As you continue on the road to real freedom over sexual sin. There is one key lesson that can take quite a while to learn and learning. It can actually be pretty painful, but it's absolutely essential. You have to learn to control yourself. The first thing I think that we need to understand is that self control really is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, the kind of self control. Anyway, that we're talking about that withstands times of temptation. That is a character quality that only the Lord can produce in a person's life. But here's what makes it hard. Many of us have come to the painful realization that more self effort is not the way to develop greater self control. We really need help. Despite the name, self control, it doesn't come from self. And that's one of the big misconceptions is that somehow this is something I am supposed to work up this self-control and it comes from the Lord. You have to get it from him. In today's show, I'll talk with pastor Ed book our Vice President of Counseling Programs and Luke Imparato, the director of our residential program, we're going to look at living a self controlled life, not by mustering it up from within ourselves, but by learning to live in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Thanks for joining us on purity for life. I'm your host, Nate Dancer. Here we go. All right. So, Pastor and Luke, um the reason that we're here is because we're in our mini series called Key Lessons On The Road to Freedom. And for anyone who hasn't heard episodes one and two, basically, we're trying to give someone who has genuinely repented some of the most important lessons that they're gonna need as they're journeying into freedom, right? Because we know that repentance is the beginning. There's still a road to walk, there are obstacles to overcome. And so we want to give them foundational things to keep in mind. So, so thanks for coming in, thanks for inviting us. Pleasure to be here. Um You know, I think that anybody who's been in any kind of life, controlling behavior is going to agree that a big part of them finding freedom is going to be learning how to control themselves.

And probably anybody, no matter how they're approaching, the idea of addiction is going to say, yes, self control is a big part of this, right? Even if they totally disagree with us about the spiritual roots being pride and selfishness, they're still gonna say, man, these people need to learn how to control themselves. Um That's where I want to start today and I just want to throw this out there. Both of you have been in the counseling office with a lot of people and I'm sure many of them have said I've tried and I just don't know how I can't. So, what do you guys think is the most common reason that, um, these men have not learned to control themselves? Well, Nate, if I can take that question, the, the first thing I think that we need to understand is that self-control really is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, the kind of self control. Any anyway that we're talking about that withstands times of temptation. That is a character quality that only the Lord can produce in a person's life.

So to be perfectly honest, yes, I would say that I, I think the reason so many of the men that we get to counsel with have lacked that self control is really because they either have no genuine relationship with the Lord at all or they have had such a shallow relationship or a backsliding relationship that, that self-control has never come into maturity in their life. And so the, the experience that they end up having is a cycle of repeated failure, then you know, where they throw themselves into it with all their strength, all their might, all their self effort. And that repeated failure from trying to exercise self control in their own strength just leads them to give up and, and in a sense, failure itself has convinced them that they can't do it. And, and I, I will say this too, I think because I think there's probably something else involved for many people. And I would go back to, to like our responses to sin. Our default responses to sin are like those classic defense mechanisms. We deny it, we minimize it, we justify it, hide it, shift blame for it, uh those things, but in every case, whichever one of those mechanisms might be in play, a person is essentially denying the sinfulness of their sin.

And as long as that's our response to sin, to sort of deny its uh sinfulness, you'll find that self-control remains very elusive. Uh We are not really going to try very hard to overcome it if, if it's not such a big deal to us and the bottom line then becomes like we have no control over it because we're still pretty much in love with it. At least the pleasure aspect of it. That's, that's how I would answer that. Yeah, I think that that's really good to bring to the forefront because essentially if a person has genuinely repented, then they have done the opposite of what you've just said, you know, they finally have really taken this to heart. They've owned the seriousness of it. I'm wrong. This is all me. And so now they can actually move into that place where they have access to the fruit of the spirit. That's right. And they're crying out for help and then they'll find that help that they need. Um, so how often have you found that a person who's sitting across the desk from you?

One of the reasons that they don't have that self-control is because they just want to pick and choose what areas they want to be controlled in what areas they don't want to be controlled in. Yeah. Well, you know, it's funny my first thought when I hear you say that is like that happens when I'm sitting alone in my office, you know, because we all tend to do that and, and it's our default response if you will to sort of pick and choose the areas where we're willing to be disciplined. And then, you know, we have those areas where we really honestly would just prefer that God would just leave us alone. So for me, the core issue is surrendering to the Lord. And, you know, it's a pretty universal problem. Like, like literally practically everyone we counsel is having a major difficulty with this issue. We don't immediately want to surrender our whole life to the Lord or we don't want to fully surrender our will to the Lord. So we kind of negotiate our terms of surrender. Uh At least we attempt to. And in many cases, as I kind of alluded to a moment ago, I think it's because we aren't ready and willing to give up certain activities or pleasures that we're indulging in.

