The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 4: Sex

Episode Date: February 7, 2021

Flee sexual immorality. You are not your own; you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body. (See 1 Corinthians 6:18-20) Click Series Resources to download the series journal, watch RELATE and more.

Amen. How we doing, church? You ready for this? Well, the first three weeks have been fun, having it? Talking about what it means to be a man, what it means to be a woman. Last week, we encourage you to date. Anybody going to date last week? Come on a.

Some of you guys were listening. After the 9 a.m. series, we had a young man proposed in the lobby, and so that happened. So, praise God for that. They were probably in prep for this one. So the fun is going to come to a screeching halt right now. We're going to talk about sex. and sexual immorality. And we are going to have a very frank discussion. And I would just,

maybe you'll jot this down. I'm like the mailman. I don't write it. I just deliver it, okay? And we live in a sex-saturated society, but the church rarely talks about it. I don't know if you grew up in church, but, you know, I grew up Southern Baptist, kind of sometimes when I would go, and we didn't talk about this. When I was in seminary, I had somebody asked one of our, he was actually the professor of preaching, which I did very poorly in that class. And he said, no, we don't talk about that. They'll figure it out. They'll figure sex out. Now, just as you observe our society, you think we're figuring it out okay, or you think we may need a little instruction here in regards of sex and sexuality. And then, again, man, you know, I grew up in kind of the true love

of weights era, and basically the way the youth pastors that would teach us in high school and the college pastors in college, you know, basically they, whatever our question was, about can we or should we? The answer from the Bible was always no. I used to always think, why in the world do we have to have an entire Bible? It should be a three by five card, and the answer is just no. Like, hey, I got to quit. Nope, you can't do that, can't do that, can't do that, all right?

And sort of the way we were taught about it was just like, hey, listen, sex is dirty, and it's vile and it's gross, and you'll probably get a venereal disease. So save it for the love you love, the one you love, true love waits. And I thought, well, that didn't really help anybody out. and then our parents, I don't know if any of your parents were super helpful, but we would have the talk, and the talk me and my dad had was so inappropriate. I don't even feel comfortable sharing it here with you, and it's usually, by the time parents want to talk to their kids about, it's way too late. We're like, all right, Timmy, now you're a junior in college.

I think we should talk about the birds and the bees. And it's usually Timmy telling dad about the birds and the bees. That's usually how that goes. And then again, in my generation, we just sort of left it up to the schools. We thought there was really, the parents of my generation thought if we could just educate people. If we could just educate the young people about what happens, then surely they will make wise decisions. Well, how's that working out? Well, the problem was, is all they really talked about was the plumbing, you know, the flopian tubes and all that sort of stuff and show these weird pictures and be like, that doesn't look like a girl.

It looks like a cowhead. What is that, all right? Well, that's an epic fail. and I don't think, I don't think anybody's going to change their practice until we change our perspective. And we have a God that loves us so much that he would teach us in his word about what is, has been, and will be one of the most important parts of your life, and that is sex and sexuality. Now, there's some people that are not going to like, here's going to, if you're a faithful

dad of a girl. This is going to be your favorite sermon you've ever heard in your whole life, okay? I promise you. And everybody else pretty much is going to hate it, all right? And so, and I do want you to know this. I am primarily talking to Christians. If you're not a Christian, then the difference between me and you is that as Christians, what we have already pre-decided is that Jesus is the Lord of my life and he gets to tell me what to do. And so if you're not a Christian, then maybe you can get some tips and tricks out of this. It's kind of ruined your whole life. But you are saying that you were Lord of your life.

So I'll give that to you. Do whatever you want, all right? So I am primarily aiming this at believers. We're going to be in Song of Solomon chapter 3. And if you'll remember, they just went on a date, right? They went out into the wilderness and they skipped over the hills, and they hung out and their relationship is going and growing. And again, fellow, Mary God's, if you did what I did, what I did,

told you to do last week and take your wife on a date and pursue her and value her, this is the normative and natural response that you're going to get. Song of Solomon chapter 3 beginning of verse 1. On my bed by night, she's laying in the bed dreaming of her man. Husbands, when's the last time you think your wife laid in bed and dreamed about you, all right? Well, this is what is supposed to happen. I sought him who my soul loves.

I sought him, but found him not. I will rise now and go about the city in the streets and in the squares, and I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but found him not. The watchman found me as they went about the city. Have you seen him who my soul loves? That's what she asked. Scarcely had I passed them.

When I found him whom my soul loves, I held him. I would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother's house, into the chamber of her who conceived me. So she's all switched on by the Solomon so much that she goes out, she finds him, and she drags them into the bedroom out of her house, which is kind of a weird thing. But I do want you to notice this all throughout, we said this a couple of times, all throughout the song of Solomon when this man and this woman have normal human sexual desires for one another, at no time does God ever come in and slap the hand and say, how dare you feel that

way. If you were holy, you wouldn't feel that way. No, no, no. If you don't feel that way, you're dead. You ain't holy. Okay? And so as it's moving in this direction, God is never going to say sexual desires wrong or bad. In fact, think about this. Think about this. Sex was God's idea. If you were still on the fence as to whether we serve a good God or not, let me just think about this for a second. At some point in eternity past, there was no such thing as sex. And God, I don't know how it works, but God Almighty thought, I've got an idea. And the angels, I imagine, are like, what is it, boss? Another rainbow? He's like, bro, it's better than a rainbow, okay? And then God gives us the gift of sex for broth procreation. Now think about this. He could have come up with

any number of ways to make babies. It could have just been physiological, like you wake up one day your toes get big and they're like, oh look, we got kids. It could have been that. Could have just give me an eBay account. You just pick one out. However, but what God decides to do is he says that the union of a man and a woman in a sexual relationship, that that love for each other, out of an overflow of that love, would create more human beings. But not only was it a gift of procreation, but also a gift of recreation.

