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Lust
Do you suffer from lust? Are you not sure? Lust is so sneaky, so deceptive, so quick to penetrate our minds. Still not sure? Read on…
"First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then he adds another layer of blood, and another, until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood.
"Next, the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up. When a wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and discovers the bait, he licks it, tasting the fresh frozen blood. He begins to lick faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare. Feverishly now, harder and harder the wolf licks the blade in the arctic night. So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf does not notice the razor-sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue, nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his OWN warm blood. His carnivorous appetite just craves more--until the dawn finds him dead in the snow!"
It is a fearful thing that people can be "consumed by their own lusts." Only God's grace keeps us from the wolf's fate.
Lust! Lust is what it is; lust. It is the distortion of the greatest gift of God, Love. It is a complete removal of thought on the Godly and a 100% thought on earthly and fleshly. It can be related to possessions and material as well, But again, to say lust is a sin and that you should not do it, is redundant and obvious.
Lust is defined as an intense sexual desire or appetite. Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body. Lust is…
L. ove
U. nder
S. atan’s
T. emptation.
God is love. He created the ultimate expression of love; sexual intimacy. Satan distorted it. Again, lust is almost exclusively connected to visual stimulation of a sexual origin.
Years ago when I still sinned (ha,ha), My wife and I were at an intersection and a girl pulled up and stopped next to us in a car. Her head was turned so I never got a chance to see her face but from the side and back she looked good. The light turned green and we both pulled away. Unknowing that my wife was watching the whole time, turned to me and said sarcastically, “Awe too bad she never turned her face did she?” Consider these verses…
Proverbs 6:25
Do not lust in your heart after her beauty
or let her captivate you with her eyes,
Jeremiah 5:8
8 They are well-fed, lusty stallions,
each neighing for another man's wife.
Matthew 5:28
But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
The one truth I cannot sugar coat or dismiss is that the Bible teaches sinful activity carries serious consequences. Sexual sin is no exception.
1 Thessalonians 4:3-5
It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God;
Sexual purity is a powerful witness to the Lord and falling into this, often hidden sin, is a powerful detriment as well.
“Evil is nourished and grows by concealment.”
Virgil (a classical Roman poet…BC 70—13)
So often the manifestations of lust are secret and are nourished by its concealment. Like mildew and mold grows in damp dark places, so too does lust. but exposure to light kills both.
I want to give you 5 scriptural principles relating to sex/lust/sin etc.
1) Love is a gift from God---
1 John 4:7-8
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
We were created to have intimacy with God. Therefore intimacy has nothing to do with flesh and blood. It is a spiritual thing. The gift of sexuality was not given to meet the need of intimacy, only God can meet that need. Sexuality was given to us for two reasons: procreation and pleasure. It was never, ever meant to be met outside of marriage.
2) Your mind is the battleground for lust---
Many times we think that our eyes are the battleground. Not true! Even though we cannot always control what comes into our minds or our eyes, we can control how long we dwell on it.
James 1:14-15
but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Did you catch that progresion? But we can combat that desire using this scripture…
Philippians 4:8
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.
How do you “think about such things?” Easy! Think about Jesus, He was all those things personified. Do not be deceived about what your thoughts dwell upon is of no matter. Your thoughts are making you.
I remember a time in high school me and a buddy were in the woods and just for fun I would light a little fire in the leaves just to see his reaction. As expected, he ran over and put it out. I kept doing it and then I would tackle him to make it harder for him to get to the little fire. (yeah I know, I know it was stupid, but then again so was I when I was young).
Anyway, as we wrestled around, we looked up and somehow the little fire became huge and we were unable to put it out. It burned a large section of those woods (I feel I should mention no buildings were destroyed nor anyone hurt).
The point is--lust is a little fire and if it is dwelt upon, if left unattended, it explodes. The little fires are the thoughts and vision of lust, the big fire is letting it get out of control. All sin begins in the mind and sexual sins are no different.
3) Sex outside God‘s parameters carries many consequences ---
Perhaps the greatest is guilt and shame. But you can also add on disease and anxiety and disappointment and depression. But worst of all it, like other sins, it destroys fellowship with God.
