From His Heart

Speaker 1

Do you ever have evil desires? Well, you're not alone. Here's Pastor Jeff Shreve.

Speaker 2

Hey. Do you struggle with the ungodly cravings of the flesh? Do you struggle with lust, sexual immorality, desiring that you feel that pull within you for those things? Do you struggle with the desire for pleasure, the desire for fame and for acclaim?

May I answer that for you? Yes, you do. I struggle with that. Every Christian struggles with that. And maybe you're failing in the area of drugs. You're failing in the area of pornography. Maybe you're failing in the area of gluttony. Maybe you're failing in the area of jealousy. Whatever it might be, it's the giant that's killing you.

It's the giant of evil desires. And God wants to teach us today how to walk in victory over that giant. He can heal every scar with real truth, real love, real from his heart.

Speaker 1

Today's message from his heart does cover a wide range of issues that many people have trouble fighting.

But each of these issues points to a single giant problem that has plagued mankind ever since the Garden of Eden, and that is the giant of evil desires.

And, Pastor Jeff, perhaps you can help us get started in this message by defining what you would really consider an evil desire.

Speaker 3

Larry, all of us have a propensity inside as fallen creatures toward that which God says don't do. James talks a lot about when lust is conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. We do get tempted and pulled away by just those things that are within us, that are temptations, that are part of the flesh.

And God has the answer to how to overcome those evil desires. People listening today, you know, we struggle with different things. So many men struggle with the evil desire of physical lust, and women struggle with the evil desire of jealousy and comparing and things like that.

So we're going to deal with those things in this message and really talk about. Okay, here's the problem. Here's the giant. Now, how do we defeat that giant in the power of the Holy Spirit?

Speaker 1

Well, thank you. And this is an important lesson today for sure, as you listen today. But realize you can't be with us for the whole message. Then we invite you to go to fromisheart.org to listen again and download a free MP3 of this broadcast.

But first, open your Bible to 1 Chronicles, chapter 20 for a convicting lesson about defeating the giant of evil desires. Here again is Pastor Jeff Shreve.

Speaker 2

Well, I wanted to tell you about a woman I heard about; she was in a diet club. She was meeting with these other ladies. They were trying to keep each other accountable. And she was lamenting to these women. She said, "I blew it, I blew it so bad this week." And they said, "Oh, tell us about it." She said, "Well, I baked my family's favorite cake. We had it at dinner, and everyone had a piece, and we ate half the cake at dinner." She said, "Well, the next day my husband went off to work, and my kids went off to school, and I was home alone with the cake. I looked at the cake and passed by it several times. I thought, I just want a piece so bad." So she said, "I just cut a little sliver off and ate the little sliver. It was so good I just had to have another little sliver. So I cut another little sliver, ate that, and it was so good I had another little sliver." She said, "Before I knew it, I had eaten the whole half of the cake. It was all gone. I just was so disappointed in myself, and I knew my husband was going to be so disappointed in me." Her friends all commiserated with her, and then one said, "Well, what did your husband say when he found out?" She said, "Oh, that's the beauty of it. He never did. I baked another cake and ate half."

We're in a series called Facing the Giants, and today we want to talk about the giant of evil desires. First Chronicles, chapter 21, verse 5, Scripture says this: "And there was war with the Philistines again. And Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi, the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam." This is now the fourth giant that the Bible talks about that David and his kingdom are facing. It's a big giant. His name is Lahmi. He's the brother of Goliath. He has a spear a lot like Goliath's because the Bible says the shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam. That's exactly what the Bible said about Goliath's spear. It's probably about a 10-foot-long spear. Now, Goliath was about 9 feet, 9 inches tall. We're not told how tall Lahmi is, but he's probably a big fella himself. Maybe he's a little shorter than Goliath; maybe he's only nine feet. He's a big dude, and his name is interesting: Lahmi. His name, according to Strong's Concordance, literally means "foodful." Foodful. Lahmi has an appetite. Lahmi pictures the ungodly cravings and appetites of the flesh. That's what we want to talk about today.