In other words, that God gave you parts of your body. that do all kind of things that are pleasurable, that have nothing to do with making more human beings. And it was God's idea. He is a good, good God. But sex is a gift. It's not gross. We'll talk about that in a couple of weeks.

And it's not God. That's kind of how our culture treats it. But sex is a gift. But the key here is not where is the line, how far can I go. The key is when is the time? So they are in this situation where she is dragging him into the bedroom and he says, I adjure you, old daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the doze of the field that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases. Again, the question is not, where is the line?

The question is wins the time and sex is for married people. And this doesn't just mean everything but intercourse too. in the Bible, when the Bible talks about sex, it talks about any kind of romantic physical activity towards one another. And in the Bible, marriage is one man and one woman for one lifetime. Again, this is according to the Bible.

Now, I just need to say this. And I am not trying to beat anybody up here. There's a whole bunch of folks right now, especially when we really get into it in a minute, we're going to go to 1 Corinthians chapter 6 if you want to jump over there. And there's some stuff in 1st Corinthians and some of you are going to be like, I can't believe you're going to talk about that.

Well, here's the deal. There's a lot, and you may be sitting there going, well, I don't believe that. Well, let me just tell you what I believe. What a lot of people in our culture is they have a certain behavior, and then they shape their beliefs to match their behaviors. So whatever it is that you believe about what marriage is and all of that, sex and sexuality, my question to you would be, why would you believe that? have you ever asked yourself, why do you believe it? Is it just because of the culture that we live

in and what you see in every movie and every TV show and on the news? Well, for the believer, for the person that claims Jesus as their Lord and Savior, we say that he is our king, he is our authority. And here at 1122, me personally, I'm a Bible guy. I believe that God has given us this word as a gift and it is my authority and it is my standard. And of course there's going to be some stuff in here that I don't like and I disagree with and my behaviors don't match up to it. And so then I have an option where I can just mold my beliefs to match my behaviors. This is what our culture has done. Or I can surrender my behaviors to what I believe about Jesus. So again, everything that I'm going to say is because the Bible, not our society, is my authority.

So a couple things that our world teaches, man, about sex and sexuality. That is just a myth. It's a big, fat myth. We live in a world that teaches that sex is only physical. That sex is only physical. And this is why sexual immorality is so rampant in our world because, again, we live in this world that teaches that it's only physical. But the truth is that sex and intimacy are intertwined and they cannot be divorced. They cannot be separated.

and that when you treat sex as if it is only physical, then ultimately what you do is you will chase all of the intimacy away. And you will undermine any potential intimacy that you could and should have in the future. And I think this is why three or four times in the Song of Solomon, when he says this line, I had you're you old daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the doze of the field, it's just like if you go running into a field, talk to me, dear hunters, all the doze and gazelles go running on out.

And when you go rushing into a physical relationship and you only treat it as if it is a physical act, then what goes rushing out is the intimacy, and that is what you really want. And I know there's some people that are like, well, that's just kind of an old-school way of thinking. It's real old. All the way back to the very beginning of time.

That's how old it is. I hear it, man. And I hear all the excuses, you know, well listen man you know I mean we need to find out listen we love each other and we're married in our hearts there's no sexual anything by the way and we just need to know if we're sexually compatible so I know we're not married yet but we need to try it out so make sure we can make sure we know if we're sexually compatible let me just give you something true you are sexually compatible with hundreds of thousands of people on the planet I mean if you're a boy and she's a girl you'd be amazed how

things are, okay? And in fact, in fact, all of the sociological data says that though, that people that sleep together before they get married to assure that their sex life is going to be best when it's, when they're married, they are the least sexually satisfied people on the planet. Did you know that just statistically speaking that if you live together and sleep together before you get married, you're 50% more likely to get divorced? And the reason is because you are chasing away the intimacy. And I've heard some dead. dumb dudes. And listen, ladies, they're all dumb. And I've heard them say stuff like, well, you know, you wouldn't buy a car without taking an old test drive. You wouldn't buy some shoes without

trying them on. All right, look here, idiot. She ain't a used car and she ain't a pair of shoes. And if that's how you're going to treat her, then there's no way you're ready to be a husband. It is a high holy calling to be the kind of man that's going to lay down his life for his wife and love her like Christ loved the church. And vow. you, her. And so the reality is this, is that exclusivity fuels intimacy. Exclusivity fuels intimacy. Not experience, not experience. Because I'm just telling you, I'm just telling you, let me tell you what would never happen in your life. Let's say you get married and it's your honeymoon and you are like, wow, baby, that was amazing. And she says, I am so glad you feel that way.

I have been practicing for years. I have had training partners. I've got a set of videos you can download. I did like a boot camp, every spring break, all of college. You don't want to hear that. You don't want to hear that at all. No, no, no, no.

It is exclusivity that fuels intimacy. And so, if we are going to change our practice, we have to change our perspective. And if we want to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ, then we are going to have to have his perspective. Did you know that when crusaders, when crusaders, back in the Dark Ages, when crusaders would go on crusades, they would baptize them before they went on their mission.

And crusaders would get into the baptismal waters and they would baptize them except the crusaders would hold their sword up out of the water. And they would get baptized up to here. And they would say, Jesus is Lord of all except my sword. I am Lord of my sword. In our day and age, what we do, what a lot of our culture does is say, I believe in Jesus, I've asked Jesus to come into my heart, and I surrender to Jesus, but when we go under the water to get baptized, we have two things. It's usually our wallet and our sexuality, except these two.

