What is your definition of trust? Do you find it hard to trust other people? What about your family? How about your spouse? Lastly, is it hard for you to trust God?

Well, today we dive into this topic of trust. One thing to note before we get to the lesson is that God never intended us to trust Him perfectly. He never intended us to do anything at any time perfectly. It’s impossible. Sin has left us very flawed and scarred people.

Now, we can do things with excellence. We can strive for excellence, we can learn from past mistakes and make adjustments on the way…but if we have this mindset that things must be done perfectly, we’ll, that’s just a prescription for an ulcer. Especially when it comes to trying to recover from a habitual sin like pornography.

In today’s podcast we’ll discuss.

#1 How there is a direct correlation between the loss of hope and the inability to trust.

#2 How hopelessness can turn into suicidal thoughts.

#3 How hopelessness will always cause me to lose my resilience in being able to function well in relationships.

Back on January 2, we started this teaching series called the Sex Spiral: Forgiven and Free From Pornography. It’s a series that I taught to a men’s group here in Phoenix last fall. The Sex Spiral is a set of awareness triggers that explain the location as to where you are in the habit, bondage or addiction to pornography.

Make no doubt about it, pornography is a series of predictable habits that we have created for ourselves. The bad news is that we don’t realize it, the good news is that as you listen, review and start applying this material to your own lives...you (By God’s grace) will break free from the bondage of porn. Jesus Christ did not die for your sin and rise from the dead for your to remain an addicted Christian!

Today we are at the last trigger inside the Sex Spiral. It’s called Hopelessness. Obviously, it’s a horrible place to be, and I pray that you never have to go there. Unfortunately, I did and today you’ll hear part of my personal story. A story of how the bondage to pornography almost literally killed me.

There is power in stories, and that’s why I’m sharing mine with you. I pray that you learn a lot from it, and that you don’t choose to make the same mistakes that I did.

I wish I would have scheduled a happy and blissful and fairy tale message for you today on this Valentine’s Day...but I didn’t! :)

Happy Valentine’s Day to you by the way. (Gentlemen, don’t screw this up, okay?! She's better than you deserve.)

Well, today we are going to hear the last teaching message on the subject of anger, and we’re going to touch on something called Unresolved Anger. It’s exactly what it sounds like. This type of anger has to do with something that is unresolved in our life. Maybe there’s a situation that is unsettled. Maybe there’s something or someone in your life that troubles you and unnerves you. Just the the thought of it scares, irritates and ultimately controls you with anger. These are all signs of unresolved anger.

In today’s podcast we’ll discuss.

1) How righteous anger is a defense for God and others.

2) How unrighteous anger stems from someone or something is in the way of my unreached goal or plan.

3) How we must acknowledge and understand that there is a difference between being angry and unresolved anger.

Last week we ended our conversation off around the subject of anger. We learned how there are two different types of anger: 1) righteous and 2) unrighteous. Righteous anger is a selfless anger. If focuses on other people. It's the things that makes God angry. Unrighteous anger are all the other reasons I choose to get angry.

Today we continue our conversation by discussing the four different causes of anger. These are the actual reasons - the root source of our anger. This is a big deal because when we realize what the actual motive to my anger is, then we can, (by God’s grace) change. When we can identify and be consciously aware of the very beginning - the place - from which anger arises out of me, then I can choose to respond differently and be transformed into the image of Christ.

In today’s podcast we’ll discuss the four different causes (sources) of anger:

Hurt, Injustice, Fear, and Frustration.

Did Jesus ever get angry? If so, how did Jesus deal and cope with His anger? Isn’t anger a sin?

Today we continue our conversation on anger. We are going to focus in on the two different types of anger - righteous anger and unrighteous anger. Righteous anger meaning...what are the Godly reasons for getting angry. Unrighteous anger are all the other reasons I choose to get angry.

Today’s lesson comes from two examples of Jesus getting angry. The first comes from when He heals someone and the other comes from when people turn Church into a shopping mall.

In today’s podcast we’ll discuss:

#1:. The motivation of anger

#2: How anger is produced

#3: When anger takes place

Everyone who has viewed pornography for an extended period of time begins to experience a level of frustration. Now, we may not realize that we’re becoming more and more frustrated and that our patience may be getting shorter. But if you would ask your spouse if married, maybe some co-workers…anyone you spend time with…they will tell you that something is wrong - something is different about you.

Frustration after all is just anger on a low simmer. It’s just a matter of time before that very short fuse of ours gets lit and our anger is unleashed. Have you ever wondered why that is? How and why would extended viewing of pornography change us like this?

In today’s podcast we’ll discuss:

#1:. The Four Different Sources of Anger

#2: The two different types of Anger

Today we are going learn a few things from Moses and the Israelites in Numbers Chapter 20 as we finish our lesson on Blame.

Yesterday I mentioned how we Blame God for things that happen in our lives - especially when it comes to habitual sin like pornography. We say things like, “Well, if God really loved me, He wouldn’t let me be tempted. He would take all these temptations and all this sin from me, but since He doesn’t all my problems are really His fault because He refuses to help me”

Wow, sound familiar? Kind of sounds like what happened with Adam, Eve and Satan in the Garden of Eden in Genesis Chapter 3, doesn’t it? We haven’t come very far since the beginning of humanity have we?

In today’s podcast we’ll discuss:

#1:. How blame is the precursor to anger

#2: How blame effected Moses and turned him passive aggressive towards the Israelites.

#3: An interesting insight as to why Moses was not able to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land.

Have you ever listed the actual reasons that you blame someone else for your porn use? Have you ever considered that blaming yourself is a from of blame? It’s an interesting exercise (quite absurd really) because when we do this, we start to realize the lengths that we go through - the hoops that we are willing to jump through - to avoid responsibility. It’s crazy isn’t it, how much harder we’ll work to avoid the truth about ourselves rather than taking a step forward and coming clean.

In today’s podcast we’ll discuss.

#1:. The choices that we have when it comes to blame.

#2: How blaming yourself is still a way to take responsibility.

#3: The difference between repenting from the process of sin and apologizing for the act.

Blame is this idea that I’m going to hold you responsible… usually for something that I did. It’s rarely a good thing when this happens, correct? Think about it, what happens when I blame you for a certain behavior? Basically, I don’t want to take responsibility for it. I don’t want to admit that I’ve done something wrong, that I’ve made a mistake or that I’ve done something immoral. So the easy thing to do is for me to deflect all wrong doing to someone else. Usually someone that I love and care for deeply. Remember, the conversation between God, Adam, Eve and Satan in Genesis 3? It’s called The Fall. Yeah, that didn’t go so well did it? We’ll, we are going to learn from them along with some other folks - what they did right, what they did wrong, and most importantly…how we can apply those experiences to our lives personally.

In today’s podcast we’ll discuss.

#1: How someone will always be blamed as you move through the trigger of Justification.

#2: How Someone is going to be the victim of my sin without exception.

#3: How when you commit a moral crime - the law demands justice.

There is life and death in our tongues. Words matter.

Today we finish our conversation on what’s called Trigger #9 Justification. This is part three of three and comes from the larger teaching series titled “The Sex Spiral: Forgiven and Free from Pornography."

In today’s podcast we’ll discuss.

#1: How the tongue is never fully tamed.

#2: How blessings and cursing come from the same mouth

#3: The seriousness of using God’s Word out of context so that you can continue in our sin.