Turn if you would to, wow, part 13
of our 31-week series together.
This, tonight, is the Discipline of Desire.
As we look at our Disciplines of Life
series tonight, the Discipline of Desire, what does
that mean?
What could that mean?
And so we'll be looking at it.
And I pray and I trust that the
Lord will speak to us.
And I think this, I think that if
we're faithful to present the Word and if
we're faithful as students to listen to His
Word, God will speak to us.
He's faithful to do that.
It's pretty awesome how that happens.
God's Word is exalted.
His people are in the presence of His
Word.
And He answers the questions and the issues
of our life.
And as we go through the Disciplines of
Life, as I said, we come now to
Desire.
The Disciplines of Desire.
Matthew 28.
You know the theme verse.
You can park right there.
And then when you get a chance, get
on over to Psalm 27.
Matthew 28 and Psalm 27.
Jesus here in Matthew 28, 18 says, All
authority has been given to me in heaven
and on earth.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that
I've commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, even
at the end of the world.
Jesus' challenge to every believer is that we
would make disciples.
Some of us make one disciple in life.
Some of us two.
Some of us more.
But every Christian is to replicate themselves in
the life of another person, another Christian.
There's a great old book.
If you can get your hands on it,
get it.
I think it's out of print.
You might be able to find it somewhere.
But it's by Chuck Smith.
Little tiny book.
And the book is entitled The Replicators or
The Reproducers.
And it's a great little book about discipleship,
because it talks about how we as believers
just befriending one another, getting to know one
another.
We wind up without even knowing it, discipling
one another in the things of God.
That's the greatest form of discipleship, by the
way.
Yes, it's great to go to a discipleship
training course.
Yes, of course, you should be attending the
New Believers study on Thursday nights.
Absolutely.
But what you want to make sure that
you do is that you exercise a love
and a relationship and an interaction with someone
else in the faith.
Why?
Because that emboldens you and the other in
the faith and it causes.
In fact, I like the way Chuck Smith
says it.
Sheep, when they're healthy, reproduce sheep.
And Christians, when they're healthy, reproduce Christians.
That's an excellent statement.
That's an excellent verse.
That's an excellent truth.
Now, Psalm 27.
This is where we'll use this verse tonight
to launch out into the discipline of desire.
Psalm 27, verse three.
Though an army may encamp against me, my
heart shall not fear.
The war may rise up against me.
In this I will be confident.
One thing I have desired of the Lord
that I will seek after that I may
dwell in the house of the Lord all
the days of my life to behold the
beauty of the Lord and to inquire in
his temple.
Noah Webster in his 1828 dictionary says regarding
desire.
He says, and I quote, desire is a
wish to possess some form of gratification or
source of happiness, which is assumed to be
obtainable.
Desire is that internal drive, which by influencing
the will makes us proceed toward an action.
He goes on.
Desire is the emotion or the excitement of
the mind, which is focused on the attainment
or the possession of an object, which gives
pleasure, sensuality or intellectuality or spirituality.
He goes on.
He quotes.
Now, listen, if you don't own an 1828
Noah Webster's dictionary, buy one.
You can buy it.
They're about, I don't know.
They're a lot of money, but buy one.
It's the real English language.
It's awesome.
Listen what he says in his dictionary under
desire.
This is what he says.
Quote, we endeavor to see your face with
great desire.
First Thessalonians chapter two.
Thou hast the desires of every living thing.
Psalm 145.
That's in that dictionary.
Get it, give it to your teacher at
school and have them learn English.
It's an awesome thing to realize when we
talk about Christianity.
Christianity is anything but stoic.
We've got this picture sometimes in our mind
that as Christians, we are to be holy.
And that's a fact.
The Bible tells us that without holiness, we're
not going to see the Lord.
That is without your life being set aside
to God.
It ain't going to happen, my friend, in
eternity for you.
As a Christian, it presupposes that we have
a heart for God.
And regarding Christianity, it's not stoic.
Christianity is alive.
In fact, the very word and the meaning
of enthusiasm, you guys know, you guys know
the meaning of this word, maybe more than
anybody, but it's rooted and grounded enthusiasm in
the Greek language.
Enthusiasm means that which what dwells inside of
you causes an action.
E-N in Greek is internal dwelling.
Theos is God.
Asm is action.
When God dwells within you, it generates an
action.
That's only true for the Christian.
And that's a powerful statement.
As a Christian, when we talk about desire,
it is natural for a Christian to be
passionate about what they believe.
In fact, I don't even want to be
around Christians that are not passionate about what
they believe.
The world has seen enough of that stuff.
They're going to be zealous unto good work,
says the Bible.
All these things are divinely placed within the
heart of a Christian.
And I love, I don't know about you,
you want to get excited.
So for some of you old timers, you
ought to show up on a Thursday night
to the new believers class and just listen
to them.
Their questions and their love and their excitement
for God's word and God's people and for
God is absolutely contagious.
Hang around new believers, watch what happens.
It's very important.
Children are great examples of that because new
believers are very colorful in their faith and
children are very colorful in life.
Everything that they see is somehow brilliant to
them.
If you have a little kid, man, I
remember doing the five-year-olds at Calvary
Costa Mesa Sunday school.
Man, those kids are, they're just on a
whole nother wavelength the way that they think.
It's amazing.
I think of one kid right now.
My goodness, this is forever ago.