We love freedom and we just aren't willing to let go of what we think is our freedom or our right to do as we please. You know, we may want God to absolve us from guilt or fix any of the damaging consequences, but we really don't want to do things his way. You know, Nate, I once heard an expression that kind of sums up the, the mindset of most people. It was something like until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change. You won't, we won't go through the difficult and painful process of change until it's actually more painful for us to resist that change. Uh That's kind of the thinking that that many of us can be in. And you know, even the Bible acknowledges that sin is pleasurable for a season, but eventually that season ends. So it's like what we read in Romans one and the Lord often has to give us over to the consequences of our sinful choices. Let that pleasurable season run its course until we realize that those sinful behaviors are just not worth it anymore to us.

And, and of course, you know, in that process of being given over like that, we've gotten further and further away from the Lord. Uh more immersed in the kingdom of darkness, uh heaped up consequences, many more damaging consequences than we even realized. And we've made the process of changing our behavior much more difficult and painful than it needed to be. And I even add to that, that the deeper you surrender, the more freedom you will have. The Lord promises freedom, that it's somewhat conditional. And if you're just going to give God bits and pieces of your life, well, then you're only going to have freedom in a small portion if any area of your life, because it's a very shallow and superficial commitment to the Lord. Yeah, I think that that's a really good reminder for anybody who's right at the very beginning of this walk of repentance, you know, is that God is after the whole thing. He's after the whole entire life. So in one sense, this step that you just took of acknowledging how wrong you are and crying out for help, crying out for freedom, crying out for a totally different kind of a life that process really should never end.

You know, the way we started, it should be the, the way that we live the entire life. There's always more to surrender, always more freedom, always more to give up to him as a living sacrifice. Yeah, until we reach completion in heaven. Yeah, it's not just this one area that is troubling us. Ok. So Luke Pastor Ed was talking about how when a person really begins to repent now they have access to this fruit of the spirit, which is self-control. But you know, for somebody who's never lived that way, true self-control can be kind of confusing. Like what part is mine? What part is not mine? You know, how much, what does it really look like to be under the control of the spirit? Um What would you say are some of the most common misconceptions about self control? I would say one of the biggest misconceptions that even I've struggled with my own life is the fact that when I view self control, it's all about me. It's all about how much I can control myself.

It's controlling self. But we have to remember we're dealing with this at a spiritual level and we have to look at how the Bible describes self control and the Bible describes self-control like pastor was saying as a fruit of the spirit, it's not the fruit of the flesh, so to speak. It's or it's not my willpower. Self-control is the evidence of the spirit of God at work inside an individual. It's not my own ability. Galatians five is where we read about self control and the fruit of the spirit. And Paul describes like ways to develop this type of fruit in your life. And verse 16, like he says, walk in the spirit, verse 18, being led by the spirit. And he concludes in verses 24 25 by saying that those are who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. And if we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. So in summary, he's saying like if you let the Holy Spirit guide your life, if you're living in subjection to the spirit of God, following his guidance and direction, if you're denying yourself crucified your fleshly nature, passions and desires, like the fruit of the spirit will begin to grow in your life.

And one of the fruits is self control. Yeah. So it's kind of like, you know, despite the name self-control, it doesn't come from self, it comes from the Lord. You have to get it from him. And that's what I think you're saying is one of the big misconceptions is that somehow this is something I am supposed to work up this self-control and you know, or call it willpower or whatever you want. Yeah, that's one of the reasons I wanted to bring this up is because I've, you know, I've, I've looked online done searches and there's like five tips to increasing willpower, harnessing willpower. And it's like, OK, that's an interesting way to look at this. So when you're looking at self control in this context, it's really more like self denial. That is actually really more of an attribute of self-control. It's like I am not doing what I want to do. And if I live in that denying self and letting the Lord rule and reign in my life, then the fruit is going to be self control. Like I'm no longer doing whatever I want when I want and how I want to do it.

