Dealing with Same-Sex Lust (Toby Sumpter)
Introduction
The play of the devil from the beginning has been to redefine things such that God’s people come to believe that God’s word no longer applies. A few decades ago, the liberalizing faction tried to claim that the Bible condemned promiscuoushomosexuality but not committed, monogamous homosexual unions. Today our fearless and daring schemers are trying to redefine lust as “attraction” and they are trying to redefine homosexuallust as something entirely different than heterosexual lust. But lust is lust, and sexual sin really is a staircase people fall down not separate, unrelated doors various people enter. And this is good news because it means that the Bible actually prepares us to deal with these sins.
Leaving the Natural Use
The Bible teaches that homosexual sin is the judgment of God on a society (Rom. 1:24-26). Homosexual sin is something that God gives people over to. And we should not miss the fact that this consists of vain imaginations, foolish and dark hearts, and becoming fools (Rom. 1:21-22), which is to say that this sin (like all sin) doesn’t really make sense. So, there is a kind of randomness to it, in the sense that it makes no sense. But when sinners sin, they tend to find the same wicked grooves as generations before. When men sin sexually, they are not actually being creative, and their “heterosexual” promiscuity is already heading inevitably in a homosexual direction. Leaving “the natural use of women” is not merely speaking about intercourse. The “natural use” of women is one man marrying one woman and loving her faithfully “till death do us part.” While there are varying degrees of sexual confusion, fornication, prostitution, pornography are all unnatural uses of women. Sodomy and bestiality are the end of that road, but they are practiced by refusing to love one woman well. To the extent that a great deal of sexual promiscuity is driven by perverted masculine sexual impulses, manipulating women to serve the selfish desires of men, we should see homosexual lust as one of the likely results.
Is Homosexual Sin Worse than Other Sin?
This question is often playing on ambiguity rather than actually trying to be theologically or pastorally helpful. The Bible is very clear that some sins are worse than others. David prays: “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression” (Ps. 19:12-13). The Westminster Catechism agrees: “QUESTION 83. Are all transgressions of the law equally heinous?ANSWER: Some sins in themselves, and by reason of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than others.” Ezekiel speaks of “greater abominations” (Ez. 8:6, 13, 15), and Jesus speaks of the greater culpability of those who reject Him than cities that were judged for their sins (e.g. Mt. 10:15). Likewise, those who cause little ones to sin are clearly deserving of greater judgment (Mt. 18:6). Even the image of removing the log from your own eye before addressing the speck in your brother’s eye presupposes different degrees of sin. Of course, all sin is sufficient to separate one from God and merits eternal death (Rom. 6:23). All sin is equally damning eternally, but not all sin is equally damaging temporally. Some sins do more harm than others. And homosexual lust is a “vile affection” (Rom. 1:26), and if heterosexual lust is heart-adultery, then homosexual lust is a shameful, debased abomination of the heart (Lev. 20:13, Rom. 1:27-28).
Father Hunger
At the root of so much of our cultural confusion and corruption is the plague of fatherlessness. Sometimes absent or limp or abusive fathers cultivate harsh and domineering women and lost, confused, and starving children result. Fatherlessness creates holes that frequently drive kids to look for happiness and love and acceptance in all the wrong places. The “LGBT community” offers a superficial version of love and family. But the corruption of sin (unchecked) also seeks to corrupt others (witness sodomite parades, drag queen story hours, pornography, etc.). Faithful fathers normalize masculinity, family, marriage, work, etc., but the goal of these public displays of corruption is to corrupt the naïve, ignorant, bitter, and lost. “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage” (2 Pet. 2:19). In the absence of fathers, hurt feelings, loneliness, bitterness, puberty, and curiosity combine to create flammable situations, and if the wrong image, video, thought, situation can get lodged into mind and body, ruts of sexual sin can quickly seem like identities.
