We are faced with the sin of our age. Sexual immorality, the lust of the flesh. Statistically, we're seeing that men and women all over the world, whether they're believers or not, are encained and in bondage to this sin. But how serious is it really? Where does it all begin? And how do we start the journey to freedom? Brothers and sisters, it's imperative that we talk about this. And tonight, I'm honored to have a guest on that I'm about to introduce to you in order for us to really break this open, to start a conversation, even in the body of Christ, that is deeper and will lead to us coming to places of accountability, coming to places where we bring to light that which was hidden and secret for way too long so that the truth, who is Yeshua, who is the messiah, may set us free. I want to submit to you that when we think about sexual immorality or porn or lust or any of these things, it starts long before what comes to mind. At first, it's not just about cheating on a spouse or looking at porn. It's about that which proceeds from the heart. It's that moment that you linger just a moment too long on that short that popped into your Facebook feed that you really shouldn't have ever seen. It's the moment that you visited the profile of that girl from high school with wrong motives. There are so many little things that we excuse as innocent, but is really the beginning of an entrapment that the enemy wants to draw us into. So let's be set free. I want to introduce to you all my special guest tonight, Lax Meyer. Lax, thank you so much for joining me here tonight, brother.

Thank you, PD. I'm glad to be here. It's an honor to be able to talk with you.

It's an honor to have you on. Guys. Lax, you may know him from his YouTube channel called Unlearn the lies. He's been doing it for years and he's got an amazing volume and a lot of quality videos, biblical teachings that I really encourage you to check out. And we'll leave some links for you guys at the end here. He's also the pastor of the grafted church in Oklahoma. And yeah, Lex, thank you so much. I really appreciate you coming on. Perhaps we can begin with the so this know. I think when people think about know, we kind of jump to what it is, but I think it goes wrong long before that moment of falling into this sin of sexual immorality or lust. Why do you think it is that people start going that way, man, this.

Is a good question. I've got a tickle in my throat. So I think for a lot of people, it starts around their teenage years, but for some people, it starts even earlier. And I remember when I was in college, I was an intern at a church where we were doing the children's ministry, and there was a little boy in there. He was probably, like, six or seven. And it was obvious by his behavior that he had been exposed to something very sexual, either seeing sexual act done live or watching it on pornography or something. But he, at his very young age, was very sexually minded, which was completely caught us off guard. It was really strange that at such a young age, this child was so sexual. And it really kind of broke our hearts to see it, because it's like, this guy, he should be innocent. He shouldn't be thinking about these things six or seven years old. But most people, it's in their teenage years when they get exposed to it. And maybe for some, it's because their mom had a JCPenney catalog laying out, and they saw the lingerie section, and they got them started looking at women in their underwear. Or for some, it was their dad's Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. Know, maybe their parents had HBO or Cinemax or some kind of movie channel that had sexual content on. You know, that was years ago. That was, like, when we were young, and I'm older than you, so, I mean, that's even further back for me that those things were around whenever I was little. But now with the Internet, anybody with Internet access has access to all kinds of stuff. And so kids, parents, you need to really be aware of what your kids are doing online and watch what they're doing and limit what they're doing and monitor what they're doing, because you don't want them to get exposed to it at a young age because it can be devastating to their mental development. It can be devastating to their relationships with other people. It can be devastating to just their life in general in so many levels. And so I would just caution parents to be very careful with your kids online and what they're doing online and be aware of what they're doing. And if you can put some kind of Internet filter on parental controls, on their devices or on your Internet, that would help limit them from getting exposed to that stuff, because it's so easy to be online and just stumble onto it. And it can be so captivating, especially for teenagers, when they already have all the hormones and things that are going and their curiosity is going they're curious about the opposite sex and various things like that, and it just really could spark a desire in them. And that desire can quickly lead and escalate into some sort of an addiction, and it really messes with their brain and how their brain functions and all kinds of things. And just on that topic, I think limiting media exposure in general is a good idea, because even if it's not sexual media, just media, whether it be Internet or television or movies or whatever, video games, all of that stuff can be. It messes with our minds, and especially as young minds that are still being developed, it can really have a lasting impact on them, whether it be violence or sexuality or whatever. Things can be dangerous, you know, like.

