I pray that these strategies will have a significant impact in your life as you battle these temptations.  Before we conclude our discussion on lust, we need to address a couple of other issues.

Look Out for Your Brother

This thing is not just all about you, and it's not about me.  It is not enough to look out only for ourselves, and abstain from something only if it causes us to stumble or sin personally.  We are commanded to look out for our brothers and sisters in Christ as much as we look out for ourselves.  Consider these words from Paul:  "Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters … Therefore, let us stop passing judgment on one another.  Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way (Romans 14:1, 13; italics added).

We need to make up our minds that we're not going to do anything, say anything, or have anything available that will cause our friends to stumble into sexual sin, including lust.  I had an experience some time ago where I had to go the extra mile to keep from causing my brothers to sin because of something I had in my room.  During my freshman year in college, some weightlifting magazines were lying around my room that had pictures of nearly naked women.  Many people would say that there's nothing wrong with this, because we honestly had them to learn about nutrition and weightlifting.  But when some guys came into my room and looked through the magazines, they lusted and sinned.  I couldn't allow that to happen again, so I got rid of the magazines the next day, and I've been careful ever since not to have anything that will cause anyone else to stumble, even if it doesn't bother me personally.

Don't take lightly the warning from Jesus when He said, "Things that cause people to sin are about to come, but woe to that person through whom they come.  It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.  So watch yourselves (Luke 17:1-3a).  When it comes to sexual temptation, we must look out for our brother.  Whether it's magazines, posters, crude jokes, or even pictures of our female friends, we need to be careful not to distract other Christian guys or cause them to stumble.  Look out for your brother.

Don't Even Stick Your Toe in the Door

As I mentioned earlier, we will never mosey into sexual purity.  As another roommate of mine once said, "Don't tolerate just a little sin, because sin doesn't tolerate just a little of you."  Sexual sin is one of the most vicious, deliberate, and devastating kinds of sin I have ever seen.  I have seen friends of all ages almost crushed under its powerful arm of destruction, and it's not pretty.  People can have great and glorious plans for their future, and then suddenly they are crushed by some sexual mistake.  They get their girlfriend pregnant.  They contract a sexually transmitted disease.  Infidelity destroys their marriage.  Their world is turned upside down because of a heated night of passion.