You know a sunny winter day can fool you, you look out the window and you say, "Oh it looks warm," then you go out there and you shiver your timbers and catch a cold for next week! But that sun can get something really warm. Yeah, even on a cold winter day. You know, if you put a board out there, a two-by-four, and you know the old science experiment, you hold a glass over that board and then you let that same sun shine on that through the glass. Eventually that board's going to get very warm, and it may start to smoke...I mean you could probably burn your initials in there if you did it long enough. Now, it's the same board, same sun, what's the difference? That piece of glass makes the difference. Why? Something transforming happens when you focus all that heat, on one spot.
Well I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I'd like to have A Word With You today about "Focused Passion."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Proverbs 5:15, "Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well." As this unfolds we begin to realize that this is talking about the physical relationship of a husband and wife. "Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe, a graceful deer - may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love." Now God is obviously talking about physical passions, physical love. He's addressing married people about those sexual desires. He's saying, "Focus your passions on one person. Don't let your desire wander to anyone else." Now, focused passion is a choice. In fact, in the King James Version it says, "Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times." This is a volitional choice. It's to say, " You know what, I have decided she is enough, he is enough." And you immediately reject any thought that suggests how desirable someone else may be. Whether someone in person or on a photograph or whatever. You see, marriages don't die suddenly. It starts with a wandering heart...
It goes something like this, restlessness leads to discontentment, which leads to lust after someone else, which leads - you can be sure the devil will make this happen - to an opportunity to act on that lust. And then a moral meltdown. And even if it never goes past the discontentment stage, you'll hurt both partners over and over again.
I remember a couple, I'll call them Scott and Sandy, and Scott said, "Man I've struggled even though I've been in the ministry with lust. And I've really dug into God's Word and dealt with it and I've just made a decision before God to be satisfied with Sandy. She's who God gave me." Plato said, "Contentment is not getting everything you ever wanted to have it's realizing how much you already have." Well, that applies to a marriage relationship. You've got to stop lust when it's just restlessness. As soon as those thoughts and fantasies start to involve anyone else you begin to lose your focus on your lifetime partner and you lose the fulfillment that comes only from commitment to one person...which fuels your restlessness, your lust, and you're on your road to disaster.
Remember that board in the sun and focusing all that warmth on one spot? It transformed things. Things started to happen. It's the same with marriage. Keep all your love, all your fantasies, all your romance, all your sexual needs and desires focused on that one lifetime partner. And let God show you the fire of focused passion.