Applications
Use biblical language unapologetically: Call lust “lust” not “attraction” or “orientation.” The only “orientation” the Bible gives us is either male or female. And that is created by God and established by biology. In the very rare instances of biological/chromosomal ambiguity, parents/pastors/doctors should do their best to understand and receive what God has created as either male or female. And those sex assignments are general callings to be oriented to the world in certain ways and not others. Even a “eunuch” should live as a man/woman even if marriage and/or children is not possible. Failure or refusal to accept those assignments, to long for others, to pretend others is envy, lust, bitterness, rebellion, perversion, corrupting, and shameful.
Call sinners to repentance through the blood of Christ: The point of biblical clarity is to call people to the simplicity of repentance. Sin is a tangled web of confusion. But the blood of Christ simplifies everything. We want to call sin sinbecause the blood of Christ washes away all sin. Apart from the gospel, we have nothing. All the schemes and machinations of men amount to various forms of alchemy, salvation by psychoanalysis, medications, free health care, etc. But our culture is increasingly like the woman in the gospels, who the more she was treated by the physicians the worse she got. Jesus is the great physician, and He bled and died for these sins (1 Cor. 6:9-11). Homosexual lust should not surprise us or make us panic. The consequences may be more severe, but where sin has abounded, God’s grace abounds still more.
Cut off the hands, pluck out the eyes: After sin has been recognized, confessed, and forgiven, the same steps of repentance apply across the board: put off the old man and put on the new man (Eph. 4:22-24ff). Where are you tempted, where are there weak points? Do you need to get rid of your smart phone, cancel your internet, stop spending time with those friends? Do you need to get into the Word, join a Bible study, get a second job, tithe, learn to be a man/woman?
Pursue Christian marriage and family: “But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn” (1 Cor. 7:9). Critics want to claim that Paul was here only speaking about heterosexuals who cannot contain their passion, but this is to assume distinctions where the Bible speaks of none. In the vast majority of cases, someone tempted to homosexuality is fully capable of heterosexual marriage. And with careful discipleship and monitoring should be pastored toward that goal.
The Truth That Sets You Free
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Introduction
The world is fundamentally divided between the truth and all lies. Jesus is the Truth, and He speaks the truth of God, and those who are born of God love the truth and hear His voice. But those who are not born of God cannot hear the word of God because they are sons of the devil, who is a liar, and the father of lies. So when we come to considering the importance of telling the truth, repenting of our lies, and learning to hate all lies, we are talking about nothing less than fundamental loyalties, allegiances, and eternal destinies.
The Text
31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32 and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. 33 They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? 34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. 35 And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. 36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. 37 I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. 38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. 39 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham. 40 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. 41 Ye do the deeds of your father.
Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, evenGod. 42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. 43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. 44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. 45 And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. 46 Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? 47 He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God (John 8:31-47).
A Summary of the Text
It’s striking that John says that Jesus spoke these hard words to those Jews “who believed in Him” (Jn. 8:31), but Jesus ends up by saying that some of them don’t believe in Him (Jn. 8:45). I take this to mean that there were both believers and unbelievers in the crowd. This doesn’t mean that all of the Jews who believed in Him were offended by His words or that the Jews who believed in Him were actually unbelievers and sons of the devil. But it does mean that Jesus was not seeker-sensitive. It also means that the hard truth is good for those who believe, especially when it is aimed directly at their pride. The hard truth is also good because it divides believers and unbelievers. Jesus, master preacher, immediately finds their pride hideout, which is apparently (and deeply ironically) related to the notion of freedom(Jn. 8:31-32). The Jews lie to Jesus, insisting that they have never been in bondage to anyone, which is a whopper if there ever was one (Jn. 8:33). Imagine some of the kids standing there getting shushed for asking about Passover. Jesus is undeterred and insists that all who sin are fundamentally enslaved, and only He can set men free (Jn. 8:34-36).
