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Hi, so I'm Mike and today's scripture reading is from Matthew 5, 27 through 30.

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That's page 836 in the Bibles in the back of the pews. My wife nudged me

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before I got up and said, all you're supposed to do is read the scripture.

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You have heard that it was said, do not commit adultery, but I tell you, everyone

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who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in

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his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away,

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for it is better that you lose one part of your body than for your whole body

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to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and

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throw it away, for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body

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than for your whole body to go into hell. This is God's word. Well, if you have your

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Bibles, go ahead and turn on over to Matthew chapter 5. We're gonna be

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spending our time right there at that scripture, Matthew chapter 5 verse 27.

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But we have launched back into our series in Matthew with these six examples

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or six illustrations or what I heard one pastor say was six case studies of what

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Jesus meant when he said, I did not come to abolish the law or the prophets, but I

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came to fulfill it. And so Jesus moved from saying that to then giving six

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illustrations or six case studies of what it looks like to fulfill the law

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and prophets. And all of this is in the framework of the Sermon on the Mount. The

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greatest sermon ever preached. Last week we looked at the command to not murder

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and we looked at how Jesus filled full the command with all that God had

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intended by it originally. Jesus said that the command always pointed to

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something so much deeper than just the external act of murder. It wasn't just

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about that. It pointed to this greater idea that humankind is made in God's

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image and is worthy and special and worthy of special consideration and is

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beyond any other created thing. It's the crown of God's creation and our contempt

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and our anger and our degrading thoughts and when we say you fool, what we are

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doing is we're walking down a pathway of destruction not only for us but for God's

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good creation, his image bearers, other people who are made in his image. And so

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he wanted to drive that point deeper and fill it out because you know it's so

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easy to take a command and say well I've never picked up a rock and hit anyone,

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I've never murdered anyone externally. And Jesus said well the laws were always

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pointing to something deeper. The laws were always trying to get you to see the

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deeper path, the deeper reality, the deeper experience of what it meant to be

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in God's creation, to be a part of what God was doing. On our property we have

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running just kind of off to the side of our house we have these

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large, I guess they're high powered transit lines that run way

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up higher than we are in the mountains and come all the way down to the valley

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I believe and they run electricity. Well these lines have to be checked all the

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time to make sure that they're still operating and they're not causing fires.

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You guys know the fire situation here in California right? And the way that they

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check these lines is they fly a helicopter with a, oftentimes at night

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they fly a helicopter with a spotlight and he just tracks along the lines

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there to make sure trees haven't fallen in on it, there's no issues whatsoever.

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That reminded me the other night I was sitting out there we finally had some

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clear days and so I could sit outside and I saw one of those helicopters come

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through and you could see the spotlight on the ground as it moved across the

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trees and that reminded me of a time when I was much younger. Me and my

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sister, this is kind of humiliating so get ready, me and my sister when I was

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younger we used to dress in all camouflage. My mom ran a home

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based business, she would teach music students out of the house and what we

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would do is on the nights that she was teaching we would get dressed in

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camouflage and find our way hiding around the property so we could spy as

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people arrived and left without being seen. That was it, that was the life.

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So you can imagine me and my sister sitting in ivy that had grown up in the

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front, we're sitting in there and our eyes peeking out of the ivy and just

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watching as someone comes and goes inside and then taking off running, let's

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go, they haven't seen us and then we'd run to another place and hide behind a

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tree and look and I remember one time we were out doing this very odd

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homeschooler game and entertaining ourselves by trying to act like we're

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covert operatives in some foreign land and a police helicopter came and the

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lights shining on the ground and it's moving around and immediately we're

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like oh my gosh is that is that for us what do we do we got to hide deeper into

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the ivy and pretty soon we're sprinting across the yard and we think they're

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tracking and then there's police cars that start going all around zipping past

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the property shining their lights out and we just we book it and we run inside.