Like Lex, I grew up in, in that generation, I think I was the first generation, really to be exposed to the Internet in the ways we were, right? Like dial up was around when I was young. And later we got ADSL, and later we got fiber, and Internet got faster and more things came upon it. I think a lot of our parents, like the generation that I'm in, they didn't have any idea about what this was all about in terms of how much danger there is on the Internet. You said it's easy to be exposed to say sexual things. I actually think you're basically guaranteed to be exposed to such things with unlimited access to the Internet, even if you're not looking for it. I'm echoing what you said with, if you have children, teenagers, when they're still under your roof by nature, I think kids, their relationship with, they discover God as they grow up. We don't have this mature relationship with the father yet as children, but that's on our parents to teach us his ways, of course. And then we hopefully grow into maturity in the knowledge of him. But before we are in that maturity, we don't have the maturity, I guess, to turn to know when to not look, because you don't even know what you're looking at. You don't even understand, right, as a child. And so what you said is so important, I think that the monitoring, the limiting that has to happen, and I don't know what that looks like. Every family has to make that decision. I can't tell you what you have to do, but you have to do something. You have to take big steps. And then we also need to make sure our children, this is just what I want to add to what you said, is we have to make sure that our children are then getting to know Yeshua on a relational basis and falling in love with him, because if they don't fall in love with him, they're going to fall in love with other things, including looking for love in all of the places that we're really talking about now.

Yeah, well, the thing with lust is lust is a false love. You think about what's Antichrist. Antichrist is another Christ. It's someone who is sort of like Christ, but is not. He's a false Christ. He's an imitator, and he's not the real thing. And that's what the greek word anti means. It means another one that's like the one, but different in some way. And so lust is kind of an anti love. It's similar to love, but it's different. And it's a strange love. It's a distorted, perverted, warped type of love, and it warps your mind and it prevents you from having real love. If you're caught up in lust and pornography and things like that, you're not able to love someone else the way you're supposed to. And so it's a distraction and a perversion, and it prevents you from having real love with someone else. So it's just kind of a false love.

Yeah. It reminds me of one. John, I believe it's chapter two. He talks about the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. So that's what we see in our eyes. Lusting after something that is not ours. Lusting after something that we don't have authority over. Authority is not the right word, but we don't have the permission to look upon the marriage bed. And being able to be with your wife sexually is such a gift from the father in order to bond together in that special relationship. But when our body gets exposed to imagery that is really supposed to only be for within a marriage, suddenly our bodies don't know what to do with that. Our father created us to be able to bond with our wives or our husbands, but when we see that which we should not see in terms of strangers online or wherever, then all of the chemicals really in our minds and our body starts flowing, and it's really now distorted. We're now starting to have these feelings for a stranger, and we're then breaking the covenant with our husband or our wife in that way. When we start acting out into that affair, which I think a lot of people, they think of an affair, and I think it's when you do that, you go and you are with someone else, but that's where it leads. That is the ultimate conclusion. But it really begins, as Yeshua said, in the heart. Adultery is that of the heart. It's when you look at a woman with a lust, and then that sin drags us down and it seeks to destroy our marriages, seeks to destroy our family, seeks to destroy our relationship with the father. And, yeah, brother, could you maybe share with us some? Like, what does the scripture say about this sin in particular? Is there anything that comes to mind?

So I think I want to go back first and look at the Ten Commandments. I think lust is tied to at least two of the ten. And so it's covetousness and sexual immorality or adultery. And so with covetousness. Covetousness is wanting something someone else has or wanting something that you don't have, and it's not being content with what God has given you. And so you're wanting something else that doesn't belong to you, basically. And lust takes that form, too. So it's like covetousness because you're coveting that other person, you're coveting that sexual experience, or whatever it is about the thing you're viewing. It's causing you to covet that, to want that, to desire that. And it's not yours to desire. And that person on the screen is not yours to desire. And so it's linked to covetousness, but it's also linked with adultery, because adultery is having sexual relationship with someone who is not your wife. And typically it's someone who is someone else's wife or husband, that they belong to someone else. But if you're married is to be in some kind of a sexual relationship with someone who is not your husband or wife. And so adultery is tied in with that as well. And that's what Yeshua said when he said, if you look at a woman with lust, you've already committed adultery with her in your heart. I think there's a difference between committing adultery physically in your body and committing adultery in your heart. But what he's saying is that there's a heart issue that needs to be dealt with. And so it doesn't give you permission to say, well, I've already lusted, I might as well go ahead and just do the act. That's not what it's about. It's saying, hey, you have a heart issue you need to fix. And so if you're committing adultery in your heart, it's not going to be long before you may be committing it in your body as well. And so you need to take care of the heart issue before it leads to something worse. But I think lust for a lot of people. Let me go back. I think pornography takes a lot of different forms, and it doesn't have to be x rated movies and total nudity and explicit content. Sometimes it could be girls in their underwear or girls in bikinis or girls in tight fitting clothing and things like that. It's sexual content, and it isn't have to be media necessarily. It could be the girl at the grocery store who's wearing yoga pants. If you're training your eyes to look at that, you're consuming her as.

An.

