Jim Van Gelderen: Let’s go ahead and go to the book of Romans chapter number 13, Romans 13. And I won’t ask which team’s leading because I don’t want to lose control of things, but I’m sure somebody is. We’ll find out in a moment. After the next competition, put the points back up and get things continuing to go here. So we’ll look forward to that.

Romans chapter number 13. What’s good to be here? I didn’t start the day here. I started the day in Pennsylvania, drove two hours to Baltimore, Washington, and got an airplane in Baltimore. And then when I was flying into Milwaukee, guess what?

None of the runways were working. know why too many air traffic controllers called in sick you know why they called in sick because they’re not getting paid anyway okay but anyway so uh finally one runway open we got in here so i’m grateful for that so um well i’m glad the warmax does not depend on the government shutdown what do you think about that okay so we’re going ahead ahead of it i know most how many know there’s a government shutdown raise your hand okay how many have no clue what i’m talking about raise your hand. Well, you don’t want to really raise your hand. Okay. But anyway, okay.

Romans chapter number 13, and we’re going to deal with a very important subject matter. You know, young people, I certainly enjoy preaching to teenagers. It’s probably what I do more than any other preaching venue. I would say probably teenagers, college students is number one, then adults. And I certainly always enjoy preaching to young people for a variety of reasons.

But one of which is this, you have a whole life. If you make the right decisions now, you have a whole life for that in your life. I like to tell young people, particularly when they sign the pledge for the generation, it’s not a promise of perfection. It’s a declaration of direction. When you make a decision for Jesus Christ, it’s never a promise of perfection.

You know why? You couldn’t keep it. But it is a declaration of direction. See, a decision means that when you’re done making the decision, you’re going a different direction. That’s what a good decision always is.

And you may not do it perfectly, but you are in a different direction. And years from now, that little change can make a huge, significant difference in your life. So even in this session, some of you are gonna be confronted with making a decision. It will not be a promise of perfection, but a declaration of direction. And I hope it’ll be, for some of you, a literally life-altering direction here today.

I wanna deal with the issue of besetting sin, besetting sin. Besetting sin is a sin that you can’t shake. Sometimes, biblically speaking, we call that a stronghold. Several years ago, an evangelist was preaching here, and he said a stronghold is not necessarily a sin that gets you every day. It might be, but it’s a sin that gets you on a regular basis and you can’t shake it.

For some, a stronghold might come back every three months. It might come back every couple weeks, but it comes back. That’s the point. You can’t shake it. That’s a besetting sin.

Our world would use the word addictive or addiction. Several years ago, I was listening to a radio preacher, kind of well-known for his urban ministry at the time. And he said, one of the problems with the word addiction in American English is that the nuance of it, at least used in our country, is that it’s not your fault. You’re addicted. In other words, I can’t help it.

I just do what I do. And he said, that’s the problem with the word. Because I will say, friend, although the Bible uses the word bondage, and bondage is a real thing, when you become so enslaved by a sin, it doesn’t seem like you can shake it, there was a day when you could say no and you didn’t. You know, that’s a sin, the word sin assumes human responsibility. It assumes the fact you made a decision to sin that you didn’t have to make.

The Bible says every time we’re tempted, there’s a way of escape. So if we don’t take the way of escape, that’s called sin. And sooner or later, if you continue not to take the way of escape, you’re gonna find yourself enslaved and in bondage to that sin. and so I like the Bible word besetting sin. I also like the word stronghold and I also like the word bondage though occasionally in the message I might say addiction or addictive but when I use those words I’m using it in the sense of the Bible sense of besetting sin.

Sure, we may be at a point where we find it almost impossible to say no but there was a day when we could have but we didn’t take the way out and found ourselves in bondage. So I want to deal with, if I could please, the anecdote or the cure, you could say, to besetting sin. So if you have a sin you’re struggling with and you can’t seem to have victory, what in the world do you need to do, biblically speaking, what steps of faith do you need to take to find yourself delivered from the bondage of that sin? Now, one of the things I have found over the years in working with young people, it’s really a thrill to me whenever I find a young person who finds freedom from a sin they were enslaved to. Just a couple of months ago, I was in Greensboro, North Carolina, large Christian school.

We were there two years ago. A junior in high school walks up to me. He says, Brother Van Gelderen, you were here two years ago. He said, two years ago, he said, I took steps toward dealing with the issue of pornography in my life. He said, I just want you to know I’ve been sober.

These are his words. I’ve been sober for two years. Now, you know what he meant by sober, not talking about alcohol. He’s talking about that issue of looking at filth. He said, basically, I’ve had victory now for two years.

Now that is what a preacher loves to hear. Not just a kid making a decision, but now you find he’s no longer enslaved. He’s free. He’s no longer having to find that sin resurfacing in his life and find himself defeated on a regular basis. Now what about you?

