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Well, my name is Nick, and I'm one of the pastors here. And if you guys are guests today, I want to say welcome to you. And especially want to say, you know, if somebody invited you today and and uh they didn't tell you that we were gonna be talking about sex, um, you know, you can give them a hard time later, right, over lunch. Uh but with it being Valentine's Day, uh, in case you didn't hear uh Harley's announcement, by the way, you just walked in this and you want to take your children to uh the elementary class, feel free to do that. Okay, you're not gonna offend me if you get up and walk out. Um but we are gonna talk about sex today, and we're gonna talk about this issue from a godly perspective, from a biblical perspective, and we really want to honor him and how we discuss this this issue today. But uh it is Valentine's Day. Does anybody have any idea where Valentine's Day came from? How it originated? A few people, all right? Uh we really don't know. In fact, there's there's all kinds of stories, it's some folklore, some legends about this, but back in the uh two around 269 uh A.D., uh we found there's this guy who was named Valentinus, and uh there was an emperor who was trying to fight some wars, and in the process, he was uh recruiting men, drafting men into his army, and uh and and one of the ways that you could avoid uh being drafted was to be married. And so if you were single, you were automatically in the army. So what happens? All these men start getting married. Uh they're like, I'm getting married, buddy. And and actually the emperor said no more weddings are allowed. And this guy, Valentina, says, Hey, I'll do some weddings because I want to bless these people. They want to be married, it's a sacrament. Let's do this. And so they he starts doing these marriages. Well, guess what? He gets thrown in jail and he's on death row. And while he's in uh in prison on death row and they're about to kill him, he gets all these letters from these young couples saying, You're awesome, it's amazing, thank you for uh for promoting love and promoting uh our marriage. And so, therefore, they were the first Valentines way back in 269. But it wasn't until the year 469 when uh Valentine was given an official feast day, and the hope was to replace the pagan holidays about love and fertility, uh, that were just all about sexuality and kind of these feasts about uh pagan worship. They were to replace that uh with the idea of Christian love and martyrdom. Interesting, huh? That's not exactly what we think of when we think about uh Valentine's Day today, but that's where it comes from. And it's drifted a little bit away from that original uh day that was celebrated as a feast. Now, I say that because here's the thing uh every time we get into the area of sexuality, relationships, love, there's always a drift towards perversion. Okay, I'm just gonna say that on the front end. There's always a drift towards perversion because that is the nature of humanity, the human heart, and it's also the nature of the enemy who wants to rob us of the goodness and the blessing and the glory of God's great things He's made. And so, even in this silly thing about Valentinus, which we're not even completely sure is true, uh, we know that there is a drift away from blessings and good things to the point where literally, when we say the word sex, there's things that pop in your mind that are not godly, they're not pure, they're not holy, they're not righteous, right? In fact, my guess is that for many of us, we've we've not really heard the word sex used inside the church much, which is a shame, right? Because sex is God's thing. He created it, uh, he ordained it, uh, he put it to put it into place for us. And we're gonna talk more about that in a minute. But last week we actually started a seven-week series on seven deadly sins, seven vices, seven areas where we get tripped up and we get taken out. And we talked about pride last week. And I don't know about you guys, but this week, throughout the entire week, I just kept seeing pride in my life. Like, oh, that's pride. Oh, that's pride. And then we get to this marriage weekend, and we're working on our marriages, and it's like, man, I am such a prideful creature, right? And it's just such a good reminder that pride is the taproot of every other sin in our life. So it's a great place to start and to really deal with what's going on below the surface in our life, what's driving uh these other areas of sin, like lust, anger, greed, gluttony, envy, laziness. And we're gonna cover these over the next seven weeks, now six weeks. And here's what I want you to know. Like pride says to you and to me, God, I got this. I already know how this is supposed to work, and God, I don't really need your help. I want to be in charge, right? But here's the truth. Uh, we need God's help. We need God's wisdom, we need God's counsel. And this morning we're gonna go to his word to talk about sex. And so I'm gonna ask you to do something maybe awkward, but we just need to go ahead and get beyond the awkwardness here. And I want everybody just to say with me, sex is good, okay? Can you do that? So ready? On the count three. This is Valentine's Day, so at least you can say that, right? One, two, three. Sex is good. Okay, thank you. Now I want you to sex is not only good, but say sex is blessed. Okay, can you say that? One, two, three. Sex is blessed. Okay, good deal. All right. Some of you guys turned red. That's interesting. Just saying it. That's funny. All right? Here's the deal. I I say that because again, we've been robbed of the ability sometimes to just say it, knowing that God is the one who made it. And it's good and it's right. But in order to really look at this issue today, I want us to go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. So if you have your Bible, I want you to unpack that, uh, pull it out, and we've got the words on the screen, but I always encourage you to have a personal copy of the text in front of you. There's some Bibles underneath the chairs if you need one. You want to use that. Um, and I think it's very, very important on all issues in our life that we go to God's word and say, what does God have to say about this issue? Not just what do I think, what does a pastor think, what does the church say, but what does God say from his word? And hopefully the church is preaching and teaching from God's word. But I want you to hear this morning from the heart of God. