Mike Fisher: Let’s do this if we could. Let’s stand and respect God’s Word. We’re just going to read Ephesians chapter 5.

It’s in your notes. I don’t have the blanks in front of me, so I hope you can find the blanks. If not, the answer key’s in the back.

Some of you are doing Brother Ingram’s session. We’re thinking, where’s he at with this and these blanks? Well, don’t worry about that.

They’re all in the back, okay? So don’t get frustrated. If I just get off track, you go ahead and just put those things aside and we’ll deal with them later.

If you can keep up with me, that’s great. You’re doing a great job. It’ll probably be kind of difficult.

But here we go. Ephesians 5, starting in verse 1. Ephesians 5, verse 1.

It says, Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. And it goes on and starts to address a pretty serious subject, but fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not once be named among you as becometh saints.

Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance of the kingdom of Christ and of God. Now it goes on to verse 7 and explains a few other things.

But I wanted to address a subject that God takes very seriously. It talks about being followers or imitators of God. That’s really what the word followers means, is to imitate God.

Now, I hope by now we understand that I’m not asking you to do this in your own strength, and God’s not asking you to do it in your own strength, because as we’ve heard in the messages last night and this morning, you can’t do it in your own strength. As a matter of fact, you’ll fail. So we’ll set you up for that right off the bat.

I’m asking you to do this, to look to Christ, the only one that can help. And in the area that we’re going to be talking about, which is a touchy subject, it is an uncomfortable subject. For some of you, it’ll be more uncomfortable than others, and it’s not comfortable for a preacher to get up and talk about such things.

As a matter of fact, I wish it was just one big lie. I didn’t have to talk about these things. But the fact is, it’s true.

So, friends, the fact of the matter is this. God wants to work in your life in this area today. And if you’re a man, you’re being bombarded, maybe even at this time.

So, friends, I want to be a help. I want to be encouragement. I hope you see that.

You may be seated. I was traveling late one night in Tennessee coming back from, it was either Tennessee or Kentucky. We were coming through one of those states.

But all I remember is this. I had to pull into a rest area. You said you had to pull into a rest area.

What did you have to do? Friends, what I normally have to do when I pull into a rest area. So I jumped out of the car very quickly, and I ran into the building as quick as I could get in there.

I ran straight into the restroom, and I realized very quickly, I’ve never been in a restroom quite like this before. I looked around, and I didn’t see what I would normally see in a restroom. I realized that I was in the ladies’ restroom.

Some of you have been there before, and that’s okay. You don’t have to admit it. I just did it for you.

And I realized I was in a tough spot. I thought that my wife had seen everything. Now, listen, I was there all by myself.

It was just me standing in there alone. My wife was out in the parking lot, only two people there. The cleaning people had retired by then, and they were going home.

So there I stand, I’m looking around, and I thought my wife had seen anything. So I sheepishly bow my head as I go out to the door. I’ll be honest with you, friends, my wife didn’t see a thing, but I confessed the whole story once I got there.

Why? Because I was wrong. No, I was ignorant.

I was just ignorant going in there. I was just ignorant to the whole thing. And my wife, she just didn’t let me live it down for quite some time.

And I appreciate good women in my life. So I thank the Lord for her. But the fact of the matter is all I want you to see is this.

We don’t have it all figured out. Friends, no preacher that stands up here claims that they got it all figured out. You might find yourself in the ladies’ restroom.

I don’t know. And you find yourself here at this time. Listen, I don’t have it all figured out.

That’s all we’re saying is we don’t have it all figured out. Okay, friends, and neither do you. So keep your hearts open, especially during this time.

It’s uncomfortable. I realize that. It’s a little bit of uncomfortable feelings at times, and I realize that.

But let’s not base it on feeling. Let’s base it on fact. So this passage, if I could say it this way, it exposes really three areas in your life that God is expecting to be pure.

He’s saying, I expect you to have purity of body. He does expect that. Now, living in the realm I live in, I never thought that I would ever stand in front of Christians and try to explain this.

Some of you aren’t saved here today, but those that are saved here today, listen. I never thought that I’d ever stand in front of Christians and try to explain to be pure morally. It only seemed natural for people that were saved when I got saved to be pure morally.

Now you say you’re perfect. No, not at all. I’ve had bumps in the road as well.

He not only expects you to have purity of body, he wants to have purity of thoughts. And he wants to have purity of speech. So let’s cover it the best we can, okay?

The Apostle Paul says this. He comes down where the rubber meets the road, and he says, Let it not even be named among you as becometh saints. In the day and age we’re living in, I’ll tell you what, this is hard-pressed to find.

It’s hard-pressed to find somebody that’s pure in thought, pure in body, and pure in speech. It’s hard-pressed. And I’m not just talking about young people, friends.

I’m talking about churches across America. Ephesians 5 says this. It says, Be ye therefore followers, imitators of God, as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.

It says, but fornication, skip down, let it not once be named among you. I’m going to be as discreet as I can. I’m going to be as helpful as I can.

But friends, none of it’s going to help you if you don’t let God in. Mr. Ingram nailed it the last session.

He said it’s a shameful act, and it is. It’s designed to be that way. Whether it’s with the thought, whether it’s with the mouth, whether it’s with the body, it’s all a shameful act.

And it all really, as it were, holds the same consequences down the road. Purity of body. God expects you to be pure, your purity of body.

Roman Umba 1 to 1, there it is. Underneath that, it’s called fornication. It should not even be named among you.

Matthew 15, 19 says this, For out of the heart proceedeth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies. Acts 15, 20 says, But that we write unto them that they abstain from pollutions of idols and from fornication and from things strangled and from blood. Hebrews 13, 4 says, Marriage is honorable and all, in the bed on defiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God would judge.

Whoremongers is really another idea of fornication. Her name was Heather. I went to school with her.

Heather was a dear, sweet young lady. She really was. She lived over in the valley, as a matter of fact.

Heather was, she was captain of the cheerleading team, I believe, varsity cheerleading team for the football squad. She also was a softball player, and she also loved soccer. She loved it.

