The Devil has a Plan Week 4

Lust

the last few weeks we have been looking into the idea of how the devil does have a plan for us. And I think the biggest takeaway so far, is the fact that Satan does not care if we sin. He does not care at all.

He just wants us to take our eyes off of Jesus for one second.

What has stood out to you so far in these last 3.5 weeks?

anyone want to share?

This week we are talking about the next most common answer that everyone of you gave, some 3-4 weeks ago. and that is LUST

What is lust?

Biblically, it is described as

“Passionate, inordinate desire for something, usually sexual in nature.”

Jesus spends a good bit of time on the topic of lust,

in Matthew 5:26-28

Matthew 5:27–28 ESV

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Here the word for Lust is epithymeo

it means to desire, long for, seek, covet, something that is forbidden

so is all lust a sexual sin? no.

BUT, we usually separate the sin of wanting something you cant have objectively as, greed or jealousy.

IN your context, the majority of those responses that were put on those cards had nothing to do with wanting the sandwich your buddy has at the lunch table. It does have everything to do with sexual temptation and desire.

so lets talk about it.

This is a big conversation though, I need you all to understand this and to show your maturity through this all. This is a big and heavy topic that many people struggle with and it can be very deep and dark, but here is my thing. The world is going to show you lust and sex and all these things, with no filter. We have to talk about them and allow you to have the filter created from a holy and godly place.

I think we all know that lust isn't good. it is sin and something we shouldn’t do. But we also all know that just because we shouldn’t do it, doesn’t mean it is easy to not.

We have to train ourselves, know where the stumbling block is, to continue to walk in the spirit and renew our mind, and put off the old, bring in the new, and engage with others in accountability, flee temptation and practice confession and repentance?

7 STEPS

sound familiar? these are all the steps from last week! these still apply! and beyond that, these are essentially necessary, there’s really no way to continue on and grow closer to God, without eliminating your sin

BUT on the topic of lust,

Lust is something you guys said you struggle with. I’ll be honest, about every single guy will struggle with it, but that does NOT mean that girls you can’t don’t or won’t either.

This is not a one sided sin. And Jesus points out the depth of it in that verse we read earlier.

See what Jesus liked to do, is to point out the real meaning of what following God the father is. Yes, do not commit adultery. Jesus told them, you have heard that! Do not do that. BUT I say, anyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery in his heart.

It’s not just jumping to the last step, it is the intention and the place that you let your heart get to. He also talks about anger in this same section, he says “ you've heard its wrong to murder, but I say if you get angry at someone, then you will also be liable to judgement.

and Jesus here attacks the heart of the issue, literally. these things come out from our heart and show our true character.

But lust is hard, especially in our world today. It is harder than maybe ever, but the problem for many of you is that that does not give you an excuse to lust. In fact, when we look into scripture, how we are told to pursue christ, James tells us this James 1:2–3

James 1:2–3 ESV

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

If that is true, then we should be the best ever at not lusting! We have it all around us, so we have plenty of places to practice our self-control and patience, but it is not easy.

In the modern world we live in, sex appeal is everywhere. We not only get it in movies and Tv, but advertisements, we see it on instagram, tiktok, facebook, how many of you have seen an advertisement that has some sort of man with no shirt on, woman with a bathing suit on, etc. continued.

THE MODERN WORLD IS INESCAPABLY SEXUALIZED

It is thrown in your face, and now we have politicians and political environments making such a big deal about how we should choose to be whatever we want, and what’s so ironic, is these people claiming this heresy and horrible propaganda, do not let their own kids choose anything and they are forced into becoming something that they are NOT.

There are children who are 3, 4, 5 years old being forced to learn about sex and sexual nature when they don’t even know how to spell their own name.

You think down the line they will struggle with lustful thoughts and sexual desire? When all they were taught as a child has something to do with sex and sexual orientation and whatever other garbage?

We can’t get away from it.

plain and simple.

you say you want to, go ahead and try, tell me where you did not see it.

the death of this message is here. there is no way around it.

But the life is in Christ, as he resurrected we can see a life through this struggle. And it might be that exactly, going THROUGH it. Healing people from it,

Proverbs 7:1–5 ESV

My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you; keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye; bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call insight your intimate friend, to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.

