The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 4: The Kingdom of God and Sex

Episode Date: February 13, 2022

Flee sexual immorality…you are not your own, you were bought with a price. So glorify God with your body.

Amen and amen. How we do, church? You go, all right? You look good. You ready for this? No way. All right, grab your Bible. First Corinthiansthius chapter 6.

Even if you don't normally get out of Bible, you just read it on the screen. I need you to get the Bible in front of you, open to First Corinthians 6th so that you can see I'm not making this up. All right? We are going to be talking about the kingdom of God and sex. Before I get there, just a little public service announcement, I didn't know how to work this into the sermon, but back in like November, me and a bunch of friends and my family,

we were hunting, and a friend of mine shot at a deer, and he missed, which is really embarrassing because he had a rifle. It's 50 yards away, and I don't want to tell you who it is because it'll shame him. But his initials are Kelly Adcox, okay? And he was a Marine. So, anyway, so being the servant that I am, I went out to go look for his deer, but it was frolicking around, all healthy and missed. I mean, anyway, I caught a branch in the eyeball.

And I did, like any good redneck from South Carolina would do, rub some dirt on it, shook it off, but somehow it didn't heal right, and somehow it's re-agravated this week. The only reason I tell you is because I'm not crying. We all may be crying by the end of this thing, but I'm not crying, so if I blink and get this sharp pain look, it's because it hurts like crazy. All right, that's all, that's it.

But I think I can preach with one eye. Okay, so grab your Bible's 1st Corinthians chapter 6. We are going to talk about, and that's part of the reason I shared all that is to give you your last chance to take the kids out, all right? So we're going to talk about the kingdom of God and sex. We're in the fourth weeks of this series, the upside down kingdom. And I actually, it wasn't going to be one of the topics that we covered until Vision Sunday when I was rolling this thing out, I thought,

how in the world can we talk about God's upside-down kingdom without talking about this one? Because we live in a sex-saturated sin-soaked world. And the enemy is kicking our butts when it comes to sex and sexuality. And what it's also crazy is even though I talk about this probably every year, how much changes within just one year of me preaching

about what God's timeless word has to say about sex and sexuality. I mean, think about this. Think about how much our view on sex has changed in my lifetime. I'm 48 years old. I was born in 1973. That's the year of Roe v. Wade. That's the year of no-fault divorce.

That's when birth control, not just for medical reasons, but just for really sociological reasons. Flooded the market. Things have changed. And a part of what I want you to think about is how much has changed in my lifetime. And the kingdom of this world in regards to sex, it's not working.

It's just not working. The divorce rate since 1973 have more than doubled, and we don't even know actually how many people are divorced because the two most populated states, California and New York, don't even take divorce records anymore because it's just so normative. We live in a society where you used to get, if you weren't happy, you would get divorced. Now, if you think you could just be happier, you get divorced. We live in a place where divorce used to be shameful. Now it's shameful for you to stay in a marriage if you think you could find somewhere happy. year. It's crazy. Cohabitation has increased like crazy, and the reason people live together before they get married is so that they can know if it's going to work out or not. I've heard

guys say, well, listen, I need to, you know, live together and sleep together to make sure we're sexually compatible. Well, I got one terrible thing for you. You're sexually compatible with hundreds of thousands of people. Did you realize that? If you're a boy and she's a girl, you'd be amazed how compatible things are, okay? But I would just want to tell you, bro, look, man, she's not a used car. And if you're going to treat her that way, then you for sure ain't ready to be a man of God that's going to love his wife like Christ, love the church,

and lay down your life for her. And so as cohabitation has increased, the divorce rates have increased with it. And I love it when the world and science began to catch up with the Bible. Wall Street Journal did an article two weeks ago. It was two pages in the Wall Street Journal where sociologists are now telling people

you probably shouldn't live together before you get married, because if you do, if you live together and sleep together before you get married, you are 50% more likely to get divorced. We live in a culture that teaches us hook up, shack up, break up, repeat. Hook up, shack up, break up, repeat. And then you think one day you're going to meet the one and you're going to come to church on a Saturday with a nice tux on and say I do.

And then all of a sudden you're going to be able to unwire this wiring that you have wired yourself towards for all of your life. This world's way is just not working. It's not. Not only that, pornography in the last 20 years has gone through the roof. Over 90% of young men 16 to 24 say that they regularly look at pornography and church attendance does not tend to impact that. And the largest group of people that are participating in pornography are young women. The crazy thing about our views of pornography, I saw this study in 2016, try to get your mind around this. 34% of people, ages 13 to 24, viewed porn as wrong.

34% of people said pornography is wrong. That same group, 56% of them said not recycling is wrong. How jacked up are we? That you think that you can abuse a girl? No problem. That's just a pastime. But you better throw your bottle in the right can or you're really doing something bad. Do you see how twisted our world is?

Over half of the divorce people that we know of, at least one of the spouses will say that their spouse had a porn addiction. But there's more money spent on pornography every year than the NFL, MLB, and NBA combined. It's about $3,000 a second. Sex trafficking in the United States is a $58 billion a year industry. And this weekend is not just the Super Bowl. This weekend is the weekend in the United States where more people will be trafficked than any other weekend. that a single girl sold into human trafficking earns about $250,000 a year for her slave owner

and all of these things are connected. I'm just telling you, regardless of what you believe, about sex and sexuality in the Bible and what I have to say, the world's way is not working. Now, when we turn to 1st Corinthians 6, I want you to know today I will primarily be talking to Christians. Because when you're a Christian, what you fundamentally say is Jesus is my Lord.

If you're not a Christian, you're saying that you are your Lord. No problem, man. No problem, all right? And what I want us to see is that it's not, this world's way isn't working. But I also want you to see this, that it's also not new. I know our churches, I know our world is crazy, but people have been crazy forever. Sometimes when I do church planning conferences, I'll have a young, idealized church planner say, we just got to get back to the early church.