Their pride in their Jewishness, their lineage from Abraham, is all wrong since they want to kill Jesus, something Abraham would not have done (Jn. 8:37-40). Jesus says they are doing the works of their father alright, but he isn’t Abraham or God, because they don’t understand Him (Jn. 8:41-43). Children recognize the voice of their father in utero, and therefore, if the words of Jesus are nonsense to them, the devil is their father (Jn. 8:44). Some of the Jews are already plotting to kill Jesus, and this is hardly surprising since lies and murder go together. Lies are verbal murder and originate from the father of lies and murder (Jn. 8:44). Jesus insists that those who do not believe Him, fundamentally refuse because they hate the truth (Jn. 8:45). He makes the same point by inviting someone to testify that He is lying, but since no one will, He points out that the only other option is believing in Him (Jn. 8:46). Jesus concludes that it is all very simple: those who are of God love the truth of His word, and those who do not love the truth of His word are not of God (Jn. 8:47).
The Ninth Commandment
Because God created the heavens and earth by speaking (Gen. 1:3) and upholds all things by the word of His power (Heb. 1:3), lying is always an attempt to unmake the world as it actually is, which is an act of pride and insolence and war (cf. Ps. 120). “A lying tongue hates those who are crushed by it, and a flattering mouth works ruin” (Prov. 26:28). Telling the truth is required by the ninth commandment, which specifically forbids bearing false witness against your neighbor (Ex. 20:16). But this is not merely a prohibition against actively lying under oath in court. This also requires active rejoicing in the truth and a hatred of all lies (1 Cor. 13:6, Ps. 119:163). This necessitates the active protection of your neighbor’s good name. This is a simple application of the golden rule: whatever you would have others do to you, do to them (Eph. 4:25, Mt. 7:12).
Truth Inflation
The problem with lies is the problem with all inflation. It devalues the currency, which effectively steals from others. Rather than letting your “yes” be “yes” and your “no” a “no,” lies and deception tend to drive language to extremes of oaths, profanities, and obscenities to try to make up for all the “fake news” (Mt. 5:36-37). This includes the lies and deception of trying to hide sin, excuse making, vain boasting, and flattery, either falsely praising what is not praiseworthy (complimenting an immodest dress or haircut) or else pretending all is well when it obviously isn’t (sipping tea while the house is on fire). Like fiscal inflation, lying tends to breed more lying. Most lies come in fire-sale deals of packs of 10 or 12. You had to lie to yourself the first time to justify the lie you told to someone else. Then you had to lie to yourself again when you didn’t immediately confess the truth. Meanwhile, you were lying to God the entire time, who sees and knows all things (Job 34:21, Acts 5:3). But since you’ve attempted to remake the world according to your own arrogant wisdom, everything else in the world must be (eventually) shifted to fit your version, multiplying lies exponentially. Maybe it started as lying about the five dollars missing from the counter or what you did with your friends last night, but now you have to explain where you got that five dollars and what you did with your friends last night. And be sure: your sin will always find you out (Num. 32:23), and with it will come great trouble (Josh. 7).
A Warning
It’s always a bit dicey preaching on something like this because there are certain tender consciences that are pricked at the thought of lying, and suddenly they wonder if they need to confess that one time when they said it was 3:15, but the second hand wasn’t quite all the way to the 12 and so it was actually 3:14. And then there are the folks who think everything is like rounding and approximating because they have no real regard for the truth. So here’s the rule of thumb directly from Jesus: do unto others what you have them do to you. Unless the difference between 3:14 and 3:15 was an intentional attempt to make yourself look better or give yourself some kind of advantage, you probably need to stop agonizing over it. Do not be cheated of the reward of a clean conscience by a false humility (Col. 2:18). Bearing false witness against yourselfis still bearing false witness. Some of you need to stop telling thoselies. But if you have a habit of rounding and spinning everything to your advantage and to others’ disadvantage, you are a liar, and those lies are murderous acts of hatred against God and your neighbor. And liars will be cast into Hell with the rest of the wicked (Rev. 21:8).
