Flee youthful lust

"Flee youthful lust..." 2 Timothy 2:22

This verse is pretty straight forward, but sadly is often times ignored by some in the Church. When Paul says to flee youthful lusts, he is simply saying to run away from any lusts that you have. What does this look like? If you are tempted in an area, FLEE! For example if one was an alcoholic and he said I'm not going to drink but I'm going to hang out at the bar. Well, that is just stupid, why? Because we all know that eventually he would get drunk! It applies to any sin. Whatever area you struggle in, run away from it, don't leave the door open for sin.

Two characters in the Old Testament give us good pictures of what we should do when we are tempted. The first one is obviously Joseph. It is obviously him because when he was tempted he did flee, literally! When Potiphar's wife (or as Pastor Robert Furrow say's "Mrs. Potty") asked Joseph to lie with her, she grabbed his cloak and he ran and left his cloak and all! Another Old Testament character was Nehemiah, who was responsible for building the walls of Jerusalem. Just as he built walls to protect the city, we must build walls to protect our integrity! If you are struggling with a sin, build walls to make it more difficult for you to give in to temptation. Using our earlier example, if one was an alcoholic, then a wall to build would be to restrict himself from going to bars. Have people help you be accountable, flee from sin and build walls to protect you!