Hands on the Steering Wheel

Your sinful, fleshly body is a "vehicle" that is permanently out of alignment. It is constantly dragging you off the path of godliness, pulling you away from a right relationship with God. This is why you must daily keep your hands on the “steering wheel,” forcing yourself to stay on the path toward the will of God for your life.
 
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Transcript

As long as you are alive on planet Earth, you are stuck “driving” through life in your “car,” your sinful, fleshly body; a car that is permanently out of alignment, a car that is constantly dragging you off the path of godliness, pulling you away from a right relationship with God. Therefore, you must daily keep your hands on the “steering wheel,” forcing yourself to stay on the path toward the will of God for your life.

Welcome to The Point of Purity Podcast. A powerful weekly study filled to the brim with the all the tools from Scripture you will ever need to build a lasting life of Biblical purity and godliness. I’m your host Steve Etner – author, National Speaker, Certified Professional Mentor TM and Purity Coach for The Pure Man Ministry and this is Episode #203 entitled “Keep Your Hands on the Steering Wheel.”

In your struggle against your sinful habits; in your battle for genuine godliness, what are the desires of your flesh that typically hound you? 

The Apostle Paul writes in Galatians 5:19-21, “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:19-21)

Here's what I want you to understand: This goes much deeper than just a desire to be happy. Your sinful habits and temptations are actually the by-products of the real issue. You see, deep within you there is a strong desire to feel something more than just a surface-level sinful pleasure.

As long as you are alive on planet Earth, you are stuck “driving” through life in your “car,” your sinful, fleshly body; a car that is permanently out of alignment, a car that is constantly dragging you off the path of godliness, pulling you away from a right relationship with God. The flesh wants nothing more than to please King Me. The flesh wants to feel good. The flesh is, and always will be, against the Spirit (Galatians 5:17).

Therefore, you must daily keep your hands on the “steering wheel,” forcing yourself to stay on the path toward the will of God for your life. The Spirit of God within you is telling you to deny the flesh, refusing to let it draw you away and choosing instead to daily submit to God.

In Romans 8:5-8 we read, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:5-8)

So, let me ask you this: Upon whom is your mind set? Are you finding yourself focusing on the things your sinful flesh wants? Are you listening to what King Me is demanding of you? Are you giving in to what it wants, it needs, it cannot live without? Or are you determinedly setting your mind constantly on the things God desires of and for you?

This is why you must daily “Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:11-12)

In Matthew 16:26 Jesus asks the question, “what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” Think carefully about what Jesus is asking.

What does your soul (the real you) “gain” or “profit” from listening to King Me and choosing to give in to temptation? Conversely, what does your soul “gain” or “profit” from denying what King Me wants and, instead, fully surrendering your heart to God?

Only your flesh “benefits” from giving in to your sinful temptations—never your soul. Even so, the “gain,” if you want to call it that, is temporary, short-lived, and eternally worthless. 

In light of what I just said, consider with me the words of Psalm 42:1-2a. “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.”

Why is the deer desperately “panting for flowing streams”? More than likely it’s because it is being chased by an enemy that wants to devour it—so it is running hard to save its life. I submit that you, too, are being chased by a foe that wants to devour you.

“Sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you.” (Genesis 4:7b)

1 Peter 5:8 warns us to “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”

This is powerful imagery. Think about a lion stalking its prey. As it crouches low in the tall grass, intently scanning the herd, what specifically is it looking for? The most vulnerable. The weakest. The one separated from the rest, trying to do life on its own.

This leads me to my next question. When it comes to your relationship with God, when and where are you most vulnerable? When and where are you the weakest? When is the enemy most likely to attack you? I urge you to be specific with your answers. You see, as a born-again child of God your soul should pant, or long for, and thirst for, or deeply desire, God. Especially in those weak and vulnerable moments when the enemy is bearing down on you, intent on devouring you.

Listen to what God says to you in Isaiah 55:1a. “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the water.” Now I ask you: Has giving in to your sinful habits thoroughly quenched your thirst? Truth be told, it has not because it cannot. So, why do you keep going back to something that is not truly satisfying or fully meeting your need?