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 is a chapter in Scripture where Paul is writing to believers in a city called Thessalonica. Last week we talked about Paul writing to a group of believers in Corinth, which is kind of the Las Vegas of its day. Um, now we're talking about Paul writing to a group of people in Thessalonica, and he is still dealing with some of the same issues there as he was in Corinth, right? So I want to read this out to you and make some observations, and then we're gonna jump right into this issue of lust and how we overcome lust in our lives, how God has provided a way out. First Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 1. Read along with me. Finally, then, brothers, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus that as you have received from us how you must walk and please God, as you are doing, do so even more. For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus. So let me just stop for a second and just make some observations. Paul's talking to this group of believers. He calls them brothers. All right? So this is important because if you in this room this morning, if you're in the room and you're not a believer in Christ, some of what we're about to talk about is not gonna make sense. And in fact, it's gonna feel really odd and weird and strange to you, okay? And that's okay because as a believer in Christ, as a as a child of God, we have a new way of thinking, a new way of seeing, a new lens to perceive this truth through. All right? But if you're not a believer, I'm just gonna say you're along for the ride this morning, listen into this conversation, but know this that as believers, we need to lean into what God's about to say. Because even though Paul was saying it to Thessalia, Thessalonikins, he's also speaking it right to us today. Here it goes. For this is God's will, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, so that each of you knows how to control his own body in sanctification and honor, not with lustful desires like the Gentiles who do not know God. This means one must not transgress against and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses, as we have previously told and warned you. For God has not called us to impurity, but to sanctification. Therefore, the person who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who also gives you his Holy Spirit. Incredible section of scripture where Paul just hits this thing head on, okay? No other place in the text you're gonna find Paul so aggressive about this area of sexual immorality. He addresses it in many of his other letters, but this is the most direct and aggressive that he goes after sexual immorality. So I think it's an appropriate text for us to look at today as we say, God, how can we be set free from this issue? Now, some of you guys might be saying, what do you mean set free from this issue of sexuality and lust? Let me just make a quick observation. We have a lot of pain and confusion associated with sexuality. There is a lot of pain, there is a lot of confusion connected with sexuality in our world today. Uh, people, human beings, myself included, we do not understand sometimes just how powerful and how dangerous this issue of sex is. All right? We don't, we don't, we don't fully understand how close to home this issue of sexuality is in terms of how it impacts our relationship with God, how it impacts our relationship with others. Our sexuality and our identity are deeply, mysteriously intertwined. And this is why there is so much pain surrounding this issue, because I've sat with teenagers and I've sat with adults as their tears have poured from their faces and they have confessed sin and they've acknowledged that they are deeply shamefilled over sin in this area. Because sexuality has a way of creating such a shame and such a guilt, such a pain in our hearts. Because we know it's not what we were made for. And we're gonna talk more about that in a second. But I need to make this caveat up front. I need to make this statement to you up front. This morning, my prayer has been that the Holy Spirit would come and would minister to us. We just sang a great song that reminds us that Christ has paid the penalty, paid the price for our sin. So as you feel convicted of sin this morning, remember that the enemy is gonna come and accuse you and he's gonna try to shame you into a corner. But Christ says, no, I'm not gonna shame you in a corner because Christ's Holy Spirit doesn't bring shame, he does bring conviction. He wants us to walk in freedom, he wants us to walk in truth, he wants us to walk in light. Are you with me? So if you feel condemnation this morning, that's not from God. Condemnation is not of God, conviction is because conviction is something God wants us to see that there is a different way, a better way, his way of living in this area, in our purity. So, we there is a tremendous amount of confusion. There's a tremendous amount of pain connected with this. And the church needs to speak to this, guys. The church needs to speak into this issue. We cannot be silent and act like it's no big deal. Just like parents, if you're a parent in the room, listen, do not wait and let somebody else teach your kids about sexuality. Do not do it. If you need resources, I've got plenty of book options. There's