open your Bible to Genesis 39 and then put the little string that's in your Bible that you don't know what it's for put that over at Matthew 5 all right and we'll flip over there later in the message we are in a series called dream to Destiny and we're basing it on the life of Joseph every person I want you to hear this I'm saying this every week but it's very important that you hear this every person has a Dream from God God has a dream for your life and every person has a destiny that God wants you to fulfill but the one word that will stop us from fulfilling our destiny is the word character and Joseph had to go through 10 character tests before he could fulfill the Destiny on his life we've talked about the pride test we've talked about the uh pit test we've talked about the palace test this is number four this is the purity test the purity test Genesis 39 uh look at verse 7 and it came to pass after these things that his master's Wife cast longing eyes on Joseph I want you to notice these words longing eyes on Joseph and she said lie with me but he refused and said to his master's wife look my master does not know what is with me in the house and he has committed all that he has to my hand there is no one greater in his house than I nor has he kept back anything from me but you because you are his wife how then can I do this great wickedness I want you to notice what Joseph calls sexual immorality great wickedness and sin against God so it was as she spoke to Joseph day by day notice how the enemy attacks that he did not heed her to with her or to be with her but it happened about this time when Joseph went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was inside that she caught him by His Garment saying lie with me but he left his garment in her hand and fled and ran outside I want you to notice that he ran from immorality this is congruent with 1 Corinthians 6 that says flee or run from sexual immorality so I want to show you some things that sexual impurity will affect in every person's life and then I want to give you a a very very practical key to being able to overcome and be pure in this area of your life all right so here's number one impurity affects your family impurity affects your family J David Fell morally in 2 Samuel 11 and his kids fell in 2 Samuel 13 I believe that he was not able to see the attack against his children because of the blindness in his own life here we have Joseph and it would affect his family it would affect his Destiny it would affect his future if he fell in this area now I want to blow away a lie of Satan and here's what Satan tells many many people with in regard to lust they say as long as you don't transgress as long as you don't step over the line as long as you never physically do it uh it's not going to affect your family even though you ow this in your mind or you look at pornography or something like that please understand when the Bible talks about Sin it talks about an inward motivation and an outward movement and uh and let me give you the words for it transgression is an outward movement the word transgress literally means in the Hebrew to step over a boundary line our English word would be trespass if a person steps over a boundary line onto someone else's property he is tres passing in the same manner that's what the word transgress means it means we step over a boundary line the Bible uses another word for sin called iniquity iniquity is an inward bent or an inward motivation toward sin and it is sin also and I want you to understand that many people don't understand this because iniquity is lust lust is in our heart it's an iniquity transgression then would be adultery and so many people think well as long as I don't TR transgress that boundary I'm okay and it won't affect my family listen carefully the Bible doesn't say that the transgressions of the fathers go to the children to the third and fourth generation it says the iniquities the iniquities of the fathers in other words sir if it's in your heart it will affect your family we even have a saying in the world that what one generation does in moderation the Next Generation does in excess that's because if it's in the heart of one generation it's in the hand of the other iniquity is inward motivation if you're taking notes you ought to write that down iniquity is inward motivation transgression is outward movement but please please please hear me clearly if it's if if it's in your heart it will affect your family don't allow it to stay in your heart by the way the Bible is so perfect it is so perfect because the Bible fits together perfectly remember transgression is outward iniquity is inward let me just read you one scripture Isaiah 53 verse 5 says he was wounded that's an outward wounded outwardly for our transgressions he was bruised that's inward inward bleeding for our iniquities so Jesus died to pay for all of them so impurity affects your family here's number two impurity affects your faith it affects your walk with God in it not only affects your walk with others it affects your walk with God let me explain this to you and I'm going to tell you something extremely practical here uh one time I was speaking to a group of young people and I open in this area about purity and I opened up for questions and answers and a very um uh a question came that was just a question that really exemplifies what a lot of young people feel this person said to me if we love each other and we're going to get married anyway what difference does a piece of paper make now I want you to notice even how she phrased the question was letting me know how what the enemy was telling this young couple in other words he was trying the enemy was trying to put the focus on a piece of paper if we love each other and we're going to get married anyway this is the LIE the enemy tells people what difference does a piece of paper make speaking of the marriage license and here's what my answer was none none the piece of paper that the license is written on makes no difference at all it's not the piece of paper that makes the difference it's the blessing of God that makes the difference and when God tells us not to do something it's not because he doesn't want us to have fun or he's approved he doesn't want our lives destroyed when we tell our children not to play in the street it's not because we don't want them to have fun it's because we want to save their lives because we want them to have fun we want them to be around and Alive long enough to have fun so when God says flee SE sexual immorality there's a reason and I want to tell you what that reason is all sexual immorality opens up the door to numerous