Well, she got infatuated with one of the defensive backs. His name was Ivy. Ivy was a massive guy, man.

He was about 6’5″, 6’6″. I watched Ivy Latham hit a guy so hard, so hard, he knocked him out. He’s an unbelievable ball player, unbelievable.

But when it came to ladies, he was only after one thing. And friends, it wasn’t too long into that relationship that Heather found herself in a rather uncomfortable situation. But she said this.

She said, but he said, I love you.

Now friends maybe you’ve been duped by that same phrase before in your life I do not know but it didn’t take but a few months and that love went right out right out the window and he was gone and so was her purity.

So friends I’m trying to be of a help I would like to live in some big dream world and say this never ever happens in a Christian home this never ever happens in a Christian life it never happens and I would love to live in that day in and day out but the fact of the matter is it does.

We got Christian colleges, and teenager, you listen to me. If it’s not dealt with here, we got Christian colleges that you’re going to be kicked out of someday. Someday, it’s going to happen.

Because the fact of the matter is it does find itself out, and God will find you out. I remember in high school, Christian young lady that I went to school with, she was a couple years ahead of me, she went to the, she prayed by the flagpole every day. She was the one that initiated all these different things.

She initiated prayer meetings in the morning, and she kind of had a Bible club that went on, and she came from a very rough background. Her father was a drunkard, among other things, and she came from a very rough background. But as we sat there, I looked at somebody, and I thought, if anybody’s a Christian in here, it’s that girl right there.

Didn’t take too long after high school she got infatuated with a young man. It wasn’t but a couple, really a couple years later, that she had a baby out of wedlock. You know what I said about Christianity at that moment, friends?

I’m done with that nonsense. That stuff ain’t real. It’s a joke.

Now, friends, I don’t know where you are. I really don’t. But I’ll tell you this.

It wasn’t a big deal to me at that time. The only Christian I knew. I knew some other ones, but I watched them at the parties late at night.

So it really wasn’t a big deal. They had no merit with me anyway. But I can say it this way.

She said it started with a holding hands and an innocent kiss. And then he said the words that she longed to hear. I love you.

Time seemed to stand still at that moment. They found themselves alone, and what was innocent became serious. Her purity was gone, and just months later, so was he.

Teenager, God says this very simply about fornication. Let it not once be named among you. I’m not going to go into too much detail.

I sure don’t, but I will try to help you in a couple different areas. Three questions, really, that I put before public schoolers in a public forum. I can’t talk about God at that time, so I’ll add Scripture at this time to be of a help.

But at that time, I can’t enter Scripture into the equation until it becomes the nighttime sessions. But three questions that I pose before numerous teenagers that are in public schools during their public school day across America, I do this. I ask them, first of all, do you respect yourself?

That’s really a good question, isn’t it? You know, the Bible says this. Mr.

Ingram brought it up last time. 1 Corinthians 6.18 says, Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

What? Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and you are not your own. Probably the person that you least respect in here is yourself.

Well, that’s really why we do what we do. If I could say it this way, you’ve been given a name. You really have.

You’ve been given a name. What is your name? You may not know what your name is.

Here’s some good names that you may have. You may have sweet, kind, gentle, godly, soul winner, prayer warrior. Those are some really good names.

They’re great names to have. But some of our names in here, to be honest with you, may be easy, flirtatious, loose, and pig. They may be one of those things, friends.

Some of you understand what I’m talking about. Listen, we had names for young ladies in high school that were loose with their body. We had a lot of names for them.

Some of you come from a public forum, and you understand, because some of you, unfortunately, use those names for people. Now, friends, what I will tell you is this. We had names for those people, and everybody has a name.

You may not realize what it is, but you are what you project. Do you respect yourself? Can you respect the name that you’ve been given?

Because you have one. Not only that, but do you respect your future spouse? Do you respect your future spouse?

I’ve heard Dr. Jim say this numerous times to teenagers across the country. If your life in this past week or this past month was put on a DVD, would you be willing to let your future spouse see it?

Listen, I understand I’m talking to a lot of Christian schoolers. I understand it. But friends, I am not going to be duped year after year.

Because I’ve sold you drugs. Do you see what I’m saying? Listen, I’ve seen the Christian kids right there.

I’ve seen them try to cuss in public. And I’ve seen them try to act cool. I’ve really seen it.

Did you know that Christian schoolers many times and homeschoolers are a little bit further behind? My wife is a homeschooler. Don’t feel bad.

Okay. But I will tell you this. They’re many times, like a year behind what the world’s doing.

Okay, now we’re using the term, it’s almost out the door, epic fail. Did you know this with the term epic fail? The world used to use that years ago.

Years ago, Christian, are you ready? You’re using what the world, here’s another one, random. Remember that one, random?

That was two years ago, that one started. Okay, you know how long it started in the world? About four years ago.

Friends, I’m just saying, we’re behind what the world’s doing, trying to act like the world. And what the world is doing is the same thing that I did. Laugh at you.

We used to laugh at these kids, man, that come from some of these mission boards. Man, we used to laugh at them. And they tried to act with us, and they tried to get to the party.

So I’m trying to be of a help, but the second one is, do you respect your future spouse? Because the fact of the matter is, it matters what we do with our body now. Would you want your future spouse to see what happened in your life this past week?

I guess another thing is, what we have to offer your future spouse. God wants you to offer everything. thing.

Purity. You say, preacher, but you were 21, you got married, you were involved in drugs, you listen. Yeah, I wish every day of my life that I had more to offer my wife at the wedding order.

I could offer what I had. Friends, the fact is this, you don’t have to, as Dr. Jim, I’ve heard him say this to another man, you don’t have to swim in the sewer to say that it stinks or to know that it stinks.

Friends, so if you could look at some of us folks here today that been in there, like Matt Weber. You know, if you look at their life and say, wow, they’ve been there, and take the warnings. If I could say it this way, physically some of you are pure, but mentally some of you have nothing to offer your spouse.

Nothing at all. As I said, wouldn’t it be good to stand at the wedding altar pure? Have that white dress mean something?

