Temptation Island

Today you're gonna learn about temptation. Does God tempt us? If he doesn't tempt us, well then does he test us? We start there and you're gonna have to hang on to see where we finish because we finish in a place to show you why the number one sermon anyone will ever preach is not what you think. Welcome to The Forgotten Jews podcast. I'm your host, Adam, here with Pastor Robby and Candy. We're just checking in. Robby just took a flight back from a wonderful city of Houston. Was it an easy trip back? Anything but, Jeremy and I had the trip of our lifetime back in Houston airport. Thankfully, we're back. We came in hot today, literally, we came in hot today. We're back in Houston, we're back in Houston, we're back in Houston, we're back in Houston, we're back in Houston, we're back in Houston, we're back, we came in hot today, literally walked in the door and here we are sitting down. If you're uneasy about flying, one of the greatest fears might be that the door doesn't open when you land. Apparently that happened this morning. Literally, that's what we couldn't get off the plane. What would me and Candy have done? We would have started screaming. Well, on the way there, the jet bridge was broken.

I've never had this happen and so we made it to the gate. They couldn't get, it kept trying to move, it wouldn't move. So everybody's standing. You know, as soon as that bell goes off, everybody's up, they're grabbing, you know, and so everybody's standing, which I used to be the first to stand up, but now I'm like, I'm just gonna stand. No, listen, I got in trouble doing that one time. Oh, did you? You know how you pull up and the bell goes off, but you're technically not supposed to stand up until you hear the engine power down. So I was like in the front, like in bulkhead or something, and the bell went off and I stood up to get my bag and she was like, sit down. And I'm like, okay. Well, I don't know if people would be telling Robbie to sit down. So I sat back down because I'm like, well, you always stand when the bell goes, you know, but she was like, the engines have not been powered down. And I was like, excuse me. So you have to hear it and you have to hear the engines power down. So from now on, I don't stand up right away when that bell goes off. Apparently everybody stood up on the way there. Yeah, and then, well, and then we waited there for 20 minutes

and finally they said, I'm sorry, just got word. Pilot said, we don't have, the thing's broke. So now we got to put everybody, put their bags back in the compartments. Everybody back in their seats, buckle up. We got to move the plane, which means you got to taxi out. I mean, it was a mess. So we landed and got there one, we did not leave the airport for one hour and 30 minutes after we landed because it was a few, and we didn't even have checked bags, which is the funniest thing. So if you were at the airport in Nashville today and you couldn't drive around the circle, this is why. Because everybody was driving around. Everybody was getting picked up. It's like, what is going on? No, but we had a great trip. I spoke at the discipleship.org conference, which was a good conference. Really good to have that tribe of discipleship people, heard stories. I mean, so many people will listen to the podcast. So if you're at the conference and you, I mean, we heard how many, Jeremy, just so many people coming up, listen to the podcast. Love the podcast. Love Candy on the podcast. We love the new edition.

I mean, everybody loves everybody. It's awesome. What about me? Anybody like me anymore? I told you I got to stop. I got them friends. They like Candy. What about Robbie, you know? Chopped liver. Oh, please. They even stopped, listen. This really got me, by the way. Tell them what you're starting to say. So we're standing there and somebody comes up to me. We're leaving this older couple and they said, hey, we are so glad we got to meet the Jeremy Brown. The Jeremy Brown. Big Jerm. Big Jerm. We need shirts that say Big Jerm on it. Yeah, Big Jerm. We need shirts. We can sell those. We need to get shirts for everybody. Viv, Jerm, Roberto, and everybody. I got a question. We get them all. We get them all. No, but here's the thing. Jeremy and I assumed they know us at Long Hollow

because at Long Hollow, if you know, we got two Jeremy Browns. Jeremy Brown has been here forever. He's our audio guy. Great, great guy on staff. And then we got Jeremy Brown, who's led me to Christ. And the funny thing is, people go to that, the first Jeremy Brown that's been at Long Hollow, oh, they come to him and say, man, what was it like leading Robbie to the Long Hollow? Oh, really? I didn't know this. I didn't know this. No, he did it to Laura, his wife, the other day. And they said, Laura, I'm so glad Robbie and Jeremy are going back to college together. And so this Jeremy Brown tells that Jeremy Brown, you just didn't play it off. Oh, you should have seen him back then. He was lost. He was terrible. Okay, so these people come up and say, we can't believe we're just gonna see the Jeremy Brown. So we're like, oh, what do you mean? And they said, no, the Jeremy Brown who led you to the Lord. Well, then one of their staff members comes, he's a pastoral staff member, and he said, we read Growing Up in every discipleship group we do. Every one of our groups, that's what they said.

