The High Price of Lust | Matthew 5:27-30 | Pastor Neil McClendon

Lust turns people into things.

Lust turns people into things.

They only exist for your pleasure, and you practice what's called objectification.

You turn men, if you if you struggle with lust, you turn a woman into a thing.

She exists to please you, and that's not the way God created her.

God created a woman called your wife to please you, but other women, you should see them as your sister or your mother.

That just got creepy.

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Amen.

Amen.

Let's pray together, church.

Lord, we just uh we acknowledge that when you come, you're gonna heal every hurt and you're gonna right every wrong.

So we don't have to be justice warriors uh in this life.

We don't have to waste our life trying to make sure everyone gets what they got coming to them.

Uh, because the back end of that is that we get what's coming to us.

Uh and so, Lord, we want mercy.

And if we want mercy, we can't always be giving people justice.

And so, Lord, you're gonna right all the wrongs.

So no one gets away with anything in this life.

They may think they are, they're not getting away.

And because you're gonna right all the wrongs, we don't have to tell everybody all the right and good that we've done.

We also don't have to tell everybody all the wrong everybody else has done.

We don't have to be the general manager of the universe because God, you're in charge.

You reign and you rule over this world.

And so, Lord, we just wanna we've seen some uh some some some we've experienced some resurrection, so we need you to resurrect some stuff in this room today.

Resurrect some marriages, recurrect, resurrect some friendships that are on the rocks.

Uh Lord, we say with Habakkuk, the prophet of old, we've heard of your fame and we stand in awe of your deeds.

Renew them in our day.

In other words, do today with the things we saw you do in the Bible.

Demonstrate your power, God.

Set the kingdom down so people can taste and see that the Lord is good.

Well, this is our prayer.

Make it our experience today.

We pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen, amen.

You can have a seat if you've got a Bible.

I invite you to take it and open up to Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

And if you're our guest this morning, let me say, Welcome.

My name is Neil, I'm the lead pastor at Grand Park Way.

And we teach through books of the Bible.

It's called expository preaching.

And the reason we do that is because we think it's the way you nourish the faith of your congregation over the long haul.

Instead of jumping from topic to topic to topic, and what happens is you have a lot of simulation, but not much education.

Does that make sense?

Say amen.

You walk out, you're like, oh, whoa, whoa.

And then by the time lunch is over, you're like, I don't remember what the guy talked about.

Uh but the thing about the Bible is it sticks with you.

It's like good food.

It sticks to your ribs.

It shows up and helps you in moments in life where you need help, okay?

And so we're preaching through what's called the Sermon on the Mount.

I'll start reading chapter 5, verse 27.

If you don't have a Bible, just relax.

It doesn't mean you're a bad person.

And if you want one, I'll get you one.

Just come find me after the service, okay?

Uh but the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest ethical teaching in the history of the world, Jesus sat down and he started by saying, Hey, don't think that I've come to abolish the law, uh, but I've come to fulfill it.

And you say, Why does he say that?

Because Jesus is gonna say some stuff.

It's kind of like you read books to your kids, and then you get one of those pop-up books.

You know what a pop-up book is?

You open the page, like boom! There's the castle right there.

When Jesus would talk, he would extrapolate the real meaning of the law and take it to a whole nother level.

And so he's like, it's gonna sound crazy.

I'm not an upstart, uh, rebellious person who's gonna, you know, got some podcast going in my mom's basement.

That's not what Jesus is about.

Jesus is like, hey, I just want you to see all the implications and ramifications of what the Bible says.

It's called the law, okay?

And so this is what we're talking about in Matthew chapter.

He starts off uh uh last week talked about anger.

This week talks about lust.

Uh and so I want to talk to you this morning about the high price of lust.

The high price of lust, okay?

I'll start reading in Matthew chapter five, verse twenty-seven.

He says, 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.

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.

For it's better for you to lose one of your members than your whole body be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.

For it is better that you lose one of your members than your whole body go into hell.

Now, that sounds let me let me acknowledge the obvious that that sounds a little bit like woo woo, but stay with me, okay?

There's three things I want to point out in the text.

And the first one, uh, under this topic of the high price of lust, the first one is simply this Jesus upholds the sufficient sanctity of marriage.

Jesus upholds the sufficient sanctity of marriage.

It's easy, and I would say it's natural to read this passage today and focus on what Jesus is trying to prevent, which is lust that leads to adultery.

But I would say that the real focus shouldn't be on what Jesus is trying to protect, and that's marriage.