This is 30 years ago.
I'll never forget him.
His name is Matthew.
I can see him in my eyes right
now.
I had a big zit on the end
of my nose on a Sunday morning and
I'm that teacher, I'm his teacher.
And that kid, I walked in, there's a,
it's packed full of little five-year-olds.
And I don't know, man, I mean, I
was okay.
I was good to them, but I came
in, I took control of that class, man.
I didn't know five-year-old gonna run
me over.
But he got me that day.
I'll never forget it.
He goes, he goes, excuse me, Mr. Jack,
Mr. Jack, excuse me, Mr. Jack.
I said, what is it?
He said, what's that thing on the end
of your nose?
That's how kids are, man.
And listen, you hear things like this when
kids and the Bible tells us, Jesus said,
we've got to become like children to enter
the kingdom of heaven.
Right?
We don't need to grow up.
We need to grow down.
We need to grow back to where we
began, but deep in the things of God.
But a little kid will say things like
this.
And maybe it rings true in your heart,
in your ears.
But little kids will say things like this.
I jotted something down here.
Daddy, the whale jumped so high that he
almost touched the sky.
Well, that's not true.
But when you're little, the size of that
whale jumping up into the air to that
little kid from his vantage point, it looked
like that whale had touched the sky, didn't
it?
Mommy, that's the biggest dog in the whole
world, the little girl said.
That's not true.
But from her vantage point, that was the
biggest dog in the whole world.
Right?
As a believer, we look at life and
as Christians, life can be very, very exciting
for us.
And I wonder what it sounds like to
God's ears.
Oh, God, it's never been like this before.
Well, I understand, Jack, from your perspective, right?
It's never been like this.
Or we might say, oh, Lord, isn't this
the best ever?
Well, from your perspective, Susie, it is the
best.
But he's got a vantage point regarding everything
that's going on in our lives.
That from where we're at, it's, oh, no,
or wow.
And God says things, hey, you know what,
kiddo?
Eye has not seen, ear has not heard,
neither has it into the mind of men
the things that God has prepared for those
who love him.
And it's natural.
Listen, you're going to hear some stuff tonight
that's going to challenge your normal way of
thinking.
And here comes one right now.
It is normal to have desire.
What kind of desire are you talking about?
It's normal to have any kind of desire
as long as it's managed by God.
Desire must be managed by the Lord.
And we'll talk about that tonight.
Is there such thing as we'll talk about
in a moment, aberrant desires?
Yes.
That's fleshly, demonic, and devilish.
Yes.
But listen, even a person who is aberrant,
who seeks through desire something in life, you
know why they're doing that?
Some of you, I know some of you
are in law enforcement.
Some of you are in the FBI here
tonight.
You know, you've studied that even the most
deviant person, the most grotesque human being is
pursuing something.
Listen, that they go about it wrong.
They murder life or they do something to
acquire a sensation or feeling that is abnormal.
The way they go about it is wrong.
It's called sin.
But what they're pursuing is not necessarily wrong.
Example, a person.
It is natural for a person to want
love, to love and be loved.
But if you're not operating properly, if you
are aberrant, if you are debased in your
thinking, you will go about trying to pursue
love, which is a good thing in a
very wrong way.
Wasn't there an old song looking for love
in all the wrong places?
Every human being desires and their definition to
pursue some form of love.
And therein we can get in trouble because
God defines how we ought to live our
lives.
When we talk about desires, what are we
talking about?
This is a scary time in American history,
for that matter, in world history.
If there was ever a time now from
my perspective from, oh, God, it's never been
like this before.
Where it seems that every man is doing
that which is right in his own eyes.
Right is wrong.
Wrong is right.
Good is evil.
Evil is good.
Why?
Because desire, emotion and feelings have taken the
lead above logic and reason.
This is huge.
Recently in California, a judge ruled against 7
million people because he said in his ruling,
I feel, I felt, or someone could feel.
That is absolutely borderlines on insanity.
But every one of us as a human
being, let alone as a Christian, have either
a great experience regarding desire or it is
a great struggle.
And I'm going to argue tonight that it's
both.
One of the great examples as we get
into the study tonight regarding desire is something
that I want you to think about.
Right now, all across America, there's a big
struggle to tear down 10 Commandments in courtrooms
and schools and crosses.
We talked about that a couple of weeks
ago.
But I heard some news again the other
day about the 10 Commandments.
Can't have the 10 Commandments.
Can't have the 10 Commandments while our nation's
leaders are embracing the commandments of some other
God.
A Judeo-Christian nation turns around and says,
we can't have the 10 Commandments.
We'll have other commandments, but we won't have
the 10.
Why would someone not want to entertain the
10 Commandments?
I'll tell you right now.
Because if you entertain the 10 Commandments, number
one, it is God's 10 rules for you
to live.
If I obey the 10 Commandments, you are
going to be better off if you and
I know one another.
Look, if you and I don't know one
another, directly, it won't affect you and I.
But if you and I know one another,
listen, I'm going somewhere.
This is how it starts.
If you and I know one another, and
I treat you under the commands of the
10 Commandments, the rules of the 10 Commandments,
guess what I will not be doing.
I will not be trying to murder you.
How's that sound?
Anybody have a problem with that?
If you do, you're a murderer, and you
will not like the 10 Commandments.
So take them down.
