7. Jesus & Sexual Desire [Matthew] - Tim Mackie (The Bible Project)

Matthew 5 verse 27 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 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 sin cut it off and throw it away for it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell alright hey everybody you guys done I always mean it I don't I really so I think that that's just 1/10 of you because there's more than ten of us here welcome good to have you guys here welcome to door hope you're visiting or whatever even if you're not visiting you're here the host here we are it's good to be here with you guys well Jesus is rather intense isn't he I have self-mutilation and the whole deal Wow well so that's a big big picture here we have three sentences for three or four sentences that are going to be our focus today but big picture because the meaning of four sentences changes dramatically depending on all of the other sentences that are around them right so the big picture is that we're in Matthew Jesus has been announcing the arrival of the kingdom of the rule in the reign of God and that's the whole story of how God is reclaiming his world from what we have done to the place and to each other here and so in Jesus there's a new a new rule a new reign and a new humanity that Jesus is starting around around himself so he's calling these followers to himself he's shaping this new environment that he calls the kingdom of this all these upside-down values and so on and so he calls these people to himself and he is right now in these sentences here we're kind of in a six part little series here within the first great block is his teaching on the kingdom so we call it the Sermon on the Mount traditionally Matthew in chapter 4 called it Jesus teaching the good news of the kingdom and then chapters five six and seven come so this is Jesus announcing the kingdom and what life in the kingdom looks like when his disciples actually follow follow him and rediscover their humanity and these were in a six part section of it where Jesus is filling out something that he said because he he quoted from the scriptures he said I hear admit as a rabbi and a teacher and I'm not here to undermine or set aside is real scriptures write what they called the law and the prophets or the Torah he says I'm not here to set them aside or to undermine them what I'm here to do is to create a people of the kingdom in whom the purpose of all of God's commands come into their fulfillment and so he quotes from the Old Testament Scriptures from the laws specifically about like the famous Ten Commandments it's what he's doing right here and he says you've heard that this was said but I say to you and then he lays down his new teaching not as a rejection not even as an explanation but as a new teaching that calls his disciples I think that's even more radical rather than the original command even did and in this way the command is fulfilled and so last week it was about anger and forgiveness and today we're exploring Jesus's teaching on sex sexual desire next week marriage and divorce so real nothing substantial here had nothing intimidating right to talk about in a city like ours so let me just let me just kind of actually had hit this off at the past here and just name something I said a few weeks ago these are the sections of Jesus's teaching where he will be really getting into our business personally right and and when the topic these topics of sex and marriage and Jesus's teaching comes up this is very I expect that over the next few Sunday's there's going to be an enormous amount of discussion of debate controversy conversation and I think that's a good thing it's a really good thing because we're moving towards what Jesus is saying and we're engaging with it and we're letting him challenge us but I just I want to name something that's going to be happening right in our gatherings over the next few Sunday's here as we move at this and has to do with lots of different kinds of people who are around door of hope so we have a whole bunch of us who we would call ourselves disciples of Jesus trying to follow Jesus I look to him reckon with who he is what he said what he did it's for me I'm going to follow him and so his teachings are hard and they're difficult but you're all in there are others of us who we grew up around of what I call churchianity which is just kind of a general religiosity kind of upbringing and it's legalistic or a shallow and there's always bad music right and so there's that and so some of us grew up around that you bailed on that and but now you know as a young adult or an adult you're coming back and you're rediscovering Jesus in this whole new way and for yourself as an adult not a part of your family or whatever so there's a whole bunch of us who's been in that and the way Christians make a big deal out of sex and marriage and all that kind of stuff has always been difficult for you and what's the big deal there's a quite a number of us who we did not grow up around pure Jannetty at all and so you but you're all in for Jesus and you're discovering and you're really processing Jesus is teaching for the first time really ever in your life and then there's even it's a smaller group but there are a number of people among us who they wouldn't even identify themselves as Christians but their friends drag them here whatever or family members or are you genuinely interested interested you're exploring but you know and the