Object, you've objectified her, and so you're seeing her as a sexual object. And I understand that it would be great if women didn't dress that way to protect men's eyes, but we live in a world where we can't force everybody to dress modestly. And if you go out into the world, you're going to be exposed to underdressed women. And it goes the other way too. Women lust too. It's just easier for me to talk about guys lusting after women than it is for me to talk about girls listing after men, because I'm not a woman. So I understand it goes both ways. But I know the struggle for men is billboards have half dressed women on it, commercials on TV have half dressed women and doing sexually provocative things. So it's not just pornography, it's any kind of sexual material, any kind of person dressed sexually that you have made an object that you're looking at with your eyes, that can all be in the same category of lust. Go ahead.

And the things you're mentioning, these things are everywhere, right? They're public. They're not behind some, they're not late at night on TV or something. These things are out in our public, like you said, the billboards and everything. So because it's so public in our brains, it becomes so normalized, it's so normal in the world. And yet then we make excuses. We just take a glance, and it starts off as this innocent thing we're excusing in our heart. And then it starts elaborating and elaborating and elaborating, and it spreads like a disease. Another place that's very obvious is just recently, this is not long ago, I think it's probably a year old, maybe two years old, where the shorts got introduced into Facebook and YouTube. And it's been come a huge phenomenon. Obviously, TikTok is another platform where that's on now, where you're kind of mindlessly, we were already mindlessly scrolling, but now we're scrolling even more mindlessly through these little short videos. And because it's all video content, a lot of that is just so dangerous, because the know how the algorithms work is for anyone who doesn't know, I know Lex is probably familiar with this, but for anyone who doesn't know, the algorithms on social media have been designed to keep you scrolling, to keep you on their platform. So they're going to look at not only what video you stay on for three extra seconds, they're going to look at what gender you are. They're going to look at your background, your interests, and everything that they do know about you, and they know a lot about you, and they're going to try and give you what they think is going to tempt you to stay, to keep you coming back. And that just so happens to be exactly the things that is interesting to our flesh, that our flesh, our fallen natures, the things that God wants, that catering to the things of the world, basically right under our noses, right in front of us. And we are placing ourselves in front of that. So I'm not telling anyone here what to do, but I'm telling you, you need to count the cost. You need to count the cost of if you know that I'm doing this, I'm watching this, I'm going to this or that place, wherever that is. And that is something that I know has caused me to stumble. It is putting things before me that I shouldn't see. And you're like, well, this is just my entertainment. Well, count the cost. Is your entertainment worth it? Because Yeshua said, cut off your hand. He said, cut off whatever it is that is causing you to fall into sin, because it's better to enter into the kingdom of God without a hand than enter into hell with your hand. So think about what is it in your life? And we're just mentioning some things here, but everyone has got something different. What is it in your life that you need to cut off out of your life?

Yeah, and speaking about the algorithm and stuff, I worked at a furniture store about seven years ago, eight years ago, and the furniture store had technology in place that if you use their website or their app, that they had cookies on there that would track other things that you did on the Internet to see what you're interested in and to see where you live and to see where you shop and various things like that so that they could target you with advertising to come to their store to buy their product. That was a furniture store. And that was almost ten years ago. I think about the machine power that Google has and what they're tracking. They know every website you go to. They're tracking you all over the Internet. They know the things that you shop for on Amazon. They know where you go when you leave their platform and go do something else. And they know everything you do online. They know what's going on, and they know what your gender is, they know your age, they know where you live, they know if you're married or single. They know all kinds of stuff about you, and they use that to target you. And it's not just Google, but all the major tech companies have that kind of technology where they're targeting you. And so it's like, have you ever wondered why if you talk about lawn chairs, next time you get online, you see an advertisement for lawn chairs, it's because they're tracking everything you do. They may even be listening to you on your device to see your conversations. There's so much heavy tracking that's going on with the Internet right now that it's kind of scary. And so if they know that you have certain things that you're interested in, they're going to try to find those interests and show them to you. And if that's sexual content, you may end up getting fed sexual content that you may not necessarily be looking for. They're just throwing it in your feed because they think you like it. And so that's a scary thought.