If you and I live regarding the 10
Commandments, then I will not be stealing your
wife, and you will not be stealing mine,
or else you could be murdered.
So that's kind of two commandments being broken
at the same time.
Do you understand where I'm going with this?
It is all about life.
God says these 10 Commandments, but if you
don't want to hear that because you have
other desires that fly in the face of
God's command, you don't like that.
And so you got to peel those things
off the wall, because why?
It makes you feel bad.
Do you understand who is really under attack
in our world today?
It is not you, and it's not me.
It's the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit.
It is illegal today for the Holy Spirit
to convict someone.
Think about it.
Progressives call that thought crime.
So I felt bad when I looked at
that cross, I felt bad.
Why?
Why do you feel bad?
Why?
Why do you feel bad?
What are you doing that makes you feel
bad?
Well, um, ACLU 1-800, ACLU 1-800.
Desire is what I'm talking about.
But there's great desire as well.
There's good desire.
So I want you to mark these verses
down as we get into this.
Keep this in mind.
The Bible says in Romans 15, verse 3,
for even Christ did not please himself.
That's an awesome statement.
Romans 15, 3, even Christ did not please
himself.
Do you know what the radical statement of
that?
It implies, listen, because Jesus, are you listening,
everybody?
Jesus was 100% God, 100% man.
He was the God man, the one and
only.
It implies that Jesus, who was tempted in
all points, the Bible says like us, yet
without sin.
There were times in Jesus's life, I'll give
you an example.
When he was hungry, hadn't eaten for 40
days and 40 nights.
Satan came and said, by the way, Satan
will always come in your moment of desperation.
He'll wait, he'll wait and wait and wait.
He's got a lot of time and he
doesn't sleep, you know.
Think of that when you go to bed
tonight.
You're out in la-la land and Satan's
fixing up some plan.
That's why we need the Lord all the
time.
And so he's thinking something up and your
life gets sideways.
Maybe you lost your job or whatever.
Satan will wait.
He'll wait, he'll wait until it comes to
the faith hour.
Whenever that is.
Could be a day, could be a month,
could be a minute, could be a year.
You're low on money, you're low on friends.
You look around and you feel completely abandoned.
And there he comes.
Come slithering on in there.
How's it going, Steve?
Turn these stones into bread.
And everything will be fine.
Satan wants to play off of desire.
And yet God uses desire.
Point number one, mark it down.
Identifying what a desire is.
Identify it.
Here in Psalm 27, 3 and 4, it
says, Though an army may encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear.
Why does David put that down?
Why did God inspire David to say that?
If an army is circle around me, my
heart shall not fear.
Why?
Because our desire is to normally fear.
There's some sort of strange compensation to us
if we fear.
When we're surrounded by the enemy, the natural
propensity is to fear.
There's some sort of emotional delusion to that.
In fact, listen, everybody, this is not going
to be a popular thing to say, but
people come here to hear unpopular things, I
guess anyway.
To acquiesce or to surrender or to appease
is exactly the opposite of what David is
saying right here.
Though an army may encamp against me, I'm
not going to fear.
When an army begins to encompass around people,
listen, ask Europe.
They fell once, maybe twice to the doctrine
of appeasement.
And it leads to death and mayhem.
And it leads, it led to Adolf Hitler
trying to take over the world with a
doctrine of appeasement.
Satan will never do a deal with you.
Davis is no way the enemy circling around
from his perspective.
He was one man who led a nation.
He was the greatest commando that the world
has ever known.
And king and leader and musician and songwriter
and lover of God and shepherd.
Where do we stop?
Where did this guy?
And David says, I tell you what, when
I'm surrounded, I'm not going to fear.
He went around like this.
He saw everything looks like I'm surrounded and
knowing David a little bit.
David probably said, hey, God, look at these
poor guys.
You've got them all surrounded.
You can't stop somebody who thinks like that
identifying what a desire is.
There's an army of innumerable evils that come
against the Christian life and identifying what a
desire is doesn't take brain surgery, but knowing
what to do with that desire is another
thing.
Christian.
This is where most of us fall into
trouble right now is not knowing what to
do with the desire, either good desire or
an aberrant or wrong desire.
David says, I'm not going to fear.
First John chapter four, verse 17, jot it
down.
This is great, man.
All of us need to hear this.
Every one of us need to hear this.
If you get a phone call, if you
see a person, if you look at the
newspaper, you're going to be tempted.
Then take this verse.
Maybe you ought to make him up on
little stickers and slap it all over stuff.
Does that thing scare you?
Put a sticker on it.
Put this sticker on it.
First John four, 17 and 18 says love
has been perfected among us.
It means made known.
We have seen it that we may have
boldness in the day of judgment, because as
he is, so are we in this world.
There is no fear in love.
Listen to all these things that have to
do with desire and emotion.
There's no fear in love, but perfect love.
That is complete love.
Knowing it, knowing the love of God for
your life, cast out fear because fear involves
torment.
Everybody hear that fear involves torment.
Are you tormented?
Then fear is getting the upper hand in
your life.
But he who fears has not been made
perfect in love.
That is, if you're terrified, timid and fearful,
you're not wrapped up.
I should say you don't understand how well
wrapped up you are in the love of
God.
You're wrapped up.
You just don't realize you're wrapped up.
A beautiful young man in this church last
Sunday came up to me.
Such a sweet guy.
I love this guy.
