Battle Against Sex

I remember somebody, Billy Graham, who is one of the world's famous evangelists. He was once talking to a group of young people and he said, what shall we talk about first? What do you think people said? In India people are a bit shy, in America they are not shy. Sex! And Billy Graham said, yeah, that's an important subject, if it were not for that none of us would be here.

You know, it's true, if it were not for that none of us would be here. I asked the Lord many years ago a question about it. When I say I asked the Lord, it means I asked Him in my heart and I got the answer in my heart also.

I said, Lord, why is it that you have allowed, I mean, God is the one who made us, right? And for a boy or a girl to be attracted to each other and to begin to think about girls when they are 12 years old and be attracted to some girl when they are 13 or a boy, a girl to be attracted to a boy when they are 13, it's about normal. What I asked the Lord was, Lord, why have you allowed these passions to start when they are 13? I mean, why didn't you make man in such a way that boys and girls will relate to each other like innocent two-year-olds until they are 25? Wouldn't that have been great, till you are 25 years old, you just treat each other like two-year-olds, boys and girls treat each other, absolute innocence, no desire, right? And then 25 years old, this desire starts, and then within six months or something, you get married. Wouldn't that have been great? I think I got an answer from the Lord.

The Lord said that I, that's what the answer I got in my heart was that He wanted us in our young age to fight this, to fight it and fight it and fight it. If you fall, get up and fight it again. You fall, get up and fight it again.

Fight it, fight it, fight it, and become an overcomer, and that fighting is what makes you strong. Now, let's, even if you're losing, for example, supposing I decide to do wrestling at the age of 13, I start wrestling with somebody, with some strong wrestler, and you're also 13 years old, but you just sit on a chair there and watch me. And for the next 15 years, I'm wrestling with this guy, and he's always beating me.

Okay, but I'm wrestling and I'm wrestling and I'm wrestling, and he's always defeating me, but I'm going to wrestle with him every day, every day, and you just sit there in that easy chair and eat potato chips and get fatter and fatter and fatter, while I'm wrestling with this guy. And every time in this wrestling match, I lost. Tell me at the end of 15 years, who will be stronger, you or me? Me, even though I lost in every wrestling match? Yes or no? Why? Because you never entered the ring.

And even though I lost, I was still fighting. And the very fact that I was exerting my muscles against that guy made me strong. Got it? What I want to say is, don't get discouraged if you lose the battle against sex.

Frequently. What I want to say is, keep fighting. Keep fighting.

Keep fighting. If you give up and say, I'm going to just sit in the chair and eat donuts and potato chips and watch television all the time, you're a loser. Don't be like that.

Stay in the ring and say, I'm going to fight, I'm going to fight. If I lose, I'm going to get up and fight again, fight again. You'll be a strong person in this area by the time you're a married person.

And I tell you, you'll have a very, very happy marriage. Even though you can't even count the number of times you lost this battle sexually. I hope that's an encouragement to you.

Most men lose the battle in the sex area numerous times. So many times they can't even count. It's true of every single boy and every single young man.

So don't get discouraged thinking you're the only one like that. You're not the only one. You're one like everybody else.

You're perfectly normal. In fact, if you don't have strong sexual desires, you probably need a medical checkup. Yes.

It's perfectly normal. But fight the battle. Fight the battle.

Don't listen to the lie of the devil saying if you yield, you'll enjoy. No, you're not going to enjoy by yielding. Fight the battle.

Go at it. I don't know how it is with girls, but I'm sure you also feel attracted towards boys. And you've got to be very careful because as you grow older, you have more to lose in this area than a boy has.

A girl has a lot to lose. One time you make a mistake, you've ruined your whole life. That's not true of a boy.

You've got to be extremely careful. In friendships and also attachments, you know. The world is full of boys who try to take advantage of girls.

And if you're one of those innocent girls who believes that every boy is a holy angel, you're living in another world. It's not true. Most boys are crooks.

They're out to get you. So be careful. That's what I'm saying.

I want to tell you something about images. You know, you have images in your mind that come through television, videos. You know you can never take them out of your mind.

That's the sad thing about images. You put an image into your mind, it's there for the next 50 years. It'll never go.

You read something in the sexual area. Particularly sexual images and sexual stories have a way of sticking to your mind forever. Other stories you may forget.

Your physics and geography you forget in one day actually. But sexual stories and images stay there for years. I want to say, you know, the greatest example is Jesus.

He was 13 years old. Do you think Jesus had sexual desire or not? He was tempted. Like who? Like us.

If he was not tempted in sex, I'd have to say, Lord, you missed the biggest battle of all. You can't tell us to follow you because the biggest battle you never faced. He faced it.

He overcame it when he was 13. He overcame it when he was 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. All the way to 33.

He fought it and overcame it. He wasn't fighting it all the time because these battles get easier and easier as you keep fighting it. By the time he was 30, you could have a woman come and wipe your feet and he's not even tempted.

You know, you can come to that place of purity if you fight the battle. So Jesus fought a battle and he's your example. Whenever you're tempted, think of Jesus.

Lord Jesus, you were also 15, 16, 18 years old once upon a time. How did you handle it? Think of that. I used to think of that many times.

Lord, when you were in Nazareth and you were tempted, how did you handle it? I want to follow you. You're my example. So what shall I say to you young people? Stick at it.

Don't give up. Stick at it. It's worth it in the long run.

Please listen to somebody. I'm not putting a sales pitch trying to sell Jesus or sell anything. I'm telling you honestly from my experience, it's worth it in the long run.

It's worth it to stand against your friends and to stand and be different. I mean, you have some struggles, but I hope you'll overcome them. Be careful.

A lot of things that the world offers you are not very, some look very attractive. I want to tell you another thing. Some of you got websites.

Go back to those websites and see whether Jesus could sit with you and approve of all those things you have there. What you cannot approve of, get rid of tonight.