Conclusion: The Freedom of Confession
Since lies are fundamentally at war with God and His reality, it is a terrible existence to live with unconfessed lies. It is like a sickness that will not go away, like a weight around your neck, like a thirst you cannot quench, like a deep pit in your stomach (Ps. 32:2-4). And this is God’s hand heavy upon you. But God laid His hand heavy upon Jesus on the cross in order that you might confess your sins and be rid of them forever. This is the truth that sets all men free. But in order to be set free, you must admit that you have been enslaved to your sins. Do you want God’s hand heavy upon you or upon Christ? What will it be? And you cannot get this freedom piecemeal or by partial confession. It’s all or nothing, Christ or nothing. But when you come clean, when you confess, when you come to Christ in all honesty, there is complete forgiveness and freedom. God becomes your hiding place, and He surrounds you with His songs of deliverance (Ps. 32:5-7).
The Shape of Trinitarian Community
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Introduction
The Trinity is the source and archetype of true Christian community: “truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 Jn. 1:3). We have been made alive together, and the resulting community is a glorious part of the riches of His grace (Eph. 2:5-6). But we want our fellowship to be shaped by the Bible and not whatever we (or our culture) assumes it to be.
The Text
But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.10 And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more;11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing (1 Thess. 4:9-12).
A Summary of the Text
Paul says that the Thessalonians have “brotherly love” down really well because they were taught by God Himself (1 Thess. 4:9). Apparently, Thessalonica had become something of a center of Christian community, as they had become examples in Macedonia, Achaia, and “in every place” (1 Thess. 1:6-8). They had also been granted the ability to share that brotherly love with many outside their immediate community, “toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia” (1 Thess. 4:10). Paul urges them to increase more and more while pursuing quiet lives, minding their own business, and working with their own hands, just as the apostles had commanded them (1 Thess. 4:11). He says that they need to remember this for the sake of their witness to those who are outside the Church and so no one will be in need (1 Thess. 4:12).
Quiet Lives
For many of you with vans full of kids, you wonder what Paul could have possibly meant by a “quiet” life, but I don’t think Paul is talking about word count or decibel levels so much as he is talking about joy count and peace levels (cf. Ps. 131:2). The same word is used by Peter to exhort Christian wives to cultivate a “gentle and quiet spirit” (1 Pet. 3:4). In the context of marriage, fellowship grows as each spouse draws closer to Christ. The point here is that the goal of all Christian community is winning others closer to Christ not to ourselves or our own agendas. This is Christian love. If someone else comes closer to Christ they will have necessarily come closer to others who are also in Christ, but that is a secondary blessing and not the primary goal. So a quiet spirit and a quiet life are characterized by a recognition of the presence and agenda of God and restingin Him and His plans for our community life. The verb form of the same word (quiet) is used to describe keeping Sabbath in one place (Lk. 23:56). A quiet life is a life driven by Christian Sabbath, which is why we rest on first day of the week. The finished work of Christ grounds all of our labors: we work because God has already accepted our works (Eccl. 9:7), and so we work for Christ, not as man-pleasers (Col. 3:23-24). A quiet life insists that true community is only in and through Christ. A quiet life leaves space and time for Christ to be the center.
Elsewhere, Paul instructs Timothy that the churches should pray for civil magistrates, “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life” (1 Tim. 2:2-4). And notice that Paul once again connects this to all men being saved and coming to a knowledge of the truth. “Better is a dry morsel with quietness, than a house full of feasting with strife” (Prov. 17:1). A fair bit of striving is rooted in an idolatry of community, demanding of people or a graven-ideal what they were never designed by God to give. “Better a handful with quietness than both hands full, together with toil and grasping for the wind” (Eccl. 4:6). We want our community to be marked by a quiet and confident exuberance in Christ, not a toiling and grasping after the wind of human intimacy (1 Cor. 13:12).
