From His Heart

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Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. A sensitive subject today.

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We want to talk about one of the biggest giants, one of the baddest giants, one of the most formidable giants, the Giant of Lust. And when we think of lust, and as the Bible uses lust, lust is not relegated to just one thing. You can lust over somebody's property, you can lust over a car, you can lust over money, you can have all those desires.

But we mostly think of lust as sexual lust. And that's a big usage in the Bible that we lust. And so we want to talk about how do you defeat and have victory over the Giant of Lust? He can heal every scar with real truth, real love, real hope from his heart.

Speaker 1

The Bible tells us that when lust is conceived, it gives birth to sin. Is it really possible to have victory over the power of the Giant of Lust? The answer is yes. But how? We'll find out today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve.

In part one of today's convicting lesson, the Giant of Lust, we'll learn how to stand against the devil's deceptions and find forgiveness and victory against the tremendous enemy, one of the biggest problems in our lives. Now we're in the series the Land of the Giants.

If you miss any of these messages, you'll want to listen again online at promisheart.org. Click the Listen link there, too. You can also download a free MP3 of any broadcast right now.

Now, open your Bible to the Book of James, chapter one. Here's Pastor Jeff to begin the lesson: The Giant of Lust.

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I was reading a story this week about a man who was a duke in the area now known as Belgium. It was the 14th century. He was Reynald III, but they called him Reynald the Fat because he was so rotund. Well, his family being a duke, his family was very influential and royal. His brother Edward and Reynald the Fat got into a big heated family feud over territory and land and that kind of thing. Edward defeated Reynald the Fat and took his territory, putting him into a room in the castle. It was a special room. It had a door, a couple of windows, but the windows were small and the doorway was relatively small. Reynald the Fat was inside the room, but he was too big to get out of the door. The door wasn't locked, so he was incarcerated in a way. A regular-sized person could easily have gotten out, but Reynald couldn't fit through the doorway. The way to get out was to diet to lose weight. It didn't seem that hard, except that Edward knew his brother and his tendencies. So every day, he sent delicacies into his room. Instead of losing weight during his incarceration, Reynald the Fat gained weight and became Reynald the Fatter. He could never escape. He was in that room for 10 years. Finally, his brother Edward died, and they broke out a wall to let Reynald the Fatter out. He only lived for about a year afterward because his body had been so abused through gluttony. He was a man who couldn't control his own appetite.

We're in a series called Land of the Giants, and today we want to talk about one of the biggest giants, one of the baddest giants, one of the most formidable giants: the giant of lust. The word for lust in the Bible in the Greek language is "epithumia," a compound word: "epi," which means "upon," and "thumia," which means "an urge" or "a passion." Lust is this urge, this passion that comes upon a person to want that which is forbidden, to want in excess what God has allowed us to have. It's a craving that comes on a person. When we think of lust, and as the Bible uses it, lust is not relegated to just one thing. You can lust over somebody's property, you can lust over a car, you can lust over money. You can have all those desires, but we mostly think of lust as sexual lust. That's a big usage in the Bible. Jesus said, "If anyone looks on a woman to lust for her, he's committed adultery with her already in his heart." Sexual lust is a big problem in our world today, and it's especially a big problem for men. It's not exclusive to men; women can lust too. But it's especially significant for men—a tremendous giant, a big problem. Why? Because men are visual, and it's through the eye gate that we end up falling prey to lust.

Now, I became a Christian when I was 17 years old. I was a guy who liked to drink, a guy who liked to party, a guy who liked to chase girls, a guy who had a bad temper, along with a host of other things. But those are some of the big ones that come to mind. I got saved when I was 17 years old, and immediately God began to work on me. He came into my life and started to work on me. One of the first things he worked on was, "Jeff, we gotta get rid of drinking on the weekends. We gotta get rid of this party lifestyle that you have going on." So I stopped drinking. It wasn't like I was an alcoholic, but I was drinking, you know, a six-pack or so on the weekends with my buddies out on Friday night, Saturday night, and we would get drunk. The Lord said, "You can't do that." So that fell by the wayside; that giant fell. Then the Lord began to work on my foul mouth. Playing basketball and doing stuff like that, the things coming out of my mouth were very displeasing to God. He started to work on that, and so that giant fell. Then he started to work on my anger, and that giant got under control. Then he began to poke his finger at the giant of lust—the issue of lust. I said, "Lord, that's a tough one there. I have trouble in that area." He said, "I know you do. We need to work on this." That was when I was 17 years old. I am now 55 years old. I heard the gasps because you don't believe it, but I am 55 years old. Maybe I heard them in my mind. But I want to tell you, I'm 55, and I still struggle with the giant of lust.

