Good morning.
Seemed like I was just here, doesn't it?
Just close together.
It's always great to be with you, and
I thank you for coming.
I know it's voluntary, and I'm always surprised
when people listen as I speak, and I
thank you for your courtesy in doing that.
This will be one of those messages you
won't ever forget.
It's on a subject I never heard addressed
while I was a student here, because in
those days you didn't talk about these things.
Isn't that interesting?
It's not that they didn't go on, it's
that no one felt it was, I guess,
dignified or appropriate to address these things, and
so I didn't hear one message on it.
There were occasions I would hear a war
story or two, but I never heard the
subject really develop from the scriptures.
And so I want to do that today
because it is an area that will ruin
your time at seminary, which is my overarching
theme of my time with you.
A strange subject to have as a theme,
but that also was never addressed.
When I graduated, I don't believe I once
heard anyone talk about a failing in ministry
or suffering real defeat, disappointment.
When I first brought a talk on this
subject, this theme, I talked about worry, some
of you may remember, and how it can
steal our joy and our peace if it
comes in and haunts us.
So I warned all of us about worry
and the impact it can have on us.
And then the next time we were together,
I talked about attitude, and how a bad
attitude can not only ruin relationships, including those
at home, as well as those in the
classroom and even in our future ministry, regardless
of where God may take us.
It's really hard to get beyond an attitude
with individuals if they're determined not to change
in that area.
So I've warned us about that.
Last time I talked about a sinister sin,
which is a cynicism itself, which can easily
grow in a place where there are academic
achievements and the desire to do our very
best, and in the process, we can turn
sour on the sensitive subjects of the spirit.
And so we talk about the value of
guarding against that.
Today I want to talk about the secret
sins of our lives that have to do
with the realm of lust and sex.
I want to hit it head on.
I want to go directly into it.
I don't want to dance around it.
I want to talk straight with all of
you.
And I have in mind both men and
women, though it seems to be a greater
battle among those of us who are men.
And as I think back over the number
of times I've had the sad experience of
being a part of a gathering where an
individual needed to be confronted, and it led
to the downfall of that individual's ministry.
They've always been men.
But I believe women, just as men, can
be guilty of lust and can be a
part of affairs that occur in our lives.
We had a seasoned pastor speak to us
in a gathering.
We had brought our pastors together in a
former church, and we had asked him to
speak on whatever he thought would be helpful
for us to hear.
And he began by making a statement I'll
never forget.
He said there are four areas, all of
them start with the letter S, that become
most often the downfall of people in ministry.
The first would be silver, which has to
do with a whole area of money and
greed, how that can turn our heads in
the wrong direction.
The next is self, where life can revolve
around us.
In ministry, you're often given a place of
authority, and you are respected unless you have
conducted yourself in a way that has led
people to disrespect.
But most often, they respect you, and in
the respect, you can let that go to
your head, and before long, it's all about
you.
Self can be a real battle.
Sloth was the third.
In ministry, you are trusted with privacy.
You are given the privilege of pretty much
shaping your own hours.
I don't know of any minister that punches
a clock when you come to work, and
then you leave, and people check on your
time.
And so it can easily become a battle
with sloth.
Whatever may be your interest, aside from the
work of ministry, can become consuming.
It can be a hobby.
It can be a sport.
It can be just plain laziness.
And then, of course, the fourth would be
sex.
And then he went into that subject further
and reminded us of the importance of purity.
As I talk about this today, I don't
want you to think I'm talking to someone
else.
Even though it may not be for you
a real battle, I'd be surprised among the
men if it is not one of your
major battles.
It's everywhere.
And it shows up everywhere.
Back when I was riding Harleys with my
younger son, he and I wanted to go
to Tioga, which is a little town north
of here.
They've got great barbecue, and it's a nice
ride.
Back roads are always the best roads on
a bike.
And I said to him, let's go to
Tioga and enjoy some of that great barbecue.
The place has burned down since then.
But anyway, back then it was a great
spot.
And he said, great, I've never heard of
it.
I don't know how to get there.
