Pastor Skip Heitzig: The pastor that is going to speak today was one that grew up here in this church. He was on our staff as a youth pastor. There he is as a young child getting ready to preach his first sermon and Levi has -- but not only youth pastor but he launched the O2 Experience right here in this fellowship. I'll tell you a little more about that. The last six years, he's been at Kalispell, Montana where they have three church campuses that are operating there, and his church is called Fresh Life and he embodies that. He is a fresh, dynamic, Godly young man. So, please give a warm welcome for Levi Lusko.

(Applause)

Pastor Levi Lusko: All right, thank you so much. In Calvary, it's such a good thing to be here. I consider coming home always to come back to New Mexico and to be here at this amazing fellowship. I'm so grateful to get to not only of course to speak here at the Osuna Campus but at the Nob Hill Campus and the Santa Fe Campus as well, and the whole audience joining us on the internet, on the radio.

Could we just greet everyone who is taking part in this, this weekend? And, yeah, I really do consider coming home -- and my family -- we've even growing, I brought a picture of my four daughters now, Olivia, Lenya, Daisy, and Clover is our newest little one that Jen and I have welcomed into our home in the past year and I just sent greetings from Montana and everybody up there.

I'm so excited as well to have been given the invitation to be a part of these series, Keep Calm and Marry On. I truly believe that the world is desperate to hear straight talk from God's word about these issues. I mean a genuinely -- but the world just needs to hear what God has to say about these issues. Could you just turn to the person next to you and say, "This is needed. This is needed." I mean, it is! We're dying to hear this stuff. I'm so grateful for your pastor and his wife, Lenya and their courageous leadership, their commitment to bring God's word on these issues and so many others. It's been now 30 years. Can you believe it, since he left California and came here to plant this church 30 years this year?

(Applause)

And in that time, that's all right! In that time, they have not only been faithful to God's word but also faithful to each other and they have modeled a Godly, solid marriage. I'll tell you this. I want my marriage -- when I've been married for as long as they have to be like theirs. So, could we honor your pastor and his wife and just say thank you to them? Amazing!
(Applause)

And as Pastor Skip mentioned, I have the O2 Experience at the ministry that did indeed launch right here on this stage for some we ever have, we've been -- now I had them in many different states and we've been calling out a generation to sexual purity, to God's plan for life and death and sex and romance very recently just in Colorado. I just fulfilled the fires and of course, the shooting. We were there in Denver and in Colorado Springs and it's been an amazing thing to see, but of course, it did start right here.

I think that whether you're married or not, because that's kind of weird. You hear in a marriage series and maybe you're not married, who am I dealing with? You're not married. You hear? You're a marriage series but you're not married as like, "What am I doing?" Some of you are embarrassed. You didn't raise your hand. You're not married but you didn't raise your hand, but I know there are more of you out there and you're like, "What about me?" Well, here's what about you, take twice as many notes as anybody because an ounce of prevention and a pound of cure, right -- listen to me, it's easier to build a Godly marriage than to fix a jacked up broken busted one, all right?

But if you are here with the jacked up broken busted marriage, you're in the right place, baby! You've come to the house of God and God specializes in fixing things that are broken. He can make a way where there is no way. Our God is a God who raises the dead. And so, you've come to the right place no matter what's going on.

And if you wouldn't mind, turn in your Bibles to Hebrews 13. I want to talk to you about the subject of honor. I'm taking it as a message title, the phrase, Strength & Honor, not only because Gladiator is the best movie that's ever been made, you can argue but it should be wrong. But also, because we've been called as we follow Christ to strength and to honor. And honor is a topic that comes up all over the place. I mean, the Bible says that we are to honor those where honor is due, to show honor where it's due. And really, this is a lost and forgotten virtue in our day.

We could say honor because the word honor means to value highly, to esteem, to elevate something, to say its worth a lot. And honor is to mark our entire lives as believers. Did you know our lives are to be honorable in this world? Children are to honor their parents. Parents are to honor their children. Do not exasperate them, provoke them to wrath, believe in them, and empower them, to launch them out. You should not impose their dreams upon that but seek God's will for their life. Employees are to honor their bosses, citizens to honor their governments, elected officials, police officers, crossing guards, security officers. It doesn't matter if someone has any authority in your life. It's from God. The Bible says that we're to honor those who are in authority over spiritual leaders. The Bible says are to be honored. Those who teach God's word are to be given double honor. You should honor your pastors. He labors to present God's word to you, week in and week out.

