Ryan Swanson: Hello and welcome back to the Satisfied Podcast here on the Thee Generation Network.

I’m Ryan Swanson and I’m excited to jump back into the series that we’ve been working through.

It’s been hard for me to break this up because normally this is something that flows better all in one session, but it would take too long for what we need to do for these episodes.

I will say there’s been probably as much or more feedback on this series than any other series that we’ve done already.

The last episode, the last two episodes, there were several that found those helpful, and I do appreciate it’s actually helpful to me when you let me know how the Lord’s using it in your life.

So I’m all the more excited to continue on here, because really our first episodes have just been building to what we’ll discuss today and more next month.

Next month is when these are all going to come together, and I think you’ll see the reason that we’ve done all this.

A lot of this has been review.

Last month, talking about the availability, internet filters, the necessity that.

We discussed those things back in the episode, I don’t know, a couple years ago called Buy a Filter or Be a Filter, and we were referencing that some last month.

So some of this has been reviewed, but I’m glad to hear that it’s still being helpful.

But today we’re dealing with that third aspect.

And I told you we’re kind of going backwards through these, but the three things required for pornography, the prerequisites of pornography, we’ve called them, are desire, availability, and isolation.

Desire, availability, isolation.

We dealt with isolation first.

That matter dealt with in Ecclesiastes chapter 4.

And that is, And that, of course, is dealing with that matter of availability that we’ve talked so much about, the court app and how that functions.

But then last month on availability, we discussed how an internet filter could really step in to help make no provision for the flesh, and how unwise it is to have that unchecked availability on your devices and other ways around you.

But today, you guessed it, we’re dealing with desire.

This matter of desire, and I say this one should come first, and we’ve been working through these backwards and only now getting to it, for a couple of reasons.

Number one is because arguably this is the most important of the three categories, and we will prove that.

So that should be pretty obvious.

We may actually wait to do that next month, because next month’s podcast is going to be synthesizing all three of these.

How do they function together?

But it is, so it should be number one, because it is the most important.

But secondly, it’s because it’s the most dealt with.

At least in my circles and probably our circles, this is the category that we focus on the most.

Again, that is rightly so because it is the most important, but we hear a lot about this.

So it’s easy on a purity podcast like this and in our ministry to focus on the things that we have not heard much about, that we have not heard emphasized, or truths that we’ve not implemented as much in our lives.

And I think that could be said of those other two categories, availability and especially isolation.

But this one of desire has been dealt with quite a bit.

That doesn’t mean that we’re all set in this area, absolutely not, and we have some pretty keen application on that today that I’m excited about.

But all that to say, we can easily miss this one just because we feel it’s assumed, and that ought not be the case.

This is why we took a series, might have been our first official series, a year and a half or so ago, and we discussed our relationship with God and how to pursue a relationship with God.

And man, I learned a lot through that series as we studied that through.

I was pretty excited about that.

And again, a lot of feedback from that series as well.

I think that many found that helpful.

If you haven’t listened to that, you, of course, could go back and listen to those podcasts.

If you go to thegeneration.org slash satisfied, Bobby Bosler has now split all of our satisfied episodes into those different categories or series.

So you can choose that series and listen through those if you’d like to do that right from the website.

But all that to say, we started that series because I realized how I was emphasizing everything else, assuming our relationship with the Lord, and we just can’t move past that.

It has to start there.

It has to be involved.

And so this aspect of desire, as we’ve discussed each one of these categories, these prerequisites, we have given Scripture that supports the battle in that particular arena.

And so, of course, I’ll give you a couple here in this matter of desire that are just as common scripture passages, such as, walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

How about, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?

By taking heed thereto, according to thy word.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And then how about, in Matthew 5, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Now, in different ways, every one of these passages are dealing with that aspect of desire.

The first one, maybe the most common and the most clear, is walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill that lust, that desire of your flesh.

But also, these are dealing with replacing that desire for lust with a desire for, and a relationship with the Lord and with His Word.

So the obvious application from a category like this would be read your Bible and pray every day, right?

I mean, that’s not bad counsel.

We’ve heard that many, many times.