And he said, no, this is the Jeremy Brown, page 27, Growing Up, Jeremy Brown. Page 27. Page 27. That's next level of, yeah. That's money. That's next level. So Hish, Hish. We're gonna start calling you 27. I was like, so Hish. Big Jerm 27. Big Jerm 27. Hish Sharp needs to say page 27, and on the back, the Jeremy Brown. Next year's your year, brother. 2027. 2027, baby. I like how I'm saying that. He loves it. I love it. I love it. No, we had a great time, though. Sweet, sweet. It was great. Tell us about you. You saw somebody stop you in the out. Oh, yeah, I had an interesting thing happen. Was at a recovery meeting, was talking, and then this lady came up to me, and she goes, when I heard your voice,

she was like, I knew it was something. And she pulls out her phone. She said, I pulled out my phone, I looked on YouTube, and I saw your face. She's like, I've never watched on YouTube. I've always listened on Spotify and stuff like that. And recognized. So she recognized my voice. That's awesome. You do have a voice for radio. It's pretty cool. I don't know about it. Well, thank you. You gotta appreciate that. You do have a voice for radio. You got a face for television. Come on. Come on. Let's go. Keep it coming. Tell my wife, keep it coming. Keep it coming. Here we go. Speaking of leaning into temptation. Hate to interrupt the podcast, but hey, if you're enjoying this content, please subscribe now, like, share, comment. Get this out to people that might also enjoy it. Let's get back to the podcast. Oh, yeah, there it is.

That's a good one. That's a good one there. That was good. That was smooth. All right, Kandi, read us. What are we doing now? And lead us not into. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Yeah, for thine the kingdom. And the power and the glory. Yeah, that. But that's not in this version. That's a little section. Or in this chapter. Now, the thing about that is, that's not in the original, like the earliest manuscripts. But again, it doesn't take away from the prayer. What's not? What's not? So the last part of that says, if you look at your Bible, it doesn't have for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. It's a footnote, right? I think it says footnote at the end of 13. Like at the bottom of your Bible, it'll say other manuscripts have this, include this.

Right, yeah. Okay, yeah. So it doesn't take away from it. That's the King James Version she quoted. Yeah. That's what I memorized. Yeah, King James. Yeah, which is fine. I'm not taking away from it. But the earliest manuscripts that are closer to the original, Greek and Hebrew don't have that. That's a later edition, we think, by a scribe. But anyway, let's just say this is the end of it. Lead us not, and bring us, or do not bring us into temptation, or lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil or evil one. There's a lot. Yeah, mine says evil one. Yeah, there's a lot of question about this. This is probably the most questioned part of the whole Lord's Prayer. Really? Yeah, because, okay. So first of all, let me ask some questions, okay? What are the questions you think about this that throw you off? Let me just read the verse again if you're listening. And do not, so you're praying to God.

Lord, do not bring us or lead me into temptation, but would you deliver me from the evil, that's one question, or the evil one? Which one is it? So tell me some questions you have right away. I got a big one, but. Well, I mean, to me, they're the same. Okay, what same what? Because evil comes from the evil one. So whether it's evil or evil one, it's all the same. Is that what you're saying? No, that's true, that's true. My big question is. So what's the question? My big question is. Here's the question. Lord, do not bring us into, or lead us. So is God leading us into temptation? Yes, that's the main question. I thought he doesn't do that, you know. He doesn't. Yes, okay, that's the question, maybe you can call it that one. Jesus went into temptation. Jesus was led by the Spirit. By the Spirit into temptation. Ooh, there you go, so you do have that. In James it says, God does not tempt anyone with evil. Yes, okay, let's, yes, let's define. We're gonna go to James right away.

Look at you, you're already there. Yeah, go to James 1, 13. You'll read in a second, but let me set this up. You're already there. So the word temptation here is an interesting word. It's the word in Greek, perismos, perismos. P-E-I-R-A-S-M-O-S, perismos. And it's the word that can mean, and again, context helps us. It can mean test, it can mean try, or it can mean tempt. That's what that word can mean, depending on the context, okay? God can and will, to those he loves, test us. He does this all the time. God's always testing us. And remember, let me just define, remember what a test is. I'll let you answer it. What is the, so a temptation is, let me define that and you tell me. Temptation is something in our life that tempts us to sin. It will tempt us to fall, give in, or succumb to sin. A test is something sent by God, not to break you, but to build you up. Not to destroy you, but to establish you, to fortify you. To increase your faith? To increase your faith, yes. The thing about God is God never tests you in a way he doesn't think you can pass. Okay, so God's not out like wringing his hands,

