The High Cost of Lust and the Power of Grace

• Communion and Spiritual Authority [00:19:09 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains the historical context of Passover and Jesus' institution of communion, emphasizing that it signifies salvation, healing, and the defeat of the devil's authority over believers.
• Personal Struggle with Pornography [00:44:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about being introduced to pornography at a young age and the ongoing struggle with it, using it to highlight the difficulty of single life and modern cultural pressures.
• Adultery and Lust (Sermon on the Mount) [00:48:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor introduces the sermon series 'Summer on the Mount' focusing on Matthew 5-7, using King David and Bathsheba as an example of lust leading to adultery, targeting disciples on how to live a kingdom lifestyle.
• Adultery and Lust [00:48:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor introduces the topic of adultery and lust, citing Matthew 5:27-30, and explains that Jesus moves the focus from the physical act to the internal desire (epithumeo).
• Covenant vs. Contract [00:56:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts Western cultural views of relationships as breakable contracts with the biblical view of marriage as a permanent, unconditional covenant that God honors.
• The Ten Commandments [00:52:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor engages the congregation in a review of the Ten Commandments using hand signals to identify the Seventh Commandment (Adultery) and contextualize Jesus' teaching.
• Sexual Purity [00:59:01 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor encourages single listeners to make a decision to stay sexually pure until marriage, using an analogy of giving flowers, diamonds, and finally oneself.
• Human Desire and Creation [01:00:38 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that God created humans with strong desires and passion, using Adam and Eve as the primary example of intended companionship and equality.
• The Nature of Lust and Sin [01:02:21 ▶️ 📄]
  > He distinguishes between good desire and bad lust, defining lust as pride and independence that objectifies others, citing pornography as a destructive force that rewires the brain.
• Biblical Exegesis of 'Looking' [01:03:56 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor analyzes the Greek word 'bleepon' to explain that lust involves a 'lingered look' or intent, not just a casual glance, and applies this to both men (image-driven) and women (emotion-driven).
• The 'Roof' Metaphor [01:05:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using David's story in 2 Samuel 11, he defines the 'roof' as any physical or digital environment where one lingers too long, leading to sinful engagement.
• Contrasting Biblical Examples (David vs. Joseph) [01:07:19 ▶️ 📄]
  > He contrasts David, who stayed on the 'roof' and sinned, with Joseph, who fled temptation despite lacking community support, urging the congregation to 'get off the roof'.
• Radical Response to Sin [01:11:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > Interpreting Jesus' teaching on plucking out eyes, he argues for radical preemptive action because the eternal damage of sin outweighs momentary pain.
• Emotional and Relational Damage of Lust [01:14:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > He uses a duct tape illustration to explain how repeated sexual immorality desensitizes the soul ('makes it less sticky'), causing emotional shame and relational destruction.
• The Damaging Effects of Lust [01:14:30 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor outlines how lust damages individuals emotionally (desensitization), relationally (destroying families like David's), and spiritually (breaking God's heart).
• Repentance and Restoration [01:15:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > Explains that 'stickiness' in relationships can be restored through repentance, citing 1 John 1:9 for forgiveness and cleansing.
• Radical Decision Making and Boundaries [01:17:28 ▶️ 📄]
  > Advocates for decisive action to avoid temptation, using the example of Joseph leaving his coat, and emphasizes cutting off unhealthy environments and relationships.
• Accountability and Confession [01:25:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > Stresses the necessity of confessing sins to a trusted confidant for healing, contrasting shame (which hides) with the Holy Spirit's call to bring things into the light.
• Repentance [01:26:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor invites those who need to repent to bow their heads and pray, specifically referencing David's example and acknowledging various types of sin beyond just sexual sin.
• Resolution [01:27:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor encourages listeners to resolve like Joseph by making concrete lifestyle changes, such as cutting off certain relationships, canceling apps, and bringing hidden behaviors into the light.
• Corporate Prayer [01:27:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor leads the congregation in a unified prayer declaring repentance, receiving forgiveness through Jesus' blood, and resolving to flee sin.

• Sermon Illustration [00:43:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal story about growing up as an only child who was 'super spoiled' and protective of his French fries, using it to engage the audience before transitioning to his childhood poverty.
• Sermon Illustration [00:44:27 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts hitchhiking as a child because his family didn't have a car until his mother was in her mid-forties, comparing it to modern Uber services.
• Sermon Illustration [00:44:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes walking into a bathroom at age eight or nine and finding Playboy magazines, noting that his mother subscribed and read the articles, which introduced him to pornography.
• Sermon Illustration [00:48:17 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor tells the biblical story of King David looking down from his roof, seeing Bathsheba bathing, and sending a staff to her, resulting in bad consequences.
• Sermon Illustration [00:50:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about reading his car manual to discover that pressing the unlock button twice lowers the windows and the lock button twice raises them, using this to illustrate that God's manual (Scripture) contains hidden blessings and instructions for living.
• Sermon Illustration [00:59:01 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor tells a story about a high school senior who decided to stay sexually pure, comparing the progression of gifts in a relationship (flowers for dating, diamonds for engagement, and oneself for marriage) to illustrate the value of self-sacrifice in covenant.
• Sermon Illustration [01:01:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts the biblical story of Adam naming the animals and God creating Eve from Adam's rib, using humor to explain the equality and companionship inherent in the creation of woman.
• Sermon Illustration [01:01:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor tells a joke about women being made from a rib while men were asleep, explaining why men don't understand women.
• Sermon Illustration [01:04:32 ▶️ 📄]
  > He shares a dialogue with his friend Steve about looking at women, clarifying that admiring God's creation is okay, but lingering with lust is not, using the analogy 'you can look at the menu, just don't order.'
• Sermon Illustration [01:07:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > He recounts the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife (nicknamed 'Hottifer'), highlighting Joseph's isolation in a pagan land and his decision to flee rather than linger in temptation.
• Sermon Illustration [01:14:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > He uses a personal anecdote from his youth ministry days involving duct tape: sticking it to skin and ripping it off repeatedly to demonstrate how repeated sexual immorality desensitizes the soul and makes it 'less sticky' for future relationships.
• Sermon Illustration [01:15:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses an analogy of duct tape being repeatedly applied and ripped off skin to illustrate how repeated sexual immorality desensitizes the soul, making it 'less sticky' and unable to form healthy attachments.
• Sermon Illustration [01:16:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts the biblical story of King David, detailing the catastrophic relational consequences of his lust, including the death of his child, Uriah, Amnon's rape of Tamar, and Absalom's mutiny.
• Sermon Illustration [01:18:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > A personal anecdote from the pastor's early marriage where his mother discovered him having lunch alone with a 40-something female subordinate. After his wife and mentors confronted him, he chose to step down from management to preserve his marriage and integrity, establishing a lifelong rule of never being alone with a non-spouse.
• Sermon Illustration [01:26:49 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the biblical figures of David and Joseph as archetypes for two spiritual responses: David represents repentance for sin, while Joseph represents resolving to flee temptation and make practical changes to one's environment (e.g., moving a computer to the living room, sharing phone passwords).

• Pastoral Charge [00:22:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > Take the communion wafer
• Pastoral Charge [00:24:28 ▶️ 📄]
  > Pass down and drop the communion element container
• Pastoral Charge [00:42:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > Look at neighbor and say 'get ready'
• Pastoral Charge [00:47:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > Tell spouse 'I love you'
• Pastoral Charge [00:59:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > Commit to sexual purity before marriage.
• Pastoral Charge [00:59:42 ▶️ 📄]
  > Take notes on the three points about lust.
• Pastoral Charge [01:10:36 ▶️ 📄]
  > Stop engaging in digital flirtation and inappropriate online interactions.
• Pastoral Charge [01:11:19 ▶️ 📄]
  > Make a personal covenant with God to guard one's eyes and avoid lustful looking.
• Pastoral Charge [01:10:57 ▶️ 📄]
  > Actively avoid and flee from sexual immorality and impure thoughts.
• Pastoral Charge [01:18:09 ▶️ 📄]
  > Shut down social media accounts if they are a source of temptation.
• Pastoral Charge [01:18:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > Remove sources of temptation from one's life.
• Pastoral Charge [01:24:31 ▶️ 📄]
  > Make decisive changes to relationships and habits to avoid sin.
• Pastoral Charge [01:26:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > Engage in personal prayer and repentance for any sin.
• Pastoral Charge [01:27:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > Make specific lifestyle changes to ensure accountability and avoid temptation, such as moving computers to common areas and sharing passwords.
• Pastoral Charge [01:27:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > Pray a corporate prayer of repentance and surrender.
• Pastoral Charge [01:26:49 ▶️ 📄]
  > Stand up on feet.
• Pastoral Charge [01:26:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > Put hand on heart.
• Pastoral Charge [01:28:59 ▶️ 📄]
  > Clap hands and give praise to God.