Ok. Yeah. So the more I deny myself, the more room, so to speak, the Holy Spirit has to exercise his power in my life. And the more I'm doing that, I'm going to experience who and what he is. And one of those aspects is self-control. So it feels in some way like it's us, but it's not us. It's just the fruit of the Holy Spirit working in our life. Similar to if you look at the other fruits, love, for example. And there's many commentators that will say that love is the fruit of the spirit and all those other attributes were just kind of branches off of love. I've heard that before. But um if someone's displaying those other fruits, love, let's say we would, we would understand that to be of the Lord because God is love. Well, self control is also of the Lord. Like so regardless, self control is just a fruit of a lifestyle that's devoted to God. OK. Yeah. Which actually I, I think feeds right into the next question that I had because I think that there are gonna be some personality types where they have a stronger will, just a human will, you know, and some people are going to be more weak willed.

And so I think for somebody who's on this, they just realize man, I, I don't have a strong will. It's like, how could I ever have self-control because I'm just not wired that way. So it's really freeing to realize though that, but this isn't about a human will. This is about God's will. Well, you know, and that, and that's an excellent point because certainly there are different personalities and gifts that motivate people in different ways. Like that's undeniable. For example, like some people love to be working outside getting their hands dirty while others can find fulfillment and entering numbers into a spreadsheet like Pastor Ed and George, I've always wanted to say that in my podcast too. I love Bridge. So there's different person, you know, but you mentioned laziness. So when I think of the term laziness, I think it can be defined as not completing the tasks that the Lord has assigned you to do. Ok, whether that is mowing the lawn or balancing a budget.

Laziness is always taking care of my wants and my desires first and foremost. So I, I believe that the real battle in what you're describing as a natural personality of self control versus laziness is really a battle between loving myself and loving God and others. And when we look at it that way, we realize really everyone, we're all selfish by nature, right? We're all just naturally lazy in a way, regardless of our outward behavior. For example, we look at a typical, outwardly productive person and we conclude that he must have a lot of self control. Like the young man, he gets up at 4 30 every morning, goes to the gym for two hours. Has a strict diet, never has a cheat day productive at work, you know, balances his budget and, you know, he's not in any debt. And you'd say this man must have like a lot of self control. But if this guy will never let the needs of others mess up his strict routine, that's really not self control.

It's just a thriving self life and it works the other way around. You. Look at the lazy 18 year old who's sitting on his parents' couch and just playing video games all day again, it's the same thing. It's just a thriving self life. So in either case, both individuals have the same root issues, whether we look outwardly productive in our selfishness or appear lazy, we still need to deal with the selfishness that is dominating our way of life. No, I never really thought about it that way that really levels the playing field that this isn't an issue of. Well, I have like this guy like the first guy in your example, he's like, he's squared away. He's not gonna really need much help from the Lord when it comes to self-control. Let's actually say that both of them have genuinely repented. You know, our tend is to think that guy number one is going to have no issues walking with the Lord when it comes to self-control. And guy number two has all the work in the world to do, you know. But we all know that walking in the way of the spirit doesn't come naturally to us.

So our natural strength is only gonna take us so far. And then the Lord is going to bring us to a place where it's like he's gonna say your resources have taken you as far as they can. And now you really have to learn how to walk in my strength and by my spirit, can you guys relate to that? Is there a time in your life that you can think about where you came to that place? And what was that? Like, I could definitely relate to really striving in my own strength and seeing little results and how discouraging that can be. And that's really what got me to pure life when I look at my strive and my fight against sexual sin. I've I tried all of the things and it just never worked. And where the Lord really met me was when he stripped that all away and said, you don't have the strength and the energy to fight this on your own. Like this is something only I could do and you need to like have a hands off approach on this and come to me humbly asking for mercy because like I needed help.

I couldn't do this on my own. It wasn't a a lack of self will or, like, I, I really wanted to stop in a way, you know, but it's just been pretty successful in your old life. Like, getting done you wanted to get. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm very stubborn and self willed and except in the area and apparently, you know, like I can't stop this and I need so I needed help. So Lord had to drain me of all of that self will and self sufficiency and he's still, he's still draining me of that in many ways. Yeah, I, I think that's very common and true, at least in, in the realm that we all live and work in is that the Lord is often using someone's sexual sin as the means to show them this very thing really that, that there is a huge difference between, you know, white knuckling it in self effort and actually living in freedom through Christ. Uh Those are two completely different things and, and that was the thing that my sexual sin specifically self-gratification is the thing the Lord used to help me see this more clearly and, and recognize the difference between them because, you know, the best I could kind of do on my own strength was a day or two.