Unfortunately, we live in a day where honor is in tragically short supply even what was a basic levels of respect once has diminished. Phrases like, "Yes, ma'am!" "Yes, sir!" "Please" and "Thank you!" even are relics from a bygone day. Unfortunately, as the society, we had moved from Lassie and Leave it to Beaver to modern family and breaking that and it hasn't been an upgrade. You know what I'm saying? We live to our own detriment, have moved away from these things that were once just part of civilization and I think that the world could do with a lot more honor especially in relationships.

Do you know young man? You are to treat young sisters, young women with all honor, with all purity. Husbands are to honor their wives as the weaker vessel. Peter actually says, "If you don't honor your wife, dude, I'm not going to listen to your prayers." It's pretty aggressive. Don't honor your wife. You'd be rude, too. Or, you'd be mean, too. Or, you'd be demeaning. You'd be crude in criticizing. God is like, "Your purse has been hindered. Don't even bother whining to me about your prostate. You treat your wives like a bride and then we'll talk about your business, it's failing. Or, your health is deteriorating, all right?

Turn to your neighbor and say, "That's how it really is." He didn't listen at that time. We'll get used together. Come on, talk. It makes it easier. But ladies, you're not at the hook either because Proverbs 31, that model chick that you're supposed to aspire to. The Bible says, listen, "She clothes herself with strength and honor." And wives are meant to honor their husbands as a God given leader of the home and submission -- loving submission. And so, we're all called to honor.

Well, I'd had you turn to Hebrews 13 and that's because here in Verse 4, we're told that sex and marriage itself are to be honored. Check it out. Hebrews 13:4. We are told that the marriage is honorable -- that marriage is honorable among all and the bed undefiled but fornicators and adulterers, God will judge.

And Lord, as we opened Your word up and read it and we now study it and give thought to these things, would You, by Your Holy Spirit open our eyes to see glory as choosing Your word. Would we avail ourselves fully to the scalpel in Your hand as to great position and would you cut away things that don't belong in our hearts. And by Your spirit, if there are those present or listening online who don't know You as savior, we pray that You would draw them into salvation. Win them by Your grace, God. And today, they would believe You're different. We pray all of these things. In Jesus name, Amen!

Here, the author of Hebrews tells us something that you need to know about sex. Are you taking notes? You're ready to write this down? Sex is awesome. That's what he says. Sex is awesome. He says marriage is honorable. The marriage bed undefiled. He's saying it's to be elevated. It's to be lifted up. It's to be saved and rescued from this low common place that it's been put to by society and brought into a higher level, a whole another level. Marriage is honorable. It's not defiled. It's not dirty. It's not gross. It's not wrong.

Listen to me, there is nothing wrong with having a strong sex drive. That's how God made you, the desire to enjoy it, to appreciate it. It comes from Him. Sex is a gift. It's a gift from God. In fact, it was the first gift God ever gave marriage to man. Man was their in the garden hanging out and God caused the deep sleep to fall over Adam.

So, I guess you could argue that the nap was the first gift God ever gave but when he woke up from his nap, there was a beautiful woman right there. God gave her, the wife to a man. Adam was so pleased, he wrote a poem, "Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh." Can I translate that for you? Apple bottom jeans and the boots with the fur! That's what he said. And God wasn't like, "Adam." He gave him a naked wife. I think He knew what was going to happen next.

Sex is a gift from God to be enjoyed. He knew it would feel good. Listen to me, sex is pleasurable but it's also powerful. So, it came with rules so we wouldn't harm ourselves with it so we wouldn't blow ourselves up, or as our text said, unleash God's judgment on our life. Who wants that? Not me, right? How did you do that? By not honoring it and keeping it through the marriage bed. He said adultery and fornication will unleash God's judgment.