Yes, absolutely. I want to also add, for anyone listening to this is the reason we're mentioning this, is because these are things that we should be watching out for and awake for. Because the enemy is like, as it says in the scriptures, like a lion walking, seeking whom he may devour. He's waiting to see when is the opportune moment to attack the prey. And yet, if you think about many other countries in the world where people do dress modestly, because in the west, and in the west, it's just modesty is not a thing. But in many of the more religious countries, islamic countries and so on, there's dress from head to toe where nothing but the eyes is visible. And yet we know that sexual immorality, lust, the raping of women, things of this nature, these sexual sins are, they're not any less. These are massive sins still. So whilst we should look out for these tactics and these dangers, let's not make an excuse and say, well, God will understand one day because their Facebook was in my generation or whatever, at the end of the day. It is the uncircumcision of your heart. It is the wickedness in your heart. It is the fact that your heart has not surrendered completely that has brought you to a place in the first place where these things are able to take a hold of you. And it comes down to your relationship with Christ. Falling in love with him, making him the master of your life so you're not becoming a slave to another master. Making sure that your relationship with Yeshua is nourished, that you are spending time with him in his word, that you are surrounding yourself with fellowship and accountability, that you make sure that you are busy with the works that he has started in you and the works that he did. In other words, he was busy teaching his disciples to be fissures of man, to be busy with making disciples. And we're all called to make disciples these things. If we keep busy with these things, we remain committed to our covenant with him. And therefore, it is more difficult to become distracted with the things of this world, whatever that is, whether it's a sexual sin or some other sin. It all comes down to our relationship with our creator. When that starts slipping, then all of these other things become so much easier to fall into as well.

Yeah, and I think King David is a great example of that because it was a time when he was supposed to be out doing, going to war, as the Bible says. It was the time when kings would go to war, but he wasn't. He's at home in the palace looking out the window, and he sees Bathsheba taking a bath up on the rooftop. If he'd have been doing what he was supposed to be doing as a king, he wouldn't have been gazing out at the naked woman on the rooftop. And if he hadn't seen Bathsheba on the rooftop, he wouldn't have committed all the domino effect of sin that he got into where he had an affair, and then he tried to cover it up, and then he ended up killing the guy. And all this stuff that happened as a result of him not doing what he was supposed to be doing as a king, if he'd have just been doing his job and sticking with the purpose that God had given him and acting in that and doing what he was supposed to be doing, he wouldn't have gotten into that mess. And so I think that's a great example for us, that we need to be doing the work that God has given us to do and not be wasting time. And so much of what we do when it comes to the Internet is wasting time. If we're not on there to do business and to do work and to do ministry and things like that. If we're just in there scrolling through Facebook or scrolling through YouTube or surfing the Internet and just kind of idly browsing, that's when we end up falling into temptation and getting into mess. And if we would just be doing what we're supposed to be doing, if we would stay focused on God and on his business and the things that he's given us, whether that be doing your job or taking care of your kids or doing ministry or whatever it is, Bible study, prayer, worship, if you're doing those things and you're not wasting your time and just being looking for something to kill the boredom, I think, is what, so many times that's what causes people to get into it, is they're a little bored. So they just get online and start scrolling. And that's when they end up getting into stuff they shouldn't. But I think what a lot of people don't realize is that what it's doing in your brain. And I've seen some really interesting studies about the effects of pornography on your brain. And it's not just pornography, but it's video games and just movies and various things like that. It really overstimulates your brain and causes a lot of things to get out of whack. And so, like, one thing is it messes with your dopamine so that you have to have extremely high levels of dopamine. And it just keeps notching the bar up higher and higher. And so normal activities no longer satisfy you, but you're looking for something extraordinary to satisfy, just your dopamine levels. And so you get bored with regular life and you get bored with your family, and you get bored with your job and things like that because it doesn't stimulate your dopamine receptors, the way that say, looking at porn or playing video games or things like that would. And so we have to get away from that stuff and let our brain readjust to normal life so that we can take pleasure in just normal daily activities.

You know what's interesting with what you're mentioning now? It's really good, Lex. I'm really thinking like our flesh, to live in the flesh. The scriptures talk about living in the flesh, living in the spirit and the flesh is this fallen part, this carnal mind, this part of us that we are supposed to crucify, and we're supposed to be born again and live and walk in the Holy Spirit. And the flesh is this part of us that always wants something more. It always wants more riches. It wants more dopamine, it wants more entertainment. It wants more distractions. It's always looking for more, and it's never satisfied. That's why without God, people are always looking. Even if they're celebrities and they think they have the world, they're still feeling depressed because the flesh will never be satisfied. We must have our spirit satisfied and can only be satisfied by eating of the messiah. So I think in the west especially, of course, everywhere but in the west especially, we're really bad at saying no to our flesh. We're bad at putting limitations up before our flesh. So we need to see this or that. This next thing, this movie that came out, we need to see it. And there's nothing wrong with watching a movie, per se, don't get me wrong here, but I'm just trying to illustrate here. We're always fearing, missing out. We always need to experience everything. You only live once, experience everything, as the world says. And we feel like we deserve all these things. And yet, if we're not able to train ourselves to say no to things whilst we're just, like, living a life, how are we going to say no to things when we're in trial? When things are difficult, when your marriage feels like it's falling apart, or when your children aren't obedient or whatever? I think when people face these trials in life, that they are most vulnerable to start reaching for other things, other sins in order to make themselves feel better as an escapism from the trial that they are facing right now. And so we need to train ourselves to say no. One way we can do this is by fasting. This is why the messiah, he always was talking about fasting with his disciples, that when I leave, you will be fasting. When the bridegroom is not with you, you will be fasting. And when they couldn't cast out the demons, he called for them to fast, right? He was calling fasting and prayer forth all the time, because it helps to help us grow in self control over the flesh, so that the flesh can be brought back into submission in our lives. So many of us are just feeding our flesh all the time, and then we're confused why in that moment of temptation, we can't say no. But you're not saying no at anything else in life. Now, you believe that you somehow are going to have the ability to say no to the lion, the satan, that you now need to resist in this weak moment that you're in. We shouldn't be deceived.