way Christians and sex and media holy cow you know you just wanted what to do so that whole we're all here here we are and we're looking at some of the most difficult teachings of Jesus about some of the most personal issues that are also controversial in our culture and so let me just let me just kind of frame at least what for me is a helpful way to frame this Jesus is saying these words to his disciples he's talking to people who have reckoned with who he is and have chosen to who he is be true for them let their identity be shaped by following him and there in right and so if you or that's not you if you wouldn't call yourself a Christian or a disciple of Jesus there's a sense in which you actually aren't really the primary audience that's being addressed in Jesus's words or in these messages even and this I think raises at least an important issue this for me is that I think one of the one of the problems are missteps that the church at least anarchic setting in Western culture in America has taken is by making the issues of a Christian view of sex or marriage making that the front burner issue and making that the issue that we actually have the first conversations with with somebody who's not a disciple of Jesus and it just seems to me that that count like horse-cart you know a cart before the horse kind of deal because if someone's not a disciple of Jesus why on earth should they be compelled to follow his teachings when it comes to all any arena of life much less marriage for sexuality so you're not a Christian I just invite you to over here what Jesus is saying to his disciple but I would encourage you I think the most important issue for you to be thinking about is not sex or marriage it's Jesus and who he is and what he did and what he said and what you're going to do about that and once you're there then all of life comes under the microscope of Jesus's teaching so to speak does that make any sense okay so that's my little caveat Jesus makes us all uncomfortable though it's just was to say that what's uh let's just dive in and and explore the implications of his teaching here so verse 27 he began just like he did he's going to do this six times he says you have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery what's he quoting you shall not commit adultery one of the ten one of the ten commandments and so he assumed you've heard that it was said he's Jewish audience through and through synagogue you've grown up we all know the Ten Commandments you've all heard the Ten Commandments and he fights it in a way that's very similar to like he did last week you have heard that it was said you shall not murder and he so yeah that's right that's a reliable indicator of God's will that's what the laws in the Torah where they were pointers to God's will through the people of Israel in that covenant and so so that's right he decides that he doesn't say it's bad or stupid or outmoded he just says there it is but then he goes on and he sets his teaching right next to it but I tell you anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart he sets it alongside and he doesn't even say life he's explaining the law he's just setting his teaching right there as this other authority that takes the point where the purpose of the law and he says fulfills it and this is a big thing in these six weeks right is that Jesus is saying but being a part of the kingdom isn't just about modifying your behavior and like you get religion it's about allowing Jesus himself to begin to work on these core root issues in our lives the root issues that result in us behaving and doing stuff that fractures our relationship with God and with other people and degrading our humanity and the humanity of other people Jesus wants to move it those deep-rooted issues of the hearts and look at verse look at verse 28 he sets his teaching right there does anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has committed adultery with her we're here week so here we go Jesus Jesus is fulfilling the purpose of the command this is an issue it's an issue of the heart now now what do we do what do we do when Jesus turns up the heat like this let's look at first of all let's look at is what he's saying here about adultery because already this phrase here Jesus has underneath it a whole view of the marriage and sexuality and so on he doesn't make it explicit here he will in 13 chapters in chapter 19 when people come to him asking him about his views on marriage and divorce and sexuality and so on and so we can't unpack it here but at least to say everything for Jesus the whole view of the world shaped he says by his scriptures and specifically page 1 and 2 of the scriptures people come to Jesus asking about marriage and sexuality and the meaning of life and so on and he always goes to page 1 and 2 of the Bible and so he talks about how how you have you have male and female who reflect the image of God these these beings who are one humanity but yet distinct and different and they reflect the image of the creator and something powerful and profound happens when those two others make a covenant commitment to one another and out of that covenant there's a union of heart and mind and body and out of that covenant new life is created and nurtured in the families communities and neighborhoods and so on that's the vision of pages 1 and 2 about about human life and so on and Jesus sites from that as he affirms that in Matthew chapter 19 and so here