That is the first counsel that we’re given when we’re dealing with some type of addiction, specifically impurity.

You’ve probably heard it.

I’ve heard it.

The question that first comes is, how’s your relationship with the Lord?

Did you read your Bible this morning?

Have you spent your time in prayer?

Now, some of you, when I mentioned that, are a little bit repulsed because you think of men, women who have said that to you, well-meaning, but you didn’t feel like they understood what was really going on.

You just thought that was kind of the cop-out, the easy answer is just read your Bible, pray every day, and that never worked for you.

So, you’ve just kind of written that off as that’s the old advice from people that don’t understand.

And I want to challenge you on that Because I’ve been there.

I know what you’re saying.

Not that I didn’t have people that were caring and trying to invest in me, but I know what it’s like to feel like that old advice is not as applicable anymore with these new and heightened attacks from the devil.

We’ve got to find something new.

Well, let me tell you, you can run to accountability, you can run to internet filters, but you cannot skip your relationship with the Lord.

It’s not going to work.

Again, next month we’ll be looking at more of how these function together, and I’m excited about that.

But you cannot skip this matter of desire.

It is the most important.

I was listening to an older preacher not too long ago preach an old-fashioned message on purity, and it was great.

I was enjoying it.

And then he said something that kind of stiffened me up a little bit.

He said, if you really, truly had a relationship with Jesus Christ, you would not look at pornography.

And I really had to think about that one, because it sounds too simple.

And to me, it sounded like it was coming from somebody that, oh yeah, they don’t really understand the issue.

But if he’s preaching that, understanding these verses that we just went through, walk in the Spirit, you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Well, you’d have to say he’s right.

He has to be.

And that’s because if you were truly satisfied with Jesus, you wouldn’t have a desire for anything else.

We talked about this back in our podcast, Quenching the Crave, that was a part of that Search for God series.

That same desire that has led some to inappropriate relationships and immorality and others to viewing issues and addictions.

That way, that same desire, when satisfied with intimacy and vulnerability and trust with Jesus Christ in that relationship, will never look elsewhere.

He will be totally satisfied with Christ.

So then, if you’re like me and you’re hearing this, you’re probably thinking, all right, practically, what does this look like, though?

I get it.

I get it.

I need a relationship with Jesus.

He needs to be everything to me.

But what does this look like?

And I remember getting just fired up as a teenager hearing messages from preachers that would come into our church.

And I remember one in particular precious guy came in and preached a message in our church.

And I loved the message because it was so clear in how Jesus is the answer.

And I realized I was turning to other things, and I was really excited.

Coming down to the end of the message, I’m thinking, here it goes.

He’s going to give us what this looks like.

Give us the application.

Give it to me.

I’m ready.

You name it.

I will do it.

I’m ready to have this relationship with Jesus.

And the guy just closed down the message.

It was done.

So I wanted it, but I had no idea what this looks like.

And again, that’s part of the reason we did that series on a search for God, is to give some practical application there.

But there’s a specific aspect of this relationship or search for God that is the one that we need to focus on right now.

And that is the matter of desperation.

Think of this verse in Jeremiah 29, 13.

And ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all of your heart.

Seek, find, and search.

If you’re seeking God and you expect to find him, then you better declare a search.

Now, a search is different than seeking.

It’s different from just looking for something.

You look for a lost wallet.

You search for a lost child.

I was driving a couple years ago and noticed on a telephone pole a missing persons alert, a poster there that was a missing child.

And you could tell from the verbiage that had been posted by a parent of this child that was missing.

And I noticed as I saw this poster driving by that it looked pretty old and weathered.

And I thought, I wondered how long it had been there.

But my next question was, how long will it be there?

In other words, if this person is still missing, and presumably if that’s still up there on the pole, this child is probably still missing.

So if they’re still missing, at what point is that parent going to come by and say, I might as well just take it down.

I’ve given up hope.

They’re gone.

We’ll never find them.

I don’t know that a parent would do that.

I don’t think if a mom went there and hung that sign up to find her lost son, I don’t think she will ever come back to take that poster down.

Someone else is going to have to do it.

Unless she finds her son, she’s never coming back to take that down.