like, ah, I can't wait to get at him. No, he knows, it's kind of like working out. It's like, think of testing as a workout. If you come to my house and I say, hey, I'm gonna put you through a leg workout at my house, which doesn't happen much at the Gallaty home, but anyway, apparently. I could do that. But Ryder's coach and Adam's been telling me I gotta get more on legs, but anyway. Legs, legs, legs. Yeah, I know, my back hurts, but anyway. So, but if you come to my. and I put you through a leg workout, you have to endure pain and suffering, but I'm not trying to kill you, I'm trying to strengthen you. Making you stronger. So you see, so I'm trying to put you through, now it feels like death at times, it feels like you're dying, but it's not gonna kill you, it's making you stronger. That's what a test is. A temptation is something that is luring you, leading you to sin, okay? It seems like subtle, but there is a difference here. So the question then becomes, does God lead us or tempt us to sin? And James tells us, by no means. So James 1.13, let's read.

And another thing to remember about Matthew and James, this is a sidebar here. People have said, scholars have said this for years, James' book is actually an exposition of the Sermon on the Mount. Did you know this? So here's what people said, and I've made these connections before. There's like 40 connections, I'm just, don't quote me on this, but it's something like this. 40 different lines in the Sermon on the Mount make up the entire book of James. Did you know this? It's crazy. Robert, you can do some research on this. Logos could help us with this. But you could just search, what are the connections between the Sermon on the Mount and the book of James? And it's staggering, bro. I mean, it's like staggering how many connections or direct connections, almost word for word things. And why would that not be surprising? Well, who is James, the author of the epistle? Do you know who he is? Is he the brother of Jesus? Not the brother. The half-brother, you gotta say that, because, you know, same dad, different,

same mom, different daddy. Yeah, same mom, different daddy. But James, but the cool thing, crazy thing about James is, James did not believe Jesus was the Messiah while he was on Earth. He rejected Jesus. It wasn't until after he died that he, now, he was around Jesus and her teaching, obviously, but he didn't fully commit his life to Christ until after, according to history, tradition. All right, read 113 through 15, I think it is, or 16. No one undergoing a trial should say, I am being tempted by God, since God is not tempted by evil and he himself doesn't tempt anyone. That's pretty standard right there, yeah. But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death. Don't be deceived, my brothers, my dear brothers. Don't be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Okay, so the first thing we see is that temptation, a temptation is not from God. Now, again, I told you earlier, it can be translated as test or trial, depending on the context, and the word can actually be positive or negative, depending on the context.

John MacArthur said this. He said, if a believer responds in faithful obedience to God's word, he will successfully endure a trial. But if he succumbs to the trial in his flesh, doubting God's word, disobeying God's word, then he is being tempted to sin. Right response leads to endurance, righteousness, wisdom, blessing. Wrong response leads to sin and death. So basically, you could say, in a sense, a trial is used by God, same kind of scenario. So you can look on face value and say, this is either a test or a trial, or a test or a temptation, depending on how I respond to it and the outcome determines, in a sense, what it is. So think of it this way. A trial is used by God to strengthen you, to mature you. A temptation is used by the enemy, in a sense, to cause you to sin, and it leads to death. And James is saying dogmatically, don't ever say God can tempt you, because that's what the people were saying. They were saying, man, all this stuff's going on. Why is God doing this to us? They're blaming God. People do this all the time, by the way. We know people like this. They'll follow the Lord, and then they lose a family member, or they lose a job, or they lose a friend,

and they'll say, man, God did this to me, and I'm leaving. You hear this a lot from people. I think the difference is that a test is with God, a temptation is without God. I love your analogy of working out, because you know this, the big trainers will say, failure is success. You should never get your last two sets. What do you have to have? A spotter. If you don't work out a lot in the gym, basically you're trying to lift weights, and if you want to get stronger, you have to not be able to do the weight on your own the last few reps, but you have someone who's standing right next to you, and they're sort of lightly pushing the weight up, and just forcing you to stretch yourself beyond your limits. To failure. To failure, and that's what a test is. God is there saying, hey, I'm bringing this to stretch you and grow you. I'm gonna be here all the way, and if you turn to me all the way through, I'm gonna help you get stronger. That's good. A temptation is like, I guess it's like going to the gym by yourself, and look at me, and you put 400 pounds on there,

and what's gonna happen? You're gonna break your chest. You're gonna hurt yourself. You're gonna hurt yourself. So there's one, have somebody that's gonna help you in your struggle. and your failure, and the other one is, it's about you and being seen. Yeah, that's a good point, yeah. So, okay, that's a good clarifier. So, a test comes from God, a temptation comes from, according to James, within. Within, right. Okay. Or flesh, right? Flesh. He says, evil desires within. Let's go back, Kandi, and read this. James again? Yeah, read James again. But each person is tempted. Read that verse 14. When he is lured and enticed by his own desire? Yeah. Yeah, 14. Yeah, but each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death. Okay, now notice one question here, if you're listening.