Some of you may be, it should be anger. You struggle with constantly, perhaps expressing anger toward parents or perhaps siblings, and that may be your issue. Some may struggle with worry. Some may struggle with other issues, coping mechanisms like eating disorders. And some, unfortunately, in the immoral world in which we live, may have made poor decisions when it comes to the internet and you find yourself addicted to looking at things on the internet that are completely inappropriate and have no business looking at.

I don’t know what your issue is, but probably there are young people in this room that find themselves this afternoon in bondage to sin and you’re wondering a way out. Let’s look at Romans chapter 13, if we could. Several, about a year ago, maybe two years, it was two years ago in the fall of the year, probably about November. So probably just a few, a month or two from now, I received an email from a missionary in the country of Kenya. It was a small Bible college there.

Some of you may be familiar with that Bible college. And I would guess 25 to 30 students, most of them men. And in 2018, I went to minister there in January of 2018. And I remember at that time, I noticed that the Kenyans were behind America’s technology in a technology fashion. The young men that were students in that school, if they wanted to use the internet, had to go down to an internet cafe and that’s how they use the computer.

And so I just noticed that they were a few years behind America. And so this Bible college director, he sends an email to Pastor Van Gelder and myself, there may be a few other people on it. And he said, this was 2000, I guess there’d be 23. He said, you know, he said, now most of the students have cell phones. Now it’s a little different.

In our country, you get a plan and you have unlimited data or you have so much data, but there they continually buy data. So they have a phone and they’ll buy some data, use it up. Then they buy some more data, use it up. That’s kind of how they do it there. It’s a little different.

And he said, now most of our students now have cell phones. He said recently in a chapel, he said, it came out that most of our young men are defeated with their cell phones and looking at things they have no business looking at. He said, he asked me, he said, Dr. Jim, would you come over and would you bring Ryan? That’s my son-in-law, for those of you who know Ryan Swanson.

He does the Satisfied podcast. And so I said, would you guys come over? And so just in January, so we had to quickly make arrangements, which we did. We went over there, and I think it was January of 24, and we had a purity seminar. None of the ladies were invited.

It was just the male students and several pastors from the area came. And it obviously was somewhat significant. For them, they had never been to anything like this. But of course, the problem was a new problem in the sense that before that, you didn’t have individual cell phones. You just had laptops.

You’d go to a cafe. And evidently, because of the public nature of a cafe, that was not an issue. People weren’t accessing things on the internet that weren’t appropriate at that time. But when they got their cell phones, the problem began to be significant. So had us come over there.

And I dealt mostly with sanctification. I was kind of dealing with the theological side. And what does the Bible teach about how to walk with God? And my son-in-law, Ryan, was doing a little bit more of the practical. And I remember while he was doing the practical, he said something.

And when he said it, I thought, man, that’ll preach. He said, you have to have three elements when it comes to a besetting sin. Well, you have to have three elements when it comes to a sin that puts you in bondage. Number one, you have to have isolation. Isolation.

Obviously, if the right people know about it, you can’t continue in that sin. So you have to have some manner of secrecy or isolation. Now, sometimes in a family, anger may not be, you may have an anger problem, but only the people in your family know about it. Maybe there’s a certain amount of pressure not to talk about it outside the family. And so that anger in a certain sense is isolated.

Okay. So number one, you’ve got to have isolation. Number two, you have to have accessibility. If you can’t access the opportunity to do that sin, then you can’t do it. Okay.

So you have to have isolation.

you have to have accessibility and probably most importantly you have to have desire those three things it takes to have a besetting sin in your life so if you have a sin in your life that you find yourself defeated on a regular basis i pretty much guarantee you it’s a sin that occurs in isolation it’s a sin you have accessible there’s a way to do it and get away with it and then thirdly you have to desire you got to want to do it there’s some of you that don’t get into certain things you know why because you don’t want to do it uh i when i grew up i don’t remember one time not one time not one time do i ever remember being disrespectful to my dad not one time not one time not one time did i sigh not one time to roll my eyes not one time did i debate with him or argue with him not one time you say oh preacher you you must have been a really good kid no if you lived in my home you wouldn’t have done it either you might have done it once but that would have been the last time now when i think of my dad i don’t think it’s somebody who could swing a belt though he could i think it’s somebody who loved me unconditionally so please get the context but he did not tolerate disrespect my dad did not tolerate disrespect in fact if you want to get my gander up and see a side of me you don’t normally see be disrespectful to your parents in my in my presence that’ll fire me up like almost nothing fires me up and i know where it came come came from my dad so can i say when i was growing up i never had a desire to be disrespectful to my dad.