So I pulled up Google Maps, and when
I pulled up Tioga, there was a huge
statement, sex, that appeared.
Now, I've been to Tioga now, and it
has nothing to do with sex, I can
assure you.
It's just a little dumpy town to the
north that's got great barbecue.
But somebody knew that enough people were interested
in that town and perhaps that place to
place that into the computer in such a
way that when you pull that up, that
appeared.
It's an example.
And the Internet, of course, is filled with
it.
It's a downfall for some of you sitting
here today, I would imagine.
I'd be surprised if there were not more
than a few of you that struggle with
sex on the Internet, whether it's a chat
room or some site you have secretly found
and you turn to.
Years ago, you had to go to a
dirty movie or you had to sneak a
peek at a magazine stand to look at
it.
Now you can see it in the privacy
of your own home.
Lock your door, pull your blinds, and you're
all alone with it.
And I need to tell you I've never
been more serious.
It'll ruin you.
It'll win.
It'll conquer you.
If you don't determine, I suggest, in your
years at this school, to come to terms
with it and to deal with it severely
in your life, it'll conquer you.
It'll take over.
You may not publicly fall, but you will
lose the mental battle.
It'll drain you.
And as a result, it will cut in
on your stride as a man or woman
of God.
David's fall, according to the record in 2
Samuel 11, where I want us to go,
did not begin on his roof when he
took a walk and he saw Bathsheba bathing.
David's problem began earlier.
David obviously is a man of enormous, enormous
passion.
No one could write like David can write,
and that kind of passion works its way
out in a number of different ways.
And often the very gifted have the greatest
battles in this area, and most of you
are very gifted people.
And you who have great imaginations will battle
in this area as well.
David was really something else.
Of all the biblical characters, I believe I
would most love to have had time with
David.
I admire him for his accomplishments and for
his tenderness, his love for God, his heart
that just beat after God.
I, of course, have consumed his songs, his
psalms, and they are music to my soul.
Anyone can write like that, and often with
the honesty with which he wrote has my
respect.
David was a faithful man.
He kept his father's sheep.
And even after killing the giant, he doesn't
run down to Macy's and try on crowns,
thinking the kingdom is mine, certainly after Samuel
anointed him.
He went right back to the sheep.
I love that.
David was not important to David.
Even though he became the greatest of Israel's
kings, the flag flew over the nation with
greater pride than ever before when David became
king.
One man writes rather cleverly, there was not
only a chicken in every pot, but under
David's rule, there were grapes on every vine.
The prosperity was magnificent.
The enemy feared Israel under David's rule, man
of war.
Courageous.
Also loved many women.
And against the teachings of the law, he
took to his harem, if I count correctly,
at least 17 wives.
And along with that, many concubines.
I'm confident his libido was intense.
And though that's true, many women did not
satisfy the man.
The old feeling is that if you have
enough women, you will be satisfied.
There aren't enough women.
Because with sex, there is always the thought
of the unknown.
And there is pleasure in the act of
intercourse, regardless of who it is with.
Especially if your conscience is such that you
can tolerate it outside of your marriage.
Many people can.
I was at a hotel with Cynthia, staying
there for a conference.
And interesting, there's a little sign, a little
small, very well-written, beautiful calligraphy.
Have your next affair with us.
Right there on the table.
It's everywhere.
And David knew better, of course.
We'll talk about that.
But I want to build into it carefully,
lest you think he just suddenly fell.
No tree suddenly rots and collapses.
No church suddenly splits.
No marriage suddenly fractures.
No life suddenly falls.
It's a process.
You're in the process.
I'm in the process.
It's always going on.
And the enemy is so patient and brilliant.
He'll take years and just drop a little
here and there to keep you interested.
Keep you curious.
David served Saul, as all of you know
from your study of the scriptures.
And loved Saul's son like a brother.
And he and Jonathan were just tight.
And then at that battle on Mount Gilboa,
they died.
And David grieved the loss.
Though Saul had haunted him and haunted him
for years, David held him in respect.
Another thing I admire.
