The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 6: Thyatira

Episode Date: April 5, 2020

Every path has a destination. Is your marriage or dating life on a path that leads to purity and intimacy, or death and destruction? To access the kids online experience, visit coe22.com/kids.

Well, amen and amen. What a powerful testimony, and it is just a reminder that no one is too far gone, that no one can out sin the grace of Jesus Christ poured out at the cross. Amen. Hey, welcome, church, as we gather together, 1122 in your homes and on your iPhones, and what we've also found is all over the world. People have been tuning in, and so grab your Bibles, and we're going to be in the Book of Revelation chapter 2. and this is now your third and final warning that this is a PG-13 and above kind of sermon. And so that video was already there, so if you still haven't got your kids out of the room, do so now. In order to let you do that, I'm going to give you just a couple of announcements to give you some time to get the kids out

because we're going to teach the Bible exactly the way it's written. I want you to know that just based on what our mayor has said, our governor said, and what the president has said, that we are going to be online in regards to our gatherings through the end of April. If that, for some miraculous reason, changes, then we'll let everybody know and we can all be here. But until something changes, then we are going to continue to be online. That means Easter next week is online only. And so I want you to go to our website and see all of the service times. It starts on Thursday at 722 and then there's about a bejillion, okay?

It's kind of all day every day from. Thursday all the way through Resurrection Sunday. And so this will be a very different Easter for us, but be ready for that. And then also, you are going to serve communion in your house. And so if that makes you nervous, if you grew up Catholic, here you go, I ordain you right now, then you are commissioned as a follower of Jesus to be able to serve communion in your house. So you are going to need communion elements. You can figure out what that is online, but let me just make it easy.

All right, you need bread and you need great stuff. All right, if you want to go high test and go wine, like you can. like Jesus did and like, you know, unleavened bread, that's great. Or if you want to keep it Baptist and go grape juice and a little cracker, knock yourself out. However you want to do it, but at the end of next week's service, we're all going to have communion together as one church spread out all over the world, but you're going to be serving in your house. So get ready for that. Also, we have been highlighting other churches throughout this series just to remind us that the epicenter of God's work is not here at 1122,

that God is alive and well all over this world, and God is doing some awesome stuff through some other churches. And so today I have on a shirt from Grace Alive Church in Orlando, Florida. It's planted by Pastor Cam Triggs. He has preached here when we did the gospel and race class last year or two years ago. We partnered, Church of 1122, partnered with the Summit Church, which is my buddy J.D. Greer's church. And we together, as well as some other folks, got behind Pastor Cam,

and he planted in Orlando. They just bought a building. God is doing amazing things through Grace Alive. And so let's pray for them, and then we will dive into the text. And hopefully that's enough time for you to get the kids out. All right. Everybody everywhere, unless you're driving. Everybody everywhere, let's pray.

You can still pray. Just pray with your eyes open. Good and gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for Pastor Kamtriggs and his family. And Lord, we thank you for the call and his life and the gifting, the gifting, the anointing, God. we thank you for the work that you were doing in Orlando, God, that the gospel would be proclaimed there. God, we thank you for a beautiful picture through Grace Alive of all kind of different people from all kind of different backgrounds and all kind of different ethnicities coming together under the headship and lordship of Jesus Christ.

And Lord, we thank you for this new facility that you have blessed them with. And God, we pray that you would continue to pour out your blessing upon Pastor Cam, his church, his family. and that God, many, many, many, thousands of people would be drawn unto you through that local church. We prayed in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Revelation. Chapter 2, beginning in verse 18. To the church in Thayatira. Thiatira was the smallest city.

It gets the longest letter. It was a military outpost. It was about 50 miles south of Pergamum. And so it was just there, and a bunch of military people lived there. and it got overtaken and rebuilt over and over and over and over. It was also known for its purple dye. Like if you're a super Bible nerd, you'll know, I think it's Acts 16. Lydia, who sold purple goods, was from Thiatira.

So they had a lot of money and a lot of men there. And so to that church, here's what Jesus says. And to the angel of the church in Thiatira write, the words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze. This isn't tender meek and mild Jesus here. He wants you to know he's the son of God, he's almighty, omnipotent, he knows everything, and he's got eyes flaming like fire.

That means he sees everything, like a laser into your soul. He sees you. And when the Bible talks about feet that are like burnished bronze, that means that he is going to walk out justice and judgment on the sin, that he can see. When Jesus introduces himself this way, you better buckle up buttercup because we're in for a doozy.

That's what's happening here. Now, as we've walked through this, somebody asked me, in light of coronavirus and us being cooped up and all those things and people being sick and all this, is this, since we're going to talk about sexual immorality, that's what the thrust of this letter is about to this church. church, is it relevant?

We've been on phone calls with our government officials, everything from the White House to the mayor's office. And one of the things that our leaders are pointing out to the church leaders is this, is that since people began to be quarantined and life began to change, three things have skyrocketed in our communities. Alcohol sales, domestic violence. and the use of pornography. Those three, this is what our leaders are asking the leaders of the church,

can you help us with this? So I do believe this is very, very relevant. Now, Jesus says, I know you, I know what you're doing, and we live in a culture in regards to sexual immorality where our culture tolerates it like crazy. So here's why I think this message is so, important to us. Because there's some of you that are flirting with somebody that's not your spouse. And I hope and pray that you will see the destructive path that you own and that you will

repent. And some of you are in full-blown affairs. And I pray to God that you will feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit and that you will repent and change the path that you're on. And some of you are having sex with somebody that's not your husband or not your wife. And I pray that you would trust Jesus Christ as your Lord, the Lord of your entire life, that there would be no area of your life that would you would say, no, no, this area is off limits to you. Because if he's not Lord of all, he's not Lord of all, that's what Lord means. And some of you, you're being led and lorded over by your hormones and your orientation, and I pray that you would surrender it all to Jesus.