You know, I think one time I made it a whole week, you know, and that was like monumental change for me, but that was the best I could do and it was so frustrating. Um the guilt and the shame and, and everything that, uh you know, just living under this dark cloud of depression, even suicidal thoughts because I couldn't get a handle on this. I couldn't seem to stop this. And so for me, the Lord eventually did bring me to the residential program here at pure life. And that's when I experienced what it was to have his power that work in me. You know, and, and it really, for me, it started because I felt like this campus was a holy place and that somehow I would be defiling it if I gave into self-gratification here. So, so there was something in me that just determined I can't do that. I can't defile a place that God has made holy like that. And I, I, I guess I believe at some level, the Lord saw that determination in my heart and along with all the other things he was doing to establish his kingdom in me, he fulfilled that commitment for me.

Uh And before I knew it, you know, I'd gone over six months without even without giving in. And I really was motivated then to like hold on to that level of victory. You know, I'm not gonna let go of that lightly. This is the most victory I've had in, you know, uh decades and I'm not gonna let go of it. So, of course, you know, there were times of temptation, some very strong temptations. Um But I found this power to resist them that I had never really had in me before. And I often uh remember fighting like with the words of Joseph in mind, how can I do this? Great wickedness and sin against God? Like that was, that was a verse the Lord used to just bring me into victory um many times in that area of temptation, but I do want to be honest and just acknowledge to it. You know, I was not perfect, have not been perfect. You know, there have been times when I caved into that temptation, but any time that happened, I found that there was a power in me at work to get me right back on track as well.

Like like that sin of self-gratification didn't have the grip and power it once held over me. Yeah, I remember one time in particular for myself. You know, I, I think I've been on staff for seven or eight years and I was just going through a dark time spiritually, there were some things that I was um struggling with and didn't know how to overcome. And, you know, I mean, I'd been in ministry for eight years. This is an organization that is thoroughly saturated in biblical counseling. And so it's like I knew the right answers and I was putting my heart into doing what I knew to do and yet it didn't seem like the battle was ending and it was really discouraging because it felt like, OK, I know that God is not going to do all of this for me. You know, there has to be an initiation on my part. And yet it didn't feel like my, my part was sufficient.

And so I was just really struggling like man, what in the world? Like what more could I do? Or what's the lessons that I have to learn? It was very hard, but it was very in the end, it was incredibly transformative because what the Lord taught me about partnering with him in this walk, this Christian walk was really precious. Um Luke, can you maybe flesh out in your own words for your own experience? Like what you've learned about this tension that God expects you to act and yet He tells you, you can't do this without me. Yes. The biblical example that came to mind when you were talking was Peter. Peter did not take a course on how to walk on water before Jesus told him to come and meet him on the waves. But Peter had a relationship with Jesus. He decided that whatever Jesus was gonna tell him to do, he was gonna do, he trusted Jesus.

So that relationship was there. So when Jesus told him come walk on water, he just started doing it when God tells us to do something that seems impossible. We have to trust in him and be obedient. God will bless our obedience with supernatural power and ability that we don't have. There have been many times, for example, in the mornings when um I don't have any desire to get up and pray or seek the Lord, but I get dressed, head out for my prayer walk. And there are very few times that by the end of my devotional time with the Lord that he hasn't renewed my spirit and I met with him, you know, hasn't like awakened my soul to the knowledge of him and really rekindled that desire that I had for him. But if I just laid in bed and, you know, waiting for the urge to go and pray, unfortunately, more often than not, I would just stay in bed. And it's the same thing with Peter.

You know, if he would have just stayed in that boat waiting for, ok, I need to get the ability to walk on water because Jesus just asked me to walk on water. So now I need to get the faith and the feelings and the emotions and ok, I'm ready to walk on water. I don't think that would have ever come to Peter. He just had to get out of that boat and be like, all right, here we go. I'm gonna jump into this water and apparently I'm gonna walk on it and he did. And we see that when we respond to the Lord and take that step of faith, he could fill in the power that's needed to do the supernatural. And that's, that has been my testimony. Yeah. Listening to that uh Luke reminds me of one of the key verses that the Lord used uh in my life to help me on this very topic that we're talking about is in Romans 6 16 where he says, do you not know that to whom you present yourselves? Slaves to obey you? Are that one slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience, leading to righteousness. But that phrase at the beginning to whom you present yourselves, you know, that's the thing we have a choice to make there that we are involved in that we are making a choice to present ourselves to either sin or the Lord in a, in a very real way.

