Session 3: Week 8 Notes

During our lives we face many different transformations.  Through life we become certain type of men.  How culture, past, present, images and relationships affect us, will determine the type of man we become.  We are constantly growing and changing.

Temptation: To bait and entice to act against God’s best intention for us.  To act against the proper fulfillment of God’s nature.  Temptation is rooted more so in identity and not behavior.

Everyday there is a battle between spirit and flesh:

Galatians 5

2 Corinthians 10

We have a say in what type of person we are becoming. 

Lust – Misplaced or misdirected desires or appetites.  Overindulge in self-gratification.  Our consciences get tired and weakened.

James 1:2-18 – Lust’s laboratory.  We sometimes think that no one is going to find out, but the more we let it wear on us, the more it infiltrates and can birth into something else.

Pornography - Pornea – It creates an illusion of intimacy and connection where we treat ourselves as 1 dimensional (as well as others) instead of treating ourselves as human beings who are wonderfully made.  It sets off the sex trigger in our life.

In turn to deal with lust and temptation we need to become more proactive and less reactive.  The more we are reactive the more we allow sin to wear down on us.

Fleeing vs. Fighting

We want to go from being men who run from something, to men who run from something because we are running towards God and His vision for us.  We need to become men who are able to look at culture, life and are able to discern and reveal the truth. 

The 3^rd F is Forgiveness.  To be forgiven means to be released from.  1 John 2:2 - He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for[a] the sins of the whole world.

Genesis 3:21 – God clothes Adam and Eve…something had to die to cover their sin. 

God sent His son to die, so that our sins would be taken away.

Psalm 51 – Became David’s confession to the secrets and the sin that he kept.

We are only as healthy as the secrets we keep.  When we release those secrets to God we are freed. Jesus Christ came so we could release those secrets and be able to live a life on a whole new level.