So, sex is pleasurable and powerful. If done right, Proverbs says, "It brings blessing, satisfaction, and bliss into your life." If done wrong, "It can reduce a man to a crust of bread and fill your mouth with gravel." Not a good time. And so, we need to listen to what God has to say on this subject.

So well, having a sex drive is a good thing, letting sex drive is the mistake that is being made today. Sex drive, good! Letting sex drive, letting it keep behind the wheel, letting it run the show, letting your desires run rampant, whatever you feel like giving into that, doing it, which is basically the modern world view on sexuality. Whatever you feel like doing, don't be a drag, just be a queen. Baby, you were born this way. Do what you got to do.

You know what I'm saying? That's the modern world view on sex. Let it drive. Let it run the show. It will drive you into the ditch. Four things, I want you to jot down this weekend. Take notes. Single people, take a lot of notes. You want to get a hot wife, highlight stuff. If she sees you highlighting, man, she's going to be all over you. Listen to me. Single people, highlight! You don't know how to write, you don't know letters, just draw pictures. Okay, look spiritual this weekend.

Number one, write this down. Sex is more than a physical activity. Some of your parents wish they were to heard this when they were young. Some of you whose parents and their marriage have ended and their life has been full of so many mistakes, they regret. If they would have known this, it could have saved them from this trouble.

Listen to me, sex is more than a physical activity. It doesn't just involve your body. It involves you on the deepest level and you need to know that because I know some of you have a plan. It goes like this, "I'm having fun now, doing my thing now, kind of the party thing, I'm not like crazy out there but you know a little this and little of that, experimenting now, but I am going to later straightened up. I'm going to later do the right thing. I'm sort of like sowing my wild oats in getting it out of my system. And deep down, you want the nuclear family later. You want to pick your fence and you want the slippers and the coffee and the Sunday breakfast and the whole kids and car and carpool, you want that. Because when you imagine your death bed, you don't imagine fraction, schisms. Kids won't talk to you, wife is not there. You imagine your death bed, kids all there, grandkids are there, beautiful pictures in the wall, loving wife -- as you imagine your death bed.

And so, you plan that you're like, I want -- what are you saying, you're saying I want the best of both worlds. Can I just do my thing now and then straighten out later? But that's not how it works. There's no undo button. There's no -- I get to do my thing and then flip some switch at some point in time and then just all of a sudden undo what you've done and who you have become. Because sex is more than physical, it involves you on the deepest possible level.

And so, if your plan is to just do your thing now but then turn the wheel and course crack later, you will find out that your life is an aircraft carrier and not a speed boat. You don't turn on a dime like that. Long after you've turned the wheel, you will find the momentum that you've been carrying taking you at the direction you don't want to be going. You can be forgiven but consequences, many of them will remain.

Why is this the case? Focus in, 1 Corinthians 6:18 says, "Every sin a man commits is outside of his body, but sexual sin is different. It's a sin against your own body. It's a sin against yourself. You harm yourself. You mess yourself up. And when you're married and you do that, you mess up your wife's body, too. You mess up your husband's body, too, because you become one flesh." And that's the point. When you have sex with someone in some unique way, you become one with them, the Bible says. The two become one flesh. There is an emotional, spiritual, mental, gluing, and bonding and weaving that takes place that can't be unscrambled. The eggs once put, you can't pick them back apart, and you can't undo it.

And so, when you have sex and only focus on the physical to the exclusion of these other aspects of it, you become numb on the inside. And long enough doing this, you can eventually become incapable of ever achieving the intimacy you were meant to experience through it. And that means to go through your single years, to go through your 20's, sex with someone, ripping apart, bonding, ripping apart. Then, they eventually say, "Okay, now I found the one. We're at the altar and all that's behind me." You can't separate yourself from who you'd become by doing that. You bring all of that with you into that new relationship.

All sexual sin is this way, not just intercourse. Jesus said, "Pornography is that way, didn't He?" Because He said if you look at a woman with lust in your heart, you're committing what? Spiritual adultery. There is a sense in which this message with you as well on a deep level. Now, the Bible isn't the only place saying this. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released their report saying, "Porn users who regularly use porn are more likely to report depression and poor physical health than non-users are." What is that report saying? It messes with you. It changes you. It alters who you are.