Jesus sees the marriage covenant is so sacred and so beautiful and significant that anything that would threaten it he sees as a distortion of what it means to be a human made in God's image anything that would fracture that and so he fights this command don't commit adultery in this case by ending up in bed with someone who's not your covenant partner right that you haven't made a covenant with that's a that's a distortion of what it means to be human however for Jesus that doesn't get near enough to the heart of the issue right because how how does someone before God and a whole bunch of people you make these life commitment ODEs and promises to be faithful to this covenant partner and thus a wedding ceremony or something and then one day a week 1 year 10 years later they're in bed with somebody who's not their covenant partner how does that happen right and I in a duck maybe in one time out of a thousand it happens because somebody just wakes up and it's like you know what I'm gonna do today you know like it doesn't this is how you end up in this scenario is a slow simmering of heart issues Jesus says root issues going on with that person story and in mind in their heart that comes to fruition in sleeping with someone who's not their covenant partner and what Jesus wants to track is get upstream upstream upstream of this behavior and get to the core the core issues with Jesus locate in the heart and verse 28 one of those yous you know you've been around Church you've heard it heard this teaching before but it's like a I don't know the teachings of Jesus they're so simple and they're a bottomless lake in terms of depth and profound implication and so we're just going to camp out here on 28th because he's doing a three things here that I think are really powerful so he says it's not just about not ending up in bed with somebody he locates the issue much earlier upstream and he says it's here he says I tell you then anyone who looks at a woman lustfully now what does he mean here it's fairly clear but I think we can clarify it even more just to help just to help make his point clear when he says look our English word looks as kind of funny because I can look at you and the word the English word look can refer to a glance or I can refer to the stare now in English how deep does the word look distinguish between looking or staring so it can actually be either and it's very similar to what Jesus said last week he said anyone who's angry with someone else you know it's committed murder in their heart and so on and and so Josh pointed this out it's the same exact issue here he's not just talking about the instant he's talking about an ongoing sustained look and in English we have a perfect word for an ongoing sustained awkward look and that's the word stare right there so if you write in your Bibles I would just encourage you to write write that in there so stare and staring for what what purpose with what goal will result and here I think I'll just throw this screen up just because I thought it was interesting our England modern English translations have a lot of variety for what Jesus is getting at here so you talk so the new international version that I read from said looking or staring lustfully new American Standard with lust for her new revised standard with less I think the English standard version the last one that's what we'll read from captures the precise point of what Jesus is getting at it's about intent and purpose so my Macky paraphrase would be anyone who stares at a woman in order to fuel sexual desire for her so what Jesus what he's not talking about is looking at and noticing someone who's attractive right that's that just happens there's beautiful people in the world and they reflect God's image and that is what it is what he's getting at is the choice that is before you after you notice the attractive person you choose to refocus or whatever or to look them in the face if you're having a conversation with them or do you do you use them for something that deep an internal inside of you to foster and fuel sexual desire which is what the word lust means last is one of those funny words do you think it's a religious word actually I thought of that this week religious is a word religious people to use to talk about sexual desire I leave it to you to figure it out but I don't actually think many people use that word except religious people to talk about sexual desire but that's what Jesus is talking about here so you guys get this is not abstract okay so if you're a woman if you've been a victim of this stare you know exactly what Jesus is talking about if you're a dude and you have been a victim or a perpetrator of this there you know exactly what Jesus is talking about this is what he's talking about and actually what it what he's saying is this is yet another behavior ending up in bed with somebody is not your covenant partner that's an action that's just a symptom of some deep some deeper issue and even this the look the sustained stare in order to fuel and generate the little movie in your head that is also just a symptom and that the deepest issue is this issue of committing adultery with others in our hearts so what Jesus is getting at here so intense he's getting at the fact that there is something going on inside of us that no one sees if you do the awkward stare right you notice people doing the awkward stare it's fairly it's easy to detect once the secret's out if you end up in bed with