Episode 93 - Wicked? Who, Me?

When you choose to run after lust, porn, and masturbation you are choosing to  worship a false god. You are guilty of idolatry, and that is a wicked thing.

Welcome to the Point of Purity Podcast. In this week’s episode we take a closer look at what God thinks about our worship of King Me. This Episode is titled: “Wicked? Who Me?”

Learn more about the ministry of The Purity Coach at  http://www.thepuritycoach.com

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Transcript

Psalm 16:4 says, “The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply.”

When you choose to run after lust, porn, and masturbation you are choosing to run after another god – to pursue that which is not God. You are worshiping a false god. You are guilty of idolatry.

When you run after another god instead of the true God you will experience the absence of genuine joy and perfect peace. You will know nothing but sorrow and sadness. That’s a fact of Scripture, and a painful reality of life.

Welcome to the Point of Purity Podcast. I’m your host, Steve Etner, Author, National Speaker, and Purity Coach for The Pure Man Ministry. This is Episode #93, and in this week’s episode we take a closer look at what God thinks about my worship of King Me. This Episode is titled: “Wicked? Who Me?”

“Many are the sorrows of the wicked.” (Psalm 32:10)

It is important that we pause here for a moment and consider this question: Is allowing King Me to sit on the throne of my heart a “wicked” thing? When King Me reigns in my life, am I “running after another god”? And if I am “running after another god,” is that a “wicked” thing? Is that evil?

Before answering the question, let’s take a few moments to talk about the word “wicked” in Scripture. In today’s culture we tend to see the word as referring to a very bad person, the scum of the earth, the one guilty of the most heinous crimes known to man. The one who has no moral compass or conscience is considered to be a wicked person. As a result, you may be strongly inclined to believe that you personally are not “wicked.” 

The word David uses for “wicked” literally translates to “hostile to God” or opposed to God. Would you say that describes the person who is living for King Me? When King Me is on the throne of your heart, God is not. You are hostile to (or against) God. You are, therefore, wicked.

Paul says, (Romans 8:7) “The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God.” When your focus is upon satisfying the desires of King Me, you are not for God. You are against Him. When your thoughts are concentrated on “I want, I need, I deserve, I desire, I have to have, I can’t live without,” you’re not dedicated to God. You have turned your back on Him; you’re hostile to Him. 

“Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with (hostility against) God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4 addition mine)

So, again I ask: is choosing to allow King Me to sit on the throne of your heart a “wicked” thing? Listen to God’s description of a wicked person. 

“For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.” (2 Timothy 3:2-5)

Does that sound like anyone you know? Read that list again. Can you see yourself painted in this picture? When I think about my personal battle with sexual impurity, I was:

• A “lover of self” (my mindset was focused on my passions and desires, not God’s. I constantly gave into the act of self-gratification). 
• I was “Proud” and “arrogant” (I was convinced I can handle this, I have it under control, I don’t need any help, I think people are making this a mountain out of a molehill). 
• I was “Abusive” (I became an angry man and took it out on my family with a bad attitude, verbal abuse, withdrawing into myself and ignoring them). 
• I was “Ungrateful” (I did not appreciate all that God had so graciously and lovingly provided. I wanted more and different than what God had blessed me with). 
• I was “Unholy” (my attitude and behavior did not glorify God – rather I was entirely focused on exalting myself). 
• I was “Heartless” (I didn’t care whom I was affecting or hurting, I had developed a hard heart – caring only about my own wants and desires).
• I was “Unappeasable” (my hunger for sexual satisfaction and fulfillment was never fully satisfied. I was constantly on the search for the next fix, the next rush, the next better thing). 
• I was “Without self-control” (I couldn’t control my thoughts, my eyes, my fantasies, my behavior. My ability to resist was almost totally gone). 
• I was “Not loving good” (all I loved was myself. I loved my sin. I loved my wickedness).
• I was “Treacherous” (I betrayed the trust that my wife, my children, my church had put in me. I was a traitor to my faith and didn’t even care).
• I was “Reckless” (I took a lot of risks, and I didn’t care who it hurt, I just wanted to be sexually satisfied). 
• I was “Swollen with conceit” (I was full of myself, characterized by pride).
• I was A “lover of pleasure” rather than of God. 
• I was I appeared to be godlier than I was. I was a wicked man.

Did you notice in each of those points I just made that the personal pronoun “I” kept popping up? That was the core of the problem. I was living for me, and when King me was sitting on the throne of my heart–everything I thought, everything I said, and everything I did was always and only thought, said, and done for King Me. (To learn more about this concept, be sure to get my book “Removing the ‘I’ from L.I.F.E. – the dethroning of King Me” off of Amazon.com) 

Although I wasn’t verbally denying the existence of God, my behavior was clearly declaring that I was rejecting Him as Lord of my life. David writes, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’.” (Psalm 14:1) Consider this: when you choose to lust, look at porn, and masturbate you are in effect saying, “there is no God greater than me!” You are openly declaring that you and you alone are “god”, and everyone and everything must worship King Me. I was a fool. What about you?