What if I said it this way? What if, ladies, listen, this is great. What if Prince Charming came walking down this aisle?

Oh, my soul, he had to park his trusty white steed outside, and he had to hang his chainmail armor up out there because it was too heavy to get down the aisle. And he bow-leggedly walks down here after a hard ride to get to you, and he comes and he kneels down in front of you, and he says those words that you’ve longed to hear, Sweetheart, I love you.

So there he is on one knee, and he says this. He says, you know, he says, I’m going to take you to the finest restaurants, the finest ones in town. He said, because, because I know they’re the finest ones in town, and I know because of this reason, because I’ve taken Sally there and Susie there and Janet there and Marcia.

I’ve taken them all there. And then he proceeds to say this, and by then, you’re thrilled, right? Right at this time, you’re excited about this.

And he says, well, he said, you know, the next thing I’d like to do is, he said, I would like to, I would like to just look in your eyes and tell you I love you. I would love to do that. So he begins to do that, and he says, you know why I’m so good at this?

He says, because I’ve told Susie and Marsha, and I really didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean it with them, but I really mean it with you. And I’ve told Sally, and I’ve told them all I love you, and I can fashion it just right for you.

And soon, I hope, I hope that I can get a kiss from you. I really do. I hope I can do that.

I know some of you junior highers are saying, yuck, yuck. I understand. but some of you are hoping for that.

And he says this, I can kiss you just right because I kissed Sally and Susie and it sounds pretty dumb, doesn’t it, ladies? Yeah, isn’t that the kind of guy you want to get with? Isn’t that the kind of guy you want to marry?

Isn’t that him? Isn’t that your dream? No, no, no, it’s not.

No, it’s not at all. Fellas, fellas, listen to me. It’s not the cool thing.

That’s not what to do and I understand cool is not a cool term anymore. I get that. But what I’m telling you is this.

You don’t have to practice to have it perfect. And you don’t have to go and practice to have it right for the right one. Do you believe God has a right one for you?

Do you? That was a question. Do you think that God has the right one for you?

So why are we looking at all the wrong ones if we don’t know what the right one is? See what we’re saying? God makes it very plain.

He makes it very simple. Ladies, can I help you out? And I want to be of a help because emotionally sometimes, I mean, guys get angry and they get frustrated, but emotionally sometimes, ladies, emotions tend to get laid on your shoulders a lot more because there is a reality to that, okay?

If he loved you, he would wait. Oh, that’s true love. If he loved you, he would wait for the best.

He really would. But preacher, you say he’s the one. Young lady, he’s not the one until the preacher says you may kiss the bride.

That’s when he becomes the one. Okay, so maybe it’s respecting yourself. Maybe there’s an issue there, and that’s the case if you’re committed fornication.

Maybe it’s the respecting your future spouse, and we don’t see that completely, but that is the case. And the third one, are you prepared for the consequences? There’s consequences for every time you play fast and loose.

There’s consequences every single time. Do you know that Galatians 6 says this, and this is really in a good context. We’ll use it in a negative.

It says, be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Do you know it costs roughly between $3,000 to $8,000 to have a child, and that’s if nothing goes wrong? Listen, some of you fellas can’t even get up in the morning, let alone raise a family. And friends, all I’m telling you is this.

That’s just the beginning of when the bills start coming in. I had three kids in diapers. Actually, we got one out just before the other two went in diapers.

Friends, I spend $80 every time I go to the store just on diapers. Some of you say, man, I couldn’t get that next video game. I understand what you’re saying.

Did you know the teenage pregnancy rate goes according to this? Per year, 750,000 teenagers will be pregnant. Per month, 62,500 will be pregnant.

Per week, 14,423 teenagers will be pregnant. Per day, 2,054. And by the time we’re done with this session, 86 teenagers will be pregnant.

Friends, the fact of the matter is it’s real. Do you know experts say this, and whoever the experts are, they say two out of every three teenagers that have a baby never finish high school. It can be done, but it’s extremely difficult.

Listen, imagine your future child is growing up where you live currently.

what are they going to know about mom and dad yeah yeah your mom was a oh my yeah your dad yeah see what we’re saying folks it’s a reality there’s always a consequence listen I don’t know if some of you realize this you ever stand in front of mommy and daddy when they’re fighting on the verge of divorce I remember sitting on the couch at my house way back on 209 North Lincoln, Avenue, Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania.

I remember sitting there. My mom had a big old orange door. I could never forget the house.

I don’t know why she did that. Everybody looked and laughed all the time, and I was an insecure little kid anyway. So there’s the big orange door, and we’re sitting inside.

I remember turning around and asking my mom and daddy. We were watching something on TV, and I remember turning around and saying, Mom, Dad, you’d never get divorced like they would, would you? Well, they said, No, we’d never do that.

Friends, I’ve talked with men that have said stuff like this. Now, unfortunately, it did happen in my family. My father had some issues at the time, and there were some other things at this time.

I love my daddy, but there were some issues at the time. And I will tell you this. It really bled into some other things and some consequences in the family, which led to divorce.

Listen, if you play fast and loose with your body, you mark this down. Someday, and at this time, you are destroying a future marriage. That’s what you’re doing.

You go through the same things, and you’ll put your kids through the same things that you don’t want to put them through. I’ve witnessed my father and my mother fight so severely, my friends, to when my dad’s laying on the back porch getting beat by my sister and my mom because of immoral mindsets. No, friends, I’m just trying to be a help.

There’s consequences. You say, I don’t want to go there, preacher. I’d never do that.

I’d never get involved in those things. Well, friends, to be honest with you, that’s the road that some of us are on. Not only is fornication warned against, not let not once be named among you, but an uncleanness as well.

And I’ll simply explain it this way, and I’m not going to completely get into it for sake of time, but uncleanness is anything that leads up to the fornication and anything thereafter. It all has the idea of impurity. it has the idea of the sensuality of all different kinds.

So we have the purity of body, we have the purity of thought. Purity of thought, purity of thought. You know, this is really the realm where it gets many of us right here is in the purity of thought.