And some of you have an addiction to pornography, but you wouldn't call it an addiction. You think of it as a pastime, and I hope and pray that through the Word of God, you would see it as a pathway. You see, it's actually demonic. And I pray to God that by the blood of Jesus, that chains would be broken today, today. That God would do something supernatural in our life. And here's the thing. Here's why this message is for every single one of us. Because in the sermon on the Mount, Jesus makes it clear.

We're going to study this in about a month. or so, Jesus makes it clear in the sermon on the Mount that when it comes to things like adultery, then none of us are clean. Because he says, if any of us have ever looked at any person with lustful intent in our heart, it's as if we've already committed adultery. So that's the direction we're going. And then, with that in mind, Jesus introduces himself, and he refers to his eyes and his feet. And when we get into trouble, when it comes to sexual immorality, it's typically an eye thing and a feet thing.

Like we see a thing, and then we decide, are my feet going to take me towards that or are going to take me away from that? And Jesus, his eyes are on fire, and his feet are bronze. And then he says this, I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your later works exceed your first. Here's what he's saying. He's like, Thiatiret, you've got a good reputation. You're a group of lovely people, faithful people, that you serve your community. You're doing very good things.

And your church is growing. You do more good things now than you used to do. In other words, church, you're really good at the spiritual stuff. I mean, you show up and you worship with your hands up, and you do blood drives, and you do all the things. And if you ask anybody in town, tell me about the church at Thyatyr, It's a lovely people. They're faithful and they're patient and they love. So you're good at the spiritual stuff.

However, I have this against you. That you tolerate that woman Jezebel who caused herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrifice to idols. All right. Jezebel. Maybe you've heard the name. If you're with child right now looking for a good biblical daughter name, don't go with Jezebel. It's why you've never, hopefully you don't know anybody named Jezebel. If so, they need to change their name.

It's not a good name. Jezebel was a person in the Old Testament, married to King Ahab in First Kings, and she was awful. She killed God's prophet. She set up bail worship in the temple. She tried to kill Elijah. Commentators argue about is the woman that works at the church at Thyatira is her name actually Jezebel or is she like operating in the spirit of Jezebel? I don't know. MacArthur says it's the spirit and Piper says it's actual woman. So take your pick. I don't think it matters. But what

she's doing is this. She's seducing church folks with this teaching. She's a leader in the church. And it's not as if Thiatira is promoting it. They're just tolerating it. They're putting up with it. She's a leader in the church. And here's essentially, I think, what she's teaching. Give your heart to Jesus, and it doesn't matter what you do with your body. That's what she's teaching. And so Jesus says, hey, she's seducing my service to practice sexual immorality. Underline the word sexual immorality in your Bible, okay? Out next to it, in your Bible, write this down.

The Greek word for sexual immorality is this, porneo. Pornio. Sound familiar? Porneo. Pornayo in Greek would be the junk drawer that would include everything outside of God's design for sex. Everything. And God's design for sex is that sex is for married people. That sex is only for people that are inside the covenant of marriage.

And I know sometimes in our church people are like, well, we're married. in her heart. There's no such thing as married in your heart. There's not. There's not. You can get married before the Lord and make a covenant which says, I, not a contract, but a covenant. I give you my entire life for all of my life, period, no matter what, before God. That's what a covenant is, period. And that sex is for married people. Not used to be married, not going to be married, not married your heart and marriage according to the Bible is one man and one woman for one lifetime and according to the Bible the words man and woman are as we have historically understood them for all of human history that when God created men and women he created man in his image and woman in his likeness

to reflect who God is. It is not fluid, it's not. It was ordained and assigned by God. And when God talks about sex, it's not just a physical thing. You see, he says, therefore a man will leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife, and the two become one flesh, not just physically, but also spiritually. The Hebrew word is doad. it literally means a mingling of the souls

now you see I think Jezebel is teaching that sex is only physical you see that's basically like zombie sex you know it's you know it's like sick about zombies is it's a body with no soul and they want to eat you but that's a different and when our culture treats sex as only physical it's zombie sex

it really devalues what God's intended because God says no no no no when the man and woman come together as one it is a picture of what the one true God in three persons Looks like and so this Jezebel is saying hey do whatever you want and not only is she teaching this but she's she's actively participating in Sexual immorality Then Jesus goes on to say I gave her time to repent but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality and Church of 1122, I pray that you will repent. I believe right now is an invitation to you no matter where you are. Okay, if Jezebel is in a place where she is teaching the church to the point where Jesus

writes a letter via the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos and she has time to repent, then surely this is the time for you to turn around and come back to him. You can never be too far gone. And then he says, behold, I will throw her into a sick bed. and those who commit adultery with her, I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent of her works and I will strike her children dead.

I think the reason he talks about this, by children here, I think what he's talking about is like her disciples, the people that buy into this teaching. You see, there is a catastrophic collateral damage when we don't do sex God's way. If we were all gathered together in our churches right now, I would say, hey, anybody, anybody ever been damaged because somebody else in your life didn't do sex God's way?