I'm in charge of these. And ultimately what it comes down to is a lordship issue. Is he your Lord? Because if he's not the Lord of all, then he's not your Lord. And I would just say this. If he is who he says he is, if there is a God in heaven and in the beginning he spoke into existence everything that is

and if he from before the beginning of time had willed that he would send his son on a rescue mission for you and when his son showed up he lived a perfect life and he walked on water and he raised people from the dead and then he himself came out of the grave and ascended to the right hand of God the Father and said I will return could it be possible that he's working listening to not just in the areas of your life that you're comfortable with, but especially the areas that you think you know it all in. That's why when I surrender to Jesus, then I also surrender to the authority of His Word. So, God's perspective on sex. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. First Corinthians chapter 6. The Apostle Paul is writing to this church in Corinth.

And sometimes I've heard people say, we just need to get back to the early church. You don't want it would be like the early church. It was a train wreck. In Corinth, they were getting drunk on communion. If you get drunk on communion, there's some meetings you're going to need to attend. You understand? That ain't good. And so what the Apostle Paul does, and boy, I'm about to walk into a minefield right here. I just want to warn you. I've had many of my dear preaching friends that why don't just skip down a couple of verses and start there. And here's why I can't. Because if you just get to the tactics and you miss the why, if you just get to the what, but you miss the why, If you don't change your perspective, then your practice will never change.

And so what Paul's going to do, before he talks about sex and sexual immorality, before he talks about our sinfulness, he's going to talk about sin. He's going to begin with the gospel, and then he'll get to the implications of the gospel. So he says this, first nine, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Guess who he's talking about? Me. And you? I got really bad news for you.

We're all unrighteous. Every single one of us on the planet are really, really unrighteous. That you, you, I mean, whoever, somebody in this room is the most moral among us. Okay, I don't know who that is. If you think it's you, raise your hand. You'd be in last place if you did. You're like, nailed it. All right.

But every single one of us, I mean, down at the root and core of who we are, we are wretched, wretched, crooked and depraved sinners. That's who we are. That the heart of our problem is we have a heart problem. It's not out there somewhere. And I know we buy into this myth, this lie. I know I'm a good person. As compared to who?

Your college roommate and the nightly news? Yeah, you crushed it, okay? But think about this. This is how evil you and I are. This is how unrighteous you and I are. This is what sinners you and I are. even if we leave out the perfect law of God. Let's only even talk about breaking his rules.

You can't even keep your rules. Am I lying? Has anybody lied to you more than you? Has anybody broken more promises to you than you? Have you ever made a deal with God and you? I promise I'll never do that again. How's that working out? Not good.

That you and I, at our very core, we stand condemned because we are not righteous. And here's the thing. it's not that we are not righteous because we have done unrighteous things. We do it not, we do unrighteous things because at our core we are unrighteous. And so bad news. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? And then he says, don't be deceived. Why?

Because we're deceived. We're deceived. Everybody likes to compare themselves to Hitler. At least I ain't Hitler. Okay, guess who God says he's going to compare you to? Him. Be holy as I am holy. I don't know if you're big history buff, big gap between those two entities, okay?

Don't be deceived. And then now what he is going to do is the Apostle Paul is going to begin making a list of a whole lot of unrighteous activity that was going on in Corinth and funny enough still going on in Jacksonville. It's crazy. Neither the sexually immoral. Well, way to just start right there, Paul. this word translated sexually immoral in Greek is porneo. Say pornao. Not porno, that was 70s, okay, porneo.

It means it's like a junk drawer of sexual immorality. Anything, anything, anything. I love this, this is where he starts. Anything outside of sex inside the covenant of marriage of one man and one woman for one lifetime, anything outside of that is unrighteous. So before we get into some of the other specifics, I think the reason that the Apostle Paul starts here is because when he names these specific things,

if he doesn't name your specific sin, you might look at it at you, but like, ooh, he didn't name mine, I'm okay. No, no, no, we all fall into this junk drawer. And let me just tell you this. If you're married, your spouse is the only legitimate source of romance for you. No pictures, no flirting with other people, not emotional affairs, no videos, no, we get the word pornography from this word, porneo.

And ladies, this includes like romance novels and remember them dumb vampire movies y'all were into for a while, all that stuff? All of that is the first on the list. He says, don't be deceived, neither that's sexually immoral, nor idolaters, that's every single one of us, nor adulterers, which a lot of people are like, okay, I never cheated on my wife. but then remember Jesus on the sermon of the Mount, jacks this one up. He says, you have heard it said,

thou shall not commit adultery, but if you have ever lusted after another woman in your heart, then you're an adulterer. He keeps going. He says, nor men who practice homosexuality, this is the one that makes everybody nervous these days,

I'm going to come back to this, I can't pass over it, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers. I don't even know what that means, but if you're one of those, you better watch out. We'll inherit the kingdom of God.

Now again, he's not talking about if you have done these bad things and you were a bad person, therefore you will not inherit the kingdom of God. He's saying the reason that you have done these bad things is because of the heart of the problem is that we are selfish idolaters. By nature and nurture, every single one of us are filthy, filthy sinners. And so again, there's a list. of unrighteous acts. Now I do want to point out, he says this, okay? Not me, but this is what the apostle Paul says, those who practice homosexuality. Again, what I would say is this.