some great God's design for sex, a great series. You can start reading with your kids at age three. They need to start learning about sexuality and they need to start having conversations about sexuality before it gets awkward. You know what I'm talking about? They need to know about what God's plan and design is for sexuality and for this area of purity in their life. And so we need to have those discussions. We are in a hyper-sexualized culture. I walk in the other day, and I'm not going to get into the specifics of it, but I walk in and my kids are watching a Disney Channel show. Right? And it's designed to reach kids that are in the preschool and elementary years. And I walk in and I just start watching for a second. And immediately I see this undercurrent, this tone, of they are teaching our kids about what it means to be engaged with another person, ultimately pointing towards a sexual relationship, right? And this is at that level. So if we think that our kids aren't learning stuff, we're totally fooling ourselves. This is permeating our culture. We are a hyper-sexualized culture. How many of you guys watch the Super Bowl? Okay? You watch the Super Bowl, and what happens? Commercials come on. And what are they trying to sell you on? Well, they're selling their product with sex much of the time. Now, I have to add this to this conversation. I am not of the mindset that we are separatists, that we just throw rocks at the culture and we say, oh, look at how bad the culture is. Look at Disney Channel teaching our kids about that, or look at the Super Bowl commercials, they're so bad, or look at who this or that. That's not the position or posture we should take as the church, right? Because the problem isn't out there, the problem's in here. The problem's in my heart. I need God's help. I need God's grace. I need God's purity in my life. The culture is doing exactly what the culture should do when it's disconnected from a personal relationship with God. The culture is portraying something that God created in a perverted way because it knows no different. Are you with me? So we need to understand this morning that we as a church are not sitting here throwing rocks at the culture saying, yeah, I can't believe they would do that. We're saying there's a problem that is permeating our culture, and sadly, that culture has crept into the church as well. Statistically, I read this week a new survey has just come out from Barna Research, and they're working with a guy named Josh McDowell. And they're talking about the amount of pornography and the amount of promiscuity, the amount of adultery that's going on inside the church. Guys, listen, the statistics show that what's going on inside the church, as in inside the group of people who claim to be Christians, in many ways doesn't, it's not a whole lot different than what's outside the church. That means that the spiritual leaders, the pastors, the teachers, the elders of churches need to stand up and proclaim the truth of God and say, that's not that's not right. The church should be different. We're human beings, yes. We have temptations, yes, but we should be different. Are you with me, still? Okay. I I'm passionate about this because I see too many people getting taken out, too many people experiencing pain and devastation in their life. And just so we're clear this morning, um, this word lust that both Paul uses here and the and the word that we're really going after is this idea of desire. Lust is desire. Now, what's interesting about that is that desire is not bad. That desire is actually a good thing, it's a God thing. Uh, hopefully, women who are married in the room, you would hope that your husband has a desire for you, right? Men, you would hope that your wife has a desire for you. Uh, not only is this word a good word, it it in it's other in other passages of scripture, uh, like for example, when it's talking about elders in the church, that's the highest level of lead servants in the church. Uh, it says that if a man is gonna be an elder, they need to desire to be an elder. They should want to be an elder. So use the exact same word as what Paul is using here. So, what I'm saying to you is that desire is not bad. In fact, sexual desire is good. It's good. Sexual desire is good, but sexual desire outside of God's design is deadly. Sexual desire outside of God's design is deadly. It is devastating. It is brutal what it will do. Let me just make a word here. I know I'm throwing a lot at you. Any culture that hypersexualizes and starts to elevate sex and make sex a selling tool and make it simply something that you can do with whatever you want with your body. Guess who gets hurt? A lot of women and children. A lot of women and children get devastated, get brutalized when we take sex and we elevate it and we make it this thing that you know what, you can do whatever feels right. So, you want to know why we have sex trafficking, why we have sex slaves? Because we've let sex get outside of the intended purpose and parameters that God had for it. And I don't think anybody in here in this room is like in agreement that sex trafficking is a good thing. Right? We've got to go back and say, what does God say? Why is it so important? Um, one of the best ways for me to help explain this or describe this is do we have, I know because we have men in the room, we already have guys who uh like to play with fire. I've got a friend I won't name right now in the room who has a um a little flamethrower uh torch and he likes to play with that thing in his backyard. Right? I'm just kind of looking his direction, sorry. Uh I like fire. Uh I love fire because if if it ever gets under 50 degrees in Austin, which isn't which is kind of rare, uh you can come to my house and this is what you'll see. All right. In fact, I like fires so much that we had our Christmas party and it was like 75 degrees outside. We cranked our