CNN did a study on the Demise of Guys. Their question was why are guys in our country doing worst than girls in every way? In school grades, graduation from high school, getting into college, and getting good jobs out of College. Guys are doing worse. And they pointed to a study that came out of Stanford University that said, "Primarily, the cause is porn and video games," which they say are rewiring men's minds. They describe these things as arousal addictions and just like a drug addiction, an arousal addiction which is caused by a spike in epinephrine and serotonin, these things that come with burst of pornographic pleasure, they cause your mind to crave them and where traditional drugs require more of the same. Arousal addictions require more of the different, the different kind of porn, different hair color, different set up, and different thing. And this is addicting and it's changing behavior. It's altering who people are. Why? Because sex is more than just a physical activity, it changes who you are.

You can't look at thousands upon thousands upon thousands upon thousands of naked bodies all through your life but then have said, "I found the one. There she is!" And be married and think that you're going to be satisfied with one actual, realistic physical body without the benefit of Photoshop subject to the effects of gravity and think you're going to be satisfied by that for the rest of your life. It won't happen. You will bring your pornographic addiction into your marriage and it will rot the relationship from the inside out.

Now, this isn't just when you watch porn. It's also true when you read porn. What do you mean? Romance novels. One of the highest grossing categories in all modern literature, erotic fiction, accounts for 55% of all paperback book sold with Fifty Shades of Grey being the biggest burst d'Azure(ph) of what this is like. But when you're reading these fantasies and this guy and he's so romantic and he's all set -- then you bring that expectation into your relationship. It does the same thing.

What I'm trying to get you to see is that what happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas. When you sow wild oats, you're not going to reap watermelons or pumpkins. You're going to pull out of the ground what you've been putting into the ground. Sex is more than a physical activity.

Here's number two, write this down. God doesn't want to take something from you. He has something for you. It's true. He's a good God. He's a giver of good gifts. And if He ever -- listen to me, if He ever says no to something, it's not because He doesn't want you to have a good thing. It's because He has something better for you than that thing, ever, sexual enjoyment included.

Nowhere can this be seen as powerfully as in the Old Testament Book of Joshua. You see in Joshua, they have crossed the Jordan, left Egypt. They're heading into the Promise Land. This new land God gave them, flowing with milk and honey. The first city they came to that they would have to fight was a city called Jericho, a walled city. They were freaked out. God didn't think it was going to be much of a problem. He said, "I'll tear the walls down. No begging." And they were like, "How's that going to work." "Oh, you'll march around it in circles and yell really loud." "Oh, okay. Yeah, good! All right!"

God said just one thing though. There's a little pre-op, Rules of Engagement. He said, "When you're going to the city, I'm going to tear the walls down. It's my land, my city. I'm doing all the work. I just want you to do one thing. If you find any money, any gold, silver, lute, booty, anything you find, give it to me. I live everywhere. That's my house though. Bring it to the house of the Lord. Everything is mine." Now, it's His land. He's doing all the work. Who are they to argue?

Okay, great! We'll give you all the money. He said, "If you don't -- if you touched any of the money, it's going to unleash a curse. It's going to be Pirates of the Caribbean. I'll open this place, all right. So don't touch my money. You got it?" "Yeah, we got it."

So, God tears the walls down. They marched around it. The walls comes tumbling down. Everyone dies, but Rahab. They go in, bunch of money, what did they do? Will they bring it to God's house because that's what He said to do but there was this one dude, Achan, who knew better. There's one guy, Achan and he was like, "I want some money." He went into this little chamber. The Bible says he saw a wedge of gold and a bag of shekels made of silver. And this sweet super -- Babylonian garment and he had to have it so he took it.

Listen, the Bible says, "He saw, he coveted, he took, and he hid." Same thing it says about David and Bathsheba. David saw, coveted, took and then hid. He concealed. I don't know how he got them out of there quite frankly. There were a lot of loot -- how did he get to the stuff to his tent. He is sneaking off, you know all the stuff. And what's like -- what's his plan. He can't wear it. He can't wear any garments to dinner that night. Where did you get that, Internet, Amazon?