My life was forever changed. Think about how our entire world would be different. If the entire world just obeyed the Seventh Commandment, thou shalt not commit adultery. Fatherlessness would not be a thing, man. It would change everything about everything about everything. He keeps going. He says, and all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart.

heart and I will give to each of you according to his works, but to the rest of you in Thyatira who do not hold to this teaching, you see there is another path. I think what Jesus is doing here is he's laying out two different paths. This is a choose-your-own-ending Thyatira. You can go the path of Jezebel and it will lead to a sick bed and it will lead to destruction or there's another path and you can go my way and this leads to life. It leads to purity, it leads to intimacy, it leads to exclusivity. He says, but those of you, the rest of you who don't hold of this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan,

that's what they're teaching at Thyatira. Now, I don't think that they listed that in the program at the church at Thyatira. I don't think they got up on Sunday and said, hey, we've got a few classes offered this week. Pastor Britt's going to be teaching survey of the Old Testament. Paul Williams is going to be teaching Financial Peace University and Jezebel. She's going to be teaching. the deeper things of Satan. Who wants to sign up? You see, that's not how it goes.

You see, the enemy, he's tricky, man. He's tricky. You see, what they thought was going to be sweet and some kind of extra knowledge and move away from the gospel actually drives them deeper and deeper and deeper, not into a relationship with Jesus, but deeper into the things of Satan.

Look, the enemy is tricky. This sexual revolution is not a new thing in America. Even if I just back up a few years. In the 60s, it was free love, make love, not war. In the 70s, things like no fault divorce, abortions legalized, birth control became available to everybody. In the 80s, the decade of decadence, and literally things like music videos where women's bodies had never been objectified.

I mean, they had been, but it was like kind of underground. It becomes mainstream for the objectification of a woman. The 90s and the me decade, Al Gore invents the Internet. And now currently on the World Wide Web, one third of the traffic is pornography. In the 2000s, the iPhone is invented. And now we carry around these potential grenades in our pockets. In the 2010s, the self, feelings, they rule everything. Look, the law can't tell me who I am.

The Bible can't tell me who I am. You know, science can't tell me who I am. Genetics can't tell me who I am. My chromosomes can't tell me who I am. I tell me who I am. This is the tricky road that we have been on for years and years and years. The deep things of Satan. And he says, to you, I say, I do not lay on you any other burden,

only hold fast to what you have until I come. The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end. To him, I will give authority over the next. nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron as when earth and pots are broken into pieces even as I myself have received authority from my father I will give him the morning star underline that part that's how we're going to end the sermon we're going to get back to that that is the solution right there to hold fast and that you will be given the morning star he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches here's the point we're not even close to being done

I have 10 pages of notes. I usually use three. This might be a lock-in, okay? The point is this. Every path has a destination. I want us to look at our lives. I want you to look at your lives. Is your marriage life, your dating life, your sex life, your internet life?

Is it on a path that leads to purity and intimacy or on a path that leads to death and destruction? You see, there are basically three views of sex. Some people, this honestly has. has been the church's view for, particularly through the Reformation and Puritanism and those things. They viewed sex as gross, as gross. The sex was gross. That God gave it to us, but it was just for procreation only. Literally in England, wives were instructed to lay on your back and say, for the queen, that you just had to endure it, to make more babies so that you could have enough people to populate the army. All right? The churches that I grew up around, this is the information.

that we got. And the true love waits rally, which is all legit, no problem. But we were taught, like, hey, listen, sex is, it's dirty and it's bad, and you're probably going to get herpes anyway, so save it for the one you love. I mean, that's kind of what we were taught. I'll just stay, it's gross, okay? So there's kind of that. I don't think that's where we currently live. So then the pendulum swings the other way, and some people view sex as God, that it rules everything. But the biblical understanding of sex is not gross and it's not God, that it's a gift from God. If you've ever wondered, is God good? He invented sex. It was his idea. I don't know how it works, but when he speaks everything into existence and he makes Adam and he makes Eve and just in my mind,

I can hear him saying, oh, I got an idea, and the angels are like, is it another rainbow? And he's like, it's better than a rainbow, and then he gives it to us as a gift for procreation and recreation. Praise God. That is not just physical, but there was a oneness that God designed as a husband and a wife doed. They come together physically and they have a mingling of the souls. Danny Aiken, who is the president of the southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, he is a friend of 1122. I've preached up there.

He wrote a book called God on sex. Here's what he says. I'm just going to read his quote, word from word. He says, it's not surprising that a University of Chicago study reports that those doing it God's way report the most satisfaction with their sex lives. When University of Chicago researchers set out to... discover which religious denominations have the best sex, they learn that the faithful don't do all their shouting in church. Conservative Protestant women, conservative Protestant women report by far the

highest satisfaction. Mainline Protestants and Catholics lag five points behind. Those with no religious affiliation were more than 33% behind, and Unitarians may not wish to read any further. sexually active singles have the most sexual problems and get the least pleasure out of sex men with the most liberal attitudes about sex are 75% more likely to fail to satisfy their partners the most sexually satisfied demographic group of them is that of married couples between 50 and 59 cosmopolitan touts 20 favorite sex tips ever we have the wall of shaking, earthquakes, moves that will make your bed

end up clear across the room. However, the statistics suggest that if you are really interested in the best sex possible, find you a born-again babe and keep her around until she's 50 because that's when the best days come. Amen?

So then the question is, so how do you get, if that's the goal, because isn't that the goal? Not just the best sex, but intimacy and vulnerability. Well, if that's the goal, then how do you get on a path that leads there? All right, I'm going to try to do three chapters of the book of Proverbs in the next 25 minutes.

Go to Proverbs chapter 5. Proverbs chapter 5. This is wisdom literature from the old covenant. Starts out this way. My son, be attentive to my wisdom. Incline your ear to my understanding that you may keep discretion and your lips may guard knowledge. For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey. Here's the context.

