 Okay, fellas, let's have an honest conversation here. I have been seeing, not just recently, but more recently, there being an increase in what I'm gonna call simp culture, okay, they're people, mostly men, idolizing like a particular woman online. And so maybe they rise to popularity in some contexts, maybe they're like an only fans person. But it happens, one of the people that comes to mind that I've seen this, at least on TikTok, is this woman named Livy Dunn, and everybody's just obsessing over her. And there are groups of men that are part of colleges and stuff that will travel around and follow her to her gymnastics meets and stuff like that. And whether it's a bit or whether it's ironic, like, okay, I can kind of get what you're saying there if that's what you think. But I think a lot of guys genuinely online idolize these kind of women. They fantasize about them. They obsess over them. They talk about them with their friends. And it's honestly kind of embarrassing. Like, and like I don't wanna just say that to necessarily shame you, but I also don't want you to continue down this path of idolizing these women that you've never met before. I just think it is a testament to the desperateness of your situation if you are obsessing over like an online influencer or celebrity or like an Instagram model or anything like that. Like, do you have such a low opinion of yourself that you think you cannot actually have a fulfilling, you know, relationship in your own life that you need to turn to this fantasy, this woman that is, I mean, for lack of a better way to put it, she's using you. She is. A lot of these women are using you. They're using your, you know, your desire for them to get attention, to get views, to get likes, to get sponsorships, to get money, to get fame. Like, they're just using you. And maybe that's like, hopefully that'll help wake you up to the fact that, okay, wait a minute, like I'm being played here. I am not in control of this. I am literally being played. And so many men out there are being played. Why are they, why are they allowing this to happen? Some men know it, know it's happening. And yet they like, they've still followed these people. They still watch all their videos. They still watch all their interviews. They still obsess over them. Why do men, why do men do this? Well, because they're trying to fill the void of something in their life. They maybe experienced some sort of loneliness or just there's sexual desire there that they feel like can be fulfilled in this person. And so there's this desire for these needs to be met. They're looking for some sort of point of connection and the online space is a point of connection with these people that they idolize. You're basically creating a make-believe life where you are with this person, where this person knows you, but it's not real. This person doesn't know you. They're using you and they're using your desire against you. It actually reminds me of Samson and Delilah, okay? Stay with me for a second here. Okay, Samson is this really strong man and we find out later that his strength is because of his hair. But what we find out is that Samson is not a very faithful man. He's not very self-controlled in the area of his sexuality. He sleeps with a prostitute and then he meets this woman Delilah and we're not sure if she's a Philistine or if she's an Israelite, but either way she is contacted and she's confronted by these Philistines and they're basically like, you need to find out what his weakness is, okay? You need to find out what's leading to this strength, right? And so Delilah goes to him and she's like, okay, hey, Samson, what's going on? And he tells her three or four different stories that aren't true about what actually gives him the strength and she tries to utilize that to her advantage. But then each time she finds out, wait a minute, hey, you're lying to me. The last time he's like, yeah, it's actually because of my hair. And then finally his hair is cut off, his eyes are plucked out and he's put in jail. And it's like, okay, what happened here? How did this strong dude succumb to this? What was going on? You're the strongest dude in the world and yet you succumb to this. It shows us the power of lust. He was willing to let his strength be compromised in order for his lust to be fulfilled. He was willing for his strength to be compromised in order for his lust to be fulfilled. Each and every day you make that decision. You make the decision for your strength to be compromised because you want your lust to be fulfilled when you're turning to these people online. And maybe it's not a physical person around you, but you're being seduced online by these women that are taking your desire and utilizing it for their own gain. They're actually neutralizing your most powerful tool, which is your desire and utilizing it for their own gain, for their own fame, for their own money. Where as a man, what you should be doing is you should be utilizing that desire to build, to pursue, to enact movement in your life, to get things done, to be productive, to be excellent, to grow. Like this is desire, is power, is strength, is movement. But when it's all about like and focused on and tied up in obsession over women that you have never met, whether that be only fans, whether that be pornography, whether that be Instagram models, whether that be online influencers, whether that be, you know, some crush from high school. When your desire is taken off the prize, off the goal, and it's kind of like sideline with all these other things, then you're neutralizing your strength, you're neutralizing your power, you're neutralizing your movement. And so what do we do? Well, we stop fueling the fantasy. We stop fueling these fantasies that cannot be fulfilled that are not going to be fulfilled. We stop obsessing about women that we've never met. We realize that they're using us, that they're stealing our most powerful tool, our desire that God has given us to take dominion over our life and over the things around us, over creation. Like you think about it, Adam was placed in the garden with a mission, okay? To take dominion, okay? He was naming the animals. He was gonna subdue the garden. He was going to make things in a beautiful, wonderful way. And then he was given a help meet Eve to do, to continue to do that, to assist him on his mission. But if all of, you know, Adam's desire for dominion was turned into just a desire to get really good at like, you know, skipping stones on a pond. You'd be like, what's going on, dude? Like you have so much to conquer here. You have so much to take dominion over. But all your energy is focused on this menial task, this menial game. Like what are you doing? I think this is the way God sees us when we have been given this wonderful garden and he's said, take dominion over it. And yes, it's filled, like your world's filled with sin, but at the same time he's enabled us with his power and his presence to, you know, enact his purposes in this world. And so he's like, okay, I've been, I've given you this opportunity, but you're wasting it. You're wasting your attention and your desire on things that will never satisfy you and that are just fake. Like they're not real. Honestly, my encouragement for you is to maybe delete social media for a time, to stop following all these people that you try to live vicariously through or that fuel your fantasy. Don't fuel the fantasy. Live in the real world. What practically today can you do in your life that you've been putting off that will help you move forward, that will help you progress, that will take that next step towards your goals, that will take that next step in growing closer with God. Like seriously guys, we need to be intentional about this. Our world is fueled on just coasting, on just going with what everybody else is doing and oh, we're all on our phones for 10 hours a day and that's just normal and we just, you know, we don't really do anything other than just kind of clocking into work and then getting home and watching TV. And it's like, and we just eat whatever we want to eat and nobody thinks of too much about it. Like you need to be intentional if you want your life to be different. And step number one, cut out all these distractions that are leading you down this damaging path and taking your desire. And I think once you've taken these things out, you'll have all this energy that needs to be put somewhere. And if you put it in the right place, it's gonna be so productive and wonderful. And that's what I want for you. And so I just hope you got something from this video. I hope you encouraged by this message. I know it's a tough message. Might be a wake up call, I hope it is. But it's important as we continue to look to follow Christ and fulfill the mission that he's given us. So until next time, keep pursuing the mission.