When the church fathers constructed this list of 7 deadly sins 1500 years ago they knew then, what we observe today. Satan’s tactics to corrupt our lives hasn’t changed much if any. If you have red blood in your veins then pride, greed, envy, anger, sloth and today lust. They can grip us in such a way that we struggle to free ourselves.
Start with statistics.
• 40 million people regularly visit Internet porn web sites daily.
• 47% Christians who said pornography is a problem in the home.
• Breakdown of male/female visitors to pornography sites: 65% male - 35% female.
• 30% of unsolicited e-mails contain pornographic materials.
• One survey showed that women, far more than men, are likely to act out their behaviors in real life, such as having multiple partners, casual sex, or affairs.
● The average age a person is exposed to porn is 11 years old.
● 34 % of churchgoing women said they have intentionally visited porn websites online. The percentage of men is much higher.
● The largest consumers of Internet Pornography are students 12-17 year olds.
Just for fun, I want you to turn to the person sitting next to you and take a guess at this number. How many movies were produced out of Hollywood last year? Hollywood is the movie capital of the world. How many mainstream films do you think were produced and distributed in just one year? Turn to your neighbor and take a guess.
Got your number? The answer is 470 movies. That comes out to about 9 movies released every week.
Now, how many hardcore pornographic films do you think were produced in that same amount of time? I’m not talking internet sites or magazines or the “toned down, softcore” porn they play on HBO and Cinemax. How many hardcore porns in a year?
11,000. That’s more than 30 films every day. Even if they were 1 hour each and you watched them nonstop 24 hours a day, it would take you more than a year to see them all.
People who study cultural trends say our world is in a pornography epidemic and the numbers prove it.
This is a hard topic to examine because the moment we mention lust there is a sensual connotation in that word which frightens most Christians into silence. As believers we have a difficult time talking about lust probably for two reasons. The first reason for our discomfort is also perhaps the most obvious. Historically the Church has been at its harshest and most unforgiving when dealing with the sins of lust. People can lead good and helpful lives for years but we will recall a lustful mistake a deacon made 35 years ago.
Secondly, we do not openly talk about this subject in a serious way because it goes to the very identity of who we are. Lust is a sin that goes back to our deepest need and desire – love. You see lust is a distortion of the highest good and purpose of life, which is love.
We can apply the word “Lust” to a lot of things. It can be a desire for a number of different things. It references, Actions that are lived out without any thought of the consequences, no consideration for what might lie ahead, simply wanting the thrill of a particular moment’s challenge.
When you realize that lust is hasty action that lives out momentary pleasure without the thought of what’s ahead, we are confronted with how everyone of us has lived in that very moment, that very impulsive sense in our lives.
Maybe you lusted for recognition and so in a swift moment you slander someone to make yourself look better in another’s eyes. Perhaps you have lusted for enjoyment and you quickly run off to play your game, only to discover later that others were depending upon you to do something and you failed them by your absence because you just had to have another round of golf. Or maybe you have lusted for sensual pleasure of some sort and you did something or watch something that afterwards you were left thinking why I am so dumb.
Lust is rooted in a failure to think. It’s impulsive and thoughtless. Today we are going to look at the sensual side of lust so that we can put in place a godly defense to help us live self-controlled lives.
It is true that in the Bible we find all the direction and strength we shall need for life, so let’s look there for our counsel today.
The most familiar story of lust in the Bible is in 2 Samuel 11:2-5. Those who have been to Sunday School know of the story even before I tell you.
2One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her…Then she went back home. 5The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.” The Bible doesn’t say this, but David’s family was effected for the rest of his life. David didn’t stop to think about the consequences. He wanted what he wanted and being the King, of course, he could get it.
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.
C. LUST IS CULMINATED IN DEVIANT BEHAVIOR.
A. Romans 1 comments on this when it says, 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.
26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.”
B. The Bible defines sinful sexual immorality in three ways. It is fornication, adultery and homosexuality. Today we even hear people even claim to be bisexual. Never is that term used in scripture; there is no mention of bisexuality. You can commit a sexual sin with a person of the opposite sex to whom you are not married or you can commit a homosexual acts. Though I realize we live in corrupted fleshly bodies there is no conclusive evidence that people are born bisexual or homosexual. The Bible teaches that you worship the creation rather than the creator and therefore by that worship of creation through that attitude can commit sinful sexual acts. And lust in it’s completed stages deviates from God’s plan for sexual intimacy to be held in marriage alone.
II. COUNSEL FOR THE STRUGGLING CHRISTIAN TODAY. I don’t want you to leave with just a definition of lust and sense that you better fly right or God is upset. There is wise counsel for struggling Christian today. It’s amazing to think that every sin we have discussed was placed on this list 1500 years ago. Spiritual people in every town and age have struggled with the same temptations.
There is an old fable which says that swift-footed Greek goddess Atlanta challenged her suitors to race with her, with herself as the prize or death as the penalty of losing. Many competed and lost their lives. Finally, a man named Hippomenes, entered the contest, and on his person he had three golden apples,. As with the others, Atlanta swiftly passed him, but he threw down an apple. Atlanta, startled, stopped to pick it up. He regained the lead, but soon Hippomenes again saw himself gradually slipping behind; and again he threw a golden apple. Atlanta, charmed by its glitter, delayed to seize it, and fell behind. But once again, as they neared the goal, she was about to pass him, and Hippomenes threw his last golden apple. Atlanta, lured by its charm, stopped again--and lost the race.
Today Satan throws along life’s highway three golden apples that charm and destroy many a racer. The apostle John called them "the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life" (1 John 2:16). Many Christians today are being turned aside from obedience to the will and work of God by Satan’s "three golden apples! I want you to know that your struggle today is not unique, its as old as mankind. So here are some things I want you to remember to help you in your walk, your journey with Jesus.
1. GOD UNDERSTANDS YOUR STRUGGLE. TALK TO HIM ABOUT IT. Our sensual age is nothing new to God. He has seen this before. Our nation’s obsession does not scare God into hiding. Your open confession to God of any lustful struggle is a beginning place for healing. You must begin in prayer. Augustine was a great philosopher and church father who lived from 354 to the year 430. He first though was a terribly worldly man who came to Christ as an adult. He was honest enough to confess his sexual sins, which were many before knowing Christ and once Augustine wrote, “I had prayed to you for chastity and said, ‘Give me chastity, but not yet. For I was afraid that you would answer my prayer at once and cure me too soon of the disease of lust, which I wanted satisfied, not quelled.” People who love God can be very tempted, God is really ready to help you.
2. TAKE PRACTICAL STEPS TO STOP TEMPTATION. This is not brain surgery. Our society is so saturated with lustful twist that you will have a surprise attack once in a while, but you must do practical things to preserve your marriage and if your single to keep yourself pure. Usually you have to decide in advance how you will react so you don’t foolishly stumble into something. And decide to get into God’s word. You can’t spiritually travel on the road of faithfulness if you don’t have scripture in your gas tank. The reason so of us never make it, is that we don’t have the fortitude to work at it.
3. MAKE YOUR DESIRES GOD’S WILL. There are some in this room right now whom are struggling with lust, others are angry, still others are prideful or greedy. John 8, memorized that passage. “But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.9At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Jesus wants to save us from temptation. You can receive Him today.