This dad is trying to teach his son. son, I want to teach you here about a lifestyle, about a pathway. You see, you are here and you're going to end up somewhere. And if you want to end up somewhere on purpose like Danny Aiken was talking about, then this is the path that leads there. But there is a pathway that leads to destruction for the lips of a forbidden woman drips honey. It always starts sweet, but it ends in bitterness. He says her speech is smoother than oil, but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

Her feet go down to death. Do you see that path? Her steps follow the path to Sheo. It's a pathway to hell. Sheo is the Hebrew word for hell. She does not ponder the path of life. Again, here's a dad saying, look, son, it's a choose-your-own ending. There's a path that leads to She-O, and there's a path that leads to life.

her ways wonder and she does not know it and now oh sons listen to me and do not depart from the words of my mouth keep your keep your way far from her you see our problem is as we like to get close to danger without getting hurt first grade is chapter six paul through the inspiration of the holy spirit says flee sexual immorality what most people like to do is flirt with sexual immorality This dad says, keep your way as far away from her as you can. And do not go near the door of her house, lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless. Let strangers take their fill of your strength and your labors go to the house of a foreigner.

And at the end of your life, you groan, underline that, at the end of your life you grown. when your flesh and body are consumed and you say how I hated discipline and my heart despised reproof and I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors. I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation. All right, think about it. One day you are going to be a great, great grandma or grandpa. I hope. And one day you will have a story about your sex life.

You will. It's kind of weird to think about when you're like, whatever. you know Dr. Paul's age and you will have a story. And he's saying at the end of your days, what story do you want to tell? I mean, honestly, regardless of what you believe, we all want to tell the same story. We all want to say because Jesus was devoted to me, I was devoted to one woman for my entire life. That's my story. I have a lot of experience.

I don't have a lot of scandalous stories. This is the story I have to tell. and everybody else that has gone down another pathway, when they get to the end of their life, they will groan and say, I'm at the brink of utter ruin. Then he gets very specific. Drink water from your own cistern,

flowing water from your own well. Let me tell you what he's saying. In the Old Testament, a well or a cistern is the image used for a woman for obvious anatomical reasons. That doesn't make sense to you? Hit pause right now. ask your middle schooler to explain that to you.

Okay? Then he says, verse 16, should your spring be scattered abroad? Streams of water in the streets. In the Old Testament, springs and fountains were equated to manhood for obvious anatomical reasons. Got it? You got a spring and you got a well. That's all I'm going to say about that.

Verse 17, let them be for yourself alone and not for strangers with you. Here's what he's saying. Your spouse is your only legitimate source of sex, romance, sexuality, period. The only legitimate source. Not pornography, not a romance novel. Nowhere else is a legitimate source. And not only that, fellas, your wife is your standard of beauty, period.

You see, when God made Adam, and he said it's not good for a man to be alone, he did not do the bachelorette thing. And be like, all right, man, I made you like seven or eight over here. Okay, so come on and check out which one you like. You like them tall, you like them short. You like them thin. You like them less than thin. You like them dark hair. You like them.

What do you like? No, no, no, no. That there was one standard of beauty. And when Adam saw Eve, he named her woman, which in Hebrew sounds like mine. That's mine. So for me, man, Gretchen is my standard of beauty. So if you were to ask me, if you were like, do you like, what do you, what do you, do you like, blondes or brunettes?

I'm like, well, it depends on what Gretchen has done with her hair lately. When we met, it was blonde. I was into blondes back into early 2000s, and lately I'm into brunettes. Why? Because that's whatever she is, that's what I'm into. And he says, keep it at home, keep it at home, keep it at home. Your spouse is your only legitimate source of sex and romance. And then he says this, verse 18, let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth.

Last month, Gretchen and I celebrated 20 years of marriage, and I'm just telling you, I love her more now than ever. It's her birthday today, so go all over her Facebook, tell her happy birthday, that we'd be no 1122 without her. I'm just telling you, man, I love that girl. I love that girl. I rejoice in the wife of my youth. And then look at this next verse. I had Gretchen memorize it in three different trainings. Translations. A lovely deer and a graceful dough. Man, I love the deer hunt. Listen to this. Let her breast fill you at all times with delight. Amen. Praise God. Ladies, y'all to underline that. At all times. What time? All times. What time is it? Right now. All times. Look at this. With delight. Be intoxicated always in her love. You should be so in love with your wife that you just like. You're drunk with.

love and you rejoice over this girl. Now, fellas, do not listen to this part. Ear muff. Don't listen to this. This is not for you. Ear muff, okay? Listen, wives, let me talk to you for a second. You are the only clean drinking water in town. Okay, that's a fact. Any other drinking water is contaminated and polluted and poisoned and will kill all kind of things. And the brother gets thirsty and you're the only legitimate source of clean drinking water. Okay. So what he says to her is this. He says, let her breast fill you at all times with delight. The best way to help your husband flee sexual immorality is to flirt with your husband. That's it. You ever go to the grocery store hungry and everything looks good versus going right after a meal?

and you just get what you're supposed to get? This is what he is saying here, okay? Now, if you ever get into this moment where it immediately goes like offense and defense, and like you are not in a biblical place in your marriage. All right, now husbands, listen to me. If you ever quote verses like this, it's over, dude, you're dumb, okay? You're dumb. Notice what it says to us.

Rejoice in the wife of your youth. Sometimes the reason she's not delighting to let her breast fill you at all times is because you ain't rejoiced over her since you got married. Bro, listen, man. Remember when y'all met? Remember the things that you had to do, you, to get her to fall in love with you? Bro, you had game. Remember the things that you would do you would lay down all of your preferences?

