Oops...I Did It Again | Ron + Hope: Unfiltered

Foreign.

Hello, Ronald, it's Ron and Hope Unfiltered. Are you happy?

Let me squeeze some arm.

Just want to touch you. Tron and Hope Unfiltered. Real, raw and relevant to your life.

Tell them what we're talking about.

We are talking about overcoming temptation.

Might do a two part. Might talk about that in breaking cycles, overcoming cycles. So that eliminates half of them. Because half of them don't have to worry about that. This doesn't pertain to them.

No. No. Because nobody listening to us today struggles with sin or anger or jealousy or any perversion or nothing in your life. No.

I think people are going to be surprised if they hang in here and they listen to us because I don't know if we'll do the next one on this or not. Seeds produce cycles. And so the seed of a thing in your life that is never confronted can sometime later, years later, become a cycle that has happened in your life.

And it does.

And so. And people, you know, like, they're like, you know, how in the world do I overcome this thing? Because it sure don't look like I've got it. It looks like it's got me.

And the longer you go without confronting it, yes, it does have you.

But if you guys will hang around in these next few minutes, because we don't ever like these things really go much longer than a half hour unless we're really into some stuff real good. I want to talk to some people and help some people overcoming temptation. And first of all, by being relevant to them, letting them know that we're real people. I do think a lot of times, seriously, they think that we never have anything. People on the stage, people behind a mic, people, Reverend in front of their name.

We never.

Yeah, you're, You're. I don't know if they don't. If they really don't believe you struggle or if they don't. I don't want to. I don't want to know that about them because I see them in a different light.

Or if it's like you say about me and you, you always say, hope you don't think I get tired, right? That's not true.

I told him. I said, sometimes you think. I said, my family thinks I wear a cape. And I don't. I said, I'm 55 and sometime I feel. But the fact is, you are not your gift. Your gift and you are very different. Your gift does not add to you. Your gift depletes you. And what I mean by that is, you are not what you function in all the time. That is the how good you are.

Like if you are a singer.

Yeah. And I don't want to go off on a hundred tangents, preacher. That is the ills of social media. Social media is 99% image driven because let's face it, even me, I don't show them what I don't want them to see.

Right. We're like, take that down.

Yeah, you know, I just woke up, don't put that on there. Or wait a minute, that didn't look good, let's do that again. Or I screwed that up. That ain't the word I wanted to use.

Right.

So what do I do?

We try to put our best foot forward.

We refine it. And I'm giving them my best foot forward. Nothing wrong with that. I want to do excellent. I want to impact people. But the fact is the clip that you got, I might have screwed it up four times before you got that one. And so in this social media driven and it drives things society, the fact, pardon me.

Bless you.

The fact is, you know people, we show you what we function in. And so I tell people this is what depletes you, is your gift. When I go home on Sunday, I'm exhausted, but Monday's my day off. If you and I, we went to a brunch yesterday, we got this little place in this little nook we like to go to that's just a mid morning brunch. And the fact is when you're sitting there with me and I'm in my sweats and my T shirt and I ain't had a bath and I got my hat on backwards, you're not looking at me like pastor Ron, man of God, faith and power. That's Ron. Yes, that's Ron. And you like being with Ron or you wouldn't have married him. Because he was Ron before he was pastor or apostle or anything else. And that's what I want people to understand is that whatever it is you function in, whether it's athletics, whether it's stage ministry, whether it's something you offer mind wise or your hands, you know, your gifts or your hands, the great gift to anything. Yeah. That is not you.

That's exactly.

And there's a difference between you. And that's why so many people who are in the entertainment industry that stand on huge stages, every time they walk out of a coffee shop or out of their house, everybody wants them to be that right. And they cannot hold up to that standard. And sooner or later it breaks them down. And that's why you always hear horror stories about depression. I got you stories about depression and suicide and all these other things. Because that is not sustainable. That's not sustainable. And so, you know, me walking in God's man of faith and power 24 hours a day. So if people see me in the grocery store, a lot of times, they want me to be the guy they see on Sunday.

Pastor, pray for me. Yeah, Pastor, give me a word.

And it is. I tell you people, it's hard for me to shift because sometimes it's literally, Ron, stop on the way home and get some bread and some eggs. And then somebody catches me who's desperate for something, and, you know, I've got to move into my gift that is difficult to do. What am I saying? I'm saying that the real us struggles.