Now, I know what some of you are saying, well, I don't believe that. I would ask you, why? Where did you come up with your beliefs? Okay? Where did you come up with your beliefs? And we do live in a culture, we do live in a culture where I will get in so much trouble for this. I foresee a day maybe in my lifetime where what I'm about to preach from the Bible will be illegal. It is in some countries already today. But I will stand under the authority of the Word of God

and please hear me, please hear me. There will come a day where I stand before God and I have to give an account for what I do. And the conversation I refuse to have with Jesus is that part made me and everybody else uncomfortable so I just skipped it. And so let me just say this. we are a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ.

And all means all. And so whether you believe what I believe or not or whether you've surrendered your life to Christ or whatever you believe about the Bible, every single person is welcome. Every orientation, no matter who you are, as long as I am welcome here as a sinner, then you too are welcome here as a sinner. Okay? Now, but that being said, the practice of homosexuality, according to the New Testament, is a sin that needs to be repented of. And most, what has happened, particularly recently in our culture, is many people have changed what they believe to match how they behave.

And that's not surrender. That is, God, everywhere else in my life, like, I believe in you for my salvation, but I do not believe in you for you to tell me about my sex life. and if that's you I would just ask you if Jesus showed up in your room and looked at you square in the eye and just said this area of your life is a sin and you need to stop would you do it

and if your answer is I don't care what he says I'm not doing it then what I'm telling you is you can't call him your master and then not do what he says now and then I would say because of my belief of the Bible I think he has. I think he has. And again, again, and I think the reason that he started out with, neither the sexually immoral, is because I think a big problem in the church is that the church for a long time, especially the last few decades, have picked out one section of sin and then just chastised people and condemned people. And what I am saying is that all sexual sin is sin.

I would also point out the fact that we're not talking about desire, that we're not talking about desire. It says those who practice homosexuality. You see, every single one of us, every single one of us have to surrender our desires to Jesus every single day. That when I got married to Gretchen, it's not like all of my desires just became holy. Just because my hormones are not my Lord, my attractions are not my Lord. I can't just be ruled over by what I want to do and what I feel like doing. A part of what it means to surrender your life to the Lordship of Christ means that my hormones don't tell me what to do.

He tells me what to do. And so everyone is welcome here. But not just to, God totally loves you right where you are. He loves you so much. He just wouldn't leave you there. And that's true regardless of what sin you struggle with. And then I just need to tell you, I hope you understand that the reason that I do this is because I love you enough to preach the Bible.

I love you enough to point you to the cross. I love you enough to say, Jesus' ways are better than our ways. And just for full disclosure, okay? If you are same-sex attracted and you've kind of been digging it here, and I think, well, I don't think I'm coming here anymore. Okay.

Yeah, you can go to tons of churches in Jacksonville that are never going to tell you this. Tons, okay? And it would be much easier. I'm sure it'd be much easier for you. But let me just give you a warning. is that whenever you begin to read the Bible with like highlighter and some scissors and start cutting out the part that you don't like,

eventually you get the part about the gospel and the cross and Christ's substitutionary atonement and how to get to heaven. And every church I've ever seen begin to mold what they believe into their behavior instead of the other way around. By the time you get to Jesus, they cut that part out too. And so be really, really careful. And I know some people are like, yeah, but, you know, I have these feelings.

Does it feel like God made me this way? Okay, maybe he did. But if I abate my feelings, I would kill people on the highway. You understand what I'm saying? I'm like, no, he made me to kill slow people in the left lane. That ain't on me. Okay, so every single one of us have to surrender all of us to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And so he says, don't be deceived.

Don't be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, every single one of us, nor idolaters, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkers, nor revilers, nor swinders. will inherit the kingdom of God. And you might say, well, does that mean everybody's going to hell? Yeah. That's exactly what it means. Up to this point.

But a part of what makes the gospel good news is that it enters bad places. That is just the diagnosis. Now here comes the cure, and I love this, verse 11. And such were, past tense, were some of you. There were some swindlers at this church, some revilers, some sexually immoral people at this church. But he says, such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ

and by the spirit of our God. This is the gospel. In other words, your orientation, your sexuality, your past, your divorce, your habits, your addiction, your idolatry, whatever it is that no longer gets to define you and tell you who you are, only Jesus gets to tell you who you are. That's what he's saying. And the new you is righteous. That Jesus didn't come to make bad people better.

He came that dead people might come to life. Then when Christ died on the cross, not only did he take our sin, but we were given his righteousness. So when God the Father, if you are in Christ, and man, this is especially true when we're talking about sex and sexual sin. And God looks at you. He does not see you as broken. He does not see you as dirty.

He does not see you as an adulterer or a fornication. cater or any of those things. If you are in Christ, he sees you as pure as he sees his own son, Jesus Christ. And the reason is because that God made Him who is without sin, that's Jesus, to be sin at the cross, that we would become the righteousness of Christ. I'm reading this book right now, you should read it. It's called They Turned the World Upside Down by Charles Martin. He's a deacon here at our church. He's written like 14 novels. He's got two just nonfiction books about Jesus and stuff. You should read it. They turned the world upside down. I was reading it today and he's telling this story about his buddy and they, who's actually on staff here at Church now,

they met at Florida State back in the day. He led his buddy to Christ. He was in his wedding and they were like in the little back get ready room, you know, and the groomsmen are all standing around and his buddy was getting married and he was super nervous and he was drinking coffee through a styrofoam cup and he was so shaky and so like, did his thumb, went to the cup and went and just spilt coffee all down his shirt. And right when the coffee hit his white shirt in his tuxedo, they go, you got 30 seconds, let's go. And they're like, oh no, what am I going to do?