And, and so, you know, that just kind of even talking like that reminds me to, to just say that Bible study is a key part of this whole process. Like you are not going to develop self control apart from being immersed in the word of God. Uh That's what is going to feed your faith. That's how you're going to get out of the boat, so to speak and walk on the water is by having a real relationship with God through His word and, and feeding your faith through his word. Um You know, studying the scriptures has really helps us understand the Lord. It's hard to understand his ways, helps us see the Lord at work in our lives, like the more we see him and truly know him, you know, you know, know him, not just in some academic knowledge, uh, sort of way, but knowing him by experiencing him, then the more we trust him and the more we love him and then it's so much easier to just let him have his way in us, let him have that control. Yeah, I wholeheartedly can relate to that.

Just I think i it's hard because we talk about this so much and it maybe sounds to some people like we just keep beating the same drum over and over and over. Yes, we do keep beating the same drum over and over and over because Jesus said, man will not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So it's, I mean, you've got it from the lips of Jesus. If you aren't saturated in the word of God, you can't live. And the other one that, that has come to mind a lot for me is, and I recently was talking to the students about this. I asked them how many of you had a substantial, vibrant, everyday prayer life before you came here. And one guy out of 70 men kind of gave me, you know, halfway and I'm like, look around you. That's not a coincidence that every single one of you were bound up in sexual sin.

I mean, Jesus said, watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. You know, none of us before coming to pure life did much praying and we all entered into a lot of temptation. So that's another aspect. We have to pray. Yeah, I mean Jesus said it in John 15. He said I am the vine. You are the branches, right? We're familiar with this verse. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit for without me, you can do nothing. If you abide in me and my words abide in you. You will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. Well, he says, right, that you'll ask what you desire. Like what is that talking about? He's talking about prayer, that's prayer. But we need to be connected to Jesus personally and intimately. If we desire a vibrant prayer life, we need to have that abiding time with the Lord. You know, we can do nothing unless we abide in him. We have to remember that. And I don't know how you can be connected with someone you never talk to or spend time with.

You know, it's like a quick practical guide to developing a prayer life that I have found helpful is first of all, choose your style of prayer, uh choose the way you like to pray. Some people, they write out their prayers. Um Some people will just sit and pray. Some people go I typically will go on prayer walks. If you're gonna choose, I just would say if you're going to choose to just sit and pray that maybe you would find it helpful to follow an outline or, or set a timer, pray out loud just to stay awake. So just choose your style of prayer. One thing that I found in that is to help me stay awake during prayer or stay focused in prayer because sometimes my mind could wander, is setting a timer for like 10 minutes and then it goes off. So even if I did like wander, I was only gone for maybe 5, 10 minutes, you know, and I was like, oh yeah, I'm praying, you know, get that contract. So choosing like picking your style, like how do you want to, how do you want to pray? You're going to be someone who writes, sits, walks, how are you going to pray? And then choosing a regular time, a specific time every day that you pray and make it a priority so that it forms a habit and then choose your length of time that you want to pray.

The more time you spend in prayer, the more of a intimate relationship you're going to develop with the Lord. If you're just going to put in quick five minutes prayers here and there, you're really not going to develop that intimate abiding fellowship with the Lord. And then you're not going to experience all of that freedom that you're looking for the supernatural help that you need to overcome yourself. I mean, if the goal is self-control, if the goal is to be really surrendered to the Holy Spirit in my life, then I have to spend time with the Holy Spirit. I need to spend time with the Lord and really bask in his presence in prayer. And in the word like Pastor Ed was saying, I'd like to wrap up by just talking about the fact that it takes time to learn how to do these things. We want to learn self-control and we want to learn how to fight in God's strength like now, you know, and I never want to have to wrestle with how to do this and, and the fight and the failures and the trial and the error.

But, um, maybe we could just encourage people at the very end here that a huge part of learning to walk with God is just that we never quit. Yeah, that's absolutely true. Um And I, I guess I want to inject here Nate, if I could. Uh, just for some people, I feel like I want to say they need to challenge their fear in this area a little bit. Uh, that, that whole idea of surrendering fully, wholly over to the Lord giving him control can be pretty intimidating and, and even a little fearful, but I just want to assure them you're not giving control over to some hard task, master or some demanding tyrant, you know, you're giving control over to God so that he can do in you, what only he can do. That's why he needs the control. He's not trying to manipulate you for his, you know, at his pleasure. Really, it's for your own good. Uh His desire is to cleanse us and heal us and establish Jesus's victory in us. So if there's any fear going on, you know, I just want to address that maybe and, and say, try to, to just face that down and trust the Lord because he is worthy of that trust.

