Every Young Man's Battle: Stategies for Victory in the Real World of Sexual Temptation: The Every Man Series by Stephen Arterburn Page B
Authors: Stephen Arterburn
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impure?
• How long will I rob my friends
in the youth group with my fake Christianity?
• How long will I
stunt the growth of intimacy and oneness with God, an intimacy I promised Him
years ago?
God’s view is simple here. You need to face those
questions and make a decision. Yet you’re hesitating. We know you are,
because we hesitated for years. You’re thinking,
Wait a minute;
I’m not ready.
Or,
It just isn’t that easy!
Fine. We’ll agree that choosing to stop sinning isn’t any
slam-dunk, easy decision. Once you’re ensnared, the obstacles loom huge.
But listen to the following words spoken by preacher Steve Hill, who was
addressing his escape from addiction to drugs and alcohol as well as from
sexual sin:
There’s no temptation that is uncommon to man. God
will send you a way of escape, but you’ve got to be willing to take that
way of escape, my friend.
I was an alcoholic to the max. I would
drink whiskey, straight whiskey, every day. And I was a junkie. Cocaine up my
nose, in my arm—I did it all, friend. But God never delivered me from the
desire and the love of drugs. He never did. What happened is that I
decided
to never touch the stuff or drink booze again.
Those of you who are into pornography may be asking God to take away
your lustful desires. You are a man with hormones. You feel things. You have
since puberty, and you will until the day you die! You are attracted to the
opposite sex.
I’m not saying that God cannot take the
desire from you. He can! He’s just never done it in my life or in the
tens of thousands of people I’ve worked with over the years. That
includes pornographers. Ninety-nine percent of them had to
make a
decision.
They had to make a decision to not walk by magazine racks of
adult magazines, and they had to make a decision to stay faithful to their
wives and their families.
We agree. It’s time to make a
decision.
T HIS I S Y OUR M OMENT
Consider the
example of Eleazar, one of David’s “three mighty men,” whom
we learn about in this brief record of a tough battle against the
Philistines:
Then the men of Israel retreated, but he stood his
ground and struck down the Philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to
the sword. The L ORD brought about a great victory that day. (2
Samuel 23:9-10)
Eleazar refused to be ensnared anymore. Everyone else
was running from the enemy, but he put his foot down and said,
“I’ve had it with this running. I’m going to fight until I
drop dead or until I drop to the field in victorious exhaustion. This is my
moment to live or die.”
Have you had it with the running? In his
early twenties, author and pastor Jack Hayford once sat in his car after a
banking transaction with a lovely bank teller and said to himself,
“I’m either going to have to purify my mind and consecrate myself
unto God, or I’m going to have to masturbate right here.” That Jack
could say this in front of tens of thousands of men at a Promise Keepers
conference was inspirational.
How about you? How long will you allow
the Philistines to chase you? Are you motivated instead to fight?
M OTIVATED TO W IN
Here’s a
story of someone who became very motivated to change. Several weeks prior to
his planned wedding, Barry heard me (Fred) give a talk on sexual purity. My
words weighed heavily on his heart because he’d been masturbating to
R-rated movies since his midteens. He’d been planning to marry Heather
with his secret safely tucked away, but now he decided to tell her the truth.
Heather recalls her reaction to Barry’s confession:
I was
shocked and numbed when we talked in the car that night. I just stared straight
ahead with no feelings at all. After dropping him off, I cried and cried,
refusing to talk to him for days. When I did agree to see him, he commented to
me that I looked pretty. I got so mad and repulsed by him that I threw the
engagement ring in his face and told him to get
• How long will I rob my friends
in the youth group with my fake Christianity?
• How long will I
stunt the growth of intimacy and oneness with God, an intimacy I promised Him
years ago?
God’s view is simple here. You need to face those
questions and make a decision. Yet you’re hesitating. We know you are,
because we hesitated for years. You’re thinking,
Wait a minute;
I’m not ready.
Or,
It just isn’t that easy!
Fine. We’ll agree that choosing to stop sinning isn’t any
slam-dunk, easy decision. Once you’re ensnared, the obstacles loom huge.
But listen to the following words spoken by preacher Steve Hill, who was
addressing his escape from addiction to drugs and alcohol as well as from
sexual sin:
There’s no temptation that is uncommon to man. God
will send you a way of escape, but you’ve got to be willing to take that
way of escape, my friend.
I was an alcoholic to the max. I would
drink whiskey, straight whiskey, every day. And I was a junkie. Cocaine up my
nose, in my arm—I did it all, friend. But God never delivered me from the
desire and the love of drugs. He never did. What happened is that I
decided
to never touch the stuff or drink booze again.
Those of you who are into pornography may be asking God to take away
your lustful desires. You are a man with hormones. You feel things. You have
since puberty, and you will until the day you die! You are attracted to the
opposite sex.
I’m not saying that God cannot take the
desire from you. He can! He’s just never done it in my life or in the
tens of thousands of people I’ve worked with over the years. That
includes pornographers. Ninety-nine percent of them had to
make a
decision.
They had to make a decision to not walk by magazine racks of
adult magazines, and they had to make a decision to stay faithful to their
wives and their families.
We agree. It’s time to make a
decision.
T HIS I S Y OUR M OMENT
Consider the
example of Eleazar, one of David’s “three mighty men,” whom
we learn about in this brief record of a tough battle against the
Philistines:
Then the men of Israel retreated, but he stood his
ground and struck down the Philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to
the sword. The L ORD brought about a great victory that day. (2
Samuel 23:9-10)
Eleazar refused to be ensnared anymore. Everyone else
was running from the enemy, but he put his foot down and said,
“I’ve had it with this running. I’m going to fight until I
drop dead or until I drop to the field in victorious exhaustion. This is my
moment to live or die.”
Have you had it with the running? In his
early twenties, author and pastor Jack Hayford once sat in his car after a
banking transaction with a lovely bank teller and said to himself,
“I’m either going to have to purify my mind and consecrate myself
unto God, or I’m going to have to masturbate right here.” That Jack
could say this in front of tens of thousands of men at a Promise Keepers
conference was inspirational.
How about you? How long will you allow
the Philistines to chase you? Are you motivated instead to fight?
M OTIVATED TO W IN
Here’s a
story of someone who became very motivated to change. Several weeks prior to
his planned wedding, Barry heard me (Fred) give a talk on sexual purity. My
words weighed heavily on his heart because he’d been masturbating to
R-rated movies since his midteens. He’d been planning to marry Heather
with his secret safely tucked away, but now he decided to tell her the truth.
Heather recalls her reaction to Barry’s confession:
I was
shocked and numbed when we talked in the car that night. I just stared straight
ahead with no feelings at all. After dropping him off, I cried and cried,
refusing to talk to him for days. When I did agree to see him, he commented to
me that I looked pretty. I got so mad and repulsed by him that I threw the
engagement ring in his face and told him to get
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