April 14, 2002 - Lesson: Matthew 5.27-30

Sermon Title: Lust for Life

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INTRODUCTION:
  1. There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice. Mark Twain
    1. Cowardice may not be the best way.
      1. You can tear out your right eye and throw it away, but you can still see.
      2. You can cut off your right hand and throw it away, but you can still feel.
      3. Seeing and feeling in not in the eye or the hand, it is in the mind.
      4. Cowards hide, but the temptation meets you around the next corner..
      5. Cowards run, but they cannot escape.
      6. Cowards cover up, but they cannot avoid.
  2. Gary Zukav, Gary Zukav on Temptation.Oprah.com., says be grateful for the gift of temptation:
    1. How many times have you been tempted today by food? Alcohol? Shopping? Sex?
    2. Gary Zukav says behind every temptation is the same dynamic. (1)
    3. It's easy to think of a temptation as a trap, but Gary says it's just the opposite. He says temptation is a gift.
    4. Zukav says temptation is a compassionate gift:
      1. an opportunity to learn without creating negative consequences.
      2. Temptation is like a magnet. It brings negative things to the surface - and it allows you to do something about it.
      3. Temptation is an invitation to get to know yourself.

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MAIN BODY:

  1. We are constantly confronted with temptations.
    1. This is what Jesus is communicating in the lesson for today.

27"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' 28But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman (or man) with lust has already committed adultery with her (him) in his (her) heart.

      1. This is the temptation.
      2. This is the possible result of succumbing to the temptation.
    1. Lust is more than sexual.

Dr. Dan Allender describes it this way.

      1. "Destructive lust is any consuming desire that is either out of bounds or out of balance." (2)
      2. Conversely, Constructive lust is any consuming desire that is either in bounds and in balance.
    1. We must deal with the source which James describes is within us.

14But one is tempted by one's own desire, being lured and enticed by it; 15then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death. James 1:14 through James 1:15 (NRSVA)

    1. We could say the same thing about the source of strong constructive desires.

When desire has conceived, it gives birth to life, and that life when it is fully grown, gives birth to eternal life.

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  1. Desires then can be either destructive or constructive.
    1. Destructive desires are also clearly described or defined.
      1. Ephesians 4:17-242 (NRSVA) 17Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. 18They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. 19They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20That is not the way you learned Christ! 21For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. 22You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, 23and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
      2. 2 Timothy 4:3-4 (NRSVA) 3For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, 4and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.
      3. James 4:1-3 (NRSVA) 1Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? 2You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.

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      1. Destructive desires create a life of emptiness.

A Broadway play entitled Inherit the Wind features a character who relates an incident that happened in his childhood: (3)

That was the name of my first long shot: 'Golden Dancer.' She was in the big side window of the general store in Wakeman, Ohio. I used to stand out in the street and say to myself, 'If I had Golden Dancer, I'd have everything in the world I desire.' I was seven years old and a very fine judge of rocking horses. Golden Dancer had a bright red mane, blue eyes, and she was gold all over, with purple spots. When the sun hit the stirrups, she was a dazzling sight. But she was a week's wages for my father. So Golden Dancer and I always had a plate glass window between us. But let's see -- it wasn't Christmas -- it must have been my birthday. I woke up in the morning, and there was Golden Dancer at the foot of my bed. Ma had skimped on the groceries, and my father had worked nights for a month. I jumped into the saddle and started to rock -- and it broke! It split in two! The wood was rotten; the whole thing was put together with spit and sealing wax! All shine, and no substance.

Turning to another character on stage, he says, Bert, whenever you see something bright, shining and perfect-seeming -- all gold with purple spots -- look behind the paint.

      1. Destructive desires create a state of lostness

J. Walter Cross tells of flying a kite with his son Jay in southern Florida during some windy weather. The wind was strong, and the kite grew smaller and smaller as it tugged against the string. The harder it blew, the higher it rose. Then there was a sickening snap! The string had broken. The kite was free, but it was no longer soaring higher. It was tumbling, falling crazily to dash itself against the ground or become tangled in the trees. What kept the kite airborne was the restraint of the string. When that was lost, the kite was unable to fly. We are never freed until we are restrained by something that pulls us higher and higher. It is not the absence of restraints that makes us free.

There is no freedom in life until one belongs to God. Every other form of it is an illusion. We find the freedom to achieve the greatest desires of our lives only when we live in that relationship. When Christ binds us to himself, then we are free. (4)

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    1. Constructive lust or strong desire is described in the Bible as being attributed to both Jesus and Paul.
      1. Jesus: 15He said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; Luke 22:15 (NRSVA)
      2. Paul: 21For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. 22If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which I prefer. 23I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; Philippians 1:21-23 (NRSVA)

17As for us, brothers and sisters, when, for a short time, we were made orphans by being separated from you--in person, not in heart--we longed with great eagerness to see you face to face. 1 Thessalonians 2:17 (NRSVA)

  1. We have seen the destructive and the constructive use of desire, lust if you will, now we need some way to constructively handle the temptations.
    1. You can think of temptation as providing you with a dress rehearsal.
      1. When you're tempted, you can play out in your mind what would happen if you indulge.
      2. Once you visualize what would happen...you can make a choice to resist or act out.
      3. The benefit of playing this out in your mind is that you don't create any negative consequences if you choose to resist.
      4. Only if you act on your temptation, have you created negative consequences for yourself and others.
    2. Here are some tools to help you and me.
      1. Gary Zukav says to challenge a temptation, you can ask yourself a series of questions:
        1. Does this bring me genuine power?
        2. Will this make me more whole?
        3. Will this make me more loving?
      2. Love is the key.
        1. It is important to learn to love one's self completely.
        2. If we learn to love ourselves, then we can learn to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
    3. This is the ultimate source of power for handling temptation.
    4. Gary Zukav adds that each time you challenge a temptation successfully, you empower yourself.

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CONCLUSION:

  1. C. S. Lewis has written:

Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased! (5)

  1. DAN ALLENDER, writes that we should be lusting for goodness.

Lusting for Godliness

Unfortunately, we will battle with lust for the remainder of our lives. But with hearts redeemed by the gospel, we will be freer to turn toward the path of beauty rather than pursue the track of hatred.

The passion of the gospel will eventually overrule and defeat the destructive lust of consumption. The pursuit of holiness will become far more than a desire to do right but a desire, or a "lust", for the character and beauty of God. In that sense, the gospel frees us to lust after what our hearts are made for, godliness, rather than after that which leads to decay, death, and despair. Godly lust leads to life. In that sense, go and lust well.

Amen!

1. Gary Zukav on Temptation.Oprah.com. Retrieved September 17, 2001.

2. DAN ALLENDER, Ph. D., is a member of the Advisory Board of HARVEST USA. He teaches in the Counseling department at Western Seminary. He is the author of The Wounded Heart: Hope for Adult Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse (NavPress, 1990) and coauthor, with Dr. Larry Crabb, of Encouragement: The Key to Caring (Zondervan, 1986). Copyright 1999, 2000 HARVEST USA

3. As referenced by George Everett Ross, 9 October 1988, Akron, Ohio. © 2002 Communication Resources, Inc. Used with permission.

4. J. Walter Cross, Bradenton, Florida, 23 January 1994, © 2002 Communication Resources, Inc. Used with permission.

5. C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses (New York: Macmillan, 1949), 2. © 2002 Communication Resources, Inc. Used with permission.

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