Sermon series continues… Sunday 26 May 2013 Matthew 5:27-30

Matthew 5:27-30 The Message You know the next commandment pretty well, too: ‘Don’t go to bed with another’s spouse.’ But don’t think you’ve preserved your virtue simply by staying out of bed. Your heart can be corrupted by lust even quicker than your body. Those leering looks you think nobody notices—they also corrupt. Let’s not pretend this is easier than it really is. If you want to live a morally pure life, here’s what you have to do: You have to blind your right eye the moment you catch it in a lustful leer. You have to choose to live one-eyed or else be dumped on a moral trash pile. And you have to chop off your right hand the moment you notice it raised threateningly. Better a bloody stump than your entire being discarded for good in the dump.

Staying pure – strategies to overcome

HEART ISSUE Mark 7:15 NIV:- Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean’. We remember again Matthew 5:8 NIV:- “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” So clearly sexual purity is a HEART issue!

Phil 4:8

COMPLEX (!) EQUATION What goes in = What goes out Junk In = Junk Out Good stuff In = Good stuff Out

1 Timothy 5:1b, 2 NIV Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.

James 1:14, 15 The Message Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.

1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Be yoked to Jesus! Matthew 11:29-30 NIV:- “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  

Courage Courage is the willingness to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done, no matter the cost.

Galatians 2:20 NIV I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

END