Hey, do you struggle with the ungodly cravings of the flesh? Do you struggle with lust, sexual immorality, desiring that you feel that pull within you for those things? Do you struggle with the desire for power, the desire for pleasure, the desire for fame and for acclaim? The desire to fulfill your selfish longings and cravings? May I answer that for you? Yes, you do. You struggle with that. I struggle with that. Every Christian struggles with that. Arguably, the greatest Christian who ever lived was the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul, who was used by God in such an awesome way, wrote the majority of the New Testament. He planted churches in places where no one had ever heard the name of Jesus. He led untold multitudes of people to Christ. He strengthened believers in the Lord. He's still being used by God in the way he wrote, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He's still encouraging believers today. But Paul himself, the greatest Christian who ever lived, struggled with the giant of evil desires. This giant, Lahmi, Paul said in Romans, chapter seven, "I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good." In every believer, evil is present. It was present in Paul, and it has a desire to do evil. But Paul, although he had that present within him, didn't walk in defeat. He didn't face Lahmi, the giant of evil desires, and fall at his feet. No, he walked in victory. Not all the time; he wasn't perfect in this, but his life is characterized by victory, not defeat. Now, God wants that for you, and he wants that for me.

Maybe you're here, and you have a real problem with the lust of the flesh. You have a real problem. You are failing in the area of alcohol. You're failing in the area of drugs. You're failing in the area of pornography, of sexual immorality. Maybe you're failing in the area of gluttony, like the woman in our opening story. Maybe you're failing in the area of jealousy, whatever it might be. It's the giant that's killing you. It's the giant of evil desires. And God wants to teach us today how to walk in victory over that giant. So how do we do it? How can we defeat the giant of evil desires? Three key steps to victory.

Step number one: Recognize the enemy. Recognize the enemy. Now, in our passage in 1 Chronicles, chapter 20, the enemy's name, the giant's name, was Lahmi—Foodful. But I think the pronunciation of the name is interesting. Lahmi, the emphasis on "me," the giant that you and I face of evil desire is "me." It's the enemy within. It's that part of me and that part of you that wants to do what is wrong, what God says don't do. The Bible has a term for this; it calls that part of you "the flesh." The flesh. Now, that word "flesh" is used two different ways in the Bible. One way is just an innocuous way; it's just a way that talks about our humanity. We're made of flesh and blood. I mean, we're fleshly creatures. When you come into this world, you come in clothed in baby flesh. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing sinful about that flesh. That flesh is your skin and bones, your hide and your hair—in my case, your hide and your scalp. It's just who you are. It's just the way you are. I said there's nothing wrong with that. When the Bible talks about that flesh, Jesus, the scripture says, he became flesh, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Well, that doesn't mean he was sinful at all. It just means that's the way he came into this world.

So that's one way the Bible uses the word "flesh," but the other way the Bible uses the word "flesh," and the main emphasis of the word "flesh" in scripture, is that part of you that wants to do wrong, that part of you that wants to satisfy self. See, people wonder all the time, what exactly is the flesh? The flesh is just the self-life. The flesh is me wanting my will, my way, to do what I want to do. The flesh just says it's all about me. Now, where did we get this nature, this thing called the flesh? Where did it come from? Oh, it came from Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were the first ones to fall into the flesh. And you remember what happened. God had given them one command: "From every tree of the garden, you may freely eat, but from the tree that is in the midst of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of that tree, for in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die." That was God's one command. Well, if you remember, in Genesis, chapter three, Eve was confronted by the serpent. The serpent began to tell her, "Oh, you're not going to die." The serpent got Eve's eyes on the tree, the forbidden fruit. The scripture says when she saw that the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes, that it was desirable to make one wise, she ate of the fruit and gave to her husband with her, and he ate. What did they do? They said, "God, we choose our will over your will." You said, "Don't do this," but we want to do that, that you said no to. We think we know better than you do, God. That's the flesh. Not thy will, but mine be done. That's the flesh. It's the self-life.

