Welcome to 721 Live. I'm Sam Hunter. I am glad that you are with us. You may not be glad that you're with us, because for the second week in a row, we're going to talk about what Jesus had to say about lust, lust in his Sermon on the Mount. And we'll get to that discussion in just a minute. But first, let me remind you, 721 Live is the radio arm of 721 Ministries. You can check us out on our website. Find out all about us at www.721ministries.org. That's 721ministries.org. And 721 Ministries has a Facebook page, so you can just go to 721 Ministries on Facebook. And you'll see a lot of things we post there on the website and on Facebook. Find out all about us and what we do, what we stand for, what our purpose is. But I want to jump right into this because Jesus, when He gets into the meat and He starts getting onto it in the Sermon on the Mount, He starts with anger, and then He follows it with lust, and then He moves right on through. And I want to step back just a half a second and again set the table for Jesus' teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, but really, truly, all of His teachings, but especially in the Sermon on the Mount, there's two things I want you to always keep in mind. The first one Jesus is saying to you is, there's more. There's more going on than you can see. There's more at stake than you can see. That's the first thing I want you to think about. He's always saying, there's more going on than just what you can see around you. There's a whole spiritual, there's a heavenly realm, there's your Heavenly Father, there's Satan. And so there's more to it, there's more at stake than just your simple behavior that you can see. A lot of it has to do with what's going on in your heart. And the second one is, and this is such an important concept to think about really just about every day, who is your audience? Who is your audience? Now I might phrase that in another way. I may say, who do you care most about is watching you? Who matters the most to you? What are you thinking in your mind? It matters more to you than anything else who is watching you. Because if it's people around you, then you're just falling right into the category that Jesus was trying to set straight the thought process and the patterns of the culture around him. Don't perform for other people. If that's who your audience is, which is, if we're honest, most of us, our audience throughout the day is what other people think about us. But if God, your Heavenly Father, is your audience, and this is what Jesus said when He said, look, just because you may not act out on your anger, you may not murder someone, your Heavenly Father sees what's going on in your heart. And just because you may not act on an adulterous affair, if you've got that kind of lust in your heart, you haven't fooled anybody. You certainly haven't fooled your Heavenly Father. And I want to be quick to say, He doesn't mean it like your Heavenly Father is He's some big tyrant God lurking around to knock you down every time you do something wrong. That's not the image. That's not the idea. What he's saying is your Heavenly Father. Don't think that what people see on the outside is really what matters. Your Heavenly Father loves you. He knows what's going on inside of your heart, and that's where the real damage is being done, much more so than just your reputation. Really, when the writer of Hebrews in chapter 12 says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. That's who our audience would be. Not the great cloud of witnesses of everybody around us, but that heavenly host that see there's more going on in your life. Most of us judge our performance based on what we see around us, what other people see us doing, see ourselves doing, but there's a whole heavenly realm out there. And your Heavenly Father loves you, and He knows it goes much deeper. So, last week, when Jesus says, you have heard that it was said, do not commit adultery, but I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart, in Matthew 5, right at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus says that, He's moving from anger to lust, because He knows, and you and I both know too, that if you've got anger as an issue in your heart, Or if you've got lust after another person as an issue in your heart, there's not going to be any harmony in your life, there's not going to be any peace, there's not going to be any contentment, nor will there be anybody around you that loves you and is important to you. Anger and lust prompt, compel us to emotional reactions. Instead of trust and faith and our focus on the Lord, we respond with wise choices, not emotional reactions. Dallas Willard said, to cut the root of anger is to wither the tree of human evil. To cut the root of anger is to wither the tree of human evil. I play off of that and say, to cut the root of lust is to wither the tree of human illusion. And see, that's what I really want us to get to in just a moment, just to talk more about the illusion. Dallas Willard also says, a person who cultivates lusting in the manner that Jesus is talking about is not the kind of person who is at home in the goodness of God's kingdom. See, that's what Jesus is saying. That's not about your outward performance. It's about what's going on in your heart, which is where the kingdom of God is operating. So last week we said that anger, or two weeks ago, we said that anger is poison and anger is prison. You're just putting poison inside your system and you're just putting yourself in prison when you hold on to anger. It's the same as lust. It's poison and it's prison. And we spent last show talking about lust for another person, opposite sex. But it's the same thing for lusting after things. Jesus' best friend, John, in his first letter, 1 John 2, verse 15, do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of the eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does, comes not from the Father, but from the world. That's the NIV version, the King James Version says, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. The lust of the flesh we talked about last week. Now we're talking about the lust of the eyes. Seeing things and lusting after things. Material things, but