And so when he comes, if you have
your Bible, 2 Samuel 1, you find David
now in grief.
And as he was wont to do, he
wrote a song.
And it appears beautifully here in our Bibles.
And the theme of the song.
How the mighty are fallen in a day
of battle.
How the mighty are fallen.
How the mighty are fallen, says it three
times in this one song.
You see it in verse 19.
You see it in verse 25.
You see it in verse 27.
How the mighty are fallen.
And his heart breaks for the fact that
he'll never again speak to Jonathan on earth.
He'll never again know the joy of seeing
tall, handsome Saul, his king.
Never again.
As best I can figure, David is about
30 at this time.
And the mighty have fallen.
And he writes about it.
He has no idea what in the next
20 years would happen.
But the success of David's life is like
a rooftop on the rise.
Never once a defeat in battle.
Think of that.
Never once did Israel lose a battle under
David's rule.
He expanded the borders from 6,000 to
60,000 square miles.
And as I mentioned, the prosperity and the
pride of the country, the patriotism, must have
been magnificent.
He built a beautiful home, his own palace,
for him and his many wives.
And he kept adding to his harem.
And it kept weakening his soul.
Life went on, but who was going to
confront David the fact that he had broken
with what Moses had written?
Who confronts a king like this?
Which is part of the issue you will
face as a leader.
Especially if God blesses your life with success,
as we measure success.
And your ministry grows and your church becomes
larger.
Or your outreach and influence becomes greater.
And your teaching skills get even better.
And your popularity grows.
And you're a word on others' lips.
And you're a household name in the country
where you serve.
Right now you sit here as a student
and you think, that's not good.
You have no idea what's going to be
your future.
You have no idea.
That's why the decisions you make now and
the habits you form now must be carefully
managed.
Because you will carry them out in the
days ahead like you can't believe.
And if you have a wandering eye now,
it will only intensify as you get older.
And you never outgrow it.
You never get too old for it.
I remember sitting in a Navigator conference when
I was at Glen Eyrie.
And Lorne Sanney, the president at the time,
now gone, Lorne was interviewing an 86, 87
-year-old missionary.
And he said to him, tell me, brother
so-and-so, when was it you gained
victory over lust?
And the old guy said, well, Lorne, it
hadn't happened yet.
86, 87-year-old guy still fighting lust.
Of course.
It's a drive that is, if it's not
guarded, if it's not monitored, is uncontrollable.
And in the most unbelievable times of your
life, you can fall.
I've had men minister in conferences where we
were as a church, and while ministering behind
the scenes, they are carrying on an affair
with another woman, not their wife.
One of them even chose as his subject
for the conference, moral purity.
While he is having an affair that later
came out.
And pretty much finished him.
Do not tell me that cannot happen.
It's unbelievable.
And his messages were spot on.
I remember taking notes and talking with Cynthia
about it after he would bring it, and
I would say, did you get that?
Listen to that.
And I went, great insight.
How the mighty are fallen.
Don't forget those words.
David did.
So when you move from chapter one, all
the way to chapter 11, you're moving through
one, one victory after another, after another, after
another.
And by the way, right in the back
of margin of your mind.
First Corinthians 10 verse 12.
Let him who thinks he stands, take heed,
lest he fall.
Let her who thinks she stands, take heed,
lest she fall.
Every one of you can fall just like
this man of God fell.
And today it seems the farthest thing from
your mind.
I'm glad it does, but that's an unrealistic
thought.
Now, so much for my introduction.
I wanted to get into it carefully and
slowly, and I hope I've done that.
We're not in a hurry, are we?
They gave me a little extra time.
I appreciate that, Patrick.
Okay.
Second Samuel 5, 13, I find.
Meanwhile, David took more concubines and wives from
Jerusalem after he came from Hebron.
He took more wives.
And if that wasn't enough, he took more
concubines.
Polygamy weakened him.
His opinion poll was at an all-time
high.
Popularity rate was off the chart.
Maximum, maximum power and prosperity.
Luxurious lifestyle was his.
The respect of his army.