AC down so we could light a fire, all right? Because we wanted to make make it feel like it was cold, even though it wasn't, and we lit a fire. Uh so I really love fires. I'm a big fan of them. In fact, uh, we like fire pits. Uh, there's some of those kids with the guy who owns the pear burner. Anyway, that's a whole thing. Um we had some fun playing with our kids outside, and I love going camping. And my favorite, one of my favorite parts of camping is sitting around the fire. It's just good. And I like to get home and all my clothes smell like smoke. It's a great thing, you know. It's like, oh, I love that smell, right? Maybe I'm just weird like that. But seriously, fires are great. Here's the problem. Oh, thank you, man, so much. Uh here's the problem. Fire outside of its perimeters is a bad thing. Right? Two weeks ago, three weeks ago now, my brother-in-law, their house in uh a small town outside of Lubbock area, uh, they came home and they found it on fire. And it was burning and it burned up their daughter's room, completely consumed it. Thankfully, by the grace of God, that's all it burned up. The fire was able to be contained, and they were able to get it out before it completely destroyed the house. But here's the thing fire's a really cool thing in a fire pit, in a fireplace, or even on a candle in a wick, right? My mom, my wife and my mom, they love candles, and I like that. That's great. But here's what happens if fire gets out of its context. Dangerous, messy, and ultimately, you'll see, that's exactly what happens, right? I remember as a kid, I was a few, I was probably four years old. I woke up in the middle of the night, my whole window of my bedroom was orange, and I was like freaking out, kind of disoriented. I went over, I looked out the window, and my neighbor's house was just burning. And it burned this image, literally burned this image into my mind where I couldn't sleep for a while. Like as a little kid, I was scared, you know, that is that gonna happen to my house, right? But fire is devastating, it's brutal. And I think this is a great parallel to remind us that sex is the same way. That sex is a something that is a really good thing, but if you take it outside of its rails, its boundaries, its parameters, it will jack your world up, it will burn your house down. And I see this a lot. I see this time and time again. And so I want to encourage you this morning and challenge you to think about what God has to say about the boundaries that He's given us for our sexuality. Because those boundaries are there to protect us from the dangers that will come when we choose to disobey and even ignore his guidance. Alright? So sexual desire is good, but sexual desire outside of God's design is deadly. Let's go back to the text. What does he say in verse 3? He says this He says, For this is God's will, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, so that each of you knows how to control his own body in sanctification and honor, not with lustful desires like the Gentiles who don't know God. There are just a few observations from this text, but I want you to see something. Anybody in the room ever question what God's will is? Anyone ever like, hey, what's God's will for me in my job? What's God's will for me in, you know, should I get married, should I not get married in this? Should we have another kid? Should we not have another kid? Um, we can come up with a lot of different things. We want to seek out God's will. Where should I go to school for college? Uh where do I want my kids to go to school? What type of school? We can have all these conversations about that. But let me let me tell you something this morning, 100% true. God's will for you is sexual purity. Okay? You tracking? God's will for you is purity. He says in there, he says sanctification, which is another word to say, consecrated, set apart, holy, pure. You do not have to ask, does God want me to be pure? The answer is a resounding yes. God wants you to be pure. He wants you to be holy, he wants you to be different. And again, remember, I'm talking about if you are a Christ follower, especially He wants you to be pure. If you are not a Christ follower, if you're just checking this thing out, the Spirit of God's not inside of you. God wants you to be pure. It's just that right now, that doesn't maybe necessarily make sense to you. But if you're a Christ follower and the Holy Spirit's in you, he is convicting you daily, saying, Purity is what we're shooting for here. Purity is what we're longing for here. Purity is our desire, it's our hunger, it's our it's what we want with our sexuality. So this is God's will, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality. One of the closest things that Paul obviously is identifying is saying, if you want to be pure, abstain from sexual immorality. Well, the question is, is what is sexual immorality? What's the word pornea in the Greek? The word pornea, probably some of you who've been around church long enough have heard this. Can you imagine uh what we uh derive this word into now today? Pornography, right? So now it's become a word, that's how we get the word pornography. Now, just just go with me for a second, but think about this. The pornography industry calls itself what it is, right? Isn't that interesting? Like they don't even try to hide the fact that they're saying we are pornography, we are sexual immorality. That's the business. And yet it's one of the largest businesses on the planet. They're making money uh off of people not being able to control their lust, not being able to control their desire for lustful things. And so I say that to you this morning because when we look at this issue of sexual immorality, the question is well, what does that mean in full? What does pornea mean? What is it pointing to? Now, again, hear me this morning. Here's my heart. I need to be honest with you, and I want you to be