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Episode #12 - Seriously Surrender Your Sexuality
In Romans 6:21 Paul asks: “What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of?!”
What is the “benefit” your soul gets when you choose to give in to the sinful, selfish desires of the flesh? What is the “benefit” your soul gets from choosing daily to deny what your flesh wants and instead fully surrender your heart to God?
Only your flesh “benefits” from giving in to your sinful temptations – not your soul. Any “gain” (if you want to call it that) is temporary, short-lived, and eternally worthless.
Welcome to the Point of Purity Podcast. In today’s episode we continue our series in Psalm 25 by digging into the answer to these two critical questions.
Transcript
In Jonah 2:8 God says, “Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God’s mercies” Let me repeat Jonah 2:8 – listen closely. “Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God’s mercies”
So, let me open this podcast with a question: Why do you repeatedly choose to turn your back on the blessings God promises to give you in favor of the temporary pleasure lust, porn and masturbation may or may not provide you? (and by the way, “I don’t know” is not an acceptable answer)
(01:58) Panting for God
In Psalm 42:1-2 David writes, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.”
Why is the deer “panting for flowing streams”? Probably because it’s being chased by an enemy that wants to devour it – so it is running hard to save its life. Consider this: You are being chased by a foe that wants to devour you.
Do you remember what Genesis 4:7 tells us? “Sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you.”
1 Peter 5:8 warns, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
This is powerful imagery. Think about a lion stalking its prey. As it’s crouched low in the tall grass, intently scanning the herd, what specifically is it looking for? It’s on the prowl for the most vulnerable. The weakest. The one separated from the rest.
So, let me ask you this: When it comes to sexual purity, when and where are you most vulnerable? When and where are you the weakest? When is the enemy most likely to attack you? Be specific.
As a born-again child of God, your soul should pant (long for) and thirst for (deeply desire) God. Especially in those weak and vulnerable moments when the enemy is bearing down on you, intent on consuming you.
In Isaiah 55:1 God invites you to “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.”
Here’s another question for you to consider; How has lust, porn, masturbation, and sexual impurity thoroughly quenched your thirst? (Hint: this is a trick question because the only correct answer is that it hasn’t)
So, why then do you keep going back to that which isn’t satisfying or meeting your need?
As we saw earlier, in John 7:37 “Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink’.”
In Psalm 63:1-2 David cries out, “O God, you are my god; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power.” And in Psalm 84:2 he says, “My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD.”
Your soul is thirsty my friend. A thirst only God can quench. Not lust. Not porn. Not masturbation. Only God!
In our current series, we are diving deep into Psalm 25 to discover how to be the man or woman of purity that God has called you to be. Psalm 25:1 says, “To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.”
(05:37) Lift Up Your Thirsty Soul
Now listen to what David writes in Psalm 42:5 “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”
When you surrender to the beast, when you give in to lust, porn, and masturbation ... your soul, the core of who you are, is “downcast” – it is discouraged, feeling down. Your soul is “disturbed” – it’s in turmoil and in conflict within you. Why? It’s because you are choosing to live for and serve King Me instead of “putting your hope in God.” And King Me will let you down, it will fail you every single time. God will not. Not now, not ever.
You don’t have to be downcast and disturbed. You don’t have to experience guilt and feel shame. Lamentations 3:24 says “The LORD is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in him.”
In other words, The Lord is all you need – not lust, not porn, not masturbation, not the things that temporarily satisfy the sinful flesh – The Lord is ALL you need. Therefore, you must put all of your focus, all your attention, all your hope on him all the time! Will you choose right now to do that?
(07:21) Seriously Surrender Your Sexuality to the Sovereign Savior of Your Soul
In Psalm 25:1 David is fully and completely, seriously surrendering all of his life to the Creator.
Oh, my friend, what aspects of your life have you not yet fully surrendered over to God? And why do you struggle so much with seriously surrendering everything to God?
Let me be candid with you. My goal here is for you to openly, willingly acknowledge that you have not yet surrendered your sexual passions and temptations over to God. Until you seriously surrender everything to God and allow Him to be Lord of your entire life – including your sexuality, you will continue to struggle with sexual impurity. Remember: the problem isn’t lust, porn, masturbation – those are the by-products of the real problem, a worship disorder.