Who is not in this argument? Who is not being blamed for the temptation at this point? God. The evil one? Glaringly. God, first of all, but then secondly, you don't see any mention of Satan at this point. You don't see any mention of Satan. So basically what you see here is, you see we are tempted by our own flesh. That's why I always say, the three things that attack us in the world, the three enemies of us as a Christian are the world, the flesh, and the devil. Okay, it's actually the devil, the world, and the flesh in that order. Because the devil is behind all evil, obviously. But the devil's not tempting many people. I tell people, I say, the devil may be, no, he didn't probably make you do it. The devil is not omnipresent, he's not omniscient. He can't be everywhere at the same time, and he doesn't know all things in the future. However, he creates a system that corrupts. So he creates the world system. The devil doesn't need to do anything, because he created the system of pornography, he wound it up, let it go. He created the system of politics, wound it up, and let it go.

But in addition to that, you have the flesh. So even in the world system, you have the internal flesh, the desires and the temptations. That's what he's saying here. So what he's doing is, what James is saying is, nowhere in scripture does it give credence to the idea that demons are held accountable for causing you to sin. So you can't blame a demon. It's immorality, lust, greed, anger, lying, where do they all come from? Within. And what he's trying to say is, don't just blame God. You can't blame God for tempting you, but also don't place blame on the devil, because you're giving him more power than he has. Are there rare occasions in our Christian life where demonic spirits are actually attempting and frustrating and attacking? Yeah, of course. Do we see people controlled and oppressed and possessed? But yeah, we'll see that from time to time. But that's not the main source of this temptation. And so what James is gonna do here is it's pretty interesting. He's going to give us, and you're gonna wanna lock in here, the following pattern of how to see the game that Satan plays. This is probably the clearest picture of the progression of how sin works in a person's life. And he's gonna show, basically what we're doing here

is we are looking at game film, not on how Satan looks at us. We're looking on game film at Satan to see how he works. That's what this is, watch this. This is cool. Can I ask a question real quick before we get in? I have a question. Do you have one? No question. I'm glad you do. I didn't realize that was in your voice. Oh, it's in her voice. I didn't realize that until just now. That's actually her voice. Oh my goodness. Oh yeah, they got it, they got it. I've always thought this way, and I wanted to see if it's right or not. So the desire for sin makes us sinful, but it's the action that makes it a sin? Like, is it a desire? Like, if I have the desire to sin, but I don't act on it, is that a sin? Is desire itself a sin, I guess is my question. I mean, obviously that makes us sinful. That's why we're not perfect before God. But I've always been taught, or maybe I've thought this. No, I don't think. It's the action, right? I don't know.

What do you think, Annie? I mean, that's what I would think, because even in Psalms it says, delight yourself in the Lord, he will give you the desires of your heart. So desires can be good, but then obviously you can have bad desires. But I would think if, I don't know, that's a really good question, because let's just follow this train of thought. If you have a desire of lusting after a woman in your heart, that would be wrong, you see? Right. And then also, obviously, if you were to step out and do something, it would be wrong. So that's a really good question. Yeah, Robert? Vivian, any words of wisdom? I got an idea. Let me show you mine. Maybe we'll put this on the, see what people think on YouTube. Think about controlling our, I mean, taking every thought captive. Right. Yeah, Vivian's saying taking every thought captive, having pure thoughts. Robert, anything else you're adding there? I was thinking of, you mentioned the three, I thought of the three from 1 John,

or it was 1 Peter, where the lust of the eyes, the lust of flesh, and the lust of private life. Yeah, lust of the eyes, lust of flesh, private life, yep, there you go. Yeah, what I was thinking is so this is a real this is yesterday Jeremy and I flying to Houston There's a younger african-american girl. I think she worked at the airport. She was she was I was waiting to go through My pacemaker. It's been very interesting lately for some reason the machines aren't working lately and this morning I like to call it if I don't if the machine doesn't work I can't go in the regular machine because my pacemaker got a pacemaker at 35 So I got I have to go to the the x-ray machine that spins around well apparently in Houston this morning The guy whispered to me and said well, we have the machines. But what do you say Jerry remember this? We're not working too lazy to put in the paperwork. So I'm sorry Do you mind getting patted down and we were late remember already late with this fiasco this morning. So what I got I Got Brian is I got what I call a double shot of espresso wake-up call before I hit the Starbucks I was singing Anyway, that's a joke. That's an old joke for this On the way there on the way there They were dealing with somebody who had something in their bag apparently and so the girl was going in like the employee side and she Leads over and she says hey, you can come around in this line. I was like, no. No, I got a pacemaker She said what you got a pacemaker? I said, yeah, I got a pacemaker. She said that's crazy. She said I said, yeah, I got a pacemaker at 35. She's like man. She said what do you do for a living? I said, well, I'm a pastor what she said what so we walked through and she said I'm looking for a church I was like, I was like pull up your phone now. I'll show you I'll connect you with our site and Long Hollow and Podcasts and YouTube so she's like you never gonna believe it's looking for a church. So she goes she's like get out of here So she subscribed to the podcast with the channel everything YouTube Long Hollow And so as we're leaving she walks back over to me Jeremy says she walks back over She said before I come I gotta ask you a question. I gotta show you an honest I know it's gonna be a little forthright. I'm just meeting you. She said what is your opinion about homosexuality?