Yeah, I agree. I think that anything we can do to discipline ourself is teach training yourself to be more disciplined. The root word of disciple is discipline. And so part of being a disciple of Yeshua is being disciplined in our life. And so maybe that means not hitting the snooze button in the morning. Whenever your alarm goes off, you have the discipline to get up and your alarm goes off. So you just get up and get ready for your day. Maybe it means Jordan Peterson talks about making your bed and having that discipline every day to make your bed and how that makes a difference in your life. Maybe that means being disciplined with how you use the Internet and limiting yourself to a certain amount of time and only for a certain purpose and things like that. Like you said, fasting. Fasting is an amazing way to discipline your flesh because you are exerting your spirit and your willpower over your desires of your body. Your body is saying, I'm hungry, I want food, feed me. And you say, no, I'm not going to feed you. That is exerting your will and your spirit over your flesh. And that develops a discipline. Going to the gym and exercising, that develops discipline. There's so many things in our life that we can do to develop discipline. Setting aside time every day for prayer and saying, this is my prayer time, I'm going to do this. And everything else needs to be on pause because I'm going to pray. Things like that, that you can introduce discipline into your life. I think that helps. That's one of the best things we can do, is to develop self discipline. And self discipline the Bible talks about is a fruit of the, you know, I think a lot of people look at it as like, oh, it's just something that the holy Spirit's just going to magically give you. That's not how it works. It's a fruit, meaning that it has to grow and be produced. And it's through walking with the spirit that we develop self discipline, self control. And it's, if we're not walking with the spirit, then we're not going to be developing that self control. And so it's as we daily walk with the spirit and do what's pleasing to the Lord that we are able to begin to have and to develop more and more self discipline, self control. And that's what we need. So that when we are faced with temptation, we can say no. And you mentioned something else about it being a. I can't remember how you phrased it, but basically that it's a coping mechanism. I think it's. The word use is a coping mechanism.

Escapism.

So many people. Escapism, yeah. So many people, they're stressed or they're bored or they're lonely or they're angry or something's going on in their life that they don't have control of. And instead of turning to the Lord, instead of turning to prayer or reading the word, they turn to the screen and they start looking for something online to help ease that disruption in their life, that anxiety, that stressor, whatever's going on that's causing pain in their life. They're looking for something to bring pleasure. And that's oftentimes why people turn to porn as well, because they're just trying to relieve the pain and it's an easy pleasure. It's like pushing the easy button. But the thing is, people don't realize, porn is not your friend. Lust is not your friend. It's an enemy. And I think because so many times it's seen as well, this is something to ease my pain, this is something to take away the stress, take away the boredom, take away the loneliness, whatever people see it as, this is a friend of mine. They don't think it consciously, but unconsciously they're thinking, this is a friend of mine, this is a trusted friend that I can go to to ease my pain. But that's not at all what the case is. This is an enemy who is trying to destroy you. It's trying to destroy your mind. It's trying to destroy your relationships with other people in your life, your wife, your kids. It's trying to destroy your job. It's trying to destroy your relationship with God. It's trying to destroy every part of your life. It is one of the most dangerous things a person can do. And most people don't see it as a danger, they don't see it as an enemy. They don't see it as a dragon that's trying to consume them. They see it as something that is a pleasure. They see it as something that's a secret that can be hidden. And only them. It's just between me and my computer, or me and my phone or whatever. And even if it's just between you and your phone or you and your computer, it's not hidden. God sees it and it's still going to destroy your life. Your wife may not know about it, but it's going to destroy your relationship with her. Your kids may not know about it, but it's going to destroy your relationship with them. Your boss may not know about it, but it's going to destroy your work and your work habits. So many things that it messes with. Even if people don't know about it, it still destroys your life, and it warps your mind, and it causes you to have thoughts that you shouldn't be having even when you're not looking at it. It's extremely dangerous. But most people don't see it as a danger. And I think that's what's so dangerous about it and so deadly about it is because they don't see it as a poison. They don't see it as a snake that's going to bite them and kill them. They see it as. This is just something I can do to ease my pain right now.