Uh, you what do you mean?

Yeah, he talks about adultery, he talks about lust, which leads to adultery, which by the way, you people are funny.

Somebody texted me this week and said, because in the beginning Jesus said, I don't think I've come to abolish the law, but I've come to fulfill it.

Matter of fact, not one iota is gonna pass from the law uh until all is fulfilled.

Uh, and then he could he says that because he has these six antithesis statements.

In other words, you have heard of old blah, blah, blah, but I say unto you, he's not contradicting the law, he's drawing out the implications of it.

And one of our members texted me and said, I just got, I was just reading ahead.

It was anger and lust and divorce and oaths and retaliation and love your enemies.

I I guess that's the six.

And I said, Yeah, that's him.

He said, Dude, that's my life.

I was married and I used to get angry because I was a mean drunk and I had a problem with lust and I committed adultery and I got a divorce.

I swore I'd never get married again.

I wanted I wanted to retaliate against my ex-wife, and then I had to love my enemies.

And I said, Well, your life's right there in Matthew chapter 5, but don't say that out loud very often, okay?

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

He goes, Why not?

I said, dude, your life sounds like a country song, all right?

And then he said this, he said, I'm amazed how practical the Bible is.

And I said, Yeah, it's very relevant, very relevant and actually very helpful, okay?

And so when I say Jesus upholds the sufficient and sanct, this uh the sufficient sanctity of marriage, what am I saying?

I'm saying uh that that Jesus comes along and it's not about what he's against, it's about what he's for.

He says, You've 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.

Jesus raises the bar.

You can't say, well, I'm not committed adultery.

He says, Hey, you don't look at a woman with lustful intent.

Lustful intent doesn't mean just mean that you look at her like, hey, I'm wondering what the chance is, but you look at her in such a way that it makes her lust after you.

Okay, so Jesus again raises the bar.

Now in Judah, in Judaism, the sexual side of this was not even addressed as much as the legal side.

Uh, the act of taking another man's wife and in an act of adultery was considered theft.

Just stop right there and let that in for just a minute.

In Judaism, it wasn't, it was a legal thing, not a moral thing.

Hey, you stole another man's wife.

Jesus comes along, ladies, and bestows dignity on women and says, no, this isn't legal, this is moral, okay?

This is a problem because if your faith doesn't inform and influence the way you treat your spouse, then your faith is in question because this is not what life in the kingdom is about.

And this is what Jesus is talking about in the Sermon on the Mount life under the reign and rule of King Jesus.

Now, when I you say what?

He upholds the sufficient sanctity of marriage.

Yeah, he's talking to married people, and here's how you know this because he's talking about adultery.

Only married people can commit the sin of adultery.

And if you don't know what that is, adultery means that you have sexual relations with somebody that's not your spouse.

That's the sin of adultery.

You say, Well, I'm not married, I'm hooking up, I'm the tender king or whatever.

Okay, great.

What the congratulations, I don't think so.

Uh but that's called fornication.

Uh, both of them are sin, uh, but but this is I'm just I'm just pointing out, both are sinful behaviors, but here, Jesus is extolling the sufficiency and the sanctity of marriage.

He's not just saying, don't lust, don't commit adultery.

He's talking to married people and saying, hey, you guys need to think about marriage a little differently, okay?

Uh this has always been God's design since the very beginning.

If you went back to Genesis chapter 2, verse 24, you'd see these words.

Genesis 2:24

The Bible says, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

In this one verse, you see God's design for marriage.

Now, Genesis chapter 20, I mean chapter 2, verse 24, it happens right after God creates everything, and there was not found a suitable helper for Adam, and then God creates woman, okay, out of his rib, brings in the man, and brings him to Adam, and Adam says, Alas, which is Bible talk for finally.

Genesis 20 · chapter mention

Oh my gosh, yes, alas, this is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

He's like, Yes.

I tell women young women all the time, you will marry the first man that gets your alas.

And they're like, alas, yeah.

Well, you're just like, oh, finally, somebody that's not like every other guy I've ever dated in my life.

Are you serious?

You exist.

Oh, call me here.

Yes, yes.

You say, Oh, what do you mean?

Uh here's God's design for marriage.

There's three things right out of Genesis chapter 2, verse 24.

Genesis 2:24

Number one, priority loyalty.

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother.

Priority loyalty.

Men, when you get married, your wife is more important than your mom and your dad.

I'm not saying your mom and dad aren't important.

