God's mercy shines against His judgment. Sin has real consequences, but God’s mercy still brings real change.
Residential Program Director Luke Imperato gives a sobering call for backslidden Christians to return to the Father.
Wondering if lasting freedom is possible? IT IS! Hear how God has kept two former staff members walking in ongoing victory.
Steve Gallagher warns us to keep watch for signs of backsliding in our lives.
When God’s people face enemies greater than themselves, they have no reason to fear because God is with them.
When trials come our way, our instinct is to do whatever we can to escape them. But this isn’t the response Jesus wants from us. Instead, He wants us to see the trials in our lives as an opportunity to draw near to Him in a more intimate and powerful way. This week, Dustin Renz joins us to share what lessons we can learn when we view trials in our life the right way.
A broken marriage is a serious storm for any woman. Faith, hope, and love anchor our souls to the Lord while the tempest rages around us.
The world tells us that hope comes from an expectation that something good is going to happen. But if that’s true, how can a wife have hope when her marriage is failing? You see, we need a hope that anchors itself in something beyond this world of suffering. We need a living hope flowing to us despite the difficult circumstances of this life. In this Purity for Life replay, Kathy Gallagher joins us to talk about the true hope of all believers, and she helps us see how to anchor ourselves in it.
The deceitfulness of sin blinds one to the truth and to the reality of their spiritual condition.
Men in sexual sin who are married commonly blame their wives for their sinful choices. But this kind of thinking is never right and is only another form of minimizing the seriousness of sin. Join us for part two of our interview with biblical counselors Ken and Trey as they discuss this common counseling issue, and the way out of such a destructive mindset. (from Podcast Episode #478 - But, My Sin Isn't That Bad!)
Nate: So, Ken and Trey, as we continue our conversation about minimizing sin. One of the next points that I want to talk about is a man who's blaming his wife for his pornography use. If you've got a guy who is constantly fantasizing, those fantasies are coming from his own desires. So, he's got situations, characteristics, body types and actions that he loves that are coming from his own heart and are becoming really entrenched in him. When he gets married, he will come to realize that his wife isn't a porn star. She won’t want to do some of the things that he has fantasized about or she may not look like his fantasy women. These unmet expectations will make it really easy for him to be totally dissatisfied, and to start blaming his wife for his that. This mindset could then easily lead him to justify meeting his needs through pornography or adultery. What are some of the things you as counselors see going on in the life of a man like this?
Ken: Lust is demanding. If someone has given themselves over to a lustful mindset, then that lust is never going to be satisfied. Not only is it sinful, but you're putting your wife in a position where she can never live up to your fantasies. There is a saying that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, and in the garden the first sin Adam committed was that he shifted the blame towards his wife. These men are saying it's my wife's fault that I'm doing these things. But even if your wife is sinning against you, it's never right for you to sin against her in response.
A married man in selfishness and sin may ask, “What can I get out of this relationship?” But in Paul’s description of marriage in Ephesians, he talks about how Jesus is the example of how a husband is supposed to behave in a marriage relationship. In the same way that Christ laid His life down for us, we as men are supposed to lay down our lives for our wives, not sin against them. It's supposed to be sacrificial love. I would say in a true Christian marriage where they both know the Lord, if the husband is really modeling Jesus to his wife, that woman is going to respond and he's going to be fulfilled and satisfied the way God intended through that marriage.
Trey: Yeah, and I think for someone listening, they might hear you describing a man who is in sin and they think, wow, that's kind of a harsh description of his life, but it's truth. When I am trying to see if I am in lust or not, the phrase I say to myself is, “I want, ____.” That's what lust is. I'm wanting. In marriage, those who are in lust have the mindset of wanting more than their wife could possibly give them. The solution is to see the blessings that the Lord has given you, which is why gratitude is so important for a Christian or a man who's wanting to come out of sexual sin. The phrase I use for gratitude is, “I have _____.” When I do that, in essence, I am acknowledging, this is what I have and even more than that, this is what the Lord is giving me. In one sense, lust is an arrow that is going in the direction of wanting while gratitude is an arrow going in the direction of what I have and what the Lord is giving me. The two are polar opposites. When you're in that place of gratitude and you're thankful for what the Lord has given you, you're satisfied, and you can have less than what your flesh wants but be satisfied because your eyes are on what you are grateful for and that's where your heart is.