Never. And you know, as a result, I never did it. See, and I’m not trying to put your parents down, but you’ll learn this in parenting. Whatever you tolerate, you’ll have to deal with. And whatever you don’t tolerate, you won’t deal with.

And for my dad, that was one thing he didn’t tolerate. I mean, disrespect was like, it was, there was one thing you’re not going to do. And I’m thankful for it because the Bible says, if you don’t honor your parents, you won’t live long on the earth. Okay. So he was actually doing me a favor.

Okay. So, but, and I hope you realize how important that issue is, but you gotta have desire if you’re gonna do something wrong. So we see those three things now. Now let’s just look at them and let’s see a Bible anecdote and an answer, if we could say, to deal with those three things. So if you got Romans 13, let’s start with verse number 12.

Let’s deal firstly with the issue of isolation. So you say, okay, preacher, how do I overcome the issue of isolation? Okay, look what it says in verse 12. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light.

Okay, now that’s figurative language. Let us cast off the works of darkness. Now, isn’t it interesting? God calls us the sin, the works of darkness. And I would say much of the time is not true that a lot of secret sins are committed in darkness.

How many windows are in a bar? Not too many. There’s certain places of sin that are just not very light. In fact, I’ve seen several magazine articles, secular and Christian, trying to deal with the issue of the internet issues, particularly some of the filth on the internet issues. And often you see a picture in the magazine article or maybe on the front cover of a guy, and they’re viewing the guy right behind his computer.

The laptop computer is putting light on his face, but it’s in total darkness. And it almost immediately gives you the idea that he’s looking at something he ought not. Okay, the works of darkness.

so God’s saying let’s get rid of the works of darkness let’s put on the armor of light clearly figurative language so how do you do that how do you get rid of darkness and put on light I mean how do you do that I’m talking spiritually speaking yeah it’s a really good question and you know what the next verse tells you how look what it says let us walk honestly as in the day here’s how you overcome isolation get honest with the people that you need to get honest with that’s how you overcome isolation you’re not in isolation anymore yeah just recently i was in a church and a man comes to me uh after i preached on romans 13 and he said brother van gelden you you preached to me tonight that’s exactly who i am he said i’m struggling with the internet issues and i he said nobody knows he says you’re first you’re the first person i’ve told you know my advice was him was to him have you told your pastor yet no he He said, I’ve tried a few times, I always chicken out.

Well, I will be honest with you, before that meeting was over, I was grateful to see him go to his pastor and tell his pastor and start, of course, getting the help he’s going to need biblically to overcome that issue in his life. But it all starts, friends, with you got to get rid of isolation. One of Satan’s greatest weapons to keep you in bondage is secrecy. See, some of you are doing things behind your parents’ back. I don’t know what the issue might be.

It might involve a computer, it may not. It might involve phone, it might not. but it’s an issue, you know, behind your parents’ back, and maybe it’s with some friends of yours that maybe your parents don’t know everything about them, and there’s things going on, and they’re talking in certain ways, and things are being said, things are being watched and looked at, and there’s things happening, and you know in your heart, this isn’t right. But you know, the temptation to stay in that situation is there as long as nobody knows. I have a young man on my team, and his testimony is always so powerful because he talks about what it took for him to get right with the Lord.

And he had a chat group that he was with a bunch of friends. His parents had no idea that he’s with these guys who were ungodly guys. And they had this chat group going. And unfortunately, they were all in the church. And they went to a church camp.

And the rule at that church camp was, you had to leave your homes, leave them at home. And so this young man on my team left his phone at home and didn’t turn it off. Must have left it with a charger and didn’t turn it off. And all those friends brought their phones to camp. And so here they are, not supposed to have phones.

And one night, right soon after they got there, they began sending texts to one another. And unfortunately, the chat stream was pretty filthy, pretty dirty, pretty vile. And unfortunately, some of you know exactly what I’m talking about. It just went south fast. Of course, they were texting him.

He had no clue. He didn’t have his phone. But he forgot to turn it on silence. And so at home, guess what his mom was hearing? Ding, ding, ding, ding.

His phone was getting lit up. I think this is so funny. God’s had a sense of humor, doesn’t he? Be sure your sin will find you out. So the mom picks up the cell phone and guess what?

She sees a long text stream of absolute garbage. I mean, before 24 hours were out, in fact, he said the next day when he woke up, every one of those guys were gone from camp. He was the only one left, obviously because he didn’t bring his phone. And that was the week that God used to change his life. You see, some of you know what I’m talking about.

Things are going on behind your parents’ back. You’re in isolation. The very first step toward deliverance is always honesty. Look what it says. Let us walk honestly as in the day.

In fact, it’s very interesting to me that right after that statement, God gives us three duets of darkness. I call them duets of darkness. Look what it says. Not in rioting and drunkenness. Not in chambering and wantonness.

