Transcript of a published teaching by David K. Bernard, transcribed from YouTube. An attributed primary source — not Acts 2:38 Life doctrine text.
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Summary
Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the transcript below — the preacher’s words follow in full.
The frame text, and the world that outgrew the old rules
- The frame reads the governing text — the psalm in which david said: i will set no wicked thing before mine eyes — and recalls that the early pentecostals established guidelines to protect themselves from moral impurity in popular culture and media; but neither king david nor the pentecostal pioneers envisioned a world where the worst kinds of moral filth could be accessed in a few seconds on a smartphone, where the same technology used for business and daily affairs can also destroy our souls. The question posed: what can christians today do to protect ourselves from unnecessary exposure to wickedness and immorality, and fulfill what david said?
- In his lifetime he has seen the shift: once, simple rules guarded you in the majority of instances — don't have a television, don't go to a store that sells pornography, don't go to certain places (for some towns the pool hall, the bowling alley, the skating rink, where everybody congregated). Those days are pretty much gone: the culture has changed, and almost every cultural event is permeated with a worldly atmosphere (heard 'whirly'); at your local high school or college, a shopping mall, a restaurant, you are exposed to a level of immodesty, secularism, drinking, and profanity that earlier generations could isolate themselves from. And everybody has a computer, smartphone, or tablet — needed for school, for work, for so many things. How do you guard yourself?
Scriptures: Psalm 101:3
First: the shift from external rules to a life with God
- We've got to start with the basics: the shift has to come from external rules to internal guidance — which is really the new testament principle: god said, i'm going to put my laws on your heart, not on stone but in your heart. It has to start with a personal relation with god: prayer; studying god's word (the psalmist said, i put your word in my heart that i wouldn't sin against you — as we internalize the word); and being faithful to our local church — hearing preaching and teaching, getting involved in the church's social activities, making friends and connections in a wholesome way (the youth group, young families, men's ministries, women's ministries, depending on your age). All of that has to do with your relation with god; that's first.
Second: relationships with people — and no excuses
- Second, your relationship with people: if you're married, a strong relationship with your spouse; if you're single, good relationships with friends — same-sex and opposite sex — in a wholesome context. You know who's dragging you down; minimize your time with them. You know who's a good influence; surround yourself with positive influences and mentors, a close relationship with your godly parent if your family's in the church, and with your pastor.
- As a single young man he was a single adult for seven years in college and university and faced all the temptations normal for a single adult in modern america — but don't think that once you get married all the temptations go away: if you don't get a hold of it and have personal disciplines while you're single, it won't go away when you get married; it will just change forms. And to the claim 'i'm just born this way, i'm addicted': we all have personal responsibility for our lives; we all have to take control, and through the holy spirit we can — there is no excuse for not living for god. We all face temptations; they're common — even if you're a preacher, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are always with you. But you can take practical steps.
Third: manage your environment — safeguards online
- The third step is to manage your environment: there are places you just don't go because they open you to temptation — and now those places can be on the internet, in the privacy of your home. He recommends safeguards, and did this himself very early on: covenant eyes, which the upci recommends with a discount arrangement, monitors your use and reports to yourself and to a trusted person — your spouse or another adult.
- Why do it if you don't have a real problem in the area? When he first started teaching this as a pastor, he thought: if i'm going to teach this to my young people and my men, i need to do this myself. And he tells of using a computer without the safeguards, looking up a legal website he'd been told about, instinctively typing dot com where it should have been dot org — and someone had created a clone site on purpose: suddenly it was a pornographic website. Every button he pushed to close it popped up another page, until he finally turned the whole computer off — and, so embarrassed and ashamed, with his wife in the other room, he went and told her, because he wanted to be accountable to her. Safeguards aren't perfect, and an ingenious person intending to get around them can — but they protect you from inadvertent exposure, make you think two or three times before transgressing, and show the person you report to if you tried to evade or disable them. People ask: what do you mean, brother-in-law, you don't trust yourself? I trust the lord, but i don't trust the flesh — don't give the flesh an opportunity. Just as we don't walk into a bar and order a coke and sit there an hour, or go into a pornographic bookstore looking for wholesome books, we avoid obvious places where temptation and the chances of failure are great — and we have to do the same online. Another good practice: use the computer in a public area of the home — the family room — as a matter of family culture.