Think about the sentence structure by the writer of this Proverb,

My son keep my words, treasure my commandments with you. on your eye, on your hands, write it on your heart and call wisdom as close as a sister, call insight as your closest friend....

all these have to be close close close

Did this writer tell you what you are defending yourself from? no.

did this writer explain what it is that is coming to you? no.

all this writer said is to collect yourself before what is to come. This must be serious

Proverbs 7:6–23 ESV

For at the window of my house I have looked out through my lattice, and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense, passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness. And behold, the woman meets him, dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart. She is loud and wayward; her feet do not stay at home; now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner she lies in wait. She seizes him and kisses him, and with bold face she says to him, “I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows; so now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you. I have spread my couch with coverings, colored linens from Egyptian linen; I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love till morning; let us delight ourselves with love. For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey; he took a bag of money with him; at full moon he will come home.” With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him. All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast till an arrow pierces its liver; as a bird rushes into a snare; he does not know that it will cost him his life.

The rest of this verse tells us quite literally that we will have a lot of problems that come from this lust. but where did it start?

He watched a young man who is lacking SENSE! he passes by her corner and took the road by her house.

This verse implicates the idea, that he is the one who did it. He took this route on purpose. He knew who lived where, and let me tell you, in this time, people knew who the town prostitutes were, and they knew where they were located.

But who started this problem. The guy did. and what happened, she seduced him, she drew him in and made it sound fun, great wonderful. and then what does this section end with?

Proverbs 7:6–23 ESV

All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast till an arrow pierces its liver; as a bird rushes into a snare; he does not know that it will cost him his life.

As many of you say nowadays, this guy is cooked.

he let himself get there,

just like us. just like you.

when temptation arises, be honest, do you disappear do you take the alternate route? or do you run to it?

lust is attractive and it leads to far worse, the problem with lust, is it looks like this big fun water slide or thrill ride, but once you are on, you can’t get off and what you didn’t know, is the roller coaster was broken, the water slide has a hole in it and you’re going to fall off.

We can not entertain lust. If you do, you have lost. Remember it is the intention of the Heart.

so the question remains, we can’t entertain this, but we can’t seem to avoid it in our world today.

How do we do it??

Last week we talked about those 7 steps to kill sin, which was the one I told you will be the hardest, but the most necessary?

RENEW YOUR MIND

We can not seem to avoid the oversexualized world we live in. but that gives me and you NO excuse to fall into sin.

We MUST renew our mind. create pathways of internal escape.

There will be things that make you look different from everyone else, places you can not go, things you cannot do and ways you can not be.

But let me ask you, is it worth what Jesus has already done for you.

and the answer is, It’s the least you can do.

What does renewing your mind look like when it comes specifically to lust and sexual sin.

I can for one, guarantee you that the first thing is to remove the normalcy of seeing it. You have to kind of learn to be disgusted by it. in a way.

you can’t watch movies and tv and things and see it and continue watching, you have to be able to skip or turn it off, and let me just be honest, You can simply not even begin to turn on Love Island, or any of those dating shows, they are all about lust and sexual sin.

but first it has to become something you don’t want to see. AND THAT IS NOT EASY.

But remember, sex is good. God made sex and he gave it to us as a gift, but he gave it to us as a gift to a husband and wife, so if you are not married and you fall into sexual sin, you have ruined a gift that you no longer can be given, properly.

Sex between a husband and wife is a good thing, but it is reserved for privacy of the husband and wife alone. Not publicly or anything of the sorts on tv or movies even

You have to make sure you understand that when temptation comes via the media we consume, it is not glorifying God in anyway shape or form.

You have to know that when these people around you dress ways they shouldn’t, that they are someones daughter and someones son who is loved and they are more than a toy or play thing. Not only that, that is God the fathers son and daughter you did that to. That is his creation and they belong to him. What are you going to do? defile the creation GOD made directly?

Even if it is not physical, Pornography, and things similar, that is God’s son or daughter and you are looking at them in a way that is defiling towards them and God

We have to turn to God and change the way we see these people and things that are meant for Good, and realized that we are defiling them ourselves.

Renewing your mind.

Change the way things happen to you and in you. Changing your perspectives and through that, your responses. And how do we do that?

Galatians 5:16 ESV

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

The fruit of the spirit are what ?

self control...

Galatians 5:22–24 ESV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

As a believing and saved Christian, you must show these fruits. a tree must produce fruit

and look at the end of this verse, those who belong to jesus, they have crucified the flesh and its desires and passions.

this topic once again boils back to renewing your mind well as the other steps, but renewing your mind is so incredibly crucial to not remain as a part of this world and to be set apart from it. Away from lust and desires of sexual sins and temptations

Satan does not care if you sin, he simply needs to distract you, and he can distract you with a lot.

But many of you say that Lust is the way to destroy you, and you are correct in that.

Lustful thoughts, desires are nothing more than his attempt at distraction, we have to remove these thoughts and desires so we are not distracted from Jesus.

Renew your mind, Take back your mind, and become sensitized again to defeat the distractions of Sex and Lust