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It turns out they weren't there for us at all but we thought they were there

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for us we thought we'd broken some law that you're not allowed to hide in the

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ivy or something and they were coming but those lights you know at night

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those lights are their way for them to bring clarity to the darkness to pierce

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the darkness with their light and shine so that they can see and and I think one

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of the things that Jesus is trying to do in this section of the Sermon on the

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Mount is to show us that God sees it all. The spotlight of God's sight pierces all

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it's not just looking on the external he can see all the way in at all times and

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what as we talked about with murder one might land you in court in a human court

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you're always courts always in session in your heart it's always being weighed

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and judged the thoughts and motives of our heart and Jesus is reminding us and

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saying that we can listen carefully to his wisdom and learn more what it means

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to walk with God at a deeper level. God can teach us how to flourish inside

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leading outward. So we're gonna look at three points this morning around our

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scripture the first one is the command verse 27 and 28 says you have heard that

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it was said do not commit adultery but I tell you everyone who looks at a woman

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lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart like the previous

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statement about do not murder do not commit adultery is right out of the ten

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commandments right out of Exodus word for word do not commit adultery but it

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also has a little bit of the tenth command that would be the seventh

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commandment it also has a little bit of the tenth commandment where it says do

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not covet your neighbor's wife and this one Jesus is addressing directly to his

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male followers he's directing to you men here not that there isn't anything that

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the women can get from it there's not principles that they can receive but

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here he is talking specifically to men and he's telling us that God cares

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deeply about our sexual desires and our sexual experience here on earth it's not

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something separate from the kingdom it's not something that he doesn't care about

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and he wants to you know turn a turn an eye to that's the embarrassing part but

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I really care about this thing over here it's a part of it and he wants to

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redeem even that and his kingdom includes his kingdom teaching and his

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kingdom life includes how men and women can flourish together that that's tough

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right you know that it's hard for men and women to get along just look at

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Facebook and you'll see someone dissing someone all the time someone bagging on

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this someone complaining about their relationship and how it's gone wrong

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man-to-woman woman-to-man just look at the relationships around you and you

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know that this relationship is difficult Jesus comes and says that the external

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act like the first one the external act of adultery is when a married person

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engages in a voluntary sexual activity with a person other than their spouse

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that's what adultery is that's it acting itself out and Jesus affirms that it's

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forbidden by the law it's true again it sounds like in his statements remember

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we talked about this last week it sounds like he's saying the law says this but I

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say this I'm changing it that's not at all what he's doing the law says this

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and let me tell you the deeper meaning of that law let's go beyond the surface

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yes adultery is bad but the deeper reality is that there's other things

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that lead on that road to adultery Jesus affirms the Old Testament ethic no sex

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outside of the covenantal relationship of marriage

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it was very common at that time in the first century among the Greco-Roman

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world for there to be all kinds of sexual exploits including adultery in

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fact it was kind of expected especially of men that they wouldn't not settle

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down to a monogamous a faithful relationship but that they would do all

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kinds of things in the culture but among the Jews that Jesus is talking to you in

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the first century adultery was not actually very common it was something

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that was forbidden and they knew it and they tended to obey that they did not

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engage in that and so it's another one of those will murder yeah I've never

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murdered well yeah I've never committed adultery and Jesus says hold hold on

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let's take it a little deeper and let's see if you still answer that way

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afterward the laws were pointing to something much deeper and on that road

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to the external action there is something that goes on in the heart and

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the mind that will make you as guilty of the action as if you had done it this is

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the internal act the internalizing of the law against adultery and so let's

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look let's look at that scripture there where it says verse 28 but I tell you

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everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her

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in the heart can you go and put that first slide up Nate for the scripture

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looks lustfully at a woman or looks at a woman lustfully let's kind of break that

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down a little bit looks is an interesting word because it in the Greek

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it is this present active participle and it basically means looks is this present

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and ongoing action engaged in and so he's saying anyone who is the present

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and ongoing action of looking it's kind of like our word stairs anyone who

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stares or or goes on looking at a woman lustfully and that that is more or less

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in order to lust and so he's saying anyone who who intently looks or looks

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ongoing at a woman in order to lust after her is the same as if you broke

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the law of adultery as if you went and slept with someone who was not your wife