Not in strife and envying. Three categories of sin that God says, If you’re ever going to have victory, you’re going to have to get honest with people about this. You cannot act like it’s not a problem. You’ve got to walk honestly as in the day. The first one, substance abuse.

If any of you in here dealing with the issue of alcohol, dealing with the issue of vaping, dealing with the issue of tobacco, dealing with the issue of any kind of abuse of subscription drugs, any kind of drug abuse, if you’re involved in any of that, God is telling you if you want victory, you can’t be isolated. You won’t have victory in isolation. You got to get honest with the people who love you and care about you. A few years back, I had a young man that traveled in our ministry several times, and he came to me, and he was really bummed out. I knew his father had just died, and he said, Preacher, he said at the funeral, I found out something out of my dad I’d never known.

He said, I can kind of suspect of it, but he said, I found out my dad my entire life has smoked cigarettes. He died in his 60s, and that’s untimely. I mean, that’s not in our modern-day culture. That’s pretty young for even a male. And he said as a result of his cigarette addiction, he died early.

He shortened his life by this secret sin. Now, let me just say, cigarette smoking is not the worst sin on the planet. I get that. My dad used to say, cigarette smoking will not send you to hell. It’ll just make you smell like you’ve been there.

Okay, yeah, I think that’s a good way to put it. Yeah. But I remember that young man just being absolutely burdened about the fact that his dad had hidden that sin and it shortened his life. You know, I’m telling you, if you’re vaping or smoking cigarettes, you need to get somebody and say, hey, mom and dad, I’ve been doing stuff behind your back. And I’ve gotten addicted.

Because undoubtedly, room this size, some of you know what I’m talking about. Some of you have no clue, but some of you know what I’m talking about. Now, God is telling us that when you get to substance abuse, that one of the things you got to do is you got to get honest. You struggle with alcohol, you got to get honest. I don’t care what the issue is.

God’s telling us that is an issue that demands honesty. Otherwise, you’re going to be like, not only like the illustration I guess gave, I remember when I was a kid your age, I was, my dad pastored the Marquette Man of Baptist Church. Every Saturday morning, they have a men’s prayer breakfast, and I don’t know, 50 to 100 men would come. It was quite a remarkable thing. And one day, of course, Chicago, you know, they’re all finishing the prayer meeting, and then they’re getting their coats on to go down to a restaurant for breakfast, and one of the men, and I’ve known this man, I knew this man growing up, and he came to church every time the doors were open, and he leaned over while he was putting on his coat, and a pack of cigarettes fell out.

And he turned to the rest of the men who were a little bit surprised, and he said, oh, somebody framed me. You know what my thought would be? Hey, you can do better than that. Not a very good excuse. We all know nobody framed him.

All those kids struggle spiritually. See, some of you are going to do the exact same thing because you’re learning to live a double life. And God is simply saying, if you want victory over these things, you got to deal with the issue of isolation. So I’m done with that. I’m getting help.

I’m going to get to, if I might, Maybe you have unsaved parents, then get to a youth pastor or a pastor. If you have unsaved parents, if you have saved parents that you know will help you, get to your parents. But the point is, you need help. Now, that’s the second duet of darkness. The first one is substance abuse.

The second one is not in chambering and wantonness. Now, chambering and wantonness is a really, really interesting phrase. And actually, it’s really blunt. And that’s why I love the King James English here. It’s appropriate.

but it’s dealing with the moral impurity arena. And we could go into the specifics of the words and they’re basically these words describe the whole arena of moral filth. It’s like life without moral boundaries. It’s the world in which we live, moral, immoral, excess, filth, whatever. However you want to put it up, that’s what it’s talking about.

So the second area, God’s saying, if you want victory, you’ve got to get honest about it is in the moral arena. Any young man, young lady out here looking at pornography on the internet, looking at filth on the internet, if you want victory, you’re going to have to stop getting in isolation and you’re going to have to start getting honest. You’re going to have to call mom and dad and say, hey, mom and dad, you need to know what I’ve been sneaking behind your back. That’s what you got to do. And I say it almost all the time.

I hate to address these issues, young people. I’ll be honest with you. And I hate to be the guy that everybody says, oh, there’s Dr. Jim going on it again. But if you were in my shoes, you’d preach on it.

Every Christian school I’m in, two issues. Number one, bitterness. Number two, moral impurity. Every week, every week, every week, every week, every week. I don’t know how many guys I have had say to me, Brother Van Gelder, I never told anybody, you’re the first person I’ve ever told them, tell me about the fact they’re looking at junk on the internet.

I don’t know how many times this happens. Happens all the time. Basically happened two weeks ago. And so you realize this is a huge issue. This is an issue that’s everywhere.

