Above All Else: From Lust to Love

As part of our Above All Else series on the Seven Deadly Sins, Andy Rodgers teaches on lust, not just as sexual temptation, but as a deeper distortion of love, desire, and the way we see other people. This message explores sexuality, purity, shame, healing, and the hope of transformation through the grace of Jesus in a culture shaped by both sexual shame and sexual excess.—-"Lust is disordered, sexual desire that reduces another person into an object for selfish pleasure instead of honoring them as a whole person made in God’s image. It consumes rather than loves, and takes rather than honors."Isn’t refraining from sexual desires sexual repression? And isn’t that really bad for your mental health?Isn’t this just about controlling women’s bodies?Isn’t lust a private matter that doesn’t affect anyone if it stays fantasy or is expressed through consenting adults?Isn’t teaching on sexual purity the same thing as purity culture? Isn’t that false teaching/toxic theology that hurts people?Lust ...- Dehumanizes Others- Harms Others- Isolates Us- Enslaves Us- Deforms Us"The problem with pornography is not that it shows too much of the person, but that it shows far too little." — Pope John Paul II"The nature of the union of the soul with the body … is so intimate that one nature, one person, one self is the subject of both and of all their activities. It is always the same soul that peers through the eyes, thinks through the brain, grasps with the hands, and walks with the feet…." — Herman Bavinck“Chastity (sexual holiness) is first and foremost a ‘yes,’ from which a ‘no’ then proceeds. The underdevelopment of the virtue of chastity occurs when someone ‘does not keep up’ with the affirmation of the value of the person…. The essence of chastity lies precisely in ‘keeping up’ with the value of the person in every situation and in ‘pulling up’ to this value every reaction to the value of the ‘body and sex.’” — Pope John Paul II"Purity doesn’t ignore the body or pretend it’s unimportant. Rather, it remains committed to God-honoring thoughts and actions toward the person the body manifests. Mature sexual purity can look at an attractive man or woman and say, ‘Wow, an utterly unique person mediated through a body.’ Lust says, ‘Wow, a useful body.’ To be sure, sometimes we simply need to look away to avoid mentally reducing a person to a serviceable object (i.e., lusting). And yet, while this response represents a meaningful step toward purity, it’s not the finish line. Yes, it’s better than moving deeper into lust, but it’s purity lite." — Chase KrugVerses:- 1 Thessalonians 4:1–8- Romans 6:12–13- Matthew 5:27–30- Romans 13:14- James 5:16–19