(Laughter)

There was no busy bay. Abraham's list and he can't sell this stuff. He was born in the dessert. So what did he do with it? He hides it in the ground underneath his tent. So, it's hidden there. Now, like God promised what happened, a curse was unleashed. What's a curse? A blessing in reverse? God had given them His hand of strength so He removed it. God says, "I will honor you if you honor me." They stopped honoring God so God took His head away.

So, they go to the next city, Ai, to fight there and guess what, they fall on their faces. They can't stand. They fled from Ai, a smaller city than Jericho by the way. So, they go to God, "God why would you let this happen. Why? Why?" And God is like, "Stop crying. Get up!" That's what God says to Joshua, one of my favorite verses in the Bible. "God, why?" He's like, "Get up! You've sinned. There's sin in the camp. You did what I told you not to do, so fix it! Have the whole nation march before me." So, no joke. God sets Joshua upon the seal. He's got like a metal detector, spiritual metal detector.

And the whole nation, tribe-by-tribe has to walk before Joshua and God can reveal the sinner. Now, Achan and one of these tribes, he's like, it wasn't 12 tribes, I have good chances. He's like, "I'll be good. I'll be good." How does the guy walk who has not stolen from God, like this -- and he gets in front of Joshua, --- his face flushed. They dig the stuff up from his tent. They take him out and stoned him into death. He's executed.

Now, the saddest thing to me about this whole thing is what happens next. You see Joshua 8, tells us that now God says, "I'll be with you. I'll fight for you." The way Jesus -- His death, He got what he sowed. And now, I want you to go fight Ai and I'm going to go with you. But listen, this is the craziest thing. Joshua 8, here's what God says, "And when you get into Ai and you destroy them and you go into the city and you find silver, and you find gold, and you find loot, and you find booty, I want you to know it's all yours. Take it off. Anything sparkling, I want you to have it. In every battle, they will fight in the rest of the campaign, it's the same way. It turns out Jericho was a test. It turns out Jericho was a tie. It was an opportunity to give God the first fruit.

Listen, it isn't just all of life, money, time, everything. When you give God the first, the rest is blessed. Everytime you put something into your hand, it's a test. Are you going to put in first? And whatever you pay first, you honor the most. So, when God gives you money, if you pay your mortgage first, you're honoring that for utmost your home. You'll be paying your carpet. But if you give to God first, you're honoring Him the most and you have His blessing upon the rest. Everytime He gives us anything, it's that way.

So, God said, "No" to Jericho. And Achan thought God was saying "not ever," but God was just saying, "Not yet." All along God wanted to give treasure to Achan at Ai and beyond, but he never got to see that because he was buried under a pile of stones at Achor. He didn't see Joshua 8 because he died in Joshua 7, taking something from God that God actually in the end, wanted to give him even more than what he took. He settled for a hastily grabbed, barely enjoyed bit of treasure, dirty, and secret, and forbidden and guilty that he couldn't even touch in the public, in the light, when he could have had so much more to be enjoyed for the rest of his life and beyond.

I think there's such a picture here because single people right now, in your life God, with sex, He's saying "no," no. And you hear that and you think He's saying "not ever" but all He's saying is "Not yet. I want to give you more than what you are trying to take." Let me just tell you, Achan is not the last person in history to think that God didn't want him to have any booty, okay. It's true. And we have a whole generation letting sex drive, taking what God said not to touch and as a result not getting to enjoy what was God wanted to give you all along. God wants your honeymoon to be mind blowing, a sweet month as the actual translation of that. He doesn't want it to just be business as usual. He wants your marriage bed undefiled, not haunted and plagued by the memories of all the past partners you've had that you'll be comparing your spouse to for the rest of your life. Not the images of all the fantasies you've read about and watched upon the screen needed to be called upon to actually be satisfied. God knows best. His rules are for a reason. He doesn't want to take something from you. He wants to give you something.

Number three, your desires can keep you from your destiny. Your desires can keep you from your destiny. For the full enjoyment of sex is not even the greatest issue here. That is a big deal and God has a great plan for you there but even more is at stake.

Could you jot this down, Genesis 25. There's a story of a man who let his life be controlled by his desires and it indeed kept him from his destiny. You see his name was Esau, and of course, he was the oldest son of his father, Isaac, the son of faith of Abraham. And this family, well, God had big plans for this family. He planned for them to become a great nation one day and that great nation to be used to bring Jesus Christ and eventually His kingdom into this world. And as the first-born son, he was first in line to receive all of those promises. I mean there was a big calling on his life.