honest with yourself, okay? There's no way we can cover all the issues that could fall into this junk drawer of pornea. There's not. I mean, we literally would take us seven, eight weeks to tackle each one of these issues. They're huge. Massive issues. And my guess is every one of us in this room has struggled with them in some form or fashion along the way. But this idea of pornography means anything outside of God's original plan for a man and a woman to be together sexually in intimacy. Are you with me? So what does that look like? God creates man back in the garden of Eden. That's what the Bible tells us. God creates man, he creates Adam. And then Adam's there and he's been given a task. He's got this responsibility. He's got this really cool garden to hang out in with all these animals. And he looks up and he says, Man, I'm alone. I need somebody to hang out with me. You know, I don't see any of these animals matching up with me. And what does God do? God gives him a wife, woman, named Eve. And he says, Whoa, man, right? And that was her name from that point forward, right? This is so cheesy. I'm sorry. But here's the thing. From that point forward, Adam and Eve, they paint the picture of what God intended. That was paradise. One man, one woman. And what's interesting in the text is it says in that moment they were naked and they knew no shame. That is God's desire for your life, that you would have no shame in this area of sexuality. But if you ignore his instruction, if you ignore his guidelines, I can guarantee you that shame will come into the picture. That's what's going to happen. Some of you guys, again, if you don't feel shame, if you don't feel any conviction, if you don't feel any sense of tugging, then let me just tell you straight up, that means that the Holy Spirit's not inside of you. That's not a slam, that's not a condescending statement. That's just the reality. If you don't feel any shame when you are sexually outside of God's boundaries, that means the Holy Spirit's not in you. But I want us to understand that if the Holy Spirit is in us, God is saying, I want you to walk in purity, I want you to be sanctified, and I want you to be free from the shame that comes and is associated with this issue. So this entails pornography. Pornography, men, is not just looking at the menu, but not tasting. It is sin. It's wrong. And we need to stand up against it. It's a massive issue that is robbing marriages of intimacy. Women are being compared to pictures and images on a screen, and it's so accessible, it's so readily accessible. My heart breaks for you women that you are being compared to something that is not even real. What's interesting is in the church they're saying that an increasing amount, especially among the younger kids, that 24% of the youngest generation, the millennials, don't even believe that porn is wrong. I don't know where you stand on this issue, but let me just tell you where God stands on it. He says that's wrong, that it's dangerous, that it's detrimental to your marriage, that it's detrimental to your sexuality, to your life. And we need to walk in the truth of what God's word says, not what the culture says on this issue. In fact, Matthew 5.27 even speaks to this issue that just looking is wrong. When it says in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus, you have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. But I tell you, this is Jesus speaking, I tell you that if you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Pornography will mess you up. It will mess up your thoughts, it will rob you of the pleasure that God's intended for your marriage. And that really leads me to the second point. If God's desire is for our holiness, for our purity, for our sanctification, for us to walk in intimacy and oneness with a one person for a lifetime inside the confines of marriage. And I need to make sure I say this. That means if you're not married and you're having sex, you're outside of God's will, right? Whether you're going to be married to them or not, if you're outside of God's plan in a covenant relationship, you are you're you're sinning, is what the Bible would say. And I know that for some of us in a culture that where we have so many people who live together and we say things like this, we might not say it out loud, but this is kind of what's saying, I'm gonna have sex with you, but I want to make sure and reserve my commitment in case something better comes along, or in case it gets hard and I need to get out. Let me just say to you guys, listen, that's a lie from the pit of hell. That marriage is intended for a covenant relationship. I know that's hard for us to hear, and I would much rather have that conversation with you over a cup of coffee, but this morning, let's sit down and talk and say, what is God's will? That's God's will. It's for our purity, for us to be in a covenant relationship where we're committed to that person, where there's complete, I'm all in and you're all in, and let's be together. That's what God's desire and his will is for marriage and for sexuality. But know this. The question is, why? Why? Why would God give us these parameters? Is it just because he's angry at us? How many of you guys like to ride roller coasters? I like to ride in roller coasters, but imagine this. Imagine I made a roller coaster, but I didn't put any lap belts on it. So you just go get on this great roller coaster, but you have no lap belts. We know what's gonna happen, right? I don't know about you guys, but when I get on a roller coaster, I crank that thing down. And I'm like checking it multiple times. I mean, every time before it takes off, I'm like, okay, it's good, okay, it's good, it's good. You know, sometimes I push it too hard and get like a you know, stuck. But here's the deal I want that thing down, I want to be held in. I want to enjoy the ride, it's gonna be awesome, it's gonna be