And if you’re struggling in the moral arena, and you’re struggling with moral failure, and you’re struggling anything in the whole immoral, just atmosphere of our world, God is saying, if you want to get victory, you’re going to have to get honest with the right people. You need help. The Bible puts it well in the book of Ecclesiastes. Two are better than one. For if the one fall, the one will help up his fellow.

But woe to him that’s alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him out. Now accountability is not everything, but it is something. So honesty. Some of you, you’ve got a secret sin, nobody knows about it.

and there’s things you’ve done things you’re sneaking things you’re doing nobody knows about it the truth is spiritual people probably know something’s wrong they know there’s something missing in that kid’s life but generally they may not be specific so god is telling us let us walk honestly as in the day first substance abuse then the moral impurity arena reminds me i was just a few years ago i’m christian school and in fact i i remember we were eating pizza one night after our second rally night of the war and we were there a little longer than we normally would be probably 11 o’clock which was kind of late but normally what none of us would be there normal but we were there and all of a sudden the car pulls in the parking lot i thought wow that’s strange 11 o’clock who’s that door opens kid gets out i don’t know six foot two i mean big old boy probably 220 pounds well built one of the big athletes in the school he walks into the room and he looked like he had had a heart attack.

He looked awful. I called his name. I said, hey, what’s up, man? Can I help you? He said, preacher, can I talk to you?

I said, absolutely. I said, do you mind if your team captain comes? Well, that’s okay. Do you mind if the youth pastor comes? Well, that’s okay.

We sat down in the room. Can I say this young person? I knew exactly what he was going to say. We sat down and I called his name again. I said, how can we help you?

He starts to cry. Cried, I don’t know, 10, 15 minutes. He starts to cry. It took him a while to get it out. He said, seven years ago, he said, saw something on the internet I never should have saw.

He said, unfortunately, I didn’t tell anybody about it. He said, I got curious. And he said, I’ve been hooked for seven years. Just sobbed. You know, my friend, that’s the first step.

Let us walk honestly as in the day. Some of you need to get honest. You’ve been playing a game. Hey, can I say this carefully? You know how to get your home church.

Everybody thinks you’re a good little kid and all the old ladies pat your hand, tell you what a wonderful little Christian you are. You know how to play the game. You’ve got it down, but I will tell you, you will stay in bondage until you stop playing that game. Isolation, first way. Satan keeps you in bondage.

And the way to overcome it is real simple. Get honest with people who love you and care about you and have a responsibility for you spiritually. Okay, let’s look at the second thing. And Romans 13, we will see the next phrase is in verse 14. It says, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.

But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let’s just be honest with you. This deals with the issue of desire. Because for many of you in this room, you cannot imagine a life where you don’t desire the sin that has you in bondage. Some of you guys in moral filth cannot imagine a place where you would not desire what you’re looking at.

And you think, that seems impossible. Now, I don’t have time to fully preach on this, so I’m going to promise you that tomorrow we will fully develop this point. I can’t develop it now. I’m going to come back to it. So I’m preaching you two parts of a three-point message.

And that’s a good thing because we wouldn’t have time to fit it all in. But there is a way, friend, I want you to know right here, there is a way to see victory in your desire. because I will tell you, God is bigger than your desire to sin. And there is a way to victory that you never thought possible, but it starts with the fact you want victory. You want victory.

I don’t, you say, I don’t care what it takes. I want that victory. It all has to do with putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, because when you put on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will see supernatural things happen in your life. You cannot explain in a natural way. Unsaved people cannot comprehend.

They can get the isolation thing. Unsafe people who are one out of addictions and bondage, that’s why they go to AA. That’s why they go to these different accountability groups. They get that. They get the honesty thing.

Get out of isolation. Unsafe people get that. Unsafe people cannot get what I’m telling you. Who puts you on the Lord Jesus Christ? Because they don’t have the Lord Jesus Christ.

They do not understand the supernatural being a part of deliverance. And tomorrow we’re gonna fully develop How can that supernatural be a part of your deliverance? And it’s so important that you get a hold of it because if you get a hold of it, you’ll see victory you never thought possible. Why? Because it’s supernatural.

It’s not explained through human means. It is explained through divine means. So we’ll leave that for tomorrow, but I wanted to leave it there. But that brings us to the third one. So we’re going to just deal with two and then we’ll deal with the other one tomorrow.

But the third one is found in the last verses of part of verse number 14. But put you in the Lord Jesus Christ, and here it is, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. Now that particular issue would be the issue of accessibility. In other words, deal with what’s accessible so it’s not accessible is really what he’s saying. Don’t make provision for the flesh.

Can I say the first part of the verse is very theological, it’s practical too, but it’s very theological and the last part of the verse is extremely practical. Based on the theology we’re gonna deal with tomorrow. God said, based on the fact of who you are in Jesus Christ, man, don’t give the flesh an inch because that’s where you’ll find failure. The flesh is your issue. And if you walk after the flesh, you’re going to be defeated.