Now, he had a younger brother and his younger brother's name was Jacob. The two, they were twins but they couldn't be anymore different. Esau was a man's man, right? He wanted to find Esau, good orient(ph). He is like checking out the tents and the backpack, the equipments, all right. He haven't snapped a deer's neck with my bare fingers like he's watching UFC. He's that tingly when the monster trucks come, you know what I'm saying? And Jacob was like the exact opposite. Get off from Jacob. Jacob was behind the Urban Outfitters up in uphill, that's how we define Jacob, all right? Jacob was the hipster with posting things on Instagram, growing an ironic mustache with the skinny jeans, okay. That was Jacob.

One day, Jacob is cooking up some soup, saw this new recipe on Pintra(ph), he studied it and give it a try. Isaac comes in from the field and he had been backpacking, he had been busting all bare girls, members as wild. I've been drinking my own urine out of a rattlesnake skin because that's cool. And he said, "I'm starving to death. Give me some of that soup!" And Jacob is like, "No, you can't. You make your own soup." He's like, "I need some soup. I'll give you anything for it." He's like, "Give me your birthright. Give me your blessing. Give me all the promises God wants to do through you. He's like, "I'm dying. What does it matter if I have a blessing from God?" "Yeah, you can have it. Swear to me." So, he swore. So, Jacob gave him the soup and he ate the soup trading it for his birthright. The Bible says, he went out that day, despising the blessings that God could have done through him.

Now, what's amazing about this is you read it, you look at it and you're like, "This is obviously not a good deal, to trade everything God was willing to do through you for a bowl of soup." You are calling for a can of Campbell's. How did this happen? I'll tell you how it happened. He allowed the immediate to overshadow the ultimate. He allowed what would feel good right in the moment to eclipse the eternal. When he gave his birthright away, I'll tell you what he was not thinking of, how he would feel in 10 years or 20 years or 30 years. He was thinking about feeling good right then.

He wasn't thinking about the fact that one day God would come to Moses and speak to him through a burning bush, because that's normal and tell him, "Moses, I am the God of Abraham. I am the God of Isaac." And he could have said, "I am the God of Esau." But instead, he would say "I am the God of Jacob." But Esau wasn't thinking about that. He was just thinking about what would feel good right now. And I believe God needs to open our eyes to see what we're giving up when we trade the ultimate for the instant -- for the immediate, for feeling good in an evening, for having our appetites met right then. That we're giving up so much more they got once to do through us. And I want you to know God has plans for you. There is a calling on your life. You say, not me. Yes, you! That's why He gave you the Holy Spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead. He didn't just save you so you wouldn't go to hell. He saved you so you could shake the very gates of hell. He doesn't want you to go to heaven alone. He wants you to be a powerful force on this earth, a pillar of righteousness.

I didn't fly down here this weekend and be away from my wife, so I could just come here and tell you not to sin. Don't you sin, nutty pervert! Come on. I came down here to tell you that God wants you to be a part of the generation that would change the world for Jesus His name, but it's never going to happen apart from purity, apart from honor. We must be pure in order to be powerful. We must be sanctified in order to be strong. The unholy world will never be one to Christ by an unholy church.

If we eat the soup, we're like Samson trading our hair and our eyes for what feels good for a night with Delilah. Open our eyes, God will see what we seek. Your desires, they can keep you from your destiny. You give up your home, you give up your family, you give up your career, you can give a few ministry.

Number four is our last point. I'll begin to whine this down, write this down. Purity is worth fighting for. And that's exactly what it will take, because if you are hearing God's voice calling you through this today and you're going to make this decision, you need to know that. You're going to walk out of here and it's not going to be easy. You will think it would be. If I'm going to seek God, I'm going to do what He wants. I'm going to walk out and this gives to find you the blessing. The front spot will always open up at the parking lot, right. Jelly beans are going down from the sky. And what you will find is you will be in the fight of your life, the fight of your life.