somebody if somebody's doing the awkward stare like following you know down the sidewalk that kind of thing like that's kind of noticeable and you're a little embarrassed but whatever but but what he's getting at is there there's a movie that plays in our minds that we choose to generate and no one knows who knows if you're doing that you know you can't police that you can't detect it it is an utterly private matter and Jesus says the issues the issues they're not what's the noticing but with the choice and what you do with that choice Martin Luther just because this is such an amazing one he just he summarizes exactly what Jesus is getting at here he says we should not make the bowstring of Jesus's teaching to taught here as if anyone who's merely tempted to look at another with lust is eternally damned and he shows this I cannot keep a bird from flying over my head but I can certainly keep it from making a nest in my hair or from biting off my nose so there you go you get it you get it yeah so it's not it's about the choice to let something take root and you've fuel it that's what Jesus is moving and he says that that's the matter that actually no one else can see or no you can't enforce a law against that and so he's going right so extreme how on earth like what a high bar the so crazy Mazama might seem like utopian is completely unrealistic in some way like how did Jesus would make this demand of his disciples in the kingdom but he says that's where the issue really really is why is he so extreme about this and I mean if it's prized it really is the thing about this and this would be a response maybe some of you have and certainly many in our culture would obvious but it's private the whole point is you don't act on it it's nobody knows you don't do anything about it it's just a movie in your head and it's you know maximize pleasure minimize pain what humans do why is it such a big deal and clearly for Jesus it is a big deal because we would say ending of a bed or is the awkward stare like that's the action this is just a thought and Jesus says no this is an action this is an action this is a deed an action that you do towards somebody they don't know about it nobody else knows about it but it's still happening it's a real action in a choice and a choice that you're making why is Jesus king and why is it going to come in self-mutilation as a solution to this well what is going on why is he take this so seriously and wisely make it such a big deal and and so here I think we need to to pause and have still out why sex is a big deal to Jesus and why the overhauling and the renovating of our hearts and minds when it comes to sex is a big thing throughout the New Testament and what it means to be a community of Jesus's disciple sex is important and a big deal to human beings and it's a big part of the kingdom why is that and I think there's a number of reasons why this gets such an extreme response out of Jesus and when he moves news right towards it and the first one actually isn't something that's assumed it comes out and his teachings later on but it's something that's assumed and that's the vision of sex and of the body that Jesus inherited from the Hebrew Scriptures that he believed expressed the will of God and it's what he repeated in his own teachings and it's the reason Jesus cares about this issue so much it's not that he's proved Jesus is improved and he's certainly not guilty of like somehow teaching people in an unhealthy way to repress their sexual desire or something like that it was actually Christian teachers who later began to misunderstand I think the Jewish context and the Hebrew Bible roots of Jesus's and Paul's teaching on sex that they begin to develop a Christian version that was like the body of second-rate and your sexual desire is actually evil and dude in the dark and it's dirty or something like that that's a deep Distortion because if you look at pages 1 & 2 of your which was Jesus Bible you see God surveying the landscape and of all that he's made and he sees humans and their bodies and their gendered bodies as male and female and sex that's connected to their gendered bodies and God saw all that he made and he said that it was not good of the seventh time that he says it's very good our bodies are good sex is good sexual designer it's good there's an entire book of Jesus's Bible whose sole purpose is to celebrate and explore the goodness of sexual desire and of sexes consummation sex as a consummation of lovers who are moving towards covenant commitment and what is the name of that book of the Bible it's a book of the Bible about sexual passion you guys it's every people they don't know what to do with this so they turn it into a book about something else but it's not it's about sexual passion so and yeah and if don't read it if you blush right one and two no biggie in Jewish tradition this book is read in synagogues annually during the days of Passover Jesus would have grown up hearing the poems this ancient Israelite loved poetry some of the almost erotic love poetry read in synagogue every single year as he grew up the concluding or the concluding paragraphs is is a unique poem that that kind of surveys all the poetry that comes before it all these poetry these two young lovers a shepherd and young woman and they're excited about each other's bodies and they talk about it and then this is the this is the concluding paragraph says love is as strong as death it's passion unyielding