Yeah.

Everybody, anytime, anything that has flesh, your flesh wars against you. I want to get demons out of it right now. Let's get the demonic world out of it. There is a time where that needs to be taught. But that's not what I'm talking about right now.

We're talking about just us being bad all by ourselves.

You got to understand that when you accept Christ, your spirit, man has been perfected from that moment forward forever, then there is that second dimension of your person, which is your soulless realm. The Bible lets us know that it is being renewed day by day as our mind renewed ours. Our soul is prospering. It is a continuum. It is a process that is on a continuum. Third thing is flesh. This changed my life. Hope your flesh ain't saved.

No. And it's not going to be.

Yeah, but nobody told me that your.

Flesh is not going to be saved.

And all those rules that I came up with in the Old Holiness Church, I never did understand that. I tried to do what they told me to do. But, you know, I look back on it now and what is it? It's an attempt to bring salvation to the part that God said is not saved.

Right.

Your flesh is not saved.

It's frustrating.

Yes.

It's frustrating to us. And I think it's. I think that is a war with so many people who feel like that they're not a good Christian, that they're not saved even because they still struggle or they still have some desires. And we. The truth is we all do.

Struggle is the proof.

Not that you give into it, but we all have it.

Struggle is not bad. Struggle is the proof you've not been overcome.

Right.

When the struggle is over, you've been defeated.

Right.

As long as you're locked in struggle. That means I got some fight left in me. And I'm determined not to let this thing have me.

Right.

When people get saved, there's a lot of stuff that I think goes quickly. But the Bible, you've talked about it many times. The sin that so easily beset you. Hebrews 12, everybody. I do. I really do. I think everybody has a. The sin.

Yeah.

Some people may have those three sins or those two, but everybody has that one that doesn't go quickly. And if they give it an inch.

Yeah. It'll take a mile.

Yeah. You have to slam the door on that thing because it says it's the sin that so easily besets you. That word beset is likened to set you back. It is the sin that is waiting at the door to set you back. You've made all this progress and it wants to take you back. Then you make all this and what happens? Look at my hand. Cycle.

Yep, yep.

So besetting sins create cycles because they always take you back from your progress that you've made. And so the weight that. So the sin and the weight that so easily beset you. Every weight is not a sin, but every sin is a weight. And so I think a lot of people need to understand the nature of temptation and how it can be overcome. And this is not going to be nearly as spiritual as people want me to be because people want me to give them the spiritual recipe.

Do these three things and you won't be tempted. And that is not.

It is not simple. It is a daily fight, it is a daily awareness. And it is you being self aware.

Yeah. Knowing who you are, what your weaknesses are.

Don't lie to yourself.

Right.

Don't lie to yourself. The Bible says that a man should not think he's something that he is not. That doesn't just mean pride. Yeah. He deceives his own heart. That's another way. That's not a problem. Yeah, it is a problem. And the thing is, everybody else can see it clearly, but you can't. Because I've always said you can't smell your own stink. You're used to smelling it. So to you, that's a normal smell. But you come in the room and everybody else realizes it's a foul smell.

Yeah, I smelled that on the airplane the other day.

Exactly. Right.

When he walked on that airplane, I was like, my goodness gracious, he can't smell that.

It's awful. But if you live in it every day, that's your smell. So the fact is, I Want to start all the way back at grade A and I don't know if we need to take a minute. Just go to our sponsors before I get started because once I get started we're not going to be able to put this thing back in the station.

This is such a good topic because you know why? It reaches everybody.

Everybody, everybody. Nobody's exempt from this.

Nope. So Chime. We love you Chime. Thank you Chime so, so much. Listen, it's Christmas season and very much so, I don't know about everybody else but sometimes, yeah, we do use a credit card. Do you use credit card?

I'm going to be quiet when it comes to you using a credit card. I'm just going to leave that alone.