I'm going to see my mom.

I leave Tuesday morning, I'll be gone for three days.

I gotta go check on my mom, take care of some stuff, get her to some appointments, make sure she's got what she needs.

My wife is like, one of the things I love about you is you've always cared for your mom.

So I'm not saying forsake your parents.

I'm saying your priority is your wife.

This was driven home.

I was married five months, okay, playing basketball in seminary, blew my knee out, tore my ACL, had surgery, and went extra long.

My mom was there because this is her baby boy.

My new wife of five months was there.

The doctor, the surgery, went like uh two hours longer than it was supposed to because it was pretty bad.

He comes out and he says, Mrs.

McClendon.

And both my mom and my wife stood up.

And Marcy just went, That's me, Judy.

And she went, Oh, oh, yeah, he's your problem now, and sit back down.

I'm like, problem?

Why are we saying problem, mom?

And because I I come to in recovery, and my wife is like, Hey, by the way, I hope this wasn't rude, but you know, and I said, Oh, my mom's totally well, she said, he's your problem now, yeah.

Great.

But see, my wife was uh understanding that and saying to my mom, and my mom understood that.

So priority loyalty, secondly, lifelong loyalty.

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother, priority, loyalty, lifelong loyalty, and hold fast to his wife.

I mean, look at me.

Holding fast to your wife doesn't mean that you're a clingy, insecure man that's threatened by every man your wife meets.

What it means is that you hold fast to your wife in such a way that you're like, oh my gosh, I experience a uh a level of satisfaction in you that that I never want to let go of.

Hold fast to your wife.

Holding fast to your wife doesn't mean that every time you see an attractive woman, you look at your wife like, hey, we should look like that.

That means your wife could be in a room full of your wife could you and your wife could be at the Miss Universe pageant, and you're the guy leaning over, kind of going, none of these women hold a candle to you.

Just in case you're wondering.

And she believes you.

She's not like, oh, oh, you're just saying that, but say it again.

Here's a third part of God's design.

I want you to see how smart God is.

Here's a third part of God's design for marriage: bodily loyalty.

And they shall become one flesh.

You do not join your body with anybody else other than your husband or your wife.

This is what God's design for marriage is to be.

Again, look how smart God is.

So I want you to see, it's easy to read this and kind of go, oh, well, this is what Jesus is trying to prevent.

I think you miss what he's trying to protect, and that is the sanctity and the sufficiency of marriage.

Here's a second thing in the text: the eye reveals what is in the heart.

The eye reveals what is in the heart.

People say, Well, I got a wandering heart, I got a wandering eye.

I hear it all the time.

For men and women, by the way.

Oh, Pastor Pregnan, I got a wandering eye.

I said, No, you got a heart problem.

Here's where I get that.

Verse 28.

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

The eye reveals what's in the heart.

Okay, notice the connection between the eye and the heart.

Jesus said, if you look at a woman with lustful intent, this is a sign you've already committed adultery with her in your heart.

How can this be?

Because the eye reveals what's in the heart.

The eye fuels the heart and the heart informs the eye.

And you lustful intent.

Let me give you a simple definition for the word lust.

Lust is an inordinate desire for anybody or anything.

It's an inordinate, it's bigger than it should be, and it's not healthy.

Lust is an inordinate desire for anybody or anything.

Know that I said anybody or anything.

Notice that because some of you uh it's not sexual lust, but a lust for escape or experience or recognition or reward that really drives you.

Now that we've defined it, let me give you four things lust does.

And I'm gonna plunge on the last one.

So let me give you four things lust does.

Number one, lust starts with dissatisfaction.

It starts with dissatisfaction.

Wherever we're dissatisfied, we're open to lust because we believe to be dissatisfied is to deserve.

Let me say that again.

We believe in our country that you have no need that should go unmet, so to be dissatisfied puts you in this place where you deserve.

Oh, I deserve this because I'm dissatisfied.

My wife and I went to a play at the George Theater on Friday night, and we're driving back, and she said, Well, it's quicker to get on the towway and blah, blah, blah.

I said, I ain't paying to go home.

I'm driving all the way down Westheimer.

She's like, You are such an old man.

I'm not in a hurry.

And I was just driving and I just looked at her.

I said, You you you do not have to do without in America.

I mean, there were restaurants opened, there was everything.

I mean, I was just like, wow.

Whew.

And I thought about this.

Hey, whenever we're dissatisfied, we're open to lust because we believe to be dissatisfied is to deserve.