If you walk after the spirit, you’re not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh. So, so he comes in basically, practically speaking, you’ve got to deal with accessibility. Now in the 1990s, I know it’s hard to believe, but I preached in the 1990s. Yeah, That’s before all you guys were born. Okay, I preached in the 1980s.

Okay, I preached in the 1970s. Okay, but anyway, I’ve been around for a while. But I remember in the 1990s, there was a stretch. It probably was a several year long stretch. I was very burdened because culture was fast changing.

Now, when I was growing up, media consisted of this, ABC, NBC, CBS, and in Chicago, WGN. Yes, that was media. Four choices. Can you believe that? four choices.

No YouTube, no internet. I mean, if you’re going to go to, you know, you’re going to do anything. I mean, it was, had to be on those, media-wise, had to be on those four channels. Or actually, it was a fifth channel. We called it Channel 11.

That’s where Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood was, Sesame Street. We didn’t even count that. We thought that was the dumbest channel on planet Earth. We did not count that.

Anybody who watched Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood or Sesame Street, it had issues, you know, I’m talking problems. Okay. They were really, uh, they were in trouble. Okay.

But, but anyway, so we had four, four networks and don’t get me wrong. Uh, you know, sometimes now we think, oh, those were the good old days. A lot of the media in back had problems, embryonic problems. I get that. I could, I could sit here and tell you every problem about the Andy Griffith show.

I could tell you every problem about Hogan’s Heroes. I could go through all those. They were fairly minor, but they still were problematic. Okay. There were certain philosophic issues.

And I’m not saying it’s wrong to always not watch those. I’m just simply saying they weren’t as squeaky clean as sometimes they’re made out to be. There were issues there that still need to be thought through, but they were minor compared to what today was. And so I grew up in the golden oldie days and things kind of took a step down in the 70s, got a little bit more progressive, a little bit more push in the envelope. And in the 80s, it pushed the envelope another step.

I can remember these decades slowly getting worse, but none of us were prepared for the 90s. Because the 90s, something happened. You know what it’s called? Cable. And all of a sudden, you didn’t just have ABC, NBC, CBS, and WGN.

Now you had multiple channels. You had the movie channel, and we didn’t have them, but I remember all these different channels that you had. Cinemax, I think there was, HBO, and all these different cable channels. And that was a big deal. But at that point, guess what?

things really took a turn downward in moral filth. And at that point, there became a problem we had not really had before. The programs back in the 60s had their issues, but you weren’t dealing with, I mean, it’s kindergarten compared to the garbage today. And it was even kindergarten compared to the 90s. Now we had a problem we never had before.

You know what it’s called? Accessibility. Before, if you wanted that kind of filth, you had to go down to the sea part of town and buy something but now you could just you had cable and some parents unfortunately bought packages didn’t research at all and now there was accessibility that was the 90s the different than you’re in and so i got burdened about it and you know what i got most burdened about now hang on you know what i got burdened about teenagers who had tvs in their bedrooms you know why because you had i didn’t i wouldn’t have framed it this way back then, they had accessibility and they had isolation. And unfortunately, sometimes they had desire to, in many cases they did. So I started doing something in the 90s as I was preaching.

And sometimes I’m preaching at camp where there’s 800 kids. Sometimes I’m preaching at camp where there’s 50. And I was preaching all these different camps and of course doing our war of special forces. And I began to make a challenge, I would say to thousands of teenagers, I would say guess 10,000, I could be wrong, but it was a lot of teenagers. I made this challenge.

I said, if you have a TV in your bedroom and you have never watched anything to offend Almighty God, I want to hear about it. I wanted to find out how many teenagers had accessibility and isolation and somehow were able to avoid looking at something that would grieve Almighty God. I wouldn’t have framed it up that way because I didn’t think about the isolation accessibility, but that’s exactly why I was burdened because there was accessibility like never before and a TV in the bedroom was isolation. Now, I don’t know, two or three years went by, asked that question. Do you know how many teenagers came up to me?

I think some of you’ve heard me say this before, but those have not. Do you know how many teenagers came up to me and told me that they had a TV in their bedroom, had never watched anything to offend Almighty God? One. And I remember it was kind of an afterthought. He came up, asked me a question.

He was walking away and he turns around and he says, oh, by the way, preacher, I got a TV in my bedroom. I’ve never watched anything to offend Almighty God. I said, wow, that is great. You’re the first one. I said, how did you do it?

He said, I never turned it on. Okay, yeah. Yeah, that’ll work. Thousands of teenagers and ones come. You know what they were basically all telling me?