What is present tense in the body is past tense in the mind. What you’ve done already in your body has already happened long ago in your mind. What you think about, if not dealt with, you will do.

Proverbs 23, 7 says, For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. Eat and drink, saith he to thee, but his heart is not with thee. You say, where do you get thought out of this passage?

I hope this is a help to you. Our passage here speaks of covetousness. Verse 3 says this, But fornication and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not once be named among you.

There’s your blank, covetousness. Consciousness here does not refer to greed for money, but sensual greed. That’s what it’s talking about in the passage.

H.A. Ironside said this, It is a disgusting greed of sensual gratification, the vilest thing of which the human heart is capable. And I am talking to teenagers in this room, maybe adults in this room, that are coveting immorality.

We’ve already been introduced to it already in this preaching time, the realm of pornography. Friends, did you know that it matters what we look at? Job 31.1 said, I’ve made a covenant with my eyes.

Why then should I think upon a maid? Psalm 101.3 said, I’ll set no wicked thing upon my eyes. I hate the work of them which turneth aside.

It shall not cleave unto me. I guess the verse that comes to mind is, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife. Ladies, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s husband.

You say, this doesn’t feel too comfortable. I guarantee the rest of the message isn’t going to be comfortable at all.

it’s not a comfortable message do you know that one of every four people that look at a pornographic website is a young lady eight out of every ten young men from the ages 8 to 15 had viewed hardcore pornography could talk about a boy named John John was at a youth pastorate down south and he was loose he had looked at pornography quite a bit it was not dealt with as a teenager and as he was there in this youth pastorate position.

A young lady, much younger than him, she was under age according to the world standards. She was 17 years of age. She got rather friendly with him and they found themselves in a situation that they ought not be in and they committed an act which they shouldn’t have committed.

Well, it didn’t take too long until the state police were then at the church. And they put him in handcuffs and they took him right down to what we would say is the holding tank. And then he ended up in a state prison.

Do you know this gentleman, this youth pastor, had a boy that was three years of age that time? Time I heard this news, I had one son, he was three years of age. Did you know that he’s in jail for the next seven years?

And he gets to see his boy twice a year. I don’t know what I’d do without my son, friends. You say, why was he in a situation like that?

It was obviously he found himself in one weak moment. No, no, no, friends, it wasn’t one weak moment he found himself in. It was a progression of weak moments that he never, ever dealt with.

And I guarantee this, I sat in Bible college with this man, and I guarantee if he would have walked forward and got right with God in some of those services, it wouldn’t have been in the situation he was in. Friends, he was just never dealt with. And some of you say, I’m going to deal with it someday.

Can I help you out with a popular misconception? Some of you say, when I get married, it’s all going to be solved. That is a lie.

Because it’s never solved when you get married. And friends, the fact of the matter is this. If that were the case, then we’d have countless preachers, laymen, and people of the world that wouldn’t get caught up in this.

Friends, the fact is it’s true. And it doesn’t get solved. I was counseling a young man down in Easley, South Carolina at a Christian school.

It was 2003. I was traveling with Dr. Jim Van Gelderen in his ministry, Special Forces to the Christian Schoolers.

He came back. I’d been praying for him all week long. He was not at the Christian school itself.

He was a public school. He played football in town. He was a big old boy, and I remember he came back that night, and he was in tears.

We’d been praying for him all week, and I’d really been praying about his salvation, did not realize that he was saved already, and he began to heave and say, I can’t stop thinking about it. I said, son, I said, you can’t stop thinking about what? He says, I can’t stop thinking about it.

I said, son, did you fight with your parents? Did you have a problem with your parents? I said, is there something with your girlfriend?

I don’t know. What happened? He says, I can’t stop thinking about what I’ve been watching on the Internet.

He says, I can’t get it out of my mind, preacher. Let me help you out with this idea of scars and things like this. Did you know that when you look at an image, it’s going to scar your mind?

And I don’t know what some dream world some of us live in, and maybe I lived in it for some time too. I used to think, well, it’s going to wash itself away someday. Are you ready?

Scars never leave. That’s why they’re called scars.

You have them until you get your glorified body you have them until you walk into heaven I would like to live in some dream world and say well man I’ve done that and it’s not going to affect me the rest of my life that’s not true it’s not true at all.

Now I’ll be honest with you getting right with God helps that completely because now you’re in God’s team you’re on God’s side.

But friends at any time the devil can come and try and conjure up those scars and start pushing at them again say remember this weak spot right here Friends, it’s better not to put anything in it at all.

It’s better not to get involved in it at all. And unfortunately, when I talk about this young boy down south, you probably heard the testimony of more people than we’d like to admit in this room. You said you’re saying I’m guilty to unproven innocent.

No, I’m just talking statistics, friends. That’s the way it is. They say that 50% of the people that sit in congregations have a problem with pornography or are involved in it.

So, friends, I’m just giving you statistics. Ladies, let me help you out because so many times it didn’t used to be your realm at all. And fellas, I fear that we’ve led ladies down this realm.

But when you pick up a magazine and you see a guy and you lust after him and you understand what that means, I’m not going to get into detail, but when you do that, you mark that down, it’s called pornography. It’s pornography. It’s pornography of the mind.

Let it not once be named among you, the Bible says. Not once let the thought process be named among you. that once let the coveting of immorality be named among you.

I’d be foolish not to enter into this realm, but let me help you out with the Christian romance novels. I’ll be honest, friends. Christian and romance, not even go in the same sentence unless you’re dealing with your wife, husbands, right?

My wife, and I’ll give her testimony. I’ll be able to help. She said I could do this.

My wife used to read Christian romance novels. Even after we got married, she had these things. Jeanette Oak, and whatever other name you want to put in there.

It’s okay. You know what you read. I don’t know what you read.

I ran into a pastor’s wife that reads these things. I was grieved. My heart was grieved.

Now, this is why. It puts you in a false understanding of what a man really is. Did you know that your future husband does not have a script that he can read every day of his life?

I know it’s hard to believe. You think that your future husband is going to be perfect. But listen, he doesn’t have a script that he can read down.