[00:02:29] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:02:29] Good morning, Freedom House. Happy Sunday. Thank you so much for watching. I'm Jason and I'm Melinda and we're so thankful you're here with us today

[00:02:38] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:02:38] So we'd love for them to tell us where you're joining from So we'd love to hear where you're joining from so we can give you some props and so so thankful you're here today

[00:02:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:02:48] Yeah, so thankful like Melinda said there's one of four ways five ways you can watch us So you're choosing to watch us online, but if you're in the area stop by and see us We would love to see you.
[00:02:59] We've got four different campuses you can come visit us at, and we get a lot of preaching and teaching at each campus.

[00:03:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:03:06] And speaking of preaching and teaching today.

[00:03:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:03:09] Yep.
[00:03:09] Pastor Troy in the house did a great job.
[00:03:13] He talked a little bit about some saucy stuff in roofs.

[00:03:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:03:16] It was kind of spicy, but here's what I love about Freedom House, and I'm sure you all agree.
[00:03:21] I feel like we always take it to the next level with the direct and everything that we need to hear to put it and use it in practical everyday lives, which is great.
[00:03:29] So what a great message today.

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:03:30] And a lot of it will hit you right in the heart, and that's usually a good thing.

[00:03:33] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:03:33] And it is a little PG-13, so if you are watching at home and you do have younger ones, just be mindful.
[00:03:39] That's all.
[00:03:39] But it's spicy, but it's worth it.

[00:03:41] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:03:41] Or get on some headphones, maybe.

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:03:42] Yeah, maybe put some headphones on.

[00:03:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:03:45] Yeah, yeah.
[00:03:45] But, yeah, so a lot going on.
[00:03:47] Like I said, Pastor Troy is in the house.
[00:03:49] Melinda, serve coming up, right?

[00:03:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:03:51] Yes, so August 8th.
[00:03:52] It is such an important time for our church.
[00:03:54] please log on to freedomhouse.cc slash serve charlotte i have done this in the past and it is so phenomenal so it's a time for the whole church all of our campuses to come together and give back to the community and i do have a quote that i love give me one second here and it
[00:04:09] is um whatever you do work at it with all your heart and working for the lord so i think that is fantastic and a servant's heart reflects the heart of jesus that's awesome last time i did i
[00:04:20] I was painting cabinets, Jason.
[00:04:22] For Jesus.
[00:04:23] I'm a great cabinet painter, but I sure did it for Jesus.
[00:04:25] But the most important thing is I met lifelong friends and people that I see every Sunday when I come to church.
[00:04:30] That's right.

[00:04:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:04:30] That's exactly right.
[00:04:31] I think we heard, what, 500-plus people already signed up?
[00:04:35] Oh, yeah.
[00:04:35] So, yeah, it's going to be campus-wide across, well, church-wide across all campuses.

[00:04:41] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:04:41] And there's also opportunity for your kids, right?
[00:04:43] So it's family.
[00:04:44] There's more opportunity than ever for families.
[00:04:46] Bring your whole family out.
[00:04:47] We do community better than anyone in this entire state of North Carolina, in my personal opinion.
[00:04:52] I might be a little biased, but I think we do it better than everybody.

[00:04:54] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:04:54] Yeah, there's always something going on, it seems like, at Freedom House.
[00:04:59] So you can download the app.
[00:05:00] A lot of times that's where you can find all of our events.
[00:05:04] All of our events, that's where you give online.
[00:05:06] That's right.

[00:05:07] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:05:07] Now, speaking of, you usually have some jokes.
[00:05:08] Do you have them or no?
[00:05:09] Oh, we don't have them.
[00:05:10] Do you want me to give you my favorite joke?
[00:05:11] I know we love dad jokes or mom jokes.
[00:05:14] Moms can have jokes too, right?

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:05:16] Why are they just dad jokes?
[00:05:18] If a mom gives one, I guess they'd be considered a mom joke, right?
[00:05:20] All right.

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:05:20] Well, I'm going to give you my mom joke.
[00:05:22] Oh, it's you.
[00:05:23] We usually open up first service because we have a gentleman who loves sending jokes.
[00:05:27] But we'll go ahead and just give you one today.
[00:05:29] Jason, what do you call a fish with two knees?

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:05:32] I don't know.

[00:05:33] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:05:33] A toonie fish.
[00:05:35] Right?
[00:05:36] I think it's so funny.
[00:05:37] That's usually my go-to mom joke.
[00:05:39] That one's good.
[00:05:40] That is good.

[00:05:41] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:05:41] Mom jokes.
[00:05:41] I've never.
[00:05:42] I guess you would.
[00:05:43] Yeah.

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:05:43] But we're just as cheesy as dads.

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:05:45] That's true.

[00:05:46] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:05:46] Especially if you have teenagers.
[00:05:48] Amen.

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:05:49] But the male's humor is so easily, though, over some of the dumbest stuff.
[00:05:55] Oh, that's true.
[00:05:55] That's true.

[00:05:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:05:56] But if you have teenagers, everything you say is a joke.
[00:05:59] Everything is eye roll.
[00:06:01] That's true.
[00:06:02] So it doesn't matter if it's a joke or not.

[00:06:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:06:03] That is true.
[00:06:04] Right?
[00:06:04] That's a good point.
[00:06:05] Yeah.
[00:06:06] I've always thought about wanting to get a dad joke book, but I've never done it.
[00:06:10] Why not?

[00:06:10] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:06:10] You should.
[00:06:11] I don't know.
[00:06:12] If you do have a fun dad joke, drop it in the chat.
[00:06:14] Yeah.
[00:06:14] That'll be super fun.

[00:06:15] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:06:15] Yeah, seriously, we'd love to see it.
[00:06:17] The dad jokes are, they're funny, but they're also, like, cringy, and it makes you laugh.
[00:06:22] They are cringy.
[00:06:24] Makes you laugh because of the cringiness.
[00:06:25] But, yeah, so we're in the middle of Summer on the Mount.
[00:06:28] Summer on the Mount.
[00:06:29] Yeah, Summer on the Mount.

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:06:30] Summer on the Mount.

[00:06:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:06:31] I always say, sir.

[00:06:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:06:32] You second-guessers, I did, too.

[00:06:34] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:06:34] Always.
[00:06:34] Yeah, it's a great series.
[00:06:36] Going through it, the whole summer months, we'll touch Matthew 5, 6, and 7.
[00:06:41] That's right.
[00:06:42] And so Get On Track is another thing we've got coming up soon, I believe.
[00:06:46] Love Get On Track.

[00:06:46] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:06:46] Listen, it took me, I've been coming to Freedom House Church for almost nine years now, and I didn't do Get On Track until last year.
[00:06:52] So my question was, was I off track?
[00:06:56] That's another mom joke.
[00:06:57] There you go.
[00:06:57] Maybe I was off track.
[00:06:59] I don't think I was off track.

[00:07:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:07:00] Well, you can go to Get On Track even if you've been before.
[00:07:03] It's awesome.
[00:07:04] I went a month or two coming, so I heard it all.
[00:07:07] But it's great for people who need a refresher on the church or you want to know more about it.

[00:07:13] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:07:13] And I love talking about our church and what we have to offer everyone.
[00:07:16] You know, I love bragging about our church, and I love welcoming people to church.
[00:07:19] The more you know about the church, the more people you can bring into the church.

[00:07:22] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:07:22] That's right.
[00:07:23] Yeah.
[00:07:24] Well, thanks so much for joining us.
[00:07:25] We hope you enjoy service, and we hope to see you soon.
[00:07:28] Good morning, church.
[00:07:29] Come on, let's stand.

[00:07:29] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:07:29] Let's sing this out this morning.
[00:07:31] We are so excited you are worshiping with us, and we welcome you guys to Freedom House.
[00:07:46] So let's sing this out.

[00:07:47] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:07:47] I've got a reason let's lift our hands let's worship the king of kings the one who is worthy to be praised this morning that is our affection and our adoration so take a moment and just close

[00:19:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:19:09] your eyes and thank him for his sacrifice Jesus God we honor you today as we celebrate communion We want to ask that you examine your heart.
[00:19:30] Communion literally means to commune with God.
[00:19:35] And we're going to do that today.
[00:19:36] So under the far left seat of every row, there is a silver container.
[00:19:40] If you're sitting in that seat, please grab that container and pass it down the row and collect a communion element.
[00:19:48] And we're going to celebrate Jesus' sacrifice together.

