Lord, Help Me Change! — Shane Idleman

I want to talk tonight on the topic of change. Is there anybody in here that wants to change any aspect of your life? If you're not, I'd love to meet you after the service and tell me actually how you do that.

Because as sinners, on this side of the cross, there are going to always be areas that we need to change and want to change. And sometimes that can be healthy because that can drive us to God. We'll be the person who says, I don't need to change.

I'm good. I got God down. I'm doing everything by the book. Usually they're not doing everything by the book. They need the book. To be enlightened, to show them areas that they need to improve on. And maybe it's just as my role pastoring, a role I never would have chosen.

God chose it and I'm grateful for that. But the hardest part for me, and I've explained this before, is seeing people die spiritually. With living water just steps away. If you would just drink, if you would just take of this living water, your thirst will be over.

If you just take of this and watching them go through many different things, it's hard. But most people, they'll say, I want to change. I don't want to continue this addiction. Or I don't want to continue this temper.

I'm destroying my family. I need to change. I need to change. And that's what I want to talk about tonight. And the interesting thing is, the church as a whole, we either get caught on this side where it's all about me, willpower.

I just got to push through. I just got to get back on track. I just got to do this. I got to do this. I got to do this. I got to do this. I got to do this. New Year's resolutions, I'm going to do it. And that won't work because you need God.

But then there's the other side where it says, okay, God, change me. Change me. Help me lose this weight as I went by Krispy Kreme doughnuts and eating those while I'm watching TV. Just change me. No, you've got to do something.

So we want to find that balance because it's God who changes us. But he also requires that we do certain things on our side. They work together. God says, if you do this, I'll do this. If you do this, I'll do this.

So anytime you want to change, you don't want to eliminate either one of those. You're going to have a responsibility. You can't do God's part. Let him do his. But you have a responsibility. I have a responsibility to be involved in that process.

So what's that look like? Well, let's dive into this. Matthew 12, verse 43. Actually, I came across a casting crown song this morning. Some of you have heard East to West. And it reminded me of this topic.

I actually redid the first page just to read this. It says, here I am, Lord, I'm drowning in a sea of forgetfulness. The chains of yesterday surround me. I yearn for peace and rest. I don't want to end up where you found me.

And it echoes in my mind. It keeps me awake tonight. I know you've cast my sin as far as the East from the West. And I stand before you now as though I've never sinned. But today I feel like I'm just one mistake away from you leaving me this way.

Can we relate to that? I'm just one more mistake. God's about ready to just drop the hammer on me. He's done with me. They say, He's the God of second chances. He's the God of 10 ,000 chances. Talk about a merciful, loving, gracious God that draws us back, that forgives that prodigal son imagery that you have of coming back to a loving father.

But isn't it interesting that the prodigal son came to himself, and then he ran back to the father? God just didn't instantly pick him up and bring him home like a puppet. There's responsibility on our part.

So Matthew 12, verse 43 is where we left off last week. When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, I will return to my house from which I came.

And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself. And they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first.

So shall it also be with this wicked generation. Now, let me relieve some of you right now. In context, this scripture isn't talking to Christians. That was a close one. But there's a principle here that we can definitely glean from.

The context, if you remember, is Jesus was talking about blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. You remember these religious leaders were rejecting him. They're rejecting his call. They're rejecting his good works.

They said, you're just doing these good works because you're Satan. And Jesus said, you are stiff-necked people. You're resisting the Holy Spirit. You're actually participating in the unpardonable sin.

And that's the sin where if you reject Christ, the day we breathe our last breath, that's unpardonable. Because we can't be forgiven. We lost that opportunity. So the context is still this group of people rejecting Christ.

That's the context. It's not a Christian warning, okay, you better do something or you better keep Christ in your heart or the devil's going to come in and bring seven spirits worse than the first. It has nothing to do with the believer.

The context is an unbeliever. You can do outward things and sweep the heart, do reformation, but that's not going to make a lasting change. I like what Matthew Henry said. He's a commentator back in the 1700s.

He said, the unclean spirit leaves for a time, but when he returns, he finds Christ is not there to shut him out. The heart is swept by outward reformation and the man becomes a more decided enemy of the truth.

Every heart, hear this, every heart, and it might be some in this room, is the residence of unclean spirits. Except those which are temples of the Holy Ghost by faith in Christ. So that's the context there.