And he said, you know what, Pastor Jack,
I feel like my walk is going by
me because I'm afraid.
I'm afraid to step out and fail.
I'm afraid to sign up.
You said sign up and I want to
sign up, but I'm afraid I'm not going
to be able to do it.
I'm afraid I'm going to fail.
I said, first of all, you've heard me
say it a thousand times.
I'd rather have you get an A for
trying than an F for sitting around.
You stand before God in the end and
God will give you an A for true.
What if I signed up and it wasn't
the ministry I was supposed to be involved
in?
Then you'll get an A for trying.
But if you sit out life, you'll get
an F for just sitting around.
That's ridiculous.
You're burying your talent in the ground.
And he said, man, I want to do
stuff.
I want to do something.
Then I think about my inadequacies.
I said, brother, join the club.
Perfect.
Knowing that God loves you will remove the
fear from that situation or from that person.
Are you being intimidated by somebody?
I tell you what, this may sound corny.
I don't care how it sounds actually to
you.
I know this works.
Are you ready?
You can write it down.
It's free.
It's not even in my notes tonight.
Listen to this.
If somebody starts picking on me.
You know, I do.
I just say, Lord, someone's picking me.
I don't feel good about this.
And someone's picking on me.
Lord, you deal with them.
I'm serious.
I got a letter from some lady two
weeks ago.
She read me up one side and down
the other.
And you know, it's going to be a
great letter when they say, I just want
you to know just how much I enjoy
and love.
And that's this, that the butter part before.
And then you read it.
And then thank God she completely made me
feel great at the end because she said,
you need to be more like, and she,
and I, she said the name and I
said, what more like that person.
Hallelujah.
Lord.
Now I know exactly where they're coming from.
This person just landed from Mars.
The ship is probably somewhere near the property.
There's burn marks out on the grass.
There's crop circles.
It was amazing.
But when you get picked on, listen, somebody
picking on you, the desire is take them
out.
The desire is to panic.
The desire is to be sad.
The desire is to get down.
How about this desire?
Lord, your kids getting picked on down here.
You promised me, Lord, you said no weapon
formed against me will prosper.
You may or may not like this, but
I was signing some, some stuff for a
soldier heading off to battle tonight, uh, to,
I forget where it doesn't matter.
You're probably not supposed to know where, and
he's going to go, he's going to go
deal with the bad guys.
And, uh, I wrote in there that just
as tonight sending these young men off, I
wrote in there that their enemies of freedom,
then there's enemies of Liberty.
And it's always been that way.
And you're my hero and you're America's hero.
And I, I said, now, now get up
and get out there and you get the
bad guys and make them pay.
And then, and then I put Exodus 15,
three, I think it's verse three, Exodus 15,
three.
If it's not, it's four.
And then I'll say in Exodus 15, it
says the Lord, he is a warrior.
The Lord is his name.
Now you think about that for a moment.
You see Jack, you know, wow.
I mean, that's like, wow.
Amen.
Yeah.
Wow.
He's the God of the whole earth.
You and I have the incredible Liberty to
be here happy and safe and free tonight
while others pay the price.
And we're grateful for that.
But there are many types of desire.
There's ugly desires.
There's neutral desires.
There's godly desires.
What an ugly desire might be is the
things like what I can't talk about in
church would be an ugly desire.
The things that shouldn't be talked about no
matter where I'm at is an ugly desire.
Things that offend God are ugly desires.
You ever think about that?
You need to mark that down.
Everybody with me still you sleeping?
Things that offend God.
Why do I say that?
Why do I want you to underline that
in your notes?
Things that offend God.
What's an ugly desire?
Things that offend God.
Now, here's the amazing thing for you.
You need to find out what that is
in your life because God will say things.
You know what?
Watch this.
Honestly, God himself is offended by nothing because
he's holy and pure and he can't be
tainted.
When we talk about God being offended, it's
because we're the ones that offend him and
he's the one that is hurt by our
offense and what we do to our lives.
He's holy.
Your my sin, your sin will not make
him have a tarnish on his holiness.
That's impossible.
What he's grieved about is when your sin
and my sin mess up our relationship that
we have with him.
That breaks his heart.
He loves us kids that much.
So things that are ugly and hurtful in
the sense of desire are usually things that
are obvious or dangerous.
Listen to this.
Sometimes things too common.
That's why in Christian communities, there'll be a
Christian who has this standard regarding their personal
lifestyle.
And then there's a Christian on the other
side of the room that is allowing all
kinds of things in their lives.
What's going on?
Number one on this human plane, we ought
not to stumble one another.
For example, I got this at William and
Mary for reals.
It's in Williamsburg.
Somebody last service said, you're wearing a t
-shirt.
Yeah, I mean, it is a t-shirt,
but I see where they're coming from because
I'm sensitive to this message.
The t-shirt might be offensive to them
because I'm here teaching the Bible.
It's possible.
Next week, I could come out in a
three piece suit ain't going to happen, but
I'm just making just saying, just saying, and
some will be pleased and some will be
offended because they'll feel like somehow I'm better
than they are.
I don't know what.
Here's the thing.
When we talk about desire, we better make
sure that we're right with God on something.
When we talk about desire, my desire better
not run over your heart.
You see what I'm saying?
Well, I have the liberty, brother.
Your liberty better not stumble me.
And this is where as a young Christian
America today makes a grave mistake because they
judge themselves among themselves.
