WEEK 5 PART B CHOOSING VICTORY

SCRIPTURE:

Leviticus 19:4 4 Do not turn to idols or make cast images of gods for yourselves; I am Yahweh your God.

Jonah 2:8 8 Those who cling to worthless idols forsake faithful love

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 4 since the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments 5 and every highminded thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to obey Christ.

Ephesians 1:17-21 17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. 18 I pray that the perception of your mind may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His vast strength. 20 He demonstrated this power in the Messiah by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavens 21 far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

From the text:

As we read this text from the workbook, and consider the spiritual warfare we are engaged in, what is your definition of victory?

Okay, so you have decided it’s time to fight. And you realize that your battle for sexual purity will cost you something. It will require sacrifice, intensity and honor. But, let’s get something else in clear view: What can you expect to gain by choosing manhood and the purity that goes with it?

By winning this war, your life will be blessed in tremendous ways. Your victory will recover what was lost through sin. Victory will help you regain and revitalize your relationship with God, your wife, your children and your ministry. –from chapter 9 in Every Man’s Battle

We begin our victory march by first making a covenant with our eyes. All worthwhile covenants directly involve God. We make the covenant and then we practice it. We practice by learning to see and feel differently. We exercise management over how we see and how we react to what we lay our eyes on. We seek God’s help in doing what we could not do on our own.

One portion of the above quote is of particular interest to me, and should be to you as well. It is shown in bold. You might assume that your ministry is only an assignment in your church or faith community; but I would like to remind you that it is far more than that. Your ministry is your daily walk and touches a greater number of people than you will ever touch in church. So, your ministry is not just a title within church walls on Sunday mornings. It is how you live your life every day!

Choosing victory means choosing to look at your whole life with an understanding that sexual sin is only one piece of that puzzle. If you are willing to peer into this aspect of your character, you will undoubtedly find other areas in your life that need to be touched by Jesus’ healing Spirit. Rarely does one sin exist without its brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles. In other words, sins enjoys its own company. If you work on one sin it is a pretty sure thing that you will come face to face with its relatives.

The one thing that I think is a flaw in our healing process, for both men and women, is the notion that who we were is who we are. While there is no denying that were are crafted by our environment, and our personal relationships (both past and present), we are not destined to become anyone but who we choose to be.

God, by the person of Jesus on the cross, has given us the gift or freewill and grace to go with it … if we so choose. We can also continue to rebel in the way sinners always have. Many people will say they cannot help themselves but the truth is this: we are responsible for our behavior, for its consequences, and accountable to God whether we want to be or not.

Questions:

Now, what is your definition of victory?

Can you look yourself in the mirror and not lower your eyes in shame?

If you were to imagine your mind as a place with many rooms where would Jesus be welcome and where would He be unwelcome? (This is an opportunity to pray for healing and to begin to unlock the doors of the secret places)

Can you see some of the aspects (or character traits) of the prodigal son in yourself? What are those traits? Are you still searching? Are you in a place of desperation yet? Or … are you on your way back home?

How have you been affected by “the sins of your fathers?” How might these sins be affecting your own children?

Is sexual temptation more than viewing pornography? What is your personal definition of the term pornography? Has this definition changed over time, especially over that last 25 years?

How does sexual temptation affect your personal relationships with women? Your wife or partner? Your ministry? Your church? Your community?

How do you personally define victory over sexual temptation? Is it just not looking at sexually charged images or is it something more?

Notes

WEEK 6 PART N/A VICTORY WITH YOUR EYES

SCRIPTURE:

2Timothy 2:3-5&7 3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus 4 No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in the concerns of civilian life; he seeks to please the recruiter. 5 Also, if anyone competes as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 7 Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

Psalm 25:8-16 8 The LORD is good and upright; therefore He shows sinners the way.

9 He leads the humble in what is right and teaches them His way.

10 All the LORD’s ways show faithful love and truth to those who keep His covenant and decrees. 11 Because of Your name, Yahweh, forgive my sin, for it is great.

12 Who is the man who fears the LORD? He will show him the way he should choose.

13 He will live a good life, and his descendants will inherit the land.

14 The secret counsel of the LORD is for those who fear Him, and He reveals His covenant to them. 15 My eyes are always on the LORD, for He will pull my feet out of the net. 16 Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am alone and afflicted.

FROM THE TEXT:

Why must “bouncing the eyes” be immediate? After all, you might argue, a glance isn’t the same a lusting. If we define “lusting as staring open-mouthed until drool pools at your feet, then a glance isn’t the same as lusting. But if we define lusting as any look that creates a little chemical high, that little pop, then we have something a little more difficult to measure. This chemical high happens more quickly than you realize. In our experience, drawing the line at “immediate” is clean and easy for the mind and eyes to understand. –adapted from chapter 11

Job 31:7 … my heart has followed my eyes …

Our objective will be to build three perimeters of defense; which are:

1.) With the eyes

2.) In the mind

3.) In the heart (chapter 10)

The first and most important perimeter is the eyes. It is the outermost defense, and the most easily breached. The way this is defended is by “bouncing the eyes” which is training the eyes (mind and heart) to look away from objects of lust and attraction. Along with this is the practice (modifying behavior) that begins to break down the view of someone attractive and the temptation to respond physically. The best way I can describe it is “taking a dispassionate view.” It does not mean that you are not attracted, but that you train yourself not to immediately fantasize or to have “the drool effect.” I know that sounds crass, but there is truth in what is known as the “Pavlovian Effect.” It is the outward physical response (salivation) to an inanimate object (such as food, in the case of this study).

This training can, and will, work; but it takes time, practice, and most importantly, Jesus Christ. It is actually a form of healing. For many of us, after the drugs and all the rest this is our last hold-out … and it is very difficult to release … it is so much a part of who we are. We have always considered our temptation to be a symptom of another problem, not the problem itself.

The way to change the behavior is given to us in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6

3 For though we live in the body, we do not wage war in an unspiritual way, 4 since the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments 5 and every high-minded thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to obey Christ. 6 And we are ready to punish any disobedience, once your obedience has been confirmed.

Isaiah 33:15-16

15 The one who lives righteously and speaks rightly, who refuses gain from extortion, whose hand never takes a bribe, who stops his ears from listening to murderous plots2 and shuts his eyes to avoid endorsing evil

16 he will dwell on the heights; his refuge will be the rocky fortresses, his food provided, his water assured

QUESTIONS … TIME TO DIG IN

Now that we are in our sixth week, and many of us have been here each week, why are you here? Other than the company of other men and Bible study (both which are excellent reasons to be anywhere) what drew you to a study on sexual temptation?

Is your heart convicted? Why or why not?

What is your definition of victory (or success) over this type of homegrown spiritual conflict?

Do you see sexual temptation as a sinful behavior or simply a natural response to “the scenery?” What is meant in Scripture by “the wages of sin is death?” (Romans 6:23)

The author says that sexual impurity “isn’t like a tumor growing out of control inside us … that it has to do with honesty and a series of right choices.” Have you made any poor choices that have followed you? What might they be? Cheating, etc? Is the disease analogy a cop out?

What is wrong with praying for deliverance over and over? How can this be an incorrect approach? Aren’t we to pray without ceasing?

What practical approaches may work to keep our eyes focused on God; to reduce distraction?

What are the sources of sexual imagery in your life? What does your list look like?