how to overcome lust

in 1 Thessalonians 43-5 it says this for this is the will of God your sanctification that you abstain from sexual immorality that each one of you know how to control his own body in Holiness and honor not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God we're talking about lust today so welcome back to the house of Jacob podcast I'm your host braxon and this is a specialty of mine lust was the sin that I struggled with I since I can remember and finally I'm I'm set free I'm no longer bound

to it praise God but um this was always my biggest struggle like growing up early on into my walk stuff like that and we're going to talk about four steps to overcome lust so if you're dealing with lust or you know someone who is this video is for you um so yeah I'm your host braxon and welcome back to the house of Jacob podcast we are back at my Hill My Favorite Hill the Sun is setting over here I'm going to hope it doesn't get too dark so I'm going to try to speak a little

quick today um but the first thing I want to talk about before we talk about four steps to overcoming lust is there's cops over there but why is lust a sin why why do you think lust is a sin let me ask you why do you think lust is a sin 1 John 21:16 so right after 1 John says in 2:15 to not love the things of the world John says in um 2:16 that everything in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life comes not from

the father but from the world oh they're pulling someone over right here they're literally pulling someone over like right in front of me um so 1 John 2:16 says everything in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life comes not from the father but of the world the r the issue with lust is it doesn't come from God sexual desire comes from God and sexual desire is a beautiful gift from God that's just used in ungodly ways when it becomes lust um so lust I've always said

is a counterfeit of love it is a fake love a fake pleasure that seems to be pleasurable and just never really is fulfilled it always wants more um so lust I can say has never led to anything good I can personally testify and I don't know about you but that lust has never led me to anything good it's always led to hurt someone or hurt myself or do things I don't want to do lust never leads to anything good ever so there's there's no purpose in lust there's no good purpose in lust and um but

lust does have a demonic purpose I'll tell you that we're going to talk about that later but 1 Corinthians 6:13 says Paul says to the Corinthians he says you say food for the stomach and the stomach for food and God will destroy them both the body however is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord and the Lord for the body we were not made to lust lust lust is not something that we were made to do our bodies were were not made to be Dishonored with sexual immorality but made to be temples of

the Lord and realistically we we were not made to lust in ungodly ways we were made to love and be intimate in Godly ways within marriage that was what we were made to do lust is just a counterfeit of that it's a Twist it's a Twist of intimacy a fake intimacy that doesn't ever fulfill and I think that's the first thing you have to realize I mean Hebrews 13:4 says marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept pure for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral marriage is meant to

be where intimacy and love is and so many people like the world has Twisted it to make lust seem as if something is normal today I mean we live in a hookup culture where lust is almost like desired like it's it's normal it's more normal than waiting till marriage I would argue but we're going to talk about four steps to be lust so here's the first step you have to discover why you lust why why do you lust and we're going to talk about that the second step is realizing you're not bound by a compulsion

you're not bound by a desire the third step being to take your thoughts captive and the fourth step to flee from sexual immorality to flee from lust so the first thing why do we lust why why do we lust why does each person lust James says in James 1:14-15 that each person is tempted when they are dragged away and enticed by their own evil desire then after the desire has conceived it gives birth to sin and sin when it's full grown gives birth to death we are tempted by our own desires we lust because we

have a desire for it that's the first thing you have to accept you lust because you have a fleshly desire to lust but here's what I want to talk about there's there's other reasons we lust 100% 100% I've encountered some in my own personal life what I don't think a lot of people realize is lust stems from like a lot of the reason we lust is one out of impatience maybe because we're trying to find an intimacy that we're meant to find in God elsewhere lust can stem from trying to fill a hole of intimacy

that should be filled by God um hence why lust is never permanently satisfied it always wants more because you're trying to fill a hole that's meant to be filled by God trying to fill it that hole with something that's not rightly fit for it God is what's rightly fit for that so the issue with lust is that what I think the reason a lot of people lust is is because they're trying to find an intimacy in the world or in ungodly ways that they're meant to find in God that we we were made to be