When in reality, the Lord is speaking to
your heart, young person.
And this is a big deal.
This is big stuff.
Watch this.
Galatians 519.
This is still in the Bible.
At least it is now.
There'll be legislation in California to have it
removed soon.
But in Galatians 519, it says, now the
works of the flesh are evident.
I love that when the Bible says that.
Now the works of the flesh are so
out in your face that any bonehead can
figure it out.
That's what the word evident means.
Ain't nobody going to miss this.
What's the work of the flesh?
Adultery, fornication, uncleanness.
That's not washing behind your ears.
Okay, that's naughty stuff.
Ludeness.
That's making fun of naughty stuff.
Idolatry.
I can't live without those curtains.
Sorcery.
Weird word in English.
It's pharmakai in Greek.
You know what that means?
Hallucinogenic drugs.
Contentions.
You always got to pick a fight with
somebody.
What's wrong with you?
Jealousies.
That's sad.
Outbursts of wrath.
Out of control.
Temper.
Selfish ambitions.
Always scheming to run the next guy over
so you can get to the top.
Dissensions.
Dividing people up.
Whispering.
Saying things.
Splitting people up.
Like click creators.
God says, I hate that stuff.
Heresies.
Saying false things about God.
Envy.
Murders.
Drunkenness.
Revelries.
That's parties.
Partying.
Living to party.
Party!
Revelries.
And the like.
Pulses and the like.
If there's anything I've missed, it's all that
stuff.
That any person with an evident concept can
figure out.
He says, of which I tell you before,
just as I told you in times past,
that those who practice such things will not
inherit the kingdom of God.
Why?
Because they don't belong to God.
Now watch this.
And are you guys listening to me?
Now watch.
Can a Christian go get drunk?
I hear yes.
And I hear no.
Of course a Christian can get drunk.
That's like, of course they can.
But is it right for them to get
drunk?
Is it a smart thing to do for
them to get drunk?
A Christian can actually go to a liquor
store.
They can drive a car.
Ride their bike.
They can go.
They can get out.
And they can buy alcohol.
And they can drink and get drunk.
Are they going to get in trouble for
doing it?
Maybe.
No, they will.
Well, what if nobody catches them?
God already caught them.
Now look, if a Christian goes and gets
drunk, it doesn't mean that they're going to
hell based upon Galatians 5.
It means that they were stupid.
They stumbled probably other people.
They blown their witness to the liquor store
man.
Forget about leading him to Christ.
Okay.
And then you got to throw away your
beer bottles.
So forget about witnessing to the trash man.
And you know it's wrong when your friends
knock on the door.
And you go, put the bottles away, put
the bottles away.
So how can you say that you're governing
and yourself and walking with God when you
won't even can't even do that thing and
have Jesus sit down with you?
Whatever you and I do as believers, we
know it's wrong when we can't have Jesus
sit down with us.
Now, hang on.
I'm going somewhere with this.
Can a Christian go to a movie?
Of course, they can go to a movie.
They can buy tickets.
America, you can do anything you want.
Unless you're a Christian, but you do anything
you want.
Of course, a Christian go to a movie.
Now, no one's going to say, excuse me.
Although I've had people do this to me.
Pastor Jack, is that you?
But no one's going to say, Hey, uh,
do you go to first?
Don't you go to first service?
What are you doing here?
Well, what service do you go to?
The point being you can go to a
movie, but, and this is my personal thing.
What are you doing for three hours?
That's a good investment.
It costs you 10 bucks to blow your
time.
And what's in the movie?
Can a Christian go to a movie?
Yeah.
Should you go?
I guess it depends on the movie.
Toy story is awesome.
It rocks.
But think about that for a minute.
You say, well, I have the liberty to
go do anything I want.
Okay.
Yeah, you're right.
St. Augustine said I can live any life
I choose to live as a Christian.
But I choose to live for Christ.
Billy Graham said I can do anything I
want now that I'm a Christian.
But what I want to do is to
walk with Christ.
Think of that.
You don't use your Liberty as a tool
to fulfill your desires.
There's some desires that need to be brought
under control.
Some even crucified.
I had somebody asked me this question just
recently.
Can a Christian smoke pot?
Of course, a Christian can smoke pot.
Are you going to get arrested?
Are you going to blow your brain up?
Well, you know, I feel like true.
I'm not joking this.
Didn't we all hear this in the 60s?
I feel like I'm closer to God when
I I'm not kidding you.
I'm I'm not kidding you.
Do you understand that God says I don't
want you altered at all.
I want you to God says I want
you to feel everything in life, every incredible
thing and every bump in the road.
He's God and he's taking us through all
those things.
And I got news for you.
I read just the other day in Pilgrim's
Progress.
It was a great statement in that John
Bunyan said, you know what is on a
stormy day is when the rain comes and
everybody likes to drink water.
Everybody likes to have water, right?
But water only comes on a stormy day.
No one nobody gets any water when the
sun shining.
And that's a great view, isn't it?
Storms are good.
Bumps are good.
But this stuff about, you know, can I
should I could.
Listen, the Bible makes it very clear.
You and I as Christians are to be
living for other people.
And as I said before, can you sit
down with Jesus and do that thing?
And that's the mark of a believer.
The Holy Spirit will say to you, excuse
me, I'm not doing this.
Doesn't he say that?
And if you don't hear that voice.
