By Paul Goeke

Last Sunday evening, we camped out on Matthew 5:27-30 for a while.  Jesus comes with a straightforward message about lust:  It is adultery.  It was so great that we could get together as a group of people and talk honestly about this stuff without mincing words or dancing around the issues.

The majority of people who read this have or have had a struggle with pornography or lust.  Some may struggle with lust in their minds, some with emotional affairs, some with internet porn, some with sexual addictions, some with unrelenting unwanted sexual feelings. 

While I won’t go into everything we discussed last Sunday evening, I want to mention a few things.   First of all, please don’t feel like you have to validate yourself by normalizing your struggle with lust.  Please feel the freedom to be honest about the fact that you have some unhealthy things going on in your heart and mind and body.  It is so much more than a biological function.  It affects you mentally, emotionally, physically, psychologically and spiritually.

Secondly, there is hope.  Things can get better.  If you don’t have a safe place where you can talk about, ask questions about, and struggle through these things, know that there are people at The Well who have very likely walked where you are walking and are willing to hang with you as you work through this stuff.

Thirdly, your struggle and your sin do not mean you are going to hell.  You do not have to clean yourself up before you approach Jesus…as a matter of fact, you can’t clean yourself up before you approach Jesus.   He didn’t come to this earth and die for you just to make you climb some spiritual ladder of holiness up to him.   There is no spiritual ladder.  He simply comes to you where you are.  The reason Jesus gives warning about lust is that sometimes, we get so caught up in our sin that we end up rejecting his offer of love.  This is when things get dangerous.

Don’t reject Jesus’ offer of love and freedom.  When people are trying to urge others to live a sexually pure life, sometimes they say, “Whenever you’re looking at porn or in the middle of sexual sin, Jesus us watching you.”   I think they say this to freak people out…which may not always a bad thing.  But Jesus is not just some divine sex watchdog.  It is a GOOD thing that Jesus is watching us when we are in the midst of our sin.  If he’s watching us, it means he hasn’t turned his back on us.  Even in the depth of our sin, right in the middle of the act, Jesus is looking at us.  He is looking at us and wanting us to receive his forgiveness and new life.  Jesus is not looking at us to catch us being bad.  Jesus is for us – that’s why he died for us.  He won us to himself. 

Let yourself start getting some freedom from all this lust and stuff going on in your head and life.  Talk to someone and get some help.   Talk to Jesus about this stuff too.  Haven’t prayed in a while or ever?  Talk with him anyway.