Mind Your Own Business
For some reason, this particular exhortation doesn’t make it into most of the Christian community books, but it really should be in one of the early chapters: mind your own business. This doesn’t sound very hospitable, friendly, or evangelistic. But Paul explicitly says that we must mind our own business in order that we may walk in an orderly, decent way towards those who don’t know Jesus (1 Thess. 4:11). Proverbs says something similar: “Seldom set foot in your neighbor’s house, lest he become weary of you and hate you” (Prov. 25:17, cf. Prov. 27:14). “Also do not take to heart everything people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. For many times, also, your own heart has known that even you have cursed others” (Eccl. 7:21-22, cf. Prov. 19:11). Minding your own business is not a charge to be rude or self-centered or thoughtless, but it is a charge to focus on the things God has given you to do and not add your own gas to your neighbor’s grease fire (Prov. 26:17). Also, be aware that what sometimes passes for “community” is actually a form of laziness. It’s sometimes easier to be worried about other people’s problems than facing your own, easier to reach out to people you don’t know, and meanwhile God has put people in your own home for you to love, feed, serve, help, and bless: “if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Tim. 5:8). Hospitality and friendship should be an overflow of the fellowship you have in Christ. Be diligent in loving your people so that there is no lack in your home or anywhere else (1 Thess. 4:12). And none of this justifies being a bad neighbor or shutting your heart to a brother in need when you have the means to help (1 Jn. 3:17).
Work With Your Own Hands
Reading between the lines, the Thessalonians were so good at “brotherly love,” they attracted freeloaders and busybodies. Paul reminds the Thessalonians earlier in this letter of his example of labor and toil: “laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you” (1 Thess. 2:9). By the time Paul wrote his second letter to the Thessalonians, he needed to be even more explicit: “For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies” (2 Thess. 3:10). Paul says Christians should not keep company with people like that (2 Thess. 3:14). Likewise, Paul warns Timothy that young widows left to themselves, often learn to be idle, going about house to house, becoming gossips and busybodies (1 Tim. 5:13) – and no doubt some did so in the name of “building Christian community.” Didn’t the early Christians in Acts have all things in common, breaking bread from house to house (Acts 2:46)? Yes, they did, but that was a temporary stopgap addressing the unexpected Pentecost vacation extensions for many out of town guests and many residents were also preparing to leave Jerusalem, and the apostles really had their hands full with the attendant difficulties and Facebook didn’t even exist yet. But the standing gospel command is clear: “Now those who are [busybodies] we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread” (2 Thess. 3:12, cf. Eph. 4:28).
Conclusion
Jesus is the bread of life for the life of the world, and you are not, and neither is any other person in this world. Christ ministers His life to the world as “every part does its share” (Eph. 4:16). This means fixing your eyes on Jesus, the source of all Christian community and resting in Him, eating your bread with joy and drinking your wine with a merry heart because God has already accepted your works. This means minding the business God has assigned to you: building your house, loving your wife, serving your husband, encouraging and training your kids, being a blessing to your roommates, practicing hospitality, and looking for ways to serve and encourage others to do the same. This is brotherly love, and this is the shape of Christian community.
A Sermon for the Summer
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Introduction
As the school year comes in for a landing, and we launch into another summer, it’s worth giving thought to what you might need to be on the lookout for. Summer is worth preparing for.
The Text
It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove.Then a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him (Mk. 1:9-13).
Summary of the Text
Here at the beginning of His ministry, Jesus was baptized, filled with the Spirit, and received a benediction from His Father. The same Spirit that anointed Him and sealed the Father’s blessing to Him immediately drove Him into the wilderness, where He faced temptations from Satan, as well as, perhaps various challenges with wild beasts. And when He was finished, the angels ministered to Him. The baptism of Jesus was His preparation for the temptation, but this whole period was His preparation for His entire life and ministry, and so we may take a few lessons from it on the theme of preparing.
