Conquer Lust: 5 Steps To Achieve Victory!

Sexual sin is one of those sins that I find is so easy for Christians to get caught up in. And it doesn't look the same for everyone. For some it's what they look at on their phones or laptops.

For others it's the apps they use to find people to have sex with. For unmarried couples sexual sin looks like crossing boundaries that they shouldn't be crossing. And for married couples it looks like unfaithfulness to their spouse.

And something that I see today is many Christians losing to sexual sin over and over again. And this constant failure eventually leads to people feeling overwhelmed by their guilt and shame. And many times they try to do better and they make promises to never do that particular sin again.

But oftentimes as time passes so does their resolve. And they slip right back into this cycle of sin where they sin, they feel bad and guilty. So they try again for a time to be good only to be met with another failure down the line.

And as this cycle continues one of two things typically happen. One, Christians either have pent up frustration because they can never do the right thing. And they live life feeling like they're always letting God down.

Or two, rather than try and fail they have come to accept that they'll never win against lust. So they no longer try to resist lust and instead they embrace it. Because why try if they can never win.

So if you can relate to any of this there is a way to win. And in the same way you can get caught up in a cycle of failure. There is a cycle of victory that believers can enter that can free them from the shaming guilt of their failures.

This cycle can be thought of as a victory program against lust and it comes in these five steps. So thank you and back to the video. Step number one, see God's heart.

Genesis chapter 1 verses 27 to 28. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him.

Male and female he created them, then God blessed them. This passage is found in the very first chapter of the Bible, and in it God created mankind. And the first thing that God does as soon as he created them is bless them.

And if you continue to read in chapter 2 verse 9, it says that God made beautiful trees that had good fruit to eat. And it wasn't until chapter 2 verse 17 that God gave Adam the commands to not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. So this is what I want you to see.

Before God gave Adam a command to obey, God first blessed him and showed Adam what kind of God he is. And God showed him that he's someone who wants to bless and take care of Adam. And the reason why this is so important when it comes to defeating lust is because many times in our attempts to be pure, we can be so focused on the task of being pure.

And we try to stay away from porn and try not to have sex. And for people who do this, I would say that purity should not be something that you need to obtain. It needs to be a result of seeing God's heart.

Let me help you understand this further using Jesus as an illustration. Jesus, when he was here on earth, gave many commands. Love your enemies, love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and judge not lest you be judged.

But mind you, because Jesus, God incarnate, came to earth, he essentially told people, "Look at me. Look at my heart for you. Look at how I've healed you, how I've fed you, how I've taught you, and how I've taken care of you.

" And after Jesus died on the cross, Jesus's action said, "Look at my body broken for you, my blood shed for you. Look at the path to heaven that I created for you, and then look at the forgiveness and mercy that I always have to offer. " You see, many times Christians see God's commands to be pure, and they forget the heart that God has when He gave them.

And this is an essential step when it comes to obeying God's commands, because before God gave Adam, the very first commands in the entire Bible, God first showed His heart to Him, and God blessed Him, and then God took care of Him. So for you, the next time you encounter a lustful temptation, at that moment, do not think, "I need to stop," or "I need to be pure. " Instead, think, "God has a heart for me.

" You see, what's more important than the commands God gives is the heart in which He gives them. We see this concept in the New Testament, too. Look at Romans chapter 2 verse 4, "Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

" So see here that Paul, the author of Romans, says that the goodness of God leads to repentance. And here lies one of the keys to having greater obedience, to know that God is good. I would say one of the worst things that Christians can do is to only remember God's commands and to fail to remember God's heart when He gave them.

And the reason why is because should people forget the heart behind the command, the command soon won't matter. So all that to say, don't separate God's commands from God's heart. Because before God gave Adam a command to be obedient to, He first showed Adam his heart to bless him and to take care of him.

And if that's the case, when the time comes and we enter into a time of temptation, one of the first thoughts that should come into our minds is this, "God has a heart for you and He loves you. " So understand that His call for you to be pure was not meant to stand alone. It was meant to be heard from a place of absolute adoration for you and from a heart that so strongly desires to bless you.

Step number two, see God's blessings. Exodus chapter 19 verses three to four, "And Moses went up to God and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, "You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to "myself. " In this passage, God just saved the people of Israel from the Egyptians.

