- Hey, welcome to another week of Warrior life groups.
I'm hearing great things about
what's going on in your groups
and just want to tell you and celebrate the fact
that you're getting together and letting iron sharpen iron.
This week is tricky.
We're talking about the Warrior's weakness.
A lot of Warriors can be easily distracted
and have a very real inner battle
with one version or another of lust.
So lemme just make a really strong recommendation
at the beginning of this discussion.
I would highly recommend that
if you're in a mixed life group,
meaning that there's men and women in your group,
I would strongly recommend that you go ahead
and just separate for this discussion,
Men meet with men, women meet with women,
and that way it might remove any kind of awkwardness.
Maybe there can be a little more
transparency in the discussion.
If there are married couples, they can discuss privately
any issues they have on their own terms,
and I think this could be really helpful.
So obviously you can do whatever you want
and I probably won't know, but I strongly recommend it.
Let's dive into the first discussion question.
We're talking about really the battle for purity,
and unfortunately in the world that we live in today,
people are exposed to sexual impurities
younger and younger and younger.
If you're comfortable talking about it,
and again be very respectful,
let's not go into crazy detail, but in very general terms
if you're comfortable talking about it,
what was first exposure to something that was inappropriate?
For me, I talked about, it was the fifth grade
and I saw my friend's "Playboy" magazines,
and this was the beginning of the battle
in my mind fighting for purity.
You might have a similar story,
you might have had something that's more painful
and you don't wanna talk about it.
Please feel free to say "I'd rather not talk about it,"
or you can keep it very, very general.
But I do think it's helpful just to
kind of have an understanding
of what's going on in people's lives, how the wound started,
so we can pray for healing in the wound.
If you're comfortable and it's a appropriate,
without sharing a lot of detail,
why don't you talk about the first time
you were exposed to something
that was sexually inappropriate?
All right, let's go ahead
and get practical in this next question.
I'm gonna encourage you,
if you would read a portion of Scripture.
Read Proverbs chapter five, verses seven through 12
and what you're gonna see is wisdom
in staying away from different types of sexual temptation.
And we talked about the reality
that all of us can be triggered by certain things.
There might be things that you're
vulnerable around temptation and I'm not at all,
and other areas where I'm weaker
and you're really, really strong.
And so what we have to do is we have to be honest
about those things that can trigger us.
Where do we potentially fall into trouble?
And what I'd love for you to do
is to talk about what safeguards you put in your life
to guard against sexual temptation
or any types of vulnerabilities,
and this is really important now.
Some of you, honestly, you might say,
"I don't have any at all,"
and let's just go ahead and call it what it is
if that's where you are, that's where you are.
If you don't, you're way more vulnerable
than someone who has wisdom to distance themselves
from places that they're weak or vulnerable.
This is really what Proverbs 5 is talking about
in verses seven through 12.
Stay far away from whatever could be dangerous.
So let's get practical, let's encourage one another.
As open as you feel like you can be,
let's talk about what are the safeguards
that you're putting in your life
to guard against sexual temptation.
Be sure and read Proverbs 5, seven through 12,
and then let's answer the question.
What safeguards do you have in place
to make sure you stay away from that which could harm you?
All right, let's dive into the third question,
and this is where we're going to really
look for our next steps,
and then make sure you leave time
to pray together at the end of this question.
It's super, super, super important
that we pray for one another.
We talked about the principle that
you're only as strong as you are honest.
One of the reasons why I ask you
to separate with men only with men
and women only with women
is so that perhaps you'd be in an environment
where you could really, really be honest,
and I wanna encourage you to really, really be honest.
What's interesting is we can often lie to ourselves.
We talked about King David in the story,
and King David probably lied to himself multiple times
saying this isn't that big of a deal,
I kinda deserve it, no one's gonna really know,
and he made bad decision after bad decision.
He wasn't where he was supposed to be,
he saw something he wasn't supposed to see,
he did something he wasn't supposed to do,
a lot of people ended up losing
something they weren't supposed to lose.
He wasn't honest.
Then if you know the story,
he went down this long string of bad decisions
trying to bring back Bathsheba's husband, Uriah,
so that he could be with Bathsheba,
and then Uriah would think, oh, that must be my baby.
And then when Uriah was too godly
and didn't betray his men,
he stayed away from his wife so he couldn't
enjoy that kind of intimacy when his men couldn't,
and then King David sent Uriah out the front lines
and essentially had him murdered in battle.
Very, very tragic.
David evidently didn't take this to heart
because time went on, when he was confronted
by the prophet Nathan and Nathan told him a story.
Essentially it was about a rich guy
that took advantage of a poor guy's little lamb
and David got really, really mad.
The Bible says he burned with anger, this is not right,
and Nathan the Prophet looked at King David
and he said, "You are the man.
"You're the one who's done wrong."
And if I can just say as lovingly as I can right now
to some of you, you might be the man,
or you might be the woman
that really needs to be honest with yourself right now
and you really need to get help.
I pray that you don't feel shamed
if this is a dark spot for you.
It will be for many people.
Don't feel shamed, see it for what it is.
You have a wound and that wound needs to be healed
and it's not gonna heal on its own.
We've gotta protect the wound,
surround yourself with the right people, the right systems,
so that God can heal the wound.
What do we do?
Well, battle plan.
We confess to God.
So important, God I've sinned.
We confess to the appropriate people
and that may be what you do in your groups today.
We get the help that we need,
we surround ourselves with the right kind of people,
and we let God heal the wound.
What I wanna do is just ask you
is there something that you need to be honest about?
Do you need help?
Do you need to confess?
Do you need people around you to help hold you accountable?
Do you need to check yourself in for treatment?
Do you need to apologize, do you need to repent?
Do you need safeguards around you?
This is really, really, really important.
Some of you, you know that God is kind of moving on you,
this is your opportunity, this is your time,
this is why we do life groups.
You're in a safe place with people that love you,
right now, with a good God who brings healing.
You're only as strong as you are honest.
Is there something that you need to confess?
Is there a step that you need to take?
Is there help that you need to receive?
Let's take a moment, let's be honest,
and let's let God start the process that heals the wound.
(uplifting music)