not just material things. But see what I want you to understand is going deep with this, it's just poison and it's just prison because lust After things, as well as after people, it drills into our minds, that would make me happy. That would make me happy. And what naturally follows is, I cannot be happy without that. That is what happens. That's the poison and that's the prison. And that's where the poisonous lie is. Because, see, don't miss this. The object of your lust, and today we're talking about material things, the object of your lust is just an illusion. It's not real. It's out there in this fog of desire and it's all covered with glitter and it looks so desirable, it looks like it would make you happy and it's nothing more than an illusion of happiness. I asked the men to think about some of the different things that we might lust after and of course the obvious things were cars and houses, bigger house, always a bigger house of course, boats, typically a bigger boat, clothes, Club memberships, you know, for men, even golf clubs. You know, quite frankly, even another man's golf swing, they may say, that would make me happy if I had that. For women, oftentimes, it's the way they look. I've got three sisters and a daughter. I understand women to a certain degree, just to a certain degree. But I've heard, you know, gosh, look at that hair and that wonderful hair, look at that jewelry. But a lot of times for women and for men, it's what others think. We lust after, it would make me happy if other people thought of me this way. And it's always in a positive way, and it's always in a very popular way. Or maybe, and a lot of times this is true for women, they lust after what other people think about their children, and how they look, and how they're performing. I mean, for men, it can be clothes, suits, shoes. I've heard men talk about, lustfully talk about watches. But it's also, and this can be true for women too, success, job titles, positions, popularity, and again, what others think. In fact, before I was saved, I truly, truly lusted after the BMW 750 IL model. That was an incredible car. I wanted one so badly. When I saw these two guys that I knew driving them, I practically drooled. I wanted that car. And I remember thinking, that car would make me so happy. I would be so cool in that car. That would make me look like such a success. I want that car. And I remember when I first moved to Greenville 25 years ago, there was a couple of clubs, not country club type organizations, that I remember thinking, God, if I could just be in that club, how great would that be? But see, none of that is real. It's not real precisely because we're seeing it with our emotions. And as long as it stays in that emotional fog, well, it's just an illusion. And if we act on it, now we're talking about things, we buy it and impulse buy, we force ourselves into getting what we think will make us happy, and suddenly that illusion fades and the reality sets in. And it's not often pretty. I've seen men and women have the illusion of others, what they have is making them so happy. And it might not be material things, although often it is. It might be that you're not lusting after her husband, but you're lusting after the fact that she has a husband, or that she appears to have a happy marriage, or that he appears to make a lot of money, or that they've got more things than you've got, and you think, I would be happy if I had that. And naturally, I cannot be happy if I don't have that. Now, I've got to tell you, when it comes to looking at other people and the things they have, material and or just positions in life. I can just guarantee you through all the experiences I've had with people, everybody you meet is dealing with some issue that they wish was not in their lives and it may be and oftentimes it's a major issue. I rarely, rarely meet someone who is clicking on all cylinders, that everything is just right, but we put forth this facade and this illusion. And sometimes it sort of works out like this. I'll have a man who's been coming to the lunch meetings, the weekly lunch meetings, and then he stops coming and I find out that he lost his job or he's going through a divorce. Well, he's miserable. And after a little while I'll call him and say, I just miss having you around. I'd love to have you come back whenever you can. And every now and then they're honest enough with me to say, Look, Sam, I just cannot come to those meetings. I feel so bad about myself. My life is so lousy right now. I don't have this. I don't have that. My marriage is falling apart. I lost my job, my cash flow. And I go in there and I see all those men. They're all so happy and they're all so successful. And I just can't be around them right now. And I think, and I say to them, see, you think that because that's an illusion that we all put forth. But I can tell you, I know these men and I know what's going on in their lives and I won't give you the specifics, but there's a whole bunch of men in here who would trade places with you. See, when we ever look after other things or other people and lust after what they have and what appears to be making them happy, we have just put ourselves into an illusion and the prison and the poison is that I can't be happy without that. And therefore, when it comes to things, material things, I may go through an impulse buy. I may buy it thinking it's going to make me happier. I may buy it again, and then that buyer's remorse sets in, financial debt, it might even be emotional debt, and the consequences, they put us in prison. They imprison us. I meet so many men who are imprisoned by the monthly payments and the cash flow obligations that they have, and now their time their flexibility, their ability to sleep at night, their peace and joy, their time to spend with their family and children. They can't do it. They're in prison because of the impulse buys, the payments that they have to make, the cash flow obligations. I've even heard a couple of solid Christians say, I want to tithe. I want to give more, but I can't. I'll do it later, but I can't now. If you could see what my monthly obligations are, I just don't have any choice. I cannot tithe. I cannot give more now. And I just think to myself, can you imagine? But your Heavenly Father is thinking. When He hears you say that, you've put yourself in prison because of your lusting after other things that you think will make you happy when they are just an illusion. In the second half I want to talk about what we do with this illusion. More straight ahead. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the second half of 721 Live. I'm Sam Hunter. We are talking about what Jesus had to say about lust. Lust. And last week we spent a lot of time talking about lusting after people, but this week we're talking about lusting after things. And so many of the same principles apply. The illusion, the lie that comes with lusting after things is the same as lusting after people. The subtle message to our brains is I cannot be happy without that because that looks so shiny and so glittery and it's just an illusion. Because it's not real, because it's out there in this fog of desire. I can't be happy without. That would make me very happy and therefore I cannot really be happy without it. And nothing good ever comes out of that. What to do? What to do about this? Well, last week we said Jesus had the solution for lusting after people. He said, gouge your eye out. And of course, I said that somewhat facetiously and I think Jesus did too because it really wouldn't do any good to gouge your eye out. I said from a practical standpoint, Men, women, lift your eyes up. Don't drop your eyes below the shoulders. And that sounds maybe corny or whatever, but I'll tell you, you get in trouble when you drop your eyes below the shoulders. It's just that simple and it really is that true and it's very effective just to keep your eyes up. Well, when it comes to lusting after things, things, material things, things that other people have, it may even be their position in life or what, you know, their situation or status, Well Jesus had the solution for that, he said cut your hand off. And of course I facetiously say he really meant cut your credit cards off. But again I'm laughing and just kind of kidding because all of this is just merely controlling the action. See what I want to do is I want to see lust after anything. I want to see lust for what it really is. Just really, just sort of like anger, it's just stupid poison. and it's an illusion. And I don't want that inside of me. Just as with anger, I want to repel it and release it before it ever gets in and takes up residence in me. I don't want that. I want to see it for what it is. It's not real. It's just a lie that that would make me happy. But then really what I want is I want to change the source of my heart. I want God to help me. I've got my part to play in it. You've got your part to play in it. But I'm going to ask God to work with me and I'm going to work with him and I'm going to change my heart and I'm going to have him change my heart. He's got to do it. The Holy Spirit's got to do the heavy work here. Think about this. Satan loves to see us all wrapped up in lust. all wrapped up in wanting things. You know, his three D's. His three D's are destroy, distract, and discourage. Destroy, distract, and discourage. If he can keep you out of a relationship with Christ, then he's succeeded and he has destroyed you. He's destroyed your soul. But if he loses that battle, he'll seek the rest of your life to distract and discourage you. Distract and discourage. And he'll distract us with the illusion that this thing would make me happy and then discourage us First, discourage us if we actually impulse buy it, so to speak, if we go after it like we have to have it. We'll get very discouraged because we'll wake up and go, well, I can't afford that or I shouldn't have done that or this didn't work. Or he'll discourage us if we cannot buy it, if we don't have the money. Because love says I've got to have that now. But I want you to focus on this. I want you to think about this. Satan would love to deceive you with the illusion that this will make you happy. So he'll distract you with it, discourage you when you can't have it, or discourage you when you act on it, act out of emotion. But God says in Psalm 37 forward, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. This is one of the most meaningful passages to me. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. See, when you think you know what's going to make you happy, when you think that you know what the desires of your heart are, and you don't have them, well then you will lust after them. And you may internalize that, or you may act on it, but if you think that is the desires of your heart, you're never going to truly find it. Because see, God knows what they are, you don't. And I love the passage when Paul writes in Ephesians 3 that God is able to do immeasurably, abundantly more than anything we could ask or even imagine to ask for. When we think we know what we want, that's where our focus is. That's where our lust is, so to speak. But when we take our focus off of what we think we want, and what we think will make us happy, and we instead place it on the Lord, He will. He will fulfill this promise. He will change the way you view things. He will change the way you view people. He will change the way you view stuff that you used to think was so important or so desirable. It will lose its allure. They will lose their allure. They will lose or it will lose any hold it has on you and you will be the most surprised person around you because you'll Now wake up one day and say, I have the true desires of my heart and I didn't even know this is what they were. I now have them. The Lord has given them to me and now I can see them. There's no more illusion. But I didn't even know this is what the desires of my heart were. Because we spend our lives in this culture and with Satan distracting and discouraging, we're so sure we know. And when I first heard this passage or saw it and really focused on it, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. What I thought I heard God saying was, if you focus on me, I'll give you what you want. If you're good, and I mean sincerely good, and if you're really seeking me, I'll give you what you want. But now what I realize He's saying