is the grave it burns like a blazing fire like a mighty flame many waters cannot quench love rivers cannot sweep it away if one were to give all the wealth of one's house for love it would be utterly utterly scorned and the Romantics here we swoon so it's a beautiful reflection on the power of sexual passion of desire it's good it's not bad it's well actually here let me move it this way and actually let me just use the metaphor that the poem uses God surveyed all they've made it's very very good including this right here now there are some the greatest goods and I think human experience are complex goods and they cannot be reduced to just are they bad or are they good and what is the metaphor being used right here for sexual passion and desire fire fire is fire is fire bad or is fired good and often I will do that and then say yes and we all laugh or something like the but I think actually this is a this is a time where that's not even the right question to ask it's inappropriate to really getting to the heart of the issue because it it can become good it can become a great good when it's when it's in an environment where its power can be channeled towards positive life-saving purposes right so here right here this is good just because it creates an ambience you know it's a little romantic I would put on the table if I was on a date with my wife or something and in it and so it brings light into darkness that's good when you put this and stove it with some other fuel and so on you put it in an oven and then it can make food for you and a bunch of other people that's good it can put it in a furnace and ignite whatever natural gas or something like that and it can heat your house and that's that's a great good but it but it's good when it when it's in the environment that harnesses its power and makes it towards human life and flourishing and so on but that same exact power can can wreak incredible destruction incredible destruction and whether it's you're like it's a campfire and the spark jumps out and burns a hole in your new rain jacket right so the 10 of you who that's happened it's sucks when that happens it's like dang it I just got it so is that or it can my come out of your fireplace or whatever and like burn if you melt a huge thing in your polyester rug or whatever or Dan gulfs you're probably after rug and then the walls and your apartments up in flames it burns your hand when you violate this barrier of like the fire pit in your backyard and it just consumes your flesh and burns it or whatever and so so the point is is it good or is it bad that's not the right question the point is is it's a power and it is a great complex good and when its purpose is when the purpose of love within the biblical vision within the covenant commitment vision sexual desire and passion has the ability to become an expression of that covenant commitment that it's unparalleled because it's not just about saying these vows in front of witnesses it's not just about like signing a piece of paper or marriage certificate it's a it's a it's a unifying and binding of heart and mind and body and out of that passion and power of new life is generated and created that's the vision of pages 1 & 2 it is a great good but the moment that the protective environment of the covenant is is absent then all of a sudden this power can weld two human beings together and then one pieces out and it's the deepest emotional scarring that humans undergo is is the remorse and the regret of bad sexual decisions or lists I don't even need to talk about the power and the scarring of sexual abuse and the way it wounds human beings when it's not contained within the environment the safe haven of the Covenant of the covenant commitment and so Jesus isn't stupid he I would argue but Jesus and the Scriptures have the highest view of sex and the body as utterly sacred and utterly beautiful and that it's our culture that treats our bodies is something less it's just a mere animal appetite or whatever and it's just kind of what you do we're just doing the selfish gene right Richard Dawkins we're just DNA carriers just propagates the stuff you know and just go for it and and Jesus is mine it's the highest view of sex in the body that you can possibly imagine and so Jesus gets tweaked when the issue with this issue comes up he gets forceful and real about it because he knows that there's something core to us that become distorted the second thing I think of why Jesus gets so worked up here is actually something that he does bring up elsewhere in his teachings and it's about his vision of what human beings are here for and what life in the kingdom is supposed to look like and I'll throw a passage up here just because we've come to before her we're going to come to it 20 more times before we actually get to Matthew chapter 22 but it's Jesus's vision of what human existence is about and what we're here for hearing the Jesus silenced the Sadducees the Pharisees got together one of them an expert in in the law Torah question tested him with this question teacher what's the greatest commandment in the law Jesus replies and he was only asked for one commandment and he gets to love the Lord your God with all your heart soul with all your mind one of the fundament we're asking what's the greatest command what's the what's God's will that brings human existence to its fruition and purpose and the first one is to know and be known by your Creator and loving relationship