Right out the gate Just leaving Yes, you say before you come she said before I come I just want to know where you stand on Homosexuality, why don't you tell me where you stand? Well, I didn't have time. Tell me what you think I gotta go German. I we just family when I get to everybody I like to roll in and out and apparently we didn't have much time to play. So what'd you tell her? I said, well, that's an interesting question. I said, no, I thought she was gonna ask me. Can a woman preach a sermon? I literally thought she was pretty forthright. I did not the characterizer, but I thought she was to say you should hear my wife But anyway, I didn't say that inside May 31st at the jail Anyway, so I said let me tell I said, let me tell you my perspective on this I said, I'm a former drug addict and alcoholic. I said I said, let me preface it with this I said, I believe a person can be born again. Oh, she said do you think a person could be? Homosexual and be a Christian I said before I answer. Let me tell you this. I said I am a recovering drug Years ago. I was on drugs and alcohol God set me free 20-something years ago I could slip back if I'm not put parameters by God's grace 23 years sober So Wow, and I said, but I know many people that I know who have relap I said even myself when Jeremy and I were preaching I was a Christian. There's no question I met Jesus and I was getting high for three months and preaching sermons and people were getting saved and I said I've seen a lot of people who Struggle with the sin and the addiction in that nature as Christians. I said, but the key is the struggle I said there's a difference for Homosexuality between attraction and action. That's the key. Okay, and this is where I land on this You may disagree with this where I've landed on this study this for a long time You can't you can't control if you're attracted to a person of the same set because they were people say that's a fallacy No a person who has homosexual tendencies is attracted to you. Can't say stop being attracted Yeah, that's who you are But the difference is are you acting on it and that's where the sin is now for this thing is you can't help the desires That come up. It's hot now. I'm not saying just acting physically I'm saying you can act in your mind too. So don't hear what I'm not saying But what I'm saying in here is the desire you can't control these desires

You remember it like when you first got set free from drugs and alcohol. I Would dream about getting high I would think about getting high I would fantasize But then it started to subside if you're listening and you're just getting set free Starting to subside and now I rarely do I mean it happens every now and then but rarely now those things go away And so those desires are minimized So I said, the way you combat that is through the word of God, because you change your heart by the renewing of your mind through the word of God. And so, intake of the word squashes the attacks of the world, in a sense, you could say it that way. That's good. What did she say? She said what, Jeremy? I like that. I like that. I like that. And then I went and got my bags and she said, Jeremy, I like that guy, I like that guy. Oh really, she did? Yeah, she said, I like that guy. I think something powerful that you said was your thoughts, because that can be an action. So it's kind of weird, but like, so I do, I think where I land is like, the desire is a part of our fall, part of the flesh, but we can, because scripture talks about be careful of the imagination, sinful imaginations. I think we can act on it in our mind or we can act on it physically.

Now, it's funny, I actually, on April 24th, I showed you the thumbnail for this, Friday at five, I have a YouTube coming out talking about this for recovery people. I'm talking about your thought life. It's just Pastor Adam French on YouTube, but I spent about, well, about 25 minutes talking about this whole concept. Yeah, if you are somebody you know with addiction, you need to check out, is it The Adam French? It's Pastor Adam French, yeah. Pastor Adam French, I like that. Because it's easy, there's so many other Adam French, if you just type in Pastor Adam French, but it's all recovery in the Bible. It's biblical recovery. But thought life, the thought life is big. I say this in there, I don't know if you've ever heard this, in AA, it's one of the Alcoholics Anonymous, the book, it's common phrase is, you can take out the word alcohol and replace it with thinking, and it fits every time. Because it's really, it's a thinking problem, not a drinking problem. And I think a lot of times, I talk about that, I talk about that in that thing, but I think true with this, it's interesting that he starts there, is drawn away from our own desires. That is what we think, what we feel, right? Is the starting place for sin.