(08:26) Restored and Revived!
Let me share with you just a couple more things about Psalm 25:1 and choosing daily to lift up your soul to God. Consider this: in Psalm 23:3 David says that God “restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”
I want you to think about that. God “restores” (He refreshes) your soul.
Does lust, porn, or masturbation do that – does it refresh your soul? Of course it doesn’t. It can’t.
Sexual impurity only makes the flesh feel good, it does absolutely nothing good for your soul. This is why you end up feeling so empty inside, so dissatisfied after giving in to your sexual temptations. Instead of feeling fulfilled, you feel the shame of your guilt before a holy God. Why? Because sexual impurity can never satisfy the soul.
Here is what does satisfy the soul. In Psalm 19:7 David says, “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul.” The restoring and reviving of your soul (the soul that you just lifted up to God) starts by filling your mind with the cleansing power of God’s Word. This is why it is so vital that you are disciplining yourself to DAILY reading God’s word, as well as memorizing key verses as well.
(10:06) Following the Leader
Ok, now listen closely to Psalm 5:8 ... “Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me.”
When it comes to your sexual purity, who (or what) are your enemies?
Those enemies are crying out to you for attention. Your enemies are combatting for your worship. This is why, as you lift up your soul you desperately need God to lead you in His paths of righteousness. The primary way God leads us in those paths today is through the reading, studying, meditation, and memorization of Scripture.
Psalm 19:8 says, “The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.”
Think about being outdoors, in an unfamiliar place, in the middle of a moonless, starless, cloudy night. It’s pitch-black. You cannot see a thing. So, you turn on a flashlight. Why? To enlighten your eyes. The light from that flashlight enables you to see where you’re going. It ensures you will not trip, you will not stumble, you will not fall - as long as you follow that light. That light shows you the way to go and illuminates the obstacles that may trip you up.
David exclaims in Psalm 119:105 that “(God’s) word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
You cannot expect to be free from sexual temptation, you cannot presume to triumph over the three-headed dragon of lust, porn, and masturbation if you choose not to invest your time seeking the heart of God through the study and meditation of His word. God WILL lead you to victory only if you daily choose to seek Him first and willingly follow Him – wherever He may lead.
(12:28) Lighting the Path to His Glory!
I don’t want you to miss the fact that daily reading and studying Scripture gives you that much-needed light to illuminate an otherwise obscure path. Through Scripture, God shows you which way to go so that you will not stumble, you will not fall, you will not sin.
Proverbs 4:19 warns us that “The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.”
Without the light you will stumble. This is why it is so vital that you are in God’s Word daily. It is critical that you allow His Word to be that “lamp to your feet and light to your path.”
Notice also that in Psalm 31:3-4 David says, “For your name’s sake you lead me and guide me; you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge.”
Victory over sexual impurity is yours only because of what God has done and will do for you. It is strictly for his name’s sake that he “takes you out of the net” and sets you free.
Consider what God told Gideon in Judges 7:2 “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me’.” It is the same for you and your war against the 3-headed dragon of lust, porn, and masturbation. It is for God’s name’s sake that he will give you the victory. You did not, you cannot, you will not win these battles on your own.
In Psalm 79:9 David cries out, “Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and atone for our sins, for your name’s sake!”
And in Jeremiah 14:7 we read, “Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O LORD, for your name’s sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.”
(14:39) King Thee not King Me
Let me yet again drive home the fact that in Psalm 25:1 David is choosing to “lift up” his soul to God. He is choosing to daily sacrifice King Me to the King of Kings. He is choosing daily to bare it all before his Creator; the Almighty, most Holy God of the universe.
In essence he is saying, “God, you are King. Not me, YOU! You are Lord over all creation. You are Lord over every aspect of my life. You are Lord over each and every thought that I think. You are Lord over each and every word that I speak. You are Lord over each and every choice that I make. You are Lord over each and every action that I take. You and You alone are (Jehovah).”
Do you realize the significance of what David is doing here? Think about it: David is the #1 dude in all of Israel. He’s the alpha dog, the head honcho, the King! He is the “lord” (master if you will) of all the Children of Israel. What David says goes. What David wants happens. The entire nation looks to him for guidance, direction and protection.