But you sure, you want to get back to the early church? The church in Corinth, if you know anything about it, this is a church that the Apostle Paul planted, and in the church at Corinth, things are pretty jacked up. There were a thousand prostitutes that lived just in Corinth. Their primary industry was this temple to this sex god, Aphrodite, that there were people in the church getting drunk on communion. I mean, listen, it ain't good to get drunk, but if you get drunk on communion, there's some meetings you're going to need to attend. You understand what I'm saying? that they were so divided in the church.

Can you believe this? There were actually people in the church at Corinth that just identified with one of the preachers and would say things along. I'm not going this weekend if such and such ain't preaching. Can you believe that used to happen? Yeah, me either. They were suing one another.

One guy was sleeping with his stepmom. Think about that for a minute. And, listen, Paul's going to write to church folk, and they were sleeping with prostitutes as if it was normal. In fact, the word Corinthian in Greek became a verb and an adjective, and if you were called a Corinthian boy or a Corinthian girl, it was just like the first century Greek way to call you a whore. That's what it was.

If you Corinthian-sized somebody, that means you took advantage of them for your own sexual benefit. This place was jacked up, and so are we. So are we. So are we. So the reason I want to dive in to what the Bible has to say about the kingdom of God and sex is because, please, hear this for me. This is not from a place of like, I'm better than you. It's definitely not a place from a place of like hate or meanness. I want you to know the freedom that God has for you. And God's ways work better than our ways. They just work better than our ways. And so one of the things I want to ask you before we dive in is this, have you ever asked yourself why you believe what you believe, particularly about sex and sexuality? Have you ever asked yourself why you

believe what you believe, especially about sex and sexuality. You see, because most of the time, we don't really think about that. We just believe these things, but have you ever wondered why? Most of the time, what most people believe is this. They have a behavior that came first, and then they developed a belief that would match up with their behavior. As Christians, now if you're not a Christian, man, you believe whatever you want to believe, no problem. As Christians, what we are saying is, we are saying that Jesus Christ is my Lord. And so, you're not, So as I walk through the scriptures, there will be some things that are offensive. There will be some things that I say, and I'm offended by the things I say, okay?

Here's what I want you to consider. If Jesus is who he says he is, if he is the almighty, second person of the Trinity, son of God that spoke everything into existence, all things were made by him for him, through him, and to him, and it's by his power that he holds all things together, that he was crucified in our place and on the third day, resurrected from the great, ascended to the right hand of God the Father and interceding on our behalf from there right now and one day is coming back

with like tattoos and swords and stuff on a white horse, he may know a little more about how to live this life than you and I. I mean, I know you read a couple of articles on the Google machine, but I'm just telling you, the king of kings and Lord of Lords may be the one that we need to listen to in regards to the way we are doing life,

and here's why. Our way's not working. Now, this sermon is not just going to be how to change our practice, because it will never work. That unless we change our perspective, we'll never be able to change our practice. And often, most of us have the wrong perspective. You see, this kingdom says that sex is only physical, that it's casual, that it's hormonal. This kingdom teaches us that I determine truth, not the Bible, not science, me. I determine truth.

But the kingdom of God says that sex and intimacy are intertwined and that God determines what's right. And so we live in a world that wants you to believe that experience is what you're looking for. And it's not, man. Exclusivity, not experience fuels intimacy. That you and I were created as image bearers of God. One God in three persons.

He is perfectly exclusive with God's self. and that out of an overflow of God's love for God's self, he created us as image bearers, and God is for you. God is not against you. And that you and I were created to give and receive love, to give and receive intimacy. And when we treat our bodies as if they are just some casual, common thing, when we treat sex or sexuality as if it is just some common thing,

anytime you take something sacred and you treat it as common, that's called sacrilege. Like regardless of what you believe about the Bible, if me and you went camping together and I said, oh, I'll start the fire, and I took my Bible and began to rip pages out of the Bible and started making a fire,

even if you've never been to church, you would be like, I don't think you should do that. You know, if I took a crucifix off of the wall of a restaurant because the table was wobbly, I got it, and I stuck it under the thing, regardless of what you believe about crucifixes,

you'd be like, I feel like we're going to die, okay, it's not good. Yeah. And Jesus never died for a crucifix or the Bible. He shed his blood for you and me. That means you are sacred. Your sex life is sacred. Your body is sacred.

And so I want us to see from God's perspective because perspective always precedes practice. Now, we are going to dive into some verses. We're going to start in verse 9. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 9. Now, if you know your Bible very well, you know it would be much easier for me to just start at verse 12. And I've even had some friends of mine say,

Pastor, why don't just skip? We don't skip, all right? So we're going to walk through some stuff. Once again, I'm like the mailman. You need to know this. I didn't write this. I'm just delivering it, all right? And again, it is from a place of love, not hate.

And I will be called, here's one of the things. I'm going to create, I'm going to sin in the worst way possible according to our culture. I'm going to say some things from the Bible, and you're going to say, well, that's intolerant. All right. As believers, we're not called to be tolerant.

We're called to love. And in fact, this whole idea of intolerance is a crazy thing. Think about it. Think about it real quick. The tolerant crowd says you have to be tolerant. And if you're not, we won't tolerate it. So you don't even tolerate yourself, right? I mean, you see what I'm saying?

See, I have a possum that lives in my backyard, and as long as he stays over to the ditch on his part and don't come up to my part, I tolerate him. but we have we have been called to way much more than tolerance we have been called to love one another so from a place of love hear these words and also in hebrews 13 it says that one day i will stand before god and give an account for the way i leave this church for the sermons i preach and I just refuse to have the conversation with Jesus if I stand before him one day and he goes, hey man, why did you skip 1st Corinthians 6 the hard part?

I'm not going to say I was more concerned about what they thought of me than what they thought of you. So just please hear this from my heart, okay? All right. Now, here we go. Verse 9. The refrain that you're going to see,

the reason I wanted to teach out of this text is the refrain that you're going to see over and over and over is Paul is going to continually say, do you not know? Do you not know? Do you not know? And the answer is the Corinthians would be like, we didn't know. We didn't know. We didn't know any of these things.