Well this, you got me thinking, I'm looking at a scripture while you talk, no, it's exactly right. Because isn't that what the enemy does? And I've told my kids this, I say, listen, the enemy, he knows your struggles, right? He's studying you, so whatever, and it's different, your disposition is different. People that struggle with same sex attraction, people that struggle with type A personality, I'll have to apologize because I may step on your toes. People that are more reserved, you have to stand up for yourself, you're gonna let people walk on you, right? Like, our disposition, we're slanted to struggle with certain things. But that's where we have to learn ourselves and have godly people around us that go, hey, you keep doing this, this is a pattern, so putting those walls up to where he can't entice it and bring it out. Like you're saying, that's how we, if we learn ourselves and our own sinful desires and where we struggle, we'll be able to see where he's trying to entice us. Hey guys, let me make you aware of two podcasts, if you're not already aware. One is, I started not long ago, at Pastor Robbie Gallaty, you can just search my name, R-O-B-B-Y, Gallaty, where I go deeper,

like we go on this podcast, in the Hebraic roots of Jesus and the Jewishness of the scriptures. If you're interested in that, you can tune in, I'm going through a series in Revelation. Again, for those who've already been there, but I'm taking my time with the series and unpacking it from a Jewish perspective. If you haven't checked out Adam, our host of our podcast of The Forgotten Jesus, he has a podcast for recovery, for those who are seeking restoration, rejuvenation, those who are just trying to be encouraged after life of sobriety or a life of sobriety and addiction, at Pastor Adam French, if you're interested in that channel as well. If you haven't subscribed or liked to the channels, let me encourage you to do so. And I think, too, it reminds you, if you go all the way back to original sin, like with Eve, there's a pattern to the sin. It was what she saw and what she heard. So it was what she heard something and then she looked at the tree. Then she goes from looking what she saw and she delights in it. She's like, oh, looks good. May give me something that I don't have. So she goes from delight, then it says she desired it. So it's a pattern and it's progressing. Once she got to the desire,

it was almost the point of no return. No, it was the point of no return. And then she took the fruit. She glamorized the whole thing. Once she took the fruit, she invited Adam to take part with her. Because misery loves company. Because you don't want to sit alone. That's a money shot. You don't want to sit alone. And so it's kind of like back in the day when I was in driver's ed. I don't know if I've ever shared this story on here. Driver's ed. Do you remember when you took driver's ed back in the day? Or I did, honey. That was my first and second period. I was a law abiding citizen. I took driver's ed and I will never forget. I don't know why this stuck in my mind, but he was teaching me how to exit and enter the interstate, right? And he said, there's this. point where you go to exit off of the interstate. And if you start to exit, you know, the, the white lines, there's a line that continues on the interstate and there's a line that follows your exit. And so there's like this triangle that forms. And he says, once you start to exit, you have reached the point of no return. You can't cut back and get back on the interstate. You have to keep exiting. Okay. That's the same thing with sin. It's like, you get to this point where you're at the point of no return. So it's like, if you start, if you, if you reverse it, let's reverse it all the way back to what you see and what you hear. Those are two vitally

important senses, I guess you would say that God has given us that we're supposed to guard. And if we are guarding those from the outset, what we're delighting in will be different. And then hopefully we'll be able to catch it before it becomes an evil desire to where we actually participate and invite others to, you see, we have to reverse engineer all that. No, it's so good. That's your filter. That's why we need to be filtering what we hear and what we watch through the word of God. And it's hard. It's so hard. It's hard with social media and all this stuff out there. It's so hard because it's so readily available. Everything. Everything. Yeah. Yeah. So if your life is a car or the temptation is a car, some of you need to stop driving and some need to give up your keys for a while because you can't make it past the point of no return. I mean, if you can use that analogy. Or have, if like the driver's ed thing, this probably didn't happen to you, but it happened to me a lot. The driver, the teacher sits in the pastor's side and you know that he has a break. You're speeding. So you need to, but here's the analogy. You need to have somebody next to you. That driver's ed coach or whatever could be, if we're a Christian, the Holy spirit. And he's tapping that break and he's saying, don't go here. Don't stay here. Don't linger longer. Don't do this. It's up to you to listen. You can override him and you keep hitting the gas, but you're gonna blow the engine. That's right. Driver's education, spiritual driver's education. Okay. Let me segue into this perfectly. So this is why Paul says second Corinthians 10, uh, versus, um, three through falling. Watch this for, although we live in the flesh, we don't wage war according to the flesh. Since you know, this verse, the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish every argument and every proud thing that raises up against the knowledge of God. And we take every thought captive. Now watch what it says under the obedience to Christ. That's the key. Every dog. So here's what he's saying. I would say it this way. I wrote about this in my book, uh, firmly planted, uh, which is, uh, if you're interested, if you go to Long Hollow, people ask me this all the time, what is the book you give out? I rarely talk about it. I probably shouldn't say it more, but what is the book you give out to every person that makes a decision for Christ? Such a good book. And we give them firmly planted. It's a, it's not a big book, but it's got like identity and why you can't lose your salvation. Salvation. Yeah. We'll give you an internal enemy in spiritual warfare. Well,