fun, but I want to have restriction. God wants us to enjoy, but he wants us to have proper restriction so we can enjoy it and not hurt ourselves, not kill ourselves, not wound one another. Notice what he says in verse 6. He says this. This means one must not transgress against and defraud his brother in this matter. Because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses, as we were also previously told and warned you. For God has not called us to impurity, but to sanctification. Listen. God wants us to be pure for our pleasure and for his reputation. Another way we could say that is for our good and for his glory. Did you guys know that God is for your good? That he is for your pleasure. He actually created it. He could have made sex where it wasn't pleasurable, he could have made it where it was something very harmful. And some of the people are experiencing sex that's not pleasurable because they are so wounded in this area, because it's outside of God's bounds, or because somebody else stepped outside of God's bounds and transgressed against them, like he says here, defrauded them. I think about the word of dehumanizing them. Men, when we see women that way is just a piece of meat. We are dehumanizing them and we are degrading them. And listen, we are offending a holy God who created them in his image. I know this is heavy, but it's true. And women, let me just say a word to you. When you try to dress in such a way to draw attention to your body as if you are a piece of meat to be eaten, like you are degrading yourself and you're causing your brothers to stumble. This is a big issue. Women, this is why we call in the church. And again, if you're not a Christian, remember, I'm just gonna keep saying this, okay? If you're not a Christian, this doesn't make sense to you. But if you're a Christian, you should want your brothers to be pure in their minds. You should want your husband to have a pure mind. You should want your sex life to be pure. And if you are provoking other men to look at your body, then you are causing them to stumble. And God says, that's not right. It's not good. I'm not trying to be a legalist this morning. We said last week legalism is when we try to do the right thing to get God's acceptance. God already accepts us. We're already loved, forgiven, free, redeemed. He already poured the wrath out on Jesus for our sin. The question is, is are we walking in freedom? Are we walking in the fullness of life? Jesus says he came to give life. Satan came to steal it, kill it, destroy it. Do you want life in your marriage? Do you want life in your sexuality? Then you got to walk in purity in response to what God said. So he has given us. One of my favorite verses when I talk to men about purity, it's one that some of our elders have brought up before. It's Psalm 16, verse 11. Here's what it says. Catch this. Some of you guys are going, man, God is so down on pleasure. He's so down on good things. See, God just wants to rob me of having fun in my life, which is exactly how my kids are when I set boundaries for them, right? We're the same way with God. Notice this, verse 11 from Psalm 16. You reveal the path of life to me. In your presence is abundant joy. In your right hand are eternal pleasures. That's the God that we worship. That's the God we serve. Eternal pleasures, not just temporary fleeting buzzes. Eternal pleasures, satisfying things. God gives those things. He offers those things, He leads us down a path to those things. But I also want you to understand that God not only gave it to us for our pleasure, and these guidelines for our pleasure, to protect us from perverting them and missing out on his best, but he also gave us guidelines for his reputation. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, this is powerful. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 15, Paul's writing there to Corinth. We already told you last week that it was a jacked-up place. They were having some issues inside the church, not just outside, inside the church. Here's what he says. Don't you know that your bodies are a part of Christ's body? So that I, so should I take part of Christ's body and make it a part of a prostitute? Absolutely not. Don't you know that anyone joined to a prostitute is one and body with her? Do you hear what Paul's saying? He's saying, Christian, wherever you go, child of God, wherever you go, you are taking Christ with you because you are one with Christ if you've put your trust in him. It's not just that you have a ticket to heaven, but you are now one with Christ. You are part of him, you're part of his body. And when you take your body and you go connect with a prostitute, which really the word there is better, it's better translated, immoral woman. But I think it could actually go too for you, women with men, right? The idea is that if you do that, you are taking Christ with you into that sin. So literally in that moment, he's with you. This is serious business. This is why Christ says, hey, listen, don't do that. Don't go there. Don't participate in these sexually perverted behaviors outside of my boundaries. I'm with you in the midst of that, and it's offensive. And I love you, and I want to set you free. I want you to experience the fullness of this, not the shame of this. So we see how Paul is trying to correct this. You know, listen, you guys know Isaiah 43, 7, some other passage of scripture we can go to. God created us ultimately for what? His glory. That's why we were made. He created us for his glory. And when we choose to disconnect from God and his desire and his design, we mar that image. We we lose the opportunity to reflect his goodness. And I can't go there now just for the sake of time, but even in 2 Timothy chapter 2, it talks about how that God has uh called us to be those special instruments for his use. And he says that one of the things that really robs us of being used by God in