Isaiah says of the wicked, “their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity.” (Isaiah 59:7) You see, when you give in to the beast, you are (Titus 3:3) being “foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures.” You are disobedient and rebellious against God, casting His law behind your back (Nehemiah 9:26).

God says that the wicked “draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me.” (Isaiah 29:13) Wow! That verse certainly described me to a “T.” I claimed to be a Christian, I argued that I was a worshiper of God while secretly I was continuously rejecting God in favor of King Me. My words said one thing, but my heart was somewhere else. Can you relate? 

David says, “in the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, ‘There is no God’.” (Psalm 10:3-4) Does that describe you? Now before your answer, consider this: Are you seeking God with all your heart? Are you persistently pursuing after godliness? Are you daily driven deep in your soul to be holy even as He is holy? (1 Peter 1:16) Or are your thoughts ignoring, resisting, (maybe even denying) the existence of the One True God in favor of your little “g” gods? As we will see, when you choose to worship King Me, you are automatically choosing to turn your back on God.

Ephesians 4:19 tells us that the wicked “have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” Does that describe you? Has your heart begun to harden like a callous? Are you becoming insensitive and indifferent toward sin in your life? Have you resisted the promptings of the Holy Spirit so many times that you have become callous to Spiritual things?

The wicked also “rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil.” (Proverbs 2:14) Again I ask, does that describe you? Do you feel a jolt of excitement, a rush of pleasure when you sin? Face reality my friend. When you choose to worship King Me, when you choose to give in to your sinful passions, these verses are describing you!

“Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those 
 who practice them.” (Romans 1:32)

Let’s be honest here. You know that looking at porn and masturbating to it is wrong (Matthew 5:28; Proverbs 6:25; Exodus 20:14; Psalm 101:3; 1 Corinthians 6:14; Luke 4:8). You know that those producers of porn, those filming it, those acting it, and those who are making it available to the masses are all promoting and participating in wickedness. Yet every time you visit that porn site, every time you watch that video, every time you choose to masturbate to those images, you are giving your “approval to those who practice them.” (Romans 1:32)

Let me revisit the question that is currently on the table. Based upon what you just read, would you say that placing King Me before God is good or is it evil? Is giving in to your temptations to lust, look at porn, masturbate – to worship yourself as “god” – a wicked thing? The answer is of necessity an unequivocal and undeniable “yes!” 

“You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3)

God is saying that nothing, absolutely nothing and no one is to be worshiped other than Himself–ever. He alone is God. He alone is worthy of our worship. When King Me is sitting on the throne of your heart, you are worshiping King Me. Not God. Self. A false god. That is wicked.

“Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God’s mercies.” (Jonah 2:8 NLT) I submit that every time you choose to look at porn and masturbate, every time you choose to look lustfully at another person, you are choosing to turn your back on God. You are choosing to bow yourself to the whims and wishes of King Me, offering a personal sacrifice to your false god through the act of masturbation.

“You shall not go after other gods.” (Deuteronomy 6:14)

“Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them.” (Jeremiah 25:6)

OK, we’re going to hit the pause button here until next week’s episode as we look forward to continuing this study. Now I know we’re kind of ending on a negative note, but I am doing this intentionally. I want the seriousness of your King Me choices to weigh heavy upon your heart. Then, as you think about the things we’ve talked about in this episode, I’d like to encourage you to open your Bible to Psalm 25 and read the entire Psalm through at least two to three times.

Before we conclude this week’s episode, I’d like to take just a moment and give you a glimpse into our ministry. You see, we do a whole lot more here at The Pure Man Ministry than just producing a weekly podcast. We have a free APP entitled “My Purity Coach.” This app is chocked full of powerful tools to help you in your walk of purity. You’ll find tons of Scripture. Audio and video lessons from the Bible. You can even listen to this podcast from the app. Again, that App is entitled “My Purity Coach.”

We also have designed an online training resource called ChristianGrowthAcademy.com. There you will find a growing library of affordable video courses geared to help you learn how to grow in your Christian walk.

If you’re a subscriber to this podcast, then you’ve heard me talk about our “Point of Purity Program” – a 12 week, 1-on-1, Bible-Centered coaching program taking you into Scripture to teach you how to develop a lifelong strategic plan for sexual purity. And I often talk on this podcast about the various books I have written.

As a faith-based, donor-supported ministry, all of this (and so much more) is only made possible by our team of ministry partners who give financially to this ministry. Without compromise The Purity Coach shows men and women how to have a continuous relationship with Jesus that is real and personal.

To that end we need ongoing financial assistance from partners like you who are committed to providing hope and helping men and women across the globe win their personal battle against the beast of sexual impurity.

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To give your tax deductible gift to this ministry today, simply go to ThePurityCoach.com and click on the Donate button in the upper right corner. And thank you for partnering with us!

So, until next time this is Author, Speaker, and Purity Coach Steve Etner reminding you that if you are going to glorify God in your everyday living, He must first be glorified in your every moment thinking.