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and that right there I think immediately jumps it to a whole new level that

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deepens the reality of the command if you are looking in order to lust after

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your heart now I I think we can say there's a reason why Jesus is

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addressing it to men men struggle with lust if you're in here and you say you

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don't you're not telling the truth struggle with us do women yes I'm a man

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though I can explain I can I can relate I can understand I can speak and say yes

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man I have three boys three three young men lust is a real struggle for men and

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he says it's that internal action that goes on looking in order to lust after

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her in his heart that takes the law and the intent of the law and goes deeper

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drives deeper into it lust isn't just a strong desire lust isn't on the spectrum

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of love oh I just went too far on love love the love spectrum and I went into

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lust lust is something wholly different lust lust is disordered corrupted

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anti-love

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why because love we talked about this before but love is self-giving right love

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is the giving of yourself the pouring out of yourself the emptying of yourself

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for another lust is self-taking it's a form of internal taking and dominating

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when we lost it's saying I will mentally force you to do whatever I want you to

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do for me I will steal your image and use it for self gratifying purposes

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that's what lust is we who are created in the image of God when we lust we say

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I will steal that image and use it to gratify myself like the Old Testament

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pattern that began with the fall of mankind of see desire take see man has

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fallen into at that tree right tempted by the enemy see desire it take it but

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we can easily deceive ourselves and say think that that's an only an external

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thing only what I see with my eyes and I reach out with my hands and I take only

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then do I actually sin and Jesus is saying no it goes so much deeper than

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that when you use your eyes and you see the image of someone else who is not

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your wife and you steal that and you take it for yourself you're doing the

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same thing you're doing the same thing as if you took it physically now

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sure it doesn't have the same consequences right who else knows you

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did it it all happened here so other than the spotlight of God's all-seeing

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all-knowing character it's just you but the problem is that it also never stays

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there right lust begins to affect other areas like all sin it corrupts and it

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drives itself out into other ways and behaviors we fall into the sea desire

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take and Jesus is saying that it can even take place in your own heart and

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when it does you and I we become half persons we fail to live out that glorious

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wholeness and greater righteousness that Jesus is inviting his followers into

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the command is that we would not commit adultery that command goes so much

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deeper than the surface level number two the intent the intent back in Genesis we

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read that God after creating all things all the creatures he created all of the

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the earth and the planet the dirt the skies the waters the creatures that

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roam on the earth the birds of the air and then he gets to day six and who does

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he create mankind and says then God said let us make man in our image according

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to our likeness they will rule the sea the fish of the sea the birds of the

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sky the livestock the whole earth and the creatures that crawl on the earth and

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then there's this little poem in verse 27 a chapter one so God created man in

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his own image he created him in the image of God he created them male and

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female and God blessed them and said to them be fruitful and multiply fill the

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earth and subdue it rule the fish of the sea the birds of the sky and every

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creature that crawls on the earth he made these living creatures according to

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their kind and then he gets to humanity he says let's make them in our image and

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with that poem that's in verse 27 of chapter one of Genesis he says so God

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created man singular and that's that word Adam or humanity God created

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humanity and he uses the singular there and he says in his own image he created

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him the singular in the image of God he created them plural male and female

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humanity like the birds that fly in the sky according to their kind humanity

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also according to its kind male and female that make up humanity and God

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blesses them and says be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue

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it so that they together can be God's image bearers here on earth and in

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imaging God what does God do he creates he multiplies and they say here here's

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your little part creates multiply and fill the earth with the image of God

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the command is to them to be fruitful to fill the earth and rule over it God's

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original intent is that humanity together would rule together male and

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female all of his good creation them but the fall you remember what hat what was

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a part of the curse of Eve in the fall one of the last things that was said

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your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you

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God's original intent let them rule together the fall your desire will be

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for your husband and he will rule over you

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it's a product of the fall that there's this disjointedness between man and

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woman between husband and wife and we see it manifest over and over again in

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broken relationships in the difficulty of trying to make these things work how

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many guys have experienced it how many are married easy peasy right no problems