[00:19:53] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:19:53] So when we look back on this moment, we find Passover happening and there was having a feast and Jesus met with his disciples and see Passover was a remembering of what happened a long time ago
[00:20:08] in Egypt when the Israelites were sent free. See what happened is the death angel came through, but because the Israelites put the lamb's blood on the doorpost, it passed over. The angel passed over and death did not come to their house, but it did come to the Egyptian's house. So they always
[00:20:29] remembered that moment as the moment of their freedom. But in this moment, when Jesus was sitting down with his disciples, he broke bread with them and shared wine with them. And he said, and when you do this, do this in remembrance of me. See, he was setting a new precedent for that
[00:20:46] moment because what Jesus was getting ready to do is go to the cross. And when he went to the cross, He shed His blood for you and for me for salvation.
[00:20:58] Never again, if we accept His salvation, will our sins be remembered.
[00:21:04] He washes them clean forever.
[00:21:07] And then on the way to the cross, He took stripes upon His back.
[00:21:11] He was bruised for us.
[00:21:13] And He did all that for our healing, not just physically, but spiritually, emotionally, and physically.
[00:21:22] See, what's really neat about this moment is yes, we want to examine our hearts because we want to be in alignment with what God did for us, what Jesus did for us.
[00:21:32] But the cool thing is as a body of Christ, we come together and it's not just a moment of remembrance of what he did for us, but it's also reminding to the devil that he has no authority over us.
[00:21:47] He has no authority.
[00:21:48] He is under our feet because of what Jesus did for us.
[00:21:52] so as we examine ourselves as we move into this these elements and we think about what jesus did for us as a body of christ the enemy is shaking right now he is shaking against what we're about
[00:22:06] ready to do because it reminds him darn it i do not have authority that's right i cannot bring shame and depression on them anymore their guilt is gone because of what jesus did i can't bring
[00:22:20] sickness and disease on them because of what Jesus did. It reminds him of who he is. He's a liar and he's defeated in Jesus' name. So today we celebrate communion. We celebrate what Jesus did.
[00:22:36] And we're asking you, if you have accepted Jesus as Lord of your life, to join in with us.

[00:22:43] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:22:43] So if you would, go ahead and peel back that first layer and take that wafer in your hand because it represents the broken body of Jesus.
[00:22:53] It represents those stripes that he took upon his back for our healing.
[00:22:58] Just like Aaron said, spiritually, physically, emotionally, our soul is included in this.
[00:23:06] Let's pray.
[00:23:08] Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your son, Jesus.
[00:23:10] And Jesus, thank you for the agony that you pushed through so that we could have salvation, healing, and freedom.
[00:23:20] we accept that gift of healing as we take this we remember your broken body in jesus name you may eat and then go ahead and peel back that next layer to get access to the juice this represents
[00:23:40] a new covenant in jesus's blood and just like aaron shared our sins are washed away past present and future. So let's pray. Jesus, thank you for the shedding of your blood and the fact that we
[00:23:56] become righteous in Christ when we accept the free gift of salvation and our sins are completely erased. We give you honor and praise. In Jesus' name, you may drink. Thank you for taking communion

[00:24:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:24:16] with us. It's so awesome when the body of Christ comes together and does this. Underneath the far left seat on each row, there is another container. If you would pass that down, you can drop your
[00:24:28] element container in that. So let's continue to worship. Let's continue to lift up praises to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and remember what he did for us.

[00:25:17] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_14]
[00:25:17] What a God, what a God, what a God, what a God, what a God.

[00:25:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:25:36] Be with us this morning. What a great day to be in God's house. Hallelujah.

[00:33:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:33:02] If today is your first time with us, we welcome you.
[00:33:05] And the senior pastor has a special message just for you.
[00:33:09] So before you take a seat, say hi to someone next to you and enjoy the rest of the service.

[00:33:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_13]
[00:33:14] Hey, what's up, everybody? Welcome to Freedom House.
[00:33:27] My name is Troy Maxwell, and this is my beautiful wife, Penny, and we're your senior pastors.

[00:33:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:33:31] We are one house with many rooms.
[00:33:34] We have campuses all around the Charlotte area, including our online campus.
[00:33:39] So no matter where you are joining us from, we want to welcome you.

[00:33:43] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_13]
[00:33:43] Listen, our heart is very simple.
[00:33:45] We want to help equip you to experience Christ's freedom in your everyday life.
[00:33:50] And we have a huge vision here.
[00:33:52] You'll notice that every one of our campuses, we have live teachers, live preachers.
[00:33:56] why do we do that? Because we are a relational church. We want to connect to you. We're not a

[00:34:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:34:02] video venue. And you'll notice over in our kids area, they have the same thing. Live teachers, live preaching and worship. We do this because we know there is no junior Holy Spirit. We aren't raising up the next generation. We're raising up the now generation. And maybe you're new here at

[00:34:21] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_13]
[00:34:21] Freedom House or you just haven't gotten connected. All you have to do, open your phone, tap that little circle on the seat back in front of you, and you'll find your next best step in getting

[00:34:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:34:31] connected. That's right. We can't wait to get connected to you. Now let's take a look at what's

[00:34:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]
[00:34:36] coming up here at Freedom House. If you're new to Freedom House or you've been coming for a while and are ready to make this house your church home, Get On Track is your next step. Get On Track is
[00:34:52] your pathway to becoming an official member of the Freedom House family. In this class, you'll learn all about our history, vision, and core beliefs while discovering how to use your God-given gifts to serve and how you can grow in your relationship with Christ.
[00:35:06] Join us on August 2nd during Second Service for an impactful class you won't wanna miss.
[00:35:10] Visit freedomhouse.cc slash getontrack2, register, and let us know you're coming.

[00:35:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]
[00:35:18] What's up, Freedom House?
[00:35:20] The best day of the year, Serve Day, is right around the corner.
[00:35:25] And Serve Day is a day that every single year we come together as an entire church.
[00:35:29] Lake Norman, Ballantyne, South End, Central, all joining together to serve our community.
[00:35:35] We have over 30 projects all across the city and are believing for over 800 volunteers to show up and serve on August 8th. There are tons of projects, all different areas of interest, serving ministries, serving schools, serving first responders, and there's tons of kid-friendly
[00:35:51] options. And you don't have to go to Freedom House to participate in Serve Day. So invite your friends, invite your neighbors, invite your co-workers, and get signed up today at freedomhouse.cc slash serve day. Also, make sure you pick up your Serve Charlotte shirt from Salt
[00:36:06] Resources so that we can all be one team on serve day and look like it too. We can't wait to see you

[00:36:11] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:36:11] there. For all this and more, download the Freedom House app or head to freedomhouse.cc slash connect.