But here's the important principle that we're going to talk about tonight. We must fill our heart with the things of God. If you don't fill your heart with the things of God, guess who comes in? The satanic influence comes in and they begin to dominate, they begin to rule, they begin to reign, they begin to control because you've given up control.

So there's an important principle here. If our heart is not full of the things of God, what's it going to be full of? The things of the world that we're opening up ourselves to that satanic assault. And some of you might be saying, oh, shame Satan.

Well, let me just tell you up front and truthfully, there's a heaven, there's a hell, there's a good, there's an evil, there's a right, there's a wrong, there's a God and there's Satan that opposes him.

It's crystal clear throughout scripture. And we can even see it working in our own lives. Sometimes you wonder, how in the world did that happen? And we see that demonic element taking place. And I like, there's another commentator, he said, no good parallel has been cited for the journey in waterless places.

But the imagery is probably based on the idea that demons will move naturally in realms where conditions are antithetical to our well-being and devoid of the blessings of God. And I underlined that and I highlighted, I said, this is profound.

And it's absolutely true. Here's the point. Demonic activity will move naturally in realms where conditions are opposed to our well-being and devoid of the blessings of God. So in a nutshell, you remove God, guess who moves in?

I'm not talking about demonic possession and, you know, exorcist and all that stuff. Ironically, you know, all these young adults now like the American horse story. I just watched the trailer of that and get, you know, nightmares.

I mean, I don't know how. I mean, we're feeding our mind with this garbage and wonder why God seems distant. We wonder why we're struggling in these areas. It's because you're creating an environment for Satan to thrive, Satan to flourish.

See, that's the interesting thing. If we're not filling our heart with the things of God, just by default, you're going to fill it with the things of the world. And then you're going to be led astray by the things of the world influence.

They're going to influence you in the direction that opposes God. So that's a very important point for us. We either provide fertile ground for Satan to work or fertile ground for the things of God to grow.

And you know how I often say sin either grows or withers depending on whether you feed or starve it. If that's one thing you take from this, highlight it, write this down. Sin either grows or withers depending on whether we feed or starve it.

That's the principle of this whole message. What's in our heart? Is Satan going to come and say, I can't get in there. God's got shelter. He's got a protection. He's got that covered. Or do we open ourselves up for the demonic influence?

And here's what the Bible says about this area. Ephesians 4 .27, do not give the devil a foothold. So that tells me I can give the devil a foothold. How? By opening the door. You ever do this? Somebody opens the door.

Like my kids open the door, they want to slam it. I just put my foot right there. Guess what? The door's not closing. I've got a foothold. Now I've got advantage. Now the door's open. Now I come in. That's the imagery.

See, don't even give the devil a foothold. But what we like to do, we like to play with the lion that's sent to kill, steal, and destroy. Isn't that a cute little kitty? And we use a baby gate to guard a lion.

So the Bible says don't give the devil a foothold because once you do, he will pounce through that door. Remember, the Bible also talks about your enemy, your adversary, goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

How does he devour us? Open the door. If the door's shut, there's no devouring. And that's really what this point is about. Don't give the devil a foothold. You might be saying, okay, Shane, you got me thinking.

How do I do that? Well, that's where we're getting into the practical application in just a minute. Also the doctrine of Balaam. I've talked about last year in Numbers 22. It's a doctrine, theologians call it the doctrine of Balaam because what happened is King Balak hired Balaam to curse the children of Israel.

He hired him to curse the children of Israel. So once he kept trying to curse the children of Israel, God said, nope, you can't curse them. You can't curse them. There's peace there. There's peace there.

And the guy came back and said, I can't curse the children of Israel because they are blessed. So the whole doctrine there is you cannot curse what God has blessed. So what happened to the children of Israel then?

They were blessed of God. They removed themselves from the covering. So the false prophet said, listen, I can't curse them, but I'll tell you what you can do. You can have them curse themselves. Bring in the women of the land.

Bring in idolatry and let them be seduced and pulled away from God. See, that's how he works. He says, come on, come on. See, isn't that easy? Oh, see, nothing's happening. Nothing's, come on. That's how he gets you out of that covering, gets you out of that shelter and that protection.

That's another way he operates. And the final one, Ephesians 6 -11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. What is the word wiles there? Trickery, deceit.

So he says, put on the armor of God because the devil's gonna come in and trick you. He's gonna deceive you. He's called an angel of light. He doesn't come in as an angel of darkness, though. He comes in as an angel of light.

You know, that's not that bad. That's no big deal. And we begin to compromise in these areas. So when we abandon God's plan for our lives, we also abandon his covering, his shelter, his protection. And that's the interesting thing.