Hebrews 13:4
Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.
Sexual sin harms our testimony, our relationships, our ministry, our future, and our usefulness to the Lord. For this reason, our loving heavenly Father has filled His Word with warnings concerning our sexual purity.
4) Sexual immorality is not supposed to be defined by society---
This can be summarized by one word…desensitize. If everyone is doing it, it must be ok. If it is no longer frowned on it must be acceptable. If the media shows it enough everyone will think it is alright.
Truth is, we were designed to live by strict godly standards so we can be blessed. The devil has lied to each of us and many times we have bought the lie. Each culture and society has redefined what is wrong and what is right. That is why the Bible and its never changing truths are so important.
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
In the beginning was the Word….The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1)
5) Sexual sins can be prevented and overcome---
If you are married, take care of one another’s needs. If you are single, develop healthy relationships that limit sexual temptation. One of the greatest lies of the devil is to deceive you into thinking that, of all the sins available to us, sexual sin is most difficult to abstain from. We buy into the lie and stop trying to fight it. God has given us the ability to fight all temptations, even sexual temptation.
Philippians 4:13
I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
1 Corinthians 9:26-27
Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
Hebrews 12:4
In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
“We gain the strength of the temptation we resist.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The key to overcoming is to delight yourself in the Lord. If you’re filled with activity, thought, goals of kingdom related things, then you can overcome. Yes, temptation will come and you may have to resist to the point of shedding blood literally or figuratively, but it must accompany godly endeavors.
As successful as Satan has been in distorting God’s original plans, he has not conquered, only deceived. Today, children and teens have no distinction between love and lust. Passion is God’s gift, the acting out of that passion was supposed to be love, but again there seems to be no dividing line these days.
Teen boys satisfy themselves by mistreating and abusing girls and worse yet is that many girls have no father figures to show them how they are supposed to be treated. The abuse they receive both mentally and physically is, to them, love. And in return they give themselves over under the lie they are being loved and so Satan begins his destruction.
Fathers need to date their teenage daughters.
It is not the act of sexual passionate lust that is most damaging; it is in the wake; the aftermath, of the act that holds the destruction.
Think about 9/11. The act of crashing the planes was horrible, a victory for Satan to be sure. But it was in the wake of the planes crashing that caused the destruction. That is when the core of the buildings burned. The real damage was seen in the rubble, the mess to clean up, the waiting, the anticipation of not knowing if people were alive. Then, having to live in fear afterwards. Not to mention the new airport security. The planes crashing was the “lust” but all that followed was the real destruction.
Teen facts. Since the popular push for contraceptives for teens began, teenage sexual activity and pregnancy have increased 400%. 70% of unwed teen mothers will go on welfare. Of teens who marry because of pregnancy, 60% will be divorced in five years.
Lust has an INSATIABLE Appetite
If you feed it – it only craves more. It is incapable of being satisfied or appeased. Anyone who watches porn knows that. There is no end game, no last time. The lust only gets stronger as you feed it.
"Pleasure is the greatest incentive to evil."
Plato –
The draw to anything related to sexual perversion is always “come satisfy your desires.” Again, if it could be satisfied then pornography would not exist.
Observers have noted that certain kinds of ants have a passion for the sweet, granular substance given off by the caterpillar of a blue butterfly. They become so addicted to it they seek out the supplier and carry him home to their nest. But they unwittingly bring home an enemy in disguise, for the caterpillar gorges himself on ant larva. Usually such a threat to the colony would be repelled w/ great vigor, but the adults enjoy the tasty secretions of the guest so much they’re oblivious of the fact that their young are being devoured in the process.
Behind every successful man is his woman.
Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman.
The combatant is Fortitude. (Also known as chastity or self control)
It is the Cardinal Virtue that fights lust. It is moral endurance and refusal to abandon convictions regardless of the circumstances. Be like Job when he said,
Job 31:1
"I made a covenant with my eyes
not to look lustfully at a girl.
