Passions of the heart

Intro

We have a problem in the world today, we are told in many ways, through cartoons and love stories to follow your heart. Just follow your heart we are told from a young age. but the problem with following our hearts is the bible tells us that our hearts are sinful and lead us astray. The only reliable guide to self knowledge is the word of God where we learn of the hearts motivations. Our hearts desires and the desires of the word of God are often In contrast. The heart causes us to idolize things that are not of God. The heart is selfish. We can not trust our innermost selves to follow the right way all the time, we must look to God.

The world that tells us to follow our sinful hearts and what the sinful heart wants is to fill it’s own sinful desires. We start to become enslaved by our own sinful desires. Hebrews 3:12 “12 Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.” Instead of worshiping the creator the heart turns away to the creation. One of the biggest things that captivates the heart of sinful mankind is sexual desires.

It seems like everywhere we look sex is being thrust at us. It is the norm these days. between upside down pineapples in more places then I care to count, to websites that allows everyone to submit videos to get paid of sexual content. It is to easy to get at and becoming normal for people to access. Though the sexual revolution started in the 60’s I think it has started to come to a head these days.

although this is no new problem, look to King David. He was hanging out on the roof of the palace and noticed the beautiful wife of one of His generals. Forbidden fruit. But she was good looking and bathing when he noticed her. Dwelling on this he started to act on it and got her pregnant. You can not end there though. You are now in to deep. So He calls the husband in from the war to get him to sleep with his wife to take the blame off your shoulders. but your general is to loyal to sleep in a bed when his brothers are out on the front line. So you send him back to the front line to die and take His wife as your own.

David sought forgiveness, was called a man after God’s own heart but there where still consequences for what He had done. we live in a world where free sex is the norm. It used to be that it was looked down on in public society to being accessible everywhere, even for kids. And it isn't even looked down on anymore. What we are called to do though is live a life for Jesus, to accept the forgiveness he has offered and do what He has called us to do.

HBI - When we realize that lust and sex are the same thing we need to turn to Jesus for forgiveness. We need to search our lives and cast out anything that causes us to sin against God.

We need a heart change, we all need a heart change.

Insight into God’s Character

we have been learning alot about what God values by looking at the laws he passed down to us. This one is no different. God values the marriage relationship. But How do we get that from the next commandment.

Exodus 20:14 CSB

14 Do not commit adultery.

This is a command for both men and women as we see the command echoed in Leviticus.

Leviticus 20:10 CSB

10 “If a man commits adultery with a married woman—if he commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife—both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.

The consequences are severe. As you know, this sermon does deal with a few sensitive issues, but I believe that they are important for us to know. Adultery here does seem to deal with sex as a married person with someone other then your own spouse.

Don’t get me wrong, sex outside of marriage is wrong according to the bible as well so that rules out all of that anyways.

where we get that the marriage relationship is to echo the relationship between God and the church is throughout t-h-e bible, especially in Ephesians, and the beginning of Genesis. We will get into that in a bit. But the Bible is clear that relationship between a husband and wife is to echo the relationship between God and His children.

We are referred to as the bride of Christ throughout the NT. If that is the case from all this we can learn that Jesus values commitment. Adultery is wrong because God commanded commitment between the husband and the wife. God commanded faithfulness even when we are single. God values commitment to Him and if this is all the case then we must remain faithful to our spouse and to God.

According to the Pew research center there are some stats concerning marriage last year.

Half of Americans say open marriages – a marriage where both spouses agree that they can date or have sex with other people – are somewhat or completely unacceptable. This includes 37% who say these marriages are completely unacceptable and 13% who say they’re somewhat unacceptable. A third of Americans say these marriages are somewhat or completely acceptable (23% say completely acceptable and 11% say somewhat). The remainder (16%) say they are neither acceptable nor unacceptable. Men are more likely than women to say open marriages are at least somewhat acceptable (36% vs. 30%).

These numbers may not seem that bad. But this is a growing number of people that claim that faithfulness to your spouse is no longer necessary, faithfulness to traditional marriage is not necessary. But what this tells us is that God’s faithfulness to save His children from sin and death is absolute, He will not fail. and that relationship is to be reflected, albeit imperfectly, IN OUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH OUR SPOUSE AND OUR life when we are single as well.

Adultery is a sin, that much is clear. commitment to relationship is what we are called to. God takes it seriously. The first question that we ask is our marriage relationship reflecting the type of commitment that we are called to? the same type of commitment that God has for His children?

Secondly, do you need forgiveness for breaking this law? God is faithful to forgive any sin if we call on His name and ask. but you can also wait till it is to late.

Adultery and Lust

But the problem is it doesn't end there. We know that adultery is wrong, it is a sin though it can be forgiven like any sin. We are called to commit our lives to God and reflect that in our relationships. But again we look to Jesus and How he defined this law. for this we go all the way to the book of Matthew.

Matthew 5:27–28 CSB

27 “You have heard that it was said, Do not commit adultery. 28 But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

The command to not commit adultery, according to the EBC, is treated by Jewish sources not so much a matter of purity but a matter of theft. You are essentially stealing another mans wife.

