Love vs. Lust week 4
I Think I'm in Love... Or is it Lust? • Sermon • Submitted
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· 14 viewsA look at what it means to love someone vs. lust someone.
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Resistance
Resistance
Self Control -
In its most limited definition the term refers to an individual lowering the probability that he or she will engage in an undesirable behavior by manipulating a controlling response. A controlling response is a behavior that changes the likelihood that the target behavior will occur. The target behavior is the response the person is trying to modify. In its broader definition self-control is a label for all forms of self-change, self-management, self-modification, and self-regulation. Self-control may include the use of controlling responses to weaken, to strengthen, or to maintain a target behavior.
25 Everyone who competes practices self-discipline in everything. The runners do this to get a crown of leaves that shrivel up and die, but we do it to receive a crown that never dies. 26 So now this is how I run—not without a clear goal in sight. I fight like a boxer in the ring, not like someone who is shadowboxing. 27 Rather, I’m landing punches on my own body and subduing it like a slave. I do this to be sure that I myself won’t be disqualified after preaching to others.
We need to always be aware that those who are against us, are watching us.
7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
We need to be aware that there is no temptation that we can’t overcome when we humbly submit to God.
7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. 8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. 9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) 10 And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. 11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. 12 Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13 For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
6 These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did, 7 or worship idols as some of them did. As the Scriptures say, “The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.” 8 And we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day. 9 Nor should we put Christ to the test, as some of them did and then died from snakebites.
We need to be aware that the Spirit of God living within us will strengthen us. He is a loving God but a just God as well. You will always reap whatever you sow. If you sow in sin you will reap death, in you so in righteousness you will reap life.
27 “You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 So if your eye—even your good eye—causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your hand—even your stronger hand—causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
Minister how do we resist it when it is so hard and challenging to do.
14 Let the Lord Jesus Christ be as near to you as the clothes you wear. Then you won’t try to satisfy your selfish desires.
11 I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
40 There he told them, “Pray that you will not give in to temptation.”
18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body.
We need to be aware that God needs to become our everything, because when we make God our everything there is nothing we can’t overcome.
12 Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. 13 Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.
2 You won’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God. 3 You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols. 4 Of course, your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do. So they slander you. 5 But remember that they will have to face God, who stands ready to judge everyone, both the living and the dead.
Closing thoughts-
By simply shifting your thoughts. The mind is a creature of habit. It thrives upon the dominating thoughts you feed it. You must control your mind. Think of something yellow. Now think of something blue. You just controlled your mind. That type of control comes from a persistence of habit. When negative emotions such as fear and procrastination start to creep in, use your mind to transform it into a positive, constructive emotion. Remember, positive and negative emotions cannot occupy the mind at the same time.
In Quantum Physics, to bring something into the physical world requires focusing not on what you see, but on what you want to see. Einstein said, “Matter is formed out of energy.” The very substance of what we see and feel came from someone’s thoughts or energy. Ergo, not only do our thoughts impact matter, our thoughts are vibrational energy that manifest in what we see in our lives. If you think of scarcity and lack, that is what will show up in your life, because your thoughts are focused on it. Whatever we focus on expands and every experience we feel with our senses only comes after the decision we’ve made to see, experience and feel it, physicists say. So what we choose to focus on really does matter.
Franklin has a point when it comes to refraining from sex until marriage. Consider, when you observe a natural law, such as gravity, you reap the benefits. You don’t go jumping off buildings, hoping you won’t fall. Anytime a natural law is disobeyed, you will suffer the consequences sooner or later. In the book, Feelings Buried Alive Never Die, author Karol K. Truman asks, Is it a coincidence you get a sore throat, have a liver problem, cancer, diabetes, or anything else you may happen to have? I think not. The laws that govern the proper functioning of your body have been broken. Whether it be the laws of good nutrition, the laws of physical maintenance, the laws of correct thinking or the law of “do unto others.” Even the law of abstinence before marriage. Regardless of the physical or emotional problem you are having, it can be traced back to broken laws which have created imbalance and disharmony in your body.
We unfortunately live in a world where instant gratification is the hallmark of the day. We are constantly bombarded with messages such as: Buy now and pay in three easy payments. Don’t exercise, just get liposuction. Have sex now, don’t wait till marriage. By not learning to delay gratification, in whatever form, we are creating unhealthiness in minds and bodies. We are disconnected from our source and thereby succumb to the negative feelings of resistance, procrastination and fear.
It's the principle.
It's the principle.
Franklin admits, “The decision to wait was one of the most difficult ones I’ve ever made in my life. I asked myself, ‘What if what I was doing disqualified me for the full manifestation of the call God has on my life.’” He could not reconcile the idea that at the end of his life, all that God had in store for him could not be bestowed upon him because he chose not to delay gratification. Franklin concludes, “As a man, if you can be disciplined in your sexual life, there’s nothing you can’t do.” I want you to see the principle here. What if success is in your future, but because you cannot delay gratification, you will not ever see it manifested in your life?
When you are able to control your emotions, then you are powerful. Delaying gratification and transforming that energy into something productive and creative is not weakness, it is strength. In delaying gratification, yes, you are denying your immediate urge, but we are endowed with a beautiful thing called willpower. Once you learn to harness the power of your will, success beckons. When you get in a habit of delaying gratification, it will become easier. Remember, our mind is a creature of habit and it thrives upon the thoughts you feed it. Will it be easy? No, but it can be done. It must be done if you want something more in your life right now.
Let’s Pray.