incredible ways is when we choose sexual immorality. And he says, flee the evil desires of youth, pursue holiness and purity. That's what he tells them in the in to the to his young protege, Timothy. And the same can be said for us today. If we want to be used by God for great things to display his glory, then we gotta say, God, I'm gonna walk in purity like you call me to. Alright, gotta move on. You guys still okay? Everybody take a deep breath. Okay. Like, man, would he stop talking about sex, please? Um listen, third thing. We've talked about God's will, we've talked about God's why. I want to talk about God's how for just a second. I want to talk about God's how. Notice what verse 8 says. Says, therefore, the person who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who also gives you his Holy Spirit. Therefore, the person who rejects this, what is the person rejecting? Well, rejecting two things God's wisdom and God's counsel from other believers, right? So there's really three things God's given us. He's given us his wisdom, he's given us uh his other other believers around us to call us to truth, to purity, to righteousness, and he's also given us his spirit. Let's break those down a little bit because this is very important if we're gonna walk in purity. Men, especially in the room, you cannot walk in purity in isolation. You can't. It's impossible. You can try and try and try. The enemy attacks us. Christianity, our faith, the mission God's called us to is impossible to live outside of community. God wired us for it. We need it, okay? We've got to walk in purity, which is gonna require some other people. It's gonna require some wisdom. Psalm 19, verse 7. When I think about God's wisdom, we're talking about his word. What does his word say? Right? Not what does my opinion say, not what I think, what is what does our pastor say? What does God's word say? And notice what God's word says about itself in verse 7 of chapter 19 in Psalms. It says, the instruction of the Lord is perfect, renewing one's life. The testimony of the Lord is trustworthy, making the inexperienced wise. The precepts of the Lord are right, making the heart glad. Notice again, he's trying to make us glad. He's trying to make us happy, enjoy, fulfillment when we trust him, when we listen to him. The command of the Lord is radiant, making the eyes light up. In addition, your servant is warned by them. There is great reward in keeping them. Do you believe that this morning? Do you believe that God's word brings us to life, not death? Do you believe that when God gives us instructions, that even if they don't make sense, it's better to obey him than to do what feels right? That is so critical for us is to believe that what God says is true, that it's right, that it's good, and that we can put our hope in that. Listen, if you go by your feelings this morning, if you try to follow your path of your feelings, you are on a path to destruction. Some of you guys have heard me say this before. I'm gonna say it in this issue because I think it's huge. Do not, do not, do not follow your heart. Do not. I know that is a cultural cliche, it's a thing that's said, and everybody says, follow your heart. That is garbage, okay? Because your heart, my heart, is deceptive. I can talk myself into anything. I can talk myself into any kind of thing. I can tell myself it's completely okay. Nobody knows, it's not hurting anybody. I can look at this over here because my wife's not meeting my needs. I can do this over here because I'm on a business trip and nobody will ever see what won't affect my reputation. Whatever it is, we will lie to ourselves and lie to ourselves and lie to ourselves. Women, we will say, I'll go and read this romance novel because my husband won't talk to me and I have no ramp romance in my marriage. Whoa, he just started messing with some weird things now. Listen, women, romance novels are like female pornography because they're doing things to you that God intended for you and your spouse to enjoy together. I just want to encourage you this morning, do not follow your heart. Listen to what God's word says. His wisdom is transcendent, his wisdom is timeless, his wisdom will help you get through the hard things of life. His wisdom will be the filter that you desperately need. When you're driving down the road and the billboard is saying this, you're gonna need a filter. Go to God's word. This is why we need other people in our life, though, too, isn't it? Listen, this is why you and I need other people in our life, because we need men and women who will tell us the truth even when we don't want to hear it. And we need men and women in our life so that we can confess our sins to them. I get really scared. Can I just be completely vulnerable? I get really scared. I have regular conversations with our elders and with our pastors, and I get really scared when none of those men are ever saying that they're struggling with temptation. I get really scared. You know what that means to me? That means they're probably hiding something. Because temptation is a normal, natural part of our everyday life. Can I just confess to you as a pastor that every single day I am tempted in this area? The enemy will want nothing more than to take out my marriage with Jada. We want me to take out my life and my ministry, and it would want me to ruin my kids' lives because I am just selfish and I just get sucked into a lie and a deception, a mirage, because that's exactly what it is. It shows that it's going to deliver something and it's just empty. That's what the enemy would want me to do. And I need people in my life who will say, Nick, how are you doing in this area? And then say, Did you just lie about that? When I say it's okay, you know. Here's the deal: who's praying for you in your purity? Men and women, husbands and wives. If you're married, you need to be praying for one another in this