I mean, biggest day of his life, right? And everybody that sees him is going to see what an idiot he is with coffee all down. If you can't be clean on your waiting day, come on, give me a break. And so Charles says, give me your shirt. And so real quick they take, and they switch shirts. and then when they walk out, right, he's one of his best, he's one of the best men in his wedding, and they walk out and they turn around and there is the groom, clean white shirt, and there's Charles Martin looking like an idiot with coffee all over his shirt.

It is a picture of what Christ has done for us. That you and I, with our sexual sin, have made a mess of ourselves. And yet at the cross for whoever would believe he takes all of that, That thing you're most ashamed of, that thing you would never want to talk about, that thing that you hate to relive in your mind, he takes all of that upon himself and puts it to death and he gives you his perfect purity. You see, the answer to sexual immorality, it's not just make wiser choices. The answer to the struggle of sexual immorality is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You don't have to do the things you used to do if you're in Christ because you're not the person you used to be. And so he keeps going. You'll see that it's in quotes right here because what's happening is the Corinthians would quote some like common cultural ethic. All things are lawful for me. And then Paul rebuts that, but all things are not helpful. I mean, think about this. Has sex outside of marriage helped any part of your life anywhere at any time? In fact, think about it the other way. What if everybody that you know and loved got this one? one thing right in your life. Think about how our worlds would be different. Think about what would happen to divorce rates and unwanted children and you can go on and on and on and on. They go on and

to say, all things are lawful for me. And Paul says, but I will not be dominated by anything. And I think the Corinthians has been like, Paul, you ain't a boss of me. Paul's like, yeah, I know. But Jesus wants what is absolutely best for you. Then they say food is meant for the stomach and stomach for the food. In other words, what the Corinthians were saying is, hey, look, it's just an appetite. It's just an appetite. And if God gave me an appetite, then I can just feed that appetite, and that's an appetite like all other appetites. I got a stomach. I get hungry. I eat. I have sexual organs. I have sexual desires, and I feel that too. And then Paul's like, well, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, man, hold on. You're not thinking about this right. God will destroy both one and the other.

The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. You see, what was happening here, what was happening in Corinth is they had this false dichotomy of the human experiment. They thought that, like, your body was kind of worthless. I mean, it's going to die one day. It's just temporary, and it just kind of housed your soul. And so a bunch of Christians, church-going people, in Corinth were like, you know what, we gave our heart to Jesus, but we can do whatever we want to with our body. And particularly what was happening in Corinth is there was this temple to this goddess called Aphrodite. and they had temple prostitutes at the temple.

And so what these folks were thinking is like, hold on, I gave my heart to Jesus, I'm going to give my body to this temple prostitute, and it's just another physical activity. And Paul's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, no it's not. No, it's not, no, it's not. That's not what your body was meant for. That the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body,

and God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power, verse 15, and he says, do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ to which they would go, what? No, we didn't know that. What do you mean members? No, again, I ask Jesus into my heart, but what I do with my hands and my eyes and the rest of my body, that shouldn't matter, right? And Paul's like, no, no, no, it matters a ton.

Your body matters a ton. He says, don't you know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a process? And he's going, now hold on, hold on, hold on, Paul. Now you're going, what you're about members? I don't have like a membership at the place. Some translations say, would you take a member of Christ and join her, join it with a prostitute?

And again, the Corinthians would say, no, no, no, no, no, hold on, wait, time out. I gave my soul to jeep, my soul's going to go to heaven. But what I do with my body is fine because it's just a physical activity. It's just another, it's like a hobby. It's just a physical activity. Yeah, man, see, like on Mondays, I go. fishing with the boys. And on Tuesdays, I sleep with the prostitute. And on Wednesdays, we watch Netflix, because, you know, that's what we do at home. And then on Thursdays I go to 722.

Where's it with my hands up? What's the problem? And Paul's like, and the reason he's saying that do you not know is because they didn't know. And he's saying, bro, what you don't understand is that sex is not just physical. Sex is not just natural. Sex is super natural. That in God's economy, the way he designed sex, it's all tangled up with intimacy. And in God's economy, when two people join together

physically, then spiritually they are joined together. Then in God's economy, this is why the covenant of marriage would be a prerequisite to having sex because one plus one equals one. And so we say, shall I then take the members of Christ

and make the members of the prostitute? And he answers the question, never. Now, Here's the thing. We only believe that sexual activity is just a physical activity when it's convenient for us. But we don't actually believe it. Nobody does. There's no, okay, no matter how promiscuous you were as a young man,

when you become a father and you have a son or a daughter, you don't believe that anymore, do you? You're not just like, hey, what are you doing tonight, Sally? Soccer practice and then I'm gonna sleep with the team. Okay, good, y'all have fun, okay, be careful. No, no. Nobody would look at a rape victim and be like, it's just physical. Why you still whining about that? That happened when you were 13, now you're 35. You wouldn't be, you wouldn't be whining about a broken leg when you were 30. Nobody thinks that, do they?

You see, no matter how secular or atheistic our society is, we still know at the core level there's something to this that is different. And Paul was saying, see, you didn't know. verse 16 or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her and again i think the corinthians would be like we're not going to be coming one we're just making out we're just having sex and paul would say the whole bible would say you can't divorce sex and intimacy it is oneness in fact the hebrew word for this is doad which means literally means the mingling of souls you See, that's different. That's different.

Now again, nowhere in the Bible are we going to see God show up and say sex is a bad idea. It was his idea. It's a good idea. It's a gift. But it has to be in the proper context. And that proper context is in the covenant of marriage. It's like fire. Is fire good or bad?