Then you need to come to know Jesus
as your Lord and Savior right now.
Because he loves you so much.
He's not going to share you with the
world.
You're his.
He's holding your hand.
Anybody get near you and he's going to
take them out.
You are a member of the body of
the bride of Christ.
It's awesome.
He's awesome.
The Bible says in Philippians 4a, what's what's
a beautiful desire?
What's a good desire?
Things like this, things that you can leave
that verse up, by the way, you guys.
Things that want that that caused me or
want me to get closer to Jesus.
That's good.
To find out what he wants for my
life.
That's good.
That's a great desire.
Another great desire is to walk with God
for the rest of your life.
Great desire.
Philippians 4a, listen to this.
Finally, my brethren, Paul says, whatever things are
true, whatever things are true.
Well, you can flush half the Internet down
the toilet then.
I could put anything on the Internet tonight
and say that you said it.
And people will go, man, did you hear
what he said?
Right.
Whatsoever things are true.
He says, whatsoever things are noble.
High bar.
Blue.
Whatsoever things are regal, noble.
Whatsoever things are just.
You want social justice?
There is no such thing as social social
justice without true Christianity.
Think that through whatever things are pure.
Well, that is shut down every porno shop
in the city.
And I wish I tell you, I pray
going down the 10 freeway whenever I'm driving
to camp for the mountain camp at that
10 freeway, dear God, cause of wind to
blow and knock these billboards down.
Sheesh.
Whatsoever things are lovely.
Whatsoever things have a good report.
Whatsoever things have any virtue.
And if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these
things.
Wow.
We need to work on that.
Point number two, the discipline of desire is
recognizing where desire comes from.
Psalm 27 forces.
This one thing I have desired of the
Lord.
Listen to David's heart that I will seek
after.
And the observable human nature of what we
see, it reveals what a man or woman
desires.
In their life, what's important to them.
We know that good desires come from the
Lord himself.
We know that the desire of love and
to be loved food, drink, air, sleep, fellowship
with one another.
It's a good desire.
Listen, it's a good desire to go snow
skiing or.
Surfing or hiking.
Those are great things.
You can take Jesus with you in those
things and the things that you can't take
him, you shouldn't be thinking about him.
Frankly, you just feel like my dad.
Well, I'm not your dad, so you have
to listen to me.
But there's also aberrant desires that assault the
will of God.
There's the desires that people have to gain
power and control over people.
There's the desire to do harm to someone,
even murder them.
You say, well, I'd never do that.
Do you ever say something about somebody that's
something that's not true about them to somebody
else?
God says you've murdered them.
So I didn't.
In the end, God's going to say you
did.
If you and I cause someone else to
think different of someone else and it's not
true, we have assassinated.
Their character, you see, well, who's going to
know God already knows?
Yeah, but only two people know.
God knows.
It doesn't matter if anybody knows.
Didn't Jesus say, if you think.
About adultery with a woman, he said, and
where I come from heaven, you've already committed
it.
That's why repentance takes place in the mind
instantly in the heart now before it ever
gets a chance to get out.
You don't repent after you do it.
I mean, you can, of course.
But let's be honest.
We don't, we don't do that.
We don't live like this is man, you
know, and then all of a sudden you
wake up, you wake up and you're coming
out of the bank with guns blazing.
Hey, what in the world am I doing?
Oh, my gosh.
Wow.
I got all this money around me and
guns.
That doesn't happen.
The sin was, I think I'm going to
rob a bank.
That's the sin.
Listen, are you ready?
Come on.
Any college students in here?
Listen up.
At what point does a horse thief become
a horse thief?
Before he steals the horse or after he
steals the horse.
Anybody have anybody ever gone to school?
This is a big question in school.
I mean, I'm not that old.
Anybody know the answer to this?
Very good.
That's the answer.
A horse thief becomes a horse thief before
he steals the horse.
You cannot be a person who steals a
horse without being a horse thief.
And being a horse thief starts in the
heart, in the head.
That man says, I'm going to steal that
horse.
Now, the judge or the officer is saying,
well, he hasn't stole it yet.
He hasn't taken it yet.
But the officer, as he sees the man
walking towards the horse, the officer starts to
pull out guns or whatever he's going to
do, because he looks like he's going to
pull it off.
Guess what God knows?
He's a horse thief.
Because it was in his heart to do,
though the guy never got around to steal
on the horse.
What if he tripped and fell down and
hit his horse, hit his horse, hit his
head, hit his head on the horse and
never got around to doing it?
The judge says, OK, you're not a horse
thief.
God says, oh, yeah, he is.
Desire.
We got to get control of the desires.
And if I hurry up, I'll give you
some help on how to do that.
I got to really hurry up here.
Here it is.
Getting control.
Watch this.
This is amazing.
You need to follow this through.
This is tough stuff.
This is Paul at his most brilliant.
He's so smart.
He's kind of scary sometimes.
Romans 721.
Paul's talking about the new life in Jesus.
He says, what then?
I find in a law that evil is
present with me.
Paul is saying, I got I got evil
in my life.
He says, the one who wills to do
good.
For I delight in the law of God,
according to the inward man.
Translation.
I'm born again.
The new guy that I am, I love
God's law.
Verse 23.
But I see another law in my body,
my members warring against the law of my
mind.
My friend, only a Christian can have a
war going on between the spirit and the
flesh.