intimate and an intimate relationship with God and so many people don't have that so they look elsewhere they're like well I don't feel like I feel like I'm missing something I feel like I'm missing intimacy so then they look elsewhere and they turn towards lust that's where it stems from it stems from you looking for intimacy that you're meant to finding God elsewhere and when you don't find it you always want more and that's why you're always hungry that's why lust is Never Satisfied because you're trying to fill a hole with something that's not meant

for it you're trying to fill a void for with something that's not big enough to fill the void God is lust is the seeking of an intimacy that you're meant to find in Christ that's what lust is that's why we lust and I think finding out why you lust is the beginning to fighting the problem you have to understand why do I lust like for me personally I'll give you an example from my life when I was really really dealing with lust early on into my walk I had just split with a partner of mine

and I started dealing with lust really bad for the first time in a couple months and um I was figuring out why and I realized that I wasn't in my secret place I wasn't in my quiet place I wasn't finding intimacy with God so I was looking elsewhere and I was resorting to other things and I realized that lust was stemming from my the the love that I was looking for that I was meant to find in God I wasn't finding in God because I was putting other things above him so I started looking elsewhere

towards lust so you have to understand that the issue with lust is you're trying to kind of find intimacy that you're meant to find in God elsewhere and that's what it was for me and I think that's what it is actually for most people other people lust stems from impatience like for example if you fall into sex before marriage it's probably because you were impatient um lust is like almost a form of impatience it's um I would say so here's my second point though you have to realize you're not bound by compulsion you're not an

animal you you have a sexual desire you don't have sexual needs it's so easy to think you have a sexual need as a Christian that you have to fulfill you don't you have a sexual desire and you don't have to do anything with that desire you're not an animal an animal gets the instinct to go reproduce and they got to go do something about they're they're going to reproduce they're going to go make a family you're not an animal you're a human made in God's image and you're not meant to use your sexual desire in

ungodly and rushed and impatient ways you don't have a compulsion that you have to fulfill like I I think that's the first thing we have to understand like the best thing you can do to fight the temptation of lust is nothing at all you don't fight it you run from it you're tempted with your sexual desire to go do something okay don't do it you don't have a desire that you have to fulfill just leave the desire hanging leave it alone don't do anything about it you're you're not an animal and I think that's the

first thing you have to understand is you're not bound by compulsion and actually let's talk about what Paul says we are bound to here's the thing Paul says in F Romans 6:18 he says you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness you watching this you used to be bound to sin you used to be bound to it you were chained to it but you were saved by Jesus and you're no longer bound to it but you're bound to righteousness because the Holy Spirit lives within you so let me clarify this

for you you are not bound to lust you're not you're bound to righteousness you're bound to Christ not lust you don't have a desire that you have to fulfill you're not bound to sin you're not bound to lust you're bound to him I mean let's think about this you're tempted to go lust right so what leave it alone don't do anything about it you're tempted to lust okay I get it don't don't do anything about it you don't have to lust and I think that's the first thing we have to realize I mean you were

once bound to sin and you're no longer so live in your freedom don't try to go back to there's a famous saying today that it's like don't go back to things that God has set you free from and I think that's so true so true new wine doesn't belong in old wine skins don't run back to things that God broke you from he set you free from lust why would you go back to it that doesn't make sense to me and I understand I'm not saying this in a condemning way because I've been in your

shoes but I'm saying why why should we go back to lust when God set us free from it that doesn't make sense to me we're putting oursel back in chains that we're not chained to i' I've thought of this illustration a lot where it's like we were sheep obviously we're all sheep and we were sheeps that were chained to sin but Jesus came and he broke our change he broke our chains but when we run back to sin like the proverb say a dog runs back to its vomit when we run back to our sin