They were proving the point that accessibility, isolation, and desire is a perfect formula for disaster, and some of you know. Because no longer are we worried about tapping into cable. Now everybody has cable in their back pocket. And worse than cable. Yeah, accessibility is like never before.

Can you get isolated with a cell phone? You can be walking down the sidewalk and be isolated. That’s why you run, you know, you get a trip over the fire hydrant. You know what I’m talking about? You have no idea what you’re doing.

You’re running the walls, you know. And, you know, it’s just crazy. You see people at the airport. I always get a kick out of it. You almost feel like you want to push something in front of them, watch them trip.

You know, they have no clue. Yeah, they’re in isolation in the middle of a crowd. They’re in isolation. You know what I’m talking about. So all of us now have the great possibility of desire, accessibility, and isolation.

So you know what God’s saying? You better be careful what you can make accessible in your life. That’s why friends that send me out here and say, my parents still let me have a cell phone. My girls didn’t get a cell phone until they were freshmen at Baptist College Ministry.

well my youngest got hers her senior year and my other two girls said mom and dad you’re getting soft why does she get one six months before we did okay that’s because she your birthday was different but anyway all that aside you know how it goes you know i don’t think they would tell you that was a bad thing see some of you your parents might be really strict on this stuff and i’m telling you don’t push back on them don’t don’t complain don’t say mom and dad why don’t you you ought to You ought to go there and get on your knees and say, Mom and Dad, thank you for protecting me from accessibility, isolation, and desire. Because I’m just going to be honest with you. Some of you can’t handle a cell phone. Some of you can, but most of you can’t. And you’ve already proved it.

And if you’re honest, you would tell me that. You’ve already proved it by looking at stuff you have no business looking at. I’m just telling you, young person, you want victory in your life? God says, make not provision for the flesh. You say, preacher, what are you saying?

I don’t know. I’m just preaching the Bible. Maybe the Holy Spirit will tell you what to do. I don’t know what to tell you to do. But God’s saying, don’t make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.

Accessibility is a big deal. You got to be careful. Particularly if you have an issue. Do you know there are people that will not drive down a street that has a bar on it? You know why?

Accessibility. They don’t want the temptation. You know, I can drive in front of a bar, and guess what? I don’t even know I’ve driven in front of a bar. I’m not looking for bars.

When you’re in Wisconsin, they’re just everywhere. You know what I’m talking about? I’m not looking for a bar. They’re everywhere. They really are.

I mean, it’s crazy. It’s just the number one state for consumption of alcohol per person. In the United States, it’s the state of Wisconsin. So it’s got a lot of alcohol in it. But now I can make poor decisions and be tempted by alcohol, but right now I’m not.

I think this stuff stinks. i’m not even tempted to take a drink no again i could make poor decisions one way to be tempted so could you some of this room are not tempted by alcohol at all but i can take it to the men who will not drive a certain way home because they’ll have to drive in front of the bar and there’s no way they want to do that because they’re too tempted they pull in too many times you know they’re dealing with accessibility they take this first seriously some of you take this seriously? Don’t make provision for the flesh. See, that’s the idea. I remember several years ago, had a young man, this is 80s.

And in the 80s, I had a young man travel on my team, and he would pump the gas. We still have that, but this guy would pump the gas, and then he’d go into the gas station, and you had to pay for the gas inside. Can you believe that? Had to go in and pay for the gas inside. This is back in the 80s.

And that was his job. He’d pump the gas, go in, pay for the gas, come back out, put the card and the receipt in the bag and zip it up. And that was his job. So one day, about halfway through the tour, he comes to me and I could tell he was bothered. He said, Brother Van Gelder, he said, I don’t mind pumping the gas.

But he said, you think you could get somebody else to go into the gas station and pay for it? I said, John, yeah, sure, we could do that, John. But could you let me know why? He said, Brother Van Gelder, before he got saved, he got saved at 20. He was a teenage alcoholic, to give you some context.

He said, Brother Van Gelder, before I got saved, he said, man, when I went into Quick Stop, he said, I bought a lot of stuff I’m ashamed of. And he said, I got to tell you that every time I go into Quick Stop, I’m tempted. I’m pretty sure it was alcohol. I’m pretty sure it was magazines because I knew those were two issues in his life. So what do you think I said to him?

Oh, come on, man. Bucket up, man. You know what I said? You’re not going back into a gas station. Well, I was, we’re here.

along this tour. We’ll do everything we came to protect you. You say, why? Because I believe that Romans 13, 14 is true. Make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.

Tell many of you, you can walk into a quick stop and you’re not tempted. I walk into a quick stop. I’m never tempted, except maybe if Coca-Cola is on sale, I might be tempted. Okay. But I mean, all Coke’s going to do is shave about five minutes off your life.