And he doesn’t say, okay, and he was over in this moment at this time in his rippling biceps and this. It just doesn’t happen, friends. Okay?

I know you’re thinking rippling biceps. I’m glad he said that. I was looking at his arms.

But no, listen, hey. My wife would read those novels, and actually after we got married, she stopped reading them, but she still had them up here. I remember they were under our bed, and they were heavy.

I’ll tell you the story about that later. I know they were heavy for one reason. But there they were all sitting under there, and my wife said this.

She said, it puts me in a different realm. It makes me want something that I just can’t have, and it gives me false expectations for a husband. And you know what I told her?

I can’t be that man right there. You know what she did? She got under conviction, is what she would say.

And she made me take those novels and throw them in the trash can. That’s how I know they were heavy. She didn’t sell them or do anything else.

But I will tell you this, there is a false understanding that people say that these Christian novels are okay and they’re not. They’re not. I hate to be the first one to tell you, but you said they make me feel right there’s the problem.

Anytime feelings trumps the word of God, there’s a big issue there. And friends, that’s what the Christian romance novels do. You say, but they never, well, I understand.

You can justify it any way you want to. I’m just trying to be of a help to you. I’m trying to save your future marriage someday.

I’m trying to save your thought life right now. I’m trying to see your Mondays change, your Tuesdays change, your Wednesdays change. That’s what I’m trying to do.

I can say it this way. If you’re right now desiring your improper thought life, you’re on your way to a future marriage. Some of you are from homes where you’ve been so protected.

I know this has been touched on. I was talking to a man at a camp out in Wisconsin. I was preaching just this two weeks ago.

He came forward to me and he said this. The boy was in tears. We had dealt with the issue of pornography.

and he looked at me and he said, you know, he said, my parents protected me from Awana. They wouldn’t let me go there. They wouldn’t let me go to the youth group.

They wouldn’t let me do anything. They wouldn’t let me stay at friend’s house. They wouldn’t let me get involved in anybody’s business but our own family business.

They always protected us. And then he said this. He said, but have this iPod.

He said, yeah, they put protection on it. He said, but they trust me. he says I found a way around that just like some of you huh he said this he said I can envision myself taking this iPod and crushing it into a thousand pieces on the ground he said Mr.

Fisher I can envision myself sitting next to my father watching a football game and not having guilt in my heart from what I looked at and what I’m thinking about.

Friends let me ask you a question is that iPod really worth it not having God’s hand on your life.

With tears in his eye what this boy did is what we’ve been trying to to train to show you from the bible and what we need to do and and he went he called his father he talked to him for an hour and 45 minutes on the phone.

That boy came back weeping just weeping there was such a spiritual battle at that time he dropped to his knees before he called his father he dropped to his knees and he said there’s something in my head right now there’s something telling me not to get right there’s something he was under the attack of the devil.

And friends that’s the same thing that happens at invitations when you say I’ll deal with it on my own we’ve tried that before it doesn’t work friends.

If you’re dealing with the area of pornography in the area of a thought life you need something you need someone to lean on to help you somebody stronger than you to lean on now that’s not going to work at two o’clock in the morning in the middle of the night You need to realize that God’s grace is sufficient.

You need to set up some blocks in strong times. You need to set up some areas in your life where you know that you don’t have any temptation or you can’t give in to that temptation late at night, okay? That means you take the computer, you move it somewhere else.

That means you take the iPod and you say, Mom and Dad, I can’t be trusted. You take this. I’m going to bed now.

Do you see what I’m saying? You’ve got to set up things in your life to protect your thought life. Listen, your accountability partner is not going to be there.

It’s not enough because some of you say, I’ve had an accountability partner. and it hasn’t worked, has it? No, why?

Because we haven’t engaged with that person. That may be the part of it. But in the middle of the night, it’s not your accountability partner you need.

It’s God that you need. That’s the problem. Okay, so friends, all I’m telling you is this.

You make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. You put not the computer there to fulfill the lust thereof. It really works that way.

Purity of body, purity of thought, and purity of speech. Purity of speech. It says, neither filthiness.

Neither filthiness has the idea of cursing mentally or physically. Now listen, maybe you haven’t been saved for a long amount of time. Maybe you just got saved just not too long ago, and you don’t realize that it’s not good to curse.

Let me help you out. It’s not good to curse. God says, don’t let filthy talking happen.

This was a no-brainer for me when I got saved, but honestly, I remember talking to a young gentleman on the phone, and I had a filthy, filthy language before I got saved. I remember one time talking to a guy on the phone. He was another youth group member.

I was a leader in the college and career group. And I remember talking to him on the phone, and something came out of my mouth I had not heard in a long time. And I’m not going to repeat it.

Friends, it shocked me. It shocked me. But some of you guys use that language every day.

Every day you use that language. It doesn’t shock you anymore. Oh, I did it first, but it’s okay now.

It’s okay. Friends, all I’m telling you is it’s not. It’s not.

And some of us know better. They call it filthy language, cursing, cussing, among other things. I was at a basketball game at a church group that was having, it was probably five years ago now, maybe six years before I married my wife.

And we’re all playing basketball. And sometimes, you know, what happens on the basketball court shouldn’t stay on the basketball court. It should just be your life.

Okay, I hope you understand what I’m talking about. Sports sometimes gets separated or divorced from what normal Christian living really is. And what happens on the basketball court is some of us blow up.

We get frustrated, and who we really are comes out. Okay? Some of you are saying, some of you understand sports.

Some of you understand football. You understand what it’s like to take a hard hit and not walk away like a man, okay? Friends, but the fact of the matter is this.

I was there, I was playing basketball, and there was this gentleman coming down the court. He got an improper elbow. It was a moving foul.

It was definitely a defensive foul all the way. Well, he saw it too. But he wanted everybody else to know what had just happened.

So he started to expound upon what happened out of his mouth. Oh, there was cuss word after cuss word came out. Friends, I was shocked.

Listen, I got saved, and I expected my lost world to do that, okay? I expected the guys that I hung out with to do that, but I never expected a Christian to do that. I never expected it.