Well, what everyday or seasonal purchases, you know a lot of people use them. A lot of people use it to build their credit. So no matter what you're buying this season when you use the secured Chime Credit Builder. Did you hear me? Credit builder, Visa credit card. You can build your credit scores with on time payment for everyday purchases. Plus there's no annual fees, interest or credit checks to get started. And if you need a safe way to send and receive money for the holidays, you can pay friends through Chime whether they are Chime members or not and can cash out your money. Fee free fee free. Start building your credit. Open a Chime credit account with at least a $200 qualifying direct deposit to get started. And the Chime Credit Builder Visa credit card is issued by Stride bank in a member FDIC out of network. ATM withdrawal fees may apply. Call 1-844-244-6363 for details. Late payment may negatively impact your credit score. Results may vary. Early access to direct deposit funds depend on payer. Spot me eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Get started at Chime.com RonAndHope that's Chime.com RonAndHope RonAndHope please don't forget to do.

That because that's how we get credit for it and that helps us pay the bills and do what we're doing for you. So thank you so much for that. And don't forget to subscribe and hit those like buttons. We need all that we can get to get the algorithm to send this to other people who may need to hear about temptation. That's right because I don't think anybody's exempt if they have. I haven't met them yet. Even Jesus wasn't right. You know, first thing Jesus had to walk through after God had declared this is my son was he went into the desert 40 days to be tempted by the devil. Nobody is exempt from temptation, not even the son of God himself. So let's talk about the nature of temptation. Sweet part, Sweet part, sweetheart. So let's talk about the nature of temptation.

You tickle me.

Temptation. James says, when man is tempted, let no one say God is tempting me, for God tempts no man.

Right.

Okay.

And the devil didn't make me do it.

But each man, when he is tempted, is dragged away by his own evil desires.

Lust and desires. Yep.

His own evil desires. Bible says he with that, he's dragged away, I think is the word the NIV uses. And enticed.

And that is a powerful thing already in you.

Powerful, powerful statement. Here's the analogy I like to use. When I was growing up, this probably happened every Christmas. Hope. I don't know. Probably for five or six years, in some stage of my life, radio or remote control stuff was just coming out. There was a time where you could do it, but it had a cord attached to it. But then the radio control stuff, wireless, started coming up.

Did you want one?

I got one all the time. I had them things lined up against the wall on the floor.

But your mama said you used to beat them Today.

I had trucks, not them. I didn't know.

She said you wanted to know how it worked and you would take it.

I did want to know that, and that's where I'm going.

Okay.

I was fascinated. Now, you know, in our technology age today, this is nothing. But you got to understand, nothing was wireless. And so all of a sudden, these. I can stand over here and mash this button, and that thing over there obeys.

Right.

That intrigued me. And I'm not an engineer. I don't think like an engineer, but I'm extremely curious. I'm like, I know when it has a cord attached to it. In my mind, somehow I can put together how that happens. But when I'm not attached, and I can sit there and hit this, and it goes backwards, and I can sit and hit this, and it turns right, and I can hit this. And that intrigued me. And one day, when I was preaching on temptation, probably 15, 20 years ago. Bless you. That analogy came to me in my study time. There's something under the hood, something in it. There's something already in that car that is attached or picks up the signal that is being sent. Therein lies the nature of temptation. When one is tempted, he is dragged away and enticed by his own evil desires. And here is the way this thing incrementally goes. And when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin. And when sin conceives, it gives birth to death. So there. Right there, you see how this thing deteriorates at a pretty fast level. Having said that, let me go to this. When I'm tempted, the enemy knows what's already in me.

Yep.

Okay. Yep. The devil has no power to make you do anything. Nothing. Okay. The devil does have the power to send a signal because he knows what's under the hood. What's under the hood can be generational. What's under the hood can be there because of your own proclivities. What's under the hood could be there because of a trauma.

Open door.

Yeah. So something created this. So there's some people that are highly, highly susceptible to maybe sexual sin or promiscuity. Okay. It's in the bloodline, right. Something happened to you that put a seed inside of you. Seeds become what cycles. Something's in there. There is something that is already in you. And the problem is your enemy knows it's there. So all he's over here doing is he's sending signals, and he's counting on the fact that what's under the hood cannot resist the signal that he is sending. I tell people I said, sin and temptation is not the same.

It's not.

And I say, you know, when I've sinned, sin has to do with an action, temptation. You know, I tell what I used to tell people. I say, you know, if I ride around the block and I see a gorgeous woman dressed on the corner that is not dressed the way any beautiful woman should be dressed, I said, I've just been tempted. I've not sieved. There's nothing conceived and give birth to sin. I said, but if I circle the block seven times, Right, Okay. You know, basically, I've moved from temptation to sin. Sin is when you let that desire run its course. Okay. You are not a bad person because you felt something. You are not a bad person because you experienced a desire to do a bad thing. You are not a bad person because you had a thought to do something bad. You're not a bad person when you sin unto God. But the danger is when the desire has its way.