Joab, that cruel, tough-to-the-bone soldier,
was right there with him.
David was his kind of guy.
The palace and all of its conveniences he
had made.
And then that eventful evening arrived.
It happened in the spring at the time
when kings go out to battle.
Second Samuel 11, 1a.
He's a king, but he doesn't go out
to battle.
Why?
We're not told.
Probably thought Joab could handle this one.
Who are the Amalekites?
I mean, we could...
Half my army could whip them.
They can take care of that.
He should have been out there.
By the way, lust doesn't grow when you're
busily engaged in your work.
Another one that works is running.
Flee youthful lust.
That works.
You cannot lust and run at the same
time.
I remember being on Okinawa, and they brought
in 5,000 prostitutes to service the Marines
as if they were animals.
Well, many were.
And I said to my mentor, how do
I conquer the issue of temptation?
Because when I get off the jitney, and
I've got to get up to your place
for our Bible study, I've got to walk
by all these whorehouses where these beautiful women
are out there waving and whistling and calling
in.
And he said, run.
You know what?
I started doing that.
And you know what?
I didn't lust for any of them.
My thought was, get out of the way.
I'm trying to get up to Newkirk's place.
But he lounges around.
That's what you're going to do in some
part of the next several weeks.
Christmas comes.
You have a little more time on your
hands.
I know, I know.
You've got a lot of work to do.
But you're going to hang out a little.
And that's when I get nervous for you.
Those bad things happen when you hang out.
And when you don't keep yourself occupied.
I know what I'm talking about.
Thankfully, I've never fallen.
But there have been close calls.
I was in Canada at a conference that
lasted over the weekend.
And I really was looking forward to watching
a little football on TV.
But they have hockey up there.
And I know, I know.
If you're Canadians, don't write me.
I know.
It's great.
It's a goon sport, okay?
I mean, these guys knock their teeth out.
And the more blood, the better.
Somebody said they watched a hockey game that
was boring until a fight broke out.
And then all of a sudden it got
good.
So I was looking for a football magazine.
There wasn't one.
And I decided I'll go back to the
room, get ready for the talk tomorrow.
It was a Saturday.
And I punched the elevator button.
And two ladies got on with me.
The door closed behind us.
And I pushed floor six, as I recall.
And I looked at them.
They didn't push a button.
And I said, floor.
And they said six would be nice.
Well, I felt a little like Tom Cruise
all of a sudden.
Or maybe Robert Redford.
I'm a little closer to that age.
And then I'm honest.
The shade drew.
And my mother's voice revisited me as I
read.
Be not deceived.
God is not mocked for whatever a man
sows that he will also reap.
No one knew me where I was.
I was thousands of miles from home.
Could have invited the women in.
And then when I finished, I was kind
of staring, reading the verse in my mind.
And they're looking at me like.
So when the shade went up, I said,
no thanks.
I've got more than I can keep up
with at home.
And I stepped out and the door closed.
And they stayed on.
And I leaned up against those marble walls.
And I thank God for the memorized scripture.
That saved me from a fall.
You would have never known it, but I
would have lived with it.
And I could have never talked on this.
Or if I did, I'd have to fake
it.
And so, David is lounging around the house.
And he sent Joab and his servants with
him and all Israel.
And they destroyed the sons of Ammon and
besieged Rabbah.
David stayed at Jerusalem.
He's alone.
He has time on his hands.
And evening came.
By the way, I did a little homework
on evenings.
Listen to David's words.
Psalm 55.
Evening, morning, and noon, I will pray and
cry aloud.
And he will hear my voice.
He will redeem my soul in peace from
the battle which is against me.
Psalm 55, 17 and 18.
He wrote that.
But he didn't do that this evening.
Here's another one.
Psalm 141, 2 through 4.
May my prayer be counted as incense before
you.
The lifting up of my hands as the
evening offering.
Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth.
Do not incline my heart to any evil
thing.
Or as one paraphrase puts it, the message.
Do not let me so much as dream
of evil or thoughtlessly fall.
Isn't that good?
He forgot that this evening.