I deserve this.

So lust starts with dissatisfaction.

Secondly, lust turns people into things.

Lust turns people into things.

They only exist for your pleasure, and you practice what's called objectification.

You turn men, if you if you start with lust, you turn a woman into a thing.

She exists to please you, and that's not the way God created her.

God created a woman called your wife to please you, but other women, you should see them as your sister or your mother.

That just got creepy.

Yes.

Here's the third thing.

Lust teaches you to relate to the world out of your appetites instead of your understanding.

It teaches you to relate to the world out of your appetites.

Now, by the way, your appetites always say two things.

Number one, they say me, not you.

And your appetites say now, not later.

A person who's ruled by their appetite cannot practice what's called delayed gratification.

They can't.

There's always this urgency to their life.

And here's the last one.

I want to plunge on this one a little bit.

Lust trains you to sow to the flesh.

To sow to the flesh.

Not SEO like needle and thread, but SOW, like you're scattering seed.

Some of you think you have an addiction issue.

You don't have an addiction issue.

You've just sown to your flesh since you were a little kid.

You say, I don't know what you mean.

Let me reference a couple places in the Bible it talks about this.

I reference these passages a lot in counseling because I see grown men and grown women who will say, When I was seven years old, this started in me.

And I'm like, whoa.

And they're like 58 now.

And they can go back to the time when they were seven and tell you exactly where it started.

The Bible says this in Galatians chapter 6, verse 7: Do not be deceived.

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

God is not mocked.

Whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption.

But the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life.

I often tell people, when you sow to your flesh, from your flesh, you will reap corruption.

What is corruption?

It spoils whatever you're really wanting.

It loses, look at me, it loses its capacity to satisfy you like it once did.

Therefore, you need more and more and more of it.

And you hate yourself and you tell yourself to stop and you want to stop and you tell yourself this is wrong.

God, please forgive me one more time.

I'll never do this again, but you don't understand.

You have trained yourself to sow to your flesh.

And so from your flesh, you reap corruption.

It's it what you get is spoiled before you get it.

It is corrupted.

So you just need more of it.

The Bible comes along and says, if you sow to the spirit, from the spirit, you'll reap eternal life.

This Zoe life that we talk a lot around here.

You're like, what do you mean?

You sow into the flesh.

That's just Galatians chapter 6, verses 7 and 8.

Galatians 6:7

But if you looked up just right above that, at the end of chapter 5, starting in verse 19, the Bible spells out, now the works of the flesh are evident.

And it gives a list.

Let me read it to you.

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like, and things like these.

I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

You hear that last part?

Because we look at me.

We've got this belief in America that says, you know what, I prayed a prayer, I did something, I got baptized, and I just live in sin, but I'm forgiven and I just live in sin, and now I'm gonna go to heaven when I die.

You might want to rethink that today because the Bible teaches the exact opposite.

And so I want you to listen very carefully to what I'm about to say, really what the Bible says.

I read Galatians 5, verses 19 to 20, and I said we're gonna plunge on this, and because uh because lust teaches you to sow to your flesh.

Galatians 5:19–20

Uh, there's a lady, somebody asked me recently, they said, When you study, do you just read old white guys?

That uh, oh, that's awesome.

I said, actually, I'm reading a book right now by a lady named Portia Collins.

She's an African-American writer and teacher, and she has a great, great book on the book of Galatians.

It's called Finding Freedom in Christ.

Which, by the way, ladies, don't go out and buy it.

I think our women's ministry is going to teach it on Tuesday mornings in the spring next semester.

So there you go, a little heads up.

But I use some of her material.

She has this, uh, she calls it seven signs you're sowing to the flesh.

I'll just read them off here for you.

They'll come up on the screen.

I'll give you a little bit more build-out.

Here, taken right out of Galatians 5, 19 to 21.

If you're like, what do you mean sow into the flesh?

Here's how you know you're sowing to the flesh.

Number one, pleasure becomes your master.

Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality.

These are all unchecked desires, especially sexual ones.

Sow into the flesh often begins when we give into the belief that our feelings deserve fulfillment at all costs.

We give into the belief that my feelings deserve, I cannot have a feeling that goes unmet or a desire that goes unmet.

That is injustice.

You're in a dangerous place, my friend.

Dangerous place.

Uh I'll give you a great example, Tiger Woods.

Tiger Woods was married to a Swedish bikini model.

Blonde-headed, beautiful woman.

Look at me.

