Lust - Walking in the Wisdom of God

Lust: Walking Wisely in our Sexuality 

• Sex Crazed, Sex Starved: Where we are now...
• The Sexual Revolution, Lust & Pornography  
• Lust in All its Forms: Consuming & Committing Pornography

Proverbs 5: Taking a Different Path

Listening to Wisdom and Preaching to Ourselves (vv. 1-2)

A Deadly Mistress (vv. 3-6)

• Defining “Forbidden Woman”
• False Expectations & Artificial Fulfillment

Run for your life! (vv. 7-8)

Matthew 5:27-29   ²⁷ "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.'  ²⁸ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  ²⁹ 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.   

• Strategizing against Sexual Sin: Gouging out Lust 
• Tip-toeing towards Disaster (Proverbs 6:27-28)    

Fighting with Foresight (vv. 9-14) 

• Imagine If...The Cost of Lust   

God’s Best: Sex in Marriage (v. 15-19)

• Why God Gave us Sex
• Streams in the Street: The Burden of Sexual Baggage  
• Marital Intoxication: Drink Up!   

Living Before the Eyes of God (vv. 20-23)

• Condemnation & the Cross   
• Commitment or Cheap Grace?  

First Steps

• Repentance and Faith: A Reason to Fight  
• Identifying & Engaging the Battle 
• Acknowledging Progress

Community Meditation Questions

• In your everyday life, what are the things that most frequently war against taking a path of wisdom with lust?
• Have you ever known anyone who is proactive in their fight against lust (possibly you)? What sort of strategies and resources do they utilize in their pursuit of the way of God? What would be the results if you were to take Matthew 5:27-29 seriously?
• If you are married, do you and your spouse regularly discuss issues related to your sexuality/”sex life”? How open do you feel you can be with your spouse in this area? What might help to increase your level of openness?
• If you are not married, do you have healthy relationships with members of the opposite sex? If not, what holds you back from pursuing such relationships?  1 Timothy 5:2 describes relationships between young men and women in the Church as brothers and sisters in all purity.  How does this inform your relationships?
• Do you have someone that regularly holds you accountability in your fight against lust? What sort of questions do you ask one another? How helpful has this been? If you don’t have such a relationship, why not? Who could you ask to do this with?
• Read Matthew 5:8 and Psalm 84:11. How can these passages aid us in walking in the wisdom of God?