area. Women, especially, please, please, please, women, pray for your husband's purity. Regularly, pray for him. Pray for one another. We need each other. We need the community of believers around us to help us walk in purity. But also, we need God's spirit. I want to go back just for a second to chapter 6 in Corinthians, verse 13. I want you to read along with me. This is important. Listen what it says. The body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. What is he saying? Your body was what? Not made for sexual immorality, not for the pornea, not for the stuff that's outside of that, not for premarital sex, not for uh adultery sex, not for pornography, none of those things. Your body was not made for that. That's what he's saying. Making it absolutely crystal clear, right? That's not what you were designed for. Well, then the question is what were we designed for? God raised up the Lord and I will also raise you up by his power. We're gonna need the Holy Spirit's power to walk in a different way. Don't you know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who's in you, whom you have received from God, you are not your own. You were bought at a price, therefore honor God or glorify God in your body. If you are a Christ follower, your body does not belong to you. If you're a Christ follower, and my body does not belong to me, right? It belongs to God. And God gets to decide what I do with my body. And what he says is that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit resides inside of here. That Holy Spirit is convicting me when I'm struggling with sin. That Holy Spirit is telling me, Nick, don't do that, don't look there, don't go there, don't do that. And I have an opportunity to listen or not listen. And I can guarantee you that every time I have not listened to the Holy Spirit, there was some pain involved. And every time I have, there was a celebration. It's been amazing to watch because God, again, is for our good. His Spirit is leading us to life. He is leading us to truth. Listen, um, I don't want you to walk away this morning. I said this on the front end, I don't want you to walk away this morning with just shame heaped on you. I want you to walk away this morning with the truth of what God really says about sexuality. Some of you men need to stop looking at porn. Straight up. Some of you men need to stop watching porn and giving yourself a free pass. Some of you women need to stop looking at porn. Over the last 10 years, there's been an astronomical rise of porn use among women. Men and women, some of you in this room need to stop having sex outside of the bounds of a covenant relationship. Because you're selling yourself short. God has so much more for you. He has so much better for you. Some of you teenagers, you need to stop trying to attract others purely sexually so they'll like you. God's got so much better for you. You are worth more than that. You are worth so much. In fact, when it says that we were bought with a price, that we no longer belong to ourselves, you guys know what that price was? You know what the price that Christ paid for our sexual purity? For us to be forgiven? He paid his life. That's how serious it is to Jesus. He paid the ultimate price because he knew that you and I were gonna struggle in our flesh, and we were gonna need a redeemer, and praise God we have one. His name is Jesus. He is the hero of our sexual purity. We cannot just simply stop doing these things without the power of Christ in us. But with the power of Christ in us, we can no longer walk in that impurity. We can walk as conquerors over the sin issue. And for some of you are like, yeah, I've been here before, I've tried to say no, and I just went right back to it. Listen, today's a new day. Today's a fresh start. Walk in purity. You're getting ripped off. You are getting a cheap imitation, and God offers you something beautiful and incredible and amazing, and you are getting ripped off. And some of you in this room, hear me. Some of you in this room have been deeply wounded and abused by somebody. Maybe even a spouse. There's some women in men in the room. If the statistics are true, one in five women have experienced domestic sexual abuse. Listen, if that's where you are, my prayer for you this morning is that God's tender mercy would just meet you in that and would begin to bring healing. Some of you need to go to professional counseling and let someone help you process what's gone on to you. Some of you men need to go to professional counseling and ask God to start freeing the tentacles of addiction away from your heart. That God would help that desire that He's put in you that's God given, that you help that desire be aimed towards the things that will bring life and not death. I know this is heavy. I know this is hard. I know this is maybe not why you showed up to church thinking, oh man, what are they gonna talk about? Oh, sex, this is great, you know? But know this Christ wants you to have life. And for me not to tell you this this morning, for me not to proclaim this truth, is really bad leadership. It's really, it would be disobedience, honestly, because God compelled me that this is what we need to say to a culture that is so hypersexualized. God's way is better. Fire, fireplace is good. Fire outside the fireplace, not so good. Sex inside God's boundaries, good. Sex outside of God's boundaries, not so good. If you have questions about this, I'd love to talk to you. Okay? If you have needs or concerns or you you completely disagree, come talk to me. But here's the deal, I'm gonna go with God's word. Whatever God's word says, that's what we're gonna go with. Because I'm convinced that he loves me way more than even I love myself and way more than I love you. And then he knows what's true and what's right. He's wiser than any of us in this room because he created sex, he made it, and he knows how it should work. Let's pray.