You'd eat so much frozen yogurt. Name me one grown man that he's frozen yogurt. Only one trying to pursue a girl. You could be all eating and watch some stupid movies, man. I watch the notebook. That movie's so dumb. One grown man watches the notebook. It's awful.

But in that moment, you're into it, no, baby. If you ever lost your mind, I'd come and let you forget me every day. Just stupid stuff, all right? Well, if you would continue to rejoice in her like you used to, then maybe she would delight. See, that's how this thing goes together. So I know you can't go anywhere right now, okay? But maybe just get dressed up in your own house.

Like put on a shirt that's got a button. No like team logo. Fix her some dinner. Light you a candle. Rejoicing her. This is what he says. He says, why should you be intoxicated to my son with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulterist for a man's ways

or before the eyes of the Lord? and he ponderes all his paths. The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast by the cords of sin. He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly, he has led astray. Now go to chapter 6, verse 20. For 19 verses, the dad starts telling him about other stuff,

how to balance your checkbook and stuff like that. And then when you get to verse 20, he's like, all right, all right, let's get back to this warning again. proverb 620 says my son keep your father's commandment this is round two and forsake not your mother's teaching bind them on your heart always tie them around your neck and when you walk they will lead you he's like look here son this is not a moment this is momentum this is not a picture of your life it's a pathway that's going somewhere says when you lie down they will watch over you and when you awake they will talk with you for the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is a

light and the reproves of discipline are a way of life to preserve you from the evil woman from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. Do not desire her beauty in your heart and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes. In other words, she's flirting with you. When I first read this, I thought, who's into eyelashes? I don't know one dude. You see those eyelashes? Woo. Uh-uh. What this means is she's like, winking at you. Then he says, for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts down a precious life. Part of what he's saying is a woman that's been cheating on might kill you, so watch yourself.

But he's saying it's a small price to pay now. Right? I mean, it's just a website. It's just a click. What does that cost you? Whatever your laptop and your internet's connection, it's just a click. It's a small price to pay. It's just a picture, right?

Yet the problem is what you don't realize is it could cost you everything. It could cost you your marriage. It will deem your soul in regards to your relationship to the Lord and in regards to your relationship with your kids and your wife. And I can tell you, it's already cost that poor girl her whole life. But you think it's a victimless crime? It's not, man. It's not.

It doesn't seem like it costs you a lot. But in order for that girl to get to that place, can you imagine going to her dad and say, hey, man, I just really appreciate you abandoning her when she was three. And, hey, uncle, I really appreciate you raping her when she was 11. And hey, drug dealer, thanks for keeping her high. So I can use her how I want to when I want to, because it don't cost me much. It's like less than a piece of bread.

But pornography is costly. And not only that, the thing that is doing in our relationships and in our soul is costly. And then he asks this question, pivotal question. Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? This is the pivotal question. Now, here's the thing, ladies. I just want to write this down. Men are dumb.

You're just dumb. Now, in this context, every man would be like, no, no, you can't hold fire close to your chest and not get burned. But in regards to lust, adultery, flirting, pornography, you know what, every man that has ever failed in that situation, every man answered, well, I can. Yeah, I can. I can look at pornography and pursue my wife. wife. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, I can lie to her about it and keep secrets from her, and I can simultaneously lie to her and keep secrets from her and pursue intimacy with her and be vulnerable. Yeah, I can do that. Do you know how dumb that is? Sometimes psychologists will say,

men are waffles and women are spaghetti. Have you ever heard this phrase in regards to the way we think? And there's a lot of truth to it, you know, there's a lot of truth to it. And what that means is this is, you know, how waffles are like compartmentalized. You can get served in one little compartment and not the other. So a man can just, he can just turn one thing off and turn another thing on, right? My wife, we're laying in bed and she's like, I think there's a dish in the sink. And because all of her thoughts are connected, she can't go to sleep because of that. I don't understand. I could be laying in bed going, I think I smell fire, but I'm going to go to bed right now. I'll deal with that tomorrow. No problem, okay? This is why we could be in the middle of a fight.

We're fussing in each other and you water and you all, and if she stopped, this never happened. But if she did, if she said, hey, you want to make out, I'm like, I do. And she was like, well, I thought we were mad. I was. I'm not as mad as I was a minute ago. And I'm happy to get mad again. But in this moment, I just, you know, minimize that window and I can bring up this one, all right? So a man could be so dumb to say, I can do this. I can have my wife and kids and a little thing over the side here, and I can compartmentalize these things,

and I will be able to manage the consequences of this. and we would look at him and go, no way, man. It's impossible. So we ask again, or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? Did you know that, and again, men are like, yeah, sure. I've got guys in our church, say, hey, man, I'm a single man. I don't want to actually touch another person until I get married. I'm going to try not to do that.

So instead, what I'm going to do is I've got this sexual appetite, and so I am just going to dive headlong into pornography, and I'm going to feed this beast and feed this beast and feed this beast. But one day I'm going to show up on a Saturday at church and say, I do, and I'm going to be able to turn off all of that and then love my wife like Christ love the church. Did you know scientists tell us now that watching pornography literally rewires your brain? The neuropathways in your brain change and are eerily similar to heroin addiction. And what begins to happen is you begin to learn some new things, men and women.

But what you learn is this, a real body is not enough, one body's not enough, and your body's not enough. That's it. It desensitizes you. If you're single, it kills your potential for intimacy. And if you're married, it is killing your relationship. There's no way around it. You're saying, I can walk on hot coals and I won't get burned. I'll be the one person in human history that can pull this off.