sins one of the sins would be deception one is manipulation one is lying you have to sneak around for any type of sexual immorality and so you open up a door to lying to be to be deceptive David himself when he was sexually immoral then had to commit murder to try and cover it up and so when you have premarital sex you learn how to lie and be deceptive which affects your relationship with your family it affects your relationship with God let me give you an illustration if a young people if a a young couple they're going to be impure they they don't just come right out and say it the parents say where are you going we're going to have sex good be home by 11: they lie about where they're going and they lie about what they did when they get home maybe the mother says well how was your date where'd you go she has to lie what' you do she asked a lie it puts a deception in our lives that affects us and here's what happens we come to church and we we get we have sexual impurity in us and we stand with our hands raised and our hearts covered and you learn to be deceptive with God as well and you're no longer convicted of that this is great wickedness and a sin against God and let me tell you what else it does it's going to affect your marriage I promise you because here's what happens when you begin to sneak around you develop an appetite that God never intended you to develop you develop an appetite for sneaking around sex and what you have an adrenaline rush when you do that and then once you get married have you ever thought about this you don't have to sneak around anymore and that's why uh maybe the man will say to the woman it's just not the same and he'll want to bring things into the marriage to spice up that area of their life but he won't be able to spice it up because he created an appetite that God never intended him to have and many many times Ladies by you acquiescing and saying yes you helped to create that appetite in him and now he now has an appetite now the appetite goes both ways but most of the time for men it's sex for women it's romance you create an appetite for sneaking around sex sneaking around romance uh sex is not as high on the list for women as is for men men normally rated as number one or number two of their needs women in the last poll they rid sex number 13 they rid gardening number 12 but what a woman does rate high as her need is romance so you listen in both men and women you create an appetite that God never intended you to create and that's why a man will begin to talk to a woman at his office and he'll begin to flirt just a little bit and you know what's happening he gets that adrenaline rush because he's fulfill filling an appetite that he doesn't even know he has but was created in him before he ever got married and then eventually that'll turn into an affair and guess what to have an affair what do you have to do you have to sneak around so he is now satisfying the appetite which the two of you created before you ever got married and what happens then is he'll begin to sneak around now here's something else he'll do as he's having sex with her he begins to feel with her what he felt with you before you got married and he Associates that feeling with love and so he'll begin to believe because all sexual immorality has at its base deception he'll begin to because he's deceived he'll begin to believe that he loves her and not you and let me tell you how stupid this cycle is with Satan he'll divorce you and marry her just think about it now what happens he doesn't have to sneak around anymore so after a few years he'll say to her it's just not the same it's not the same and he'll begin to sneak around again that's why some of our friends have been married three and four times because they're trying to satisfy an appetite that God never intended us to have When God Says flee it flee sexual immorality he's not saying it because he's approved he's saying it because he loves you and he doesn't want your life and your children's lives destroyed by this it's very important so you might be thinking well we're guilty we we we bought the LIE we had premarital sex we've never been with anyone else but we had premarital sex what do we do well you do it you treat sin like any other sin you have to confess it and repent of it so many times we say we're not going to talk about it anymore or we don't even see it as sin because it was just a piece of paper what the piece of paper matter it was sin and so the two of you need to confess it to each other you don't have to broadcast it confess it to each other and maybe another couple or a pastor or Counselor come into accountability confess it repent of it and close that door because as long as you leave that door open in your marriage you don't want to leave any door open to Satan in your marriage so that's how he comes in and it affects your family it affects your your faith your relationship with God here's the third thing it affects it affects your future it affects your future here's what Satan probably told Joseph man you're a slave I mean you you've been sold as a slave all these dreams you have they're not going to come to pass God's never going to be able to use you because your brothers thwarted God's plan for your life let me just make a very very clear statement here there's only one person in the world that can thwart God's plan for your life and that's you you're the only one there's no one else that can stop God from doing what he plans to do through you except you if you make the wrong choices and if you make this Choice Joseph would have thwarted God's plan on his life now I'm not saying that if you've Fallen that you can never fulfill God's Destiny for your life because I've told this the congregation this I've told you this many many times before I had a fall when I was in my early 20s in Ministry and saved this is why I'm so strong on the baptism in the Holy Spirit inner healing and deliverance because I didn't know anything about that I want every person in the church to go through chyros and freedom Ministry and be baptized in the holy spirit because we have to have Supernatural power to live victoriously in this world we have to so please hear me I you're looking at a restored person but it's not because I'm telling you the reason that I am now walking in the destiny is because God dealt with that in a Biblical scriptural way and I allowed him to deal with that and I've become open and accountable and transparent now in my life for over 24 years since that happened so please understand I'm not saying that if you've Fallen you can never fulfill your destiny I will say this though if you continue to walk