You see? Because what the Corinthians are doing is they were raised in Corinth. They were raised with one sexual ethic. And then Paul's going to come along over and over and over and they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, bro, bro. That's not how it works. And they wanted like one foot in Corinth than one foot in the kingdom of heaven. And Paul's like, nah, that's not how it works. It is very, it's the way people in America live right now too.

that oftentimes it's called syncretism. That you want to treat Christianity. We want to treat Christianity like a buffet. And you go up to the first thing, you be like, ooh, salvation, I'll take some of that, right? Because hell, it's hot and forever's a long time. So give me some of that. And then you're like, oh, community.

I'll take community. That's good. Oh, money? Nah. I'm going to just keep my own, okay. What's that? What's that? Okay.

Oh, no, no, no. I do what I want. Oh, feed the poor. Oh, I'll take some. Oh, that's going to cost me money. I'll just put that back. That's how we do. Okay.

And Paul's going to go, no, no, no, no, no. So what he's going to start, before he gets into the details of sex and sexuality, he's going to start with the gospel. Because until you have the gospel, you're not going to be able to just will yourself to live a godly life. Verse 9, he says this, or do you not know, that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do you know that? The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. All right. Let's do a little play along here.

everybody point at somebody unrighteous. Ready go. Good, you nailed it. If you're pointing at anybody other than you, it all starts right here. That's right. The person sitting in your seat is who he's talking to right now. And again, if you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,

pastor, who do you think you are to call me unrighteous? Man, I'm like the leader of the band in unrighteousness. Every single one of us, by nature, and nurture are wretched, crooked and depraved, blackhearted sinners. All of us are. And again, the younger you are, the more this will offend your sensibilities. Well, I don't think so, because my kindergarten teacher told me that I was a snowflake and I was puppy's breath and I was a skittal. All right, skittal.

Your kindergarten teacher was a liar. She was, man. She was more concerned about your opinion of her as a five-year-old than telling you the truth. Don't believe me? Anybody ever raise a toddler? If you've ever raised or are raising a toddler, raise them, huh? Praise God. You know what toddler means in Greek?

sinner. Sinner, man. They're selfish, they complain, they contribute virtually nothing, wretched little, crooked and depraved, fearfully and wonderfully made and full of potential image bearers of God, sinners. That's what they are. Nobody had to teach them to sin. I mean, honestly, bro, did your wife teach your kid to bite? I wouldn't admit it during this sermon, even if that's the case.

So, oh, man. Here's how we know we're sinners. Forget God's law. perfect, holy, he is holy and just, and we are called to be holy. We can't keep our own law. You ever made up some of your own commandments? All right, no more dessert all week, right? How's your New Year's resolution going?

Remember that? Huh, sinner. Me too, man, me too. We can't even keep our own commandments. What if God only judged you every time you said, I ought to or I'll never again? We would fail every single time. So what Paul is establishing before he gets into any particularities is that we're not sinners because we sin.

We sin because at the heart of us we are sinners. He says, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. You know what he says this? Because the enemy is trying to deceive us. This world spends billions of dollars a day to try to get us to buy into the false narrative of this world. That you are the king, that you are the boss of you, that this kingdom matters more than anything else. do not be deceived.

Then he says neither, and what he's going to do is he's going to go through a list. He's going to give us examples of the unrighteous things that unrighteous people do. And don't get those two mixed up. He's going to name nine things that unrighteous people do. All right. So don't you know, the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Don't be deceived. Neither, he starts with this one.

The sexually immoral. That word translated sex. sexually immoral in the Greek is a word pornao. Say pornao. See, now you know Greek. All right. You obviously, we get the word pornography from this word. This word, before he gets into any kind of specifics, he mentions a couple of specific sexual sins, but he says that sexual immorality, porneo, is like the junk drawer of any kind of sexual sin. And in the Bible, sexual immorality is any sex, any kind of romance, anything like that, outside of the covenant of marriage. And in the Bible, marriage is one man, one woman, one lifetime. In other words, what he's saying is,

those aren't just pictures. It's a pathway, and it's sexually immoral. He's saying that's not just a novel, 50 Shades of Gray is the best-selling fiction book of all time. That's not just, that's not a mental escape. That's sexual immorality. that any time you look outside of the covenant of marriage that you were in, for any kind of romance or any kind of sex or sex act, that is sexual immorality. And I'm telling you, it includes all of those things, all of them. He keeps going. He says, nor, so neither sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers.

Now, oftentimes when you get to adulterer, you think, well, I've never cheated on my wife, so I'm good, right? Yeah, except for Jesus comes along in the sermon on the Mount, and here's what he says. He says, you have heard that said that you shall not commit adultery. That's the Seventh Commandment. And then he raises the bar. And he says, but I say to you, if you've ever lusted after a woman in your heart, then you've already committed adultery. And then some folks have been like, whoa, whoa, whoa, but what is lust?

Okay, what does that mean? Here's what it means. Does it mean that you notice that somebody's pretty? Now, anybody with two eyeballs that lives at the beach can notice that, all right? Here's what it means. when you begin to commodify another human for your own benefit, then that's what lust is. And Jesus says, if anybody has done that,

then you've committed adultery in your heart. Then he said, this is the one that everybody gets nervous on my behalf for, okay? Nor men who practice homosexuality. We're going to come back to that one. I want to spend a minute on it. Nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, you know what a reviler is?

A reviler is somebody that talks smack about somebody else. Okay? The Greek word for that is Twitter. Got it? Okay. Nor swindlers? Got any swindlers in the house? Don't raise your hand, okay? You know what? A swindler is? A swindler is anybody that manipulates somebody else for their money. Okay? So, none of these people will inherit the kingdom of God, right? Nobody on Twitter. If you work for the government, nobody will. I'm just kidding. All right, so pretty nine things on this list. So let me go back to the one that everybody gets nervous about. nor men who practice homosexuality. I'll tell you at least three things here.