[00:36:17] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:36:17] Who's ready for serve day? Every year we have about 500 volunteers that go out into the community and we transform this city.
[00:36:30] So I'm excited.
[00:36:31] We'll tell you more about how to get signed up for that later, but I'm excited that you're here today.
[00:36:37] My name is Stephanie Blanton.
[00:36:38] I get to be the central campus pastor here alongside my husband, Aaron, and I am thrilled to bring this message of generosity today.
[00:36:46] Now, there are many ways you can give.
[00:36:47] You can see them right here on the screen.
[00:36:49] And as you prepare to give, I have a couple questions.
[00:36:54] So for the parents in the room, I'm gonna start with you.
[00:36:56] do you remember the time when you saw your child for the very first time maybe a child born a child you adopted but you saw your child for the very first time do you remember the joy you felt the
[00:37:13] inexpressible joy that just exuded from you I know you do it's hard to contain right um now let me talk to the married people in the room do you remember the first time that you said I love you
[00:37:26] to your spouse. I remember it. When I told Aaron, I love you, those words just kind of slipped out.
[00:37:34] I'm like, oh, I didn't know, you know, if I should be saying them yet, but they slipped out. Why is that? Because there was so much gratitude in my heart for the gift that God
[00:37:46] had given me in Aaron and for the love that he was expressing to me, that I just said it.
[00:37:54] those words were actually very hard to hold back, harder to hold back than they were to say. It was an expression of gratitude. And that's exactly what we see in Acts chapter 2 and Acts chapter 4.
[00:38:10] After Jesus died, rose again, and ascended to heaven, the Holy Spirit descended, rested on the disciples and empowered Peter to preach the first message. And that day, when he preached and said, turn from your old life, turn to a new life of following Christ, repent and be baptized.
[00:38:34] And when that happens, when you believe, the Holy Spirit will be given to you as a gift.
[00:38:40] and that day 3,000 people believed in Christ and the New Testament church was born. Now what happened next is remarkable because they started giving everything that they had so the whole entire community was taken care of so that there was not one person that had a need. In fact they
[00:39:04] claim nothing as their own. They even sold land and houses and brought all the proceeds to the disciples and laid them at their feet so that the gospel could be preached and so that the community
[00:39:18] could be cared for. That is uncontainable generosity that just flowed out of a heart of gratitude. See, their lives were transformed and they knew this message would transform the lives of others, so they gave it all. Today, you don't have to give it all, but God asks us to give.
[00:39:43] And as we do that today, we ask that you do it with a heart flowing with gratitude for all that He's done for you, remembering that and knowing that every gift ensures that the gospel is preached
[00:39:59] and the church and the community are taken care of.
[00:40:03] So if you're here and Freedom House is your home and you give regularly, thank you.
[00:40:09] And if you want to begin your generosity journey today or take a next step in it, we invite you to do that by going to freedomhouse.cc slash give or tapping your phone on the decal
[00:40:20] right in front of you.
[00:40:21] Let's pray.
[00:40:23] Heavenly Father, thank you for all that you've done.
[00:40:26] when we truly think about our lives being transformed, when we truly think about the fact that we have eternal salvation, when we think about how you've given us freedom in Christ and you've literally restored and healed our lives,
[00:40:44] generosity will flow out of a heart of gratitude.
[00:40:48] So thank you, Jesus.
[00:40:50] We ask that every seed sown today go back into the preaching of the gospel, and the caring for the community.
[00:41:00] And we know that Freedom House is good ground.
[00:41:04] We thank you for it.
[00:41:05] And we ask these things in Jesus' name.
[00:41:07] And the church said, amen.
[00:41:10] Well, I'm here to tell you today that Pastor Troy's in the house.
[00:41:14] And we have a saucy slash spicy message, which means it's PG-13.
[00:41:24] So what we're gonna ask you to do, if you have a child that is up to sixth grade to go ahead and get up now and check them into our FH Kids.
[00:41:35] Everybody else can stay in the room, but up through sixth grade, we've extended check-in so you can do that.
[00:41:41] And get ready, Freedom House, and enjoy the rest of service.