and to know the Grace and the generosity and the responsibility that he's given to us as human beings but then he goes that's the first and then here's the second greatest command love your neighbor as yourself everything long prophets hang right here so in pages 1 & 2 humans are images of God there it's like CS Lewis said but the closest you will ever be to the likeness of God is the person sitting next to you on the bus sighs this loses clever way of saying if there's something utterly unique and sacred about human beings and that we reflect and our images of God and so to love God is to love those who reflect his image is totally industry inextricably woven woven together here and so the love ethic is the core of the kingdom the core of the remaking of humanity is about this restoring of our relationship on all levels with those closest to me with my round of acquaintances with those in my community and city that I don't know but they are also image bearing human beings and I need to be in right relationship it's this vision of the total restoring of all levels of human relationship and and it seems to me why Jesus gets so tweaked when this issue of lust comes up is because what is what is love what is happening in your heart when you stare and you fuel that sexual desire for another person against their will they don't even know that it's happening and Jesus says it's a huge deal because it it's it tells of what you think other humans exist for that action whether you would say it like this or not what that action speaks is that other people exist to play a role in my story of maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain other people exist so that I can gain pleasure from their body part that's what other people are for because that's what's happening when you stare and you generate the little movie it's a degradation of their humanity of that other person and it dehumanizes you and it dehumanizes that other person and so this what Jesus is describing the stare and the choice and what you think about that person in that moment is a violation of the greatest ethic of the kingdom because love elevates others love protects others and it honors them and it honors their dignity and it seeks their well-being as important or even more important than my own and so to whatever in my in my mind to to treat them as a body as an object is to degrade their humanity and it picks Jesus off when we do that to each other whether it's sex whether it's anger or whether it's Jesus is intolerant of behavior that fractures relationships and abuses other human beings because love is what we're made before and what sexual desire like nothing else and I don't need to say this except just to say we all can agree on there's something that happens in sexual desire that's how we're wiring and it's good when that passion is directed in a positive direction but there's something about misdirected sexual desire that turns human beings into animals absolute animals our consciousness go out the window everything that we say we believe goes totally out the window and we just act in these impulsive often destructive and abusive ways towards each other towards ourselves and it's the most saddest degradation of our own image bearing humanity in this in the view of the scriptures and so Jesus goes right towards it he says it's a crime against humanity to objectify them and and degrade their humanity in your mind and in your heart and that moves to the last thing of why Jesus makes it such a big deal and it's actually something I didn't notice before before reflecting on this here look at verse look at verse 28 whoever's 28 I've never just think about this he says I tell you anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has committed adultery with her in his heart - what gender is Jesus talking in verse 28 look look the actual words he is this it's not what's going on here - what Genesis clearly his heart like it's he's talking about men now who's he talking to right now he's talking to his disciples and we and it's not the 12 disciples they don't exist yet has this pergolas chapter 10 right so we we talked about this weeks ago he's it's these huge crowds who were coming from Jerusalem and Galilee all these different regions and it's sick poor hurting people there's no indication whatsoever that Jesus is only addressing a large crowd of men just the opposite then we know from Luke and from other women made up a large number of his disciples along with men as well what is Jesus doing he's addressing a huge group of men and women who are digital but he addresses men why does he do that does he think that women never have inappropriate sexual desire so I don't think Jesus is that stupid right what's he doing right here and I think it's very intentional and it's profound because the movie here's the movie that we generate in that men generate in their heads when they perpetuate the gays and the Steyr for some it stays a private internal matter but I don't even need to tell the stories I mean just in the history of the human race which gender has turned sexual desire into a tool of violence subjugation and oppression of the other gender do we need to take a vote on that right and Jesus this is what Jesus he's not just teaching individual morality here what's he doing he's launching the kingdom he's inaugurating a new Humanity in alternate society and he challenges the men who live in this kingdom too that if we really want