As we saw earlier, in John 7:37 “Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.’” David also cries out (Psalm 63:1-2 ESV), “O God, you are my god; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power.” In Psalm 84:2 he writes, “I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord. With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God.” Oh, my friend, your soul is thirsty with a thirst only God can quench.

The Psalmist asks a very personal question in Psalm 42:5 when he writes, “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”

When you give up and give in to the whims and wishes, passions and desires of King Me, the end result is that your soul, the core of who you really are, is “downcast” and discouraged. Your soul is “disturbed”—in turmoil and in conflict within you—because you are choosing to live for and serve King Me instead of “putting your hope in God.” King Me will always let you down. King Me will always fail you. God will not. Not now. Not ever.

You do not have to be downcast and disturbed. You do not have to experience guilt and feel shame. “The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in him.” (Lamentations 3:24)

The Lord is all you need—not the things that temporarily satisfy the sinful flesh—The Lord is your portion; He is all you need. Therefore, you must choose daily to dethrone King Me and instead put all of your focus, all your attention, all your hope on him all the time. Will you choose, this moment, to focus on the Lord?

In Psalm 25:1 David is fully and completely, seriously surrendering (his soul) all his life to the almighty, most holy, sovereign creator of the universe.

Let me be candid with you. My goal is for you to openly and willingly acknowledge that you have not yet surrendered all of your soul – including all your sinful passions and temptations to God. “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” (Hebrews 12:4) Until you seriously surrender everything to God and allow Him to be Lord of your entire life, you will continue to struggle with sin. Remember: the real problem is a worship disorder.

Before we move on, let me share with you a couple more things about lifting up your soul to God. In Psalm 23:3 David says God “restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” I want you to think about that. God “restores” or refreshes your soul. Can King Me do that? Does choosing to give in to your sinful desires truly refresh your soul? Why not?

Although your sinful choices might make the flesh temporarily feel good; it does nothing for your eternal soul. Therefore, you end up feeling so empty inside, so dissatisfied after giving in that instead of feeling fulfilled, you feel the shame of your guilt before a holy God. Sin will never satisfy the soul.

Here is what does satisfy the soul: in Psalm 19:7a David says, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.” Restoring and reviving your soul—the soul you’ve chosen to lift up to God—starts by filling your mind with the cleansing power of God’s Word. This is why it is so vital that you discipline yourself to daily read the Bible as well as memorize key verses from Scripture.

Psalm 119:130 says, “The teaching of your word gives light, so even the simple can understand.” Psalm 119:105 tells us that God’s word acts as “a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” This is why you are to “let the word of Christ richly dwell within you.” (Colossians 3:16) When you choose daily do this, your soul will be deeply satisfied.

In Psalm 5:8 David writes, “Lead me in the right path, O Lord, or my enemies will conquer me. Make your way plain for me to follow.”

Your spiritual enemies are constantly crying out to you for attention. They are battling for your worship. This is why, as you lift up your soul you desperately need God to lead you in His paths of righteousness (Psalm 23:3). The primary way God leads us in those paths today is through the reading, studying, meditation, and memorization of Scripture.

Psalm 19:8 exclaims, “The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living.”

Imagine for a moment you are in an unfamiliar place, in the middle of a moonless, starless, cloudy night. It’s pitch-black. You cannot see a thing, so you turn on a flashlight to enlighten the path before you. The light enables you to see where you are going. It ensures you will not trip; you will not stumble; you will not fall—as long as you follow that which the light reveals. That light shows you the way to go and illuminates the obstacles that may trip you up.

Think of God’s Word as being that powerful flashlight in a world of darkness. In Psalm 119:105 David says, “[God’s] word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” And in Psalm 43:3 it says, “Send out your light and your truth; let them guide me. Let them lead me to your holy mountain, to the place where you live.” Proverbs 6:23 tells us that “[God’s] commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light.” And the Psalmist declares in Psalm 18:28, “For it is you who light my lamp; the Lord my God lightens my darkness.” 

You cannot expect to be free from temptation, you cannot presume to triumph over the sinful desires of King Me, if you choose not to invest your time seeking the heart of God through the study and meditation of His word. God will lead you to victory only if you daily choose to seek Him first (Matthew 6:33) and willingly follow Him wherever He may lead (Matthew 16:24).