By calling God his “LORD” (Jehovah), he is confessing that there is One even greater than him. One that he is ultimately answerable to for everything in life. Can you say that? Are you ready and willing to mean that?
You have been living most of your life as the #1 dude, the alpha dog, the head honcho, the King. You have been “lord” of your life and “lord” of your castle. You have made the decisions. What King Me wants - you try your best to make happen. Do you fully recognize that there is One even greater than you, One that you are ultimately answerable to?
The fact is, no one is higher. No one has more authority over your life than God. Are you living by that truth?
Is God your “Lord?” Not just in word, but in your attitude and behavior as well. Is He the ultimate and supreme ruler of your life? Does He have ultimate reign over your soul – over every part of your life, every moment of your life?
If your answer is “yes,” then I follow up with this question: is every aspect your life backing up your answer? If not, then you need to change your answer to, “No, He is not Lord of my life. I have not yet lifted my soul up to Him.”
You see, if your actions, if your lifestyle, if your daily choices are not backing up your answer, then no matter how much you may try to intellectually argue otherwise, God is not Lord of your life.
(18:14) Perfectly Satisfied!
OK, now I want you to listen to this next verse closely. In Psalm 107:9 David says God “satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.” Let me repeat that. Psalm 107:9 – God “satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.”
Here’s what I want you to understand. Only God is perfect. That means only God will perfectly satisfy your longing soul! Only God will perfectly fill your soul with good things. Only God will perfectly fulfill your desires, expectations, and needs – causing a full and perfect contentment, thereby putting an end to those selfish, sinful desires, expectations and needs.
In other words – when you are perfectly satisfied, the desire, the longing, the perceived “need” to give in to sexual temptation no longer exists. It has been satiated and satisfied. Why? Because everything God does is perfect. Therefore, the satisfaction only He can give is a perfect satisfaction! It is complete. You need nothing else – ever.
(19:45) Smite the Bite
We experience dissatisfaction largely because the true “need” has not been met. Think about it this way: When you have a mosquito bite, what is the “need” you are facing? Hint: it’s NOT to scratch the itch. The “need” is to have the itch go away. Scratching the mosquito bite does NOT make the itch go away. It temporarily masks the problem, but ultimately it enlarges and exasperates it.
In the same way, lusting, looking at porn, masturbating, committing adultery does not meet the need. It actually makes the problem worse. Only God can and will fully satisfy and fill your longing, hungry soul! Bottom line? You have been thirsting for the wrong thing.
In Matthew 5:6 Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
This is why King Me’s pursuit of sexual impurity is not meeting your needs – it will not, because it cannot, ever truly “satisfy” you. You are hungering and thirsting for unrighteousness. It’s like drinking water from the ocean. It will always leave you lacking, wanting – needing more.
However, when you (as Psalm 42:2 says) choose to hunger and “thirst for God, for the living God”, the promise of Scripture is that you will be perfectly satisfied. When you crave for and pursue after a right relationship with God – a life of integrity, purity, godliness – then you will be filled to overflowing, not needing anything else but God.
(21:53) The Bottom Line
John 7:37 tells us that Jesus Himself “stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink’.” A growing, vibrant relationship with your Heavenly Father is truly ALL you need! That’s why 2 Timothy 2:22 commands you to “flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”
Instead of trying to find your satisfaction in sexual fulfillment, find it in your pursuit of God. Proverbs 19:23 says, “the fear of the LORD leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied.”
Why? Because only “God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19) Psalm 16:11 reminds us that only God will “make known to (you) the path of life; in (His) presence there is fullness of joy; at (His) right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (additions mine) Only God will perfectly satisfy your longing soul!
Psalm 34:10 says, “The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.”
And Isaiah 58:11 says, “The LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.”
I challenge you to echo the words of David in Psalm 25:1 and lift up your soul to God – choose, right here and right now, to fully surrender every part of your life (including your sexuality), ... everything over to Him. When you do that, Jeremiah 6:16 tells us you will “find rest for your souls.”
Let me close out today’s podcast with these two verses from Psalm 62.
(24:13) Closing Sound Track
Verse 1 says, “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.”
And verse 5 says, “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.”