Looking back now, I say, duh. But in my teenage years and my early 20s, you know, you always get mad at God's word. Ah, golly, a bunch of do's and don'ts. But then you realize that they're actually guardrails through the canyons of life.

That's what it does. So when you remove, when we abandon God's plan for our lives, we abandon his covering, his shelter, his protection. Doesn't mean life's perfect. Doesn't mean life's great. But you can remove yourself from God's covering, from that protection, and open yourself up.

I mean, Peter says, the enemy goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. How does he devour? We open up to that. We remove ourselves from God's protection and open ourselves up. So let's get into the practical application.

If you want to change tonight, and I'm talking about any, I'm talking about change from anger issues, addiction, gossiping, tongue, lust. I mean, we know what they are, right? I mean, our hearts are going, okay, I need to work on that area.

We just won't tell anybody about it, but we hold it in there. And that's the first thing I want to talk about. If you really want to change, if we really want to change, you have to expose the sin. You have to expose it.

It's like cancer. You've got to expose it. It doesn't mean you tell everybody. It doesn't tell a lot of people. You go to some trusted people or a spouse. Maybe that's not a good idea for some of you.

But you go to somebody, you know, somebody, the elders of the church would love to meet with you afterwards, or somebody where you can expose it and you bring it to the light. See, sin loves deception.

It loves darkness. It loves that hidden element. We say, I can handle this myself. I can quit anytime. I can handle this. But when you expose it and you say, listen, I'm struggling in this area. I need help.

I'm exposing it. I remember a while back, I knew there was a spouse who came to their other spouse and said, man, listen, this is going to be hard for you to hear, but I'm struggling with lust. They're like, what?

But I'm bringing it to the light. Would you help me? Can we talk about it more? Can you help me and keep me accountable? Can we bring more intimacy back in our marriage so the devil doesn't have a foothold?

And that helped the marriage. You would think it would hurt, but by the spouse admitting, hey, I'm struggling here. Can you help me? It brings it to the light. It loses its power. The enemy goes, oh, darn it.

That was my ace in the hole. I was going to keep working on that, but now it's to the light. You've exposed it. It loses its power. It grows in darkness. And the pull of sin often doesn't vanish, but the power of it fades when it's exposed.

That's one of the steps. You know, you look at these Celebrate Recovery or AA or whatever it is people go to, and they say, listen, here it is. I'm a whatever, and I'm exposing this. I want you to keep me accountable.

This is the area I need help on. This is the area I struggle in. And the enemy just loses ground. So if you want to change, you have to admit what you want to change. But like many of us, oh, we play church really well.

Everybody thinks I got my life together. Man, if you could see everybody's thought life in the course of a day, it would make you sick. I mean, let's be honest. Lord, help us change. Not my thought life, though.

It's good. You guys. Well, I'm going to talk about that in a minute, how to really change in this area. But there's a website I want to encourage some people to go to if you're not open for a meeting, like Celebrate Recovery or different things.

But it's called settingcaptivesfree .com. And it's like a 40-day study on addiction. Settingcaptivesfree .com. It'll bring scripture. It'll bring testimonies. But I was looking over before I recommend it.

I want to look it over. And it said there is deception thinking you can handle this yourself. That's where pride comes in. I can handle this myself. When you're at that point, you no longer look to the Lord for your help.

Then there is shame because you're living a deceptive dual life. So we say, I can handle this. And you can't. And when you fall and fall and fall, it brings shame. And now I'm living in shame. It's a double-minded man and stable on his ways.

I'm miserable. I don't want to go to church. Let's be honest. Why do you think so many people miss church? Not this church. All the churches. Why? They're living in sin and they don't want to be confronted.

I don't like that. Here I go again. Down this road again. There he goes. Hammering me again. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. It's because we don't like it. I'm not going to church this week. I'm not going next week.

And we avoid it. Many Christians avoid church because they don't feel the conviction there. I don't want that. And they live this dual life. And deep in their hearts they say, Lord, I want to return to my first love.

Don't you want that passion back when worship used to pop and it used to worship God and tears would come down your face and the Word of God became alive? And you'd spend hours and hours each week reading the Word of God.

It came alive. And you're filled with the Spirit of God. You couldn't wait to get to church. I'm going to get there early. Where'd all that go? Because we're caught in this cycle that has to be broken.