Yeah, that's what it does to you. What it does to you mentally. What it does to you brings shame and embarrassment.

Well, that's a whole nother. Yeah, that's a whole nother podcast.

Sin separates. The Bible says it separates you. So when you come into church or you get down on your knees to pray or you riding in the car and you got on praise and worship and it separates you. You feel like you're embarrassed. You can't go into the presence of.

That's what the word death means. And desire gives birth to sin. Sin gives birth to death. It don't mean cessation of life. It doesn't mean you fall over dead. So it's talking about death in the Bible, separation. When the Father said, my son who was dead is now alive, he wasn't dead. No, he was separated. And so in the Bible, what does sin do? It wedges. And you can feel it.

Yeah, you can.

Oh, I hate when I know that I've done something wrong. I hate it when I know I've hurt the Lord. I hate it when I know I've done something that God. When I've rebelled. I hate it when I know I made a wrong decision. That when I. I hate the way I feel that wedge because the wedge makes you feel unworthy. What was the prodigal son. I'm not worthy to be your son. I'll come back and be a servant. There's something about sin that makes you feel like you got to come back and be a second class citizen. Because it does.

It separates. The nature of it separates.

It separates. And anybody who has, anybody who's dependent on the presence of God in him, we live and move and have our being. And in the presence of the Lord is fullness of joy, joy and pleasure. Anybody who lives that way, they know the moment that wedge has come. And so I want to be like David. Can I be sinless? No, there's only one of those. But I want to be like David. David was a man after God's own heart who had tremendous sins in his life. But he was quick to repent.

Purge me.

He was quick to repent. He was aware. He was self aware. And he would go before God and he would want to be purged and he wanted to be cleansed. And I think that's the way we have to be when we know we've done the wrong thing.

But how do we avoid.

That's where I'm going.

How do we avoid it?

But people want this to be spiritual and they're not going to want to hear what I got to say. I can feel it already. Even though they're not sitting in the room. I can feel it. Give me those four scriptures where I can take this thing and eliminate it. Number one, I didn't get this from anywhere. This is my Life. And this is Ron Carpenter, Self aware. Okay.

I want your wings.

I came out of my teenage years with exposure to a lot of hardcore pornography. I've told my story. I don't know if I've told it on the podcast before.

We did. We talked about it with Brittany.

Yeah, that's right. I was exposed to a lot of it. I don't know if it was an addiction. I don't know if it was or not, but I was exposed to a lot of it. And it messed with me. So it planted things in me that did not need to be there. I got saved. And hope. Here's the good thing. That's a horrible thing I did. Here's a good thing I did. I did not want to be a hypocrite. I did not want to have secret sins. I didn't want to go around and have to turn the Christian thing on and then get by myself and hate who I am.

Right.

I didn't want to be that guy. I'd seen too much of that. That was not attractive to me. And so I really. I didn't know what to do because I knew I came to God. I knew I had a genuine experience, but also knew, ah, man, I've seen a lot of stuff. And a man is very visual. A man can play a thing over and over in his mind a million times. And all those images and all that stuff was very vivid in my mind. And so I was very serious about my relationship with God. But I didn't know what to do.

Right.

And then I met you. And it was a great desire of ours to remain sexually pure. And we'll just tell everybody, real raw and relevant. We, for three and a half years, didn't have intercourse that I want to every day, but we didn't for three and a half years. That was very, very difficult. But here again, I wanted it to remain pure. I didn't want to do that. I didn't want to be in Bible school and seminary and sneaking off and doing that mess. Yeah, I don't want to do that. And so here's what happened. Not intense, because in Bible school you're kind of in a bubble. You're kind of in an incubator. So it didn't have avenues to get to me. There wasn't the Internet back then, and we couldn't have TVs in our room. So there wasn't a lot of ways it could get to you. That bubble was kind of good for me those four years. But then I get out and we get Married, Okay? I'm a free man when it comes to access. I'm not in a bubble anymore. Then it's the 90s when we get married. 95 rise of Internet. Okay? The cable boxes, the Internets, what did they call it back then? Pay per views, all that stuff. I got to where I was asked in the mid to late 90s to start going around traveling, which meant I'm in hotels and I'm by myself, okay? And there's an Internet, so I go from an incubator and no access to. It's everywhere and nobody will know.

