Let us lay aside deeds of darkness, and put on the armor of light.

Exposing the things hidden.
This is what is difficult.
Paul will address the deeds of darkness.
It is uncomfortable.
Especially when we realize that he is talking to Christians.
Guys, women, teens.
Put aside the deeds of darkness.
Put on the armor of light.
It is an action.
It is a choice action.
And so he begins.
Romans 13:13
He is referring to parties and banquests, and you would have a blast of life.
Out to the bars, and congregate.
It is for social events.
There is nothing wrong with social events.
But what is being contrasted here?
The love of the Lord
The lust.
Lust, in its first order, is self centerdeness.
It is stealing.
Getting for ones own personal gain.
The Love of God is the exact opposite.
He is love and manifests in Jesus Christ.
It is OUT love.
It is the sucking sound on your vacuum cleaner.
That is the nature of lust.
We go to the parties to satisfy our own pleasures.
Drinking beyond our senses.
Why?
Because stress goes down when you drink.
It is all for our own satisfaction.

We are not to behave as those in darkness.
Drukenness is the opposite of being sober.
You loose your ability to know your world.
You become under the influence of something else.
"Sexual immorality," is often how we think about lust.
It is so painful to be able to be a teenager or a male, especially in our culture today.
We listened to some of the stats about men.
Christian men.
These are actively engaged in sexual indecency in the culture that we are in.
Even among pastors.
There is a way to have hidden sin, and dark sin.
I get it.
Not many of us want to deal with these things.
Hidden sin appeals to nobody.
Josuha 7 is a story about Achan.
Achan coveted.
Achan hid the sin under his tent.
Nobody can see my sin.
And he buried everything else.
But he told nobody.
Joshua fell before the Lord
The Lord said"There is sin in the camp."
One person tripped up the whole nation of Israel.

And I am saying, men, because we need it.
Men tend to not share, and say "I am in control.
Men think that "Strength is the highest value in life."
Why are so mnay of relationships with men are built on Lust?
We have relationships based on satisfying our needs.
We want to get something out of them.
We are crying for the sports chanel, while our wives are crying for intimacy.
We have difficulty in this area.
Romans 13:11--It is time that we awaken from sleep.
Middle Schoolers are enduring these things.
Dinking, drugs, and sex in that time of life.
Our time is gone, so we farm our children out.
It is the devil behind all of this.
The Lord is calling for a re-ordering.
I wish I had the stats.
It is stunning to know how many men are into porn--Christian men.
I do not even know how they figure it out.
There is this drive inside of us, that is only satisfied in Jesus.
Paul says, "Wake up."
Put aside the deeds of darkness.
In the greek, it is saying "Chambering."
It is moving against God's primary order.
He has ordered it all.
He sets the order.
There is grace and truth, and we are called to do relationships in the name of Jesus, being taught by Jesus, where men can actually pray with their wives, in order not to get, but to give.
When can then trust their husbands.
Marriage is simply the principle of learning that the Lord actually teaches us about relationships.
God takes the two and makes them one.
If he is not in the marraige, then there is not Godly marraige.
Without these things, come "strife, and jealousy."
To this day, in Christian lives, I hear "I just do not like so and so."
John 13:34
"I want you to love others as I have loved you"
I get it that we have different afinities.
But God is calling us to love one another with His love.
So, this is something different.
People feel, in the church, classes. You are either in or you are out.
But this is not how God works.
He says "love one another."
He teaches us to love our enemy.
All our evil and all our sins. God pu it on Jesus.
He gave us his son. God gave us his love, in Jesus.
The love of God has been poured into your hearts.

Romans 5:5
"The love of God is poured into your heart."
So full is his love, that you have to give it.
This is love without partiality.
The moment when you turn that love to lust, then we sin.
I get this.
I know people have abused.
We are called to love. All of a sudden, we find, their principle back to us, is lust.
We got caught in abuses, and we get manipulated.
And then we say, we will only love those who will love me back.
We love on His terms, not their's.
We are to love one another in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.