Or maybe he wrote that after this evening.
Here is our respected leader.
The king like no other king.
With an incredible record of faithfulness.
And refusal to retaliate against Saul.
And courage in battle.
Took on the giant.
And now became king.
Best I can figure, he's about 50.
Maybe 55.
I have an older son who's 55.
And our kids go all the way down
to 46.
And he's Kurt's age.
Probably.
I looked at Kurt the other day when
we were together.
And I thought about this.
I'm so grateful that Kurt's been faithful to
Debbie all these years.
They have three kids.
Oldest is 36.
And they've got those grandkids now have kids.
I mean, it looks like recess let out
when we get all our family together.
We've got four kids and we've got ten
grandkids.
And we've got six great grandkids.
And they range in age all over.
So when I travel, I carry a picture
of my family.
And I put it on the table where
I eat.
And if Cynthia can't go with me, I
usually take someone else.
And if no one else can, the picture
is there.
I even went on a cruise.
Cynthia was not able getting over her back
surgery, spine surgery.
So I took a picture of her.
And showed everybody.
This is who I'm with at this cruise.
And you sleep with a picture, boy.
It's ugly.
I'll tell you.
The corner of that thing digs into you.
But there she was.
I saw her every morning.
And I looked at her at every meal.
You don't lust easily when you've got your
wife looking you right in the eye.
Or your kids.
Or your grandkids.
Loving you.
Believing in you.
Counting on you.
Like Noah.
Noah's 22 today.
Second day of boot camp in the Marine
Corps.
Yeah.
22.
He put in for MARSOC, which is the
Navy's answer to the SEALs.
That's what the Marines are in MARSOC.
Noah wants to do the toughest thing.
I remember when he was growing up, when
he wrote this little thing I'm going to
show you.
And all the grandkids called me Bubba.
All the great grandkids called me Great Bubba.
So, Bubba and Great Bubba.
So Noah is about, I think, six, seven
when he wrote this.
When he drew this.
And Noah put a little heart there.
If you probably can't see it.
But it says, I heart Bubba.
He loves Bubba.
Remember when Noah was about 12, he sat
in front of me at my desk.
I have a little small statue of the
Marines that were lifting the flag on Iwo
Jima.
And he said, I want to be a
Marine.
I said, Do you?
He said, Yeah.
I said, Why?
He said, Well, I want to be a
sniper.
I want to kill people.
I said, No.
No.
Sit down, Noah.
Sit down.
So Noah sat down.
And he said, Well, that's what you were.
And that's what you did.
No.
I said, I was in the Corps, but
I didn't kill people.
Wanted to, but I didn't kill people.
And he left.
I found that on my desk this morning
here at the seminary.
I got a grandson that loves me.
And I hope he does.
He's now in boot camp.
So I pray for Noah.
He's going through it right now.
What am I saying?
I am saying David forgot all of that.
Every bit of it.
Every child.
Every wife.
Worse is God.
Listen to what Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about temptation.
In our members, there is a slumbering inclination
toward desire, which is both sudden and fierce.
With irresistible power, desire seizes mastery over the
flesh all at once.
A secret smoldering fire is kindled.
The flesh burns and is in flames.
It makes no difference whether it is sexual
desire or ambition or vanity or desire for
revenge or love or fame or power or
greed for money.
Joy in God is extinguished from us.
As we seek all our joy in the
creature at this moment.
This is so insightful.
At this moment, God is quite unreal to
us.
And only desire for the creature is real.
Satan does not here fill us with hatred
of God.
But with forgetfulness of God.
Isn't that great?
David didn't hate God.
He just forgot him.
The lust thus aroused envelops the mind and
will in deepest darkness.
The powers of clear discrimination and decision are
taken from us.
It is here that everything within me rises
up against the word of God.
That is profound.
That is the height of lust.
That makes even a monarch like David stare
at a woman taking a shower in her
backyard.
When evening came, David arose from his bed
and walked around on the roof of the
king's house.
And from the roof, he saw a woman.
You know the first recorded words from the
mouth of Samson?
