Participants: Jill Morikone
Series Code: HLFT
Program Code: HLFT000011A
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00:25 Hello, and welcome to Heart Lift.
00:27 I'm Jill Morikone, and I'm so glad that you 00:30 have joined us today. 00:32 We're on a journey toward hope, toward healing, 00:35 toward the transformation that the Lord Jesus wants to work 00:39 in your heart, and in mine, as woman, as daughters of God. 00:44 If you're just joining us for the first time, 00:47 we spent our first several programs discussing forgiveness; 00:51 the fact that the Lord Jesus means what He says 00:54 when He says we can come to Him. 00:56 And if we confess our sins, He will forgive and cleanse us 01:00 from all unrighteousness. 01:02 We discussed the forgiveness He wants to pour into our hearts 01:06 so that we can extend that forgiveness to someone else. 01:10 Then we moved on to fear, and discussed how God wants to 01:14 break us free from the cord of Satan, from that fear. 01:19 Our last couple programs dealt with sadness, 01:22 with pain, with sorrow, and how Jesus wants to pour in the 01:27 the oil of the Holy Spirit, His comfort and grace, 01:30 and turn our sorrow into joy. 01:33 Right now we're beginning a section. 01:36 We will go several programs on the topic of purity. 01:40 Now you know this is a woman's program, so we're going to be 01:43 discussing purity from a woman's perspective. 01:47 Our Scripture is 1 Corinthians 6:18-20. 01:52 If you have your Bible, I encourage that you open it up, 01:56 and follow along with us. 01:57 If not, you can always jot down the reference 02:00 and look it up later. 02:06 Now I always used to think that this Scripture was about health, 02:12 but if we read verse 18, we'll see it's not about health. 02:15 Flee sexual immorality. 02:18 Every sin that a man does is outside the body; 02:22 but he who commits sexual immorality 02:26 sins against his own body. 02:29 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the 02:33 Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, 02:37 and you are not your own? 02:39 Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your 02:43 spirit, which are God's. 02:45 As I mentioned before, this is a sensitive topic, 02:50 and a difficult topic. 02:52 But I know that the Lord Jesus Christ wants to bring freedom; 02:57 freedom from the addiction, freedom from sexual addiction, 03:01 freedom from lust, and give us purity again inside. 03:06 Let's go to the Lord in prayer. 03:08 Father, we just come before You right now in the name of Jesus. 03:12 And right now I ask that You would hide me, 03:15 that You would fill me in a special way 03:18 with Your Holy Spirit. 03:19 And I pray for my sisters out there. 03:22 Lord I don't know what their battle is, 03:24 and what their struggle is, but I pray that You would 03:26 bring healing, hope, and deliverance. 03:30 And we thank You in the precious and holy name of Jesus, Amen. 03:36 From childhood I had a vivid imagination. 03:41 My sister and I could play dolls for hours. 03:45 And I would always provide the story line. 03:48 The story of what was going on in the dolls' lives. 03:52 We had our dolls, and animals, and I made up lots of stories. 03:55 I loved stories. I loved to read stories. 03:58 I loved to tell stories. 04:01 As I grew into my teens, and young adulthood, Satan took that 04:07 active imagination, which I believe is a gift from God, 04:11 and he turned it, and warped it into something more sinister. 04:16 I discovered something that latched onto my heart, 04:23 and onto my soul, and that is romance novels. 04:28 I didn't necessarily act out, and go out and sleep with people. 04:32 However, I latched onto romance novels, and I developed 04:37 an addiction for them. 04:39 To me they were those fantasies from childhood, and imagination, 04:45 but it had a few other things pulled in with it. 04:48 And I was hooked. I loved it, and I loved to read them. 04:52 Over time I thought, Jill it's not really pure. 04:57 Some of the stuff you're reading isn't really holy. 05:00 And I said, God, forgive me. 05:03 I do want to walk before You in purity. 