirit is life. And the one who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal body through his spirit that dwells in you. I began to learn these promises when I was a young believer.

And I don't know about you, but I was just not willing to live in less than my inheritance. I don't know. It's like if somebody died and gave you a million dollars, left you a million dollars.

And they said, it's down in whatever bank is around here. This is the empty bank. That's not a good name for a bank.

An empty bank is not a good name for a bank. I have an empty bank account. Yeah.

Anyhow, there's got to be another back here. Chase Chase Bank. Okay.

You can imagine going down to Chase Bank and you said, I've been left a million dollars. That's true. I said, I'd like, I'd like $45, please out of my account.

And that's the way many people live their lives in Christ. You've been, you've been given this incredible inheritance of a new life, a new mind, a new heart, a new spirit, a new future, new power. You have been given the promise that you're going to be a new creation and you go to the bank and you withdraw $45 out of a million dollar inheritance.

I don't know about you, but I'm not willing to live like that. I want the whole thing. I want everything that God has left for me through Jesus Christ.

Now, what are some of the practical things I can do to prevent the lusts of my flesh from controlling my life? Well, first and foremost, according to second Peter chapter one, verses three and four. I'm going to go there in my Bible here. Know the promises of God.

You've got to know the promises of God. You've got to get in the Bible. You've got to study it yourself.

Second, Peter one, three, and four. He says, well, let's go to verse two, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord, as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.

Let me say that again. His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Everything you need to live, everything you need to be godly has been given to you by the power of God within you through the knowledge of him who has called us to glory, called us by glory and virtue, by which you've been given to us exceeding great and precious promises that through these, you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, through the promises of God.

You have to know your Bible. You've got to get in, especially in the New Testament, begin to read it and say, God, what did you say to me? What is the truth that's supposed to set me free? Who am I in Christ? Yes, I believe I'm a new creation, but what does that look like? And God says, well, I'm glad you asked because I've given you exceedingly great and precious promises and it's through these by the power of God, you receive the new nature and you escape the corruption that is all around you in this world through lust. Secondly, put away what needs to be put away.

It's really not complicated. Whatever needs to be put away, put it away. If you need to put your cell phone away, put your cell phone away.

Psalm 101. Listen, now this was written at one point in David's life and at some point he compromised it, unfortunately, but this is the sweet Psalmist of Israel. He wrote these words in Psalm 101 verses two to four.

I will behave wisely in a perfect way. Oh, when will you come to me? There was a longing in his heart. God, he said, God, I will do right.

I will live right. Come to me, please. I've known the anointing of your Holy Spirit and God, I want to know you again.

And David would probably be thinking about the moments when the Holy Spirit would come upon him and he would be able to worship and drive the devil away from Saul's life or the Holy Spirit would come upon him. He could defeat a lion or a bear. The Holy Spirit would come upon him and he could run into a valley and not just run and face Goliath, but actually prophesy as God speaks through him about Goliath's future and the future of the Philistine army.

David said, God, I, I'm not going to live in any way. I'm not going to live in a way that's going to hinder that God. I'm going to live in a perfect way in my house.

Come to me. I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. I will set nothing wicked before my eyes.

I hate the work of those who fall away. It shall not cling to me. A perverse heart shall depart from me.

I will not know wickedness. I think it's worth pausing for a moment and realize that yes, this can be your heart's desire, but there's got to be a practical side to this as well. Because later on in David's life, we come to point three, stay engaged in what God has called you to do.

Stay engaged. You're called to be an usher in the house of God, whatever it is that God's given you to do, do that and stay engaged in what God's given you to do. Second Samuel 11 verses one and two, it said it happened in the spring of the year at the time when Kings go out to battle.

David sent Joab and his servants with him. That's the type of person that says, you go to the prayer meeting tonight. I'm going to stay home.

And all Israel and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. Then happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house.

You see, laziness and lust are bedfellows. It's the lazy man, spiritually lazy man that will start to be given to lust. This is a time of spiritual laziness that came into this man's.

He's fought long and hard. He's fought hard battles. He's defeated Goliath.

He's led armies. He's written songs. And he's in his fifties now, according to the people who study it.

One said he was about 53 by their estimation. And he just decides to stay home. I've fought long.

You see, the battle is never over until it's over. And you should never stop fighting because it's not a season to stay home. It's a season now for kings to fight.

If you're a son of God or a daughter of God, if you are truly a king or a priest unto God, as the scripture says that we are and will be for eternity, it's time for kings to fight. It's not time for kings to stay home. It's not time to be spiritually lazy.

It's not time to put your Bible away and let dust accumulate on the cover. It's time for kings to fight. And one night he stayed one day.

He stayed home and he rose from his bed at evening time. One time he should have been going to bed. He's getting up and he walked on the roof of the king's house.

And from the roof, he saw a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful to behold. You know, I wish it said here. I wish the scripture said, and David said, get my chariot.

