Sinning Like A Christian: Lust

This week we end the sermon series Sinning Like a Christian with the last deadly sin: lust. The sin of lust is the trickiest of them all. Sex or lust specifically is the least talked about subject in the Bible. Money is the most talked about subject but you will hear more preachers in many mainline churches speak on the evils of sex or sexual orientation more than they will address money, hunger, helping those in need.  Church and sex have been sort of taboo. However in this day and time we have more curiosity in sexuality or sex than Jesus did. We often overlook the simple fact that for survival all creatures must procreate. It’s natural part of our humanity. Lust has always been around from King David voyeurism of Bathsheba to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Today the highest grossing commerce on the internet is porn. Addiction to pornography is the fastest growing addiction for both male and female.  This is because accessibility, no accountability, and full anonymity.  50 Shades of Gray sold over 100 million copies as well as one of the highest grossing movies.  What use to be only a male dominated consumption now there are as many women as men indulging in porn commerce. This is a way of saying that even though sex has been always been around since creation, none the less, times are a changing. Lust has expanded over time and generations.  The problem with the sin of lust is the simple fact that according to Jesus, there needs to be no action. Jesus says the sin of lust happens in the heart. It is no difference from sleeping with a person than looking at a person lustfully.  Desire is good. Desire is a God given thing. But desire misdirected, misused, leads to sin. Sexual improprieties will be the leading headline every time. As a society we are intrigued by headlines of celebrities, politicians, and famous people caught up in sexual wrong doings. The church and society rather spend time debating, defending, and arguing over sexual orientation than sharing God’s love, mercy, and grace with those struggling in life. The thing about lust is that it doesn’t grow. You hot for someone or our not. But love grows. And as love grows in a committed relationship, lust doesn’t increase; true love will intensifies and sustained the desire throughout time.

So no matter what our sin is, whether it is one of the seven or another, God wants to hear about our sin. God wants to hear it so we have to tell it to Him in order to be forgiven of our sin so that we might compass the full depth, the great height, and the breath of God’s love. Confessing to God, or repenting whatever you wish to call it, releases us of the burden of sin. We are saved by God’s grace just as we are. Not how God or others want us to be. Jesus Christ said upfront and honestly “I have come to seek the lost, to save the lost.”  And here he found people like you and me. Christ seems to have rather remarkable transformed a basic deceitful person into sort of a saint or a better person. That makes us a miracle. We are a surprising work of God. Yet we are still learning how to see ourselves as God sees us. We are still transforming. We are still holding up the mirror of truth that makes us look at ourselves. We are still learning to see the imagine God sees in us. Mired in the muck of sin and yet destined by God to stand up and shine as the blessed children of God. There will always be tension in the Christian life as we find ourselves stretched between two poles, having two natures, torn between two alternatives. Yet there are also the quiet convictions that gradually, day by day, decision by decision with God in Christ leading us, coaxing us, sometimes dragging us kicking and screaming into a better life and into a better self.