Maybe you’ve heard the story of the Chinese family who back in 1997 had their two-year-old son taken from them.

He was out playing in the front yard evidently and his parents weren’t looking at the moment.

And a dating couple had seen him playing out there and decided to snatch this little boy and sell him for money.

So they did that.

They took him, unbeknownst to the parents, sold him in a neighboring province there in China.

And this little boy’s parents had no idea where he was.

Well, his father got a motorcycle and started riding across the country chasing tip-offs.

Anything he could find, any information that would lead him to his son, he declared a search.

And it’s said that in the next 24 years, he spent that entire time searching China. 20 different provinces he visited.

He’s said to have traveled over 310,000 miles on his motorcycle looking for this son.

He experienced injuries through traffic accidents during that time.

He was victim to highway robberies during that time, but he would never, ever give up because he had declared a search.

Then finally in 2021, after going through 10 motorcycles in that time, he finally found him.

And he was reunited with his son.

Now 26 years old, last he has seen him, he was two.

I’m sure there’s many other examples of stories like this where a parent has been unwilling to halt a search because a true search does not have an expiration.

And I’m sure many parents have gone to the grave without having the joy like this one did of actually being reunited, even after a quarter of a century goes by, being reunited with the one that they were searching for.

So I’ve got a question for you.

If this parent takes so seriously his relationship with his son, so he’s willing to declare a search, an indefinite search for him, 24 years go by, and it’s totally worth it for him.

He spends his entire life savings, goes through all that he does, travels 300,000 miles, gives up his entire career, and it’s totally worth it for him just to find who he was searching for.

So how seriously do you take your relationship with God?

How long have you searched?

Or would that even be how we should describe what we’ve done with our relationship with God?

I think we maybe have looked for him.

We’ve asked for him. but we’re told that we’ll find him when we search for him.

And if you’re at a point where you’d say, well, I tried that once.

I tried that relationship with the Lord.

I sat down and I asked the Lord to meet with me and I didn’t hear from him.

Well, what’d you do, walk away?

Because a search is what we’re promised we’ll find him.

And a search doesn’t end with walking away.

A desperate search will never end until we find him.

And that I think is one of the most important principles you could get under this matter of desire, is you won’t find Jesus until you’re desperate for him.

Twice now I’ve been speaking to a room full of adults, and I’ve just given opportunity for anyone to stand up and give a quick testimony of the first time that Jesus was truly real to them.

I didn’t know exactly what I’d hear, but I thought it would be worth asking, worth listening to these testimonies.

So I just threw it out there with no other context, just that question.

And immediately, in both instances, people started raising their hands, standing up, and would, with tears many times, explain a significant trial in their life that led them to realize they couldn’t do it without Jesus.

They would turn in desperation to him and find him and be satisfied with him alone in their trial, in their need.

And I think it was without exception, in both instances, every person that gave testimony, their experience with Jesus was so real because they were desperate for him.

Now, that’s neat to hear, but it’s hard to hear too, because you may be thinking, well, if a relationship with the Lord is necessary in order to be protected in this matter of desire, and desperation is required to have that relationship with the Lord, then how do I get desperate?

How can you manufacture desperation?

And you really can’t.

All these instances that the stories that are given are not things people chose.

It’s things the Lord had to do to get their attention.

And you’re going to be frustrated if you think you’ve got to wait until some trial comes along before you can have a relationship with Jesus.

But if you take the principle of that desperation, I think there is something there that we can do.

Desperation is simply realizing that you have nowhere else to turn.

And so you’re desperate for the one thing you have left.

But at any point, we can acknowledge that Jesus is the only one that we have who will meet our need.

And there is, I believe, a God-given tool for living in that desperation instead of just waiting for another trial.

A way to acknowledge and live like Jesus is our only hope.

I was preaching at a church in Michigan recently when a young man there raised his hand and asked if he could give a testimony.

I turned to the pastor to be sure it was okay and then told this man to go ahead.

He said that he struggled with pornography for years until he did one thing.

He said before he started fasting on a regular basis.