Well, friends, the fact of the matter is that’s what happened. Nor foolish talking. It really means crash joking.

It means talking like a fool about unclean things. Talking or foolish talking literally means a fool’s talk. Matthew 12, 36 says this, But I say unto you that every idle word that a man shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

You say every word? That’s what God said, every word. Matthew 12, 37 says, For by the words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be contemned.

Really, this has the idea of telling dirty jokes or off-color or unclean jokes is really what this has the idea of. And listen, some of us think it’s a big joke. And some of us guys, we get in the locker room and we start telling an off-color joke.

And we start telling something that’s not right. We understand it’s very inappropriate. It’s very sensual.

It’s very something else. And we put a cuss word in there. We do something.

And this is what I’m telling you. And this is what the verse is telling you. don’t let it be named among you.

It’s not even to be mentioned among you. But some of you understand that. And if I could say it this way, the Holy Spirit is dwelling inside you.

I think all of us understand this. Every time you speak, every time you laugh at it, every time you entertain the thought of it, God says let it not once be named among you as become a saint. Not one time.

Now listen, this seems like a no-brainer to us, but I wish it wasn’t happening. I wish it didn’t happen. Fool is talking.

God is grieved that fool is talking and jesting. Another word that implies a deeper sense of joking about the things that should never, ever be talked about. That’s all that jesting is.

Takes it to another level into the sewer. Verse 5 says this, For this ye know that no whoremonger, that goes right back to fornicator. Now they become a whoremonger.

Here it is. Whoremonger nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater. Interesting point.

hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. So this is not what the Bible is telling you. The Bible is not coming at this time and saying, listen, if you’re doing these things, you’re not saved.

That may be the case in your life, but that’s not what it’s talking about. No, what it’s talking about is, Christian, listen, people who are unsaved are doing these things. You’re saved and you’re in the inheritance of God.

As a matter of fact, you’re a joint heir with Jesus Christ. You’re more than a conqueror with God. You’re a child of Jesus Christ.

You’re a child of God. You’re a child of the king. That means this, that you are entitled to everything that Jesus Christ is entitled to.

Friends, you’re adopted. Your name’s written down. So what he’s telling us is this.

They, don’t. Don’t let these things be once named among you. Why?

Because that’s not what you are. Teenager, that’s not what you are. You say, I’ve never been to Bible college.

It does not matter about Bible college. I’m telling you, this isn’t what you are. You don’t talk filthy.

You don’t act filthy. You’re not a fornicator. That’s not what you are.

You’re not a covetous person over immoral things. You don’t talk about unclean things. You don’t think about unclean things.

That’s not what you do. And it seems like a no-brainer from where God’s coming from. He says if you’re born again, you’re blood-bought.

You’re not a fornicator. You are holy. You’re not covetous to sexual things.

No, you are righteous. you do not listen to speak about or laugh about dirty jokes. You are more than a conqueror.

That’s what God says. Let it not once be named among you. Why?

Because it’s not what you are. And some of us are acting the fool. That’s not what we are.

Listen, you’re putting a show on in front of other people. It’s not what you are. Jesus said that you’re always triumphing in Christ, 2 Corinthians 2.14.

You’re more than conquerors, Romans 8.37. That’s what we are.

We’re not living up to an inheritance that’s all that it’s talking about it says my father is rich in houses and lands he holdeth the wealth of the world in his hands of rubies of diamonds of silver and gold his coffers are full he has riches untold.

Teenager he has riches untold they’re for you all he says is stop that stop acting that way stop saying those things stop thinking those thoughts Stop giving in to your desires and give in to my desires.

You say, what is revival? Revival is simply listening to Jesus Christ and doing in his strength what he wants you to do. It’s really that simple.

You can live in revival moment by moment, day by day, doing what God wants you to do based upon his strength, not yours, because we’re weak and he’s strong. Listen, you’re entitled to everything that Jesus Christ is entitled to. You’re a joint heir with Jesus Christ.

Purity of body. God expects us to be pure. Purity of thought, God expects our thought life to be right.

In purity of speech, we ought to talk right as well. It’s high time we stop failing and stop falling and start acting like soldiers. It says so many lost and dying, so many going to hell.

Because of that dear soldier, instead of fight, he fell. Friends, we ought not find ourselves picking ourselves off the ground all the time. We ought not walk into a situation and feel the need that we have to talk filthy.

Because of what the world’s doing. Do you realize Dr. Bob Jones Sr.

used to say this, God and you in every situation are the majority. We ought to be like David, dropping giants and chasing armies. Some 15-year-old boy dropping giants and chasing armies, friends.

We act like poppers. Remember Michael Jordan, 1997, fifth game of the series, Utah Jazz. It was called the flu game.

Best game I’ve ever seen Jordan play. I remember that. Some of you say that I wasn’t too old.

That’s okay. 1997, great game. I think it was among the times that we’ve seen him play, he was worth 35 points that game.

He had the flu. Listen, some of you guys, if you were playing on Jordan’s team and I was playing on Jordan’s team, we’d probably be, we’d be in the same place. We’d both be sitting on the bench, okay?

So there we are. We’re sitting on the bench. And this is how, like, some of us are.

We’re sitting on the bench and 45 seconds to go. And there’s Jordan. He’s about to make another fadeaway jumper.

And there he is. He runs to the baseline. There he is, Air Jordan from the baseline.

Unbelievable. And there are some of us with our head in our hands. And we’re saying, I just don’t think we’re going to win.

I know there’s 45 seconds to go and we’re 50 points ahead. But I just don’t think we’re going to win. I just don’t think we’re going to do it.

Do you know, friends, the game’s been over for about 2,000 years. Really has. The victory’s already been won.

Some of us are sitting there living like paupers. We’re still sitting on the bench with our ring on our hand, our NBA championship ring, and we’re sitting there with our face in our hands, our hands in our face, and our face in our hands, and we’re saying this, I just don’t think we won. I think the world’s got it figured out.

I’m going to go over there with them. I think they’ve won, and Christ hasn’t won. Friends, God says, let it not once be named among you as become a saint.