He keeps going. So is he who goes into his neighbor's wife. None who touches her will go unpunished. There is no such thing in safe sex. You cannot put a condom around your soul. People don't despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he's hungry. But if he's caught, he'll pay seven to fold and he'll give all the goods of his house. He who commits adultery lacks sense.

He who does it destroys himself. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, Paul says, all sin a man commits is outside this body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. It's just different. It's in a different category. This is why, as a pastor man, I've been doing this for 26 years, and when somebody comes to me with tears, men or women come to me with tears and their head down, and they say, I've never admitted this before in my life to anybody.

It's always sexual sin. it's always sexual sense because it destroys us from the inside out he says he will get wounds and dishonor and his disgrace will not be wiped away for jealousy makes a man furious and he will not spare when he takes revenge he will accept no compensation he will refuse though you multiply gifts chapter seven verse one my son keep my words and treasure up my commandment with you this is round three this is round three. Preverbs only has 31 chapters in the whole book. And almost three full chapters are dedicated to this, flee sexual immorality. Listen, pay attention when the Bible says something three times. It's all inspired. God does not have to repeat himself. But when Jesus would want to really

make a point, he would repeat himself three times. Like Luke chapter 15, he's trying to teach the people, the character and nature of God. And so he shares the parable of the lost coin, the parable of a lost sheep in the parable of the lost son. In Matthew chapter 25, he's answering a question that the disciples ask in Matthew chapter 24, how can we be ready for the end of the world? And he shares three parables with one point back to back to back. He does it over and over and over. When he's fighting against the devil in the wilderness, three times, he says to the enemy,

it is written, it is written, it is written. And now here the father is pleading with his boy, come on son, please listen to me, please listen to me that the majority of this book of Proverbs this topic takes up because he's pleading with this boy. This is a really, really big deal we're talking about here. And so he says, my son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you. Keep my commandments and live. Keep my teaching as the apple of your eye and bind them on your fingers and write them on the tablet of your heart and say to wisdom, you are my sister, and call Insight, your intimate friend, to keep you from the forbidden woman,

from the adulteress with her smooth words. And now the dad's going to share his experience. For at the window of my house, I have looked out through my lattice. In other words, the dad is saying to the son, son, I have seen this for year after year after year. The same event, same event, same event. from my perspective, I see this pathway that young men and young women are wrong.

He says, I've seen among the simple. When the Bible calls somebody simple, it's not a compliment. It just means they don't know any better. They don't know any better because they're simple. It says, I have perceived among the youths a young man who lacks sense. Listen, if you're a young man or a young woman, you lack. sense. Doesn't mean you're dumb. It just means you lack sense because you lack experience. It's not that fault. You have tight skin and you're flexible. Praise God. Okay? And as the flexibility

decreases, your sense will increase because you have more experience. Because, you know, you think you're like, I'm 22, I know everything. Bless you. You don't. You know almost nothing. This is why you need to be around some godly older men and godly older women so that they have a perspective that you don't have. because you just don't have a lot of life experience yet. In my opinion, verse 8 is the key. It looks like a throwaway verse. It's not a throwaway verse. This is the old man looking at the young man.

It says, passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house. Here's the key verse. As we're talking about a pathway to life or a pathway of destruction, he's walking down the road, and here's a corner. There's a corner where there's an intersection, and he's got an opportunity. and he's got an option. He can continue to go this way, but what he's going to do, he's going to peer down the corner,

and he is going to make a catastrophic decision, but in this moment, nobody sees it as a catastrophic life-altering decision. He looks down the road, and then he decides to change direction. Every catastrophic moral failure always had a corner way back there when nobody even noticed.

And he looks down the road. You see, the problem is is he looks down the road, he can't see what's down the end of the road. He just sees, we're going to find out in a little while, he just sees a lady just like a prostitute. Huh.

Well, maybe I'll just walk down in a little bit. I mean, there ain't one Bible verse that said, thou shalt not turn in the corner. I've looked through the whole Bible. I'm not going to do anything. I'm just going to go around the corner. I'm not going to go far. I'll be right back.

I'll be right back. The key question for you is what's your corner? Like, you're laying in bed, you struggle with pornography and masturbation, and you're laying in bed at night, and you have this phone with you. What are you doing? What are you doing? Or maybe, maybe it's that girl at work. You know, that girl, you know what I'm talking about, and you're like, how do you even know? And you decide, I'm going to have lunch with her.

And the Bible, I mean, it's not a big deal. it's just me and her and we've got to get work done and you got to eat and you know all those things happen simultaneously and so then one day what begins to happen is lunch becomes dinner and then dinner becomes working along and what happens is you began to walk down a road and that that road has a destination and the world that we live in says come on walk on the edge walk on the edge walk on the edge and it blames you when you fall over the edge you see here's what's crazy what you thought was just a lunch could potentially end in a custody battle over your children And you're like, but it's not a sin to have lunch with somebody.

I know it's not a sin. We're not talking about sin. It's just stupid. It's just stupid. Or that work trip, you know, when everybody else goes to the strip club and you're afraid that you're going to lose the deal if you don't go, you might lose the deal. But you might lose the wife of your youth if you continue down that path.

Or maybe it's the gym. Maybe it's the gym. And you go when everybody else goes and you position yourself. and, you know, you see her working out. Listen, man, join a new gym. Buy you a little weight set. You're not in that good of shape anyway. Or maybe it's a romance novel.

You see, you think you're off the hook because you never look at pornography, but you lose yourself in 50 shades of gross. You do. You lose yourself in fantasy. And it's a corner. Or maybe, man, you've been scrolling through, you know, Facebook and that guy you dated in high school. I mean, it's just your friend, right?