First of all, I want to share this from a place of love, okay? From a place of love, not out of hate. And I also want to say that, at least from my perspective, the church has done a horrible job when it comes to this to pick on any one center as if that center is any worse than any of the other sinners, all right? And so, number one, this is a movement. The Church of 1122 is a movement

for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And so as long as all people means all people, all people are welcome here. But it's not a movement for all people to just show up and be like, no, no, I'm the boss of me. That's not what we're here for. It's a movement for all people to discover

and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And so again, if all the sinners have to leave, it's going to be a real empty building, a bunch of them all over Florida and Georgia now, okay? Number two, I can't make it say something other than it says that the practice of homosexuality is a sin that should be repented of.

And I know I've had some folks be like, well, Pastor, you don't understand. I mean, this is how it was made. These are my feelings. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, we all have to surrender the way we were made, and we all have to surrender feelings to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Because fundamentally, what we're saying is my hormones are not my Lord. Jesus is my Lord. When I got married to Gretchen, And it's not like God sprinkled some like fidelity dust on me. And the only person I find attractive in the whole planet is her. Now it's obvious outpunning my coverage something fierce and I don't want to goof that up. But how are you going to laugh, man?

You should be like, no, pastor. She's the lucky one. Okay. But I can't, I mean, if I cheated on her, I can be like, nah, babe, that's how I identify. And that's just not me anymore. Okay. You know? I mean, if I just did what I felt like doing because of the way my hormones work and stuff,

I would kill people on the interstate all the time. Oh, that it'd be just dead bodies, but none of us would have to go slow in the fast lane. You understand? Thank you very much. So all sexual immorality is sin that needs to be repented of. And then the third thing is that if you're a Christian, Jesus is our Lord, not our hormones.

And freedom is found in obedience to him. Freedom is found in obedience to him. Again, please hear me, man. I share this out of love. love for you. I believe that God's best for you is what he has put in his word, and there's nothing this world could offer you. There's no relationship, there's no experience that can compete with knowing him, regardless of your sex and sexuality or marital status or any of those things, he and he alone is more than enough. And let me just give you a warning. If you think,

well, I'm never coming about this church. I understand. I understand it. If you're offended, I get it. No problem, okay? But it would be really easy for you to go find a church in Jacksonville that will tell you exactly what you want to hear. Now let me just give you a warning, all right. Let me give you a warning. Anytime you come to the scriptures with a highlighter and a pair of scissors, be careful. Because now what you're doing is not submitting to the Lordship of Christ. You're actually submitting the scriptures unto yourself.

And every single church that I've ever seen that clipped out the clear teaching of the scriptures in regards to sex and sexuality, that's bad enough. But when you get to what it means to be a Christian, to be saved, to salvation, every single church that has clipped out this part has also clipped out the part about Jesus is the way the truth in the life and no one comes to the Father except through me.

So please, whatever you do, whatever you do, whatever you do, listen to the words of Jesus. So we love you. I love you, and I love you enough to tell the truth. And if you're offended by me, if you're offended by me, okay? No problem, man, no problem. You can just go to my website, jimmy cratscorn at I don't care.com. That's fine.

All right. Now, if you're offended by the word of God, then let's talk about that. Let's talk about that. Because we all have things in this book that we look at and you think, ah, I wish that wasn't in there. Why? Because he's the almighty, immortal, perfect, and holy God, and he knows best how to do life.

So Paul starts with this way. Do you not know? no one unrighteous will inherit the kingdom of God. And then he gives this list. And if you take the test, you're going to get a failing grade. And then you get to that and you think, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. So what are you saying, pastor? Are you saying we're all going to hell?

Yep, that's what I'm saying. Every single one of us, by nature and nurture, have joyfully rejected God. And we're on a bullet train to hell. Except for the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is what the Apostle Paul wants to establish before he gets into the specifics of what's going on. That it's not by our good works or our behavior or our orientation or our sexual behavior. That's not what saves us. It's Christ on the cross that saves us.

So even in our utter depravity, the Apostle Paul in Ephesians is going to say, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved. So he is talking to swindlers and revilers and people that struggle with sexual immorality. He says, all of these folks, again, he's right into the church, man. Verse 11, he goes, and such were some of you. Like in this church, such were past tense, some of you. But you were washed and you were sanctified.

You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God. In other words, what he's saying is you don't have to do the things you used to do because you're not the person that you used to be. And the enemy wants to come along and label you by some past behavior. The enemy wants to label you by some past sin. The enemy wants to label you by your past scars.

And Jesus comes along and goes, no, no, no, you're not identified by your scars. If you were in Christ, you're identified by my scars. This is why John is going to say, and this is love. Not that we love God, but he loved us and sent his son as the propitentiary. for our sin.

Propitiation means a payment that satisfies, which means at the cross, when Jesus pushed up on his nail-piers' feet and said, to tell us, I, it is finished. He satisfied the justice of God, the law of God, the holiness of God. And if you are in Christ, then no matter what you have done

or what you struggle with, then God cannot be dissatisfied in you. Now, there is a big difference between a struggle and you just saying, forget you, God, I do what I want. And we're going to see this in a little while, but what the enemy wants to do is the enemy wants to whisper condemnation in your ear,

particularly when it comes to this subject. You see, what's crazy is back in the dark ages when crusaders would get baptized. History tells us that they would proclaim Jesus Christ as their Lord and they would get baptized except they would hold their sword out of the water. And what they were saying is, I surrender all of this to you, but I'm going to do some shady stuff with this sword.

You see, in a modern-day baptism, what many people do figuratively is they claim Christ as their own. Lord, but they got two fists out of the water. And one is their sexuality and one is their wallet. And I'm just here to tell you, if Jesus isn't Lord of all, then he's not Lord at all. It's just how it works. It's just how it works.

Like, regardless again in what you believe or, because it's really easy, I'm telling you, you can find some Bible teacher that can take some scissors and a highlighter and some hermeneutical gymnastics and try to make it say whatever is easy for you. It's really not that hard these days, especially with Google. But if Christ himself, regardless of what you believe about sex and sexuality, we're to show up in your room, like tomorrow morning and shake you by the toe and you wake up and it's the Christ. And he goes, good morning. I love you. I really do.

