I’ve learned to attack sin instead of waiting for sin to attack me. I remember this one time when I walked onto a plane, found my seat and was minding my own business. I was just sitting there, waiting for the plane to take off. In fact, I wasn’t even paying attention to anyone, because I was reading a newspaper. So I was just sitting in my seat, reading a newspaper, waiting for the plane to take off.
All of a sudden this beautiful, foxy mamma – I’m not talking about no dog now – comes up to me. This was a good-looking woman! Now, I’ve got my head in the paper, and there are several men and a couple of ladies sitting around me. And I noticed this woman when she walked up to my row and stopped.
You know, when you see somebody standing right in front of you, you look up. I was in the aisle seat, so I thought she had a window seat in my row or something like that.
But instead of going to her seat, the woman said to me, “Aren’t you glad that I’m sitting by you?” I couldn’t believe she said that! I looked at that beautiful woman and said, “Ma’am?” That’s all I could say because she kind of took me by surprise. So she said again, “Aren’t you glad that I’m sitting by you today? Whooooo! Aren’t you glad?”
I’m not going to say that I was sad she was sitting next to me. That would be rude. “Yes, ma’am,” I said. “Ah, is this your window seat?” She didn’t even answer my question. She just jumped in, saying, “I’ll tell you what. I really like your hair.”
When she said that, I started hearing these noises behind me, “Wahhhh haaaaa ahhhh. Waaaaaaaaah.” It was these two men carrying on. You know how men are. They get stupid. I mean their hormones start kicking in, you know. Once a guy’s hormones take over, he doesn’t know what’s going on anymore.
The woman was standing there, and I just looked at her.
She said, “We could make beautiful music together.” She said this out loud in front of everybody! Then she said, “Where are you going?” Now that’s a dumb question: “Where are you going?” I mean, we’re on the same plane! I’m going the same place she’s going – where else?
That’s exactly what I told her too. I said, “Same place you’re going.” So then she said, “What are you doing? Listen, why don’t we just go somewhere?” She actually said this! You know, this woman was laying it on thick right there in the aisle.
When she said that, those men just cut loose. They started howling, “Whooo, ouhhhhhh, wowwwwwwww!” Everybody around us could hear them, saying, “Whoaaaa, man!” But I was just sitting there looking at her. “Heh, heh, heh,” I thought to myself. I started smiling, because I knew what I was going to do.
“What do you do?” she asked me.
Well, I just looked at her really good, boy. Meanwhile, everybody was freaking out. I mean, especially those guys behind me. They were losing it, you know. Even the gray hair on their chests were starting to curl up. Some of those old boys were trying to cover their bald heads. They were just getting into it, you know, because she was a pretty lady. And she was a nice person as far as I knew.
So I just looked at her and smiled. She said, “You know, we could just have such a wonderful time together.” And while she was saying that she started patting me on the hand.
I just smiled at her. And then as loud as I could – I mean, I didn’t even wait to get out of my seat – I sat right there in the seat and yelled, “Whore of Babylon! Whore of Babylon! WHORE OF BABYLON!” She screamed, “Ahhhhhhhhh!”
She didn’t know what to do.
I heard one of the men say, “Where’s Babylon?” He wanted to know where Babylon was! This woman had gotten the socks embarrassed off her, and this guy was trying to figure out where Babylon was. Well, when I said that, it shut everything down. That woman certainly didn’t sit by me! In fact, she ran to the back of the plane and sat down. She was too embarrassed to sit with me.
Why did I say that to her? Let me tell you something. You’d better embarrass sin. If you don’t embarrass sin, sin will embarrass you. But if you embarrass sin, it will never embarrass you. The more you let it, the more sin will embarrass you. That’s why I told that woman off.
When you get into a situation and it looks like sin can come in, you’d better kick it out. You can’t just kick sin out lightly either. You’ve got to be tough with it. Treat it like Jesus did when He told the devil, “Get behind me, Satan!” (Luke 4:8)
Get tough with sin. You won’t regret it. I like to think of it this way: Sin will keep you longer than you want to stay and charge you more than you want to pay.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers
Jesse Duplantis, minister of the Gospel, motivational speaker, television personality, and best-selling author, has been in full-time ministry since 1976 and is the founder of Jesse Duplantis Ministries, located in the Greater New Orleans area of south Louisiana in the United States of America. With over four decades of sharing his unique blend of humor and faith around the world, generations of believers have been inspired by his messages and countless numbers have come to know Jesus Christ as Savior through his ministry.
Known for his unflinching, status-quo-breaking messages and humorous take on experiences in the life of the believer, Jesse continues to draw large audiences of believers through social media, television, and meetings held around the world. With speaking engagements booked years in advance, Jesse Duplantis continues to keep an intense traveling schedule, flying throughout the United States and the world preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. With no booking agents pursuing meetings for him and no set fees imposed upon churches for speaking engagements, Jesse chooses his outreach meetings based on the same two criteria he always has: invitations that come in and prayer over each one. This uncommon way of scheduling in today’s world means Jesse’s many followers may find him speaking in some of the largest churches and venues in America and the world, as well as a great many small and growing congregations, too. No church is too big or small for the Holy Spirit, as he says.
Side by side with his wife Cathy Duplantis, the co-founder and chief of staff of Jesse Duplantis Ministries and the senior pastor of Covenant Church in Destrehan, Louisiana, Jesse continues to fulfill his life’s calling by daily taking up the Great Commission of Jesus Christ: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Through social media, television broadcasts, books, and other ministry products, as well as through many evangelistic meetings, the JDM website, the JDM app, and Voice of the Covenant magazine, Jesse Duplantis continues to see growth in his ministry and expand each year while maintaining his roots. Jesus is the center of his life. The salvation of lost people and the growth of believers is the purpose of his ministry. And for both he and his wife, every day is another day to “Reach People and Change Lives, One Soul at a Time.”