Why? Because it’s not who you are. God wants you to live free, but we live in bondage.

That’s why we’re drawn back to the computer at 2 o’clock in the morning when everybody else is sleeping. That’s why we’ve got to figure out how to get around it in our iPod. That’s why we justify it, we erase it, and then we put it back on there.

And then we erase it, and then we put it back on there. Why? Because we’ve got the shackles back on again.

But you’re supposed to be sitting at the king’s palace, at the king’s seat. But you’re hanging out in the dungeon. Thomas Constine’s history, the three Edwards, described the life of Renaud III.

He was a 14th century duke in what is now called Belgium. He was grossly overweight, and he was called by his Latin nickname many times, Crassus, it means fat. Very simply, Edward, his youngest brother, led a revolt against him, and Edward captured Renaud, but he did not kill him.

Instead, he built a room around him in the Newark castle, And he said that he promised him he could regain his title and property as soon as he was able to leave this room. This wouldn’t have been difficult for a man of normal size, but we know that Reynald was not of normal size. To regain his freedom, he needed to lose weight.

But Edward knew his older brother, and each day he sent a variety of delicious foods. Instead of dying in his way out of prison, Reynald grew fatter and fatter. When Duke Edward was accused of cruelty, he said this.

He says, my brother’s not a prisoner. He may leave when he so wills. Reynolds stayed in that room for 10 years, wasn’t released until Edward died in battle.

Yeah, a prisoner of his own appetite. Listen, you may have a problem with eating, and you may be a jolly heavy man like Mr. Ingram was talking about.

That may be the case. I’m not talking about your eating. I’m talking about the bondage that you’re in right now.

The same thing that keeps you in your seats when it comes invitation time. The same thing that keeps your mouth closed when you ought to be saying, Mom, Dad, I’ve been doing these things, I’ve been seeing these things, and Mom, Dad, you can’t trust me. You can’t trust me at the computer.

You can’t trust me at the TV in my room. You can’t trust me. Friends, the same thing that does that is the same bondage that holds you back.

The question is, I suppose this way, do you really want revival? Because you can have it. It comes with obeying God.

It comes with an invitation when God, here’s all an invitation is. It’s God inviting you to talk to him. That’s all an invitation is, is God saying, okay, I’m inviting you to talk with me what I want to talk with you about, and you know what it is.

So, friends, very simply, the first step is this. If you really want revival, you can have it, and it starts with the confession of sin. That’s really the first half of it.

And if you want God’s power, you can have it. It comes in that sense. So what do we do?

1 John 1, 9, right? Why don’t we say it together? Can we do that?

Can we say it together? 1 John 1, 9. We’ll just start with if, okay?

If we confess our sins. Well, let’s stop. We’ll get everyone to the same page.

We’re going to say 1 John 1, 9 together. We’ll say that all together. And we’re going to start with if, okay?

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God ever lied to you? Yeah, he’s never lied to me neither.

Think he’s lying with that verse right there? comes old hat to us, doesn’t it? It was hit last time.

It was hit in the last session. It was going to be hit in this session. It was going to be hit again.

That if you confess, God will cleanse. Every time. So confess simply means this.

Confess means to agree with God about your sins. Mr. Ingham used the illustration.

God’s over here. You’ve got to get on his side and say no to your side. Can I help you out regardless of the feelings?

Because your body may feel like still being on this side. And God’s saying no. It doesn’t matter about your feelings.

I know it feels like your world may crush and it may crumble and it seems like it’s a dark hole at the end of the tunnel and it seems like it’s just darkness from here on out if you get out. And God says, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, that’s not right.

Your feelings aren’t right. There’s light at the end of the tunnel. There’s peace at the end of the tunnel.

There’s freedom at the end of the tunnel. And you’re not looking at the bad grades and you’re not looking at the possibility of failing a test. You see what I’m saying?

You’re failing a class. You’re not looking at those things. So what God’s simply saying is this.

The first step is confession of sin. Agree with God about your sin. So if you found yourself, you’re involved in fornication, and young lady, I tell you what, I feel sorry that your purity is gone.

I really do. But you can start purity again right now. You really can.

You can’t get back. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry you can’t get back.

There’s consequences for sin. But you can be clean with God and your parents right now. Young man, I’m so sorry.

You’re not going to get rid of those scars. I hate to say it. I wish they’d all wash away, but they won’t.

They won’t. There’s consequences. There’s consequences.

And God will use those scars like he does in my life to help other people. He really will. He’ll use them in your life now.

The fact is, you can start afresh and anew right now. Right now. If you agree with God.

So you say, I’ve been involved in fornication. You know what you need to do? You need to come to God and say, God, I’ve been a whoremonger.

I got a problem, God. I got a problem with wanting to do this or acting this way. And you need to go and get it right with God.

Now, in that case, I’ll be honest with you, friends. you probably need to go and get it right with a couple other people, and you would realize who those people are. What about covetousness?

This is what you need to do. You need to say, God, I’m coveting these desires more than I’m coveting you. Fellas, you need to man up.

It’s time to man up. Listen, you can be a man about basketball. You can be a man about soccer.

You can be a man about football. But when it comes to being man for God, nobody wants to man up. And all I’m telling you is this.

It’s time to man up. it’s time to be a soldier. It’s time to be lockstep with Jesus Christ and what he wants to do.

It’s time to be honest about our sins. Listen, if you’re man enough to tell the dirty joke in the locker room, you ought to be man enough to stand before God and say, God, I’m weak. I’m weak.

I need your help. I’m confessing to you what you already know that I can’t do it. It’s really what we need to do is come to God.

You’ve got to step to the plate, friends. You’ve got to take the swing. You’ve got to call sin.

You’ve got to call it like it is every single time. We want everybody else to call it like it is. We need to call it like it is.

That’s the only way to freedom, friends. It’s being humble, being honest with God. And then what else?

You’ve got to expect. You’ve got to expect. You can be honest with God and then you expect him to be faithful.

