Three signs. Lust is controlling you.

 Temptation, by its very nature, feels wrong. I don't know what it is about temptation, but temptation sometimes makes a believer feel as if they have sinned. However, temptation itself is not a sin. If you have been tempted or if you are being tempted, you have not committed a sin. It is very possible to be tempted and not to sin. Now, today we are not going to talk about temptation. We are going to talk about lust. Now, one of the reasons why I know the Bible is the Word of God is because if men or women wrote the Bible, they would attempt to make themselves appear perfect. They would paint a picture as if they were perfect.

 But the Word of God reveals to us that humans, people like you and me, have a problem with a four letter word L u s t. Lust. This is a problem that has plagued men and women for millenniums. The problem with lust predates the completion of the Bible. Lust is a real, real problem. And nothing, nothing has ruined more lives than lust. Great men, great women have fallen victim to a four letter word. Lust and lust is not something that gets better with age. It doesn't get better with age. It took me a while to learn that the older I get, lust won't just magically disappear. So today we are going to look at three signs that lust is controlling you. Because if the truth be told, lust can control you, it is something that quite literally becomes a driving force in your life.

Lust has the capability of pulling into situations you know won't end well. Lust has the ability to hurt everyone around you. Lust has the ability to hurt your spouse or even your children. Lust has the ability to literally change the trajectory of your future. I am not by any stretch of the word, exaggerating when I say lust can control you. Being a pastor of a church, I have seen it. I've seen the effects of lust. Being a pastor. My job is centered around people preaching to people, counseling people, praying for people. And I have seen the effects of lust. I have been called to come to a house at 4 a.m. in the morning because a husband who was married to his wife for less than one year came home early from work and caught his wife of less than one year cheating.

 Less than 12 months into the marriage, the wife was caught cheating. And what caused this is a four letter word. L u S t. I've counseled young girls in their early 20s who had one night stands with men they didn't even know their last name. And now they have a child with a man they did not know. And that man wants nothing to do with her or that man because all he was interested in was a fling. And what caused this? A four letter word l u s t. I've counseled men, big, strong men. I mean big manly men who have come to me and prayed and cried and wept uncontrollably because they had ruined their marriage with adultery and their wife was finally tired of their infidelity.

 You have never seen sorrow like that, that sorrow of a man who has broken his home. That is sorrow. And there is so much more sorrow in the world. And what causes this sorrow is a four letter word. L u s t. Lust is something that you and I need to confront, that you and I need to deal with for the whole of our life. For young people out there. Those of you under 30 allow me to tell you the truth. Lust will not get better with age. You need to deal with it. So today we are going to look at three signs that lust is controlling you. 

The first sign is that your eyes are running your life. Lust starts from the eyes. If you see people lusting after anything, if you see people having a strong desire for something, they did not just wake up and start lusting after that thing. It was introduced to them through their eyes. What you see will determine what will be in you. Don't say you struggle with lust, but you don't filter the things you watch on the TV and on the internet. If you know you struggle with lust, don't watch things that trigger your lustful desires. Don't put yourself in a position to fail. Social media has affected the eyes of many people. It has caused many people to lust after sexual immorality.

 Listen to this. A man who was described as a perfect man in the Bible had a problem with his eyes. He was a just man, a righteous man, and was even described as perfect. But yet he had a problem with his eyes. Job one one. There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil. Do you know what this tells me? It tells me that you and me are not beyond this problem with our eyes. Better men and women than you and I have struggled with this issue of the eyes. Job saw that his eyes were causing him to go down a route he did not want to go down. 

Job had a problem with his eyes so much that he had to make a covenant with them. Job 31 one. I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman. He said, I have made an agreement with my eyes not to be looking at other women. That is the lengths he had to go to overcome the problem with his eyes. You need to make a commitment like job to look at the world the way God sees things, to look at sin, the way God sees sin, to look at other people the way God sees them. David allowed lust in him when he looked and saw Bathsheba naked from the roof. David saw her and lust gripped him. If David had destroyed lust at this stage, if he had done the right thing by not allowing lust to get to the next stage, he would have escaped the punishment of sinning against God.

 Make a covenant with your eyes now and do the right thing. Now, I love the Bible because it shows me a man like David, although he messed up, he is still described as a man of God's own heart. This encourages me so much in my own life because it points in my own life. I have made bad decisions because of lust. And if God can use someone who messed up like David, he can use someone like me and someone like you. If you had made bad mistakes because of lust, your life is not over. Don't allow Satan to beat you over the head with a level of perfection that you will never attain. All of us, every single one of us have made bad decisions. But it doesn't mean God will throw you away. 

Learn from your mistakes. Repent, and ensure you control your eyes. The second sign lust is controlling your life is when you fantasize about what you saw. I'm sure that when David saw Bathsheba, his mind must have gone wandering and fantasized about her. When you begin to fantasize and dwell on what you have seen, know that lust is controlling your life. After the eyes have seen it. If you refuse to destroy it from there, it will graduate into your heart and the heart will start thinking about it. A man can see a beautiful woman and notice that she is beautiful without lusting after her or committing adultery in his heart.

 But when you see a person and you keep looking and keep looking and your mind begins to think and wonder and go places it shouldn't go. You have a problem. After David saw Bathsheba, he couldn't stop thinking of her. He allowed lust to control him. Second Samuel 11 three, and David sent and inquired after the woman, and one said, is not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. David sent and inquired after Bathsheba. If David had seen Bathsheba and then destroyed lust or not allowed it to graduate, to grow in his heart or dwell there, he wouldn't have sent for her. All you do, all you think will be about the things you have seen.

 The heart is a great place and we must not allow lust to get in there because it will be very dangerous if it does. Lust in the heart will push one to go after what they have seen. There are things you should never look at more than once. Some things should never make it past your eyes. If you have allowed any to make it past your eyes, maybe right now you are thinking of something or someone. You are lusting after them. You are in danger and you need to destroy lust at this stage. This is the crossroads where an individual is making the decision whether or not to fall into that sin. Are you already craving what you are lusting after? Have you planned out how you will get it? Are you making a move to commit adultery? Are you making a move to fornicate now? Are you making a move to covet now, my brother and sister, I encourage you to run.

 First Corinthians six 18 flee sexual immorality. Don't entertain the situation. Don't flirt with that situation. Remove yourself from that situation even if it means you block someone, do it. The third sign is that you are taking action based on your lusts. This is the final sign of lust controlling your life. At this point, there is nothing that can be done but to wait for the result of the action. When you find yourself knowing what you are doing is wrong, but yet still dive head first into it. Know that lust is controlling your life.

 I'm telling you today the result of lust is not good. Some people have ended the lives of others because of lust. Some people have destroyed their marriages because of lust. They couldn't destroy lust. They allowed it to grow. They fed the lust to the point that it now consumed them. You need to start fighting against lust. You need to be clear of this. You need to destroy lust immediately. If you are lusting after anything right now that you have started planning on how to get it before you destroy yourself by doing it, you need to run from it. Lust is a dangerous thing and it is a sin to live right and let God be sufficient for you.