Guard your heart

Topics: heart, temptation

I. Flee lustful temptations

* Jesus warns us against both the deed and desire of adultery!

Deed: "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery'" (Mat. 5:27).
Desire: "But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:28).
Deliverance: Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life (Proverbs 4:23; see 2 Timothy 2:22).

* Jesus highlights how this devastating sin enters our lives!

"If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell" (Matthew 5:29).
"The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness. "Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness. If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays" (Luke 11:34-36).

* Jesus admonishes us to put safeguards into place in our lives!

"If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell" (Matthew 5:30).
With her many persuasions she entices him; with her flattering lips she seduces him. Suddenly he follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter . . . so he does not know that it will cost him his life (Proverbs 7:21?23; see 7:25-27).
Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it (1 Corinthians 10:12, 13).

Sermon by Pastor Rod Akins January 16^th, 2022