The heart of the matter is that it is a matter of the heart

The desire to commit adultery is called lust, the deed is called adultery. Physically speaking they are much different but spiritually speaking they are the same thing.

What you are doing when you lust after someone is for the purpose of feeding your own selfish desires and just a substitute for the act. That means we are called to purity, not just in the way that we live but the way we think as well. We are caleld to devote ourselves to our spouses in every aspect, including our though lives.

But Jesus takes this further then the marriage relationship and extends it to all of us, to think of someone with lustful intent is making us guilty of breaking the law. If you are married, lusting after someone who is not your spouse is being unfaithful to them and a sin. If you are single, the same rules apply, you are being unfaithful to the lifew God has called us to live and it is a sin.

Be careful about following the innermost desires of the heart. The heart will lead you astray, the heart is sinful, the heart does not always desire to follow God. Matthew 15:19

Matthew 15:19 CSB

19 For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slander.

Therefore we must follow God

I was reading a book about this a while ago that really helped me bring some clarity to this issue. A person lost in the depths of sexual sin finds it almost impossible to get out. but there is hope. Even when it seems hopeless there is hope to be found. The only hope worthj having can only be found in Jesus, no matter the problems enslaving us.

There is hope only in Jesus, whose death and resurrection broke the power that sin held over us. Even after we accept this, we still need to continually turn it over to God, we continually need to seek Him.

The only person we have to blame for this is ourselves. This has traditionally been seen as a man problem, but that is not the case. It is just men seem to be more driven by sight then women are. And so what we have told young women is that they need to be modest, they need to cover themselves up because it is their fault that men stumble.

But this is a falsehood. Granted modesty is something we teach our kids, as we want to make sure they learn how to live and act in such a way that would be pleasing to God, that would give glory to God and not on themselves. In that Case Modesty is the rule.

But man and women is fully responsible for our lapse into immoral cravings. Satan and the world provide the occasion, but the effectiveness of the temptation is totally dependent on the condition and receptivity of your heart. The urge to do wrong, to fall prey to sin comes from within. It does no good to hide behind the excuse that they way someone else dressed or acted caused you to sin. Desire, left unchecked causes you to sin.

Any practice that does not lead us to love the lord our God with all of our Heart soul and Mind and strength leads to idol worship.

The Human Condition

So we have gone through the fact that we are all guilty of breaking the law of God. This law that says we must look at other people as children of God, not with lust and sexual desire is a tough one. It is easy to hide and becomes a problem in our lives. It enslaves our hearts and our minds till everyone we look at is just another object of sexual gratification. For this we are guilty, for this it is our fault, not the world for shoving it down our throat but our fault for falling to sin. I am here today though to tell you that

There is freedom in Jesus.

the first thing that we take from this ios not to get depressed but understand that there is freedom in Jesus. We do not have to be enslave to our human desires, once we identify the enemy that causes us to sin and start to pursue a relationship with Jesus we begin to realize that there is freedom from sin. freedom in Jesus. We must seek a pure heart, we must fill our lives with Jesus,

We Must cast off anything that causes us to sin

Matthew 5:29–30 “29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”

This seems to be a bit extreme. but this is not to be misunderstood. Sin must be dealt with radically. This is not saying that we need to start cutting off body parts, but that if we truly desire freedom from Sexual sin then we must deal with what it is that causes us to sin. Because sexual sin is often started with the imagination, then we must feed our imaginations with Godly things.

Learn what it is that triggers you to sin, learn what it is that causes your heart to desire to turn away from God and avoid it. When it comes to technology, it is easy to turn away from God and fall to sin. But there are tools out there for parents and spouses to help their loved ones steer clear of sexual sin.

If you are serious about following the Lord God then you must get serious about avoiding what is causing you to sin.

God gave a way for you to have a relationship with Him. God gave a way for you to have freedom from Sin and the ball is now in your court, what are you going to do with it? Our relationships are meant to reflect the message of God, so are they? If you are serious about your relationship with God, get serious about running away from the old life, the old sins, the old lustful desires and run to God.

Prayer

Psalm 51 (CSB)

Be gracious to me, God, according to your faithful love; according to your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion. 2 Completely wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I am conscious of my rebellion, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you—you alone—I have sinned and done this evil in your sight. So you are right when you pass sentence; you are blameless when you judge. 5 Indeed, I was guilty when I was born; I was sinful when my mother conceived me. 6 you desire integrity in the inner self, and you teach me wisdom deep within. 7 Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. 9 Turn your face away from my sins and blot out all my guilt. 10 God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not banish me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore the joy of your salvation to me, and sustain me by giving me a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach the rebellious your ways, and sinners will return to you. 14 Save me from the guilt of bloodshed, God— God of my salvation— and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. 15 Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 You do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it; you are not pleased with a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. You will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God. 18 In your good pleasure, cause Zion to prosper; build the walls of Jerusalem. 19 Then you will delight in righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.