Just send him a nice little message? Is it a sin? Send somebody a message on Facebook? No, no, no, no. I'm not saying this to send. It's just stupid. Or you're not married. And you think, oh, I got a good idea.

You know, you got this girl. Y'all dating. You met here at 1122. Like, hey, what you come over? We'll watch a movie at my apartment. Just me and you. Get under the covers at 11. There's not a Bible about covers at 11.

It's just dumb. I'm going to tell you one for me, man. There's some shows. on Netflix that everybody I know watches. And when I started watching them, it got to a point, and for me it was a corner. And I'm not judging anybody else. But everybody else says, oh, we just fast forward to that part. Oh, yeah, do you? Okay. Because when I fast forward to it, the crazy thing is I can't get my mind to fast forward. It just, it just, I begin to peek down that corner and it's not good. So I just decided for me, man, that's the corner. I'm not going down that road. I'm not going down that road.

Here's the crazy thing, man. You got to be honest about what the corner is. is for you. Fake you is doing just fine. And if you want healing, it begins with revealing. So for me, man, I got rules about the rules, about the rules in my life about what the corners are for me. I will never be alone with the woman. I don't care what anybody says. You can make fun of Mike Pence and you make fun of me. I don't care. I don't want to be normal. You know what normal is? Normal is broke and depressed and divorced. You can have normal. I want to rejoice on the wife of my youth. You understand? And so then he goes on to say, in the twilight, in the evening at the time of night and darkness.

Pay attention to environments. And behold, the woman meets him dressed as a prostitute. Ladies, let me just say, don't dress like a prostitute. Modest is hottest. She is loud and wavered in her feet. Don't stay at home. Now in the street. Now in the market.

And at every corner, she lies in weight. She seizes him and kisses him. And with bold face, she says to him, I had to offer sacrifices. And today I have paid my vows. I think she has the spirit of Jezebel. I was at church. I gave my heart to the Lord, but what I do with my body is just my body.

And now look, this is where we fall for it. So now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you. You know what this young man is thinking? I got it going on. Got my deep V, my axe body spray. She is into me. He is thinking, I have got it going on. And the old man looking is like, you dummy?

That's what she said to the last guy And the last guy and the last guy And she goes on to say I have spread my couch with coverings Colored linen and Egyptian linen I have perfumed my bed with my Mer aloes and cinnamon Man

There's a berry white song playing right now And she says come let us take our fill of love till morning let us delight ourselves with love What a misuse of the word love This ain't love the Bible says love is patient love is sacrificial love doesn't take love serves and how about this curveball for my husband is not at home to which the dude's like what what husband I thought you were

into me you were looking for me you set this stuff up for me and you got a husband wait a minute what you're talking about she's like oh no worry about he's going on a long journey and he took a bag of money with him and at full moon he will come home here's what's important verse 21 with much seductive speech she persuades it at this point he wants to turn around. At this point he starts thinking about it. At this point he's convicted. At this point he's like,

no, no, no, no, no. I walked down this path and I got close and this is as close as I want to go. Here's the problem. The more steps you take down that path, the harder it is to turn around. It's like the dummies in a horror movie. You ever notice?

They're all on the porch, and the bad guy comes, and they all run upstairs. Come on, why you run upstairs? Options are limited upstairs. You're dead man. And this is what he does. The further you turn that corner and you walk down the road, it gets harder and harder and harder to turn around and get out of trouble.

With her smooth talk, she compels him. Verse 22, I think the dad is being facetious here. And all at once, he follows her. If you've been paying attention along the way, did it happen all at once? You see, here's the myth. It's a journey, man. It didn't happen all the once.

The price is paid all at once. You see, here's what happens. Pastor Britt has a friend in ministry for a bunch of years. And this week came out. It blew up his whole family, blew up his whole ministry because of an affair. You see, what we see is all at once. They made this announcement. All of a sudden, he left his family.

What happened? All at once, he was addicted to pornography. All at once. She ran off with her boss. It doesn't happen all at once. You see, it is an act. actually started way back on that corner, way back on that corner when you made that decision to turn down this path of destruction and it was step by step by step by step.

I hope and pray that you have some friends in your life, you have some godly brothers and sisters in your life that know you enough that they when you see you at that corner and you start to take that step, they will get in your face and they'll be like, no, no, no, brother, no, no, sister, do not walk down this path because you know where this path lead. This path leads to destruction and I care more about you than what you think about me. And so no. You see, because when somebody falls off the cliff, everybody shows up and says, look at that guy. What happened to that guy?

Where were we when they were way back there heading their life towards the cliff? It's not all at once. It's a pathway. As an ox goes to slaughter. See, the old guys, look at this guy going, man, you're like an ox going to slaughter. He's like, I'm an ox. I'm big and I'm strong and I'm tough and this is awesome. I don't know what these cattle guards are for.

And little does he know he's going to be big and tough, and then he's dinner. You see, he thinks he's awesome. He thinks he's a stud, like an ox going to slaughter, or a stag is caught in a fast till an arrow pierces his liver. Now, if you're not a hunter, you're not going to like this. You see, typically when you bow hunt, I deer hunt a lot, you want to shoot them in the heart. If you hit them in the heart, breaks the rib cage, heart explodes, or you can double lung them, too.

Shoot them in the lungs. They can't breathe. They run off maybe like 40, 50 yards. They pile up. They're dead in less than one minute. But if you miss and you shoot them back a little bit in the liver, the liver's behind the ribs. The arrow, the arrow is so sharp and the arrow flies so fast that it just right through them. I shot a deer one time, kind of a bad shot, real bad shot.