That's good. I want to read just on what you said. Ecclesiastes 1214. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. This is a very sobering verse, brothers and sisters. Right? Every secret thing. So you think that your wife doesn't know. You think that your congregation, your pastor doesn't know, and somehow you feel comforted because it's a secret. But yet this is one of the worst things that you could do, is keep it this secret thing behind closed doors that no one ever knows about. So no one can actually help you, because you have not opened yourself up to being helped. For many of you who are listening to this, you've been struggling with this for 510, 20, maybe even 30, 40 years. I've spoken to elderly men who have been struggling with it for their entire lives. And I want to share with you that the moment, if that's you, you need to really face the fact that you need to open to someone about this. You need to share with someone so that the truth can come and set you free. Because ultimately, when you're in this place where it's just you, you cannot be accountable to anyone. You cannot let someone walk a road with you. And because of that, then you find yourself lonely. And the cycle continues and repeats and repeats, and that which. That guilt and that shame cycle continues and repeats and drives you deeper into shame, isolated. And it makes it more difficult. I'll just share this one quick story. There was once someone who reached out to me, and they said that they wanted to talk, and they confessed to me that they have been in this sin, and they've never said this to anyone in their entire lives. And after that, obviously, I ministered to him, and I prayed for him. And the father did something just incredible. He delivered him. In that moment, I prayed for him. And after that, in our discipleship, he realized that it was like a spirit of lust that was in him, that he could not stop himself from looking upon pornography. But after coming, bringing it to light, after receiving prayer, suddenly he was able to break free. Suddenly he was able to take back his life. That doesn't mean he was never tempted again. We're all going to be tempted. But he was able to start resisting the devil, and the devil could then flee. As the scripture says, the devil will flee if you resist him. Now, that doesn't mean everyone's going to have that story, but I'm just sharing that there is power in submitting yourself to one another, as the scriptures tell us to do, and allowing others to speak into your life and walking a road with you, because sometimes this is not going to be an overnight freedom. Sometimes there's discipleship and there is a walk, a journey to freedom that we need to be able to open ourselves up to.

Yeah. The Bible talks about sanctification, and it talks about us being sanctified. And sanctification is tied with holiness. And so if you think about what are holy things, holy things are things that are dedicated to God. And so if you think about, let's say, this cup, if this cup was sanctified, it would be set apart for use for God only. You couldn't use it for anything else. It would defile it to be used for a common thing. And you think about the temple. Everything in the temple was sanctified, and it was set apart specifically for use of God. And so you couldn't take the menorah out of the temple and go use it in your house. That would defile it. It would be used for a common thing because it was supposed to be used for a holy thing, and it can't be used for something common if it's holy. God wants us to be holy. He wants us to be sanctified and set apart. And so that we are only doing his will. We are only being used for his purpose. We're not using our body and our mind and things like that for common things or profane things, which is even worse. And so you think about the levels of holiness. And so you have clean and unclean, you have common and you have holy, but you also have profane. And if you think about a target, you have different circles within circles. The center of the bullseye on the target is holy. The circle around that would be clean. Everything that's holy is also clean. Because it's contained within that circle. When you get outside of that, you get into common. So common things could be clean, but they're not necessarily clean. Common things cannot be holy. Clean things can be common or holy. Common things can be clean, but they can't be holy. You get outside of that, you're off the target. Now you're into profane and unclean. And so the profane and unclean things aren't even on the bullseye. They're not even on the target. You miss the target when you hit something. Unclean or unholy? Profane. And so if you're getting to the clean stuff, at least you're hitting the target somewhere. But when you get to the holy stuff, then you're getting into the bullseye. That's where you're supposed to be, is the holy. So the language that's being used in the Bible regarding sin is sin means to miss the mark, right? You're aiming at the target, but you're missing. You're falling off into the unclean and the profane. It says that Christ is the goal or the tellos of the law, certain translations say is the end of the law. But that word tell us it means goal. And it's like an archery term. And it's like he is the target you're aiming for is to be like Christ, and so you're aiming to be like him, and that's the bullseye. And if you're hitting the target somewhere, at least you're on the board. But if you're in the realm of sin, you're missing the board, you're missing the target completely, and you're going off into the shooting into the woods.

Lex, I want to throw a question your way for someone who's right now watching this or listening to this, and they are in this cycle of trying to break free, but they just feel like they can't, and they feel deeply ashamed. They feel guilty. They feel unworthy towards God. What would you tell someone like that?