And he's hooking up with a waitress and Perkins.

Have you been to Perkins lately?

Perkins is like the second cousin of Denny's.

You've got a blonde Swedish bikini model at home who's the mother of your children, and you're just trolling for whoever will say yes.

Now, I'm not hating on Tiger Woods.

Okay?

He ruined his life and his golf career because he couldn't say no to his appetites, because pleasure became his master.

I said to somebody, because he's the one that's like, oh, second place is the first loser.

And I said, uh, that's that guy's gonna burn himself to the ground.

This was in 1999.

My friend's like, oh, you're just jealous, man, because he's awesome.

He's beaten all these old white guys.

And then years later, when he burned himself to the ground, I called him up.

Hey, shut up, Neil.

It's not funny.

I don't think it's funny at all.

It's a warning to all of us.

Here's how you know you're sowing to the flesh.

Number one, pleasure becomes your master.

Number two, worship is misplaced.

It's idolatry and sorcery.

Worship doesn't just occur here on Sunday morning when we sing.

True worship happens when we center our hope, our identity, and our comfort on God.

False worship is what happens when you do this with someone or something other than God.

That's idolatry.

And by the way, being led by the flesh will always result in false worship because it directs your devotion away from God to the person you're having the affair with, or the person you got, I know you're consenting adults, and neither one of you have a problem with it.

Newsflash, something is wrong, not because of what you think, but because of who God is.

God is a moral being by nature, and when you act immorally, you are violating God's nature and God's law.

I know that it's 2025.

I've heard all the excuses.

Whoa, whoa, it's 2025.

Come on, bro.

Doesn't change a thing.

Here's the third sign you sowed to the flesh.

Conflict is your pattern.

Enmity, strife, jealousy.

These all reveal a heart that's at odds with others.

Whether it's ongoing tension in your relationship, silent resistance, Resentment, constant comparison.

These patterns are rooted in pride and insecurity.

It kind of also can masquerade and hide itself as sarcasm or passive aggression.

But underneath it, is this a life that's just sowing to the flesh, not to the spirit?

Here's number four: you can't control your emotions.

Galatians 5 refers to it as fits of anger.

When your anger becomes explosive, chronic, manipulative, or expressed abusively, it's no longer righteous.

It's in the flesh.

So into the flesh shows up when you allow our emotions to dominate our actions.

It's a lack of self-control, which Galatians 5 also lists that as one of the fruits of the Spirit.

The fifth one is this competitiveness is your posture.

Rivalries, dissensions, and divisions.

Like anger, competition is not inherently sinful, okay?

Jesus, I don't think Jesus was a big fan of fair, fun, positive soccer.

Everyone gets a trophy just for coming out.

I don't think Jesus is down with that.

But I will say this when competitiveness is your posture.

When you measure your worth by being better than someone else, you've crossed into the flesh territory.

Number six, you refuse to celebrate others.

This is envy.

Envy.

What do you mean?

Whew.

Yeah, envy is more than wanting what someone else has, it's resenting them for having it.

And when you envy, you aren't just dissatisfied with your own life.

You question God while He would give someone else what you think you deserve.

It's like you're at a restaurant and somebody pulls up next to you in a truck that's nicer than yours and got the limited or the King Ranch package, and you're just like, Really?

I mean, God, do you not know what a jerk that guy is?

I work with him.

Yes, that's envy.

Then here's the last one.

Put a star by this one.

Escapism is a way of life.

It's that last part of Galatians 5, verse 21 drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

Galatians 5:21

Escapism, it's the practice of using substances, experiences, or excess to numb ourselves.

Let me say that again.

Substances, experiences, I tell people all the time, you can never find in your experiences what God created you to find in relationships.

Take all the vacations you can put on your Visa card.

You are not going to find in those experiences what God intended you to find in some relationships.

I'm not saying don't go on vacation.

I'm not saying don't have great experiences.

But escapism is when you practice, you use substances, experiences, and excess to numb yourselves.

A flesh-led life seeks to escape.

It seeks distraction or overindulgence rather than resting in God.

Okay?

This shows up.

Here's how it shows up in our life: through the overuse of alcohol, gummies, food, sex, scrolling, shopping, gaming, gambling, or anything else we turn to when life feels too heavy.

I see a lady that comes to see me for counseling, and I know when she pulls up because she parks right outside my window to let me know she's here.

She gets here 15, sometimes 30 minutes early, and to quote her, she pops a gummy.