to follow Jesus we need to let him work on this area of our heart so that the kingdom is a place that is safe for women like what it what are the other implication is there of verse 28 he addresses men in the kingdom and he says in this kingdom women are saved they need to be safe from being victimized by the gays and being treated by less than what they are image bearing human beings it's very profound and Jesus is clearly consist a huge huge issue how you guys done some of us are feeling really horrible about ourselves right now and that's not the worst thing in the world as long as it's not the end of the story and with Jesus is never the end of the story letsa was considered his response if it's your right eye that's the problem yeah get rid of it yeah gouge it out throw it away better to lose one part of the your body and for the whole to be thrown into hell your right hand yeah get rid of that thing it's better to lose that body parts and the whole body to go into hell okay all resolved here we go ha ha ha ha uh ok so this is this is typical of Jesus he will use shocking attention-getting images that jolt your wait commit I mean half of this is surely just to get us to say dude this is so serious you don't even know how serious this is is Jesus actually commending self-mutilation as a way forward here right and I think we could have him in a chair we would ask him questions and he would ask a whole bunch at us and never answer our question right that's how it usually operates but let's say like he would cooperate or whatever like we could really ask him what he thought I think I my mind I think it's I think it's clear that self-mutilation is not a legitimate resolution to this issue where is the core issue he already said where's the core issue in the heart does he actually think tearing out your right eye you know that right eye that's really the problem there's a ridiculous right and so that right hand or whatever so he so he's using right as this image of predominant amount of human beings right-handed and so on I actually think he's just poetically matching the eye to the hand but the eye the hand and the foot in the Psalms and in the Proverbs of Israel's scriptures they're images of how you see the world how you act in the world and your life path in the world and so you if there is something in your life that seems indispensable to you it seems like it's actually a part of you and it brings pleasure it makes things work our hands are extremely useful we do most of our things with our hands and seeing with our eyes however but if there is something so closely you think it's so closely woven into your being and how you live in the world but it's ruining you it's destroying you by constantly leading you into ruin in this area of your heart and sexual desire Jesus says get rid of that thing swift decisive don't think a second time about it get rid of that thing kill it dead gone don't mess with us it'll consume you it's a monster that will eat you alive sexual desire is not bad but when it is it is not in the safe environment that creates and generates lives it's a monster that will consume you whole and it will ruin all of your relationships and some of you know exactly what I'm talking about here and so just elephant in the room let's just move let's just move right towards it and this is an in modern Western culture it's like asking us a fish asking a fish to look at the murky water that is swimming in we don't even see it anymore we live in a culture the first culture in the human race that has made a huge huge percentage of our nation's economy Multi multi Multi multi billion dollar industry in our economy whose sole purpose is to lure human beings into degrading themselves and their own humanity not to mention the millions of human beings that are involved in the production of this layer of our economy and they may not think they're degrading their humanity but actually they are right what am I talking about it's and it's like we don't even see it we push it out of our minds but the the elevation of porn in our sexualized culture it's unbelievable and it's unequaled in the history of the human race the degree to which our America has taken it in the last 200 years it's flabbergasting and we don't even think about it where we think it's just what humans do or whatever it's a blight you guys and and it traps men and women and it's trapped a whole bunch of us I know it right here in our community and Jesus he doesn't hate you but he's here he's here announcing the kingdom to rescue and to bring freedom but he names it for what it is it's a monster that will eat your soul did it will eat you alive and it will begin to rewire your brain in ways that brain scientists are just now beginning to understand what porn does to the human brain right when those when those actions get repeated over and over and over again and the synapse tunnels in the brain get fired through with dopamine and oxytocin and all it's unreal the way that we get hooked on this and sexual desire like nothing else it's not just another bodily appetite you know I just I really am flabbergasted by the naivety let's say it's just a private matter that people should just deal with on their own like it's not a private matter dude how does somebody end up in bed with somebody else's covenant part how does somebody end up thinking that's a sensible thing to do to eff sexually abuse a child it's that's a symptom that's the surface stirrings