Shot him in the liver. And it went through him so fast, he heard the arrow hit on the other side of the ground. He looked at it. What in the world? Huh. He didn't even know he was hit. starts walking away I can see stuff leaking out

he's probably thinking man I need a thums I got some bad corn and he walked away a little while it takes him about four or five hours to die if you shoot him in the liver and I'm sure he gets to where he's going and he lay down and he thought I think I'm just going

lay down here taking a nap and then when he woke up he's in my living room on my wall okay that's how it happens here's the thing you start going down this path of pornography the path of adultery the path of flirting whatever it is here's the thing man your liver shot You just don't even know it. You're a dead man walking.

You got a dead marriage walking. That the enemy has pierced you. It says till an arrow pierces its liver. And as a bird rushes into a snare, he doesn't know that it will cost him his life. And now, well, sons, listen to me and be attentive to the words of my mouth. Let not your hearts turn aside to her ways and do not stray into her past for many a victim. She has laid low. and all her slain or a mighty throng,

her house is the way to hell, to shield, going down to the chambers of death. So let me ask you this. So what do you do? What do you do? What if you have turned that corner? And what do you do if, because here's the thing about temptation.

It's tempting. It's tempting. Well, the Bible says you turn back to Jesus. What Jesus says that Thiatira is only hold fast to what you have until I come. He's saying, hold on to me. It goes on to say, and I will give you the morning star.

The only way to dislodge the idol in your heart that you see is beautiful is you have to replace it with something that's more beautiful, and Jesus is more beautiful. This is what he says. You see, what do you do? What this dad says to his son is you flee, you get away, you do whatever it takes. You flee, you get away. What Jesus is going to say is if your eye causes you to lust, cut it out.

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. You'd say it's pretty extreme, Jesus, and he would say this is extremely important what we're talking about here. I would rather you hobble into heaven blind and handless than to be disappointed because you went down the path of destruction. And again, some of you would say, okay, man, I think I've screwed up. I think I'm too far gone. Well, that's why we showed you the video to begin with. There's no one that is too far gone. If you're addicted to pornography, repent and turn to Jesus.

If you are having an affair, confess, and repent and turn to Jesus. Jesus. If you are way back at the corner and you just started flirting with somebody, stop, repent, run away, and run to Jesus. And he will heal you and he will forgive you and he will empower you to abide in him and stay far, far, far from that way of life. How do I know this? Because in John chapter 8, the Bible says that Jesus was on his way to the temple and they brought to him a woman and caught in the act of adultery. You think she was afraid? Do you think she was ashamed?

Then a bunch of religious people came there to condemn her. They said, Jesus, the law of Moses says she deserves death. And honestly, some of you, that's what you feel like. I've screwed this thing up, man. I screwed my marriage up. I screwed my ministry up. I've screwed everything up. God doesn't want me.

And yet the Bible says that Jesus kneels down with her, I think to get himself on her level. because everybody else is looking down on her and he's essentially saying with his body language, I'm not looking down on you. I came to die for you. And he says, all right, all the perfect people, you can start throwing the rocks.

Ready go. They know they're not perfect because they're in the presence of Jesus and so they all leave. Then he looks at her and he says, woman, who condemns you? Think about this. This naked woman

in front of a crowd she's bracing for impact and instead of getting hit with a rock she got hit with grace you hear that instead of getting hit with a stone she got hit with the grace of Jesus Christ he forgave her she didn't even ask for it

how about that and he just lavishes his love and grace upon her he treats her with dignity down on her level who condemns you she looks around surprise no one then neither do

condemn you. No matter what you've done, who you've done it with, how long it has been going on, come to Jesus and receive the forgiveness that leads Paul to say, therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And then Jesus doesn't stop there because he loves her too much to stop right there. And then he says to her, now go and sin no more. Go and leave your life of sin. In other words, because of my forgiveness, because of my grace, because of my grace, of the gospel, you can get a fresh start and a new start and your life can head into a different direction. I hope and I pray, no matter where you are on this journey of intimacy with Jesus, intimacy with your spouse and your singleness, no matter where you are, I pray that you would,

I pray that right now you would not get hit by a stone, you would get hit by the grace of Jesus. You would know that therefore now there is no condemnation, but by the power of the cross, you would go and leave that life of sin. Would you pray with me? Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything. And God, we thank you for your love poured out at the cross.

God, we pray that you would do in us what we could not do on our own. God, we pray that you would break chains of addiction. God, we pray that you would remind us, God, you would teach us that we don't have to do the things that we used to do because we are not the people that we used to be. The old is dead.

And now we are a new creation in you. God, I pray that you will. Your forgiveness and your grace would just lavish the homes and families and singles that hear this sermon. And that we would hear you say that you don't condemn us. But by the power of the Holy Spirit and the resurrected Jesus that we would go and leave our life of sin, we would repent and walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We prayed in Jesus' name. Amen. So, church, we respond to the gospel.

We respond by praying. and so no matter what it is, no matter what it is, I hope and pray that you have felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit like a warm blanket, not like somebody throwing a stone. And I pray that you would come to Jesus and you would pray and you would repent and you would hold fast to him and you would get him, the morning star. And then we bring, we bring our first and our best, our tithes and our offerings as just an indication of where we are putting our faith and our trust,

that we give our first and our best to him because he gave us his first and best in the person and work of his son, Jesus Christ. And then we sing. And we're going to sing a song that's new to us, but it's not a new song called Waymaker. And it just talks about what God can do in seemingly impossible situations

and even when we don't see him working, he's working, and even when we don't feel him working, he's working, and even when we think that we are way too gone, that he is the waymaker. So let us sing, let us bring, let us pray, let us respond.