Need to deal with sexual sin, if sexual sin's taken place. Let me just show you something here in Genesis 49. This is Reuben, one of the sons of Jacob. Genesis, Chapter 49 describes the last words he prophetically spoke over the various sons, so he gathered the sons together - Verse 3 - and said Reuben, you are my firstborn, My might and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power. But unstable as water, you shall not prosper or excel, because you went up to your father's bed and defiled it, and went up into my couch. Now what you've got to see here is, he is making a prophetic declaration, he's speaking words that will impact the destiny of this man, and this man had a tremendous call on his life. He was the firstborn, and so God's intention for him was this, for multiple blessings. Firstborn blessing meant double portion of inheritance, and the leadership in the family. Second blessing, my might, and the beginning of my strength. In other words, his calling in God to carry on the work of Jacob, to be strong, and walk in the ways of God. The excellency of dignity, he would carry honour and be recognised by people, and the excellency of power, he would have supernatural help, to actually advance and to prosper. What tremendous blessing this man - this was his destiny.
Yet - this is what it says - you will not excel, and there's a reason you won't excel. It's because of something you did 20 years ago. You got involved in sexual immorality, thinking it wouldn't be noticed, it wouldn't count, and now today it's beginning to count. This is the problem with sexual sin. It feels good, but the Bible warns us about it, because sexual sin brings something into your body, into your inner man, that causes you to change, and it always has a legacy. You may think you get away with it, it's done in secret, doesn't affect anyone, no one hurt. But listen, what it'll do is destroy your destiny. It'll take away the legacy. It'll leave you bitter and sorrowful, so why not deal with the thing. If you love yourself, deal with it. In James 1:22, now beloved receive with meekness the engrafted word of God, which is able to save your souls. To shift in these areas, we need the word of God, the anointing of the Holy Spirit to help us. People around can help you.
We don't need to go into all of that today, but here's the principle. If there are negative issues eroding your life, love yourself enough to get out some help, ask someone to help you and bring resolution to it. Why live in defeat and bondage when you don't need to? An interesting thing in the Old Testament, Numbers 33, in 52, God said drive these enemies out of the land, because if you don't, they'll be a prick in your eye, and a thorn in your flesh, so what you leave unaddressed in your life after you become a Christian becomes a prick in your eye, it affects your vision; becomes a thorn in your flesh, you're preoccupied always with things that you should not be preoccupied with. Amazing isn't it? Love yourself enough to deal with issues, see? Then the last one here, this is a crucial one. Make God your friend. Make a decision to build friendship with God. Why would we make that such an important thing of loving yourself? Because your friends influence what happens in your life.
The Bible says if you go with someone who's angry, you'll become angry, so the people you're hanging out with, or people you associate with, and make your friends, they influence you. So if you were to make God your friend, to take the time to build relationship with God, to become intimate with Him, to listen to Him, to build a life that pleases Him, to discover from the word of God, what He hates, and what He loves, and begin to love the things He loves, and hate the things He hates, begin to align your life along that path, and make God your friend. What happens is, you begin to receive the love of God, and then we love and feel loved. We feel loved, why? Because we have a source that no one can see. It's an invisible source. Now God can also love us through people, so we need to be connected to people who are positive, people who are encouraging, people in the body of Christ who are loving, and who can help us and encourage us. We need those kinds of relationships. Why? Because that's one way God loves you, helps you to feel of value.