 Secret sins are the most dangerous sins. We struggle in the dark to free ourselves from temptations and desires that seek to destroy us. We get to the end of a rope and conclude that maybe we're too far gone. Maybe this lust that has characterized our identity for so many years just can't be shaken. If this is you, I need you to know something. You can find victory, but not on your own. Today I'm going to share with you seven Bible verses that help me break the chains of lust for good. Not that I still don't battle with it, but it doesn't have a hold on my life anymore. I want you to experience that same kind of freedom and victory in your own life. So without further ado, as always, let's dive in. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. This verse acts as a warning, like a sign on a road telling you that there is a cliff up ahead. It is saying go no further than this. Lust is dangerous and is not to be played with. As Christians, we are sojourners and exiles in this land waiting for our ultimate home in the new heavens and new earth. But here and now we still encounter the remains of the flesh, that war in our soul between what Paul calls the old man and the new creation that God has created within us and the spirit that is living within us. Now maybe you see this verse as just a strict command, as just a warning, but ultimately I see God's love throughout this because it would be unloving for him to not warn us of the perils of sin. The truth is, before knowing God, we were blinded to the ramifications and consequences of our own sin. We were going towards that cliff, but Jesus scooped us out of that and he says, no, there is a better way these things are waging war on your soul. The idea of something waging war on your soul might seem a little bit extreme and maybe even as a Christian, this stuff can be subtle to you. The movies that you watch, the TV that you partake in, I think of myself as a teenager and the stuff that I would watch and I would say, oh no, it doesn't affect me, it's not a big deal, but what I wasn't realizing or maybe I was justifying, maybe in my heart I really, you know, truly didn't know that it was damaging me, there was kind of ignorance and there was also just denial and justification. But at the end of the day, this stuff that I was watching, this kind of hyper-sexualized movies or scenes from a TV show or whatever else, I had lust in my heart and it was waging war on my soul. We should take seriously God's warning. He who commits adultery lacks sense. He who does it destroys himself. I think of what Jesus said, if you look at a woman to lust after her, you've already committed adultery with her in your heart. If you looked with lust, if you indulge in sexual sin, you lack sense because you're destroying yourself. You're engaging in spiritual self-harm. Maybe it's because you feel you're too far gone already, so why not just continue to dig yourself into this whole? Maybe it's your shame that's just convincing you that this is just who you are and there's no way out. Maybe you've become so numb to the world and your life that the sexual stimulation that you get through lust and pornography is the only thing that really seems to give your life meaning. Friend, there is a path out of this lifestyle of self-destruction. Jesus offers something so much better and I can testify to that in my own life. God, scoop me out of my own self-destruction because I felt like I was too far gone for God or my shame was just consuming me or I wanted to just feel something in my life, but ultimately God offered redemption, which is this next verse here. And through him, that's Jesus, to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross and you who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. Did you catch that last part? Jesus died so that you could be presented as holy and blameless before God. How ridiculous is that? Like on my own, I see how dirty and filthy I am. How many times I've gone back to the same sins over and over again. All the things that I've watched, I've said, I've done wiped clean by Jesus and get this, this is the wild part, past, present and future forgiven. Now you like me might have a hard time internalizing that reality that you are forgiven, that you are clothed in his righteousness, but ultimately God says that when we are in Christ, then nothing can separate us from God's love. Do not desire her beauty in your heart and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes. This is big guys and this applies to girls too, but you need to know that you are weak and physical beauty is powerful. Okay, here's a direct application. Let's say you know somebody, maybe it's an acquaintance, maybe it's a celebrity that you've never met before. Either way, you haven't really had a conversation with them. Maybe you saw them on Instagram or a friend of a friend, call it a crush. Nothing wrong with being attracted to somebody. Nothing wrong, nothing wrong with being attracted to somebody, but what happens when that attraction becomes an obsession? Maybe you fantasize about them. You've been captured by their physical attractiveness and yet you have really no connection with them. Okay, another example, let's say you're talking to somebody, you're going out with somebody, but maybe you're not being as discerning as you should be. You're letting some stuff slide or some maybe red flags or yellow flags because they're really cute. So that kind of makes up for the other issues, right? Do not let her capture you with her eyelashes. So maybe you suspect that you have been captured. If it's somebody that you don't know, then unfollow them on social media. Stop obsessing about them. Focus on something else. We'll talk about that in the last verse, how we can move beyond lust and look into vision and purpose and meaning. But beyond that, also if you know this person, maybe you're talking to them, maybe you're dating them, get an outside perspective. Ask one of your friends, say, Hey, like what do you think of this person? Where do we line up on this stuff and just pour it out there? That way you can really get a clear sense of am I compromising on a lot of things just because I really find them attractive, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people that want to break free from pornography and lust, and yet they're allowing themselves to linger and their eyes to wander on social media with the kind of content that they watch. I've been there too. It's easy to make excuses. Oh, I enjoy this content. Oh, it's a very small portion of this video. Oh, you know, I followed this person in high school. I'm just trying to keep up with them. It's like, bro, what are you talking about? Man, you're making provisions for the flesh. Are you really serious about this? And I got to tell you from personal experience, when you do that, it is such a relief because you're not constantly being assaulted or tempted to look with lust because you're not confronted by those