The 516 Challenge
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 3 viewsNotes
Transcript
16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
This verse troubled me so much. BUT it’s perfect. It doesn’t say, “walk in the Spirit and you shall be saved.” The language is VERY specific. He’s describing a problem every person who’s ever followed God has encountered.
Get personal. when I was in college...
The verse doesn’t say, “love God” and you won’t… “have faith” and you won’t… “fear God” and you won’t...
No one knew what to do! Anybody who talked about overcoming porn, was talking about magazines and DVD’s. Nobody had a solution to the internet. The people from the last generation, who actually lived holy.
Porn has the same effects on the brain’s reward center as other drugs, but it’s unique in many ways. The world has never faced an addictive substance like it!
Internet Porn is unique:
It can’t be escaped
There’s no limit to how much you can consume
There are tools to help you hide your usage!
It’s completely free
your brain has structures dedicated to it. No other drug has specific brain structures for it.
It’s also devastating to your mind and relationships in unique ways too.
the church wasn’t prepared for this enemy. It’s not even just porn either. Just lust in general. You don’t even have to go all the way to porn, just looking at lustful content pulls you out of the spirit.
As I began this process, I discovered that lust wasn’t the only issue. There was something else hiding in my heart.
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.
See, when we are called to walk IN THE SPIRIT, we HAVE TO completely leave the flesh behind. COMPLETELY! There is NO ROOM FOR EVEN THE SLIGHTEST COMPROMISE!!!
That’s when I discovered the MOST neglected aspect of walking with God. Something that people still haven’t woken up to. Something the enemy has subtlely targeting using a strategy he’s been developing for hundreds of years.
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
We are being asked to live in a world in which our mind is under CONSTANT assault!
See, Paul foresaw all of this. That’s why he asked us to walk in the Spirit because he knew, eventually, we’d face not just people, not just temptation, but ALGORITHMS!!! No matter what is bringing us out of the Spirit, we have to be on guard against it, reject it, and walk, instead, in the Spirit ONLY!
So all the teachings i had heard on what it meant to walk in the Spirit were incomplete. Most people think it means “obey the Holy Spirit.” But i was definitely doing that. Others think it means have a strong prayer and Bible life.
33 “No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a secret place or under a basket, but on a lampstand, that those who come in may see the light.
34 The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness.
35 Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness.
36 If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light.”
v33: shame vs. confidence! The enemy has STOLEN the confidence of an entire generation! Christians are walking around in shame! Christians are walking around defeated! Everybody’s just accepted sin! The World! Nobody can figure out what to do!!!!
v34: TAKE HEED!!! That means WATCH CAREFULLY!!!! This wouldn’t be required IF we hadn’t’ve opened the door to so many NEW WAYS to ingest the world, lust, outrage, jealousy, discontent, comparison, and
We’ve opened more doors to the world, without adding more guards to our minds. The more ways the enemy can get in, the more carefully we have to watch. See, we’re facing a 2021 enemy using tactics from the 1980’s.
20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations—
21 “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,”
22 which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men?
23 These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.
v36: We GUARD the things coming in, we WILL be full of light! We will no longer be walking around hanging our head in defeat or shame! We won’t be accepting that sin is just part of our lives!
I’m challenging us to go on a journey up the mountain! God is calling us to ascend! To rise above this generation! We might be the only ones on earth!
Next week, we are going to start a ONE-MONTH intensive. ONE MONTH to dig up the roots!
a minimum of 30 minutes of prayer a day
getting one thing from the Word every day.
USING THE APP EVERY DAY!