I love you. This area of your life is sin. Stop. And if your response to that is, regardless of what it is, I ain't stopping that. Then he's not your Lord. That's what Lordship is. Now, I'm not talking about what we struggle with, because the reality is that Christ came to die for sinners, and every single one of us are sinners. And if you have put your faith in Christ, you are identified in him now, not in the things you do or have done or struggle with.

I was reading a really good book by my favorite author, Charles Martin. You should read his books, all of his works that he has been a part of. but I was reading one from a couple years ago called They Turned the World Upside Down and in it, he shares this illustration. He's got a good friend named Hank. Hank's on staff of us now. And Charles led Hank to Christ and Charles was in Hank's wedding.

He was one of his groomsmen. And they're, I think it was in Tallahassee and they are like in this little back room where all the dudes kind of hang out waiting to make their appearance. And Hank is super nervous as you ought to be. every time I do a wedding, I look right at the groomsman, I'm like, are you nervous? And they're like, no, I'm like, well, you should be. This is kind of a big deal, okay? Just hold your knees, lock your knees, hold your breath, let's hope it works out, all right?

And so, Hank's freaking out, and he's drinking coffee in a styrofoam cup, and his thumb goes through the coffee and then on his white shirt. And about the moment that happens, the wedding director sticks her head and goes, all right, we got about five seconds until we're ready for you, and then there he is. Just coffee stain all on his white shirt, thinking, I'm about to come out here and look like an idiot, If you can't be clean on your wedding day, bro, your wife's going to be like, I have chosen poorly, right? What's he going to do? Charles Martin looks at him and says, give me your shirt.

Just give me your shirt. And so they change shirts and then they come walking out and nobody in the audience knows what's happening. And then there's the groom just looking clean, pressed and white. And then they look at his idiot groomsman friend with coffee from his neck down to his belt. And they think, what an idiot. It's a picture of the good news of the guy. gospel of Jesus Christ, except it's way more in a coffee stain. For whoever is in Christ, therefore now there is no condemnation. That God made Him who was without sin to be sin for us,

that we would be made the righteousness of Christ. You got to know that first before we get into the specifics. This is where Paul wants to start. He wants to start with the gospel. And now what he's going to do is he's going to dive into what the Corinthians were doing that they shouldn't be doing. And what you'll see here is you'll see a couple of verses that are in quotes. And the quotes were common values of the Corinthians. They were like bumper sticker statements that the Corinthians bawled into. And so you see the first one in quotes, all things are lawful for me. This is what the Corinthians would say to Paul. Well, Paul, all things are lawful for me. You can't tell me what to do. And then Paul responds. That may be true, but not all things are helpful.

Think about that. You get to say, no, no, I'm the boss of me. I get to do with my sexuality. I get to do whatever I want. Paul goes, but everything's not helpful. Think about this in regards to your own personal life. What about it? What if every person in your life, everybody that you love, everybody in your life did sex God's way? Think about how helpful that would be. Think about the marriages that wouldn't have been split up. Think about the what would happen to unwanted babies. By the way, there are no unwanted babies. Jesus wants every single one of them. That's why we fight for them. Okay. Think about it. Think about all of the, all of the things. things that come along with, you can't tell me what to do.

So they say, all things are lawful for me. Paul says, but not all things are helpful. He repeats it, yeah, yeah, but all things are lawful for me. And then Paul says, but I will not be dominated by anything. The Corinthians are basically saying to Paul, you ain't a boss of me, and he goes, I know, Jesus is. So we need to do this his way. And then here was a common thought, too.

No, no, Paul, here's how this works. See, food is meant for the stomach and stomach for the food. They're saying, no, Paul, hold on. Sex is just like an appetite, like every other appetite, right? I get thirsty, I drink, I get hungry, I eat, I have sexual organs, I get turned on, I do something about it. It's just like everything else. It's just an appetite. And Paul's like, no, you're not thinking about it right.

He says, God will destroy both one and the other. In other words, this is temporary. This is temporary. And then he goes on to say, the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. You see, they had this false dichotomy of the human existence. They believed that you could give your heart and your soul to Jesus, but you do whatever you want to with your body. And Paul's like, that's not how it works.

You are one person, heart, soul, mind, and strength. And we are to love the Lord of God with all of them, with all our heart, soul, minded strength. He keeps going. He says, and God raise the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? They're like, what? No, no, no, no.

My body is just my body. I gave my heart to Jesus, but what I do is my eyes and my hands and all the rest of my body, that's not really up to Jesus. And Paul's like, no, no, no, no. Don't you remember 1122? We spent two years on the Shema.

Shemah, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord of your God with all, all your heart, soul, mind, and shrink. And when Jesus has asked, what's the greatest commandment, that's what he says. The greatest commandment is to love the Lord of your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

that you can't just give a peace of you to Jesus and give the rest of you to a prostitute. He says, and God raise the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? And this is the part that shocked them. Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?

And they're like, Paul, what you mean members? I don't have like a membership. You see, what would happen is that there were a thousand prostitutes in Corinth at this temple to the sex god Aphrodite's. And people in the church, not just people in the city, church leaders would go and sleep with the temple prostitutes in Corinth, and then they'd just roll into church on Sunday. How you doing, Tom?

Doing great. Had a great week. What did you do this week? Oh, it's pretty cool. Came to church, worship with my hands up. Then on Monday, play golf with Ted. He's my golf buddy. And then on Tuesday, Aphrodite is running a two-for-tuesday special, and so I went to slept with a couple

prostitutes. And they were like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's not how it works. You're like, well, of course it does. But I thought you were a Christian. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, I gave my heart to Jesus. But what I do with my body is just really up to me.

And what Paul is saying is, no, that's not how it works, man. You see, sex is not just physical and sex is not just casual. You see, in this kingdom, the kingdom of this world, it will teach us, I am the boss of me. Sex is physical, casual, and hormonal. That's it. And in God's kingdom, sex is super. supernatural. Sex is for one man and one woman for one lifetime. And in God's economy, one plus one equals one. We are image bearers of God. Think about this. Out of an overflow of God's love

or God's self, he created image bearers. If you're married and have kids, it's a, it's a reflection of why God gave us sex. Twenty-two years ago next week, Gretchen and I got married. And we stood in an altar and we made a covenant with one another. And because of our our love for one another, we created image bearers, two of them. These are physical representations of our love that sex is so much bigger than just the physicality of it. And so we ask the question. Shall I then take the members of Christ and make the members of a prostitute? And he answers his own question, never with an exclamation point.