05:05 Even though I'm not acting out any of those thoughts, 05:09 they were still in my mind; those romantic fantasies 05:13 that I would spin. 05:15 And so I would decide not to read those books. 05:18 And that would work for a week or two, or a month. 05:22 And then in a weak moment I'd pick them up again, 05:25 and I'd begin to read them. 05:27 So I decided to get rid of the romantic novels out of my home, 05:32 and that would give me more purity, more freedom in Jesus. 05:36 I met my husband Greg. 05:38 We got married. I'm in my early twenty's by this point. 05:42 And it was a beautiful love story. 05:45 And Greg is so incredibly good to me. 05:47 Not long into our marriage, I would say the first couple 05:51 weeks, we went out, we're setting up housekeeping. 05:54 Doing all of that stuff. 05:55 And we went out and we purchased a little 13" TV. 06:00 Now this was way before the days of flat screen TV's, 06:03 so it had the big back. 06:04 And it was just a little TV. 06:06 We had rabbit ears. 06:07 And, of course, every home, you need your TV to keep up 06:11 with what's going on. 06:12 Now Greg loves news, weather, and sports. 06:16 They're fairly typical masculine pursuits. 06:19 And he really enjoyed them. 06:21 And that was wonderful. 06:23 But I, I latched onto something else, 06:26 something called soap operas. 06:28 To me they were a very good romance novel come to life. 06:33 They had marital infidelity. 06:36 They had romance. They had drama. 06:40 They had all of that, and I was hooked. 06:43 I hid my addiction from my husband Greg as best I could. 06:48 Because I thought, That's not real holy. 06:51 That's not real pure. 06:52 I really don't want to be doing that. 06:54 But try as I might, I could not pull myself away. 06:59 I was hooked. I was, as you would say, I was addicted. 07:03 One night Greg came to me and he said, Jilly let's talk. 07:08 Can we talk? And I said, Sure. 07:10 I mean we always talked. 07:12 But it was rather unusual, because usually he does not 07:16 broach a subject in that way. 07:17 I mean we just freely conversed. 07:19 And for him to say, We need to talk. 07:21 I knew something was up. 07:22 So we sat down on our couch and he began to share how God 07:28 had called him as Priest of our home, 07:32 to be accountable for his family. 07:37 How he was accountable to God for the salvation of his family. 07:40 And I just sat there kinda nervous, and uncertain, 07:43 and squirming on the couch, because I didn't know where this 07:46 was going and what was going, to happen. 07:48 Then all of a sudden he hit on my cherished sin: soap opera. 07:54 You know all that time I thought I had been hiding it? 07:57 I'd been hiding it from my husband? 07:59 I hadn't been. He knew about it all along. 08:02 And he said, Jilly I can see you're addicted. 08:04 And I was like, Yeh, but I can't give it up. 08:08 No, I can't give it up. 08:10 I don't want to give it up. 08:12 And he said, Yeh, I know. 08:14 But I really believe that's pulling you from Jesus. 08:17 And I said, I know it is. 08:20 Because, you know what? 08:21 When I opened up my Bible, it didn't energize me. 08:25 It didn't excite me. 08:27 I thought, This is dry. 08:29 Throw it across the room. 08:30 I didn't want to read it. 08:33 I knew that it was pulling me from Jesus. 08:37 So we knelt down by our couch, Greg and I. 08:40 We knelt down by our couch and we prayed. 08:43 And we asked God for purity; purity of heart, 08:48 and purity of life. 08:50 And we made a radical decision that day. 08:52 And you may say, Jill this decision is really radical. 08:55 And it was. But we decided to throw out our TV. 09:00 Now we're not talking about 3ABN. 09:03 We're not talking about that type of stuff. 09:05 And I'm not talking about much of what is on TV. 09:08 You can watch the weather. 09:10 You can watch the news, or sports. 09:11 I'm not saying that. 09:13 Just for me in my own battle, it was easier to remove that 09:19 temptation for those soap operas entirely from our home. 09:24 That decision, it's been probably ten years, 09:26 that decision made all those years ago, I think was the best 09:32 decision we've ever made. 09:33 It started me anew on that path to purity, 09:36 and to oneness with my Savior. 