If fire is in the proper context, it's great, man. I used to be the youth pastor at Beach and one of my favorite trips we would do. It was kind of this unsanctioned trip. And we would do the same. We called it the man trip because I was working with a bunch of boys. And I grew up redneck. So a lot of these boys, like, they didn't have a pocket knife. They never shot a gun.

They didn't know how to build a campfire. And I was like, all right, I'll teach you the Bible. But you got to come with me. We go to my Uncle Phillips Farm. And I usually have to convince a few mommas there like, he's going to shoot a gun. I'm like, oh, good gracious. Yes, okay. Not at each other.

It's just like it stumps and stuff. It would be fine. So we get out there and we, we get out there. and we'd camp in my uncle's field. And the first thing we do, when we get there, I'd build like a little fire pit. You know, get a bunch of rocks, dig out a little hole and teach these boys

just how to build a fire, man. And I remember this one year we go on there and there's this kid named Ryan Kinder. Remember Kendra? He's psycho. I think he ended up being a Marine or something, all right? And he goes out, and I was like, get some firewood.

And he comes back with a branch that looked like the tree, all right? A pine branch. And he goes in there, and we got a little fire going, and he dips that thing in the fire and the little needles catch on, and there's this huge blaze, and he's just swinging it, like this, and we're going, I mean, me too, and we started chatting,

Kinder, Kinder, and he's like, ah, and he's just swinging it, but we're in the fire pit area, no part, no problem, and then he gets all fired up, and he just goes running through my ankles, my uncle's hayfield. Right, and we're like, Kinder, K, K, no, no. I'm telling you, man, I'm telling you, I think God looks at us, gives us the gift of sexuality, a man and a woman in the proper context of marriage.

In fact, I'll give this away. When you get to the honeymoon, the only time God ever speaks up in the book of Song of Solomon is after they have sex, after they have been married, and he essentially in Hebrew says, way to go, drink your fill. But then you get it outside of the context and all of heaven screams, no, no, no, no, no.

You're going to burn the whole world down. you're going to burn the whole world now. For as it is written, he's going to take him all the way back to the beginning. For the two will become one flesh. He takes them all the way back to the original intent of God. To Genesis chapter 2, verses 24 and 25. Pay attention to this. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast,

cleave, join to his wife. and they shall become one flesh. By the way, young single guys, notice this, shall leave his father and mother. That means you need to move out, get your own place, pay a bill, get a job, that stuff, and hold fast to his wife, and they become one flesh,

and the man and his wife were both naked and we're not ashamed. Order matters. Order matters. He leaves, he cleaves, they become one, there is no shame. There is ultimate vulnerability and transparency. This is ultimate intimacy. You see, Mary, they make a covenant, then they get naked, and there's no shame. Our society just mixes it all up. And you know what comes along with that? Shame. That's what comes along with it. And he says, but he who is joined to the Lord becomes one in spirit with him. And then the preeminent text,

in my opinion on sexual immorality. Verse 18. The Bible says flee sexual immorality. Flea sexual immorality. Which is pretty astounding to think about. Of all the things that you could say about sexual immorality, the Bible says flee. And just to put it in perspective,

when you go to Ephesians, Chapter 6, the Bible says that if you face the devil, stand firm against the devil and his evil schemes. Put on the full armor of God and take the sword, which is the Bible, you stand firm and fight against the devil of hell himself. But when it comes to sexual immorality, you flee.

Do you see the difference? The Bible would have us believe if you walk to your car tonight and the devil is at your car. And let's say it's old school just like Saturday Night Live Devil, you know what I mean? Like welfare, whatever, I was the welfare error. Whatever, you know, like horns, pitchforks, I'm going to kill you. The Bible says, nah, bro, you got this,

because greater is he who is in you than this evil one that you're staring down. Okay? And that God's going to send his angel armies there to help you defeat the devil at your car. But let's say tonight you walk out to your car and there's your ex-girlfriend from college. God goes, run, forest, run. This is too much for you. You cannot overcome such temptation. That's the difference, man.

And every single time any of us or all of us have failed sexually, it's because at some point, we decided to flirt and not flee. That's the difference. You see, because what we tend to do is when we are tempted sexually, then what we, the question that we ask, which is the fundamentally wrong question is this, okay, well, where's the line? I mean, I can talk to her, right? What's the big deal about talking? There ain't one verse in the Bible about thou shalt not talking to her, okay? And then we can get, I mean, we can just hang out a little bit, right? Or I can look at these pictures. I mean, nobody's naked in them. They're almost, but not all the way. And you start asking, where's the line? The very next question you ask is, how close to the line

can I get without going over it? And the moment you ask that question, I promise you, the next one is, how far over the line can I go and still handle the consequences? Think about it when you're driving. Does anybody look at the speed limit? 75, well, that's a little dangerous. I'll go 72. Nope. The moment you go, what's speed limit? Okay, well, if 75, I'm sure I can get, what, 82? I'm trying to get some policemen to give me the number that we're okay at, all right? But inevitably, what happens is the moment you try to go over the line and manage the circumstances, the next question is how in the world I'll get here. Every single one of us that has failed sexually is because of that.