That’s but okay. Yeah, I mean, the point is I can make poor decisions, so could you, that we could be tempted going to a quick stop, but at this point I’m not. Probably some of you aren’t either, but he was. All I’m trying to say for some of you in this room, I don’t know what strong measures you have to take, but take the strong measures you need to take. Some young people need to, before they go to bed, walk into the parents’ bedroom, hand them their cell phone, and say, you know what, I can’t handle this cell phone in my bedroom alone.

That seems revolutionary to some of you, but it would really help you if you did it you’re saying i’m not making provision for the flesh i’m not going there anymore you know it’s just like this i know every era the way you access sin changes and but the sin’s always the same but i remember i’m this is probably 80s or maybe 90s a kid comes forward he says what i said what’s the problem he said man i’m listening to ungodly music i said where do you listen to it he said one place where’s that pickup truck oh he said i don’t listen to it all my parents wouldn’t want me to, but in the pickup truck, I turn it on my radio, and I listen to it on my radio. So I said, why don’t you disconnect the radio? He said, oh, that’s a good idea.

At that moment, he went outside, got a screwdriver, took his radio out, unplugged the radio part, and screwed it back in. Oh, you say, well, preacher, he can unscrew it and hook it back up. Yeah, he can do that. You know what that takes? Work, time.

That’s one thing he can’t do while he’s driving, though, unless he’s going to wreck his pickup truck. You think texting is as bad, can you you imagine pulling your radio? Oh, you’re not talking about it? Yeah, I mean, you’re going to go down on that deal. Okay, but anyway, yeah.

And, you know, I was back several years, probably double digits after that, and the pastor was going over the graduates. He said, oh, do you remember this guy right here? He’s the guy that disconnected the radio. I said, tell me about him. Oh, he goes to Independent Baptist Church down here.

He’s active in the church, got a wonderful wife and family. I said, hallelujah. You know what he did? He stopped accessing. He made no, make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lesser of.

And although that may not feel like the biggest sin on the planet, anytime you compromise your conscience, that’s a big deal. You see, some of you have got to take, you just got issues in your life. And God’s saying, hey, listen, I got real practical advice for you. Don’t make access for things that you stumble on. Find a way to deal with it.

Years ago, you know, what they used to do years ago, kids would have big, huge stereos, okay? You know, now it’s how small can we get it? Back in those days, it was how big we could get it. If you were in the hood, and I’m sure our brother could tell you, they had big huge boom boxes on their shoulders. I mean, and the bigger the better.

You know what I’m talking about? Anybody remember that? Okay, yeah, I’m telling you. That was the way. The bigger the better.

You know, it was kind of hard to hide those things. You know what I’m talking about? And so guys would go into their bedrooms, and they had big huge stereos, and they turned the stereo on, and they had these big huge honking, you know, whatever you want to call them, headphones, headsets. So they put them on, and they jam out on their music. Nobody could hear.

this was back years ago and so i had kids coming forward and say i’m struggling with the wrong kind of music so where do you listen to it at home uh how do you do it well i said i got this big cute stereo i plug in my headphones and nobody can hear said give your parents your headphones then everything that you play they’ve got to hear oh that’s a great idea go give their parents headphones say i can’t handle these headphones i’m listening to stuff i ought not listen to but you know it’s a little bit different now we don’t have big huge stereos and we don’t have big huge boom boxes now we got this and ear what do they call those things iPods earbuds I don’t know they’re awful small that’s all I’ll say say Richard what are you saying I’m not sure what I’m saying but I am saying this if you’re listening to ungodly music you need to deal with it you need to take some strong measures so you’re not sneaking that stuff anymore you need to blow your cover with mom and dad say mom and dad I’ve been listening to stuff you don’t want me to listen to here’s why I’ve been doing it.

Blow your cover. Yeah. Make it hard to go back. God is telling us very clearly, make not provision for the less to fulfill the lesser of. Tomorrow we’ll find out why it’s so important to deal with your flesh because that’s the only part of you that really you need to deal with because one day when you go to heaven, your flesh is going to be gone.

And guess what happens when you lose your flesh? You won’t sin anymore. Yeah, you don’t understand that now. Hopefully ought to. One more issue you got, when you put on the Lord Jesus Christ, you still got a problem, and that problem is your flesh, and you need to deal with it, and don’t let the flesh, don’t give the flesh an inch, because it’ll take a mile.

So tonight, this afternoon, young people, my burden for you is you’ll take the first step toward one of those two things. Either the step toward dealing with isolation, honesty. Step toward dealing with accessibility is make not provision by the flesh. In other words, deal with how you access that sin in a very strong way so that it’s hard to go back. Those are the two steps.

So we’re going to deal with tomorrow, the issue of desire, and you put it all together. But I want to start this morning because, this afternoon, because some of you need to take a step right now.