09:40 And I've never regretted it. 09:42 And I'm always thankful that my husband had the courage 09:46 to sit down and to say, Jill I'm concerned here. 09:49 You're wandering from God. I'm concerned. 09:52 Even after we got rid of that TV it was an intense battle for me. 09:57 And I don't know where you feel right now. 10:00 You are in a relationship with God in the matter of purity. 10:04 You might be saying, Jill I'm sleeping with 10:06 the next door neighbor. 10:07 My husband doesn't know. 10:09 You might be saying, I'm not going out, and I'm not sleeping 10:13 with other people, but I'm having emotional affairs. 10:17 Or I'm trapped just like you were; 10:20 struggling in that addiction. 10:22 In my head those romantic fantasies around maybe 10:25 romance novels, or maybe around TV, or some sort of soap opera 10:32 like I was addicted to. 10:33 Let's look at our self evaluation. 10:35 Do I walk in purity? 10:37 How much does lust control my life? 10:41 Now with our self evaluations it's always 10:43 important to be honest. 10:44 Don't feel like you have to share this with your 10:46 spouse, or your pastor. 10:48 This is between you and God. 1. 10:59 If you're here you're actually in the stage of 11:01 acting out what you think. 2. 11:23 That was where I was. 11:26 Maybe that's not where you are though. 11:28 Maybe you're at the next. 3. 11:58 Maybe you're at 4. 12:20 I'm here to tell you today that there is hope, 12:24 there is victory in Jesus. 12:27 Don't despair if you've already fallen, 12:30 or if you're consumed in the cauldron of lust and sin, 12:35 or if there's shame and guilt all over you. 12:38 Don't despair. Don't feel discouraged if there's impurity 12:43 lurking in your heart that you're trying to keep hidden. 12:46 And I want to encourage you to don't tune this out, 12:50 because you consider yourself exempt from the struggle. 12:53 You think, I've never battled with that. 12:55 But maybe someone you know has, and you can encourage them. 12:59 Our God is longing to cleanse us, and to set us free; 13:04 free from the addiction to lust, free from that stain of sin, 13:11 free from even our judgmental spirit toward other 13:16 people who have fallen. 13:18 Isn't it amazing how we judge sin? 13:21 Isn't that true? We think, this sin is really bad, 13:25 and over here isn't so bad. 13:28 We might say, I'm not really sinning. 13:30 I just have a few impure thoughts. 13:33 I just have some lustful fantasies. 13:37 I just have some romantic daydreams. 13:39 But I would never go out and sleep with someone else. 13:43 You know what? In the sight of God it's really the same thing. 13:48 And God says, I want to bring you freedom. 13:51 I was doing a teen retreat. 13:53 We were talking to young girls 13 to 18, maybe up to 20. 13:58 And we were talking about this topic of purity. 14:01 This topic of who we are in Jesus as young women, 14:04 and how do we deal with romance and relationships? 14:07 And I gave them a question. 14:09 I said, What is love? 14:10 This is to you. What is love to you? 14:13 Now they wrote down their answers. 14:15 They did not put their name; and that was important. 14:18 Otherwise they probably would not have been very honest. 14:21 They did not put their name down. 14:23 But they wrote, and they handed them in. 14:26 And I have some of them here. 14:28 I actually wrote them down. 14:29 What is love, romance and happiness? 14:32 Treating someone with care and affection. 14:36 Being with someone who loves you just the way you are. 14:40 Love is when you have emotion for someone else. 14:43 Love is being important to someone else. 14:46 Love is doing anything for the other person. 14:50 Letting someone else hold your heart. 14:52 Love is pain and happiness. 14:55 Love is an action not a feeling. 14:58 Love is someone else caring so much for you that they would 15:02 do anything for you. 15:04 Love is freedom. 15:05 Love is being vulnerable. 