I don’t want you to miss the fact that daily studying Scripture gives you much-needed light to illuminate an otherwise obscure path. It shows you which way to go so you will not stumble, you will not fall, you will not sin.

Never lose sight of the fact that (Proverbs 4:19) “the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.” 

Without the light of Scripture to guide you, you will stumble, you will fall, you will sin. This is why it is so vital that you are in God’s Word daily. It is critical that you allow His Word to be that “lamp to your feet and light to your path” for every step you take through life.

OK. Moving on in our study today, I want you to also notice that in Psalm 23:3 David says God leads us “for his name’s sake.”

In Psalm 31:3-4 he writes, “For you [God] are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me; you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge.”

Victory and freedom is yours only because of what God has done, is doing, and will do for you. It is strictly for His name’s sake that He “takes you out of the net” and sets you free.

Consider what God told Gideon in Judges 7:2. “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, ‘My own power has delivered me.’” It is the same for you and me and our war against King Me. It is for God’s name’s sake that He will give us the victory. You did not, you cannot, you will not win these battles on your own.

In Psalm 79:9 the Psalmist prays, “Help us, O God our savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name’s sake!” And the prophet Jeremiah prayed, “Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O Lord, for your name’s sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.” (Jeremiah 14:7)

Let me drive home the point yet again that in Psalm 25:1 David is choosing to “lift up” his soul to God. He is choosing to sacrifice King Me to the King of Kings. He is choosing to bare it all before his God, the almighty, most holy, and sovereign creator of the universe.

In essence he is saying, “God, YOU are King. Not me, YOU! You are Lord over all creation. You are Lord over every aspect of my life. You are Lord over each and every thought that I think. You are Lord over each and every word I speak. You are Lord over each and every choice I make. You are Lord over each and every action I take. You, and You alone, are ‘Lord’ Jehovah; my God and my King!”

Do you realize the significance of what David is doing? Think about it. David is the number one dude in all of Israel. He is the alpha dog, the head honcho, the king. He is the “lord” and master of all the Children of Israel. What he says, goes. What he wants, happens. The entire nation looks to him for guidance, direction, and protection.

By calling God his “Lord,” he is confessing that there is One even greater than him, One he is ultimately answerable to. Can you say that? Are you ready and willing to say that and mean it with every fiber of your being?

Let’s face it: you tend to live most of your life as the number one dude, the alpha dog, the head honcho, the king. You have been “lord” of your life and “lord” of your castle. You have made the decisions. What King Me wants; you try your best to make happen. Do you fully recognize that there is One even greater than you, to whom you are ultimately answerable?

The fact is no one is higher. No one has more authority over your life than God. Are you living by that truth? Is God your “Lord,” not just in word, but in your attitude and behavior as well? Is He the ultimate and supreme ruler having absolute reign over your soul—over every part of your life and every moment of your life?

If your answer is “yes,” then I follow up with this question: Is every aspect your life backing up your answer? If not, then you need to change your answer to, “No, He is not Lord of my life. I have not yet lifted my soul up to Him.”

You see, if your actions, if your lifestyle, if your daily choices are not backing up your answer, then no matter how much you may try to argue otherwise, God is not Lord of your life.

You do know that “[only God] satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.” (Psalm 107:9) Right?

Understand this: Only God is perfect. That means only God will perfectly satisfy your longing soul. Only God will perfectly fill your soul with good things. Only God will perfectly fulfill your desires, expectations, and needs, causing a full contentment.

When God perfectly satisfies, that is when the desires of King Me, the longings, the perceived “need” to give in to your temptation, no longer exists. It has been satiated and thereby eliminated; satisfied. Everything God does is perfect. Therefore, the satisfaction only He can give is a perfect satisfaction. It is complete. You need nothing else—ever.

Do you recall what David said in Psalm 23:1? “The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need.” 

We typically experience dissatisfaction largely because the true “need” has not yet been met. Think about it this way: When you have a mosquito bite, what is the driving “need” you face? Hint: it’s not to scratch the itch. Although it feels like the need is to scratch, that feeling is deceiving you. The real “need” is to have the itch go away. Scratching the mosquito bite does not make the itch go away. The “relief” you feel when you scratch deceives you into believing you solved the problem because it temporarily masks the source, providing you with a “feel-good” moment; but ultimately, scratching the itch simply enlarges and exasperates it.