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no no threats of divorce no moments of I don't know if we're gonna make it no

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confiding in friends saying I think I picked the wrong one we all know this

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it's kind of the the secret we walk in not so secret secret we walk in we know

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that there are broken families we know that there is difficulty in relationships

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as a result of the fall there's this ruling over constantly trying to power

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one another and dominates and lust is even more pervasive or perverse of what

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was originally good than even that lust lusting especially in the context of

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adultery lusting after another man's wife not simply ruling your own as bad

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as that is in relation to the fall now you're looking to someone else's wife

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and you want to dominate and rule lusting after another's my wife so that

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you can mentally dominate and rule over her image in your mind is how deeply

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depraved sin goes in our hearts and Jesus comes along in his teaching and he

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says that in this kingdom that he is bringing about that he is ushering in he

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intends to restore the proper relationship between men and women he

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intends to restore that among his people men and women will be treated with

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dignity and respect he does something that radically turns upside down the

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world we don't even know it we don't even we don't even can't even

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comprehend it because we've always lived in it but there's this tension because

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we know something good about the relationship and how it's supposed to go

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and yet we experience the difficulties and that tension is this idea Jesus

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introduces to us this new kingdom that he's creating and that among his people

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there'll be dignity and respect that self-giving love will mark this new

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humanity not self-taking lust and so the third point is the solution we have the

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problem or we have the command we have the intent and the solution if your eye

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if your right eye causes you to sin gouge it out and throw it away for it

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is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to

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be thrown into hell and if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off and

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throw it away for it is better for you to lose one part of your body than your

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whole body to go into hell Jesus is saying that in order to obey the

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filling out of this command that he is doing some of us will have to maim

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ourselves some of us will have to maim ourselves and it begins with what we see

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and it moves to what we do and if you're thinking maim ourselves oh it's not

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literal fact in 325 the council in Nicaea they said it's not literal stop

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doing it because people in certain sects of Christianity were were following it

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literally most famously maybe a legend but origin castrated himself as a

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response to these scriptures and they said I think you missed it so let's see

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what it doesn't mean though right it's not literal Jesus is using a metaphor

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Jesus is using this kind of exaggerated hyperbole and it's for a purpose it's a

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it's a rhetorical device it's it's a way of using language and it's an example

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that helps us as the listener move toward the right response it it jolts us

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out of our thinking and they makes us start to think toward the right response

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that's its intent in other words it he's telling us to take drastic measures to

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respond to this don't sit there passively and think oh that's a good

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word and yeah I struggle with this inside but I'm I'm just gonna let it

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sit and maybe time will heal it take drastic measures to respond to this take

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radical steps to avoid falling into the pit of sin cast out the seed before it

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takes root and begins to produce fruit in you the fruit is adultery the

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physical part of it the external part of it kill the seed kill it before it takes

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root and begins to produce things in your life you don't want James chapter

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1 verse 14 and 15 says but each person is tempted when he is drawn away and

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enticed by his own evil desire then after desire has conceived it gives

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birth to sin and when sin is fully grown it gives birth to death you have to

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begin to see what is the consequence of this sin if I map this out to where it

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leads where does it lead and Jesus said it even there in Matthew chapter 5 it's

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better that you would cut out an eye or cut off a hand then land yourself in the

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hand of fire in hell and so if we were to take this and kind of wrestle with

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it what are some practical thoughts on this well if Netflix causes you to lust

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in your heart cut the subscription off if the internet causes you to sin turn

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it off we lived most of humanity without it get some sunshine no I can't do that

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man the world just operates it would be better that you cut it off and you find

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yourself cut off from God if where you work causes you to sin quit get a

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different job is better to be poor and to be caught in sins traps behave as if

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you plucked your own eye out toward the sin whatever that is whatever that is

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that causes you to stumble behave as if you plucked your own eye notice that it

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doesn't say this is this is probably more of our modern bent and maybe some

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maybe not so modern I don't know maybe we're we've moved beyond it but

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certainly when I was growing up in church what we said in church was they

