Lust. Series

I want to list some very important things for you today. For some of you who have been Christians for 50 years I trust you have already learned these lessons. But for some young people with us today I hope this Biblical outline can help save you for much future heart-ache that is in this sin and instead give you God riches blessings for a future marriage and your happiness.

I. THE BIBLE TEACHES ABOUT LUST. The Bible does teaches us about lust and it’s appeal. Thankfully the Bible doesn’t dodge hard questions like a politician trying to maintain support from both sides. The Bible is the most real book in the world and I think we find three things about lust worth reviewing.

1. LUST IS ROOTED IN MIS-PLACED DESIRES.

A. There is a verse that is hard to understand in Romans 1:24,25 but we must understand it. It says, "24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.” Now two things we learn there, first we understand that God will allow us to endure the consequences of our own choices, we can dishonor even our own bodies. People run into all types of diseases and addictions due to their choices. The Bible has always taught us about personal responsibility. God never infringes upon that. It’s possible to control yourself. Secondly, we find here a definition for lust that we have often missed in the past. The Bible says, ‘They worshiped and served created things rather than the creator.’ You see in that phrase of v.25 we learn that lust is preoccupied with the object of its desire. They worship created things. The people Paul refers to in this verse just wanted things, nothing else, no concern for something higher or better, they just wanted an object. At its basic level lust is after or for an object.

B. Christian love we are taught in I Cor. 13 says, 4Love… it is not self-seeking, 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

2. LUST IS CONFIRMED BY MISPLACED ATTITUDES.

A. Christians have been accused of strange attitudes by the world for decades. That we are prudes or deviant ourselves. But what the world has done is exchanged the bondage of a Victorian view of sexually in that our bodies are evil for the modern view that our bodies are to be exalted. We have moved from repressed to obsessed. Sexually has been sewn into the fabric of everything. Advertising, entertainment, comedy, it’s all through our society. Even Christian people can’t get away from it. I read recently that Therapists have said that men think about sex every there minutes and women think about it every six minutes. I’m not sure how they average that out and who they asked. And I’ve decided not to take a show of hands today, but the sensual certainly colors our entire culture.

B. Jesus indicated that sexual sins never just happen. His instruction in the sermon on the mount said, (Matt.5:27) 27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Lust is seen when it makes plans to accomplish it’s sin. Everyone can have impure thoughts but if you discover that you are figuring out a way to accomplish your sin, then by your dwelling on that thought Jesus said, you’ve already committed the sin. That’s a tuff verse that hits us were we live.