[00:42:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_13]
[00:42:31] That's right.
[00:42:32] Gonna be a little spicy in here today.
[00:42:35] Get ready.
[00:42:35] Look at your neighbor.
[00:42:36] Say, get ready, get ready, get ready.
[00:42:39] If you're married, say, get ready.
[00:42:41] Just look at them.
[00:42:42] No, I'm just kidding.
[00:42:43] Hey, we got a bunch of people online.
[00:42:44] We've got North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, Massachusetts, Montana, Idaho, New Hampshire.
[00:42:50] Let's give it up for all of our online streamers.
[00:42:52] Great to have you guys.
[00:42:53] Love your campus pastors.
[00:42:55] I know Pastor Stephanie was here, Pastor Aaron, stand up.
[00:42:58] You got great campus pastors.
[00:43:00] Make sure you meet them in between.
[00:43:02] If you're new to Freedom House, my name is Troy Maxwell.
[00:43:04] My wife and I are the senior pastors.
[00:43:06] My wife is preaching at our South End campus.
[00:43:09] We are one church, many different locations, one house, many different rooms.
[00:43:13] We got a campus down in Ballantyne.
[00:43:14] We got Lake Norman if you're visiting there.
[00:43:17] Central, of course, South End.
[00:43:19] And then also online, you know, if you're traveling over the summer, you can always join us at 9, 15, 11 live on Sunday mornings.
[00:43:27] You land on the beach somewhere, you can just pull us up, get a group together right there on the beach and watch the messages.
[00:43:32] Or if you miss something, maybe you miss a message, you're traveling, aren't able to participate, You can also go on YouTube and our Freedom House app and you can watch all the stuff on there as
[00:43:44] well. You know, many of you know that I grew up non-Christian, so I didn't grow up in a Christian home. I'm an only child. I'm actually an only grandchild too on both sides of the family. So
[00:43:55] I'm super spoiled. Don't touch my food. I remember my wife used to reach over and grab, still to this day, she reaches over and tries to grab my French fries. I was like, no, no, no, no, no. That's my
[00:44:04] food. I will buy you some French fries, but don't eat mine. Come on. Any only children in the room, raise your hand. If you know, I'm talking with Christian, your only child. Okay. All right. All
[00:44:15] right. All right. So anyway, uh, my mom and I, we grew up, I grew up very poor. My mom was a waitress. Most of her, uh, most of her adult life, we didn't have a car till she was in her mid
[00:44:27] forties. We used to have to hitchhike everywhere. So if we wanted to go to the movies, we'd have to hitchhike, which is stick your thumb out and random crazy people would pick you up.
[00:44:36] They've monetized it now, and they call it Uber, so you can have an app.
[00:44:41] That's hitchhiking with, you didn't have to pay for it back then, but you might die.
[00:44:45] You could die.
[00:44:48] So I was introduced to pornography at a very young age, probably eight, nine years old.
[00:44:58] I remember walking into the bathroom and seeing Playboy magazines.
[00:45:02] I didn't know what Playboy was, but my mom actually had a subscription to Playboy magazine and she told me she read the articles in the magazine, but I didn't read the articles at eight years old because I was introduced.
[00:45:17] I didn't go looking for pornography.
[00:45:20] Pornography found me and it began a journey in my life that was a struggle.
[00:45:25] Now, if you know anything about ministry, there are three things that will destroy a ministry. It doesn't really destroy anybody, but really, when you learn about ministry, it's gold, girls, and glory. Those are the three things that usually destroy people. Gold, money, glory, power,
[00:45:42] or girls, sex, immorality. And for me, it began a very difficult journey for me because I was introduced at such a young age. I did some research that now that is the age where most
[00:45:55] young boys and young girls are introduced to pornography. It's not 12 or 13, it's eight or nine years old. There is so much access through the telephones and all of that. Pornography is such a huge business. It makes upwards of $300 billion a year, a year of revenue. It's a terrible
[00:46:17] business. And when I, so, you know, throughout my entire non-Christian life, I was exposed to it.
[00:46:23] And then when I get saved, you know, it was a struggle for me to, to, to deal with it.
[00:46:28] And I struggled a lot with it.
[00:46:30] And, you know, in the church, they don't want to talk about it.
[00:46:32] You don't, you don't hear a lot of messages like this about it because it's such a shameful thing for people to be involved with.
[00:46:38] I'm so thankful that I got married quick.
[00:46:41] I would not have been a very good single Christian.
[00:46:43] I'm just being honest.
[00:46:45] How many single people in the house?
[00:46:46] Raise your hand if you're a single person.
[00:46:48] Raise your hand.
[00:46:48] Hold it up real high, real high, just so people can look, look around right now.
[00:46:51] See who's single.
[00:46:53] What are you doing for lunch? Can I have your Instagram? You know, what's your phone number?
[00:46:58] For the first service, some girl stood up, started spinning around like, hey, I'm available.
[00:47:03] It was crazy. Last week I was at South End and one guy goes, hey, can you get them to hold their hand up just a little bit longer for me? How many married people? Raise your hand if you're married.
[00:47:13] Come on. We got to love them. We got to love the married people. Look at your wife, your husband, say, I love you. I love you. Come on. Even if you don't like them right now, just tell them,
[00:47:20] I love you. I love you. I have a lot of compassion for single people. I talk to a lot of the young people and I really try to get in their world because it's difficult to date. Very difficult,
[00:47:33] extremely difficult apps. You know, you got pornography, multiple partners. Every television show has a lesbian couple and a homosexual couple, and then a bunch of married people that are not really married. They're just having sex with everybody. And it's not, it's not frowned upon
[00:47:49] on television, on the media.
[00:47:51] It's actually applauded, sadly.
[00:47:54] So what a difficult time of culture to be raised in.
[00:47:58] Sex outside of marriage is seen as a very normal thing, which is called adultery, by the way.
[00:48:03] It's not a modern problem.
[00:48:05] If you look at 2 Samuel chapter 11, one of the most famous people in the Bible, King David, finds himself, when he should have been at war, he's up on this roof where he was looking over his kingdom
[00:48:17] and seeing all the great things that he had accomplished.
[00:48:20] And as he's looking, he sees this open window and there's this girl named Bathsheba.
[00:48:24] She's taking a bath.
[00:48:26] And if you know the story, he sends a staff over there and the rest is bad consequences that happened to him.
[00:48:33] Well, we're in a series.
[00:48:35] If you haven't figured out, I'm gonna be talking about adultery.
[00:48:38] I'm gonna talk about lust a little bit, quite a bit today because we need to dig into this.
[00:48:44] We're in a series this entire summer called Summer on the Mount.
[00:48:48] And we're looking at the greatest message ever preached, Matthew chapter five, six, and seven, the Sermon on the Mount.
[00:48:57] Now, I wanna make it clear that this sermon that Jesus was preaching was to his disciples.
[00:49:03] Now, I know at the end of Matthew chapter seven, it says that there was a group of people around them, which there was.
[00:49:10] I'm sure a group gathered when Jesus preached.
[00:49:12] But I want you to understand that this message was specific to his disciples.
[00:49:18] So if you call yourself a disciple, this message is for you.
[00:49:22] This message that Jesus talked about, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, is for you.
[00:49:27] And what he's talking about is he's talking about how to raise your life to a kingdom lifestyle, how to go from just believing in Jesus to being a full follower of Jesus.
[00:49:39] He was talking to his hand-picked 12 that he chose, and he was telling them, listen, I want to talk about a new way of living, a higher way of living. I want to talk about how to live
[00:49:50] according to God's word. Aren't you thankful we have a manual that God gives us on how to live a blessed life? Aren't you thankful for that? This is a great manual. I read manuals. I don't know
[00:50:03] if you've ever read your car manual. I read my car manual. And the reason I do is because there are things that my car can do. I didn't know until I read the manual. I figured out something
[00:50:12] recently. I can press twice the unlock button and the windows will all go down. Wouldn't have known that if it wasn't for the manual. I can press the lock button twice, Mark, and it will
[00:50:26] raise all the windows up. Come on, man. That's awesome. Never known that was in the manual. You know, there's things that God has for you. You will never know until you look in the manual.
[00:50:37] There are promises that God has for you that are way better than the windows going down, I promise you, but you got to read the manual. And Jesus was saying, look, I got a manual for you.
[00:50:46] So let's look at Matthew chapter five. We're just gonna look at three verses today.
[00:50:50] Matthew five verses 27 through 30. Make sure you don't miss one of the services this summer because we're going through every single verse in this Matthew six, five, six, and seven.
[00:51:02] Here's what Jesus said. You have heard that it was said to those of old, talking about the Old Testament, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust
[00:51:13] for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Verse 29, if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your
[00:51:26] members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members
[00:51:41] perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. Now, six different times, Jesus pulls a Old Testament commandment or principle. And he says, this is what it was said in the Old Testament,
[00:51:57] but I'm telling you something new. Now, what I want you to understand is that Jesus is not getting rid of the Old Testament. He's not removing it. He is fulfilling it. And he becomes the prototype
[00:52:11] on how to live a better covenant built upon better promises. And so he's not removing, he's not canceling the Old Testament. He is completing it. The Old Testament points to our sin to show us we need a savior, to show us that we need redemption. So notice what he says here
[00:52:34] in verse seven. We're just going to break down every verse. You have heard that it was said of old, you shall not commit adultery. Everybody say adultery, adultery. Now what, what, if you remember, what, what commandment is he talking about? What was the, what was the commandment?
[00:52:47] You shall not commit adultery. Anybody want to yell it out? Just tell me the number. There's only 10 of them. So you have like a one in 10 chance of getting this right. Which one? Number
[00:52:55] seven. Now I taught y'all like a month and a half ago to remember all the 10 commandments. We're going to have a review moment right now. So you can remember and you use your hands. So get your
[00:53:06] hands out in front of you. All right. We're going to, cause I want everybody to participate. Don't, don't be a spectator because this, this is a cool party trick right here. You pull this out at your