Be Blessed
Lust
Do you suffer from lust? Are you not sure? Lust is so sneaky, so deceptive, so quick to penetrate our minds. Still not sure? Read on…
"First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then he adds another layer of blood, and another, until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood.
"Next, the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up. When a wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and discovers the bait, he licks it, tasting the fresh frozen blood. He begins to lick faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare. Feverishly now, harder and harder the wolf licks the blade in the arctic night. So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf does not notice the razor-sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue, nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his OWN warm blood. His carnivorous appetite just craves more--until the dawn finds him dead in the snow!"
It is a fearful thing that people can be "consumed by their own lusts." Only God's grace keeps us from the wolf's fate.
Lust! Lust is what it is; lust. It is the distortion of the greatest gift of God, Love. It is a complete removal of thought on the Godly and a 100% thought on earthly and fleshly. It can be related to possessions and material as well, But again, to say lust is a sin and that you should not do it, is redundant and obvious.
Lust is defined as an intense sexual desire or appetite. Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body. Lust is…
L. ove
U. nder
S. atan’s
T. emptation.
God is love. He created the ultimate expression of love; sexual intimacy. Satan distorted it. Again, lust is almost exclusively connected to visual stimulation of a sexual origin.
Years ago when I still sinned (ha,ha), My wife and I were at an intersection and a girl pulled up and stopped next to us in a car. Her head was turned so I never got a chance to see her face but from the side and back she looked good. The light turned green and we both pulled away. Unknowing that my wife was watching the whole time, turned to me and said sarcastically, “Awe too bad she never turned her face did she?” Consider these verses…
Proverbs 6:25
Do not lust in your heart after her beauty
or let her captivate you with her eyes,
Jeremiah 5:8
8 They are well-fed, lusty stallions,
each neighing for another man's wife.
Matthew 5:28
But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
The one truth I cannot sugar coat or dismiss is that the Bible teaches sinful activity carries serious consequences. Sexual sin is no exception.
1 Thessalonians 4:3-5
It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God;
Sexual purity is a powerful witness to the Lord and falling into this, often hidden sin, is a powerful detriment as well.
“Evil is nourished and grows by concealment.”
Virgil (a classical Roman poet…BC 70—13)
So often the manifestations of lust are secret and are nourished by its concealment. Like mildew and mold grows in damp dark places, so too does lust. but exposure to light kills both.
I want to give you 5 scriptural principles relating to sex/lust/sin etc.
1) Love is a gift from God---
1 John 4:7-8
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
We were created to have intimacy with God. Therefore intimacy has nothing to do with flesh and blood. It is a spiritual thing. The gift of sexuality was not given to meet the need of intimacy, only God can meet that need. Sexuality was given to us for two reasons: procreation and pleasure. It was never, ever meant to be met outside of marriage.
2) Your mind is the battleground for lust---
Many times we think that our eyes are the battleground. Not true! Even though we cannot always control what comes into our minds or our eyes, we can control how long we dwell on it.
James 1:14-15
but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Did you catch that progresion? But we can combat that desire using this scripture…
Philippians 4:8
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.
How do you “think about such things?” Easy! Think about Jesus, He was all those things personified. Do not be deceived about what your thoughts dwell upon is of no matter. Your thoughts are making you.
I remember a time in high school me and a buddy were in the woods and just for fun I would light a little fire in the leaves just to see his reaction. As expected, he ran over and put it out. I kept doing it and then I would tackle him to make it harder for him to get to the little fire. (yeah I know, I know it was stupid, but then again so was I when I was young).
Anyway, as we wrestled around, we looked up and somehow the little fire became huge and we were unable to put it out. It burned a large section of those woods (I feel I should mention no buildings were destroyed nor anyone hurt).
The point is--lust is a little fire and if it is dwelt upon, if left unattended, it explodes. The little fires are the thoughts and vision of lust, the big fire is letting it get out of control. All sin begins in the mind and sexual sins are no different.
3) Sex outside God‘s parameters carries many consequences ---
Perhaps the greatest is guilt and shame. But you can also add on disease and anxiety and disappointment and depression. But worst of all it, like other sins, it destroys fellowship with God.