Well, it's the same thing with any sin. You need to repent. You need to repent from your sin. Turn to the Lord and repent and ask him for forgiveness. I think that's the first step. The next step is you need to realize what he has done for you and accept what he has done for you. He died for your sins. His blood was shed to set you free from sin and accept that and receive that and understand that that is what he has done for you. He has set you free from that. The next thing you need to do is start walking in it. Realize that you are a new creation in Christ. You are not that old man anymore. That old man has died. When you accept the sacrifice of Yeshua, when you accept his blood and you receive that salvation that he provides for you, that old man dies. You are no longer the man who looks at porn. You are a new man now. You are a man of God. You are a child of God. And so you need to accept that identity and understand and realize that new identity you have, that you are now a man of God. You are no longer a man of sin. You are no longer a man who looks at porn. You are a man who does not look at porn. You're a man who does not lust. And you need to accept that identity and start living in that identity. I think so many times people live with a defeated mindset and they live with this idea that I'm always going to be a sinner. And I think the church has done a bad job in perpetuating that mindset. Because that's what you hear so many times at church, is, we're always sinners. We're always going to be sinners. There's nothing we can do about it. We're just a sinner saved by grace. And it's just repeating this, I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. We need to start understanding. I'm no longer a sinner. I've been saved. I've been set apart. I've been sanctified. I've been set free from sin. I am now a child of God. I am now a man of God. I am no longer a sinner. Now I am a man who serves the Lord. And I think we have to take on that new identity and realize that that's who we are. Because as long as you think you're a sinner, you're going to keep sinning. And so you have to understand that you are no longer a sinner. You are a saint. You are a man of God. You are a child of God. And he has given you a new life. You've been born again. Right? You're no longer what you used to be. You are now something new.

Amen. And I would add to that, look at who Christ has called you to. Right? He has died for you. That means that he didn't die for nothing. He died for you to walk in it, for you to become after his image, for you to be walking out your calling and your purposes. That means that he sees value in your life that you can bring something to his kingdom, something powerful for him to give his life for you. And so by that, that in of itself should be calling you and should extinguish this lie that I'm not worthy. Well, by our own works, sure. But he saved us despite our works. He saved us for who we are. His children. For our identity as his children. As Lex said, our identity and live. Then step into that identity. I'm not a slave. I'm a child of God. I'm not a porn addict. I'm not an adulterer. I'm not someone who is enslaved. I am supposed to be free. And I am set free by the blood of the cross. So walk that out, step into that and watch for the enemy. Because Satan wants to make you into his image. He wants to make you angry, he wants to make you depressed. He wants to make you full of lust. He wants to make you the sinner that he is. Because he wants to destroy you as he is destroyed. And he knows it. So he's trying to take us all down with him. But now Yeshua has exposed him for who he is and exposed that he is overcome by what, Yeshua? What Jesus has done for us. That he is the glorious king that is so much more powerful than all the works of the devil. And that is why he told us, I have given you power over the works of the devil. Nothing shall hurt you. But that means that you must step into the Holy Spirit that he has given you. And walk in the Holy Spirit. Say, Lord, empower me. I cannot overcome pornography or I cannot be the one in of myself to look away. You must empower me. You must strengthen me. And he can, if you would lean on him, if you would pray and seek his face in your time of need and trial.

So the Bible talks about not being conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but being transformed by the renewing of your mind. And it also talks about washing in the water of the word. And it's through our constant meditating on the word, studying the word, reading the word, that our mind is being cleansed of the ways of the world. And we begin to think the way God wants us to think by constantly filling our mind with the things of God. And I think that's an extremely important key, too, that we've got to be putting the word in our mind. And the thing is, the devil is a liar, right? The Bible says he's the chief liar. He's the first liar, that he's the one who invented lies. And everyone who lies is of the devil, right? And their father is the devil because he's been a liar from the beginning. Satan wants to lie. He wants to tell you lies to keep you trapped. You may be completely free from this, but he's telling you you're trapped in it. And that's what keeps people trapped in it, because they believe they're trapped in it because they believe the lie that Satan has told them. But the Bible says the truth will set you free. Well, what is the truth? The truth is Yeshua. The truth is the word of God. We need to be constantly learning the truth and applying the truth and believing the truth. If we don't believe the truth, we're believing the lie. Well, the word says that whom the sun sets free is free indeed. Has he set you free? Well, then you're free. Believe that. Stand on that and start living as a free man. Stop telling yourself I'm a slave to this sin. I can't get out of it. That's a lie of the enemy. The word of God says, you are free. And whom the sun sets free is free indeed. By his stripes. We are healed. Every chain is broken. The enemy is defeated. We are no longer bound by sin. We're no longer slaves of sin. Now we are slaves of righteousness. But we have to believe the word and start living on the word and applying it to our life, or else we're going to keep believing the lies and keep living in the lies.