Accountability, and using the power intentionally
- If you find yourself failing, one of the greatest things is to have an accountability partner — it might be your spouse, your pastor, or another trusted mentor or leader of the church. Once somebody is addicted, whether to pornography, sexual sin of other kinds, or even alcohol or drugs, an accountability partner is a great motivation: you can repent to yourself, but there's something about another person being involved — if you have a desire to be helped, you can be helped.
- The surveys show these are pervasive problems in christianity, and pentecostals are not immune. We do have an advantage many sincere people don't: the holy ghost, the power — but we still have to use that power: this room is wired for electricity, but there's no light until i go over and do an intentional act, turn on the switch. Christians have to be very intentional. But the good news is the gospel works in every culture and in every environment: yes, we can live for god — and if we stumble and fall, there's grace: we go to god, ask for forgiveness, and keep moving forward. We might fall, but god doesn't fall; we might fail, but god doesn't fail.
Confession, the goal, and one day at a time [captured text ends mid-sentence]
- First john 1 9 says: if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That is not an excuse to keep sinning deliberately and at the end of the day say, okay, forgive me, wipe it clean — there must be an intention to change. First john 2 1, right on the heels of that, says jesus christ is the propitiation, the sacrifice of atonement, for our sins — but he says: i write these things that you sin not. The goal is to live a holy life.
- So get up in the morning and pray, lord, like the psalmist: let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight — and just live for god that one day. You will see that you can make right choices, be in a right environment, and avoid temptations for just one day; so do that every day. And if one day you fall, that's where you go: confess it, start the day over, and get back on track — pursuing a [the captured text ends mid-sentence here; see this record's truncation flag].
Scriptures: 1 John 1:9; 1 John 2:1
Scripture index: Psalm 101:3; 1 John 1:9; 1 John 2:1.
Transcript
that's a very important question for for every christian today and i would i've seen a shift in my lifetime from the point where you could say you could set some simple rules that would guard you in the majority of instances so don't have a television don't go to a store that sells pornography and pretty much don't go to certain places where uh you know there are certain activities so for some towns it might be the pool hall or might be the bowling alley or the skating rink don't go there because that's where everybody congregates to pick up people and they're dressed in modestly and et cetera et cetera center well those days are pretty much gone as you've mentioned the culture has changed and really almost every cultural event is permeated with a whirly atmosphere so even going to your local high school or college or going to a shopping mall you're you are exposed to or a restaurant you're exposed to a level of um immodesty and secularism and drinking and profanity and etc that you could isolate yourself from in generations gone by in the same way with media so now uh everybody pretty much is going to have a computer or a smartphone or you know a tablet and even if you don't have it for home you need it for school for work for just so many things so how do you guard yourself so we've got to start with the basics first the shift has to be come from external rules to internal guidance which is really the new testament principle god said i'm going to put my laws on your heart not on stone but in your heart so it has to start with a life a personal relation with god that's number one a prayer studying god's word the psalmist said i put your word in my heart that i wouldn't sin against you so as we internalize the word and of course being faithful to our local church hearing preaching and teaching getting involved in the social activities of the church making friends and connections in a wholesome way with depending on your age the youth group young families men's ministries women's ministries so all that has to do with your relation with god that's first second your relationship with people so if you're married you're you have to have a strong relationship with your spouse if you're single you need to have good relationships with friends same-sex and opposite sex but it has to be in a wholesome context and you know who's dragging you down and you have to minimize your time with them you know who's a good influence and not who's a good influence and so you surround yourself with positive influences you surround yourself with mentors you have a close relationship if possible if your family's in the church if you're a young adult have a good relationship with your godly parent and with your pastor so your relation with god then your relationship with others and by the way i will say you know as a single uh young man i had i i was a single adult for seven years in college university i faced all the temptations that are normal for a single adult in modern america um but just because so it's easy from that perspective think oh well once i get married you know all my temptations will go away i won't struggle with pornography or i won't struggle with this or that because hey i'll be married but you know what if you don't get a hold of it and have personal disciplines while you're single no it's not going to go away when you get married it's just going to change forms and then some people say well you know i i'm just born this way i'm addicted you know i have i'm a homosexual i'm this i'm that but again i would say wait a minute uh we all have personal responsibility for our lives we all have to take control and through the holy spirit we can and so there's no excuse