SE7EN: LU5T
2 Samuel 11; Philippians 4:7-8
June 8, 2008
The seventh deadly sin is lust. I hope you have been able to see how our culture and our lives are inundated with these sins and how they often run hand-in-hand with each other.
Our cultural advertising motto is “sex sells.” Sex sells clothes, cars, food, beverages, even exercise equipment. “You can have the body that you have always wanted.” While they show two “perfectly” chiseled bodies using their equipment (always one male and one female), the message is that once you can have the body of your dreams by using our equipment for at little as thirty minutes a day three times a week, then you will “get” the other body that you “desire.” It’s implied: two bodies for the price of one.
Our scripture is the story of David and Bathsheba from 2 Samuel 11. Now you need to know that David has multiple wives and concubines that he has had children with even before he saw Bathsheba. His son Solomon who succeeded him as king had hundreds. Part of this had to do with culture. When a king took a wife or concubine from a neighboring country, this became a part of a treaty. When children especially sons were born to the king from these women, they became important symbols of mutual support between countries and also an assurance of continued peace.
There was a frog that absolutely knew his destiny was to turn in to a handsome young prince. But for confirmation, he decided to visit a fortuneteller. The fortuneteller brought the frog in and gazed into her crystal ball. She said, “Oh, I see something. You are going to meet a beautiful young woman.” The frog gets very antsy, “Yes, I knew it. I’m going to become a prince.” The fortuneteller continues, “From the moment she sets eyes on you she will have an insatiable desire to know all about you. She will be compelled to get close to you--you’ll fascinate her." The frog is very excited. He asks, “Where am I? At a singles club?” The fortuneteller answers, “No, Biology class.”
David has become king. He has won many battles and established Israel as an important power to be reckoned with. In 2 Samuel 11, the scripture tells us that it was spring and it was the time to go to war. But David decided to stay home this year. Maybe he was getting tired. Maybe he was just going to enjoy the fruits of his labors. Regardless, he sent Joab as the commander for him.
While the men were at way, David is up on his palace roof in the evening looking out over his city that he has built when he spies a young woman taking a bath on her roof. Now before we read too much into this, this was normally about as much privacy as a woman would get. When David sees her, he says, “Nice!” Remember David has lots of wives and concubines already but that is not enough. He asks about her.
“That’s Uriah’s wife (or Yuri for short). He is off fighting for you,” Someone tells him. David could have dropped it. He could have called one of his women and satisfied himself with her. But that is not enough. He is king. He is more important than even the Burger King. He has to have it his way. So he sends for her.
Now what woman is going to refuse the king. You are brought into this palace. The king (not Elvis mind you) is giving you all this attention. I know some of us today would be saying, “Not me buddy. No way, Jose!” But as a woman in that time, you couldn’t say, “No.” And after all, David was supposedly a pretty handsome guy. He made the cover every year of People magazines most handsome man of the year. He was the Pierce Brosnan, or George Clooney, or whoever is “hot” this year. He definitely was NOT a “Carrot Top.”
Well, after that wonderful night, Bathsheba goes home and sends word that she is pregnant. “Great,” David must be thinking, “Consequences to take care of. No problem. I know what I will do. Send for Yuri.” David figures that after being gone from his beautiful wife for so long that Yuri won’t even stop to eat before “seeing” her. Only problem is that Yuri seems to be a man of great character and loyalty. He goes to the palace and refuses to go home and sleeps at the gate where the servants sleep.
When Yuri was asked by David why he didn’t go home, Yuri says that he couldn’t do this while the rest of his men are off fighting battles that he should be fighting as well. So David decides to invite Yuri for an evening of fine dining and drinks with the emphasis on drinks. David wants Yuri to be a glutton. But even after a little too much to drink, Yuri goes back to his mat in the servant’s area.
So Dave conspires to murder Yuri. Note that Dave has too much pride to admit that he has done wrong and just keeps adding sins upon the list. Dave instructs Joe, his campaign general, to attack a city and put Yuri where the soldiers are the toughest and he is most likely to feel the brunt of the enemies’ retaliations. Then Dave tells Jo to pull back the rest of the soldiers leaving Yuri to die a certain death.
Well, Yuri is killed along with some other good men. Jo informs Dave of this. And David is satisfied that he has gotten away with his lust and his sin. He takes Bathsheba as his wife probably making himself look like the compassionate ruler who is taking care of the widow of one of his soldiers. She gives birth to a son.
But God knows exactly what has happened. God sends the prophet Nathan to the king. Nate tells Dave about a rich man and a poor man. The rich man had lots of animals while the poor man was able to buy only one little lamb. The poor man raises the lamb with his kids feeding it from his table and loving it.
One day the rich man gets a visitor. Instead of taking one of his own animals and showing the visitor his generous hospitality, the rich man takes the one ewe of the poor man and slaughters it.
Dave responds in anger (as he should) and declares that that man will pay for the injustice. “Just tell me where I can find him.”
“You are that man,” Nate tells him. The result of David’s sin is that rebellion and bloodshed will be a part of his own family from here on out.
Sometimes it doesn’t seem like a little lust is all that bad. But God knows how tragic the consequences are. So much so that Jesus says that a little lust is just the same as if you had actually committed the sin.