Listen, man, if you cheated on your spouse or they cheated on you, that's what happened. That's what happened. They did not wake up one day and be like, I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to get divorced, lose custody of my kids. That's my plan today. not a person. They just began to say, there's nothing wrong with. This is okay, man. This is okay. I haven't done anything wrong. And then there was at some point, man, at some point, she got up in the morning, she was getting ready, and she was thinking about him and not you. And you're still, at that point,

there's still the opportunity to flee to run away. But at some point, then we went over the line and be like, what's the big deal? It's just a lunch. It's just a dinner. It's just the, you know, it's just a text nobody knows about. It's just a little, you know, a little private message on Facebook or whatever, and then the next thing is, this is not where I intended this to go. This is the nature of all sin and particularly sexual sin. Are you fleeing or are you flirting? And then he goes on to say, every other sin a person commits outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

I would just say this. Paul's going to say sexual sin is just in a different category. Now, some people say, well, all sin sin sin. In regards to all sin separating us from God and all sin being forgiven at the cross of Jesus Christ, yes. But all sin is not the same. Sexual sin has different consequences, and I'm just telling you, sexual sin dings the soul like nothing else. And here's why. Here's how you know this. Nobody laughs about past sexual sin. You've never been in disciple group. And some dudes like, hey, baby, tell our group about, when you used to sleep around in college, y'all, this is hilarious. No, tell them that one time at

Daytona. It was awesome. No, not at all. And in fact, think about it, I have no problem admitting all kind of sin in my life. And when I say I'm good at being bad, I was good at being bad, man. I mean, I cheated on all kind of stuff. I've gotten in more fights. It would embarrass you how many fights I have been in, won and lost. I didn't even mind getting hit some. Sometimes I'd take a couple just to, like, get going good, okay? It ain't good. It's not. I used to steal stuff, mostly from Walmart, which is hilarious that this is where I spend all my time. Steal me all kind of stuff, man. It bothers me almost none. But the ghost of sexual sins is different. Just different. Follows you around. It's just different. This is what he's saying. Don't deem your soul. He says, this is so important.

verse 19 or do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy spirit within you whom you have from God now if you're not a believer it's still your life will probably your life will be better if the only person you ever have sex with is your spouse it will but if you're a believer in Jesus your body is sacred and we live in a world where nothing is sacred but what the Bible is saying is that your body your physical body is a temple Praise God, this has nothing to do with what you look like in a bathing suit. Can I get a witness as it's warming up, all right? What this means is that you are sacred.

And just like you wouldn't, I mean, regardless of what you think about the Bible, you wouldn't just like tear the pages out and start a little campfire, would you? If you saw somebody doing that, be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, man, that's sacrilegious. And the Bible would say your body, if you were in Christ, is infinitely more sacred than any other sacred place or any other sacred place. temple or object you've ever seen on the planet. And the reason is because what makes a temple a temple is the temple houses God. And in the Old Testament, there was a temple. And in the middle of the temple, there was this room called the Holy of Holies. And inside the Holy of Holies was the presence of God.

And nobody was allowed to go in there except the high priest one time of year. But when Jesus on the cross pushes up on his nail pierce feet and says, it is finished, the Bible says that an earthquake it cracks right through Jerusalem, right through down the middle of the temple, and the curtain that separated the people of God from the presence of God was torn from the top to the bottom, by the way, not the bottom from the top from the top, like we got to work our way to him, but from the top to the bottom because he did all the work. And then on the day of Pentecost, for anybody who believed that Jesus, when he died on the cross, that counted for me, then the spirit of God filled every single believer.

In other words, the moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ, God put his spirit in you. And the Bible says that therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The reason is this is because, will you serve an enemy? And he likes to whisper in your ear. I know what you did. And to be condemned is a building term means unfit for use. And the enemy tries to tell you you're unfit for use. I look at you and I want to put a condemned sticker on it and say, because of what you've done, you are unfit for use.

And then Jesus Christ looks at you and says, because you put your faith in me, I'm not. saying you're condemned, I'm saying you're a temple, that your body is the permanent address of God on this earth. So you don't mistreat that temple because of what it contains. It contains the Holy Spirit of God. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God? You are not your own. You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. Do you know how valuable you are to God? You were so valuable. You see, the way you determine something's value is what is somebody willing to pay for it. Again, this is the gospel according to eBay.

eBay came out, people like, I got some stuff, worth some stuff. And you put it on eBay and be like, nope, my stuff's worthless. Remember that? Okay. You're up on the eternal eBay. God looks at you and he makes a bid. And the bid that he makes for you is the blood of his son, Jesus Christ. You are not your own.

You were bought at a price. When Jesus was on the cross, he pushes up on his nail pierced feet, and he says, it is finished. The word for that is Teletali. It literally means paid in full. He paid full price for you. And because he did that, you are valuable. You should be treated as valuable,

and we should treat one another as valuable. So honor God with your body. Honor God with your body. So why should you never have sex outside of marriage? Why should you flee from pornography and adultery and fornication and anything that is sexually immoral because Jesus Christ died on the cross for you? Just trying hard or ain't going to do it.

Changing your perspective to understand what he did for you changes everything. Here's the point. Flee sexual immorality. You were not your own. You were bought at a price. So honor God with your body. So let me ask you this. If you were God and you were going to talk to us about sex and sexuality, what would you say to us?

Good luck. Go get them, tiger, try harder, wear a condom. If can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with? No. You would say, flee, run away. You are not your own. You were bought with the price, therefore honor God with your body. Now, I think there's some very, very old school, famous theologians that would talk about mortification and vivification.

In other words, that there are some things in our life that we need to war against, because if you're not trying to kill sin, it will kill you. But that will never be enough. You also have to do the things that stir your affection. for Jesus. So I'm going to give you four things that I want to encourage you because of what Christ has done for us on the cross, I want to encourage you to do, particularly, man. I mean, this could be true for anybody,

but if you're single, and it's even an acronym, it spells out flee. If you want to flee sexual immorality, number one, 40 days, no touching. It would be a great rule for you to apply. And if you have been all over each other, it'd be a great time to hit reset. And let me tell you what will begin to happen.

if you quit touching each other and you're like, what do you mean by touch? How about this? You could only touch him or her the way you would touch me. And I want you to think about that next time you're doing stuff. So will we hug?