I talk about the three enemies, the external enemy, the world, the infernal enemy, the devil and the internal enemy, the flesh. But here's what I was going to say. I would say this to you. If you listen, the greatest battle you're facing right now is not with someone on the outside. It's with your flesh on the inside as a Christian, that's where the battlefield is. And what I mean is, this is what Paul's saying. Paul's saying, this is why we need to take. So the thoughts of the desires that come to our mind. So you can't help when you say, Oh, that's a pretty girl, or man, that's a good looking guy. You can't remember this book years ago. Every man's battle. You remember that book years ago? I remember that book. And I remember this little technique and I've taught my boys this. It's like the basketball technique, but he said, you can't help when like a pretty girl walks by, you can't help looking the first time. Okay. So when she walks by, you look first time, but you can help the second time, right? And what the brain will do is to say, Oh, I want it. Do I know that girl? Let's see if I, the second time or man, I want, what kind of genes are the second time? And I said, so it's like bouncing the ball. When, when his illustration was when the ball hits, it's got to bounce and you bounce it the other way. You don't bounce it back. That's the way you do it. So what he's saying is you can't help these thoughts in your mind. You can't help. Everybody has these thoughts. It's how you respond and hold the thoughts captive under the obedience of Christ. So what he's saying is unabated crisis. You filter those thoughts and say, is this God honoring, or am I ruminating over hurting this person who, well, that's not right. Or do I want to have revenge? That's not right. And so you put them under the category or run them through the paradigm of the filter of Christ. And if it's bad, you get rid of them. If it's not, you keep them. That's what he's saying. to do with the flesh. Now let's go back, because I don't want to make this a two hour session. It's good though, we're rolling, but we haven't got to any way of the pattern, Vivian. This is good though, Vivian, this is good. We got to get through this, but I want to, or maybe we don't get through this, because we got, I'm just getting warmed up here.

Well, I was going to say this. All right, go ahead, say what you want to say. I feel like this Holy Spirit, I studied that passage yesterday for like an hour. What? Stop. That's a difficult passage, by the way. That's what's coming out on April 24th, but so it's wild. So the word captive. Can you give us a little snippet? Oh, the word captive, you just touched all over it. It's a military word in the Greek. It's the- Like a prisoner of war? It's a Roman soldier, what they would do whenever they took you captive, they would bind your hands and they would escort you to where they were taking you. This isn't a passive word. Give me chills. It's not passive. Like I got chills too. Wow, I got chills right now, yeah. It's like you're supposed to be, you're supposed to take that captive, like you're supposed to- Wow, the thought, you're saying, take the thought captive. That's what he's saying.

And bind it and get rid of it. And bind it and get it away. It's not like loosey-goosey, or oh, no, you're saying, oh, I take that thought captive in the name of Jesus. And so what does that mean? Is every time that thought comes or anything that would cause that thought to reappear, you reject that. No, you're not allowed here. I'm not around that. That's good. You see what I'm saying? And that's what people that keep going back to pornography or keep going back to alcohol or drugs or codependency or fear or worry. I've had to do this with anxiety or panic disorder. Like, I'll take thoughts captive immediately. I'll start praying scripture. I'll start putting truth to the lie, right? You see what I'm saying? So anyways, I don't want to get too much into it, but like, you're talking a lot about- No, dude, you just said something that's profound, because watch this. So the question then becomes, and we'll close with this, how do you take these thoughts? How do you bind these thoughts? You got me thinking, I never thought about this before, but it's like, Kandi grew up,

before Kandi met the guy of her dreams, she did have a few bad apples, she did. Oh, yeah. That's how she knew. She dated, Brian, a few bad guys. A few bad pigs. She probably did too, yeah, Kelly did too, just bad. Ruthann, I don't know about Ruthann, but I know Kandi, she had a few bad apples. But anyway, no, my point is, she had a guy, I'm not gonna tell her a story, but her dad was a policeman, by the way, and then he became the warden of a prison, go figure. Isn't that funny? Yeah, nobody was taking you to prom, right? No, no, no, I see. He was a cop, oh, sorry. When Abe meant business, he meant business. Or in St. Louis, yeah, bidness. I mean, it wasn't business, it was bidness, yeah. So Abe meant bidness. So there was a guy that was dating Kandi they didn't like, and they basically said, he's not allowed at this house. You do what you want, whatever, but he's not gonna come in this house, okay? You got me thinking, I'm using this as a funny illustration, but that's really what you're doing. You need to look at your mind and heart, let's say your heart, because the mind in Hebrew, remember, is the heart.