And bringing me into captivity to the law
of sin, which is in my members, my
body.
Verse 24.
Oh, wretched man that I am, who will
deliver me from this body of death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
So then with the mind, I myself serve
the law of God, but with the flesh,
the law of sin.
There is therefore no condemnation to those who
are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk
according to the flesh, but according to the
spirit.
Translation.
Paul says, you know what?
I'm so happy to be a believer and
I can prove it.
You want to know?
Two people live inside me.
One is the old Paul, the guy that
I've got to make sure is crucified daily.
Every time a desire, listen, every time a
desire comes up.
That is opposed to the will of God.
I've got to have a war.
I, I, I put on my armor.
I put on the gear.
We go to battle and I have an
argument with myself and my flesh says, hey,
come on, let's do this.
Because the flesh wants it all nice all
the time.
Let's sleep in.
And the spirit says, let's get up.
And the flesh is no, I don't want
to get up.
Right.
And, you know, inside there's a war going
on about doing this or doing that or
getting up or not eating this or going
there.
And it's a war.
That only the Christian knows about.
And Paul says, you know what?
Thank God.
And here's the cool thing.
Walk in the spirit and you will not
fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Here's what happens when our spirit is strong
by being in the word of God, being
in worship, fellowship with one another.
When we build up the spirit, the flesh.
Is an amazing thing because the flesh gets
conquered.
The spirit begins to invade the soul, your
mind, you're fueling up right now on spiritual
things.
Everything that I speak of that's of God,
every verse that I give you go straight
to your spirit.
I wish we could see it in the
spiritual realm, just like a light beams going
into the heart.
Spiritual when a verse goes, boom, boom.
Like a light beams going out and the
spirit goes, yes.
In the soul, which is your mind goes,
okay.
Yeah.
All right.
Okay.
And the flesh is.
Oh, no, seriously.
Your flesh starts to freak.
But when you don't feed your spirit and
you feed the flesh, guess what the mind
says?
Oh, yeah.
Okay.
Well, whatever.
Sure.
What?
No, seriously.
Watch many in his book, the spiritual man.
He says the soul of a man, his
mind is his mistress.
She will go anywhere with the one who
pays the bill.
If the spirit strong, the mind says, yeah,
let's go worship.
Let's sing.
Let's praise.
Let's serve.
And when the flesh is in control, the
mind says, yeah, let's do stuff we're not
supposed to do.
Let's get in trouble and burn things and
go.
So the mind will do whatever you feed
it.
And Paul says, hey, walk in the spirit.
You won't fulfill the lust of the flesh,
which leads us to this judging the desire
against God's word.
That's the deal.
Judge our desires against the word of God.
That's excellent.
Second Corinthians 10 verse three, very quickly, for
though we walk in the flesh, we do
not war according to the flesh for the
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but
mighty in God for the pulling down of
strongholds.
Get control of your thoughts, casting down arguments
and everything that exalts itself against the knowledge
of God.
Listen to this, everybody.
Second Corinthians 10 verse five, bring every thought
into captivity to the obedience of Christ and
being ready to punish all disobedience when your
obedience is fulfilled.
What does that mean?
You govern yourself by the power of the
word of God and the Holy Spirit.
When thoughts arise, when a thought arise, man,
you know what?
I, I had to go do this.
I think I'm going to.
And your mind begins to think and your
flesh begins to get excited.
Your spirit needs to come in and say,
sit down.
I will not sin against God or my
sister or my brother.
I will follow the Lord.
Look, if you got to go to a
closet or a bathroom or run out to
the parking lot at work and get into
your car, preach it to yourself, but do
it.
When that girl comes and turns yourself on
to you, or when that guy comes and
says, feel my muscles, you need to run
and run.
And you might be lonely.
Satan's smart.
You've been lonely.
Nobody's been talking to you.
And she comes up and says, you're so
nice.
Listen, you run like a maniac.
Joseph did that.
He took off running, man.
You get out of there.
She's really nice.
She is nice.
And she has no idea that she's a
tool of Satan.
She doesn't get it.
She doesn't understand that you do.
She doesn't get it.
Get out of there.
First Corinthians four, verse three, first Corinthians four,
three pulses.
But with me, it's a very small thing
that I should be judged by you or
by any human court.
Wow.
In fact, I don't even judge myself for
I know of nothing against myself yet.
I am not justified by this, but he
who judges me is the Lord.
Therefore judge nothing before the time until the
Lord comes who will both bring to light
the hidden things of darkness and reveal the
councils of the hearts.
Then each one's praise will be from God.
Wow.
That's what we do about judging our desires
against the word.
Number four, we're almost done taking my desire
before God.
Think of this.
Hannah.
Remember her in the Bible?
First Samuel.
She's Samuel's mom.
Hannah had a desire.
Please, God, I want to get pregnant.
Please, God, I want to have a baby.
Oh, please, God.
She's not getting pregnant.
She's not having a baby.
She goes and prays and she's just, oh,
God, please.
Oh, God, please.
And God hears her cry.
She took her desire to the Lord.
Listen.
And God said, I'm going to answer your
prayer.
And God answered her prayer.
You can read all about that in First
Samuel chapter one.
It's awesome.
God answered her prayer.
And she names her boy Samuel, whose name
means the name of God.
But you say, well, how does that apply
to me?
You know what Hannah did?
She presented herself before the Lord.