And I'm like, are you under the influence of anything right now?

She goes, Well, you know, I eat a gummy before I come see you because you you make me think about things.

Yes.

Now look at me, okay?

All you gummy users in the crowd, and I know there's two kinds that have THC and then I got the whole lecture about it, okay?

I see multiple people that depend on gummies.

And here's what I say to all these people: unless you let yourself feel what your life feels like, you don't know what to say.

And when you don't know what to say, you don't say anything.

And you're setting yourself up to this constant experience of abuse, misunderstanding, or misrepresentation.

Because you have self-medicated.

You don't want to feel what's down here.

You can't feel what's down here.

And so I sat there the last time she came to me, she goes, So does it offend you that I eat a gummy before I come?

I said, it makes it sound like you're getting in a phone booth with a gorilla.

And she said, your words.

Okay.

I said, here's the thing.

Let me ask you a question.

How do you know when your life feels too heavy?

And she said, I work hard to not know what my life feels about at all.

And I said, here lies the problem.

This is a problem with escapism.

Now, by the way, I'm I'm I'm not just on gummies.

Some of you, you can't go to sleep without a couple pours of bourbon.

Uh-oh.

Did you feel that?

You're like, go back to them gummy, them potheads, Pastor.

What about them pot smokers and smoke them democratic cigarettes?

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah.

Hey, escapism takes many forms.

Some of you escape by watching Netflix incessantly.

You've watched everything on Netflix.

Netflix called and said, we got no more programming.

Stop hitting the button.

Look at me.

What are you afraid to feel?

Because when you don't know what your life feels like, you don't know who or what to respond to.

Here's the third thing Jesus is saying in the text.

Jesus is trying to change the way we view sin.

Here, verse 29 again.

If your right hand, if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.

But it's better that you lose one of your members than your whole body be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.

For it's better that you lose one of your members and your whole body go into hell.

Now listen very carefully, okay?

Jesus is not advocating for self-harm or self-mutilation because you can cut off both your hands and gouge out both of your eyes and your memory can still see.

Some of you, it's little boys, some of you old guys, when it was in a magazine, not on the internet, you still got pictures in your head that don't go away.

Your memory can still see.

So Jesus is not, don't get it twisted.

He's not saying, hey, you want to cut your hand off, gouge your eye out.

I want to draw your attention, but he is trying to change the way we view sin.

He says, This little, this thing appears twice.

He says, first of all, if your right eye, notice it's your right eye and your right hand, because that's the hand of favor.

And that's your favorite that that side of the body was a side of favor.

But he says, look this.

He says, if your right eye causes you to sin.

And then in verse 30 he says, and if your right hand causes you to sin, that little phrase to sin is a Greek word, scandalizo.

Scandalizo.

And it means, here's why this is important: it means to fall away.

It means to fall away.

Listen very carefully.

This is affecting your proximity to God in this life and will ultimately affect your proximity to God in the next life because you will go to hell if you can perpetually just fall away from God, okay?

Not because you struggle with lust or even if you've committed adultery, but because you never dealt with your sin and it keeps causing you to fall away from God.

You can't live far away from God in this life and expect to be near Him in the next life.

That's just what the Bible says.

1 John chapter 3, about verse 15, 16, he says, anyone born of God does not go on sinning.

1 John 3 · chapter mention

Excuse me, it's about verse 8 of 1 John 3.

Anyone born of God does not go on sinning, not because they're moralistic, not because they're disciplined.

Here's why.

Because God's seed, Greek word sperma, the ability to reproduce God's life, i.e.

the Holy Spirit.

Anyone born of God, cannot just keep on sinning?

Why?

Because God's seed remains in him.

And here's what Jesus is saying.

Hey, I'm using drastic language because I want to shake you up, because we've created, the American church has created this theology, that's no theology of all.

It just says, hey, we're all humans.

God knows we all struggle.

So you struggle in this area, I struggle in this area, but hey, I prayed the prayer when I was 12 and we're all good.

I don't think so.

Why do you think the theologian John Owen said, you better be killing sin or sin will be killing you?

How far can you fall away from God and how consistently can you fall away from God, which is what to sin is?

How consistently can you fall away from God?

And still think in your mind, well, I'm gonna be with God in heaven when I die.

And my favorite is the person that has besetting sin and goes to recovery group and recovery group and then this group and that group and 12-step and 10-step and four-step on Tuesdays and five-step on Saturday morning and all that.

And I'm not mocking any of that.