things constantly. Once you detach yourself from them, once you remove them from your life, from your eyesight, it becomes a lot easier. Now, I got to be honest, this next part, I'm not sure is a hundred percent accurate interpretation of the scripture, but I believe the biblical principle applies. So take that as your will. When I think of provision, I think of food, like you're going on a long hike or a camping trip and you need to bring provisions along so you can keep your energy up, stay nourished. And so then you'll have enough gumption to continue on your mission. If you're leaving provisions out for your sin, maybe it's just the crumbs or the leftovers. Either way, you're feeding it, you're keeping it alive. And in that case, it'll stick around. And ultimately, it'll wait till you're in a weak moment to really strike. So what do you do? You starve it. You kill it. You stop making provision for it. Whatever causes you to stumble, whatever leads you into lust or even is just the beginning of the making those thought patterns happen. You need to cut it out. Now, this might seem drastic to some people, but if you're really serious about breaking free from lust, then you got to cut out everything that leads you into temptation. Now, you might be saying, Isaac, that is such an inconvenience. And my question for you is, are you willing to be inconvenienced in order to authentically pursue Jesus and run from sin? As simple as it sounds, if you want change to happen, then you need to change things about how you live your life. Hey, if you're serious about breaking free from lust and you want to go even further, I want to invite you into this. It's a service called Covenant Eyes, and it will help you be accountable. I have an offer right now. If you click in the link in my description, you can have 30 days free. It will set you up to have your internet history monitored and be accountable to somebody in your life that cares for you. It's been a game changer for many people. So if you're interested, hit the link in my description. No temptation has overtaken you. That is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, he will also provide a way of escape that you may be able to endure. This is one of my favorite verses of all time when we talk about lust, no excuses. When there is a temptation, God will provide a way out. The question is, are you looking for it? I know how it is in those moments of temptation. You can get tunnel vision and forget everything that you were supposed to remember in this moment to help you get out of temptation. But ultimately, I want you to help train yourself and your thought patterns to when you get tempted the first time, the beginning to say, OK, God, I'm going to pray to you. I'm going to pray without ceasing. I'm going to ask you for help. Lord, give me a way out. Show me a path that I can honor you and run from this temptation. It doesn't need to be complicated. It doesn't need to be a whole big thing of a lot of verses that you're quoting to yourself and in every moment of every day. It just needs to be an acknowledgement. OK, I'm tempted in this moment. God, I want to ask you, come into this, be with me in this and give me a way out. Give me strength to persevere and not give in. And you don't wait to do that till you're really, really tempted. But even just a little bit of a temptation say, God, you know, I give this temptation to you. I let it go for me. I don't need this isn't what I want. This isn't what you want for me. And so I just give it up. God's going to use that to form a habit and pattern in your heart so that when you are tempted in a big way, you can turn to him and get out of that tunnel vision. He who finds a way finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. Lust is ultimately a lie. It's a facade. It's a distortion of God's good design being the expression of sexuality in the covenant of marriage. So here is a game changer for me. Develop a vision for your life, your dreams, your goals, your aspirations, the things you want to work toward, the things that you want to build. If you are tempted in lust, this means that ultimately it would be a good goal for you to get married so that you wouldn't be as tempted in this way, that you would have a way to express your your sexual feelings towards somebody in the covenant of marriage, which is a good thing. So ultimately you're looking, how can I progress towards providing for my future family? How can I, you know, look to grow myself into the man that a woman would actually desire? That motivation should act as jet fuel as you propel yourself into meaningful, worthwhile things as opposed to the fantasy, make-believe land of lust and pornography. Don't be the fool who fantasizes about a woman who isn't his. I'm not saying that you got to be this perfect, rich, athletic, charismatic guy. But I'm talking about trajectory. Ultimately, it's like, what direction are you going? Are you continuing to live in make-believe land or fantasy land, dreaming about what your life could look like or indulging in sexual fantasies? Or are you actually building towards something worthwhile where when a woman does come along, she sees what you're doing and she says, I want to be part of that. It's a better way of life where you take responsibility, where you learn to grow and develop skills and pursue excellence. And ultimately learn to what it looks like to maybe one day love a godly woman boldly. And if you already got a wife or a husband, if you're a lady, I want this to be a wake-up call for you to not waste the person that God has placed in your life already. Maybe you screwed up. It's not the end. Yeah, healing is needed, and that's going to take time. But it is worth the work. What God is inviting us into isn't just immediate gratification where we get everything we want when we want. What he invites us into is challenging. But ultimately that purpose through working hard for the Lord and doing and having those tough conversations and pursuing somebody. Like that is so much more meaningful. And the joy that comes from that is so much more tangible than a momentary lustful fantasy. God's ways are so much better and he does bring healing. Thanks so much for watching this video. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, get a like down below and subscribe because I'm putting out videos like this all the time. A huge shout out to my patrons on Patreon. It is because of your guys monthly support that I can continue to make these videos and equipping people to follow Jesus daily. If you want to support my mission, then head on over to the link in my description and sign up today. It would be a tremendous blessing and you get access to an exclusive discord. We have video calls and we have exclusive videos as well. So if you want to get access to all that and really support what I'm doing here, it would be amazing blessing. You can do that link in my description. Now I will see you guys next time. God bless.