I believe it has to be broken tonight. And one of the ladies' testimonies on the website said this, I'd gotten to the point that I could not even look another Christian in the eye. Have you ever been there?

I have. And I know because people avoid me a lot. It's funny. People say, oh, you must have a lot of friends. Everybody wants to know the pastor. Actually, everybody wants to avoid the pastor. That's the truth.

My own family members, you know, we don't want to be around you because what you stand for we don't like. They don't even realize, hey, I'm a struggler too. Hey, we're just all sinners together. Let's not point fingers.

Let's not judge. Let's help each other. But I see this a lot. I'd gotten to the point I couldn't even look another Christian in the eye. Their walk with Christ was convicting to me. And just on that note, if we are the people convicting others, we should also be the ones offering the grace to them.

And say, hey, listen, I know you're going through a lot. If you need anything, let me know. I'm not any better. I've been there. I can help. Instead of, oh, how could you? And we push them further and further away.

So you can have a huge ministry by just forgiving and loving and allowing God to draw them back. It doesn't mean their walk is right, but it means you're not going to judge them. I found many times they don't need you quoting scripture.

They are well aware that they're on the wrong path. And then I come in there, oh, looky here. No drunkards, no thieves, no homosexuals, no adulterers are going to enter the kingdom of heaven. You're in trouble.

They're like, I know that, Shane. That's why I'm, can you help me here? So they need us to bring life to that dead walk. I mean, I love to go and encourage people. You guys remember a while back we were ministering inside of hospital homes.

And on that note, we do need helpers. We've got three or four different homes throughout the valley, and a lot of these people are terminally ill. They're not going to be getting out. And one guy I met in West Palmdale, I walked in and the nurse said, oh, I don't know if you want to go in there.

He's pretty depressed. He's on a lot of anti, I mean, he's pretty depressed. I mean, you could just, you walk in a room, you ever feel that? Oh, I don't like this. This is not my playground. And I walked in there, and he was just a heroin addict, 30 years, heroin addict, cancer, has pictures of his little son and grandson who he knows will never see.

They're not going to come see him. And I was depressed and just listening. And his name was John. And I just started to encourage him for about a half hour. You know, but look at what you can do now. Restore that relationship with him.

Show them how you're back in right relationship with the Lord. Let's get you in the Word of God. Let's start doing it. And he started crying and gave me a hug as I left, like bawling. Like, I am so encouraged.

Then he started coming to church a few times, sitting in the back row. And he just, he walked in and just started crying, worshiping. I'm like, how did this guy go from suicide to this? Hope. Hope. And I wasn't doing anything magical.

Like, oh, Shane, will you talk to this person, this person? I mean, it was hard. I can't do anything you guys can't do. And you get them focused on the hope. And he rebuilt his relationship with the son.

I mean, it was just, and he passed away, I think, I don't want to get it wrong, but a few months ago from, you know, what he went through, what he put his body through. But offering hope. And she continues, their walk with Christ was convicting to me because of the overwhelming shame and guilt I felt.

I ran to alcohol to numb myself because I didn't want to feel the very thing the Lord was using to get my attention. My heart began to get harder and harder. Sin is debilitating, exhausting, and paralyzing.

This zapping of strength, have you ever felt that? Keeps us powerless to fight the enemy and ineffective in serving God. It's the opposite of I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And it leaves us spent, tired, and emotionally drained by keeping that sin bound and in secret.

But then she goes on to say, fortunately, there is a way out. And the first way out is we have to expose it. We have to expose it. That's one of the things I talk to, you know, when I go to men's conferences, because I don't know if you guys will realize, but pornography is just a huge issue with men and women.

It's everywhere. It's destroying families. It's destroying walks with the Lord. It's everywhere. And I tell the guys, you've got to expose it. Let your spouse know. Let your friend know. Oh, man, I don't want to do that.

Well, how bad do you want it? I mean, that's what it boils down to, doesn't it? How bad do you want it? How bad do you want to change? Because obviously this isn't working. And you have to expose it. So that goes back to what's our role?

We expose it, we repent, and we ask God for help. Maybe on an ongoing basis for a while. Expose it, repent, ask God for help. That's our job. And then what does He do? Here's what He does. He fills us with His strength.

He fills us with His Spirit. So now we're full of the Spirit of God because we conquered that besetting sin. That's how they work together. You see how that works? But if we don't bring it to the light, God's over here going, Unless that comes to the light, I can't deal with it.