That means he's yelling. Never. Now, here's the thing. We only believe that sex is physical when it's convenient for us. That's it, man. When you look at pictures of somebody else, you think, oh, it's just physical. When you begin to walk down the road and be promiscuous with people and we think, oh, it's not that big a deal, it's just physical.

We only believe it's physical when it's convenient for us. But nobody literally believes that sex is only physical. You know how I know? I don't care how many girls you slept with when you were in college, bro. When you grow up, get married, have a daughter. All of a sudden, you think very different thoughts about sex and sexuality. You talk to any person that's been raped, that's been abused, that's been molested. And nobody would look at that person and say, why are you still crying?

Why are you still crying? That happened to you, you were 13 years old, when you were 10 years old. Why are you still making a big deal about it? You ain't crying about a broken foot, a broken ankle from back then, are you? Nobody would say that. Because here's what we know. Sex is just different. And by the way, I think the church has dropped the ball for a long time in regards to

abuse, and if somebody ever did something to you, abused you, then I want you to know this, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom and there's freedom in this place, and this is a safe place for you to come and get help. And you come and you ask some of us and you, because here's the thing, man, gross things grow in the dark and we want to shine the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And because somebody did something to you, it's not your fault. And you are not condemned. You are not. And so we, we, He will help you get help, all right? Whether that's police or therapy or whatever it is, then you come and let us help you.

And then Paul keeps going. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? And again, you see, if you're sleeping with somebody right now that's not your spouse, you're thinking, oh no, hold on, I'm not joining. We're not becoming one. And the Bible will go, yep. You see, sex is a gift from God. It's not gross and it's not a God. It is a gift.

It's not to be idolized. It's not to be treated as casual. That it is a gift from God. But it was meant by God to be in the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman. It's like a branch. Is a branch a good thing or a bad thing? Well, most of the time it's a good thing.

Like birds can build nest on branch and live there. You could chop down the branch and make you a campfire. You could chop down big branches and make you a house. house, but a branch that slings and hits me in the eyeball, not a good thing. Is fire a good thing? If you came to me and said, Pastor Job, would you build a fire in my home? Of course I would. You would assume that I would put the fire in the context of the fireplace. If I started setting the fire in the closet, you would think, I don't think this is going to go well. This is what sex is like, a gift from God in the covenant of marriage between one man and one

woman. And you may say, well, that's a little old school. It's real old. It goes, all the way back to the very beginning. This is why Paul is going to go back to the very beginning. For as it is written, the two will become one flesh. This is from Genesis chapter 2, verse 24. The God's design, one man, one woman, one lifetime. Just before that, Genesis says this. I used to didn't have to read these verses, but now I do. Genesis 127, so God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created. He created. you're like oh pastor it's kind of binary it is that's how god made it and an attack on gender is an attack on the character and nature of god that men and women were created in such a way that we reflect who

god is so in genesis 224 the bible says therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh and the man and his wife were both naked and were not a Here that young man, the man shall leave his father or mother. That's step one. Move out. Get you a job. Pay a bill. Creative and environment whereby God could trust you enough to bring one of his daughters into.

Then you get married and then you become one. That means have sex. And then the result of that is they are naked and unashamed. In our culture, we mix it all up. We mix up the order and people get naked first, then get married, and that's why shame walks into your marriage with you. What Paul is saying is, nah, man, the two will become one flesh.

Verse 17, for he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him, and then here is Paul's action step. Based on where our world is right now with sex and sexuality, based on where the Corinthians were back then, here's Paul's advice. By the way, if you were God, what would you tell our generation right now?

Be careful? Wear a condom. If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with? Nope. Here's what Paul says. Flee, flee, just because you don't know what flee means.

It means run away. Flee sexual immorality. Don't be careful, don't flirt with it, but flee. Now, just to put this in perspective, church, do you know what you're told to do if you come face to face with the devil himself? You are told to stand firm against the devil in his evil schemes. We are told to put on the full armor of God,

take the shield of faith and the sword of the spirit, which is the word, and we stand firm against the devil because greater is he who is in us than this devil that we're facing. Here's what this literally means. When you were to walk out of here when church is over, if you were to walk up to your car in the parking lot and you walk up and the devil of hell is sitting in your car, in your civic, you know what the Bible says to do, hey devil, get up out my civic, okay? Because I have, he has me and I have dominion even over the civic, so you've got no place in my civic. You got to get out, because you may try to oppress me on the way home, but you cannot possess me because I am a possession of Jesus Christ.

Get out my civic. That's what you do. You stand firm against the devil. Everybody feeling good? Now if you walk out to your civic and your college ex-girlfriend is sitting there, run for us, run! You can't handle that. That's what he says.

Fight the devil, flee sexual immorality. That's what we're supposed to do. All right. Listen to how Jesus talks about it. He says this. This is Matthew 5. He says, you have heard it was said, you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you,

everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.

For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. And if your iPhone causes you to sin, throw it in the flipping Atlantic Ocean and get you a flip bone that doesn't have pictures because it's better to not have a phone than it is to go to hell. And if that girl you work with is flirting with you,

then quit your job because it's easier to get a new job than it is to get a new family. Now, I added a couple verses there. So if you're looking, you're like, what version? Is that the remix? Okay, listen.