Romans chapter one.
Christians, listen, we need to be diligent about
presenting ourselves before the Lord.
Lord, help me.
You have a desire.
I don't know if it's from God or
not.
Take it to him.
Is this a desire I should act upon?
Take it to him.
Wait, give it to him and pray a
great prayer to pray.
Make this your homework.
Psalm 19.
Lord, keep me from deliberate sins.
Don't let them control me.
Then I will be free of guilt and
innocent of transgressions.
May the words of my mouth and the
thoughts of my heart be acceptable to you.
Oh, God, my rock in my redeemer.
What a great, great statement that is.
And then another thing that we do is
this.
The discipline of desire is going to require
us to manage our desire.
Are you breathing right now?
Are you alive?
Check your pulse.
You're going to have to deal with desires,
good, bad or ugly.
You got to deal with them.
David's desire was that I may dwell in
the house of the Lord all the days
of my life.
That's where you're going.
You're going to heaven.
You got to remember that.
Set your desires on things of heaven.
And Second Timothy 2 15.
That's why the Bible says that we are
to be diligent about presenting ourselves to God,
approved of God, knowing the word of God,
rightly dividing the word of truth.
And so what do we do?
I'll end with this.
There needs to be a fatality.
Someone's got to die.
It's not the person that's.
Flirting with you or trying to beat you
up.
It's not them.
It's me.
It's you.
We are to crucify our flesh daily.
You guys.
We are.
Are you listening to me awake still?
I know it's late.
Got to get up soon.
I know that.
Listen, you guys, we got to crucify our
flesh.
The flesh will scream and we got to
get out the hammer and the nails.
I'm figuratively speaking.
And say, Lord, this has to be put
to death.
This is the old Jack and the old
desires, and it's got to be nailed to
the cross.
Jesus, you died there to set me free.
So whatever's going on in your life.
You need to ask him, Lord, is this
good with you?
Is it good?
You guys, I'm so glad and happy that
we serve a living God, because what comes
to my mind and you close your Bibles
were done.
What comes to my mind?
We meet a lot of people here, as
you can imagine.
There's never a shortage of stories.
And what do you do with someone who
comes?
And I got to tell you something.
It's pretty cool.
How would you handle this?
Somebody shows up.
Hey, we've been coming for three weeks and
we gave our heart to the Lord today.
That's awesome.
And I guess I should back up.
Hey, today's our first day here.
And yeah, we got out of bed early
and came and we're glad that we did.
And we're living together and life's cool.
Think about it.
Come on.
This is real life.
This happens in the foyer.
What do you do?
Oh, what'd you say?
You guys are living together.
What?
Usher's cuff him.
You don't touch them.
You see, you know what?
Come back next week.
Let the Lord speak to you.
That's great.
Do you guys need a Bible?
You know, yeah, we're okay.
We're okay.
Then they come back the second week.
Hi there.
They're completely in sin, but they're so sweet.
You know so much more than they do,
but it's okay.
And then the third week comes.
This just happened to me.
That's why I'm telling you this.
Pastor Jack, we've been reading our Bibles.
And now they're sleeping in the same bed.
They're probably wrestling and eating breakfast together and
everything else.
And now they're reading their Bible.
And you know what?
This is perfect.
So we're reading our Bibles.
And we don't think that we should be
living like this together.
And well, we have a kid and we
just bought a house two years ago.
We've been together for about three years.
But we're not married.
And it's wrong.
You think it's wrong, Pastor?
Well, yeah, the Lord wants you to get
married.
Do you guys want to get married?
I mean, you're living like it, but you're
not.
Yeah, we want to get married.
Okay.
Well, then let's meet and we'll talk about
that.
Get you going.
But here's the agreement.
You got to go through premarital class.
Okay.
We can marry you today.
But you still have to go through six
months of premarital after you get married.
But you raised the baby up in the
Lord.
You guys are doing it right.
Okay.
You guys are doing it right.
This is the world we live in.
And you think about that.
Pastor, I would never.
That's horrible counsel.
Oh, yeah?
Put a sock in it because here's the
deal.
You think you're going to have two people
who never knew anything about God, who've been
living together for three years.
They have a baby.
They got one year old kid.
And then you Jesus comes into life and
splits up their home and separates a junior
from mommy and daddy.
God's not into that.
You know what you say?
Hey, you know what?
That's what God's grace is all about.
He molds them into shape.
We need to get control of our desires
because they lead us astray.
But glory be to God who conquers even
the worst of the worst that we could
do.
Father, we praise you and thank you.
We worship you, Lord.
And we ask you, Father, in Jesus name
that you would just settle your truth into
our hearts tonight.
And Lord, just cause right now by the
power of your Holy Spirit, a great revival
change, a renewal to take place.
Among your children, among the nonbeliever tonight.
Among the person who thinks that they're a
believer, but it's not living for you that
you'd speak to them.
You're mighty to save.
We pray that you do that.
And Father, as we are worshiping you now
in spirit and in truth, Lord, may we
thank you right now for having spoken to
our hearts your word.
You're making corrections in life.
You're like grabbing the wheel.
You're making compass changes.
It can almost be felt in this room
tonight.
People are thinking, people are reconsidering.
Lord, we pray that you just do your
thing in the hearts and the minds of
every person in this room right now and
those listening.
Church, let's stand together as we worship him
and thank him for what he's doing.