When we talk about problems for men, Deuteronomy 17 sets out the problems that can befall the king. Moses is preaching in Deuteronomy 17. He preaches three sermons on the plains of Moab because the people are getting ready to go into the promised land. Moses isn't going to get to go, so he speaks to them three times, three sermons. In Deuteronomy 17, he said, "You know what? When you get into the land, you're gonna ask for a king. You're gonna want to have a king like all the other places have kings." He said, "Here's the thing. For the king, he can't multiply horses for himself, he can't multiply wives for himself, and he is not supposed to multiply silver and gold for himself to amass silver and gold." What was God saying? "Watch out in these areas." With horses, that's power—military power. With women, that's sex. And with silver and gold, that's money. Think about those three things: money, sex, and power. Those three things are what take down a leader because he gets tripped up in one of those three things. We talked about that with the guys. Money, sex, and power— which one is the hardest to deal with? By far, in our group from guys in their late teens, early 20s, up till 70, 75, overwhelmingly, it was number one: sex. Lust. That is a big problem for men. So we want to talk about how to defeat and have victory over the giant of lust.

James gives us insight in his little epistle. James, the half-brother of the Lord Jesus, who was the leader of the Jerusalem church, says this in James 1:13: "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he's carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren." How can you defeat the giant of lust? How can you have victory over the giant of lust? Now, listen, this giant is not one that you fight one day, defeat him one day, and you never face him again. He comes back over and over and over again, just like the giant of anger does. You have to deal with that all the time—not in terms of every second of every day—but you never get to the place where that's not an issue anymore. That can always be an issue. As soon as you let your guard down, that's when you're going to get popped. So how do you have victory on a consistent basis over the giant of lust? I want to share with you three Rs—three Rs to victory.

First, R: Recognize that lust is an internal issue. Lust is an internal issue; it's an inside job. Jesus was talking to the disciples, and he said to them, speaking concerning the Pharisees, who had gotten on Jesus because he said, "Your disciples don't wash their hands in the ceremonial way. They transgress the traditions of the elders." Jesus said, "Why do you transgress the command of God for your traditions?" Their big thing was going through all this rigmarole about how they washed their hands in just this certain way before they ate. The disciples washed their hands before they ate, just like every good little boy and girl washes up before they eat. But they had this whole rigmarole about how you were to do that. Jesus said, "Guys, you don't understand. It's not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man; it's what comes out of the mouth. What comes out of the mouth is what's in the heart." Jesus said in Matthew 15:19, "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders." That comes out of the heart; that's in the human heart. The Bible says in the book of Ezekiel that when we come to Christ, he gives us a new heart. But the old heart and the old nature and the flesh are not separated from us; they're still there. That's why the Bible says in Galatians chapter five, "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please." Your flesh wants to sin, and your flesh, even as a believer, is there. It's the old flesh from your Adamic nature. You have a new man living inside the Lord Jesus Christ in the new nature, but the old nature is still there. It's not in control; it has been rendered powerless, but it has not been rendered speechless. It will bark out orders for you. The flesh loves the flesh; it longs for the flesh. As we talk about sexual lust, the flesh loves the flesh and longs for the flesh. Lust is an inside job.

So know this about lust: God has given us legitimate desires—legitimate desires that he puts in the human life, in the human heart. Let me give you three: food is a legitimate desire, sleep is a legitimate desire, and sex is a legitimate desire—in the confines of marriage. God created sex, not Hugh Hefner. Sex is not a bad thing; it's a good thing. But it's only to be practiced in the safe confines of marriage. So what is lust? Lust is a perversion of a legitimate desire. A perversion of a legitimate desire. I desire food, but if I continue to eat, my desire for food—that was good and right that God gave me—becomes gluttony, and I turn into Reynald the Fat because I am eating way too much. Sleep is a good thing; God gave us a desire for sleep. He told us in his word, "Six days you shall labor, and the seventh day is a day of rest. Don't do any work on that day." So sleep, rest—that's a good thing. But if all we do is sleep and rest, we turn into lazy sluggards. That's not a good thing. Laziness, slothfulness is a sin. And then sex. Sex is a good thing. But if you let sex go outside of the bounds of holy marriage, then sex becomes immorality—a bad thing.

