Men...protect your marriage and family...

I want to have a heart to heart with men.  Men who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.  Men who love Jesus and their family.  Christian men!  In the last year I have seen too many of my brothers in Christ fall because of sin…particular sin of the sexual nature.  It breaks my heart.  Men who worked hard to be an example and lived their faith only to stop at some point with their walk and allow their darkest thoughts to become reality because the sin was too enticing.  In a few fleeting moments of physical pleasure; came destruction.   Wives, children, families, churches, relationships, character, and the like all destroyed because of selfishness; because of sin.   1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor…!”   Men why are you allowing the desires of the flesh to control you instead of the Spirit?  There are no excuses!  I am certainly not perfect, far from it.  I know my sin; I know the sin that crucified Jesus to the cross.  I am thankful for the grace of God.  I am glad I don’t have to live there in my sin any longer…nor do I ever want to again.  I know now that the reason for a lot of my sinful choices was because I chose not to have any accountability and I enjoyed what was going through my mind. I thought I could control myself.  I thought I could handle my situations.  I was wrong.  I didn’t allow the spirit to lead me and I didn’t have any accountability.  But most importantly I had abandoned my walk.  Men that I have counseled that have confessed their affairs, I remember them shaking and saying, “how’d this happen?”  I tell them that these affairs and sexual sin don’t happen overnight…at some point you had to abandon your walk to dwell on sin.  At some point you stopped protecting your marriage boundaries.  You allowed the temptations to overwhelm you when Paul tells us that, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”  (1 Corinthians 10:13).    God is powerful and able to help us overcome any obstacle.  But we have to allow Him to do so.  The devil has used the same temptations from the beginning: greed, power, and sex.  He hasn’t needed to change them because mankind always seems to fall for them.  Jesus has defeated them so as married Christian men…what are we doing to protect ourselves from sexual sin.  1 Corinthians 6:18a says, “Flee from sexual immorality…!”  Are you?  Married Godly men, the Bible tells us, “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.” (Hebrews 13:4).  Are you protecting your marriage?  Do you need accountability?  Do you need accountability on your computer?  Do it!  Pornography should have no place in your life!  It leads to destruction!  Men stand firm in Jesus!  Don’t become a statistic…rise above it.  There are no excuses!  Get accountability…with trustworthy Godly men who will call you out and pray for you.  Up your prayer life, continually ask God for help with temptations.  Let scripture penetrate your heart, your soul…”Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You.”  (Psalms 119:11).  If you are having marital problems, you are not alone, seek help…the same goes for any addictions to pornography. Don’t put yourself in any dangerous situations such as counseling women alone or being alone with any women except that which your wife or that which related to you.  Men we have the Gospel of Jesus to preach and to teach…to disciple…don’t let the devil have any foothold.  Don’t abandon the Gospel for something that leads to destruction!  Don’t do it!   Remember the words of John, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  (1 John 1:9). Men keep your eyes on Jesus…”let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Hebrews 12:1-3).  Men go spend some quality time with your beautiful bride and children…cherish God’s blessings on your life…protect them!