[00:53:15] next summer social man. Go. You want to know the 10 commandments? I do. You will blow people away at your office. Do it Monday. You want to know the 10 commandments? I do. You might even get some
[00:53:25] people say right tomorrow. People get delivered from the devil. Demons will be cast out just because of the Ten Commandments, all right? What's the first commandment? You shall have no other God before you. So hold your finger out like this. You shall have no other God before you. Second
[00:53:38] commandment is don't bow to any idols. Don't have any other image other than God. So don't bow down to any idols. What's the third commandment? Don't take the Lord's name in vain. So you cover up your
[00:53:50] lips like this. I'm not gonna speak God's name in vain. What's the fourth commandment? Fourth commandment is remember the Sabbath, because I gotta take a nap. How many of y'all gonna nap this afternoon? Come on, somebody. I'm a professional napper. I love some naps. What's
[00:54:05] the fifth commandment? Honor your father and mother. Father and mother, that's the sign language.
[00:54:11] I believe it's father and mother, father and mother. What's the sixth commandment? You shall not kill people. So don't shoot them. All right. We just, we just established that you shall not commit adultery is the seventh commandment. Why? Because marriage is between two, not five.
[00:54:28] This is not a Mormon church. Come on, somebody. All right. Eighth commandment, hold those thumbs in like this. Why? Because you don't steal. Because if you steal, you get your thumbs cut off.
[00:54:43] This is good, isn't it? What's the ninth commandment? Don't tell a lie. Don't bear false witness because five's not four, right? And what's the 10th one? You shall not covet. So don't covet. Don't take people's stuff. Good job. Give yourselves a hand. So, so here's what Jesus
[00:55:00] does. He says, look, you've heard of old that you shall not commit adultery. And when he said that anybody that was listening, especially those 12, understand exactly what he was talking about.
[00:55:10] Because if you committed adultery in the old Testament, you were stoned, you were killed.
[00:55:15] but they thought, oh, as long as I don't get caught, everything's good because it's the act of adultery.
[00:55:23] But that's not what Jesus was saying.
[00:55:24] He was taking the act to an attitude.
[00:55:30] He said, look, you've heard that it was said of old, don't do this, but I wanna take it to your heart.
[00:55:38] I wanna talk about your heart.
[00:55:41] Now, why was adultery such a grave thing?
[00:55:45] because adultery breaks covenant and covenant is extremely important to God. He works and operates on the basis of covenant. Now, this is a challenging thing for us in a Western culture because we don't really see covenant like God does. We see it more as a contract that can be
[00:56:10] broken based on the other person's actions. That's not how God sees it. Marriage is a covenant.
[00:56:21] There's covenants all through the scripture, the Noah, the noatic covenant, the mosaic covenant, our new covenant, what Jesus paid for us, and then the covenant between a man and a woman. See, culture says that I can get the benefits of the relationship without the responsibility.
[00:56:41] so you know we don't need to get married you know we could just live together and get all the benefits of the relationship without the responsibility God does not honor that the blessing of God is not on that understand you can't live in the blessing of God and break the
[00:56:59] covenant promises of God you can't expect the blessing of God and break his promises are you following what I'm saying and that's so that's what he's talking about a covenant's different than a contract. A covenant is for life. Yeah, but why does Jesus talk about how you can get
[00:57:15] out of it? Well, God hates divorce. He hates divorce. He loves divorced people. He loves you if you've been through a divorce, but he hates the act of divorce because it breaks covenant.
[00:57:28] So yeah, sure, there are ways to get out of it, but that's not the point. Jesus is saying it really all starts right here in your heart. Before you break it externally, you have already broken it
[00:57:39] internally. You've already done something inside of your heart to make. So a covenant is for life and there's no liability. It's not based on what the other person does. It's based on the covenant you have with them. Well, you don't know what they're doing. Doesn't matter. A covenant says
[00:57:54] it doesn't matter what they do. There's no liability here. It's based on weaknesses. It's a giving of self unconditionally. It's loyalty unto death. When I said to my wife almost 34 years ago. I love you. I'll love you forever. There's no, we don't talk about divorce. I told her a long
[00:58:12] time ago. If you leave me, I'm going with you. You know, the Bible says, train up a wife in the way she should go and she should not depart from it. I've trained this woman. It's too late to work on
[00:58:24] another one. I mean, good gracious. That's not what the Bible says. And don't tell Penny I said that please. Contract's different. Contract is built among my rights. It's what I get out of it.
[00:58:41] It's a limited liability.
[00:58:42] It's based on strength.
[00:58:44] See, a covenant has two very important things, permanence and sacrifice.
[00:58:52] I heard this story as I was studying for this that a beautiful young girl as a senior in high school made a decision to stay sexually pure until marriage.
[00:59:01] And I'd encourage you if you were single to do the same thing.
[00:59:04] Make a decision to stay sexually pure.
[00:59:07] She said, you know, when we date, we give flowers and candy because that's one level. But when we get engaged, we give something much more valuable, diamonds. And so listen, ladies, when he says he's going to give you a
[00:59:19] ring, make sure it's a big one. Beyonce did have it right one time. Put a ring on it. All right.
[00:59:27] But then she said, when we get married, we give the most precious of what we have ourselves.
[00:59:34] Respect yourself enough. Respect yourself enough. I want to tell you three things about lust today.
[00:59:39] Write these down if you want to take notes.
[00:59:42] Lust is deeper than you think.
[00:59:44] It does more damage than you see, but it can be conquered by God's grace.
[00:59:48] Here's what Jesus says, verse 28.
[00:59:50] Lust is deeper than you think.
[00:59:52] But I say to you, this is Jesus talking, that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
[01:00:02] Jesus moves the commandment, the seventh commandment, from the external to the internal.
[01:00:09] Now, the word lust here in the Greek, remember the Old Testament, Hebrew translated into English, New Testament, Greek translated into English.
[01:00:18] It's the Greek word epithumeo, epithumeo.
[01:00:21] And it means strong desire or to fix your heart on, to long for, and it can be positive or negative.
[01:00:30] Now, this is important because as a human being, when you were created by God, all of us were created with a strong desire.
[01:00:38] We are passionate human beings.
[01:00:41] He put that inside of us.
[01:00:42] When he made Adam in the garden, you know, he forms Adam out of the dust of the earth.
[01:00:47] He breathes life.
[01:00:48] Adam is a passionate person.
[01:00:50] He is full of passion.
[01:00:52] He is full of desire.
[01:00:54] That's why the Bible says in Psalms 32 that he will give you the desires of your heart because there are desires in all of us.
[01:01:01] And so in Adam, he put this desire.
[01:01:03] And then, you know, you remember the story.
[01:01:04] He makes all the animals.
[01:01:06] And then he says, Adam, will you name them?
[01:01:08] rhino hippopotamus giraffe he starts naming them all and when he's done you know he goes well these don't match me he goes I really like to have a a mate that's connected with me and so God says
[01:01:22] all right I'll make you I'll make you a perfect companion a perfect help mate so he puts them to sleep that's why we don't understand women we were asleep when you were made we were out cold
[01:01:36] he reaches in grabs a rib he forms woman out of the side of man not out of the foot of man there's equality in relationship women are not below us men they are equal with us there's order
[01:01:51] in the home but there's equality in our companionship are you following me and so when Adam wakes up he goes whoa man that's why they're called women that's a good pastor joke right there and he desired her. We're made as sexual beings, but sin entered. This is where it gets a little
[01:02:21] shaky because with strong desire, with being sexual beings, and then throwing sin in there, which is pride and independence, this is where good desire becomes bad lust and the intent and the motive, and this is what Jesus is talking about, is the intent and the motive of the desire
[01:02:47] becomes sinful, okay? And this is why pornography and sexual immorality is so palatable to human beings in sin, because it puts them in a place of independence and objectifies people, okay?
[01:03:09] And so that's what porn feeds on, is it doesn't want the relationship anymore. It just wants to satisfy self. No more intimacy, no more connection, just satisfy. And so porn is so destructive.
[01:03:26] I mean, it's scientifically rewires your brain. It destroys you. And I've watched it destroy with families and people over and over just because I just want pleasure for myself.
[01:03:42] And so Jesus says, be very careful.
[01:03:45] We satisfy our needs and our own wants because it's in there, that desire's in there.
[01:03:51] So the idea of purity, what Jesus is sharing is something that first starts in this imagination.
[01:03:56] That's why he says, he says, if you look at a woman to lust for her, look, The word look is the Greek word bleepon, okay?
[01:04:07] Out of the root bleepa, which means to not just glance, not just a quick glance, it's a lingered look.
[01:04:16] It's a staying look.
[01:04:18] It's not, oops, I saw something.
[01:04:20] It's, ooh, I'm gonna stare for a little while.
[01:04:25] My friend Steve and I were playing golf the other day and I was kind of passing my message by and asking what he thinks about it.
[01:04:32] And he says, so does that mean that I can't look at another woman?
[01:04:35] I said, sure, you can look.
[01:04:37] And he says, so I can look at her and go, God, you did a good job on that one.
[01:04:40] I'm like, absolutely.
[01:04:41] I said, then you go, I love my wife.
[01:04:44] You don't just glare.
[01:04:45] You know, one guy said, you can look at the menu, just don't order.
[01:04:51] So you understand what I'm saying?
[01:04:52] And bleep on is that lingered look.
[01:04:56] It's look with intent and bad lust together.
[01:05:01] Now, let's go back to David because this is important to understand because David teaches us something about this.
[01:05:08] In 2 Samuel 11, verse one, it says, it happened.
[01:05:11] And whenever the Bible starts with it happened, it's always gonna be a good one.
[01:05:15] It happened in the spring of the year at the time when the kings go out to battle.
[01:05:20] It says, but David remained in Jerusalem.
[01:05:24] Often we get in trouble when we are someplace that we shouldn't be.
[01:05:30] Listen to me, men.
[01:05:31] We are someplace talking to someone that we shouldn't be.