Hebrews 13:4
Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.
Sexual sin harms our testimony, our relationships, our ministry, our future, and our usefulness to the Lord. For this reason, our loving heavenly Father has filled His Word with warnings concerning our sexual purity.
4) Sexual immorality is not supposed to be defined by society---
This can be summarized by one word…desensitize. If everyone is doing it, it must be ok. If it is no longer frowned on it must be acceptable. If the media shows it enough everyone will think it is alright.
Truth is, we were designed to live by strict godly standards so we can be blessed. The devil has lied to each of us and many times we have bought the lie. Each culture and society has redefined what is wrong and what is right. That is why the Bible and its never changing truths are so important.
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
In the beginning was the Word….The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1)
5) Sexual sins can be prevented and overcome---
If you are married, take care of one another’s needs. If you are single, develop healthy relationships that limit sexual temptation. One of the greatest lies of the devil is to deceive you into thinking that, of all the sins available to us, sexual sin is most difficult to abstain from. We buy into the lie and stop trying to fight it. God has given us the ability to fight all temptations, even sexual temptation.
Philippians 4:13
I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
1 Corinthians 9:26-27
Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
Hebrews 12:4
In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
“We gain the strength of the temptation we resist.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The key to overcoming is to delight yourself in the Lord. If you’re filled with activity, thought, goals of kingdom related things, then you can overcome. Yes, temptation will come and you may have to resist to the point of shedding blood literally or figuratively, but it must accompany godly endeavors.
As successful as Satan has been in distorting God’s original plans, he has not conquered, only deceived. Today, children and teens have no distinction between love and lust. Passion is God’s gift, the acting out of that passion was supposed to be love, but again there seems to be no dividing line these days.
Teen boys satisfy themselves by mistreating and abusing girls and worse yet is that many girls have no father figures to show them how they are supposed to be treated. The abuse they receive both mentally and physically is, to them, love. And in return they give themselves over under the lie they are being loved and so Satan begins his destruction.
Fathers need to date their teenage daughters.
It is not the act of sexual passionate lust that is most damaging; it is in the wake; the aftermath, of the act that holds the destruction.
Think about 9/11. The act of crashing the planes was horrible, a victory for Satan to be sure. But it was in the wake of the planes crashing that caused the destruction. That is when the core of the buildings burned. The real damage was seen in the rubble, the mess to clean up, the waiting, the anticipation of not knowing if people were alive. Then, having to live in fear afterwards. Not to mention the new airport security. The planes crashing was the “lust” but all that followed was the real destruction.
Teen facts. Since the popular push for contraceptives for teens began, teenage sexual activity and pregnancy have increased 400%. 70% of unwed teen mothers will go on welfare. Of teens who marry because of pregnancy, 60% will be divorced in five years.
Lust has an INSATIABLE Appetite
If you feed it – it only craves more. It is incapable of being satisfied or appeased. Anyone who watches porn knows that. There is no end game, no last time. The lust only gets stronger as you feed it.
"Pleasure is the greatest incentive to evil."
Plato –
The draw to anything related to sexual perversion is always “come satisfy your desires.” Again, if it could be satisfied then pornography would not exist.
Observers have noted that certain kinds of ants have a passion for the sweet, granular substance given off by the caterpillar of a blue butterfly. They become so addicted to it they seek out the supplier and carry him home to their nest. But they unwittingly bring home an enemy in disguise, for the caterpillar gorges himself on ant larva. Usually such a threat to the colony would be repelled w/ great vigor, but the adults enjoy the tasty secretions of the guest so much they’re oblivious of the fact that their young are being devoured in the process.
Behind every successful man is his woman.
Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman.
The combatant is Fortitude. (Also known as chastity or self control)
It is the Cardinal Virtue that fights lust. It is moral endurance and refusal to abandon convictions regardless of the circumstances. Be like Job when he said,
Job 31:1
"I made a covenant with my eyes
not to look lustfully at a girl.
Be Blessed
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