it's like we wrap ourselves in the chains and we're like Jesus I need you to set me free again you're not chained to it anymore you just like wrap the chains around yourself you're not stuck you just put the chains back on so put them back down he already did save you he only has to do it once he's already made you no longer bound to sin he only has to do it once you see what I'm saying if that cop comes over here I'm going to be so annoyed if this video gets interrupted I'm

going to be so frustrated it's not even funny I I rebuke any any of this in the name of Jesus bro if my video gets interrupted while we're trying to talk about sexual sin cuz Satan knows everyone needs to hear this I'm going to be super pissed but let's keep moving the the mindset that I've had is look you fell once into sin you fell once into lust rise again just rise back but do not be deceived to think that you are bound to it to think that you're bound to fall again the Proverbs say

to not to turn your foot away from Evil do that you're not bound to lust again the righteous man falls seven times and rises again you should do the same you fall into lust again I don't care get up get back up you're not bound to fall again you're not bound to compulsion so let's talk about Point number two let's talk about taking your thoughts captives I believe that lust starts in the heart and the mind 100% And and many will say many say it's not a sin to have lustful thoughts get out of here

come on get go get bug out of here many say it's not a sin to have lustful thoughts I I completely disagree because lustful thoughts become lustful actions Jesus says what defiles a person isn't what goes into the body but what comes out of the body our hearts are what defile us and what stems from our heart is our thoughts our actions our words what we speak what we do so if you're lusting in your mind it's cuz you're lusting in your heart lust starts in the heart and it starts in the mind so we're

going to talk about taking your thoughts captive Jesus says in Matthew 5: 27-28 he says you have heard that it was said You shall not commit adultery but I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his own heart and then 2 Corinthians 10:5 says that we take our thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ here's what I'm here's what I want to explain to you Jesus says that you have said You shall not commit adultery but I say to you if you even look at

a woman L you've already committed adultery in your heart so what they believed back then was well if I didn't commit adultery with my hands and only with my mind and my eyes well I didn't I still didn't commit adultery and Jesus says that's not true it's still a sin to even look at a person like that to look at a person lustfully you've already sinned it's not that you haven't done anything with your hands you've already sinned in your heart so here's the thing we have to take our thoughts captive and let me explain

what that looks like lust always always always starts as a thought every single time lust will always start as a thought it comes in like a little thought a little desire oh what if we went and did this what if we watched this remember when we watch this it starts with a thought you have to you have to cut off the thought the second it starts you get that thought cut it off the second you get that thought you need to run to Jesus my friend you need to run to Jesus and say Lord I

take these thoughts captive and I bring them to you because you say that whoever looks at a person lustly commits adultery in his own heart so I take my thoughts captive and I bring them to you take your thoughts captive man you get the thought you need to bring it to Jesus immediately because the more you sit in those thoughts the more it's going to overtake you lust is a desire that grows so fast it's it's not even funny it's out of control it is a burning desire a flame that once it's fed a little

bit it keeps growing so you have to understand that when you get those thoughts and you sit in them you feed them and they grow and they grow and eventually that desire that that thought becomes so strong that it becomes an action and you go in lust so here's what I want to explain to you before we talk about fleeing from sexual immorality you have to take your thoughts captive before you even think about fleeing you get a thought you need to go immediately to Jesus you get a thought to lust dude I used to

do this thing where I would go to the gym and if I looked at a woman lustfully I would rub my eyes and I would say Jesus this is not your vision and I want your vision I'm sorry for looking at this woman lustfully I ask for forgiveness and I ask for your vision because this is not your vision this lustful vision is not yours it's not of you and I want your vision what I what I would do is I would take my thoughts captive right away it was it was one look it wasn't

even a thought it was one look and I immediately would go to Jesus whether it be a look or a thought or a desire you need to run to him immediately you run to Jesus and you take it captive and you bring it at his feet I also think it's important to have scripture ready to quote when you need it for example say I get say right now I get a lustful thought I run to Jesus and I say Lord I bring this lustful thought to you and I take it captive and I bring it