of deep deep issues that in our culture we just we totally revel in it as a culture it's unbelievable and so I don't normally get like so worked up but I've just seen so many friends and loved ones fall prey to this demon of misdirected sexual desire and it's and the reason Jesus is so worked up about it is because it is such a beautiful good thing not because it's horrible because it has the potential to be the most awesome thing and so it doesn't seem to me that cutting off your body parts is the issue and if it was the issue he's forgot something I'll just leave it there go ahead really I'm and I'm not just trying to be crass I'm being completely serious if you actually you get the point you get the point the point is is that misdirected sexual desire becomes a black hole and instead of the human heart as the proverb says becoming a wellspring of life so that a glorious image bearing human being their heart when it's remade by Jesus and you know in the new creation when this when our full being is transformed the heart of a human becomes a wellspring of lies to other people to protect and to honor and to elevate and to seek the well-being of others and there's something about this particular issue that turns what's meant to be a wellspring into a black hole and we just suck everybody in we suck others and our perceptions of their bodies in and it it becomes a bottomless pit which is why Jesus uses a strong language of Hell right here he's not saying that lust is the unforgivable sin what he's saying is there's something about this issue if it goes unchecked and if you don't come to Jesus and to the community of the disciples in like find a way forward by turning towards Jesus it will consume you it will turn you into a bottomless pit and and for those of you who have ever been hooked into porn you know exactly what he's talking about the black hole of the human heart and whether it comes to fruition in porn or sexual abuse or adultery or whatever it's it's a way of viewing human beings as bit players that can be objectified and become a role in my story and my pleasure in my fantasies and it's a it's a degradation of your humanity you're better than that and God made you to become more than that and you can become more than that because of the one who loves you who's utterly committed to you he lived for you he died for you and he's committed to remaking you as a human if he will just turn to him into his love and so that's where this lands us at the love of Jesus because I don't know how to remake this part of the human heart I really it takes it's a million decisions it's it's a bunch of small decisions that begin with just sending up the white flag and just telling what's up telling somebody right there's a whole there's a whole bunch of us here for whom it's not your hand or your eye as this thing right here right and and what you need to do is get a stupid phone that's what you need to do and it's inconvenient do this it will be so inconvenient it will be so lame I mean I let's just name it right now but dude if it's if it's leading you on a path towards you becoming a black hole and if it's beginning to spill out and making your relationships toxic and you don't actually know how to even think about and relate to the opposite sex or you're on same sex in in the appropriate way dude it's bleeding you on a path that you it will be virtually impossible to turn throughout and so Jesus says the moment is now take swift decisive action jesus loves you and he can do it and he can do that in you and so this is a perfect point I'm not going to sugarcoat it I'm just going to say the issue its dire and the stakes are high and we're a community of Jesus disciples none of us is without our own issues and baggage and sin for some of us this is our issue and you need to find freedom and healing and the community of Jesus is the place where we could do that together and so right now I think the most appropriate thing to do is to for me to pray in conclusion and for us to have a time where you just are really honest with Jesus and where if you're a disciple of Jesus where you move to taking the bread in the cup and you're re-enacting the story of his utter commitment to you despite your own sin and brokenness and and the story that you're retelling is not just the story of his death his broken body and shed blood it's the story this conquering of death because Jesus is love it's stronger than the grave many waters cannot quench the passion and the commitment that Jesus has for broken people and that includes you and that's the story and that's the love and the presence of Jesus that we celebrated the bread at the bread the cup and I just challenge you if you need to make a decision in this next 20 minutes or hour being together about who you're going to talk with if you don't have anybody to talk with and quite opening the floodgates right here but dude if you don't have anybody to talk with please please send me an email and I'm almost certainly it won't be me that you end up meeting with but it will be with somebody that I trust and who I know has journeyed through this into freedom and who can be walk with you through this make a decision about what you're going to do and do it now amen amen we close in the word of Prayer you

Channel: Tim Mackie Archives

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Id: J3PF2FEN_58

Length: 48min 44sec (2924 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 19 2017