In the same way, your sinful habit does not meet the need. Oh sure, it temporarily masks the problem. It momentarily eases the stress, the frustration, the boredom, the loneliness. However, it actually makes the problem worse. Only God can and will fully and perfectly fill and satisfy your longing, hungry soul.

This is why Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)

Make note of the words “hunger and thirst for righteousness” as well as the words “shall be satisfied.” This is why King Me’s pursuit of sinful pleasure is not meeting your needs. It cannot, it will not ever truly “satisfy” you. You are hungering and thirsting for the wrong thing. You are hungering and thirsting for something that is utterly incapable of truly satisfying you. You are hungering and thirsting for unrighteousness. It is like drinking water from the ocean. As you look at it, it appears capable of meeting your perceived need; but when you drink of it, it will always leave you lacking, wanting and needing more.

However, when you hunger and “thirst for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:2), the promise of Scripture is that you will be perfectly satisfied. When you crave and pursue a right relationship with God—a life of integrity, purity, godliness—then you will be filled to overflowing, not needing anything else but God.

Jesus “stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink’” (John 7:37). A growing, vibrant relationship with your heavenly Father is truly all you need. So, “run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.” (2 Timothy 2:22).

Instead of trying to find your satisfaction in giving up and giving in to your sinful passions and desires, find it in your pursuit of God. You see, “the fear of the Lord leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied.” (Proverbs 19:23a) This is because (Philippians 4:19) only “God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” Only God “will show [you] the way of life, granting {you] the joy of [His] presence and the pleasures of living with [Him] forever.” (Psalm 16:11) Only God will perfectly satisfy your longing soul.

Listen closely as I share to verses from God’s Word. First is Psalm 34:10. “Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing.” Now listen to Isaiah 58:11. “The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.” 

I challenge you to echo the words of David in Psalm 25:1 and lift up your soul to God. Fully surrender every part of your life to Him. When you do, Jeremiah 6:16b tells us you will “find rest for your souls.”

Oh my friend, my deepest heart’s desire for you is that you would be able to cry out the words of Psalm 62:1 and 5. “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken. … Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.” (Psalm 62:5)

OK, we’re going to hit the pause button here until next week’s episode as we look forward to continuing this study.

In the meantime, if you would like to learn more about today’s study, or if you’re interested in learning more about The Pure Man Ministry (what we do to help men across the globe find freedom and victory over sexual sin), be sure to visit our website to see the multitude of resources we’ve made available to you – you can find our website at ThePurityCoach.com

One of those resources I would like to highlight for you here is the recently updated, 2nd edition of my book entitled “Extreme Mind Makeover: How to transform sinful thoughts and habits into patterns of life pleasing to God.” This newly released 2nd edition is rich with hundreds of Scripture references, scores of practical illustrations, and each chapter now ends with a study guide full of questions and discussion points.

“Extreme Mind Makeover” takes you on a journey through the Bible to examine what God has to say about how your thoughts, words, and actions influence and impact your heart.

If you’ve followed this Point of Purity Podcast for any length of time, then you’ve heard me emphasize the fact that what you think becomes what you do. When you train your mind to think godly thoughts, the things you say and do day in and day out will be godly. On the flip side, when you allow your mind to think sinful, fleshly, ungodly, King Me centered thoughts, the result (your daily attitudes and actions) will be ungodly. So, how do I change the way I think? How do I change the things I do? How do I successfully and effectively guard my heart? This book, “Extreme Mind Makeover” takes you into God’s Word to help you answer those questions.

So head on over to Amazon.com and purchase your copy of “Extreme Mind Makeover” today.

And if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, let me encourage you to do so today so you won’t miss any of our upcoming episodes!

So, until next time this is – author, National Speaker, Certified Professional Mentor TM and Purity Coach Steve Etner for The Pure Man Ministry reminding you that if you are going to glorify God in your everyday living, He must first be glorified in your every moment thinking.