Numbers 11:4-6
Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; 6ut now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!”
YOU BROUGHT US OUT FOR A REASON
When you are a whole package and you end up at the wrong address, the receiver's gonna mishandle you because you were never their's to begin with. There are wrong places we keep ending up with.
Stop measuring your strength by how much pain you can endure.
Strength is measured by how much you could surrender.
How much you could surrender your will, desires, appetite.
All that's gonna do is give you the ingredients necessary to have a bitter appetite and a bitter heart.
The only way we could be free from the grips of lust
1. Through the power of the Holy Spirit (not will power)
2. Have to detox
God loves us so much that He helps us detox by placing us in wilderness
EGYPT - When we were slaves, lost, sinners, have not come into the knowledge of truth. We do not know the beauty of the gospel.
WILDERNESS - God is purging us here, not punishing us
It's not necessarily about the act, it's about an act being an usher. We have to view certain activities as ushers.
You being in his apartment - not a sin, but it's an usher. It's an usher to an atmosphere that allows you to engage in sexual immorality.
The Word of God says - Give no provisions to the flesh. Flee the very appearance of evil
If it just looks like you are doing something - don't ever do it. There's somebody in your community that you're trying to reach and everytime she sees that man /woman leaving your apartment at 4am it contradicts your witness. It causes for her to question do you really believe what you profess.
Purchasing a condom is not a sin - it's an usher. Why are you even purchasing a condom in the first place? This is a just-in-case backup.
Sex hits different when it's guilt free - in marriage - it's God's way
Masturbation is always nearly married to lustful thoughts
3 Questions:
1. Was it formed in Egypt?
2. Is it an usher? Does it lead and where?
Me going here, 4am with him, is that possibly going to lead somewhere? Avoid it.
You being in the backseat with a married man, talking on your lunch break, could this possibly lead somewhere? Yes it can, so avoid it.
3. Does it give God glory?
1 Corinthians 10:31
Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Can you masturbate and give God glory? If it's NO- this is an activity that I need to detox from. The place we end up is not due to how we desire, the place we end up is due to how we crave.
This is why a lot of us are in a tug of war, this back and forth, the struggle with trying to end it or to break free from it. The problem is not the problem. The problem is our appetite, it's our craving. You cannot have former cravings and embrace fresh manna. It's one thing to know the problem, it's another to know the origin of the problem.
You left that church due to church hurt, but that hurt never left you now you never do church. You got out but you never really came out.
You left that relationship but your heart never did.
And just like the enemy sends people, God sends people too. Everytime somebody new comes, we immediately arrest them as a potential offender because I'm not going to feel that pain again.
The wilderness is not negative, it's necessary.
The reason why you're in the wilderness is because you're about to step into a promise.
But if you never allow God to purge you of Egypt, you'll never experience the promise.
Exodus 13:17-18
Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt.” So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt.
3 things from this passage:
1. God does not take shortcuts
There's no wisdom in the shortcut. He likes to take us the scenic route. He does not microwave, He crockpots. He makes sure that there's some stuff that sets in, character that sets in.
2. God knows what you're ready for
You're not ready for war / platform yet / position yet. It's not that you won't eventually be there, but there's a lot of stuff that happened that we have to deal with.
3. It's on purpose
Matthew 4:1-3
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
How the devil attacks:
1. The devil attacked His identity
"If you are the Son of God..." Because if you don't know who you are, you'll eat the wrong meals. Have you ever looked back at an ex and you were like, what in the world was I drinking? Why was I crying over them?
If you don't know who you are you'll think that your loneliness means that this guy really wants you but you're really just trying to find a cure for your loneliness.
Purpose of wilderness:
God says I don't want you to look to pharaoh anymore (I don't want you to look in the culture) I want it to be Kingdom. God is teaching you He is your provider. God is trying to rewire them.
If God is patient with us in our rebellion, why can't we be patient with Him during our renewal.
God is purging us, so there's no residue of Egypt on my life. This is why the children of Israel walked through on dry ground when God cracked that red sea - that's supposed to be mud but God is saying NO RESIDUE.
Nothing of your former life is going to come out. Without smelling like smoke.
Warfare Strategy
1. How do we deal with horny nights?
Workout. Run 3 miles. Sometimes we're looking for spiritual remedies when it's just a practical solution. Exhaust your flesh.
- Accountability partner - who can you call to help you in the moments when your flesh is on fire?
- PRAY
2. How do I really engage in sexual purity?
Observe which one you're feeding- your flesh more or your Spirit more? Whichever one you feed the most is going to win.
3. Triggers and Switches
Identify things that immediately want you to get back to Egypt. Identify things that make you stumble.
1 Thessalonians 4:3-5
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God;
-- SELF CONTROL --
2 Peter 1:3
as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
I'm placing you in the wilderness to detox you and I need you to understand that self-control is needed for this level that I'm about to take you to
1. Watch your consumption
Whatever you eat in private, you will wear in public
2. Intensify your spiritual consumption
Not just remove it. Remove it and replace it. That's the methodology of God. He wants to remove sin off of us so He became sin.
-Prayer, community, sermons, worship
And naturally working out, do not live a life of idleness.
3. Reflect on God's promises not worldly pleasures
It's not about a don't do list. Those don't work. It's about fighting for joy.
My only competition is who I was yesterday.
4. Jesus didn't die so you could be a side chick
If marriage is for you, you're gonna be somebody's first lady. You're this man's first love, you're his lady. After Christ, you're his first love.
God is saying, I don't want you to give in to things and I don't want you to be cool with being lukewarm.
Everybody wants Kingdom until it's time to apply Kingdom principles. No application, No transformation.
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