is, you don't even know what you want. So all of us that are down here, you today listening to me, I'll bet you there's something in your life that you are lusting after. You may not think it's lust, but it is. And you think it'll make you happy. And maybe you're obsessed with it, maybe you're not, maybe you're somewhere along the spectrum of just seeing it and thinking it'll make you happy to really being obsessed with it. You're somewhere in there, but I'm telling you it's an illusion. And you don't know what will make you happy. And the answer is to focus on the Lord. Focus on Him. And you will turn around one day and you will have the desires of your heart and you'll say, I had no idea. immeasurably, abundantly more than anything you can ask or even imagine to ask for. And that's what God does when we start to see through the illusion. When we refuse to be trapped by the glitter of anything, be it somebody's position, their status in life, their husband, their wife, the things they have, the things we don't have, lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, both are poison and both are prison. Because God can give you the desires of your heart. He can open that up so big and so wonderfully, give you so much contentment, so much satisfaction, but not as long as we keep looking and thinking, I know what I want, and if I don't get it, I cannot be happy. So I want you to just think about this. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Are you going to focus on that or are you going to focus on what Satan would love to have you focus on? And that is the things around you. It really comes back to where our heart is. And yes, last week I gave you a mechanical device, a discipline, that if you have trouble, and believe me, if you're a man, you do have trouble, and I'm not naive enough to know that women don't fall into this also. But you do lust, you do look with the intent of lusting. Well, a simple discipline is to keep your eyes up. But again, that's only controlling the action. Let's go deeper. Let's move our focus from what we think will make us happy to just putting it on the Lord and following Him and seeking Him and asking Lord, I don't know that I really love you like I want to love you. Will you help me love you more? Will you help me go deeper? Will you change the way my heart is? I don't want to be in this prison because the prison is, if I can't have it, I cannot be happy. And if I cannot be happy, I'm going to make everybody around me miserable. And let me just give you an example, not to draw out the women, but I'll give a woman an example and then I'll give a man an example. A woman wants things. She lusts after those things. They don't have enough money to buy them. She may do one of two things. She may go impulse buy and put it on a credit card, not even tell her husband about it. And that creates all kind of turmoil for everybody, everybody. Or she may not actually be able to do that. And so she internalizes it and resents her husband for not being able to provide it for her because she is following that illusion that this will make me happy and I can't get it and it's your fault. has that same lust for things. He may say, look at all the money that I'm having to spend on my wife, on my children, look at all that, and I can't get what I want for myself. And all of a sudden, that internal resentment, and see, that is just prison. And that is just poison. Jesus moves from anger to lust at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, because He knows that these are two common human issues. that if we don't start understanding who our real audience is, then we will perform for the audience around us, and this will just lead us to trouble and issues and problems. But when you start to realize there's more going on here, there's more at stake, I'm really living in a spiritual world. There is a heavenly host that's watching me, and I want to give them the victory, not Satan. Satan's out there trying to deceive me, he's trying to distract me and discourage me. Who am I going to give the victory to here? to my Heavenly Father who loves me and wants to give me the best things? Or am I going to be so carried away with the culture that I think I can look around and say, this will make me happy, I know what it is, I'm going to become fixated on that. Now I want to ask you today as you listen to me to think honestly and objectively about your life and is there anything present like this that has a hold on you? that you see it, and it has become an illusion for you. And there's a thought process that says, I've got to have that, and I've got to have it now, and I've got to figure out a way to get it. Is that in your life now? Because there is no A-plus life with that. There is no life to the full that Jesus wants for us. When there's anything at all out there that we think will make us happy, because I'm just telling you, your Heavenly Father promises, I've seen it in my own life, I've seen it in others' lives. We don't know what will make us happy, but your Heavenly Father does, and if you delight yourself in Him, He will give you the desires of your heart. I've seen no good come from lusting, and I've seen lots and lots and lots of bad. It's time to free ourselves from this slavery, from this bondage, and walk in the light of the A-plus light. to walk in the light that is, and have the life that is truly life. To see what Jesus really has for you, which will bring you the happiness that you think you want. When Jesus says, look, don't lust after anybody, because it's what's going on in your heart is where the poison is. And his best friend John says, the lust of the eyes will get you in just as much trouble as the lust of the flesh. All of these things are from the world, and that's all going to fade away. It's not real. It's an illusion. But instead, delight yourself in the Lord. Focus on the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. What a promise. What a promise. And I have seen God fulfill that over and over. What a great message. I hope you'll take this into your heart. Check us out on the blog at 721ministries.org or on Facebook, 721 Ministries. So long. God's peace to you. I hope to see you next Friday.