to you because you say whoever looks at a woman lustfully commits adultery in his own heart Matthew 5:28 and you say in 1 Corinthians 6:18 to flee from sexual immorality and you say in first th 4 that it's not your will that we are to be sexually immoral you have to have that scripture ready on your tongue to bring it to him and make it obedient to him you bring the thought to Jesus and you say Lord I make this thought obedient to your word right now and in the name of Jesus I rebuke this

thought of lust I rebuke the spirit of lust in the name of Jesus I cast it out by the name of Jesus you see what I'm saying so we have to take our thoughts captive before they ever become in action before they ever become in action you have to take your thoughts captive my friend now dude this sunset's beautiful wow now let's talk about fleeing from lust 1 Corinthians 6:18 says to flee from sexual immorality because all other sins a person commits are outside the body but whoever sins sexually sins against their own body here's

the issue with lust not only are you sinning against other people and God you sin against yourself when you are sexually immoral you have Dishonored your own body you are sinning against yourself you're disrespecting yourself not only are you disrespecting the person you're lusting over and you're disrespecting God you're disrespecting yourself I think of lust as like a form of self-destruction you're just hurting yourself it makes no sense why would you why would you do it you know so here's the thing how do you flee from sexual immorality how do we flee from it 1

Corinthians 10:13 that's how we flee from it it says that no temptation has overtaken you except what's common to Mankind and God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear but when you are tempted he will also provide a way out so that you may endure it here there's a couple pieces of this verse that I want to highlight there's no temptation that's overtaking you that's not common to man it's so easy when you're lusting to get caught up in the shame and think why am I the only

one who struggles with this you're not like at all if you seriously think you're the only Christian that struggles with lust you're nuts you're ABS you're a nut job if you actually think that then there's the next part of this verse that God is faithful and he doesn't let us be tempted beyond what we're capable of here's what's important about that I used to have this and I'm sure most of you have as well at some point I used to have this bad mindset when I would fall into lust when I used to really struggle

with lust like repeatedly I had this horrible mindset that um that like I I couldn't do anything else like I would lust and I would go to God I'd be like God I'm sorry for sinning again but like um I I literally can't not like I can't not lust it doesn't make sense I don't know how can I not do this and the reality is is you can that's what Paul is saying here you can end God doesn't let you be tempted beyond your capabilities it's always within your capabilities you can endure every single Temptation

which leads me to the third part of that verse where it says that through all Temptations there's a way of Escape you can endure all Temptations and Jesus is the way of Escape that's his name is Jesus Christ we flee from sexual immorality by not doing anything I think about it like this I think of lust as like a person in my room so if I'm in my bed and I get tempted to lust and lust is metaphorically of course symbolically a person in my room the Temptation it's like a person next to my bed

I get up and I get out of my room I go get in the shower I go pick up my Bible I go pray I go on a walk like whatever you have to do you have to distract yourself from the fact that you have that desire don't sit in the desire don't sit in sexual immorality but get up and flee from it you have to run from it you have the desire to lust okay that's normal you have a sexual desire that's normal just don't use it in ungodly ways don't do do anything about

it it's meant for marriage so here's the thing you have to flee from sexualality turn from it say lust is over here right and he's talking to me like hey come over here that's what I do we turn him right over there so you have to flee from sexual immorality now the last and that was step number four so let's let's review before I move on we have to first understand why we lust and maybe that's different for you but I I believe it stems from impatience or find finding Intimacy in places that are meant

to be found in God or whatever we have to understand why we lust because we have a sexual desire that's used in ungodly ways the second step to overcoming lust is to um what was the Second Step dang it dude when I make this a clip for Instagram I'm going to have to like trim this cuz I forgot this oh the second step to overcoming lust is realizing you're not bound by a compulsion you don't have a sexual desire or a sexual need that you have to fulfill you have sexual desire great don't do anything