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need to cover up because they're making me sin but he says it's your own eye

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that's causing you to sin it's your own hand that's causing you to sin you deal

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with you are there scriptures about modesty absolutely but that's all he's

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talking about here so about you and me and how we're supposed to respond to

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sin in our lives it's my hand it's my eye it's what I do

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behave as if you plucked your own eye out in other words throw your gaze there

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it is throw your gaze away remember it's look with intent it's stare it's look in

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order to lust after it's not whoa it's not glancing it's not the pop-up on your

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screen that hasn't yet birthed into sin necessarily unless you caused it

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somehow but if that thing popped up on your screen and it's there staring you

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in the face you look away throw your gaze throw the monitor out the window

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burn it do something

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behave toward whatever causes you to sin as if you had cut off your hand toward

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it guard the approaches to sin think about your life and think about the

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things the ways that things can approach you your eyes your hands your

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ears and guard the approaches to your life put up centuries on the wall to

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look up troubles coming let's go

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do whatever it takes to live into the new kingdom that God is creating where

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he is restoring relationship and away from the kingdom that is all about lust

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and destruction about taking self-taking versus self-loving the question for you

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and I is are we going to live for this world or live into the kingdom of God I

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would say whatever you need to sacrifice in order to cut off sin it's worth it in

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the end I didn't just say it though Jesus said it

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there's a couple of quotes from John Owens who has a book called the

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mortification of sin he says know that he that dares to dally with occasions of

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sin will in the end dare to sin he who dally's with occasions to sin will in

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the end sin and one of his most famous quotes is be killing sin or be

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killing sin or sin will be killing you be killing sin or sin will be killing

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you and I think that captures the force of what Jesus is saying be killing sin

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we're gonna go ahead and pray and call the worship team to come on up but I

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didn't want to say that as we kind of wrap up this and I think all of us in

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some way male or female we all have some way that we should respond to this

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because sin is always finding its way crouching wanting to steal us away and

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each one of us has the responsibility to guard the approaches to sin in our life

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I think some of us today if if we if we were just normal in the sense of the

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world and statistics then there's a good number of you who struggle with

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pornography today and what you are doing I think Jesus brings his word to it and

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and the question beforehand we had a prayer time and we read out of out of

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Proverbs and it's talking about wisdom wisdoms crying out on the streets trying

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to bring flourishing in life the life of the kingdom to you is crying out and

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saying come listen and learn I'll send my spirits and I'll teach you my words

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and and all you need to do is respond to this call from wisdom and you can enter

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into a life of flourishing a life in the kingdom a life under the care of God's

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Word and so don't be hard into this if this is a problem or a situation in your

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life that you just had forever today can be the day that you put sin to death

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face it down put it to death kill it or it'll be killing you and probably

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already has been I say modern age because did you know a pornography is on

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the rise among women it's it's huge did you know pornography is being introduced

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into marriage relationships even and encouraged and that's just one part of

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it there's the part of just walking down the street and how we look at one

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another is our heart moved with that new life in the kingdom that sees brother

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and sister as the image bearers of God or are we trying to take what is not

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ours so we can use and manipulate and destroy it in our own hearts and minds

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and in the end destroy ourselves are we gonna live into the kingdom are we gonna

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live according to this world and watch us sin destroys us this is our choice is

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what wisdom the Word of God is inviting us into yeah I highlighted a few there's

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probably others maybe your phone needs to get thrown out of the window and you

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need to get one of those old-school what have dummy phones because you can't stay

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off of certain things do it I'll give you a high five I'll help we'll get it

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ordered life does not consist of phones and screens and internets and

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pornography and sin life life in the kingdom is about giving of ourselves

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about loving about seeing the image of God fill the earth fill the earth full

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of the glory of our God it's worth giving up any of that it's worth giving

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up everything I mean even the strictness of the literal definite it's even worth

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that if that's what it took it's worth giving your life to see God's glory

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magnified so what is this thing the sin the thing that holds on so dearly get

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rid of it walk in wisdom let wisdom fill your heart and teach you