down that road you will not be able to fulfill the destiny God has for your life you won't be able to so it affects your family it affects your faith it affects your future so before I give you point four let me let me tell you where I'm going with this so what the answer I I have I really believe that God takes the most complex things and makes them simple I believe that and I get that I get that statement that compliment more than anything say Pastor Robert you just make it so simple God has to make it simple for me to understand it and I know that but it is not that difficult just like last week we talked about it we bowled it down very simply to hear the word of God which will build faith in our lives okay listen to me I'm going to tell you how impurity begins and most people believe it begins in the heart it doesn't begin in the heart it affects the heart doesn't begin in the heart here's Point number four it begins in Purity begins in the eyes pure impurity begins in the eyes do you remember what we read and I told you remember these two words it says his master's Wife cast longing eyes on him you know why she had lust in her heart because she looked that's why he was a handsome person now listen I started to name this uh this point don't look so you might even put that in parentheses here's don't look don't look it says Joseph was a handsome person all right listen to me don't look at handsome people I'm telling you look away I have trained myself not to look because if you look you lust I that you have to look to lust and listen turn to Matthew 5 let me show you I promise you Jesus is going to back this up people know this scripture but they didn't didn't know it's just so clear here watch this Matthew 5: 27 28 Jesus said but I say to you that whoever looks whoever looks looks at a woman to Lust For Her has already committed adultery with her in his heart there's two things I want you notice about this scripture first of all it blows away the Pharisees think well if I don't transgress it's not sin if I don't step over the line then it's not sin Jesus said huh if it's in your heart it's sin if it's in your heart you've already done it but then he gives us a progression whoever looks to lust has already committed adultery look at the progression look lust adultery listen if you don't want to commit adultery don't let lust stay in your heart and if you don't want lust in your heart don't look it's that simple I'm telling you you're you're you're you're hearing someone who has victory in this area now I've learned when I'm driving ding down the street and there's a woman jogging don't look it's that simple I I I I I've even had someone said to me one time well there's nothing wrong with admiring Beauty but the same person confess lust to me and I said to him don't look stop admiring the beauty my youth pastor when I was growing up said the second look is lust that didn't help me I just took one long first look looking empowers lust I don't look at pornography hear me don't look at it you say I got a lust problem no you have a looking problem that's what you have stop looking don't look at any movie my wife and I are we I love movies I I really I just love movies but we will not go where there's nudity on a movie because I I I've been an alcoholic in this area do you understand an alcoholic can't have have one drink not one drink listen to me you can't some of you can have one look because it stirs it up in you and you have to become accountable in this area now I want to explain how I've had Victory now for over 24 years in this area in my life it here's the way I confess everything to Debbie you have to you people say well confess it to another man you can't confess it to your wife I've even had men who work in Men's Ministry councilmen don't tell your wife this you're wrong you're wrong she's the one person that needs to know you have to listen if you want to write down again write down two words struggle together struggle together and ladies please can you please please please will you hear me will you not condemn him when he admits it to you will you not feel insecure please understand if he says he has a problem with lust listen to me carefully it's not love that he has a problem with it's lust lust is never love it is never love that Piper's wife didn't love Joseph if she had loved Joseph she wouldn't have let him Sat in a prison for 13 years she didn't love him it's always lust and and ladies when a man tells you young ladies when a man tells you or a boy tells you if you'll give it if you love me you'll give it to me listen the very thing you give him to keep him will be the very thing that causes you to lose him Satan's a liar I'm telling you believe me in this area so you struggle together so when I struggle and I'm not saying I haven't struggled in 24 years but I'm telling you this I struggle with Debbie and and she doesn't get insecure about it because she understands that that's a that that's been an area of weakness for him now this is not the same thing I I I wish I could have come up with a better analogy but I I I didn't and I understand the brevity of these two is not the same I understand that but let's say that a man struggles this is an appetite of the Flesh and let's say a woman struggles in her appetite she struggles because she loves sugar well it doesn't mean if a woman says to her husband I have to have a Crispy Cream I have to too it's been 3 months I I just I just need one dozen that's all I need that's all I need okay the man doesn't hear that in the way that she doesn't love me she doesn't love me anymore she doesn't desire me he doesn't hear that please ladies please please please the pride of life the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes they're all there together when a man says I'm struggling this area he's not saying I don't love you he's saying I have an unhealthy appetite that I should have never developed and I'm struggling when when I uh would travel now we have a policy listen I never travel alone no one on our staff travels alone did you know that it's a policy it costs us money but no none of our pastors are able to to travel alone we won't allow that and we want the number one we want their spouse to travel with him or her if if the spouse is able if not another Pastor so I don't travel alone anymore but I used to before I plan a Gateway Church that wasn't the policy where I was and there were times when I'd travel alone if I get to struggling in a motel room hotel room I just I would call Debbie Debbie I'm struggling and we struggle together you I just can't emphasize ladies if your husband has a problem in this area the number