Yeah, man, like a big A-frame. Hey, what's up? And then don't touch me anymore, right? Would we hold hands? Until the prayer is over and we go, amen. Then we'd stop. You understand? You ain't sitting in my lap?

Right? I'd go just 40 days. Because then you actually have to communicate and tell you a lot about who you're you're dating. The L, leave on the lights and the clothes. Environment matters, man. Environment matters. And the deeper the commitment, the more difficult it gets. Not the easier, the deeper the commitment, the more difficult it gets.

When Gretchen I got engaged, I had to tell her, I can't go in the apartment anymore. She's like, why not? All confused. I was like, baby, it's like shopping with no money. I'm either going to take something that's not mine or leave frustrated. You understand? So I'll be in the car. So environment matters. Pay attention to where you are. E. Everything a bathing suit covers is off limits.

And I'm talking about old school 1920s Jack's Beach stuff. You understand what I'm saying? Think real Southern Babies, head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes. Got it? And then even if you pursue all those things and you have all those guardrails and rules in your life, it will never be enough if you don't E encounter Jesus. If you don't encounter Jesus, it will never be enough. You cannot white knuckle your way to this thing.

Tim Keller says this, and counterfeit gods, the only way to free ourselves from the destructive influence of counterfeit gods, which sex is a big one in our world, is to turn back to the one true living God. He's the only one if you find him can truly fulfill you and if you fail him can forgive you. And so, if this is you, if you're single and up to this point in your life, dating has always equaled sex and regret, then I want to encourage you to get out your phone, to go to the calendar of your phone, to go one year from today, and to make an appointment with yourself that says, resume dating. And here's why. Here's why. Because if you have been giving yourself to somebody that is not your husband or not your wife, and then you tear yourselves apart,

there is like a soul injury that you have. And if an athlete blows his ace, you know what the first thing the doctors say after they repair it you're going to have to rest and rehab and what you need is you need some rest and some rehab before you are ready to do this in god's way and let me assure you darling the moment the moment the moment you say all right god i trust in you you are more than enough i'm going to take a year off i'm telling you by next week you're going to meet this young man and he is going to be this mixture of william wallace tim tibbo and jesus okay i'm telling you, you're going to meet him. And in that moment, you get to decide who do I trust? God, do I trust you? And I would encourage you to take a year off. You see, and I know there's a

bunch of you here, and you're involved in sexual immorality, whatever that may be. You're not married and you're sleeping together, you're shacking up, you've got some friends with benefits, whatever it is, okay? I'm just going to tell you, it's not a self-control issue. It's a gospel issue. It is a gospel issue. In John chapter 8, these religious leaders bring this woman to Jesus, and they say, we called her in the act of adultery. We called her in the act of adultery. And the law of Moses says that we should stone her, we should throw rocks at her until she's dead. And there she is, embarrassed, shamed.

Can you imagine? Jesus was in the temple when this happened. That'd be like dragging somebody here at church. And everybody there is ready to condemn her. with a rock in their hand to throw a stone. So Jesus looks at the crowd and he goes, all right, we can do this. But whoever is here without sin, you throw the first stone. One by one, the rocks dropped.

Because I think they understood, oh, if we played a judgment game and Jesus is the judge, he is the only one here without sin. I don't think I have a leg to stand on. And they leave, and they leave, and they leave. And while she is sitting there bracing to feel the impact of the stone, And instead, when she opens her eyes and sees Jesus, she feels the impact of his grace. And he looks at her and he asks this question. He goes, who condemns you?

She says, no one. Then he says this. Again, she was caught in the act of adultery, sexual immorality. And he says, neither do I condemn you. So those of us who have sinned sexually hear the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. in our sin, make no bones about it, we stand condemned. But if we put our faith in Jesus Christ, therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. But he doesn't stop there.

Then he goes on one more step and says this, now, therefore, therefore, because of my grace, leave your life of sin. And so by the power of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I pray that you would know Jesus, surrender your life to Jesus, and he comes to us full of grace, neither does he condemn us, because he took the full condemnation at the cross, and he's full of truth. Now, go live, go leave your life of sin and live a life worthy of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Would you please stand? Let me pray for you. Father in heaven, Lord, I know this is a tough, tough subject. Obviously, you know. God, I'll look around this room even right now. In the face, this thing.

some of my friends and the enemy has stolen away things from them in this area. God, the enemy from the very beginning has been using a good gift of sexual desire that you have given us and has twisted it, has twisted it for his own purposes. And so, Lord, I pray that you would give us the wisdom to flee sexual immorality, to run away from it. You would give us the wisdom to not flirt with it. But God, we need more than wisdom. We need you. We need the power of the Holy Spirit inside of us. We need to encounter Jesus Christ because the only way to topple an idol in our life is to set our eyes on a more beautiful one worthy of our worship and that is you. So Holy Spirit, I pray, I pray that comfort and forgiveness would rain down in this place.

And then Spirit, I also pray that conviction would rise up in us. And we would walk out of here knowing that you do not condemn us if we would. we are in you, but you would also give us the power to leave our life of sin. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Church, we respond to the gospel. If there was ever a thing to pray about, this is a thing where we need God's help in our life. Whether you've been married for 50 years or whether you have been living in a sinful lifestyle,

we need the power of prayer in this one. We're going to join our voices together and we're going to sing these words, come to the altar. And so I pray as we sing and as we bring that we would come to the altar and pray. Let's respond.