Lustful Intent Leads To Exactly What? mt5:28 S4e133

Looking can lead to looking with lustful intent.  This is bad because it is equated with adultery. Who says so?  Jesus is clarifying the 10 commandmentsin his sermon on the mount.  We understand this to be so because He says so, and He is the author of the Old and New Testament truths.  

Adultery is taking something that is not yours to take. This may be someone else's spouse or their future spouse.  Adultery is receiving something that was not theirs to give.  This may be someone else's spouse or their future spouse.  Though we have this wonderful, God-created and God-given sexuality, we are not free to do just any and everything with it.  We have sexual agency within the created purpose.

If lustful intent leads to adultery, let's just consider some of the consequences of adultery.  It leads to destroyed families; losing the respect of your children; losing the trust of your spouse; breaking your word and vow before friends and family; losing positions of trust in your neighborhood and church; financial ruin; the end of marriage; further loneliness and ironically, sexual isolation.  It is short term pleasure for long term harm.

Obviously, none of this is good.  Let's work hard to replace lustful intent with loving intent! Subscribe right after that at bewithme.us. 
 

Transcript

Michael Smith: 0:01

Good morning my brothers and sisters Welcome to Episode 133 of be with me we're going to talk today about something near and dear to all of our hearts that is lost and adultery here it is Matthew 527 but you have heard that it was said You shall not commit adultery so that's in the 10 commandments. 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, throw it away for it is better, that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to send cut it off, throw it away for it is better for you to lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. Alright, so let's talk about lustful intent. You've heard that is said You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent. So first thing I noticed is that it it seems to highlight that women are primarily the recipients of such activity. And then I would think men are primarily the committers of such activity. And the question that is being asked is what do we do with our sexual engine? So So start starting, is we have sexual engines, where did we get them over created beings, God has made us sexual creatures. And the interesting thing here, as we get started on it is that looking with your eyeballs can lead to lustful intent that is your eyeballs can cause you to, to start the path towards lustful intent. So there's eyeballs plus, a mental process can equal lustful intent. But of interest, you actually don't even need your eyeball balls, this could happen, even with a blind person, that is your mind's eye. Plus the mental process can end can end up with lustful intent. So your eyes may have something to do with this or your your, your head may have something to do with this. So what is adultery, what is lust, it is taking something or even receiving something that is not yours. So it can be taking something that is not yours to take, which is someone else's spouse, or someone else's future spouse. Similarly, it could be receiving something even willfully given that is not theirs to give. That is someone else's spouse, and someone else's future spouse. So the point here is that we have sexual agency. And that's, you know, part of this is great news, that you have sexual agency, and you have zypper agency, and you have a sexual engine agency that the Lord has entrusted with you now, does that mean that you're free to do anything? Clearly? No, you're not free to do which, as you, you may please. And so we asked the question is, is my body my own? Well, yes, but not completely, not exactly. That is. The Lord has to reign in lordship here that is we are created created by him created for him. And so we are entrusted with this this gift of sexual agency, and we are supposed to use it rightly. Now the question is, who gets to decide? So the disturbing part of this passage is, well, God has already put limitations about unlimited on lustful intent that is, in the 10 commandments, Thou shalt not commit adultery in Exodus chapter 20. But then the bar gets lowered so far down here, Jesus says, but here's what I really mean by that, but I say to you, verse 28, so the who gets to decide First of all, it's not you. So that's uncomfortable, that we have a governor we have a controller. And part of it is us. Obviously we have self agency and self mastery, but then we have The author of this whole process of sexuality, coming down and saying, I want to, I make the rules, essentially which course I don't like that. So what happens then? So the end of this passage is if you have lustful intent, essentially, you're committing adultery. Well, let's think about what happens the consequences of adultery. First of all, you get end up with destroyed families, you lose the respect of your spouse, you lose the respect of your children, you lose the positions of trust, even in your neighborhood, you know who's going to who's going to trust you, you lose positions of trust in your, in your church, it ends up with financial ruin, you at least divide your assets in half because you end up frequently in a divorce situation. And then the other thing is just exactly what you're going for with this, which is sexual connection, it actually ends up making you more sexually isolated, you end up with loneliness. So if we ever really thought about the consequences of our lustful intent and leading to adultery, that is a short term pleasure for a long term harm, we probably would never do it, we wouldn't risk the destruction that usually ensues. So committing adultery may not destroy what you have, but it certainly never helped anybody never ended up on the positive side. Alright, so let's take this home here. So God has created beautiful people, and why it's for their spouse to enjoy. We've been given sexual engines by the Lord for pleasure and enjoyment within the boundaries of of marriage, and our sexual engines, who is governed by a little bit by me but also got make some some rules here. Certainly, we should be taking care and great care with what goes on with our bodies. But also this, this badges says, take great care with what goes on into your head and let's change our lustful intent to our loving intent. And use that for within our marriages for the pleasure of our spouse for the practicing of love and for utilizing the gift in the way that he has determined this. Nobody wants to do this wrong. Probably we all have done this wrong. And let's try to do it right today. So let's work on avoiding lustful intent and let's use it to change to loving intent. Thanks for listening. I'll see you tomorrow.