15:08 Love is when someone else feels sexual tension for you. 15:12 Now that list, I'm not saying they're all Biblical, 15:15 that's simply what the teen girls put down. 15:17 What is love? We went to the next question. 15:22 And the next question I asked these girls was, 15:25 What does purity mean to you? 15:30 These are the answers that they came up with: 15:33 Purity is no sex before marriage. 15:38 Purity is keeping a promise to myself. 15:42 Purity is being clean. 15:45 There's some really good definitions here. 15:48 Purity is keeping your body and thoughts clean. 15:51 I like that one. Purity is no blemish. 15:56 Purity is living like Jesus. 15:59 Knowing your self worth. 16:02 Keeping body, mind, and soul pure. 16:05 Purity is being innocent and having no sin. 16:09 Purity is staying true to yourself and to God. 16:13 This one says, I guess purity is being abstinate, 16:18 but that's harder nowadays. 16:20 And if you choose to not abstain that's your own choice. 16:23 Purity is to be clean, not only physically, 16:27 but spiritually, and mentally. 16:30 Remember this is the list from the girls from the teen retreat; 16:34 what they thought purity is. 16:36 Finally, purity is not being tainted, or someone who has 16:42 been renewed in Christ. 16:44 I think that is one of my favorite definitions. 16:47 It's not being tainted. 16:49 Or it's someone who has been renewed in Christ. 16:53 Because to be honest with you, we all have impurity. 16:56 We all have impurity of some kind or another. 16:59 And I'm reminded of that Bible promise, 2 Corinthians 5:17. 17:05 If anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation: 17:09 old things have passed away; behold, 17:13 all things have become new. 17:16 I believe God's call to purity of heart and life is high, 17:21 much higher than I ever imagined. 17:24 And I think much higher than we ever imagined as women. 17:29 Purity is not a line in the sand where we say, 17:32 I come this far and no farther. 17:35 As long as I don't step over the line, I'm okay. 17:38 I don't think purity is a line in the sand. 17:41 Purity comes from the heart. 17:43 It's a state of the heart. 17:44 Turn with me to Luke, Luke 6:45, Luke 6:45. 17:56 True purity stems from a heart that has been cleansed 18:02 and purified by Jesus. 18:06 True purity springs from the heart. 18:09 Natasha Nebblett was here at 3ABN not too long ago, 18:12 and she talked about purity. 18:14 And her definition, I like this definition, 18:17 so I guess I'm plagiarizing, but I'm giving credit. 18:20 She said, None of us are pure. 18:22 And that is the truth. 18:23 But purity is simply a measure of how much we accept 18:27 and receive the righteousness of Christ. 18:30 Did you catch that? 18:32 Purity is simply a measure of how much I accept and receive 18:36 the righteousness of Christ. 18:40 What are some things that could stain my purity? 18:43 You might be saying, Jill I think I'm doing pretty good. 18:46 Or you might be saying, Jill I'm way back here. 18:49 I know that I struggle. 18:51 Let's examine some of those things that might 18:54 actually stain our purity. 18:57 We know men are more visually stimulated. 19:01 And we read a lot about that. 19:02 And you would hear a lot about that as well. 19:04 So maybe for a man, he might be more tempted by pornography, 19:09 or something of that nature. 19:10 I believe, as women, we are emotionally stimulated. 19:16 We are relational creatures. 19:18 We love to be in community. 19:21 We love to share with other women, and with men as well. 19:24 We love relationships. 19:26 We would be emotionally stimulated. 19:29 So I think a lot of our acting out with impurity has to do 19:35 with that emotional dimension. 19:37 What would be some ways that we could, 19:40 what things that could stain our purity. 19:43 One would be acting out. 19:45 You might say, I wish I could be loved. 19:49 So I jump in and out of relationships thinking somehow 19:54 that the next guy is going to fill the void inside my heart. 19:58 You might say, I wish I could be loved, so I freely give my 20:04 body to my boyfriend, to my co-worker, 20:07 to the neighbor next door. 20:09 Why? Because it's going to make him love me. 20:12 And it might make him stay with me. 20:15 You might say, I wish I could be loved, so I retreat into 20:21 this fantasy world. 