And I know what you're saying. a little extreme. This is extremely important. This is extremely important. I could introduce you to hundreds of people at our church. And a temptation came along in regards to sexual immorality. And instead of fleeing, they flirted. That's what happened, man. And they wish, man, they wish they could get into Delorean and fix the flux capacitor and go back to the time before they made the decision to start heading down that road. If you've ever been cheated on, the reason you got cheated on is because that person decided to flirt and not flee. Nobody ever just wakes up. You know what I'm going to do today? I'm going to ruin it all. That's what my plan. No, man. You see, the question

is not like, where's the line? Like, all right, I figure we probably shouldn't look at pornography. What about Instagram? Is that one okay? The moment you start to like go down that line, the moment you begin to say, all right, there's the line. That's sin. Then you'll, the next thing you do is say, how close to the line can I get? The next question is, how far over the line can I go and still manage the circumstances. And the moment you do that, bro, you're like, how did I end up here? Anyone who has ever sinned sexually

is because instead of fleeing, we flirted. That's it, man. That's it. So let me ask you, are you fleeing or flirting? Like when it comes to pornography, bro, those aren't just pictures. It's a death trap. That psychologists tell us now

that pornography rewires your brain so that it prevents you from bonding with the one that you are married to. The pornography industry targets 12 to 13-year-olds knowing that in three days they can have an addiction. You see, it's somebody's daughter. It fuels human trafficking, and it will kill your ability to be intimate. So are you fleeing or flirting? And God's word would say, flee. Run away.

Do whatever it takes. The Bible says in the book of Proverbs, what man can hold fire? to his chest and not get burned. And here's the stupid thing about every man and woman. You think, I can't. And I'm just telling you, you can't. And so the Bible says, flee. Here's what this means, man.

Here's what this means. You're going to go to work tomorrow. And that girl is going to laugh at your jokes that your wife won't laugh at. And you get this little thing. You say something, she's like, oh, that's so funny. I knew I was funny. I told that woman I'm funny.

Right. And something begins to happen, man. And then she's going to say, hey, let's grab a coffee. And you think, what's wrong with coffee? Nothing wrong with coffee. I look through the whole Bible. There's not one verse that said, thou shalt not drinketh coffee.

Nope, not in there. All right? And what's beginning to happen is you are taking steps in a direction that's going to kill you. And again, is drinking coffee with somebody at work that's not your spouse a sin? It's not a sin. It's just stupid.

It's just stupid. It leads to a place. I'm telling you, she is the devil of hell and you need to flee. And if you could tell her that. And if she gets mad, again, have her email me at Jimmy Crackscorn at I Don't Care.com because I'm more concerned about you and your family

than I am just insecure girl at work, okay? It's just true, man. You do whatever it takes. And here's why. Here's why Paul lets us know how important this is. Every other sin a person commits is outside his body. But the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

Here's what this means. It's in a different category. Some people are like, all sin is sin. It's not true. It's true in the fact that all sin separates us from God and that Jesus died on the cross to forgive us of all sin. But the consequences of sexual sin hurts you on the inside. It's just different, man. It's just different.

Like if I came down here and punched you in the face and stole your wallet, you're all hurt. I mean, you've got a broke nose and you're broke. I got a good story and your wallet. You understand? But when you sin sexually, it just does something here. and this is why, by the way, this is why one of the chief tactics of the enemy when you have sin sexually is to whisper the lies of condemnation in your ear. Well, you've already messed up.

You can't get it back. Who do you think you are? And listen, I understand this as good as anybody in the room, man. Every Thursday and Sunday, especially on a weekend like this one, I know this is the context. Based on my past, the enemy just gets louder and louder and he wants to whisper lies of condemnation. condemned is a building term which means unfit for use that's what he wants to lie to us about but i want you to see what paul says after he says every other sin a person commits is outside the body but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body or do you not know and they're like we didn't

know this paul or 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 you not God in your body. So if you have sinned sexually, if you are sinning sexually, if that's the world you're in right now, the enemy wants to come up and say, you're done, man, you're done. You're unfit for use. And then Jesus comes along and goes like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. No, your body, if you're in Christ, your body is a temple. And that didn't have anything to do with what you look like in a bathing suit. Can I get a hallelujah, praise God, all right? Do you know what a temple is? A temple is where the spirit of God resides. And when Paul

wrote this, there was an actual temple. And inside the temple was this little room called the Holy of Holies, and the presence of God would reside in there. In one time of year, the priest would come in and shed the blood of a lamb and sprinkle it over the Ark of the Covenant. And on the day that Jesus died on the cross, he pushed up on his nail-pierced feet, and he said, Teletestai, it is finished, paid in full, that an earthquake cracked through Jerusalem, and it tore the temple curtain that separated the presence of God from the people of God from the top to the bottom, not bottom to top, like we've got to work our way there, but top to bottom because it's by his works that we've been set free. And so for whoever believes in Christ,

then your penalty for sin has been paid for, and it gets better than that. 50 days later, on the day of Pentecost, Peter gets up and preaches to all these people and every single person that put their faith in Jesus Christ, that believed when Christ died on the cross, somehow that counted for me, the Spirit of God fell upon them, and the Spirit of God was placed as a deposit inside every believer. So when the enemy comes and says, you are condemned, you are unfit for use. Jesus comes along and says, shut your mouth. That one's one of mine. That is a temple of God. That's not unfit for use. That's where the spirit of God dwells. Church, you are not your own. Your body's not just a body to do whatever you want to with. You are not your own. You are bought at a

price. You should know this. eBay taught us this. eBay taught us the true value of the thing. Remember when eBay came out and you're like, Martha, get my stuff, we about to be rich. And you put your stuff on in, you got $2. dollars, it's because your stuff was worthless. The almighty sovereign king of the universe, eternally speaking, sees you on the auction block of eBay, and he goes, I'll pay full price. My perfect spotless son will shed his blood for you. You are not your own. You were bought at a price.

Listen, you are valuable. You should be treated as valuable. Therefore, glorify God with your body. Do you know why you should not have sex with somebody that's not your spouse? You shouldn't look at porn. and you shouldn't do all those things, because Christ died on the cross for you. You are valuable and you should be treated as valuable. Here's the point.

Flee sexual immorality. Flee sexual immorality. You're not your own. You were bought with a price of glorify God in your body. If you are being tempted, run away, man. Flee. Run away. Do whatever it takes.