Now my first thought was, well, maybe that’s just a correlation and a tie to some cometh not out but by prayer and fasting, and so maybe this was a specific work of the devil in his life that needed to be routed out in that way.

But as I talked more with the gentleman and thought more on this, I think it’s much bigger than that.

See, fasting, we often think of as it’s our way of getting God’s attention.

I’m going to put myself through something so God knows I’m serious about whatever I’m praying about, and then maybe he’ll hear me.

But get this, the issue is not getting God’s attention.

The issue is getting our attention.

The reason that we’re not desperate for Jesus is because what some have called thirst quenchers, things outside of Jesus that are quote-unquote meeting that need.

They’re gratifying.

They’re not satisfying, but they’re gratifying.

Obviously, this includes sinful habits, but it’s not even just that.

This could be anything that you’re doing on a daily basis that is quenching your need for your Savior.

And this was so expected that this would happen, that God actually gave us a means by which we can remind our bodies who’s really in charge, that we can remind ourselves where the true sustenance is coming from, that we can refocus our trust and our dependence and our sustenance on Jesus Christ through this tool of fasting.

Now, of course, reading your Bible and spending time in prayer are means by which we converse and develop that relationship with Jesus.

But I think the reason that we don’t make that a priority and we don’t spend that time that we want to in prayer and Bible reading is because we’re not as desperate for Jesus as we need to be.

And that’s where this matter of fasting could be the next step for some of us.

Having a regular time of fasting.

This young man in particular said twice a week he now spends in fasting.

And that for him has been both a rewiring and a reminder each week of where his sustenance is truly coming from.

So I wanted to share that and I’d love to hear testimony from others.

Maybe you’re in a similar situation where you’ve already seen God work through that matter of fasting in this area.

Maybe as you begin to implement this, you want to share how the Lord is using this in your life, but I have no doubt that this is going to be a huge part of our relationship with Jesus as we get desperate for Him, not by waiting for the next trial to come along, but by being willing to lay aside things that are taking our focus.

And that most obviously is food.

Again, not because it’s something wrong.

There are wrong things that take our focus, but the reason we lay aside food is to reckon the fact that there is something better.

There is someone better.

And food is probably not the only thing you need to set aside in order to be truly desperate for Jesus.

Maybe during that same time you have a technology fast and put those aside, because anywhere where you’re receiving gratification is going to keep you from being as desperate for Jesus.

So put those things aside, whatever you can, on a regular basis.

Have a time that you do that.

You put those things aside so that you can reckon your desperation before Jesus, that you can acknowledge how much you truly need him.

And so that now having your attention focused on Jesus, you can truly search for him with all your heart.

So why don’t you take some time right now to ask the Holy Spirit to point out the things in your life that would need to go on a regular basis, maybe indefinitely, maybe things just need to be gone, but maybe things that need to go on a regular basis, a meal a week, two meals a week, a day or two a week, whatever it is, maybe technology for a certain period of time, things that need to go, and the Holy Spirit’s going to make it clear to You don’t need to ask him for the rest of your life.

Just ask him what you need to do for this coming week or this coming month, and he’s going to make it clear to you.

And take that step, declare a search, and become desperate before the Lord.

Because we cannot skip this matter of desire.

Your relationship with the Lord must be your highest priority in your purity journey.

A search for purity is a search for Jesus, and it starts by getting desperate.

Now again, I’m excited about next month as we’re going to lay these three categories out and see how they function together.

We’ll put them in order of priority, of importance, based on Scripture, and then we’re going to see what would it look like to take all three of these seriously, and in what ways have we failed at really giving the entire counsel of God in this area by recognizing the battle in all three of these areas—desire, availability, and isolation.

That’s coming next month.

Join us for that, and I think you’ll be excited as we get to the climax of this series.

Well, that’s it for today, and I appreciate you joining us in this discussion of desire as we’ve learned how to be less gratified and more satisfied with Jesus Christ.

Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Thee Generation Podcast.

If you’ve been blessed or helped in any way by this episode or any other episodes, please consider sharing what God has done in your life.

Your testimony could be exactly what someone else needs to take their own step out of the boat.

To share your testimony, please visit thegeneration.org. slash testimony.