Um And then the, the other thing I'd say to encourage people, honestly, you know, I remember a guest speaker came to the ministry um some years back and he preached a message and I don't even remember all the particulars of the message, but the title has never left me and the title of his message was failure is not final. And um you know, I think he went on to, you know, just point out how scripture is full of flawed people. You know, people with obvious moments of incredible failure in their lives, but those failures weren't final. You know, God won in the end. Uh They didn't give up, they didn't quit, they didn't quit fighting, you know, and it's like I, I think of the words of the Apostle Paul. He says to Timothy to fight the good Fight Fight of Faith. And that's what I would say to everyone listening today that, you know, even if you are coming off of some monumental failure this past weekend or, or whatever has been a time of failure for you. That failure isn't final, you know, humble yourself, repent.

Get back on your feet though and keep fighting the good fight of faith. And I would just to add to that is we're not minimizing the the trials. They are real struggles. You know, it's a real fight to break free. And like you're saying, it's gonna take some time. But you have to remember Deuteronomy seven, the Lord encourages the Israelites and he says, and the Lord, your God will drive out those nations before you little by little, you will be unable to destroy them all at once. He tell them you're not gonna be able to take them all over at the same time unless the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. But the Lord, your God will deliver them over to you. And we have to remember that, you know, we want this quick fix and this massive deliverance, but that wouldn't build the character in us that we need for where the Lord is trying to take us if I prayed and asked the Lord to be set free from all my sexual sin.

And then the next day, some leadership board at a church called me over and said, hey, we've, we've all just heard from the Lord and we'd like to make you our senior pastor. You know, and I'm like, all of a sudden, in a week's time I went from addicted to porn to now the senior pastor of a, you know, 500 member church. You know, like, wow, I do not have the character for that. Like, I would be full of pride. I wouldn't, wouldn't know what I'm doing. The Lord's like, OK, I might want to take you there, but we're gonna have to go through some character building trials and so little by little, I'm gonna get you there and I'm gonna work this stuff out of you. And like pastor was saying, just keep fighting, just keep doing everything you've learned. Go back to those beginning times of the, of those times where you really had the breakthroughs with the Lord and do those things that you learned in the beginning and keep fighting and the Lord will get you where he's trying to take you if you're willing. Yeah, I uh when I came to uh the residential program before I ever arrived there, the Lord gave me a verse from second Timothy 4 18 that comes to mind here and it says the Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom.

To him, be glory forever and ever amen. And you know, there was a promise in a sense that I could really hold on to. And yes, I had a part to play in all of that, but the Lord was going to bring me through. Yeah. And I think that that's really key here at the end too. I, I know for myself, one of the biggest parts of learning to fight in the Lord's strength is to gather up those promises that he's made me because, ok, yeah, in the past when I was just living in total sin, none of those promises applied to me. I hadn't repented, made him the Lord of my life. But now there is every reason to believe that his word will be accomplished in my life, not because of my own strength, not because of my own righteousness, but because he said it and he doesn't lie. His word does not pass away and fulfills it. Amen. All right. Well, thank you guys for coming in and helping us out. It's great to be with you. Thanks at the very beginning of my walk with the Lord.

I really needed some help with my quiet time. I knew that it was absolutely vital and I wanted it to be meaningful, but honestly, it was just a little bit overwhelming. And if that resonates with you, I'd really encourage you to get one of the Bible studies in our walk series. Each of these studies gives you a helpful structure for getting into the word of God every day. For yourself. We've got a study on repentance called the Walk of Repentance. We've also got, he leads me besides Still Waters, which is a study going through a selection of Psalms. We also have pressing on to the heavenly calling, which is a study through Paul's Prison epistles and finally a lamp unto my feet. It's a study going through Psalm 1 19. Anyway, I thought that I should mention these, we've heard from so many people that these studies have been a tremendous help in their walk with God. You can check out all of these just by going to store dot Purelife Ministries 190.0.0 R G.

Thanks so much for listening. We'll talk to you later. Purity for life is a production of pure life ministries for over 30 years, pure life ministries has been the go to for those whose lives have been devastated by sexual sin. Visit us on the web for more information about our life, changing counseling programs and powerful teaching materials. Also check out our video clips of men and women whose lives have been radically transformed. All that and more at Purelife Ministries 0.0 R G.