And you expect him to cleanse because that’s what he’s saying he’s going to do. It was 1999 at the corner of Evans and Monaco in downtown Denver, Colorado, and there I stood in front of a liquor store. Probably the first and last time I’ve stood in front of a liquor store ever, especially after I got saved.

I was standing across from a mutual friend. His name was Mark. I say mutual because he’s those friends that Matthew was talking about.

He was one of those. He had a golf club in his hand, and I had a golf club in mine, and the police out there are kind of on a 15-minute run. Every 15 minutes, they go by the same place.

And they rolled around the corner, and I looked at Mark, and he looked at me. And in the next instance, we were about to change our lives forever. I let that golf club roll down my arm.

I lifted it, and I swung at that plate glass. There was a neon sign that was hanging there, and it all dropped to the ground. Mark went rushing in, and he grabbed three gallons of liquor.

We ran away to what was the getaway car out back. young lady Lisa was driving and we got, we drove down the median into the neighborhood. We pulled back over into Mark’s neighborhood, pulled in his driveway, got rid of everything, cleaned up.

He had cut his hand and got them all cleaned up. And then we went back to the party that night. Honestly, I didn’t think anything about it.

That night I didn’t think anything about it until it was five years later that there I was. I was sitting in a ministry out in Boulder, Colorado. Boulder, Colorado had neighborhood Bible time.

I was traveling probably the craziest time that I’ve ever had in my life was neighborhood Bible time. They took two young evangelists. It really didn’t matter if you’re an evangelist or not, but they took two young guys, and they just let them go out and do whatever they wanted to do.

And I’ll tell you what, I’m surprised we didn’t split churches. Maybe we did. I don’t know, but we had a great time.

Friends, there I am. I’m sitting. I was just new to all this Bible reading and new to all these different things.

And I was reading 1 Peter, and basically it said, in a place in 1 Peter, it said, if they persecute you for doing right, then shame on them. Okay, this is Mike Fisher’s interpretation. And if they persecute you for doing wrong, then they’re justified.

But so, okay, I’m reading through this, and I begin, and then God brought this up to me. He said, remember that liquor store that you broke into in Denver just miles away years ago? Oh, I said, yeah, I remember that, Lord.

He said, you’re going to need to get right about that. I didn’t understand Proverbs 28, 13, that if we confess our sins, or that he that covered this sin shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsakeeth shall have mercy. I didn’t realize that verse, but I was starting to experience it through his word.

And I looked down and I said, I’ll tell you what, Lord, I made a bargain. I praise the Lord that he dealt with me again, and he usually does, but sometimes, to be honest with you, friends, he doesn’t. But I praise the Lord that he dealt with me again, and the next day I said, Lord, if you show me the same thing tomorrow, I’ll deal with it.

Well, I didn’t know my Bible that well, friends, and I don’t know it that great today. I didn’t know it well at that time, and then you know what he did in the next chapter? He showed me the same exact thing.

I said, okay, Lord, whatever you want me to do.

I remember traveling down to that liquor store with Dan Reeves Dan Reeves, a graduate of Pensacola, Christian College I don’t know who was more nervous, him or I I don’t think, I’ll tell you what I expected I expected jail time at that time That’s armed robbery, friends, when you have a weapon Regardless if there’s somebody in the room or not.

So there I stood in front of the liquor store owner The door was swinging wide open Again, it was a very busy intersection And as I walked in, I looked off in the corner, and there was a Rottweiler sitting over in the corner.

It probably went about 85, 90 pounds. Regardless, it had a bigger mouth than mine, and it would probably fit around my leg. And right over here underneath the liquor bottles, the vodka bottles, was another Rottweiler sitting over here.

So I was scared. Why? Because they’re big dogs.

They’re big dogs. They could bite you, and I didn’t like that, and they were well trained. Little Oriental man came to the counter, and he looked up at me, and I said, Sir, I said, I just want you to know that it was just years ago I broke into your liquor store and I wanted to ask for your forgiveness.

Friends, he said this to me. He said, can you wait here a second? I’ve got to go to the back and check something.

What do you think he was doing? I’ll tell you what I thought he was doing. He’s calling the police.

I didn’t cry. I didn’t do anything at that moment. I could have ran out the door, but I feared that he would run out and say something in some Oriental language and those dogs would start chasing me, okay?

But I was manning up. That’s what I was doing. I was saying, I’m weak.

I need your strength, God. I’m standing right here because you told me to stand right here at this moment. He came back.

He motioned for me to come in the back, and I thought, well, he’s buying time until the cops get here. I guess I’m just going to sit down and wait. I sat on a keg.

He sat on a couple cases, and I said, sir. I said, it was years ago I broke into your liquor store, and I just want you to know I got saved since then, and God has showed me that I need to come down here. Well, he didn’t understand all those things.

You know what he told me? He says, I was broken into five times that year. He said, which one were you?

Oh, I said, well, the dogs weren’t out. He says, oh, let me think. He said, you stole this, you stole this, and you stole this.

And I said, that was me. I’m so sorry, sir, I’ll pay for anything you want me to pay for. I’ll take the jail time.

I’m sure the police are on their way. He says, no, son. He says, I’ve never, ever had anybody come down here and tell me this.

He says, I’ve never had anybody come down and mention to me anything about breaking into my liquor store. Friends, you know that day I got to give him the gospel. I’d like to say that he got saved.

I’d be overjoyed and it’d make it so much better of a story, wouldn’t it? I’ll tell you what’s even better. That summer I walked out in the ministry.

We saw 250 kids come to the Lord. Can I help you out? I never would have saw that, ever, unless I would have stood in front of a little Oriental man in a liquor store and said, I need to get right with you.

And friends, God laid his power on our team. Do you really want God’s power? Do you really want revival?

Well, it’s really a confession away for some of you. It’s that one thing. It’s that one thing that’s holding you back.

Get out of the prison house, friends, and get in to God’s presence. Friends, it’s his reviving presence. It starts with confession of sins, purity of body, purity of thought, purity of speech.

That’s what God wants for you, and he empowers you to do it. Every head bowed and every eye closed.