But here's the thing: if all you get is a vocabulary, new words and phrases that explain your addiction, but you never change, you should have no hope of assurance.

And we crank it out in America, we put the therapeutic above the theological.

That hey, look at me.

That's not hate, that's love.

That is, hey, change the way you think about sin.

And I know men that just buy their wife their favorite little pacifier just to get her off the just, hey, here, here, I gotta go earn a living.

And I'm just like, man, really?

Now, what if I said to you today that everything Jesus is saying here is for your good?

Because I know it's easy to go to church and you hear one sentence at the two-minute mark, two sentences at the 18-minute mark, and then one sentence at about the 30-minute mark, you're like, uh-oh.

But I just want to say again, everything Jesus is saying here is for your good.

What God wants to see is to you have a marriage that not only lasts, but it's lastingly satisfying on all levels.

And I was just gonna add again, God doesn't want you to just have a marriage that lasts.

It's like, uh, I kind of fantasize this gonna be over.

No, he doesn't want you to have a marriage that lasts.

Hear me?

He wants you to have a marriage that's lastingly satisfying on all levels.

Yes.

Yes.

If you're single, that's what you have to look forward to.

If you're married, that is the standard.

That's what you should demonstrate to your children.

Yes.

People in cat, I love it because people ask me anything, and God's like, well, I mean, before I listen to you, I gotta know have you ever cheated on your wife?

I said, No, I haven't.

And and and I'm not better than you morally because I've cheated, I hadn't cheated on my wife, and you've cheated, that's why you're in counseling.

I'm not better than you.

He goes, I'm glad to hear you say that.

And then he said, How long have you been married?

I said, 32 years.

He said, Dude, that's a long time.

He's married two and a half, he's already had three affairs.

And he said, I mean, can I ask you questions about that?

I said, Yeah.

He goes, How do you do it?

I mean, you just thought you must be super disciplined.

I said, No, I'm very satisfied.

He said, Come again?

I said, I'm I I I don't cheat, I don't not cheat on my wife because I'm super disciplined.

I don't cheat on my wife because she satisfies me on all levels.

And he just sat back in his chair and he's like, uh and I come from a long line of phandering men.

Every man in my dad's side of the family has been divorced, most of them multiple times.

I have pre-meral counseling tomorrow at five with a couple.

They were in the first service.

They said, We just want to introduce ourselves.

We've been emailing.

What are we gonna talk about?

Here's what we're gonna talk about.

I'm gonna get up in yoke.

That hurt a little bit.

I cut my circulation off.

I said, the first session we talk about compatibility.

Second session, we talk about your family of origin and generational sin.

And they're like, oh, what you talking about, Willis?

From Exodus 34, the sins of the fathers will be visited on the third and fourth generation.

You better know what the generational sins of your family are, and you better have a biblical understanding of them.

Like from my family, men are unfaithful, they don't pay their bills.

The good because God gives beauty for ashes and strength for fear.

The good news of that is I hate owing people money.

I don't have money, but I got a great credit score.

I can borrow money if I need to, but I ain't bought, I hate borrowed money.

Why?

Because everything in my life got repossessed when I was in the eighth grade.

All of our furniture went rolling down the road, Main Street, small town, East Texas, an open bed of a truck uh of a flatbed truck.

And all my friends were like, hey, you know your furniture?

I was like, nah, it just looks like it.

My best friend was walking, he knew, he's like, Yeah, that's your that's your friend, yeah.

Because my dad can't pay his bills.

He can, but he'd rather spend that money on whiskey and cigarettes and women than coming home to the same woman and just being a man of integrity.

So guess what?

I don't need consequences to make me do the right thing.

When I was dating my wife, she said, You're a very moral person.

I said, You act surprised.

She goes, Well, you got a big personality.

What'd you just say to me?

She said, Well, I mean, I just didn't know if you were like a player or something.

Oh, stop talking.

It's getting worse.

Stop.

And she said, I I just I really respect that.

And I said, Oh, it's just, I don't want to be like my dad.

And no disrespect to my dad.

He's just what an honorable man.

And so I I'm not asking you for pity.

I'm saying some of you come from families like mine.

You don't get a hall pass.

God can change your heart.

And the guy's like, so just a couple bros talking.

Yeah, we'll go with that.

Bros.

So you've never, I don't find other women interesting, bro.

None of them, not you ever cheated.

I don't even find other women interesting.

He stood up out of the chair and just walked around my office.

And I said, you're making me sad.