I'm going to the prayer meeting. I'm going to the temple, but he didn't do that. I wish the scripture said, David said, get my armor.

I'm going to join Joab and the others in the battle. But he didn't say that. I wish David had said, get Nathan so we can pray together.

But he didn't say that. What he said is find out who that woman is and bring her to me. And thus began the spiritual downfall of a man of God.

It was terrible what happened. The heartache he brought into his home. He had to deal with rape in his house.

He had to deal with rebellion. He had to deal with the death of four of his sons. And when Absalom was overthrown after his rebellion, you hear about David going into his tent.

And he's crying so loud the whole, oh, Absalom, Absalom, my son, Absalom. Because he knew that Absalom wouldn't have done this were it not for his sin. He knew that he had planted the seed of rebellion in his own home.

When he rebelled against God, he knew he wasn't supposed to be doing what he did. And his heart was broken. If Nathan had come to me, he could have turned.

And so I'm standing in the stead of Nathan in somebody's life tonight, saying, turn from this thing that you set before your eyes. Turn from this flirtation in the office. Turn from these thoughts that you'd be happier somewhere with somebody else other than who God gave you as a marriage partner.

Turn from these thoughts. Don't let them grip your heart. If you have to call somebody to pray with you, if you have to get up and go to prayer meeting, if you have to find out what it is you're supposed to be doing and get up and do that, don't let laziness take over your life.

You see, David, for David, it was too late. What he had done, he had done. When Nathan came to him, it was already done.

It was a fait accompli, as they say. And now all he could hope for was the mercy of God and that the judgment wouldn't be too severe. But you look at his life and it's nothing but turmoil from this point onward.

It's nothing but heartache in his family. There's nothing but brokenness as he watched his sons rebel and or take each other's lives. As he just watched the train wreck that he brought into his own home and family because he got up and he looked at something and he didn't do what was right at that moment.

I guess the question is, what are you looking at? You know what I'm talking about. Pornography has become as much of a problem for women as for men in this generation. It used to be just a man's issue.

It's not that anymore. It's a woman's issue too as well. But we are not called to be a people who are earmarked by lust.

And we're not called to bring heartache into our homes. We're not called to be part of the statistics of broken marriages and bruised children in this generation. We are the people of God.

We are the testimony of Christ. We are the people through whom the victory of the cross is to be made known in our generation. We are not called to be behind the prison doors of any kind of lust in our lives.

We're called to be a free people. And by God's grace, we will be a free people. By God's grace, we will come out of Egypt.

By God's grace, we will march into the promised land of Jesus Christ. By God's grace. As the prodigal son, when he came to himself, said, I'm done feeding pigs.

I'm done letting my life be involved with something that was unclean to a Jewish. I'm done with this. I'm going home.

I'm going home to my father. And I've been in a pigsty. And I smell like a pig.

And I have all the trappings of somebody who's not done right. And I've dishonored the name of my father in the house of my father. But he got up.

I was surprised he was. That his father embraced him and kissed him and covered him. And empowered him and called for a feast and called for the band.

Oh, God, set your people free. Oh, God, set your people free. Our portion is not to be among those who are living in a field of pigs.

We're the people of God. We're called to glory. We're called to virtue.

We're called to have a new song. We're called to have a new testimony. We're called to have a new mind, a new heart, a new spirit, a new future, new glory, new power.

That's the testimony. Now, the scripture says the temptation that you are facing is common to all men. So don't let the devil sell you tonight.

Oh, you're the only one you're not. It's common. The whole the atmosphere is permeated with lust in this generation.

The airwaves, the television waves, the internet, everything is inundated with lust. But by God's grace, by God's grace, by God's grace, we're not going to live there. By God's grace, we're not going to be partakers of this.

Hallelujah. I know the truth and the truth sets free. Hallelujah.

I feel a fire of God's Holy Spirit upon me tonight. Not against this sin, but burning with a passion for you. There's a difference.

It's not a fire against activity and behavior. It's a fire of passion and compassion for the people of God. I feel the heart of the father that ran down the road to his son.

The son that just says, if David would have said, Nathan, thank you for coming to me before this. Thank you for challenging me on my spiritual laziness. Thank you.

This is a season for Kings to fight. What was I thinking? Why did I stay home? Thank you, Nathan. Get my armor, get my chariot.

I'm going into the battle. How different biblical history would be. Thank God for pastors like pastor Tim, that have the courage to challenge us on these issues.

Thank God. I'm going to give an altar call and it's for people tonight and say, pastor, I need to be protected from the lust of my own heart. And as I shared earlier, it could be for power, preeminence, money, vengeance, or sexual issues.

I don't want to be governed by lust. And this is a common struggle for all people. But I'm, I'm hearing the Holy spirit speak to me tonight.