I had a pastor friend of mine describe the flesh this way. I've never forgotten it. I thought it was such a good way to look at it. He said, "Flesh, F, L, E, S, H." He said, "Jeff, take the H off and spell it backwards, and you have exactly what the flesh is: S, E, L, F." It's self. Self. Now, when I live in the flesh, I'm going to fulfill the desires of the flesh, those evil cravings that are in the flesh. For food to an excess, for illicit and unrighteous sexual fulfillment. Sex is a good thing, created by God. But it's only a good thing in the confines of marriage. You get sex outside of marriage, and God says, "Don't do that, don't do that." But see, the flesh says, "I want what I want when I want it. Don't tell me I can't do that, because whatever I want, that's what I'm going to go for."

Now, what happens to a person who lives in the flesh? Well, the Bible tells us in Galatians, chapter 5, verses 19 through 21, says this: "Now the deeds of the flesh are evident." This is what happens when you live in the flesh, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery. The Greek word for sorcery is the word "pharmachia," from which we get our English word "pharmacy." In the Bible, a sorcerer was a drug pusher. So there's idolatry, there's sorcery, there's enmities, hatred, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, no peace, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. Paul says, "That's the deeds of the flesh, of which I forewarned you, just as I have also forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Hey, that's what the flesh life looks like when you allow self to take over and to say, "I want what I want when I want it."

So how do you defeat that giant? You recognize the enemy. Flesh is the self-life. And the flesh wars with the spirit. Now, this is only for a Christian. So you might be here today, and you're not a Christian, and you say, "Well, you know, I don't know what you're really talking about, this warring inside." Well, the Bible says for a believer, only for a believer, there's a war, an internal war inside. Paul talks about it in Romans, chapter seven. He says, "The good that I want to do, I don't do. The evil that I don't want to do, I do." There's this war going on, this conflict going on. The Bible refers to that in Galatians 5:17, says this: "For the flesh sets its desire against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please."

Here's how this works. The moment that a person sees they're a sinner, they're lost. They can't get to heaven on their own. There's not enough good works. There's not enough going to church. There's not enough doing this or that or giving your money. There's no way that you can somehow, by your merits, get to heaven. You start to see with Isaiah, "Woe is me, for I'm undone. I'm in a world of hurt here." And you see that Jesus died for you. You put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and him alone and what he did on the cross. You say, "Lord Jesus, come into my life, save me, forgive all my sins, take up residence in me. I surrender my life to you." The moment you do that, you become a child of God. The moment you do that, Jesus comes to live inside of you by his Holy Spirit. And the moment that happens, a war begins—a battle between the flesh and the spirit. They're at war. And the flesh sets its desire against the spirit. Why? Because the flesh wants to satisfy the flesh, and the spirit wants to satisfy and please God and the Father. So there's a war that goes on.

And see, some of you don't feel the war. You don't feel that conflict within. And you know why you don't feel it? Because there is no conflict. Because the Holy Spirit doesn't live inside your heart. You come to church, and you look the part. Maybe you sing in the choir, maybe you teach a Sunday school class. Your name's on the roll, but you've never been born again. There's a whole parable Jesus told in the Gospel about the wheat and the tares. A tare is a weed; it looks just like wheat until it grows up, and you find out there's no fruit. And so some of you have never really trusted Christ, and that's why you don't feel the struggle inside. But listen, for a Christian, a true child of God, they feel that struggle, that tension between the flesh and the Spirit, that tension for control.

Now, in 1 Chronicles 20, verse 5, when Elhanan is going up against Lahmi, the scripture clearly says, "And there was war with the Philistines again." Again. You know one thing about this battle with the flesh: you battle it all the time. It's again and again and again and again and again and again and again. And there was war with the Philistines again. That word "again" in Hebrew means there's a continuance. It just keeps. It's like a broken record. That's the way it is with the flesh. It's something that you're gonna battle with again and again and again. So the first step in gaining victory is to recognize the enemy.

Speaker 1

You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, and the message today is about the giant of evil desires. You may be thinking to yourself, "I don't feel like I have enough strength to keep fighting this battle with the flesh. I feel like I've always lost and always will." On top of that, Pastor Jeff keeps telling me that the battles are going to keep coming. Where is my peace in that? If those are your thoughts, stay with us as we look at the second step of winning battles against the flesh and begin to see how Christ's death and resurrection is such a momentous victory over evil desires for all who believe, if we'll let it be.