about it you're not bound to sin you're bound to righteousness the third step is to take your thoughts captive you have lustful thoughts take them captive and bring them to the feet of Jesus and make them obedient to him because we take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 105 and then the fourth step to fleeing to overcoming lust the fourth step to overcoming lust is to flee from sexual immorality to turn from your desire to not do anything about it to not feed your actions but to

turn from sexual morality this is such a beautiful sunset man but those are the four steps not to [Music] L so here's what I want to talk about though as as we kind of start to wrap up but not really is I I want to think about I want you to think about when you're tempted to lust I was talking with my buddy about this last night I want you to think about the long-term effects of lust and the Demonic purpose of lust here's the issue with lust lust is a sin that has a purpose

it was made to distract you from what God has has for you God has let's think about it like this God has plans and blessings and a calling over your life that often and almost always require your obedience to be fulfilled but when you're not obedient and you turn to lust it pulls you away from what God has planned for you lust has a purpose and it is to get you off the track and plan that God has for you to take that plan into your own hands and go do whatever you want lust was

made to distract you from God to hurt other people to hurt yourself and to reel you back into the things of the world so flee from sexual immorality so I I I don't know I just think it's so important man I mean lust has a purpose to distract you from God and the blessings he has for you so don't let it don't let it distract you why would you let them distract you why would you let the Demonic purpose of lust distract you from God and the things he has plan for you that doesn't make

sense don't don't let it don't and I like I said God's blessings and plans often and almost always require your obedience and faithfulness so don't let your lust turn him turn you from him it is a distraction from Satan lust is a distraction from Satan and I will die on that hill or maybe this hill this one's real pretty um so something I also want to talk about I learned recently and I don't know if this is in scripture or not but lust is also made to diminish your spiritual gifts so my discernment I'm I'm

going to say this before we pray our way out of this episode my discernment has been growing so fast lately the ability for me to hear God's voice and stuff like that lately has been amazing but then I started struggleing with lust him like a couple weeks ago and for some reason my discernment like literally disappeared I liter like it like went out the window for like 2 days and I didn't know what it was and I realized it was lust it was that I let lust back into my life and it diminished my discernment

because I turned from it so what I did is I renounced the spirit and the sin of lust in the name of Jesus I renounced it I hate the sin so I forsake it and I asked for forgiveness at God's feet so if you're struggling with lust right now if you have in the past or whatever may we all pray as we close out this week's episode Lord I um we come to you today to thank you for the ability to talk about today to thank you for all you do for us and the ability

to endure all Temptations through your son Jesus so we thank you that this video will reach who it needs and we thank you for speaking through me tonight um to reach those who need and I pray this word would reach all who need it that any struggling with the Temptation or the sin of lust and sexual immorality May learn um from the words I've presented today and the scripture I've presented today from your word um I pray over my dear friends on the other end of the screen who have struggled with this sin I pray

that you guide them away from the sin of lust we rebuke the spirit of lust in the name of Jesus and we cast it out in the name of Jesus we pray that you help us to endure all Temptations and we call on your name we call on your name when we're tempted to lust we pray you help us to understand why we lust we pray you help us to take our thoughts captive we pray you help us to flee from sexual immorality we pray you help us to understand we're no longer bound to sin

but we're bound to righteousness so I pray over my dear friend and myself tonight that you help us to turn from lust to set our mind on the things of above and not the things of the world to focus on faithfulness and obedience to you that your plans and will your calling and your blessings over our life may fulfill we thank you for your one and only son that when we do slip and we stumble we may be forgiven we thank you for your grace tonight we thank you for the ability through your Holy Spirit

to turn from sexual immorality and to walk in the ways of righteousness so I pray for my dear friend struggling with lust that you help them to walk in your ways and turn from sexual immorality in Jesus name we pray amen amen my friend so um lust man I mean it's it's it's a distraction from Satan so don't let it distract you I hope this video helped you um come back later to the house of Jacob podcast so um if you want to support me if you're watching on Spotify you can uh use listener support

but in the meantime um I will see you next Sunday um God bless you guys and peace out