Right?

This can be my little. This can be my little problem. Okay? It can't be your little problem.

No.

Okay. So what did you do, Pastor? Did you go to a Benny Hinn crusade and he laid hands on you and you didn't feel it anymore?

Cast the devil out, Cast the desire out.

Because it's not a devil.

No.

Okay. So here's what I had to do. Desires have to be fed to survive.

That's right. It's like an animal.

Everything that lives has to be fed. It has to be nourished. Nothing can live if it's starved. Nothing. Nothing outwardly, nothing inwardly, nothing human, nothing animal. Nothing in nature. It has to be fed. You cut the sun off, vegetation stops. You cut the water off, it stops. And the predatory animal, you let them quit eating carnivorous meat, their life stops. It doesn't matter. We eat, we die. We don't eat, we die.

Right?

When it comes to a desire, it is no different. And this is where if you're sitting here saying, you know what, I got something and this thing rules me and I don't rule it, and I don't know how long I can hide it from everybody and I'm miserable. I'm going to tell you, I know where you are and I've been there and I'm talking straight to you and I feel you. But this is not easy. It's overcome hope. Not with a laying on of hands and then an altar call. Because I tried that, right? And that's kind of what I was taught. Take care of everything at the altar. But I got up from the altar and like, okay, I'm going down there and I wish it was a one shot deal. And I've heard people like did cocaine and went to the altar and never did it again. I'm sure that is available. But that is not most people's story.

That's rare.

Most people that come out of something very, very. That was an extreme bondage.

They fought A war where they sowed to their flesh. They fought a war for years and years and years, turned their flesh loose.

In a certain area.

Your flesh has gotten used to that.

Exactly right. I just had somebody the other day that has gone from smoking to vaping. And they told me, they said, I've just quit vaping. They said, I've been through seven days. And they were talking to me about it. I've never been hooked on nicotine. I don't know what it's like, but I've heard it's terrible. I heard. I mean, I've heard it is like terrible to try to come off of and put the stuff down forever. And the person was telling me, you know, I'm clean. But every day, it have to confront it every single day. Any type of bondage, it has to be starved out. So what do you do? Make no provision for the flesh. The Bible says provision. What does that mean? Room. Make room. Make no provision for the flesh, provide for it. Because next verse says, for the flesh seizes every opportunity afforded it. We're not talking about demons, we're not talking about Satan. We're talking about flesh. We're talking about this thing right here. This thing right here. Okay? What it wants, it has desires on the inside of it. And the Bible says I cannot turn it loose. And if you move on, the Bible says that sin seizes every opportunity afforded it. What does that mean? That means you can't make room for it, right? Provision for the flesh. Because when you do, it is there. Even God told Cain that sin waits at the door. All the way back in Genesis, chapter four, sin lies at the door. And its desire, God told him, is to have you.

Yeah.

I mean, you're talking a span of thousands of years. And all the way back there, sin lies at the door. It is waiting for you to make room. So here's what I had to do. And it was crazy. This is my story. I had you covering me at home. You were my safe place.

Women, because we talked open about it.

If men were what the issues were with those issues and your jaws drop and you get mad and you start wearing them out, I hope you enjoyed that moment because that'll be the last one you've had. You cannot do that. When you want him to be vulnerable with you and you want to be his covering, and I mean covering. You want to be his safe place. If you want to be that, then hope has to understand the nature of a man, the nature of what I've been through, the nature of what I opened up and the nature of what it's going to take to get rid of it and be supportive in that, not angry in that. So Hope knew I was honest with her. I need help here. I don't want to be this person. I don't want to sneak away from you and go, look at this. Okay. Yeah.

It's like an alcoholic saying, well, I can just have one drink.

No, you can't.

No, you can't.

No, you can't.

So if you're an alcoholic, you make provision.

You got to starve it.

You don't even go to restaurants that serve it.

You got to starve it. Let's go on down the line. Gambling. Yeah, Gluttony. I mean, let's go all the way down the line. It's not just a few that we single out. Anybody where anything controls you other than the Holy Spirit, Right. That thing right there has to be confronted. It has to be. A lot of people today, it's this.

Yeah.