Amen.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, it makes absolute sense. I want to read just this comment here from hoppy. Amen. Spot on, Lex. Being a new man, not turning back to the old sinful ways to be his disciple, that's really good. Casey said, yes, take accountability. And taking accountability, as we discussed, guys, that is also submitting yourself to a pastor or a mature leader or someone or a friend who's spiritually mature, who you can speak to, and who can keep you accountable in your journey to freedom as well. Lex, would you mind ending the nod off for us by praying for anyone listening who may be struggling in this area?

Yeah, absolutely. And before that, can I share one more thing?

Yeah, go for it.

I meant to share it earlier and I got sidetracked. So when you look at the story of Balaam and Balak, Balaam was sent to curse Israel. And every time he went to curse Israel, he was not able to. God prevented him from cursing Israel. And so what he ended up doing, the Bible says, is he went to Balak and he said, send in the women. Okay, send in the women and they will lead the men into sexual immorality and idolatry. And that was how he cursed them. And so he ended up cursing them through the women. And so he sent in these women who would get them to commit sexual immorality and idolatry. Once they were doing those things, they were cursed. God wasn't able to protect them. He wasn't able to bless them. They ended up cursing themselves because they received those mobite women into their life. And I believe right now, in the world we live in, pornography is mobite women. It's the easiest thing for the enemy to do, is to send in pornography and sexual content of any kind, and so just throw sexual content in front of you to lead you astray. And so we've got to be extra diligent that we're not going to be led astray by those mobite women. We need to stand firm on the word of God and say, no, that is not the direction I'm going to go. I want to stand in his blessing. I want to stay in the safety of God's camp and not allow those things to enter into my home. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That needs to be our attitude. To protect our home, to protect our family, our children, all those kind of things.

Amen. Amen to that, brother. Thank you for sharing that. That's so good. Yeah. Please pray for us.

Yeah, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we love you. And, Lord, we just thank you for what you've done in our life. Lord, we thank you for the salvation you've given us, that you sent your son, Yeshua, to die on the cross for our sins. And, Lord. Lord, we receive that salvation. We believe in the work of the cross and what he has done for us. We thank you, Lord, for that. And, Lord, I just pray for anyone who hears this. That, Lord, that you would transform their life by your holy spirit, that you would speak to their heart, speak to their mind, that you would bring transformation, change their life, help them to no longer be that person who they used to be. That they would no longer be the man or the woman who is consuming sexual content who is bound up by lust. Lord, I pray that you would break those chains of lust and of pornography. And, Lord, that you would set them free in the name of Yeshua. And, Lord, we believe by your word that that is done, that you have set us free. That who the son has set free is free indeed. And, Lord, we receive that salvation. And we thank you Lord, for that salvation. And Lord, I pray that you would fill us and fill everyone watching this video with your holy spirit and help us to have the self control. Help us to walk in the spirit and to walk close to you so that we're not led astray and tempted when the enemy comes to try to pull us away from you. Lord, help us to cling to you and not to turn away. Lord, we thank you. We thank you for all that you're doing in our lives. And Lord, we just pray for blessing over each person who is watching this, that you would draw them closer to you and help them to be more and more conformed to your image. We praise you, Lord, and we love you. In the name of Yeshua, our Messiah. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Thank you, Lex. Appreciate that, brother. Could you share with anyone who would like to find out more about your ministry? Any links?

Yeah, I have YouTube channels and I have websites. So with unlearn, you go to YouTube and just type search for unlearn, unlearn the lies and you can find me that way. I also have a website, it's unlearnethelies.com. And then for the grafted church, we have a YouTube channel called the Grafted Church. So you just go to YouTube and search for grafted church. You can find us online there. And the website is grafted faith. F a I t h. So that's how you find us.

Great, guys. I'll leave the links to that in the description of this video. I'll republish it. So, Lex, thank you again, brother. I really appreciate you having such a good conversation.

I've enjoyed it.

Yeah. And I just want to say to anyone who's listening, we're going to continue this conversation next week on the channel as well. I'd love to speak about some deeper things as well regarding this topic, regarding how to escape that cycle of shame, as well as for those who are married and who are struggling with their marriages, and for those who are single, who are trying to figure out how to navigate the loss and temptations of this world whilst not having a spouse themselves. And then I also would like to speak more about demonic influence in relation to this whole topic and renewing the mind. So join us next week for that. Subscribe to this channel and we'll see you there. But thank you guys so much for joining us here tonight. And may the father bless you and keep you, and we look forward to seeing you again. Many blessings to you all in shalom. Bye. Channel.