And as they were all going through the wilderness to get to the promised land, God wanted to give Israel the 10 commandments. But before He gives them in chapter 20, God in chapter 19 verses three to four, to speak for Him. And God says to the children of Israel, "See what I did to the Egyptians, "see how I made the impossible happen and how I brought you here to myself.

" So remember how in Genesis before God gave Adam a command, He showed Adam that He has a heart to bless? We see a repetition of that here in Exodus. And before God gives the 10 commandments in Exodus chapter 20, in chapter 19, God reminds Israel of how much He's blessed them.

God raised up a deliverer to lead them, uses him to perform 10 plagues on the Egyptians, opens up the Red Sea so that they can cross it, leads them with a cloud during the day to help with the heat, leads them with fire to provide light by night, gives them manna from heaven to feed the multitudes of people, and gives them water to quench their thirst. And God did all of this before He gave the 10 commandments. And before God does give the tablets that contained the law, He even tells them, "Look what I did for you, look how I brought you to myself.

" And this is where the power of gratitude comes in, which is another key to victory. You see, when you find yourself in a place of temptation, as you look at God's heart for you, the next step is to see how God has blessed you and then to thank Him for those blessings. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 18 tells believers to give thanks in everything.

And this should have been Israel's natural response to seeing the miraculous wonders that God performed on their behalf. And the reason why this is important as you try to defeat lust is because gratitude is the opposite of lust. Because lust tells you, "I want, I want, I want," whereas gratitude tells you, "I have, I have, I have.

" And what happens when we thank God repeatedly is that it develops the mentality that looks at what lust desires and to tell it, "I don't need that because I have enough. " So again, when you get tempted to act out in lust, don't think, "I need to stop," instead think, "Thank you, God. " But the key to this isn't to be generic and to just say, "Thank you," it needs to be specific.

So thank God for what He's given you. Because in the same way that God gave Israel blessing after blessing, you'd find that God has given you a lot too when you take the time to stop and reflect. And I'll tell you, a big part of victory is found when you can make it a habit to respond to temptation with gratitude.

So again, remember, when God gave the Ten Commandments before He gave them, He told Israel to look at what He's done for them. So as you see God's command for you to be pure, don't just fixate on the command, instead look at what God's done for you and make gratitude a bigger part of your life. Step number three, use God's sword.

Ephesians chapter 6 verse 17, "And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. " In this passage, Paul tells the Ephesian church to take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And here I want to teach you what my mentor taught me.

And he taught me that there's two different words for the word "word. " One word is found in John 1. 1 where it says, "In the beginning was the word.

" And the word for "word" in this case is "logos. " And part of the meaning for this word includes seeing the entirety of God's word, the Bible. But the word for "word" in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 17 is "rema.

" And "rema" means spoken word. And my mentor taught me that this spoken word is specific. Because God here in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 17 isn't telling the church to recite the entire Bible, he's telling them to speak forth God's word in specific circumstances.

And someone who did this perfectly was Jesus in Matthew chapter 4 when he was tempted in the wilderness. And after every temptation that Satan gave, Jesus responded with the Bible verse quoted from Deuteronomy, "Man shall not live by bread alone, you shall not tempt the Lord your God, and you shall only worship the Lord your God. " So in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 17 and in Matthew 4, I've learned the powerful truth that is essential for victory against lust, and it's this, for every temptation there are counter verses.

So in the same sense that every fighting move, whether it's a punch or choke or arm lock, there are defensive moves that are designed to counter the offensive ones. So as Jesus was tempted, in all three cases he used a different Bible verse that was suited for each temptation. So for you, if acting on sexual lust is the sin that you want to fight against, like Jesus, you need to speak out Bible verses that will help you in that moment.

And the only way you can do that is from memory. But if memorizing verses is difficult for you, you can make the verse your screensaver on your phone, or you can write it on a note and put it in your pocket, or create a routine where every time you shower or go inside your car, you read or listen to a verse to help you memorize it. And then do this over and over again until you have the verse memorized, and then move on to the next one.

For lust, I'd recommend 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 18, Romans chapter 13 verse 14, and the armor of God found in Ephesians chapter 6. And it's recommended that you have multiple verses covered because many times temptations come in multiple waves. So it would be wise for you to have multiple safeguards that come in the form of Bible verses.