Listen, do you have big giants that are just dominating your life and seem impossible to defeat? Do you anger easily? Is there a lust problem? What about guilt? Are you deeply insecure? Are you just discontent with how life is treating you? Do you worry about everything? Well, these are some Christian witness killers, not to mention the fact that they steal your joy and rob others of deeper relationships with you, and most importantly, your relationship with God.

Pastor Jeff Shreve has a companion seven-message series that will help with these and more problems. It's called "The Land of the Giants: How to Deal with Your Biggest Problems." In this series, along with his booklet "When You Don't Like Yourself," are our gifts of thanks to you for your support this month of any amount to From His Heart. Your gifts make it possible for us to be here every day, and we want to thank you for that.

To get "The Land of the Giants" and the booklet, you can call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go online to fromhisheart.org. Thank you for extending your investment in Kingdom Work through From His Heart. Here again is Pastor Jeff with more insights about how to battle the giant of evil desires.

Speaker 2

Step number two. Not only do you recognize the enemy, but then you remember the cross. Remember the cross. Well, what happened on the cross? Jesus was crucified on the cross. Jesus died on the cross. Yes, that's right. And not only did Jesus die on the cross. Not only was Jesus crucified, but so were you. The moment that you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you were crucified too. Paul says in Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." Crucified. See the flesh. You remember the cross. The flesh has been crucified.

Look what the scripture says. In Romans 6, we know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin, for when we died with Christ, we were set free from the power of sin. You're crucified with Jesus; your old sinful self, the flesh, was crucified, placed on the cross with Jesus Christ. So you're dead. Your old sin nature is dead.

Well, now, if you're tracking with me and you're thinking, "Okay, evil desire, I'm getting all this stuff. Now you're saying that that is dead." Time out. I got a question, Jeff. How come if I am dead, that I don't feel very dead? Have you ever had that thought to yourself? I mean, the Bible says that I'm dead to sin, I'm crucified, but I sure don't feel very crucified. I sure don't feel very dead. Man, there is a part of me that really wants to do what's wrong, and I struggle so much with that part. What exactly does the Bible mean when it says we're dead?

Well, it's not the dead that you think of. It's not the dead that I think of. See, your old self is dead, but it's not gone. Big difference. We talk about that in our circles. We say, "Well, you know what? So and so is dead and gone." I looked up on the Internet this morning just the phrase "dead and gone." There's a whole website for people who have died in the last so many years, and you can click on a date, and it just shows you who died, how many famous people. Marlon Brando's dead and gone. Tony Randall is dead and gone. All sorts of people they have on there, dead and gone.

But now, when the flesh, when we talk about the flesh being dead, the flesh is not dead and gone. It's still there with us, still has a pull. Although there's no more power, we don't have to obey the flesh. There's still a pull to the flesh.

Speaker 1

Do you have a great pull to the flesh? Today's message on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve is just part one of the lesson called the Giant of Evil Desires. He'll have part two on Friday. You can always download a free MP3 of any broadcast from our website. When you go to fromhisheart.org, click the Listen tab.

And remember that with your gift this month to From His Heart, you'll be helping us launch a new initiative to translate all of our radio and television programs into Spanish and Portuguese in partnership with Pray.com to reach over 3/4 of a billion people. With that gift, we'll send you the series the Land of the Giants and the booklet "When You Don't Like Yourself." Just call 866-40-BIBLE to make that gift, 866-40-BIBLE, or go online to fromhisheart.org.

Well, that's all of our time for today. Thank you for joining us. I'm Larry Nobles encouraging you to return tomorrow for part two of this lesson called the Giant of Evil Desires. We trust you'll be with us then when we will again open up God's word and share real truth, real love, and real hope. From His Heart.

Speaker 2

There is tremendous truth. There is love, there is hope that you always dream of. Love.

Speaker 1

From His Heart is the listener supported Broadcast Ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world. Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Find out more@promiseheart.org.