Are you serious about being a man of purity?
Are you serious about expressing and experiencing your sexual gift in a way that’s consistent with what God says about sexuality?
Are you serious about really working on this area of your life?
If you are, these things are not going to happen on accident.
It’s only going to happen if you can identify some strategic issues that will truly make a difference in your relationship with yourself, and then do the work that’s necessary to apply those things to your life and situation.
In this episode Tony shares 4 important skills of purity that will be very strategic for the average guy to practice as he seeks to experience his sexual gift in a healthier way.
(1) Self-awareness
You need to be in touch with yourself.
You need to be award of what’s going on with yourself emotionally so you’re aware of those moments when you might be getting more vulnerable to temptation and acting out.
If you don’t know what’s going on with you it sets you up for repeated failure.
(2) Interrupting yourself
When you feel yourself beginning to escalate in the old cycle of failure, you absolutely need to be able to interrupt yourself in order to break free of that old cycle and create the possibility of choosing something different and healthier.
(3) Choosing a healtheir alternative
If you can catch yourself as the old cycle begins to unfold, it creates the possibility for you to exercise your “no” muscle, and for you to make a healthier choice, such as calling a friend, going to the gym to work out, mowing the grass, listening to some music, or writing a psalm to the Lord to tell him how your feeling at that moment and what you’re struggling with.
(4) Practice
We must then choose to practice this new and healthier cycle over and over again. Practice being aware of myself, interrupting myself, and choosing something healthier, and as we practice these 4 important skills of purity we will help you to stay on track!
God did the most amazing and mysterious thing.
He created us with free will; the ability to choose; the ability to say "yes" to something if we want to say "yes", and the ability to say "no" to something if we want to say "no".
God could have made robots, but God wanted something way more authentic, and real, and sincere than that.
He wanted a creature that had the ability to disobey him, but that would freely to choose to obey him.
Wow!
In this episode Tony reminds us that we have the ability to choose.
Over and over again, probably severeal times a day, you're going to have the ability to "choose", and the choices you make will both determine and reveal the person you truly are.
Being a healthier person has something to do with getting the power of choice back, and then exercising your will in obedience to God!
14 “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:14-15
11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearingof the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purifyfor himself a people that are his very own,eager to do what is good. Titus 2:11-13
6 Now Joseph was well-built and handsome,7 and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!” 8 But he refused. Genesis 39:6-8
This world is very broken.
Every person is very broken, and this is why we need a Savior.
This world has a way of beating people up.
There's hurt, pain, confusion, depression, difficulty and hardship in every person's life.
It just looks different for each of us at different times of our lives.
There's an ebb and a flow.
When the going gets a little bit tough (or a lot tough), and it seems like things are really hard, we may sometimes be tempted to struggle with questions about God's love.
Does God really love me?
Does God really care?
If God really loved me, why is he allowing this difficult situation in my life?
Why doesn't God do something about this?
In this episode Tony explores the question of God's love.
How can we really know for sure that God loves us, even when we're going through something really difficult in our life?
How do I know that God really loves me, even if I'm struggling with a weakness, or even if I've been acting out in a sinful way.
What's the ultimate proof of God's love?
There is an ultimate proof, and if you understand this one thing you'll always have the sure confidence of God's love for you, regardless of what's happening in your life.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
Our connection to God in the process of change, healing, and recovery is of supreme importance.
It’s hard enough to overcome sexual compulsion, sexual addiction, or addiction to pornography with the Lord, let alone without the Lord.
Even secular recovery programs such as Alcoholics Annoymous affrim the importance of your relationship to a "higher power" to the process of recovery, and at least 6 of the 12 steps directly mention this reality.
Step 2: accept that a higher power, in whatever form, will restore your sanity
Step 3: make a decision to turn your will and life over to a higher power
Step 5: admit to a higher power, another human, and yourself the nature of your wrongdoings
Step 6: accept that a higher power will remove your character defects
Step 7: humbly request the higher power remove your shortcomings
Step 11: use prayer and meditation to connect with the higher power
If we're serious about being better men, we must have a relationship thing going on with God, and not just a religion thing.
Tony asks a critiically important question at the end of this episode, and the way you answer the question has profound implications for your life!
4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:4-5
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. II Corinthians 5:17
12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. I John 5:12
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20
Tony recorded this episode on New Years Day, 2024!
He focuses on one particular passage which is Luke 8:22-25, and observes how God often chooses to bring his people through a "storm" rather than around the "storm".
In Psalm 23 it says that God is with us through the valley of the shadow of death.
In the Old Testament God brought his people through the Red Sea when Pharoah was coming to destroy them.
Jesus himself had to go through the cross in order to get to the resurrection.
And in Luke 8 the disciples had to go through the storm in order to get to the other side of the lake where Jesus had told them to go.
No matter what's going on in your life at this time, you can rest asured in faith, that God is with you, and God is going to get you through the situation you might be currently concerned about or struggling with.
Even if you're stuggling with your sexual gift in any way at this time of your life, God can get you through.
He can get you through sexual addiction to the other side.
He can get you through sexual compulsion to the other side.
He can get you through porn addiction to the other side.
God sees you, he is not indifferent, he cares, and he can get you through!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!