I can bring consequences that might bring it to the light, but you don't want to go down that route. So here's the second thing. Once you bring it to the light, here's the second thing. Safeguards are guardrails.

You've got to put safeguards in place. This is huge. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where you will see a lot of change take place if you can do this. But we don't like guardrails, do we?

We want to live free. I don't want anybody telling me what to do. I don't want these restrictions. I want to just do whatever I want to do. And the enemy comes and works that because guardrails hold the lion back.

Safeguards. What's a safeguard? Well, drastic change requires drastic measures. And I usually shoot people straight. I say, You want to change? I talk to people hooked on this or hooked on that. If you really want to change, it's going to require drastic measures.

Jesus said if your eye caused you to sin, go buy a pair of glasses. What's he say? Cut it out. If your arm caused you to sin, is he talking about physically doing that? Of course not, because you can still do that and still lust.

Still commit sin. But the imagery there is whatever it is. Whatever it is that's causing you to continue in this lifestyle, to draw you away from God, you better cut it off before it cuts you off. And we have to take drastic measures.

When people fall, it's often because they use a baby gate to guard a lion, as I said earlier. Here's what happens. After a fall, a person is quick to repent and get back on track. Right? That was a close one.

Never again. Oh, next week. Repent. Back on track. Never again. Fall. Repent. Fall. Repent. Fall. Repent. Fall. Repent. Fall. And then shame comes in, and guilt, and humiliation, and failure. And the enemy loves to get us in that spot where I'm just, I'm a failure.

I was born this way. I was just destined to be. I mean, I can't do anything with these desires, anything with these impulses. I can't. I'm so defeated. And he just works in that defeat, because from defeat comes excuses.

Right? If I'm feeling defeated, I'm feeling, man, life stinks. We just continue in it. We just feed that with excuses. So we have to have safeguards in place to help with this. Again, these aren't things that just stop everything, but they help minimize the attack of the enemy.

Because if he comes in like a lion, he comes in roaring, seeking who he can devour, you've got to keep that door closed with safeguards. So he hits that safeguard and says, there's a shelter, there's a protection.

And God's Word is clear on this area, too. Here's a couple ways. I'll just tell you up front, you're not going to like these. Especially young adults, you're not going to like the first one. There's an app, you can go on the App Store and find this, that allows parents to monitor their children's text messaging and Facebook posts.

Or you can go on their Facebook page. You can monitor their text messaging. Now, what kid in their right mind is going to want this to happen? Nobody. Why? Because they're enjoying their sin. Can we just shoot straight tonight?

If anybody says, that's a great idea, let's do it. You know they want to seek God. If they say, no way, you're not touching that thing. You say, well, you're hiding something. I found out something interesting.

When young adults text P-I-R, it means parent in the room. C-U -4 -6, C-U -4 -6. Number 9, parent watching. Number 99, my parent's gone. They have all these little codes. It's a safeguard. If I was a young adult, I'd say, get me some safeguards.

Because when I was your age, you had to drive to a liquor store to find something out in the desert. I mean, there's nothing. You guys, there's an onslaught of attack coming into your phones, coming into your homes.

You've got to put the safeguards in place. If you don't want it, why? Why in the world would you not want a safeguard? I'll tell you why. Fill in the blank. Because I want to continue in my sin. I want to feel guilty at church, but I don't really want to change.

I want to cry a little bit, but I don't really want to change. We cry because we got caught. That's why I talk to men. I say, are you crying because you got caught? Or are you crying because you really want to change?

And then here's where you find out. Here's what I need you to do. I'm not doing that. Oh, then you don't want to change. You just want to be a little sissy boy and cry. And the wife comes back, and then you continue in it.

So I would encourage, get apps. You think I'm not going to get this app? I was so excited to hear this app's available. Daddy, you're not doing it. Oh, I'm not called to be your friend. I'm called to be your parent.

There's a roaring lion seeking to devour you, and I'm going to do whatever I can as often as I can to protect you. That's my calling. That's my goal. I'm not here to be your buddy. I'm not here to be like, other parents don't do that.

Well, other parents aren't your parents. That would be a huge safeguard. You think that might deter some what they call sexting? You think that just might be a big deterrent? If my parents are going to see my text messages and what I post on Facebook?

Personally, I think Facebook is very dangerous. Very dangerous. At a certain age, maybe 18, and you have, you know, I don't know, but that thing is not good because it could open the door. I mean, I can count on both my hands how many divorces have resulted because of Facebook.