Remember this about lust: Lust is insatiable. It's like greed. Greed is never satisfied. If a greedy man or woman gets a million dollars, they're thinking about wanting another million dollars. If they get $10 million, they want more. If they get a billion dollars, they want more. What does it profit a man, Jesus said, if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? What will a man give in exchange for a soul? Listen, if you had the whole world, you wouldn't be satisfied. You'd say, "Well, I have a lot, but what if I could just have the moon?" I mean, I got the whole world, but I need the moon too. That is greed; it's never satisfied. It's an insatiable desire. Lust is the same way; it's an insatiable desire for more and more and more and more and more. You know who the poster child is for insatiable lust? Solomon. Solomon, the son of David, the king of Israel, is the son of David and Bathsheba. We know about Bathsheba and David. How did their relationship start out? With lust. David has a lust issue, a lust problem. He multiplied wives, which it says in Deuteronomy 17:17 he's not supposed to do. He multiplied wives, then he has the son Solomon. Remember, the Lord says that the iniquity of the fathers is visited on the sons to the third and fourth generation. The iniquity—that doesn't mean the consequences or your guilt for sin comes on the sons; the iniquity means the twistedness, the weakness, the problem of the fathers shows up in the sons. Abraham had a problem with lying; Isaac, his son, had a problem with lying. Jacob, his son, had a huge problem with lying. David has a problem with lust; Solomon has a huge problem with lust. You say, "How do you know that?" Because he had 700 wives. And if that weren't enough, 700 wives and 300 girlfriends. He's got 1,000 women at his disposal. When's it going to be enough, Solomon? Well, I see this one I want; I see that one I want. It's never enough. Lust is insatiable. Recognize that; it's an internal issue.

Second, R: Realize that lust is what the devil works with. Now, if the devil dried up and evaporated, you'd still have trouble with lust. I'd still have trouble with lust. Why? Because lust is an inside job; it's a deed of the flesh. But the devil works on that weakness in us, and he is called in Scripture, the tempter. The tempter uses our weaknesses to try and trip us up. Now, verse 13, the scripture is clear: "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God.' You're not. No one's ever tempted by God. Why? For God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself does not tempt anyone." Now he's speaking of God the Father. God the Father can't be tempted by evil; he is holy, holy, holy. He is completely pure. Now, God the Son can become a man, and in his humanity—see, he's very God of very God, very man of very man. He is the God-man. In his humanity, he can be tempted. The scripture says in Hebrews 4:15, "We don't have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin." So God the Father can't be tempted; God the Son in his humanity can be tempted. The tempter, in Matthew chapter four, came to Jesus in the wilderness after he had fasted for 40 days. The tempter came and said, "If you're the Son of God, command these stones to become bread." Oh, Jesus, you have a natural hunger inside of you for food, and you haven't eaten in 40 days. Command these stones to become bread. See how he appealed to the flesh? He showed him all the kingdoms of the world and said, "All these will be yours if you'll just bow down and worship me." It's the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes. He was working on the Lord. So the devil works on you and me.

Now notice the progression of how he works. First, he works on your specific desires. It says in verse 14, "Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust." His own lust. You know, we don't all have the same proclivities, and we don't have the same Achilles heel, and we don't have the same weaknesses. Now, lust in general is a weakness for most men—sexual lust—but it can come in different forms. Some people are sexually tempted by same-sex attraction. Now that's a condition of the fall; that's the way some people are wired. The devil will tempt that way, and so he will prey on your specific desire. From desire, he moves to deception. Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. "Carried away" and "enticed"—interesting those words in the Greek; they mean to draw out like you would draw a fish out of the weeds to the lure. To entice means to bait a hook or bait a trap. The devil works through deception. He says, "Don't look at the hook; only look at the bait."

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Lust really is the lure the devil works with to get us to disobey God. Next time on From His Heart, with part two of this lesson, Pastor Jeff will continue to help us understand the giant of lust and how to defeat it. This message is one of seven in Pastor Jeff's series, the Land of the Giants, on how to deal with your biggest problems.

You know what is really giant? The earth. The earth is huge and it's full of unique people groups, all of whom God loves and wants their love. As Christians, we're called to try to reach them with the good news. To that end, we've just partnered with Pray.com to create Spanish and Portuguese versions of this broadcast for both radio and television. Wow. Now that is a giant initiative, but it can be done if we receive help from our listeners.

Remember, Pastor Jeff Shreve receives no income from this ministry. All you give today will go to help us launch and sustain this new translation version of our program. With your gift this month, we'll say thank you by sending you the Land of the Giants series and the booklet "When You Don't Like Yourself." You can get the series in the format of your choice.

Make your gift today when you go to fromhisheart.org or call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-24253). We love you and we appreciate your support. Call 866-40-BIBLE or go to fromhisheart.org and request the series, the Land of the Giants.

We'll close today with an appropriate verse from Galatians 5:16: "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh."

Well, time has gone for the Friday broadcast. I'm Larry Nobles, and we pray that you'll be with us next time for part two of the lesson called the Giant of Lust. That's when Pastor Jeff Shreve will open up God's word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from God's heart here on From His Heart.

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There is truth there is hope that you always dream love he can heal every scar he so with real truth, real love, real hope from his heart.

Speaker 1

From his heart is the listener supported Broadcast Ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world.

Remember that no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more at fromhisheart.org.