Because here's the thing, ladies.

God created you to be in a relationship with a man that finds you deeply satisfying and everybody else unnecessary.

That's what marriage is.

You don't watch TV and kind of go, hey, hey, look at that.

Why don't you get you some of them?

Which I've heard people say.

I'm just like, oh, full of love.

Dude, stop talking.

Again.

Now, let me acknowledge something.

I'm gonna be done.

It got kind of thick in here earlier, didn't it?

We're talking about sowing to the flesh.

Some of you are like, mmm, mmm.

I want to end on a positive note because again, I everything Jesus says here is for your good.

He wants you to have a marriage.

Jesus, listen to me.

Jesus does it, it's not enough for Jesus.

Jesus didn't die so you could not lust and not commit adultery.

What do you want?

A cookie?

You're not supposed to.

No cookie for that.

No, what Jesus died for do you have a marriage that only lasts but is lastingly satisfying on all levels?

And this is why the Sermon on the Mount starts in Matthew chapter 5 and goes to chapter 6, into chapter 7, and it ends with these words, and I'm done this morning.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Hear this.

Jesus is trying to sum it up, and he says, Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.

And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.

Hey, it's not an issue of whether or not the rain's gonna come.

And it's gonna rain so much that the flood's gonna come too.

And then the wind's gonna beat on the house, and then you're gonna see what your life is built and based on.

Bunch of bull jive.

I'm a player, you know.

Hey, hey, in my culture, Pastor, you know, I appreciate that, but you know, man got to have a side hustle.

That's a life in the pit of hell.

You're not a man, you're not proving yourself to be a man.

I've heard it all, you know, man's gonna spread his cedar.

Oh, please, come on.

What are you, an MBA player?

Got 12 kids from five different women.

That's not manhood, that's irresponsibility.

That's you've sown to your flesh your whole life, and you just think it's your right.

The rain's gonna fall.

The other day, Ian, our student pastor, was telling me, he said, Yeah, it's like 2.48 in the morning, and we heard a big loud crash, and I woke up and I heard glug, glung, glunk, glunk, glunk.

I was like, whoa, what's happening?

What's happening?

He said, I ran around and finally I heard it coming out of our laundry closet, and I opened the door, and the two and a half gallon bottle of uh uh liquid laundry detergent fell and it knocked the cap off and it was just glug, glug, glug, glug out on the ground.

And I'm so full of compassion, I said, welcome to marriage, bro.

He said, Yeah, I was scrambling.

It took me an hour to get it cleaned up, it went all under the machines, and I thought my mind, because he don't live far from me, I was like, number one, thank you for not calling me.

Uh and he looked at me and said, It was just like crazy.

And I was like, welcome to marriage.

Stuff happens.

Rains fall, floods came, wind gonna blow.

But guess what, Ian?

Your house ain't gonna fall.

You don't have to fear getting married.

You marry the right person, you build on the right thing, your house ain't gonna fall.

No.

The guy said she won't let's go.

I said, sure.

You think your wife's gonna leave you?

Where is she gonna go to get this man candy?

Are you kidding me?

Leave this?

Are you serious?

He's like, Well, I'm just asking.

Here it is.

The way you think about adultery, lust, and sin will inform where and what we build our lives on.

The way you think about lust, adultery, and sin will inform where and on what you build your life on.

Let's pray together.

If you're our guests, just relax, we like to teach the Bible, then we give you some space to think about it.

So questions come up on the screen, we'll discuss those tonight in our community groups.

For right now, you just be still and just like, Lord, what had my name on it?

What what is I I I got I gotta cut this into smaller pieces, God, and think about it.

Just think about that.

Lord, when we hear the two simple words, but God, it takes us to Ephesians 2, where the Bible says we are dead in our trespasses and sin in which we used to live when we followed the ways of this world, following the course and the direction and the intention of the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in those who are disobedient, and then it drops this big bomb on us, but God.

But God who's rich in mercy made us alive.

Lord, thank you that you have more mercy than we have sinned today.

And I don't want people to leave here discouraged, convicted, glory to God, but not discouraged, because God is a God of mercy for the person that struggles with lust, the person that's committed adultery, they don't have to carry a big A around.

There's forgiveness.

The Bible says if you, O Lord, kept a record of sin, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness.

Let your grace teach us to say no to ungodliness and to think rightly about sin the rest of our life.

God, this is our prayer.

We pray in Jesus' name when everyone said amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you for listening to this message.

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