The words that I've heard have come, they've gone through my chest and out my back in a sense. I feel the presence of God speaking to me. And I'm thankful because God's going to set me free or he's going to keep me free.

If I am free already, I'm not going to be governed by the lusts of my heart. I'm not going to give in to the lusts of this generation. I'm not going to start breathing the air of this lust laden society.

I'm a child of God. I'm a son or daughter of the king. My future is not to be in prison.

My future is not to be just coming to church on Tuesday and Sunday. Just always saying, Oh God, help me. Oh God, help me.

My, my, my future is to be coming in here in victory with my hands raised in the air saying, thank you, God, for setting me free. Thank you for the freedom that I enjoy throughout my week. Thank you that you use my life to help somebody.

Thank you for taking me to prayer meeting. Thank you, God, for keeping my heart alive in you. Hallelujah to the lamb of God.

Hallelujah. Let's stand. Let's stand together.

And if this is you tonight, come, I'm going to pray for you. You're going to be set free. I had that thought in my mind tonight during worship that there's going to be freedom here.

It's going to be freedom. David had humility and said, Nathan, I'm the man. Come on, come on, come on.

Just come out of your seat. Do it quick. Just come on.

Don't wait for somebody else. You just get out of it. You come.

Come on. Come on. It's OK.

It's common to man. You're not you're not a pervert because you struggle with lust. Just come.

The truth will make you free. I'm going to pray and the Holy Spirit is going to break this addiction. Whatever it is, whether it's sexual, whether it's for vengeance, whether it's just the lust of this particular time that we're living in, God is going to break that addiction.

It's off of your life. There's more here. There's more.

Come on. Come on, please. When David turned and said, I'm the man, that's when that's when judgment mercy overtook.

Yes, there were going to be things happen in this family, but they're already decreed. But that's when mercy became his portion again. He didn't try to hide it.

He didn't try to excuse it. He just said, this is me. I'm the man.

I took what I shouldn't have. I looked where I shouldn't have looked. I embraced what I shouldn't have embraced.

You're going to be free and be free, free. I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit tonight to as the potter does with the clay, just to put his hands around your mind and reform your mind and break the addiction, because some of these things are addictions as much as heroin is. They're addictions.

Can't get rid of it in your own strength. But I want you to know how much God loves you. You have to understand that tonight, because if you don't know the love of God, you can't get free.

You got to. You got to know that the father will embrace. You got to know that he cares and he rejoices over you with singing.

So father, tonight, in Jesus name, I take authority. You put me in this pulpit tonight, God, with this message. I didn't come up with this on my own.

Wasn't my first choice, but it was yours. You knew what needed to be spoken tonight. I take authority.

I take authority in Jesus name over these captivities, the captivity, the lust, whatever, whatever form it has taken. I take authority over it and I bind it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God, you said, you told me that whatever I bind on earth would be bound in heaven.

So I take you at your word. I take authority that you have given me as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I proclaim freedom in every life, freedom in every mind.

I command every prison door to open and release the captives. God almighty. You said we will know the truth and the truth will set us free.

I thank you, Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you, God. Now you talk to God at this altar just for a moment.

Just talk to God. Just thank him for freedom. Just thank him.

Thank him for setting you free. Thank him for giving you the courage to do what you need to do. To put away what needs to be put away.

Change what needs to be changed. God, I thank you. God, I thank you, Lord.

There's no life there. There's no life in lust. There's no life there whatsoever.

There's nothing there for any child of God. There's no fulfillment there. There's no gratification there.

There's no nothing there. Only death. Only death.

Father, thank you for freedom. Thank you for freedom. Pray with me, everybody in the church.

Pray with me right now. Thank you for freedom. Thank you for freedom for those that have come.

For those that are here at this altar. Lift your voice to God with me tonight. We will not give in to this spirit any longer.

This spirit will have no control over anybody's mind here. We break this bondage in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And proclaim freedom in Jesus' name.

Freedom. It's for freedom that you died. It's for new life that you rose again from the grave.

And God, we thank you, Lord. We thank you that when people come in from around the world to see what's happening in Times Square Church, they're going to see a free people. They're going to see a free people.

A free people, oh God. People whose lives are transformed by the presence of God and by the power of God. Just start to praise Him.

Start to give Him glory tonight. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Lord. We need a worship song here now. But do we know that song? You know that song, I'm dancing on the grave that I once lived in.

Do you know? Can we do that song? We can do it? All right. I want you at the altar here. Don't leave.

I want you to dance on the grave that you used to live in, okay? I'm serious about that. I'm serious. Then Pastor Tim is going to come out.

But come on now. You guys can do it. Just dance on the grave and say, You're not holding me down anymore.

I'm not living in death. I'm alive in Christ Jesus. I have a new heart.

I have a new home. I have a new future. I am a new creation in Christ Jesus.

Come on. Come on. Come on.

Come on. Come on. Come on.