They cannot put it down. And you watch them and, I mean, it's like a fix. If they get two spare seconds, they got to grab their phone and, you know, so what I did is I started getting invited. There was the vulnerability. And when I get invited, I would start calling hotel managers. And I didn't stay in a nice place. I must. You know, days in Holiday Inn, I was preaching at small churches, youth camps, gatherings, tent revivals, things like that. And I would say, I need you to take that TV out of whatever room you've got Ron Carpenter in the night. And, I mean, they would always. It was weird. Like, we don't do that. And I would be very confrontational. Okay, I appreciate that, but I'm going to the hotel down the road.

No, I'm sure. Be honest now, Ron. I'm sure your flesh fought you on that. I'm sure in your mind, you had a war, that. I'm going to the hotel. I'm not going to call them tonight.

And this can be your pet sin. Yeah, this can be your pet sin.

So it's not. People listening probably are thinking, oh, he's so strong. He called the hotel. No, it was a fight.

Oh, my goodness. It was a fight because the enemy's in your head saying, she won't know you're two hours away. You know, and you got to understand there wasn't all these ways to keep tabs on people and put finders on their phone. No, if I'm two hours away, I was two hours away. But there was something in me that didn't want that. And I appreciate whatever that was. I wanted to be free. Yeah. Whatever that was from God, I didn't want to live like that. I didn't want to be a hider.

Right. And the more you starve it, the easier it does get.

Right? So the times where I knew there was opportunity for that thing to grab me was where. Here's what I call lines of separation. I put distance and I put obstacles between it and between me.

Yeah.

Hope that's what I don't see people doing. If you have a problem sleeping with everybody you date. Let's get raw. Why are you at their apartment at 4am Right?

Or even midnight?

Why?

You just don't go and then you.

Get up and say, I did it again. God help me. God. He was trying to help you when he told you not to go over there. You date. You date in public, you date with other couples. You do whatever you have to to starve that and not let it have you. Whatever you have to. And I hated that sin so much in my life that I went to extremes. A lot of people say, man, that's extreme. It might be even embarrassing. I'm sure those managers like this guy's. Who is this dude? He must be messed up. I don't care what they thought. All I knew was when I went there, I was going to get up next morning with a clean conscience. I wasn't going to get up and go back in front of you. Shamed and preach ashamed. And lay down in my bed at night ashamed. I didn't want to. So this was a long process. And what happens is the desire fades. Does it ever die? Sometimes, yeah, I think it can. I think it can.

You can starve it to death, but.

I do know this. It fades to where it just does not have the power to overtake you.

You didn't just starve that, though. You fed your spirit, man.

Oh, yeah. Two simultaneous things going on.

You have to feed your spirit, man, because it's like a scale that whichever one you sow to the most is going to have the most strength. So it's the one that's going to win every single time.

I had to change my music.

Yeah.

I had to change.

Well, people don't want to talk about this. They grown, remember? They want to do whatever they want to do.

I had to change what I would watch on TV and what I wouldn't. And, you know, no, no, I don't have to live that rigid all the time. But until it's overcome, right? Until it's overcome. Here's the way I look at it. You got to go to extremes until it's no longer an issue. Right after it's an issue. You and your wife or whoever you're accountable to together, you know, can decide what the boundaries are from then on out and hope we have boundaries in every part of our life.

We do.

We do. And if we break those boundaries, we feel like crap. We'll come back and apologize to one another, and we want to get it fixed immediately, and we reestablish those boundaries. And I think I want everybody to know, listen, we are just like you. We fight these battles, we fight these pools. We feel these same feelings. We get offended, we get mad. We get this, we get that. And the fact is, it's a healthy dose and an ongoing revelation from the word of God. Jesus said every time he was tempted. It is written. It is written. It is written.

That's why he says, hide God's word.

In your mouth that you might not. What?

That you might not sin.

That you might not sin.

So you make no provision for the flesh, but you sow to the spirit because you will reap life. Do you want to reap death or do you want to reap life?

You got to take responsibility for it. Because as long as the devil made you do it, or every time I'm around them, or I didn't want to, but he made me. As long as it's somebody else's fault, you never have the power to overcome it. No.

James says, I'm dragged away by my own.

By my own. You can't take me there if I don't already want to do it.

Right.

You just can't do it. There's got to be something in me that's already leaning in that direction before you can drag me there and cause me to do it.