Lolo Jones, Olympic athlete, hurdles, London Olympics right now. She's a Christian. On Twitter, recently announced that she's a virgin and HBO did a special with her asking about this. They were like, "What's it like to breathe with gills, a virgin, what's that? You're 28! You're so attractive!" And she said, "I'm choosing to save this gift of my virginity for my husband someday. I think it's special." And she said, "But I want you to know it's not easy." She said this, "It's the hardest thing I've ever done, harder than graduating from college or making it to the Olympics." Why? It's a fight -- the fight of your life.

Listen to me, this is war. The Christian life is not a playground, it's a battleground and we have an enemy and he knows how powerful we are when we're pure, what it is to have that breastplate of righteousness guarding our heart and he wants desperately to get it off of us. He hates you. Why? He's a hater. He drinks haterade. That's what he does. And if he can't get you to hell, he wants you to live like hell and not bring anyone with you to heaven. So, he'll fight against you. He'll do any -- he'll open up the forces of hell against you.

So, you have to fight for your marriage, you have to fight for your husband, you have to fight for your wife, for your kids that aren't even born. You have to fight for your calling and for your birthright, and for all that God wants to do through you. But the good news is we don't fight for victory, we fight from it. I've read the back of the book. It seems to me that God wins in the end. That Christ will conquer.

So, we are on the winning team and greater is He that is in us than He that is in the world. Our weapons, they are not carnal, they are mighty for pulling down spiritual strongholds. We have been given armor. We have been given His spirit. We have been given the body of Christ and we have been given His word and we can know for sure that if we resist the devil, he will flee from us. And so, we must run from temptation and we must cut off the tumors of sin before they spread. Be willing to cut off a hand and pluck out the eye. Be willing to do anything that we would keep the leaven from defiling the whole world.

Now, hearing all these, some of you might be going, "Man, this sounds so good. This just makes so much sense and so much sense." And your reaction to this message might be, "I wish I had heard this about three decades ago. Where was this sermon when I was 18?" Well, some of you might be going, "I wish I had heard this sermon about three months ago or anytime before last Friday at about 11:30."

I want to tell you something. If you've already given up parts of you that God wanted you to save for your husband and you're discouraged and in despair because you're hearing this and you're like, "But my life is an aircraft carrier. I can never turn around now. And you've told me that I'd messed myself so bad." You almost feel like what's the point now, do I have anything left to give now and I want to tell you something. Yes, you do because where God is there, there was always hope. There was always restoration. There is always a second chance and there's always a new beginning.

One of my favorite verses in the whole Bible is Judges 16:22, which says, "That with the passing of time, eventually, Samson's hair began to grow again." That's so beautiful because you know what, he drunk the soup. He gave away his calling. He forfeited it. They plucked out his eyes and they put chains about him. They shade his head and with it, his spiritual power went away. And you know what? Some of those consequences would stay with him to his grave. He would never see again. But as time went on and his heart began to be right towards the Lord, his hair began to grow and with it, his spiritual power and he was not done. God was still willing to use him. And even amazingly, the greatest work of his entire life came after his biggest failure. He killed more Philistines in death than he ever had in life.

And so, I tell you today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart. He is willing to write a new story today. You can't do a thing about the past. You can't do a thing about the mistakes you've made before you came here this weekend. But if God's Holy Spirit is causing a new day to dawn upon you, you can face the future full, throttle and without fear. And even the consequences that do remain, God is willing to use those things for His glory in other people's good that they could be warned. And so, I pray God's spirit would quicken you to see that today is the day. That now is the time. The time is running out and it's time for God's people to rise up with strength and to rise up with honor. Amen.

Let's bow our heads in prayer. God, we thank you for this time and your word. Thank you for what your spirit is doing. And above all things, I pray if there are any this weekend gathered together who don't know you that even now, they would want to give their hearts to you. I pray for some who are looking to their relationships, looking to that boyfriend or girlfriend or husband or wife to fulfill them and I pray they would know that they are never going to be right with their mate until they're right with their maker. And for any who have never given their hearts to you, just thank you that you've died in the cross for them and rose from the dead to save them. I pray they would leave this place different by giving their heart to Jesus Christ. We pray this, in Jesus name, Amen.