I saw a woman.
I call Samson a he-man with a
she-weakness.
At this moment, that's David.
He doesn't think about battles won.
He doesn't think about the faithfulness of his
God.
He doesn't think about the trust of his
children, his Noah.
He's thinking about one thing.
Every man in this room knows exactly what
he's thinking.
He doesn't have to undress her.
She's all ready.
In fact, look.
He saw a woman bathing, and the woman
was very beautiful in appearance.
Trust me when the scripture says very beautiful.
She is gorgeous.
And he stares.
And he wants her.
He's got all these women, all these concubines.
He wants her.
Because he's never had her.
So David went and inquired about the woman.
By the way, she was his neighbor, and
he had never met her.
Busy about the king's business?
I can understand that.
And one who he talked to said to
him, listen to this answer.
Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam,
the wife of Uriah the Hittite?
That's unusual.
When genealogies are given in the scriptures, usually
it's the father name, then the grandfather sometime,
the great-grandfather.
Rarely is the mate mentioned.
That servant also is looking.
And he knows David, what's in his mind.
Every man knows other men in this way.
And he says, she's married, David.
She's a married woman.
And not just married, she's married to one
of your mighty men.
Uriah the Hittite.
Someday, Dr. Bailey, you need to have Reg
Grant.
Is Reg here?
Reg was on one of our cruises, and
he does Uriah.
It's a knockout presentation.
Because he does it all from the perspective
of Uriah.
Who trusts his king.
Who can't bear the thought of even touching
his wife while his men are in battle.
Who doesn't cooperate with the king, even when
the king gets him drunk.
And then finally he gets his death warrant
handed to him.
Folded up, put in a pouch, and as
Reg puts this, he pats the pouch.
He says, I've had the message from the
king to go to my commander Joab, and
I will take that message.
And you want to go, no, no, no.
No.
Don't.
It's so real, I just want you to
have Reg do that sometime.
Line him up to do Uriah.
Oh, I sound like a hot shot here.
Please, if you don't mind.
Anyways, it's really worth it.
Okay.
David sent an inquirer.
They said she's Uriah's wife.
And David sent messengers.
That didn't stop him.
To know that she's somebody else's wife, it
doesn't stop you when you're full of lust.
Nothing stops you.
I'm telling you, man, I can only speak
to you.
I don't know how it works with a
woman, but I'll tell you.
You go blind.
He didn't even know her name.
He was already lusting.
And he sent messengers, and he took her,
and when she came in, he lay with
her.
When she had purified herself from her uncleanness,
she returned to her house.
Probably left that night.
Not quite.
Stolen waters are sweet, and I'm sure on
that bed, it was ecstasy for just a
few moments.
Worth that?
Worth all of that?
Never.
F.B. Meyer writes, This is the bitterest
of all, to know that suffering need not
have been.
That it has resulted from indiscretion and inconsistency
and neglect.
That it is the harvest of one's own
sowing.
That the vulture which feeds on the vitals
is a nestling of one's own rearing.
Ah, me.
This is pain.
You hear that?
How the mighty have fallen.
Twenty years time, he forgot his own line.
Because sex is that power.
She returned to her own house.
I could take time here to speak to
you women.
And probably should say a few words.
Be really careful, ladies.
We are very vulnerable men.
Dress yourself very carefully.
Conduct yourself without flirting.
Don't go there.
Save it all for your husband.
And that's all I need to say.
You are lovely ladies and you have a
future that's beautiful.
And I can't help but mention Bathsheba was
not raped.
She came.
I know people obeyed the king.
She didn't have to say yes to this.
There is no fight.
She was lonely.
And she missed her husband.
And David was available.
That's kind of the way it works.
Because both forget about God.
And the woman conceived and sent and told
David and said, I am.
Now, I'm not through until I mention four
things that I want you to remember.
No one ever said this to me when
I was a seminary student.
Thankfully, by God's grace and the love of
a magnificent wife and good training by great
parents, the grace of God that preserved me
all the way through my hitch in the
Marine Corps, all the way through these years
in ministry, by the grace of God, Noah
won't have to say, I no longer respect
Bubba, by the grace of God.