[01:05:36] Ladies, same thing.
[01:05:39] Verse two, David arose from his bed and he walked on the roof.
[01:05:45] The roof is David's heart.
[01:05:48] The bedroom was the fruit of the roof.
[01:05:53] What is your roof?
[01:05:55] What's your roof?
[01:05:56] It could be a place.
[01:05:58] It could be a conversation that's happening right now.
[01:06:01] It could be an app that you're on.
[01:06:04] Any environment, physical or digital, that we linger too long, And we start engaging in the epithumio that the bleep on has caused.
[01:06:19] Are you following me?
[01:06:21] Is this good?
[01:06:21] Y'all learning anything?
[01:06:23] So what's your roof?
[01:06:25] Now, I know Jesus is talking to men.
[01:06:26] So ladies, you're like, this doesn't include me.
[01:06:29] It's because he says men, when you look at a woman.
[01:06:32] Well, for women, of course, men are image driven.
[01:06:36] Generally, we are image driven.
[01:06:38] Women are emotionally driven.
[01:06:41] So just as much as a man's look could be image-driven, a woman's look could be emotionally driven.
[01:06:48] So the feeling of the relationship is just as dangerous as the look.
[01:06:56] Are you following me?
[01:06:57] So it's the, oh, he's giving me way more intention than my husband does.
[01:07:02] Or if you're single, he's giving me way more intention than I, so I'm gonna sleep with him because he's giving me intention, because I feel love as a result of that feeling.
[01:07:14] So let me throw the opposite of this or the contrast of this.
[01:07:19] So David is the wrong example.
[01:07:21] He finds himself on the roof, he looks at Bathsheba and he gets in big trouble, big trouble.
[01:07:27] Joseph, however, total contrast to this.
[01:07:33] Joseph, if you don't know who he was, he starts, you see his story started in Genesis chapter 37, Genesis chapter 38. Joseph was the favorite son of Jacob or Israel. He was given the coat of many
[01:07:46] colors. He has a dream, a bunch of dreams. He tells his brothers about the dreams. They don't like the dreams. And so they cast him in the pit. They want to kill him, but they end up selling him into
[01:07:59] slavery. And he gets bought by this guy named Potiphar. Now Potiphar has a wife. She's the first cougar of the Bible. Okay. I'll call her Hottifer. That's her nickname from, from me. Okay.
[01:08:17] She's, you know, she's housewives of Jerusalem, whatever you want to say, house robs of Egypt.
[01:08:25] So Potiphar is very successful man. Joseph comes in, the blessing of God is on Joseph.
[01:08:30] Joseph starts to run his household and Hottifer is going after him all the time. You know, one day Joseph is out cleaning the pool with his shirt off.
[01:08:40] And, you know, Hoddifer's just going after him all the time.
[01:08:45] Just, hey, you're a pretty good looking man.
[01:08:50] My husband's gonna be leaving out of town.
[01:08:52] How about you and me?
[01:08:53] He won't ever know about it.
[01:08:55] And then one day, one day, she traps him.
[01:09:00] Now I want you to know something about Joseph.
[01:09:03] Joseph was in a pagan land.
[01:09:05] He didn't have a life group.
[01:09:10] He didn't have a Thursday evening life group at Central where he could meet with a bunch of guys to encourage him.
[01:09:17] Joseph's all by himself.
[01:09:19] He doesn't have a church that he's attending.
[01:09:22] Now, the reason I'm telling you this is because those things are amazing to help you.
[01:09:27] Joseph didn't have it, and he still made the right decision.
[01:09:32] He still made the right decision.
[01:09:34] So Hotifer comes to him and goes, hey, I watched you clean the pool the other day.
[01:09:38] Those pecs, whew, those biceps.
[01:09:41] Joseph you are hot why don't you come lie with me and Joseph goes no way not gonna happen in a million years because I love God and he rips he she grabs his coat pulls his coat off and he runs
[01:09:58] out of the place and you know what happens he gets accused she accuses him and he gets thrown into jail see first Corinthians see Joseph did the right thing he got off the roof he could have
[01:10:11] sat there and go, you know, just consider it. Nobody's going to know. Nobody's going to know I'm having this conversation. Nobody's going to know that I'm looking at porn at 12 o'clock.
[01:10:22] Nobody's going to know. No, Joseph ran away from it. He got off the roof. Ladies, men, get off the roof. Quit sliding in people's DMs. I like your picture. No, no, no, no. You don't
[01:10:42] just like the picture. You're introducing a open window moment. Well, nothing's going to happen.
[01:10:49] Oh, really? Yeah. I'm, I'm, you know, that'll never happen to me. Be careful. Be real careful.
[01:10:57] Met a lot of people that said exactly the same thing. See first Corinthians six, verse 18 says shun immorality in all sexual looseness, flee from impurity and thought word. Indeed. I love what Job said in Job 31.1, he says, I dictated a covenant, an agreement to my eyes. How then could I look
[01:11:19] lustfully upon a woman? So lust goes deeper than you think. Secondly, lust does more damage than you see. I've been in ministry for a long time, almost 35 years, and sadly, I've witnessed very difficult and damaging situations. I've sat across the room from people who have destroyed their
[01:11:37] marriage because of just a text message that starts. It's sad. Families are ripped apart.
[01:11:44] Kids are destroyed. Hearts are broken. So here's what Jesus says, verse 29. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Cast it from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your
[01:11:54] members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members
[01:12:03] perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. Now, let me ask you, church, is he saying to really pull your eyes out? Huh? Is he saying to really cut your hand off? No. What he's doing
[01:12:15] is saying the consequences of these actions are so devastating, you have to be just as radical in your response prior to them in order to deal with it.
[01:12:33] If that means plucking your eye out, then pluck the eye out.
[01:12:36] If it means cutting your hand off, then cut your hand off.
[01:12:39] The damage of sin is extreme.
[01:12:42] It can be eternal.
[01:12:46] So be strong with your actions.
[01:12:48] Your eye is what you desire, what you see, how lust enters.
[01:12:53] Your hand is what you do with that desire, where you go, who you text, what you click, who you touch.
[01:12:59] Jesus is making the point that the eternal damage is far worse than the momentary pain of saying no.
[01:13:10] So ladies, don't post any pictures of yourself half-necked on social media.
[01:13:14] No reason.
[01:13:16] Yeah, but I wanna show my body off.
[01:13:18] Wait till you get married.
[01:13:21] There's no reason.
[01:13:23] Same to the guys.
[01:13:24] You don't need to be aggressive.
[01:13:26] If you're single here today, respect yourself as a woman enough to not go and sleep around with other guys. Respect yourself. And guys, respect the girls enough to go, I'm going to lead the way
[01:13:41] and I'm going to marry you first. Respect, you know, the Bible says, treat them like sisters.
[01:13:49] That'll keep you straight. First Corinthians six, verse nine, it says, surely you must know that people who practice evil cannot possess God's kingdom realm.
[01:14:04] Practice evil.
[01:14:05] Don't make excuses.
[01:14:06] Well, I'm 45, you know, and I've been married and I'm divorced and God understands if we live together and sleep together.
[01:14:14] He understands.
[01:14:15] No, you're breaking the manual.
[01:14:20] He does understand and it's called sin.
[01:14:23] Amen, amen.
[01:14:25] Say, I love you, Pastor Troy.
[01:14:28] Stop being deceived.
[01:14:30] People who continue to engage in sexual immorality, idolatry, adultery, sexual perversion, homosexuality, fraud, greed, drunkenness, verbal abuse, or extortion, these people will not inherit God's kingdom realm.
[01:14:46] Lust does damage. It damages you emotionally. Having multiple partners teaches your soul to attach, detach, attach, detach, attach, detach. I used to do this illustration when I was a youth pastors, I would take a piece of duct tape and I would take it off the roll and I would take it to
[01:15:04] a guy and I would stick it to his arm and I would rip it off. He'd be like, ah, and all the hairs would come off him and everything, you know, and then I'd take it to a girl and I would put it on
[01:15:14] her arm and I'd rip it off. She like, ah, you know, and I do that three, four, five times. Eventually what's going to happen with the tape? It's not going to stick anymore. And there's everybody's
[01:15:25] hairs that had been stuck to the tape all over it. See, what happens is when you keep sleeping with somebody over and over different people over and over your soul becomes less sticky and it's just easy to go from partner to partner to partner somebody asked me young guy asked me
[01:15:43] in between the service how do you get sticky again it's called repentance you repent and God can can give you your stickiness back that's pretty good remember that Martin for the next time I preach this lust damages you emotionally shame anxiety guilt lust damages relationally it
[01:16:04] destroys family. Just think about David. Look what happened to David. The child that ended up happening from Bathsheba dies. Uriah, her husband, dies. Amnon, his son, rapes his sister bad. Absalom has a mutiny. I think it's all a result of the roof. Lust damages us spiritually
[01:16:32] the most damage. David talks about it in Psalms 51 in his repentance. He says, the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. It breaks the heart of God. Colossians 3 verse 5, and that means,
[01:16:45] as a result, that means killing off everything connected with that way of death. Kill it off.
[01:16:52] Get rid of it. Sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it. Grabbing whatever attracts you, your fancy, that's a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. And Joseph shows us that no matter the pressure, we have a way of escape.
[01:17:13] Temptation is inevitable. It's going to happen to every human being, but it doesn't have to be overcoming. Lust is deeper. Lust does more damage. And here's the last, it can be conquered, but it does take a radical change,
[01:17:28] especially in our culture because it's accepted.
[01:17:32] It's okay, OnlyFans, it's okay.
[01:17:36] Everybody's doing it, it's okay.
[01:17:39] It does take a radical decision.
[01:17:42] Like Joseph, he left his coat behind.
[01:17:45] You have to be willing to leave something behind in order to not lose your integrity and God's grace is sufficient.
[01:17:55] So you gotta cut off, you gotta stay out of environments that are not healthy, the bar.
[01:17:59] Don't keep going back to the same place thinking, oh, I can do it this time.
[01:18:02] No, just stay out of there.
[01:18:04] Run, Forrest, run.
[01:18:07] Seriously, just run from it.
[01:18:09] If you need to shut down social media, shut it down.
[01:18:13] Well, what about my followers?
[01:18:14] Who cares?
[01:18:15] If those followers are gonna send you to hell, get rid of them.
[01:18:20] It's not that important.
[01:18:22] Yeah, but you know, no, no, no, it's not that important.
[01:18:27] Just get rid of it.
[01:18:29] Shut it down.
[01:18:31] Be open.
[01:18:32] Make some decisions in your life.
[01:18:35] You know, John Maxwell said it this way.