Love, heart, is mind. It's the emotional, affectional part of the body. You can make a little bit of a distinction, but it's really the mind. So basically, look at your heart and mind as a house, okay? And you're the person standing on the porch of your homestead, and you're guarding your family and everything behind you. And just like when, you know, whatever his name, I'm not gonna mention his name, starts with a T. His name was T, Mr. T. Yeah, let's not go there, because- Mr. T came. Whenever Mr. T came, Abe would have been on the porch, okay, if this played out this way. And Abe's not gonna say, oh, changed my mind. Come on in, you can have at it with my daughter. No, once you make it a thing and say, you're not welcome here anymore, then you repeatedly, you don't allow them back in. And so what does that have to do with our life? That is your thought life, okay? So how do we do that in a very practical, real way? I'm gonna give it to you. Okay, here's the thing. Out of the devil, the world, and the flesh, the devil, I always say the world, flesh, and devil, because it's not order. So it's devil, world, and flesh. Out of those three, there's only one

that you have control over, okay? One of those. You don't control the devil, he does what he wants. You have no control over the world, you can't control if we're at war, not at war, at peace, economy, you can't control any of that. What you can control is the flesh. And that's why Paul says, keep the flesh under submission, die to the flesh, walk by the spirit, you can do that. So if the only input you have in your mind and heart is what you say to yourself, about yourself, what God says, then the great, listen to me, the greatest sermon you will ever preach in your life is the one you preach to yourself every day. Hands down, period. And the problem, that's why in our house, any time the boys will say, I'm no good, no, no, no, no, we don't do that at this house, because what we say is, listen, the world's gonna tell you that, the last thing we need is for us four around this table to be critical, or Rick's no good, or Ryan, no, no, no, we don't do that in this house. You can joke and play, but we don't do that in this house, and we don't let them say bad things about themselves, because once you get that narrative on repeat, that MP3 or that Spotify playlist on repeat in your mind, and it's negative, and you're no good, and you're a drug addict or a porn addict.

you'll never once you get that on repeat it's almost impossible to change unless and if you're saying well that's me pastor you just hit me you have to reintroduce a new uh a new track okay so here's the track in again in the back of firmly planted i keep referencing this book i took ephesians the book of ephesians and i literally came up with like a hundred you would say is this an incantation like positive thinking i'm good enough i'm smart enough and gosh darn it people like me gary swallow no that's not this okay it's not that those are incantation i like gary smalley yeah but that's not this this is that was like a skit that was making fun of it no can't do that yeah these are for the guys know that big germ knows this one maybe he remembers that one that was saturday night live maybe okay i didn't really watch that we don't encourage we don't but old saturday night live is not as bad as a new one but anyway uh maybe okay well my parents were lost so i guess they were lost i don't think i was allowed to watch my parents were loved but anyway but here's the thing this is a declaration where you say i am chosen before the foundation of the world in christ jesus i am sealed with the promised holy spirit you say this to yourself so i did this for a friend of mine who was struggling with his identity this is all identity stuff and that's what the flesh is about we'll get to it next episode how it happens but you're basically redefining in your mind for yourself with the word of god so this is not like positive thinking gobbledygook this is actually the word of god power you're saying to yourself i've been chosen before the foundation of the world i am saved by faith through gay god created me for good works which he prepared beforehand should i should he brought down the dividing wall of hostility between me you start so i gave that to a friend of mine who was struggling his identity it changed you know this guy's mutual friend and he said it changed his life because every morning i said before you leave the house you brush your teeth you read some of this list to yourself that's good change his life and so here's what i would say to you get rid of the stinking thinking mentality and replace it with biblical promises and you'll see life change instantly you watch powerful powerful incredible episode uh we'll come back to matthew 5 and the lord's prayer on our neck at next episode about the process of the the it's called look for the hook is the next look for the hook come on come on the holy spirit just took us captive there but i think we went somewhere else but that's okay holy spirit so okay um thank you so much for for listening again um if you if you are gaining anything from this gleaning anything from it please subscribe comment like share it with someone who who may be who's new

a new christian or or involved in in the word of god but wants to go deeper wants to see these connections of the bible to bring it to life and thank you for for joining us today for another episode of forgotten jews