Sermon Tone Analysis

The Seven Deadly Sins: LUST!

                                                

Text: 1 Corinthians 10:1‑6; Galatians 5:16

 

Theme: Christians must flee the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the

eyes and instead  walk in the Spirit.'

I want to begin my sermon this morning by telling you a story about a young man that showed lots of promise, but who's life ended tragically all because he could not control his lust.

He was a young man who, seemingly, had everything going for him.

His birth was literally an answer to prayer.

His parents desperately wanted a child and they petitioned the Lord to bless them with a baby.

To their joy a boy was born and they dedicated that young man to God.

They gave him a name that means /A Little Bit of Sunshine./

This young man grew up in a Godly home, with loving parents who dotted on him and spoiled him almost beyond belief.

He was strong and handsome and courageous.

He had wit and a sense of humor and enjoyed a good riddle.

He was undoubtedly the life of the party anywhere he went.

He was a rugged outdoors-men and would probably be considered a >man's man.'

There were times in his life when he showed flashes of true spiritual strength, but they were usually short‑lived.

This young man had everything going for him, but his life was tragically cut short in the prime of his life.

His name?

Samson!

Samson is considered a >hero of the faith' in the Old Testament.

But the very same Scriptures that lift him up as an Israeli hero also paint a very sad picture of a man who's life never measured up to what it could have been.

The Bible is very honest about Samson's short comings.

He was irresponsible, short on personal holiness, and a man who's uncontrolled sensuality ultimately brought his downfall.

Samson could not get a handle on his lust.

Thousands of years later, as we sit here this morning, lust is a sin that is still as serious and still as deadly as it ever was.

A bumper sticker on a car I saw in Denver while on vacation back over Christmas is a commentary on our culture and the grip that lust has over the hearts and minds of our citizens.

It read:/ Wanted: A Meaningful Overnight Relationship./

Let's take a look at what the Scriptures say about this deadly sin.

*I.

LUST IS PASSION GONE WRONG*

1. most people have come to equate lust with sexual desire

a. in many cases in Scripture, lust does refer to illicit sexual

desire

b. consequently, if we are not struggling with illicit sexual

thoughts or behavior, we assume we are free from lust

c. nothing could be further from the truth

2. in both Old and New Testaments /desire/ is described as

basic attributes of human nature

a. desire B even strong desire B can be good B especially

when it=s desire for the things of God

1) we see this most clearly in what the Hebrews call the

Shema

Deuteronomy 6:4‑5 /"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God /

/[is] one LORD: 5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."/

2) in Hebrew culture the whole person was involved

in desire

3) God is to be our most important desire and we are to

desire Him with our whole being B our entire personality we desire the things of God

3. but when desire is either /out of bounds/ or /out of balance/ it

become hurtful, destructive and sinful

Romans 6:12-13 /A//Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal /

/body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.//@//  /KJV

a. a passionate sexual desire for you spouse is in bounds

1) but a passionate sexual desire for your neighbor=s

spouse is out of bounds

2) sexual lust toward anyone but your spouse is desire

that is out of balance with God=s will

b.

a passionate desire for leadership that pursues a life of

service is in bounds

1) but a passionate desire for leadership that pursues

individual favor and personal enrichment at the expense of others is out of bounds

\\ 2) lust for power or leadership that is not characterized by

a life of service is out of balance with God=s will

c.

a passionate desire toward fellowship with one=s friends is

inbounds

1) but a passionate desire for fellowship with one=s

friends at the expense of study or personal integrity or commitment to family is out of bounds

2) lust for acceptance that never says no to friends is out

of balance with God=s will

4. defined this way, no one is free from the battle with lust

 

*A.

DESIRE WHEN UNLEASED AND UNCONTROLLED *

*BECOMES A LUST THAT CONSUMES OUR ENTIRE PERSONALITY*

ILLUS.

Detrich Bonhoeffer is one of my heros of the faith.

He was

a German pastor who resisted Hitler was ultimately executed by the Nazis.

His manuscript entitled /Temptation/ gives a vivid description of our tendency to turn off the warnings of our conscience when sin's allurements wink at us.

He writes: /"In our members there is a slumbering inclination towards desire which is both sudden and fierce.

With irresistible power desire seizes mastery over the flesh.

All at once a secret, smoldering fire is kindled.

The flesh burns and is in flames.

It makes no difference whether it is sexual desire, or ambition, or vanity, or desire for revenge, or love of fame and power, or greed for money, or, finally, that strange desire for the beauty of the world, of nature.

Joy in God is... extinguished in us and we seek all our joy in the creature.

/

/At this moment God is quite unreal to us, he loses all reality, and only desire for the creature is real; the only reality is the devil.

Satan does not here fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God.

And now his falsehood is added to this proof of strength.

The lust thus aroused envelopes the mind and will of man in deepest darkness.

The powers of clear discrimination and of decision are taken from us.

The questions present themselves: / /"Is what the flesh desires really sin in this case?"

"Is it really not permitted to me, yes //B// expected of me, now, here, in my particular situation, to appease desire?"  /The tempter puts me in a privileged position as he tried to put the hungry Son of God in a privileged position.

I boast of my privilege against God.

It is here that everything within me rises up against the Word of God."

3. society caters to our baser or sinful nature and encourages

us to lust after a wide variety of things

a. power . . .

b. popularity . . .