one person he should come to is you he he ought to be able to come to you I told Debbie years ago when I finally came clean I said to her I I want you to know all my past I told her everything about my past sexually everything and I mean I thought when she hears this she's going to walk out the door yelling pervert on her way out but I'm going to tell her everything about my past and I told her everything and I said that that's me that's me and when I finished you know what she said she said Robert I knew you were bad when I married you but what I saw in you was a desire to serve God and I saw in you a desire to bring me into to your struggles can I can I listen to me listen this is very important sir listen to me she can probably forgive the lust it's very difficult to forgive the lying the number one thing we have to deal with with couples where there's been immorality is not even the immorality it's the deception that's what we have to deal with and Satan Works in darkness so ma'am if he has a difficulty in this area don't make him work in darkness in this area try to try to overcome it let him bring it to the light and bring it to the light every chance you get let me show you a couple more scriptures um Psalm 103:3 says I will set nothing Wicked before my eyes it begins in the eyes Proverbs 27:20 hell and destruction are Never full so the eyes of a man are never satisfied Matthew 6:22 and 23 the lamp of the body is the eye if Therefore your eye is good your whole body will be full of light but if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of Darkness listen to me if your eye is bad if you look at Darkness you got your whole body's full of Darkness look at light your body's full of light one other scripture job 31:1 I've made a covenant with my eyes why then should I look upon a young woman I have made a covenant with my eyes why then should I look upon a young woman when the Lord showed me this truth about looking I I would tell Debbie that I was struggling things like that but then God showed me don't look stop looking stop looking so and he said I want you to come into accountability would that be on this area so I went to her and I said to her um the Lord has shown me I have a problem with looking you know what she said you think you know men men think if they confess it that they they look at other women that it's going to shock their wives they know guys just let me let you know they already know they see you so I said well I want you to confront me and pray for me when I when if you see me looking I want you to confront me and pray for me now the problem as I look back on this was I did not fully Define the word confront and shortly after this we were at a swimming pool on vacation and which it don't don't go to a swimming pool uh if you have a problem this there it's like an alcoholic going to a bar it just and say I'm just going to sit and watch you know the drinking you know so I we're at the swimming pool and and this lady walked by that did you know that she didn't have a bathing suit she really did she had dental floss up the back of her and I looked and all of a sudden remember I didn't Define confront to Debbie she reached over and grabbed me on the back of my arm where no human being should ever be grabbed and she pinched me and twisted the Bible specifically says Thou shalt not twist If thy pinch and she pinched me and twisted and said do I need to pray for [Music] you well you get pinched and twisted a few times something walks by you I'm look at the book I'm going to read the book I'm going to read the book I'm going to read the book book now I specifically wanted to end with that testimony here's the reason why because this is a heavy subject and I know that and I know that many many people many of us at all the campuses many of us struggle with this I want you to understand it's okay to struggle but let's struggle let's struggle let's struggle together let's not give up in this area I want you to Bow your heads and close your eyes we want to pray for you and and I want to I want to ask you to do something today in just a moment we're going to have the the altars will be open and people we're going to pray for people before we do I just want to I felt like doing this in all the services I don't I don't want anyone to look around just for a moment will you just I just have to trust you just clo everyone close your eyes at every campus just for a moment I just want to give every person a moment alone with God because for some it may be a very big step and I understand that but I'm wondering how many of you would confess to me and to God I'm the only one looking around at all the camp says how many of you would just simply confess to me and to God I have a problem in this area would you just put your hand up and then you can put it back down you don't even have to hold it up just put it up and then put it back down thank you thank you oh we want to pray for you but please please please go through chyros go through Freedom Ministry talk with your your spouse if you're married Implement don't look let God let us help you too in this area and let God do a work in your life otherwise it will derail you it will derail your life I promise you and we want to pray for you and some of you might feel like well I don't want to go for prayer today because everyone will know what it's about don't let the enemy lie to you don't let him lie to you if you need prayer no matter which campus you're attending or if you're in the second level here at South Lake I I know it's little extra effort if you're in the second level please don't let that stop you if you need prayer in just a moment I want you just to come we're going to have leaders at the front at all the campuses and you come and let us pray for you and I want to ask you to do something else I know that services are crowded and so sometimes people leave during this time I'd like to ask you just not to leave because people are are this is a very important part of our service and I I know that's a little more inconvenient for you and I ask you to forgive me for asking you that but I really believe it's important because I believe people need Ministry and it's very important so if you need prayer no matter which campus you're attending as soon as we stand up you just stand up and step out and come to one of the leaders at the front of each campus we'll have leaders at the front of the campuses you just come to one of the leaders and say I need prayer you don't have to be a member of Gateway Church to come for prayer if you need prayer Holy Spirit I pray you'll draw every person that has any prayer need in Jesus name amen