[01:18:36] He said, there's one thing to make a decision, it's another thing to manage the decision.
[01:18:42] Sometimes you have to manage those decisions.
[01:18:43] Let me tell you a decision I made when I was 24, 25 years old.
[01:18:47] It was a very important decision.
[01:18:49] I still live by it today.
[01:18:51] So Penny and I just got married and I was working for a company doing financial planning, insurance sales.
[01:18:59] And I did really good my first year.
[01:19:01] I was the rookie of the year.
[01:19:03] I made a bunch of money.
[01:19:04] So they immediately put me into the management program, which meant that I was gonna train other associates that were coming in, which meant that basically I had to go on appointments with them.
[01:19:15] So if it was, they would make the appointments and I would go help them make the sale and then I'd make 50% of what they made.
[01:19:20] And I was training them to be a good manager.
[01:19:23] So this woman comes, she's in her, I'm 24, 25 years old.
[01:19:27] And this woman is in her early 40s, early to mid 40s.
[01:19:30] and she comes in and listen, I am naive. I love my wife and, but I'm a manager now and I'm thinking success. I want to, I want to, I want to do well for the company. And so this young, this girl,
[01:19:44] woman, uh, I start training her. So what, which means that I have to go out on appointments with her. We have to get in the car. We have to drive to this appointment, that appointment, this
[01:19:53] appointment. So one day, this is after a couple of weeks, one day I'm out on an appointment and I have lunch at this restaurant. I'm sitting there and it's just myself and this 40 something year
[01:20:03] old woman. And my mom walks up. She goes, Hey, Troy, what are you doing? I'm, I'm, I'm working.
[01:20:14] You know, I got, this is so, I don't remember her name. This is so-and-so. She goes, really?
[01:20:18] Where's Penny? Yeah, exactly. And so she calls Penny like any good mom and says, uh, um, uh, how are you guys doing? I just, I just randomly just ran into Troy at lunch with this 45 year
[01:20:40] old woman and, and Penny, you know, as soon as I got home, um, um, Troy, we need to sit down.
[01:20:50] Uh, I heard you were having lunch with this, you know, 40 something year old woman. What are you doing? I said, well, honey, you know, I'm in management now trying to make a living here,
[01:21:00] trying to help the family. And, uh, it's no big deal. Yeah. But I noticed you've been getting all these gifts. Yeah. I mean, I'm making sales for this girl. I mean, we've been doing, she's
[01:21:10] been really good. I'm training her. She goes, well, um, this is a problem. So I want to meet this girl. So she meets her and you know, women have like a 25th sense. I mean, they know I'm
[01:21:21] naive as all get out. I'm like, this is so-and-so. And my wife meets, she goes, yeah, this ain't going to happen anymore. Like we got to shut this down. I said, no, we don't need to shut this down.
[01:21:30] I'm, I'm, I'm a manager. Don't you understand? I'm, I'm moving up in the company. And so she, she goes, well, we're going to talk to Blake and Robin. Blake and Robin were mentors of ours in
[01:21:41] Richmond. They were about 10 years older than us. And so she calls Blake, myself, Robin, Penny, and Blake are on the telephone and she starts laying it all out. And I'm trying to defend myself. Like it's fine. No problem at all. And Penny's going, it is a problem. And Blake goes,
[01:21:59] what do you think, Troy? And I said, I don't think it's an issue. I said, he says, really?
[01:22:05] He goes, let me tell you something. He goes, Robin and I started, he's a real estate agent at the time. Um, he says, you know, Robin and I made a decision early on in our marriage that I would
[01:22:16] never be alone with a woman. That's not my wife. And I said, well, hold on a second. This is my, this is my, my business. And he said to me, what's more important, your career or your family?
[01:22:31] I answered really quick, by the way, I did not pause. I said, my wife, she said, well, he said, well, I guess you're going to have to step out of management. And I said, okay. And I did. I did.
[01:22:47] Now, let me tell you what happened. And I've lived that way ever since. I am never alone with a woman who is not my wife. Never. If, if, and it's on our staff, it's the same thing. It's a part of
[01:23:00] our staff culture. If you are married, you are never alone with a woman or a man who is not married to you. I won't even see, we have one time, I'll never forget this. We, our offices
[01:23:12] were over off the Harris and I had a counseling appointment with a husband and wife and the wife showed up early and she comes and knocks on the door and she goes, Hey, I'm here for my appointment.
[01:23:22] I said, well, you can wait outside. What do you mean? Can I come in? I know my husband's going to be here in 10 minutes. I said, I don't care. It was a glass door. I just sat there. She was
[01:23:31] on the other side of the glass door and I was on one side. So you can't come in until your husband gets here because I am never alone with anybody that's not married. That's not my wife. That
[01:23:42] 40 something year old woman was transferred to my manager within six months. His marriage ended because they had an affair and thank God for Blake Udaly. Listen, ladies, men, you got to have somebody in your world who can tell you no, and you listen. Blake was that for me. He was that for
[01:24:08] me. He said, you need to do this. You need to make that decision. I'm not talking about a group of people, maybe one or two people that you trust that have a life that you want, especially when
[01:24:18] it comes to sexual immorality, because you can get distracted and deceived so quickly and so easily by the spirit that it will destroy you. I am convinced had I not made that decision, I would
[01:24:31] not be standing here today. You got to, you got to cut some things off. You got to make some decision. You got to make relational choices. Now, how does this start? New heart, new habit,
[01:24:45] new heart, new habit. Remember started this whole thing. Jesus is going from the habit to the heart.
[01:24:53] So if you want a new habit, you got to have a new heart. So here's the promise from God, two promises from God. First John one, nine says this. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and
[01:25:03] just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It's time to get sticky again. If you need repentance, it's here, it's available and God will forgive you. Walk away from it. Now don't just walk away from it from a vertical standpoint. James five takes it a step
[01:25:25] further and says, confess your trespasses one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed. So God says, of course I will forgive you. But if you want healing, it requires confession.
[01:25:40] Now I'm not asking, I'm not saying that you need to go to every single person that you know and confess what you did. Find that confidant, that Blake, that person in your life that you
[01:25:48] can go and share the struggles of your life. I have people in my world like that. Whenever I go through temptation, I immediately call them. Hey, I'm struggling with this. And they go, hey, I got you, man. I'm covering you. But I expose it. One of the biggest mistakes and
[01:26:05] deceptions of this particular spirit is shame. And shame will tell you, hide it, hide it, hide it, because you're dirty. And the Holy Spirit is yelling, bring it out into the light so I can
[01:26:17] heal it. Bring it out in the light so I can heal it. Bring it out of the light so I can heal it.
[01:26:22] You're forgiven. You're set free. My mercy endures forever. My mercies are new every single morning. You are forgiven. Jesus died for you. His blood is shed for you. Are you following me?
[01:26:37] So here, just in closing, repent if you need to like David and resolve like Joseph. Repent like David and resolve like Joseph. Let's do it today. Amen. Stand up on your feet and let's do that
[01:26:49] today. Maybe you need to repent like David. If that's you, just right now, every head bowed, every eye closed. If you need to repent like David, just put your hand right on your heart.
[01:26:58] I need to repent like David. And it could be something other than sexual sin. It could be any type of sin. God, I'm just, I'm on, I want to repent today. I know I am not living according
[01:27:08] to your manual. I am tired of breaking covenant with you. God, I want to repent. Or maybe you, you need to resolve. And it could be as a result of the repentance. I want to resolve. I want to
[01:27:22] resolve like Joseph. I am not going to put myself in any position. I'm going to make some changes to my life. I'm going to cut some things off, change some relationships, cancel some apps.
[01:27:32] I'm going to bring things out into the light. I'm going to move my computer into the, into the living room instead of having it back in my office. I'm going to, I'm going to let my wife
[01:27:43] have my phone today and let her look at everything. I'm going to let my husband look at everything.
[01:27:49] I'm going to bring it out into the light. You're going to resolve like Joseph. Let's pray together.
[01:27:55] Say this with me. Say heavenly father. Come on. Let's declare it over our lives. Say heavenly father. Today I give you my life. I repent like David repented. I'm so sorry, God. I broke your
[01:28:09] heart. But I also know that the blood of Jesus is available today, 2,000 years later, just as real as it was on that cross. I receive forgiveness today. Jesus, thank you for being raised from
[01:28:32] the dead, for coming out of that tomb, defeating death, defeating sin. So I resolve like Joseph.
[01:28:41] I am running from sin. I am fleeing from sin in Jesus' name. And let's just let the Holy Spirit speak to us right now. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Touch us right now.
[01:28:59] Solidify this. Seal this moment. Seal this moment in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, amen. Come on, give God a big hand clap. Amen. Let's give God some praise. Come on.

[01:29:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[01:29:14] What an amazing sermon today. I believe lives are changed today, that that wasn't just a message.
[01:29:24] That was a life-changing moment for a lot of people. And trajectories are changing from this moment forward. God's put you back on the right path. Maybe you deviated a while ago. Maybe you deviated just a few weeks ago. Now it's time to get back on that right path, change the habits,
[01:29:40] change the heart. And now God has something amazing for you. So if you made that decision today. We're so proud of you. Please stop by Guest Central. We have a gift we'd love to get in your
[01:29:49] hand. It's located just on the other side of these double doors. And also for your first-time guests with us, welcome home. Welcome to Freedom House. We also have a free gift for all of our first-time

[01:29:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[01:29:58] guests. So stop by Guest Central also. And in a couple weeks, we have Serve Charlotte. So I told you I would tell you how to sign up. You just go to freedomhouse.cc slash serve clt or tap your phone
[01:30:10] on the decal in front of you.
[01:30:11] Let's send people out into the city to change lives.
[01:30:16] The church is leaving the building.
[01:30:18] Leave with us.
[01:30:19] Freedom House, have a great day.
[01:30:20] You are dismissed.