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Nate: Yeah, I do think sometimes we need kind of like a shock to our system to see the reality of what's happening inside of us. But the thing I'm grateful for is that when we acknowledge the truth of our condition, I've always found that it's like the tone of the Lord really changes. Once a man acknowledges that he has been treating his wife horribly, God doesn't just keep beating up on him. It seems to me that God would be like, “Alright, let me teach you how to love her. Let me teach you how not to blame shift. I love you. I want to see you to come into a much better frame of mind and spiritual condition.” So those hard words sometimes are really just intended to bring us to repentance and then the grace of the Lord just overflows to us. That's what's amazing to me about His grace.
Ken: Yeah, absolutely. The truth is what sets us free, and telling a man how evil this mindset is and telling a man how selfish he is being is not going to be a very palatable message because we don't want to hear negative characteristics about ourselves. I was also thinking about flipping the script on this. You're supposed to love your neighbor as yourself and esteem others better than yourself. His wife is his closest neighbor and if he’s not willing to meet that command in that relationship, then he’s probably selfish in all of his other relationships. And what would he think if his wife was in sexual sin? Would he justify that? Would he think, “I treated her bad, so I guess it's okay if she gets her needs met somewhere else.” How would he respond if things were on the opposite foot?
Nate: It's amazing to me how often a guy could be sleeping around with prostitutes and viewing pornography, but then his wife threatens to divorce him and he loses it. It's like the worst thing possible has happened. He’s thinking, “How could she do this?” It just shows the blindness of sin. You've treated her like trash for decades and now she’s done with it and you can't fathom how she could do this to you.
Ken: It is amazing. He's already broken the covenant and now she wants to break it and he's upset.
Trey: Yeah, it gives testimony to Hebrews 13 about the deceitfulness of sin. Sin really is deceitful. The longer you are in sin the less clear the lines are, so crossing them becomes easier and easier. What was black and white is now gray and that's what makes it so hard for guys coming out of sexual sin – they're blinded to what is really truth. And what is that truth? It's God’s Word and getting into His Word creates the standard. And that truth really does have a way of setting people free.
God isn’t concerned about what you know. He cares about how that knowledge affects your lifestyle.
Jesus performed many miracles throughout His life which drew thousands to Him. But the purpose behind these signs was spiritual and not simply to meet physical needs. Christ’s deeds repeatedly served as an invitation to Israel to come into a real relationship with God. Sadly, many weren’t interested in that offer, and failed to respond to this call. In this week’s message, Pastor Steve Gallagher explores one of the most famous miracles of Jesus’ ministry, the feeding of the 5000, and warns us how imperative it is to heed Christ’s invitation.
Self-control does not come from self. It comes from the Lord. Apart from Him, you will not find the power to live a self-controlled life.
As you continue on the road to real freedom over sexual sin, there's one key lesson that can take quite awhile to learn. And while learning it can be pretty painful, it's absolutely essential. Simply put, you have to learn to control yourself. But what makes it hard is that many of us have come to the painful realization that more self-effort in not the way to develop greater self-control. So join us as we look at how living a self-controlled life can only come by learning to live in the power of the Holy Spirit.
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When the majority of professing Christians accept a half-hearted version of Christianity, it sends a powerful message: This is normal.
In previous episodes, we’ve looked at how the enemy has slipped his way of thinking into the hearts of so many people. But we must remember that the enemy’s tactics do not just involve the unbelieving world. One of his greatest tools for tearing down the Kingdom of God is the American church. Much of what we see in modern evangelicalism consists of apathy and passivity for the things of God. Believers in America are often consumed with thoughts of comfort and temporal pleasures. Many have been drawn away from a true passion for God.
God's discipline is a manifestation of His love. It's not an indication of rejection, it's a sign of our acceptance.