20:23 I retreat from reality where I can be beautiful, where I can be 20:28 sought after for awhile. 20:30 Matthew 5:27, 28. 20:35 What does the Bible say? 20:37 Let me just jump over there real quick. 20:46 The Bible says, You've heard of old it was said, 20:48 You shall not commit adultery: but I say to you, 20:52 whoever looks at a woman with lust has already committed 20:56 adultery in his own heart. 20:59 Now this is talking specifically about a man, 21:01 but I believe we can apply it to us as women. 21:04 We might think, Oh it's just a fantasy in my mind. It's okay. 21:09 God says, Even if we have those thoughts, that's impurity. 21:14 And He said, I want to cleanse you. 21:16 I want to make you pure. 21:19 Remember, none of us are pure. 21:20 Purity is only a measure of how much we accept the righteousness 21:25 of the Lord Jesus. 21:27 Maybe acting out is not your thing. 21:30 Maybe your struggle with purity deals with comparisons. 21:35 You might say, I wish my husband had a body like 21:39 my favorite actor. 21:41 I wish he was funny like the guy at the office. 21:44 I wish he made more money like my boss does. 21:47 I wish he prayed for me like the deacon does 21:51 at church for his wife. 21:52 I wish he listened to me like my best friend's husband does. 21:57 I wish he brought me flowers like so and so does. 22:03 Comparisons are dangerous. 22:05 I was reading about a woman once, and she said she was 22:11 having six, not five, six affairs with six different 22:18 men at the same time. 22:20 Now before you jump out of your skin, they were all 22:23 emotional affairs. 22:24 But remember what the Bible says. 22:26 Even if it's thinking in our heart, 22:28 it's the same as committing it. 22:30 She said she worked out at the local gym, and she wished that 22:35 her husband was as funny as the guy at the gym. 22:39 She said every Friday night she and her husband 22:41 would watch a movie. 22:43 And she always wanted to rent movies, or watch movies 22:46 from a certain actor, because she thought he was really hot. 22:49 And she wished her husband had a body like her favorite actor. 22:53 She said that she wished her husband listened to her, 22:57 and she wished her husband prayed for her. 22:59 And she would compare her husband to these other men, 23:04 and wish that her husband was like these 23:07 other men; comparisons. 23:09 I think the other thing that could stain our purity: 23:11 we have acting out, we have comparisons, 23:13 then we have romantic daydreams. 23:16 I wish I could be like the girl in the movie. 23:19 I'd love to be as beautiful as her. 23:21 I want to be as sought after like her. 23:23 I wish I were kissed like her. 23:25 What about, I could be like the girl in the book? 23:29 I'd like to be swept off my feet like a princess. 23:33 I'd like to live happily ever after. 23:36 I'd like to live in that romantic fantasy land. 23:41 I think specifically, as women, our type of lust is fed more 23:46 from these romantic emotional attractions, attachments. 23:51 That might be some of those romantic movies. 23:53 It might be some of those soap operas. 23:54 It might be some of those romance novels. 23:57 They feed that desire inside. 24:00 Now no matter where you feel you are in your life, in your 24:04 heart right now, whether you feel covered over with shame. 24:07 The Lord Jesus says, I'm going to forgive, and cleanse, 24:10 and you are My princess. 24:11 You can be covered in dazzling white. 24:14 The next two programs we're going to look and examine 24:18 the steps, the keys we can take to experiencing purity, 24:23 to experiencing freedom from this addiction to lust. 24:28 In just a moment we're going to have to take a break. 24:31 We always want to give you something practical, 24:33 some sort of application, something that you can take 24:37 with you this week that can be a help and a blessing. 24:40 So we're going to take a break and we'll be right back. |
Revised 2016-04-14