Hey, haven't seen you in 12 years. What are you up to? Oh, nothing. How about you? I hope my husband doesn't see this thing. And then there we go. The enemy says, I'm in. Thank you. No safeguard in place.

We started sharing our Facebook page about, I don't know, four, five, six years ago now. You know, she was getting hit on. I was getting hit on. It's like, hey, let's just stop this real quick. Let's combine it.

Guess what nobody gets hit on? Safeguards. Safeguards. There's also an app that helps with unaccounted time so your spouse can go. Hmm. Why are you at Schooners and not Vons? Why are you in Northridge at the Kit Kat Club versus, I don't know if that exists.

I'm sounding right. But aren't you supposed to be in an unaccounted time? Hey, I told Morgan, let's put that thing on my phone. I'd love it. If you can't look and see where I'm at, something's wrong. And if somebody doesn't want to do it, why?

Hey, listen, you're not pulling the wool over my eyes anymore. I've had the wool pulling over my eyes dozens and dozens of times by people who'd say one thing and do another. I don't care what people say anymore.

I want to see what they do. Show me your actions. I love what A .W. Tozer said. He said, don't come up here and cry about it. Go home and live it out. Because we can cry all the time. But then when it comes down to it, now here's the other biggie.

Website accountability. Do you want to have your websites, all the websites you visit, go to accountability partner once a week? I know, Shane, are you crazy? Exactly. Why? Why? You have no safeguards in place.

I mean, I probably tell people this, and one out of 20 actually do it. One out of 20. I'm not putting that on my phone. Why? Why? I'll tell you why. You're enjoying your sin. You don't really want to change.

You want to play games with God. If you really want to change, you'll put in safeguards. Think about it. If every website you go to goes to your mom and your spouse, you think you might think twice about clicking something?

Oh, you'll think, you won't think twice. Oh, never, never. That'll kill it. Safeguards. Say, Shane, you need safeguards? Oh, absolutely. I'm not scared as the devil as much as I am with the devil within.

I've said that many times before. We're filled with the Holy Spirit, but we're also filled with filthy flesh that would do nothing, would love nothing more than to just take me down. Safeguards help in that area.

I tell the elders, they tell me, here's the area I'm struggling in. Help keep me accountable. You bring it to the light. It loses its power. Okay, Shane struggles in that area. I need to help hold him accountable versus me coming in here, huh, okay, I don't struggle with anything.

What's wrong with you guys? You just gotta apply the word of God to your life. Come on, be like me someday. If anybody says that, they've got so much sin in their life, they're just hiding all of it. Anytime you have to act so spiritual, there's something wrong.

Again, share Facebook pages. I know this is, I know these seem like, oh, wow, but a lot of people are friends with people they shouldn't be. Let's just be honest. Like, I don't want my wife seeing my, why?

You guys are called to be one flesh and be the purity of heart, purity of mind. If you're hiding things, if you're secretive, that's not good. That's deceptive and you're on the wrong path. Why isn't it taking me down yet?

Oh, it will. Remember, the enemy doesn't come to you as a red guy dressed in a red suit with a porch, with a pitchfork and tell him, I'm gonna get you. He comes in as an angel of light. Bringing you in things.

Oh, see, it's not that bad. It's not that bad. He does it one step at a time. The next thing that's important is what I just said. Checking in with those who love you and will help you. Have somebody who's accountable.

There should be people in your life say, hey, I struggle with this issue. Would you help hold me accountable? Would you? And they're not the answer. Trust me, accountability partners are not the answer because you can work right around them.

It's just supplemental. They help. Another safeguard there. For example, if I told everybody, hey, I'm addicted to chocolate. Please help me. I'm going on a fast. If you saw me at stores, you'd be looking at me, hey, what are you doing?

What are you buying there? Is that organic chocolate or regular chocolate? Because you're bringing that to the surface. Number five, I'm putting safeguards. I would say this is probably one of the biggest things you can do if you're under 35 and older, of course, but this is the thing that keeps tripping up people.

It's not a month goes by I don't get emails or Facebook or something with this is the problem. You need to evaluate your relationships and you need to cut off those that are taking you away from God. You might think that's strong, but if somebody's pulling you away from God, you need to cut that loose.

Well, I'm ashamed, but I'm ministering to them. No, you're not. The Bible doesn't say if we fall when we reach out to somebody, that that's okay. Especially young adults, they go back into drinking, back into buying Oxy, back into heroin, back into meth, back into, oh, my friend, they just keep pulling me back in.