Control of Desire

A Sermon by Dr. Neil Chadwick


A group of young boys were busy in the basement of my old house making small airplanes when two of them began fighting. Quickly sizing up the situation, I took the instigator aside to talk to him. This troubled 8 year old stood before me as I sat on the rough hewn steps which led up to the kitchen. I asked him a simple question, "What do you want?" With tear streaked face he convulsed, "I just want to make an airplane." A few minutes later after I had set him up at a vacant spot along the bench, with needed supplies and tools ready to go, a broad smile broke out across his face.

Late one night I was laying in bed next to my wife who was relating to me the events of her day with three young children. A distinct feeling of aggravation was creeping up on me, and it suddenly dawned on me that I was about to OD on human interaction - I just wanted to get away for a while. It wasn't my wife I wanted to flee from, I just wanted to be alone. The next day I called a man in Vermont, a land developer who had built his own log house in which he had provided a kind of "prophet's chamber" for Pastors who wanted to have some peace and quiet. A week later I drove north for three hours, in the dead of a very cold winter - I was driving an old VW camper van which had no heat, so I drove with a wool blanket wrapped around my legs. Why was I willing to put up with such difficult conditions? Because of a strong desire that motivated me to do what ever was necessary to get to a place for quiet and renewal.

Not too long ago I heard a popular commentator decry the posting of the Ten Commandments on a sign in front of a school. When he was finished he had simplified and streamlined the list to the Seven Commandments:

    1. (2) Don't pray to a statue
    2. (3) Don't swear
    3. (5) Respect your parents
    4. (6) Don't shoot anyone
    5. (7) Don't fool around
    6. (8) Don't steal
    7. (9) Don't lie

You'll notice that missing are: #1, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me", #4, "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy", and #10, "thou shalt not covet".

After quickly dismissing numbers 1 and 4 as being too religiously oriented, he focused on the final commandment, "Thou shalt not covet." The rationale of the commentator to omit this commandment from his list was this:

"Covet is a hard word. It means to want something, and it's impossible for a person to control what he wants. He can control himself from trying to get it, but he can't keep himself from wanting it."

However, I want to take exception to this and say emphatically that desire certainly is under our control.

In our society we have become accustomed to the programmed response of machines. Point and click for the web-site, push the button for the soda can, scan the bar code for the price, swipe the card for a purchase, pull the lever for your winnings, drive through the toll station and let the machine debit your account.

While we are maintaining that desires can and need to be brought under control, we must understand that desires are more like animals than machines - desires cannot be programmed, they need to be trained.

In this regard, desires should be placed in the category of "thoughts" rather than emotions. The point Paul makes is pertinent, "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (II Corinthians 10:5 - NIV) "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." (KJV)

So, how then do we train desires?

1. Accurately identify desires and evaluate them - if the desire is fulfilled, will it bring good or evil? Will it produce growth, development, or progress? Will it benefit others as well as myself?

The desire for drink and food certainly is basically good, but not the desire for all drinks or foods at any given time.

2. Access stories which demonstrate success or failure, people who followed their evil (or good) desires - how did it turn out?

For example, a Christian young man has a desire to marry a particular young lady who does not share his belief in God, the Bible or church attendance. He happens to come across the story of Samson and learns what happened to him when he became "unequally yoked."

3. Celebrate the rewards of good desires and reject the bad.

Let's say the desire that brought you to church today paid off. That is, you were greatly encouraged and uplifted. Celebrate that by telling someone, "What a great time we had in church today."

To reject bad desires is to ignore them and thus starve the life out of them, much like what a wise parent does when their child is having a "temper tantrum."

One reason we maintain that desires are under our control is that the Bible speaks clearly concerning wrongly placed desires on the one hand, and legitimate desires on the other.

Wrongly placed desires:

The desire to be first:

    "If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all." (Mark 9:35)

The desire that fuels selfish pursuits:

    "Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not." (James 4:2)

    "For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth." (Psalms 10:3)

On the other hand, there are legitimate desires:

The desire for God:

    "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee." (Psalms 73:25)

The desire for the Word of God:

    "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." (I Peter 2:2)

The desire for prayer to be answered:

    "Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book." (Job 31:35) "Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." (Mark 11:24)

The desire for spiritual things:

    "Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy." (I Corinthians 14:1) "For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." (Colossians 1:9)

The desire for leadership:

    "This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work." (I Timothy 3:1)

And the desire to be with Him:

    "For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better." (Philippians 1:23) "But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city." (Hebrews 11:16)

The implication is clear. If there are wrong desires to be avoided, and right desires to be promoted, certainly the Word of God is asserting that these desires are in our control. It may take God's power at work within us, but if He expects us to steer our desires, then surely He believes it is possible for us to do so.

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