Lust is everywhere: the Internet, TV, billboards, magazines, and even on the radio. I’m sure that we could spend hours and hours telling stories about people we know where lust has caused immense heartache, tragedy, devastation, and pain. David’s family was fractured because of his lust because that is so often what happens. But most of us keep thinking, “It can’t happen here. Not to me.” But it does and maybe even is happening.
We could talk about how this whole thing depersonalizes us. “It’s just sex or just pornography or just looking.” We could spend a half an hour trying to convince you that you have a problem and Jesus is the solution (which he is by the way). We talk about why the church believes sex should be reserved for marriage. We could talk about the virtues of abstinence. We could talk about the evils of Hollywood. These are all important directions.
But the bottom line is that through all this we are people who looking to our romances to gives us meaning. We are looking for lust to feel good about ourselves even if it is only for a few minutes. We are looking for the exhilaration of new romantic love to justify ourselves and maybe even save us. We are giving these romances what we should be giving to God. We are trying to get from these escapades what we should be looking for from God.
This is what the God idolatry. We seek fulfillment from out desires instead of God. We want to feel good about ourselves because someone else feels that we are desirable. So we dress a certain way. We flirt. We make innuendos. We make jokes even. All the while living a lie of idol making.
The result is that this leads to anxiety (what if I’m not good enough, pretty enough, thin enough, sexy enough, big enough). It leads to obsessiveness (addictions of all sorts including sex and pornography). It leads to envy (which is wanting something that somebody else has and we will talk about that as the seventh sin). It leads to anger, wrath, hatred, resentments and bitterness resulting in so much pain, suffering and anguish that literally impacts (like David) generation after generation.
This is why God says lust is a sin. It grieves God. And maybe the lust in and of itself is not personal so that lust as a social phenomenon does not grieve God. But certainly it is personal and it devastates families and lives sometimes beginning with something so small and innocent as flirtatious smile. God sees the heartache that results and God sees the lasting effects that literally put us in bondage. But God desires us to be free, which is why God sent his son for us.
So instead of dealing with effects of lust, I believe God wants us to guard against. After all, if you are dealing with the effects of lust and many of us are, then probably we are already struggling with one of the other deadly sins such as wrath.
And what I want to focus on is derived from Philippians 4:7. Most of the time we focus on the peace that passes all understanding with this verse but there is an important concept that comes with the peace of God: it guards us. It keeps us safe from sin especially the lasting effects of sin.
Phil. 4:7 “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Be on Guard for LU5T
There are two areas mentioned in the scripture and each one has, I believe, a corresponding thing to carefully guard in order to keep from being tempted by lust.
• Your mind
God knows that what we think about is important. In fact Paul says this in verse 8, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
If you want to guard your mind then stop dwelling upon and thinking about what you know you shouldn’t be thinking about. This also then means that you should also guard:
• Your eyes
The eyes are the windows of the soul. They let in light and you remember (using your mind) what is good. Of course those little things, those lustful things, also cause us to remember. So one of the crucial things and perhaps hardest to do in our culture is to guard our eyes.
• Your heart
Guard against what you fantasize about and continuously dwell upon. This is where the thinking goes from being cerebral to the heart and something that is obsessive. Of course, Paul says that the solution here is not “not to think” about what you shouldn’t be thinking about but think on (literally meditate) on what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely (and this not the lovely body of your neighbor), and admirable.
Planning and conniving and scheming (like David) corrupt your heart.
If your guarding your hearts then it is imperative to guard:
• Your relationships
This means that you will need to keep an appropriate distance between you and someone of the opposite sex who is not your spouse. Let us not be naïve here. Things happen which were not supposed to happen.
Personally and professionally, Kendra knows that there are some things that I need to be very careful of violating as her husband and as a pastor. For example, being alone with member of the opposite sex is something I am very careful about not doing. Now, there are certain times that I don’t worry about it too much. Even being alone with a woman in a public place or traveling together is something I am very cautious of doing.
I can’t help if wonder if we sometimes get to cavalier in this area and we get into trouble. Billy Graham is someone I have a tremendous amount of respect for. He resolved that he would never be alone with another woman either publicly or privately other than his wife. Although this may a little rigid, the basic idea is one that I believe we need to carefully consider.
Be careful about becoming too “friendly” with someone who is not your spouse. If you or others sense that happening, then maybe some distance needs to be maintained.
Our God is a big god. So whether you need to healing because lust has caused devastation in your life or whether you need freedom from the effects of lust over you, God is more than able to be with you, free you, cleanse you, and even forgive you as you make things right.
Lisa Beamer reflects on the loss of her dad in her book, "Let’s Roll." Slowly she began to understand that the plans God has for us don’t just include ‘good things’, but the whole array of human events. The ‘prospering’ he talks about in the book of Jeremiah is often the outcome of a ‘bad’ event. She remembers her mom saying that many people look for miracles- things that in their human minds ‘fix’ a difficult situation. Many miracles, however, are not a change to the normal course of human events; they’re found in God’s ability and desire to sustain and nurture people through even the worst situations. Somewhere along the way, she stopped demanding that God fix the problems in her life and started to be thankful for his presence as she endured them.