Preparing for What’s Next
One of the principles of parenting is preparing your children for what they will face next. When your children are very young, you need to practice saying ‘thank you’ and sitting still for church before you face those situations. First you teach, then you require. Knowing your children well means talking to them about what their temptations are likely to be when they arrive at the next thing. So, what are the temptations likely to be this summer, for you and for your children? What temptations will you face on family vacation? What are the temptations of more free-time? What will you face at a family reunion, on a baseball team, at summer camp, at a summer job, at college next Fall, or with the kids home all day long with you? This is one of the ways we love one another: by thinking about and preparing for what is coming next. In Deuteronomy, God prepared His people for the temptations of the Promised Land: “When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you. Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments (Deut. 8:10-11, cf. Dt. 6:12). In our text, we also see how God the Father prepares His Son for a great trial: by blessing Him and speaking to Him and about Him with great love and kindness (Mk. 1:11). There’s an important place for the specific warnings and instructions, but here we see that one of the most important preparations is the preparation of love and kindness: “You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This word of the Father becomes the central point of the temptation: “If you are really the Son of God…” Clinging to this word of the Father allowed Jesus to cling to the entirety of God’s word. And we should not miss the fact that this initial trial was also itself preparation for the much greater trial to come (Mt. 26:63, 27:40, 43).
Practicing Kindness
“Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Eph. 4:31-32). Bickering, arguing, unkind teasing, biting sarcasm can creep into homes sometimes imperceptibly. And frequently this means that parents are themselves guilty. Many times adults have enough self-awareness to keep their unkindness tethered to a wobbly pole we might call “good manners.” This doesn’t mean you aren’t being unkind, you’ve just gotten good at being unkind in and around and beside “good manners.” But kids are frequently not quite as socially adept, and therefore, their unkindness is more exposed and raw. When your kids bicker regularly, you should think at least two things: first, they probably got it from you, and second, you may be doing it without knowing it. So do some checking: How do you talk about your children to your spouse or friends? How do you talk about them, even when they aren’t right there listening to you? How do you talk to or about your spouse? How does the Father speak to and about His Son? And you might object that the Father had a perfectSon, but the Bible is clear that we are called to imitate our perfectFather anyway: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is heaven is perfect” (Mt. 5:48). There is a time to ask for counsel about a difficulty, but even that request should be made in imitation of the Father, full of kindness and delight. You prepare well for anything when you practice kindness.
A Grab Bag of Other Temptations
Summertime can be an opportunity for the devil to tempt you sexually. This may be related to people thinking that it’s OK not to wear most of their clothes if they’re within 100 yards of a body of water, but if you know it’s coming, prepare yourself now. And this goes for those who may be tempted to undress that way because, well, everyone else is doing it. The Bible is clear that lust begins in the heart, and is adultery in the heart, and this goes for those who are tempted to look and for those who are tempted to try to get the looks (Mt. 5:27-30). But this warning can also apply to courtships, engagements, unwise friendships, Netflix, and cell phones. And remember that Jesus said to cut off the hands and eyes that cause us to sin, which if you think about it, would be painful and awkward, and so it may mean ditching a friendship, finding a different job, or getting a dumb phone. Related to lust is the sin of envy. Prepare your hearts not to envy the summer break of someone else. Some of you will go on vacations to the Bahamas and some of you will work 60 hours a week to barely pay your bills. Some of you will get new houses or cars or girlfriends, and some of you will still be in the beater you inherited from gramps and as single as the pope at the end of summer. Determine now that you will praise God for it all, and that you will rejoice with those who rejoice. Finally, be prepared for temptations to be lazy, either fighting sin or indulging your appetites. Drunkenness is a sin, even if nobody around you can tell that you’re drunk, and so is getting “drunk” on pot or pain killers (Eph. 5:18, 1 Thess. 5:7).
Conclusion: Crush Your Summer
But the point of all of this is not merely to stay out of trouble. The point is actually that you put some thought into how you will use your summer to maximize the glory you can bring to God. As John Piper might put it, don’t waste your summer. You not only want to plan to avoid sin; you also want to plan to succeed, plan to accomplish, plan to draw closer to God, closer to your people, and grow in holiness. When September comes around, you want to look back and see progress in the fruit of the Spirit. And one of the best ways you can ensure that you grow is to make sure you plan to eat. Remember, man doesn’t live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So plan to binge on the Bible this summer. Don’t go light on Scripture. Be extreme in the Word. Guzzle it. Feast on it. Not because you haveto but because you getto. Because His Word is good. Because when we come hungry His Word is always ultimately kindness and blessing.
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