Be extreme. If dating has always equaled sex for you and you're full of regret and shame, get out your phone, go. go to the calendar, go a year from today, and make an appointment with yourself that says resume dating. And here's why, here's why. If you tore to your Achilles, the doctor would say, you're going to need to rest because you have an injury. And if you've been sleeping with folks, you've got a sole injury that needs to rest. And I want you to trust him. Take a year off. And listen, darling, the moment you do this, here's what's going to happen. Next weekend, at church,

you're going to meet this weird combination of William Wallace, Tim Tebow, and Jesus himself. Is he the one? And you're going to get to decide, do you trust your plan or his plan? But if you are being tempted, you flee. If you were in sin, repent. And if you're thinking, we've appreciated this one about 10 years ago

because you've walked down a road that led to destruction, then here's what you have to know, man. If the tomb is empty, anything is possible. If God can breathe new life into his dead son and he can walk out of a grave, then he can breathe new life into any relationship. He can give you the ability to forgive things

that you never thought you could forgive because you know that you have been forgiven of every sin that you've ever committed. That God can restore things that you thought were dead and done. Why? Because there is nothing impossible with him. And please, if you were feeling condemnation, that's not the language of the Heavenly Father. Therefore, now there is no condemnation

for those who are in Christ Jesus. and if you were feeling the conviction of the Spirit of God, that's because he loves you so much that he is trying to just, he's trying to cause you to never be at peace with that sin anymore and walk into this abundant life that he has called you into. How do I know this, man? John chapter 8.

In John chapter 8, Jesus is teaching in the temple and some religious men catch this woman in the act of adultery. And they drag her in front of Jesus. Now, the Bible doesn't say what they do with the man. So there are for sure some power dynamics and all of that going on. However, she was participating in this act. And they used her for their own religious and political benefit. And they dragged this woman in front of Jesus.

And listen, man, if you've been around church, don't think like veggie tails and flannelgraph. This woman had a first name. She was the daughter of somebody. And I can promise you, she never in a million years thought that's where her life was going to lead. That's where some of you are right now. You're in a relationship, you shouldn't be in. You're in an extra relationship that you shouldn't be in. You're looking at stuff that you shouldn't.

And you feel shame and you feel condemnation. And you sometimes, maybe you've been to a church before and you feel like it beat the mess out of you. I don't think they gave her time to get ready to freshen up before she went to see the king. And they dragged this woman before Jesus. And then they say, the law of Moses, Jesus says

that a woman caught in adultery needs to be stoned. actually it says the man and the woman need to be stolen so they don't care about the word of God at all they're just trying to use this for their own benefit what say you Jesus and then the Bible says Jesus gets down and he begins to doodle in the ground no way knows what he doodles maybe he's just trying to take the attention off of her because he can take it then he stands up and he goes okay you're going to play the judgment game we can play the judgment game how about this whoever has no sin why don't you cast the first stone. And then the Bible says that the rocks begin to drop one at a time,

and the men began to walk away, and it started with the oldest. You know why? Because the oldest are the wisest. And I bet they were the first ones to figure out, uh-oh, if we play the judgment game and all the imperfect people get rocks thrown at him, I'm going to have to go first. The only one worthy to judge is this perfect rabbi right here. And so they drop the stones one by one and walk away. and then the Bible says that Jesus talks to this woman.

And he asks her this question, who condemns you? Now think about it, man. Think about it. This is an actual event. She's curled up just waiting for the impact of one of the stones. And then he says, who condemns you? And she looks up and she looks around and they're all gone. And she says, no one, sir.

And then he says, then neither do I condemn you. She was waiting to get smacked by a rock, but instead she got smacked by the grace of Jesus Christ. Neither do I condemn you. but it doesn't stop there. All world will be okay if it stops right there, but he takes it one more step because he's full of grace,

but he loves us enough too to be full of truth. And he says, go and leave your life of sin. You see, just changing a few techniques and tactics will not allow you to glorify God in your body. It takes an encounter, a grace-filled encounter with Jesus Christ. So if you feel conviction right now,

if you feel condemnation, man, and tell the devil to go to hell where he belongs. If you feel conviction, then hear this. Jesus does not condemn you. Now go and leave your life of sin. Every single week, we respond to the gospel. And I know, man, I get it. This is a touchy one.

But if you, if there's some sin that you need to leave, that you need to repent of, then I want you to come down and repent. If there's some sexual immorality in your life that you need to repent of, I need you to come down and cast it before the Lord to shine light on it. If you're looking at pornography,

and you're like, God, I need help, come down. If there's a relationship that needs to end today, that you come down and you pray, and God will not condemn you. And also, every married couple should come down here and pray together, because the enemy wants to kill, steal, and destroy the bond that you have in Christ Jesus. You should come down here and pray over and pray with one another. And if you have some kind of addiction, you should come and pray. And every single one of us that care about our children should come down here on our faith.

because we have an enemy that is trying to kill, still, and destroy this upcoming generation through pornography and a sexualized society. And may we be the church that does not point our finger at the next generation. May we be the church that gets on our knees and does battle for that generation. Amen. Amen. So I'm going to ask you to stand. I'm going to pray for you, and then I want to invite you to come.

You don't even have to wait until I say, amen. You can start coming right now. Our good and gracious heavenly, Father God, we love you more than anything because you love us first. Jesus, I thank you that you came on a rescue mission. for us to take the unrighteous and redeem us and give us a right standing before you. God, I proclaim condemnation has no place in this house. That therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. God, I pray for marriages.

You would do miracle in marriages. God, I pray for this one more generation that we would cover them with our prayers and that we would fight against the enemy and his evil schemes to deceive and to kill and to steal and destroy. And God, I pray that there would be new life. there would be new life, there would be redemption, that you would take things that were broken by the enemy and you would restore them for your glory. God, I pray that every single person would know that we are not our own, we were bought at a price, therefore we would honor you with our bodies. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So church, we respond. We're going to bring our first and best. We're going to sing like saved folk.

And I'm just warning, we'll sing two songs, all right? So you don't have to leave. You stay down here. And then we're going to pray. Won't you respond?