for not living for god now i will say we all face temptations i think they're common and even if you're a preacher the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes the pride of life those three those three things are always with you but you can take practical steps so after the third step i would say is to manage your environment so there are some places you just don't go because you know they're opening you up to temptation now the challenge becomes now those places can be on the internet and the privacy of your home and so i recommend and this is what i did very early on putting in safeguards there are things you can do there are um we recommend covenant eyes here at upci we have a relation with covenant eyes where for a discount you can sign up and this monitors your use and reports to yourself and to a trusted person your spouse or another adult and you and you might say well i don't have a real problem in this area why do i need this when i first started teaching on this as a pastor i thought you know what if i'm going to teach this to my young people or to my men i need to do this myself and i actually had a situation where i was using a computer and it wasn't my home computer so it didn't have the safeguards on it and i was looking up a legal website that i've been told about and i was thinking this is gonna be great resources well i top typed in the name and then instinctively put dot com where it actually was supposed to be i think dot org and somebody had created like a clone site or a fake site on purpose and suddenly it was a pornographic website i'm looking for this and even typing in what i think is the correct name to go to a legal resource and suddenly here's pornography and i was so embarrassed and shame my wife was in the other room and so i'm pushing the button as fast as i could and every time i push the button i guess it must have been the design of the website i push the button to close it out it pops up another page another page and the more buttons i push the more pages i just had to finally just turn the whole computer off and i was so embarrassed i went and told my wife because i wanted to be accountable to her my point is you can put some safeguards on your computer that while they're not perfect and while an ingenious person can get around anything if that's what you're intending to do at least it protects you from inadvertent exposure it also makes you think two or three times before you transgress the guidelines and also if you set up to report to someone else that person could see that you tried to evade it or they can see that you disabled it or whatever so i guess what i'm saying is — what do you mean brother-in-law you don't you don't trust yourself well i trust the lord but i don't trust the flesh and so don't give the flesh an opportunity so my point being just like we don't want to walk into a bar and order a coke and sit down for an hour at the bar or we don't go to our pornographic bookstore and see if there are any um wholesome books that we could buy we avoid obvious places where the temptation is great and the chances of failure are great so we have to do the same online so we set up accountability and another good thing is uh use your computer in a public area if you're if you have roommates if you're married you have a family we'll just let the computer be used in in your public um area where or your you know your family room and it's just a matter of it's a matter of a family culture and i think if we do that that will help us now if you find yourself failing i think one of the greatest things is to have an accountability partner it might be your spouse it might be your pastor it might be another trusted mentor or leader of the church that can hold you accountable and to me once somebody is is addicted whether it's pornography or sexual sin of other kinds or maybe even alcohol or drugs having some accountability partner is a great motivation because you can repent to yourself but there's just something about another person being involved that if you have a desire to be helped you can be helped so i do think we have to take this seriously if i read the surveys uh this is these are pervasive problems in christianity and and i have to think that pentecostals are not immune i do think we have an advantage that we have the holy ghost we have the power that many sincere people don't have but we still have to use that of power all the power in the room it doesn't is not enough unless you intentionally use it so this room is wired for electricity but i've got to turn on the switch there's not going to be any light until i go over there and do an intentional act and so i think we as christians have to be very intentional but the good news is the gospel works in every culture and every environment yes we can live for god and if we stumble and fall there's grace we have to go to god ask for forgiveness and keep moving forward we might fall but god doesn't fall we might fail but god doesn't fail first john 1 9 says if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness now this is not an excuse to keep sinning deliberately and just at the end of the day say okay forgive me and wipe it clean no there must be an intention to change uh first john 2 1 right on the heels of that says that jesus christ is the propitiation or sacrifice of atonement for our sins but he says i write these things that you sin not so the goal is to live a holy life so get up in the morning and pray lord like the psalmist let the words of my mouth the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight and just live for god that one day and you can you will you'll see that you can make right choices and be in a right involved environment and avoid temptations for just one day so just do that every day and if one day you fall well that's where you go confess it start the day over and you get back on track pursuing a
Scripture references as spoken: Psalm 101:3; 1 John 1:9; 1 John 2:1.