So this is honestly really good news to everybody listening, because we have the power to stop it.

Exactly.

We have the. We're not helpless to where we're going to be overcome and get in a trance. And I just couldn't help myself. That is a lie.

Well, let me tell you something. The Bible does speak to being overcome. The Bible says, let him who is overcome in a sin. The Bible talks about, take that, brother, and restore him. If this thing's out of control.

Right.

You may literally have to submit yourself to somebody.

Right.

We've walked through those sins where we have to say, you know what? I can't get this by myself. I'm coming under you. I'm coming under Your covering. I'm coming under your protection. And here's a total submission to every single thing you asked me to do. I'm going to put it to use. And that's what I ask people to do. You know, when things have gone bad, when there's some type of, you know, sin in their life and they're a pastor and they come to me and want to be restored. My thing is, I'm with you as long as you do what I ask you to do.

I think the thing is the first step because we all struggle. And I think everybody listening who is a Christian doesn't want the struggle. Really. We really do want to live. Right. First, you got to admit there's a problem.

Self aware.

You got to be self aware. And the truth is what makes you free. You know, the Bible says, confess your faults, confess your sins one to another so that you may be healed. So you got to quit hiding and acting like, oh, I got this. Oh, I got this. No, confess your faults one to another so that you may be healed. You got to get it out of the dark and into the light.

Well, I said we don't go much over a half hour unless we end some stuff. We end something right now. Do you know, I don't know if you really felt that way, but it was very important to me when I met you that you perceived me as a man of God.

Right?

I mean, at 19 and 20 years old that you said, I'm dating a guy who is very serious about his relationship with God. Do you know how humbling it was to come to you three, four years in our relationship and tell you, here's right, here's what really went on in my life for a long time, and if I let it go one inch, here's my struggle. Yeah, that was. I did not want you to know that.

Right.

I didn't want you to have that information.

I mean, you didn't want me to know you weren't perfect. Goodness gracious.

I think there was. I think there's a side to every man.

How could it be?

I think there's a side to every man that wants the woman to think they do wear a cape and they got an S on their shirt. And that was humiliating information for me to share with you. Because my whole goal for you was, I can lead if you marry me, I can lead us, I can lead our family. I'm a man of God, I love Jesus, I'll pursue. And I had to come back full circle and say, you know what? Before you came into my life. I did a lot of crap and I'm paying for it now. And this thing is struggling and it's about to become a private battle if I don't bring you into it. And I had to do that. What would you tell that person that's right there?

That's what I just said. You've got to confess.

What would you tell the woman that's got to hear it?

Oh, if it's porn. I mean, you're talking about porn.

Well, that basically because I know that is a dire men's stroke. It's a multi billion dollar men's issue.

Right. Well, number one, you can't be shocked. You have to understand the nature of a man.

The nature of a man is that.

You know, they are turned on by what they see. So don't be shocked and be willing to, you know, help him. Listen, I don't think a man by his nature wants a woman, you know, hounding him and investigating him and. But pray for him, you know, pray.

For him and give him the grace to fail and come back and fight again.

Right? Because it's not going to be gone overnight. It's a process.

I went to those altar calls. It'll be gone right now. And there are moments, there are. There are moments where this enemy you shall see. You'll never see anymore.

The power of God can do anything.

There are. But most of these things, they are a journey. We war against our flesh.

Flesh Management.

It's Flesh Management. I did a whole series that's in the vault on Flesh Management. So I don't know, what would I say? Be self aware. Quit lying to yourself. Number two. I mean, be aware of your issue. Number two. There's got to be some level of accountability to somebody that is indeed your issue. Number three, bring it to the light. Don't hide it. Number four is what I would tell you. Make no provision for it. Every time Ron Carpenter has sinned, every time I put myself in a position to sin, every time I did it. There's no such thing. I don't believe there's any such thing as falling into sin. There's no such thing as that. You planned it.

Yeah.

You planned something. Yep. So. And then after that, lines of separation between you and it, that's the starvation process. Starve that thing out and feed your spirit. Amen. Has this helped you today? I hope that it has.

I hope it has. Be sure to like this podcast. Be sure to hit that share button. Share it to your Facebook page, Share it to your Instagram page. Let all your followers know about Ron and Hope Unfiltered. We love you so much. Until next time.

God bless.