Step number four, use God's light. Ephesians chapter 5 verses 8 and 11. "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

Walk as children of light and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. " In these passages, Paul tells the church to walk as children of light and to not have anything to do with works of darkness and then to expose that darkness. And note here how Paul commands them to not fellowship with works.

It doesn't say people. And Paul continues and tells them to expose not people, but works. And the reason why I say this is because Paul would tell Christians to expose their own works of darkness using God's light.

And one of the hardest parts to fighting against lust is this. Christians regularly exposing the works of darkness that they commit. And that comes in the form of vulnerability and confession to not just God, but to people as well.

I know of many Christians who try to fight against their sexual sins alone and they do so to their own detriment. The people who I know have regular victory against lust are the ones who regularly bring their sins to light by confessing their struggles to other believers. You see, part of walking as children of light means to not do things in darkness.

And the way we can walk in darkness is to sin and to hide it. But to walk in light would mean to bring it out in the open and to ask for help. And I would say that bringing sin out in the light may take different forms and the form it needs to take would depend on the level of help needed.

For some, having one accountability partner is enough, where whenever you sin, you confess that sin to a trusted believer that has more experience than you. For others who are struggling with an addiction lasting for multiple years, it may be necessary to ask for help from the church leadership or to possibly enroll in a program that helps with sexual addiction. Regardless, if a person is struggling with sexual lust, regularly exposing the dark acts that they commit by confessing their sins to God and to people who can help them is a needed step in order to have victory.

And lastly, step number five, embrace God's gospel. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 1 and 3. Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand.

For I delivered to you first of all, that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. In this passage, Paul tells believers that he declares the gospel to them and that the gospel is this, that Christ died for our sins. So whether the sins we commit are sexual or not, the reality is that we're all sinners in need of a savior.

And no matter how good we are, all of us need Jesus and we'll always need Jesus. You see, Christians need to understand the gospel and the gospel tells me that Jesus saved me. My own good works and my victories against sexual sin don't save me.

The Bible teaches that it's faith in Jesus that makes me clean from sin, not my own works of purity. So when you fall to sin, you must remember steps one and two, that despite your failures, God still has a heart for you and God still desires to bless you. And when it comes to winning against lust, what I'm about to tell you may come off as a shock or as weird, but hear me out.

If you want to win against sexual sin, you need to be okay with losing and falling to sin. And the reason why is because if you try to be perfect right now and you tell yourself that you'll never commit a particular sin again, odds are you'll probably fall again. And if or when that happens, you'll more likely lose motivation because you failed again and you'll feel like you're back to square one.

You see, the reason why I'm telling you that you need to be okay with failing is because one of the keys to having victory is based on your ability to embrace God's gospel. And this is what it looks like for someone who embraces the gospel. When a believer fails and they commit a sexual sin, they see the ugliness and the consequences of their sexual sin.

And instead of having their guilt way on them, they immediately go to God. They understand that this sin is why Jesus died. They understand that they aren't saved based on their good works, but based on their faith in Jesus.

And then they remember that God has a heart for them and that God still desires to bless them. And with that knowledge, they realize that they're a sinner that will fall to sin and needs to always fight against sin. So they look at the reasons why they fell and they use God's word to figure out how they can combat it next time so that they don't fall the same way.

And to take further measures, they also tell people about their sin so that there's a greater chance of it not happening again. And if a sin does happen again, they remember the gospel and they repeat the process. You see, God's gospel is the key to victory because it gives us the freedom to fall.

If we fall, because we'll probably fall. I would say completely owning the gospel and embracing it is what leads to true victory from sexual sin. Because as we rest in God's love, we'll find that purity isn't something that we need to obtain.

It will instead be a natural result of us loving God. Okay? So how do you defeat lust?

There's five steps. See God's heart, see God's blessings, use God's sword, use God's light, and embrace God's gospel. So I hope this helps you in your fight against sexual sin.

And as you fight, should the time come and you fall to sin, remember that no matter where you are, you can always go back to God. Because your sin is the reason why Jesus died. And the reason why he died is because Jesus loves you.

Thanks so much for the support and we'll see you all next time. God bless.