To keep from thinking we're safe, let me
give you two comments.
First, acknowledge your weakness.
Acknowledge your weakness.
And second, guard your leisure.
You will be trusted with privacy.
Be careful about that.
Acknowledge your weakness.
Guard your leisure.
And now to keep from falling, two final
things.
Number one, remain accountable.
I carry accountability questions that we ask in
our accountability group periodically to the other men
in the group.
Have you been with a woman anywhere this
past week that might be seen as compromising?
Answer that question.
Have you exposed yourself to any sexually explicit
material?
Answer that question.
Surf the net?
Secretly developing this?
You hide from explicit material?
I don't know how many men have told
me they started in pornography because of the
stack of pornography magazines that their dad had.
And that started them on the journey.
Have you spent adequate time in your own
personal study of the scriptures and prayer?
Have you given priority time to your family?
The last question is the killer.
Have you just lied to me?
Call being accountable.
You accountable to anybody?
Willingly, deliberately, consistently?
Remain accountable.
And finally, rehearse the consequences.
Sitting in this room, we're all safe.
Sitting in this room, the lights are on.
Sitting in this room are people who know
us.
Sitting in this room, we are, for one
of the few places in life, in the
majority.
We love Jesus.
He is our master.
He's our redeemer.
He's our Lord.
Your battle doesn't come in this room.
It comes in the darkness of your own
mind and the privacy of your own life.
I'll look over all these other things.
I want to read you something.
Consequences of a moral tumble.
Randy Alcorn.
Whenever I feel particularly vulnerable to sexual temptation,
I find it helpful to review what effects
my action could have.
And he listed.
Listen to this list.
Grieving the Lord who redeemed me, dragging his
sacred name into the mud, following in the
footsteps of these people whose immorality forfeited their
ministries and caused me to shudder, list their
names.
Inflicting untold hurt on Nancy, my best friend
and loyal wife.
Losing Nancy's respect and trust.
Hurting my beloved daughters, Carina and Angie.
And when I read that, I read my
children's names.
Kurt and Carissa, Colleen and Chuck.
Who believe in me.
Who trust me.
Destroying my example and credibility with my children
and nullifying both present and future efforts to
teach them to obey God.
Why listen to a man who betrayed mom
and us?
If my blindness should continue or my wife
be unable to forget, perhaps losing my wife
and my children forever.
Consequences continue.
Losing self-respect.
Creating a form of guilt awfully hard to
shake.
Even though God would forgive me, would I
ever forgive myself?
Forming memories and flashbacks that could haunt me
and future intimacy with my wife.
Wasting years of ministry training and experience for
a long time, maybe permanently.
Forfeiting the effective years of witnessing to my
father and reinforcing his distrust for ministers because
of my fall.
Undermining the faithful example and hard work of
other Christians in our community.
Bringing great pleasure to Satan, the enemy of
God and all that is good.
Keeping judgment and endless difficulty on the person
with whom I committed adultery.
Possibly bearing the physical consequences of such diseases
as gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia, herpes and AIDS.
Perhaps infecting Nancy for the rest of her
life.
That's enough.
This has been the autopsy of a moral
fall.
God tells us the truth.
Don't you ever forget it.
Don't ever forget it.
Don't ever forget this message.
And may he keep you pure and faithful.
Whether married or single.
Younger or older.
Involved in ministry or some phase of ministry
or some secular role.
Whatever may keep you faithful.
May your grandson always be able to leave
you a note like this.
Our father, we confess to you that we
are mere human beings.
We are mere women and men.
We are not super people.
The same nature that beat in the heart
of David beats in ours.
And there it is every day to meet
us.
Every morning with fresh lurid temptations.
An enemy ready to pounce.
Patiently waiting for the moment when that man
or that woman comes along.
And no one else will know at that
time.
Hold us close to yourself.
Dear father, may we never ever forget these
words.
How the mighty are fallen.
In the name of Christ, our master, our
redeemer.