Satan has built a kingdom in this world that fosters mankind’s inclination towards pride. So, the more we live in step with this world system, the more we risk being polluted by its toxic influence. So for those who choose to enter the Kingdom of God, there must be a new way of life that takes over their inside world. That means that the old prideful nature must be torn down.
What’s it look like for God to dismantle our pride and teach us to be humble like He is? That’s the subject of this discussion. As you listen to Nate, Gabe and Ken’s personal testimonies, you’ll learn that it is a difficult process, but that it is not one you have to go through alone.
This series is based on the book Intoxicated with Babylon: The Seduction of God’s People in the Last Days by Steve Gallagher. You can find out more about that book by visiting our bookstore.
It is useless to admire good teaching from the Bible if you’re going to keep living for yourself.
The Lord wants to give us real, abundant life. But this can only come if we are willing to accept that life on His terms. What often gets in the way of that are our own self-centered desires. And when God's will and our desires are in conflict, we tend to believe we are right, and God is wrong. In this message, Ed Buch uses the life of King Herod and John the Baptist to illustrate how important it is to really listen to what God is speaking into our lives, and act on what He is telling us.
An occasional failure doesn’t nullify the Lord's work in your life. True failure is when you quit moving forward in your walk with the Lord.
Imagine that for the first time in your life, you're leaving all the miserable consequences of sexual sin behind you and walking forward in real freedom. You have peace in your conscience. There's nothing hidden in your relationships. You’re tasting the joys of fellowship with God. But then something devastating happens. You fail. Now what? What happens next? In this episode, we tackle the incredibly important topic of how to handle failure. Steve and Kathy Gallagher join us to talk about what to do, and what not to do, when you fail so that you don't get fatally sidetracked on the road to freedom.
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The tyrant of Self is a most relentless foe that does not die off easily.
In today’s culture, words such as “pride” and “self” represent positive qualities. Pride in our accomplishments, heritage or abilities are celebrated. Self-esteem, self-help and self-effort are seen as solutions for many of our problems. But as innocent as these terms may sound, they subtly promote a sinister philosophy aimed at drawing us away from God. And so the Lord works diligently to rescue us from this world system and bring us into His kingdom of humility and mercy.
Join us for episode 9 of “Babylon: The Seat of Satan’s Power” to learn about the process God works in our hearts to save us from the great tyrants of self and pride!
This series is based on the book Intoxicated with Babylon: The Seduction of God’s People in the Last Days by Steve Gallagher. You can find out more about that book by visiting our bookstore.
Living by faith means that despite your circumstances or how you feel, you can choose by an act of your will to trust and obey the Lord.
Freedom from sexual sin is absolutely possible. But it's a journey, and knowing how to stay on the path towards that freedom is crucial. There are obstacles that we will face along the way that can totally derail us, unless we learn how to deal with them well. One is how we navigate around our feelings. The second is how we choose to walk through the consequences of our own sin. That’s our subject today in episode two of our series, Key Lessons on the Road to Freedom.
20 Truths: Truth #19 - Faith is the Victory Over Sexual Sin (Short Video) by Steve Gallagher
Don't continue to allow your desires to take you in a direction that brings forth death. God wants to give you life!
One of man’s natural responses to his fallen condition is to blame God for his sinful choices. We see this going all the way back to Genesis 3 when Adam blamed God for what he had done. But we don’t usually say it as plainly as Adam did. We usually shift the blame onto the Lord in more subtle ways. For instance, many who are trying to break free from addiction often say that they have tried everything and still can’t get free. But this is just a sly way of saying that God hasn’t fulfilled His end of the bargain. We know from Scripture that this is not true about God’s character. He always fulfils His promises.
So what’s really missing in our lives if we aren’t seeing the freedom and victory we are hoping for? In this interview, we take a look at James 1 and the vital truths it contains for men in sexual sin.
This series is based on the book Intoxicated with Babylon: The Seduction of God’s People in the Last Days by Steve Gallagher. You can find out more about that book by visiting our bookstore.
After porn destroyed his life, Steve Gallagher discovered powerful truths that broke his addiction and transformed his life. Based off his popular YouTube series, this book will help you experience the power of these truths for yourself.
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